Is Arsenal's Future Really Bleak?

Not so long ago, they were known as "The Invincibles". Arsenal earned that epithet during the 2003-04 Premiership campaign, when they lifted the crown after going through the entire league season undefeated. No other team stood a chance against the mighty Gunners as they went about eliminating every rival that dared cross their path, with clinical precision. However, the guns have fallen silent, in recent years. They have gone past six trophy-less seasons since making the 2005 FA Cup their own. The current Arsenal team is a mere shadow of the Invincibles led by Patrick Vieira. They have not even been able to mount a title challenge during the ongoing season. The recent turn of events is sufficient to shake the belief of the most die-hard Arsenal fan. Arsenal critics foresee a downfall akin to that suffered by Leeds United. Can Arsenal prove their nay-sayers wrong? Or, is their future really bleak?

To understand Gunners' current predicament, one has to go back to the early 2000's when the team decided to shift from Highbury, their home ground for 93 years, to Ashburton Grove, now known as the Emirates. The construction of the £390 million stadium was funded by loans, sponsorship deals and sales of some of the club's star players, notably Nicolas Anelka, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit. The loans put enormous stress on the club's finances. They were no longer able to compete with financial heavy-weights, like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea, in the transfer market. While other clubs spent millions of dollars on buying the best players in the game, Arsenal watched helplessly from the sidelines. To add to the inability to buy new talent, the Emirates outfit could not even retain its star players like Thierry Henry, Ashley Cole, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri who left one by one. Things have come to such a pass that one cannot but wonder whether Arsenal can ever assemble another bunch of players capable of recapturing the club's past glory.

Despite their handicaps, Arsenal possess some powerful weapons they can bring to bear on their future prospects. Chief among these are the club's youth academy and the reserves team that provides an endless supply of exceptionally talented footballers to the senior side. The most recent examples are the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Wojciech Szczesny, Alex Song and Kieran Gibbs, who are barely into their twenties, are already first-team regulars. Carl Jenkinson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ryo Myiachi and Wellington Silva are exciting prospects for the future. Gunners' scouts spot talented players at a very young age and train them in the academy. The scout system attracts young talent from the world over; the youth team and reserves comprise players from Bolivia in the West to Japan in the East, thereby underscoring how well established the system has become.

Manchester City Revives Joys of Over 4 Decades

After a historic season finale on May 13th the Premier League has a 2011-12 Champion and raising the cup is Roberto Mancini with his Sky Blues men.

The waiting was long for the Citizens side, which didn't achieve this honour since 1968. Besides it was a tough come back to the top, since they had to give away the first position to Manchester United with only 8 fixtures left to the final round and some tough rivals to confront. The Sky Blues certainly deserved to win this campaign since they spent more than half of the season at the peak of the table and gave us brilliant performances in most of their meetings. But both Mancini and Ferguson's sides knew that Manchester City couldn't celebrate the title until the very last match was conquered; and Queens Park Rangers definitely wouldn't give it away easily.

The Citizens started confident and during the first half they had several chances to score; in fact City's total shots during the whole game was twelve times better than QPR, which only had 3 shots. During the first half, following the news about the United-Sunderland clash had filter in, the Citizens grabbed the lead with a beautiful goal from inside the penalty box from Pablo Zabaleta (39') -his first and only goal for the season. By the return from the interval QPR started worrying, as in the Britannia Stadium Bolton was taking the lead, which put them on the relegation zone. So, quickly the Rangers pulled out their strength and with Djibril Cisse upfront they balanced the scoreboard.

A Premier League Hangover

The weeks after the Premier League season finishes are a tough test for football fans. They know that a nine -month long discussion of great goals, footballing tactics and controversial chickens must come to an end, leaving football fans with a terrible hangover.

So, it is a natural reaction for fans to look back and analyse every possible talking point of the season. Who was the best player, the best team, the biggest disappointment? The same questions are asked each year, in the knowledge that by the next week these conversations will cease to exist.

Yet, this has been a season to remember, and on Sunday the Premier League ended with one of the greatest finishes in footballing history. This hangover will last longer than most.

Man City's 44-year wait for glory over their neighbours came down to five excruciating minutes. With the score at 2-1 to QPR and only stoppage time to play, Roberto Mancini looked on the verge of madness. However, once Edin Dzeko headed the equaliser for Man City the stadium erupted again. Then Aguero's winner showed the touch of class that has made Man City worthy champions this season.

Around the English Premier League - Round 36

The Manchester derby gave us 90 minutes of thrilling football that ended up returning City to the Premier's throne with a single goal from Kompany.

The last match of this round was the Manchester derby that everyone was waiting for and as expected it was a rollercoaster of emotions at a packed Etihad Stadium. Both clubs fought hard and although the teams had almost 50/50 ball possession the Sky Blues certainly did a better job attacking its rivals. Manchester City even could've earned at least a couple of goals more, since there were some shots to David De Gea's goal that passed by really close from the frame.

The Sky Blues gave a wonderful performance, especially Zabaleta and Yaya Toure, which were defending all around the field, assisting their partners, recovering and blocking every time the Red Devils were near the hosts' box. Mancini's men even tripled the total shots from MU; nonetheless the victory arrived with a headed goal. Starting the injury time for first half, David Silva took a corner that barely escaped from Chris Smalling and instead was intercepted by Vincent Kompany, who headed it over an anxious De Gea.

At the return of the break, even with Ferguson's side aware of what losing meant for them, still they couldn't do much against the attack from their strengthen neighbors in light blue. In fact it was during the second half that the Citizens got the best chances of scoring, with shots from Toure and the Frenchmen Samir Nasri and Gael Glichy. On the other hand, the coaches had their own dispute at 76', when Nigel De Jong tackled Danny Welbeck and Sir Ferguson accused the Italian coach of trying to influence the officials. Luckily it didn't get worst then a discussion that lasted a couple of minutes, but some of the people around they get in between to stop the clash.

Chelsea Vs Liverpool: A Tale Of Modern Rivalry

In the past "70's and 80's" anything called rivalry between these two teams can only be greeted with great contempt as these teams are world apart. Their rivalry surely lacked the history of the Merseyside derby and the bite of Liverpool vs Manchester United. I would explain these with the words of Tim Rolls of Chelsea fanzine CFCUK: "In the past Chelsea was basically rubbish" wow, that is cold isn't it? Well the truth hurts but it is still true. Liverpool won four European cups between the 70's and the 80's and were a much bigger team to reckon with at that time.

However, the rivalry can be traced to 2003 "the arrival of big money for Chelsea". So many things have changed since then and again the words of Tim Roll gives us a clear insight: "In the last ten years Chelsea have been far more successful, Liverpool are obsessed with singing about history but I think it is time they move on"... Another cold truth if you ask me.

The first chessman was moved and the game started as far back as May 2003 when these two team clashed in the European cup semi-final. At that time Chelsea were 30pts ahead of the Reds in the premiership, and have beaten Liverpool in both league games. And to further fuel the rivalry there were rumours of Steven Gerard joining the revolution of Jose Mourinho at that time as the arrival of Roman Abramovic meant that money was available to spend for the blues. However the Reds carried the day to reach their first final in 20years and it would be an immortal encounter when Garcia scored what was called the ghost goal to seal the win for Liverpool 1-0. It was on ever since then.

Who Says Dalglish To Get Sacked?

Kenny Dalglish is a Scottish former footballer and Liverpool legend player. He was second striker for Liverpool and scored 118 goals in total 335 matches he played for Liverpool. Till since he has been showing his full effort for Liverpool as after getting retired in games, he is now managing the team. Kenny is present manager of Liverpool Football club appointed on 2011.

There have been lots of rumors and backbiting on Liverpool FC manager due to team's poor performance in the English Premier league. Some LFC supporters are asking for Dalglish's resign while some Fans shows pure faith on the Scottish legendary man. Dalglish has already managed the team back in 1985 for 6 years time where he assigned as the player-manager of the team.

Current 2011-2012 season has not been great for Liverpool. They suffered many defeats in the Premier league and stand in the eight position of the league table. They were just able to win 13 out of their 36 games played till now. Their loss and draws mostly included the home game. The team was not able to meet the satisfaction of their followers in the home which made them think about Dalglish.

Chelsea Defeat Liverpool To Win the 2012 FA Cup

Chelsea beat Liverpool in the 2012 Football Association (FA) Cup Final in a dramatic game at Wembley Stadium in London. Chelsea veteran Didier Drogba again proved to be the match winner as he scored the decisive second goal for the Blues which was enough for them to survive a late Liverpool fight back after a controversial goal line decision, which could have seen Liverpool equalise.

Drogba set a record to become the first player to score in four separate FA Cup finals, as Chelsea, who's season seemed to be in turmoil just a few weeks ago, have been rejuvenated under the guidance of interim manager Roberto di Matteo and picked up the silverware which is now the seventh time the Blues have won the trophy. Interim coach di Matteo, who now must be a serious contender for the permanent mangers job at Stamford Bridge, also joined the elite club of those who have won the FA Cup both as a player and as a manager, after his cup successes as a Chelsea player in the 1997 and 2000 seasons.

Despite a disappointing Premier League seasons for both teams, this was an excellent opportunity to win a major trophy. After a cautious start to the game by both sides, the game burst into life in the eleventh minutes when Ramires broke clear and beat Pepe Reina at the near post to give the Blues an early lead. The Liverpool goalkeeper was clearly disappointed to be beaten by a shot he should probably have saved. Drogba who is now synonymous with the big occasion scored Chelsea's second goal early into the second half after a sublime pass from Frank Lampard, slotting the ball coolly passed Reina into the corner of the goal.The second goal and a the introduction of Andy Carroll finally roused Liverpool from their slumber as they attempted to make yet another cup final fight back. Chelsea had been relatively untroubled for the first hour of the game as the usually inspirational Steven Gerrard was kept quiet and inform Luis Suarez was kept quiet, but a poor clearance from Blues captain John Terry gave Liverpool their chance and some clever footwork from Carroll allowed him a shot on goal which gave Petr Cech little chance. The Reds could now sense a second goal and laid siege to the Chelsea goal for the remainder of the game.