Wenger - Title race too close to call............

Arsène Wenger says the Premier League title race is too close to call.

With just over a third of the season gone, only four points separate the top five - with the Gunners in fourth place.

And Wenger refuses to count out champions Chelsea, despite their struggles this season.

“Mathematically you cannot rule them out - even the bottom teams are in it,” he said. “It is so difficult. It is so tight and I don’t even look at the league anymore because it is very, very tight.

“Last week we had a bad result against West Brom and so did Manchester City [against Liverpool] so it compacted the whole table.

“I believe it is a big opportunity for us but many teams can tell you that. We are in a position where you want to be after 13 games but there are 25 to go.

“If there’s five or six to go and we are in the race, of course [we are contenders]. I think we have a chance but it is very early. I know people always want to know what will happen in the future but let’s take care of the game on Sunday.”

Having lost at West Brom, Wenger is confident his side will bounce back in style at Norwich City on Sunday.

“It was a bad result - but on the day everything went against us,” he said. “They had one shot on target and scored two goals - that will not always happen.

“On top of that we missed a penalty and scored an own goal, so we had a nightmare. It was an unlucky day, that can happen in a season but after it is how you respond to that and we did that well on Tuesday 

According to Arsenal website

Manchester United suffered from a "serious lack of quality", according to Matt Le Tissier.

Man untied fans, No bad feelings o! but i think Matt is right on this one.

United's hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League hang in the balance after a tepid affair at Old Trafford. The result leavs United in second place in Group B, just a point above PSV in third and facing a trip to first-place Wolfsburg in the final game. 

A win against the German side would see United finish top of the group but if PSV win at home to bottom side CSKA Moscow, a defeat or draw for United in Wolfsburg would see them drop out of the competition and into the Europa League. 

A win would have seen Louis van Gaal's side through on Wednesday night, but Le Tissier says United ran out of ideas in the second half, and was surprised Juan Mata was not brought on until the 85th minute.

He told Soccer Special: "The amount of chances they created, the amount of shots on target, they had more than PSV but there just seemed to be a serious lack of quality in terms of creating anything, certainly in the second half.

"The first half they weren't bad, they had spells there and created some chances but in the second half they just seemed to run out of ideas and looked like they ran out of energy at the end.

"Morgan Schneiderlin, who I like as a player, had one of his worst games in a United shirt; he gave the ball away more than I've ever seen him give the ball away.

"I was very surprised that Juan Mata was not brought on sooner than he was, six minutes from the end when he finally came on.

"You could see there wasn't a lot of creativity going on in that Man United midfield. You've got a player sat on the bench who's not the perfect player but the one thing he'll do is create things.

"It just amazed me that they went with the [Marouane] Fellaini option before Mata. I would have expected Mata to have come on after an hour or so."

Van Gaal's side were met with boos at the final whistle by the home crowd, with Jesse Lingard's miscued effort from inside the area with 17 minutes remaining the only clear-cut chance in the second half.

Le Tissier added: "United will look at the game and think they created the better of the chances and Jesse Lingard will probably be kicking himself tonight because he probably had the best chance of the whole football match in the second half.

"The United midfield just did not dominate the game like they should do at home against a team like PSV. You'd think they'd be able to impose themselves a little bit more on them.

"PSV looked fairly comfortable, certainly through that second half and as the second half wore on, they looked the more likely side to go on and win the game."

source: skysports

Arsene Wenger has admitted he is prepared to spend in January in order to boost Arsenal’s title challenge.

The Gunners dropped to fourth in the Premier League table after losing 2-1 to West Brom last weekend and will look to bounce back on Sunday when they travel to Carrow Road to take on Norwich.

Much to the dismay of many Arsenal fans, the club's only signing of the summer was goalkeeper Petr Cech, who arrived in a £10m deal from London rivals Chelsea.

Details of the club's accounts released in September revealed cash reserves of close to £200m and Wenger revealed he is willing to spend in January to aid Arsenal's push for their first league title since 2004 - but only if he can get a player he feels will improve his squad.

"We are in a position where we want to do something," Wenger said at his weekly press conference. "If I find the right quality I will do something."

With the impressive Francis Coquelin ruled out for at least three months after limping off against West Brom with an ankle injury, Wenger has been forced to reassess his options in central midfield.

Ahead of 'Black Friday', Wenger was asked if he would be bargain hunting for a replacement but - while admitting he loves a bargain - the Frenchman said Arsenal are willing to spend big for the right player.

Wenger said: "Who doesn't love a bargain? What is for us a bargain is to buy top quality as only top quality strengthens our squad.

"Patrick Vieira cost £2.5 million and was a top bargain, first of all because he was a top quality player.

"We spent £40 million on Ozil and I still consider it a bargain because we got a top quality player."

Arsenal received some positive news on the injury front this week as Aaron Ramsey returned to action as a substitute in Tuesday's win over Dinamo Zagreb.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could return at Carrow Road while fellow England international Theo Walcott is back in training and is close to a comeback.

However Alexis Sanchez and Joel Campbell both sustained minor injuries in the win and Wenger said he will assess their fitness over the weekend to determine their availability against the Canaries.

"Sanchez had a little hamstring alarm but we will see how he recovers from that," Wenger said. "Joel Campbell had a little calf problem so I will assess all that Friday, latest Saturday."

Source: skysports

Check out Manchester untied fans reaction from their Champions league clash against PSV (social media)

Once again Fellaini came under attack from Untied fan on twitter. Man u fans!!!!! una no get chill. Check out the tweets.........

Neymar now just behind Lionel Messi as second best player in the world, says Guillem Balague

In his weekly column, Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague answers your questions and says Neymar is now the second best player in the world behind Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi.

 Neymar was at it again at the weekend, scoring twice, including a spectacular volley as Barcelona beat Villarreal 3-0 at the Nou Camp.

In Lionel Messi's absence, Neymar has become Barcelona's talisman, firing 10 goals in his last seven matches in all competitions and Balague thinks the Brazil international is now just behind his Argentine team-mate in the best player in the world rankings.

Neymar has 10 goals in his last seven games… Would he have to leave to become the world's best? Other than the absence of Messi, what has contributed to his rise in form? -Steve

Neymar was fantastic against Villarreal. If you see him play he starts on the left and comes inside a lot to get involved with the ball and he has doubled the amount of touches of the ball, assists and goals he had in the same period with Lionel Messi in the side as without him.

In the absence of the injured Messi, Luis Enrique needed someone to step up and do at least some of the job that the he does for the team. But Neymar is a striker, while Messi is the more complete player. He can play as a midfielder or a striker and you have to say Barca is a better team with Messi in the side. However, you have to say Neymar has got the ability to challenge to be the No 1 player in the world.

When Messi comes back, and it's not certain he will be ready for the Clasico, Neymar will humbly move back to the wide areas and start running without the ball. He will run in behind the opposition defences to make Messi better. It's only logical because Messi is the best in the world.

However, the next question is how long can Neymar keep doing this when he knows he has the ability to become the best? That's why there has been contact with Manchester United and there will continue being so.

Barcelona wants him to renew his contract this season but the Brazilian forward is not in a rush. That's partly down to the fact he has to decide if he wants to stay with Barcelona or if he wants to move to a club that will make a team for him.

What's interesting is that he is now the second best player in the world, in my opinion. There's Messi in first and now Neymar is in second. Cristiano Ronaldo is at a different level now. Basically he has peaked. I have said this before and got a lot of stick but I think it's pretty obvious to see. He's only scored in one third of the games this season. Ronaldo is now thinking about his future and whether he will be ruled by his heart and go back to Manchester United or be ruled by his head and move to PSG, which is recommended by everyone around him. I think he is getting closer and closer to Paris as time goes by.

If you ask me, Neymar can't be this happy in another team.... 

That's not a team Rafa would pick -Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher has questioned whether Rafa Benitez is being placed under pressure from above over his team selection at Real Madrid.

The former Liverpool manager had gone unbeaten in his first 14 games in charge of the Spanish club, but Saturday's 4-0 thrashing at home to Barcelona was their second loss on the bounce and the home fans vented their fury by waving white handkerchiefs - a Spanish symbol of disrespect - in the closing stages.

Florentino Perez called a press conference on Monday evening to give his backing to his manager, but Carragher has questioned whether the Real Madrid president is getting involved in team affairs.

Carragher worked with Benitez for six years at Liverpool and was staggered to see him leave out defensive midfielder Casemiro in favour of an attacking line-up for El Clasico.

"Either the people above him have got involved or maybe he's bowed to media pressure or the players, I just don't know.

"You look at the team and he's not gone in with a holding midfield player - Rafa would normally play two. His best player this season has been Casemiro and he's left him out.

"No he wouldn't be influenced to pick a certain team, not the Rafa Benitez I knew at Liverpool. He was very strong-willed, no one would ever change him. He was very strong in his own beliefs.

"He wouldn't waiver, even if a player was speaking to him about something he would say 'no, this is what you're doing.' He'd never admit when he was wrong or if he got something wrong."

He added: "I don't know if there's something where he's maybe getting pressure from the owner - 'we've bought these big stars and they need to play' - and he's said 'ok let's play them against Barcelona, that's what happens. You see the results'."

Benitez replaced Carlo Ancelotti in the Real Madrid dugout last summer, but the Italian was popular among the players after winning the Champions League with them in 2014.

And Carragher wonders if Benitez isn't "suited" to Real Madrid and is being pressured to start big names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez.

He added: "I've never worked with Ancelotti but he seems like a manager who's more about man management but Rafa's a coach. He'll be on that training pitch, drilling the players about where he wants them.

"If he can't get those players doing what he wants, the Rafa I know, he would change it. At times this season, he hasn't played those players and they've become frustrated.

"Benzema's been bought off a lot in games and been frustrated. You've seen Ronaldo put his arm around Laurent Blanc when he came off against PSG.

"Rodriguez has been complaining that he's fully fit and asked why is he not playing? But now that they're all fully fit, he's played them.

"We don't know if it's pressure from the board or the media, or the players or just Rafa saying 'ok, you want all of these players to play, they're playing and here's the end result.'

"Because before these last two games, he hadn't lost in 14 games and was doing a great job in terms of results.

"Do the people at Real Madrid think he's not doing a great job because he's not ideally suited?"

Jamie Carragher highlighted the lack of work from Real Madrid's forwards on Monday Night Football

Carragher also argued that the forward players - Benzema, Ronaldo, Rodriguez and Gareth Bale - failed to work hard enough against Barcelona.

"They looked like the team had broken in two," he said.

"There was a big gap between attack and defence and it was a bit like watching a Sunday league game. People just waiting up front, we're talking about world class stars. There was no intensity.

"Your nightmare as a player, as a midfield two is playing against Barcelona and your front four aren't willing to help you out. What can be worse than that?"

-Skysports

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren praises improving Roberto Firmino

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has praised the growing influence of Roberto Firmino on the team.

Brazil international Firmino joined the Reds in a £29m deal from Hoffenheim in the summer and having initially taken time to settle into the team, he has become one of their key performers in recent weeks.

The 24-year-old played a crucial role in Liverpool's 4-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday, setting up their first two goals before scoring the third.

Jurgen Klopp's side take on Bordeaux in the Europa League on Thursday before Swansea come to Anfield on Sunday and Lovren has backed Firmino to continue his run of good form.

Firmino scored in Liverpool's 4-1 win over Manchester City

"Roberto is growing," Lovren told the Liverpool Echo. "We need to give him time as he's settling into a new country.

"But he has great talent. We see it every day in training and now we're seeing it in the matches. He caused City a lot of problems. He's an unbelievable player. He has so much skill.

"Roberto scored one and could even have got a hat-trick. He creates and he scores. He has so much potential and I know he's going to get better and better for us."

-Skysports

Jurgen Klopp wants to replace Simon Mignolet at Liverpool- Bruce Grobbelaar

Jurgen Klopp wants to replace Simon Mignolet at Liverpool, says former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar.

Grobbelaar, who made 440 league appearances in 13 years at Anfield, does not believe Mignolet is of a good enough standard to play for Liverpool and says he has a better goalkeeper at Ottawa Fury, where he is currently a coach.

"I've had my criticism of Mignolet for two or three years, I even got pulled in and asked not to criticise him so openly," Grobbelaar told talksport.

"I've said that he is a goalkeeper who is a great shot stopper, but he is not the overall package. The overall package is good with your feet and coming out and commanding your area.

"I've got a goalkeeper in Canada, a 24-year-old, who does this better than Mignolet does and is just as good of a shot stopper. He is more of a package than Mignolet is.

"I think he is looking at it [buying a replacement for Mignolet. There are a couple of goalkeepers in the German league that he is looking at so I can see that might be one of his first signings."

Mignolet signed for Liverpool from Sunderland in 2013 for a fee of £9m, and he has made 111 appearances for the club. 

 -Skysports.

AM BACK AND BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning to all my pundits out there, am sorry, i was out for sometime now but the good thing is that am back, we all can come back to checking out all that opinions, commentary and gist's make the round in this beautiful game of football.

A lot has been going on in the round leather game, but el clasico had to bring back to blogging.... i mean nobody saw it coming, 

In as much as we all want to talk about what Madrid did wrong, i want to talk about want Barcelona did right, a lot of people are asking for Rafa's head, i need Enrique's to put a crown on it, i know you want to say he hasn't won anything yet, but let's go back to the beginning of this season, just couple of months back.  

Everything was going wrong for Barcelona, from fatigue accumulated from the previous season which understandably lead to injuries of key players, Bravo, Dani Alves, A. Inesta, Rafinha and the "King" Messi just to mention a few. So many football commentators are already beginning to cast doubt after the loss to Bilbao in the final of the super cup. Coming into the season with a very shaky start, winning by one goal margin, losing to heavily to Celta vigo and Bilbao with yet another loss to Sevilla and the whole world came rolling, saying Barca can't win without Messi, now is outrageous how barca took the almighty Madrid out with Messi watching from the bench.

Enrique has a way of turning things around you would say, he did last season and he is doing it again. I just want to give this man some credit, how he was able to manage this team through injuries and fatigue is just amazing, it just show how complete he is as coach and as a manager.