Preview of the Arsenal v Cardiff City game

In today's Premiership game,  Arsenal are away to Cardiff City in what promises to be a tough encounter.

I do think Arsenal have the edge and if they play as well as they have been playing then they should win. 

Now we have Rosicky and Walcott back in the squad it gives the team a little bit more pace which they have been lacking.

 

However home advantage for Cardiff will make it harder for Arsenal to get this win and Cardiff are going to be very tough competitors. 

I think we will get a marginal victory of two goals to one and I think either Ramsey or Wiltshire will get onto the score sheet. 

What are your predictions?

Champions League games 27th November 2013

In yesterday's Champions League games Manchester United beat Bayer Leverkusen by five goals to nil.

It was an emphatic and it ensured that they qualified for the knockout stages.

 This was a much needed win for Man United especially as they are struggling in the domestic league. 

Elsewhere Man City also recorded a four goals to two win against Viktoria Pizen and they have qualified for the knockout stage. 

This win followed a really strong performance in the premier league and Man City game is coming together at the right time. 

Champions League review 26th November 2013

Yesterday in the Champions League group stage match, Arsenal beat Marseille by two goals to nil.

It was a good confident win by Arsenal who would had many other chances to increase the score line including a penalty miss by Mesut Ozil.

But most importantly Arsenal won the game and are top of the group by three points. Arsenal play the last group game away to Naples. 

This group really was the group of death because despite having twelve points. Arsenal still need at least a draw from the game against Naples to qualify for the knock out stages. 

Elsewhere Chelsea lost away to Basel by one goal to nil. But have now qualified for the knockout stage as other group results went there way. 

It just goes to show that sometimes it really is the luck of the draw:)

Preview of Champions League: 26 November 2013

In tonight's Champions League games Arsenal are at home to Marseille. Arsenal need to win this match to bring them a big step closer to qualifying for the knock out stages.

 

On the plus side Marseille have not had good campaign and unlikely to qualify for the next stage as they don't have any points.

Theo Walcott and Mathieu Flamini are back from injury so that should hopefully give us more attacking options.

 

Elsewhere Chelsea are away to Basel and they only need a draw to qualify for the knock out stages.

However Basel are a tough team and it will be a tough match for Chelsea and could go either way.

Premiership review- 24th November 2013

Sunday's premiership games had a few surprises and Man City beating Tottenham Hotspurs by six goals to nil was a shocker!

I did not see that coming at all, especially  since Spurs have spent over one hundred million pounds in the transfer window.

It will be interesting to see if they can recover from this. But they don't have much time as there next game is at home to Man United.

 

Man United drew two all to Cardiff City in a match that I was also expecting Man United to win. 

This was a bad draw for Man United and their chances of retaining their title are becoming remote. 

As I stated earlier their next premiership game is away to Spurs and it is a bigger match than usual for either of these teams. 

Premiership review 23rd November 2013

The Premiership returned yesterday after the international break and Arsenal beat Southampton by two goals to nil.

This was a good win as Southampton where third in the league. I am mightly relieved that Arsene Wenger took this game seriously. 

This win was also needed after the disappointing loss to Manchester United. 

This winning this game would has helped us to stay top of the league and continue in the winning mentality.

Which is so desparately needed after eight seasons of no trophies. I was pleased that Olivier Giroud got the goals.

As I think he has not had a good start to the season. So hopefully this will encourage him to be more confident in front of goal. 

Lastly this win has helped us to break our  poor November record where we have not had many wins in this month. 

 

Elsewhere Chelsea beat West Ham by three goals to nil and this win has put them in a top four position and and just four points behind Arsenal. 

I was surprised at the ease in which Chelsea beat West Ham as the rivalry between both clubs would make this kind of scoreline difficult to get. 

Lastly Liverpool drew three all to Everton and I was not suprised by this result has merseyside rivalries would make this a tough encounter. 

However I was suprised that Brendan Rogers named Kolo Toure as a sub and then didn't play him. 

I would have thought the Rogers would know how important Kolo his to the defence. 

Liverpool have not been conceding too many goals. That is I fully expect Kolo to be back in the back four in the next match.

So with Liverpool drawing and Arsenal winning it has extended Arsenal lead at the top to four points. Definitely exciting times if you are an Arsenal fan!

World Cup round up - playoffs

Some of the World Cup playoffs took place last night and France beat Ukraine by three goals to nil.

It was a fantastic come back for the French as they had lost the first leg by two goals to nil.

I was relieved that Didier Deschamps left Oliver Giroud on the bench, as I think that technically Giroud would have been ineffective last night.

 

It is credit to Didier Deschamps that he went for more attacking line up which helped them to win the match and qualify for Brazil 2014.

Elsewhere Ghana qualified for their third successive World Cup and which means Ghana are now going to Brazil 2014.

International Friendlies - review

The last of the international friendlies for the year took place yesterday and Germany beat England by a goal to nil.

To be fair it was always going to be an up hill struggle for England to beat Germany. What made it even harder for England was that Roy Hodgson could  not play all his first team players. 

For England it's the first time in over thirty years that they have lost two back to back friendlies and it goes to show that there are no easy games at this level. 

Naturally there will probably be the usual media uproar, but we are still about six months away from the start of the Brazil 2014.

 

 I think these two losses will give the players and  the fans a reality check for Brazil 2014. 

Elsewhere the reigning World Champions Spain where beaten one nil by South Africa.

 I was shocked by this result and thought either South Africa have made some real improvements or Spain had a very bad night but most likely a bit of both.

It was probably a wake up call for a team like Spain no to be too complacent and it does go to show that unexpected results can happen to the best or worst of teams.

World Cup - round up

The first leg of the of the play-off tie took place over the weekend France lost two nil to the Ukraine.

This was a bad result for France and they are really going to need to up their game if they want to qualify for the World Cup. 

 

I will be very surprised if Oliver Giroud can score the three goals they need to make it to Brazil 2014.

 

 Leaving Bacary Sagna on the bench was a bad move as he can defend as well as whip
those crosses in. 

 

So if they want to make it to the final they need to amend the line up and include Bacary Sagna. 

 

Elsewhere some the African teams played the second leg of the play-offs and this meant Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast all qualified for Brazil 2014.

International friendlies review 15 November 2013

England lost two nil to Chile and at home. At first I was surprised that the convincing way in which Chile beat England.

But after seeing the England line up and I was no longer surprised. The some of players that Roy Hodgson chose for this friendly.  Where mainly players who would struggle to get into their premiership team. 

 

This meant that it would have been unrealistic for England to beat Chile who had brought a much better team. 

England would have needed all their first team players to have any chance of winning this match.

Please check out the highlights to this match below. (commentating is in Russian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPbIjD8nhVI
 

Scotland drew nil nil with the USA and this result was a surprise. I thought there was going to be lots of goals and I also thought that USA where going to win. 

The USA brought a strong team to Scotland and Scotland after previously losing to the USA where determined that they would not be humiliated at home.

So I think the draw must have felt like win for Scotland and for the USA it must have felt like a loss,

 

International Friendlies

So the international friendlies are taking place today and England will take on Chile. Roy Hodgson has decided drop goalkeeper Joe Hart to the bench.

I  have never rated Joe Hart but the reality is, he is the only decent goalkeeper England have got. I think the result will be two goals one in England's  favour.

Scotland are playing the USA tonight and I think it will be a close win for the USA like England, USA  have already qualified for Brazil 2014. 

It should be a good game as Scotland will have nothing to prove and USA will want to be seen as potential champions in Brazil 2014.

Arsenal's season so far

As we are now on an international break, I thought it would be a good time to look at Arsenal's season so far.

The stats do not lie and Arsenal are in a better league position now than this time last year.

Arsene Wenger may have added a few new players, but the existing players have all started to play well especially Laurent Koscielny  and Aaron Ramsey.

Aaron Ramsey is scoring goals that has surprised fans far and wide. 

The end of summer signing Mesut Ozil has been a bit of relevation and his link up play has been second to none. 

So the area of the field that Arsenal still have a problem is upfront. We are still trying to walk the ball into the back of the net. It has been particularly hard for Oliver Giroud this season. 

I cannot see Arsene Wenger buying a striker in the January window so our bet is to hope Lucas Polodski returns from injury to partner Oliver Giroud. 

We are currently top of the league and how long we stay largely depends on when our injured players are coming back to help the squad to deliver our first trophy in eight years.

 

ATP Men's Finals London - Review

There were few surprises at this years ATP men's tour finals.

I was surprised by the notable improvement of Stanislas Wawrinka. I am not his great fan of his style of tennis but he did well to make the semi-finals. 

I was disappointed with Rafa Nadal's performance in the final. After playing well to reach the final, his below par performance was certainly a surprise and disappointment. 

I personally can't see Roger Federer winning anymore major titles. I think he has had his time and for him to beat either Rafa or Novak at any of the majors in 2014 sounds a tad unrealistic. 

Novak Djokovic performed better than I expected. But then I think losing the the world number one ranking motivated him to play even better. 

Overall it was a good tournament and it was good to see both the number one and number two players in the final. I was only disappointed that Rafa couldn't win it.

 

ATP Men's Finals London- Final

The men's ATP men's final took place yesterday and Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in straight sets. 

I was suprised with the ease in which Novak beat Rafa. However Novak seemed hungrier for the win and he was blasting winners from all over the court. 

Rafa did not come across as his usual focused self and was making a lot of unnecessary errors.

 It was only really towards the end of the second set that we started to see Rafa's brilliance.

 By that time it was too late and Novak was able to close out the set and the match. From Novak's perspective it was a great match and he was able to retain his title. 

From Rafa's perspective he played a poor match and may rue the chance to have picked up this trophy after such a great year. 

It wasn't really a great final and as Rafa fan I would have loved for him to win it but I guess it was not meant to be. 

Both players will be firm favourites for the Australian Open and for Rafa,  2014 could be the year he makes history. As he is only three grand slams behind Roger Federer. 

Premiership review - Sunday's games Podcast

VR Online Service: Premiership review - Sunday's games

ATP Men's finals - Preview of the men's final

Today's ATP men's final will be between to great competitors in Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. 

This should be a great match and could become classic match. It is difficult to predict who will win this encounter. 

Novak will want to win as he has not won has many grand slam titles as he would have liked this year. 

He also would like his world number one status back so I think he will be hungrier for the win. 

Rafa has had a great year and his wins year have included two grand slam titles. 

As the current world number one he does not want to lose this status anytime soon, so he will be fighting to hold on to it. 

So I think Rafa will probably win this final but in three close sets. 

ATP Men's Finals - Semi - Finals

The ATP men's semi finals took place yesterday and Novak Djokovic beat Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. 

To be fair it was probably the expected result, whilst Stanislas has had good year  he probably needs to focus on winning his first grand slam. 

Novak has lived up to expectations to reach the final. He has additional motivation of wanting his world number one status back so he will be doubly motivated for the final. 

In the other semi final Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in straight sets. Rafa nows seems to have no problems beating Roger which is different to a few years back. 

Roger has achieved and won so much in tennis and if he wants to have a successful 2014. He is going have to dig deep to beat the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. 

Rafael Nadal has had a good year since coming back from injury. The current world number one will want to win this final to sign off on what has been a great year. 

Premiership review - Saturday's games

Premiership returned this weekend and Chelsea drew two all with Bromwich Albion. 

It was a controversial match which saw Chelsea saw a last minute penalty equaliser and retain their place fourth. 

Liverpool beat Fulham by four goals to nil. Liverpool are doing well this season and if they can keep this up then he might have a genuine chance of winning the premiership. 

 

Fulham are now hovering just above the relagation places and so another bad loss like that and Fulham could themselves in the relegation dog fight.  

ATP Men's Finals, London - Day six

Day six of the ATP men's final and Roger Federer beat Juan Martin Del Potro in three sets. 

This meant that Roger qualified for the semi finals and it knocked Juan Martin out of the finals. 

This was very good win for Roger as Juan Martin was a firm favourite for this title. However Roger now faces the World Number One Rafael Nadal.

This will be a good match and both men would really fighting hard to make the final. I do think Rafael has the edge but I suspect it will be three close sets.

Novak Djokovic beat Richard Gasquet in three sets and Novak will now play Stanislas Wawrinka in the semi finals.

This semi finals should be a good match as all the pressure is on Novak. Stanislas will be able to really go for it as Novak is the favourite. 

ATP Men's finals, London - day five

Day five of the men's final and Stanislas Wawrinka beat David Ferrer in three sets.  

Stanislas has worked had and very much deserves his place in the semi finals where he will play Novak Djokovic.  

 

This will be a big match because if he can beat Novak then anything could happen. 

Rafael Nadal beat Tomas Berdych in three sets and Rafa had already qualified for the semi finals. But this win knocked Tomas out of the tour finals.

 To be fair it always going to be a tough match for Tomas but he he pushed Rafa all the way. 

ATP Men's Final, London - day four

Day four of the men's ATP finals tour and Novak Djokovic beat Juan Martin Del Potro in three sets.

This was a good win for Novak as Juan Martin has a very good chance of winning this title. 

Roger Federer beat Richard Gasquet in straight sets and this victory kept Roger title chances life but it knocked Richard out of the tournament. 

It was a good win for Roger but I would have been very suprised if the result had been any different.

ATP Men's Finals, London - day three

Day three at the ATP Men's finals and Rafael Nadal beat Stanislas Wawrinka in two close sets. This win meant that Rafa will now finish the year as the world number one.

Rafa is my pick to win this tournament and he seems to be getting better with each match. 

It was always going to be a tough ask to Stanislas who has worked hard to reach this final. He needs to develop his game so he can become a grand slam winner.

Tomas Berdych beat David Ferrer in straight sets and this was a good win for Tomas. 

But to have any chance of realistically winning this title he needs to beat either Juan Martin Del Potro, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. 

Whilst this is not impossible it will take monumental effort from Tomas to do this. If he does win this tournament it would be big confidence boost for 2014. 

, 

Champions League - Wednesdays games

In this evening Champions League games Arsenal beat Borussia Dortmund by a goal to nil. 

It was an amazing match and to be fair before the match I would have been grateful for a draw. 

But once the Aaron Ramsey scored then I started to believe we could win this. Aaron Ramsey has been a revelation this season. 

I cannot believe it is the same player that I spent all of last season moaning about!  

Now I feel really guilty about how desparate I was Arsene Wenger to get rid of him. 

To think he has scored eleven goals this season and will probably get more. 

This was a really good win for Arsenal and apparently Arsenal are the first English team to beat Borussia Dortmund at home since 1964!

Next game is away to Manchester United and winning this Borussia Dortmund game will give the team a lot more confidence for the match against Man United. 

Chelsea beat Schalke by three goals to nil and Samuel Eto scored two goals. 

This means Chelsea need a point from their next game to ensure that they qualify for the next round. 

This was a good bounce back result for Chelsea after their surprising away loss to Newcastle. Winning this game may put them back on track. 

Champions league - Tuesdays games

In yesterday champions league games Man United drew nil nil with Real Sociedad and in a game where Robin Van Persie missed a penalty. 

However Man United are still top of their table so in all probabilities they will qualify for the next round.  

But it should have been a much easier game for them, because until last nights game, Real Sociedad had no points. 

So Under David Moyes Man United are still struggling. 

Man City did not have any problems last night and they beat CSKA Moscow  five goals to two and have qualified for the knock out stages.

ATP Men's Final, London - day two

Day two of the ATP men's finals and Rafael Nadal beat a David Ferrer in straight sets. 

Rafa has had a great year since coming back from injury and a good result like this makes me think that he is more likely to reach the final. 

David Ferrer has always struggled when up against Rafa and I would be surprised if he makes it to the final of this tournament. 

Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in three sets. This was a good win for Novak and I can also see him making it to the final of this tournament. 

Roger dominated the men's tour for about six years and I feel now that it is going to be difficult for him compete at the highest level. 

Roger has an outside chance of claiming this title but ultimately, he will have to beat Novak or Rafa to have any realistic chance winning this title. 

ATP Men's finals, London - Day One

ATP Men's finals got under way yesterday and Juan Martin Del Potro beat Richard Gasquet in three sets. 

This was a tough match for Juan Martin against someone like Richard who has not had the best year. 

Juan Martin was probably relieved to have gotten the win. But there will be tougher matches for him to face and hopefully he will rise up to the challenge. 

Stanislas Wawrinka beat Tomas Berdych in three sets. If I am totally honest I am not really fan of either player. 

I will be somewhat surprised if either player makes it to the final and wins. 

However both Stanislas and Tomas are playing well and If I was a betting women I would say that Stanislas has the greater chance making it to the final. 

But neither plays the type of tennis I think will really help not only to win this tournament but to win grand slams. 

But at the same time they are both here so anything can happen. 

ATP World Tour Finals, London - Preview

The top eight men minus Andy Murray will be playing at London's O2 arena for the men's end of year championships. 

Unlike the women's end of year championships, the men's tournament is slightly more open. 

However Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro and Rafa Nadal are my picks for men that are more likely to do well and win. 

Novak has not had a bad year but he will be frustrated about Wimbledon and the US Open finals and will want to make amends. 

Juan Martin Del Potro has not had a great year so winning the end of year title would set him up nicely for 2014. 

Rafael Nadal has had a great come back from injury this year. Two grand slams and host of other titles and so he will feel like this title belongs to him. 

Another outsider for the title would be Roger Federer and although by his own standards he has not had a great year. He just about managed to qualify for these finals. 

So a win for Roger would set him up for better 2014. Somehow I think it is unlikely  but with sports sometimes you never know. 

Premiership - Weekend review

There were some real surprises in this weekend premiership fixtures. I was not expecting Chelsea to lose Newcastle without scoring. 

That was a surprise but at the same time it is very difficult to get results at St James park. 

I thought that Man City would win but I didn't think they would hammer Norwich Cit seven goals to nil. 

It was a very bad result for Norwich the type of result that could be season changing. 

For Man City it was an amazing result and it has taken them to fifth to the league. 

Man United beat Fulham three goals to one and I thought the score line was going to be lot closer. 

Arsenal beat Liverpool two goals to nil and even though I am an Arsenal fan I was quite surprised by ease in which Arsenal beat Liverpool. 

I thought it was going to be a very difficult  match. But the team were determined to get this result.

 Normally with Arsenal games, the last twenty minutes are the most nerve wracking.

 But for some reason I was not nervous at all. So it was great result and our next premier league game is away to Manchester United so it will be another difficult match. 

Tottenham Spurs and Everton drew nil nil and this result was probably about right. 

Premiership - preview of weekend games

Some interesting games taking place in the premiership this weekend. Man United are away to Fulham. 

This could be a tricky match for Man United would not be surprised Fulham snatched a draw. 

Chelsea are away to Newcastle and yes Newcastle have so far had a poor season. 

But it is always a challenge for away teams to come away with all the points. So this match could either way but I would favour Chelsea to get the win.

Man City are at home to Norwich City and although Man City have not been doing as well, I think they will probably beat Norwich. 

Arsenal are at home to Liverpool and this will be tough match for Arsenal. We are already missing at least three of our first team. 

Liverpool have had a fantastic start to the season and historically November is the month Arsenal struggles to get wins. 

I really hope Arsenal win but it is going to be tough match so really anything could happen. 

What are your predictions? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions?