Alan Shearer has stated that Nemanja Vidic’s injury will cost Manchester United the Premier League title.
The Serbian centre-half is currently on the sidelines after undergoing an operation, and the Red Devils were beaten 3-2 at home by Tottenham on Saturday.
The Old Trafford skipper missed the majority of last season with a cruciate ligament injury, and as such Sir Alex Ferguson’s men relinquished their title to Manchester City.
Shearer feels Vidic’s absence will be critical in determining who will be English champions for 2012-13.
“It is early days in the title race but already Manchester United have been dealt a huge blow from which they will not recover,” Shearer stated in his column in The Sun.
“Before the season started I did not think they were strong enough to win the title despite all their new signings.
“With the loss of Nemanja Vidic now for two months I am even more convinced that the Premier League trophy will either be staying put or heading to Stamford Bridge.
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“In truth his loss last season probably cost them the title. For me they are looking a lot more vulnerable now,” he concluded.
Stoke City defender Steven N’Zonzi hopes he can replicate his own previous success by going to Old Trafford and claiming three points with his new side.
N’Zonzi was part of an un-fancied Blackburn team that went to Old Trafford last season that won 3-2 and is hopeful that he can draw on his own experience, when Stoke travel to Manchester on Saturday.
“It was an absolute incredible result, and an incredible feeling when you walk off the pitch at Old Trafford having won, the midfielder told the Stoke City website.
“They are without doubt one of the biggest, if not the biggest clubs in the world, and so to go there and be able to say that you won the game is pretty amazing, so it is a game that I will always remember,” N’Zonzi said.
The Frenchman has taken enough encouragement from performances against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City to believe his side can put on another impressive showing at the Theatre of Dreams.
“It is one game, and people may not give us much chance on Saturday, but similarly nobody gave Blackburn a chance when we went there last season, and look what happened.
“We have performed well this season and picked up points from games where people may not have thought we would get anything. We are moving in the right direction and I am really enjoying being a part of it all.”
Tony Pulis’ side have managed five draws out of their opening seven games this season and N’Zonzi admits he would have liked to see some of those draws turn into wins, but still remains happy with the way the season has gone.
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“Obviously we want to get more wins, that is what football is all about, but they will come. Performances have been good and we can take a lot of positives from the start we have made,” he added.
Theo Walcott is a major doubt for England’s crucial trip to Poland on Tuesday after he was involved in a ‘fierce’ challenge during Friday night’s 5-0 World Cup qualifier victory against San Marino.
England manager Roy Hodgson told BBC Sport that the Arsenal winger will stay overnight in hospital after he was substituted with a chest injury following a nasty collision with goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini.
Hodgson said: “We have to find out the extent of his injury but he will be in hospital overnight and he will be having a scan.
“It is a chest injury. It didn’t look good and until such time as they have X-rayed it and scanned it I really don’t know.”
England failed to excel in front of a virtually sold-out Wembley against the defensive minded minnows, who are ranked 207th in the world, before Wayne Rooney made the vital breakthrough thanks to sweetly struck penalty after 35 minutes of frustration.
His club and country partner in crime Danny Welbeck notched the second just two minutes later and the Manchester United pairing doubled the lead in the second half before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first England goal added some much needed gloss to the scoreline.
Rooney’s double were his 30th and 31st goals for the country taking him past Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney and Alan Shearer in England’s all-time list of goalscorers
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Hodgson added: “If I described the challenge as reckless I would be being kind. It was a very fierce challenge.
“I don’t believe there was any malice. But it put a dampener on the evening.”
Barcelona’s Director of Football Adoni Zubizarreta has dismissed claims that the Spanish giants will pick up an easy win against Celtic in tomorrow night’s Champions League clash.
The Scottish champions have been the surprise team in Champions League Group G, lying in second place with four points following an away win against Spartak Moscow and a draw against Benfica.
Celtic also put in a good performance against Tito Vilanova’s men at the Nou Camp last month, but came away empty handed as Jordi Alba scored a late winner in stoppage time to end the match 2-1.
Zubizarreta has warned Barcelona fans that facing the Glasgow club will be even harder now that they have the home advantage when they visit Celtic Park tomorrow.
“We won with a last minute goal at the Camp Nou. It won’t be easy to win. Their fans get right behind them and their style of play is tough for us to deal with,” he told reporters before boarding the plane to Scotland.
Barcelona are now five points clear at the top of Group G, but Zubizarreta insists the Spanish club will be looking for the win against Celtic to qualify for the knock-out stages as soon as possible.
“We want to top our group to guarantee a good draw in the next round. We’ll try and do that as quickly as we can”.
In La Liga, Barcelona have made a record-breaking start to their domestic campaign with 28 points from ten games, however Zubizarreta’s only concern is winning back the league title after finishing in second place last season.
“It’s great, but we aren’t trying to get records at this stage of the season – what we want is to ensure we get to April still in the fight for titles,” he added.
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Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas rates Jermain Defoe level with Radamel Falcao as the best striker he has worked alongside.
The Portuguese boss coached £50m rated Falcao during his time at Porto, but insisted that his current first choice striker is just as good.
The Colombian was instrumental in AVB’s Europa League winning campaign, prior to his arrival at Chelsea, netting a number of key goals, including a strike in the final.
Although the 26-year-old is one of the top attackers in Europe, Villas-Boas singled out Defoe as being just as good:
“Jermain knows how to score goals.” He is quoted by The Mirror.
“He has been doing it for all of his life. I certainly put him alongside Falcao.
“I don’t have a lot of experience. The experience I have is with a couple of strikers, but I put him up there with the best.”
Villas-Boas has coached a number of fine forwards in his time at Chelsea and Porto, including Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Hulk, but believes that Defoe’s instincts make him one of the best:
“At Chelsea, things were a bit different – irregular in terms of our goal-scoring ability. We reached January with Didier and Fernando on three goals each, which makes things a little more difficult.
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“This [Defoe’s goals] is what a manager wants – a striker on top form. Jermain’s hunger for goal is extreme.
“This is what pleases you, as a manager. It makes things easier for you to work with because you don’t have to teach a lot.
“He smells every cross and when the opportunity is there to tap it in. Plus he has the ability to turn on the defenders and he still has the pace in him to cause chaos.”
Sir Alex Ferguson is hopeful that Manchester United midfielder Nani will remain at the club and sign a new deal this season.
The Portuguese winger is yet to sign the offered contract extension and with his current deal expiring in 18 months time, clubs are preparing to snap him up.
Arsenal and Juventus were expected to make a January move for the injured midfielder but Ferguson’s desire to keep him will be a huge obstacle for the pair.
Nani is rated at £10million by other clubs and if he continues his refusal to sign a new deal at Old Trafford, Sir Alex may have no option but to cash in.
The 26 year old seemed to be a forgotten man in the red half of Manchester as Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia continue to impress but Ferguson has given the winger a chance to return after injury and become a key player once again at Old Trafford.
“Nani’s contract isn’t up until the end of next season – and we need him,” Ferguson told the Daily Mirror.
“He offers something different from the other players we have. He’s got an incredible talent, but, unfortunately, he’s been injured.
“We have sent Nani over to Dubai for a break in the hope that it will help him with his recovery.
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“I don’t think we will have him back until the middle of January. He’s never had a hamstring injury before and this is a bad one.
“But Nani has got a future here. Why would I want to let him go?”
manager Sam Allardyce is seeking a winning performance in the New Year to bounce back from defeat last weekend and cast 2012 into oblivion.
After losing 1-0 to Reading the Hammers have won only a single game in their last eight Premier League encounters.
Speaking to Sky Sports Big Sam stated, “We need to bounce back.”
“We’ve got to make sure we become better at creating and taking our chances, otherwise it’s going to be tough,” he continued.
Commenting on the manner in which the Irons have failed to win, and the defensive nature of Christmas football, he noted that, “The balls into the box haven’t been given enough quality to open up a defence as everybody starts tightening up at this stage of the season.”
With a number of injuries to key players the Hammers boss has been limited in personnel. Most notably Allardyce has a huge gap to fill in central midfield since Mohamed Diame’s injury.
“We haven’t had our best team out for ages and since we beat Chelsea, our points total has diminished rather than kicked on from there,” he said.
“Normally when you get a result as big as that one you kick on and get more and more results as the euphoria keeps you going.
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“The injuries have unfortunately kicked in and we’ve not been able to pick up the results we wanted to.
“It’s about getting the players back fit and then keeping them fit, and then we’ll be OK but that’s got to happen very quickly now.”
Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp wants to keep star striker Robert Lewandowski at the club, despite interest from Manchester United.
The Polish international has been strongly linked with a switch to the Premier League, with the Red Devils believed to be leading the chase.
With his contract set to expire in 2014, a move sooner rather than later appears to be on the cards, with the German outfit aware that they could lose him for free.
United are thought to be lining up a summer raid for the 24-year-old, but Klopp hasn’t given up hope of keeping the striker at the club:
“We will offer Robert a good contract but we have to see what the players wants,” he is quoted by talkSPORT.
“We must respect the decision of the player and, in some cases, wait.
“Right now there are signs that suggest we may be heading for a divorce but we will see what we can do.”
United chief Sir Alex Ferguson is hopeful that successful negotiations for Shinji Kagawa, who moved to Old Trafford from Dortmund last summer, may aid his pursuit of Lewandowski.
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Despite having the likes of Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck available to him as centre-forward options, the Scot is thought to be keen to add the former Lech Poznan man to his armoury.
Liverpool have been credited with a long-standing interest in Swansea captain and centre-back Ashley Williams after a campaign of defensive wobbles at the back, but would the player be tempted to move to Anfield and is he even the right man to help plug the notable holes in Brendan Rodgers’ inconsistent side?
It’s worth noting that Sunday’s Capital One Cup victory for the Welsh outfit over League Two Bradford City, in a one-sided final that saw them run out comfortable 5-0 winners on the day, that Michael Laudrup’s side are now guaranteed European football next term in the Europa League, something which for all their endeavours this season, Liverpool still are not. That puts into context the decision that would face Williams were the Merseyside giants to step up their reported interest with something more concrete. Can Swansea take him that much further? Or would the move simply be a sideways one based more on sentiment and history rather than footballing reasons?
Just two points and one league position currently separate the two sides in the league table at the moment and for all of their prestige, Liverpool remain a side in transition grappling with a new style of play under Williams’ former manager Rodgers, whereas Swansea have gone one step further than last campaign’s plucky underdogs punching above their weight, adding a degree of validation to their undoubted progress as a club with their first piece of major silverware in recent memory. One is a club on the up, the other a stagnant sleeping giant. One has more potential for improvement, the other a glass ceiling on their ambitions. He could quite happily stay at Swansea for the remainder of his playing career content in his club legend status, or move on for what looks a sizeable challenge before Liverpool to try and restore them to a side capable of competing with the top four on a consistent basis.
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During his time at Anfield so far, Rodgers has shown a tendency to refer back to players he has worked with before with the summer moves for both Joe Allen and Fabio Borini and there’s a sense that Williams could perform the tasks asked of him a darn sight better than first-choice central defensive pairing Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel have done this season.
With Jamie Carragher set to retire in the summer and Sebastian Coates still looking way too rough around the edges to warrant an extended run in the starting eleven, there’s a genuine concern that the Agger-Skrtel axis needs to be broken up if the side are to progress, after they’ve both endured their worst seasons ever from both an individual and collective team viewpoint at Liverpool. A centre-back capable of putting pressure on their places in a way that Coates has been unable to must be right at the top of the agenda when it comes to strengthening the team in the summer.
Rodgers’ preferred 4-3-3 formation requires both defenders at the heart of the back four to be comfortable on the ball and when the side are in possession, they pull apart to cover the full-backs who have rampaged forward up the flanks. This has left a huge gap between both Skrtel and Agger at times and both appear to be having some sort of crisis of confidence, not to mention a complete collapse of form as they struggle to adapt to this new style of play which asks them to be a bit more than just a defensive shield.
Of course, having kept 10 clean sheets in the top flight this term is far from a disaster and they look capable of matching last season’s return of 13, but there’s a sense that their lack of defensive solidity is holding them back as a side from truly progressing and with both Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson having fine seasons out wide, it’s likely that reinforcements will be brought in for the middle as opposed to on the wing and the sheer volume of sloppy displays and preventable goals given away by both Agger and Skrtel has seen the latter dropped from the side in recent times and Carragher restored and quickly become the best defender on show, one costly error against Zenit aside.
With a fee in the region of £10-15m likely to be demanded for Williams, the fact that the Wales international is 29 years of age in August would appear to make the deal one that FSG are going to feel uncomfortable in sanctioning after they previously buckled at paying just £5m for Clint Dempsey last summer when he was of a similar age. The move doesn’t quite fit in with the transfer policy that the club and Rodgers have pursued in recent times and Swansea will be extremely reluctant, particularly after Rodgers went back previously on a gentleman’s agreement to sign Allen last summer, to lose another key player to the same club.
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There’s no doubting that from both a style and substance standpoint that Williams certainly has something to offer Liverpool, but with relations little more than cordial between the two clubs still, the fee will be driven upwards way north of what the Merseyside club will consider reasonable. The underlying point to take away from the deal, though, is that a new defender of proven Premier League class is a priority, and whether they look to the continent once more for a young and hungry and altogether cheaper alternative, that shouldn’t detract from the wider point that the side have continued to look defensively suspect for the majority of the campaign.
Someone of Williams’ ilk would be a fine addition, but this deal looks dead in the water before it’s even begun.
Arsene Wenger’s men have often struggled to maintain their focus in the title race over the past eight Premier League seasons. It has been a mystery to some how the Gunners have failed to hold their poise at crucial points in the campaign during the barren spell.
The despair may just continue for those affiliated with Arsenal in North London. The trophy cabinet may look decidedly empty inside the Emirates but there are without doubt plenty of prize assets which those in the dressing room can lay claim to.
For those who are slightly more forgiving may just want to say take a bow son as you take a glimpse into the personal lives of some of the stars of old as well as those currently wearing the Red and White jersey.
Click on Lauren Neal for the full countdown of Arsenal beauties