For the second summer running, hope and optimism have given way to despair and concern at Goodison Park.
Everton suffered their biggest home defeat since 1958 as David Moyes’ side were hammered 6-1 by an Arsenal team which, on paper at least, looked quite weak compared to some of the all-star line-ups Arsene Wenger has turned up with at Goodison in years gone by.
It wasn’t even a case of Arsenal delivering a vintage ‘Wenger performance’, with Everton being blown away with a magnificent display of ‘total football’. Arsenal were simply organised at the back, patient in possession, and neat and tidy with their passing – which was more than enough to give Everton the biggest hiding seen at Goodison Park in over 50 years.
In the opening stages it was a bit of a nothing game, with neither side really dominating due to the scrappy, stop-start nature of the contest. Then, after 26 minutes, Nicklas Bendtner (a player widely considered to be not good enough for Arsenal) was made to look like Cristiano Ronaldo as he brought a diagonal pass down on his chest (unchallenged) and proceeded to make a fool out of Leighton Baines by leaving him for dead with the slowest body-swerve since Andy van der Meyde’s comedy attempt at jinking past Alvaro Arbeloa during his now legendary cameo in last season’s ‘Gosling derby’.
With Baines left on his arse Bendtner passed the ball to Cesc Fabregas who, after cleverly drawing in two Everton defenders, teed it up for Denilson to dispatch a lovely curled shot into the top corner of Tim Howard’s goal. At which point the Everton players decided they’d had enough.
Maybe the lame surrender that followed Denilson’s strike was a result of all the hard work it took to drag a heavily depleted squad over the finish line and into an FA Cup final going completely unrewarded by a board of directors who remain incapable of raising transfer funds and unwilling to put the club up for sale. Or perhaps it’s down to Joleon Lescott teasing his soon to be former-team mates by parading around Finch Farm doing Floyd Mayweather impressions. Whatever the reason, it isn’t good enough.
Everton’s response amounted to a Maraoune Fellaini header being cleared off the line from a corner before Arsenal killed the game by taking advantage of ridiculously poor Everton defending from free-kicks.
In the first instance, Joseph Yobo didn’t even bother jumping as Arsenal debutant Thomas Vermaelen headed over Tim Howard at the back post to make it 2-0. This was followed by Joleon Lescott and Marouane Fellaini making token gestures of disappointment after the pair stood by and allowed William Gallas a free run on goal to make it three for the Gunners - effectively ending the game as a contest before half-time.
The second-half was proof, if any was needed, that (Steven Pienaar aside) when playing without the sort of spirit and cohesion that has been a staple of Everton’s relative success over recent seasons, David Moyes’ side are shown up as a set of fairly average individuals in comparison with the likes of Arsenal. The most glaring example of this was Arsenal’s fourth goal, when Andrey Arshavin dispossessed Tony Hibbert before casually knocking the ball through the hapless right-back’s legs and turning defence into attack with a single pass. Within a couple of seconds Cesc Fabregas had swept the ball through Tim Howard’s legs.
Everton players and fans alike had given up before half-time anyway, so it was no surprise when the crowd began to filter out after Fabregas’ goal, as despite there being over half an hour to play it was clear that Everton had nothing to offer Arsenal. This was confirmed on 68 minutes when Cesc Fabregas ran the length of the pitch unchallenged (unless you count Marouane Fellaini’s amusing efforts at sprinting back) before smashing a low drive inside Tim Howard’s right post to make it 5-0. Embarrassing.
Those who remained after Fabregas’ second probably did so under the assumption that at least things couldn’t get much worse, though unfortunately these optimistic souls hadn’t counted on Arsene Wenger sending on Croatian International striker Eduardo – who stabbed home the rebound after the excellent Arshavin had struck the post.
David Moyes was spared the humiliation of guiding Everton to their biggest ever home defeat when substitute Louis Saha kept a cool head to put away what couldn’t even be considered a consolation goal in added time.
Whether or not this awful performance sparks a flurry of transfer activity remains to be seen, but with David Moyes once again confirming that there is very little money to spend it seems highly unlikely that we’ll see anybody coming in that will offer any sort of significant improvement on what we already have. Which isn’t saying much considering both Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert start every week.
Next up for the Blues is a Europa League qualification tie against SK Sigma Olomouc of the Czech Republic. A convincing victory is a must, as another early exit from Europe really doesn’t bear thinking about.
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Tuesday 11 August 2009
UFC 101: Declaration
The UFC ran out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the first time in its history on Saturday night, as UFC 101: ‘Declaration’ saw ‘The Prodigy’ BJ Penn successfully defend his lightweight title by submitting top contender Kenny ‘KenFlo’ Florian, while middleweight kingpin Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva moved up a division to destroy former light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin in just over three minutes.
After a demoralising loss to Georges St-Pierre earlier this year, Penn was out to prove that while he may struggle against monstrous welterweights such as GSP, there is no doubting his superiority over the 155lbs weight class. Florian, who spent time training with Saint-Pierre in preparation for the fight, attempted to implicate the same game plan used by the Canadian in his battle with Penn at UFC 94. Florian spent much of the contest’s four rounds attempting to press the champion against the cage in an effort to wear Penn down, but the strategy was not nearly as effective without the sort of size and strength advantage that St-Pierre enjoyed over ‘The Prodigy’.
Florian made Penn work throughout the bout, but it was the champion who came off better in each of the exchanges on the feet before taking the challenger down in the fourth round. Once the fight went to the mat it was only a matter of time before Penn’s world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu became a factor, as he coaxed a tap-out from Florian with a rear naked choke at 3:45 of round four.
The night’s biggest talking point came in the co-main event, where middleweight ruler Anderson Silva made his second foray into the light-heavyweight division to face former champion and top-five ranked contender Forrest Griffin. Silva had faced heavy criticism over lackluster performances in recent title defences against middleweights Patrick Cote and Thales Leites, and it was clear from his performance against Griffin that ‘The Spider’ was determined to show why he has long been considered the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter.
Silva dropped Griffin twice early in the fight with straight punches and displayed incredible speed, accuracy and reflexes by standing right in front of his opponent, hand at his sides, evading punches with the sort of head movement usually reserved for kung-fu movies. Griffin, visibly distressed at how the fight was unfolding, charged towards Silva in a final attempt at causing some sort of damage, only for the Brazilian to back pedal before knocking the crowd favourite out with straight jab at 3.23 of the opening round.
Upon regaining his senses Griffin immediately fled the ring, with his camp citing a dislocated jaw and loss of hearing suffered early in the fight as an excuse. Griffin’s management company has since refuted this, confirming that Griffin is physically fine but struggling to come to terms with the loss emotionally. It’ll be interesting to see how, and indeed if, Griffin comes back from what Joe Rogan described as “one of the most embarrassing knock-outs” in UFC history.
‘UFC 101’ turned out to be a very poor night for ‘Ultimate Fighter’ alumni. As well as Griffin and Florian’s losses there were also defeats for series winners Kendall Grove and Amir Sadollah, while former contestant Shane Nelson also dropped a unanimous decision in a rematch with Aaron Riley. Grove showed good striking and ground defence in spurts during his bout with former #1 ranked middleweight Ricardo Almeida, but could have no arguments when all three judges called the contest in favour of Almeida.
The subject of poor refereeing once against reared its head at ‘UFC 101’during Amir Sadollah and Johny Hendricks’ welterweight dual. Sadollah came into the bout having lost virtually all the momentum gained during his run to winning the seventh season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, having been left on the shelf for over a year following a severe staph infection and broken clavicle over the last twelve months – and it showed as he was dropped by two-time Division One wrestling champion Hendricks early in the first round.
With Sadollah down on his knees Hendricks continued his assault with a barrage of what looked like illegal shots to the back of the head, which seemingly went unnoticed by referee Dan Mirgiliotta. Replays suggests that Sadollah was on his way back to his feet when Mirgiliotta stepped in to call a stop to the contest at just 29 seconds of the very first round. Though Hendricks’ considerable talent and early dominance makes it impossible to suggest that Sadollah would have went on to win the fight, there’s no doubting that the stoppage was premature.
All in all ‘UFC 101’ was a solid show with plenty of talking points, both positive and negative. The main card started with an impressive display of grappling from Kurt Pellegrino as he controlled Josh Neer over three rounds to earn a unanimous decision in a battle of two men trying to climb the ladder in the UFC’s stacked lightweight division.
Most of the post-show discussion revolved around the future of Anderson Silva, as ‘The Spiders’’ outstanding performance brought about inevitable calls for a Dragonball Z-style super-fight with reigning UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida. Unfortunately though, Silva once again reiterated his unwillingness to do battle with his friend and training partner. We’ll just have to hope that UFC President Dana White can live up to his claim that should Silva deliver another impressive performance or two at 205lbs (and provided that Machida gets past Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC 104) that he will make the fight happen.
After a demoralising loss to Georges St-Pierre earlier this year, Penn was out to prove that while he may struggle against monstrous welterweights such as GSP, there is no doubting his superiority over the 155lbs weight class. Florian, who spent time training with Saint-Pierre in preparation for the fight, attempted to implicate the same game plan used by the Canadian in his battle with Penn at UFC 94. Florian spent much of the contest’s four rounds attempting to press the champion against the cage in an effort to wear Penn down, but the strategy was not nearly as effective without the sort of size and strength advantage that St-Pierre enjoyed over ‘The Prodigy’.
Florian made Penn work throughout the bout, but it was the champion who came off better in each of the exchanges on the feet before taking the challenger down in the fourth round. Once the fight went to the mat it was only a matter of time before Penn’s world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu became a factor, as he coaxed a tap-out from Florian with a rear naked choke at 3:45 of round four.
The night’s biggest talking point came in the co-main event, where middleweight ruler Anderson Silva made his second foray into the light-heavyweight division to face former champion and top-five ranked contender Forrest Griffin. Silva had faced heavy criticism over lackluster performances in recent title defences against middleweights Patrick Cote and Thales Leites, and it was clear from his performance against Griffin that ‘The Spider’ was determined to show why he has long been considered the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter.
Silva dropped Griffin twice early in the fight with straight punches and displayed incredible speed, accuracy and reflexes by standing right in front of his opponent, hand at his sides, evading punches with the sort of head movement usually reserved for kung-fu movies. Griffin, visibly distressed at how the fight was unfolding, charged towards Silva in a final attempt at causing some sort of damage, only for the Brazilian to back pedal before knocking the crowd favourite out with straight jab at 3.23 of the opening round.
Upon regaining his senses Griffin immediately fled the ring, with his camp citing a dislocated jaw and loss of hearing suffered early in the fight as an excuse. Griffin’s management company has since refuted this, confirming that Griffin is physically fine but struggling to come to terms with the loss emotionally. It’ll be interesting to see how, and indeed if, Griffin comes back from what Joe Rogan described as “one of the most embarrassing knock-outs” in UFC history.
‘UFC 101’ turned out to be a very poor night for ‘Ultimate Fighter’ alumni. As well as Griffin and Florian’s losses there were also defeats for series winners Kendall Grove and Amir Sadollah, while former contestant Shane Nelson also dropped a unanimous decision in a rematch with Aaron Riley. Grove showed good striking and ground defence in spurts during his bout with former #1 ranked middleweight Ricardo Almeida, but could have no arguments when all three judges called the contest in favour of Almeida.
The subject of poor refereeing once against reared its head at ‘UFC 101’during Amir Sadollah and Johny Hendricks’ welterweight dual. Sadollah came into the bout having lost virtually all the momentum gained during his run to winning the seventh season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, having been left on the shelf for over a year following a severe staph infection and broken clavicle over the last twelve months – and it showed as he was dropped by two-time Division One wrestling champion Hendricks early in the first round.
With Sadollah down on his knees Hendricks continued his assault with a barrage of what looked like illegal shots to the back of the head, which seemingly went unnoticed by referee Dan Mirgiliotta. Replays suggests that Sadollah was on his way back to his feet when Mirgiliotta stepped in to call a stop to the contest at just 29 seconds of the very first round. Though Hendricks’ considerable talent and early dominance makes it impossible to suggest that Sadollah would have went on to win the fight, there’s no doubting that the stoppage was premature.
All in all ‘UFC 101’ was a solid show with plenty of talking points, both positive and negative. The main card started with an impressive display of grappling from Kurt Pellegrino as he controlled Josh Neer over three rounds to earn a unanimous decision in a battle of two men trying to climb the ladder in the UFC’s stacked lightweight division.
Most of the post-show discussion revolved around the future of Anderson Silva, as ‘The Spiders’’ outstanding performance brought about inevitable calls for a Dragonball Z-style super-fight with reigning UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida. Unfortunately though, Silva once again reiterated his unwillingness to do battle with his friend and training partner. We’ll just have to hope that UFC President Dana White can live up to his claim that should Silva deliver another impressive performance or two at 205lbs (and provided that Machida gets past Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC 104) that he will make the fight happen.
Friday 7 August 2009
Europa League Draw, Everton vs. Malaga
The long-awaited draw for the final Europa League qualifying round has pitted Everton against SK Sigma Olomouc of the Czech Republic. There isn’t much to be said about Sigma other than that, according to Wikipedia, they reached the quarter finals of the 1992 UEFA Cup and “smashed” Aberdeen 8-1 in the previous round of this year’s competition. The first leg will be played at Goodison Park on August 20th, with the return fixture in the Czech Repulic scheduled for August 27th.
Hopefully the majority of Evertonians will have successfully booked flights and finalised details for their National Lampoon-style trips to Eastern Europe in time to attend the club’s annual ‘prestige’ friendly at home to Malaga this evening. The big news for Everton is that Joleon Lescott has recovered from what appears to have been a genuine hip injury to partner Joseph Yobo at the heart of the Blues’ defence. Mark Hughes refused to be drawn on whether his pursuit of the England defender has come to an end following Everton’s rejection of a third bid, so it seems likely that this now tedious affair will drag on for the remainder of the transfer window.
In other Everton-related news, Mick ‘Baz’(?) Rathbone apparently did a webchat on EvertonTV where he confirmed that Nigerian forward Yakubu is around “2-4 weeks” away from match-fitness, while Mikel Arteta is “a while away yet” and Phil Jagielka is “around half-way” through his expected recovery period. Let’s just hope that none of these develop into an Owen Hargreaves/Tomas Rosicky situation over the coming months.
Hopefully the majority of Evertonians will have successfully booked flights and finalised details for their National Lampoon-style trips to Eastern Europe in time to attend the club’s annual ‘prestige’ friendly at home to Malaga this evening. The big news for Everton is that Joleon Lescott has recovered from what appears to have been a genuine hip injury to partner Joseph Yobo at the heart of the Blues’ defence. Mark Hughes refused to be drawn on whether his pursuit of the England defender has come to an end following Everton’s rejection of a third bid, so it seems likely that this now tedious affair will drag on for the remainder of the transfer window.
In other Everton-related news, Mick ‘Baz’(?) Rathbone apparently did a webchat on EvertonTV where he confirmed that Nigerian forward Yakubu is around “2-4 weeks” away from match-fitness, while Mikel Arteta is “a while away yet” and Phil Jagielka is “around half-way” through his expected recovery period. Let’s just hope that none of these develop into an Owen Hargreaves/Tomas Rosicky situation over the coming months.
Thursday 6 August 2009
Alonso Out - Aquilani In For Liverpool
With Real Madrid and Manchester City coming to the end of their respective rape and pillaging of the transfer market, the rest of the football world are starting to think that it might be safe to go outside again.
If Real club president Florentino Perez is to be believed (and he almost always isn’t), the £30m capture of Liverpool and Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso will be the final act of Los Merengues’ attempt at re-creating the ‘Galáctico’ era, which also saw enormous spending but brought only moderate, un-sustained success. Alonso follows Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul Albiol to the Bernabau as Real seek to exorcise the demons of last season, which saw bitter rivals Barcelona hammer Real 6-2 at the Santiago Bernabau on the way to sweeping a league, cup and European treble.
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has moved quickly to replace Alonso, with AS Roma accepting a £20m bid for Italy midfielder Alberto Aquilani the following day. Aquilani was long-touted as one of Europe’s top midfield prospects but, at 25, his development has stagnated somewhat recently, with injuries restricting the Roman to just 73 appearances over the last three seasons. Aquilani is expected to fly in to Liverpool this week to discuss personal terms, with Benitez hoping to have the deal tied up in time for Liverpool’s season opener away at Tottenham in just over a week’s time.
Elsewhere AC Milan have agreed a deal to take Real Madrid’s Dutch International striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to the San Siro. Huntelaar only joined Real during the January 2009 transfer window but, despite hitting form towards the end of last season, he has already found himself surplus to requirements at the Bernabau following Real’s massive summer spending spree.
Darren Bent finally completed his move to Sunderland after the Black Cats and Bent’s former employers Tottenham Hotspur finally came to an agreement on over a fee for the England International. The deal looked in doubt due to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s determination to recoup the money spent on flops such Bent (who was actually Spur’s top scorer last season) and David Bentley. Unsurprisingly, Levy has as yet been unable to find a club willing to match the £15m Tottenham paid Blackburn for Bentley’s services 12 months ago.
If Real club president Florentino Perez is to be believed (and he almost always isn’t), the £30m capture of Liverpool and Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso will be the final act of Los Merengues’ attempt at re-creating the ‘Galáctico’ era, which also saw enormous spending but brought only moderate, un-sustained success. Alonso follows Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul Albiol to the Bernabau as Real seek to exorcise the demons of last season, which saw bitter rivals Barcelona hammer Real 6-2 at the Santiago Bernabau on the way to sweeping a league, cup and European treble.
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has moved quickly to replace Alonso, with AS Roma accepting a £20m bid for Italy midfielder Alberto Aquilani the following day. Aquilani was long-touted as one of Europe’s top midfield prospects but, at 25, his development has stagnated somewhat recently, with injuries restricting the Roman to just 73 appearances over the last three seasons. Aquilani is expected to fly in to Liverpool this week to discuss personal terms, with Benitez hoping to have the deal tied up in time for Liverpool’s season opener away at Tottenham in just over a week’s time.
Elsewhere AC Milan have agreed a deal to take Real Madrid’s Dutch International striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to the San Siro. Huntelaar only joined Real during the January 2009 transfer window but, despite hitting form towards the end of last season, he has already found himself surplus to requirements at the Bernabau following Real’s massive summer spending spree.
Darren Bent finally completed his move to Sunderland after the Black Cats and Bent’s former employers Tottenham Hotspur finally came to an agreement on over a fee for the England International. The deal looked in doubt due to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s determination to recoup the money spent on flops such Bent (who was actually Spur’s top scorer last season) and David Bentley. Unsurprisingly, Levy has as yet been unable to find a club willing to match the £15m Tottenham paid Blackburn for Bentley’s services 12 months ago.
Lescott Departure Imminent?
According to The Sun, Joleon Lescott is finally about to put an end to what has become one of the summer’s longest transfer sagas by completing a move to from Everton to Manchester City. Though no quotes have been forthcoming from the player, the consensus amongst the national press is that the England International is eager to make the move but is reluctant to put his request in writing – fearing an angry backlash from Evertonians should a deal fail to materialise.
While The Sun is by no means a bastion of truth with regards to football transfers (or anything else for that matter), Lescott’s silence throughout the summer has been deafening. Despite David Moyes’ insistence that none of his first-team squad will be leaving Goodison Park, there is an air of inevitability around Lescott’s departure.
The fee is being reported as £22m paid upfront, with additional add-ons to follow. On the surface £22m for a centre-half looks like fantastic business for any selling club, but it’s important to remember that Everton’s awful financial position and threadbare squad means that it will take a considerable chunk of the transfer money they receive just to fill the gap that will be created should Lescott leave.
As well as being first-choice at centre-half, Lescott also provides quality cover at full-back, and with Nuno Valente’s departure from the club leaving Leighton Baines as Everton’s only senior left-back, Lescott’s versatility will be more crucial than ever to David Moyes’ plans for the new season.
Wolves, Lescott’s former club, will be due 15% of any fee that Everton receive for the player who has scored 15 goals in three seasons with the Toffees. Given that David Moyes is already searching for a centre-half to cover Phil Jagielka’s long-term absence through injury, it seems unlikely that the PFA Manager of the Year will have much left over to bolster Everton’s weak right side of defence and midfield should he also have to find replacements for Lescott at left and centre-back.
Moyes’ first significant signing of the summer looks set to be Arsenal’s Swiss International centre-half Phillipe Senderos. While confirming an interest in signing the defender, who has recently re-joined Arsenal after an underwhelming loan spell at AC Milan, Everton have insisted that he is not being lined up as a replacement for Lescott. Reports suggest that Senderos is keen on the move having become surplus at Arsenal, but that the two clubs are yet to reach an agreement over the fee for a player who has entered the final year of his contract.
While The Sun is by no means a bastion of truth with regards to football transfers (or anything else for that matter), Lescott’s silence throughout the summer has been deafening. Despite David Moyes’ insistence that none of his first-team squad will be leaving Goodison Park, there is an air of inevitability around Lescott’s departure.
The fee is being reported as £22m paid upfront, with additional add-ons to follow. On the surface £22m for a centre-half looks like fantastic business for any selling club, but it’s important to remember that Everton’s awful financial position and threadbare squad means that it will take a considerable chunk of the transfer money they receive just to fill the gap that will be created should Lescott leave.
As well as being first-choice at centre-half, Lescott also provides quality cover at full-back, and with Nuno Valente’s departure from the club leaving Leighton Baines as Everton’s only senior left-back, Lescott’s versatility will be more crucial than ever to David Moyes’ plans for the new season.
Wolves, Lescott’s former club, will be due 15% of any fee that Everton receive for the player who has scored 15 goals in three seasons with the Toffees. Given that David Moyes is already searching for a centre-half to cover Phil Jagielka’s long-term absence through injury, it seems unlikely that the PFA Manager of the Year will have much left over to bolster Everton’s weak right side of defence and midfield should he also have to find replacements for Lescott at left and centre-back.
Moyes’ first significant signing of the summer looks set to be Arsenal’s Swiss International centre-half Phillipe Senderos. While confirming an interest in signing the defender, who has recently re-joined Arsenal after an underwhelming loan spell at AC Milan, Everton have insisted that he is not being lined up as a replacement for Lescott. Reports suggest that Senderos is keen on the move having become surplus at Arsenal, but that the two clubs are yet to reach an agreement over the fee for a player who has entered the final year of his contract.
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