photo credit: wonker

Talk about being on a roll…

Arsenal added to its momentum with an intense 5-0 win over Porto.  We could get into the ins and outs of the match, but I think it bears noting that Arsenal is on a roll of their own in the Premier League as well.

The club heads back to England having already put themselves into the Quarterfinals of the Champion’s League AND they have 3 easily winnable matches on their docket. 

Hull City, West Ham, and Birmingham might want to take note and gird their loins–because Arsenal is coming for them.

I also don’t think we need to be surprised by Porto.  They hail from a much smaller league and did their very best, but I don’t think they could have expected much against a team that has caught up Chelsea and United in the EPL.

With a draw coming for the Quarterfinals I can’t imagine that anybody is gonna want a piece of Arsenal.  However, if I am right and United moves on–wouldn’t it be cool if United and Arsenal drew each other in the Quarters?  Or Chelsea and Arsenal.  Or Chelsea and United?

I know we want to see “inter-country” competition, but it would be pretty sweet to see EPL rematches in the Champion’s League.  The matches would only get even more heated and send the winner with even MORE momentum into the Semis. 

AHHH, that’s an exciting thought!

With all the speculation around Arsene Wenger and his management style it’s good to see that Arsenal is rolling and perhaps the questions about Arsene will die down. 

I know I took some major shots at EPL managers, but we can’t really speculate about them because they’re so unpredictable.  Let’s talk about how well this team is playing and how we think they can go.

Now THAT’S excitement!

Another week and another huge game for the Arsenal. This time it is in the Champions League as Arsenal try to overcome a 2-1 deficit and defeat Porto to move into the quarter-finals.

Arsenal will have to do it the difficult way, without inspirational leader Cesc Fabregas who will miss the game due to a hamstring injury, as well as William Gallas who will also miss the game due to a calf injury.

But the good news for Arsenal is that Sol Campbell has recovered from the groin problem that kept him out at the weekend, and with Arshavin, . But with Arshavin, Nasri and Walcott all fit, Arsene Wenger will have a good squad to pick from.

Arsene Wenger, Arsenal Coach:

There’s always something new in our game so we can innovate and change history. The team has a good chance to make history. We are very young and in a strong position and, of course, we want to win. Scoring away from home is still a massive advantage under UEFA rules and that’s why we are confident we can do it.

In the first game, Porto defended well. I don’t think they will be ultra-defensive. We conceded unusual goals in the first game so we want a better defensive performance and we want to score goals. We know it’s a tricky game, as it always is in the Champions League against an opponent of Porto’s quality, but we believe we can do it. We are confident and are in a good position, so let’s go for it.

Jesualdo Ferreira, Porto coach

We need to have confidence in what we do as the game will probably be decided by small details. The balance of the game and how the result pans out will be decisive so we don’t need to talk about different scenarios which might happen. At Porto we know what our qualities are and we are confident. We know it will be a difficult match but we have the weapons to make it difficult for Arsenal.

We know the [first-leg] goal they scored puts them in a very good position. For that reason we need to fight, be positive, get a good result and qualify. Last year we reached the quarter-finals and our objective is to do that again. I want to put right the fact that Porto have not won in England before – there’s always a first time for everything.

Match Facts

• Porto have progressed in the last 24 two-legged UEFA competition ties in which they were defending an advantage away from home. Arsenal have only managed to overturn one such deficit in nine attempts.
• Porto have lost all six of their trips to London including a 1-0 loss at Chelsea in this season’s group stage and 4-0 defeat by Arsenal last season.

Prediction
Porto are not an easy team to beat, but I expect Arsenal’s speed and passing ability to be the deciding factor in the game. That away goal in Portugal by Sol Campbell was huge and ultimately I expect that to be the difference.

I am not that confident that Arsenal can shut Porto out, but I believe that they will create enough chances to go through. The only potential problem I see is that Arsenal spurns a lot of chances in front of goal and I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt them.

Arsenal 3 Porto 1. Arsenal advances 4-3 on aggregate

Real Madrid has once again regained the top spot the Deloitte Football Money League, but that is only because of the continuing decline of the pound against the euro.

The Deloitte Football Money League list is based on clubs’ revenue excluding transfer fees

Dan Jones, partner in the sports business group at Deloitte, said:

“All the English clubs were impacted by the continuing depreciation of the pound against the euro and the scale of this is shown by the fact that if exchange rates remained at their June 2007 level, United would be top of the money league table.”

It is a testament to the strength of the Premier League that are seven English sides in the top 20 in Europe. Newcastle United came in 20th, even though it was relegated last season. The opposite is true in La Liga where Real Madrid and Barcelona were the only two teams to make the list.

Deloitte Football Money League – 2008-09 revenue (Last year’s position in brackets)

1 (1) Real Madrid £341.9million
2 (3) Barcelona £311.7m
3 (2) Man Utd £278.5m
4 (4) Bayern Munich £246.6m
5 (6) Arsenal £224.0m
6 (5) Chelsea £206.4m
7 (8) Liverpool £184.8m
8 (11) Juventus £173.1m
9 (10) Internazionale £167.4m
10 (7) AC Milan £167.4m
11 (15) Hamburg £124.9m
12 (9) Roma £124.7m
13 (12) Lyon £118.9m
14 (16) Marseille £113.5m
15 (14) Tottenham £113.0m
16 (13) Schalke £106.0m
17 (n/a) Werder Bremen £97.7m
18 (20) B Dortmund £88.1m
19 (n/a) Man City £87.0m
20 (17) Newcastle £86.0m

On the day that Portsmouth became the first Premier League club to go into administration, there was good financial news from Arsenal.

Arsenal announced that they have reduced the clubs debt by almost 40% to £203.6 million by selling more of the apartments it built at Highbury.

The sale of some 261 units meant that Arsenal made a pretax profit of £35.2 million for the six months ending Nov. 30.

Arsenal has sold 524 of the 655 Highbury Square apartments and non-executive chairman Peter Hill-Wood said

“The next couple of years will see our property activities delivering surplus cash.“

It looks like the sale of the units went straight to repaying debt, as Arsenal’s debt was £332.8 million a year ago.

Chief executive Ivan Gazidis said the profit was less important than the reduction in debt.

“It’s important to note that this isn’t our primary objective. The reason we run a responsible, profitable and self-sustaining business is so that we can deliver success to the club and invest in the club and ultimately deliver success on the pitch, something that our fans can be proud of.”

“Arsenal’s debt position is very healthy. I think it’s important that clubs act responsibly with respect to debt. The important things that everybody needs to ask are, ‘is the debt affordable, can the repayments be met? And provided clubs act responsibly, then it’s not true to say all debt is bad.”

Arsenal’s trip to Portugal has got tougher as Arsenal’s injury list means that they will be without five regulars tomorrow night. Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song got injured against Liverpool last week and have not recovered while William Gallas, Eduardo and Manuel Almunia will also miss the game.

“William Gallas has a calf injury. Alex Song has a knee injury. Andrey Arshavin has a hamstring injury,” said Wenger before leaving for Portugal. Manuel Almunia has a finger injury, and the hand is quite useful for goalkeepers. He had already a twisted finger and he made it worse and I didn’t want to take a gamble on it. Eduardo has a recurrence of his hamstring injury.”

Previous meetings

• Porto beat a young Arsenal side 2-0 in the group stages, while Arsenal won 4-0 in the first match at the Emirates.

Match Background

• This is the sixth time in seven consecutive campaigns that Porto have reached the knockout rounds. Last season they lost to Manchester United FC in the quarter-finals after a 1-0 second-leg defeat at home.
• Prior to United’s visit Porto were unbeaten against English visitors, eleven contests yielding five wins and six draws. United’s 1-0 triumph was followed by Chelsea, who won by the same score in this season’s group stage.
• Prior to their meetings with Porto, Arsenal had faced Portuguese opposition only once before in UEFA club competition, losing to Benfica in the 1991/92 the European Champion Clubs’ Cup second round. After a 1-1 draw in Lisbon, the Gunners suffered a 3-1 extra-time loss in London.
• This is the tenth successive campaign in which Arsenal have advanced from the initial group stage. Last season they reached the semi-finals before also bowing out to Manchester United, losing 1-0 away and 3-1 at home.

Team News

Porto

The big news for the hosts is the return to action of Hulk, who has been sidelined for several weeks. In addition Raul Meireles has been given the all-clear to play. However, Diego Valeri, Ernesto Farias and Orlando Sa are all expected to miss the game as is Cristian Rodriguez,

Probable Starting XI: Helton; Fucile, Bruno Alves, Rolando, Pereira; Belluschi, Fernando, Raul Meireles; Hulk, Falcao, Mariano

Arsenal

Probable Starting XI: Fabianski; Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy; Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby; Nasri, Bendtner, Rosicky

Prediction
The Estadio do Dragao is a really tough place to win. It took a wonder goal from Ronaldo last year for man Utd to finally end Porto’s unbeaten home streak against Porto. I don’t think that Arsenal necessarily have to win tomorrow in order to

Progress to the next round. What is important is that Arsenal get that all important away goal. So a 1-1 result would great, and even a 2-1 loss would not be end of the world as I expect Arsenal to win the second leg at home and progress to the quarter finals.

What do you think the score will be?

It isn’t a mystery that he wants Chamakh…

Marouane Chamakh and Arsenal are apparently close to a transfer deal even though Arsene Wenger is not confirming anything.  Because Chamakh will be able to take a free transfer at the end of this season he can go ahead and sign with someone else, and if Arsenal is smart they’ll get this thing done and go ahead and tell the world.

Why?  Well, first off, if you want the Premier League to know that you mean business then you need to go ahead and make a statement and sign Chamakh right now.  Waiting and denying everything only makes you look “stupidly mysterious” because everyone will think you just can’t get it together.  Not the best idea.

Plus, if you’re Bordeaux you REALLY want to know what’s going on because you have no time to spare in figuring out what you’re going to do when Chamakh is gone.  If you wait for even a second every good player will be off the market in the blink of an eye.

With the speculation swirling about other teams that he could be talking to it might be time for someone to clamp down on him or tell him the deal’s off the table.

Chamakh already created a pretty big distraction for Bordeaux by even talking about this before the end of the season.  Bordeaux is 0-2-2 since the beginning of January (when alot of this talk came up)…don’t you think this has something to do with it?

Bordeaux WAS sailing away in Ligue 1…now they’re only 3 points up on Montpellier.  Soccer is a team sport, but Bordeaux fans wouldn’t be wrong to blame most of this slump on the Chamakh transfer talk that he started knowing full-well that he was a “free agent” at the end of the year.  Save it for then Maurrie.

I hope Arsenal gets him because it will crank up the volume on the Permier League next season, but right now I want this to get done before Chamakh destroys Bordeaux.

After renewed interest from Barcelona this week, English Premier League club Arsenal have upped their ante to keep captain Cesc Fabregas at the Emirates for a couple more years than had been agreed. Arsene Wenger knows just how important Fabregas is to his long term plans and he is keen to ensure that the Spain international remains in London.

Apparently, sensing that Barcelona were relentlessly pursuing Cesc, Arsenal had to act fast and they did. They handed the 22 year old a whooping 30 million Pound deal. This new deal will make Fabregas the highest paid player in the history of the club. The 5 year deal will also see Fabregas earn 120,000 Pounds a week.

In my opinion, i am certain that Fabregas will remain at Arsenal. With the type of form he is displaying, its hard to see how he can throw it all away. Plus Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two clubs chasing after his signature, are already star studded that Fabregas will not get the amount of game time he needs and play at the position he desires to be truly effective.

All this comes on the back of a key fixture away to Chelsea today. A loss for the gunners and their title hopes will go up in smoke. Wenger will need Fabregas to repeat the kind of form that has seen him score 14 goals in all competitions this season. Chelsea will be a tough nut to crack at home and my prediction for this game is 2-1 win in favour of the Blues.

It was a performance that Arsenal fans furious. Manchester United ran riot over a poor Arsenal 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium to move within a point of leaders Chelsea.

Arsenal, who started the match five points behind Chelsea ahead of their trip to Stamford Bridge next weekend, began well and Andrey Arshavin created a couple of half chances.

But United, who looked dangerous every time they attacked, got the breakthrough they were after when Nani left three Arsenal defenders for dead, chipped in a cross that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia could only push it inside his far post.

Four minutes later and United were 2-0 ahead. Reminiscent of Ronaldo’s goal in the Champions League semi-final against Arsenal last season, Rooney a United break juts outside his own penalty box when he found Nani. Rooney then ran 60 yards to meet Nani’s pass and sweep home his 22nd goal of the season.

Any chance Arsenal had of getting into the game vanished in the 52nd minute when they once again carved Arsenal open on the counter-attack, this time it was Park Ji-Sung beating Almunia from just inside the box.

Arsenal did pull a goal back with 11 minutes to go when Thomas Vermaelen’s volley took a deflection off Jonny Evans. But that was a mere consolation goal. Arsenal’s youngsters were once again found wanting in a big game.

Manchester United and Arsenal kept the pressure on Chelsea at the top of England’s Premier League after both recorded easy wins tonight.

Manchester United cut the gap to Chelsea to two points after thrashing Wigan 5-0 for the second time this season.

United ran riot all night at Old Trafford and the only question was who many would they score. Wayne Rooney opened the scoring, with Michael Carrick and Rafael adding a third before half-time.

After the break, Dimitar Berbatov and man of the match Antonio Valencia added to United’s total. With the loss Wigan is now only one point above the relegation zone.

Arsenal moved to within four points of Chelsea as they easily handled bottom side Portsmouth 4-1.

Eduardo’s deflected free-kick got the Gunners of to a flying start and Samir Nasri made it 2-0 at half-time.

In the second half, Aaron Ramsey illustrated why he is one of the most promising young players in the Premier League with a brilliant solo effort after 69 minutes.

Nadir Belhadj pulled one back for Pompey, but Alex Song ended any hopes Portsmouth had of a comeback when he headed in a Nasri cross to complete the scoring.

Arsenal have a midweek date with Bolton next week, that will pull them to within 1 point of Chelsea if they can beat the manager-less Wanderers.

photo credit: Crystian Cruz

The knockout stage of the Champion’s League was drawn the other day and now we’ve got some clubs with big, fat smiles on their faces while others can already feel the doom and gloom of an impending loss to a VERY powerful club.

Internazionale drew Chelsea in a crapper that is going to sting all the way until the 90 minutes ends on the field.  Anybody want to explain how Internazionale plans on beating Chelsea when Chelsea is killing the Premier League as it is?  Yeah, I don’t.

What about Moscow and Sevilla?  I mean, Sevilla is sticking right there with Real Madrid and Barca and we think for a second that Moscow even belongs on the same field as Sevilla?  I don’t.

Stuttgart getting Barca is like Daniel-son in “Karate Kid” getting the automatic bid in the title match after he gets hurt.  We might as well pencil Barca into the final unless there is a outbreak of some horrible disease in Barcelona (which I’m not wishing on anybody…I’m just saying) Stuttgart is doomed.

Real Madrid gets Lyon (Benzema’s former home) and that one could be nice.  Lyon is playing well, Madrid is playing well, they have the whole “we hate Benzema for leaving” thing going on, and the general hate that comes along with a superstar-laden team like Madrid.  I can’t wait for that one!

Arsenal gets the gift of Porto (which Arsenal needs) and they can keep their momentum going to (hopefully) keep pace with Chelsea and ManU.  There’s nothing like a “one level down” team challenging the big boys (like Sevilla is doing in Spain and Arsenal is doing in England) and the beauty of these tournaments is that these clubs can continue their momentum OUTSIDE their league and make themselves seem unknown to their countrymen.  Think about it.  Arsenal makes a run through the Champion’s League and every team in England says “Oh crap, where did THEY come from!”  or Sevilla does the same thing and every Spanish team is left scratching their head trying to prepare for them.

Tomorrow we’ll cover the other matches and figure out how this Champion’s League thing is going to shake out.  There’s still alot of Soccer to be played, but alot of conversations to be had as well…