EPL: MIDWEEK PREVIEW

HERE'S A PREVIEW TO ALL THE MAJOR FIXTURES TAKING PLACE ON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY.


         1. ASTON VILLA VS ARSENAL
Arsenal will look to bounce back after their 1-0 defeat at the hands of league leader's Manchester City, when they travel to villa park to face a very dull and boring aston villa side.


KEY STAT: Villa have scored only 2 goals in their last 5 premier league games

WHERE WOULD ARSENAL BE WITHOUT HIM?

Arsenal have some defensive problems, especially in the full back area after JOHAN DJOUROU joined Arsenal's long injury list. ROBIN VAN PERSIE will look to continue his excellent scoring streak to help the gunners stay in reckoning for the champions league spots.


Villa have been anything but good and will look to GABRIEL AGBONLAHOR for some inspiration, the forward returns to the line up after serving out a 1 match suspension.


The game kicks off at 19.45(GMT) or 01.15(IST)


               2.MAN CITY VS STOKE
Table topper's city will play host to stoke, and will look to collect all 3 points to stay on top.


KEY STAT: Manchester City have a 100% win record so far this season

GOOD BUY FOR STOKE!

SERGIO AGUERO WILL LOOK TO GET BACK HIS SCORING TOUCH

City will be well aware of the fact that this is not going to be a cake-walk for them as Stoke apart being from defensively very sound have also been in great form, picking up 12 points from their last 5 games.



Stoke captain RYAN SHAWCROSS is suspended having picked up a 5th yellow card of the season.


The game kicks off at 19.45(GMT) or 01.15(IST)




            3.FULHAM VS MAN UNITED
Manchester united travel to Craven Cottage to take on a Fulham side who are on a high following their 2-0 win over Bolton at the weekend.



KEY STAT: Excluding their 6-0 win over QPR, Fulham have scored only 8 goals in 7 home games.

BACK TO HIS BEST!!

United in recent times have struggled against Fulham at the Cottage, having picked up only a point in their last 3 visits, however they will look to continue their winning streak in order to keep the pressure on their rivals city.

FULHAM'S BEST PLAYER!

CLINT DEMPSEY and DANNY MURPHY will have to be on top form with the rest of the  Fulham squad, if they are to get anything out of this game

The game kicks off at 20.00(GMT) or 01.30(IST)


                 4.TOTTENHAM VS CHELSEA


The most exciting and decisive fixture from gameweek 17 will take place on thursday night when, Tottenham Hotspur play host to Chelsea at White hart lane.


KEY STAT: Tottenham have won all 6 of their last 6 home games


In what is a must win game for both sides, especially for Chelsea after they stumbled at Wigan.

MODRIC WILL BE KEY FOR SPURS!!

Tottenham were anything but impressive, as they struggled to 1-0 victory over a Sunderland side who are lamenting in the bottom half of the league and they will be without both their wingers AARON LENNON and GARETH BALE who have been sidelined with injury.

MATA HAS BEEN A TOP SIGNING FOR THE BLUES!!

Chelsea on the other hand will welcome back DAVID LUIZ and RAMIRES to the starting line-up.


The game kicks off at 20.00(GMT) or 01.30(IST) (THURSDAY! or early hours of friday in india)




HERE'S A LIST OF ALL THE FIXTURES:

ENJOY THE FOOTBALL!!

BEST GOALS!

HERE ARE THE TOP 5 GOALS FROM LAST WEEK


5. CRISTIANO RONALDO ( SEVILLA 2-6 REAL MADRID)

4.BORGES TEIXEIRA ( SANTOS 3-1 KASHIWA REYSOL)

3. NEYMAR ( SANTOS 3-1 KASHIWA REYSOL)

2. LIONEL MESSI ( BARCELONA 4-0 SANTOS)

1. DAVID DI MICHELE ( PARMA 3-3 LECCE)

FOOTBALL:WEEKEND REVIEW

Here's a roundup of all the weekend action from the 4 major leagues across europe

                          1.ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

BACK TO WINNING WAYS!

Manchester city were back to winning ways as they beat Arsenal 1-0 at the Etihad in a frantic game, which had loads of chances for both sides, but it was DAVID SILVA'S tap in that sealed the result in the end for city, who went two ponits clear on top.

Earlier tottenham battled past sunderland to a 1-0 victory thanks to a ROMAN PAVLYUCHENKO  goal.

Reigning champions Manchester united eased to a 2-0 away victory over queens park rangers thanks to goals from WAYNE ROONEY and MICHAEL CARRICK.

A lack luster aston villa went down 2-0 at home to Liverpool, with goals from CRAIG BELLAMY and MARTIN SKRTEL.

Earlier on Saturday  Chelsea paid the price for underestimating wigan athletic,  as they were held to a 1-1 draw at the DW stadium which saw them fall further back in the title race.

Here are the results from the weekend’s action:

                                 LEAGUE TABLE

                                        2.SPANISH LA LIGA

CRISTIANO RONALDO’S 5^th hat-trick of the season saw Real Madrid go back on top of la liga as they thumped Sevilla 6-2 in a highly entertaining encounter. Real had pepe sent off late in the second half but  ANGEL DI MARIA was on song yet again as he raked up his assists tally and goal tally with one goal and an assist, JOSE MARIA CALLEJON and H.ALTINTOP were the other goal scorers for Real.

BACK ON TOP!

Valencia beat big spending Malaga 2-0 with a brace from ROBERTO SOLDADO who has arguably been their best player this season.

Atheletico Madrid’s poor run continued as they lost their game in hand 4-2 at the hands of Espanyol and on sunday they were beaten again by ten man Real Betis 2-0.

Here are all the results from gameweek 16:

                        LEAGUE STANDINGS

                                             3. ITALIAN SERIE A

THE OLD LADY IS SINGING AGAIN!

In Italy, juventus climbed back on top of SERIE A with an easy 2-0 win over their lowly neighbours Novarra. SIMONE PEPE and FABIO QUAGLIARELLA were the goal scorers.

Roma thrashed Napoli 3-1 to stay on 7^th place.

Inter Milan continued their fine form in recent weeks  with a vital win, thanks to ANDREA RANOCCHIA’S second half strike which saw them to 1-0 victory over Cesena.

Earlier on Saturday AC Milan went on top of the league with a 2-0 win over Siena.  ANTONIO NOCERINO AND ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC with the goals.

Here are all the results from the weekends action:

LEAGUE TABLE

             4.GERMAN BUNDESLIGA

SUPER MARIO!

Moving to Germany, where Bayern munich showed why they are a side to be reckoned with this season, with a 3-0 victory over FC Cologne  despite being down to ten men for most of the game. Bayern went ahead after 48 mins with MARIO GOMEZ’S 16^th goal of the season. Substitute  DAVID ALABA made it 2-0 for Bayern and with just 2 minutes remaining TONI KROOS added a third with a delicate chip from ten metres.

Borussia Dortmund’s top scorer ROBERT LEWANDOSKI struck twice to help his side to a 4-1 victory over  Freiburg. The win took Dortmund to 34 points, 3 behind Bayern who are on 37.

KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

Spanish legend RAUL struck a hat-trick as schalke blasted 5 past werder Bremen to take them third in the bundesliga.

Here are all the results:

LEAGUE TABLE

             5.FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP

CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!

Barcelona showed everyone why they are the best in the world with a resounding 4-0 victory over Santos in the CLUB WORLD CUP final at YOKOHAM,JAPAN. LIONEL MESSI was on top of his game as he netted two goals. CESC FABREGAS and XAVI HERNANDEZ were on the score-sheet too.

Qatar side AL-SADD beat Kashiwa Reysol 5-3 on penalties to take third place.

5 FOOTBALL TRIVIA'S FOR THE WEEKEND

1.Only 36 more goals are needed to reach the 20,000 goal mark in the barclays premier league and for the player who does score it, barclays are awarding  £20,000 for him to donate to the charity of his choice.

2.So far this season BARCELONA have an average of 70.6 % posession and a 89.4% pass sucess rate, which by the way is the highest amongs all teams around the world.

MES QUE UN CLUB!

3.Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga also knicknamed "the gentleman of football" who was a columbian national   footballer was shot dead, believed to be due to his own goal against against USA in the 1994 football world cup which ultimately cost them the match and unfortunately his life too.

COSTLIEST OWN GOAL EVER!

4.Brazilian forward FRED holds the record for the fastest goal ever, which was in 3.17 seconds! playing for AMERICA/MG in the Sao Paulo youth cup

HAD TO BE A BRAZILIAN!

5.When AC MILAN legend PAOLO MALDINI had made his debut for the club in 1985,ALEXANDRE PATO was not even born yet. infact he was born 4 years later and when he made his debut for MILAN. It was a team captained by the great man MALDINI himself( who was in his 23rd year at milan)! 

FUTURE LEGEND?

THE LEGEND!

LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL GAME!

This is going to be my first post as a blog writer, it is very exciting indeed. And fittingly it is going to be about why i am so passionate about football, what fueled this addiction which i must say i'm very proud of.

The first time i sat down and watched a football match was during the 2002 fifa world cup which was held in south korea and japan. i remember watching the pre-match shows, which had baichung bhutia as one of the experts and i wondered who the hell is this guy( i know! i was stupid).Being an indian, all your exposed to is cricket, cricket and some more cricket. people around you talk about it, so do the media. at a point of time i thought cricket must be like the best sport in the world, well how wrong of me.

Getting back to the world cup, its one of the biggest spectacles in the world, and i was very fascinated by it. so i sat and watched as many matches as i could and i loved every bit of it. whenever i watch any sport i always support one team, i can never be neutral. so i supported brazil(can you blame me?) and they won the world cup beating germany 2-0 in the final and from there started what my mum likes to call my football "addiction"

5- TIME CHAMPS!

I would catch a game here and there, play football with my friends which only increased my love for the game, i mean whats there not to like about football. i started watching the english premier league, and dont think i can ever stop. I have expanded my viewing to the la liga(spain), the bundesliga(germany), serie a(italy), dutch league and scottish at times too. so i do have a fair amount of knowledge on the sport by now.

THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD!

This is how i was exposed to football, and the reason i'm so in love with it is that football never seizes to amaze you, it can never be boring. its only 90 minutes(that is as long as one innings in a t20 game), and the passion that the fans bring with it is contagious and spreads rapidly and all of a sudden u just cant get enough of it!
But in simple terms football is the "beautiful" game and no one can take that away!

With all this passion i have for the game, i will be writing about the all the latest happenings in football and would love to hear any suggestions u may have to help me improve my writing or the blog.

Cheers everyone!