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Cardiff City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur: Paulinho late beauty downs Cardiff despite Marshall blinder

By Kyle BonnSep 22, 2013, 1:18 PM EDT
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David Marshall did everything he could for Cardiff between the sticks to keep his club unbeaten at home, but in the end he just delayed the inevitable as Paulinho scored in stoppage time to give Tottenham a 1-0 victory.

The game began very very open, with both sides countering the other and chances begging, but Spurs definitely on top.

The visitors pressed hard down the right-hand side, with Kyle Walker, Michael Dawson, and Christian Eriksen all proving useful in the build-up.

Referee Mark Clattenburg allowed a very chippy game to flow, refusing to give many questionable challenges and instead continuing play.  Both sides went hard into 50-50 situations, and the physical nature provided good entertainment despite the relative lack of a final ball.

Just before halftime Cardiff thought they had the opener against the run of play on a corner through the head of Ben Turner, but Clattenburg called him for a foul before he connected with the ball.

Hugo Lloris was lucky to get out of the first half unscathed, having made two errors.  It appeared he handed the ball outside of the box and fouling Frazier Cambell to deny him a shot on goal, but Clattenburg did not punish him.  He also dribbled the ball over the back line to concede the corner Turner nearly scored on.  These are rare mistakes for a keeper who normally excels both with the ball at his feet and coming off his line.

Spurs finished the first half with 14 shots to Cardiff’s 1, but the home side were battling bitterly in the midfield.  The second half started with Spurs even more desperately looking for the opener.

In the 51st minute Gylfi Sigurdsson blasted in a long-range bending strike that could unfortunately only clatter the crossbar.  The rebound fell to Roberto Soldado but he cranked his shot directly at Cardiff keeper David Marshall and Spurs were left with nothing.

Peter Odemwingie nearly pegged Cardiff on top in the 65th minute, as he continued to pressure Kyle Walker down the Cardiff right.  He cut the ball back towards the center of the box but flashed it wide.

The winner came finally, as Spurs threw everything they had at Cardiff down the stretch as the substitutes did the final work.  A long ball fell to Lewis Holtby, who slotted through Erik Lamela on the right side of the box.  Lamela brilliantly touched the ball with the outside of his foot to a streaking Paulinho, whose backheel into the net can only be described as sexy.

Spurs jump to 2nd in the table, level with Arsenal and only a goal less on differential. The heartbreak was tough for Malky Mackay and company to swallow, having hung on valiantly for the entire match.  Marshall was brilliant, having to deal with 29 Spurs shots, 12 of which were on target.

Goals:

Tottenham Hotspur – Paulinho 90+2′

Lineups:

Cardiff City – Marshall; Taylor, Caulker, Turner, Whittingham; Medel, Campbell (Odemwingie, 65′), Kim, Gunnarsson; Theophile-Catherine, Bellamy (Cowie, 78′).

Tottenham Hotspur – Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton; Dembele, Paulinho; Townsend (Kane, 81′), Eriksen (Holtby, 89′), Sigurdsson (Lamela 71′); Soldado.

Gerrard extends contract amid strong start as Rangers boss

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By Andy EdwardsDec 13, 2019, 8:09 PM EST
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Steven Gerrard is quite keen to stick around as Rangers boss following a strong start to his managerial career, leading the 39-year-old first-time manager to sign a two-year contract extension on Friday.

[ MORE: Ljungberg wants quick appointment of new Arsenal manager ]

With his current contract previously set to run through the 2021-22 season, Gerrard’s services have been secured until the summer of 2024.

Gerrard has been largely successful since taking over the Scottish Premiership side last summer, guiding Rangers to their highest points total (78) since returning to the first division in 2016, and a second-place finish (also for the first time) behind rivals Celtic. Rangers reached the Europa League’s round of 32 on Thursday, marking their first trip to the knockout round of European competition since 2011.

That much success so quickly will undoubtedly lead to Gerrard’s name being linked with increasingly large jobs in England, likely prompting Rangers to act preemptively.

“I’m delighted to be extending my stay at this fantastic football club. When the chairman approached me about the possibility of extending my contract with Rangers, it was a very easy decision to make because I’m very happy and feel that we are building something special together at the club.

“I’d like to thank the board for the backing they have given me already in my time at the club and also most importantly, the Rangers fans who have given me and the team such tremendous backing both this season and last.”

Ljungberg wants quick appointment of new Arsenal manager

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By Andy EdwardsDec 13, 2019, 7:34 PM EST
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Freddie Ljungberg is honored to serve as Arsenal’s interim manager following Unai Emery’s dismissal, but the Swede is also hoping for a speedy conclusion to the club’s search for a permanent replacement.

[ MORE: Lampard: Chelsea youngsters can’t worry about January transfers ]

In theory, taking over the most famous club for which Ljungberg played was a no-brainer. In practice, though, he openly admits it’s been not only a difficult time for everyone emotionally, but also in terms of the staff members available to assist him during the day-to-day grind. Throw in the fact he has no idea whether or not he’ll still have a role at the club when the new manager arrives, and it’s beginning to sound like a no-win situation. Perhaps he’s being considered to remain in the job permanently, but Ljungberg says he’s been given no indication of any such thing — quotes from the Guardian:

“The club have said I have to wait until they make a decision, so I can’t do anything at the moment. I have Per [Mertesacker] but at the same time he is academy manager. He is helping me with the coaching. The club has said when they make a decision then that’s it — or I’m leaving, obviously — and maybe then we can do something with the staff. But it’s up to the club.

“If you look at the person who was here before, he had a lot of staff and maybe I don’t have so many. So if you keep on going like that for months and months, it’s not so easy. But that’s totally up to the club.”

…

“I haven’t got any indication of if I’m here or not. What I’ve said to the bosses and the club is I will do everything in my power to do as well as I can for this club and the players. Then obviously it is up to them to make a decision. I try not to put any emotions into that.”

Arsenal came back from a goal down (twice) to draw Norwich City in Ljungberg’s first game in charge, then the Gunners were comprehensively beaten (at home) by Brighton & Hove Albion. The bounced back with a win over West Ham United on Monday, but could only draw Standard Liege (albeit with a weakened team) in the Europa League on Thursday.

Lampard: Chelsea youngsters can’t worry about January transfers

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By Andy EdwardsDec 13, 2019, 6:45 PM EST
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Frank Lampard knows it’s only natural that some of Chelsea’s youngsters will have worries about the January transfer window and the Blues’ newfound ability to sign players, considering they were only afforded a first-team opportunity by the club’s transfer ban.

[ PL Preview: Chelsea v. Bournemouth ]

He doesn’t, however, want those thoughts and fears to dominate their thoughts for the next three weeks, until the window opens and Chelsea can sign players for the first time since January of this year. As Lampard sees it, the fact he has roughly $200 million to inject into the squad doesn’t necessarily mean they promising teenagers and early-20-somethings will immediately be cast aside. It does, however, mean he has to navigate this very unique set of circumstances extra carefully — quotes from the Guardian:

“I haven’t banned the talk [about the January window], but I am not going to set out to engage in it. If players want to come and see me and talk then I will happily have a conversation with them individually, but that hasn’t happened.

“I speak to them regularly. I can be, not hard on them, but I push them because I think they need that. I think they feel the trust I have in them because they know I’m prepared to give them the opportunities if they train well and they come in the team and play well. I think they should naturally feel a little bit of tension all the time so that’s not the worst thing.

“They just need to work and believe in their own talents because their talent is there for all to see. We also have to be patient with that because it may take different periods of time for them to fully blossom as players. They might have a period in and out of the team, have a run of the games and then not. I am prepared to stick with them through that because I really believe in them.”

22-year-old Tammy Abraham currently sits second in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot with 11 goals in 15 appearances. 21-year-old Christian Pulisic, while not an academy product, has shone brightly of late with a half-dozen goals and nearly as many assists to his name in the last two months. 20-year-old Mason Mount was a surprising revelation in the season’s opening weeks. 21-year-old defender Fikayo Tomori has been a regular starter for the last three months. 20-year-old Reece James has made the starting job at right back his own.

While the temptation to sign high-priced replacements for these budding stars will be hard to resist, perhaps Chelsea would be wiser to sign players in other positions and ride the wave of what could turn out to be a golden generation of homegrown products.

Premier League Preview: Southampton v. West Ham

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By Andy EdwardsDec 13, 2019, 5:37 PM EST
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Saturday’s final Premier League fixture is set to pit a pair of underperforming relegation battlers against one another when Southampton host West Ham United at St. Mary’s Stadium (Watch live, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC and NBCSports.com). Managers Ralph Hasenhuttl and Manuel Pellegrini have each flirted with being fired in recent weeks, though the former was able to pull himself back from the edge with back-to-back wins last week.

Southampton had lost six of eight games during a two-month winless skid before beating Watford and Norwich City, both at home, to not only save the Austrain’s job but also pull his side to within touching distance of safety from the relegation zone.

[ STREAM: Every PL match live ] 

As for West Ham, Pellegrini is hanging on by a thread as he faces the possibility of being the next PL manager fired on the back of a 1W-2D-7L record in the Hammers’ last 10 games. To call that run of results — comprising more than 25 percent of the season — relegation form would be an understatement.

It’s not just the results which have been disastrous, but more so the margin by which they’ve suffered them. In those 10 games, West Ham have managed to conceded fewer than two goals only twice, including just one clean sheet. A number of bottom-half sides have found lots of joy against them: Newcastle United, Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal each scored three; Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers each score two.

Injuries/suspensions

Southampton: QUESTIONABLE – Stuart Armstrong (hamstring)

West Ham United: OUT – Manuel Lanzini (clavicle), Jack Wilshere (groin), Lukasz Fabianski (thigh), Winston Reid (knee)

Projected lineups

Southampton: Gunn — Soares, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Bertrand — Djenepo, Ward-Prowse, Hojberg, Redmond — Long, Ings

West Ham: Martin — Fredericks, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell — Snodgrass, Noble, Rice, Anderson — Haller, Antonio

What they’re saying

Hasenhuttl, on his place as Saints boss: “This experience has been very important for me as a manager and I’m happy that I went through such a period. I’m thankful to the club that it is going a different way, not immediately sacking the manager but supporting him. Thank you to everyone at the club, I could feel big support in this moment, which is important for the future of the club. That was very important for me as a manager, I’ve never had such a long time without winning in my managerial career.”

Pellegrini, on his place as West Ham boss: “What I really need is to win the game but maybe I’m not in my job on Monday. That’s not a problem of the job. The problem is to try to improve what you’re doing because we don’t have the results. It’s a difficult league where the difference is very little between one player and the other one. I repeat it’s not normal to have five points and very bad results. That’s why I know that the owners trust what we are doing because with another owner you may have been sacked before, and we know what football is and we are trying to get results.”

Prediction

Given their medium-term form and the fact they’re playing at home, Southampton should be winning this game. If they’ve done one thing right all season, it’s that they’ve beaten the rest of the sides down near the relegation zone when they’ve faced them head to head. Whether or not West Ham will remain down there remains to be seen, and could be revealed based on what happens Saturday. Saints 2-2 West Ham.