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Arsenal
overcame a brief Blackpool fight back to win 3-1 at Bloomfield Road and
close the gap on Manchester United to seven points at the top of the
Premier League on Sunday.

Arsenal, who
fielded 41-year-old Jens Lehmann in goal for the first time in three
years as an emergency stand-in for Manuel Almunia, were 2-0 up after 21
minutes thanks to goals from Abou Diaby and Emmanuel Eboue.

Blackpool replied
after 52 minutes when Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored after the referee
waved play on despite Lehmann bringing down DJ Campbell in the penalty
area. Although they had other chances, the seaside strugglers failed to
find the equaliser.

Instead, Arsenal
wrapped up the victory with a superb goal on the counter-attack after
76 minutes when Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott combined on the break
before Walcott crossed for Robin van Persie to score in front of goal.

Lehmann, who left
Arsenal three years ago and returned after coming out of retirement
last month to help solve a goalkeeper crisis, was called into the game
just before kickoff after Almunia was injured in the warm-up.

The result lifted Arsenal to 62 points, seven behind leaders United
with a game in hand. Blackpool remained a point and a place above the
relegation zone.

The
San Antonio Spurs took another step toward securing home-court
advantage throughout the NBA postseason with a 111-102 win over the
Utah Jazz.

Having wrapped up
the top seeding in the Western Conference, the Spurs are 1.5 games
ahead of Eastern Conference leaders Chicago, with the Bulls having
three games left to play.

San Antonio seized
control of a close first half with a 15-2 run that straddled halftime,
and held off a surge by the Jazz early in the fourth that saw the
Spurs’ lead narrowed to 91-85.

Richard Jefferson
scored 20 points and Tony Parker had 13 as all five Spurs starters
scored double digits despite seeing limited action after opening up a
large lead.

“All year long, and
pretty much most of my career, whenever I score big numbers it’s
because my teammates got me the ball,” said Jefferson, who connected on
4 of 7 from three point range. “A lob from Gary Neal, some passes from
Tony Parker early really got me going. Last year I struggled a little
bit, especially from the 3-point line.

“This summer when I
worked with the coaches I really focused in on that because that was my
role. It’s really helped me this season.”

The Spurs bench
added 44 points, led by Tiago Splitter’s 13 and Gary Neal added 12
points, as San Antonio cruised to their fourth win in a row.

“I feel that is what makes their team so special,” Jazz forward Paul
Millsap said. “They have guys that can come off the bench and score the
basketball. They truly play basketball out there.” Al Jefferson led the
Jazz with 23 points.

What United must not do

With an away goal
plus the 90,000 strong-crowd at Old Trafford, Manchester United have it
all – but they must not press down the accelerator when Chelsea get
unto the pitch today. A 0-0 result qualifies the Red Devils for the
semi-finals and probably a tie against German side Schalke 04. United
made eight changes to their team for the visit of Fulham on Saturday
and won comfortably 2-0. So the players that are going to be in action
today are rested and ready – which might actually be a good thing
considering that the players will be able to make lung-busting runs
behind the defence of Chelsea and also recover in time to defend. So
the key to victory lies in being patient and making sure that the
players deliver the right pass and keep the ball the majority of the
time. Chelsea will want to set a high tempo and a lot of balls will be
delivered aerially to Didier Drogba with Nicolas Anelka and Florent
Malouda hoping for knockdowns.

United must always
ensure that they have a free man handy in front of Nemanja Vidic and
Rio Ferdinand – even though Ferdinand played the first leg very well,
reading the body language of the strikers very well.

Alex Ferguson –
“Wayne will be fresher, that’s for sure. Missing the game on Saturday
has given him six days of good preparation for tomorrow. At this time
of the year, fatigue comes into it and it’s one of the reasons I made
changes on Saturday. We felt it was important – not only to give
freshness but to give some players game time.”

What Chelsea must do

The cliché – ‘No
retreat, no surrender’‑ aptly describes the situation that the Blues
find themselves and from the referee’s signal to start the game,
Chelsea have to be on the front foot – seeking to score and that brings
in itself a lot of questions for the manager, Carlo Ancelotti. Should
he revert to the tried and trusted 4-3-3 over the 4-4-2, which was
employed last week at Stamford Bridge? It showed in the latter phase of
the first leg that immediately they switched formations with Mikel Obi
coming on for Jose Bosingwa, they were able to overwhelm United in
Midfield. Frank Lampard now had the latitude to bomb forward on his
customary late runs. If Ancelotti wants anything out of this match,
then he has to flood the midfield to put more pressure on Michael
Carrick and Ryan Giggs, though United should line up in a 4-5-1
formation and rely on the counterattack. Another question that must be
answered before kick-off is whether to pair Didier Drogba and Fernando
Torres again? The answer should be Drogba over Torres, who is still
finding his feet with the midfielders, unsure where to deliver the ball
to the Spaniard. They already know the strengths and movements of
Drogba. Chelsea need to find the first goal in this match or it is
curtains – if that is not already the case!

Youssi Benayoun –
“The thing left is to try to win a trophy and the only one we can win
is the Champions League. If we win this game it will change everything.
I’m sure if we beat United we’ll go to the end and win the trophy. They
are a big team with a great manager but we have belief we can do it,
despite losing at home. We have to give everything and try our best.”

Fact: Torres, who
is yet to score for Chelsea, has gone 13 games and 817 minutes without
a goal for club and country, his longest drought since a 17-match
streak while at Club Atlético de Madrid in 2005.

Barcelona looking forward

No one (except the
punters) believes that there will be a Dombass miracle today. Dombass
Arena is the 5-star stadium where Shakhtar Donetsk will welcome FC
Barcelona tonight hoping to turn around a 1-5 deficit. Though they say
anything is possible in football, it will be a catastrophic decline if
it were achieved by the Ukrainian club – moreover Barcelona still has
the effervescent Lionel Messi in their ranks. So will Pep Guardiola use
the main team or rest some key players ahead of the Classico this
weekend at the Santiago Bernebeu, but that will be disrespecting Mircea
Lucescu and his team. Though the mountain just got steeper with an
injury to one of his key defenders and captain, Dario Srna, who has
been ruled out for two weeks. Srna now joins Olexandr Kucher and Dmytro
Chygrynskiy on the injury list while left-back, Razvan Rat, is
suspended. Shakhtar also suffered their first defeat at the new Dondass
Arena, losing 1-0 to FC Obolon.

The Catalans are also shorn of Carles Puyol, Eric Abidal and Bojan Krkic while Andres Iniesta is suspended.

It was like old
times for Tiger Woods at the Masters on Sunday as the former world
number one put himself in position to claim a fifth green jacket and
had huge galleries cheering him on.

When he started the
back nine on the final day, when the suffocating pressure of the
Masters separates the men from the boys, there he was, perched in his
customary position at the top of the leaderboard and on the prowl.

He was five under
par for the day and had just eagled the eighth hole to join the
leaders. With momentum and experience on his side, the green jacket was
beckoning and the galleries at Augusta National roared with excitement.

But the Woods of
2011 is not the same man who dominated golf since 1997 while racking up
14 major titles. As hard as he tried, he could not conjure up any more
of his old magic.

He could only manage par at the par-five 13th hole, which he had birdied in each of the previous three rounds.

At the 15th,
another par-five, he reached the green in two and had a chance for a
second eagle from six feet that would have given him the outright lead.
But he missed and settled for a birdie, his last for the tournament.

He played the back
nine in even par for a final round 67 for a 10-under-par total of 278.
By most standards, it was a great performance but it was only enough to
leave him tied for fourth, four back of South African winner Charl
Schwartzel.

“I got off to a
good start on the front nine and on the back nine didn’t putt well and
hit one loose iron there at 13,” Woods told reporters. “I should have
shot an easy three or four under on the back nine and I only posted
even.” Ultimately, it was his putter that let him down. He needed 33
putts on Saturday, 31 on Sunday and missed a handful of short putts
that might have been tap-ins in years gone by.

The drought

Woods has not won a
major since 2008 nor any tournament since 2009 when the sordid details
of his private life became public and his game began to implode.

The golf world has been waiting patiently for him to resurface and continue his chase of Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 majors.

As riveting as his
latest charge was, the jury is still out on whether he can win the five
majors he needs to pass Nicklaus but there have been some positive
signs.

The 35-year-old has
been working hard at rebuilding his swing and his performance at
Augusta over the past four days showed that he is anything but a spent
force.

“I hit it good all day. This entire weekend I hit it good,” he said,
with a hint of understatement and frustration. “So that was a nice
feeling.”

After
putting up a splendid performance against Equatorial Guinea in the
London 2012 Olympics qualifier over the weekend, the National U-23 team
will today begin camping for their next assignment: a date with their
Liberian counterpart in the race to make it to the All-Africa Games
billed for Maputo, Mozambique, later this year.

Stanley Eguma,
assistant coach of the team, said the players are aware of the tight
schedule on ground and would be expected to hit Benin City today to
begin preparations for the trip to Monrovia to face the Liberian U-23
side. “There is no rest for now, we just have to get down to business,”
he said.

“You know there are
no more minnows in football so we cannot say we will take time before
starring our preparation” Nigeria is hoping to make a return to the
All-Africa Games football event after missing out on the last edition
in Algiers, Algeria. Only eight slots are up for grabs at the Maputo
Games.

Good tactics

Meanwhile, players
of the National U-23 Dream Team “V” have showered praises on head coach
Austin Eguavoen’s tactics last match in Malabo.

After the 9-1
aggregate victory recorded, Team Captain Kingsley Udoh attributed the
team’s win to team work and determination. “It was a good game for us.
We played to the coach’s formation and this helped us a lot. But all in
all, our determination to succeed worked a lot for the team,” the
Heartland defender declared.

Said Spain-based
defender, Ibot Edet: ”We knew that the task was not going to be an easy
one but we went into the game with victory on our mind.

“Playing to the coach’s instructions coupled with the team spirit in
camp, we were determined to take the points at stake and that was what
we did.” For Amodu Usman, who saw 90 minutes of action and held the
left full back, Coach Austin Eguavoen’s tactics were instrumental to
their success. “I am happy to be back in the national team and I must
confess the coach’s tactics helped us.”

West
Bromwich Albion’s Nigerian forward, Osaze Odemwingie, is aiming to
score a minimum of 15 goals this season and in the process beat his own
personal best mark of 14 goals. That 14-goal mark was achieved by the
Nigerian back in the 2005/06 season during his time at French outfit
Lille.

This season, since
joining Albion from Russia’s Lokomotiv Moscow in August, Odemwingie has
hit 11 Premier League goals, including two in his last three games to
boost the Baggies’ Premier League survival hopes.

Odemwingie,
following last Saturday’s strike against Sunderland in the Baggies’ 3-2
win at the Stadium of Light, also equalled the club’s record goals mark
set by Robert Earnshaw six years ago.

Hotter than Rooney and Drogba

The 29-year-old is
currently joint-sixth in the Premier League’s scoring chart, ahead of
the likes of Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Chelsea’s Didier
Drogba, and now wants to go ahead and beat his own personal best of 14
goals in a campaign over the course of the final six games.

“Of course it will
be written if I get more than 11 and I will be happy with that,”
Odemwingie told his club’s official website. “But my target is still
there to beat my own record, which was 14 goals in a season, and
hopefully I can get there.

“It is just a plus
for me that I am holding the record for the number of goals in the
Premier League for West Brom. I’m sure one day someone will beat it –
but hopefully I will get more than 11.

“There are still six games to go and it is possible to get 15 – especially if they give me every penalty.”

Penalty plea

Odemwingie missed
from the penalty spot during New Year’s Day 2-1 defeat to Manchester
United, and ever since, Chris Brunt has been charged with the task of
taking the Baggies’ spot kicks and has so far done a good job. “Brunty
looks confident and we trust him now with the kicks,” continued
Odemwingie, referring to Brunt. “But if we’re winning 2-0 or 3-0 maybe
I can ask him for the penalty so I can get more goals.

“But for now we’re
sticking to the game plan and the target is still to achieve the
objectives of the team and then my own rewards will come if I work hard
for them.”

Saturday’s victory
over Sunderland was the third in four games for the side promoted at
the end of last season to the Premier League and made it 12 points from
six games under manager Roy Hodgson, who was previously in charge of
Liverpool. But there remains a lot of work to be done if the Baggies
plan to avoid an immediate return to the lower tiers of English
football. “We have 39 points and I think we need two more wins to be
there in terms of safety,” said Odemwingie. “We have tough games now
against Chelsea and Tottenham, Newcastle away will be difficult, as
will Everton at home.

“After the game, the head coach mentioned to us that it was a great
result but we’re still not safe and we will still have to fight to stay
up,” he added.

The
Easter season will witness intense para-soccer action as eight teams
compete for glory at the fourth Promasidor Para-Soccer Championship.

The tournament,
organised by the Lagos State Paralympics Association (LSPA) and Total
Consult Limited and sponsored by Promasidor Nigeria Limited, will see
the eight teams coming from Lagos, Kaduna, Rivers and Adamawa states
for the competition.

Chairman of the
LSPA, Babatunde Awelenge, stated that the competition is geared towards
encouraging the physically-challenged to embrace sports and to be
socially responsible, adding that physical fitness aids the disabled
person’s ability. “We believe that there is ability in disability. If
the physically-challenged channel their energies to sporting
activities, it will make them socially responsible in the society.” Mr
Awelenge also said that it would be a good opportunity to evaluate
Lagos Paralympics athletes. “We also want to use the tournament to
prepare our athletes for the 17th National Sports Festival scheduled
for June in Port Harcourt.” Awelenge, who is also the vice-president of
the paralympics committee for the south-west zone, commended Promasidor
for the sponsorship and appealed to other corporate organisations to
emulate the company.

The championship,
which will hold from April 22 to April 24 at the University of Lagos
(Unilag) Indoor Sports Hall, will feature teams like Premium Blazers,
Total Consult, NAS Warriors and Lead United all from Lagos; Team Rivers
and Amaechi Babes from Rivers while Kaduna Para-Soccer team and Brai
Moi team will be representing Adamawa.

Speaking on behalf
of the Managing Director of Total Consult, consultants to the tourney,
Idowu George, the para-soccer coordinator, said the company is keen to
see that this edition is successful. He noted that Promasidor’s
interest in the championship would go a long way to help the
physically-challenged in showcasing their God-given talent. “The
championship is meant to take the physically-challenged off the
streets; it will also prevent them from engaging in criminal
activities,” he said.

Mr George promised the competing athletes that the competition would
be rewarding as cash prizes and trophies would be given to the best
teams in the competition. Last year, the competition was won by Lead
Warriors, while Total Consult Terrors and Baba Mai emerged second and
third, respectively.

Only mischievous
elements among us will say that Tayo Balogun’s assessment of sports
reporters in this great nation as being inept, corrupt and lazy, is
empty talk or mere grandiose language. For me, and I believe many other
proactive, forward-looking, committed and God-fearing sports writers
with me, Mr Balogun’s assertions, graphically spelt out on this column
last week, constitute a revelation that requires very urgent action to
save Nigerian sports.

It is also a
clarion call to all sports-loving Nigerians to please team up with us
to initiate effective strategies that will eventually bring some degree
of sanity to sports journalism in Nigeria. We cannot and must not allow
sports reporting to continue like this. We must not continue to deceive
ourselves ‑ or allow a bunch of nincompoops, who have absolutely no
regard for decency, decorum or standard, to deceive us. Fellow
sports-loving Nigerians, it is high time we told them: Enough of idiocy
and shenanigans!

Samson Kabian,
FIFA’s football development officer, visited Nigeria’s NFA, sorry NFF,
in January, 2011, and saw the confusion Nigerian sports writers have
let take root in this country. Like frogs in the kettle, Nigerians have
been mischievously indoctrinated into swallowing such confusion and
deceit hook, line, and sinker. We have been made to understand,
however, that, those who are assumed to be in charge of football
administration in Nigeria at present are known as the NFA when they
desperately need their own portion of the ‘national cake’ and become
NFF when they engage in sponsorship deals or shameless trips like the
ill-fated Obama International Football Competition. Nigerian sports
writers are pretending that all is well with football administration,
or some are absolutely ignorant of this situation. What a shame! What a
travesty! Please forgive the digression.

Anyway, Samson
Kabian, was at the NF(F)(A) ‑ please feel free to take your choice ‑
and since we are in the middle of the democratic process called
elections, you are free to vote for whichever you consider worthy for
Nigeria (NFA i.e. ‘No Fruitful Agenda’, or NFF i.e. ‘No Fruitful
Foundation’) parties of Nigeria. Let me warn that it will be very
dangerous for you to ‘siddon look’ o. You do that at the detriment of
the present and future of Nigerian sports. Oh blimey! I digressed again.

Okay. So Samson
Kabian visited the Glass House, where he had a meeting with the
executive committee of the body governing football in Nigeria. During
this meeting, I was exclusively and authoritatively informed that Mr
Kabian bared his mind on the state of grassroots football development
in Nigeria. Mr Kabian was said to have told Aminu Maigari and his team
that countries like Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are on their fourth level
of football development projects, while a Country like Cape Verde is on
its fifth, but our beloved great nation, Nigeria, is still on the first
project, which has not even been absolutely concluded! Mr Kabian was
reported to have told Mr Maigari and those present at the meeting that
“…you are lagging behind schedule and should be benefiting more…”
This comment made by Mr Kabian, whether we believe it or not, is the
true state of grassroots sports development in Nigeria. Was this
extensively reported on the pages of Nigerian newspapers? NO! Were
there no members of the Sports Writers’ Association of Nigeria (SWAN)
at that meeting? They were there, but we have it on good authority that
“efforts” were made by members of the executive body governing our
football to “kill” the story. Hence it was deemed “not fit” for the
consumption of fellow Nigerians. Brown envelopes were distributed and
that was the end of the issue. Business should continue as usual. After
all, who cares whether football develops in Nigeria or not. In as much
as we are able to beat Ethiopia and Kenya and Sierra Leone, that is
enough. Any form of developmental process can be forever labelled “Keep
In View”. The mouths of busybodies like Mr Kabian should be stuffed
with some naira, no, dollar notes, to keep them quiet. What is his
business with grassroots football development anyway?

Fellow Nigerians,
this is just a tip of the iceberg on the current state of sports
journalism in Nigeria. This is why there is urgent need for us to pray
that “…every tree (in this case, sports journalist), not planted by
God” in Nigerian sports should be uprooted. This is one of the ways we
can all join hands to save Nigerian sports.

In-form Novak
Djokovic is not even competing at this week’s Monte Carlo Masters yet
Rafael Nadal can still sense the Serb lurking in the shadows as the
clay court season begins in stifling sunshine.

For a man who won
every clay tournament he entered last year and who at Monte Carlo is
bidding to be the first player in the open era to win the same event
seven times in a row, the Spanish world number one was remarkably
subdued on Monday.

Two straight final
defeats to Djokovic on the hard courts at Indian Wells and Miami have
left their mark despite the switch to clay and the Serb’s absence from
Monte Carlo to rest a knee injury.

“I feel very
beatable when I go on court. The last six years on clay, I could never
have imagined what I did. It’s almost impossible to repeat a season
like last year,” Nadal told reporters at the Country Club, perched
above the shimmering sea.

“It’s almost a year
since I’ve played on clay. As usual, I try to watch videos (of myself)
to remember what I have to do. Last year I started to play and felt
fantastic from the beginning. Every year is different. You need
matches.” World number two Djokovic, whose injury is expected to clear
up in the next few days, has won 24 straight matches in 2011 and
nine-times Grand Slam champion Nadal reckons that form can be
transferred onto clay despite the Serb skipping this week.

“I’m sure on clay he’s going to be good,” Nadal said, muscles bulging out of his shirt sleeves.

Advantages

“This year Novak
has a lot of advantages. He is in a perfect situation to be number one.
I’m sure he’ll be number one next month. He started the season playing
unbelievably. In my opinion he didn’t even play his top level in Indian
Wells and Miami.” Nadal, who fought to keep the glamorous but small
scale Monte Carlo tournament a Masters event, has such an attachment to
Monaco that he had a special audience with Prince Albert on Sunday.

“I played my best
tennis ever on clay I think here last year,” added Nadal, due to play
his first match on Wednesday. “This place is one of my favourites in
the world.”

World number three
Roger Federer was keen to point out he is no mug on clay as the build
up to next’s month’s French Open begins. “I feel very strong on the
surface. It’s the surface I grew up on. Everybody knows that by now. I
can make a huge step forward,” the Swiss said.

If Federer’s recent
form is patchy, Andy Murray’s has been downright dreadful since his
Australian Open final defeat to Djokovic and the Briton is no nearer to
finding a new coach.

“I’m not any closer. I’m trying to concentrate on playing,” the world number four said.

“I feel better this year, I just haven’t been playing well in the matches. I’m sure this week there will be a few upsets.”

Interim Bayern
Munich coach Andries Jonker could not have wished for a more
challenging start as the German champions battle to rescue a barren
season with a Champions League spot for next season.

The 48-year-old
Jonker, Louis van Gaal’s assistant and his successor after he was
sacked on Sunday following a draw at Nuremberg which relegated them to
fourth in the league, must launch a five-game winning burst starting
against second-placed Bayer Leverkusen on the weekend.

In a twist of fate,
Leverkusen, who could scupper Bayern’s hopes of clinching a third place
finish that would put them into Champions League qualification, are
coached by Jupp Heynckes, already appointed as new Bayern coach for
next season.

With next year’s
Champions League final to be staged in Munich at their own Allianz
Arena, it would be a catastrophe for Bayern if they missed out on
Europe’s top club competition.

“I expect an
explosion against Leverkusen. I expect that the players will finally
get rid of that straitjacket they have been wearing in the past
months,” said club president Uli Hoeness after announcing Jonker as van
Gaal’s immediate successor.

Perfect replacement

Jonker is seen as
the perfect fire-fighting choice with Bayern bosses saying he knew how
the club operated and enjoyed the players’ trust, something his
predecessor had long lost.

“That’s just fairy
tales that the players were behind (Van Gaal). You could see that a
couple of our players’ game was dictated by pure fear,” said Hoeness.

The softly spoken
Dutchman, who was also flamboyant Van Gaal’s assistant at Barcelona,
will most likely reappoint keeper Joerg Butt as his number one after
van Gaal had surprisingly opted to give the start to youngster Thomas
Kraft midway through the season despite the club board’s vocal
objections.

The 36-year-old’s
experience is seen as crucial in the final phase of the league, with
Bayern on 52 points, one behind Hanover 96 and nine off Leverkusen.
Borussia Dortmund lead on 66.

“We wanted a man
who knows the conditions here, who knows what needs to be changed,”
said club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, explaining the club’s choice to
appoint Jonker.

“He said that he will keep all the good things but also change what
needs to be changed. I think Andries Jonker has a very clear plan.”