Everton manager David Moyes was critical of his side's second-half performance after the 1-1 Premier League draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Tim Cahill opened the scoring for the Toffees in the opening period, but Sylvain Ebanks-Blake's effort ensured the points were shared at Goodison Park and it was a result that Moyes was less than happy with.
"First half we were very good, second half not so good," Moyes said.
"Wolves put us under a lot of pressure in the second half, but I think we had a lot more opportunities to score in the second half."
Moyes refused to criticise referee Lee Mason after Adlene Guedioura's crunching tackle on Johnny Heitinga led to Wolves' equaliser.
Guedioura played Kevin Doyle in down the wing, leaving the Irishman to tee up Ebanks-Blake to slot home and Moyes admitted the decision could have gone either way.
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"Some referees give it, some wouldn't," he added. "I don't want to get rid of tackles, I'm happy with tackles in football."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
I wrote a piece about people leaving our home games early earlier this week, and it looks like I’m not the only one to notice the lack of support shown in the stadium. This week REDaction held a meeting with AFC representatives before the Carling Cup tie versus Manchester City at Emirates.
The questions about safe standing, ticketing, and unreserved seating posed to the club were unfortunately on the whole dodged by the club. More interestingly I thought was the one of the questions posed about player interaction with the fans.
It was put to the club about the an improvement in post-match appreciation by the players would be appreciated, which was met with a reply saying that the fans must also meet them halfway, which includes staying for the full 90 minutes at home games. Obviously I’m not the only one to notice that other fans are leaving early, the players are clearly noticing too.
How frustrating must it be for a player to be entering the final stages of a match and to look up at the stands for encouragement, only to see thousands of people leaving the stadium rather than cheering the team on? As I stated in my previous piece, we can be the difference between us drawing 1-1 at home to Fulham and beating them 2-1.
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It seems though that most of the dodged questions were around the issue of ticketing, such as the location of the away fans and the potential for unreserved seating for Carling Cup games. I feel that if we could get blocks 5-12 put as unreserved seating for Carling Cup ties this would improve the atmosphere no end.
Those who travel regularly to away games will know we have some of the best away support, all standing, all singing and giving their all for the lads. Take a look on youtube and search for Arsenal fans at whatever our last away game was, and you might just be surprised to see just how passionate our fans are.
Unfortunately most people who go to away games are then separated at home games, which contributes to the dire atmosphere we currently have to endure. If we could get 2,000 people who want to stand, sing and stay for the full 90 minutes it might, just might make a real difference to a result.
Away fans positioning was another point raised, which whilst I agree with the sentiment, this should have never been an issue in the first place had the club stuck them in the upper tier from when we moved. How much of a lift must it be to away teams knowing that they will be backed by 3,000 (or however many fans they bring) in the lower tier behind the goal? We should do what Newcastle do and stick them up in the upper tier, as far away as possible from the pitch, and charge them the highest prices to boot. The less away fans in our stadium the better if you ask me.
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The dire atmosphere at our new home needs drastic improvement, and isn’t being helped by people wasting a ticket by only attending 75% of the match. Perhaps if you can’t commit to attending the game to the end you shouldn’t be there at all.
Article courtesy of Stuart Watson from Arsenal Insider
Saturday’s evening game kicks off at the Emirates as Arsenal look to save their season with 3 points in order to keep chase on league leaders Manchester United. They couldn’t have asked for a better fixture at home against a Blackburn side who have the 2nd worst form in the league.
Arsenal are undefeated in an impressive nine home games and this looks likely to be number ten, despite a Blackburn team desperate to stop the rotten form and threat of relegation.
Former Arsenal man, John Jensen who’ll be in the technical area for the visitors has commented that his side could cause an upset at the Emirates tomorrow. However, Arsenal can boast a number of key players returning to fitness for this game with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott all in contention to start.
Rovers have suffered 5 straight away defeats which sees them 1 point away from the drop zone and a team that everyone is picking for the drop with their inexperienced manager Steve Kean in charge.
It’s hard to see anything but a home win for this tie, if Blackburn are to get anything out of this then it would be down to Arsenal’s own self destruction but with key players back for the Gunners, this could turn out to be a riot if they hit form and want to send a message to United.
Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Blackburn Rovers
Watch Jason Cundy & Scott Minto on Scoreboard and see their pre-match predictions
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Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton remains convinced that Tim Krul, Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor will all remain at St James' Park.
The trio are all believed to be in contract talks with United although Taylor continues to be linked with Liverpool and Wolfsburg while Carroll is reportedly interesting Chelsea, Birmingham City and Stoke City.
However, Hughton told the Chronicle:"I've consistently said it's important to keep the players you want to keep. We need to add to the squad, but it's also important not to lose what we have. I'm very confident we'll keep everybody.
"As far as those whose contracts are close – Tim Krul, Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor – I'm confident about all of them.
"We need to be thinking about bringing in the right type of player and the right amount of players.
"If we're able to get players in quicker, then I understand the benefits of that, but what's more important is getting in the right amount of players.
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"As for the loans structure, clubs are going to assess what they have got."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Chelsea striker Fernando Torres has admitted that settling in London after his move from Liverpool has been difficult, but the opportunity to play at Stamford Bridge was too good to turn down.
The Spain international forward is only starting to find form after a £50 million move to Andre Villas Boas’ men back in January, with long spells of poor form blighting his time at his new club.
However, moving to a city as big as London has been an obstacle El Nino is still to get over.
“They have no similarity, neither in their past nor in their present. My adaptation process for each has been completely distinct,” he told Esquire Espana.
“Chelsea is in London, a huge city. I come from Madrid, also a great European capital, but this is much more of everything, for good and for bad.
“It’s been difficult for me to adapt here compared to when I arrived in Liverpool, a more comfortable place, smaller, where I was surrounded by Spanish team-mates.
“In the end, the important thing is to try and organise yourself as quickly as possible. That’s what I’m doing,” he stated.
Despite being adored by the Anfield faithful during his time on Merseyside, Torres admits that the chance to join Chelsea was the right move for him, regardless of the large transfer fee.
“That’s just a number. The only thing I know is that opportunities such as the one Chelsea offered me cannot be turned down. The important thing is the confidence they have in me.
“Liverpool was going down a strange path. Personally, I believe the departure of Xabi Alonso to Madrid was a clear message that something was changing.
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“I have the ambition to improve and Chelsea could offer me what every footballer desires: titles,” he concluded.
Sao Paolo and Corinthians continued their battle for supremacy in the Campeonato Paulista table with victories on Sunday.Sao Paolo improved to three straight victories with a 3-0 defeat of visiting Santo Andre, with Dagoberto (9), Lucas (59) and Casimiro (67) all troubling the scorers.Corinthians rebounded from their midweek loss to Ponte Preta to edge Mirassol 3-2, despite going down to 10 men with the loss of Jorge Henrique to a second caution in the 50th minute.Serginho put Mirassol ahead 1-0 with a goal in the 26th minute, but a Willian brace after the break put the visitors in a strong position.Esley looked to have stolen a point for Mirassol when he equalised in the 89th minute, but Bruno Cesar nabbed a thrilling goal late in injury time to deny them.Sao Paolo and Corinthians join Santos on 28 points at the top of the table, separated only by goal difference.Santo Andre remain one point clear of escaping the relegation zone, while Mirassol fall to sixth following back-to-back losses.Elsewhere, Paulista rose to seventh on the table with a 2-0 win at struggling Americana, who have lost four games in a row, following goals to Hernane (65) and Fabio Gomes (74).Oeste recovered from back-to-back losses to defeat visiting Bragatino 2-0, with Jose Fabio (39) and Anselmo Ramon (71) ensuring Oeste’s slide down the table stops at eighth.Finally, Ituano and Portuguesa fought out a goal-less draw at the Estadio Romildo Vitor Gomes Ferreira.
Sepp Blatter is wrong. Hardly a revelatory sentence. In fact I could blindly announce said statement every time the FIFA supremo made a public utterance and be fairly confident (by at least a margin of 90%) that I’d be bang on the money every time. This time however, the former president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders and current and seemingly everlasting FIFA head honcho has tempered his wrongness with a rightness. All be it a rightness that should’ve been a given 5 long years ago.
Blatter’s announcement that he and his illuminati brethren will “look into” goal line technology, but not consider video replays is kind of like the announcement that President Obama will “look into” human rights, but not even consider the prospect of universal health care. Video replays are exactly what should be being looked into now, goal line technology should’ve been implemented years ago.
In 2005, after the infamous Pedro Mendes winner that never was for Spurs at Old Trafford, FIFA started “looking into” goal line technology seriously, and as a result, the famed “ball and chip” thingy was developed. This monumental step forward was heralded the world over and Blatter himself claimed then that FIFA would trial the device at various junior competitions in 2007. Did they? No of course they didn’t. They did nothing and shelved the idea, as they more than likely will do this time.
Back in March when the IFAB ruled to permanently ditch the idea of technology in football, I registered my disapproval on this site, (which you can read here – https://www.footballfancast.com/football-blogs/fifa-living-fear-irobots) writing; “I’d expect more howls of consternation in the coming months as more errors are made, and I’d dread to think what would happen if anything dodgy were to occur at the World Cup. In fact no, I don’t dread it, I’d welcome it in fact, because it’s quite frankly getting absolutely ludicrous now and maybe only such a high profile and dramatic balls up (or across) would shake the arrogance out of these people”
Whilst it’s never nice to have your words come back and bite you so viciously on the back side, the fact the finality of the decision has now been reversed is somewhat of a comfort (well that, and the fact that England would almost certainly have gone on to lose anyway had Lampard’s goal actually counted.)
But the fact that the man who waged war on pantyhose back in the 70s has transferred this finality to the prospect of video replays has brought said disapproval bubbling back to the surface again. Sepp Blatter is wrong. As always.
Of the 473 bad refereeing decisions at the 2010 World Cup so far, only the one has had anything to do with whether a ball crossed a line or not. What makes this statistic even worse is that of these 473 (a possibly erroneous number) the overwhelming majority of them have occurred a split second before the play was stopped. FIFA has three default arguments it wheels out in a cart marked “archaic” when pestered for the umpteenth time with a plea for technology in football, and the first one is always that it would “break up the natural fluidity of the game.”
I don’t know how many football games Sepp and co watch, but your average football match runs unbroken for about 5 minutes. In fact when you add up all the stoppages in a game of football, you usually arrive at a sum of about half an hour. Not that this means football should be broken up more of course, or that the idea of constant enforced stoppages are at all a good thing to contemplate, but when you’re in a position where the game has already stopped, and the players on the field are actually increasing the length of said stoppage by arguing futilely with the officials, what harm can there possibly be in using said time a tad more productively.
Of the two occurrences on the 27th of June 2010 that forced Blatter to apologize to both the English and Mexican FAs, the English one was clearly the more scandalous. A ball actually crossing a line unseen is a far more unusual and unfair occurrence than your common or garden offside error, of which you’ll see up and down the world of football on a weekly basis. But of the decisions made that day by on the pitch – and pitch side – officials, the one made in the Mexico-Argentina game was unquestionably the most ridiculous.
We can be completely sure that despite it being incredibly obvious to even a blind agoraphobic badger, neither the linesman nor the referee in the England – Germany encounter knew if the ball had actually crossed the line. We cannot however, say the same thing in the other game. Because as the Mexican players encircled the linesman causing – wait for it – a prolonged stoppage in play, the incident was replayed on the in stadium big screen, prompting the lino to question, nay review his decision and consequently inform the referee. Whether he knew his error concretely or not, only he can say, but there was unquestionably doubt cast on the decision, and the reaction of the players, fans and officials in that instant all implied they were at least in some way aware an error had been made. Yet nothing was done. The referee, in full awareness of the contentiousness of such a ruling, ruled anyway, more in fear of his job and the arcane rules of the football illuminati than the principles of right, wrong, and justice.
Imagine, if you will, an extreme comparison. Say a judge was just about to announce a guilty verdict, but at the last minute was approached by the clerk of the court and informed that a video had come to light that exonerated the defendant completely. What if he was then shown this video instantly on an iPad? (Which would be a momentous occasion in itself – a useful application of the iPad.) What would you expect this imaginary judge to do in this instance? That’s right, ignore it completely and send the man down anyway. Of course. Pukka! According to Sepp and co evidentially. While the decision may not have spared the Mexicans the eventual Argentinean goal fest, it was never the less scandalous to award a goal in full, or even partial knowledge of it’s illegitimacy.
Almost every other bad decision you can instantly recall from this World Cup has similarly occurred with such a stoppage forthcoming anyway. Luis Fabiano’s lovely juggling display against the Ivorians. Kaka’s vicious act of standing still into someone’s face that same game. Fernando Torres’ Charlie Chaplain impression against Chile, itself an homage to the sterling earlier work of Daniel De Rossi. All of these have caused the play to stop. Quickly viewing any of these incidents on a pitch side monitor would all have taken no more time, and in most cases likely less, than the ensuing break in play they entailed anyway. If the officials had earpieces it could be done even quicker of course. Sorry what? They already have them you say? Oh right. Lovely.
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The two other default arguments FIFA use are just as pathetic for the record. The game doesn’t need to be equal at all levels, and isn’t as it is anyway. I’ve so far failed to spot the under pitch heating, professional quality grounds staff, officials, floodlighting and footwear on Hackney Marshes. In fact I’ve failed to notice it at many professional lower league games too. Nor have I yet been aware of anyone’s job or livelihood riding on a Monday night kick about on Clapham Common. Maybe Blatter should try and make sure that’s all sorted out before he claims it would disrupt the utopian ideal of football to use tech at the very highest, stake crammed level. But it’d probably be too expensive. That’s another sub-argument proposed against technology too though isn’t it? Damn.
The thin end of the wedge excuse relies on the idea that once it’s in, there’d be no limiting its usage. This of course depends entirely on who is in charge and control of bringing it in and implementing it. Essentially FIFA are saying they don’t trust these people to not go mad. Except that these people would be them. Duh! So if they can’t trust themselves, why on earth should we? I don’t for the record, and I wouldn’t with a rubber spoon, let alone a multi million pound organization.
If, how and when to use video replays is admittedly a much longer discussion than I’ve relayed here. But it is never the less precisely something FIFA should be “looking into” at this juncture. Instead, they’re looking into something that should already be a mainstay by now. Thank god Blatter and co weren’t in charge of football at its beginnings, or we’d still be debating whether nets were a good idea or not.
You can follow Oscar on Twitter here; http://twitter.com/oscarpyejeary, where you can, like, you know…follow him and…stuff.
Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas has dedicated his side’s 2-1 win over Everton in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night to under-fire skipper John Terry.
The England international defender was left out of the squad to travel to Merseyside, as allegations of racism in The Blues 1-0 defeat to QPR at the weekend are currently being investigated by the FA.
After the hard-fought victory, the Portuguese coach admitted the players had their captain in mind.
“The spirit of the players took us through. I think all of the players would like to dedicate the win to John Terry,” Villas Boas told Sky Sports.
Salomon Kalou had given the visitors the lead before Louis Saha forced the game into extra-time, where Daniel Sturridge converted the winner for the London outfit.
With Toffees midfielder Royston Drenthe and Chelsea’s goalkeeper Ross Turnbull both dismissed, the away team’s trainer was delighted to progress through to the next stage.
“We deserved it for what we put on as an effort and for the football we played.
“To be fair, I think we had the worst of the draws. It was a difficult game to play, Everton would like to challenge for silverware and the commitment they had to this competition made them a strong team.
“When you triumph in a game like this, you cannot toast the individuals you have to toast the collective spirit of a squad that once again goes down to 10 men.
“We wanted to avoid it but it happened and we saw the game through,” he concluded.
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Chelsea have no respite as the fixtures come thick and fast in November, with Arsenal their next opponents at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
This week the excitement surrounding Liverpool’s youngster Raheem Sterling has been fascinating, especially as the Reds boss Kenny Dalglish has named him in the squad for the Europa League tie in Sparta Prague tonight. Video highlights have circulated the internet showing Sterling scoring 5 goals against Southend United in a FA Youth Cup tie on Monday night where Dalglish watched happily from the stands and it is no secret that ‘King Kenny’ highly rates this promising 16-year old.
Watching the highlights, I was not surprised to see Sterling weave in and out of challenges, with his change of pace, quick feet and excellent ball control – let’s not forget a brilliant end product. But it only joins other videos and compilations of the player since the age of 14, and despite his size he could feature for the first team tonight in Prague which would make him Liverpool’s youngest first team player. If or rather ‘when’ Raheem does start to feature in the first team it will only be a mixture of emotions for me with Sterling being a product of QPR’s youth system.
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Being a Queens Park Rangers supporter, I’ve not had much to shout about over the years having seen us relegated twice and promoted once. Even more so the club has not had a strong history in producing young talent especially in my time as a fan, with only Kevin Gallen being the only strong example of a player who broke records at youth level and was rewarded with a Premier League debut at Old Trafford. However, Gallen along with the likes of Richard Langley, suffered bad injuries at a young age that harmed his progress into what would’ve been a regular Premier League player at the very least.
I would have loved to have seen Raheem Sterling stay at the Rangers and break into the first team, which he probably would have done by now. It would fill me and R’s supporters alike with a sense of pride given his exceptional talent, but you can’t deny the player’s ambition for wanting to play for a huge club like Liverpool. Also, I’m actually quite happy that this loss of a young promising talent looks to be worthwhile with the possibility of first team football. It was not long ago that another talent from ‘our’ (QPR) youth set-up was snapped up by Tottenham Hotspur at 15 years old, but since then Dean Parrett hasn’t made the ‘Rooney’ type impact that was talked about. Despite a first team appearance in the Europa League, Parrett has since been on loan to Aldershot and Plymouth – which makes me shout “you should’ve stayed at the Rangers!”
We’ve also been extremely unlucky with our youth players in recent years and I am not just talking about the ‘bigger’ clubs taking them away. The tragic death of young striker Ray Jones, who looked to be a player with huge potential and had already made 37 appearances in the first team at just 18 years of age, was a very sad day. Personally, I highly rated Jones despite only scoring 6 goals – we were a cash strapped team fighting off relegation. If I liken him to a player today, it would be Liverpool’s multi-million pound signing, Andy Carroll.
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If Sterling is to feature in tonight’s game then it can only be great for the player and for the club (both Liverpool and QPR) because the Reds get to display one of their many talented youth players whilst Rangers are due some add-on fees depending on appearances and success. Whatever happens tonight, Liverpool certainly have a superstar in the making.
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Yesterday, I did something quite unheard of. My computer remained off, anything I had been working on remained unworked on and I donned a pair of gloves to keep goal with my friends in a kickabout in a local park. To be honest, it’s not that unheard of, but saying it was made for a much snappier opening than “yesterday I played some football with my friends.” And it wasn’t really a park, either, it was just a football pitch near a road.
Normally, as the goalkeeper, it falls upon me to retrieve the ball on the (incredibly) numerous occasions it goes behind the goal. So you can imagine my delight when the one who was tasked with bringing the ball turned up with a brand spanking new, Adidas Jabulani – the football that has been largely uncontrollable when international football players have been shooting in this year’s World Cup.
We’re not international football players. In fact, to call us players would be an exaggeration, given that we do to football what Lily Allen does to music. Nevertheless, I found myself moving to recover fewer wayward shots than I expected – partly because the ball wasn’t as uncontrollable as expected, but mainly because everyone else was desperate to get it so that they could have a quick ogle of the attractive lady in the low cut top sunbathing on the far side of the field.
Certainly one of them was all too eager to get the ball after shooting wide. In fact, I suspect he may have just been thumping the ball in her direction.
Anyway, I digress – because there is a point to that tale.
After the final whistle was blown at Upton Park on the final day of the football season and I was no longer able to watch my team domestically, my thoughts immediately turned to the World Cup. If I’m being honest, I’m a very cynical man, so I never fell for the big build-up of the tournament and the whole ‘England-might-actually-go-and-bloody-win-this-based-on-no-evidence-again’ vibe. I don’t feel the connection with England that I do with my team, Manchester City, but, while I don’t have flags on my car or hanging out of my window, I’d like England to win as much as the next man.
Equally, I didn’t feel in the depths of despair when we failed to score against Algeria. Call it the blind optimism of being a Manchester City fan, but I never truly felt worried that we wouldn’t qualify from the group.
The thing is, once the football season was over, I was looking forward to enjoying some quality football from the best teams in the world. While there have been some brilliant games, there has been a lot of rubbish, with an extra side-order of crap, served up, too. I can’t begin to offer an explanation for this, but it hasn’t, in my opinion, spoilt the tournament, like several pundits have suggested.
And, according to most teams, coaches, players and managers, it’s the ball that is to blame for this. It bounces too much, it moves a lot in the air and, for some reason, it’s too round. It’s political correctness gone mad. Or something.
The bouncy bit of the argument I can buy – having played with a Jabulani that was actually quite on the flat side, I can confirm that it bounces like Tigger on a pogo stick at a trampoline convention. Although we’re not international players, we can still kick a ball, and it didn’t do too much moving in the air (one shot did go through me, but the sun was in my eyes and it hit a bobble and you can add some more feeble goalkeeper excuses here) and I didn’t find that it was any rounder than any ball I’d played with in the past.
Though I do wear glasses, so the edges of it are slightly fuzzy.
What has annoyed me about this World Cup isn’t that some of the games have been below par. In a month of football, not every game would be an edge of the seat, nail-biting job. What I have found particularly annoying is the regular moans – be it of the ball, the vuvuzelas, the people who moan about the vuvuzelas, the people who moan about the people who moan about the vuvuzelas (and now, by definition, me), and the terrible jokes everybody seems to think are funny based on how the World Cup loosely mirrors the Second World War.
Lord help me if I see another one of those jokes.
Though England’s facing Germany did seem to please the British press, who were able to wheel out the pun writers for their headlines. I can only presume the editors will have their fingers crossed that we beat the Germans and meet Argentina in the next round, just for the punning opportunity again.
The worst thing about this World Cup by far, however, is that hideously cringeworthy, over-the-top, painfully horrific, dreadfully awful nightmare that is that bloody Prin-gooooooals advert. Closely followed by Nicklas Bendtner’s finishing – the reporter for BBC Radio Five Live at Hull vs. Arsenal last season said of Bendtner’s last minute tap in: “He’ll never score an easier goal.”
And he didn’t know how right he was.
I’d also like to put it on record that I don’t particularly mind the sound of the vuvuzela. It might just be me, but I find it quite a happy sound – there’s something of a party atmosphere about a stadium full of people blowing horns. I wouldn’t go as far as suggesting their introduction to the Premier League, but I think a bigger deal has been made of them than is warranted.
However, what I don’t understand is, having had the opportunity to play with the new ball for a short while before the tournament, why have there been constant complaints? The players are all internationals, they all know how it’s been behaving and they’re all playing with the same ball… You’d think they’d do some practise with it.
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There is always the possibility, I suppose, that they have been practising, but there’s been an attractive lady sunbathing in a low cut top a long way behind the goal.