Ok, now we shouldn’t be cheering this news folks, but I just can’t help it…
Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre will be out for six weeks with a broken foot.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 11 comments
In the last two years, Liverpool have won two cups, England’s and Europe’s most prestigious ones…and yet, I still feel that there fans would be dissapointed at their league rankings, and even Stevie G has been quoted as saying he would’ve traded them in for the League.
Now, I don’t think Liverpool will win the EPL in this season, or even the next. Here’s why…
Written by Guest Authors. 46 comments
First up - if you haven’t already, read Hugo’s writeup on who will win La Liga this season. And no, Barcelona aren’t favourites.
On to the Premiership - there’s a 2 week break for international matches after this weekend (England have their Euro 2008 qualifiers against Macedonia (H) and Croatia (A)).
I refuse to pretend that I know anything about football (and I suspect some of you have figured that much out by now), but I’m going to match wits against the Fink Tank Predictor and on Monday night we’ll know whether statistics or gut-instincts are better are predicting meaningless results.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 4 comments
Rather than engaging in idle conjecturing (sorry Ahmed – you know we love you!) about the winners of this season’s Champions League (a tournament which is about as predictable as Rafa Benitez’s team selection), it seemed to me time to bring Soccerlens to a new level.
Written by Hugo Steckelmacher. 4 comments
Manchester United will not win the Premiership by playing beautiful football this season - first they need to find their tough attitude, their fighting spirit and most importantly, their desire to win at any cost.
We can always play pretty later.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 9 comments
Liverpool will not win the Champions League this season.
Liverpool won’t win the Premiership this season.
But in one magical moment Peter Crouch assured that Liverpool will always be capable of creating that little bit of magic that the Kop’s atmosphere has always hinted at, that Liverpool’s heritage has always demanded, that the Liverpool fans have always expected.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 7 comments
Stick Sports, the team that brought us Stick Cricket, has jumped head-first into building a flash-based football game.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. Leave a response
Tottenham, Newcastle, Blackburn stand on the bring of UEFA Cup group stages, while West Hap travel to Palermo facing elimination. Previews, scores, match reports and a healthy dose of Premiership bias.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 3 comments
You probably missed this bunch of news items and articles…
Written by Ahmed Bilal. Leave a response
Barcelona stumble, Drogba runs riot and Liverpool play…well, like they always do - brilliant and frustrating in equal measures.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 6 comments
Barcelona’s recent 5-0 trampling of Sofia cemented the Bulgarians’ status as the whipping boys of a thoroughly demanding group.
Wednesday night’s encounter will be regarded as a duck shoot for the Blues and misfiring superstar Andriy Shevchenko will be looking to open his European account against Sofia’s shaky back four. While his strike-partner Drogba has enjoyed a sensational start to the season, the Ukranian hitman has yet to find his feet in the Chelsea side.
Written by Soupdragon2. One comment
Match: Arsenal vs Porto (Group G) (Matchday 2)
Stadium: Emirates Stadium
Date: Tuesday, 26 September, 2006
Kick-off: 1945 BST, 2345 PST
Referee: Stefano Farina (ITA)
Few people will doubt Arsenal’s ability to beat Porto on Tuesday night, with the team hitting form at the right time (beating Hamburg and Manchester United away, Sheff Utd at home). Despite Porto’s mix-it-up, in-your-face style, Arsenal will rely on their passing and ability to control the game.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 6 comments
Ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League game, a look at the teams:
Written by Aadithya. 3 comments
For all the abuse heaped on Carlos Quieroz by United fans, and for all the criticism sent Fergie’s way before (and especially after today’s match), you have to credit the pair with one good move in the summer:
Keeping Ronaldo at Manchester United.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 7 comments
Surprisingly, not much controversial news today, unless you’re a David Beckham fan (or a Chelsea-hater).
Written by Ahmed Bilal. Leave a response
Chelsea fan Soupdragon takes particular offense at the vitriol thrown in Lampard’s direction by Chelsea-haters - who seem to be everywhere, especially in the media.
Are you so desperately concerned about the economic affairs of other clubs that it reduces your enjoyment of “the beautiful game�?
Do you condemn the ‘classless behaviour’ of certain teams unconditionally, whilst justifying similar behaviour by your own club’s staff with equal vigour?
Do you care more about the critical coverage of a player’s autobiography than their value as a footballer to your national team?
If so, you’re either a sports journalist (Ed: where journalist = scum) or one of a billion disillusioned fans.
Written by Soupdragon2. 17 comments
Newcastle and Everton produced an entertaining game on Sunday - at sunny St James’ Park - in front of 50,000 fans - as both teams went for the win - although a 1-1 draw was probably a fair result.
Written by Ed Harrison. 2 comments
It’s a scene out of a very horrible nightmare for me - I imagine this is how Thierry Henry fans felt when he went down (at least twice) in the World Cup.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 3 comments
In protest of Manchester United’s shambolic showing against Reading on Saturday 23rd September, Soccerlens refuses to publish a match report.
Instead, we’ll just bring you a sampling of Reading’s romp through the Championship last season, where they stormed to an unprecedented 106 points and scored 99 goals along the way.
Enjoy the rare footage.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 6 comments
Tottenham have hit new lows this year, and with Carrick sold and Lennon and Berbatov out injured, the squad is being slowly found out as not being of any real quality.
To be fair to the Spurs, the slump is unfortunate - Tottenham have played away at Old Trafford, Anfield and Reebok this season, and all three fixtures were expected losses for them. Considering that they are having trouble finding the net this season (Tottenham have not scored in 5 games out of 7), playing away to these sides wasn’t ideal.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 6 comments
All the big names are in action this weekend as the English Premiership resumes in what promises to be one of the highest scoring weekends.
Written by Arjun. One comment
I’ve been quiet about the BBC Panorama affair so far, mainly because seeing the whole situation being played out in the media and handled so crassly just makes me angry.
I’m wondering at the BBC’s angle here - what were they trying to achieve from a half-assed, laughable and ultimately unsuccessful undercover “sting” operation?
Written by Ahmed Bilal. Leave a response
Reading? Reading who?
Not PC and definitely not respectful, but after losing out to Arsenal at Old Trafford and having a whole week to prepare quietly for the next spell of 3 games in 9 days (Reading away on Saturday, Benfica away on Tuesday and Newcastle at home on Sunday), the last thing Manchester United needed was a match against an unknown team that has proven that it can win a couple of matches.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 4 comments
12.45pm on Saturday afternoon sees a fixture kick off at Anfield that was anticipated to be between two teams aiming at least for qualification to the UEFA Champions League.
Instead after poor starts to their seasons, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur will begin at 9th and 16th places respectedly!
Written by Aadithya. 8 comments
Unfortunately reality set in again on Wednesday for Newcastle fans when we were beaten fairly easily by Liverpool 2-0.
After two successive wins with clean sheets hopes were high that we could get at least a point from Anfield; but that was not to be and we gave a fairly poor account of ourselves, particularly following our great form at West Ham.
Written by Ed Harrison. One comment
It’s a simple tactic, designed as much as to give your team a morale boost as to strike fear into the hearts of your rivals.
When you come up against the weakest team in the land, rip their defence to shreds, score at least 4-5 goals in the process, humiliate them completely and then tell everyone willing to listen that you’re back on the top of your game.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. One comment
You wouldn’t have expected an upset in this fixture, and for good reason.
Despite recent form, Liverpool are a very good side with world-class players and Newcastle United are a good side with good players. And if that wasn’t enough, Liverpool are a better team than Newcastle, even if you negate the home advantage.
It was stacked against Newcastle from the start, and the resulting win for Liverpool well-deserved.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. Leave a response
I am back in the blessed land of India after a year, and as I switch on ESPN my favorite football “panelâ€? show called Football Focus comes on, with Paul Masfield and that unkown Porto player Shebby Singh leading the debate being moderated by John Dykes (If you don’t know who these people are, well, it doesn’t really matter!). One of the subjects for debate was – Can the Premiership see a change in the Fab 4? The panelists had their own theories, here is mine.
Written by Arjun. 13 comments
This is followed on from yesterday’s piece on footballing myths.
Last night’s BBC Panorama’s “revelations” on managers taking bribes are sadly nothing new.
In fact, what we saw and heard (and in my case, read) was just a slice of all the underhanded activities going on in football today.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 10 comments
Today, 19th September, marks the 5-month anniversary of Soccerlens (yay!).
In this short period of time writing about football I’ve come to realise that there are many myths perpetrated about football, clubs and players that go unchecked and affect are views about the beautiful game.
Consider this as an attempt to clear the cobwebs and make some sense out of the insanity that goes on behind the scenes.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 3 comments
