World Cup qualifiers- round up

This week's World Cup qualifiers had some interesting results. 

England drew with Ukraine but two other home nations suffered surprising defeats.

Northern Ireland lost to Luxembourg and Wales lost to Serbia. The manner in which both teams lost was surprising to say the least. 

Luxembourg is a lowly ranked team so for Northern Ireland to lose to them was a little embarrassing. 

Although Serbia have a  good team, for Wales to lose to Serbia was surprising. Especially has they have Gareth Bale the new Real Madrid striker in their team. 

Neither Wales or Northern Ireland can qualify for 2014 which must be galling for their supporters.

Other notable European countries to qualify for 2014 are Italy and Holland who can now book their tickets to Brazil. 

The USA have made it again to the World Cup which is always a little surprising as they are not known as a footballing  country. 

However I would that their last two World Cup outings their results have been very similar to England.

So those October qualifiers should be interesting some countries can play their B team. 

Some countries, who have little prospect of qualifying will be playing for pride. Some countries like England still have it all to do but it is in their hands.

 

English Premier League - transfer window

The transfer window has officially closed until next year. As an Arsenal fan it was a notable relief to hear that Arsene Wenger had bought a fantastic player like  Mesut Ozil.

However as cautiously optimistic as I feel, I also realise that it will be a tough year and however as good Mesut is as a player.

We are still lacking in the strength and depth that other premier league teams have like Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea or Tottenham who have spent over 100 million pounds in the transfer window.

Arsene Wenger purchase of Mesut Ozil will at least help to make us more competitive this season and ultimately help to bring silverware back to the club.

Other than the big spending Tottenham Hotspurs most premier league teams added one or two players.

Other notable buys include Man United who bought Mourane Fellaini for £27.5 m and outside the premiership Real Madrid bought Gareth Bale for £83.2m! huge a mount of money lets hope Gareth can live up to the expectations of his price tag.