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
Ironic that BOTH Villa goal scorers are the penalty culprits??? No. Just stupid.
This is just embarrassing at this point, Villa’s defense is in shambles, no organization and no communication.
WOAH. Aston Villa just HANDING (or more accurately slide-tackling) the game to Arsenal. That’s what I call a major bail-out. If this were America Obama would remind everyone no
more bailouts of this magnitude.
Agree it’s quite baffling and annoying
Walcott with the NO-look goal. He did that on purpose 😉 cheeky bugger
And just like that Aston Villa chokes away the game. Have to believe that Guzan would have done a better job on both of those.
LOL Villa folding like a wet suit, Arsenal level at 2. Villa has had zero possesion the ENTIRE second half thus far!
I see that!
My mistake good sir.
I made no such claim! I just ironically suggested that he do.
Guzan stops that btw.
His name is spelled “ROSICKY” so why does Martin Tyler pronounce it “RosiNsky”?
Or did he?
MemRook claims he did, but Sky Sports says he did not.
Yeah – I’d like more info on why the Buddle/Everton trial went bad. Buddle must have performed very badly for a team as financially hard up as Everton not take a chance on him.
Unbelievable, Wenger put in Arshavin.
Bahahaha Arse-nal and Arse-ne Wenger. Put in Arse-shavin! He’ll save this game for them. Yeah that’s what they should do. #TeamFullOfArses
Whatever happened to the Buddle experiment?
sick goal by Bent
2-0 from Bent. Keane critical in the build up.
And that’s the half.
That’s two goals and an assist for Keane since arriving from Galaxy; who’s to say anyone who plays in MLS is washed up?
Keane looks like the best player on the pitch so far. Inventive, unselfish, and motivated. And with Ireland being my second favorite national team, it’s pretty cool watching a team starting 5 Irish players (not sure I should count Stephen Ireland, though).
ouch 1-0villa. Keane with the delivery.
That is great news. However, I’m really disappointed to see Given on in a Cup match..unless that’s a sign that Guzan has taken the #1 slot. If not, then it sucks that MacLeish isn’t playing him in this match.
Hertha Berlin has sounded a “total defense alarm” and is looking to sign a central defender before the transfer window closes after yet another injury yesterday against Hamburg SV has left the backline depleted. Not sure what this might mean for Alfredo Morales, who was on the bench yesterday but did not play. Any MLS central defender candidates out there who want to move to Europe?
Drama um Janker und totaler Abwehr-Alarm!
http://tinyurl.com/8968dfh
Lets not forget the championship game in Womens soccer olympic qualifying tonight at 8. USA vs Canada
Guess I shouldn’t expect too much since the score of the Semis was reported wrong here. I know our womens nat team is not as important as the classic matchup between Racing Santander vs. Valencia but it should be
I just can’t imagine Everton scraping sufficient money together for a credible bid for LD. But there will surely be speculation.
Lichaj on the bench for Villa. That’s a positive sign.
In other news: Bilyaletdinov is out at Everton. He’s going to Spartak Moscow. Do I think this means Everton are going to make a move for Donovan? Not necessarily. Do I think this will increase speculation about such a move? Probably.
That’s what he’s looking like in Italy, sure, but I’m choosing to view it as Bradley rounding out his skill set. Many players play different roles with their clubs than they do with their national teams, and if the USMNT needs Bradley in a more advanced role, then that’s how we’ll use him. I’m not worried that he’s going to forget how to move the ball forward and make late runs into the box; it’s clear he has a pretty good instinct for that based on his previous history.
Well, it certainly got worse for Chievo after our boy came off.
And Inter loses to Lecce…wow.
Bummer for Bradley.
Yeah – that’s looking at the positive. Still, I’m unhappy that MB is looking more like a full on defensive mid – which USMNT has many.
so much for that idea.
yeah, one of the first times he’s been subbed this early.
Well, at least that means I can stop watching.
Bradley off at 73 minutes for Hetemaj, who is more offensive minded.
it crossed my mind too.
Is it just me, or does Lokuc for Chievo really look like he got paid off to throw this game?
This pitch does make rolling passes tough.
Something to watch for: if the score stays 1-0, the coach frees up Bradley to come forward starting around 70-75 minutes. Then he starts to look like the USMNT player we see.
But mid-table Italian soccer can be pretty painful to watch.
The commentator just echoed that sentiment almost exactly. Something to the effect of “Lazio are ahead without having played particularly well, but as long as Chievo continue to lack any sort of invention in the final third, that will likely be enough.”
http://www.chievoverona.it/it/content/muro
Well, that’s definitely good to hear. As I said, I haven’t seen much of him since he moved to Serie A, so it’s possible this is just a shaky match. To be fair, nobody on the pitch has made much of an impression and Bradley has been relatively central to much of the action.
I’m not a big fan of Italian soccer in the first place, but my ultimate hope is that Bradley will learn things in Italy that will allow him to step up to the next level when he plays with the national team or moves elsewhere in Europe.
Yeah – Mig22’s comments are spot on. I’ve also been watching MB this year, and it is frustrating – both Chievo’s play his role there. They are so defensively structured, little inventiveness, few shots and fewer goals. I keep thinking he’ll break out of his defensive role and provide some quality forward spark. But no, aint gonna happen. When they win, Chievo fans like him, when they lose, they don’t. The positive – he’s playing regular.
Does Chievo have a fan forum online?
Chievo is simply terrible with the ball. They seem to have no idea what to do as they cross the midfield stripe.
Actually, I’ve wathed a lot of his Chievo starts this year, Jamie. I agree that he his time at Villa was a mess but that was really never a good transfer or fit for him with Houlier.
But at Chievo, he has a very defined role and has been doing it pretty well. The Italian game is so tactically structured, especially the plodding Chievo, that he simply must stay in a particular zone. As to his corners, they have been average, yeah. But I think his positioning is excellent (within the system). The coach likes him, the fickle Serie A fans like him sometimes, hate him other times.
They’re also lucrative. I severely doubt it’s a matter of aesthetics.
Chievo down 1-0. Bradley with a few wayward passes and some dodgy tackling. It’s been a while since I’ve watched him play and I’m actually surprised that his positioning and distribution seem so shaky. When he “played” for Villa, Villa supporters commented that he ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, and I eagerly blamed that on his situation — I thought Houllier used him poorly and inserted him in inopportune game situations where it was almost as if he was deliberately setting Bradley up to fail. But watching Bradley play with Chievo, he still seems a bit tentative and a bit disengaged. Even when he’s in on the action, his posture and decisions don’t strike me as confident or authoritative. His passes are often off the mark and the corners and free kicks I’ve seen him take have been taken short and ineffective. I don’t know if this just him getting used to a quirky Italian system or a symptom of something greater, but I see differences between his play for his most recent clubs and his play in a U.S. shirt.
Anyone else noticed anything like this?
Cuz shirt sponsors are ugly
Watching the Chievo match. Why do Lazio not have a sponsor?
Had this crazy idea after Dempsey’s public comments this weekend hinting that he would like play for Arsenal or another top-tier team and after the huge fan interest in the Donovan-Everton vs. Dempsey-Fulham clash Friday night. Several European teams are starting to see huge potential in the American market and are looking to bring over US players–starting to gain speed with George John, Robbie Rogers, Tim Ream. What would happen if Arsenal or another team would sign America’s two most famous and best players: Donovan and Dempsey. Not only would the pair be a potentially awesome attacking combination on the field but also would be a PR dream come true. I have no doubt each game would be broadcast live for the American fans. As I say, a crazy idea, but would love to see something like that happen.