Premier League: Latest News

Premier League: Latest News

After all the hype about Liverpool getting back into the title race it looks as if Manchester United have all but sealed the title now. Manchester United saw off Portsmouth 2-0 in midweek while Liverpool played out an unreal 4-4 draw with Arsenal.

That draw with Arsenal all but ended Liverpool’s title hopes and their odds have rocketed, so if you do still fancy betting on them to do it you’ll get a good price! The game did demonstrate one thing in particular though – the explosive talent of Andrey Arshavin. I’d seen the Russian maestro play for Zenit St Petersburg and Russia before and I always knew he was a top-talent. He has been playing well for Arsenal but up until that game questions had been asked about his fitness – he answered those and then some by popping up with four goals. It really was a classic game of football, with Liverpool pressing and Arsenal sublime on the counter-attack, both sides needed to win but unfortunately the game didn’t produce a winning goal.

For all their good work Liverpool could, and probably will, end the season without a trophy. The FA Cup final will see Everton take on Chelsea and the betting odds will be firmly in Chelsea’s favour. However, if anyone outside the ‘big four’ is capable of beating Hiddink’s Chelsea it is Everton. They have hugely impressed me this season and if boss David Moyes can keep his side together and perhaps add a bit more quality they could well gate crash the top four and qualify for the Champions League next season.

At the other end of the table Newcastle look to be in real trouble and will need to pick up maximum points in their remaining three home games. They face Portsmouth, Fulham and Middlesbrough at home but their away ties are at Liverpool and Aston Villa – where I don’t fancy their chances much. West Brom look well out of it at the bottom now, they’re nine points adrift with five games left and, despite manager Tony Mowbray’s insistence they can get out of it, I think they’re gone. Middlesbrough have picked up four points in two games but they face Arsenal and Manchester United in their next two games and I can’t see them getting anything out of those fixtures. If a team is going to get out of it someone else has to drop and that could well be Hull City. Hull have been in a shocking run of form lately and if they don’t pick up results soon they could be heading back to the Championship after just one year in the Premier League. Wolverhampton Wanderers are the first team to win promotion to the Premier League this season, they’ve stormed the Championship and are under the guidance of former Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy. McCarthy is a fairly decent manager and it will be interesting to see how the Wolves do in the Premier League next season.

I’ll round off my Premier League update with some bizarre news. Bolton chairman Phil Gartside wants to submit plans to split the league into two, with a two-tier system with 18 teams in each league. It would be a dramatic overhaul of British football and the plans include Scottish sides Celtic and Rangers joining the English league. If the plans are to go ahead he would need the backing of 14 out of the 20 Premier League chairmen, so it seems fairly unlikely. I don’t like the plans myself, I quite like the system the way it is, but to be honest I doubt that he’ll get the backing he needs to pursue this weird idea.

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Premier League News: the title race heats up and a legend returns to Newcastle

Premier League News: the title race heats up and a legend returns to Newcastle

Come ogni settimana, eccoci all'appuntamento tradizionale con Gareth. Ecco le ultime dalla Premier League, il campionato inglese, raccontate dal nostro esperto britannico. A te la parola, Gareth!

The Premier League has been an exciting place over the last couple of weeks. Manchester United surrendered their lead at the top of the table to Liverpool, even if it was for less than 24 hours.

Liverpool were within two points of United going into last weekends fixtures and with their game against Fulham on the Saturday night they had the opportunity to overtake United at the top. They made hard work of it but the Israeli Yossi Benayoun scored a last gasp winner to send Liverpool to the top of the table.

United faced Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday and the betting odds were stacked against Villa, who have been in a very bad run of form lately. However, in the 75th minute Villa had a 2-1 lead and were the better side for the majority of the game. United turned their lead on its head though, with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Federico Macheda. Macheda is a 17-year-old Italian, United bought (or stole) from Lazio and he made an immediate impression in his first game for Alex Ferguson’s side. His first touch was sublime and he hit his shot on the turn, curling it into the corner of the goal. It was fantasy stuff from the 17-year-old and it looks as if, yet again, Ferguson has acquired one of Europe’s top-prospects.

At the other end of the table West Bromich Albion and Middlesbrough are both heading towards relegation. West Brom saw themseleves on the wrong end of a 2-0 score line against fellow strugglers Stoke, while Middlesbrough were hammered 4-1 by Bolton Wanderers. They both face massive uphill struggles to get out and having seen both sides play this season I doubt many will be betting on their survival. Newcastle United occupy the third relegation place and they face a very difficult run in. Newcastle have appointed former England legend, and the clubs all time top goal scorer, Alan Shearer to take over managing the team for their final fixtures in a last ditch attempt to secure survival. Shearer has no experience as a manager but he should instil a bit of passion into the side, whether or not that will be enough to keep them up is open too debate but personally I think it could be a case of too little to late. Newcastle face Stoke at the weekend and it is a massive game for both sides, should Stoke win they will have pretty much secured their own survival and Newcastle will have a massive task getting out of the bottom three. If Newcastle win the game it could be the kick start they need, but only Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton have managed to win away at Stoke this season so it is not an easy task for Shearer.

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Managerial changes. News from the English Premier League.

Managerial changes. News from the English Premier League.

E' venerdì e Citysport fa un salto in Ingilterra, in Premier League, per carpire le ultime notizie provenienti dalla massima serie calcistica britannica. Questa settimana, dopo aver analizzato le principali trattative riguardanti i giocatori inglesi, è tempo di parlare di allenatori. Come sempre sarà Gareth, il nostro esperto, a illustrarci le ultime scoppiettanti novità.

It has been quite a busy week in English football. Both Chelsea and Portsmouth have sacked their respective managers with Chelsea already finding a replacement in Guus Hiddink, who will continue in his capacity as Russia’s manager whilst in charge at Chelsea.

Portsmouth boss Tony Adams was the bookies favourites with their sports betting odds to be axed first but Luis Felipe Scolari just about beat him to it by a few hours. There is no doubting Scolari’s ability as a coach but it just didn’t click with him at Stamford Bridge. He has since admitted he had ‘no relationship’ with the players off the pitch and rumours circulated that he had no respect in the dressing room. The tabloid newspapers have reported that Petr Cech, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba told Roman Abramovich he should be sacked and it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened. Drogba has been frankly awful all season and he is Chelsea’s most influential player when he is on form. His lack of form is the biggest reason for Chelsea’s league position and there chances of winning the league are very slim.

Scolari’s replacement, for the time being at least, is Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Hiddink will continue as Russia’s coach and he has said he expects to stay just until the end of the season but he could stay if he achieves any kind of success at Chelsea. Candidates have already emerged as to who could take on the job full time in the summer but it looks like AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti is the favourite, with West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola another name that has been mentioned.

Tony Adams was sacked as Portsmouth manager after just 22 games in charge, he only won two of those games. To be honest I don’t think Adams was ever really management material and Portsmouth are in real danger of being relegated now. There have been a few names mentioned such as former Charlton boss Alan Curbishley but as yet they have not named Adams’ successor so you can still place a bet on who the next Pompey boss will be with your football betting.

Another big story is English football this week was David Beckham’s 108th England cap. He has now equalled the record set by Bobby Moore for the most caps for an outfield player. It is a massive achievement for Beckham and in general most of the people involved in English football seem to think it is a good thing that he is still involved in the national side. In the match itself though Spain really outclassed England and there was little Beckham or anyone else could have done to avoid that 2-0 defeat.

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