Sporting Week in Review:

Posted by Rob Shepherd on Friday, March 24, 2017

In the football world, Arsenal’s woes continue with the surprise 2-1 defeat at West Bromwich Albion. Two goals by Craig Dawson and one by Robson-Kanu consigned Arsenal to yet another defeat. Wenger after the game Wenger said, “It leaves us in a unique situation that we’ve never had before. We face big problems to regroup and find resources to sort out the problem. We need some togetherness.”

Owners of private planes will be delighted at the turmoil at the London club! Not one but two planes flew over pulling banners. One pro-Arsene Wenger and the other anti-Wenger could be seen in the air at the Hawthornes. The result sees Arsenal drop to 6th.

Chelsea kept up their charge with a city with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Stoke. Everton thrashed Hull and are now level on points with Arsenal, sitting in 7th.

6th No More

Manchester United fans were overjoyed that they were finally out of 6th place, the club from Old Trafford had occupied 6th for over 100 days. By beating Middlesbrough 3-1 they are now up to the lofty heights of 5th. 4 points behind Liverpool but with 2 games in hand.

Leicester City continued their revival and claimed their first away win of the season by beating West Ham 3-2. Kasper Schmeichel made two world-class saves in a pulsating match. Leicester are now six points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

Tottenham showed that even without 24-goal Harry Kane, they are still a force to be reckoned with. A tough encounter with battling Southampton saw Tottenham their club record run of successive home Premier League wins extended to 10. Tottenham are sat in 2nd and despite being 10 points behind Chelsea, they are 9 points ahead of bitter rivals Arsenal.

Oh No….. Agüero

The highly-anticipated meeting between Manchester City and Liverpool took place at the Etihad and it didn’t disappoint! It ended 1-1 but it never felt like a 1-1, end to end stuff with Liverpool probably feeling they should have taken the 3 points. Agüero rescued a point for City with a 69th minute goal. This was the fifth successive time he has scored at the Eitihad against Liverpool.

In the Championship: Bristol City pulled off a surprise 4-0 win against promotion chasing Huddersfield Town. In the Friday night kick-off, Bristol City who were sat in the drop zone, outplayed the team sitting in 3rd. Huddersfield Town head coach David Wagner said, “Bristol City were strong and we under-performed. I have never spoken about automatic promotion and we now need to use the international break to refresh and respond to this result.”

Newcastle’s sprint towards the title is now looking more like a slow walk as they were held 0-0 by 18th place Birmingham City. Derby County will be disappointed with their 2-2 draw against the 20th placed team, Nottingham Forest. Leeds United kept up their promotion challenge with a good 2-0 win against 2nd place Brighton. Leeds are currently 9pts behind leaders Newcastle.

International Friendlies:

Predictably, German beat England! Podolski signed off from international duty by smashing a second half winner to hand Southgate his first taste of defeat as England manager. This defeat was a blow to England as they were by far the most creative team and always looked dangerous. Attention for England now turns towards England’s group F game on Sunday at Wembley against Lithuania.

Making Rugby News Headlines in the Past Week

Six Nations News

The Six Nations came to a thrilling climax, but no double Grand slam, Triple Crown or World Record for England as they succumbed to a ferocious Ireland 13-9.

France beat Wales 20-18 in a game that is surrounded in controversy regarding time added on (20 Minutes!) and reintroducing a substituted player, for a player ’reportedly’ feigning a head injury. Wales are contesting the result.

Meanwhile Scotland signed off the reign of their coach Vern Cotter with a win over Italy 29-0, he will coach Montpellier in France Top 14 next season. He leaves Scottish Rugby in a far better place than when he took over, which was acknowledged by the full house at Murryfield after the game amidst emotional scenes

Italian Wooden Spoon

In a nutshell, England won back to back championships with Italy winning the Wooden Spoon. Making the shouts for them to justify their placement at the top table ahead of Romania and Georgia even louder.

Other Rugby News

The New World Rugby Calendar for 2020-2032 was announced pleasing both clubs and national teams:

• 39 per cent increase in tier one v tier two fixtures with emerging nations integrated on merit.
• Tier one tours to Pacific Islands, Japan, Canada, USA, Georgia and Romania.

World Rugby hopes the announcements will aid the development of the club game as well as achieving compelling, competitive and meaningful tests. The long-term agreement is also hoping to create commercial certainty for all unions.

Leicester Tigers announced that they are to replace their Head Coach Aaron Mauger at the end of the season with Matt O’Connor, by all reports leaving him devastated. This announcement came unexpectedly after the Tigers victory over Exeter in the Anglo-Welsh cup final securing their first silverware in four years and still with 5 regular rounds of the premiership to play.

The possibility of England facing the All Blacks this autumn is unfortunately over the dead ball line, with the All Blacks opting to go ahead with their game against The Barbarians (Baa’Baas’) instead. So, the clash the Rugby World wants to see will not happen until 2018.

In Other Football News

Arsenal: Arsenal may be forced to reveal if manager Arsene Wenger will be staying with the club. Stock Market rules state that any information that makes a material difference to the future value of the club must be disclosed. Wenger himself has said he would be revealing his decision on signing a new contract “soon” but has not given concrete timescales.

Liverpool: Daily Telegraph report that Liverpool are being investigated for offering incentives to sign a Stoke City schoolboy player. The alleged incident happened last year and if proved could lead to punishment for the Merseyside club.

Stoke City: Ever-green Peter Crouch has not given up hope of playing for England again. The former England striker has been in good form this year, scoring seven goals in 22 appearances.

Manchester United: Famous for his “hair-dryer” treatment of players, Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed he missed out on signing legend Paolo Maldini due to the player’s father. Ferguson said “I did try [to sign Maldini] but when I met his father he was quite formidable, I got a shake of the head,”. “He said, ‘My grandfather is Milan, my father is, I am Milan, my sons are Milan. Forget it’.”

Middlesbrough: Victor Valdes had a day to forget when a gaff gave Antonio Valencia a chance to seal the match. The goalkeeper’s Gerrard type slip led to the Ecuadorian scoring an easy goal. You can watch the howler here.

Everton: While some clubs are announcing plans to play lucrative pre-season friendlies in America and the far east, Everton could be playing in Tanzania. A new sponsorship deal with SportPesa could see The Toffee’s travel 5,000 miles to play in the Tanzania Main National Stadium. No details of possible opponents are available yet.