Futbol: Últimas noticias de Hoy

Arsenal was established as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich in 1886. Dial Square didn’t last long as a name, and the Arsenal bit was introduced as the club was renamed Royal Arsenal and subsequently Woolwich Arsenal in 1891 as it turned professional. Being the only southern club in the league at the time, Arsenal was geographically challenged and therefore attendances weren’t healthy. Bankruptcy beckoned but for the club’s takeover in 1910 by Henry Norris. He reasoned that he needed to move the club from its south London roots and in 1913 managed to do so as the club moved into the Highbury Stadium in north London. The club was by now a second division outfit when WWI intervened and it wasn’t until 1919 that elevation to the first division was won – allegedly by slightly questionable means AND at the expense of new neighbours Spurs. In 1925 the club secured the services of Herbert Chapman from Huddersfield Town, and the rest, as they say…

The Gunners’ very first honour came as it won the FA Cup in 1930 when they played Huddersfield Town at Wembley Stadium. The match was especially poignant as Arsenal’s manager, Herbert Champan had been the architect of Town’s great team of the 1920’s which won three league championships in a row 1923-24, 24-25 and 25-26 (Chapman left at the end of the 24-25 season). Under Chapman’s tutelage Town had also been victorious in the FA Cup in 1922 (the last one not played at Wembley until 2001) when Preston North End had been beaten at Stamford Bridge with a penalty by Billy Smith. The FA Cup is lost without its traditions, and one was born at the 1930 final. Because of Chapman’s unique relationship with both clubs, the teams took to the pitch side by side for the first time ever.

Another recently established FA Cup tradition saw both teams joining the competition in the 3rd round. Huddersfield saw off Bury after a replay and Arsenal prevailed over Chelsea with a 2-0 home win. Moving into the fourth round, Huddersfield were too good for Sheffield United winning 2-1, whilst this time Arsenal needed a replay in seeing off Birmingham City. In the 5th round, both teams progressed satisfactorily, the Gunners too strong for Middlesbro and Town defeating Bradford City. So to the sixth round, where The Gunners defeated West Ham three-nil and Huddersfield enjoyed a 2-1 success versus Aston Villa. Thus the competition had reached the semi-final stage. Arsenal were paired with Hull City and won after a replay to reach the twin towers. Huddersfield was assured of its place in the final after the 2-1 defeat of Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford.

In the final, played at the end of April, Arsenal were much too good for Huddersfield. The easy 2-0 win coming courtesy of goals from Alex James and Jack Lambert. Surprisingly, Arsenal’s third all time top scorer Cliff Bastin (only Ian Wright and Thierry Henry have scored more) didn’t manage to score! Bastin was signed from Exeter City at the end of season 1928-29 by Herbert Chapman after he had seen him standing head and shoulders above the rest of the players in a game between Exeter and Watford – he only played 17 times for Exeter, scoring 6. In total, he notched 178 goals in only 395 appearances for Arsenal – this from the left wing, and despite the presence of Ted Drake in the team. Bastin had won a league title, an FA Cup winners’ medal and been capped by England before he was 19 years old. In total, he registered 12 times in 21 appearances for England. As WW2 started when Bastin was only 27 years old, it is perhaps worth considering what he could have achieved had he been able. It’s interesting to note that he was excused service in the army at the outbreak of war due to his being deaf so he served as an ARP warden, actually stationed at top of the stadium at Highbury!

Jack Lambert served Arsenal between 1926 and 1933. Signed from Doncaster Rovers, his record of 98 league goals from 143 appearances stands well in comparison with many of the all time goalscoring greats. His total haul of 109 goals in 161 games for Arsenal demonstrates that on average he scored 2 goals in every 3 games that he played. He broke through into the Arsenal first team in the 1929-30 season, scoring 18 times in 20 starts including the second goal in the 1930 Cup final. In the next season, 1930-31, Lambert notched 38 times in 34 appearances as the Gunners won their first championship, by seven points from Aston Villa.

Five Champions’ League semi-finals in the past six years. As Chelsea’s newly appointed manager, Carlo Ancelotti, pointed out in his first interview, that is a wonderful achievement. However, it clearly isn’t quite good enough. The fact that those five semi-finals have only resulted in one ill-fated final appearance must be a source of incredible frustration for Chelsea’s billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, and the club’s supporters – although a little less so for them, perhaps.

The reason the long-standing Chelsea fans might be a little more philosophical about ‘only’ reaching one final in five attempts is that many of them are probably still only just getting used to challenging for honours at all. Until 1997, when Chelsea won the F.A. Cup, the club had won nothing for 26 years – unless you include the old Second Division title. Chelsea’s fortunes in the 1980s, after they had been bought by Ken Bates for the princely sum of £1, slumped to such an extent that they almost found themselves in English football’s third tier.

But how it turned around during the last decade of the century. Even before Abramovich’s arrival in 2003, the process of recovery had started. Managers of the international pedigree of Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gulli, Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri all helped establish the club as one of England’s leading outfits and the F.A. Cup was won in 1997 and 2000 and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1998. The Chelsea of this time were ground breakers in so many ways – with their continental managers and their overseas players particularly – becoming the first club to take the field with a team without a single British or Irish player in a fixture against Southampton in 1999.

So, when the Russian oil magnate brought in Champions’ League winner José Mourinho to take over the team in 2004, almost everyone suspected that ‘the special one’ would produce a special team.

And so it proved. The Premier League was won on two consecutive occasions, as well as the F.A. Cup again and the League Cup (twice). From March 2004, the team embarked on a record-breaking run of 86 matches in which they remained unbeaten at their Stamford Bridge ground.

With some of England’s finest players – John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley and Joe Cole – and with some outstanding foreign imports – Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Nicholas Anelka – the world sat and waited for the trophies to continue. And especially for the ‘holy grail’ that Abramovich wanted so much; that Champions’ League.

And yet for the past two seasons Chelsea have flattered to deceive – and frustrated their supporters so much. There are occasions when they are so powerful they overwhelm even the strongest opponents; almost bullying them into submission because of their physical, and mental, superiority. But there seems to have been some fatal flaw in the club’s make-up that has stopped them making that ultimate breakthrough.

Some have said that it’s because some of the overseas players have not been committed enough; but then when they showed their passion and commitment after losing controversially to Barcelona in 2009 those same players were criticised for their lack of sportsmanship.

Some have blamed successive managers for not being able to control ‘big’ players – as if that was ever a problem for someone like Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Some have even blamed Abramovich for either losing patience with Mourinho too quickly in 2007 or apparently losing some of his enthusiasm for the club for a while.

But now, having failed to persuade the admirable Guus Hiddink to remain at the club after his rejuvenation of the team in his short spell in charge, Chelsea have appointed someone who has won the Champions’ League Trophy twice as a player and twice as a manager. Surely, Stamford Bridge – a wonderfully atmospheric ground to watch your football compared to some of the other more ‘soul-less’ stadiums around – is going to be able to witness something only the most optimistic of fans would have dreamed possible twenty short years ago; a team capable of winning the Champions’ League.

If Carlo Ancelotti can’t bring the trophy in, where on earth will they turn next?

The English Premiership is the biggest sports franchise in the sporting world with global viewing audience scattered over the entire continents of the world. It presently consists of twenty teams that are expected to play 38 games each totaling 380 games from August to May each year.

The English Premiership has seen the influx of Non-British citizens especially Nigerians over the last couple of years. Their positive influence cannot be adequately emphasized considering the fact that they remain a major force in world football. Below is a profile of the top 5 Nigerian footballers plying their trade in English Premier League clubs.

• Dickson Etuhu

Dickson Etuhu is an attacking Midfielder with Fulham football club of England. An integral part of their first team, he helped the club reach the final of the Europa Cup in 2009, where they narrowly lost to Athletico Madrid of Spain.

He is also a member of the senior national team of Nigeria- the Super Eagles of Nigeria. It is interesting to note that Dickson Etuhu participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa and had a fairly good tournament.

• Victor Anichebe

This Everton attacking maestro has always been a key member of David Moyes team until injury sustained during Nigeria’s build up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup hampered his progress. He was a member of the Silver winning 2008 Olympic Football team that represented Nigeria at Beijing. Victor Anichebe has been used largely as a sub over the past three seasons, due to the presence of established stars like Luis Saha and Yakubu Aiyegbeni in the Everton front-line.

• Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Love him or hate him, Yakubu Aiyegbeni deserves some mention among the top Nigerian stars in the English Premier League. He has previously played for Portsmouth F.C and Middlesbrough. His appearance for Everton has however been restricted to the bench in the 2010/2011 season due a dip in form.

Yakubu earned the wrath of Nigerians at the last FIFA World Cup when he made the biggest miss of the tournament in Nigeria’s third and final match against South Korea. Even though he later scored through a penalty in that same match, Nigerians back home have not forgiven him for a miss that would probably have seen Nigeria through to the next round of the World Cup.

• Osaze Odewengie

Osaze Odewengie set tongues wagging when he left Russian Club Lokomotiv Moscow for Premiership side-West Bromwich Albion in 2010. He became an instant revelation in the Premiership as he scored crucial goals in the win against Arsenal, Newcastle United and West Ham United. Osaze whose father is a Nigeria and mother Russian, opted to play for the Super Eagles and was selected for the 2004 African Nations Cup where he scored a brace against South Africa in one of the group matches. He also won silver with the Olympic team at the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing and recently played at the 2010 FIFA World Cup where Nigeria got bundled out in the First round.

• Obinna Nsofor

Obinna Nsofor is a striker with the English Premiership side- West Ham United. He is presently on loan from Italian side- Inter Milan where he has been for the past three seasons. He also played on loan for Malaga F.C of Spain.

If any player has all the hallmarks of a ‘typical’ Barcelona signing, then it has to be Dani Alves.

With the potential of being to right back what Roberto Carlos was to left back, Dani Alves has the lot – pace in abundance, aggression, skill, attitude and seemingly limitless energy.   Who needs a right winger when Alves is playing right back?

Born in Juazeiro in Brazil in 1983, Daniel Alves da Silva first came to the notice of European eyes whilst playing for Brazil in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championships.   Sevilla snapped Dani up from his first professional club, Esporte Clube Bahía, and, during season 2003/04 he really began to shine in Spanish football.   As part of the Sevilla side that won the UEFA Cup in consecutive seasons, Dani Alves began to develop his reputation as a tough tackling, marauding full back.   In fact, in 175 career games for the Andalucian side, Alves scored 11 goals – not bad for someone who didn’t take the penalties.

After the 2006/07 season, Chelsea appeared to be on the brink of signing Alves – at least they thought they were.   They reckoned without Sevilla’s powerful and idiosyncratic president, José María Del Nido, who took exception to Chelsea’s methods and insisted on holding out for a transfer fee that even Chelsea thought was too high.   Much to the player’s annoyance at the time, Alves started the following season an unwilling Sevilla player.   There then followed one of those ‘if he doesn’t like it he can stay in the reserves for the season’ comments that presidents love to make and the relationship between club and player appeared irrevocably destroyed.

The tragic death of team mate Antonio Puerta, however, put things in perspective for all the parties concerned and Alves went on to make 33 league appearances for Sevilla, in what turned out to be his final season for them.

When he did leave, in the summer of 2008, as the world’s most expensive right back for a potential total fee of EUR35 million, Alves left Sevilla in tears with the memorable phrase that he arrived at the club a boy, but was leaving it as a man.

Watching Alves play for Barcelona now, it is hard to imagine him playing for any other team.   His exuberant style completely fits into his new surroundings.   He does appear to be in defence one second and in attack the next and his tireless enthusiasm quickly won over the local supporters.   In seemingly no time at all, he developed an intuitive relationship with Lionel Messi that sees them linking on the right flank and mesmerising the opposition.

Now fully established in the Brazilian national team – he scored one of the three goals in the team that won the Copa America in 2007, Dani Alves can perhaps claim to be the best attacking right back in modern world football.

Eidur Gudjohnsen, of course, is the answer to a well-known quiz question.   Who was the first player to come on as a substitute for his own father in an international football match?   What might be even more amazing is that it could happen again in a few years – Eidur’s son was one of the star players in the annual televised schoolboys tournament in the summer of 2008, captaining the Barcelona team.

Born in Reykjavik in 1978, Eidur Gudjohnsen was clearly always going to be a footballer and made his debut in the Icelandic League when he was only 16 years of age.   After just 17 games for his club Valur, the player had done enough to earn a transfer to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.   During his 2 seasons in Holland, however, Eidur suffered numerous injuries and was only able to complete 13 games before being transferred back to Iceland – to KR Reykjavik.

Barely had he signed, though, before he was off on his travels again – this time to England and, after a short trial, to Bolton Wanderers.   It was his success here, mainly as a bustling and determined centre forward, that brought a move to Chelsea, where he was to stay for 6 seasons. During this spell at Stamford Bridge, Gudjohnsen made a total of 268 first team appearances, scoring 78 goals.

Although originally a centre forward, Eidur always demonstrated what pundits insisted on calling ‘a surprisingly good touch for a big man’. Technically gifted, with very quick feet and, crucially, a nimble brain, the Chelsea fans warmed to the big Icelander because of his remarkable versatility.   Able to play up front, in midfield, or even on the wings, Eidur was part of the developing Chelsea team that won the league in 2005 and 2006 and the Carling Cup in 2005.

Many people were surprised when Eidur signed for Barcelona in the summer of 2006, especially when it appeared he was being seen as a direct replacement for the huge fans’ favourite, Henrik Larsen.   Initially played as a striker, he certainly had problems winning over the Barça faithful and, in his first season, a return of just 5 goals in 25 league games led to questions being asked about the player’s suitability for La Liga.

One thing that Eidur Gudjohnsen has always been, though, is determined and that played a big part in his ability to turn the difficult situation around.   By being used more in midfield, the player demonstrated his adaptability and consequently, in both 2006/07 and 2007/08, he became an important member of the squad.   Able to play in a variety of positions, and always liable to come up with a goal, Eidur Gudjohnsen is now an established Barcelona player and one whom the fans now trust totally.

Iceland’s record goal scorer, and with over 50 international caps already, and captain of the national team, Gudjohnsen has been Icelandic Player of the year three times.   It is a good bet that he will try to keep his place in the national squad until he’s able to play in the same team as his son. Now that would be a good quiz question.

The electrifying Victor Ikpeba began his career at the now defunct African Continental Bank F.C of Lagos, before representing Nigeria U-17 squad that took part in the 1989 FIFA U-17 World Cup held in Scotland. His performance at that tournament convinced football scouts from Belgium to recruit him into modest Belgian club side- RFC Liege. He soon established himself as a clinical finisher after making 79 appearances and scoring 27 goals for the Belgian team.

In 1994 French club- Monaco F.C then coached by the present Arsenal tactician Arsene Wenger snapped gave snapped him up. Victor Ikpeba had the most eventful time of his football career at Monaco, as he helped the French club win the League title. He also got an invitation into the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Soccer squad of Nigeria. The Team eventually won Gold after defeating Argentina in the final.

The icing in the cake of the Delta State born Footballer came in 1997 when he won the African footballer of the year award after a wonderful season with Monaco. He played a total of 169 games and scored 55 goals for the Monaco team. This enviable feat earned him the nickname- «The Prince of Monaco».

After leaving Monaco for Borussia Dortmund in 1999, his career took a nose-dived which eventually became worse in the 2000 after the demise of his young wife- Atinuke through breast cancer. Subsequent efforts to revive his career with Real Betis of Spain, Al-Ittihad of Libya and Charleroi F.C of Belgium did not yield much fruit, as he eventually retired from active football in 2005.

It is pertinent to note that Victor Ikpeba was an integral part of the Super Eagles squad from 1993- 2000. He played a total of 30 matches and scored 3 goals for the Super Eagles of Nigeria in all competitions.

His worst miss came in the African Cup of Nations final jointly co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana in 2000 when he scored in the penalty shoot-out against Cameroon but thought the ball had not crossed the line. He held his head in disbelieve and the referee and his assistant ruled that it was not a goal. Television replay later showed that the whole of the ball actually crossed the line. Nigeria eventually lost the game.

He was a member of the Super Eagles squad that participated at the 1994 African Nations Cup held in Tunisia as well as the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups held in the United States and Spain respectively. He his presently a sports analyst with South African based Super Sports Channel television.