Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Seaman: Pressure on Arsenal in League Cup Vs Tottenham
Arsene Wenger's side have lost their last two matches, against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League and Chelsea in the Premier League.
The club have not lifted the League Cup since 1993 - when Seaman was in goal - with two runs to the final in the past nine years ending in defeat in the showpiece.
And Seaman believes that the Gunners simply must progress to the fourth round, and has subsequenly called on Wenger to name a strong side to face Mauricio Pochettino's team.
"Arsenal's start has been okay, but it's not been as good as what they hoped for I'm sure," Seaman said.
"They have not had a great start, then they had a few good wins but they are going into this game off two defeats, and they don't want to go into their next Premier League game after three defeats.
"So makes it a little bit more important for Arsenal to win in that aspect. It's a massive game for the players and even bigger for the fans, the bragging rights are obviously dictated by who wins.
"It will be a good game, and will be interesting to see what sort of side both teams put out because they will definitely put some not regular first teamers in there.
"It is important both put decent sides out there because if Tottenham put a full strength team out and Arsenal put a youth team out it's not a good challenge. It's about getting the mixture right."
Simeone hails fantastic Griezmann display
The France international scored twice in the 2-0 win away to Galatasaray in the Champions League last week and repeated the trick again on Tuesday night.
Griezmann now has five goals for the season already in all competitions and Simeone says the sky is the limit for the 24-year-old.
He said: "He is in excellent shape, has grown so much and he is a key player for the team. His future will depend just on him."
Recent signing Jackson Martinez laid on an assist for Griezmann's second goal and Simeone was quick to praise the striker after the game.
"He entered the pitch very well and assisted Griezmann for the second goal," added the Argentine. "He is an enthusiastic worker and will try to fulfill the expectations we have of him."
Tiago started the game on the bench before being introduced in the second half, with Saul preferred alongside Gabi in the heart of Atletico's midfield.
However, Simeone says the veteran still has a big part to play at the club. "He is a very important player to us. He is the brain of the team. He knows what the team needs and you only can know it with experience.
"When he entered the pitch, the team changed and stopped suffering. Atletico improved from that moment and took control of the game."
Leicester 'fantastic' in win over West Ham - Ranieri
Andy King's powerful header sealed the victory late in extra-time at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday, with the hosts having dominated proceedings as West Ham goalkeeper Adrian pulling off a string of excellent saves to keep Leicester at bay, after Mauro Zarate's effort had cancelled out Joe Dodoo's opener.
And despite their wastefulness in front of goal, Ranieri was thrilled with the effort of his players as three-time League Cup winners Leicester maintained their unbeaten start to 2015/16.
"We deserved it. We made a fantastic performance, and created 10 great chances to score. Their keeper was man of the match," he said.
"We had the names of the first five penalty takers written down. But we deserved to score a winner. It was a great goal.
"We changed 10 players, but they played at the same level. They're a great group and they work very hard. I'm very happy."
Manchester City response delights Pellegrini
Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne all found the net, along with a Vito Mannone own goal, within the first 36 minutes at the Stadium of Light, as City outclassed their hosts on Tuesday evening.
And after back-to-back defeats against Juventus and West Ham, Pellegrini was delighted to get back to winning ways.
"We played well, especially in the first half," he said. "Maybe in the second half, winning 4-0, we stopped our pace a little bit, but I am pleased because we started this game after two important defeats in the Champions League and Premier League.
"It was important to continue in this cup and it was important to try to win from the first minute.
"We scored four beautiful goals."
Pellegrini opted to start a host of big-name players, including Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero and Yaya Toure.
De Bruyne and Sterling combined superbly to carve open the Sunderland defence repeatedly in the first half, and the Chilean reserved special praise for his two big-name summer signings.
"Kevin is a very good player and Raheem played very well also," he added. "It was useful for both players to be settled in our team.
"It is not easy at the beginning to make the correct movements, but both of them demonstrated why they are here."
The City boss then went on to reaffirm his high regard for the League Cup as a competition, although he was also pleased with the chance to give some game time to a number of youngsters.
"We won this cup two years ago and it is beautiful to play the final at Wembley," he said. "We will continue to try and play strong squads in this competition.
"We have a lot of players injured so it was not easy to play this game.
"It was important to start with a strong team and then to give minutes to young players during the game.
"Patrick Roberts, George Evans and Manu Garcia are three young players that will be part of our squad for the future.
"The game allowed us to make those substitutions."
Arnold on Lewandowski's five-goal haul: 'It's simply s***'
Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski came off the bench at half-time against Wolfsburg on Tuesday night and, with his side trailing 1-0, scored five times in nine minutes to turn the match on its head and break a clutch of records.
The Poland international became the first man in Bundesliga history to score five after coming on a substitute, and his first three strikes constituted the fastest hat-trick in the league's history.
But Arnold was in no mood for discussion, telling Sky: "We can't explain that, five goals in nine minutes. There is no reason to talk about, it's simply s***."
The 5-1 victory takes Bayern seven points clear of Wolfsburg at the top of the Bundesliga table, although Borussia Dortmund can move level on points with the champions if they beat Hoffenheim on Wednesday.
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