Monday 23 February 2009

Hiddink records victory in first game in charge

As predicted, Chelsea beat Aston Villa one-nil on Saturday, avenging their loss there last season. Chelsea fans will be pleased that Chelsea put in a professional away performance, but the Blues will face two more tough tests as they face two home matches against Juventus in the Champions' League, followed by Wigan in the Premiership. The Juve match should prove trickier on paper, but in reality, Wigan will be another tough match for Chelsea, who need to address their poor home form this season.

It was a tough weekend for the top five. Manchester United beat Blackburn two-one at Old Trafford, thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. I expected a greater winning margin from United, but Blackburn put in a fantastic performance and a point would not have been undeserved for them.

Arsenal and Liverpool unexpectedly slipped up against Sunderland and Manchester City respectively. If it wasn't before, the title is now well and truly in the clutches of Manchester United and it is not surprising that bookmakers Paddy Power have already paid out on United to win the title. I found it surprising that the report on BBC News tonight said Liverpool were 'held' to a draw with City. I may be being petty here, but to be 'held' to a draw, I would assume the side who are held have the lead first, which Liverpool did not.

Bolton did turn out to be tricky for West Ham, with two first-half goals enough to win, despite the Hammers' goal. Middlesbrough and Wigan produced a goalless draw, while at the Britannia Stadium it looked as though Portsmouth had thrown all three points away as Stoke came from a goal down to lead two-one before a late Pompey equaliser goalscoring frenzy during the last 20 minutes.

My 'tip of the day' in the Championship was a disaster as Preston North End became only the second side to suffer defeat at Southampton this season. The Saints took a three-goal lead in the first half and a goal from Ross Wallace was not enough to turn the match for North End.

It was a disaster for me all round on the Championship predictions as everything I predicted failed to happen.

In League One, however, despite failing to predict a loss for Huddersfield, Leeds and Peterborough both won as predicted.

In League Two, I had more success. Bradford had an unexpected crushing four-one defeat at Barnet, but Darlington and Gillingham won as predicted, while I predicted the result spot-on for Brentford, a two-one win.

My predictions Results

Aston Villa v Chelsea Aston Villa 0-1 Chelsea
Manchester Utd v Blackburn Manchester Utd 2-1 Blackburn
Arsenal v Sunderland Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
Middlesbrough v Wigan Middlesbrough 0-0 Wigan
Stoke v Portsmouth (home win or draw) Stoke 2-2 Portsmouth

Southampton v Preston Southampton 3-1 Preston
Norwich v Burnley Norwich 1-1 Burnley
QPR v Ipswich QPR 1-3 Ipswich
Coventry v Birmingham Coventry 1-0 Birmingham
Nottingham Forest v Derby Nottingham Forest 1-3 Derby

Crewe v Huddersfield Crewe 3-1 Huddersfield
Leeds v Cheltenham Leeds 2-0 Cheltenham
Hereford v Peterborough Hereford 0-2 Peterborough

Barnet v Bradford Barnet 4-1 Bradford
Rochdale 1-2 Brentford Rochdale 1-2 Brentford
Gillingham v Macclesfield Gillingham 3-1 Macclesfield
Darlington v Grimsby Darlington 1-0 Grimsby

Saturday 21 February 2009

The football weekend ahead

What an exciting weekend of football there is ahead.

Starting at the top, it's third versus fourth in the Premiership as Aston Villa take on Chelsea in a 12.45pm kick-off at Villa Park.

Although it will not be easy for Chelsea, I am backing the Blues to win this one. They will have been well-prepared by Guus Hiddink during the week and, though it has not been a good idea to bet against Martin O'Neil's Villa side very often this season, they have had a busy time of late.

There were many Villa players who flew out to Spain for England friendly just over a week ago. They may have only had to play on the Sunday afterwards, but this week they have then had a tough UEFA Cup home tie with CSKA Moscow and face an early kick-off on Saturday. How Martin O'Neil must be loathing the television schedules right now. His side will be tired an I expect that to be a factor in why they will lose to Chelsea tomorrow.

Elsewhere, I expect Arsenal to beat Sunderland, on-form Manchester United to beat Blackburn at Old Trafford and for Liverpool to beat Man City, another side who played in Europe, at Anfield on Sunday.

Towards the bottom, Bolton will prove tricky for West Ham and should win their home game, Wigan are capable of a win at Middlesbrough and, though Portsmouth should be an improved side now that Adams has left, they will achieve a draw at most with Stoke.

My 'tip of the day' in The Championship is Preston to win at Southampton. Despite North End's away form being far inferior to home form this season, I expect them to beat the Saints, who have won only once at St Mary's Stadium and have not won in their previous five matches.

I also forecast Burnley to win at struggling Norwich, QPR to beat Ipswich, Birmingham to win at Coventry and Nottingham Forest to avenge their loss earlier this month against Derby.

In League One, in-form Huddersfield will win at Crewe, Leeds will recover from two successive losses to beat Cheltenham, and Peterborough will win at Hereford.

In League Two, Bradford will continue their good form, after two impressive win at Gillingham and at home to my beloved Wycombe, as they win at Barnet. Brentford will not be able to stop Rochdale scoring, but the Bees have luck on their side at the moment and will scrape a two-one victory and Darlington and Gillingham will beat Grimsby and Macclesfield respectively.

Friday 13 February 2009

With money comes hastily-fired managers

RAY WILKINS has insisted today that 'player power' had no influence on the decision to sack Phil Scolari,

I hope what Ray Wilkins said is true because for a manager to be sacked because the players dislike him is disgraceful.

Players should be professional enough to be able to work with their manager whether they like them or not and not go the people above them to push for their dismissal. That should be a given in any line of work.

Scolari's sacking has led me to do a balancing act between what he did wrong and what he did right.

What he did right was to stay in the FA Cup and stay in the Champions League. And, though Chelsea may not have been at their very best so far this season, they are five points off of second and a win off of third. They are also five points ahead of an Arseanal side going through another season of transition, yet they have kept faith in Arsene Wenger. I thought finishing at least in a Champions League qualification spot would have been the bare minimum acceptable achievement this season, but then Roman Abramovic seems unrealistically difficult to please.

What Scolari did wrong was to lead Chelsea to a shock defeat to Burnley in the League Cup and not lead them towards a storming lead in the Premiership. But was Scolari really 'leading' them to such poor form?

Perhaps it is difficult to inspire a side, fronted by Nicholas Anelka's sulky and often disinterested body language, which sometimes appears to spread back through the side like the recent fires in Australia . Perhaps the players were finding it difficult to play to Scolari's tactical instruction.

Whatever the reasons, Abramovic has decided it was not good enough and has fired him, even though Scolari has not been able to bring enough players in to make his squad his own and who fit his tactics. Deco from Barcelona for £10 million and Jose Bosingwa for £28 million from FC Porto have been his only signings.

Although Scolari could have spent his money more wisely, bringing in more players on cheaper transfers to concentrate quality throughout his side instead of in just two positions, it could be argued he has not had time to adjust his tactics to the Premiership either.

Now Guus Hiddink will be leading Chelsea on a temporary basis (which is perhaps they should have told Scolari as well). It is difficult to see what Hiddink could do, especially while managing Russia as well, to improve Chelsea's season that Scolari couldn't have done.

Abramovic fails to take notice of Alex Ferguson's and Arsene Wenger's first seasons with Manchester United and Arsenal respectively, in which they both won nothing. He also seemingly fails to notice what Martin O'neil is doing at the moment with Aston Villa, improving them season by season. No manager at Chelsea seems to be given the chance to do that. Even Rafa Benitez has managed to cling in there and improve Liverpool (despite the American owners' best efforts to out him).

It seems that the more money is pumped into football by multi-millionaire owners, the higher immediate expectations there are of managers and the less patience there is for them to achieve their goals. Mark Hughes to be sacked by Manchester City by the end of the season anyone?

Thursday 12 February 2009

Preview of the Spain versus England game on camera



I filmed this as part of my final-year journalism work as part of a student newspaper called The Journal, which myself and other students are producing. I produced this for the newspaper website, but, as it has only been up and running for a couple of days, it was not readily-equipped for me to put this video onto it. It's a waste not to use it, so I thought I would upload it on here instead, though the England match has passed now.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Preview: Spain v England

ENGLAND face a tough test tonight as they take on European champions Spain in the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in Seville.

The Three Lions will be looking to stretch their unbeaten run to eight games in all competitions, since their defeat against France.

England have also won their previous five matches including wins over Andorra, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Their last game was in November, when Matthew Upson and John Terry gave England a 2-1 victory over Germany in the Olympic Stadium.

England will be without key players Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, which will provide the chance for Aston Villa duo James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor to show coach Fabio Capello their international credentials.

It was announced yesterday that right-back Luke Young will not feature in tonight’s match because of a toe injury picked up in training.

Portsmouth defender Glen Johnson is a strong candidate to play in his absence.

Aston Villa’s Emile Heskey is fit to play, despite not training on Monday because of an ankle injury.

England’s backline will be in for a busy night against danger-man Fernando Torres, aided by Valencia forward David Villa and Liverpool’s Albert Riera.

The magnitude of England’s task to beat Spain on their home turf is reflected by Spain’s unbeaten record, which began at Old Trafford in February 2007 - the last time the two sides met, almost two years ago.

The match resulted in a 1-0 win for Spain, settled by a goal scored by Barcelona forward Andres Iniesta.

That match has sparked an epic 28-game unbeaten run for the Spaniards since their last defeat, against Romania.

The performance will be more important than the result tonight, with England’s next World Cup qualifier still well over a month away, but there will be no greater incentive to win the match than to end a Spanish run which started on English soil.

On paper, this looks like a glamorous tie, but in reality, a showcase exhibition of glistening football may not materialise.

Fabio Capello has named a host of defenders on the bench and has an opportunity to experiment with different formations before England face the Ukraine in April, while Vicente Del Bosque, still new to his coaching role with Spain, will want to know his best 11.

It will be no surprise if the momentum is taken out of the game as both managers tinker with their team line-ups throughout the game.

England squad:

Robert Green
Joe Hart
David James

Wayne Bridge
Rio Ferdinand
Ashley Cole
Phil Jagielka
Glen Johnson
John Terry
Matthew Upson
Luke Young (withdrawn because of injury)

Gareth Barry
David Beckham
Stewart Downing
Frank Lampard
James Milner
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Ashley Young

Gabriel Agbonlahor
Carlton Cole
Peter Crouch
Emile Heskey

Coach: Fabio Capello

My starting line-up:

James

Johnson Ferdinand Terry Cole

Beckham Milner Carrick Young

Heskey Agbonlahor

Monday 9 February 2009

Chelsea sack Scolari

The managerial merry-go-round is spinning at top speed in the Premiership this season.

More managers are falling off than getting back on at the moment and the latest to fall is Chelsea's Phil Scolari.

But I think the sacking of Scolari is very harsh. Yesterday I said I was not surprised at all by Adams' dismissal (I'm more surprised that he is surprised), but today I am shocked by the news that Scolari has been given the boot.

The man has had half a season to make some progress and he has under-achieved with Chelsea. But why is this? Has he had time to bring in his own players? No. Has he been given the funds? No. And has he been given time to adapt to management in the Premiership? Again, no.

Chelsea should be giving Scolari, a manager with a fantastic track record, until Christmas 2009, by which time he will have had a summer to bring in his own players and to get the players used to his tactics and to adapt those tactics to the Premiership.

Chelsea will now bring in another manager who will be under instant pressure to deliver within months of his appointment. They are back to square one.

Adams to be sacked as Portsmouth boss

It looks like Tony Adams is finally going to be fired by Portsmouth after a poor managerial reign with the Premiership strugglers.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Adams-to-be-sacked-as.4959175.jp

I expect Portsmouth will already have an idea of who they would like to replace the ex-Arsenal and England defender as manager.

Managers for them to consider could be out-of-work managers Alan Pardew and Alan Curbishley. I do not expect Paul Ince or Roy Keane to be considered as both are in the same mould as Adams, relatively young. Portsmouth need someone experienced. I think their ideal replacement, though I do not think this is likely, would be Sven Goran Eriksson. Talking of ex-England managers, Glenn Hoddle is also available at the moment, if he can be lured away from his Spanish football academy for some British snow.

Monday 2 February 2009

Welcome to JSaunders sport and views after today's key match

WELCOME sports followers and fans alike to this sports blog, covering all sports, but primarily football.

That's the welcome done. Now for some blogging.

Today Liverpool went top of the Premiership with a last-gasp win over Portsmouth after two late goals. I don't expect many Liverpool fans to agree with me while they are fewer than six wins (22 points) off beating last season's total of 76 points and perhaps on course to be their Premiership best of 82 points achieved in 2005/06, but I just do not see them winning the Premiership this season.

They have undoubtedly narrowed the gap between themselves and Manchester United, but I predict Alex Ferguson's side to run out comfortable winners in the end. Liverpool have shown the quality to keep going until the end of games this season, certainly during their two previous league matches, scoring vital late goals to score victories over Chelsea and Portsmouth, but will they have the capacity to keep going until the end of the season too? That is the real sign of a championship-winning side.

There are not many season when Manchester United do not put together a late surge to win the title. They did it last season, they did it in 1999 in the year they won 'the Treble' and they have done it during numerous other Premiership seasons. It would not be wise to bet against them doing it again this season. With much the same side that won the Premiership last year, I am confident that Alex Ferguson with have his side in blossoming form come May.

Even if Liverpool do beat their record league total, it is no guarantee they will finish ahead of Manchester United, virtue of the fact they still finished behind the Red Devils when they achieved that feat, and, late goals or not, struggling to be lowly Pompey is not a sign of a title-winning side.

Portsmouth are a struggling side at the moment. Though Tony Adams has had a glistening playing career, I do not think he cuts it as a manager. I cannot see what credentials he had to be given the Portsmouth job in the first place, having not set the world alight since he went into management. He started with the club I love, Wycombe Wanderers, and did a poor job, taking them to their only relegation during their time as a league club.

A manager like Nigel Clough was doing an fantastic job with Burton Albion and was offered a job in the Championship, not the Premiership, so why should Tony Adams qualify for a Premiership job with such an insignificant record? It shows that in football, a lot can be gained from who you know, not what you know, or your previous experience.

I fully expected Portmouth to be knocked out of the FA Cup by a lower league side, and they were (they narrowly beat Bristol City, before being knocked out by Swansea); I expected them to struggle in the league this year, and they are; and I fully expect Tony Adams to be the next Premiership manager to face the chop.
 

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