Double delight for Chelsea at Wembley.

Premier League champions Chelsea completed their FA Cup double with a narrow 1-0 victory over Portsmouth at the Wemby stadium here on saturday. Didier Drogba scored the only goal through a free kick to seal the double win for the blues. 

The match started in front of a pack stadium. Pompeys had a decent support who came out to play for pride and prove that they still belong to the premier league but it was not their day… Carlo Ancelotti‘s side had all eyes on the cup with nothing to loose. After fighting till the last match for the barclays premier league the blues wanted to finish with a double and they did. 

The first half went goal less with both the team unable to get past the net. Chelsea suffered a big blow in the 35th minute when Kevin-Prince Boateng‘s tackle injured German mid fielder Michael Ballack. WIth World Cup less than a month this can be a huge blow for him, being out of contract this may possibly be his last match for the blues. After that Drogba hit the woodwork in the 39th minute. 

Portsmouth had a brilliant chance to take the lead when Dindane skipped around Chelsea substitute Juliano Belletti and into the area and when the Brazilian bundled the Pompey striker over, referee Chris Foy pointed to the penalty spot. Unfortunately for Pompey, Boateng’s spot kick went straight down the middle of the goal and Cech saved with his feet. And just at the hour mark, Didier Drogba scored througha free kick when he shot around the wall and in off the post. Chelsea was 1-0 up which and the score line stayed till the end. The Chelsea players and fans were over joyed with the resut giving them the first ever double.

Chelsea plays Portsmouth to finish the year with a double.

Fresh from their triumph in the Barclays English Premier League, Chelsea will be hoping to finish with a double this season. The blues will be meeting Portsmouth in the final of the Football Association Cup (popularly known as the FA Cup) on saturday at the “new” Wembley Stadium. It was a long way for both the teams to reach the 129th final  where teams from all the divisions participated. 

 

News from the newly crowned Premier League champions is that they will be going with their usual squad that trounced Wigan Athletic in the final league match of the season. Beyond that Carlo Ancelotti is still waiting for Branislav Ivanovic injury report which is expected to make the trip to Wembley. Overall Chelsea has had a very good record over the Pompeys and the five times winners will be hoping to make it six and more importantly two in a row following last year’s 2-1 win over gunners. The blues lockers room is in absolute health after the decision of Frank Lampard to take penalty over in the previous match made Didier Drogba who was fighting for the golden boot.

For the Pompeys this is a big game. After relegating from the top division of the English league. the port club will be hoping to win the FA Cup twice in three years. They last won in 2008 after beating Cardiff city by a single goal. News from theri locker room is that midfielder Jamie O’Hara is hoping to play at Wembley on Saturday despite suffering with a double stress fracture in his back. The on loan player will be playing his last match with the Pompeys before moving back to Tottenham Hotspur, his original club. Other than that Avram Grant will be going with their usual squad and hope to make headlines tomorrow.

The match will start at 1500 Hours GMT (1930 Hours IST)

 

Off the field trouble for Pompey’s.

More trouble has hit the bottom club in the premiership Portsmouth after they were docked with 9 points following the financial administrative problems. For a team that is struggling
to stay in the top flight, this has made life further miserable as now they are
left with only 10 points in 29 matches. With this they are trailing with 14
points of their nearest rivals Hull City and Burnley who are currently at 24
points.

The problem started after Pompey‘s accumulated debts of $130 million (£85 million) which ran themselves into financial administrative troubles. The Premier League applied the sporting
sanction, rule C.60, which stipulates that nine points is deducted from
any club that suffers an event of insolvency. This is one of several Premier League rules determining how clubs run themselves and conduct their financial
affairs.

Further, “Following the High Court’s decision that Portsmouth FC’s administration is valid, the Premier Leagueboard convened today to apply the league’s rules and policies in relation to a member club suffering an event of insolvency,” the Premier
League said in a statement.

The League regularly updates its
rulebook to reflect and adapt to an ever changing economic and regulatory
environment, which helps enable clubs to operate their business and sporting
models in a sustainable manner.

Britain’s customs and revenue service had been pursuing a winding-up order after questioning the validity of Andrew Andronikou being appointed the administrator, but will now allow him to restructure the
club’s finances and save the club. Andronikou,
who last week announced 85 redundancies at the club which is bottom of the Premier League, said the winding up order would be removed once the club came
out of administration.

So now with a elusive task of staying in the premier league, Pompey’s need to look for option and further the price thing will be to retain the players at the moment.

Everton dashes Manchester United’s title hopes.

Manchester United‘s hopes to retain the premiership flag took a major blow when they lost 1-3 against Everton at Goodison park on Saturday. While their rivals Chelsea andArsenal cruised to victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sunderlandrespectively. At the bottom of the table Portsmouth’s survival is the top flight is almost becoming elusive after they lost 1-2 against Stoke City at home.

Leaders Chelsea went four poinst clear at the top of the table with 4 points lead over United when Didier Drogba‘s goal in each half made the task easy for the visitors. Drogba got is first in the 39th minute when Ballack slided a superb ball across the face of goal for Drogba to finish in he made no mistakes. In the 66th minute Drogba got his second in a relatively easy way when he held of two defenders before firing into an empty net.

Man United took the early lead in the 16th minute through Dimitar Berbatov who shot the ball well past the goalkeeper from six yards. Just three minutes later Everton equalised when Bilyaletdinov cleverly used Wes Brown to conceal a wicked left-foot shot that left Van der Sar still at his spot. The teams went into the break with 1-1 scoreline. Much was expected from Sir Alex who knows how to turn the tables but it was not United‘s day. In the 76th minute Dan Gosling scored through the cross from Steven Pienaar‘s cross from the left giving the home side the much awaited lead. Just when United were trying to level Everton sealed their victory with another one in the 90th minute through Rodwell giving them the much deserved victory.

Final score of Saturday’s matches are:

Everton 3-1 Manchester United
Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland
West Ham United 3-0 Hull City
Wolves 0-2 Chelsea
Portsmouth 1-2 Stoke City

Chelsea back at the top after Drogba’s double, United score five.

Chelsea cut short Manchester United’s short run at the top of the table when they got a clean
double against their London rivals Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Earlier on
Saturday, Manchester
United drubbed Portsmouth with 5-0 score line thus making
their chances of survival more and more tough in the premier league.
Now after 25 games the blues are leading with 58 points just two
above the Red Devils who are at second place.

 It was a perfect day for Manchester United, Rooney collected the Player of the month
trophy for a great January he had and after that he scored the opening goal in
the 39^th minute when Fletcher crossed
the ball to Rooney who
simply converted with ease. And just at the stroke of half time the host’s lead
was double when Nani’s impressive run ended with a shot at the
goal but got deflected through Vanden Borreand went into the
goal. In the second half Michael
Carrick’s 25 yard shot found the net just at the hour mark and Berbatov made
it 4-0 three minutes later. Pompey’s bad run didn’t stop there, Patrice
Evra swung in a perfectly-flighted cross which Nani could
only glance on, and Wilson hammered a finish high into his own
goal leaving them 5-0 down which was the final score.

Guns were silenced by the blues with a 2-0 win with their Ivory Coast international Didier Drogba scoring both the goals. Chelsea got into the
act quickly make the visitors uncomfortable right from the start. Drogba scored
his first of the corner in the 8^th minute when he
headed the ball at the back post and again in the 23^rd minute
he got into the box on the right, cuts inside past a couple of Arsenal defenders
and smashes it into the top of net. The match was far from over before the half
time. With no goals scored in the second half the final score remained as it is
with Chelsea going
top of the table.

The weekend results were:

Saturday

Liverpool 1-0 Everton

Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Fulham

Burnley 2-1 West Ham United

Hull City 2-1 Manchester City

Manchester United 5-0 Portsmouth

Stoke City 3-0 Blackburn Rovers

Sunderland 1-1 Wigan Athletic

Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Aston Villa

Sunday

Birmingham City 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal

A sunny premier league ahead after the snow delays proceedings.

After the snowfall caused some unwanted delays, the predicted sunny weather would mean that the premier league is back for the weekend where all 20 teams would be playing. And looking forward to the fixtures it seems like an easy ones for the big guns but this also gives rise to the giant killing instincts of the bottom players.
Liverpool would be hoping to get back on track this Saturday in an early kick off against Stoke City. The Reds FA Cup hopes were also dashed out after their 1-2 loss against division 1 side Reading Football Club. More worry for the manager is that their three star players Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun all pick up injuries in the last match and are expected to be out for more than a month.

Manchester United will be definitely working on their strategy to retain the second place and launch themselves for the first place. After their frustrating draw against Birmingham City last week where they could not score even a single goal in the mach, they would be putting all behind and go for a big win against Burnley on Saturday.

Bottom Players Portsmouth would be desperate for a win but it may not came as a new year gift as they would be hosting Birmingham City at Fratton Park. Birmingham City is doing great work under their new manager Alex McLeishwhere in their are unbeaten for the last 11 games and have climbed to eighth place in the premiership.
With the sun expected to give some light to league, the action pack weekend is on the way.
Liverpool’s match will be starting at 1245 Hours GMT (1715 Hours IST) while the match at Old Trafford will kick off at 1500 Hours GMT (2030 Hours IST) on Saturday.
Other matches during the weekend are:
Saturday:
Chelsea Vs Sunderland 1500 Hours GMT
Tottenham Hotspurs Vs Hull City 1500 Hours GMT
Wolverhampton Wanderers VS Wigan Athletic 1500 Hours GMT
Everton VS Manchester City 1730 Hours GMT

Sunday:
Aston Villa VS West Ham United 1330 Hours GMT
Blackburn Rovers Vs Fulham 1500 Hours GMT
Bolton Wanderers Vs Arsenal 1600 Hours GMT

Reds sign off the year in style.

In what seemed like a practice match, Manchester United demolished Wigan Athleticby 5 goals to retain the second spot before the premier league goes into 2010 giving a nice birthday gift to manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Arsenal also did some similar demolition by defeating Portsmouth 4-1 at Fratton Park. But it was not so easy forLiverpool, only a late strike from Fernando Torres in the injury gave then the much needed victory and some sort of relief to the team.

Goals were raining at Old Trafford with no shelter to the visiting team. Pre match, Park Ji Sung was called in place ofRyan Giggs for the night. Manchester United were into the action as soon as the game started. Having majority of possession, which is always on the cards whether they suffer a defeat too, the first threat came from Nemanja Vidicin the 17th minute with a 25 yard shot on goal but was cleared by Paul Scharner. Manchester United got the first in the 28th minute when Park’s low curling ball from the right got deflected from Rooney’s foot into the left of the goal. The goalkeeper didn’t have the clue what was going on. Just 4 minutes later Michael Carrick doubled United’s lead with a clean strike from the edge of the crowded penalty area. And just before the half time, Rafael De Silvadisplayed brilliant skills to cut three Wigan defenders and score from his left foot. His celebration went till he ran to the dug out to point to his brother. Half time 3-0.

Well it was like United wanted to finish of quiickly, Dimitar Berbatov got the fourth for United in the 50th minute when Valencia’s cross found Dimitar who scored with his right foot. Things were finally wrapped by Antonio Valencia in the 75 minute when Rooney gave a through ball to Valencia who then grabbed the ball and got it past the keeper to finish the proceedings.

So 2009 ends on a high for United who must be hoping to get the treble tag on them in the coming year. And what it looks like now is that the fight is between the current top three for the premiership while Aston Villa will be busy holding for the final champions league spot until some fire ignited in Liverpool and Spurs in ’10.

Manchester United play Wigan, Pompey’s hosts Gunners for the year end.

For the final time in 2009 all premier league clubs will be in action over the next three days and the action is not over yet… One of the Oldest football tournaments of the world, The FA Cup will kick start 2010. More than 50 teams will be in action from all leagues in England and Wales.

First up will be Chelsea taking on Fulham on Monday for a crucial match at the top. A draw or a defeat can lead to long term complications for the leaders. Fulham on the other hand will be counting their victory over current champions Manchester United nearly a week ago, a point Chelsea will be emphasising upon. After loosing Didier Drogba and handful of other players for the African Nations Cup, Carlo Ancelotti will be seen using his alternatives for the coming matches. Tuesday will see Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool go against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Making a point that Villa is there for the Champions league berth, a win for the reds will not be an easy specially when they had a very bad last 3 months in the league which brought them down at 7th position currently.

Fresh after their victory over the tigers, Old Trafford will be hosting Wigan Athletic on Wednesday. Now with Vidicand Brown back to the squad, Sir Alex Ferguson can finally see wins coming, Hull to start with. Wayne Rooney who had many opportuinities in the previous match, will be in hunger to find more goals. Wigan on the other side is just above the relegation zone at 16th position with 19 points so they would be working hard for the elusive take of taking this fixture home. Also on the same day, Arsenal will be up against Portsmouth for a must win match for both. The former for the title and the latter to save his place in the league. So the focus shifts on the next three day. May the best team wins… Other matches over the next three days are:
Monday
Tottenham Hotspur Vs West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers Vs Sunderland
Everton Vs Burnley
Stoke City Vs Birmingham City
Wolverhampton Wanderers Vs Manchester City
Tuesday
Bolton Wanderers Vs Hull City
Wednesday
Portsmouth Vs Arsenal

Its Gianfranco Zola’s Hammers Vs Chelsea, Manchester United to play Fulham.

After the extended mid week party, the teams are again back for the premiershipaction for the weekend and there is plenty to look for in the next three days. Seems like the horror run may continue either for Portsmouth at the bottom or Liverpool who are hanging at seventh position. Post Saturday the picture will be further clear whose ship will start to sink. Leaders Chelsea will be visiting up against the team for their former player Gianfranco Zola when the meet them West Ham United this Sunday at Opton Park.

Manchester United will be visiting Craven Cottage to play Fulham on Saturday and a win against them will against take them to joint first and the pressure will again fall on Chelsea who will be playing the day after. News from the locker room is that the red devils will be going with the same squad that played Wolves last Tuesday. Wayne Rooneyhad plenty of chances but the goal came of a penalty for him so he will be in a determined mood to score in the open play. Gary Neville is still unfit but he may be on the bench for the match. Rio Ferdinand is still unfit for the weekend but is expected to resume training in the coming days. Frenchman Gabriel Obertan, after his first league start, will be all ready for the match along with Darron Gibson who has shown that he belongs to this team.

After Frank Lampard’s penalty gave Chelsea the victory against the Pompeys, much needs to be worked upon the Blues fire power and defence as they are conceding too many goal as compared to their clean sheet records of the past. Their bid for Steven Gerrard has definately given waves in the EPL world.
Match at Old Trafford will be starting at 1500 Hours GMT (2030 Hours IST)
Other matches during the next three days are:
Saturday
Aston Villa Vs Stoke City 1245 Hours GMT
Blackburn Rovers Vs Tottenham Hotspur 1500 Hours GMT
Manchester City Vs Sunderland 1500 Hours GMT
Arsenal Vs Hull City 1700 Hours GMT

Sunday
Wolverhampton Wanderers Vs Burnley 1330 Hours GMT
Everton Vs Birmingham City 1500 Hours GMT

Monday Night
Wigan Athletic Vs Bolton Wanderers 2000 Hours GMT