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Goals from Morgan Schneiderlin, Jack Cork and Graziano Pelle ensured Southampton claimed their first home win of the new season with a convincing 4-0 victory over Newcastle at St. Mary’s on Saturday.

Ronald Koeman made a couple of starting changes to his side that beat West Ham last week – seeing him choose new signing Toby Aldeweireld in favour of Maya Yoshida and Jack Cork ahead of James Ward Prowse in central midfield.

Alan Pardew’s side, which managed a 3-3 draw against Crystal Palace last weekend, saw Jack Colback returning to full fitness after picking up a calf injury in training that ruled him out of the England vs Switzerland encounter.

Saints set off with high energy and nearly found the net after twenty seconds with a chase down by Shane Long from a back pass by Coloccini – Krul slammed the ball...

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A second half goal from Yaya Toure ensured Manchester City moved back to within three points of the top of the Premier League with a battling defeat over a determined Stoke side.

City hadn’t scored in three of their last four games prior, and for long stages it looked as though they would again be frustrated until Toure prodded in from close range on 70 minutes.

Edin Dzeko then missed a glorious chance to make it two, but it didn’t matter as the home side picked up the points they needed to stay in touch with the top three.

City started the game slowly, and were limited to very few clear-cut opportunities by a determined and well drilled Stoke defence in the opening half.

Fernandinho had the best chance for City, his shot from the edge of the penalty area being palmed over...

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Jack Colback’s deflected effort at the death rescued an unlikely point for basement club Sunderland at managerless Cardiff City. Goals from Fraizer Campbell and Jordon Mutch looked to have won a relegation six-pointer for the hosts. Steven Fletcher came off the bench to score the first of two late strikes for the Black Cats, however.

Referee Chris Foy booked Mutch in the first minute for a dive in the area when Sunderland centre back Valentin Roberge pulled out of a tackle. Mutch then headed over from Craig Noone’s centre as Cardiff started strongly.

With five minutes played the hosts went ahead. Campbell set Mutch away and his 20-yard shot deflected past Vito Mannone off Modibo Diakite. The Black Cats keeper then had to claw over from Korean midfielder Kim.

Mannone was almost caught out on 25 minutes when Peter Whittingham curled a free kick to the near post.

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A 13 second goal from Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was the main talking point of a tough midfield battle at the Britannia Stadium – in a game where the conditions did not help either side. Saints forward Jay Rodriguez headed home the equaliser just before half-time in a game that will only be remembered for its opening.

The match started in the most bizarre set of circumstances. The ball found its way to Begovic who was forced to clear first-time under pressure from Lambert – and with the windy conditions at The Britannia – Artur Boruc who has been in fine form this season, found the ball floating over his head to the Pole’s dismay. With a goal time of 13 seconds, it was the 7th fastest goal in Premier League history (and of them, likely the most infamous), and made Begovic Stoke’s joint top scorer this season so far.

French flags, berets and baguettes were all part of the event that was “French Day” at St James’ Park and fittingly goals from two of their French contingent helped Newcastle United to a 4-2 win over fellow strugglers Southampton.

Things couldn’t have got off to a much worse half for the Toon Army though as they fell behind to an early goal. Poor defending allowed the ball to come in to Schneiderlin in the box, who struck low past Premier League debutant Rob Elliot in the Newcastle goal.

Newcastle were soon on the front foot though and pushing for an equaliser, with Sissoko’s powerful low shot from the edge of the area being forced round the post by Boruc on 15 minutes. Newcastle’s best chance probably fell to Cisse a few minutes later when a weak effort from Gouffran fell to him about 7 yards out but he couldn...

Last night we witnessed what was perhaps one of the craziest red cards in top flight football.

With Chelsea travelling to the Liberty Stadium for their second leg of the Capital One Cup against Swansea, the Blues were hoping to overturn the 2-0 deficit to reach the final at Wembley in February.

The match itself was a fairly tepid, low key affair of very few incidents, and with the match entering its final 10 minutes with the two teams deadlocked at 0-0, it seemed as though the tie would reach its boring conclusion.

Instead, what happened was quite spectacular, a flash point in an otherwise underwhelming affair.

Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard went to collect the ball after it had spilled out of play, and appeared to clash with the ball boy, who then fell to his stomach, smothering the ball with his entire body.

With precious moments ebbing away, the frustrated...

Last night, fans tuned in to Chelsea’s trip to the Liberty Stadium to take on Swansea in the semi-final of the Capital One Cup. They were hoping to see if the home side could complete an unlikely win over the European Champions by emulating League Two side Bradford in dramatically reaching the final of the competition on February 24th.

Instead, what they got was a fairly unspectacular 0-0 draw of which the main talking point was an off the field incident involving a ball boy.

With the game running into its final 10 minutes and the home side clinging on to their 2-0 aggregate lead, the ball trickled out of play which seemed as though the Swansea ball boy would merely collect and return to the goalkeeper.

Instead, the teenager, who has since been revealed as Charlie Morgan, fell on top of the ball after Hazard ran to pick it up for a speedier redistribution.

Match Info Date: Saturday, 29th December Venue: Emirates Stadium, London, England Kick Off: 5:30 p.m. Referee: Chris Foy Likely Line-Ups

Arsenal: Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs; Arteta, Wilshere; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski; Walcott.

Newcastle: Krul; Simpson, Perch, Coloccini, Santon; Obertan, Marveaux, Bigirimana, Tiote; Cissé, Ba.

Team News

Arsenal are without full-back Santos thanks to a stomach muscle problem, while Diaby (thigh) and Fabianski (foot) are also set to miss the game.

Newcastle meanwhile are without Hatem Ben Arfa and Steven Taylor (both hamstring), Yohan Cabaye (groin), Dan Gosling, Jonas Gutiérrez, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic (all knee), and Vernon Anita (ankle) thanks to injury, while Mike Williamson is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Man Utd.

Match Preview

Newcastle will hope to put the drama of the past few days behind them, as well as the last minute defeat at Manchester United with a victory down at the Emirates,...

European Champions Chelsea welcome Stoke City this afternoon for the Premier League’s most intriguing match this afternoon. Kick-off time is at 3pm and the encounter won’t be screened live on UK television.

Chelsea start the game at the top of the Premier League with three wins and one draw whilst Stoke start in 12th position having drawn all four of their games. The Blues will be without Daniel Sturridge with a hamstring problem, which will no doubt result in Fernando Torres starting as a lone striker although with Wednesday night’s goal-scoring debuting sensation Oscar a possible option depending on his injured ankle.

Marko Marin is reportedly edging closer to making his own debut after being kept on the sidelines all season so far with a hamstring problem.

The visitors travel to London without suspended defender Andy Wilkinson. Also sidelined through injury is midfielder Jamie Ness (groin). With Wilkinson sidelined,...

For the home team, 2011/12 has been a season of fluctuation, with some excellent performances, including the December win at St James Park sporadically dotted between less impressive runs of form , which have seen Roy Hodgson’s men take up 14th position in the league. But the Baggies’ last five games have seen just one defeat, and they can realistically hope for a repeat of last year’s top half finish if they can continue that rich run of form into the final games of the season. They certainly play some good football, even when they are beaten, and it is no coincidence that Hodgson’s name is once more being linked with the England manager’s position.

Newcastle meanwhile have loftier ambitions at the minute, with Chelsea ahead of them in fifth place now just three points away, and a cushion of five points remaining between them and seventh placed Liverpool,...

Newcastle United secured a narrow 1-0 win over a hapless Queen’s Park Rangers, courtesy of a Leon Best goal. A far from entertaining game – and though Mark Hughes’ first game brought him no points, with Tony Fernandes’ millions behind him it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing such a toothless display from the Hoops in future games.

Newcastle United welcomed Queen’s Park Rangers to the ‘Sports Direct Arena’ or St. James’ Park to everyone apart from Mike Ashley; in the hope of proving they are not a one man team. However, it’s not just top scorer Demba Ba who has departed for England’s least favourite international tournament – the African Cup of Nations, but also the indefatigable presence of Cheick Tiote who was incidentally sent off in the Ivory Coast’s last friendly with Tunisia.

The Magpies are not the only ones with players departing to the...

Will the New Manager Effect work for Qpr up at St James Park this Sunday lunch-time? Tony Fernandes had a mighty difficult decision to make when the results failed to improve under Neil Warnock, but in Mark Hughes, the entrepreneur has picked up an excellent replacement who knows the league and who knows how to get a response out of his team.

Unfortunately for Newcastle, Hughes also knows how to beat the Magpies, with an enviable record both home and away in his last games against the North Easterners. But can Hughes steer his new team to points without key squad members Joey Barton and Adel Taarabt?

What Hughes brings to his teams is a competitive spirit and fitness: Rangers players have already found training under the Welshman a significantly more taxing affair than under predecessor Neil Warnock, and their manager will hope that the change will have an immediate effect.

Two first-half goals from Matthew Etherington against his former club saw Stoke grab all three points by beating in-form Tottenham 2-1 at the Britannia stadium.

A second-half Emmanuel Adebayor penalty that looked to be a way back into the match for Tottenham turned out to be nothing more than a consolation as Stoke produced yet another excellent defensive display.

Stoke started the match extremely brightly and were the better team in the opening exchanges. Brad Friedel was called into action early on, saving brilliantly down low to stop Etherington’s powerful strike.

And it was Etherington who gave Stoke the lead after 13 minutes when some persistent work in the box from Peter Crouch allowed him to tap into an open goal. A number of Stoke’s early chances came as a result of long throws and the opening goal was no different. With Rory Delap on the bench it was...

Yakubu gave a goalscoring masterclass on Saturday after the Nigerian scored all four goals for Blackburn, in a very important victory for Blackburn and Steve Kean, much to the misfortune of Swansea City.

This was one of the first of four “cup final” matches for Steve Kean, who is still far from convincing the Rovers faithful after yet another protest against the Scotsman by sporting t-shirts emblazoned with “100% Rovers 0% Kean Venky’s”. However the players seem to be fully behind Kean, a sentiment which was demonstrated by the four goal hero Yakubu by going straight to his manager whilst celebrating the first goal of the afternoon.

The power and presence of “The Yak” was simply too much for the Swansea backline after a hatrick of goals originating from set piece scenarios and a stunning strike within the first 20 minutes to start proceedings.

After an edgy start to the game where...

Championship mid-table side Crystal Palace have put out Premier League Champions Manchester United of the League Cup in a pulsating game at Old Trafford. Palace beat United 2-1 after Extra Time with a marvellous, heroic performance against a poor, predictable United team.

It was a lively first half that did not yield too many chances, but plenty of talking points. Palace started off arguably the better side, influenced heavily by the lightening runs and trickery of prospect Wilfried Zaha. Their enthusiasm took United’s weakened side by surprise, and it had to be Zaha who had the first chance of the game, breaking into the box but firinh the ball high over the bar.

Berbatov carved open Palace’s defence to create United’s first chance. Intricate passing outside the box saw the ball looped in by Darren Gibson for Berbatov, his half-volley trickling slowly wide. United struggled to create...

Queens Park Rangers versus Chelsea

23 October 2011

Loftus Road

Attendance: 18,050

A west London derby. The underdogs taking all three points. Qpr now move up to 10th spot after their win over Andre Villa-Boas’s Chelsea, who remain third on goal difference.

A poor first five-ten minutes was soon ended as Warnock’s men were awarded a penalty on the 10th minute mark. Brazillian centre-back David Luiz was deemed to have pushed over Helguson in the penalty box and Chris Foy pointed to the spot.

There was confusion as to who was going to take the penalty for Rangers but Helguson decided to step up in the end and he scored, even though Petr Cech got a hand to the forward’s shot.

Boswinga was then shown the red card just before the half-an-hour mark. The Portuguese full-back fouled Shaun Wright-Phillips outside the box but was last man, therefore was sent off.