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Where have you been? We’ve missed you so much!
Yes, the great Server Meltdown of 2010 is over, and everything now seems to be back in order. You might notice that we don’t exactly do this for money, as evidenced by our lack of ads, and our lack of eye-catching graphic design. Well, if you like us and want to help us get some better web hosting, maybe you could purchase one of them t-shirts we are flogging over there to the right? I know, I know. Begging is so very uncool. But hey, just saying, you get what you pay for!
Speaking of which… there is some brilliant armchair analysis, fixtures, and your comments after the hop.
Right, so on to the football. Probably today’s most intriguing match is Stoke at home versus Spurs. Stoke have been very solid at the Brittania Stadium this season, where they have conceded all of 9 goals. Spurs, on the other hand, will be trying to hold on to fourth place, and they’ll have to do it without Jermain Defoe, who is out with the dreaded six-week hamstring injury. Today also marks Ryan Shawcross’s return from suspension after that incident against Arsenal. The less said about that the better, but trust me, it will be an ad naseum talking point. Unfortunately, this match is on Fox Soccer Plus, which I believe is currently available to all of 3 people in Guam. Oh well.
Elsewhere, Aston Villa hosts Wolves in the early EPL match, as Arsenal hosts Wet Spam. Both winnable home games for two teams hoping to remain in contention for fourth place and the EPL title race respectively. Hull makes their Phil Brown-less debut against Pompey today, which is certainly as good a game as any for Sloth Dowie to take the reins. In Serie A, Roma and Inter each have fixtures after their high and low of midweek European action. It’ll be interesting to see how the teams respond, especially given Inter’s poor run in the Italian league of late. And then in the Championship, Newcastle are away to Bristol City, who like Hull will be looking to the proverbial new manager effect. Newcastle, however, have a real chance to solidify their lead in the Fizzy Pop league and look to be a good bet for an eventual return to the EPL.
Oh and tonight marks the grand opening of the Red Bulls Arena, where yours truly and Ned will be there to watch Robinho Juan Pablo Angel a bunch of players we have never heard of at a beautiful new soccer-specific stadium, which will soon be sitting unused due to the MLS strike.
Without further ado, today’s selected fixtures….
EPL
—–
8:30 Aston Villa vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (ESPN2)
11:00 Stoke City vs Tottenham Hotspur (Fox Soccer Plus)
11:00 Everton vs Bolton (FSC)
11:00 Portsmouth vs Hull City
11:00 Sunderland vs Birmingham
11:00 Wigan vs Burnley
1:30 Arsenal vs West Ham (FSC)
Rest of the World
—–
10:30 Eintracht Frankfurt vs Bayern München (ESPN360.com, ESPN Deportes)
11:00 Middlesbrough vs Reading
11:00 Swindon vs Norwich City (Ned’s House)
11:00 Wycombe vs Exeter City (Spectator’s House)
11:00 Aberdeen vs Dundee United (u75′s House)
1:00 Deportivo La Coruña vs Real Valladolid (ESPN360.com, ESPN Deportes)
1:00 Fiorentina vs Genoa (ESPN360.com, Fox Soccer Plus)
1:20 Bristol City vs Newcastle United
1:30 Borussia Dortmund vs Bayer Leverkusen (Gol)
2:45 PSV vs Twente (ESPN360.com)
3:00 Real Madrid vs Sporting Gijón (ESPN360.com, ESPN Deportes)
3:45 Palermo vs Inter Milan (FSC)
3:45 AS Roma vs Udinese (ESPN360.com)
4:00 Palmeiras vs Ponte Preta (Gol)
5:00 Espanyol vs Sevilla (ESPN360.com, ESPN Deportes
6:30 New York Red Bulls vs Santos FC (FSC)
Delap, you c**t, throw the f**king ball.
F**king Hull up 2-1 at Pompey…
meanwhile, Bolton down to 10 men and Everton with an FK 20 yards out
Spurs are missing finishes to so many good crosses. That’s four or five now.
and Arteta bends it in… 1-0 Toffees
NIKO! Great goal!!! What a leave by Gudy.
GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! NIKO! NIKO! HE’S A YIDDO!
Arteta’s goal was a beauty of a free kick. He’s had two of those in the past few weeks I think.
NIKO!
All around great team goal. Overlap, through ball, cross, leave, finish.
That was a deadly ball from BAE.
Rory, you should not be allowed to dry off the ball before throwing it.
Ye gods, Kaboul is stupid.
Faye is holding Crouch down, Crouch gets called for the foul. WTF?
Stoke fans are whistling about Gomes’ time wasting? Really?
Arteta looks like he may have picked up a groin injury on that tackle.
That’s a soft card. Mike Dean, your Twat of the Week Award is safe.
and Hull somehow gives up 2 goals in the last 2 minutes of regulation to lose.
Pompey get goals in the 88th and 89th minutes to lead Hull 3-2.
The new manager effect- killed.
Redknapp’s gonna have a huge twitch…..or a stroke at the end of this one
Uh is Jozy tweeting from the game?
Knew I should’ve picked up Ohara for fantasy. Damn.
sure looks like it.
http://twitter.com/JozyAltidore17
Overall, a good win in a tough place.
Whew. Ugly, but I’ll take the points. And f**k you, Stoke, I hope you go down soon, you bunch of filthy hacks.
Yeah, that’s a really great result for Spurs.
Nice Jozy, nice
True, Steve, and scoring two goals when Stoke had only conceded 9 times at home all year is good to see.
Yep. He’s shown up on my tweetdeck more than once.
I love Jozy, but I sure hope he got the okay from somebody at the club to do that. Don’t want to piss off the management the first time out.
@Ryan, It’s not like they’ll be there long anyway, not after today
hahahaha. portsmouth with the amazing comeback. and avram grant still hasnt smiled
@Omar: he won’t smile until he’s killed that damn Clouseau.
Main points from Union:
1. Most players will have guaranteed contracts.
2. Greater freedom of movement.
3. Increased compensation.
Can’t call it a win for the Union until we see the terms allowing more freedom of movement, but it sounds like a win.
DENILSON!
/late
@nyk its ok i just saw it cuz i cant find a stream that lasts longer than 4 seconds.
you should see a urologist about that; or maybe you are a urologist
Good game from you Gunners so far, will want to get the 2nd before the break though
wow, Spector did a great job holding off the Pixie
@nyk hahahahahahaha. urology is definitely not in my future. and we are a sloppy bendtner pass from being up 2
its amazing how much a sense of calm having alex song in the midfield gives me
Nasri whines too much for calls.
Dirty, dirty Sol Campbell. Two weeks in a row with nasty late tackles.
Sol looks like he’s a shoe in for a second yellow today…
Horrible challenge from Sol, the one last week was fine TFA
@TFA: agreed, that was a bad tackle. dont know why he’s lunging in the attacking 18 yard box.
clichy looking phenomenal today
uh-oh. Jude Law with the RC!
Oh dear oh dear vermaelen
arsene, your mascot can’t explain that to you.
s**t s**t s**t s**t
F**K YES ALUMUNIA!
Verminator OFF! Questionable call all around. And Almunia saves the PK!
JUSTICE FROM MANNY!
um, i’m gonna go with no
holy mother of god almunia
The much derided Almunia comes through
does this mean silvestre at the back for the next three games? i hope for the love of god willie g recovers in time
No way in hell Gallas will be back anytime soon……I wish Djourou existed…..also, I bet Song will do it, he’s definitely better than our geriatrics
I thought I would take the day off from commenting, just enjoy the beautiful New England spring day, then sit down and watch The Arsenal in the peace of my basement without F5′ing my laptop every 20 seconds. But that f**king penno call pisses me off.
Having said that (CYE), we’ve been lucky not to get a red yet this year, and even tho Jude Law Lookalike should not have gotten even a foul there, we’ve been due for a call to not go our way.
Worst part is not being down to 10 men today; it’s being WITHOUT Vermaelen for Brum, Wolves and Spurs. A center defense of Sol and Sylvestre makes my stomach churn. And that’s NOT because of the G&T’s I’m drinking.
Call me biased, but i didn’t think that was a foul at all
@Wac: you’re biased.
But you’re also correct. I’ve seen more contact between Leno and Conan.
/weak, I know.
I chuckled lol
Professional fouls are only a one game ban.
Eboue is on my list of players in the prem i don’t want running at me
cynical by upson
which team is playing with 10 men again?
Wonder if Wenger should consider Eduardo for Arshavin. Andrei seems frustrated today.
Like others, I’m not happy with the entire call. There was contact, and you do have to control your body, but soft contact like that needs to be either/or. Either you rule that the contact started outside the box (which it initially did, though not what took the player down) and give a red, or you rule that the contact took place in the box but was incidental and let Vermaelen off with a yellow (or nothing–there was nothing dirty in the contact).
I know that last man back clouds all of this but, somewhat like mandatory minimums and three strikes in various American law books, it’s a well-meaning rule that takes the power away from those who are counted on to enforce the rules.
That said, there is nothing wrong with the call–there was contact and the assistant did well to spot it. An unluckier day and the attacker gets a yellow for a dive because the officials were unsighted.
Way to dive yourself out of the play, Song. Are there no defenders on the bench?
attn: arsenalstoreusa.com
When will Region 1 versions of the Arsenal Legends DVD series show up?
Mido earned his 1000 pounds today.
That was a dive by Eboue.
ok i almost peed my pants. carlton cole off the post and me almost dying. fun stuff all around
Suck it, f**kers.
PK! for the handy on Matty Upson
Upton gave the ref no chance… he knew it. C’mon Fabs.
penno to arsenal. handball
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
tough luck for upson
O AN HE CESC-Y!
Gay nice touch from cesc though
2-0. suckers
we’ve got cesc fabregas!!!!!
so wait… did Arsenal get screwed again in a win that puts them top of the league? Were the Gunners jobbed?
So how many games does Vermaelen miss? 2, right?
Cesc fabregas facial hair= Sid Crosby boyish playoff beard
Take it easy Sol… you can’t get another card.
I cannot wait to see how The Times, Telegraph and Observer fellate Arsene Wenger tomorrow. Really, I’m excited. Let the hyperbole gush forth, Fleet Street!
JT – a s**tty call is a s**tty call, regardless of the final score
NYK: only you lot would moan about it
You only moan when you’re winning? ;)
we enjoy moaning – let us be malcontents!
As much as I have ragged on him in the past… Eboue has been fantastic of late. And Song looked great today, too.
We! Are! Top of the League! We are top of the league!
WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Now, let’s go Palermo!
is there any chance of this being overturned if arsene appeals? im thinking back to EBJTs red card last season. wasnt he last man back as well?
Real Madrid against the braying donkey on ESPN. Yep, Spanish footy on the big channel…
BBC just answered my question… Vermaelen gets a one-match ban since the red wasn’t for violent conduct. Not sure Wenger should appeal it, since the FA has been adding games to every appeal this year.
I still can’t get over Muntari’s insanity
@hockalees. thank god its only for one game. i think we can cope without him for brum but maybe this will even be good to get him some rest. he’s played more than anyone this season