Brazilian legend Pele has warned Neymar to reject a move to the Premier League in favour of Spain.
The 21-year-old has been linked with both Manchester City and Chelsea in recent months, with the duo rumoured to be willing to spend big to secure his signature this summer.
As well as the English pair, clubs in Germany and Italy have also been linked with the Santos star, who has become one of the most sought after young players in world football.
City are reportedly leading the race for the Brazilian international, but Pele believes that a move to Barcelona would be the best option:
“The game is tougher in England, Italy and Germany, because the referees usually let play go on, Barcelona would be ideal for him.” He is quoted by The Mirror
“Santos need him and for that reason I don’t think he should leave but if he must go it should be to Barcelona.”
Despite the reputation he has gained in his homeland, Neymar has failed to produce the sort of form expected of him on the world stage.
He was criticised for his performance against England in a recent friendly, a game in which he made little impact.
Pele, who has previously compared Neymar to Lionel Messi, admitted that the youngster is still developing and may need time to reach his full potential:
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“He is an excellent player but he doesn’t have any experience outside Brazil.
“In every game he plays outside Brazil, he doesn’t do well. Everybody thinks Neymar can solve the national team’s problems, but he isn’t ready for that burden.”
Samir Nasri declared that Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke forced the club to sell him, The Mirror reported on Monday.
The Frenchman, who was sold to Manchester City in the summer of 2011 in a £24 million move, claimed that Arsene Wenger was put under pressure to make the sell by Kroenke.
“Wenger told me that, if Cesc [Fabregas] left, I would stay but Kroenke wanted the money,” said the 25-year-old midfielder.
He defended Wenger, who he said is “the greatest coach I have worked with”.
“[Arsene Wenger] made me who I am. I am very grateful. I only regret not having more discussions with him before I left.”
The midfielder insisted that he does not regret his move to the Etihad, which he stated was “purely for sporting reasons”.
“When you compare Arsenal and City, it’s not the same. With City, I’m playing in a better team. I didn’t leave [Arsenal] for money.”
After playing a vital role in City’s league title last year, Nasri has been criticised by Citizens’ manager Mancini for “playing at 50 per cent” this season.
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After his exceptional outing in Saturday’s 4-0 victory over Newcastle, the player admitted: “I am aware that I am not having a good season. There are many reasons. But when Mancini said that I am training at 50 per cent, this is not true.”
Sunderland have sacked boss Martin O’Neill following the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.
The Stadium of Light outfit are now just one point clear of the relegation zone and have not won since their victory over Wigan on January 19.
O’Neill’s departure was confirmed just hours after the home loss to United.
A club statement said: “Sunderland AFC has announced that it has parted company with manager Martin O’Neill.
“The club would like to place on record its thanks to Martin and wishes him well for the future.
“An announcement will be made in the coming days regarding a successor.”
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Sunderland are without a win in eight league games and face a real battle to remain in the Premier League, with a tough seven final fixtures ahead of them including games against European champions Chelsea, fierce rivals Newcastle and fellow strugglers Aston Villa, Stoke and Southampton.
The Wearside outfit are expected to name a successor before next weekend’s trip to Chelsea, with Steve McLaren, Alan Curbishley and Mark Hughes already linked with the now vacant role.
Richard Dunne could stay at Aston Villa despite him missing the entire season because of a groin injury, according to Paul Lambert.
The Villa chief was expected to free up some space on the Villa Park wage bill this summer when the 33-year-old Republic of Ireland international central defender’s current deal expires at the end of June.
However, despite being unable to call upon Dunne’s services all season because of the injury he picked up last summer, Lambert insisted that ‘the door is not closed’ on the player staying at the club.
On the prospect of Dunne, who is training with the academy youngsters and is unlikely to be fit for Ireland’s summer internationals, being offered a new deal, Lambert told the Birmingham Mail: “I haven’t spoken to him at all about that.
“I need to see how his fitness is. He’s doing really fine at the moment, training with the kids.
“He’s not played for nearly a year so to ask the lad to go and play for his country this summer is too much. He’s got to be comfortable with himself with the injury. The most important thing for me is that he can keep playing.
“He’s a top international player, who has just been unfortunate this injury has been an absolute nightmare for us.
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“Once I know he’ll be all right we can look at it. The door is not closed, not at all.”
It has been another week to forget for us city fans with the administrator finally coming to a decision over the future of Coventry City Ltd.
The decision as with everything else related to the Skyblues was put back a week to make us fans suffer just that little bit more. This delay allowed ACL the time to attempt to give themselves some good publicity. Initially their announcement which suggested that the Skyblues could play at the Ricoh for free was met with appreciation from many fans but it very quickly became apparent that this was an empty statement which actually had no meaning behind it whatsoever.
Within the statement was an admission that this offer was only on the table for as long as the club was in administration. Administration was never going to last until the start of the season so in actual fact there was never any chance of this offered deal ever actually coming to fruition.
ACL weren’t finished there though as they threw their hats into the ring with a late bid for Coventry City Ltd stating the fans had of Coventry City had suffered enough. Again though it became apparent this was never a serious bid and once again was an attempt to get fans on their side. These stunts were not necessary as every city fan alive now has nothing but a feeling of contempt for SISU and nothing will now ever change this.
ACL have made moves which make me worry about them not just as a business but as a potential partner to the football club. It is obvious the council have heavy influence especially since they bailed ACL out and this to me is a huge concern. Recent publicity stunts have politicians written all over them and for me politics has no place in football.
ACL being a partner to the football club though is the least of our worries after what can only be described as a decision which could well be catastrophic to the clubs future.
The Administrator named Otium a SISU related company as preferred bidders for CCFC Ltd effectively handing complete control back to SISU who I now feel actually never lost control not even for a second.
From the start when ACL threatened Administration it seems like SISU had a plan. Their decision to appoint their own administrator is where this fight was won for them. From this moment they had a man who they had chosen making all of the important decisions on the future of the club.
The question is whether or not to believe that Paul Appleton acted completely independently or whether he had influence from powers above i.e. SISU. Obviously the latter accusation is a serious one but if you look closely at the situation it is a feasible accusation.
Obviously as already mentioned SISU appointed the administrator which with SISU’s prior reputation already makes you ask questions. Secondly because of the clubs structure the administrator was able to stay very much out of the limelight and at times almost hid behind this with us fans having to wait weeks before we heard from him.
We did however hear from holdings and fisher on numerous occasions and we were all asking the questions of why they were still making statements on behalf of the club. We convinced ourselves that the administrator had no control over this and maybe he didn’t but to me SISU seemed too confident throughout of keeping hold of the club as a whole.
Finally and possibly the most convincing argument is that of the justification behind the administrators decision. He justifies the decision by suggesting that Otium’s (SISU’s) bid “was the bid which gave the greatest return to the unsecured, non-connected creditors of CCFC Limited by a considerable margin”. This is all well and good and is one of the main purposes of an administrator but Ii is not the sole purpose. An administrator’s job is to leave the company in a better more sustainable state than which he receives it in.
With Coventry City this is clearly not the case. When weighing up all of the mitigating factors including the club moving out of Coventry, ground sharing for 3 years, building a new stadium, the costs involved, fans threatening to boycott, sponsors pulling out, lack of any income, fair play rules limiting the playing squad, potential for relegation and this list only touches the surface as it could truly go on and on.
How when the administrator looked at these facts he came to the decision that SISU were the best thing for this club and this business in both the long and the short term is beyond me. Administration genuinely has to be immediately on the cards once we exit it in the next couple of weeks which is baffling to say the least.
I am yet to mention the football league and if I’m being honest I don’t know why I am bothering because they seem to bring nothing to this whole situation other than that we have found out that they don’t care about the football fans in this country which keep them in business.
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Our feelings and opinions have been ignored for long enough and it is time for Coventry fans to show our strength in numbers. What is happening to our club right now should not be allowed to happen and I fear we are heading now towards the Wimbledon situation of a few years ago. Wimbledon fans took the extreme option to make sure they had a club which was theirs and that they could be proud of. I commend them for this and honestly right now I would not be against that happening to us.
There does though remain the smallest glimmer of hope for the club as we know it with Preston Haskell being confirmed that he is yet to give up the fight for both the Ricoh and the club. Our club could yet be saved but I believe there is more chance of the club going under and I like many others have almost reached the point of giving up.
Andre Villas-Boas’ frustration is more than understandable. In his view, Fernando Torres got away with it, an altercation with Jan Vertonghen that the Tottenham manager feels should have been retrospectively punished.
But is that the primary source of Villas-Boas’ stinging condemnation over a lack of action? On some level, you have to feel that the frustration is in the FA’s incompetence, or perhaps its insistence to pick and choose when it wants to take action.
It once again boils down to governing bodies wishing to maintain the idea that their officials do have authority, no matter to what degree, over football matches. Or, obviously, the favoured line is that they don’t want to undermine referees and their decisions. In this case, Mike Dean had seen the ‘coming together’ between Torres and Vertonghen and had decided that the scratch, which was clear, had little in it and certainly not worthy of a card.
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But it’s nothing new. The FA’s lack of action isn’t central to the Torres incident. They insist that referees don’t need help – why else would they toe the line that retrospective action can undermine an already ‘good call?’ – and yet they fail to make referees’ jobs any easier. How about video technology for this sort of thing? How about another official behind the line? Another pair of eyes can do little harm when the first two (or three) may be restricted from certain angles.
You have to ask though, in the case of Torres, whether the FA were looking at the bigger picture and choosing not to open up an avenue of stress for themselves. It may be cynical, but in turn there may be some truth to it. Had Torres been playing for another team, say one that didn’t have so much power in the league, would we have seen action? Chelsea are not quite Manchester United under Alex Ferguson, but getting into a lengthy war of words with Jose Mourinho isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
And it stretches beyond domestic football. Only this week, UEFA have decided to extend Jurgen Klopp’s touchline ban by one extra game. The Borussia Dortmund manager has already missed a game, his side’s 3-0 win at home to Marseille, so here’s a question, why wait until now to dish out another ban? And what was it for? Klopp confronted the fourth official over an incident which left his team exposed at the back and allowed Napoli to score in week one.
Ok, intimidation, confrontation, but it’s not really anything we haven’t seen before. Again, Dortmund may be a big team, but they’re not one of the most powerful. Arsenal have been down this road a number of times with UEFA, and you do get a sense that they choose when to fight their battles based on the likelihood of victory. After all they wouldn’t want to undermine themselves by getting caught up in a battle that they had little chance of winning.
Though again this could all be very cynical and a case of wishing to see conspiracies that aren’t actually there.
Villas-Boas, though, could find himself in hot water following what could be interpreted as an attack on the FA and their decision-makers. There is a level of incompetence, but it’s also a failure to properly enforce the rules of the game.
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Will the FA’s lack of action open up more problems?
Being the sensationalist carnival the Premier League now is, Andre Villas-Boas was clearly quite surprised last week when he found himself the odds-on favourite to be the next top flight manager to get the sack.
The bookies were more convinced regarding the Tottenham gaffer’s fate as the Lilywhites’ clash with Manchester United approached than they were over Martin Jol’s, who is now without a job after his Fulham side lost 3-0 to a strikerless West Ham.
Perhaps their implicit indictment of Spurs’ efforts this season came a game too early – if the North Londoners had failed to impact against a lukewarm Manchester United outfit a week after losing 6-0 to Manchester City and in the fixture previous succumbing to defeat at home to Newcastle, suggestions that the Portuguese wasn’t quite up to the task would be more than understandable.
But even if Tottenham didn’t come away with a promising 2-2 display, making it four points they’ve taken from the Red Devils in their last three Premier League outings against them, and instead recorded their third domestic defeat in a row, that alone should not justify the annihilation of AVB’s White Hart Lane career.
In fact, I’m of the firm opinion that sacking the Tottenham gaffer would be a completely pointless enterprise for Daniel Levy, the kind of face-saving action that Roman Abramovich has found himself obsessed with over the last decade, often to his club’s detriment.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m by no means AVB’s biggest fan. He may claim certain journalists from the Daily Mail are out to get him, but there’s certainly some weight behind the argument that he’s found any excuse this season to deflect attentions from the fact his conservative 4-5-1 philosophy has spawned just 11 goals in 13 games and left Spurs in ninth place in the English table.
Did his monotonous voice not contain such arrogant undertones, perhaps the media hacks would be blaming Spurs’ slow start on the inconsistent displays of Tottenham’s summer arrivals, or the sheer fact Villas-Boas has the difficult task of blending seven first-team players into his squad, rather than hint at suggestions of the Portuguese’s inadequacies as a manager.
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But Tottenham are not simply a case of a club whose fortunes could turn around overnight with another coach in charge.
The fact that former Spurs owner Alan Sugar, one of AVB’s biggest critics, could only come up with Sir Alex Ferguson as an adequate replacement for the Portuguese in his recent interview with talkSPORT suggests firstly that high-quality managers with proven Premier League credentials aren’t in hot supply at the minute, and secondly that it would take a managerial genius to marshal the Lilywhites to the title contending levels wrongly assumed of them in the summer.
The Spurs ‘project’ is ongoing, a term AVB himself has often used to describe his efforts at White Hart Lane since being appointed by Levy in summer 2012.
And considering the wealth of finance and resources being poured into Villas-Boas’s Tottenham vision, it seems a rather absurd notion to sever its head, based on two poor results amid a season in which Tottenham have been accused of not meeting unfairly high standards.
Just this summer alone, Levy has allowed his manager to spend £110million on new recruits – albeit balanced out by £100million’s worth of summer departures – and hired a new technical director in Franco Baldini to administer the Portuguese’s transfer bidding.
Villas-Boas brought in seven new players, only one of them over the age of 25, Roberto Soldado, and none having plied their trade in the Premier League before, also welcoming back two loan signings in the form of Danny Rose and Andros Townsend and giving them their inaugural campaign as first team regulars at White Hart Lane.
So it should be no surprise that these nine players have struggled to blend going forward, while Tottenham’s relatively unchanged backline has remained as efficient as it was last season.
Wind back another 12 months from the summer, and we have even more examples of the Tottenham chairman putting his full faith in the former Chelsea boss, first giving him a job in favour of the incredibly established Harry Redknapp, who had recorded two top four finishes in four campaigns at White Hart Lane, and then providing him with £61million’s worth of new talent, including the likes of Moussa Dembele, Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen.
The faith comes with the expectation that AVB will take Spurs to the dizzy heights Harry Redknapp never could – effectively making their relationship with the top four a permanent one rather than a more ‘booty-call’ basis – and admittedly, the former Porto head coach hasn’t achieved that just yet.
He did, however, oversee the Lilywhites’ biggest points haul of the Premier League era last season, and is now struggling with the inevitably troublesome task of maintaining the high standard without the talismanic influence of Gareth Bale, something any manager at White Hart Lane would have undoubtedly struggled with.
But as previously stated, the project to make Tottenham major players in the Premier League title race is ongoing, and there won’t be a simple solution to rectify their fortunes overnight.
With around £170million already poured into it, arguably the most established English manager tossed by the wayside, the hiring of a new technical director and now just 18 months left on AVB’s current White Hart Lane deal, it seems absurd for Daniel Levy to pull the plug now when we’re yet to witness anything near the project’s final product – at the moment, Tottenham’s first team are undoubtedly still in the blueprint stage.
If we were another six months down the line and you could understand Levy cutting his manager’s tenure short 12 months early, providing Spurs were still floundering in mid-table. But right now, Tottenham have a roster bursting with potential, so it’s just a matter of time before they start producing.
The same can be said for Villas-Boas as a manager. Being the youngest head coach to ever win the Europa League, scope for an incredibly illustrious managerial career is obvious, even if he’s still yet to fully meet that expectation in England.
The shock doctrine strategy of firing AVB for poor performance and appointing a replacement won’t bring about results any quicker, in fact, it’s equally as likely to take the club further backwards, especially if that hypothetical replacement commanded the right to bring in his own selection of players.
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Over the last year, we’ve seen a flurry of managerial changes in the top flight. But are Manchester City currently any better off with Manuel Pellegrini? They’re still yet to meet the standards expected of such an illustrious cast. Are Stoke reaching new heights without Tony Pulis at the helm? They’re arguably in greater danger of going down with Mark Hughes in charge. Have Sunderland done anything more than prolong the inevitable by sacking Martin O’Neill in favour of Paolo Di Canio, and now Gus Poyet?
Meanwhile, Newcastle and Arsenal, who don the second and first longest-serving head coaches in the Premier League respectively, have stuck to their managerial guns despite overwhelming calls for change last term, and are now firmly surpassing expectations this season.
These are the examples Daniel Levy should adhere to. To put it bluntly, he’s gone all in for AVB. The changes in personnel have been costly, wholesale and drastic, and the hiring of the Portuguese came at the cost of arguably the most successful manager in Tottenham’s Premier League history. So what’s the benefit of putting all your money in the pot if you’re going to fold before the final flop?
Let’s at least give Villas-Boas the right to see out his vision, or at least reach something near it’s ultimate, before suggesting Tottenham need to go back to the drawing board. By this time next season, with their illustrious cast of highly-rated continental talents finally settled in the English game, it could be the Lilywhites turn to start earning all the plaudits for effectively challenging the Premier League’s established order. By that time, AVB could look like the genius that made it all happen.
When Mark Hughes was named as the new Stoke City manager in the summer, there was a mixture of opinions among Potters fans that had been so used to the physical style of play under Tony Pulis.
A section of the support were worried about what Hughes could bring to the club following unsuccessful stints at Manchester City and QPR, while others appeared excited about the change of approach he would bring to the side after so many years of being labeled a team that only plays one style.
And Hughes appears to have done just that as we’ve seen a completely different Stoke City already this season, playing fluid, passing football and actually offering some enjoyable football to watch at times. This has been obvious in both the league and this season’s Capital One Cup – which he will have marked as the chance of some silverware for his resurgent Potters side.
And Stoke’s development under Hughes’ was evident in their narrow 3-2 Premier League defeat to Manchester United in October when they twice threw away the lead at Old Trafford. It was such a performance that it proved that Stoke are taking big strides towards shaking off their reputation as a long ball team and are ready to start competing with a more attractive style of football in the Premier League.
Now they welcome United to the Britannia Stadium in Round 5 of the Capital One Cup not only looking to avenge that defeat at Old Trafford but also to record their first win over the Red Devils since a League Cup meeting in 1993.
And a victory isn’t completely out of the question for the Potters when you consider Manchester United’s start to the season under new boss David Moyes. They may have notched their football up a gear in recent weeks, but some of their results highlight a number of weaknesses that Hughes and Stoke will be keen to exploit.
It is in the midfield, for example, that United have lacked any real bite since the beginning of the season. Even the arrival of Marouane Fellaini from Everton hasn’t given Moyes’ side much to shout about in the middle of the park. They have improved in that area of the pitch in recent weeks, although Stoke’s tall and battling engine room arguably had the upper hand at Old Trafford and will be important to their chances of victory.
The likes of Steven N’Zonzi and Marco Arnoutivic enjoyed lots of time on the ball and freedom to be creative in their last meeting and, with Stoke being at home this time, we can expect more of the same.
That said, with United improving with every game they play at the moment, the Potters will certainly need to be at the very top of their game to book their place in the semi-finals. The pressure to win a trophy in his first season at Old Trafford will be weighing down on Moyes’ shoulders and, if Hughes can motivate his players to frustrate United, close down quickly and attack with pace then he may just be able defuse the Red Devils.
Of course, with Wayne Rooney enjoying his football at United again, he’s going to be Stoke’s biggest worry at the back, but just as long as they continue to follow Hughes’ style of play and keep up their good performances, they could have every chance of an upset at the Britannia.
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Tottenham fans have always taken some comfort in the way their sides have played down the years. Spurs may carry the unenviable tag of Premier League underachievers, but their ability to entertain has rarely gone unnoticed.
It may seem perverse, but Spurs fans do have some notion of glory in defeat, going down with a fight and playing football the right way. This was the problem with AVB; a man that may well have the best win percentage of any Spurs manager, but someone that saw grinding out a result of higher importance than style. Spurs see themselves as the footballing connoisseurs; easy on the eye with a hungering for footballing adventure. But today’s offering is at odds with the great Spurs sides of years gone by, the life has been sucked out of it by apparent over-analysis and tactics.
Sherwood’s rise to Head Coach was supposed to change all this; a return to the expressive freedom enjoyed under Redknapp. But really has anything actually changed?
I think a lot of people have been blinded by the move back to 4-4-2 with some underlying assumption that this makes a side play with more attacking intent, it’s actually complete rubbish. The footballing exile of Adebayor was a travesty and his return huge for Spurs, but in terms of systems and the way Spurs are playing I don’t really see any huge improvement.
Against City last week there was some semblance of a backbone there, 5-1 may seem like a steam-rollering but after the red card Spurs did show a degree of fight, but even so the manner of the capitulation and defeat is clearly something that should worry Spurs fans.
Based on the other fixtures though I’d actually have to say Spurs have played worse. The Hull game was an interesting case in point, with Spurs managing to get only three shots on target with a pass completion of just 64% compared to a season average of 83%. In recent weeks Spurs have been picking up points, but rarely have they been convincing. In fact I’d say the only improvement on the AVB offering was maybe a 20-minute spell away to Swansea.
So have Spurs really got their swagger back?
Sherwood is certainly trying his best to up the attacking ante, giving players like Lennon and Eriksen a freedom to roam and create. This sounds all well and good in principle, but the reality is more just a chaotic mess of individual mediocrity. Lennon typifies this; a man that now just seems to run around enthusiastically, but totally out of tune with the rest of his teammates. Sherwood has eradicated the team structure at Spurs in a hope of creating a highly fluid and dynamic set up, but the reality is that he has created a state of footballing chaos.
Spurs have been fortunate to only really play the teams below them, meaning that Sherwood’s new methods have remained largely untested. Decisions aside, the City game was a harsh footballing lesson. Sherwood’s attitude was one of careless naivety, allowing City to press the life out of the Spurs midfield and have almost complete control of the game throughout. Spurs didn’t even lay a finger on City, and the suggestion that they are simply too good is laughable. Both Liverpool and Everton came away from their respective clashes with at least some degree of respect, yet Spurs left the game embarrassed.
Tottenham’s new found attacking intent is becoming a bit of fallacy. Spurs are scoring more than they did under AVB but that isn’t really an achievement, and they are still far from the heights that the club should be aspiring towards.
Spurs may well put a few sides to the sword in the coming months, but this is as much to do with personnel than anything else. When it comes down to the big head-to-head matches I still fear that Spurs will find themselves lacking. Sherwood’s simplistic view of football is at odds with his close rivals and when the game becomes more about tactics than simply motivation and mindset I think Spurs will be left behind once more.
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This season’s Premier League title race has been described as the most exciting, an exhilarating ride in which the outcome, even at this stage, is difficult to tell. If that’s the case, if this truly is the best title race in Premier League history, then what’s going on in Spain is absolutely glorious.
On Sunday morning, Real Madrid woke up as La Liga leaders. By Thursday, after two defeats, they were third. Sunday’s third place team, Atletico Madrid, are now top of the pile.
Do greater numbers always equate to a more thrilling spectacle? Isn’t the Premier League title race shaped roughly in the way most would have expected prior to the season starting? Arsenal knocked out of the race and now battling for fourth; Chelsea very much back in the thick of things for the first time since Carlo Ancelotti’s time in west London thanks to the return of Jose Mourinho; and Manchester City’s quality in depth sure to take advantage of the two games in hand they currently have. The only thing surprising is Manchester United’s absence, which goes hand-in-hand with Liverpool’s involvement.
Sure, this one could go right down to the wire; it probably will. But we’ve seen it before. What we haven’t seen is a Spanish title race that can sell itself on the same premise. The final game of Atletico Madrid’s league season sees them travel to Barcelona.
It may be a hard slug to try and find parallels to those who are considered the outsiders in each of these leagues: Atletico and Arsenal. Arsene Wenger’s side don’t have the grit and steel of Diego Simeone’s team. Wenger has the larger quantity of playmakers and individuals capable of moments of brilliance. Simeone has a group who work as a unit and who have been moulded to take their chances when they come and hold firm for ninety minutes.
There is desperation in Arsenal’s need for a trophy. We’re led to understand that Wenger’s future will be decided upon the outcome of the FA Cup. For Atletico, it would be a tremendous shame if they failed to add another piece of silverware to Simeone’s three already won with the club.
But despite being league leaders, possessing one of the most in-form strikers in Europe and showing the ability to get results against some of the biggest names in football – wins against Real Madrid, AC Milan, and unbeaten in three against Barcelona this season – Atletico are very much the underdogs in this title race.
Their first XI is excellent; their backups, not so much, shown by Simeone’s reluctance to rotate. The manager was said to have broken up this season into two, separated by the winter break. From January onwards, it was a new season. He wanted his best XI to go out and win the 19-game season.
The thing is Simeone’s XI will only go so far. It may be an odd thing to say that Atletico have a better chance of winning the Champions League than they do La Liga, but they’re a team set up for the big occasion. At their best, they’re capable of beating anyone. Over the remaining stretch of league games, you feel they’ll be found out by the other two sides, especially Barcelona, who hold much stronger squads.
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Arsenal, similarly, for a long period of this season looking to finally break the drought with the league title, have a far better chance of silverware in the cup competition. Yes it helps that Wigan, Sheffield United and Hull don’t pose the kind of threat found in European competition or at the top of the Premier League, but it’s more to say that both clubs, who either have or are promising so much in a title race, can still find much success elsewhere.
Their limitations over the course of a 38-game season are clear. Neither have the resources to maintain the level of excellence needed to combat clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona, and Real Madrid. Both have had considerable setbacks, though Arsenal’s, obviously, have been amplified due to the occasion.
Games against Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Barcelona as the last game of the season could see Atletico with nothing to show for their involvement in this season’s La Liga title race. Like Arsenal, though, who have a fantastic chance of possibly ending Wenger’s tenure with the club in the FA Cup, Atletico’s season can be defined by what they do away from league play. Dark horses? Without doubt. Atletico have as good a chance as any of the remaining teams of lifting the European Cup in May.