The Carlos Tevez saga trundles on; Robert Huth may be the best German defender in the Premier League; and the Manchester derby beckons
Yes, here we go.
Preamble: Good morning and welcome to Friday's live blog. Throughout the day we'll be bringing you all the football news that's fit to print and - due in no small part to the glut of pre-weekend press conferences that will be staged in football clubs the length and breadth of the UK - much that isn't. We may also reflect on a decent week of European action and even look forward to intriguing domestic fixtures, by which I don't mean magic wardrobes. How about the Manchester derby? QPR's attempt to avoid conceding double figures against Chelsea? Wolves' attempt to clamber out of the rut they've slipped into. Crunch clashes in the Championship include Middlesbrough-Derby and Southampton-Reading, while in Spain Jose Mourinho will take his team to those Real Madrid wannabees, Malaga, and France Lyon take on Lille in an L of a battle. Your forecasts and fears with regard to those duels are (almost) anything else would be most welcome. We'll have special guest contributors throughout the day took, so long as you're not too stringent in your definition of 'special guest'. All together now: here we go, here we go, here we go. Here we go, here we go, here we g-o ...
I saw Blackburn and QPR trudge to a 1-1 draw last week and I'll be surprised and saddened if I see a duller game this season. But if I do, chances are Blackburn will be involved: they got a point but they were by far the worst side I've seen this term. Towards the end of last season and even the start of this one you discern, if you crunched up your eyes really hard, signs of evolution under Steve Keane, indications that he was indeed embedding a new fluent style with some slinky young players going forward. Last week, however, they were worse than at any time under Sam Allardyce, continually bogging long balls dumbly forward to the forlorn Jason Roberts. Junior Hoillet, in fairness, did provide flashes of magic, but other than that, watching Blackburn was a chore. Spurs are missing a slew of defenders for this weekennd's meeting (and Harry Redknapp has said that Aaron Lennon and Sandro may also miss after sustaining knocks in last night's fortuante win over Rubin Kazan), but Spurs should batter Blackburn.
Marseille are one point off the relegation zone in France and lost to Arsenal in mid-week following a performance of slacker-levels of ambition. Today their supporters have had enough: a hastily-assembled federation of supporters groups (including groups with names such as Commando Ultra, South Winners and, um, Yankee) issued a po-faced press release today to announce that they have decided to attend tomorrow's home game against Ajaccio ... but will "withhold their encouragement" from the team. Their cunning plan, then, is to turn up and sit in sulky silence.
Ha! Sir Alex Ferguson certainly seem to have been withholding encouragement this morning. Asked about the prospect of Wayne Rooney jetting back from his stint watching England in Euro 2012 next summer to participate in the Olympic Games, the United manager harrumphed at the question, spent a good 10 seconds staring at the ground, and then spoke lowly and slowly thus:
This has been spurred by Argentina and Nigeria sending out their strongest teams (to the Olympics) last time. That has given the BOA an opening. But our league is different. Players need their rest and to recover. I do not see how it is possible (to double up with Euros).
Well, it's possible if you don't actually play in the Euros but just go to serve as an ever-present reminder of a convenient but spurious excuse that can be evoked when England bomb again. Speaking of which, the FA are due to receive Uefa's explanation for Rooney's three-match ban at some point today. We'll let you know what it say, but if it's anything other than "because he booted an opponent from behind for no good reason. Duh!", I'll be disappointed.
So sir Alex Ferguson reckons no one listen to him [see previous entry]. Perhaps the Scottish genius whose thoughts people do want to hear is our very own Kevin McCarra? "I was at City's shaky win over Villarreal," begins Kevin. ". They do have to get used to the stress of all that expectation, but I also think that some of last season's resilience has gone as Mancini tries to put the emphasis on an attacking style that is demanded of any manager who has spent so much. As if going to Old Trafford didn't apply pressure enough, he's up against opponents who have beaten City in five of the last six derby games in the League."
Listen, United and City fans: let's have none of this sort of carry-on if you're team win on Sunday:
Mexican side Guadalajara have fined two players for a goal celebration in which one pretended to shoot the other in the head, sparking outrage in the country where drugs-related violence has claimed 44,000 lives.
Forwards Marco Fabian de la Mora, who scored a hat-trick, and Alberto Medina were each fined 50,000 Mexican pesos ($3,700) for the incident during the Chivas' 5-2 league victory over city rivals Estudiantes UAG on Saturday.
"I greatly regret what happened. When I saw the video I was filled with anger and regret for playing around with something as sacred as the life of a human being," De la Mora told reporters on Thursday after donating a million pesos to an orphanage in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez.
De la Mora and Medina paid double their fines and the rest of the money was raised by their team mates. Ciudad Juarez is one of the most violent towns in Mexico and the main drugs route into the United States.
"It's good to celebrate in football but never like that. My respects to Mexico, for a Mexico free of violence, for the mothers and siblings of the victims," added De la Mora. - Reuters
"Any news on Micah Richards' fitness," wonders Ben Davis. Yes - apparently he's available for selection. As are all City's players except Carlos Tevez, who today will find out whether he is to be punished further for his alleged reluctance to play against Bayern Munich a couple of weeks ago. That could mean another start for Mario Balotelli, who's been in fine form so far this season. "I hope he has arrived at a situation where he has changed his mind and he is more mature," said Roberto Mancini this morning, though not while counting any chickens. "But with Mario, anything can happen at any time, even in the next game. Over the last two months his behaviour has been excellent. I hope he listens to me like this in future."
Tomorrow's Midlands ruckus between Aston Villa and West Brom could feature added James Collins, as the defender has recovered from the groin bother that kept him out of last week's defeat by Manchester City. Nathan Delfouneso and Jermaine Jenas will miss it, though.
Provisional Villa squad: Given, Guzan, Hutton, Collins, Dunne, Clark, Warnock, Beye, Herd, Delph, Petrov, Ireland, Bannan, Albrighton, Gardner, Bent, Heskey, Agbonlahor, N'Zogbia, Weimann.
Andre Villas-Boas was spotted limbering up at Chelsea's training ground this morning, possibly as he tried to contain his excitement about meeting the press pack in a couple of hours. Dominic Fifield will be among it, after all. "Off to Chelsea for Andre Villas-Boas' press conference at lunchtime," announces Dominic. "I would expect the likes of John Terry, Juan Mata and Didier Drogba - who were all rested for the stroll against Genk in midweek - to return at Loftus Road on Sunday, particularly with Fernando Torres sitting out the final match of his suspension. Chelsea might claim to have other priorities, and they play Arsenal at home next weekend, but QPR will consider this their biggest derby of the season. Visited Harlington earlier in the week to speak with Shaun Wright-Phillips and he made it pretty clear Neil Warnock had stressed the significance of the game already... but they haven't won against their local rivals since March 1995, albeit, there have only been six meetings since. This would be a decent time to conjure a first home win of the league season." They won't.
Jamie Jackson has been granted an audience with Neil Warnock today (along with the rest of the press) and the one thing he wants to know most of all is this: "The big question, P, as I head to Harlington to see Neil Warnock is: has he smoked out the team-selection leaking-mole?" Indeed. And did he take up RicRoc's offer of a t�te-�-t�te?
You know Sir Alex Ferguson has a lot on his mind (or just hates most journalists) when you can't even get him to talk about horses. "The United manager declined to answer a TV question about his views on the use of whips in horse racing," confides our man Paul Wilson. "He ruled the subject too silly for a Friday morning. 'You should ask the horse,' he said." I ask you, posters, is there really such a thing as a subject too silly for a Friday morning?
Here's larks: just look at the novel way that Maccabi Tel Aviv's Yoan Ziv found to get sent off at Stoke last night! And see his doomed attempt to offer a reasonable explanation to the linesman afterwards.
Phil Bardsley and Nicklas Bendtner are back in contention for Sunderland for tomorrow's trip to Bolton. The full-back will be busy, I reckon, because Martin Petrov has been in cracking for lately.
Sunderland provisional squad: Mignolet, Westwood, O'Shea, Brown, Bardsley, Richardson, Turner, Laing, Cattermole, Gardner, Vaughan, Larsson, Colback, Elmohamady, Meyler, Sessegnon, Bendtner, Wickham, Ji, McClean, Cook.
Have you considered letting James Richardson read the week's newspapers to you? Try it, it's pleasant. Meanwhile, an appeal for calm: less of the groundless slurs below the line please. More wit and wisdom would be welcome instead.
The word according to Sky Sports' News yellow ticker of doom is that, after a meeting today, Manchester City have decided to charge Carlos Tevez for refusing to warm up against Bayern Munich. But Tevez maintains his innocence and will appeal against any charges.
Whoever makes the most interesting, insightful or amusing post below the line today gets free tickets to watch Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.
Oh, I forgot to mention: that was a lie. However, you could win such tickets by clicking here and getting lucky.
Just reading kicker.de and see that they are billing this weekend's Arsenal-Stoke match as Per Mertesacker v Robert Huth. Which would you rather have in your team?
As if intending to answer my question of a moment ago, Arsene Wenger has expressed his disappointment with Arsenal's poor use of set-pieces recently. "We had nine corners against Marseille but didn't score from one," he rued. Huth would have.
Joey Barton spent the whole summer telling us the end of Newcastle was nigh but they're doing just dandy and look a very tidy outfit (a darn sight better than QPR). Will Barton be tweeting an apology any time soon? Or will things still unravel at Newcastle? Not again Wigan, surely? "I think Saturday will provide some different problems because the crowd will be expectant," warns Alan Pardew. "We haven't really had that this year, them expecting us to win, so maybe our first misplaced pass will be greeted with jeers. They are the sort of psychological things we have got to overcome. We might have a guy sent off, the ref might make a terrible decision - we haven't suffered that yet, so that's all to come, and it's how we react to that."
Roberto Martinez always talks a good game. "When you play for Wigan you need to be able to defy the odds and that is the way we have always played our football," he declared prior to the trip to Newcastle.
"I feel we are capable of responding to adversity. We know where we are and what we have to correct. The next game is a massive football occasion and we are ready for that.
At Wigan you learn to push yourself to the maximum."
Here is the provisional Manchester United squad for the derby. Rio Ferdinand is available again but surely he does not merit a starting place? The talk of Tom Cleverley returning was misguided. Apparently he won't resume training until Monday.
United provisional squad: De Gea, Lindegaard, Amos, Smalling, Fabio, Evans, Ferdinand, Vidic, Jones, Evra, Valencia, Nani, Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Park, Young, Berbatov, Diouf, Hernandez, Owen, Rooney, Welbeck.
Rio Ferdinand has just tweeted that there was some "no holds barred" banter at United's training session today. Don't they have moderators at Old Trafford?
The Olympic are in England next year, as you may have heard, but David Hytner was at the Arsenal training ground this morning to hear Arsene Wenger doing a good job of hiding his excitement.
It is not a real football tournament. It makes life impossible for the clubs and for the players, especially. They already have no real break because of Euro 2012. If Arsenal are losing our players as well for the Olympic Games, I think I will have to sign a license and practice to play myself. I don't know what people are thinking about who organise these tournaments. It also makes it impossible for England because we have no winter break here. The federations and the clubs have to analyse each individual player case and be sensible.
Remember when everyone thought Ramires was rubbish? Seems ludicrous now, as he's been brilliant for Chelsea this season and an important contributor to the new dynamism that Villas-Boas has stoked. The good news for QPR, then, is that Ramires has a knee knock that'll keep him out of action this weekend (but no longer than that, apparently). The bad news, of course, is that Chelsea will still hammer them.
Chelsea provisional squad: Cech, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Alex, Ferreira, Terry, Luiz, Cole, McEachran, Mikel, Romeu, Lampard, Meireles, Mata, Malouda, Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge, Lukaku, Kalou, Turnbull.
Thomas Vermaelen has resumed training with Arsenal and could be back in action within two weeks. Arsenal do have a defensive pickle for this weekend, however, as Carl Jenkinson damaged his knee in Marseille. Worryingly for the lad, Arsenal's medical staff are saying it's not too serious and he won't be out for long. Worryingly for Wenger, Johann Djourou may have to be deployed at right-back against Stoke.
Arsenall provisional squad: Szczesny, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Song, Frimpong, Ramsey, Arteta, Gervinho, Van Persie, Walcott, Fabianski, Park, A Santos, Benayoun, Djourou, Rosicky, Arshavin, Chamakh, Squillaci.
Here's Ewan Murray to explain what's going on at Rangers.
Here's a link to a rogue's gallery of the Premier League's 10 most prolific foulers (albeit based solely on the early part of this season). You can guess most of them, I'm sure. But notorious hatchetman Gabriel Agbonlahor? Meanwhile, this, from Ian in Singapore. "Just a note to say that we here in Asia are still waiting for word on the punishments to be handed out to Al Sadd and Suwon Samsung Bluewings for the violence in the AFC Champions League on Wednesday. This after their semi-final first leg bust up following controversial second goal foa Al Sadd. Not ideal for us lovers of Asian football!"
Do you ever visit the Straight Dope website? If not, you should. It's good. And for reasons that I am pretending not to know, this article struck a chord today. Here's one line from it worth mulling over.
In the global conversation made possible by the Internet, the easiest way to tell the smart folk from the knuckleheads is how often they make seemingly ignorant mistakes.
Behold the Everton squad for this weekend's game against Fulham. Will Velios be given a start following his impressive appearance off the bench last week? Or should David Moyes remain optimistic that Louis Saha will get back to his best, which, let's face it, is very good indeed?
Everton provisional squad: Howard, Heitinga, Hibbert, Neville, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, Barkley, Fellaini, Osman, Rodwell, Drenthe, Cahill, Stracqualursi, Mucha, Bilyaletdinov, Vellios, Gueye, Saha, Coleman, Hahnemann.
Blackburn's chances of beating Spurs this weekend have receded: Michel Salgado has a hamstring injury. Jason Lowe is likely to take his place. Mind you, Lowe's good deliveries from set-pieces means will mean Blackburn will have at least one avenue of attack that isn't a Paul Robinson punt.
Defender Michel Salgado will miss Sunday's visit of Tottenham after a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
Provisional squad: Robinson, Lowe, Samba, Givet, Dann, Olsson, Givet, Petrovic, Nzonzi, Hoilett, Roberts, Bunn, Hanley, Formica, Vukcevic, Rochina, Yakubu, Goodwillie.
Heard the one about the guy who spent 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and then, when he finally got out, made his porfessional boxing debut at the age of 52? Allow Chudi Onwuazor to explain.
James Dart is off in his secret laboratory running this weekend's lower league fixture list through home-made results predictor fed on stats, knowledge and hunches: and this is what it's spat out so far: you should bet on Peterborough being involved in a goal glut; Notts County will be smiling; and West Ham fans could be moaning even though they're not playing (you should always bet on that)
Shaun Wright-Phillips is still burning with ambition ... to touch his toes. Here he explains why to Dominic Fifield.
So. Just to shed some light on the Tevez thing: Manchester City have announced that he will not be charged with refusing to come on as a substitute because they could find no evidence to back up the suggestion that that happened. He may, however, be charged with refusing to resume his warm-up. Quite when he will be allowed/able to resume playing for City, if ever, remains unclear.
Phew! That was close: we nearly had to wind this thing up with news from Wolves! That surely wouldn't do. So before this blog shuts up shop, know that Mick McCarthy will have to plot the downfall of Swansea without Steven Fletcher, who's still not recovered from his calf problems. Kevin Foley is also missing. But looking at the squad below, they're surely still too good to rack up a a sixth straight Premier League defeat, right?
Wolves provisional squad: Hennessey, Elokobi, Stearman, Craddock, Henry, Ward, Hunt, Ikeme, Johnson, Berra, Jarvis, Vokes, Hammill, Milijas, O'Hara, Doyle, De Vries, Foley, Guedioura, Edwards, Ebanks-Blake.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/oct/21/football-live-blog-paul-doyle
Patrick Davis David Desharnais Andrew Desjardins Andre Deveaux
Fearless Forecast: 20 carries, 76 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 12 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns, 11.1 fantasy points
Jahvid Best, Det, RB (Noise Week 6 RB Rank: 27, 70-percent)
