Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed concerns about possible racial abuse of his players from Zenit St Petersburg fans in their Europa League tie.
The Russian supporters have earned an unsavoury reputation for their treatment of opposition players, with QPR defender Chris Samba, who used to play for Anzhi Makhachkala, describing some of their supporters as “living in another century”.
There are worries that Liverpool’s black players, Glen Johnson, Andre Wisdom and Raheem Sterling, will be subject of racially motivated chanting and gestures from certain sections of the crowd.
Rodgers admitted that the issue is something he is prepared for, and urged the sport’s governing bodies to take action should any issues occur:
“I will make reference to it because we have players it maybe could affect, but we are here for football.” He is quoted by Sky Sports.
“We are very hopeful there will be a terrific game and anything that goes on outside the field will be taken care of.
“You go into the sporting arena and hopefully everyone from football, UEFA, referees and officials will support any player it may affect.”
However, he feels that his players are professional enough to deal with any potential problems and that his squad are also strong enough to cope:
“I know these are players who want to play and Glen is a very experienced, top international player.
“And young Raheem has been through situations like this (in an Under-21 international in Serbia in October) before.
“It is something which will very much unite the players and they will become one group. No-one in life wants to see anyone come under any sort of scrutiny like that.”
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With his team out of both domestic cup competitions, Rodgers went on to state that he is fully focussed on performing well in the Europa League:
“It is a competition we want to do well in, as it is the last cup competition we are involved in.”
Santos have rubbished claims that Manchester United made a late transfer deadline day bid for superstar Neymar.
The Sun reported yesterday that Sir Alex Ferguson’s men launched a £38 million offer for the Brazil international close to the end of the window, but the player rejected the opportunity to move to Old Trafford.
However, Santos’ football director Felipe Faro has set the record straight and stated that the story is pure speculation.
“I have no idea where that came from, but it’s not true,” the South American executive told Globo Esporte, translated to English by Sky Sports.
Neymar’s father has also come out and stated to Brazilian reporters that the player was not contacted and will not be moving from his homeland for the time being.
United have bolstered their attack with the summer signings of Shinji Kagawa and Robin van Persie, and as such a move for Neymar seemed unlikely given the strength in depth up front in the Red Devils’ squad.
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There’s not a lot you can gripe about right now if you’re an Arsenal fan. Despite being written out of the title race before a ball had even been kicked Arsene Wenger’s men are right up there in the early part of the season still unbeaten after four Premier League games and one Champions League fixture in which they’ve conceded only two goals. Tuesday’s victory in France was far from a vintage performance but exhibited a strength of character to grind out a favourable result across the channel, a trait that has underpinned the North London clubs impressive start to the new term. Of course the naysayers will contend that Wenger and his side are setting themselves up for an almighty fall but at this point in time theres not a lot to complain about at the Emirates Stadium. The only blemish on an otherwise spotless record? Oliver Giroud’s failure to score since his £12 million summer arrival. That is bound to change sooner rather than later, right?
This week on FFC is Wenger right to drop Theo Walcott after contract talks broke down and how significant will Jack Wilshere’s return from injury be for the Gunners?
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Best of FFC
WAG Weekly – Arsenal playmaker scores a beauty!
The latest player to fall into the transfer trap?
Simply Arsenal’s biggest enemy?
Can he really fulfil the role for Arsenal?
The top TEN players out to ‘shut them up’
Is Arsene Wenger absolutely right to bench him?
Finally cutting the mustard at Arsenal
Arsenal starlet finally stepping out of the shadows
Podolski considering getting Arsenal tattoo
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Best of WEB
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Captain’s Notes & Convenient Goalkeeping Injuries? – A Cultured Left Foot
Will this man find it hard to get back into the first-team line-up? – Gunnersphere
Lukas Podolski – An Apology – Online Gooner
Wenger advises misfiring Gunner not to dwell on lack of goals – Gunnersphere
Karaoke keepers – Arseblog
The Real Question Is Will Arsene Spend £14M+ On An EPL Player? – Transfer Tavern
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Question of the day: Is Vito Mannone good enough to be Arsenal #1? – Le Grove
The ‘Next Wilshere’ signs on! The Real One is back as is Frimpong & and just four left in the sick bay…. – Highbury House
Is He Worth £90,000 pwk? That’s The Bottom Line For Arsenal Fans – Transfer Tavern
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Quote of the Week
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“We will see how he responds to the training now.We will have to be a bit patient, a bit cautious, because when a guy has been out for 14 months it takes a while to get back to match fitness. Jack is fit to practise and play, but to put high-level performances in takes time. He will need a few games in the reserves.” Arsene Wenger says he won’t rush Jack Wilshere back after his return to training
What’s big, inflated, expensive and comes round twice a year? For those of you that answered a Stewart Downing brace, you are in fact only half right. It is of course the opening of the transfer window and along with it comes all the yellow ticker bars, roving reporters and absolutely absurd rumours that come with it.
Indeed, if you thought the stress and pain that Christmas has heaped upon you for the last four weeks set you up for a period of respite, you would be dreadfully incorrect. Because the January transfer window doesn’t just bring with it a spot of cheeky speculation. Oh no.
It brings with it speculation, hyperbole and an overriding sense of disappointment Where as once fans used to get mugged off by Teletext rumours, they’re now being had by 14-year-old kids playing ITK’s on Twitter. Throw in absurd player sightings, the horrendous inflation of fees and the migraine-inducing Sky Sports schtick that is the Deadline Day itself and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Click on the burning shirt below and get ready for the TEN things we can expect to see in the transfer window
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Want to share your hate for all things January? Join me on Twitter and tell me what really winds you up: @samuel_antrobus
Wasted, ignored and out in the cold. This Premier League XI is a team made up of the top tier’s most wasted talent that are currently occupying the bench instead of putting in the performances they’re capable of on the pitch.
The cut-throat nature of the Premier League means a few poor showings and a player is out of the team, or perhaps they never make it into the team following a transfer to a new club. Either way, a talented player soon becomes a wasted commodity when they could be easily commanding a place in another team.
Read on to see if any of your team’s players have made it into the Premier League’s Wasted XI – a collection of footballers who are simply being wasted at their current club.
Click on Oriol Romeu to unveil the Premier League’s Wasted XI
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Following a festive period that saw Tottenham Hotspur pick up 13 points out of a possible 15 on offer, supporters have been left with plenty of fond memories from a great run of form that’s seen the side propelled up to third in the Premier League table.
The indisputable highlight of the past five games has of course been Gareth Bale’s wonderful hat-trick during the 4-0 demolition of Aston Villa. Although given events at the Stadium of Light only three days later, the Welshman’s sublime efforts at Villa Park have of course since been consigned to the shadows.
Indeed, if Gareth Bale was hoping for something along the lines of a new year and a new start, then the yellow card he picked up for his perceived dive during his side’s 2-1 win away to Sunderland saw him start 2013 in the worst possible manner.
The yellow card Martin Atkinson dished out to Bale on the 29th was his fifth of the season, ensuring the 23-year-old started the year in the stands to serve out a one game suspension during the weekend’s home win against Reading. For many fans, not to mention the player himself, the suspension marked the latest in a long line of grievances their star asset has had to endure this term.
Following extremely dubious bookings for simulation against both Liverpool and Fulham earlier on this term, some feel that his suspension against Brian McDermott’s men represents a fitting hallmark for a player that’s quickly becoming the Premier League’s favourite scapegoat in the common crusade against the division’s biggest con artists.
Yet with each passing yellow card Bale receives, both the Welshman and his supporters’ cries of injustice are beginning to grow both tired and irrelevant in their regularity.
Every time Bale seems to pick up a booking, the retorts always seem to be the same. For the man himself, this fabled reasoning that he’s running so fast that even the briefest amount of contact (and let’s be under no illusions as to quite how minimal the contact with Craig Gardner was last Saturday) gives him carte blanche to go down, has seemed to leave him with something of a siege mentality.
Despite being somewhat in denial about his reputation for taking a tumble, Bale has ambled on defiantly against the perceived injustices Premier League referees have heaped against him. Whether or not he’s actually seen footage of himself diving to win a penalty at the Emirates last season or going down under thin air in front of an onrushing Brad Guzan against Aston Villa this term, we can’t be too sure, but what we can be sure of is Bale’s staunch belief that he’s not doing anything wrong.
Although with only half a season gone and three bookings for diving already attained, enough must now be enough.
You can sit down and contest the three decisions as much as you want, you can loop them over in slow motion or you can project them onto the side of Buckingham Palace if it makes you feel better, but it won’t make an ounce of difference. Regardless of whether he should have been booked in those three incidents, his behaviour this term has done absolutely nothing to shake his tag as a con-artist or to prevent him from attaining the reputation in the first place.
And if he hadn’t had such a reputation, maybe he might not have found himself sitting on the bench on New Year’s Day serving out a suspension. Rightly or wrongly, it seems difficult to argue against the notion that referees are judging Bale on reputation, rather than each incident on its own merits. Is this acceptable? Not in the slightest. Does this mean that Bale can carry on as he has done screaming injustice? Not a chance.
Gareth Bale can’t extrinsically control the attitude of referees but he can control his own behaviour. Because for as flaky as some of the yellow cards that he’s picked up for diving have been, it’s hardly like he’s been maimed down for a series of clear-cut fouls, is it? Collapsing under a touch of the arm from Craig Gardner is hardly ‘protecting himself’ as he likes to call it, or avoiding a Charlie Adam like lunge.
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Bale doesn’t appear to be cut from the cloth of someone lacking in intelligence and after two yellow cards picked up for diving already this term, he couldn’t have been unaware to the situation he’d found himself in. Contact or not, going down under Craig Gardner’s challenge was playing with fire and he ultimately got burned.
But he’s becoming increasingly misguided if he believes that the briefest of contact, no matter how pathetically minimal, renders him bulletproof from both critics and referees alike. If Gareth Bale can’t work the puzzle out himself then it’s time Andre Villas-Boas ushered him in the right direction.
Again, no one is denying that he’s been unfairly accused of diving at times this season, but there’s a reason why Bale’s suffering this fate and not his equally as speedy teammate Aaron Lennon. He needs to rein it in, keep his head down and keep away from controversy. A simple way to try and shed the miscarriages of justice that referees have inflicted is to simply not give them the chance in the first place.
The world of refereeing like any other, is one that’s far from perfect and Bale’s frustrations with Premier League refs aren’t without gravitas. But this is the environment he’s playing within and for the foreseeable future, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. This is a fight that Bale isn’t going to win. And until he backs down from his own unflappable personal stance, things won’t get easier anytime soon.
Wigan have confirmed that they have accepted an offer from Chelsea for attacker Victor Moses.
The Latics forward shone for Roberto Martinez’s men in their Premier League survival campaign last season, and has been the subject of interest from a number of bigger clubs.
However, the Blues have had a number of offers rejected by the DW Stadium side, but their latest bid has matched Wigan’s valuation of the player.
“The club can confirm that after four unsuccessful bids from Chelsea for Victor Moses, a fifth bid has today finally met the valuation and terms set by Wigan Athletic and been accepted,” a statement on the official Wigan website reads.
“The player has been given permission to speak with Chelsea.”
The reported fee is believed to £9 million, despite the Nigeria international being in the last year of his contract at Wigan.
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Theo Walcott may want to play as a central striker, but for Arsenal he appears a more useful attacking option out wide.
It has been over two months since stories first emerged about the difficulties surrounding Theo Walcott’s contract negotiations, yet, with almost a third of the Premier League season gone, there is still no indication that a deal has been agreed between the club and the Arsenal striker. Talks over extending the 23-year-old’s contract apparently hinge not on money, but on the very word just used to describe him: striker.
Throughout the faltering negotiations, Walcott has insisted that his wages are not the issue. Rather it is a question of his role in the squad, or, more specifically, on the pitch itself, that lies behind no new terms being finalised. Walcott has pressed to be played through the middle for months, but his bit part involvement in Arsenal’s season to date will surely not have convinced him that his wishes will soon be granted.
A common opinion is that Walcott is not able to play in a central striking position for Arsenal because of deficiencies in his technique. It is clear that he has not developed to the levels that those at Arsenal thought he would reach when he was signed in 2006. In the six years he has been at Arsenal, the England international has made over 150 appearances, yet found the net only 28 times.
At his best, Walcott can be devastatingly unplayable. Frightening pace is undoubtedly his key asset, and over the last few years he has put in memorable performances for club and country. Many will recall his superb hat-trick against Croatia in 2008, or his quick-fire brace in Arsenal’s 5-2 demolition of Spurs in last season’s North London derby at the Emirates.
However, in truth, these performances for Arsenal have been too infrequent. He is criticised by those who regularly watch the Gunners for solely using his pace to get past opponents and, more condemningly, for his poor decision making in the final third. Walcott could never be lambasted for being a selfish player, as frequently he shies away from striking at goal, choosing instead to pass to a team-mate.
It would be naïve solely to praise this trait in his game. From one perspective it is unselfishness, but from another it is passing responsibility. While being unselfish is a highly desirable asset for a footballer, the top strikers in the world all display a similar ruthless streak when presented with a chance to get a shot away; something that Walcott does not seem to possess.
Arsene Wenger has stated many times that he holds hope that Walcott can emulate his idol Thierry Henry. Like Walcott, Henry was initially deployed as a wide player under Wenger, before moving inside and becoming one of the most fearsome strikers in world football. However, Henry was a consistently Arsenal’s leading scorer during his time at Arsenal, whereas Walcott has yet to reach double figures in a Premier League season for the club, despite playing all but three games in the competition last season.
Walcott possesses Henry’s lightening speed, but has yet to find the Frenchman’s clinical calmness in front of goal; a fact exemplified by his glaring miss in the final minutes of Arsenal’s recent Champions League draw with Shalke 04, a chance that Henry would have surely slotted home. At his peak, Henry was almost guaranteed to finish when through on goal with just the keeper to beat. Walcott has shown increasing composure in recent matches, yet is still a long way from the unruffled consistency in front of goal that is needed to become a regular goal scorer.
It is easy to be too critical of Walcott, and regularly the young forward is condemned to an unfair extent. A lot of the frustration that emerges in criticism of him stems from a realisation of the promise and potential he does show. Walcott may be inconsistent, but it is clear to see that he is agonisingly close to being the potent attacking threat many long for him to become. His potential is indubitable, but whether or not he can fulfil such promise at Arsenal is becoming more and more unlikely due to the style in which the Gunners play.
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As football grows increasingly consumed by possession, the role of a striker that plays off the shoulder of the last defender looks progressively more threatened. Particularly at a club like Arsenal, where the footballing philosophy centres around keeping hold of the ball and playing chiefly in the opposition’s half. When sides play against Arsenal they frequently sit deep and restrict space, looking to get forward on the counter attack where they can expose Arsenal’s persistent defensive frailties. Consequently, a striker such as summer signing Olivier Giroud is a more suitable candidate for the central forward role as his strength in and around the penalty area can create opportunities for the Gunners’ wealth of talented attacking midfielders.
Arsenal’s number 14 can be a blistering attacking threat, but in the current Arsenal system he is much more effective when played out on the flank where he has more space to use his dangerous pace. Walcott has frequently stated he would be disappointed if he had to leave Arsenal, but his best chance at moving centrally as a striker may be found by moving on from the Emirates.
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas hopes Tottenham’s stunning victory at Old Trafford will be the turning point for their season, and lead to a series of victories reports The Evening Standard.
The Portugese coach endured a difficult start to his Tottenham career, being booed off twice at White Hart Lane in a series of three games without a win.
However Spurs have turned it around since, and have been on a run of three consecutive Premier League victories, which culminated with their first win at Old Trafford since 1989 on Saturday.
AVB is hoping Saturday’s result will spark a run of victories for his side, and help to improve their home form which has been their achilles heel so far this season.
“It doesn’t stop here,” Villas-Boas told Spurs TV Online.
“The emotions we were living (after the United win) are very inspiring and results are also good to build confidence.
“That confidence is good for us as we approach our next couple of games.
“We have two games at home now, and we have to improve our home form to make sure that this becomes a sequence for us.”
Before Premier League action resumes, Tottenham travel to Athens to take on Panathanikos in their second Europa League group match.
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Villas-Boas has already enjoyed success in the competition with previous club Porto, and is hoping to do the same with his new employers.
“We have won two straight away games so to it would be nice to make it three against Panathinaikos,” Villas-Boas added.
“It is very important for us to get that win to put us back on track in the group phase of the Europa League and then we are back to the Premier League so (a win) would be is good for everybody.”
Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert will face his former club Norwich for the first time on Saturday lunchtime, with both clubs in desperate need of Premier League points.
Lambert was visibly disappointed with his teams latest display at Craven Cottage, a game which saw them lose 1-0 to a late goal from a set piece.
Whereas Chris Hughton has been enjoying his best week since taking the job at Carrow Road, after Grant Holt’s goal was enough to earn his first win in charge, surprisingly over Arsenal last Saturday.
It was Holt’s second Premier League goal of the season, as he looks to build on his tally of an impressive 15 last season.
Holt will be confident of giving his former manager more grief, with Villa really struggling defensively. Lambert has seen his side concede 13 goals in their opening eight matches.
Norwich have an even worse record however, conceding a total of seventeen so far.
Darren Bent is expected to start up top with Gabby Agbonlahor, after the pair started in the defeat at Craven Cottage, meaning summer signing Christian Benteke will be on the bench.
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