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Team Fact: Arsenal

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Few facts about Arsenal: #Arsenal are called 'The Gunners because they were formed by a group of cannon makers at the Woolwich Arsenal in 1886. #Arsenal is the only league team still in existence that has never been relegated. #Arsenal completed the 2003–04 FA Premier League campaign unbeaten and the Premier League commissioned a special gold version of the Premier League trophy to commemorate Arsenal's achievement. #Arsene Wenger became the first foreign manager to lift the Premiership title , when Arsenal won it in the season of 1997-98. #Arsenal is the first English team to beat Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu, Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena and AC Milan at San Siro. #Arsenal’s match against Sheffield United on 22nd January 1927 at Highbury, was the first ever English league match to be broadcasted on the radio. An exhibition match between their first team and the reserves held on 16th September 1937 was the first ever football match to be televised live .

I left Machester United because Van Gaal changed my position: Dimaria

The Argentine who switched the red side of Manchester for the beautiful city of Paris, said he had to lea've Manchester because Van Gaal changed his position. "Van Gaal has his philosophy and one of the reasons I wanted to go to Manchester United is because of that factor. "However, it was difficult to adapt to Van Gaal's workings. I had a couple of run-ins with him. "It started well for me but then I got injured. When I came back, Van Gaal changed my position. When I spoke to PSG coach Laurent Blanc he said he'd play me in the position I had for Real Madrid." Maria's international team mate Lionel Messi has been publicly criticised for their failure in the Copa America and Dimaria also had this to say: “The next Copa America is our main goal now,” he added. “People didn't see the state of our dressing room after losing this summer's final – we were destroyed. “We do not want to lose another final. Messi is the most important player to our

Rojo: I will fight for my place

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The Argentine international who primarily plays as a left back but features also as a centre back for united has promised to stay and fight for his place despite receiving offers from other clubs! "I have received offers but my idea is to stay here [United] and fight for a position because it is a great club,' the 25-year-old told ESPN Radio. "I'll try to play as much as possible. I talked to Van Gaal when I returned and was upset by everything that had happened but he said he was counting on me."

Finally! Liverpool completes Awoniyi's deal.

The Nigeria under 23 striker finally completed a move to the Merseyside giant. Awoniyi, who was immediately sent on loan to German division two side Frankfurt promised to develop asap in other to make it back to Liverpool's first team. "This is the biggest club in the world, he told the club official website."I'm privileged to be here,I'll try to develop myself very well so that when I come back to Liverpool I'll be able to add value to the team. "When I’m in the red shirt, I will always give my very best to make the fans happy."

I deserve to play qualifiers: Kaka

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The one time best player who was recently called up to the Brazil national team, was speaking to reporters at the Westin Jersey Hotel when he said: "I think I can contribute with my experience, but especially with my attitude." “It is very special to return to the national team,” added the veteran, who last appeared for the Selecao in October 2014. "I do not know what Dunga's plans are. But if I get an opportunity in these games against Costa Rica and the United States I want to show that I deserve participate in the qualifiers.”

Team Fact: Chelsea

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The first ever match played at Stamford bridge was against? Guess who? The second most decorated team in the premiership! Yes, Liverpool. The match was a friendly match played on Sept 4,1905. The home team won 4vs0

Revealed: Easy way to beat Mourinho

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Hire a manager whose surname starts with P*Rotfl* , as his last 7 league defeats has been against teams whose managers surname starts with P(Pulis, Pardew,Poyet,Pellegrini,Pochettino

Rodgers: Westham goal was cheap

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The Liverpool manager gave a post match interview and here are highlights. On Westham goals "The first goal is a cheap goal and that gave them a motivation and fight.The second was a mistake,(no b.mistake dey cause goal?)'which can happen. "We didn't defend moments well at all. We need to be much better than that. That opportunity to work the goalkeeper didn't happen. We are disappointed but we'll reflect on it and come back and look to win our next game." On the two red cards: "Very harsh," he told Sky Sports of the Coutinho red. "I thought both were. "I don't know what Philippe was booked for on the first one. And on the second one, you can see his two feet are nowhere near the player. "Actually, their guy runs into Philippe so to get booked for that was very harsh."

Highlight: Real Madrid vs Betis

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Match Report/Highlight: Chelsea vs Crystal Palace

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After Bakary Sako had fired Palace into a deserved lead, Radamel Falcao looked to have earned the host a share of the spoils when he came off the bench to head home his maiden goal for Jose Mourinho's men 11 minutes from time. However, Palace raced to the other end and Ward's diving header subjected Chelsea to its first home league defeat since April 2014 amid some questionable defending. And it was a thoroughly merited three points for Alan Pardew's side, with Palace having created the better opportunities for the most part. Aside from a Gary Cahill header, cleared off the line by Sako shortly before his opener, Chelsea struggled to break down the Palace defence, although Alex McCarthy had to be at his best to keep out Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas in the latter stages of the first half. After Falcao restored parity, Palace refused to settle for a draw and Ward's winner maintained Chelsea's unconvincing start to the defence of its Premier L

Match Report/Download/WHighlight : Swansea vs Man

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United took the lead shortly after the break through Juan Mata, who hitherto had struggled to influence the game and later made way for the cavalry. This was his 50th goal in the Premier League, his 17th for United and should have been the catalyst to a performance of substance. It was, but not by United. It was symptomatic of his display that Rooney should start the Swansea ball rolling, surrendering possession with a casual pass in the attacking third. The excellent Williams swept the ball wide to Gylfi Sigurdsson advancing into space down the right. United were left flat-footed with Chris Smalling, one of the few positive contributors to United’s season – along with Luke Shaw – caught out of position by Rooney’s mistake. Sigurdsson crossed early, finding the head of the excellent André Ayew, who had no trouble guiding the ball past Sergio Romero. Five minutes later Swansea were ahead. This time Ayew was the architect, picking out Bafétimbi Gomis with a smart

We were too dominant: Van Gal

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This is the type of interview you give when you watch a match drunk or when u just decide say Na back of tv hungry u watch. "We controlled the game for 85 minutes but we lost in five minutes and that cannot happen," he told BBC Sport. "After 1-0 they changed their shape and then we couldn't cope with that, so that's not good. "They changed the shape and we had to be compact. We forgot that maybe because we are too dominant. We have to learn from that. "First you have to create chances, with scoring goals you need luck, that we don't have at the moment. "I have enjoyed our football but you need the result and we lost again. All the players were very motivated to beat them." "You see the game today, we could have scored much more," he told Sky Sports. "I don't think that's the problem. "When the opponent scores goals you can always find errors. I have to analyse that with my players. "Bu

Enrique: Sergio is a great utility player

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Sergio Roberto who was once touted as the heir to La maquina's(the machine; Xavi) has played across the 3 positions in Barca's midfield in the last one year but his performance in last Saturday match against Athletic Bilbao as a right back has had many tongues wagging.

Team Fact: Liverpool

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The last European  game at anfield that ended with 9 goals scored was Liverpool's 6-3 win against FC Sion in 1996. Source:Optajoe

See what Messi attached to his suit to collect his first individual award this season.

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The sign means LA PULGA which is Messi's nickname meaning THE FLEA.

Liverpool hungry again- Rodgers

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"The hunger has returned back into the team," he told reporters. "That freshness and ability to play with no fear. New players are here with new ambition. "There's been a lot of work done on the training ground and in analysing in this room to change the mentality. "We are doing extra sessions on every aspect of our defending. We are putting in an awful lot of work." On young defender Gomez: "He's probably playing in his third best position in back four. He's a centre-back. "Joe is a wonderful athlete and has also got a very good football brain. He has a very good personality, very humble. On Clyne: "Clyne has been outstanding. He's the best English right-back. He has slotted in with so much ease. He wants to improve himself." Speaking ahead of Liverpool's clash with West Ham on Saturday, Rodgers spoke with caution despite the London side losing their last two games, believing the Hammers wi

Zlatan crashes website.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's return to Malmo emerged as one of the more endearing sub-plots of the Champions League group-stage draw - and it's already impacting upon the Swedish club. Shortly after Malmo - who saw off Scottish champions Celtic to reach the draw on Thursday - were grouped with Real Madrid, Paris Saint- Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk, the club's official website crashed as a result of an overload of users desperate for news on when they can expect Ibra to visit with the French champions. Zlatan does not draw teams in the Champions League, teams draw Zlatan. #ZlatanFacts — Zlatan Facts (@ZIatanFacts) August 27, 2015 "There was a lot of pressure on it [the website] just after the draw was made," Malmo's head of communications, Peter Ahlander, told Reuters with the site still struggling to load promptly some 12 hours after the draw was completed. Ibrahimovic himself had earlier posted a message on his official Facebook account to say

Match Report: Crystal Palace 1vs2 Arsenal

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SUMMARY Arsenal are up and running in the Premier League thanks to a deserved win at Crystal Palace. The visitors showed glimpses of their fluent best in the first half and capped their domination with a delicious strike from Olivier Giroud, the Frenchman volleying Mesut Ozil 's cross into the bottom corner. Palace could have been out of the game by the half-hour mark but they levelled against the run of play through Joel Ward's fine effort, and Connor Wickham hit the post shortly after the restart. But Arsenal always had that extra bit of quality and they restored their advantage when Damien Delaney diverted Alexis ' header past his own goalkeeper. It was a scrappy goal to win a compelling game but this was just what Arsenal needed after last weekend's false start against West Ham United. It's taken a week longer than planned, but Arsène Wenger's side have points on the board. SETTING THE SCENE Wenger made two changes for Arsenal's

Bilic: It was a clear penalty.

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In an interview with BBC, west Ham manager Slaven Bilic gave his thought on his last matech. "It is a bad result, we didn't play good enough in the first half. We started well but after that we were second best. "We lost the game in the first half. Two-nil down is very difficult to come back from. We are very disappointed" Youngster Reece Oxford who was exceptional in his debut match against Arsenal  struggled this time around although Bilic substituted him at half time he still didn't fault his performance, deciding not to act like a certain manager did! Up blues "It was not that he played worse than the rest of the team. He played well but our passing was really slow in the first half and with Pedro we were much quicker in tempo. "The first-half performance was not down to Reece Oxford - there were a few candidates I could have taken off." On the decision of the Referee to send off Adrian: "Initially I thought it was not

Spurs fail to spur on after 2 goal lead

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Spurs, who lost both league games against the Potters last season, looked on course to secure their first three points of the campaign after first- half goals from Eric Dier and Nacer Chadli had given the hosts a commanding advantage. Stoke, however, came storming back with Marko Arnautovic converting a 78th-minute penalty before Diouf headed in seven minutes from time to complete an unlikely comeback. Scrutiny is likely to be placed on Mauricio Pochettino's substitutions after the Tottenham boss replaced both Harry Kane and Ryan Mason in the second half. The changes seemed to stifle the home team's momentum and there was a smattering of boos from the White Hart Lane crowd at the sound of the final whistle. It represented a marked contrast from the feeling of optimism at the start of the afternoon when the home fans had cheered the presentation of Tottenham's five summer signings, including Lyon's Clinton Njie, whose arrival was confirmed on Satu

Howe: This Liverpool team is better than the 2013/14

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Bournemouth Manager Howe believes this Liverpool team could be better than the one that has Steven Gerard and Suarez.Asked if it could be better than the Anfield side which finished second in the league in 2013/14, he said: "Why not? "He's building a new Liverpool team so I think this will be possibly the best Liverpool team that he's put together. "He's got really talented individuals and he's had time - and longer to work with the players - so they'll be more in tune to what he wants them to do. "He will play to the strengths of the players he has, that's the key to success for any manager. He's manager of Liverpool, I don't think there's too much sympathy to be flying around. Howe also believes that Rodgers deserves great praise for the job he has done at Liverpool, and also at Swansea before that. "He's done a magnificent job. He did a magnificent job at Swansea, I think he's doing a great job

Match report/highlight: Aston villa vs Manchester United

Adnan Januzaj justified his recall to Louis van Gaal’s starting XI on Friday by scoring the only goal in Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League. The Reds are now unbeaten in 20 top-flight matches at Villa Park in a run that stretches back to September 1996. The victory also means United have tallied six points from six available following two tricky opening fixtures, five points more than the total registered at this stage of the last campaign. The match was notably moved to Friday night due to a heavily-policed event in Birmingham on Saturday and, although many fans were late to the stadium following traffic issues, most supporters at Villa Park appeared to enjoy the novelty of the change in schedule judging by the raucous atmosphere. Van Gaal made just one change to his starting XI by selecting Januzaj in place of Ashley Young, with the Belgian forward playing in the hole behind Wayne Rooney, while new signing Memphis Depay p

Match Report/Highlight: Bilbao 4vs0 Barcelona

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Barcelona's sextuple aspirations took a massive hit in Bilbao as the Catalans lost in stunning fashion to Athletic Bilbao. Led by the always dangerous Aritz Aduriz, who tormented Barça with a hat-trick this time around, Athletic made Barcelona look completely helpless. It was a forgettable night in which poor choices and big mistakes almost certainly cost Barcelona the Supercopa de España. Mikel San Jose fired the first torpedo in the sinking of FC Barcelona at San Mames. Athletic Bilbao Barcelona Possession 32 68 Total Shots 9 8 Shots on Target 4 4 Corners 5 7 Fouls 21 11 Offsides 2 3 Yellow Cards 6 5 Red Cards 0 0 In a surprise development, Luis Enrique , probably partially due to the fact that Barcelona played 120 minutes of grueling football on Tuesday, opted to make several changes in the lineup. Five new players entered the starting XI, while two, Javier Mascherano and Rafinha, started this match at a different position they played in Georgia.

Busquet: Tiredness shouldn't be an excuse#kiko Lara ota nle#lol

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In an interview before their Spanish super cup match against Bilbao, the creative defensive midfielder spoke about their upcoming match and Pedro's situation. "We are playing at a tough ground, San Mamés, and we have to give our all without excuses. "Tactically we know each other well, because we have played a lot matches and finals in recent years and this is no different." He also added that he expected an Athletic side who will be "intense, hard working tactically and physically, and who have quality young players. "It’s better to have the second leg at home. Nothing would be decided in the first 90 minutes. "Pedro, like any player, wants minutes on the field. From the first day to the last will given everything for the team as he has always done. I hope he stays."

Coquelin: irebeninu ibi

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The Gunners' anchor man spoke with Arsenal player about last weekend shocking performance against West ham, where Arsenal lost 2vs0. Coquelin believes that 'in bad things, good things can come out'. Reminds me of a popular Yoruba adage 'ire be mini ibi'lol "It's been a wake-up call for everyone,Considering the recent results we had before that, going really well in pre-season, it's disappointing and it was not an Arsenal performance. "However, in bad things, good things can come out too. It's good that it happened in the first game so that now we can pull ourselves together with 37 games left. We've got time to put things right and that needs to start on Sunday. "Everybody realises that we need to put more in. When you look at different teams I think a lot of them are ready. You look at Manchester City when they played against West Brom, I think they played really good football. "We need to pull ourselves togethe

Balotelli to get royalty bonus.

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Balotelli has been forced to train with the Liverpool youth players, away from the first-team squad, as Brendan Rodgers desperately looks to move him on. One option is to loan out Balotelli on a season- long deal, making a contribution to the player's wages. That's a similar agreement to the one Manchester City did with Emmanuel Adebayor. However, Rodgers has another reason for trying to move Balotelli out of the club during this summer. The Daily Mirror reveal that the Italian will be due a substantial loyalty bonus should he remain at Anfield after the end of the current transfer window. That would smart considerably, given the manner in which Balotelli's relationship with his manager has soured. The Mirror also write that 'Sources close to the controversial player insist that no matter how far into the wilderness he is thrust, he is prepared to stick it out at Anfield and pick up his pay- cheques'. That seems like something a source close

Match Preview: Bilbao vs Barcelona

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Following their dramatic 5-4 extra-time victory over  Sevilla  FC in the UEFA Super Cup on Tuesday in Tbilisi, FC Barcelona  return to action on home soil tomorrow when they will take on Athletic Bilbao  in the first leg of this year’s Supercopa de España. As winners of both La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season, the Blaugrana technically are the only side to have truly qualified, but as per usual when this situation arises, the losing finalists of the Copa del Rey also "qualify" ahead of the La Liga runners-up. And that’s probably for the best, because at this early stage of the season, who really wants to see a couple of Clasicos? Of course, that’s not to say that Athletic Bilbao do not pose as much of a threat as  Real Madrid  would have; perhaps quite the opposite. The Basque Country club haven’t had to travel the world for their pre-season preparations and when you couple that with Barcelona’s exhausting extra-time win in the UEFA Super Cup, well, one could be