Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Talking Balls: Manchester United Are Tough Nuts, Arsenal And Softies And Spurs Have World-Class Strikers
MANCHESTER United beat Arsenal 1-0 in a close game at Old Trafford. Arsenal looked tired. The spirited Red Devils took their chance – and should write a thank you letter to the Gunners’ hapless Nicholas Bendtner. Still, Arsenal remain top of the league by two clear points. As Matt Dickinson writes in the Times:
Arsenal need him back healthy as they face back-to-back tests against Chelsea and Manchester City next month. They took two points out of a possible 18 in matches against the top four last season.
Defeat yesterday continued that troubling run, yet no one was reading too much into it, even if Wenger himself had called it a “benchmark” game. We have learnt not to assume anything, even more so after a weekend when United leapfrogged Manchester City, who are most people’s title favourites. That was last week.
Indeed. The Gunners remain the team to beat as they sit top of the Premier League.
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Posted: 11th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Sports | Comment (1)
Manchester United V Arsenal: Mouse Invades Pitch (Photo)
AT Manchester United’s Premier League match with Arsenal, the pitch was invaded by a mouse. What can it mean? Is it United manager David Moyes’ lucky pet mouse? The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…
Watch out for the owls.
Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Sports | Comments (2)
Arsenal V Manchester United: Lake Tanganyika And New York Mark Historic Encounter
EXCITABLE BBC football commentator Jonathan Pearce presents the Most Tortuous Introduction of the Week:
Sunday marks the 142nd anniversary of one of history’s most famous meetings. It didn’t take place at Old Trafford, but 4,400 miles away on Lake Tanganyika. New York journalist Henry Stanley walked out of the jungle and greeted a Scottish medical missionary with the now famous words: “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” Another Scot is on a mission these days. David Moyes is trying to rediscover the lost soul of Manchester United.
Continues for 90 minutes…
Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Ozil Says Arsenal Will Beat Manchester United ‘For Fun’
MESUT OZIL, of Arsenal, is the subject of a Spurs chant about his eyes being offside.
Arsenal’s German is not easily out off. Ahead of the Gunners match at Manchester United, he has this to say:
“We are going to Old Trafford to have fun — and that is why we are going to win… The plan is not to go to United and settle for a draw. If we are going to achieve the target of our coach, then we go to win. Of course it’s going to be difficult. United are a high-quality team. But I’m sure they also respect us because we can beat anyone, home or away.”
How’s that for positive thinking? Inside every top player is an deep vein of self belief.
Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Arsenal: Piers Morgan’s Fails All In One Place
CELEBRITY Arsenal fan Piers Morgan likes to tweet about his team. He lives in LA and tweets whenever Arsenal play. As Gunners’ fans dance around and sing at the Emirates and others enjoy the moment and the action in bedrooms and pubs, Morgan sits by a computer in LA and types “Booom” and how rubbish Arsenal are. Morgan believes you can run a club via Twitter.
Some bright spark has compiled his asinine tweets into one picture:
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Posted: 9th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Sports | Comment
The 11 Best Football Red Cards
PEOPLE say that a red card can spoil a decent game of football. Nonsense. It adds a layer of wonderful jeopardy into proceedings and, more to the point, sometimes they’re really very funny.
There have been some mystifying red cards over the years (players getting sent off for mistaken identity or getting three yellows before leaving the pitch) and some have just been brilliant.
With that, let us look at some of the more fun ones.
1. Don’t get a decision going your way? Indulge in some ‘simulation’. That didn’t work? Jab your opponent in the balls, right in front of the referee.
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Posted: 8th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Home Run: A Video And Story In A Single Sentence
HOME Run is a project.
In this Single Sentence Animation for Electric Literature, Ilana Simons animates Home Run by Steven Millhauser. Voice by Mark Decarlo. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations. The writer selects a favourite sentence from his or her work and the animator creates a short animation in response. Except in this case, wherein the entire story is one sentence.
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Posted: 8th, November 2013 | In: Sports, The Consumer | Comment
Piers Morgan On Arsenal: ‘What DOES Wenger see in Ramsey? A complete and utter liability’
ARSENAL fans may well bemoan the presence of preening Piers Morgan. Amid his many prescient tweets demanding the club sack Arsene Wenger, Morgan created this gem:
“What DOES Wenger see in Ramsey? A complete and utter liability.”
Followed by:
“How on earth did Ramsey just get given a new 5yr contract? Unbelievable.”
In typical Morgan style, he elevates his own failings:
“Let’s be honest Arsenal fans – @aaronramsey was very poor last year and we all said it. He’s brilliant now, and I couldn’t be happier. Thrilled with his dramatic improvement. I don’t know what must be thrilling @aaronramsey more – his amazing form, or the sudden discovery he had SO many secret fans last season.”
Beware the celebrity fan…
Posted: 8th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, Sports | Comments (5)
Daily Mail: Arsenal’s Defence Is The Best But Worse Than That Of Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham And Southampton
NEIL Ashton writes of Arsenal FC in the Daily Mail:
Naming the famous Arsenal back four is easy: Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gibbs.
Easy. Done.
It has taken Arsene Wenger years to replace the brilliant defence he inherited when he took over in September 1996. He has finally done it. Whether it is by luck or judgement, he has four defenders who are old school in their approach: they simply do not want to concede goals.
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Posted: 7th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, Sports | Comments (2)
Arsenal Fans Rejoice At This Gif Showing Borussia Dortmund Fans Reaction To Ramsey’s Goal
AS Aaron Ramsey scored for Arsenal in last’ night’s match in Borussia Dortmund last night – his goal a real noggin bobbler – Dortmund fans stopped singing and bouncing at the Westfalenstadion.
It’s a great Gif.
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Champions’ League Balls: Arsenal Have Four Shots On Goal But Borussia Dortmund Had Hundreds
ONLY one fact matters in football: the money. But in modern day footy reporting, there are many, many facts. Take the number of shots in a game. Last night, the Daily Mail did the maths at Arsenal’s game in Borussia Dortmund and game up with facts. In a piece about how Arsenal scored against the run of play, Martin Samuels says Dortmund had 15 goalscoring attempts, what might be termed shots. The paper’s Statto counted 12.
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Bernie Ecclestone Enters The High Court The Hard Way
FORMULA One action figure (surely man of action? – ed) Bernie Ecclestone is at the High Court. As ever with Bernie the conversation is about his cash. Most often, it’s about how his daughters have found a new way to spunk dad’s money on a sapphire bidet or a cream made from the perinea of white tigers.
This time the octogenarian was talking money in the form of evidence in a damages case against him alleging that he made a “corrupt” payment to protect his position running the sport. Here’s Bernie at the High Court encountering the horror of doors that don’t come with a man to open them. Who knew?
Desperate Fans: The Spurs Sugar Puffs Muncher
ALL football fans have been there. They have experienced the pang of embarrassing co-supporters, the figure-of-fun who shares you love of the team. Today’s Desperate Fan is Graham Downes, played by ardent Tottenham supporter Paul Whitehouse:
Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill In Irish ‘Gay Mariage Vote’
SO. How did the Irish Independent report the news that Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill are to run the Republic of Ireland football team?
Richmond Golf Club Rules 1940
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Posted: 6th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Sports | Comment
Injury Watch: Arsenal’s Gibbs Has Chronic Calf Injury Relocated To Fixed Hip
HOW football reporting works: the Injury List. Let’s look at what the papers are saying about Arsenal player Kieran Gibbs readiness for tomorrow’s Champions’ League match against Borussia Dortmund:
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal manager): “Gibbs has a calf problem. I don’t know exactly how bad it is” – November 2
Arsenal News: “Kieran Gibbs Set To Miss 4 Weeks Of Action Due To Calf Injury” – November 3
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‘I’m Bernard Hopkins And I’m A Fighter’ – Oldest Ever Boxing World Champion Won’t Quit
THE 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins is the oldest fighter in boxing history to win a world title:
He also [broke that record] in 2011, at age 46, when he traveled to then-light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal’s turf in Montreal for a rematch of a controversial draw and outpointed him to break heavyweight legend George Foreman’s record. In beating [Karo] Murat [on October 26, in a fight promoted in the above video], Hopkins added to his historic legacy by becoming the oldest fighter to defend a world title, winning easily on the scorecards, 119-108, 119-108 and 117-110.
“I wanted to use my skills and reflexes that I still have at 48,” Hopkins said. “I want to tell all the kids out there and everybody out there in sports that you can do it clean and still be good, like myself, and never take drugs.
“I said I was going to throw combinations, and it’s hard to get adjusted to it when I have been used to throwing one or two punches like I have most of my career. When I found the rhythm things became easy.”
In March 2013, The Executioner’ claimed IBF light-heavyweight crown with victory over Tavoris Cloud, 17 years his junior
“I have a history of destroying young champions and then we don’t see them again. Not sure if you’ll see Cloud again.”
Should he retire? Kelefa Sanneh:
When fans try to shame veterans like [James] Toney and [Shane] Mosley into retirement, they often speak the language of concern: they don’t want to see a boxer get injured or worse; they don’t want to hear people saying, after a catastrophic fight, that the tragedy was predictable. But boxing is predictably tragic; if we truly didn’t want to see fighters get injured, we wouldn’t watch them fight. When fans cheer Hopkins, hitting and getting hit in the twelfth round, even when he probably knows he has already won, they say they admire his bravery. … Some fans play doctor, scrutinizing interviews for signs of altered speech, and yet there’s something perverse about urging a man to fight until he’s damaged, then urging him to stop.
Why stop?
Local News Watch: Will Yohan Cabaye Swap Newcastle For ‘Less Fashionable’ Rome?
LOCAL News Watch focuses on the Newcastle Chronicle, which shows just the merest whiff of bias in its report: “Roma eye Newcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye.”
Newcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye is understood to be a target of Serie A outfit Roma
Lee Ryder reports:
Whether Cabaye would swap the Premier League for the less fashionable Serie A remains to be seen.
Rome. Eternal City. Capital of Italy. Or Newcastle?
Spurs: The Sun Continues It’s Daily Attack On AVB
THE Sun continues its bid to portray Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas as a fool. In today’s paper, readers get:
JAN VERTONGHEN has taken a swipe at Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas in a clash over tactics.
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Posted: 5th, November 2013 | In: Sports, Spurs | Comments (5)
Sunderland V Hull: The Sun’s Michael Morgan Rewrites History
ON November 30 2011, Sunderland sacked manger Steve Bruce.
The BBC reported:
Bruce, 50, becomes the first Premier League boss to lose his job this season after two wins in the first 13 games.
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Posted: 4th, November 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Arsenal Fans Will Enjoy This String Of Incredible Misses
ARSENAL may be having a ball in the Premier League at the moment, but what about their Argentinian namesakes? Well, Arsenal de Sarandi have also had a decent start to the season, nd luck is certainly on their side too, as their match with All Boys shows, from Friday.
With All Stars through on goal, striker Javier Campora saw his cheekily chipped attempt come back off the crossbar and he met the rebound, which he managed to clobber the woodwork again.
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Arsenal: Gunners Chairman, Manager And Chief Scout Tony Adams Says Ozil Is A Real Madrid Cast Off
THE time for Arsenal fans to panic will be when Tony Adam gets anywhere close to running any aspect of the club.
It was Chairman Adams who said of Sir Chips Keswick:
“Chips is a great guy but not a very imaginative choice – and he is 73. If they just wanted a figurehead, they should have gone for me”
Manager Adams noted:
”One hundred per cent I’d like to be Arsenal manager. Of course my heart says ‘yes, yes, yes’, but my head says ‘can I win with this current team?’ My answer is no, I can’t and I am not sure anyone can. I would want assurances if I walk through the door, those assurances meaning I’m given the go ahead to build a new team. I would get my teeth into building a new team but to achieve that, you would need to spend.”
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Posted: 4th, November 2013 | In: Arsenal, Sports | Comments (4)
Newcastle United Mentalist Moussa Sissoko Keeps Tracks Of Chelsea Corner Whilst Looking The Other Way
MOVE over Arsenal’s telekinetic stupendo Mesmut Ozil, Newcastle United can call upon the second sight of midfielder Moussa Sissoko. As Chelsea took a corner on Saturday afternoon, Sissoko kept his back to the ball. With his eyes focused on the Blues’ Branislav Ivanovic, the French mindreader kept perfect track of the ball, jumping high at the correct moment to head the ball clear.
Spotter: Pies
TV Stripper Tells Of Magical Nights In Ashley Cole’s Chelsea-Themed Vomitorium
IT turns out that the way to seduce Ashley Cole is not offer him a deal for a lucrative marriage nor write ‘puke here‘ on your face but to compliment his feet.
Roxanne Jeffers says she pulled the Chelsea FC defender by sayiong she liked his feet. Cole had posted a picture of his feet on the web. The Daily Mail reports: “The model got in touch with Ashley when she commented on how ‘cute’ his feet were after he posted a snap of them on Instagram. The Chelsea and England defender was so flattered he invited the 24-year-old beauty to the £3.5million home he once shared with Cheryl.”
That’s how much Ashley likes his feet.
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Posted: 3rd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
