EPL: Arsenal v Newcastle United

Arsenal played a more conventional lineup today than last week, starting Adebayor, Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini, giving them a considerable advantage in midfield against a Newcastle United side that tried to push forward and were rewarded with (at last count) eight offsides penalties, many of which were too close to call. Nonetheless, Arsenal struck when they had chances, as in the 40th minute when Mathieu Flamini attacked down the left flank, hurtling a defender's tackle and running toward the flag. Flamini's cross was perfect, meeting an onrushing Adebayor who outmuscled his opponent to the ball and headed it home. Arsenal dominated the possession battle (59-41) and the second half saw more of the same, as Owen and Smith were called offside more often than they deserved. Arsenal's second goal came in the 73rd minute, when Flamini blasted a curling shot from the upper-left side of the box: the ball curled to the outside, away from the goalkeeper and into the side netting. Arsenal's final goal came in the 80th minute, and should have been called offsides, but the refs seemed a bit preferential and let it go, allowing Bendtner to one-touch the ball to Fabregas who ripped a volley with his left into the back of the net. Arsenal played very well, Hleb looked electrifying, Fabregas played his role well as usual but Flamini made the game his, tackling well and assiting on the game-winner and scoring the insurance goal on a play he created himself, from outside the box. Newcastle's scoreline could have differed quite a bit but the offsides calls hurt their determination and some were simply wrong.

Chelsea v Everton Carling Cup

The second-leg clash between Everton and Chelsea turned out to be (more or less) just as expected, with Chelsea defending well in the first half, albeit with little possession, while Everton's attacks came to nothing. The second half saw Everton believing they could win, resulting in some great attacking soccer in the first 15 minutes of the second half. However, Cech came up with some tremendous saves and once Chelsea scored, the wind in Everton's sails died. As Chelsea trapped Everton coming forward, a ball was played out to Malouda just inside Everton's half and he alertly crossed the ball forward, perfectly into the on-coming run of Joe Cole, who touched the ball once to settle it, then crushed a right-footed volley past Tim Howard to the near post. Chelsea's aggregate lead of 3-1 forced Everton to push forward and Chelsea was able to create a couple more threatening counterattacks but the score remained at 1-0. Man of the Match: Petr Cech, displaying his usual brilliance in goal and his vision and passing skills were on display as well, as the Czech keeper slotted in perfectly with his shielding four defenders, spreading the ball from one of the back to the other.

Arsenal v Tottenham - Carling Cup

Arsene Wenger made a mistake yesterday, by not starting Adebayor, Fabregas or Eduardo. These three players came off the bench and, while Eduardo and Fabregas were kept quiet, Adebayor scored within five minutes of his advent, crushing a shot from outside the box. I honestly don't think Bendtner and Walcott can be a good partnership in attack, as was shown by their inability to control balls played forward and their lack of chemistry was apparent throughout the first half. All in all, though, Tottenham just outplayed Arsenal, as the Gunners looked like the team of last year, ineffective in attack, fragile in defense and without control in midfield. Jenas opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, followed by a Bendtner own goal in the 27th minute. I believe Fabregas came in soon thereafter, but to no avail. The Gunners relied on long balls forward but Bendtner and Walcott were unable to settle on the ball or link up with each other or Hleb. The Arsenal attack was anemic, until the introduction of Adebayor and Eduardo in the 65th minute. But by that time, Tottenham had already added another two goals, from Robbie keane in the 48th minute and Aaron Lennon in the 60th. Adebayor's goal was a beauty but the 5-1 aggregate deficit was too much and Tottenham scored another insurance goal in the 90th minute, as Stead Malbranque scored. Arsenal's strength lies in their central midfield and the starting absence of Fabregas and Flamini left a vacuum which the Spurs took immediate advantage of, playign great counterattacking football and feeding their strikers with good passes. This is how Tottenham should always play, with their level of talent, on a day when Berbatov didn't score but they came away with 5 goals against a weak Arsenal squad. Perhaps Wenger really doesn't care about the Carling Cup, that would be reasonable, but the alleged headbutt of Adebayor to Bendtner should be a cause for concern, as well as the severe dressing-down the Gunners received yesterday at the hands of their cross-town rivals.  Arsenal will face Newcastle United at home in their next two matches.

Transfer Rumors

Perhaps more than any other sport, soccer's trade rumors fly fast and thick, with most of them proving to be pure speculation. Some of today's latest rumors have Ronaldinho going to Inter, Drogba to Barcelona, Giovanni Dos Santos leaving Barcelona, Tottenham trageting Fred, etc. It seems that any time a player opens his mouth during the two transfer periods, hope and change reign supreme. If a player says he would like to play with someone on another team, or would like to play under a certain coach, the presses start rolling, the rumors fly across the continent. Enough, I say. Let me know when Nicholas Anelka has been bought for $30 million. Let me know when Barcelona loses some great players. Until then, let the fans speculate and don't get our hopes up. Plus, Drogba on Barca? They're enemies (if you haven't seen the knockout rounds between Barcelona and Chelsea from 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, check them out now), and Barcelona already has too much attacking talent, even with injury-prone stars such as Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto'o, not to mention Gudjonsen, Ronaldinho, Bojan Krkic (kid is amazing) and Giovanni Dos Santos. Barcelona doesn't need another goalscorer, or another player anywhere else, except perhaps a natural right-back. Barcelona signed enough great talent over the summer, just let them gel: Gabi Milito has been a rock at the back, Toure Yaya is a great d-midfielder, Eric Abidal has been great on the left, and Henry had his best game of the season against Murcia this past weekend.

FA Cup: Liverpool v Luton Town

Luton defended admirably in the first half, attacking the Reds as they crossed midfield, often with crunching tackles. Unfortunately, their lack of skill on the ball led many Luton counterattacks to failure, as balls forward would be mistimed or could not be controlled. At the end of the first half, a Liverpool counterattack succeeded, as Fernando Torres slipped the ball around a Luton defender to the feet of Ryan Babel, who settled the pass and then struck hard with his right foot, blasting the ball into the far side of the goal. Liverpool enters the second half with a monkey off their back and we could well see Torres or Crouch subbed early in the second half as it seems unlikely that Luton will be able to create real scoring chances. Expect to see some young players in the second half and perhaps another goal or two from the Reds.
-Update-
Well, they scored four more in the second half and I can't say I'm too surprised.  Gerrard bagged a second half hat-trick and his second and third goals were crackers from outside the box.  I watch Liverpool and they look so good, but continue to underperform in the EPL.  I think they'll take out Inter in the knockout stage.  If you play against 3 of the best 10 teams in thew world, (Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U) you know how to play strong competition.  I'm not sure if Inter's in the same league (figuratively).

AC Milan v Celtic

The final group stage match sees Celtic and Milan separated by a mere point. Unfortunately, the game is in Milan and Celtic have never won an away Champions League match. Nonetheless, Celtic come into the match prepared to play for a draw and thus qualify to the round of sixteen. The first half saw lots of attacking play from Milan but Celtic's defense has stood strong, allowing few shots on goal and closing down scoring chances. Kaka did get free for a shot around the edge of the box but his shot sailed high and wide; I doubt Kaka will miss that chance again. If Celtic are to score, they'll probably need to do it off a set-piece of some sort, as they aren't bringing forward enough players in support to attack Milan's impenetrable defense. Celtic need to continue to defend well and play possession football in order to pull out a draw. A win would take first place in the group while Celtic can still qualify if they lose. On the one hand, I want to see some goals, on the other, if Celtic score it will probably pull Milan out of its funk and bounce back to score a couple goals, making Celtic's status unsure.
Milan continued their strong attack, finally forcing Celtic to concede a Filipo Inzaghi goal in the 70th minute. Boruc had some great saves for Celtic and the late subsitution of Jan Venegoor of Hesselink looked like Celtic could pull even with the defending champions but Milan stood tough. Thankfully, the other result ended in a 2-1 victory for Benfica and Celtic supporters in Italy began to celebrate the club's second consecutive year advancing in the Champions League to the knockout round of sixteen.

Manchester United v Fulham

The return of Rooney prompted my attention for this match, a nice way to get the afternoon off to a pleasant start on Monday. The reunion of Tevez and Rooney took a back seat to Cristiano Ronaldo, recently the runner-up for France's Ballon D'Or, the award for European Footballer of the Year, which, somewhat predictably, went to AC Milan's Kaka. Ronaldo, perhaps feeling a bit snubbed, showed great attacking pace on the right. United looked strong as usual on the wings, attacking well and putting shots on goal early. Rooney looked good alongside Tevez and both players created some havoc in the Fulham backfield, leading to Ronaldo's first goal in the 10th minute. On a defended cross, Ronaldo somehow found the ball at his feet and crushed a volley across the face of goal, past a helpless keeper. The United attack continued, but as the half drew near, Fulham missed a great chance to equalize on a cross, sending the header wide. In the second half, United continued their attack, leading to a beautiful cross from the right, a beautiful cross from John O'Shea which led Ronaldo over his defender to crush his header into the lower right. United continued to press forward, as Ronaldo sought his first hat-trick for Man U. A wonderful ball froward from Giggs put Ronaldo one-on-one with the keeper but he was carded for diving, which the replay could not confirm or deny. It sure must have been tempting for the Portuguese winger to try to complete his hat-trick from the spot but I'm not sure of the call. Nevertheless, a good performance from Manchester as they pulled to second place in the standings.