By JUSTIN FERGUSON
This busy Soccer Saturday will start with a bang in London as first-place Chelsea welcome third-place Arsenal to Stamford Bridge for a crucial match between English Premier League title contenders.
Chelsea have never lost a home league match under manager Jose Mourinho, and they will look to keep that streak — and more importantly, their advantage atop the league — intact as the Gunners visit West London. The Blues will try to rebound from their 1-0 loss to Aston Villa last weekend without midfielders Ramires and Willian, who each had late red cards at Villa Park. Arsenal are focused on keeping their league momentum going with a road win as they continue their late-season push without several key players.
The two other title contenders in the EPL, Liverpool and Manchester City, will be in action in the middle slate of matches. High-scoring Liverpool travel to 19th-place Cardiff City, while Manchester City battle last-place Fulham at Ethiad Stadium. Later in the day, Manchester United begin their tough stretch without Champions League savior Robin van Persie with a road fixture at 12th-place West Ham United.
Elsewhere, Bayern Munich look for their 18th consecutive victory in Bundesliga play against Mainz, who Bayern defeated to start their long winning streak. In Serie A, AS Roma take on Chievo Verona away from the Stadio Olimpico, and league-leading Cruz Azul visit Atlas to highlight Saturday night’s Liga MX action.
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):
8:15am – Derby County vs. Nottingham Forest – beIN Sports USA
8:45am – Chelsea vs. Arsenal – NBC Sports Network
10:30am – Mainz 05 vs. Bayern Munich – GolTV USA
11am – Cardiff City vs. Liverpool – NBC Sports Network
11am – Everton vs. Swansea City – Premier League Extra Time
11am – Hull City vs. West Bromwich Albion – Premier League Extra Time
11am – Manchester City vs. Fulham – Premier League Extra Time
11am – Newcastle United vs. Crystal Palace – Premier League Extra Time
11am – Norwich City vs. Sunderland – Premier League Extra Time
11am – Granada vs. Elche – beIN Sports en Español
11am – Middlesbrough vs. Queens Park Rangers – beIN Sports USA
11am – Aberdeen vs. Kilmarnock – Fox Soccer Plus
12pm – Marseille vs. Rennes – Univision Deportes
1pm — Torino vs. Livorno – beIN Sports USA
1pm – Espanyol vs. Levante – beIN Sports en Español
1:30pm – West Ham United vs. Manchester United – NBC Sports Network
1:30pm – Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Hertha BSC – GolTV USA
2pm – New England Revolution vs. Vancouver Whitecaps – MLS Direct Kick
3pm – Real Valladolid vs. Rayo Vallecano – beIN Sports en Español
3:45pm – Chievo vs. AS Roma – beIN Sports USA
3:45pm – PSV Eindhoven vs. Roda JC – GolTV USA
4pm – Montreal Impact vs. Seattle Sounders – MLS Direct Kick/Univision Deportes
4pm – Real Salt Lake vs. LA Galaxy – NBC Sports Network
4:30pm – Toronto FC vs. D.C. United – MLS Direct Kick
5pm – Athletic Bilbao vs. Getafe – beIN Sports en Español
6pm – Colorado Rapids vs. Portland Timbers – MLS Direct Kick
6pm – Columbus Crew vs. Philadelphia Union – MLS Direct Kick
6pm – Peñarol vs. Cerro – GolTV USA
7pm – Club America vs. Veracruz – Univision Deportes/Univision
8:30pm – Sporting KC vs. San Jose Earthquakes – MLS Direct Kick
8:30pm – FC Dallas vs. Chivas USA – MLS Direct Kick
9pm – Pachuca vs. Chiapas – Univision Deportes
9:30pm – Tigres UANL vs. Queretaro – UniMás
10:05pm – Club Leon vs. Cruz Azul – Telemundo Deportes/Telemundo
11pm – Atlas vs. Chivas de Guadalajara – Univision Deportes
Has Sunderland hit a decent cross today? Nothing even close to reaching the intended targets.
worst Yank transfer ever
I hope KARMA rewards Jozy with 6 goals in the world cup and he can get a move to a Lazio or Stuttgart come summer and start scoring goals. Maybe England just isn’t his league as Germany was not Donovan’s league.
we need more younger Yanks playing in Holland. I’d love to see more head to France as well. We however for sure need them in Spain/Italy, but they have massive restrictions on foreign players and they usually don’t go American. Maybe a point as those places have huge xenophobic problems and corruption and sometimes players don’t get paid.
I can’t imagine Jozy would ever want to go to Lazio. Easily the most racist fans in Western Europe.
What does karma have to do with anything? Has Jozy done something to deserve goals?
we saved the world in 2 world wars. he deserves good karma for that
Like hy would bardsley just launch that Long ball…?
Here is the latest Jozy goal scoring chart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://i.imgur.com/kAZjvK9.jpg
what a bizarre graphic….
The only explanation is cocaine
Seriously, what’s with these random lobbed balls from the backline when sunderland are in calm possession. Just pass the ball around ok the ground. I understand the occasional long ball to stretch the D but when 80% of their possession ends in a terrible long ball you’d think they’d adjust…
I try not to criticize guys playing/coaching at one of the best leagues in the world. Here it comes….BUT.. Jozy seems so easily marked. I would love to see him fight for position or to get goal side of his man on a run. His team is putrid, I agree with everyone. I miss the effort from the 4 goal Jozy of last year.
Jozy has a chicken and egg problem. He might not be good enough to play in the EPL but we will never know because the rest of Sunderland is terrible. I feel like Jozy is a good roll player who wont be a star. Good enough for me but how will we ever know with wingers as bad as Adam Johnson.
It boggles my mind how people on here heap blame on Johnson. He is the only player who has done anything for Sunderland this year. It’s possible he’ll even parlay his form into a spot on England’s WC squad. Sunderland is terrible, Jozy included. (I’m no Jozy hater whatsoever, but facts are facts. He has been awful.) Johnson has been far and away their best player. You guys have picked the wrong guy to target with your vitriol.
Do you watch Johnson play? He can’t do anything except score for himself. He can’t cross. He can barely beat a man sometimes. He takes shots from the outside and got hot in January. He didn’t do anything differently than normal but all those low percentage shots started going in for a bit. He always goes straight for goal and ignores whats going on around him until he doesn’t have a choice but to pass. By then he has wasted whatever advantage his team had. He could do more but he always makes bad decisions. If he was actually good, he would still be on Man City.
Its not vitriol. I didn’t insult him or use profanity to describe him. I called him out for what he is. A bad player. Just like Andros Townsend is a bad player, Aaron Lennon, or Ashley Young.
I love you Martin Skrtel. win me that game good sir
Watched a half of Sunderland/Norwich.
Gonna go watch the kids at the YMCA fields down the street for a bit to find my love for soccer again.
This!
This team looks as if they’ve given up on the season already when they have nearly 10 matches left. This is nearly the worst I’ve seen them play and that’s saying something. yikes.
+1
everybody including altidore on sunderland has been poor. im done watching
Jozy not winning enough balls and hearing it from the announcers. He needs to pick it up if he’s even allowed back on the field in the second half. He did set up their best chance by far, but a poor outing other than that. Whole team has been irredeemably awful.
yeah, he’s been poor today.
Don’t see him coming off for awhile. That would be the 3rd sub. Poyet is not that stupid.
Bardsley with time on the ball, in a great spot, with men in the box and crosses it to……. a teammate cleverly disguised as the opposite corner flag.
Winning comment of the day
Haha exactly. I’ve counted at least 15 hopeless long balls played up from the sunderland defense. The lack of ground passing makes both strikers (jozy and borini) look like they’re bad. If the mids could learn how to build an attack it’d do wonders for the whole team
When I saw that I was thinking that kind of sums up their season. I’m 68 years old and I could have made a better pass in that situation. He had all day.
Another great cross by bardsley…. True sunderland cross
Not surprising to see such an awful Sunderland performance after Poyet’s interview a couple of days ago basically saying that if Sunderland goes down, it’s his fault, but at the same time giving excuses why it’s not his fault. It was an odd interview, had a bad feel to it like he was jumping off a sinking ship.
Wonderful ball by Jozy to Borini. Great hold up play by the big man to set up the Italian.
Follows it up w a poor turnover.
And a handball. Man, what was in Sunderland’s breakfast this morning?
Poyet majes twi chanfes before half and niether are to bring on Giaccherini….??? Wow
Gotta change out defensive midfielders when you are down goalssss. Its the only way.
Takes off colback and brought on Larson, shoulda been Giac there. Chatter mike for ki is fine but get Giac in there over Larson
Ki is out??? Ugh. Colback I understand, but Ki? Who will pass the ball?
cattermole, of course
yeah, that’s a head-scratcher. I’ve always thought Ki was pretty vital to the team having any possession.
Good win on header by Jozy on perfect spot for Borini, but Borini doesn’t anticipate. This team just not on same page at all. Do they actually practice together?
Colback just too damn slow. He had the head start, he had the angle and still lost the race.
Jeez Borini, stay up there. Terrible chest trap by Jozy to follow.
Sunderland are the EPL version of the Bad News Bears. I keep looking for a drunk Walter Matthau.
Grat goal. Black Cats making Norwich look like Bayern Munich
Go Galaxy!
i always forget how bad sunderland is until i see another abysmal team like norwich dominate them.
Have not seen a lot of Norwich, but each time I have watched them they have always struck me as a well-coached attack-minded team.
In the Bundesliga, Mainz putting up a valliant effort against Bayern. Javi Martinez pulled down a last Mainz player on goal and no foul called let alone a red card. The ref, as usually, firmly in Bayern’s corner. Martinez is starting to be one of my least favorite players, turning into a bigger diver than Robben, with one great dive already today, of course called in his favor.
‘they have always struck me as a well-coached attack-minded team’
then looks are deceiving. i think they’ve actually scored less goals than sunderland this season.
Poor Mainz they deserved a point.
Sunderland looking slow, disorganized, unfocused and tired.
yeah, and this is the type of game they really need a point from. They’ve got a lot of big teams still in their schedule. I just don’t understand why there’s no urgency whatsoever.
None. They look dead.
I’m watching the game now. That goal was a silly goal to give up. That defender did a lovely pass back to Norwich.
Jozy getting caught on the wrong side of defender several times. He’s got to anyicipate the ball and fight for that position before the delivery.
Stupid, stupid foul by Bardsley. Why foul the man when you have three players surrounding him.
Perfect, agree with the announcers comments exactly about the Dutch league vs EPL.
Announcers already commenting offs the huge gap between Sunderlands midfield and Altidore. Great.
Jozy gets a long ball and, according to the announcer, “there’s no one within 30 yards of him.” not sure what he’s supposed to do or why Gus plays him like this.
I think he was saying it in support of Jozy there.
theyve been doing that all game, playing MLS kickball by just launching long balls up towards jozy and hoping he gets them. as i type, norwich, actually passing the ball, gets a goal. i wish sunderland mids could take notes on how to properly set someone up in the box with a pass to an open man streaking
San Jose is about the only MLS team that plays like that and even they know how to keep better possession.
I’m not watching the game but ESPN reports 81% possession to Norwich. Is that right? I mean… its Norwich…
I’m watching… 81% sounds low
Wow. Norwich crosses the ball like Sunderland does… ie, much like an NFL field goal kicker.
Hoping Everton pull even further away from ManU in the standings this week.
Well that escalated quickly on behalf of Chelsea-Arsenal…glad the French Failure was shown AGAIN how overrated he is…#teamgreatONE
Fletcher out for the season most likely–Jozy gifted a lifeline. What will he do with it?
Jozy is no Suarez who eats Norwich for lunch but surely he gets some chances against this feeble outfit
He’s got competition still for that spot, so he has to capitalize on those.
So glad I didn’t get up early to watch Arsenal play today, I had a bad feeling
Altidore starting today.
Jozy’s starting!
Also, according to skysports, Fletcher might be done for the season: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11695/9223408/sunderland-boss-gus-poyet-is-hoping-striker-steven-fletchers-season-is-not-over. Jozy might have Sunderland’s hopes of staying up on his shoulders.
Does this create more or less pressure for Altidore to perform well today?
He still needs to play well. Gus could put Borini in the middle or Scocco. I think he secretly longs to do so. He said as much during the week. Either Jozy trained well and convinced him otherwise or it was a bit of motivational talk or both. I think it’s the pragmatic choice to go with Jozy. Sunderland went 7-2-4 in the stretch from mid December to Feb 1 with Jozy as the main choice. He’s generally playing well and contributing to the success of the team. He’s just not taking maximum advantage of the few chances he gets in the final third. He needs to be more efficient. It’s a bit of a tough trick to learn how to find your rhythm and score when you’re only getting a couple good touches per match in the final third and have zero space on the ball. If he CAN learn that, it may come in handy for USA during the summer.
well put
well said. this is why i still think that this move could prove profitable for the usmnt, if it means he starts improving his hold-up play, which has always been his weakness.
unless, of course, it destroys his confidence entirely. i’m hoping not.
Mr. G,
If Poyet wants a big guy up top, he has almost no choice. Fletcher is hurt and Wickham is gone on loan.
Plus, as has been noted before, Poyet is simply following the Verbeek/JK manual on Jozy; get his attention by dropping him and letting him sit for a while.
It worked well for AZ and the US hopefully it works here as well.
that might’ve worked for verbeek, but the most important part of the ‘JK manual’ (and the most ignored, it seems) was when he started setting up the team to actually feed jozy instead of just kicking the ball at him and hoping it bounced back to dempsey.
would be nice if that ever happened at sunderland, but i don’t see it.
Mr. dollars,
I always felt much of Jozy’s trouble in his initial appearances for JK was Donovan’s absence.
When Jozy came back into the team, it was more settled and Zusi and Fabian in the midfield were replacing Landon’s contributions
If Ki was absent today that explains a lot as he is Sunderland’s Mikey.
Ultimately Poyet’s failure to integrate the talented Giacherrini into the attack may be his biggest failure.
Having to depend on Altidore for goals=certain relegation
you missed a part:
having to depend on altidore for goals+not creating chances for altidore=certain relegation
+1
When your central forward gets one opportunity a game and doesn’t finish it, it’s pretty inane to say it solely his fault you’re not scoring. I think this applies equally to Jozy and Fletcher this season.
Hopefully Sunderland will prove us wrong today and create a ton of chances.
since i’m bored from laughing at mariner, a couple observations:
– azpilicueta is very good, especially considering he’s playing out of position.
– fair to say torres is a jozy-situation on steroids? he seems to play well, creating chances, even getting assists–right up until he’s in a scoring situation.
– hazard’s playing kind of reminds me of messi. now before everyone FREAKS RIGHT OUT, i’m not saying he’s as good as messi, or will ever be as good as messi. it’s his movement, technique, and playing style. i remember him being more of a winger-type who chases up and down the lines before getting knocked over. when did this change?
So a red to Chambelain would have been appropriate for the handball. No call from the ref. no call from the touchline. Then someone speaks in the refs earpiece and he give the red to Gibbs. So who made the call? Baffling
Further replay shows that not only was it not on target and shouldn’t haven’t been a red card, Mariner actually saw it from the right angle from not far away and still…
Oi vey.
Lol so Oxlade actually told Mariner it was him and not Gibbs who was like 6 yards away that hand balled it and Mariner still sent off the wrong player.
Wenger got his midfield wrong, far to open before the red card. Considering they got destroyed earlier in the year by Man City and Liverpool. I expected Arsenal to be defense first. Too late now.
And MLS referees are bad…
Apparently all refs make mistakes.
Where are those lock-out commenters who thought EPL refs were without err?
Eh all those light skin black people look the same. Does it matter if I send off the wrong one?
Could have been an honest mistake but I have to admit that was my first thought too
That’s why players wear names & numbers, Marriner you genius
I hope Oxlade-Chamberlain scores a hat trick now so that mourinho loses it.
Not an Arsenal fan, but that scenario with Chelsea blowing the lead and Jose losing it would be a dream come true 🙂
oxlade-chamberlain deliberate handball to stop a shot. gibbs gets sent off, because they’re twins apparently. hazard converts penalty. 3-0.
hey, thanks for the great game, arsenal.
Andre Mariner just sent off the wrong player.
The referee just sent off the wrong player. Ridiculous controversy.
Chelsea with two quick goals early on.
The Voyeur has been exposed.
Let’s go you Redmen. Come on Liverpool.
Hey Bean, It looks like Bayern will sell Xherdan Shaqiri (22 yr old attacking mid-fielder) this summer. He originally had La Liga (Real, Barca) at the top of his list but with how Rodgers has his team playing now, Liverpool just jumped to the top.
Glad that Liverpool is in the mix for talented players but would prefer LFC prioritize a central defender (or 2) to boost the squad in an area of need.
For sure Citronomics. But maybe Liverpool can do both.
Anyone catch the TJ Puebla game last night? I don’t get Deportes and would be interested in a rundown of how our boys played ahead of the Mexico game
Castillo and Beasley each had an assist–apparently both very good plays. Castillo late was on the wrong end of a dirty tackle from a former teammate, who got a red card. Corona and Garza did not play. Appears the coach is under a strict rotation system.
http://www.sandiegored.com/noticias/50497/Tijuana-Xolos-3-1-Puebla-Strong-home-form-feeds-playoff-hopes/
If Jürgen calls in 2 LB’s could Garza get a look? DMB is #1, Castillo has had his shot, Klute or Parkhurst are not really 100% and inform right now, Harrington, Sinovic, Ashe, ect not really national teamer’s … Could be a good time to take a look at Garza
That’s what I’m hoping for, the guy looks the part
Parkhurst is in fine form now but he’s nursing an injury. I’d still expect him to get called up since he’s really been the most consistent FB over the last year (though not necessarily the best).
Why all this recent enthusiasm for Garza? He looks okay, but only started playing regularly for Xolos a couple of months ago, was almost always a late substitution last year and has 0 international experience. If Brooks couldn’t cut it from the Bundesliga to international play, why should you think that someone just starting in Mexico can? Castillo, whom you dismiss, has much more starting experience with the Xolos than does Garza.
Did you see LA-TJ game? I’m gonna guess not. Garza looked really strong. Castillo is terrible at lb
Fair question, I’ll give you my opinion on why I hope JK calls him in for the Mexico game:
1. Quick feet, fast, strong over the ball
2. Appears to read the game well
3. He’s not 120 lbs like Castillo or Beas
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY… He passes the eye test. He looks and plays like an outside back should, more so than anyone else I’ve seen come through our system at this point.
Example: I’ve seen Yedlin play plenty, he’s a great prospect, very fast. But passing, positioning & decision-making still need work, I think he’s a future starter but not yet ready
Example: Aron J: Scores goals, and passes the eye test. Didn’t have to see him play for a few years to know he belongs on the plane.
Am I annointing him a star? No, he’s still a prospect.
Do I think he belongs on the plane to Brazil? I have no idea. Do I think he warrants a strong look? Yes I do.
For me he passes the eye test, and think he deserves a call up
Actually. Garza did really well for us in the U-20s despite the team being eliminated by the hosts, Guatemala in 2011, he was solid. He’s also played in important games for Tijuana for example, last year when they won the championship, Hyde scored the clinching goal in the semi-final. Don’t remember if he came in late, but in the 1st leg he started with Castillo as the left mid in front of him (so you know he had like no defensive cover from the winger lol)
@Gary Page: I agree about Castillo, would be premature to close the book on him after the Ukraine game. I agree that he was weak, but could be extenuating factors, such as — I think — his first cap in Europe and jet-lagged out and playing alongside John Brooks, who was a catastrophe, and a bad case of nerves, which you could see quite clearly. He deserves a second chance and I would like to see what he could do against Mexico.
All that said, it also would be nice to see Garza.
castillo has already had his second chance, and third…
and really: ‘playing alongside John Brooks, who was a catastrophe’?
i’m not saying brooks was good, or anything close to that, but i would have said that brooks was ‘playing alongside castillo, who was a catastrophe’. castillo has already said that he is not good at defense–maybe good enough for the mexican league, like beasley, but certainly not good enough at the international level.
which is why i’m confused that we haven’t given him an extended look at his strongest position: LM/LW. same for beasley.