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.

Champions League Matchday 4

Besiktas vs Liverpool
Following their defeat two weeks ago in Istanbul, Liverpool sit with 1 point from three games in the Champions League.  They got off to a great start, missing Fernando Torres, as their attack split wide down the flanks.  Voronin got the first scoring attack started, running down the left and playing the ball into Peter Crouch, who benefited from defensive lack of concentration  before cracking a shot at the Besiktas keeper, who made a good save only to have Crouch gather he rebound and strike it past the keeper's outstretched fingers.  Liverpool continued to attack and Besiktas had some strong play of their own but Liverpool really took control of their destiny in the 32nd minute as Voronin played a beautiful cross to Benayoun open in the box.  The Israeli settled the ball and then volleyed it into the lower-left corner, under the diving keeper.  Liverpool had a great half and will probably slow the play in the second half and play their traditional, conservative brand of football with a lead like this.

The Second Half
Going contrary to my opinion, Liverpool opened the half attacking fiercely, on their way to Champions League history, scoring six goals in the second half to set a new record for goal difference in a CL match, surpassing Arsenal (Oct 2007) and Juventus (2003), who both won their games 7-0. Benayoun scored his second of the match off the rebound of a strong Riise shot from just inside the box, which the keeper parried but was unable to control. Just two minutes later, Gerrard struck a free kick low and hard as Benayoun again got on the end of the rebound to one-touch it home. The attack continued, with Gerrard scoring in the 69th minute off a 1-2 exchange between himself and Voronin, ending with Gerrard one on one with the keeper, blasting the ball into the opposite side of the net with his considerable power. In the 78th minute, Ryan Babel scored the goal of the match, delicately back-heeling a low cross by Benayoun into the left side-netting. Just three minutes later, Reina destroyed a goal kick which the first defender could not clear and fell to the second, one on one with Babel. The defender tried to clear the bouncing ball but Babel's speed was too much, as he turned and the ball struck his back, lobbing the onrushing keeper into the net. Babel crushed a cross into the crossbar a couple minutes later, barely missing the hat-trick. In the 89th minute, Benayoun provided another beautiful ball into the center of the box and Crouch, unguarded by either of the center backs, headed the ball home. A great game from Voronin, Riise, Gerrard, Benayoun, Crouch and Babel saw Liverpool capitalize on all of their talent and put on a real show for the home fans. Man of the match: Benayoun with 3 goals and 2 assists.