The Worlds Favourite Playground
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Arsenal might have to face stiff competition from Serie A Giants Inter Milan, in their bid to sign Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin. Schneiderlin, who primarily plays as a defensive midfielder, has turned a number of heads with his outstanding performances this season. The 23 year old has made 36 appearances for the Saints this term, scoring 5 goals. The Frenchman has been one of the best tacklers in the Premier League this season and has looked after his back four very well.
After 5 years of Sainthood, it is sometimes easy to forget that Morgan Schneiderlin is not English but French. The youngster, joined Southampton as an 18 year old from a French club that every Arsenal fans is all to familiar with - Strasbourg. Schneiderlin has seen it all during his 5 years at St. Mary's Stadium, having notched up 30 league appearance the year Southampton were relegated to League One. Spending two seasons in the third division of English football before earning promotion to the Championship, and then winning another promotion the following year to the Premier League. The 23 year old is closing in on 200 appearances for the Saints, a feat he is unlikely to accomplish should Arsenal have their way.
Lewandowski’s agent cools Man United talk Manchester United’s hopes of landing Real Madrid’s slayer- Robert Lewandowski has reduced greatly after the Polish star’s agent told the Guardian that the striker wasn’t looking for a move to the Premier League at the moment. Sir Alex Ferguson confidently declared over the weekend that Borussia Dortmund wouldn’t sell another star player to Bayern Munich but the 24 year olds agent thinks otherwise: “The Premier League is very interesting for Robert. How long is the future, I cannot say to you. I think this summer is not the future,” said Maik Barthel. Man City in talks with Pellegrini The tomb bells are ringing out for Roberto Mancini at Manchester City as the deposed Champions have begun the process of replacing the Italian, with the Guardian reporting that sporting director Txiki Begiristain has flown out to Spain to hold talks with Manuel Pellegrini’s people. The Malaga boss has been linked with City since the start of the year and the Eastlands club want him signed and sealed before Chelsea make a late move. Mancini might still continue in the hot seat at the Etihad but the Italian’s leverage has significantly decreased after the club’s abysmal title defence. With the title done and dusted, the battle Champions League spots and the relegation dogfight are the only remaining scuffles in the current Premier League campaign. The DW Stadium had a mix of both flavours as Wigan hosted Tottenham and neither helped themselves with a 2-2 draw. Earlier in the day, Man City comfortably navigated past West Ham 2-1 at home in a dead rubber of an encounter. The most eye catching performance of the evening came at St.James’ Park where Liverpool hammered Newcastle 6-0. Elsewhere, Everton edged out Fulham 1-0, Southampton lost 3-0 at home to West Brom and Stoke defeated Norwich 1-0. Man City 2-1 West Ham In their first game after surrendering the title to Man United, Roberto Mancini’s City collected three points at a canter against the Hammers at the Etihad. Sergio Aguero opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark with a cool finish from Samir Nasri’s cut-back. The home side had to wait till the 83rd minute for the all important 2nd goal when Yaya Toure tried his luck from distance and it paid off in impressive fashion as his strike curled into the top corner. There was still time for Joe Hart to further infuriate his manager as the England Number One failed to collect Andy Carroll’s strike on the stroke of full-time, allowing the ball to squirm into the back of the net. Chelsea’s interim boss Rafael Benitez said that he had no option but to rotate his players for the Southampton game, after Chelsea lost 2-1 at St.Mary’s on Saturday. The Spaniard’s exclusion of a number of his key players in Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Demba Ba and Ashley Cole was severely criticized after the Blues’ defeat to the Saints but the manager remained adamant about his selection. He was quoted by the Metro as saying, “We had to manage the squad. We didn’t have many options in some positions so we had the players we had to use. You have to approach every game like it is the most important and we thought with these players we would be fine.”
Reading Football Club today announced the appointment of Nigel Adkins as first team manager on a contract until the summer of 2016. Adkins comes to the Madejski Stadium with an excellent CV which includes having won promotion no less than four times, a handy trait given that Reading are the favourites to go down from the Premier League this season. Adkins put pen to paper with owner Anton Zingarevich on Monday evening and will take training at Hogwood Park for the first time on Tuesday, along with the club's new assistant manager Andy Crosby. Chelsea have squandered a number of opportunities to claim silverware this season but defender David Luiz remains upbeat of the club’s chances to end the campaign with a trophy, pointing towards their strong runs in the Europa League and FA Cup. Luiz admitted that the team’s failures can be put down to dismal performances in crucial games this season. The Blues have fallen 19 points behind leaders Manchester United in the Premier League but Luiz is confident that the West London side can hold on to their third place and possibly even rival Manchester City for the number two spot in the league. |