By JUSTIN FERGUSON
This Soccer Saturday will start with a bang as English Premier League giants Arsenal and Liverpool battle it out in a matchup that will have serious title and Champions League implications.
The last time these two clubs squared off, Arsenal won a tight fixture at Emirates Stadium by a score of 2-0. However, that November meeting in North London was the last time Liverpool were shutout in EPL play, and the high-scoring Reds have only lost only once this season at legendary Anfield. The Gunners are on a nine-match unbeaten run in EPL play and will look to slow down Liverpool’s in-form attack partnership of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in order to keep their league lead over Manchester City and Chelsea.
Arsenal-Liverpool will kick off a busy day of EPL action, which continues with a solid slate of matches featuring Chelsea’s chance at revenge against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge. Swansea City and Cardiff City will wrap things up from the UK with the always-competitive South Wales Derby, which will be the relegation-threatened Swans’ first match since the firing of manager Michael Laudrup.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid will look to defend the Bernabeu and maintain pace in the race for the La Liga title when fifth-place Villarreal visits the Spanish capital. New La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid will hit the road to face Almeria, and runaway Bundesliga club Bayern Munich has an early road match against Timothy Chandler and Nurnberg.
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):
7:45am – Arsenal vs. Liverpool – USA Network
9:30am – Nürnberg vs. Bayern Munich – GolTV USA
10am – Chelsea vs. Newcastle United – USA Network
10am – Norwich City vs. Manchester City – Premier League Extra Time
10am – Southampton vs. Stoke City – Premier League Extra Time
10am – Aston Villa vs. West Ham United – Premier League Extra Time
10am – Sunderland vs. Hull City – Premier League Extra Time
10am – Crystal Palace vs. West Bromwich Albion – Premier League Extra Time
10am – Valencia vs. Real Betis – beIN Sports en Español
10am – Leicester City vs. Watford – beIN Sports USA
11am – Marseille vs. Bastia – Univision Deportes
12pm – Fiorentina vs. Atalanta – beIN Sports USA
12pm – Rayo Vallecano vs. Malaga – beIN Sports en Español
12:30pm – Swansea City vs. Cardiff City – NBC
12:45pm – Twente vs. PSV Eindhoven – GolTV USA
2pm – Real Madrid vs. Villarreal – beIN Sports USA
2pm – Ajaccio vs. Rennes – Univision Deportes
2:45pm – Napoli vs. AC Milan – beIN Sports Play
4pm – Almeria vs. Atletico Madrid – beIN Sports en Español
6pm – Club America vs. Pachuca – Univision
8pm – Tigres UANL vs. Santos Laguna – UniMás
9:05pm – Club Leon vs. Pumas UNAM – Telemundo
10pm – Atlas vs. Morelia – Univision Deportes
Alonso……
In other news, Luis Suarez is the top footballer in the world.
Hazard has something to say about that, beautiful 1-2 with Eto’o just now and Hazard scores. Awesome touch from Eto’o
Onyewu not dressed today. Is he injured? JK should take a look at Packwood in March.
Calf injury I believe.
Thanks. Any injury updates on Lichaj or Spector? Has Holden returned to full training with Bolton’s first team yet?
Jesus Jozy at least don’t contribute to other teams goals.
for once a good build then a 30 yard shot by the LB…???? i do recall my assessment of Sunderland ringing true. you got the ball up finally, now just patiently find your attackers in the box!!!!! FFS
Don’t know if you were talking about the cross from a good angle that ended up way behind the goal into the seats, but that was one of the worst. I was thinking, I’m 68 years old, haven’t played for almost 40 years and I could have made a better cross than that. The guy wasn’t even pressured by the defense.
Jozy absolutely loves those cheeky little one touch passes.
Most players who struggle with close trapping rely on those passes when a ball is played in “hot”. Tack it up to good training, which is what it takes to pull off those moves. Jozy is getting involved a little with some solid play, but he doesn’t look like scoring today. If that’s good enough for you, then you should be pleased with his performance.
seems to be enough for Poyet, which is really all that matters. Jozy will start in Brazil, so relax.
Jozy with a decent clearance of the corner but it is corralled and leads t Hull goal. Not sure if he should or could have angled that header out of bounds or to the side rather than up the middle?
to be honest, mannone probably would have caught that had jozy not headed it but hindsight is……
Horrible clear from altidore right up the middle leads to hull goal. Hull fans saying that’s the best contribution he ever made. Poor communication btw jozy and goalie in any event
I don’t think so. Commentators assigned no blame to him. I’d have to see it again.
One of the first rules of defenders is don’t send short clearances back to the middle. Jozy is an attacker, maybe he missed that lesson. I have seen it done by many defenders who should know better. Heck, just last week Toure made a poor pass right across his goal and gifted a score for the other team and he used to be one of the best defenders in the league if not Europe.
Sunderland isn’t on the bottom on the table but the certainly play as if they were.
Down to ten men already.
This sucks. I am done with this today.
Just turned the Sunderland game on, how did they get a red card so fast?
Brown let man get behind and made ill advised slide tackle from behind at top of box. No choice for ref. Just a dumb play by Brown.
It was a bad give away in the defensive third that led to it. So typical of Sunderland, so many errant passes and bad crosses this season .
Mannone is by far the reason they have been during so well in this recent stretch of games. he makes some Great saves, was he really the backup? — wait, Hull just scored, damn, not really mannone’s fault off the rebound.
Announcer: “Johnson no on the same page as Altidore,” as AJ lasers the ball thirty feet beyond Jozy. Really? No, that was just a poor pass. That’s why AJ waved an apology to Jozy.
+1
good eye tomG, i saw the same. Ive seen a couple non passes to Jozy early when he was in good position. since the Red tho, its been pretty tough for Jozy with no support due to being a man down
borini pissed
nice touch by jozy
Jozys hold up play looks very good so far. Not sure if he can keep it up being outnumbered the way they are.
Giroud states he’s not as good as Suarez. In other breaking news, birds fly better than elephants,
Oh noooooo. Wesley, what have you done? Better to let him score there. This game is over in the first three minutes and now Jozy has no chance of breaking his drought.
Both Brown and O’Shea used to play semi-regularly for Man U and Bardsley has tons of experience. It’s really quite something how bad they have been this season.
red car omggggggggggg
Well…not a good start for Sunderland.
Red card Sunderland
who was better wynalda or mcbride
Yes. Just kidding: very different, but both very good.
I swear these “mcbride or wynalda” messages every week are bots.
Anyone else with nbc sports not working again this week? Took almost 30 minutes to work last week, this sucks.
Not working for me either, wtf
There we go. Only 5 1/2 minutes and a friggin red card missed. Had such high hopes for Jozy lighting it up today too
Do you have Time Warner?
Same.
same here, NBC never has they’re SH– together for the start of these matches. kinda defeats the purpose when i have to find another site to watch. NBC, if you want people to watch online you might want to hire better IT guys……
Guys, I have had this problem a couple times. I think the app or website records your device’s MAC address and has issues with that script. A quick restart of your computer or iPad should work.
champions league, we’re BACK
TomG, are you ready!?
I’m like a 12 year old girl at a one direction concert.
I can’t believe I’m this psyched up for a Hull Sunderland tilt. What is wrong with me?
Yes and getting a kick out of their song, Can’t Help Falling in Love. Believe it was the Elvis recording. LOL
I’ve been waiting all week!
wow, straight red….. so much for trying to attack during this game
Sunderland surely to stay behind the ball,
Another player going out injured for Nurenburg.
cameron, shea, ream, packwood, williams starting.
lichaj not back yet, no holmes, and looks like gooch out injured.
yeah gooch with a calf injury
Chandler stretchered off the field…
Fabian is on the bench. Related to the recent developments re leaving in summer?
injured recently, i believe. good to see him in the team.
he just broke his hand a couple weeks ago, most likely could play if he had too but if they can get by without him then why risk it
Right, kinda forgot about that but i was also thinking that he started last week. Untrue though…he was on the bench last week as well.
Chandler in tears right now. I wonder how serious it is. He broke up a play that led to a chance for Nurenburg and stayed down.
He is not destined to be a USMNT player, maybe.
Rumor is (and it has been corroborated by reliable sources, though never confirmed) is that Chandler is afraid of flying. I hate to see a phobia prevent the guy from being part of the USMNT, but flying is a big part of playing international soccer. Heck, at the big clubs they have to fly all over the world for summer training gigs. Any psychologist worth his/her salt could help Chandler.
He is a sure call up in March barring injury. I hope it’s not terrible If he is out in March and able to attend in a May friendly before the cut, he will. It all depends on the injury though.
Chandler out injured 8 minutes into the match, doesn’t look good at all
not sure what happened but seemed pretty painful by the expression on his face / might have been some tears
dammmmmmmmmmmmmiT!
Nurenburg looks fantastic so far. Really pressing Bayern. Chandler is starting too. But, he we might be subbed off due to injury
In all honestly, how can anything Jozy do today be better than this Liverpool v Arsenal game?
Jozy is great but this game…seriously…THIS GAME.
Despite all of the injuries to players, Liverpool has looked very good. The rest of the season is relatively easy. I expect a UCL spot got the Reds.
O/T but whats the view on US strikers in the past?
wynalda? Moore? McBride?
All 3 scored in the 2 Bundesliga and in MLS. Wynalda scored well in the Bundesliga and did quite well in 2 Bundesliga. Moore was a HIT in 2 Bundesliga, where a lot of the time he played as an attacking mid-fielder. He also scored a bit in the Premier League before injuries hurt him. McBride has a good scoring rate in the Premier League and MLS
now look at strikers of today. Casey was a HIT in 2 Bundesliga. He should have stayed there. Twellman scored a bunch in MLS but only got offers from championship clubs and Scandinavian clubs. EJ scored in Greece
I agree all those players existed and played for the clubs listed, scoring occasionally.
+1 Don’t forget how Jozy “scored” in Spain, proving that he could do it in any league in the world for all time.
I love the, “EJ scored in Greece,” addendum. Seriously, though, this is the Hyperanalysis of evry move Jozy makes (myself being a chief offender/ enjoyer of this) segment of the program, not the reminisce about strikers of Christmas past segment. Please make some comment about Jozy starting today and remark about this being his last chance or that he’s only starting because Fletcher is hurt or something reactionary in general.
come on JOZY.
A brace today. my mom’s bday is in a week. early gift from you to her
Altidore starting today.
I saw Fletcher is going to be out a couple more weeks with an achilles
Would be fitting to see him score against his former side.
I have a feeling today is Jozy’s day to score.
It’s his one last chance to impress poyet since the other one last chance he had last time.
Don’t forget about the other one before that one.
Very concerned about his lack of minutes heading into brazil.
Sterling’s shot saved right back to him to slot in for LFC’s 5th!
I hate both teams, but it’s nice to see Arse-nal get bombed.
The most important thing for Arsenal now is to not let this be the game that undoes their entire season. They have a very difficult stretch of games coming up and it could undo everything they have done so far this year.
There’s little chance of that I think. They’ve been blown out by Man City and even by Villa this season and bounced right back.
The City game was different though, although they lost 6-3 they were competitive in that game and created a ton of chances. This game has been a straight up unequivocal disaster in every sense of the word.
Even still, I don’t thnk one match, no matter how disastrous will have much effect on the psyche of a tea, that’s been consistently good all season, especially since this was going to be a tough match to take points home anyway. They’d probably be more depressed dropping points to Fulham or Hull, I’d think. Sometimes a blowout is actually much less stressful as you just shrug it off and say it wasn’t our day whereas losing a tight one often goes over and over in your mind about what you could have done to make things different. It’s embarassing sure, but something that will have any lasting effect in my opinion.
Im a huge Arsenal fan so I really hope that they shrug this off but that was brutal. In the recent seasons when they were mounting a title charge, you can almost always point to one game where it all fell apart.
Maybe. Seems like a different side this season though.
I’m more worried about depth and injuries than a blowout loss, though.
holy crap. maybe jozy will score today
too bad he’s not playing arsenal. 🙂
If Sunderland had Freddy Jozy would be a top scorer in the PL
Jozy had Adam Maher in AZ, he’s better than Freddy imo. That’s who Sunderland should get if they want an CAM that has great chemistry with Jozy. Freddy in the BPL, I just don’t see it. I would happy to be wrong about that though.
Someone like zusi?
I’d take Beerens over Maher.
Mourinho himself linking Ashley Cole to NYRB. Great, great player. Probably the best left back in the world at one point, but how much does he have left at 33?
And is he coming here for the football or for the bright lights of NYC?
Let me help you with that…it ain’t for the footy.
Maybe. He seems to have calmed down a bit the last few years , though, no?
This is crazy. And Sturridge is a horrible dancer, who would have thought?
Quickest hat trick scored in the EPL: 4:34 seconds.
WOW.
How about this game? Liverpool is the real deal.
minutes not seconds…brain fart
MADNESS.
Lol! Announcers saying that Arsenal could use Arshavin today.
It’s not 20 minutes into the game and it’s 4-0 already.
It easily could have been 5-0 maybe even 6-0.
What is going on with Arsenal?
I don’t think I have ever seen a game of football like this in my life.
Holy crap. Sturridge with the 4th. Sweet ball by Coutinho to hit Sturridge in stride.
This would be a good time for a timeout….wow.
And the onslaught is on. Ozil gets dispossessed and Sterling with a tap in at the end of a counter attack. Arsenal getting bossed.
Skrtel’s brace puts the Red Dragons up 2-0. Just a furious start to this one!