Archive for the ‘Editor’s Picks’ Category
Andre Villas Boas takes his high flying Tottenham Hotspur side to Carrow Road to take on Norwich City as they look to create breating space between them and the chasing pack for the fourth and last UEFA Champions League qualifying places, having already opened up a three point lead from Everton in fifth and a four point gap with arch rivals Arsenal who lie in sixth. After last weekend’s stunning draw against league leaders Manchester United when they scored with virtually the last kick of the game to leave the ground with a point in a match they completely dominated, Spurs are high on confidence and with Norwich struggling of late after their hammering against Liverpool last weekend, it gives the North London club the scope to open up a gap at fourth.
Andre Villas Boas and his Tottenham Hotspur side make the short trip across London to Loftus Road to take on former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp and his struggling Queens Park Rangers side in a team time kick off of the Premier League as they look to consolidate their position in the last qualifying spot for the UEFA Champions League with a win. The Lilywhites have 39 points from 21 games and currently sit on third in the table but Chelsea are just one point behind and have a game in hand as well and Spurs will look to secure an all important win against an opponent they know can spring a surprise anytime, as was found by Boas’s former employers at Chelsea which suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to The R’s at home in the last game week.
Arsenal take on French champions Montpellier at home as they look to bounce back from back to back matches against German club Schalke where they lost five points against them and move closer to securing their progression into the next round of the competition for the 16 th straight season. Arsenal have been going through an extremely bad patch of form over the last couple of months after starting the season in blistering fashion.
Racism has long been a problem in the world of football, and many of the big Leagues all over the world have fallen prey to one of the most disgusting aspects of modern life. It was only 5 years back that ‘racism’ was a word that was not heard in the grounds across England and was mainly a problem for the Spanish and Russian Leagues where the hatred for the colored people have been all encompassing and have created problems many times in the past.
However, the last couple of years have shown that racism has entered the tradition of English football, with the Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra scandal and now, the John Terry and Anton Ferdinand spat proving that even the almighty FA couldn’t prevent racism from raising its ugly head in the English game. When Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United left back Evra during a heated encounter between the two English giants last year, many had commented that Suarez, hailing from South America and having played in the Netherlands, had brought his own mindset into the English game and the English players would not indulge in such low tactics.