EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

English International Peter Crouch may well leave Liverpool if he doesn’t begin to play more. At 6 foot 7 inches hes an unusual sight; but he certainly has skill. In the most recent League game against Arsenal (with Arsenal trying to desperately to win to keep their league hopes up) Crouch scored an impressive goal, flicking the bouncing ball behind a defender and then fiercely side kicking it (from about 25 meters out) as it continued to bounce. The ball rocketed into the very bottom left corner of the goal with Arsenals keeper Almunia desperately lunging to stop it.

Despite his impressive performance Crouch feels it is unlikely he will play again in the Champions League game against Arsenal. Crouch arrived from Southampton in a €7 million deal in 2005; the 27 years old is only occasionally starting (only 7 appearances this season) ahead of fellow striker Fernando Torres. He has been offered a new deal from Liverpool but is reluctant to accept considering his limited play time. “I would love to stay, it is a fantastic club and I love everything about it, but I have got to be realistic. If I want to have any aspirations of playing for England, or furthering my career, then I have to be playing - and that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.”

“It’s pretty clear I probably won’t start. Obviously if the manager plays one up front, he is more than likely to go with Fernando - and rightly so, he’s been fantastic this season. Before when he was rotating at least I was getting a game here and there. But the manager’s obviously stuck with a formation now that seems to be working, and credit to the players that have been playing in that system. We have certainly been playing well and I think we have got a great chance of going through to the semi-finals now in Europe.”

He said that right now hes trying to focus on getting Liverpool through to the Champions League finals, “We have got to take confidence from the fact that we’ve played two away games now against Arsenal and certainly not been outplayed at any time. We have given them a good account of ourselves, could have won either game, it could have gone either way. Now, when we are at Anfield and with the crowd behind us, we feel we can beat anyone.”

Whether he will stay at Anfield or not depends, but right now it seems more and more like he will be frustrated by the end of the season and may well want more play time.

“I will have to look at it - but that’s certainly something I won’t be doing now, I will be doing it at the end of the season.”

Tomas Rosicky, the Arsenal midfielder who has been suffering from knee injuries for the past 2 months is not expected to recover in time for the last few games of the league season. The Czech International may not be able to play in the European Cup either; Arsene Wenger described the situation, “It is impossible to say when he will return. It is a frustration for me and him as well. He’s a very genuine guy who wants to play. Tomas has an absolutely genuine attitude and is 100% committed, but he’s just not ready. I want him to be happy and play as quickly as possible and if it is for Arsenal it is even better.”

“Surprisingly, today is the first day where he could run at a little bit higher pace than usual without any pain. We will have to see his evolution. ‘It has been nine weeks now with no significant evolution in his injury.”

In a surprising turn of events Ronaldinho’s representative (and brother) Roberto De Assis attended the Man City vs Chelsea game (0-2) and discussed Man City’s interest in Ronaldinho transferring with the Club Directors as they watched the game. Sven-Goran Eriksson expressed his delight about the occasion, ” We would be able to find a place in our team for him, I can guarantee that. I will phone the owners. It was a surprise, but if they want to package Ronaldinho for me I would accept him and be very happy.” Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has already stated his intent to spend over €30 million to sign new transfers this summer. De Assis has also visited Inter Milan and AC Milan recently.

Ronaldinho has not had the best year at Barcelona and was just injured as the Champions League quarter finals ended and may be out for 6 weeks; claims have risen about his lack of commitment to Barcelona and that he has put on too much weight; the Brazilian has been suffering of knee tendinitis and a foot injury. Ronaldinho has only scored 9 goals this year in all of Barcelona’s matches (European, league and Cup). Ronaldinho has a contract that should last until 2010 with a buyout section which is extremely high; however, De Assis has threatened to call upon an unusual FIFA clause which could allow Ronaldinho to end his contract early. It’s still far to early to determine what will happen and it would be really surprising if Ronaldinho signed with a mid-tier EPL team.

Frank Rijkaard said, “He hasn’t let me down, I’m with him. I can’t be disappointed with him because he’s given so much to the organization and to the team.”

In the second of three consecutive games that Arsenal and Liverpool will play against each other, Liverpool may sacrifice the game because they have no hope of wining the EPL but do have hopes to win the Champions League. Liverpool is currently in 4th place in the EPL (62 points), Everton is 5 points below (57), Arsenal is 8 points above them (70 points), Chelsea in 2nd place with 71 points and Man Utd (76 points). While Arsenal still has a chance of winning the EPL and the Champions League, Liverpool cannot realistically expect to win or even approach 3rd place in the EPL. As a result, we can expect them to bench some of their first string players for the following English premier league game, especially since the two teams have to play 3 consecutive games in 6 days. This is reinforced by the first leg game of the Champions League (quarter finals) where Arsenal tied Liverpool (away, 1-1). Liverpool’s away goal could be crucial and gives them a distinct advatage.

Rafael Benitez could well be expected to switch out many of his stars such as Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypia, Jamie Carragher, and Dirk Kuyt. “‘I will need to think carefully about my team for the league match. Torres and Gerrard will need to be strong for the second leg, and Kuyt ran himself to a standstill on Wednesday.

“Some players recover in two or three days, others need four. Maybe we will need to change some players. The age may be the key. Fernando can recover in two days, but Sami could take five. We will have to wait and see. I am expecting to make changes, I cannot expect them to play three times like that in seven days, certainly with the very high tempo of the games. It is impossible to play these same players three times in a week. Impossible.”

“It will be impossible to play with the same eleven in three games against Arsenal.

“I think, in this situation, rotation is maybe good. We flew back from London on Wednesday night after the match, and we will go back today. It’s a hard few days, mentally difficult. On Thursday we had a light training session, and then we will rest and discuss tactics and how we will play in the league match. Rafa will have already seen the first game back a couple of times to tell us what we did good and bad. He will now tell us how we can do better.”

Liverpool’s Masherano will be out for the EPL game because of a 2 match ban he received at Old Trafford for refusing to leave the pitch after getting a red card.

What will be interesting is how Ferguson’s team will deal with playing three high paced games against Liverpool. Arsenal’s players will be under a lot of pressure to win the next 2 games against Liverpool so that their chances of winning both the EPL and Champions League will remain alive.

Arsenal and Liverpool will be playing each other three consecutive times in the next 6 days; in the first match, both teams started with their first string players. Van Persie almost scored in the 17^th minute when he got an excellent long chip from Flamini over the entire Liverpool defense. He only managed to get a toe on it and it went over the bar by a foot; but it was a great opportunity. Soon thereafter, Van Persie got another chance when through a series of classic Arsenal passes he was found open for at the top of the box with an open shot; he took it but just didn’t seem to connect, the ball bounced quickly to the bottom right but Liverpool keeper Reina managed to deflect it. Off an excellent corner quick Adebayor jumped in the air and headed the ball in (23^rd minute).

Everything seemed to be going Arsenals way until Gerrard decided to dribble the ball in to Arsenals penalty box and cross it low right in front of Arsenals keeper (Almunia); Dirk Kuyt, sprinting between 2 Arsenal players managed to get his foot to the ball first and kick it in (26^th minute) and get a crucial away goal. The first game of three consecutive games that Arsenal and Liverpool would play together was well underway. As the game proceeded Eboue proved to be the weak link on Arsenal consistently giving the ball away and taking the worst shots the entire time he was on the pitch, until finally Arsene Wenger took him off in the 65^th minute. In the 47^th minute Almunia made a great save when Kuyt got the ball of a corner and took a low shot towards the far post. Hleb however, showed his mastery of the midfield and his great agility and power the entire game. In the 66^th minute he darted straight at the goal from 4 yards past the penalty box. He slid between 5 Liverpool defenders and was only a few yards away from Reina when he fell down as Kuyt jostled with him; cries of a penalty were heard and they may well have been justified as Kuyt did pull on Hlebs arm. Fabregas also shot on goal multiple times with some very close calls.

Most of the time the game was marked by Arsenal dominating the midfield and playing with the ball outside of Liverpool’s box. Liverpool proved completely unable to produce any comprehensible passes and could only hope for a goal by passing long to Torres. Kuyt played hard throughout the game but but his efforts were wasted by the miserable Liverpool midfield. Next week Arsenal will have to play at Anfield and score at least one away goal.

Roma (at home) showed a lack of creativity during this first leg and was completely unable to breakdown Manchester’s defense. Scholes was a poor midfielder throughout the game often giving the ball away and struggling to pass. He did manage to assist in Cristiano’s goal (39th minute) though Rooney really created the opportunity with an excellent turn. Scholes crossed the ball lightly and Ronaldo came out of nowhere to head the ball in. In the 66^th minute JS Park kept the ball in from a curling cross and headed it toward the center of the 6 yard box. Roma’s keeper bumbled the ball which landed at Rooney’s feet who promptly tapped it in. Minutes later Ronaldo floated between the Roma defenders; he struck the ball which floated inches above the ground at the left side of the goal. Roma’s keeper tipped the ball with his fingertips which then deflected out of bounds and off the post. Though Roma lacked Totti during the game it’s doubtful if it would have made a difference. Roma now has a mountain to climb as they play Man Utd in 8 days at Old Trafford.

When you look at this schedule, you realize that the Semi-finals will probably consist of the following teams for the following reasons:

• Barcelona will move on because they should beat Schalke. We will see them in the semi-finals.

• Man. Utd. should beat Roma because they embarrassed them in the Champions League last year (7-1), Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world, and the number 1 team in the EPL is considered (and should be) better than the 2nd best team in Italian Serie A. Roma is in no way is a bad team, they do have many good players, and it is possible they could win, but right now Manchester United is probably the best club team in the world.
• Chelsea should beat Fenerbahce, well, because, Chelsea has a better team (does this really need an explanation?)
• Finally, the real question, who will win between Arsenal and Liverpool? This is actually a really tricky question, especially because Liverpool has a history of doing much better in Tournaments (especially Champions League) as compared to the League. Arsenal now has an advantage in that Van Persie will be able to play, but in a game like this anything can happen; it should be pretty exciting. The following players will be of especial importance: Fernando Torres, Gerrard, Babel (maybe), Van Persie, Adebayor, Fabregas, Hleb (probably won’t score but will control the game), and Clichy (will probably produce a solid defense). In the end, Arsenal will probably have the advantage and take the win.

The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal tournament for only the best Club teams; previously known as the European Cup, it is a club competition organized by UEFA (European Union of Football Association) since 1955. Considered the most important prize, the European Champion Clubs Cup is actually different the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. Teams play in a two-leg knockout system, one game at home and one away. Ties can be settled by the value of goals; away being worth more than home goals. Until 1992, eligibility was granted by winning each clubs respective national league championship. After 1992, UEFA changed the system so that multiple teams from the same nation could play based upon how good the nations clubs are as a whole. As a result, a team that finished 2nd in the Spanish La Liga or the EPL is more deserving of qualifying than a Belgian club team.

Tottenham and Chelsea (away) played a thrilling game resulting in a 4-4 tie. Dider Drogba scored the opening goal which was soon matched by Jonathon Woodgate. Joe Cole and Michael Essien earned Chelsea the next two goals. One may have thought that Tottenham would be discouraged by the 3-1 score and by the 3 recent losses they suffered, but they must’ve thought about their victory against Chelsea last month. Tottenham was spurred on by their fans and finally Berbatov scored with Huddlestone following suite soon after. Joe Cole was consistently creative and showed his true potential; he scored a few minutes after Huddlestone as the game neared its end. Soon after however, Joe Cole was taken off, “We wanted to play more in midfield, have one more in midfield because we knew they would play a direct ball. We wanted to pass the ball better. That’s why we took him off.” said Grant. Keane proved to be the match hero for the Spurs once again as he scored the game tying goal in the 88th minute. Grant said that Chelsea’s weak point was set pieces, “In the last two games Tottenham have scored six against us and five were from set-pieces. It is unusual for us.”

Grant became defensive about having lost and now tied to Tottenham, and having lost to a Championship League team (Barnsley in 17th place) during the FA Cup. Every game in which we drop points is a big game,” said Grant. ‘If we won would it have been a big game? We lost against Barnsley and it became a big game. Every game we drop points is a big game.”

Chelsea could have tied Arsenal for points, who are only 3 behind Manchester United the league leaders.
We’re closer to Arsenal now than we were before,” Grant said. ‘We’ll be at home and we’ll come to fight to win the game.”

Daniel Agger, the frustrated 23 year old Danish International with a metatarsal injury is to undergo surgery. Agger has only played 6 games this season and has been constantly plagued with injury. This rules him out for the UEFA Champions League and for crucial League hopes. The center backs place has been taken by Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel who was signed for €6 million in January of 2008. Agger is expected to be able to play next season

“It’s a blow for Daniel but we want to get his problem sorted. We have defensive cover and Martin Skrtel is playing very well, Daniel will be back for next season.”