Liverpool V Chelsea Match Preview Featured
The Liverpool V Chelsea game (Sunday 21st at 4pm) at Anfield this weekend should be a cracking game.
Liverpool are in No-Man’s Land at the moment, six points behind arch local rivals Everton and in danger of finishing seventh in the league (and out of the European places) after an indifferent season. They have nothing to lose and will want to beat one of the so-called bigger teams in the Premier League.
Chelsea meanwhile have much more to play for even though they are out of the BetFair Fa Cup. They are in with a good shout of finishing in third or fourth spot in the Premiership and thereby getting a lucrative Champions league spot. However they cannot afford to slip up with Tottenham and Arsenal yapping at their heels.
This is also the major story of the return of Rafa Benitez to Anfield, where he worked miracles as a coach – bringing home the European Cup in 2005 to Liverpool after perhaps one of the greatest finals ever in Istanbul that year.
The Mania of The Grand National Featured
It was a busy weekend for Grand National winner Ryan Mania - or should that be manic? Apologies for the probably over-used joke of the last few days aside, his win and subsequent fall in the next day’s 15:10 St John Lee Handicap Hurdle was a microcosm of the highs and lows of the Grand National racing weekend. Ecstatic outsider victories with thrilling-to-watch finishes but tragic falls killing horses and injuries jockeys, the Grand National definitely captures the full spectrum of emotions.
Parents, supporters and fans of the Manchester United Club claim they’re being stripped of their cash – by plans to change their team’s home kit for the sixth time in six years.
It’s the style of the collar that made the real difference with the new top and said have been designed with the help of Old Trafford legend Eric Cantona. That would cost £50 for a brand new kit. This would mean making a huge amount of £60million a year from 1.4 million shirt sales – of “bleeding them dry”. Considering an estimated 333 million fans worldwide.
The Football Magazine Featured
A new Football Website has launched designed to challenge the current crop of football websites out there which cover the Premier league, Internationals, Other Leagues and foreign football. The site is called the Football Magazine and is replete with content ranging from serious critique of managers, games and players through to a jolly take on the latest goings on in the world of football from the perspective of a collection of interesting characters including a Grimbsy-based Transvestite and a hilarious critic called Saint Bazza.
The Football Magazine challenges other duller offerings in the sphere such as Caught Offside and Football 365 which have become rather dominated by their advertisers. The Football Magazine, in contrast, offers a funny take on football but it is full of seriously in-depth pieces which make even the dumbest of football supporters think. The sheer breadth of the Football Magazine's coverage is astonishing - with comment on non-league games, foreign leagues, foreign cups, football highlights, an Asian football section and even a section entitled Down Memory lane showing articles about old stadia and players from bygone ages.
Supporters of the Millwall made a headlines on the newspaper when a 13-year old boy unfurled a banner attacking a football player Marvin Sordell, age 21, represented Great Britain at the London Olympics 2012, Sordell was racially abused last Saturday October 6. Throwing the London Club on a big controversy at the clubs ground.
England have begun their tour of India against an Indian A side and already have injury concerns. Steven Finn strained his thigh pulling up while fielding, but scans show that he doesn’t have a particularly serious injury. He is set to be “assessed” to “determine a rehabilitation programme” an ECB statement said. Finn could be rested ahead of the first Test match on 15 November Ahmedabad. Fortunately England have alternative fast bowlers for the meantime, such as James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions.
The other notable side story to the opening match is the return of Kevin Pietersen after his summer exile. The mercurial batsman had been banned for sending “provocative texts” to opposition players during South Africa’s summer tour. He has since apologised to the ECB, former captain Andrew Strauss and current captain Alisdair Cook, facilitating his return to the side. On his return he scored 23 runs of 24 showing he still has his trademark power but did not build on a reasonable start as he was caught and bowled by Yuvraj Singh. Tim Bresnan described his return as “business as usual” for the England side.
Armstrong has damaged cycling Featured
Boss of the successful British cycling team has said that a report released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) concerning Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping have damaged cycling. It’s easy to see why – various recent winners of the Tour de France including Armstrong’s former teammate Floyd Landis, have been stripped of their titles because of doping. Now that the sport’s recent legend and a hero to people around the world has been revealed to be just another in a line of the sport’s great cheats, it’s difficult to trust that whoever wins the Tour de France or other cycling tournaments is doing so legitimately.
Trying to make sense of diving Featured
So diving is a cancer in football. The other thing that’s cancerous is stupid sensationalist responses to diving. There are two counts of this: firstly there’s the lacking perspective angle of the likes of Tony Pulis who thinks that a yellow card offence is worthy of a 3 match ban, then there’s the ‘blame the foreigners’ angle of any old school “hoof it oop t’ bloody pitch” punter. Both angles are deeply floored and their silliness dilutes any attempts that football organizations might be making to cure this cancer.
This weekend’s Premier League action saw wins for all of last year’s top 5 as the elite are all finding form after the opening skirmishes. Chelsea continue to lead the way as goals from Torres, Lampard, Hazard and Ivanovic marked a ferocious response after falling behind to Grant Holt’s opener. The movement between the likes of Oscar, Hazard and most of all Mata was mesmeric at times. The interplay leading to Lampard’s goal in particular showed that this year’s Chelsea crop have the players to play the intelligent, possession based football that chairman Abramovich has for so long craved. They remain four points clear at the top and are carrying plenty of momentum having so far remained unbeaten this season.
You know Radiohead’s lead singer Thom Yorke? He’s the lead singer of the one of the world’s biggest bands so you might have. His falsetto Neil Young inspired singing, cryptic lyrics and Michael Stipe influenced stage presence have become iconic amongst Radiohead fans at least and now that he is doing increasing amounts of solo work, it’s probably quite fair to say he’s done quite well for himself. Now, have you heard of Andy Yorke? Have you heard of his band Unbelievable Truth? You might have but if you have then your musical knowledge is more obscure than most. Andy has been hailed as having a purer voice than Thom – those hailing even include members of Radiohead speaking on rockumentary ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’. But following in those world-famous converse shoes of Radiohead’s Thom, Andy’s been the little brother living in the shadows, who despite having a perhaps better singing voice, falls into obscurity while his brother takes the limelight.