Hotspur locked, loaded for shootout
Tottenham looks to take advantage of lacklustre Gunners defence in top-notch clash
Tottenham Hotspur hosts Arsenal Saturday as the Premier League starts the weekend with a cracker of a London derby. The two teams are battling to get back into the top four.
Arsenal sits four points behind the Spurs and suffers from a poor road record with only three wins against six losses. The Gunners are coming off a hectic transfer window in which the club made big changes to its attacking line.
Gone are Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez. They were the team’s top three scorers last season, responsible for 65 goals in all competitions.
In their place they’ve brought in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The two have shown good early signs of fitting in, but will they be enough?
Defending has been Arsenal’s other big problem. Goalkeeper Petr Cech has been sitting on 199 career Premier League shutouts since mid-December. He can’t seem to net No. 200.
This game may see the Tottenham debut of Brazilian winger Lucas Moura, who was picked up from Paris Saint-Germain. Moura has blinding pace, but must compete with the likes of Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Heung-min Son for a starting spot.
Lazio loaded with young guns
Napoli continues to hold first place in Serie A, just ahead of Juventus, but could be in trouble Saturday when third-place Lazio visits. Lazio has lost two in a row and is well off the title pace, fighting just to hold onto third under challenges from Inter Milan and Roma.
This Lazio side is all about scoring with striker Ciro Immobile on a goala-game pace to top the league scoring chart. Winger Luis Alberto is also playing well, but the player on everybody’s radar is young central-midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
Both Manchester United and Manchester City are said to be interested in the 22-year-old rising star. The Serbian international is tall and lanky and uses his long legs and imposing stature to good effect to both win the ball and shield others off it. He has surprisingly good skills and quick feet for a big man and this season has turned into a goal-scorer with seven league tallies so far.
Then there were 16
The UEFA Champions League resumes play next week with half of the round of 16 first-leg matches.
Five of the 16 teams are from the Premier League and three are in action next week, with all three on the road. On Tuesday, we have Manchester City away to Swiss side Basel, while Spurs are at Juventus. That should be quite the series.
On Wednesday, Liverpool is at Porto for Valentine’s Day. Porto is undefeated in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, but Liverpool is a much tougher test. Porto captain and Mexico international Hector Herrera will run the midfield, looking to slow down Liverpool’s attack, while Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar will lead the charge for the home side.
The biggest game of the week though is Wednesday’s clash between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain at the Bernabeu. Real continues to struggle in La Liga, so the club is pinning its hopes on Champions League success to rescue what has otherwise been a poor campaign.
Facing PSG this early in the competition has Real fans feeling nervous.
Fans gain slice of revenge
In Brazil last week, fans of Sao Paulo club Portuguesa were so upset with the team’s performance that they intercepted the players’ postmatch meal.
In 2013, Portuguesa was a top-level club, competing in Brazil’s Serie A. Relegation after relegation, however, has seen the team drop to the fourth-tier Serie D and Portuguesa is now near the bottom of the table.
Last week, the team lost 3-0 at home to Oeste, after which fans got their revenge.
The team ordered 10 pizzas for the dressing room after the game. However, the delivery truck was spotted by a group of fans leaving the stadium. They asked who the pizza was for and when the delivery man said it was for the players, the fans pooled their money and bought the pizza themselves. They gave four of the pizzas to stadium staff working nearby and ate the rest.
I guess the Portuguesa team wasn’t the only thing in Sao Paulo that failed to deliver.