Arsenal's season hasn't gone quite according to plan, but a win today against Aston VIlla in FA Cup Fourth Round action could help ease some of the pressure being faced by Arsene Wenger these days.
Wenger has been roundly criticized since the Gunners' loss to Manchester United last week, but a win today might help ease some of that backlash. Aston Villa isn't like to make things easy as the Villans have their own FA Cup aspirations, and Robbie Keane will look to build off last week's impressive two-goal performance.
With Juventus beating Udinese on Saturday, the pressure will be on AC Milan to keep pace, so a win against Cagliari is a must for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Co. In Mexico, first-place Club Tijuana looks to keep its Cinderella start to the season going against mighty Santos Laguna in a match that could feature as many as four Americans.
If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today's TV Schedule is after the jump):
SUNDAY
6 a.m. - DirecTV - Real Betis vs. Granada
6:30 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/ESPN3.com - Fiorentina vs. Siena
6:30 a.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Feyenoord vs. Ajax
8:30 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough
9 a.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Lecce vs. Inter Milan
9 a.m. - ESPN3.com - Roma vs. Bologna
9 a.m. - ESPN3.com - Chievo Verona vs. Lazio
10 a.m. - DirecTV - Levante vs. Getafe
10 a.m. - DirecTV - Real Sociedad vs. Sporting Gijon
11 a.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Arsenal vs. Aston Villa
11 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Valenciennes vs. Ajaccio
11 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Evian Thonon Gaillard vs. Bordeaux
11:30 a.m. - GOLTV - VfB Stuttgart vs. Borussia Monchengladbach
12 p.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Racing Santander vs. Valencia
1 p.m. - Univision - Pumas UNAM vs. Chivas de Guadalajara
2:15 p.m. - ESPN3.com - Gil Vicente vs. Porto
2:45 p.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - AC Milan vs. Cagliari
3 p.m. - Azteca America - Tijuana vs. Santos Laguna
3 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Stade Rennes vs. Marseille
3:30 p.m. - GOLTV - Malaga vs. Sevilla
8:30 p.m. – Fox Deportes – Boca Juniors vs. River Plate
Am I the only one watching the USWNT?
Kind of bothered by NBCSN’s broadcast. They’re using the CONCACAF stream with their own announcers calling from the studio. Sounds like shite.
Especially sucks since there’s a pretty loud crowd that now you can barely hear….
Or at least they were loud until AM13 scored early…
If I am reading this correctly, Lichaj was dressed for the match today and on the bench.
http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2592823,00.html
And it’s on NBC Sports (formally Versus) according to my TV guide. Also concacaf.com live (legal, free) stream for those without NBC Sports.
lol
Well, it’s easy to think he’ll get a look soon if he deserves one, as Hutton and Warnock are, for my money, the worst fullback pairing in the Premier League (and this is coming from a Villa supporter); they’re absolutely atrocious. McLeish has tried to slot other players (Ciaran Clark, who has performed poorly, and Carlos Cuellar, who does a job, but is better used in the center) into those spots, but Lichaj is a natural fullback and should get his chance when he’s fit.
I really can’t overstate how much I loathe Alan Hutton as a player.
Probably a better position for him.
Way to drop some knowledge here.
#WeHaveTheTechnology
Makes you wonder how fast Eric Lichaj will get a start as soon as he is 100%, hope he gets some reserve games under his belt pronto, guy was one of the best for my money at Left Back and with Dolo aging and not always starting, it would be nice for Chandler to take over the Right Back spot for Dolo and Lichaj the Left Back spot. Chandler might be moving to a better and bigger Bundesliga Club this summer from what I hear.
Plus starting to look towards 2014, I’d like to try both of those guys, feel that despite Chandler doing great, he is really handicapped by playing on his off foot and having to cut back and predictably adjust to use his natural foot when making those great runs forward, on the right he might wreck havoc in qualifying…
In any case even if to get ready to take over for the RB spot from Dolo I’d like to get Lichaj back soon
CAP HIM!!!!
Oh wait, never mind….
I KNOW, start him at Center Forward Damn it! lol
To be fair, neither of those plays even get that far if not for Alan Hutton’s baffling ineptitude at right back. He’s putting on a performance to make Jonathan Bornstein look like Paolo Maldini.
I think he pronounces it correctly; I haven’t noticed him using an ‘n’. Czech spelling is phonetic, and a plain ‘c’ makes a “ts” sound, making “Rosicky” sound like “Ro-sits-ki”.
If Soccernet is accurate, Gooch had two goals going into the game. With the two he scored today, he is second on the team with 4 – top scorer 7
Gooch is totally hogging the stat sheet for Sporting Lisbon today, yellow in the 1st minute, and now 2 goals…. can he go for the hat-trick?
I sure hope so, just off the top of my head that’s 3 goals for him this year, 2 game winners so far if this holds up!
Arsenal have three players that from a distance all resemble eachother in physical features and style of play: Walcott, The Ox and Coquelin. Clone program Arsene’s remedy to his financial restrictions?
MB goes out – Lazio scores two more goals
Jozy doesn’t play for AZ, they lose.
Hopefully, this means these two are more important to their teams than originally thought?
I thnk he has two today
Gooch with goal off a corner. He may be their top scorer or near the top.
What was Bent doing slide tackling anyone in his own half, let alone his own box.
Forwards should never concede penalties.