UEFA Cup 2007-08 – English Teams (First Round)

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Everton vs Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine):
Everton have been paired with Ukrainian outfit Metalist Kharkiv in the draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup.

The first-leg will be played at Goodison Park before David Moyes’ men tackle the Ukrainians who finished third in their league, in the return leg.

Bolton vs FK Rabotnicki (Macedonia):
Bolton were drawn against Macedonian outfit FK Rabotnicki. Sammy Lee's men face an away trip first before returning to the Reebok Stadium. Bolton would be boosted after Anelka penned a contract extension and Diouf committed himself to the club too.

Blackburn vs Larissa (Greece):
Blackburn were drawn against Greek outfit Larissa with the first leg in Greece for Mark Hughes' men.

Tottenham vs Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus):
Tottenham will face Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta with the first leg-tie at White Hart Lane. Heavy expectations shouldn’t really weigh the Spurs down. I expect them to go quite far in the UEFA Cup this season.

The first legs will be played on September 20 with the return fixtures on October 4. All the 4 Premiership teams should advance to the next round easily.

Complete UEFA Cup Draw can be found Here

EPL Results – Everton beat Tottenham

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Everton continued their perfect start to the season with a convincing 3-1 win at White Hart Lane which condemned the Spurs to the bottom of the table.

Toffees took the lead in the third minute after Mikel Arteta’s superb free-kick found the head of Lescott who made no mistake is putting it past Paul Robinson.

Spurs then drew level in the 27th minute when Anthony Gardner scored via a Jermaine Jenas corner. Everton restored their lead eight minutes before half-time when Osman smashed home his second goal of the season. Things got worse for Tottenham when Everton grabbed their third just before the break when a free-kick by Stubbs took a wicked deflection and landed in the back of the net.

Tottenham were very unlucky in the second half with Howard making some great saves and even the woodwork came to Everton’s rescue.

Nothing short of a win over Derby County will do for Spurs on Saturday, while Everton face a tough trip to Reading this weekend.

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Season Preview - Tottenham Hotspur

Last season: 5th, 60 points; UEFA Cup quarter-finals; FA Cup quarter-finals; Carling Cup semi-finals

Transfers:

In: Darren Bent (Charlton, £16.5m); Gareth Bale (Southampton, £5m); Younes Kaboul (Auxerre, £8m); Kevin-Prince Boateng (Hertha Berlin, £5m); Adel Taarabt (Lens, £2.5m); Yuri Berchiche (Athletic Bilbao, nominal); Danny Rose (Leeds, nominal)

Out: Hossam Ghaly (?); Charlie Lee (Peterborough, free); Mark Yeates (Colchester, nominal); Robert Burch (Sheffield Wednesday, free); Emil Hallfredsson (Lyn Oslo, undisclosed)

Official Website: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/

Official Kit:

A debate which has taken a lot of space this summer has been: Will Spurs to break into the top four?

Spurs had a long season last year, with appearances in the Semi-Finals of the Carling Cup and Quarter Finals of both the FA Cup and UEFA Cup – and at no time in the season did they look like finishing in the top 4.

This summer Totteham have spent as big as anyone in terms of cash laid out, even if others have exceeded their heftiest fee paid. Gareth Bale, Darren Bent, Younes Kaboul, Kevin-Prince Boateng.

Spurs shouldn’t really have a problem with slotting in goals. If Darren Bent can live up to his £16.5m price tag and if Berbatov continues his great form from last season and if Robbie Keane and Defoe can keep aside their egos – Tottenham should definitely be able to command the respect of any defense in the county. But that’s not how it went against Sunderland.

The mid-field could have been a little bit stronger. Didier Zokora, Steed Malbranque, Aaron Lennon, Jermaine Jenas, Boateng…doesn’t look bad on paper though.

Martin Jol is going to be under a tremendous amount of pressure to show some results this season.

Schedule via English Soccer Talk:

"Tottenham haven’t kicked off to the perfect start, after losing to Sunderland on the opening day of the season. The match against Everton tonight is definitely not going to be easy either. A trip to Old Trafford on August 26 will be a statement game. Beating Manchester United away will prove they're for real, and a draw wouldn't be a bad result either.

Tottenham hosts Arsenal just 3 weeks (2 games) later in a North London derby, another big game for them, and then will go to Anfield to play Liverpool on the first weekend of October. The schedule isn't very difficult at all from there until the middle of December when two consecutive road games bring Portsmouth and the second North London derby with Arsenal just 3 days before Christmas.

Tottenham will then play Chelsea twice in a span of 6 games, games that also include a home date with Manchester United an away game at Everton. 10 straight winnable games follow that second match with Chelsea, and a home game against Liverpool finishes out the season."

EPL08.com prediction:
League Position – 5
The Spurs have an attacking line-up which could match that of Manchester United. Berbatov, Defoe and Keane - each had in excess of 10 goals last season and the addition of ₤ 16.5 million Darren Bent just adds to their attacking riches. But again, there's going to be lot of expectations at White Hart Lane - especially because of the amount of money spent in the summer.

They didn’t get off to the best of starts against Sunderland and they really need to perform consistently to challenge the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool this season.

Latest Results – Saturday Review: Sunderland shock Spurs and all other Scores

Aston Villa 1 - Liverpool 2

A stunning free-kick just three minutes from time by Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool a 2-1 win at Aston Villa in their Premier League opener on Saturday night. It had looked that Villa had done enough to claim a draw when Barry fired home a penalty in the 85th minute, but Liverpool captain Gerard ensured that they got their title aspirations to a decent start and slotted home a brilliant 25-yarder shot.

Sunderland 1 - Tottenham 0

Earlier in the day, Roy Keane’s Sunderland shocked Spurs with a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light. Michael Chopra delighted the Desi followers of the game along with the thousands of Sunderland fans as he side-footed a goal in injury time.

West Ham 0 - Manchester City 2

Sven-Goran Eriksson claimed victory in his first competitive match as a club manager in England as Manchester City beat West Ham 2-0 at Upton Park.

Eriksson’s new signings shone through as Rolando Bianchi tapped home the opener following an amazing run by Elano. Geovanni slammed in late to ensure the victory.

Everton 2 – Wigan Athletic 1

Everton claimed a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic at Goodison Park thanks to a 26th-minute header by Leon Osman and a 75th-minute goal by Victor Anichebe.

Antoine Sibierski pulled one back for the Latics from close range in the 80th minute but Everton held on for the victory.

Bolton 1 - Newcastle 3

Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce made a stunning winning return to his old club Bolton as his team secured a comprehensive 3-1 win at the Reebok Stadium.

The game was pretty much over by half-time as Magpies were up by 3-0 at the break. The first goal came via a free-kick from Charles N’Zogbia. Martins smashed in an acrobatic second. He scored his second in the 27th minute.

Anelka slotted in a goal in the 51st minute after some clever work by Kevin Nolan – but it proved to be nothing but a consolatory goal.

Middlesbrough 1 - Blackburn 2

Middlesbrough started their campaign badly after throwing away a one goal lead. A curling Stewart Downing free-kick gave them the lead and Blackburn were dealt a massive blow when McCarthy had to be carried off on a stretcher after suffering a head injury early in the second half. However, his replacement Roque Santa Cruz scored the equaliser when he headed in David Bentley's cross from the right (63).

The winner came from young striker Matt Derbyshire in the 79th minute.

Derby 2 - Portsmouth 2

Newly-promoted Derby made a lively start to their campaign with a 2-2 draw at Pride Park against much fancied Portsmouth.

Matt Oakley netted the first for Derby with just 4 minutes having passed. Benjani Mwaruwari equalized for Pommies before new-signing John Utaka gave them the lead. The lead was very short-lived as defender Andy Todd equalized for Derby via a spectacular diving header.

EPL Fixtures 2007-08: August

[You are on the page of EPL Fixtures - August. Click Here to view the complete list of fixtures for the month of September]

In this and the subsequent series of posts we'll take you through the fixtures of the upcoming season. But with almost 10 games each weekend, we'll have a look at games which you cannot afford to miss!

Note:
The Fixtures list is a Copyright © and Database Right The FA Premier League and one cannot officially publish the whole list.
It is available at PremierLeague.com

Kick-Off Weekend:

Saturday 11 August, 2007:

Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur
Bolton vs Newcastle United
Derby County vs Portsmouth
Everton vs Wigan Athletic
Middlesbrough vs Blackburn Rovers
West Ham United vs Manchester City
Aston Villa vs Liverpool

Sunday 12 August, 2007:

Arsenal vs Fulham
Chelsea vs Birmingham City
Manchester United vs Reading

Other Matches definitely worth watching in the month of August (Apart from those of your favourite team):

Tuesday 14 August, 2007:

Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton
Two teams which have spent a fair deal of money in the Summer and who are sure to push for a top 4 finish.

Sunday 19 August, 2007:

Manchester City vs Manchester United
The Manchester Derby is never short of action. This will be Sven Goran Erikkson's first major challenge.
Erikkson vs Fergusson is going to be a nice battle for sure.

Liverpool vs Chelsea
Liverpool and Chelsea face-off pretty early in the season. In a rivalry which has continued over the last couple of years with Liverpool being responsible for 2 of Chelsea's Champions League exits in the last 3 years.

Last year in the Premiership it was the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool that realistically ended Chelsea's title challenge. With both teams adding several new players - this game is definitely a must watch.

Mark it in your calendars.

Sunday 26 August, 2007:

Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur
A clash between these two is always a feisty affair. Tottenham have spent lots of money pre-season and now seem to have a pretty strong team on paper. This ones going to be a nice one to see how some of the new stars perform.

The Complete List of all the games in August can be found here.

EPL Transfer News – Birmingham City pull out of Ghaly deal, sign Ridgewell and Queuedrue

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Birmingham City have pulled out of the almost-confirmed £3million transfer of Tottenham midfielder Hossam Ghaly.

Why? Well they describe it as "footballing reasons".

This follows the collapse of the deal to sign another Spurs player Mido.

Meanwhile Steve Bruce signed Liam Ridgewell from bitter rivals Aston Villa.

Ridgewell ended an eight-year spell with Villa after joining Blues for £2million on a three-year contract deal with a further two-year option available.

Ridgewell followed hot on the heels of Fulham left-back Franck Queudrue in moving to St Andrews yesterday and became Bruce's 10th summer signing.

Birmingham completed Queuedrue’s signing from Fulham in a deal which could be worth £2.5million. The 28-year-old has signed a three-year contract and committed himself to Blues until the summer of 2010.

Review: Wednesday’s Pre-Season Friendlies. Man Utd lose to Inter Milan…

[You might be viewing old results on this page. To view the results of latest EPL Pre Season Friendlies, CLICK HERE.]

Manchester United 2 - Inter Milan 3
Manchester United failed to impress as Italian champions Inter Milan won 3-2 at Old Trafford in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday.
The Red Devils took the lead on 17 minutes through a thumping Wayne Rooney goal.
Sloppy defending allowed Inter back into the game as new signing David Suazo scored from close range and a sweeping move a little later saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic put the Serie A side in front on 27 minutes. Suazo scored his second of the night on 34 minutes.

Hull 1 - Newcastle 0
A 40th minute goal from Dean Marney was enough to give Hull a deserved 1-0 success at home to Newcastle.

Leyton Orient 2 - Tottenham 4
Spurs were in free-scoring mood yet again after recording a 4-2 win at Leyton Orient. Robbie Keane scored 2 while Jermain Defoe and Darren Bent scored one each.

Shrewsbury 0 - Manchester City 2
Man City left it late to record a 2-0 win over Shrewsbury Town at the New Meadow. Bernardo Corradi headed the opening goal on 82 minutes before Paul Dickov scored a crisp second late on.

Galway 0 - Sunderland 4
Michael Chopra scored after just six minutes en route to Sunderland's comprehensive 4-0 win over Galway United.

Stoke 0 - Aston Villa 2
Patrik Berger and Gabriel Agbonlahor scored as Aston Villa won 2-0 at The Britannia Stadium

Bolton 3 - Espanyol 0
Ricardo Vaz Te pounced for two first-half goals as Bolton eased to a 3-0 home triumph over Espanyol.

Huddersfield 2 – Blackburn 1
Luke Beckett's brace condemned Blackburn to a 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield. Jason Roberts netted a late consolation goal for Rovers.

A Glance at Tuesday’s Friendlies:

Brondby 0 - Chelsea 2
Striker Didier Drogba scored twice in the last half hour to give Chelsea a 2-0 win over Danish side Brondby

Other Results:

Everton 2 - Werder Bremen 2
Norwich City 1 - West Ham 2.
Bournemouth 1 - Portsmouth 4
Peter'boro 0 - Birm'gham 3
Barnsley 0 - Wigan 2
Derby 2 - Nottingham 0

Via: Sporting Life

Latest EPL Transfer News

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With just around 10 days remaining for the new season,

Here at EPL08.com we have some interesting things lined up:
Free SMS Scores and News updates, a complete fixtures guide, Fantasy Premier league tips, a look at all the teams of the season with info about all the transfers and players to watch out for and lots more.

So be sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed if you don’t want to miss out any thing…

Latest English Premier League transfer buzz:

Valencia and Arsenal interested in Bolton’s Anelka..
Rumours have it that Valencia are lining up a ₤13m bid for the French striker. Though 13m is quite a high price tag for Anelka, Bolton would definitely sell him at that price.

Spurs seal Boateng deal
Kevin-Prince Boateng admitted it is a "dream" to have joined Tottenham after completing his move from Hertha Berlin.
A length of contract or fee for the 20-year-old midfielder has yet to be confirmed, but Spurs are reported to have agreed a deal in the region of £5.4million to beat Sevilla to the Germany Under-21 international.

Deco headed to Chelsea? Barcelona don’t think so
Deco might fancy a move to Chelsea, but Barcelona have ruled out selling the Portuguese midfielder.

The Nou Camp playmaker hit the headlines on Tuesday when revealing that he fancied the idea of teaming up with former boss Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

But president Juan Laporta revealed that there is no way Deco will be leaving Catalonia this summer.

Tottenham to offer 8m for Lyon’s Kallstrom
Not sure if Martin Jol will be still looking at Kallstrom after the purchase of Boateng but he’ll be a good buy – especially for the central midfield, where the Spurs solely lack some depth.

SoccerLens has an interesting bit of rumour about Diarra wanting to swap Chelsea for Arsenal?
"Why would Diarra leave one jam-packed midfield (Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Makelele, Sidwell) for another (Silva, Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby, Flamini)? There is technically more space at Arsenal, but with Ballack, Makelele and Lampard ageing Diarra is realistically only competing with Mikel at Chelsea (Essien is untouchable). At Arsenal, he has Denilson and Diaby to contend with, both of whom have done quite well."

In other EPL transfer news:

• Manchester United have sold young striker Giuseppe Rossi to Spanish side Villarreal.
  

• Aston Villa have signed promising American teenager Eric Lichaj.
  

• Middlesbrough's Stewart Downing insists he was never interested in a move to Tottenham. Downing is a really promising player on the left flank and he’s ought to leave for a bigger club soon – especially if he wants to become an England team regular.
  

• Sam Allardyce has insisted Kieron Dyer will not leave Newcastle on the cheap.
  

• Chelsea are trying to sort out Alex’s work permit issues.

Review of Satuday's Friendlies - Chelsea Fall. Arsenal Win.

[You might be viewing old results on this page. To view the results of latest EPL Pre Season Friendlies, CLICK HERE.]

Arsenal 2 - 1 Paris St Germain
Arsenal completed a 2-1 victory over Paris St-Germain in the Emirates Cup - a friendly tournament in the mould of next week's Amsterdam trophy.Goals from Mathieu Flamini and Niklas Bendtner were enough for the Gunners before Peguy Luyindula pulled a goal back.

Rangers 2 - 0 Chelsea
Nacho Novo and Filip Sebo hit late goals to sink Chelsea and set up Rangers perfectly for their Champions League second-round qualifier against FK Zeta.

Halifax 0 - 4 Wigan
Nigerian Julius Aghahowa came off the bench to score two in Wigan's 4-0 win at Halifax. Emile Heskey and Jason Koumas, scoring for the first time for Wigan, were also on target.

Orlando Pirates 0 - 3 Spurs
Big-money signing Darren Bent struck twice as Tottenham ran out 3-0 winners over Orlando Pirates in their latest pre-season outing in South Africa.

Hibernian 1 - 0 Middlesbrough
Ross Campbell struck a last-minute winner to give Hibernian a win over Middlesbrough. Julio Arca and Stewart Downing both came close for Boro, but could not break through and Campbell eventually stole the game with his last-gasp strike.

Southend 1 - 3 West Ham
New signings Craig Bellamy and Freddie Ljungberg both found the net as West Ham eased to a 3-1 friendly win at Southend.

Tranmere 0 - 1 Bolton
An 83rd-minute goal from Ricardo Vaz Te gave Bolton a 1-0 victory over Tranmere at Prenton Park.

Walsall 0 - 2 Birmingham
First-half goals from Mikael Forssell and Cameron Jerome gave Birmingham a comfortable friendly victory over neighbours Walsall.

Other Results:

Charleroi 2 - 0 Manchester City
Brighton 1 - 3 Reading
Mansfield 2 - 0 Derby
Bohemians 0 - 1 Sunderland

Via: Sporting Life