Yesterday I ran through my all-time Premier League dream team. Today, it only makes sense to have a look at the worst possible Premier League XI. The Premier League team from hell! There’s lots to consider when making the worst possible team. All players must be examined to see if they show any traces of talent (in which case they are exempt from this list). Furthermore, you must consider which players would cost the most and thus provide the worst value for money. You could also go deeper and chuck in a few players that are sure to cause an awkward changing room dynamic. I’d love to see your picks for the worst possible Premier League XI, but without further ado, here are mine.
Click on image below to see the Premiership team from HELL
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There can be no underestimating exactly how important Cesc Fabregas is for the Gunners. When he’s on song, he controls the flow of their game, he is their engine, their anchor and their forward thrust. The Spanish midfielder is without doubt one of the world’s best footballers and if Arsenal are to have any success over the next season or two, it will likely be thanks to him. The worry with a player taking up such an important role in a squad is that the team may find themselves lacking direction and ability without him. Perhaps this is why the “Fabregas is off to Barcelona” stories caused such a stir last summer. How exactly would the Gunners cope without their best player?
Admittedly, the Gunners have already had a taste of what a world without Fabregas would be like. Their captain has suffered with a niggling hamstring problem this season which has seen him ruled out of a number of games and lacking match fitness for a number more. Fabregas’ absence has had a positive knock-on affect for Arsenal: the rise to prominence of a certain young Jack Wilshere.
The talented 18-year-old midfielder is in the throes of his breakthrough season at the Emirates Stadium. He’s had a number of opportunities to impress and has really left his mark. It’s clear that he looks up to Fabregas. When asked about his relationship to the current Arsenal captain, Wilshere responded, “He’s a great leader and I want to be like that when I’m older. It’s always been part of my game, and that’s my aim really, to be Arsenal captain one day.”
Wilshere has all the qualities necessary to make a good Arsenal captain in the future. He’s talented, he can pass and he can get stuck in. He’s capable of leading by example and is not without a feisty and competitive side that will aid him in spurring his troops towards victory. He is without doubt a vital part of Arsenal’s future.
Cesc Fabregas’ Arsenal future, on the other hand, is littered with question marks. Despite his fondness for the club, its fans and Arsene Wenger, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll stay an Arsenal player for the rest of his career. He will at some stage make a move back to Barcelona. The question is not whether it will happen, but when it will happen.
In this respect, the Gunners should attempt to hold onto Cesc Fabregas for as long as possible. Not only is he a fantastic footballer, but he’s also a great role model for the Gunners’ younger players, including Wilshere. If the rumours of Barcelona making a £10 million bid for Arsenal midfielder Denilson are true, it could be that the Gunners midfield is about to become a little thinner. This will make Wenger even keener to keep hold of the assets that he has.
Whilst Wilshere represents the future of Arsenal football club, Fabregas represents the chance for success in the present. In this respect, Wilshere’s rise to prominence will not have Wenger pondering whether or not he can afford to let Fabregas head to Barcelona. My hope is that Wilshere stays a one-club man, who becomes an Arsenal great and that Fabregas remains with the Gunners for a long time.
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Paul Scharner has warned the Baggies that they must hold on to their star names next month, or risk being relegated.
The versatile Austrian has helped the club bounce back from a poor run to record back-to-back Premier League wins against Everton and Newcastle, which has moved Albion into the top-half of the table.
Roberto Di Matteo’s men have done a lot better than many outsiders anticipated in the summer following their promotion and Scharner feels the sale of any key players could lead to their downfall in the New Year.
Scharner said:“It’s true we have exceeded expectations but I am very happy that we surprised everybody.
“Hopefully we can continue what we are doing.
“Hopefully we won’t stop when we reach our target (of staying up) and we will keep on going until the end of the season.
“It looks like we can stay up. I never got relegated with Wigan and that’s why I came to West Bromwich, to help them survive.
“That’s the main target and we’re on course at the moment.
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“But, if we want to reach our targets, it is important that we all stay together until the end of the season.”
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It was FA Cup third round time last weekend and the best domestic cup competition didn’t fail to deliver a great few days of football.
We saw giant-killings at Stevenage, rivalries continued at Old Trafford and some fantastic goals up and down the country.
As debatable as it may be given some of the tremendous strikes from the likes of Matt Derbyshire for Birmingham and Piero Mingoia’s drive on his debut for Watford, my goal of the week comes from Bramall Lane. Sheffield United’s visitors were Premier League outfit Aston Villa and there was every chance of an upset. Gerard Houllier’s men ran out 3-1 winners in part to a fabulous solo goal from ex-Blade, Kyle Walker. The young full back opened the scoring inside 10 minutes after dribbling from his own half, past a defender and slotting the ball beyond the helpless goalkeeper.
There was little celebration from the self-confessed Sheffield United fan but the goal still deserves plenty of credit. Walker will have definitely impressed and it won’t be long until we see him making the Tottenham and possibly England right back spot his own.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has finally put the club’s supporters out of their misery and named his number one choice goalkeeper for the foreseeable future, and rather surprisingly it’s young Polish stopper Wojciech Szczesny who has come out on top in the battle for the number one jersey. But does he have what it takes to make the role his own over the next few months?
Casual observers have long since calculated that the one major flaw in Arsenal’s starting eleven, their Achilles heel, was the fact that they didn’t possess a top notch ‘keeper – at least one of sufficient enough calibre to enable the club to challenge for honours at the end of the season.
When Manuel Almunia was the undisputed first choice last season, he was an obvious weak link. If you took into account every other side in the top flight last term, Almunia would have struggled to get into almost every other team’s starting eleven, baring perhaps the completely hopeless Brian Jensen at Burnley. Far too often, the Spanish goalkeeper let down a manager that had placed enormous faith in his abilities, when seemingly no one else did.
Wenger stated that: “At the moment Wojciech is no.1. He has done nothing for me to take him out, but I can rotate the goalkeepers. In the cups I play sometimes different goalkeeper as well.” As far as statements of support go, it’s hardly glowing in it‘s wording is it? But it’s not in what Wenger has actually gone on record as saying that‘s most interesting here, it‘s the fact that he‘s finally given a definitive answer at all that‘s the most intriguing thing of all.
Wenger is famously cagey when dealing with the press. This guarded nature only leads to uncertainty on the terraces about what their manager is truly thinking at times; it’s fair to say that over the goalkeeping issue at least, Wenger has kept the Emirates faithful guessing over the last year or so as to where his loyalties truly lie and who his preferred first choice number one is.
Shortly before the start of the season Wenger questioned Almunia’s mental strength, which at the time looked as if it may end the ‘keeper’s stay at the Emirates. Wenger conceeded that “Manuel Almunia is a talented goalkeeper. In training he is superb, the only problem is that he gets nervous during big matches, thereby making silly mistakes.” At a huge club such Arsenal, displaying mental fragility is a huge blot against your record and it seemed as if Almunia had tried Wenger’s seemingly infinite patience for the very last time.
Lukasz Fabianski has been unlucky with injury this season after finally establishing himself in between the sticks at the beginning of the season. His error-prone ways looked to be a thing of the past. During what has to be regarded as Fabianski’s first real extended run in the first-team since signing for the club in 2007 from Legia Warsaw, the Pole looked a decent goalkeeper, capable of making crucial saves when it mattered – but he’ll have to force his way back into the starting eleven all over again now when he comes back from injury, and a frustrating period on the sidelines beckons once more for Fabianski.
Szczesny looked to be at loggerheads with the Arsenal management earlier on during the season after supposedly threatening to quit the club in November unless he secured more playing time. Szczesny stated: “There were some offers, but I’m not interested right now. It’s not that I don’t want to extend the contract, I just don’t want to hold talks at this point. I have enough money to live and I can’t complain about that, but I will only be happy if I play. Everything depends on how many games I play.”
A strong statement it has to be said, especially for a precocious 20 year-old ‘keeper; a position widely regarded to be the most difficult to break into any side at a young age. At the time, Szczesny was most definitely the club’s third-choice goalkeeper and this looked to be tantamount to career suicide, but since November he’s been the least injury-prone of Arsenal’s stoppers, and as a result, he’s forced his way into Wenger’s plans. It seems with the goalkeeping situation at Arsenal, it is at times, quite literally the survival of the fittest.
But with 9 appearances to his name so far this term, a run which has included 6 clean sheets, Szczesny has grabbed the opportunity with both hands and he looks to be displaying a maturity well beyond his years.
In the same press conference Wenger didn’t completely rule out Manuel Almunia either however, saying: “Manuel is under contract and as long as he is at the club, we are happy to have him. I like him as a man and as a player and I have shown that in my decisions. I am happy to have him here.” This show of support may have been aimed squarely at any potential suitors of Almunia’s this transfer window though, as Wenger seeks to ward off anyone interested in the Spaniard and ensure that he ends January with the same squad that he started the window with.
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Szczesny is certainly a supremely confident individual, and perhaps he possesses an inner mental strength and confidence in his own ability that was sometimes lacking in Almunia and to a lesser extent Fabianski. It will be interesting to see if Wenger will consider dipping into the transfer market in the summer or whether he’ll seek to retain the young Pole as number one. Szczesny seems to have Wenger’s backing for the time being, a statement of support is a rarity from Wenger in the press and this is worth noting – but with injuries so prevalent in Arsenal’s squad, I wouldn’t bet against the number one jersey switching hands again before the end of the season.
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FIFA will launch an investigation into Wednesday’s friendly between Bulgaria and Estonia, which finished 2-2 with all four goals from penalties.
The game was staged in the Turkish resort of Antalya by the Thailand-based sports agency Footy Sport International, and suspicions have been aroused by some irregular betting activity on the match, prompting FIFA to launch the probe.
Latvia defeated Bolivia 2-1 at the same venue earlier on Wednesday, and all three goals in that game also came from the penalty spot.
Also causing confusion is the choice of officials for the Bulgaria-Estonia match, with reports from the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) and Estonian Football Association citing the referee as Hungary’s Krisztian Selmeczi.
But Hungarian referees’ boss Laszlo Wagner said the man who actually refereed the game was another Hungarian official, Kolos Lengyel.
Estonian FA spokesman Mikhel Uiboleht said on Thursday that his organisation had been warned about the possibility of the match being interfered with.
“The friendly was organised by an agency with whom we will not work anymore,” Uiboleht said.
“We received information of possible manipulation even before the game as the same agency also organised the match between Latvia and Bolivia and there was the same scenario there.”
Bulgaria coach Lothar Matthaus said the experience of playing Estonia was one he was not keen to repeat in the near future.
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“I do not want more matches like the one against Estonia,” Matthaus said.
“It is very hard to motivate the players in such a gloomy atmosphere especially when they play before some 100 spectators.”
“From now on, I hope that Bulgaria will play friendlies against big teams and I am ready to assist with my contacts for the fixing of such matches.”
Manchester United will aim for their 13th successive victory against Wigan when they travel to the DW Stadium on Saturday.Since the Latics were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 2005, the two sides have met on 12 occasions with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men victorious on every occasion.They have won 11 league meetings and thumped Wigan in the 2006 Carling Cup Final 4-0, having scored 39 goals in the matches including two 5-0 victories last season.Amazingly, last year’s Premier League runners-up have conceded just four goals to Wigan in those 12 matches and will be keen for another victory to open up a four-point lead on championship rivals Arsenal in the hunt for this season’s title.With Arsenal not in league action this weekend due to their Carling Cup final meeting with Birmingham on Sunday, the match takes on extra significance and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admitted Saturday’s fixture is vital.”There are three massive games for us coming up now, Wigan, Chelsea and Liverpool, and then maybe Arsenal after that in the (FA) Cup,” Rooney said. “It’s a massive time for us in the season and we’ll have to keep going and trying to create chances in those games. If we can get through those games, with a good amount of points, I’m sure we’ll be up there.”The visitors are likely to make several changes to their side that drew 0-0 with Marseille in a dull Champions League affair on Wednesday, with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rafael all in contention to return to the first-team.Rio Ferdinand is still out with a calf injury which he suffered in a shock 2-1 defeat at Wolves, Manchester United’s only league defeat of the season.Wigan defender Emmerson Boyce revealed that his side were taking inspiration from Wolves’ upset win at Molineux and hopes his side can do the same.”Games like Manchester United are the games you want to play in and are great occasions to experience,” Boyce said.”Wolves showed a couple of weeks ago that United can be beaten, and we fancy our chances of doing the same.””People probably won’t fancy us to get anything off United, but Wolves picked up a bonus three points and we need to take heart from that. Anything, even a point, would be a massive boost for our survival chances.”Wigan, who sit 18th in the Premier League and inside the relegation zone, could drop to the bottom of the table if West Ham and Wolverhampton record victories on the weekend.And with four of their next five fixtures against top-five sides in the Premier League, Roberto Martinez’s side will be desperate to break their losing record against Manchester United and gain at least a point on Saturday.
There’s always something, isn’t there? Always. Bloody. Something. In fact, that something has been getting more and more extraordinary (with the exception of 2008/09) as the seasons go by. It’s almost like somebody is watching from above and going “I wonder what stupidly unlikely event or decidedly infuriating happening can upset Manchester City at Old Trafford this season…”
The earliest I remember was City having to rescue a game after the suspiciously offside van Nistelrooy scored despite a fantastic David James save from a free kick that shouldn’t have been. A year later, it was two offside goals. The season after, City actually won at Old Trafford, before they then went on in the next year to an abject performance not helped by an Ireland challenge that was penalised for winning the ball earning a free kick from which United scored. Then there was the two last minute goals.
And now, this season, not only do City go and make United look like the away side for large spells of the game… Not only do they go and dominate the play (despite Sky’s statistics saying otherwise, after Opta had confirmed the ball possession)… Not only do they put in the best performance a lot of City fans have ever seen from a City team at Old Trafford… But a deflection sends a cross to what you would expect to be a safe area and Wayne Rooney, a player who had spent the game getting nothing from the best defender in the league and had recently looked like a man aiming for annoying members of the crowd rather than the goal, pulling off a piece of skill that he probably won’t do again in his career.
I eagerly await next year’s defeat to a ricocheted own goal from the halfway line going in off Joe Hart’s back via both posts. I’m being facetious, obviously. It’ll probably be off the bar.
The sad thing is, it took that Rooney moment of magic to beat City on Saturday. And, if I’m being honest, as a City fan, had that game meandered to a 1-1 finish as had seemed likely with fifteen minutes to play, I’d probably have been disappointed not to have won. While the number of shots were similar for both sides, most of United’s were courtesy of Nani and his long range efforts at getting the ball out of the stadium. City, on the other hand, preferred to miss the target from much closer through Silva, Kolarov, Richards and Dzeko.
And while that disappointment at not winning a game that the team was dominant in exists, there are many more positives we can take from the game, especially since Chelsea drew last night. For one, Chelsea now can’t climb above City on games-in-hand alone (though Tottenham still can).
The biggest upside is that it took a wonder goal from absolutely nothing to beat City and there aren’t many teams that will do that in the remaining eleven games. Added to that, should City be able to replicate Saturday’s performance, few, if any, teams will beat them. Vincent Kompany showed there was still room in his pocket, after Torres, Drogba and Anelka have been slotted in there – if Smalling was the best defender on the pitch, then Ian Holloway is a Scotsman called McTavish. Though, I would get David Silva practising one-on-ones inside the six-yard box, just for maximum impact.
The truth is, while City have caught up to United in so many areas recently, the biggest thing they don’t have is what the manager spotted in his pre-match press conference. Roberto Mancini said the different between City and United was the “winning mentality” – United didn’t have the better of the game, they just took their chances. Albeit one of the chances they did take I doubt they would be able to take again, but that hardly matters now three days after the ball hit the net.
The former City legend Mike Summerbee was the butt of all United jokes on Saturday for his “outburst” on Sky, the usual rebuts being displayed all over Twitter – 35 years, Bitter Blue, City still the lesser of the teams because they lost, etc etc. But it’s all too easy to come back with that because, actually, Summerbee had a point. And it’s easy to make someone look a fool by putting the wrong statistics on screen.
City are closer to United than they have been in decades. It took a moment of brilliance to win the game and that moment of brilliance won’t happen every week or in every derby. United’s experience is the only thing that won the game; in terms of a player-for-player match up and the performance, City are at virtually the same level and, on the day, looked the more likely winners.
I’ve never seen a City side go to Old Trafford and play possession football. And actually keep possession, too, along with carving out some decent chances. Not bad for a side that is too negative. The best players on the pitch were wearing Blue: Silva and Kompany. Nani and Smalling were United’s best, so Lord knows how Rooney won man of the match – a successful overhead kick can’t be all that it takes, surely? Kerry Dixon suggested that a man of the match had to come from the winning side and that’s why Rooney was picked. Baffling.
Though, at least it’s not Tony Gale being constantly mystified as to how Kompany keeps getting selected because (and I quote) “Lescott is a far better defender”.
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City’s title ambitions are over. Though, in truth, they were never really there, were they? While we may have sat top of the league for a while, the games played column was always higher than everybody else’s and that was where the illusion of being ahead came from. It’s not impossible for City to win the title this season, but it’s very implausible and, to be honest, shouldn’t really have been the aim. Steady progress is the order of the day and a first ever top four Premier League finish (third or above, preferably) would do nicely.
Sometimes we just have to hold our hands up and say there’s nothing that could be done about a winning goal and last Saturday is one of them. The positives, though, far outweigh the negatives and the City team that lost that game is much better than the City team that lost twice at Old Trafford last season.
There are 33 points to play for, not to mention the two cup competitions we’re still in. Aris tonight will be difficult – they’re unbeaten at home in Europe in over 40 years, including beating reigning champions Atletico Madrid earlier this season – and Notts County and Aston Villa won’t be walks in the park, either. But there’s still a lot left in this season.
Liverpool will be without injured captain Steven Gerrard for Thursday’s Europa League round-of-16 first-leg clash with Braga in Portugal.
Gerrard, 30, has suffered a recurrence of his groin problem and will not travel with the rest of the squad.
Gerrard missed both legs of the round-of-32 clash with Sparta Prague and the 1-1 English Premier League draw with Wigan last month after initially suffering the injury in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on February 6.
Although he returned for Liverpool’s 3-1 loss to West Ham on February 27 and then the 3-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday, it now appears as though the England midfielder has been struck down again.
Gerrard joins the injured Fabio Aurelio, Martin Kelly and Daniel Agger on the sidelines. But, in better news for boss Kenny Dalglish, 35 million-pound striker Andy Carroll looks set to make his European debut for the Reds after coming on as a substitute against United.
Carroll is over a groin problem of his own and Liverpool club doctor Peter Brukner said the former Newcastle forward will be eased steadily back into action.
“It’s been a long process rehabilitating him – about eight or nine weeks – but we are happy with the result,” Brukner said.
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“We’ve seen steady improvement over that time; he’s much stronger in that tendon and in general as well.”
“We still need to keep working with him and we want to build his training and playing load up to the level required. He’ll play some more minutes against Braga and hopefully he’ll be involved more and more with each game. Overall, we are really happy with his progress.”
Matt Jarvis has finally completed the ultimate footballing U-turn this week.
After being released from Millwall at just 16 years-old, nobody would have guessed that the winger would be getting an International call-up in just 8-years time.
Jarvis found his feet again with Gillingham and completed four seasons there before Wolves snapped him up for a mere £600k in 2007.
The somewhat surprising inclusion completed a perfect weekend for the 24 year-old, after his fantastic volley gave Wolves a precious 3 points at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
As aforementioned, the inclusion would be surprising to some; but to Wolves fans, we expected nothing less. His fine form this season has previously landed him in two provisional England squads earlier in the season, so it was only a matter of time before he finally got the official call-up.
Despite going slightly off-form midway through the season, he has really come into his own this season and has been a constant threat to every defender he has come up against.
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In my opinion, he isn’t just there to make up the numbers. If given the chance on the pitch with England in the coming week, Fabio Capello will realise that Jarvis offers something that England currently doesn’t have. He is an out and out winger who is comfortable playing on either side of the pitch.
In his regular position on the left-wing, he often enjoys cutting in onto his stronger right-foot and putting a cross in. However, he is more than willing to beat a defender down the line and deliver a cross with his supposedly weaker left-foot. There are no other players in the England squad who are as capable as Matt Jarvis in overall wing-play.
He has always been known for his pace and acceleration, but this season his crossing has strongly improved. As well as this, after recently admitting him and Kevin Doyle have been partaking in extra shooting practice, he’s scored two in the last three games. He’s slowly turning into the complete, perfect winger. England have been crying out for a left-winger for years now, and if given the chance he will undoubtedly prove that he is the man for the job.
Jarvis is the first Wolves player to earn an International call-up since Steve Bull back in 1990, so there is a real sense of pride within every fan of the club at the moment. However, I believe he could be the first of a few Wolves players to make the step up to the next level.
Richard Stearman and Jamie O’Hara have both recently admitted that they are considering taking up the option to play for the Republic of Ireland. Personally, I believe they should both bide their time and an England call-up will eventually come.
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Stearman has always been regarded as a very good player by the fans, but yet someone who is prone to mistakes. Even earlier this season he was playing well but making regular errors. However in recent weeks he has been putting in solid performances and he has seemingly weaned these small mistakes out of his game. If he continues, only good things can come. He has pace, he’s strong, and he’s very passionate; he has England material written all over him.
At the same time, there has been nothing but praise for Jamie O’Hara since he joined the club on loan in January. He’s confident, he’s good on the ball and he is brilliant at picking out a pass or gliding past an opposing player. He too is full of desire, and if he can stay fit I don’t see any reason why he won’t get a call-up in the foreseeable future.
The future looks bright for Wolves and their young stars, and full credit needs to be given to Mick McCarthy and his backroom staff for getting the best out of the players.