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Two weeks ago, Arsenal were dreaming of a quadruple, but by
Saturday evening, after their FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United at
Old Trafford, they could be reduced to chasing just the Premier League title.

Arsenal were surprisingly beaten in the League Cup final by
Birmingham City, knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona and missed a
chance to close on United in the Premier League when they drew 0-0 at home with
Sunderland. Manager Arsene Wenger, bristling with fury at the red card for
Robin van Persie that he felt contributed to their 3-1 loss in the Nou Camp,
must refocus his energy as he seeks his first trophy since winning the FA Cup
in 2005. With United also standing in the way of the Premier League title and
the two teams due to meet in the Emirates next month, Saturday’s game is a
chance to gain a psychological advantage.

Tough luck

Arsenal have not won at Old Trafford since 2006, losing there in
the league, Champions League and FA Cup, a 4-0 thrashing in 2008. They are
likely to be without Cesc Fabregas after the captain aggravated a hamstring
strain against Barcelona and will definitely miss first-choice goalkeeper
Wojciech Szczesny after he dislocated a finger. With Theo Walcott also likely
to miss out and Andrey Arshavin struggling for form, it looks a tough task for
Arsenal, also beaten 1-0 at Old Trafford in December. “We’ve we got to pick
ourselves up, we have to go there on Saturday and get a win,” midfielder Jack
Wilshere said. “We are still in two competitions and we want a trophy.”

United have also experienced a mini-slump with back-to-back
league defeats at Chelsea and Liverpool but they remain a formidable force at
home, where they have won 13 and drawn one of 14 league games this season. The
record 11-times Cup winners will be without winger Nani on Saturday after he
suffered a cut shin in the 3-1 Liverpool defeat but Alex Ferguson’s team plans
are likely to remain a secret if the manager maintains a media blackout he
imposed in the wake of the two league defeats.

Other matches

Reading are the only remaining club from outside the Premier
League in the competition after the Championship (second division) side beat
Everton at Goodison Park to reach the last eight for the second successive
season. They face a tough task to go any further, however, as they visit
Manchester City on Sunday. City have probably given up any realistic hope of
winning the league but the Cup offers a great opportunity for their first
silverware since 1976.

After waiting 48 years for a cup success, Birmingham are now
eying two in one season as they host Bolton Wanderers on Saturday. Birmingham
climbed out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 draw at Everton on Wednesday and
manager Alex McLeish faces a difficult juggling act with a series of crunch games
against relegation rivals on the horizon.

Two more clubs taking a break from the relegation fight are Stoke City and
West Ham United, who meet in the Midlands on Sunday. Stoke, who have never
reached the final, lost to Chelsea in the quarter-finals last season but have a
better chance this time to make the semis for the first time since 1972. West
Ham, who lost to Birmingham in the League Cup semi-finals, are back in the
relegation zone and will have mixed views on another drain on their resources.

Nigeria’s U-20 male football team, the Flying Eagles, has
arrived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from Antalya, Turkey, in continuation
of the team’s preparation for this year’s African Youth Championship.

The team will play Egypt’s U-20 team today while also keeping a
date with Saudi Arabia’s U-20 side on Sunday, March 13, before returning to
Nigeria on March 14. Sam Ameobi, the younger brother of Shola Ameobi, is
expected to feature in today’s game as Coach John Obuh said he wants to give
the 19 year old a chance to prove his worth.

The Flying Eagles have been in Turkey for over three weeks
preparing for the tournament previously billed to start in Libya on March 18
but the current unrest in the North African country has forced the
Confederation of African Football to postpone the tournament indefinitely. The
team, though undefeated in most of their tune matches, have also not been too
successful outside the 3-0 whiplash of FC Aktov, a Premier League club from
Kazakhstan last week Thursday.

Gunning for glory

The Flying Eagles are gunning for an unprecedented sixth title
at this year’s championship but have been handed a tough draw which sees them
pitched alongside Africa and World Champions, Ghana, and also the duo of
Cameroun and Gambia. The football federation is yet to pick a new host for the
tournament, but there are speculations that last FIFA World Cup host, South
Africa, looks favoured to host the championships, which also doubles as the
qualifiers for Youth World Cup to be staged in Colombia later this year.

Africa has been given four slots, meaning that only the semi finalist at
this year’s event will get a chance to represent the continent at the World
Championships. Meanwhile, as the Flying Eagles get ready to return back to the
country this weekend, the Nigeria Football Federation is already seeking
assistance from state governors that would help foot the bills for the camping
of the team as they await a new date for the championship. Sources close to the
NFF revealed that both the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and his
Taraba State counterpart, Danbaba Suntai, have both been approached for this
purpose.

Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia has handed a national team
recall to the duo of Obafemi Martins and Ikechukwu Uche ahead of this month’s
2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia.

They were both included in the 24-man list released by Siasia on
Wednesday in Abuja. Martins hasn’t featured for the Super Eagles since the
conclusion of the last FIFA World Cup in South Africa, no thanks to a dip in
form. But his recent run of games along with his cup-winning strike for
Birmingham City in their Carling Cup final victory over Arsenal ensured he got
a look-in from Siasia. Uche, for his part, hasn’t featured for the Super Eagles
since 2009 no thanks to two career threatening knee injuries. Although the Real
Zaragoza forward was included in the provisional list of players ahead of last
year’s World Cup, his match rustiness, owing to his long injury layoff, ensured
that he was excluded from the final 23-man squad for the tournament by former Super
Eagles helmsman Lars Lagerback.

He however recently made a return to action for the Spanish
first division side, and even got to score a goal in his side’s 2-1 win over
Athletic Bilbao at the start of the month. He now looks set to fight for a spot
in the Super Eagles attack ahead of the all important game against the
Ethiopians scheduled for March 27 at Abuja’s National Stadium. But getting into
the match-day squad won’t be a stroll in the park for Uche and Martins as they
will face stiff competition in the form of Everton’s Victor Anichebe, who’s
also staging a return to the Super Eagles after missing out of the World Cup,
Denmark based Peter Utaka and Warri Wolves’ Ekigho Ehiosun who made a scoring
debut in the win over the Sierra Leoneans. Solomon Okoronkwo, who now plays for
Norwegian side Aalesund after ending his three year romance with Russian side
Saturn Moscow, will also fight for a shirt in the Super Eagles’ attack.

Reunion

It will be a reunion of sorts with Siasia for the 24-year-old
Okoronkwo who was an integral part of the Nigerian sides that finished second
respectively at the 2005 FIFA Under 20 World Cup and the football event of the
2008 Beijing Olympics. Another player who will be reunited with Siasia is
Israel based central defender, Efe Ambrose, who was in the 2005 Flying Eagles
side.

Other members of the 2005 Flying Eagles side in the 24-man list
are: Heartland of Owerri’s Chibuzor Okonkwo, Xanthi of Greece’s Adefemi
Olubayo, Marseille’s Taye Taiwo, Ukraine based Dele Adeleye, and Chelsea’s
Mikel Obi. Inter Milan’s Joel Obi, who made his Super Eagles debut in the
international friendly against Sierra Leone, is also in the side, and he will
be joined by Obiora Nwankwo who could be in lone for his senior debut.

Other players in line for debut appearances against the Ethiopians are AC
Milan youngster Nnamdi Oduamadi, who is a natural right winger, as well as
central midfielder Fengor Ogude of Norwegian side Valerenga. The Super Eagles
presently trail Guinea on the log table after two round of matches. With four
round of matches to go until the end of the qualifiers, the Super Eagles must
win their remaining games to stand a chance of qualifying for the Cup of
Nations ahead of the Guineans, who grabbed a 1-0 win last time out in October
2010.

Serena Williams is receiving daily blood thinning injections to
get rid of the clots that are still in her lungs, the former world number one
revealed on Wednesday.

In her first public appearance since she underwent emergency
treatment at a Los Angeles hospital for a pulmonary embolism, Williams
described the experience as “the scariest moment in my life” but said she was
on the road to recovery and hoping to make comeback. “I had swelling in my leg
which is a tell tale sign of embolism and I could not breath,” Williams told
the Today show on Wednesday. “I remember thinking, I’m walking but I cannot
breathe, that forced me to the emergency room.”

Williams said she had no idea of how ill she really was until
doctors discovered the life-threatening clots during a CAT scan. “Mine went
from my leg to my lung. It travelled fast,” she said. “I still have several
clots in my lung and they are still there. They have to eventually dissolve.
I’m taking it a day at a time.” Williams has not played competitively since
winning last year’s Wimbledon championship in July. Shortly after the victory
she cut her foot on broken glass at a restaurant in Germany.

Possible return

The American has had two operations on her foot since then but
recently developed a haematoma, which she believes was caused by the
combination of her prolonged break and frequent flights. “Because I’m on blood
thinners and on the injections…I must have hit something,” she said.
“Usually, your blood naturally clots around it (but) since I was on blood
thinners it wasn’t able to clot. So what started as a golf ball ended up being
a grapefruit in my stomach.”

Williams has won 13 grand slam singles titles during her glittering career
but has slipped to 11th place on the world rankings during her extended
absence. The 29-year-old said she was recovering from the scare at her
Californian home but was confident of regaining full fitness and returning to
the courts later this year. “I’m feeling better every day,” she said. “Luckily
enough I was able to catch it soon enough that my career won’t be affected. I
love tennis and now, more than anything, I have so much to look forward to.”

Here
we go again. Our very worst is again put on display. For the umpteenth
time, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) bespatters mud on Nigerians
through rank chicanery. Once again, the men who run football in Nigeria
prove to be goblins incapable of ennobling conduct. How long shall we
suffer these creatures, these men who seem unable to rein in their
destructive demons? Yesterday, it was the sleaze of the Hampshire
Hotel, the $236,000 that ‘miraculously’ flew out of a locker in the
NFF’s stained glass house and Sani Lulu’s familial jamboree to the 2010
Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Today, it is the tragicomedy of the
Obama Cup. The signs were all there from day one. Discerning Nigerians
saw the tournament for what it was — a caper designed to profit a few
individuals who surely must be unmasked as long as God lives.

When Jide Fashikun,
the radical journalist based in Abuja, alerted Nigerians to the phony
nature of the tournament, the spin masters at the NFF vilified him in
the same manner they had reviled him when he told his countrymen that
the botched international friendly game with Guatemala existed only in
the opaque minds of the NFF’s top brass.

Now we know better.
Their caper is exposed and the world is witness once again to their
greed, if not criminality. The signs were all there. Twenty-four hours
before Coach Samson Siasia and his boys left for the United States,
Nigerian newspapers had reported that the tournament was off. Some of
them, using the Panama football federation as a source, said the
tournament had been shifted to the second week of this month.

Officials of the
NFF pretended not to have heard. Was it because they had information
about the tournament Nigerians were not privy to or was it important
that the team travelled just so the racket of a few individuals who
will sure be unmasked, came to fruition?

A convenient scapegoat

I am inclined to
believe that there was at play what lawyers refer to as mens rea
(criminal intent) and it should not be difficult to establish once the
matter is brought before officials of the Economic and Financial
Commission (EFCC) as it rightly should. With the racket unravelling,
the football federation has found a convenient scapegoat in match
agent, Pius Oleh. Speaking on Friday, NFF president, Aminu Maigari,
said the football federation was going to ask FIFA to have Oleh’s
licence revoked. It is all very well to blame Oleh, who the federation
says misled and embarrassed them, but the question remains, where were
Maigari and his men when reports indicated the tournament had been
called off? Were they on a trip to Mars?

Does Maigari really
want us to believe the NFF was ignorant of the latest developments
surrounding the tournament when we are not ninnies? There are
definitely questions that Maigari and his men need to provide answers
to. One of them is: how did Oleh come into the picture? Was he
contacted by the federation or did they approach him to help arrange
for them to participate in the tournament? If he was approached, who
made the initial contact and who exactly did he deal with at the
federation?

Answers to these questions will prove useful in determining whether
fraud has been perpetrated and who pays for the money expended by the
federation on the ill-fated tournament. We need to get to the bottom of
this so it doesn’t end up like the missing $236,000. Nigerian football
cannot continue to cope with the malfeasance that is slowly strangling
it to death. It needs a vitality that its present custodians cannot
provide. It is a shame that given the plenitude of decent
football-loving and God-fearing individuals in this country, the
commanding heights of Nigerian football are being held captive by
mediocrities, men incapable of rational or logical thought and action
as far as the administration of the game is concerned. Clearly, we need
to get out of this bind. Anyone who loves football must rise up and
demand that the game be saved from certain death, which will come if it
is left in the hands of its present superintendents.

I recognise the
right to complain or register displeasure with a team’s poor play in
any sport. But such should manifest in realistic and civil manner and
must be in context of the game or match.

Taking it from the
top, I think the Lagos crowd at the Teslim Balogun Stadium when the
Super Eagles took on Sierra-Leone in a friendly should have been more
restrained in its reaction to Eagles’ play in the last twenty minutes
or so given certain known facts. One, it was the first gathering of
many individuals as a team under a new manager, Samson Siasia. Two,
team talk, tactics get awhile to go from handlers to players
individually and collectively in terms of interpretation and execution.
Three, many of the players were debuting for their country so needed
support not boos no matter what. Four, a city that has not seen
international football since Sunday Oliseh’s captaincy and tsarist
tendencies put the demand on the NFA to play anywhere else but Lagos
for reason of boos and jeers when their legs could not carry them
anymore. The Lagos crowd should have been a bit more careful and
accommodating. The Super Eagles will come good; they need time and our
support not boos. Last match day behaviour was over the top and
condemnable. A repeat will not be good for anyone. Let the Lagos crowd
put a lid on it or be ready to forget international football for
another long while.

What we need now

This week I have
decided to add something different for freshness, fans should cheer
Eagles with pet names following the style of great footballers like
Edson Arantes Do Nacimento aka Pele, Jair Ventura Philho aka Jairzinho,
Eusebio Fereira or simply Eusebio, Raul Gonzales or just Raul etc to
push them to greater heights. That’s what we need now.

I will continue to
update the list. Let us support and encourage our footballers not boo
them. And if there are people to boo and jeer go to the Glass House
(Nigeria Football Federation secretariat) in Abuja you will find them
there. And they are aplenty.

Last line

Arsenal FC just
proved something I always believed in, that if you have your heart in
anything and you are positive about it, it’s done. That is the stuff
that gave them victory against mighty Barcelona in the first leg
Champions League encounter at the Emirates.

One more performance like that at Camp Nou in the return leg,
Arsenal would have killed bookmakers and betting companies. That is
football for you. Next week then.

Arsenal will be
forever convinced that Robin van Persie’s red card cost them the chance
of beating Barcelona but the truth is that they were overwhelmed, while
contributing heavily to their own downfall.

Barcelona’s 3-1 win
at the Nou Camp on Tuesday took them into the Champions League
quarter-finals by what looks a narrow 4-3 aggregate but they were a
class apart in every department, not least the one that Arsenal pride
themselves on – passing and possession.

The statistics tell
their own damming story as Barcelona enjoyed almost 70 percent of the
possession and made 738 passes to Arsenal’s 199. The Spaniards had 19
attempts on goal and substitute goalkeeper Manuel Almunia was the
visitors’ best player.

Arsenal did not
manage a single one – unless you include Van Persie’s wild
post-whistle, offside lash that became the game’s main talking point.

Arsenal had two
touches in the Barca penalty area, and one of those was the miscontrol
by Nicklas Bendtner near the end in a rare moment of concern for the
home defenders.

“The reality is
that they did not have three passes in a row,” said Barcelona manager
Pep Guardiola matter-of-factly having watched his amazing team build
spells of relentless possession that led again and again to dangerous
balls into, around, behind and through the over-worked Arsenal defence.

Clearly unfit

Yet, not that they
needed to, Arsenal gave Barcelona all the help they could muster. Cesc
Fabregas, desperate to play against his former, and possibly future,
club having missed the quarter-final second leg last season, was
clearly unfit.

Seemingly
protecting the hamstring strain that had made him a doubt right up
until kick off, the captain was anonymous apart from one ambitious
backheel just outside the box.

Unfortunately it
was outside his own box, moments before the sanctuary of halftime, and
led to Lionel Messi scoring the opening goal.

“I take full blame
for the result,” Fabregas said on his Twitter page
(twitter.com/cesc4official). “One of the worst moments of my life. I
apologise.” Wenger, however, could also be accused of contributing to
the defeat by deploying negative tactics.

Barcelona were
playing with midfielder Sergio Busquests and fullback Eric Abidal
thrown together in a makeshift centre back partnership crying out to be
pressurised.

Arsenal’s goal,
headed into his own net by Busquets as three Barcelona players went up
together to head clear a corner, should have alerted them, not that
they should have needed alerting, that the “world’s greatest team” were
vulnerable.

Yet, even with Van Persie on the field, they failed to put the duo under pressure.

The Dutchman was
furious about his red card, which seemed harsh even if he had heard the
whistle, yet he put himself in the precarious position by picking up an
earlier yellow card for a needless slap at Danny Alves.

Wenger was unhappy at the injustice of it all, but his side could
well have finished with nine players with Laurent Koscielny escaping
what may have been deemed a second yellow for his foul on Pedro to give
away the 71st-minute penalty that Messi converted to settle the tie.

United manager, Alex Ferguson will be seething after his team
was mugged at Anfield 3-1 by a resurgent Liverpool.

Led by their £23 million signing from Ajax, Luiz Suarez,
Liverpool threw everything at the league leaders. And in the 33rd minute, the
move paid off as Suarez bamboozled the United defence with a fine waltz before
setting Dirk Kuyt up for the opener. The display by the Uruguayan striker was
an indication that the Kop now have a new hero after the departure of Fernando
Torres to Chelsea.

The fallout of the fiercest rivalry in England, ensures that
Manchester United will have to wait for the next nine weeks to confirm if they
will be able to boast of a 19th title, one better than Liverpool.

After the supposed injustice of referee Matt Atkinson at
Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, Ferguson will start feeling that his team are being
ganged upon by the other teams in the league.

Hostile atmoshpere

A bad tackle by Jamie Carragher on Nani in the 45th minute
should have warranted a straight red card but referee Phil Dowd brandished a
yellow. Nani, who will be credited for the assist for Kuyt’s second goal had to
be rushed to the hospital due to the tackle.

It was definitely not the best 45 minutes of the Portuguese
winger’s career in a United shirt. He was replaced by Javier Hernandez, who
went on to score United’s consolation goal.

Shortly after, United’s right back, Rafael lunged (with his
studs showing) on Lucas Leiva – in what was a clear case of retribution.

At that point, the match threatened to degenerate into violence
with a dozen players involved in a session. After the consequent round of
shoving and pushing, Referee Dowd booked Rafael for the foul and Martin Skrtel
for being too enthusiastic in the melee that ensued.

Less intensity

The second half was more of the same, though a little less
intense. Liverpool had the rub of the green in the 65th minute when a Suarez
free-kick proved too hot for Edwin Van der Sar and Kuyt reacted the fastest
when he fired home the rebound to score his third goal, and bag his first hat
trick in the Premiership.

Hernandez’s 92nd minute goals will be scant consolation for Ferguson, who
has now seen his side lose for the third time in five consecutive league
matches.

Injured AC Milan
midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng is doubtful to face former side
Tottenham Hotspur in Wednesday’s Champions League last 16 second leg but
the stretched Rossoneri still go to London with renewed confidence.

The Serie A leaders
were crestfallen after the 1-0 home defeat in the first leg last month
when fiery midfielder Gennaro Gattuso’s post-match clash with Spurs
assistant coach Joe Jordan summed up the frustration of the seven-times
winners.

Three weeks on and
all seems rosy again after deserved domestic wins over Chievo, fellow
title challengers Napoli and arch rivals Juventus. Boateng’s ankle
problem, which forced him off in Saturday’s 1-0 victory in Turin, is the
only negative.

“We will try to have
him back,” coach Massimilano Allegri told reporters while chief
executive Adriano Galliani said they were “worried” for the Ghanaian.

Boateng’s fitness is
key as midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Massimo Ambrosini are injured
long-term while Mark van Bommel is ineligible and Gattuso is banned.

A makeshift midfield of Clarence Seedorf, Mathieu Flamini and German
youngster Alexander Merkel may be an option while with Antonio Cassano
ineligible, Alexandre Pato should recover from ‘flu to partner Zlatan
Ibrahimovic and Robinho upfront.

Chelsea go into today’s match against Blackpool knowing that
another victory could spark up a season that was gradually degenerating into a
farce two weeks ago. After the impressive 2-1 victory over Manchester United on
Tuesday last week, the Blues know that another three points will put them back
in a title race that Coach Carlo Ancelotti had long conceded will be won by
Manchester United.

After United’s loss to Liverpool yesterday, John Terry’s
rallying cry seems to be bringing dividends. But Blackpool is one of the sides
in the Premiership who cannot be easily dismissed.

Ian Holloway and his Orange gang have been a breath of fresh
air. In their first season in the top flight, they have been proving their
mettle. They had defeated another London club, Tottenham Hotspur, 3-1 in their
last league match so Chelsea have to be prepared to battle for the three points
at Bloomfield Road.

Lampard and good times

Frank Lampard’s injury woes this season have coincided with
Chelsea’s bad fortunes and his return to full fitness is a return to good times
for the Blues. However, Lampard has warned his team not to take anything for
granted in today’s match.

“It was an obvious statement because three points is three
points and having beaten Manchester United, we’ve edged our way back into
looking upwards rather than sideways and around us. We can’t sit on that, we’ve
had a couple of false dawns over the last couple of months and played our way
out of it, so now we need to build, starting with Blackpool,” he said.

Lampard knows that Blackpool have surprised some big teams this
term and they almost beat United, taking a two goal lead before capitulating to
lose 2-3.

“They have surprised me this season, not so much recently
because we’ve come to terms with what they’re doing, but at the beginning of
the season I’d have called them to be down there and that’s no disrespect,
because what a great feat it was for them to get into the Premier League, but
they’ve surprised me with their quality and hard work.”

When the two sides met in September Chelsea cruised to an easy
4-0 win. Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba scored one each, while Florent Malouda
bagged a brace on the day.

Striker Solomon Kalou is predicts a win for his team.

“I think we are showing the good side of Chelsea, because we
can’t just fight for one competition, we always fight for every competition,”
said Kalou, who has scored nine goals this term.

The Blues may not win the title but will have a say in who wins with games
against Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United still to come.