Quote of The Day

"Were it not for another inspired performance by keeper Brian Jensen, Chelsea could have become the first team in Premier League history to score ten goals in one match." --- Kevin Palmer , ESPN
soccer Correspondent

Vintage Rivalry Review - Manchester United vs Arsenal, 29th August 2009

1990 – The Beginning
In reaction to a late challenge, McClair kicked Winterburn repeatedly, as he lay prone on the ground, igniting a 21 man fracas. FA docked Manchester United a point and recouped two points from Arsenal (who went on to win the 1990-91 league title). The Arsenal-Manchester United Rivalry was officially inaugurated!.

1996-2001 – The War of Words
The war of words started between Arsene and Fergie. Some of the exchanged verbal attacks included:

“I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast, he speaks five languages.” – Fergie, on arrival of Arsene in England in 1996.

“It’s wrong the league programme is extended so United can rest up and win everything.” – Arsene complaining about Manchester United’s fixture list in 1997.

“They wouldn’t have waited for three months if it was a United player…….our disciplinary record is tremendous. I’m very proud of it.” – Fergie on the delay of disciplinary hearings on Patrick Viera and Thierry Henry.

“One thing I will say is that he doesn’t disturb my nights at all. We didn’t do anything, but if we are clever, that’s a compliment.” – Arsene responded.

2001-2005 - The Tiffs, The Kicks and The Pizzas
10 years later after the first official kick, came the most fiercest period of rivalry between the two clubs. In the course of 2001-2005, EPL witnessed Kanu leaping over Wiltord to claim the title for Arsenal in 2001-02 at Old Trafford; Van NistelRooy missing the penalty and antics of Lauren and Keown; much-yearned battleground tiffs and the famous tunnel incident between Vieira and Keane before the kick-off; Neville’s frolics to kick every Arsenal player in the midfield, Rooney’s dive to break the gunners’ 49 unbeaten in league record and pizza chucked at Fergie after United 2004 victory at O.T.(In his autobiography, Ashley Cole made us yawn by giving the hint that the arsenal player behind the pizzagate incident was neither english nor french. Loser! i just can’t avoid him) and the list goes on.

Champions League Semi-Final 2009
After defeating Arsenal on aggregate 4-1, Evra declared “We were 11 men and they were 11 children.”. And these words are still alive in the heart of every gooner

Today - 29th August, 2009

Arsenal and Manchester United are back again today to lock their horns at Old Trafford. And, God and I yearn once again for a footclassical clash of the titans and the march of two clubs to the warpath of old rivalry.

Both the clubs have been weekend in the summer. As a tradition for both the clubs – Heroes came, Heroes Left.

But clubs will continue!

Today’s tie is just not just Arsenal against Manchester United for 3 points. Its beyond that.

Today’s tie could give a massive boost to Arsenal squad to firmly set on 2009-10 title challenge.

Today’s result may bring back the old days of Arsenal’s premier league authority.

Today’s tie may rekindle the old but subdued rivalry.

Today’s tie can prove it once again that Arsenal Manchester United Rivalry is indeed a Vintage Affair to cherish about.

Come on Gunnersssssssssss, Show them what you’ve got!
Roll on 9:45 pm !

Here is a preview video compiled by Comp-Art using latest clips.

Ciao.

God is a Gooner. Cheers!

Follow God is a Gooner on Twitter

Carling Cup Third Round Draw: Arsenal Got Baggies

Arsenal (Kids) have drawn West Bromwich Albion in third round of Carling Cup draw. Arsenal were the first team to be drawn out of the hat and will play at home to advance to fourth round of the carling cup. The tie will be played in the week commencing September 21. For the record, Arsenal will start their 12th consecutive Champions league quest in Belgium against Standard Liege on September 16.

The full list of carling cup third round fixtures is given below:

Arsenal News: Fabregas to miss Manchester United Clash and Arsene is set to defend Dudu

I”ll start with the bad news first. Cesc Fabregas’ hamstring injury will keep him out of Saturday’s clash with Manchester United.

In an interview with Arsenal Online, Arsene confirmed Cesc’s absence and said,

“Fabregas is out and his test was not conclusive this morning.“Therefore he will not travel.

Ideally you want him to travel and to play but he would not be 100 per cent.

Everybody else who played on Wednesday is ok.”

Issues:
Will Arsene continue with 4-3-3 at Old Trafford?
I guess, he will. We should go roaring into this fanastic tie.

Now, the expected news. Arsene has called UEFA’s decision to charge Dudu illogical and is ready to defend the striker. Dudu has been accused to dive in Arsenal’s 3-1 Champions League Play-off round victory over Celtic when Bhoys’ keeper Boruc appeared to bring down the striker. The referee awarded the penalty to Arsenal and the croatian converted it in 28′ minute

Speaking in Friday’s pre-match conference, Arsene was vocal and vowed to fight against the decision. He said,

“He’s been charged, not charged guilty. We’ll defend our player.
It is completely [a] lack of logic in this case. Why? Because people have reacted emotionally, which I can understand.

Secondly, because this case has been rule by the media.”

Now, to me, I don't care much if Eduardo dived or not. Probably, boys have learnt the hard or dirty way of playing football. Hell, yeah! But, surely I won’t like any gunner doing that again on the pitch (unless you tell me its Champions league final and arsenal trailing 1-0 in 90′ min)

Singling out a single player and charging him for diving doesn’t make sense. It has to be a football-associations-wide movement. There have been obvious cases of diving (Did i say ronaldo? When did i say Drogba?) and English FA didn’t raise its eye-brows. They might have seen that too as a busineess opportunity in some way. But i guess Scottish FA is furious over Celtic’s elimination and Platini of course needs a reason against Premier League.

Expecting a debate.

Anyways, God is a Gooner. Come on you Red and Whites! Cheers!

Quote Of The Day

We'll take what we discovered, as best we can, into the weekend's fixture at home to Burnley. Every season, there's a club of whom little is expected who steam away at the start of the season and hoist themselves to the top of the table, in a glorious, but inevitably short, burst of flames. Last year it was Hull. This year it looks like it's going to be Tottenham. Tottenham are this year's Hull.

Giles Smith

Bet Of the Day: First Premier Manager to Leave in 2009/10 – Rafa 7/1

Quote Of The Day

"Didier Drogba's downward header goes over the bar"

- BBC Live Text

Pic Of The Day

Quote of the Day

"The more you watch it, the better that save was."--- Alex Ferguson fooling no one on Owen's miss against Birmingham.

GameWeek 1: Carlo Wins First Test With Drogba scoring a Drogger

Chelsea 2-1 Hull city.

The EPL kicked off with Carlo Ancelotti making his EPL debut.The blues started off well and maintained lions share of possession in a new diamond formation, but it was Hull who got the lead via Hunt scoring the first goal of the season. The unexpected goal gave one of the favourites a kick in the back with Drogba delivering his 'Drogger'.( You dont miss ronaldo ! Ain't it ) .

The second half substitution of Ballack for Mikel and Essien moving into the holding role gave Chelsea the much needed bite and Chelsea moved the ball a lot quicker creating loads of chances, thanks to the marauding runs from Bosingwa on the right flank.Nonetheless Hull city put on a brave fight like their usual selves . Anelka had an off day sulking on last defender's shoulder for the day, But his strike partner who got the three points for the blues with his delightful cross-shot( guy was honest to accept that).

Contrary to what most have expected, the blues played well and moved the ball with intent and pace despite Hull's Bus-park in front of their goal. Its true that fullbacks gave the required width especially on the right side of the field due to the absence of a genuine right sided player. Malouda got into wide left positions posing a goal threat. It will be interesting to see what Ancelotti does when teams neutralize the wing backs' attacking threat and whether Joe cole will be played behind the strikers or on the right side of the diamond when he is available.

Why Chelsea are the favorites and why they aren't

Chelsea seem to be almost everyone’s favourite to win the league title,but people seem to have looked over an important fact.

I can understand why Chelsea are the favourites.Firstly,Chelsea haven't sold anyone yet,which means they have a settled squad. Manutd have lost the world's best player in Ronaldo and that does make them considerably weaker. Tevez too was instrumental in the past two campaigns,scoring some important match winning goals.Liverpool too have lost their most consistent player from last season in Alonso, a player who seemed to be at his peak.Arsenal have lost big players in Adebayor and Toure.Looking at the additions to the squads,Chelsea have bought Zirkhov and Strurridge.The former is acclaimed to be one of the best left sided player around in the world right now and the latter is still untried at Premiership level, albiet having a few substitute appearances while he was at Man City. Manutd haven’t really set the world alight with surprisingly low key transfers.Pool meanwhile,or I should say Rafael Benitez meanwhile keeps surprising people with uninspiring transfers.Glen Johnson for 17m pounds?!!How much better is he than Arbeloa? Aquilani one the other hand might be a shrewd addition,only time will tell.

Chelsea also have an edge in the midfield scoring department.This in my opinion has made them the favourites for the league title. Every deck chair pundit knows that for a team to win the league you need midfielders who can score as well or the forwards should have one hell of a season.Manutd have had Giggs, Scholes, Beckham and even Keane scoring goals for them

on a regular basis when they were in prime.Ronaldo did so for the past 3 seasons.Arsenal had Pires,Ljunberg and Vieira ,Chelsea had Lampard, Robben and Duff

In the defense and striking department the top four are pretty much even.But what people seem to have missed out is the fact that,a diamond formation never works in the Premier League.Mourinho was unsuccessful with a squad arguably even better than the current Chelsea squad. The most experienced and successful managers in the premier league Sir Alex,Wenger and Harry Redknapp have never deployed a team with a diamond formation,simply because you need width to break down teams who just park the bus in front of goal and defend for the whole 90 mins. You need wingers who can stretch defences and pull defenders out of position.If Ancelotti sticks to his slow passing game, which almost bored the opposition into sleep, that he used at Milan then Chelsea can forget about winning the league.

And even for the diamond to be successful,they need a world class holding midfielder like Pirlo.Mikel is nowhere close,and Ancelotti knows it. No wonder he tried to sign Pirlo,a player who is on the wrong side of 30.So that is yet another problem for Chelsea. Oh,and then there is the small matter of the African Nations Cup.I guess the likes of Drogba,Essien and Kalou are going to miss a few games.In any case,this season promises to be as exciting as ever and I think the fight for the title will go down to the wire.

P.S.-History says favorites rarely go on to win the title

Forbes has released their analysis on the football clubs’ valuations, revenue and their debts.

League Predictions

‘Never ever make predictions’ is one famous man’s saying but it is that time of the year when you hardly adhere to such maxims. Predictions about this season’s English Premier League have come out left, right and center. The ‘Pundits’ who, I believe, belong to the most over-rated profession in the world have come out with their predictions; some smacking against logic, some giving us a good laugh and some actually worthy to have blogs on them.

The famous choice this season seems to be Liverpool with many pundits claiming them to be stronger than last season. Really? Do they think Glen Johnson is the final link as they go searching for their league title? By the looks of it, they don’t seem any stronger and minus Alonso they might as well have to sign up Indy Jones to trace their missing title. Alonso played a huge part in Liverpool’s quest for trophies last season. He was excellent in the center of the park and provided the creativity to free up Gerrard and Torres. Torres himself admitted a couple of weeks back that the sale of Alonso would seriously dent their title chances.

I believe Chelsea are a bigger threat to United this season. United, yes, will still be fighting for the honours sans their most prolific goal scorer for the last three seasons because they have a manager who is the best in building a side and if pre-season games are anything to go by, Owen and Valencia are already exciting the crowd.

Chelsea have failed to get a ‘marquee signing’ but have enough experience and quality in the squad to win the league. Most importantly, Chelsea and United have the players who have done it before and know what it takes to win the league. That could go against Liverpool.

People have written off Arsenal as easily as fans have written off Paris Hilton the actor. But unlike the latter, the former has quality upfront, pardon the pun, to showcase.A front line of Van-Persie, Nasri, Eduardo,Walcott,Arshavin,Rosicky and ably supported by Fabregas is worthy of a punt. If Arsene Wenger manages to get in a couple of signings as defensive cover, Arsenal should be streets ahead of City in the league table.

David Moyes has been hailed as one of the best managers in the league for quite some time now and that doesn’t defy logic. He has time and again proved that when it comes to extracting the best out of the players, he is a top dog. Everton finished fifth last season with having to do with limited resources. They’ll definitely be the ones to watch out for, if there is a chance of shaking up things at the top four of the table.

On paper, Man City’s squad looks good enough to be challenging for the top honours but with greedy mercenaries in the team, would they have the spirit and the stomach for a fight?

Tottenham haven’t added any one noticeable as they do every season. For a Spurs fan though, that might be a good omen as they deviate from their usual summer transfer antics, may be a sign that they would deviate from their abysmal starts.

The lower end of the table is always fought as closely and more as the higher end of the table. Of the teams that have managed to survive the drop last season, Hull City and Portsmouth look the most likely to go down. Of course that would hugely depend on what the new boys, Burnley, Wolves and Birmingham have to offer or rather not offer.

There are 250 people who admire Nicklas Bendtner!

What a romantic, our Dany Boy is!

Yes! Nicklas Bendtner is actually following club's 'Be a Gooner. Be a Giver.' cancer campaign. The young Dane has changed his jersey numer 26 to 52. And, he is reimbursing the gooners for the cost of the jersey , who showed faith in him by buying his replica shirt adorned with number 26 on the back. I am pretty much confident that those are not dying gooners whose last wish was to buy his jersey.

Bendtner is reportedly facing a £10,000 bill from Arsenal for his generosity. The average price of home replica shirt is £40. So, there are around 250 people (10,000/40) who actually bought original bendtner's jersey. I mean 250 people !!

For those who admire him...Where are you guys? ..errr..Hello? anyone? Come on.. you bought his jersey!

For those who hate him, i had told you! Stop moaning about him. You just lost a jersey.

Anyways, does doubling up the number (26X2=52) mean he is hoping to score 30 goals this season (15, overall last season)? Good, if he thinks like that. Awesome, if he will come any near to that figure.

But i like one thing about him. He keeps his head down and works for the team. He may not be a glamorous striker, but he wasn't bad last seaon. And he can perform much better. Lets all (gooners) hope and dream!

"Bendtnerrrrrrrrrr and he is the top goal scorer of BPL 20010-11!"

Amen!

P.S. Anyone knows of any example of footballer with such a high jersey number. No one comes to my mind.







.

Funny Quote of the Day

"Any of those guys that say they would rather have Arsenal's sexy football and not be winning titles must be lying especially if you compare it to making love with a beautiful woman. Arsenal are, as many have said a bit like Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry or other such stunners. The problem with it is that everything is going great the sex is brilliant but just when it coming to the really good part, the climax, what you are been working up to, Angelina stops, gets up and says "sorry mate have to go" and just walks out while leaving you to finish off alone whilst dreaming of what could have been. However you dress it up, however much you tell your mates it was brilliant and what a stud you are, you'll always have that nagging at the back of your mind saying "yeah but you didn't quite go all the way did you".

- Nick M, Madrid

23 Reasons why no one can wait for the Premier League to start.

1.ManCity will be the new circus following Newcastle's relegation.
2.Liverpool supporter's claim yet again that this is their year.
3.Carragher will add to his tally of own goals and become the leading own-goal scorer.
4.Fellaini will scores more goals with his bush.
5.Berbatov will get lazier(if that is possible).
6.Van der Sar will go 10,986.5 mins without conceding a goal.
7.Chelsea will concede a 100 goals as opposition strikers wont be facing a huge fluorescent orange gay goal keeper charging at them.
8.Tevez will cry more.
9.Aquilani's wife is a great new addition.(not sure about Aquilani though)
10.Ballack will continue to lose cup finals.
11.Arsenal will continue to be in the transition period.
12.Adebayor will miss more number of open goals.
13.Eboue wont have anyone to dance with IF he scores a goal.(Adebayor and Toure aren't around)
14.Rafa Benitez will dig up more facts to show that Liverpool play better football than Hull City.
15.Crouch will move to Man City in January.
16.Tevez will cry more.
17.ManCity will make a bid of 500m pounds for Torres.
18.Tevez will stop crying.(realises no ones bothered)
19.Rooney will lose his other ear too in a car crash.
20.Saha,Hargreaves and Rosicky remain close friends with the treatment table.Mickey Owen will join them soon.
21.Rafa Benitez talks up more facts claiming he is the best manager ever at Liverpool.
22.Sheva,Voronin and Pizarro are back to excite the fans.
23.Gareth Bale will finally win a premier league match.

Starting the blog fantasy league

I have created a league for the people participating in or following our blog in the fantasy premier league. Here's the code for joining the same...115927-172317.

For the uninitiated, fantasy premier league is a fantasy team management game where you pick 2 goal keepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 strikers out of your kitty of 100 fantasy money. Each player has a predefined value hence one has to have a good balance of promising less expensive players and expensive star players with guaranteed point return. The total points earned by the playing eleven after every gameweek is what you earn as points. Needless to say, the manager with the highest points at the end of the season wins.

Here is link to register your teams. After registering simply click leagues at the right hand side of your home page and enter the code given above in the private leagues section. You will be all set. Any further queries, the comment section is there for you.

Let the fun begin!

Cheers

Rahul

Funny made up quote of the day

At Manchester United, Nani is the man tasked with filling Ronaldo's shoes, but with limited success. "The boy works his socks off, and he's trying everything he can, make no mistake," says Sir Alex Ferguson. "He's always the first onto the training ground, diving and rolling around, and the last one off, cheating, faking injury and trying to get people in trouble. But he's still got a long way to go: there's a few little bits of likeability and selflessness to iron out yet."

Community Shield Review

Chelsea clinch this season’s community shield in a nervy and controversial contest at the New Wembley and also get their first victory against United in a penalty shoot out. Though the Shield has always been viewed as a glorified friendly, it gives a good indication as to how the teams would shape up for the following season.

Manchester United started the proceedings well and dominated Chelsea for the better of the first half. Losing Ronaldo did not take the sharpness in their attacking play as they could get behind Chelsea’s defence repeatedly and would have wrapped up the match bar the profligacy of the United players and the superb saves from Cech. Nani looked like a man possessed and was out there to stake his claim as the ‘New Ronaldo’. He put United into lead with a blistering drive after beating his man Ivanovic who had a torrid time dealing the Nani-Evra axis before being substituted at half time. United dominated the mid-field rendering Lampard to be a peripheral figure for Chelsea. Rooney- Berba partnership looked promising and linked well with Nani and Park.

Chelsea got into the game in the second half with retaining possession and controlling the mid-field. Ancelotti replaced Ivanovic with Bosingwa and that mitigated the threat caused down the left flank by Nani and Evra. Lampard got more involved as the clock ticked by and Anelka found himself in good positions down the left flank. Chelsea got their first goal courtesy to a number of reasons, Drogba’s presence in the box, Foster’s inability to punch out the ball clear and Nani’s lax defending in not following Carvalho’s run into the box. Chelsea got a hold of the match after their first goal and controlled the proceedings until a controversial incident which marred an otherwise fair game. Moments before Lampard celebrated the second goal, Ballack had gown down from an innocuous shoulder barge from Evra and Chris Foy stopped play when Evra found himself in a dangerous position. Chris Foy, comically though, decided to let the play continue when Ballack intentionally elbowed Evra in his face moments later which in turn led to Chelsea attackers finding themselves 3 against 2 at the edge of United’s box. The decision looks even more controversial when the replays show that the incident happened right in front of Chris Foy. So much for the referees’ consistency and so much for the ‘Respect Campaign’.

That sparked some of the United players who were mediocre at best until then in the second half. Rooney came up with a fine finish in injury time after being put clear by a superb through ball from Giggs. That equalizer took the match to the penalty shoot outs and sub par kicks from Giggs and Evra had ensured that Chelsea lifted the Community Shield for the 09/10 season.

Community Shield goals and penalties

Funny Quoite of the Day

"Anyone who plays Champ Manager could figure this out, Ivanovic off, he's not fast enough to deal with Nani and Evra. Bosingwa on. Essien back into a central role."

Championship Manager player who thinks he is better manager than Ancelotti

Community Shield Preview

So the curtain raiser for the season begins today with arguably England’s best representation in Europe at action today. Both the sides Manchester United and Chelsea are beginning a new chapter in their respective club histories, for United it is without their most prolific talisman Ronaldo and for Chelsea it is the dawn of a new era under Ancelotti if he manages to survive long unlike his predecessors.

Today’s match would be a good indication as to how both these would shape up for the coming season and would be quite intriguing to see the tactics employed by either.

Any club for David Bentley? He is (un)done at Roflham Lolspurz!

Words of a £15 M signing at Spurs in 2008, the footballer who couldn't wait to rise through Arsenal youth ranks before he moved to Ewood Park, Blackburn in 2006, rung around London.

"We can do anything we want, anything we put our minds to."

Quite exactly, Spurs want to sign everyone at the moment!

Once hailed as "The New Beckham", the former Arsenal trainee is a miserable figure to be seen at the White Hart Lane these days (if at all, he is at the bench). Leave aside the chance to showoff his boots embossed with DB7 slogan, he is even struggling to get a chance to kick a ball. He has been stripped off his number 7 to give it to Lennon and the icing on the cake, few days back, he was punched on the face by some unknown lad (must be a gooner) while he was dining at a north London restaurant.

You are out, Bentley! Where will you go? Stoke? Join Larsson at Birmingham, Bentley? or would like to play under another like-minded bulldog with a headset at Hull?

I even doubt that. And forget it, that City will come for you. You are not even going to earn bucks.

Being at the most confused club of the EPL at the moment, what more can you expect!
Presenting to you, The Roflham Lolspurz!:

• Sold Defoe to Pompey in for £9 M only to bring him back after an year for £15 M


• Bought Giovani Dos Santo from Barcelona for around £5 M and ultimately loaned him out to Ipswich Town to avoid the further payments to Barcelona. According to the transfer clause, Spurs may have to pay Barcelona as much as £8.6 M for Giovani, depending upon his appearances for the club. When they didn't know what to do with him, they loaned him out.


• Pascal Chimbonda resigned for Spurs in Jan09 having lasted only 6 months at Sunderland


• In Jan09, Robbie Keane was back to White Hart Lane after 7 disappointing months at anfield

And now, they want to sign Patrick Vieira, the cult figure among Gunners - their fierce and arguably the most intense rivalry in the Premier League at the moment.

What can i say Levy? Its not real estate business. Why don't you just make some use of your Land Economy degree to find a better place for your fans to sit and watch your players?

Salgaocar to Carrington

Manchester United host a tournament every year, the Manchester United Premier Cup (MUPC) for U-15 teams across the world. This year the MUPC finals are to be played at Carrington, United’s training ground. The tournament is held over a period of five days from Aug 4^th to 9^th August.

Indian U-15 team Salgaocar, Goan club, got selected this year from the Asia – Oceania region.

East Bengal and Mohan Bagan were the teams which got selected earlier for the MUPC finals but the format of the tournament ensured that those teams never had the chance to face teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, AS Roma etc.

We’ll keep updating the status of the team representing India in this tournament

Funny Interview

Interviewer : Your goal today, on your wrong foot I guess. Well, it's a great finish !

James Beattie : I haven't got a wrong foot...... What are you laughing at?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfGppd3tSM

Ronaldo in a friendly jibe

Continuing the quote section for the day, this is what Ronaldo quipped when Noel Gallagher questioned if he could afford the Oasis doing a private gig for him. He also took a dig at Manchester City.

"If Noel or Liam want to let me know what they charge for a private gig, they can give me a call or let you guys know and you can pass the message on."

"I mean it can’t be that expensive can it? They’re no Ricky Martin."

"The lads here don’t mind spending their money. If I explained to the boys how good Oasis are, I think we could get a whip round going and come up with the fee pretty easily."

“I think Kaka would love them. He has very good taste.

"You can let them know that I won’t be coming to their beloved City as well.I love it here in Madrid and there will only ever be one club in Manchester for me.”

Quote of the day

“Seriously getting pissed off now. Why can’t anything be simple. It’s so frustrating hanging round doing jack shit. Do I want to go to Hull City, no. Do I want to go to Stoke, no. Do I want to go to Sunderland, yes. So stop fucking around, Levy.”
Darren Bent
His rant on Twitter cost him £80k. Funny though

Funny Quote of the Day

"Apparently Michael Owen had a choice between joining the mancs or Hull City, which shouldn’t have been any choice at all. One club tries to play good football with honesty and integrity in the finest traditions of the game, the other one plays at Old Trafford!"-- Srujan Gottemokala on Manchester United's new Freebie Micheal Owen.

Funny quote of the Day

Anonymous on Pirlo's possible transfer to Chelsea

"Still not sure if I want this deal to happen or not, but losing Pizarro is a plus I think - throw in Sheva too! "