League leaders Chelsea welcome struggling Norwich City to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, hoping to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
The two teams have endured contrasting seasons, with Chelsea picking up three points at the Emirates last time out, before firing another four goals in midweek.
Norwich endured a miserable afternoon at home to Liverpool last time out, losing 2-5 and looking extremely vulnerable at the back.
The blues have no new injury concerns, with Daniel Sturridge still unavailable through a hamstring injury. This means Fernando Torres is set to continue leading the line, hoping to add to the brilliant finish he produced at the Emirates last weekend.
Norwich could have defender Sebastian Bassong and forward Anthony Pilkington available, despite both struggling with injuries.
Grant Holt is likely to start as the lone forward, after coming on to score a consolation against Liverpool last weekend.
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Midfielder Simon Lappin is out with an ankle problem, whilst full back Steven Whittaker is also unavailable.
Wales head coach Chris Coleman has stated that he would not swap key attacker Gareth Bale for any other player in Britain.
The Tottenham winger has been in fine form for the Celtic nation, and has scored six goals in his last seven internationals, including a brace against Scotland on Friday night.
With a tough trip to take on Croatia on Tuesday in the offing, Coleman has confessed that Bale is a talent unlike the nation has seen in some time.
“He’s scored all our goals so far, but that performance on Friday wasn’t just Baley,” said Coleman, published in The Telegraph.
“He got the goals but there were some terrific performances. I know people are talking about him. He’s a show-stopper. People pay money to come and watch him play. I know about that. But we have another 10 players who played their part.
“But when you have a player who can make the difference you have to use him. We’ve got options with Gareth. He can be devastating when he plays out wide and cuts inside his full-back, but it’s always an option to play him in the centre.
“Gareth knows where he can hurt the opposition. When you have good players you don’t want to pigeon hole him. Look where he got the winning goal from – yet he was playing on the right side for us. When he runs through the middle he can cause you problems.
“You’d be crazy to try and swap him. There’s a lot of good players in Britain. I don’t want to label Baley as the best but I will label him as a terrific, terrific player.
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“Anyone can see when he’s got the ball he’s devastating. He plays with passion and incredible ability,” he concluded.
It’s proven to be a testing season for Mark Hughes and QPR so far, following some hefty pre season spending. Hughes has seen his side take just two points from their opening seven games, and the Welshman has already become odds on to win this seasons sack race.
Many have voiced their surprise at QPR’s current predicament, considering the money they have spent during the last two transfer windows and the appointment of the highly rated Hughes last season.
Personally, I am not so surprised, being of the opinion Hughes is highly overrated. I have never really understood the hype surrounding Hughes and his coaching ability.
Press and pundits almost simultaneously gathered to mourn his sacking at Manchester City, as if a managerial great had been cruelly snatched away from the Premier League. The brutal nature of his dismissal surely played a part in the outpouring of sympathy, but the harsh truth of the matter is that Hughes didn’t do nearly well enough at the Ethihad.
I have struggled to see any particular playing style Hughes brings to the teams he coaches. None have ever been hailed as particularly exciting, interesting considering his own skillful and flamboyant playing style. His sides are infact often considered overly physical and aggressive. When in charge of Blackburn, Hughes saw his side finish bottom of the fair play league in all four of his seasons in charge. Let us also not forget the seemingly never ending list of red cards QPR received in the second half of last season.
Off the pitch I have also struggled to warm to him. Hughes’ post match interviews are never the most interesting or exciting, and more often than not consist of blaming match officials for a lack of result rather than providing answers for his teams shortcomings. His resignation from Fulham in 2011 showed a distinct lack of class, claiming: “As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences”. His struggles at QPR since prove he may have been better staying at the club who rescued him from football wilderness after his ill-fated spell at Manchester City, for slightly longer than 11 months.
Looking back at his managerial career, there has been limited success. A top six finish with Blackburn in 2005-2006 is arguably the highlight, alongside narrowly missing out on qualification for Euro 2004 with Wales.
But since his spell in charge of Manchester City, Hughes has struggled. The problem I think lies in Hughes dealings in the transfer market. His most successful spells in management came at Wales and Blackburn, where on both occasions he had to simply work with what he had.
He did very well on a limited budget at Ewood Park, bringing in the likes of Benni McCarthy, Roque Santa Cruz, David Bentley and Christopher Samba for a combined total of roughly £9 million. It is my opinion that Hughes is better working at smaller clubs where there is less pressure, as his strengths appear to lie in galvanising a team that is struggling and scrapping for points as underdogs.
It is when Hughes has had money to spend at a bigger club that he has been questioned. Hughes was responsible for spending over £100 million during his time at the Etihad. Of all the players he bought in from 2008 to the present, only Gareth Barry, Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott Pablo Zabeletta and Carlos Tevez (just about) remain.
The likes of £32.5 million man Robinho have long gone, alongside other expensive acquisitions such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Bridge, Nigel De Jong, Shay Given, Craig Bellamy, Tal Ben Haim and Jo. Of all the names in that list, how many were successful at the Ethihad?
It seems Hughes has bought that unpredictability in the transfer market with him to QPR. Last season saw him tasked with keeping Rangers in the Premier League, and was given money to spend in the January transfer window. It went to the last day, but following some superb home performances QPR avoided the drop, and served as another example of Hughes galvanising a struggling side.
But this season, having been tasked with taking QPR to the next level as an established Premier League side, Hughes has once more looked out of his depth. He has virtually started from scratch at Loftus Road, purchasing almost an entire new squad, in what looks like something of a scattergun approach.
The likes of Park Ji-Sung, Julio Cesar, Fabio, Ryan Nelsen, Andy Johnson, Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero, Stéphane Mbia, Samba Diakité and Junior Hoilett have all arrived at Loftus Road, with the vast majority being free transfers over aged 30 or above. January signings Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora are also reaching the latter stages of their careers.
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It is hard to see any sort of vision Hughes is outlining for the future, and looks more of an attempt for a quick fix. After a disastrous start to the season, it is time for Hughes to step up and get his team fighting for points as he has done before deploying the underdog tactic, a tactic that has served him well before.
It is only when Hughes is able to show more than this, that he will ever be considered anything more than a mediocre manager in my opinion. QPR should have enough to stay up this season, but the clubs owner Tony Fernandes, as well as Hughes himself would have been hoping for far more this time around.
Do you think Mark Hughes is overrated? Follow me on Twitter @LukeGreenwood89 and let me know your thoughts.
The problems are rapidly starting to mount up for Andre Villas-Boas. In a week where managerial upheaval has gripped West London, the Portuguese strategist must be looking perilously over his shoulder. Four defeats in their last five games have hit Spurs hard and they now sit eighth in the table, seven points off the Champions League pace. It was at this point last year that he began to unravel as a manager down the road at Stamford Bridge and theres a danger of history repeating itself at White Hart Lane this season. There is no reason why he shouldn’t with the calibre of players at his disposal, but his tendency for convolution in his tactical strategies could prevent him from meeting the set objectives. And worse cost him his job.
This week on FFC will £20 million be enough to improve Spurs in the January transfer window and who could be set to swap White Hart Lane for the sunnier climate of Spain?
[divider]
Best of FFC
Time has come for Villas-Boas to be brave with his selection
A transfer risk worth taking for Tottenham Hotspur?
Time to make the change permanent at Tottenham?
Will £20m be enough for Tottenham?
Time for Villas-Boas to brave and throw starlet into the fray
Out of touch with reality at Tottenham?
Tottenham keen on £10m winger
Spurs and Chelsea set to battle for Brazilian
[divider]
Best of WEB
Not all 5-2 defeats are the same. – Spurs musings from Jimmy G2
All The Way From New York – Harry Hotspur
From Wankdorf to Wembley – Dear Mr Levy
Levy Refuses To Buckle : AVB Project Will Proceed As Planned – Transfer Tavern
Between love and madness – Dear Mr Levy
Bad News For AVB Haters – Harry Hotspur
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[divider]
Quote of the Week
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“We’re all frustrated about the way things are going. I don’t know what’s not clicking. Hopefully it will start clicking as soon as possible otherwise, trust me, we will find ourselves in difficulty. My friends tell me to keep positive so I don’t really want to think about how bad it could be. If we get badder (sic) than this, I think we’d be dead. It was our lucky day against Lazio. They got so many chances. At the moment, things are looking bad, but we just have to find a way to get through this. We have to improve because we’re not playing the best game at the moment.” Emmanuel Adebayor says Spurs need to improve quickly or their season will be over before they know it
It appears after the latest spate of Premier League sackings that changing the manager is seen as the magic solution to solve all problems within a Premier League club. So would extending the transfer window rules to only allow managerial changes in the summer or January help?
It certaintly not implausible when you assess the latest changes at Chelsea and QPR. Will Benitez do a better job than Di Matteo? Is Harry Redknapp able to save QPR from relegation? I am not convinced on either of those fronts.
If Di Matteo had been given till January, who knows he may have been able to shake off the November curse those managers have suffered at Stamford Bridge. There is always talk of a honeymoon period when a new boss comes into the club and the players being revitalised, but with what is at stake in terms of pride and finance in the Premier League, it surely is a concern that this is not enough for them. The players have to take responsibility for their actions, and if they know that even if results are bad they had to wait till January for a manager change, maybe it would make some of them wake up and smell the coffee.
There definitely is a trend to have a knee jerk reaction around the Christmas period with owners panicking that their side around 10 games into a season won’t be able to turn things around. Despite this it appears that owners should have a little more faith that their boss can deliver the goods. It does not always work out well when the manager is sacked too. Last season Wolves went down with a whimper after sacking Mick McCarthy in the heat of the moment after a 5-1 defeat to West Brom.
There is a clamour for stability at football clubs, matched by the desperation to change when they see the grass is greener, but it can’t always be rosier, and if the ask appears too much to be expect from another manager it often is. Harry ‘Houdini’ let’s not forget was the same boss who sent Southampton down with Peter Crouch in the side, expecting him to keep a QPR side up already 4 points adrift of 19th place is a huge burden to carry. I am aware that fan pressure has a huge say too and nobody likes watching their side lose, but isn’t it time we gave our manager’s some protection.
If Mr Abramovich had to wait till January till he sacked Di Matteo maybe he would have seen all was not so bad, especially if they qualify for the knockout stages in Champions League. The sacking of a manager as well can sometimes contribute to manager’s simply getting a job purely because the owner wants one. It is like a kid in a sweet shop mentality that the owner has to get the latest one in fashion, or just pay for a new one anyway through boredom. They have their few weeks in the headlines, with everyone desperate to know who they will pick. Then the long awaited appointment arrives and it is not always met with euphoria. Newcastle fans never wanted Joe Kinnear, nor did Charlton ever see Iain Dowie as the knight in shining armour to solve their problems, and the appointment of Paul Hart at any club filled the fans with any glee.
A transfer window would provide protection for both clubs and managers in that the owner has to have the foresight to make a long term plan. Seeing as the fit and proper person test for an Owner has regularly been seen as laughable, surely this would be a way of testing the owner’s capability to run a football club, rather than giving him full reign to make whatever petty decision he so chooses. After all football clubs may be a business, but they are more than that to the fans who wait every weekend to watch their teams play. When planning to go to games it is not uncommon for supporters to plan their travel months in advance to be able to afford to go, and they have to sometimes pick and choose their games wisely. So surely it isn’t too much to ask for the owner to be forced to plan in advance too.
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The change of a manager surely has to be a natural progression and a correct fit. The reason why West Brom and Swansea have both continued to flourish despite losing Brendan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson in the summer respectively is because they were able to plot their moves wisely. In particular at West Bromwich Albion they employed a Sporting director in Dan Ashworth who had the foresight to see the greater picture, the brand of football and the type of player West Brom were looking to sign. He encouraged the owner’s that Steve Clarke was the right man for the job and it has paid dividends. Similarly, Huw Jenkins had time to see that Laudrup also plays football with a fluidity and style that Martinez and Rodgers had already implemented as a philosophy at the club.
It is a cliché that is often heard in football that club’s come out saying they believe in the vision of their new manager and they are delighted with the appointment, well maybe it’s time we implement a managerial transfer window and then the people making these monumental decisions are forced to think them through.
manager Andre Villas-Boas has told his players that they must avoid another costly slip up at home against Reading on New Year’s day in their quest for a top four finish.
AVB doesn’t want to see standards subside in a game against a Reading team who visit White Hart Lane off the back of a 1-0 win against West Ham at the Madejski Stadium.
Spurs have the chance to finish off a Christmas schedule of near perfection with a win against the Royals, making it seven points from a potential nine.
Talking to Sky Sports the Spurs boss commented that the New Year’s Day game will certainly be a tough one, noting that “The problem with that fixture is that we have done extremely well away from home, but we have to keep up the momentum.”
“We have to keep our home form going and it would be silly for us not to continue at this level, so it is a fixture in which we really want to get the three points to close finally the festive fixtures with three wins, hopefully, and one draw.
“[The players] have been excellent. The December that we [have] had shows exactly that.
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“We had big, big results against difficult teams and the Europa League in between.
“If we manage to take this form into January, it would be excellent.”
Chelsea produced their best performance of the season to trounce Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge to move back up to third in the Premier League table.
The Blues had suffered a stuttering start under interim boss Rafa Benitez but have finally clicked into gear at a crucial point in the season, winning five of their last six games in all competitions, and provided more evidence of their improvement under the Spaniard.
For the visitors it was an afternoon to forget and manager Paul Lambert will be hoping morale in the dressing room hasn’t depleted to a critical level as they fight to remain clear of the relegation zone heading into the New Year.
Only three minutes had passed before the home side had drawn first blood when Fernando Torres met Branislav Ivanovic’s teasing centre to power home a header from 15-yards for his seventh goal in eight games.
It got worse for Villa as Chelsea effectively ended the game as a contest with two goals in five minutes towards the end of the half. David Luiz, reborn as a holding midfielder under Benitez, curled home a sumptuous free kick in the 29th minute to make it 2-0.
Ivanovic then showed the predatory instinct of a world class forward to head Gary Cahill’s mis-hit past Brad Guzan. The away side enjoyed 15 minutes of brief respite after the break before Frank Lampard capped his 500th league start with a goal straight from his copybook, rifling the ball into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
And in a torturous final 15 minutes the west London club struck a further four goals, Ramires slotting home from substitute Lucas Piazon’s pass before Oscar scored from the penalty spot after being fouled by Chris Herd.
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Eden Hazard added the seventh after showing sublime feet to work himself into space and driving the ball into the top corner from inside the penalty area.
There was still time for Piazon to miss a penalty on his league debut before Ramires blasted in his second to complete the scoring and cap a remarkable victory for Chelsea.
After a really positive end to 2012 it’s not been such a great start to the new year for Coventry City. A disappointing defeat at home to Shrewsbury followed promptly by David McGoldrick’s inevitable exit, topped off with a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham in the FA Cup 3rd round.
The Shrewsbury defeat definitely sounds a lot worse than it was though. They raised their game and it was just one of those days in front of goal for us. If we continue to create that number of chances then we will carry on winning more games than we lose and that’s a fact.
The biggest worry I do have is whether or not we are going to be able to finish these chances that we are creating. Our main man in front of goal David McGoldrick has now completed his loan spell with the club and has decided against re-joining us.
I can’t hide my huge disappointment in this decision as he has been playing the best football of his career here at Coventry and it genuinely looked like he had found his home in football terms at least. He has been scoring goals for fun, terrorising defence’s and quickly became a firm fans favourite because of his quality and work rate. He finished his spell with the Skyblues with 17 goals from 25 games which is a sign of striker who knows where the back of the net is.
His decision however has surprised me. Not the fact he chose not to join back up with the skyblues but that he chose to join a club like Ipswich. Ipswich have been struggling this season and find themselves 19th only 5 points off of the bottom three with the worst goal difference in the league. They also are a club with a lot of good strikers on their books which include fellow new signing Aaron Mclean. He is therefore by no means guaranteed a first team place and he seemed in his time at Coventry like a player who wants to play.
I worry for him a little not only in the sense of the club he has chosen to play for who like Coventry have a reputation for ruining good players but the fact he is making the step up to the championship which he has so far failed to deliver in. He has spent a few seasons in the championship but has never been able to make a mark on it and has often been in and out of the team.
He is also going into a team where he is going to have to learn how they play. The way Coventry played suited his game perfectly and allowed him to be the main man of the team. If this changes which I’m sure it will at Ipswich I think he is going to struggle. We witnessed this in his last game for us when Mark Robin changed formation to 4-4-2. The team lost its balance a bit and McGoldrick seemed to lose his way and became unsure of where he should be with another striker up alongside him.
He has been a fantastic servant to the club in his short spell with us and for that I wish him all the best for the future and hope he makes a success of it at Ipswich. I don’t however believe that this will be the case and I’m worried his talents will once again be put into the background and become lost within the reserves and the subs bench.
McGoldrick is now the past for Coventry and Leon Clarke may be the future. Having seen him play both in these opening two fixtures for us and for his previous teams I am yet to be convinced of his talents. He is not the same sort of player as McGoldrick but I cannot stop myself from comparing them. My personal opinion is McGoldrick wins hands down on everything that a striker should offer. He is faster, has a better touch, holds the ball up better and from the goals I have seen clearly has a better finishing ability.
Another thing that worries me about Clarke is the number of clubs he has already been at despite only being 27 years old. Coventry will be his 15th club in his career with the majority of them being on loan. This worries me even more in that it seems almost as soon as a club signs Clarke they realise they have made a bad decision and loan him out. We are the 3rd club he has been loaned too since joining Charlton having only made 7 appearances for his parent club.
Whilst his overall goalscoring record is pretty appalling for a striker his goalscoring record in league one is something that could be promising for the rest of the season. He has scored 31 Goals in 40 appearances for four different League one clubs which is a prolific strike rate. If he continues this for us then we will have found a readymade replacement for McGoldrick and hopefully it will mean we won’t miss him too much.
Our first game without McGoldrick was the FA cup 3rd round tie against Tottenham Hotspur. We were all hoping for a repeat of the 1987 final but right from the start we could see this wasn’t going to be the case. Spurs came out 3-0 winners and it could of and probably should have been more. It was a disappointing day out for the club and the fans in the end which is a shame but it is time to get back to games which truly matter.
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Thursday’s Johnstone’s paint trophy tie at home to Preston is a huge game for the club. It is effectively the quarter final of the competition and I really feel it is a chance to bring some good times back to the club and get that winning mentality which we so dearly crave.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has hinted that Raheem Sterling will play a bit part role for the rest of the season.
The teenager burst onto the scene this term, becoming a key member of the Reds’ first-team during the opening half of the Premier League season.
His fine performances even led to the 18-year-old securing his first international cap, with Roy Hodgson selecting him for November’s friendly against Sweden.
However, in recent weeks a dip in form, allied with Liverpool’s moves in the transfer market, has seen the winger play a more peripheral role on match days.
Rodgers believes that his starlet must be managed correctly if he is to on to fulfil his potential at the highest level:
“This is a kid we’re talking about, so we have to take a wee step back,” he is quoted by The Mirror.
“This league is so mentally and physically draining, it hurts experienced professionals and this boy has just stepped up from the Academy.
“The zip has gone and that’s down to fatigue. But was that to be expected? Yes it was.”
Sterling has been impressive on the whole this season, notching two goals and assists in 23 Premier League appearances.
As a result he is likely to be disappointed by his manager’s decision to ease him out of first-team action, but Rodgers says that he has talked to the player about it and explained his reasons:
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“I was talking to him the other day about this, and if he didn’t kick another ball this season he’s had a good one.
“So we have to nurture him and protect him – it’s just a very demanding league.”
Darron Gibson has backed Everton team-mate Seamus Coleman to stop Gareth Bale when the Blues travel to Spurs on Sunday.
Everton will hope to maintain their push for a top-four finish this season with a positive result at White Hart Lane this weekend.
However, they will again have to keep star man Bale quiet and Gibson says fellow Irishman Coleman knows how to combat the Welsh wizard after restricting him in the first fixture between the sides earlier in the campaign – and also last term.
“Seamus has dealt with him quite well the last two times he has played against him,” Gibson told the club’s website.
“I think he (Bale) has been unbelievable. He’s won games for Spurs on his own.”
He added: “It’s good for English football and it’s good for Spurs but hopefully he is not good on Sunday against us. I think he is up there with the best in Europe at the minute.”
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