Real Madrid host Barcelona in a potential title decider on Saturday, the first of four eagerly anticipated clashes between the two teams.Reigning champions Barca top the La Liga table by eight points from second-placed Real.
Pep Guardiola’s side dismantled Real 5-0 during their first meeting at the Camp Nou in November.
A victory in the corresponding fixture at the Bernabeu could see them stretch their advantage to a near-unassailable 11 points.
And with only six matches of the season remaining after this round, it would make Barca overwhelming favourites to collect their third consecutive championship crown.
But the title race is one only part of a fascinating series of matches between the two arch-rivals.
On Wednesday they contest the Copa del Rey final at Valencia’s Estadio Mestalla, before meeting over two legs of the Champions League semi-final in the last week of April and first week of May.
Elsewhere in La Liga, bottom club Almeria have a daunting assignment at home to third-placed Valencia, who thrashed immediate rivals Villarreal 5-0 last weekend.
Almeria went down 3-1 away to Barca after taking a surprise lead early in the second half at the Camp Nou.
They are four points adrift of second bottom Malaga and seven points away from safety.
Malaga have an opportunity to climb above third-from-last Hercules and draw level with 17th-placed Real Zaragoza when they are in action at home to mid-table Mallorca.
Also on Saturday, Sevilla travel to Getafe with their hopes of securing a Champions League qualification berth fading.
Gregorio Manzano’s side are fifth, eight points behind fourth-placed Villarreal, who do not play until Monday, when they host Zaragoza.
In Sunday’s matches, Hercules will hope to continue their survival bid when they travel to Levante.
Deportivo La Coruna are at home to Racing Santander, Sporting Gijon travel to face Real Sociedad and Osasuna await the visit of Athletic Bilbao.
Atletico Madrid, seventh in the table but level on points with sixth-placed Bilbao, are away at Espanyol.
Bolton host Sunderland at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday in a game of little significance to either end of the English Premier League table.Wanderers are nine points and goal difference behind fifth-placed Liverpool and sixth-placed Tottenham, meaning Owen Coyle’s side will not be featuring in Europe next season.
Birmingham City and Stoke City have qualified for the Europa League courtesy of their respective Carling Cup and FA Cup heroics.
All that is left for Bolton this season is pride and they could edge higher up the table if they defeat the Black Cats and seventh-placed Everton lose to Manchester City on Sunday.
Sunderland are just six points above the relegation zone and have lost nine of their past 11, with their only win since their 2-1 triumph over Blackpool in January a com-from-behind 4-2 win over Wigan.
Steve Bruce’s side seem safe from the relegation mire, but an away win would certainly lift confidence levels and mathematically sew up their top-flight status for next season.
Sunderland’s problem has been their impotency in front of goal, having been kept scoreless in six of their past eight games, losing five of them.
Their profligacy in the front third has not been helped by season-ending injuries to strikers Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck – the latter of which scored the only goal in Sunderland’s victory in the reverse fixture in December.
Darren Bent – now with Aston Villa after an 18 million-pound move in January – provided the assist for Welbeck against Bolton at the Stadium of Light, just one sign of how the fortunes have changed for Bruce’s side in the space of a season.
Bolton have problems of their own, with Gretar Steinsson, Sam Ricketts, Stuart Holden, Mark Davies and Daniel Sturridge all missing in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Blackburn.
Only Sturridge is rated a chance to return and – with seven goals in nine appearances since the striker’s loan move from Chelsea in January – he looms as one Bruce will have to watch carefully on Saturday.
Commentators and pundits are always keen to tell us that the International game has lost its edge over domestic and European football. But, without a doubt if I could only watch one game a year it would be the World Cup final every time. International football is the arena where players test themselves to the highest degree. The pressures that come with representing your nation far outweigh the pressures of domestic and European football. Thos simple fact got me thinking: all the medals in the world seem to pail into insignificance if you haven’t been called up to your senior International squad. Here are five players that have never been called up by their nation, and I am sure you will agree, if these players never received a cap, the standard can’t be that bad.
Steve Bruce
Formed one of the strongest defensive partnerships Manchester United and arguably the Premier League have ever had but Steve Bruce was never seen to have the ability to cut it for England. It is one of the true injustices in football that a man who played 309 times for Manchester United and won three Premier League titles was never considered for the England side. Sure, England had some great defenders in the 80′s and 90′s but somehow it seems wrong that he never got a chance in the side. However, his domestic career was hardly bad so I am sure he cant take some solace from that.
Steed Malbranque
This midfielder who has played over 200 times in the Premier League has never been considered good enough to play for the French national team. Without a doubt the French team has had some of the greatest players in world football but to never be capped is very strange. It’s especially queer, considering that during his time at Tottenham the midfielder was good enough to play for most international sides as his technique and craft was as good as anyone in the Premier League.
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Sylvain Distin
Sylvain Distin has always been considered a defender that is as solid as a rock. Distin is sure on the ball, good in the air and a threat in the opposition’s box but he has never been capped by the French national team. Very strange indeed considering he played 178 times for Manchester City and has been in sides that have won both the French Cup and the FA Cup. Surely there was a friendly match or a qualifying match somewhere along the line in which a French manager could have given Distin a chance to showcase his talents on the International scene.
Mikel Arteta
Most fans in the Premier League would want Mikel Arteta in their side. He is a player that would offer so much to any team – even Spain. He has a good eye for goal and his imagination, flair and intelligence have made him a star in the Premier League. Yet he has never been capped at full International level. Spain were not always the all conquering side that they are now, and four or five years ago Arteta should have won a few caps at least for Spain. Ivan Campo was capped four times and Arteta has not received one. There is something very wrong with that statistic.
Tony Coton
Without a doubt, Tony Coton has to be the most unfortunate goalkeeper in recent memory. He was simply born into the wrong era, he had to see the end of Peter Shilton’s days and witness the rise of David Seaman. He was a better goalkeeper than most of the ‘keepers England have had since David Seaman, he was just born in the wrong era. It is a shame for a goalkeeper that represented Manchester City 163 times and there can be no doubt that Tony Coton is one of the finest goalkeepers never to be capped at senior international level. Since retiring, Tony Coton become one of the top goakeeping coaches in the world but an injury and subsequent operations limited Coton’s involvement at Manchester United.
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Feel free to add any others in the comments below…
Wigan Athletic retained their English Premier League status on the final day of the season with a 1-0 victory at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium.Roberto Martinez’s men knew a win on Sunday would ensure top-flight football for a seventh successive season at the club.
But the visitors made a disappointing start and were outplayed by Stoke in the first 45 minutes.
Tony Pulis’ men had the ball in the back of the Wigan net after 15 minutes, only for Jonathan Walters to be rightly ruled offside.
Moments later a Rory Delap throw caused havoc in the visitors’ defence, and goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi was forced to make an excellent save from an instinctive shot by Kenwyne Jones.
Wigan were left chasing the ball for most of the first half and created no real opportunities to score the goal they desperately needed.
Following the break the visitors came out a better side and started to push into the Stoke half.
Just after the hour mark Connor Sammon forced City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic into a save.
A few minutes later Begovic also denied Tom Cleverley with the substitute through on goal.
Wigan finally made the breakthrough in the 78th minute when their striker partnership combined to give them the lead – Charles N’Zogbia supplied the perfect cross for Hugo Rodallega to head home the most important goal in the Latics’ season.
With other results going against Martinez’s men in a tension-filled afternoon, a draw would not have kept Wigan in the top-flight.
There was a frantic end to the game – Stoke had a penalty appeal turned down, and then Wigan had to endure five minutes of added time.
Despite Stoke’s best efforts they could not get an equaliser, allowing the Wigan players and fans to celebrate their survival at the final whistle.
Theo Walcott is anticipating off-season developments at Arsenal, as coach Arsene Wenger starts to plan a title challenge in 2011-12.Arsenal fell short on all fronts last season, finishing fourth in the English Premier League.
They also lost the Carling Cup final to Birmingham and exited the Champions League and FA Cup against Barcelona and Manchester United respectively.
Wenger has hinted that he may finally alter a strict policy of youth development and instead pay sizeable transfer fees in an attempt to strengthen the squad.
And the buzz of big-money recruitment has forward Walcott intrigued.
“We need to keep hold of our best players and the boss has said that he is going to spend as well,” Walcott said.
“To add to the team is going to be crucial, I’ll be interested to see who comes and goes.”
Walcott was out of action for over a month between September and October last year, and also succumbed to more injury problems at different times throughout the season.
Nevertheless, the former Southampton man was reasonably satisfied with his contribution to the Arsenal cause.
“Personally I was quite happy with my season, even though I missed 13 weeks,” Walcott said.
“Hopefully I can have an injury-free season next year and it will be a good battle for us.”
“There’s a lot of teams like Manchester City and Liverpool coming into the frame now. So the Premier League will not be easy next year.”
On the international scene, Walcott began England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland on Saturday, which ended in a disappointing 2-2 draw for the hosts.
Walcott knows the team must improve during their last three matches in Group G to secure a route to next year’s finals in Poland and Ukraine.
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And his own place in the team is far from assured, with Aston Villa’s Ashley Young coming off the bench to score the equaliser at Wembley.
“It’s been a long time without any smiles in the England team,” Walcott said.
“We have great potential, the manager is giving opportunities to younger players to develop and come through the system … Like Jack (Wilshere), who’s had a great season and stamped his place in the England team as well.”
“No-one’s place is guaranteed, it’s great to see a lot of competition.”
Roberto Mancini has stated that he has the final say in all Manchester City’s transfer dealings, despite the multi-millions of the club’s owners. The Eastlands side were bought over by Sheik Mansour, but despite this the Italian has the authority over additions to the playing squad.
“I am the ultimate authority, I participate in the life of the club and I organise the schedules for the players,” the ex-Inter Milan coach is reported to have said in The Daily Mail.
“I talk with agents and directors, as the first person they come to. Then, when a deal’s almost done, people from the administrative side become involved. I am fully involved, there is nobody above me, and that is obviously a new thing, but I work in a great club with extraordinary owners,” he concluded.
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City are reportedly closing in on Samir Nasri, having completed the signing of Gael Clichy, but are thought to be worried about new UEFA regulations that state clubs cannot post more than €45m (£40.5m) aggregate losses. These stipulations have serious repercussions, with the threat of removal from the Champions League for teams that do not comply, and may be a key reason for the Manchester club’s reluctance to spend transfer fees equivalent to previous transfer windows.
Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas believes the London club should be targeting a maiden UEFA Champions League crown.The four-time English league champions have never claimed European club football’s biggest prize, coming closest when they lost to Manchester United on penalties in the 2008 final in Moscow.
Since then, they have made it to the semi-finals, round of 16 and quarter-finals.
But new manager Villas-Boas – part of the backroom staff when they made it to the last four in 2005 and 2007 – said it was only a matter of time before Chelsea finally won the competition.
“Chelsea is included in those teams that permanently arrive to the semi-finals. And the semi-finals is a question of two games, where anything can happen, and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us in the two seasons that I was present in the club,” Villas-Boas said on Monday.
“The club went on after two magnificent finals. And Chelsea is presence, so in the next years for sure the trophy will arrive to this club.”
The Premier League runners-up have arrived in Asia for their pre-season tour, and the Portuguese manager said he was always looking for improvement from his players as they look to better their second-place league finish from last season.
“I want to believe that the players can still find new things in them to exploit and I want to fully potentiate that talent,” Villas-Boas said.
Chelsea will play a select Malaysia XI on Thursday before moving onto Thailand and Hong Kong.
Midfielder Frank Lampard said he was confident they could challenge Manchester United for the title this campaign, regardless of the changes Villas-Boas makes to the squad.
“We already have a very strong squad and the manager obviously wants to evaluate what he’s got which, you know, is very understandable,” he said.
“And then who knows as we add or change? It’s the manager’s prerogative but the great thing we know already is that we believe in ourselves as we are.”
Chelsea begin their league campaign against Stoke City on August 14.
It seems strange how a player who’s won four titles in five years, appeared in three Champions League finals and is one of the first names on the United team sheet still has to win over some fans.
Michael Carrick is one player whose critics point to his lack of goals, assists, domination of certain big games, while his fans- who always seem to be extremely passionate in their support of the midfielder- claim he’s the cog that makes the entire team tick.
Carrick’s taken it upon himself to comment on the retirement of Paul Scholes and how the Unied players need to step up and fill the void as a collective.
The Guardian notes:
“Michael Carrick believes Manchester United’s players need to take collective responsibility for trying to replace Paul Scholes. Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken of the difficulties involved in finding a replacement for a player he regards as one of the best he has worked with.
“The United manager has played down the club’s interest in signing Internazionale’s Wesley Sneijder , while Tottenham Hotspur’s Luka Modric and Arsenal’s Samir Nasri appear bound for elsewhere.
“Carrick says the best way of overcoming Scholes’s departure is for everyone to do their bit. “Losing a player like Paul is a loss – he brings so much to the team,” Carrick said. “He was a world-class player, so you have to compensate in other ways. We have done that in the past – we lost Cristiano Ronaldo a few years ago and people didn’t think we’d get over it. But different players step up – maybe it is not one player but we share the responsibility.”
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All very accurate and commendable from Mr Carrick, the question is can he be the one to take over from Scholes as the maestro to orchestrate the midfield? Some would argue he already does, although not even Carrick’s most ardent supporters could claim he’s as effective as Scholes was.
Part of the problem for me is that Carrick is played far too deep in a defensive midfield role that’s simply a waste of his talents and can often highlight his flaws. Carrick’s tackling is not his strong point and although he’s capable of mopping up loose balls and taking the sting out of the game when United are on the backfoot he’s never going to be a barnstorming terrier type that Owen Hargreaves was, or Darren Fletcher sometimes is.
Carrick’s best season was arguably his first when he was allowed much more freedom to roam further forward and it’s no surprise that also wielded his best ever goals tally.
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A player of Carrick’s vision could be much more useful to United when he’s allowed to get more involved in the attacking aspect of the game, not just from the inception of an attack but also at the end of it.
With Scholes gone and the Sneijder saga still ongoing, could it be the man from Wallsend who rather than just being part of a ‘collective’ actually steps up and shows why his fans are so vocal in their support of him?
Read more of Justin’s articles at Red Flag Flying High
Manchester United’s apparent lengthy pursuit of Wesley Sneijder has yet again taken another turn with Inter once more making it clear that there are no negotiations going on between them, and the Manchester club for their star midfielder.
‘I’ve said it and I’ll repeat it, this is only spoken of in the newspapers and we’re not talking about it. He’s an integral part of our team and there are no negotiations.’ Inter director Ernesto Paolillo stated.
Inferring to an earlier statement the Nerazzurri official had given last week, he continued: ‘If we were to get an irrefutable offer? I have also repeated this many times…if we were to receive – and this applies to Sneijder and any other player – an absolutely irrefutable offer, only in that moment would we think about it. But, I repeat, there are no negotiations.’
Sneijder, the Dutch attacking midfielder, has been heavily linked with the Premiership giants in the British press since last summer’s World Cup in South Africa.
Across town, Manchester City have now become alerted to Inter’s Samuel Eto’o’s latest bust-up at the club. City were thought to be interested in making a swap deal for the Cameroon man, in exchange for Carlos Tevez. But with Inter’s previous insistence that their star striker was not for sale, Maicon was brought up as an option instead.
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However City see Eto’o’s value closer to that of Tevez for any muted swap, and a deal could now be back on the cards according to The Daily Mail and Mirror, with Eto’o falling out with new Inter manager Gian Piero Gasperini.
Paul Scholes’ retirement from football at the end of last season left Manchester United with a void in midfield that even Sir Alex Ferguson conceded would be difficult to fill. The United boss described Scholes as a ‘one-off’ and ‘irreplaceable’, though many expected Ferguson to go in to the transfer market and try and find a substantial replacement in time for the new campaign. United were heavily linked with Inter Milan midfielder, and Dutch international Wesley Sneijder for the best part of the transfer window, though how close United were to completing his transfer remains somewhat unclear.
This week Sneijder has claimed that he never wished to leave Milan, and that talks with United only took place when he heard the club were eager to sell him. The midfielder also revealed that former Chelsea and Inter boss Jose Mourinho persuaded him to stay in Italy, and that once Samuel Eto’o was sold there was no longer any possibility of him leaving. Sneijder’s claims appear to contradict a number of reports that came out over the summer suggesting that the midfielder was offered a contract at United, but that he was unhappy with the salary on offer at Old Trafford. Ferguson was reportedly unwilling to match the £250,00 a week wage the midfielder is believed to be earning at Inter, and such demands were reported to have stalled any talks between the clubs and player.
At the end of July Ferguson was reported to have claimed, “If he wants to come, he must accept our contract offer”, and so the cause for the breakdown of this transfer ultimately depends on which reports we choose to believe. Personally, I believe that money was the motivation behind Sneidjer’s decision to remain in Italy, especially when we consider that Eto’o did not complete is move to Anzhi Makhachkala until late August, and United are believed to have made an offer to Sneijder back in July. Harry Redknapp recently claimed that Samir Nasri’s move to Manchester City was also motivated by money, however, with the exception of Sneijder, there were a number of transfers over the summer that showed money was not everything to modern footballer.
Even Nasri, who will undoubtedly be earning a higher wage while at City, was not simply moving for the money. While Manchester City have been improving their squad year on year, and are gradually becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League, Arsenal have gone six years without silverware, and have failed to mount a significant challenge for the league title throughout Nasri’s time there. The prospect of winning titles and silverware is therefore likely to have motivated Nasri to leave North London just as much as the money on offer, if not more. The possibility of such silverware would of course have been on offer at United as well, and so Sneijder’s refusal to accept such an offer could not have been motivated by any apprehensions over potential success.
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Scott Parker also showed that money is not everything to the modern footballer, after he completed his move to Championship side West Ham to Tottenham Hostpur on deadline day. The England midfielder was on a reported £70,000 a week at West Ham, however playing Premier League football is believed to have been more important than the wages on offer, and Parker reportedly accepted a cut in salary in signing for Tottenham so that he could continue to play at the highest level. Craig Bellamy is also believed to have taken a reduced salary after re-joining former club Liverpool on the last day of the transfer window. The Welshman was believed to have been earning almost £100,000 a week at Manchester City, however once Mancini made it clear he was not part of the clubs plans anymore, Bellamy was prepared to seek his football elsewhere, and on a lower wage.
These are just some examples as to why the Sneijder saga should not be used as a generalization for all ‘modern footballers’. We are all fully aware that players already earn well above what they should be, but it is important to recognise the significance that the ‘beautiful game’ still holds for a number, perhaps even the majority, of modern footballers. While some are certainly motivated by money, and to an extent might even be content with warming the bench for over £100k a week, the majority of footballers are desperate to win silverware and prove their ability at the very top level. Some players may move for higher salaries, others may move to win trophies and titles, but the majority, I would like to think, will usually opt for first team football over an extra £10-20k a week.
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Agree or disagree? Is money the real motivation for all modern footballers? Let me know either below or @sixthofficial on Twitter!