Manchester United as we know it is dead and this is the new era at Old Trafford

Foreign owners, foreign coach and foreign players... Manchester United as we know it is dead and this is the new era at Old Trafford

MARTIN SAMUEL: A British manager affording opportunity to young British players. It was what set Manchester United apart. Not any more. Sunday, September 14, 2014, is the first day of the new Manchester United. Against Queens Park Rangers at Old Trafford, a foreign coach will preside over a starting XI of mostly foreign, expensively-acquired, players. Neville was adamant, defiant, that Manchester United should resist the appeal of a foreign coach. In his eyes this meant giving Moyes more time but it was plain that, even if a change had to be made, Neville felt the successor must hail from within these shores.

Sumber dailymail

Did Van Gaal get it wrong....

Did Van Gaal get it wrong selling Welbeck? Arsenal's £16m man delivers for England as part of exciting new-look front three

NEIL ASHTON: Louis van Gaal's decision to sell Danny Welbeck for £16m is one of the most controversial transfers in Manchester United history. On Monday night, after he scored twice in an England shirt in his first start since a deadline day transfer to Arsenal, it felt like one of the biggest mistakes they have ever made. One goal, against Switzerland in this Euro 2016 qualifier, was embarrassing enough for van Gaal. Two feels like humiliation.

Euro 2016 - Welbeck fires England to winning start against Switzerland

Sumber : eurosport


SWITZERLAND 0-2 ENGLAND
Roy Hodgson got the win, the performance, and the breathing space he will need, if England are to put the trauma of the World Cup behind them. After a week that threatened to turn drama into crisis, England delivered in what many believe will be the toughest match of their European Championship qualifying campaign.

Euro 2016 qualifier, Basel: Switzerland 0, England 2 (Welbeck 58, 90+4)

KEY MOMENTS

PRE-MATCH: So two changes in personnel for England - Danny Welbeck replaces the injured Daniel Sturridge, while Fabian Delph comes in for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. More pertinently the teams would suggest a change in formation from Roy Hodgson, with Raheem Sterling presumably playing at the point of a midfield diamond, with Delph, Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere supporting him. That's a pretty dynamic midfield, and a pretty bold team selection as well - one assumes Hodgson won't be asking them merely to defend.

15 mins: CHANCE - England are gifted a chance by an errant pass by Von Bergen, and they briefly have a four on three with Sterling running at goal. However, Sterling chooses to pass left to Rooney when Welbeck was a better option to the right. Rooney controls and takes a shot, but it's too weak and too near Sommer, who saves with relative ease.

42 mins: CHANCE - England go close again. Delph and Baines fashion some room out on the left and feed Rooney, who cuts inside and swipes a shot towards goal, which Sommer rather unconvincingly shovels away for a corner.

43 mins: CHANCE - That was a much better stop from Sommer: Jones is left unmarked from the corner and powerfully heads towards goal, but Sommer gets down quickly to his left and pushes the ball away. If you were being hyper-critical then you could say with the time and space Jones had he should've given the keeper no chance, but that was excellent goalkeeping.

58 mins: GOAL! WELBECK OPENS THE SCORING! And finally it pays off. England counter impressively down the left, Rooney feeds Sterling as the defence opens up, the Liverpool man plays an excellent first-time pass across to Welbeck who tucks it (perhaps off a shin) into the corner of the net.

70 mins: CHANCE - Huge chance for Switzerland, as Drmic is set through on goal, despite looking slightly offside. He goes round Hart and tries to slot it home, but Cahill is there to block the effort. The Swiss claim handball, and while it did strike Cahill's arm as he slid, that would have been a very harsh penalty.

90 mins+4: GOAL! WELBECK SEALS IT! That's that, as England counter and Sterling feeds Lambert, who likewise passes on to Welbeck, who takes his time and slots the ball into the far corner with a cool, cool finish.

KEY STATS

England had just three shots on target throughout the game, and two of them went in.

Switzerland actually had more of the ball, enjoying 56% possession as opposed to England's 44%

MAN OF THE MATCH

Raheem Sterling - England: He really is a special talent, this lad. The Liverpool forward was played in a central role at the tip of a midfield diamond, as he does for Liverpool, and he excelled for Hodgson just as he has for Brendan Rodgers. If he continues like that then Liverpool might not miss Luis Suarez that much - and England could have their next star.

PLAYER RATINGS

SWITZERLAND: Sommer 5, Lichtsteiner 6, Von Bergen 5, Rodriguez 6, Djourou 5, Inler 7, Xhaka 6, Behrami 6, Shaqiri 6, Seferovic 6, Mehmedi 5. Subs: Dzemaili 5, Drmic 6.

ENGLAND: Hart 7, Stones 5, Cahill 7, Jones 7, Baines 6, Delph 6, Henderson 7, Wilshere 7, Sterling 8, Rooney 7, Welbeck 8. Subs: Jagielka 6, Milner 6, Lambert 6.

Spain 5-1 Macedonia

Who needs Costa ? Silva shines for Del Bosque's new-look side

• Spain started with eight players from the Euro 2012 campaign - Vincente Del Bosque didn't make too many changes 
• Sergio Ramos scored opener for Spain with a cheeky paneka chipped penalty after David Silva was brought down
• Paco Alcacer doubled the lead after Juanfran beat the goalkeeper to a chipped cross that went across the area
• Juanfran then gave away a penalty allowing Agim Ibraimi to halve the deficit from the spot past Iker Casillas
• Silva's low strike across the goalkeeper made it 4-1 to Spain as they showed their style in this big win
• Pedro chipped in with the fifth after Silva's pass to make it an even more resounding win in stoppage time
• Silva now has more goals than any other non-striker for Spain apart from Fernando Hierro 

Sumber : DailyMail on Facebook

Switzerland 0-2 England

Super Striker Welbeck gives Three Lions perfect start to qualifing...it looks like Wenger's got himself a snip

CHIEF SPORTS WRITER MARTIN SAMUEL AT ST JAKOB-PARK: And that's more like it. Roy Hodgson got the win, the performance, and the breathing pace he will need, if England are to put the trauma of the World Cup behind them. After a week that threatened to turn drama into crisis, England delivered in what many believe will be the toughest match of their European Championship qualifying campaign. Given the generosity of UEFA's process, if it wasn't a statement of the utmost complacency, it would be possible to suggest that with Danny Welbeck's double, England as good as made it to France.

Sumber : dailymail

Kedah, Selangor, Terengganu iringi PDRM ke suku akhir (utusan)

Pemain Kedah, Billy Mehmet (tengah) membuat percubaan ke arah gol namun bola berjaya ditangkap oleh penjaga gol Perak, Hairol Fazreen (jersi hijau) dalam perlawanan peringkat Kumpulan B di Stadium Darul Aman, Alor Setar malam tadi. Kedah menang 2-0. - BERNAMA

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KUALA LUMPUR - Kedah dan Selangor berjaya melayakkan diri ke suku akhir Piala Malaysia pada hari yang menyaksikan lima pasukan merebut peluang pada hari terakhir persaingan peringkat kumpulan malam tadi.

Selain dua bekas juara itu, Perak, Terengganu dan Sime Darby turut bersaing dengan syarat mereka perlu menang ke atas lawan masing-masing.

Namun pada akhirnya Kedah, yang sebelum perlawanan menghuni tempat ketiga Kumpulan B mengecewakan pendahulu Perak apabila mengatasi Bos Gaurus 2-0 di Stadium Darul Aman, Alor Setar.

Gol-gol skuad Helang Merah diperoleh menerusi Billy Mehmet pada minit ke-74 dan Baddrol Bakhtiar pada minit ke-77 sekali gus menjuarai Kumpulan B, setelah satu lagi pasukan pencabar Terengganu seri dengan Sarawak.

Keputusan itu bermakna Kedah akan menentang naib juara Kumpulan C, Kelantan di suku akhir Oktober nanti.

Terengganu terpaksa berhempas-pulas di Stadium Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, Kuala Terengganu tetapi keputusan seri tanpa jaringan dengan Sarawak memadai buat mereka untuk ke suku akhir.

Menguasai sebahagian besar aksi pada babak pertama, tuan rumah bagaimanapun dihampakan oleh kegagalan rangkaian penggempur mereka iaitu Norfarhan Mohamad, Abdul Manaf Mamat dan Ashaari Shamsudin menyempurnakan deretan peluang terhidang di depan pintu gol pelawat.

Pada Oktober nanti, ujian getir menanti skuad Penyu kerana bakal berdepan dengan juara Liga Super, Johor Darul Ta'zim pada suku akhir.

Sementara itu di Stadium Shah Alam, jaringan tunggal Paulo Rangel pada minit ke-25 sudah cukup buat juara 32 kali, Selangor untuk mengiringi PDRM dari Kumpulan D ke suku akhir dengan kemenangan 1-0 ke atas T-Team.

Dengan status naib juara Kumpulan D, Red Giants bakal berdepan Felda United pada saingan suku akhir sementara PDRM akan menentang juara bertahan Pahang.

Di Stadium Tuanku Abdul Rahman, PDRM yang telah layak ke suku akhir untuk bertemu Pahang hanya menghadapi sedikit kejutan tetapi akhirnya menjinakkan Sime Darby semalam apabila berjaya membenam mereka 3-1.

Walaupun ketinggalan 1-0 selepas Mateo Roskam menyempurnakan sepakan penalti pada minit ketujuh namun anak-anak buah Azman Adnan enggan menyerah kalah dan Asfaq Ali memulakan kebangkitan mereka menerusi gol penyamaan pada minit ke-21 diikuti jaringan Chad Charles Sauza (minit 81) dan Bobby Gonzales (minit 89).

Are Arsenal/Wenger really competing with Chelsea & Man City?

Sumber : goaldotcom
COMMENT
By Greg Stobart


Arsenal scrambled through a £16m deal for Danny Welbeck at the end of the transfer window but a lack of ambition and strategy has been exposed

Arsene Wenger will be thanking Arsenal officials today for giving him a get out of jail free card with the late deadline day move to sign Danny Welbeck from Manchester United.

But while Welbeck could prove a decent signing for the Gunners, their mad dash on the final day of the transfer window has once again exposed a distinct lack of strategy at the Emirates Stadium.
A month ago, it felt like Arsenal were in a position to finally launch a genuine, sustained title challenge.
Now it is business as usual. Does the club’s ambition stretch further than ensuring they finish in the top four and clinch a lucrative place in next season’s Champions League for the 18th campaign in a row? Their dithering and unwillingness to spend heavily makes it hard to argue otherwise. 
The word from within the club was that executives were getting frustrated with Wenger's indecision, but the Frenchman is an accountant's dream, treating Arsenal's money - and they have a lot of it - as if it's his own.

Wenger signed a new contract at the end of the season believing a first title since 2004 was within reach after the FA Cup triumph in May - but three games and a bungled transfer window into the campaign it already looks like same old Arsenal.



They don’t have the squad quality or depth to compete with Chelsea or Manchester City for the title over 38 games and it feels a terrible missed opportunity because they are so close.

The statement signing of Alexis Sanchez needed to be backed up and the Gunners couldn’t do it.

Wenger is left with six defenders in his squad to cover four positions and is an injury or two away from disaster. Calum Chambers, a 19-year-old, finds himself covering as both Arsenal’s third centre-back and backup right-back. That the Gunners allowed their former captain, Thomas Vermaelen, to leave in the second week of August and fail to sign a replacement represents a staggering oversight on the manager's part at best, a dereliction of his duties at worst.

Just as worrying is Wenger’s failure to sign a defensive midfielder yet again. The likes of William Carvalho, Morgan Schneiderlin, Sami Khedira were all linked and would have infinitely improved the team, especially against top four rivals.

Mikel Arteta isn’t strong enough to protect the defence in the big games and Arsenal needed someone with more physical presence and athleticism in that position. It's almost as is Wenger believes that position in the modern game is redundant but a quick glance at the impact Nemanja Matic and Fernandinho have had at Chelsea and Manchester City respectively would provide the Frenchman with some sobering evidence to the contrary. 

And until the chance to sign Welbeck crept up at the last minute, Arsenal were staring at the prospect of playing with Yaya Sanogo as their only fit recognised centre-forward until January.

Wenger, though, seemed happy enough to swan off to Rome on deadline day to take part in a charity event rather than stay in London and rectify problems of his own making. Maybe he has already given up on competing with Chelsea and City this season.

It is an issue that should have been addressed long before the ankle injury suffered by Olivier Giroud that spun the club into a panic.

Loic Remy was desperate to sign for Arsenal and available all summer for just £8.5 million, but the club ended up splashing out £16m on Welbeck on the final day of the window. That is the same price for which Liverpool signed Mario Balotelli, a far more proven and clinical forward.

Welbeck is a solid if unspectacular player, but at least Arsenal signed someone to lead the line. The 23-year-old is fast, hard-working and tidy on the ball, and United fans will miss him.

His goal record is also very similar to Giroud’s. While the Frenchman has scored 28 goals in 60 Premier League appearances compared to 26 goals in 74 matches for Welbeck.

But if Arsenal fancy themselves as title contenders, shouldn’t they have been in for Balotelli? Or shouldn’t it have been they, not United, clinching a sensational deal for Radamel Falcao?

Their weakness in the final third was highlighted in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Leicester and Arsenal have failed to convince in any of their first three Premier League games of the campaign.

It feels like such a missed opportunity. Despite Welbeck’s arrival, Arsenal unarguably have weaker centre-forward options than their main rivals and it is the position where the contrast between good and great will be most exposed.

How the likes of Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere would like to be feeding a world class talent in the mould of Falcao, Sergio Aguero or Diego Costa.

That has to be the next step for Arsenal - but it will come too late to make them title challengers this season.