November 2007 Archives
PREMIERSHIP
If Arsenal are to maintain their lead at the top of the Premiership this weekend then they will have to deal with a one 'Gabriel Agbonlahor'.
The 21-year-old Brummie has been in sensational form for Martin O' Neill's men hitting the back of the net six times so far this season.
Though he didn't score in Aston Villa's amazing 4-0 away win to Blackburn Rovers mid week the striker has been crucial to his side's cause this season.
The England U-21 International who came through the Academy at Aston Villa scored against title chasers Chelsea earlier in the season and will be aiming to do the same against Arsene Wegner's side on Saturday.
Arsenal lost their first game of the season mid week in the Champion's League against Sevilla and their current form has taken something of a dip.
Wenger rested striker Emmanuel Adebayor and defender William Gallas for that game but they are expected to return for the clash with Villa who are now up to sixth in the table.
Crucially the Gunner's driving source Cesc Fabregas will miss this all important tie for the league leaders.
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
Even when pushed by reporters England Captain Michael Vaughan kept his cards close to his chest in relation to the starting line up for tomorrow morning's first test against Sri Lanka.
Vuaghan said " Everyone's put their hand up and done well at some stage on the tour and in a way everyone warrants a spot in the starting side."
It's widely expected that one of Steve Harmison and James Anderson will miss out on making the starting line up. They look likely to be replaced by Ryan Sidebottom and Matthew Hoggard.
Vaughan says that the side are very focussed and believe they can win in Kandy tomorrow.
He said " We are all feeling in a really positive state of mind.It's nice in a way that we're having to make difficult decisions.
Everyone is fit for selection so that's good. Its important that we do get the eleven right as we need to get off to a good start to the series."
England haven't had a test series win in Sri Lanka for six years.
And despite their recent one day success there, England will start the series as underdogs.
PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL
Nicholas Anelka netted his first goal in the Premiership for Arsenal against Manchester United back in 1997. A decade on the 28-year-old Frenchman was at it again as his early strike against the Red Devils gave Bolton a crucial 1-0 win at the Reebok stadium.
That win lifted Wanderers out of the bottom three and suddenly their future in the Premiership looks a whole lot brighter. They have now lost just one of their last seven games and under new boss Gary Megson seem to have turned the corner.
The suprising result leaves United three points behind leaders Arsenal with Arsene Wegner's side also having a game in hand.
The Gunners were unimpressive in their 2-0 home win over Wigan with William Gallas breaking the deadlock with just seven minutes remaining.
Arsenal are one of just two sides remaining in the Premiership with an unbeaten record - the other being Liverpool.
The league leader's game in hand will be played against Newcastle United on Wednesday, December 5th.
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL
Come back Glen Hoddle, all is forgiven!
That was the call from former
While such a call won't be echoed by all it shows exactly how desperate the England National set-up has become.
The 3-2 home defeat at the hands of
Not only did the result send shockwaves throughout European football but the woeful display by the millionaire players left many fans fuming and asking do these players have any pride in their nation or are they more concerned about their lucrative club careers?
Now the FA have to begin looking for a new national manager to turn their fortunes around with the likes of former Real
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY
Welsh supporters who will make their way to the Millenium Stadium for tomorrow's clash with South Africa could be excused for fearing the worst.
While the Springboks were celebrating World Cup victory for the second time the Dragons were left scratching their heads as to where it all went so wrong - Wales crashing out to Fiji in the group stages.
Former All Black and coach of Ireland Warren Gatland is due to take over at Wales before the start of the Six Nations campaign next year but
tomorrow caretaker coach Nigel Davies will be in charge of a Welsh team hoping to catch South Africa suffering from a celebration hangover.
Interestingly it emerged this week that the Wales Rugby Union (WRU) approached South African coach Jake White to replace Gareth Jenkins when the Welshman was sacked from the top job in the wake of the World Cup exit.
White explained why he was put off taking the job saying " I saw a stat which said that Wales had 16 coaches in 21 years and that is not something that you want to be putting your hand up for."
Player of the year Bryan Habana (pictured left scoring a try against Wales) is expected to play in tommorrow's clash.
Milton Keynes based Ian Poulter pulled out all the stops yesterday to capture the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament trophy in Japan.
It's the first win of the season for the 31 year old English man who shot a 69 on the final day to see off the challenges of Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez Castano as well as fellow countryman Luke Donald and local hope Shingo Katayama.
Poulter's win was the ninth of his career, but his first outside Europe.
"I've felt comfortable all week this week. It would be nice to know exactly why because if you could do that every week, you could get into that winning position every week" said Poulter.
FINAL LEADERBOARD:
-11 I Poulter (Eng)
-8 G Fernandez Castano (Sp)
-7 L Donald (Eng), S Katayama (Jp)
-5 P Harrington (Ire)
PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL
The clash of the weekend will be at St. James' Park as Newcastle United aim to pick up their first Premiership win in four games when they welcome fifth placed Liverpool.
Liverpool who are six points behind table toppers Arsenal can not afford to drop points as they aim to challenge for the one trophy which has escaped them for almost two decades now.
If the Toon Army are to be celebrating on Saturday evening then they will have to sort out their defence. In their last home game Newcastle went down by 4 goals to 1 to Portsmouth.
Fernando Torres is expected to be back in the Liverpool starting line up having overcome a recurring muscle injury.
The Spaniah hitman showed how important he is to the Red's cause this season when he came off the bench to score a vital goal against Fulham in Liverpool's last Premeirship game.
PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL
Today it emerged that Steve Bruce has parted company with Birmingham City and the 46 year old is set to become the manager of Wigan Athletic for the second time in his career.
The last time the former Manchester United centre half called the shots at the JJB stadium the side were in League one.
His spell at Wigan in 2001 lasted for just 7 weeks. He dumped the Latics for Crystal Palace despite enjoying a fantasic bri
ef spell at the club which almost yielded promotion.
Many supporters in Wigan still feel Bruce betrayed them and the new boss will have to work hard to win over the affections of many of the supporters.
The priority for the time being though is picking up points but Bruce's first game as boss could well be the most difficult of his reign in charge.
Playing Arsenal at the Emirates is a difficult task at the best of times but on Saturday Wigan will simply be hoping Bruce can give them a crash course in damage limitation.
The former England star has been Birmingham City manager for nearly six years but there were fears in the midlands that the takeover of the club by Hong Kong business man Carson Yeung would lead to Bruce's sacking.
Ironically Bruce guided Birmingham to a 3-2 win over Wigan at the end of October contributing to the latic's woeful run.
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL - EURO 2008 QUALIFIERS
It's back on the streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Gretna - that buzz, that electric feeling that comes when one of the small nations in international football stands on the brink of greatness.
Scotland were thought to have no chance of qualification for next year's European Championships when they were drawn in a group containing Italy, France and the Ukraine.
But now they know that victory in their last game against Italy will send them through to Austria and Switzerland and ignite one hell of a party throughout the country.
Make no mistake about it, Scotland are within touching distance of making only the third Euro Championships in their history because they deserve it.
They defeated France 1-0 bought home and away and bar a disappointing defeat in Georgia last month have been in sensational form.
Scottish manager Alex McLeish who succeeded Walter Smith midway through the campaign believes his charges can do the impossible and defeat the world champions.
He said " Italy are beatable, theres no doubt we can do this."
However its worth noting that if Scotland draw with Italy then they can still make it to the Euros if the Ukraine beat France on November 21st in Kiev.
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL - EURO 2008 QUALIFIERS
England's chances of qualifying for next years European Championships hang by a thread.
If Russia take all points from Tel Aviv tomorrow against Israel then it's 99.9 % certain that they and not England will be travelling to Austria and Switzerland next year.
But despite the fact that Israel are expected to field a number of previously uncapped players for the clash, England manager Steve McClaren says he's still confident that his side will make it to the Championships.
He said today " I fully expect us to have qualified for the campaign. There is still a long way to go and a lot of events to unfold."
His optimism isn't shared by England football fans though who have been critical of their under achieving side.
England dropped points drawing 0-0 with Macedonia at home early in the campaign. This was followed by a 2-0 defeat away to Croatia in Zagreb.
When they faced Israel in Tel Aviv in March all England could manage was another 0-0 draw
Steve McClaren's side picked themselves up after that result winning all of their following games until they reached Moscow last month.
Having led 1-0 for most of that game England finally went down by 2-1 to Russia leaving them in this difficult situation.
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL
By 8pm on Saturday evening Steve McClaren and his England squad will know if they are still in with a chance to qualify for next year's European Championships or not.
Should Russia take all three points off Israel in Tel Aviv then it's almost certainly curtains for England even though they and Russia will have one game each remaining.
Should the worst happen then it's inevitable that critics of Sven's 'right hand man' will be calling for his resignation.
While few would jump to doggedly and enthusiastically defend McClaren he's certainly not a hated figure in the same way predecessors such as Graham Taylor were for example.
So should he go if England don't make it to Austria and Switzerland? We want to hear your views. Please contact our sports blog by posting a comment.
HORSE RACING
There was a fitting end to the flat season in Doncaster at the weekend when Irishman Jamie Spencer and Englishman Seb Sanders finished level in the jockeys championship.
Going into the last race Sanders led by 190 wins to Spencer's 189. Riding Inchnadamph 27 year old Spencer from Tipperary rolled up his sleeves and delivered the win to tie the contest for only the third time in the history of the sport.
In a bid to win the coveted crown both jockeys travelled up and down the country in the search of winners and by the end had endured more than 2,000 rides.
PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL
Love him or hate him, there's no doubting that Cristiano Ronaldo has a rare and exceptional talent.
On Sunday he showed just why he was named player of last season when he blitzed Blackburn Rovers in a two minute spell to propel his side to the top of the table.
A header from a corner and a fine finish at pace sealed Rover's fate and inspired Sir Alex Ferguson to label his current crop of players as the strongest squad he's ever had in his 21 years in charge of the red devils.
The 2-0 win was United's 6th home victory of the season. They've only dropped points at Old Trafford to Reading when the Royals held the Champions to a 0-0 draw on the first day of the Premiership season.
They now sit three points about rivals Arsenal though Arsene Wegner's side do have two games in hand.
The first of those comes tonight away to Reading. In the corresponding fixture last season the Gunners won 4-0.
Underfire Reading manager Steve Coppell will be hoping his side can stop such an exhibition developing this time and pick up some much needed points themselves.
All of the chasing pack slipped up at the weekend with the exception of Liverpool.
Manchester City and Portsmouth played out a scoreless draw at Fratton Park while a late Tim Cahill overhead kick denied Chelsea all the points at Stamford Bridge.
The Commonwealth Games 
will return to Scotland in 2014 after it was announced today that Glasgow fought off the challenge of Nigerian capital Abuja to host the games.
The last time a Scottish city was the venue for the event was in 1986 when Edinburgh welcomed the Commonwealth north of the border.
There were wild celebrations in Colombo, Sri Lanka when Glasgow was revealed as the winners of the bid.
The games will bring millions of pounds to the city in revenue and it now means Britain will host two major games (London having been named as host of the Olympics in 2012) in two years.
The former Iris
h and Wasps coach Warren Gatland has been appointed as the new coach of Wales.
After their shock exit from this year's Rugby World Cup at the hands of Fiji Gareth Jenkins was sacked and the news that the New Zealander Gatland is to succeed him will give a much needed boost to Wales.
Gatland's appointment was confirmed by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) at a news conference at noon today.
It's understood that Gatland met WRU officials last month in New Zealand at the start of the Union's worldwide search for a new coach and he arrived in Cardiff last weekend.
PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL
In recent weeks Alex Ferguson's Manchester United have been in sensational form.
Only an injury time William Gallas stri
ke denied the red devils three points last weekend at Arsenal.
It would have been United's 9th win on the trot in the Premiership.
However on Sunday they will come up against the team managed by one of their former heroes Mark Hughes.
Blackburn Rovers sit 6th in the Premiership table just five points behing the reigning Champions with a game in hand.
They themselves have gone six games unbeaten in the Premier league and last weekend held Liverpool to a scoreless draw at Ewood Park.
So can Sparky inspire his players to register a shock win at Old Trafford?
Click below for more including full list of this weekend's Premiership fixtures.
On a weekenman city crest.pngd when Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers all drew Manchester City manager Sven Goran Eriksson will see tonight's home clash with the struggling Sunderland as the perfect opportunity to pick up full points.
A win would push City up to third in the league just two points behind leaders Arsenal. But can they do it? Or can Roy Keane's Black Cats become the first team this season to take points off City at the City of Manchester Stadium? We weigh up their chances...............
Premiership Football
To use the old cliche this was simply a game 'of two halves'.
A injury time strike by William Gallas maintained Arsenal's unbeaten record in a titanic tussle with Manchester United.
Cautious and afraid of making any big errors both sides were careful in the opening 45 minutes before Wayne Rooney (with the help of a William Gallas deflection) put the Champions ahead in North London to silence an already quiet Emirates Staidum.
