Carling Cup semi-final draw

Carling Cup semi-final draw

Tottenham v Burnley (First Leg w/c January 5th, White Hart Lane)

Derby County v Manchester United (First Leg January 5th, Pride Park)

Evra banned by FA for improper conduct

Manchester United left back Patrice Evra has been fined £15,000 and handed a four match suspension after the FA founded him guilty of improper conduct in a confrontation with Chelsea groundsman Sam Bethell. This occurred in the Man Utd v Chelsea match on 26th April, allegations of racism from the groundsman towards Evra have not been proven which was claimed by assistant manager Mike Phelan. Evra struck the grouundsman on the head and coninuted the row after it had been broken up. Chelsea were also fined £25,000 for this infamous 'Battle of the Bridge' incident.

“Manchester United notes the announcement from the FA and is disappointed with the decision and in particular considers the sanctions against Patrice Evra excessive,” a statement said. “Manchester United and Patrice will consider all options once there has been an opportunity to digest the full reasons for the decision. There will be no further comment.”

Evra’s ban starts from 22nd December, however he is also banned for the game on the 21st December 2008 against Spurs for receiving five bookings this season.

Roy Keane leaves Sunderland

Roy Keane, ex Manchester United and Republic of Ireland midefielder has resigned from his managerial post at Sunderland after a bad spell of winning only 1 game out of the last 7.

This will be a big blow to Niall Quinn who has been in talks since the weekend after their heavy home defeat against Bolton to convince Keane to stay put as manager of Sunderland after a 2 year spell. Sunderland are currently lying in 18th with 15 points and have had resources financially and board support for Keane. However in recent matches Keane has stubbornly put key players on the bench and this has negatively affected the fans' perception of him as their leader.

Paul Ince, another one of the great Manchester United players under Ferguson will now undoubtedly be under pressure as Blackburn Rovers are now in 19th position. Similarly, he is relatively inexperienced for a Premiership club management position.

First team coach Ricky Sbragia is now the caretaker manager at the Stadium of Light and will have 2 assistant coaches in Neil Bailey and Dwight Yorke. Sbragia has a massive challenge in playing Manchester United at Old Trafford at 5.30pm - not exactly an easy first game in charge.

Burnley 2 Arsenal 0 2nd December 2008 Carling Cup Result

Burnley’s Carling Cup Run continues into the semi-finals

Burnley's incredible Carling Cup run continued this evening with an impressive 2-0 win over an Arsenal team full of the younger players.
Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen said before the game that he “didn’t want 6 more one-on-ones” after his penalty shoot-out heroics in the Chelsea match – and this is exactly what happened. Nicholas Bendtner was through on goal and couldn’t make it count, and the other senior player Silvestre also had a poor game. The Arsenal team were guilty of looking for the final pass too early but this was Burnley’s night.

Captain Kevin McDonald opened the scoring in the 6th minute after the Arsenal keeper Fabianski spilt the ball in his path and McDonald took full advantage. After holding up well the Gunners pressure, McDonald then made it 2 by curling home a shot from 15 yards out to complete a memorable victory at Turf Moor on this cold Tuesday night.

Liverpool 0 West Ham United 0 Monday 8th December

Premiership Result Liverpool 0 West Ham United 0

Rafael Benitez's men went top tonight after a frustrating 0-0 draw which narrows the gap to 1 point between Chelsea and the Reds in pole position.

After recently drawing 0-0 at home to Fulham, Benitez will be dissapointed to not have maintained their superb Premiership start and assert their authority as the early leading Premiership team. Zola's team were well organised to keep the Reds out. Quite a non-eventful first half led on to a second half with a flurry of goal mouth incident but Keane and Kuyt lacked the finishing power needed against West Ham keeper Robert Green who is growing in reputation as a strong candidate for the England team.

Despite Liverpool's dominance it was Craig Bellamy who struck the inside of the post from over 25 yards with Liverpool keeper Jose Reina well beaten. This indeed would have been an ironic winning goal for the former Liverpool striker but the wood work kept it out on what was a game that Liverpool will look back to as 2 points dropped too easily.

Robin Van Persie's double gives Arsenal a lifeline Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2

Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2
Arsene Wenger's Arsenal were given a lifeline with a brace from Dutch international Robin Van Persie. Chelsea opened the scoring when a strong attack down the right with a cross from Bosingwa was directed by Arsenal defender Johan Djourou into hs own net.

In the second half this tie was fought out in typical derby style, fast moving and physical. Van Persie's equaliser looked suspiciously offside and was commented on by Chelsea coach Luis Felipe Scholari.

"I accept that the referre is wrong sometimes. All I ask is that he says 'I was wrong' to me," said Scholari.

Wenger also admitted that this goal looked offside but implied that this is just part of the game as we currently know it.

Shortly after this the Gunner's crafted a second goal with a free kick from captain Cesc Fabregas, headed on from Adebayor to Van Persie who swivelled and brilliantly volleyed into the bottom left hand side corner making it impossible for Petr Cech to save.

This win puts Arsenal back into fourth just below Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea - just seven points adrift of the top position.

Drogba to stay at Chelsea

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is apparently staying at Stamford Bridge amidst rumours that he is unhappy and eyeing up moves to potential other football clubs. African players award contenders Drogba, aged 30 is under contract for 18 months and Peter Kenyon insists that he will see this time out.

In the first half of this season it has been surprisngly Nicolas Anelka who has made Chelsea tick upfront, and with the imminent court action reagding the coin throwing incident at Burnley, it has been suggested that Drogba may want to move in the transfer window.

Chelsea club chief executive Peter Kenyon said: "Didier's under contract for the next 18 months. He will be going nowhere in January."

Drogba had been linked with Italian club Inter Milan to link up with his former boss Jose Mourinho however Kenyon emphasised that he wants Drogba until 2010.