Author: admin

CITY CAN WIN IT

CITY CAN WIN IT

Manchester city have a great chance of winning the league title this season in what would be Manuel Pellegrini’s first major trophy since his arrival to Europe several years ago. The Chilean was appointed as the replacement for Roberto Mancini in December. He has already guided the club to League Cup success, but this would be his major achievement. Even though city currently trail leaders Liverpool by a couple of points, they have the opportunity to go top if they win the two matches in hand. Scoring goals was a major problem for city in the last couple of weeks especially due to the absence of Sergio Aguero.

The Argentine has been missing since the second leg at Barcelona. He has suffered numerous injuries in the second half of the campaign, which have destroyed hopes of finishing as the top scorer in the league. However, he remains the club’s top scorer with 15 goals in just 17 league appearances. City have been confident that Aguero will be able to make his return before the trip to Anfield in the next few weeks, but the striker has confirmed that he does not plan to return unless he is 100% fit.

Aguero is unlikely to take any chances with his fitness given that the World Cup is only a few months away.

“With this recovery I am trying to do my best to be able to play again, but I cannot do it in a hurry. I do think to myself if something happens now, I will lose the rest of the Premier League season and the World Cup. He says to me that I can’t leave without winning a Champions League. That’s the objective of each player in Europe,” said Aguero. The striker has scored 29 goals in 29 appearances of all competitions.

JOHNSON TAKES AIM

JOHNSON TAKES AIM

Former Chelsea defender Glen Johnson has taken a swipe at his former manager Jose Mourinho by saying that Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers is much better than the Portuguese. Johnson was one of the first signings made by Chelsea after the arrival of Roman Abramovich as the owner of the club. However, he did not last long at the club after the arrival of Paulo Ferreira for £ 13 million. After subsequent spells at the likes of Portsmouth, Johnson has been playing for Liverpool for the last few years. He has established himself as one of the first choice not only for Liverpool, but also for England as well.

In the last few years, he has developed a reputation for being one of the best attacking right backs in the country. Johnson says that his current form is largely thanks to the faith shown by manager Rodgers, who has been getting a lot of praise from various quarters for the good work done by Liverpool this season. After missing out on Champions League football for several years now, Liverpool are in a position to even win the title, which would be their first since 1990. Johnson says that Mourinho never kept his promises, but concedes that the Portuguese remains as one of the best managers in the world.

“It was difficult for me under Jose at Chelsea because there was a moment when he said I deserved to play on merit. He said if I played well in the next game I would play the week after. I got man of the match so he couldn’t drop me. Then in the next game he said the same thing and I got man of the match again. He didn’t play me in that game and from that moment I just lost it and thought, ‘Well, how am I meant to respect you now? It’s just finished’,” said Johnson.

CHELSEA MIGHT WIN

CHELSEA MIGHT WIN

Alan Pardew has failed to dismiss Chelsea’s chances of winning the title ahead of the meeting with the blues at Stamford Bridge. Newcastle will be making the visit to London where they have enjoyed a good record in recent years. Their most recent win came in 2012, while Alan Pardew’s men will also be looking to complete the double this campaign.

Newcastle beat Chelsea 2-0 earlier in the campaign, but the omens are not looking good this time around. Newcastle have been on a very poor run of form, which has seen them get only one victory in the last six matches.

Read More Read More

DE JONG CHASE

DE JONG CHASE

Newcastle United is quite serious about bringing in the Dutch player Luuk de Jong. The 23 years old striker currently features for Borussia Monchengladbach in the German top flight, but, he has not been a regular starter there.

The Magpies don’t want him on a permanent basis though. They just want him on loan for the remaining part of the season. However, with still more than a couple of weeks remaining in the mid season transfer window, they are not in any kind of hurry. They are biding their time.

Currently, the Bundesliga teams are on winter break. They will be back in action towards the end of January and the negotiations regarding this deal are believed to go forward during that time only.

De Jong has been at Monchengladbach since the last one and half years. He had joined the club before the start of the 2012-13 Season. During his tenure there, the Netherlands international hasn’t got as much playing time as he would have liked to. He has just played 23 league fixtures so far.

The 2013-14 Premier League has gone well for Newcastle United till this point of time. They find themselves in top 10 right now. They are ahead of teams like Southampton and Aston Villa in the table and that clearly shows that they have performed a little better than what was expected of them.

Out of the 21 league games that the Magpies have played so far, they have won 10 and have lost 8. They have got 33 points under their belt.

Newcastle’s next league game is an away fixture. They will be taking on West Ham United at Upton Park on the day after tomorrow and they will enter that game as favourites.