Last Week in Las Ligas

I’m sick tired and have been inundated over the past two weeks with work of various kinds. That said, I haven’t put together any videos of La Liga for you, though I am trying to catch Valencia-Atletico tomorrow, if I feel better. What I have instead is two weeks of British footy videos from our bloke, Oliver, out in London. For those of you missing your dose of La Liga over around these parts, I apologize. I hope to get back to being blog-tastic next week.

Cheers.

 

A FA cup weekend this week as all the usual suspects in action, then midweek we have Premiership action to look at and also a Carling Cup semi final for the right to face Chelsea in Cardiff

FA Cup Results

Man City 3-1 Southampton

Chelsea 3-0 Nottingham Forrest http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12x8w_chelsea-vs-nottingham-forest-goals

Arsenal 1-1 Bolton http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12ysc_arsenal-vs-bolton-goals

Luton 0-4 Blackburn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbKfG4saJpA&eurl=

Birmingham 2-3 Reading

Bristol City 2-2 Middlesbrough

Fulham 3-0 Stoke

Tottenham 3-1 Southend http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12sm7_tottenham-vs-southend

West Ham 0-1 Watford

Manchester United 2-1 Portsmouth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFrVcuYj6aM&eurl=

 

Premiership

West Ham 1-2 Liverpool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4J9vZEXp0w&eurl=

Wigan 3-2 Reading

Sheff Utd 2-0 Fulham

Manchester United 4-0 Watford http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13t26_man-utd-vs-watford-goals

Chelsea 3-0 Blackburn http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13t5s_chelsea-vs-blackburn-goals

Newcastle 3-1 Aston Villa http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13tbe_newcastle-vs-aston-villa

Bolton 1-1 Charlton http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13t72_bolton-vs-charlton-goals

Carling Cup Semi Final Second Leg

Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ui_cBtoMp0&eurl= highlights of regular time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgxOZvgzLPM&eurl Extra time highlights

Transfer Window Watch

The transfer window has shut again until the summer- here are the biggest deals of the winter-

Aston Villa

Ashley Young’s $19 million dollar move to Aston Villa from Watford raised some eyebrows- Villa coach Martin O’ Neill claimed the money was spent on potential as he feels Young is a future England great in the making- Villa also snapped up Lyon and former Valencia hitman, the sizable John Carew to bolster the attack

Liverpool

Busy window for the red half of scouseland as the kopites picked up some young talent from Spain, Holland, Argentina and Italy but more importantly managed to secure the loan signing of West Ham’s Argie world cup star Javier Mascherano to help their Premiership and Champions League push

West Ham

Blew about 40 million buck in the quest to ensure Premiership survival and could potentially have doubled that had their late bid for Charlton’s Darren Bent been accepted- West Ham did pick up some quality however including Luis Boa Morte from Fulham, Lucas Neill from Blackburn and Mathew Upson from Premiership hopefuls Birmingham- now if these guys can keep them up will be the mark of if the money spent was value for money

Player of the week

Wayne Rooney- 3 goals in 2 games and after some sub standard games this season maybe he’s getting back to his best

Goal of the week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImjHQtPjWg –this one aint bad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYCNDkuquM Neither is this one

Funny stuff from the premiership 10-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E6yH_o3zuw&eurl=

5-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFldlhcE5_U&eurl=

Something Special

A beautiful video remembering the early career of the best player of the 90’s, everyone’s favourite ‘nutter’ Zinedine Zidane- truly one of the greatest players of all time- rare footage of his early days at French club Cannes and for the national team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1slbWWzcp28&eurl=

Two weeks ago:

A huge weekend for English football!

Losses for the top two turn the league on its head as Liverpool beat Chelsea and Arsenal beat Manchester United.

Saturday

Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPcYcH8oKA&eurl=

Aston Villa 2-0 Watford http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1108m_aston-villa-vs-watford-goals

Fulham 1-1 Tottenham http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x110ka_fulham-vs-tottenham-extended-highli

Middlesbrough 5-1 Bolton http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1104u_middlesbrough-vs-bolton-goals

Newcastle 2-2 West Ham http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuJlNHbs6X4&eurl=

Portsmouth 0-1 Charlton http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1106z_portsmouth-vs-charlton-goal

Reading 3-1 Sheff Utd http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x110db_reading-vs-sheffield-united-goals

Man City 0-3 Blackburn http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x110a1_man-city-vs-blackburn-goals

Sunday

Wigan 0-2 Everton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_385t0cdCk&eurl=

Arsenal 2-1 Manchester United http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvnhgnAMmM&eurl=

Tuesday

Watford 2-1 Blackburn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdvfVPq8IcE&eurl=

Wednesday

Carling Cup Semi Final

Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12172_tottenham-vs-arsenal-goals

Chelsea 4-0 Wycombe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_YOtw2YmJo&eurl=

A brilliant week for Arsenal, fighting back against their two biggest rivals to grab two great results in both league and cup. On Sunday Manchester United came to London looking to extend their lead at the top to an almost insurmountable nine points. Despite Arsenal’s general dominance the red devils took the lead just after half time through a Rooney header, but substitute Robin Van Persie smashed home an equaliser in the 82nd minute to set up a tense last ten minutes for Alex Ferguson’s side. Ferguson’s worst nightmares came true two minutes into stoppage time as Arsenal fullback Manu Eboue found space on the wing and crossed dangerously into the box for the majestic Thierry Henry to head Arsenal into the lead and back into the title race (maybe- I’m optimistic) All that was left was for Jens Lehmann to infuriate Manc fans everywhere by feigning injury http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_AXuRwQVb0 (in a clearly aimed poke at United’s earlier antics when they had been winning) and the victory was secured.

Wednesday the Gunners travelled to White Hart Lane for the first leg of the League Cup Final against London rivals Tottenham. Arsene Wenger fielded the same young team that has brought Arsenal success up to this point in the competition and early on it appeared that decision would cost him a place in the Final at Cardiff. Tottenham took the early lead as Berbatov capitalised upon a defensive error by Kolo Toure to make it 1-0. Minutes later a Tom Huddlestone free-kick struck Julio Baptista and flew past Manu Almunia to make it two and put Spurs firmly in control. Wenger made a few changes at half time including introducing Aliksander Hleb for Vassikiri Diaby to add a more attacking option. The change seemed to make a difference as Arsenal, led by the sensational Cesc Fabregas dominated the second half with Julio Baptista scoring two goals (to add to his four against Liverpool) to put Arsenal in pole position for the return match and favourites to face Chelsea in the final.

Speaking of Chelsea– things are heating up at Stamford Bridge as rumours swirl over Jose Mourinho’s future at the club. Jose is reportedly furious at the ‘lack of respect’ the club has shown him over his transfer targets. Jose had wanted a new forward (David Villa was top of the wish list but he had settled on Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy or Villa’s Milan Baros as lower cost options) and at least one new defender (Micah Richards or Tel Ben Haim) to strengthen his squad. However Russian owner Roman Ambramovich refused to release the cash suggesting his manager should adapt his approach to disappointing $60 million recruit, Andriy Shevchenko to get the best out of him. So far Jose had been without new recruits this transfer window and the team put in their worst performance of the Mourinho era at Anfield on Saturday. Due to this Mourinho is reportedly contemplating leaving the club at the end of the season to take control of either Real Madrid or Inter Milan, with Inter boss Roberto Mancini heading the other way as a less hassle alternative to the ‘Special One’.

Here’s an article on the situation in more detail

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8695_1859937,00.html from football365.com

Player of the Week

Stewart Downing- 3 assists and a goal in the demolition of high flyers Bolton

Goal of the Week

Jermaine Pennant’s sweet strike to down Chelsea at Anfield – his first Liverpool goal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNtEFq7ZIi0

POI

A video of one of my favourite players of all time- he recently left the Premiership to end his career in Qatar and was the original Paris superstar before Ronaldinho hit town. Was also the highest paid player in the world at PSG and watching this video you can more than see why. You think Ronaldo and Ronaldinho got tricks? You’ve seen nothing yet. This is former Bolton Wanderers midfielder Jay Jay Okocha- so good they named him twice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJzwPXp4Mtw&eurl=