For the first time Premier League teams had to name a 25-man squad for the first half of the EPL season and there was a couple of surprises.

All 20 clubs had to submit a squad of up to 25 players containing no more than 17 players who do not qualify as homegrown. Homegrown players are classed as players who “irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday”.

U21 players (born on or after January 1 1989) do not have to count towards the 25-man squads. Changes to the squads can be made in January.

Left out of the Spurs squad was Jonathan Woodgate as Harry Redknapp decided to omit the injury-plagued defender who has a chronic groin problem. Woodgate made only three appearances last season and has not played at all since November. Specialist surgery in both America and Australia proved unsuccessful and Redknapp believes the player is in danger of having to retire.

Another former England player Owen Hargreaves got some good news today as Manchester United included him in their squad. Hargreaves has made only one substitute appearance in the last two years as he battles tendinitis in his knees.

Liverpool were only able to name 21 senior players in their 25-man squad as Rafa Benitez’s Spanish invasion left Liverpool short of home-grown players. Chelsea are in a similar situation as they could only name four homegrown players in their squad and as a result they only have 19 senior players in their squad. A rash of injuries to either Liverpool or Chelsea players could mean that their title ambitions will depend on the performance of a lot of young kids.

Official squads
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, Lukasz Fabianski, Cesc Fabregas, Laurent Koscielny, Vito Mannone, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Alexandre Song, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Sebastien Squillaci.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel; Brad Guzan; James Collins; Carlos Cuellar; Curtis Davies; Habib Beye; Richard Dunne; Eric Lichaj; Stephen Warnock; Luke Young; Stewart Downing; Jonathan Hogg; Stephen Ireland; Isaiah Osbourne; Stiliyan Petrov; Nigel Reo-Coker; Moustapha Salifou; Steve Sidwell; Ashley Young; Gabriel Agbonlahor; John Carew; Emile Heskey.

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Stephen Carr, David Murphy, Lee Bowyer, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, Kevin Phillips, Cameron Jerome, Garry O’Connor, Barry Ferguson, Colin Doyle, Matt Derbyshire, Scott Dann, James McFadden, Michel, Keith Fahy, Nikola Zigic, Stuart Parnaby, Alexander Hleb, Jean Beausejour, Ben Foster, Martin Jiranek, James O’Shea.

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Chris Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Nikola Kalinic, El-Hadji Diouf, Vince Grella, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Mark Bunn, Steven Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Michel Salgado, Jason Brown, Frank Fielding, Pascal Chimbonda, Mame Biram Diouf, Jason Roberts, Benjani.

Blackpool: Charlie Adam, Alex John-Baptiste, Chris Basham, Stephen Crainey, Malaury Martin, Daniel Coid, Ishmael Demontagnac, Neal Eardley, Robert Edwards, Jaso Euell, Ian Evatt, Matthew Gilks, Elliot Grandin, Marlon Harewood, Dekel Keinan, Brett Ormerod, Keith Southern, Ludovic Sylvestre, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Luke Varney, David Vaughan, DJ Campbell, David Carney.

Bolton: Robbie Blake, Adam Bogdan, Gary Cahill, Tamir Cohen, Kevin Davies, Mark Davies, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, Ricardo Gardner, Stuart Holden, Jussi Jaaskalainen, Ivan Klasnic, Zat Knight, Chung Yong-lee, Fabrice Muamba, Andy O’Brien, Joey O’Brien, Martin Petrov, Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson, Jlloyd Samuel, Gretar Steinsson, Matt Taylor, Al Al-Habsi.

Chelsea: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Yossi Benayoun, Didier Drogba, John Mikel Obi, Florent Malouda, Jose Bosingwa, Yury Zhirkov, Paulo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou, Ross Turnbull, John Terry, Alex, Nicolas Anelka, Henrique Hilario, Daniel Sturridge, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Josh McEachran.

Everton: Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Jan Mucha, Steven Pienaar, Iain Turner, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman, Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Louis Saha, Sylvain Distin, James Vaughan, John Heitinga, Victor Anichebe, Leigton Baines, Yakubu, Marouane Fellaini, Jermaine Beckford, Leon Osman.

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, David Stockdale, John Pantsil, Fredrik Stoor, Aaron Hughes, Rafik Halliche, Chris Baird, Brede Hangeland, Carlos Salcido, Stephen Kelly, Zoltan Gera, Clinton Dempsey, Bjorn Helge Riise, Dickson Etuhu, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Danny Murphy, Jonathan Greening, Simon Davies, Damien Duff, Andrew Johnson, Diomansy Kamara, Moussa Dembele, Bobby Zamora, David Elm, Eddie Johnson.

Liverpool: Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole, Stephen Darby, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Jay Spearing, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Ryan Babel, Milan Jovanovic, Dirk Kuyt, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Christian Poulsen, Pepe Reina, Maxi Rodriguez, Martin Skrtel, Fernando Torres

Manchester City: Shay Given, Joe Hart, Stuart Taylor, Jerome Boateng, Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Shaleum Logan, Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, James Milner, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Patrick Vieira, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez.

Manchester United: Ben Amos, Darren Fletcher, Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson, Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Park Ji-Sung, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Gary Neville, Dimitar Berbatov, John O’Shea, Javier Hernandez, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney.

Newcastle: Sol Campbell, Steven Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands, Jose Enrique, Alan Smith, Leon Best, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge, Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Xisco, Fraser Forster, Tim Krul, James Perch, Cheik Tiote, Hatem ben Arfa.

Stoke: Asmir Begovic, Danny Collins, Rory Delap, Salif Diao, Matthew Etherington, Abdoulaye Faye, Ricardo Fuller, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Danny Higginbotham, Robert Huth, Kenwyne Jones, Carlo Nash, Jermaine Pennant, Danny Pugh, Ryan Shawcross, Thomas Sorensen, Tuncay Sanli, Ryan Shotton, Tom Soares, Michael Tonge, Jonathan Walters, Glenn Whelan, Dean Whitehead, Andy Wilkinson, Marc Wilson.

Sunderland: Marcos Angeleri, Phil Bardsley, Darren Bent, Titus Bramble, Fraizer Campbell, Trevor Carson, Lee Cattermole, Paulo Da Silva, Ahmed El Mohamady, Anton Ferdinand, Craig Gordon, Asamoah Gyan, David Healy, Steed Malbranque, George McCartney, John Mensah, Simon Mignolet, Nedum Onuoha, Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Crisitjan Riveros, Michael Turner, Robbie Weir, Boudewijn Zenden.

Tottenham: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastian Bassong, David Bentley, Vedran Corluka, Peter Crouch, Carlo Cudicini, Heurelho Gomes, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, William Gallas, Tom Huddlestone, Alan Hutton, Jermaine Jenas, Younes Kaboul, Robbie Keane, Ledley King, Niko Kranjcar, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Kyle Naughton, Jamie O’Hara, Wilson Palacios, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Stipe Pletikosa, Rafael van der Vaart.

West Brom: Giles Barnes; Roman Bednar; Chris Brunt; Scott Carson; Marek Cech; Simon Cox; Graham Dorrans; Marc-Antoine Fortune; Pablo Ibanez; Gonzalo Jara; Dean Kiely; Abdoulaye Meite; Ishmael Miller; James Morrison; Youssouf Mulumbu; Boaz Myhill; Peter Odemwingie; Jonas Olsson; Steven Reid; Paul Scharner; Nicky Shorey; Gabriel Tamas; Somen Tchoyi; Jerome Thomas; Gianni Zuiverloon.

West Ham: Ruud Boffin, Robert Green, Tal Ben Haim, Manuel da Costa, Danny Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Lars Jacobsen, Winston Reid, Jonathan Spector, Matthew Upson, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami, Jack Collison, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Radoslav Kovac, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Pablo Barrera, Carlton Cole, Zavon Hines, Benni McCarthy, Victor Obinna, Frederic Piquionne.

Wigan: Chris Kirkland, Mike Pollitt, Charles N’Zogbia, Emmerson Boyce, Gary Caldwell, Ben Watson, Hendry Thomas, Ronnie Stam, Jordi Gomez, Hugo Rodallega, Mohamed Diame, Maynor Figueroa, Steve Gohouri, Daniel De Ridder, Ali Al-Habsi, Antolin Alcaraz, James McArthur, Mauro Boselli.

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann; Wayne Hennessey; Carl Ikeme; Kevin Foley; Ronald Zubar; Richard Stearman; Jody Craddock; Christophe Berra; Steven Mouyokolo; George Elokobi; Stephen Ward; Jelle van Damme; Karl Henry; David Jones; Michael Mancienne; Dave Edwards; Greg Halford; Nenad Milijas; Adlene Guedioura; Matt Jarvis; Stephen Hunt; Kevin Doyle; Steven Fletcher; Sylvan Ebanks-Blake; Marcus Bent.

photo credit:http://www.gfdb.com/Player.6627.Owen-Hargreaves.aspx

When Mourinho talks, you most certainly know that he is going to say something that annoys his most vocal opponents. Never been the one to sugar coat things, Mourinho speaks his mind clearly without fear or favour. Just yesterday, Mourinho was at it again, this time he was speaking his mind about the England national team and the reason why he thinks they will never win any trophies with Capello as their manager.

What makes it even worse for all his critics is that he has the accomplishments and accolades to back up his big talk. The self proclaimed special one pointed out during an interview with the Daily Mirror that Capello’s harsh, no nonesense approach to the game has left the players ‘confused’.

I agree with Mourinho. I mean football is sport that is meant to be enjoyed. I have never seen Capello smile not even when they win by big scorelines. From my reckoning, the England players are more afraid of screwing up than they are about losing.

“It is clear. Capello will not work for England,” “He does not know the players. They are frightened of him and they can’t play for him.”

“For me, it is a mess for England. Players need clear tactics. They cannot be confused about what they have to do. It is the manager’s fault. And it is a big shame.”

“The problem is the manager. He has a one-track relationship with players. Ask anyone here at Real Madrid. He can’t change. You cannot go around just shouting at players. They need to feel special.”

You have to agree that Mourinho has a point. A perfect case study would have to be his own relationship with Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry while he was still the manager of Chelsea.

That player-coach bond was an integral part of the Blues back to back success in 04/05 and 05/06. Playing under a manager who is keenly interested in bringing out the best in you is a far more positive strategy than trying to coerce or instil fear.

These statement might not change the FA’s choice however, they do speak volumes about the Three Lion’s chances in Euro 2012 should they qualify.

Photo credit: from & Golden Boy &

A look at the winners and losers in week two of the 2010-2011 Premier League Season

Winners
Gareth Bale
Another brilliant performance by the best left footed player in the Premier League.

Chelsea
Played two, won two. Scored twelve and conceded none.

When Roman Abramovich hired Carlo Ancelotti last season, one of his mandates to Ancelotti was that he wanted Chelsea to play a more attacking, attractive, style of football. Abramovich is getting what he wanted as Chelsea have now scored six or more goals in five or their last ten Premier League matches. A historic run that might never be repeated.

Andy Carroll
After missing a great chance to but Newcastle on the board against Manchester United last week, Carroll rebounded to score the first Premier League hat-trick by a Newcastle player in five years.

Ben Foster
Last week is was Joe Hart getting all the praise for his performance against Spurs and this week it is Foster getting the rave reviews for his performance against Blackburn. Suddenly England’s goalkeeping problems do not seem as bad as they were three weeks ago.

Arsenal
As Arsenal were hammering Blackpool, Arsene Wenger used the game as an opportunity to give Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie thirty minutes of action as he continues to ease them back into action after the World Cup. Any ambition’s that Arsenal had of winning a trophy last season ended with the injuries to Fabregas and van Persie. It is good to see Wenger taking his time bringing them back this season.

Losers
Kevin MacDonald
After last week’s impressive win at home at the draw in the Europa League, all the pundits had Kevin MacDonald all but named the new Villa manager. After a 6-0 thrashing at Newcastle, Villa will be looking elsewhere for a new boss,

Manchester United
Once again, United are playing catch-up to Chelsea. Last season they dropped points to Burnley (and missed a penalty) and this time they drop points at Fulham (and missed a penalty).

Jonny Evans
Evans was given a torrid time by Bobby Zamora, but his performance should not be a surprise to anyone who watched Evans struggle all pre-season. Unfortunately for United fans, Evans still played better than Chris Smalling. Suddenly the heart of the Manchester United, which two years ago was rock-solid looks weak and vulnerable without the often injured Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, who does not look like the player he was 10 months ago.

West Ham
Horrendous start to the season for West Ham and with their next three games against Manchester United and Chelsea and away to Stoke it could be mid September before the Hammers get their first points of the season.

The Neymar transfer saga seems to be ending at least for now. English champions Chelsea are set to withdraw their offer as Santos are bound to make Neymar their highest paid player ever.

Many are not ready to see another rare talent go to waste and that is why there is so much hue and cry surrounding this transfer.  There is no doubt that the 18 year old is one of the country’s hottest talents, however, many including Pele and Mario Zagallo and even Brazil‘s current coach Mano Menezes have expressed their desire to see Neymar stay in Brazil.

Chelsea were reportedly ready to sign Neymar for 25 million Pounds however, the realisation that Santos could be losing their best player led club president Luis Alvaro Oliveira to make Neymar a Lucrative offer to keep him in Brazil.

Santos are offering to pay Neymar 270,000 Euros per month in addition to a portion of the club’s commercial deals. Its obvious that Neymar has attracted a lot of attention. Whether he deserves it or not, is a debate for another day. What i do know, is that Chelsea will not give up on him that easy.

After signing fellow Brazilian team mate Ramires from Benfica last week, the Blues were looking to top it all up with Neymar. 40,000 Pounds per week for a teen no matter how good he is a little bit too much especially if they do not know how to handle such sums of money.

Now, don’t get me wrong Neymar is worth it, i just think that it might get to his head and affect his abilities however, that’s just my opinion. For now though, Neymar remains a Santos players.

Photo credit: from nomedigasqno_15

The Premier League season kicked off this weekend and that means that it is time for another edition of Premier League Winners and Losers.

Winners
Chelsea
Written off a week ago by many pundits after losing to Manchester United in the Charity Shield, the champions showed the sort of form on Saturday that won them the title last year. Carlos Ancelotti has helped turn Stamford Bridge back into a fortress and Chelsea have now win their last three home league games by a combined score line of 21-0.

With upcoming games against Wigan, Stoke, West Ham and Blackpool, Chelsea have a great opportunity to pad their goal totals before their season starts in earnest after the Blackpool game when they play Man City , Arsenal and Aston Villa in consecutive games.

Blackpool
No team in recent memory has entered the Premier League with as low expectations as Blackpool. They are expected to finish bottom of the league and challenge Derby’s record of 11 points in the 2007-2008 season. With the thrashing of Wigan on Saturday, Blackpool already possess a quarter of the points that Derby got!

Blackpool probably will still get relegated this season but for one glorious Saturday in August Blackpool gave their fans something to cheer about as they were top of the league for a couple of hours.

Aston Villa
It’s been a tough week for Aston Villa with manager Martin O’Neil walking out on the team less than a week before the season began. The Holt End showed that they are behind owner Randy Lerner and Kevin MacDonald.

Villa have slipped out of most pundits top seven group but Saturday’s performance showed that overlooking Villa this season might be a mistake.

Darren Bent
25 goals in 39 league appearances since his transfer to Sunderland. Tell me again Capello why he did not make the England World Cup squad?

Gareth Bale
Another brilliant performance from someone who is now the best left-footed player in the Premier League.

Joe Hart
Showed why he is the best English goalkeeper. Not James or Green.

Losers
Manchester City
Title contenders? Not on this performance. Man City were a distant second to Spurs and if it was not for the heroics of Joe Hart, Tottenham could have won 3-0.

Roberto Mancini said after the game that he needs more time before we see the real City; “I think we will need one month, maybe two months, to make it work” The problem for Mancini is that City have to play Liverpool (h), Sunderland (a), Chelsea (h) in the next month.

Wigan
When you are a team that is going to be around the relegation zone all season, you need to win your home games against your fellow relegation strugglers. To lose 4-0 to Blackpol on opening day is inexcusable.

Chris Kirkland, Robert Green and Scott Carson
It’s not been a good summer for English goalkeepers.

West Ham
With the end-of-August engagement at Manchester United followed by a date with Chelsea and then a trip to Stoke, next week’s clash with Bolton is the first must-win match of the campaign.

Joe Cole
Lasted less than 45 minutes before getting sent off and will now miss Liverpool’s next three league games. With each passing game, it looks more and more unlikely that Cole will ever be able to regain the form he showed before injuring his knee.

Fulham
Crawling on where they never got going last season: In their 23 away games since that win at Manchester City in April 2009, Fulham have scored just fourteen goals.

photo credit: sonyds

Arguably one of the greatest players of all time, Edson Arantes do Nascimento aka Pele is the latest to chip in on Brazilian starlet Neymar’s transfer saga. The 69 year old legend is apparently trying to persuade the teenager to remain in Brazil at least until his game has matured enough.

After watching one of the country’s best talent (Robinho) under perform in Europe, Pele is not prepared to see another talent ruined and neither am i. The Santos forward is regarded as the Selecao’s main hope when they host the World Cup in 4 years time.

Pele is obviously concerned about the future of Brazilian football and he should because the country twice went into the World Cup 2006 and 2010 as favourites and failed to make it past the quarter final stages.

Looking for that 6th World title which will cement their status as the most successful football nation of all time is becoming a very daunting task as the years go by.

Brazil are also looking to win the World Cup on home soil for the very first time. The Samba nation were hosts of this tournament back in 1950 losing out to Uruguay in the final.

A lot of hope has been heaped on the young shoulders of Neymar, Pato and Ganso with many already believing that this current crop of players could match the greats of 1970, 1982 and 2002.

I completely agree with Pele. Leaving Santos will not be the best decision, however, with the game being largely influenced by money, its only a matter of time before Santos give in to Chelsea‘s financial might. I do hope though, that it takes longer than expected.

Photo credit: from desbyrnephotos

What a day it was for Blackpool fans. After waiting all summer, the team that everyone has tipped to get relegated, went to Wigan and thrashed Wigan 4-0 to move top of the Premier League for a couple of hours.

This was a great performance by Blackpool who were dominant from the start with Gary Taylor-Fletcher on his own at the far post where he tucked home Marlon Harewood’s 16th-minute cross. A terrible mistake from Latics skipper Chris Kirkland gifted Harewood Blackpool’s second before the burly striker added another two minutes before the break. The fourth arrived when an attempted cross from Alex Baptiste deceived the blundering Kirkland to creep in at the near post, completing a remarkable result.

For two hours Blackpool lead the Premier League, that was until the champions played. Picking up where they left off last season Chelsea hammered West Brom 6-0 with Didier Drogba getting a hat-trick.

Florent Malouda got Chelsea off on the right foot after only six minutes, then a Drogba free-kick doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time. The second half was one-way traffic as Drogba netted from close range with Frank Lampard making it 4-0 just after the hour. Drogba’s deflected effort and a last-minute strike from Malouda sealed an emphatic win for the champions.

Manchester City‘s summer spending spree may have rocketed past the £100million mark but they could still only launch the season with a goalless draw at Tottenham. The opening match of the new top-flight season gave little indication of City’s ability to challenge for the title.

They survived a first-half onslaught from Spurs with Joe Hart fully justifying his new position as City and England number one with a succession of world-class saves. Hart denied Jermain Defoe, Tom Huddlestone and Benoit Assou-Ekotto, while Gareth Bale also hit the post.

City’s multi-million-pound summer signings were anonymous in the first half but finally turned up after the break, though it was Shaun Wright-Phillips who had their best chance.

Stewart Downing, Stiliyan Petrov and James Milner ensured Aston Villa began life without Martin O’Neill with a resounding 3-0 win against West Ham. West Ham’s defending was comical at times and Villa surged ahead in the 15th minute when Robert Green parried Ashley Young’s fierce cross out to Marc Albrighton, who volleyed the rebound goalwards and forced the West Ham keeper into a diving save.

Green could only push the ball to Downing who scored from the six-yard line and he was beaten for a second time by an emphatic header from Petrov. Manchester City target Milner scored what could possibly be his last goal for managerless Villa when he struck from the edge of the area.

Birmingham fought back from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw against 10-man Sunderland, who saw captain Lee Cattermole dismissed for two yellow cards. Sunderland opened the scoring when Fraizer Campbell was brought down by Stephen Carr and the penalty was rifled home by Darren Bent.

Cattermole was sent off with two minutes of the first half, but Sunderland still added a second through an own goal from Carr. Birmingham pulled one back thanks to a header from Scott Dann and the comeback was completed when Liam Ridgewell bundled home the equaliser during a frantic scramble for the ball. Great point for Birmingham and two terrible dropped points for Sunderland

Striker Nikola Kalinic capitalised on an error by Tim Howard, who dropped a routine cross, to secure Blackburn a 1-0 victory against Everton at Ewood Park.

And a superb goal from David Jones helped Wolves to a 2-1 triumph in their home clash with Stoke. Karl Henry passed a free-kick to Jones, who lifted the ball and crashed home a 20-yard looping shot on the volley. Steven Fletcher doubled the score with a header at the far post before Stoke pulled one back when Abdoulaye Faye nodded in a cross.

Mark Hughes’ first match as Fulham manager finished in a goalless draw at Bolton. Arsenal target Mark Schwarzer, who has handed in a transfer request, was left out of the Fulahm squad with David Stockdale taking the gloves.

photo credit: sonyds

If there is one thing i like about Arsenal fans, it has to be their ‘religious fanaticism’ especially here in Nairobi. With the Gunners facing a very hard opening match against Liverpool tomorrow at Anfield, there is even more reason to celebrate as their long serving coach Arsene Wenger signed a contract extension yesterday that will see him stay with the London club for another 4 years.

You would have to Walk on the streets of downtown Nairobi on any given weekend to see what i mean. Every other jersey you see is literally an Arsenal jersey. Sure, Manchester United,  Chelsea and Liverpool do have ardent fans, however, the Arsenal faithful make them look totally insignificant.

Personally, i am more of a Chelsea fan, however, i have to admit that i do enjoy watching Arsenal play (of course for reasons that are very obvious). That said, Arsenal is at least assured that their coach won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Not only is Wenger the longest serving Arsenal coach, he is also the club’s most successful winning three Premier League titles and two FA Cup titles.

“My heart belongs to Arsenal and my desire is to see this team win silverware. My commitment and drive are as strong and fresh as ever. Signing a new deal means that I can see this talented group of players reach their potential. Trust me, they are ready to deliver.”

“I believe there are decisive years in front of us, but as well, very exciting years in front of us because the team has matured a lot, there is a lot of potential and that is what I want to show, that we have made the right decisions and that we can win.”

No one doubts Arsenal’s abilities. They normally start off well until about November when they just seem to lose the plot. I do not know how long they can stay without winning titles, because from the way i see things , the players are more desperate and hungrier for titles than the fans.

Photo credit: from Ronnie Macdonald

Santos have reiterated that their star player Neymar will only be leaving Brazil if the Blues can come up with the 28.75 million Pounds release fee. After a good display against the USA on Tuesday, Chelsea have once again shown interest in the teen prodigy.

Neymar and Pato combined well to give Brazil a deserved victory after a rather poor performance from their stars in the World Cup. In fact both players are being compared to the Ronaldo and Rivaldo killer partnership that was so effective in the 2002 finals.

Chelsea’s initial bid of 17 million Pounds was rejected and it does not seem likely that the London outfit will be ready to part with anything higher than 20 million for the starlet.

According to Santos president,  if Chelsea can raise the release fee, then they can buy him.

“The clause is there,” he told the Brazilian press. “If they pay it, they can take him.”

To be honest, Neymar would be a great option for Chelsea however, Santos should be concerned with nurturing his talent than making money. At only 18 Neymar still has a lot to learn. Moreover, his style of play is not suited to the EPL.

Moving to England could result in a catastrophic consequences for his career- a good example being fellow club mate Robinho. I don’t know if its just me, but i have noticed that most Brazilian who play in the EPL rarely play for their National side. And the few who do are not too good either.

Now,  the EPL is a fantastic league however, i just don’t think it is suited for the Brazilians. Another perfect example would be Kleberson. A perfect 2002 World Cup, Sir Alex Ferguson quickly signed him however, the Brazilian only should glimpses of his talent before being sold.

Anderson is also another Brazilian who rarely plays for his national team. Now, these might be only selected players however, they do speak volumes about the Brazilian style of play.

While the English focus more on technique and physique, the Brazilians are more focused on attacking and flair.  This is the major reason why many Brazilians do not play in England at least according to me.

Photo credit: from nomedigasqno_15

Real Madrid have signed defender Ricardo Carvalho from Chelsea, the English Premier League champions announced on their web site.

“Chelsea Football Club can confirm it has agreed terms with Real Madrid for the transfer of Ricardo Carvalho. The transfer is subject to a medical and the player agreeing personal terms. Chelsea would like to thank Riccy for his six years of service, and we wish him well in his future career.”

The transfer is not a surprise after the 32-year-old Carvalho told Spanish sports daily last month that it would be “a dream” for him to be reunited with Mourinho at the Bernabeu.

“If there was a possibility to sign with Real Madrid, I would go there right now swimming or running. It would be a dream to be able to play for Madrid, which I consider to be the best club in the world, and follow the orders of the best coach in the history of football. With Mourinho I experienced two marvellous stages at Porto and Chelsea. To have the opportunity to win another Champions League with him at Real Madrid would be tremendous.”

With the new Premier League squad rules, Chelsea are at a situation where they cannot add an over-21 year-old player unless they sold one. So expect Chelsea to confirm the signing of Ramires to become official now.

photo credit: Free-ers