Monthly Archives: November 2015

Guest Post By Karl Matchett

 

A late Willian goal gave Chelsea a much-needed 2-1 victory in the Champions League in midweek, leading some to label the goal a "Mark Robins" moment-the goal which saved the manager's job, in other words, after the infamous goal scored by the former Manchester United striker which urban legend claims saved Alex Ferguson's job, back before he became a multiple title-winner.

 

Jose Mourinho doesn't need such interventions to send him on to unprecedented success at his current club; the Portuguese boss won the Premier League title just six months ago yet has seen his largely unchanged squad fall short domestically and abroad this term, with Chelsea struggling for consistency at either end of the pitch and enduring disciplinary problems off it too.

 

Tuesday's round of UEFA Champions League group stage fixtures saw the first pair of teams securing assured slots in the tournament's next phase. Both Real Madrid and Manchester City now have strong enough standings in their groups that they are guaranteed of either first or second place. The Vikings, in particular, have been dynamite so far in the prestigious European tournament, with three wins and one draw under their belts so far. More impressive, Real Madrid beat PSG in 2015 UCL group stage play, Paris Saint Germain were one of the tougher opponents in this year's UCL but the Vikings held their own and took three points.

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A Tough Opponent

Indeed, Paris Saint Germain are a soccer superpower in their home country, where they've won three consecutive Ligue 1 titles. However, the football club, who have

Aston Villa needs a hero. Following a crushing 1-3 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on Monday, the Lions have officially dropped to the last place on the 2015 2016 Premier League table. 11 games into the season, the Lions have only picked up four points, winning one match, drawing another, and losing the remaining nine. They are two points behind Sunderland, currently their nearest competition.

With how awful Aston Villa's start to the 2015 2016 has been, it was only a matter of time before manager Tim Sherwood was fired from his position. Now, just a week and a day after Sherwood's October 25^th sacking, Aston Villa appoint Remi Garde as their new manager, will he be the clubs hero?

New Blood

On November 2^nd, following their loss against Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa announced that they had officially appointed Remi Garde as their new club manager. Garde, a former defender and defensive midfielder,

My what a difference a week makes. In the Italian Serie A, the 2015 2016 season has been thoroughly unpredictable so far, and this past weekend's fixtures did nothing to solidify things at the top of the table. Last week, AS Roma were leading the way following a 3-1 home win against Udinese. This weekend, Inter Milan top Roma in one of this season's key Serie A fixtures to take 2^nd place in league standings, forcing AS Roma into 3rd.

Indeed, unlike in other European soccer leagues, where clear frontrunners have begun to emerge (Manchester City and Arsenal in the Premier League; Real Madrid and Barcelona in the La Liga; Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga), the Serie A is a jumble of four clear contenders at the top of the table. Roma and Inter Milan are two of them while the others are Fiorentina and Napoli.

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Guest Post By Karl Matchett

 

Tottenham Hotspur continue a busy and critical week with a Europa League on Thursday evening, at home to Anderlecht, and manager Mauricio Pochettino should be seriously considering playing his strongest available side despite the looming North London derby at the weekend.

 

Having already beaten Aston Villa 3-1 on Monday night, Spurs are now on a run of just two defeats since the opening day of the season and have won back-to-back league games for the first time in more than a month. With the manager finally looking like he has solved the central midfield pairing and with the goals flowing freely, consistency is everything for Spurs in a big week and despite the close proximity of the next two games to each other, a full-on assault for the Europa League should be considered a priority.

 

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There was an interesting narrative to explore on Saturday, as the further implosion of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea side corresponded with the moment where Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool squad finally seemed to come into their own. Klopp hadn't won any Premier League matches since he took over at Anfield early in October, securing draws against Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton. The German manager won his first game in charge last week, though, coaching the Reds to a 1-0 League Cup win against AFC Bournemouth. By beating Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Klopp has officially notched his first Premier League win; many others are sure to follow. But Chelsea's loss to Liverpool is perhaps slightly more significant for the Blues.

Following the loss it's unclear how many matches Jose Mourinho has left at Chelsea. The Portuguese manager has had monumental success in his two stints with the Blues, coaching the football club to three Premier League titles, three League Cups, one FA Cup, and

On October 24^th, in a Premier League fixture against West Ham United, Chelsea FC picked up half a dozen yellow cards, while one player and two coaches-including manager Jose Mourinho-were sent off for misconduct. After the Wear-Tyne Derby between Newcastle United and Sunderland, soccer pundits roundly panned the game's referee for making a bad call that virtually decided the outcome of the match. And after a loss against Lazio in the Europa League, St. Etienne manager Bernard Caiazzo criticized the referee as a "disgrace to football," citing his "malevolence and incompetence."

Stories like this aren't particularly rare. Soccer fans have been taking out their frustrations on referees for generations now. But disrespect toward referees seems to have hit a fever pitch this season, with Chelsea's Jose Mourinho especially coming under fire for his behavior in interactions with match officials.

The question is, why is referee disrespect such a big problem? Are

In July, Josep Maria Bartomeu was officially re-elected as the President of FC Barcelona, with more than half the votes (54.6 percent, to be exact) tallied in his favor. Now, the President has outlined his six-year vision for Barca football club.

Information about Bartomeu's six-year plan was posted on Barca's official website on Saturday, October 25^th. In his speech about his vision for Barcelona's future, Bartomeu expressed his belief that the soccer club is currently "in fantastic shape." Those comments were backed up by Barca's winning performance on October 25^th, which saw Luis Suarez scoring a hat trick to give the team a 3-1 win against Eibar. The win put Barcelona in second place in the 2015 2016, separated from Real Madrid's point leaders by nothing but goal difference.

The England national football team have never won a European Championship title. They've competed in the tournament eight times over the years (there have been 14 incarnations of the event) and have even gone to the semifinals twice. So far, though, the Three Lions remain winless in UEFA's largest international football competition. In preparation for 2016's we are asking can Premier League managers help England score a win?

Euro Frontrunners?

Still, in spite of England's surprising lack of success at Euro, there is plenty of buzz going around proclaiming that 2016 is the year. It's not difficult to see why, either: the England national team roared to a dominant performance in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, winning all 10 of their games for the only perfect score in the entire soccer competition. They also scored 31 goals while only allowing three, earning the best goal difference of any team in the competition.

These

Up until now, the 2015 2016 Football League Cup has been largely predictable. Sure, Tottenham Hotspur, last season's tournament runner-up, bowed out in the round of 32. So did West Ham United, who have been surprisingly solid in the Premier League this fall. For the most part, though, the big teams made it to the League Cup's fourth round-including heavyweights like Chelsea, Arsenal, the two Manchester Clubs, and Liverpool.

As if sensing that the League Cup was getting a bit stagnant, fate stirred up some real drama in the League Cup 2015 round of 16. A few major upsets in the round, which took place on October 27^th and 28^th, could drastically shift the landscape for the tournament. But who were the major winners and losers, and which football clubs should you expect to see contending for the title, come the tail end of February? Read on to find out!

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