FIFA President Sepp Blatter is still trying to curb the spending taking place in the English Premier Leaugue.

However, Blatter views the method of owning clubs in England as inherently unsatisfactory, putting the Premier League at an advantage compared to their major European counterparts.

“There are big associations, like France, Germany and Spain where there is a by-law that the owners of the club must be at least 51% from the club,” said Blatter.

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Manchester United are now within one point of English Premiership glory after coming from behind last night to beat a defiant Wigan 2 - 1 at the JJB Stadium.

Hugo Rodallega had given the Latics a deserved half-time lead but substitute Carlos Tevez came off the bench to grab the equaliser, before Michael Carrick smashed home the winner with five minutes remaining.

It was far from vintage United, but just as champions do, they ground out a victory despite not playing well against Steve Bruce’s stubborn side.

The hosts wasted a wonderful opportunity to grab an early lead with only a minute on the clock.

Antonio Valencia - reportedly a summer target for United - outpaced Johnny Evans and Nemanja Vidic to go clear on goal but when faced with only Edwin van der Sar to beat, the Ecuadorian made a mess of his attempted chip, miscuing the ball horribly wide.

The let-off stirred the champions but unusually, their finishing let them down twice in the space of 60 seconds as they began to take control.

Firstly, Wayne Rooney headed horribly wide in the tenth minute following superb work from Dimitar Berbatov on the right, before the England striker almost made amends by crossing low for Carrick, who was narrowly off target with a first-time effort from close range. Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Shearer experienced his first victory as Newcastle United’s manager with a win over Middlesbrough in a St James’ Park relegation battle. Precious goals from Steven Taylor, Obafemi Martins and Peter Lovenkrands ensured a 3-1 scoreline.

They are goals that could be worth up to 50 million pounds (70 million dollars) to Newcastle, who would lose a substantial portion of their income if they drop out of the Premier League.

With two games remaining against Fulham and Aston Villa, they are still far from safe, but they are out of the bottom three following a game Shearer described as the most important of his Newcastle career.

Middlesbrough, in contrast, must now accept they are heading for the Championship next season after losing a game where they took the lead and wasted several other chances.

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Check out these interesting statistics on some of the topflight English Premier League clubs this week:

MANCHESTER UNITED
- Since the 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane on December 13, United have won 11 consecutive games in the league, scoring 21 goals and conceding just two.
- The goal scored by Peter Lovenkrands was the first conceded by Edwin Van der Sar in 1,311 minutes of football.
- Wayne Rooney has scored five goals in his last six appearances. His sole scoreless outing in that period was his seven-minute cameo against Inter Milan in the Champions League.

CHELSEA
- Courtesy of their win at Fratton Park, Chelsea now boast the best away record in the league.
- Didier Drogba’s only other league goal this season was scored against West Brom on Boxing Day. Since last March, the Ivorian has netted just five league goals.
- All of the four wins enjoyed by Guus Hiddink in his first four matches at the club have been achieved by a single-goal margin.

LIVERPOOL
- With his first league goal for the club, David Ngog became the 12th different Liverpool player to score in the Prem this season.
- Pool haven’t scored a first-half goal in any of their last five games.
- Tuesday’s victory was only their third in eight league fixtures since the high of their 5-1 win at Newcastle in late December.

ASTON VILLA
- Villa haven’t drawn any of their away matches in the league this season.
Having taken just five points from their last five league matches, and failed to win any of their last six matches in all competitions, this is Villa’s worst run of the season.
- Two minutes away from taking an eight-point lead over Arsenal on Sunday, Villa are now just three points clear of the Gunners and have an inferior goal difference

ARSENAL
- BR>- The goals scored at the Hawthorns ended a run of four games without scoring for the Gunners.
- In the process of making his first-team debut at the Hawthorns, Fran Merida became the 25th different player to appear for Arsenal in the league this season.
Nicklas Bendtner has started 19 matches for the Gunners this season and is now in double scoring figures after his brace against WBA.

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Guus Hiddink says he would “love it” if Chelsea could prevent Manchester United from completing a clean sweep of all the trophies this season.

The Red Devils, with something short of a first-choice starting XI, beat Tottenham on penalties at Wembley on Sunday to lift the Carling Cup.

It was a second piece of silverware for the defending European and English champions, who also secured the FIFA Club World Cup title in Japan just before Christmas.

Chelsea moved back up into second place in the Premier League over the weekend but remain seven points adrift of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side, who have a game in hand heading into the midweek fixtures, when Hiddink takes his side to relegation battlers Portsmouth on Tuesday night.

“I hope that we can stop him. I would love to stop him on this aim,” said the Dutchman, in charge of Chelsea until the end of the season.

“I have not had that many experiences with him directly, direct confrontations, although I remember once it was my birthday when PSV [Eindhoven] were eliminated by Manchester United.

“I have met him sometimes when I have been to Manchester United, for a couple of pre-season tournaments.

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Liverpool’s chances for a first English Premier League title since 1990 were given a boost last week with the win over Chelsea.

But Reds boss Rafael Benitez faces a test of his squad’s strength in depth as he seeks to keep the momentum going at Portsmouth on Saturday, less than 72 hours after a gruelling, extra-time FA Cup defeat by Everton.

With Manchester United not in action until Sunday’s trip to in-form West Ham, Benitez’s men can return to the top of the table — temporarily at least — by taking all three points at Fratton Park.

But the required victory will have to be secured without influential skipper Steven Gerrard, who tore a hamstring muscle early in the Everton defeat and is facing a three-week lay-off at least.

Benitez may also feel that star striker Fernando Torres, who looked distinctly weary in that match, may not be up to a third start in the space of seven days, a situation which will inevitably raise further questions about the wisdom of selling Robbie Keane back to Tottenham this week.

Portsmouth, with just two wins in 15 matches since Tony Adams took over as manager, are hoping for a boost from the arrival of Greek duo Angelos Basinas - who arrived in a deadline-day switch from AEK Athens - and Theofanis Gekas, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen.

First-team coach Johnny Metgod is backing the pair to lift the gloom around the club.

“Gekas has got a very good goalscoring record, not only in Greece but in Germany, and Basinas is a very clever, intelligent midfield player,” Metgod reported.

Chelsea welcome back key defender Ricardo Carvalho from injury as they attempt to put their title bid back on track at home to Hull, and the Portugal centreback believes the Blues will also get a boost from the involvement of his international team-mate Ricardo Quaresma.

The winger has been signed on loan from Inter Milan and Carvalho is backing him to provide the imaginative spark Chelsea have lacked of late.

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Russian star midfielder Andre Arshavin of Zenith St. Petersburg will join Arsenal until June 2012 for 12 million pounds.

The Gunners are now merely waiting on the Premier League to sign all the necessary paperwork for the deal to be made official.

The fee was far from the initial asking price the reigning UEFA Cup winners wanted of 20 million pounds, but included a substantial performance-linked bonus.

Conflicting signals had been emerging from Arsenal’s Emirates stadium and Russia throughout the day as the 1700GMT deadline came and went and a Zenit club spokesman had even said the deal had fallen through.

The deal apparently hit a last minute snag when Zenit demanded a portion of Arshavin’s signing on fee.

But other Russia news agencies were reporting that a deal had been struck on a three-and-a half year contract.

Gazeta.ru site nnounced that Arshavin, one of the stars at Euro 2008, had passed his medical and was now an Arsenal player, inheriting the Gunners’ number 13 shirt.

He will probably not make his debut for the Gunners for a few weeks because he will have to work on physical conditioning to adapt to the rigours of the English game.

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The assistant manager for Manchester City Mark Bowen has insisted that they are close to signing on Brazillian and AC Milan superstar Kaka.

Reports says City have made a £100million bid for the 26-year-old.

“We believe the deal is very close,” said Bowen. “We are selling the future plans of the club to the player.

“I’ve read a lot about his love of Milan – and that goes without saying – but even when people said the deal was dead that was not our understanding.”

“We are still hopeful of signing Kaka,” added Bowen. “The situation has been a surprise to everyone but obviously negotiations have been going for a fair while.

“How close we are I don’t know, but our understanding is that it is very much a strong possibility that Kaka will be coming to Manchester City.”

City are ready to offer Kaka £15million in wages, according to reports.

Source: soccernews.com

Pic: goalvideoz.com

Saturday, 23 August 2008

Blackburn Rovers v Hull City - 16:00

Fulham v Arsenal - 18:30

Liverpool v Middlesbrough - 16:00

Newcastle Utd v Bolton Wanderers  - 16:00

Stoke City v Aston Villa - 16:00

Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland - 16:00

West Brom v Everton - 16:00

Sunday, 24 August 2008

Manchester City v West Ham Utd - 17:00

Wigan Athletic v Chelsea - 14:30

Monday, 25 August 2008

Portsmouth v Manchester Utd - 21:00