Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is on the hot seat as his Gunners continue to sit outside of the English Premier League’s top four, and things get no easier on Saturday as Arsenal faces a dangerous Newcastle side.
The Magpies are currently tied in the standings with Arsenal, and a win could push Alan Pardew’s squad to within striking distance of the likes of West Ham and Southampton.
Jozy Altidore and Sunderland will try to halt West Ham’s three-match winning streak when the sides meet at the Stadium of Light. Altidore is slated to start today for the Black Cats as his recent run of good form earns him more minutes for Gus Poyet’s side.
If you will be watching today’s action, or want to discuss the day’s earlier 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):
SATURDAY’S SOCCER ON TV
11am – NBCSN – Chelsea vs. Hull City
10am – Premier League Extra Time – Burnley vs. Southampton
10am – Premier League Extra Time – Crystal Palace vs. Stoke City
10am – Premier League Extra Time – Leicester City vs. Manchester City
10am – Premier League Extra Time – Sunderland vs. West Ham
10am – Premier League Extra Time – West Brom vs. Aston Villa
10am – beIN Sports USA – Getafe vs. Barcelona
11am – Fox Sports 2 – ES Setif vs. Auckland City
Noon – beIN Sports USA – Palermo vs. Sassuolo
Noon – beIN Sports en Espanol – Valencia vs. Rayo Vallecano
12:30pm – NBCSN – Arsenal vs. Newcastle
12:30pm – GolTV USA – Mainz vs. Stuttgart
2:30pm – Fox Sports 2 – Cruz Azul vs. Western Sydney Wanderers
2:45pm – beIN Sports USA – Lazio vs. Atalanta
4pm – beIN Sports en Espanol – Malaga vs. Celta de Vigo
In none Altidore new, Brooks started in a 1-0 win. Although it was against a half dead Dortmund… who knows whats wrong with them.
non*
news* ……
Dang, well its back to bed then…. I don’t care what time it is. I’m clearly not ready to be awake.
haha all is fair, the noon thirty nap is the reward for suffering through a Sunderland game like the rest of us.
Hahahahahahaha
ill only except your laughter if you’re one of us aforementioned suffering fans that get up early to watch….
So when is Jurgen going to relegate Altidore to the bench. The man can’t finish a tap in.
In fairness, Altidore’s club and country form have rarely aligned. He’s usually solid on one and poor on the other at any given time. I’m probably the last man to defend Altidore, but who’s going to replace him? I was hoping for Terrance Boyd until his knee issues continued.
Until someone actually steps up to claim it, it’s (unfortunately) his by default. Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of that premise, but no one has shown capable.
I feel as though Johannson will eventually start for us when he gets a real opportunity and isn’t injured but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll replace altidore in the line up. Dempsey only has a few years left realistically. As poor as he’s been with sunderland he’s done well enough for the u.s and was tearing it up not too long ago at AZ. I suppose time will tell what becomes of carear but he is technically only 24 so he has lot of years left to play.
rational fan award goes to….
again, i agree. Jozy isn’t “the answer” yet he is a good player that has earned his US tenure. and the goal moving forward is to find people that can play well with him. AJ is a great option, Gyau, Rubin, are some others, only time will tell but as you said he’s only 24 (and already top 5 US goal list….)
Johannson needs to bulk up. He’s too weak to play the lone striker role that the US plays against the top team in the world. He’ll tear up the minnows and middle-of-the-roads that the US plays a 4-4-2 against but he won’t do well outside of CONCACAF until he puts on some muscle. It’ll come though; he’s only 24, not built like Jozy and didn’t initiate his career playing in extremely physical leagues (MLS, EPL) that would have encouraged him to bulk up fast.
Neither guy is a world beater. As well as AJ has done in Netherlands, Jozy was more prolific in the same league at a slightly younger age. Jozy’s EPL career is done. I don not regret his move to EPL, just his move to Sunderland. I have never been a fan of Paolo and didn’t like it when he bought Jozy. He shoudl ahve gone to a smaller team that played a more attacking style with better passing forwards (Southampton, Swansea) . However when Sunderland stepped in with that purchase price, who was going to match them? Unfortunately, as much as he like to act that his confidence is fine, it is clearly shot. He needs to take a step down to the right situation.
To confirm your fairness, I, as a Jozy supporter, couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said. To clarify, I don’t think Jozy is a world class talent, yet I do think he is a talented forward that fits a pass-happy, possession-based team in order to do well. He likes to pass and only wants to take shots when they are set up well. He’s not the type of player to scrape and scrap to create some wild goal, generally. Unfortunately, this is quite the style in the EPL, thus it’s not his best fit. I could see him, obviously, succeeding in a sub role for a top 4 club in the EPL, though naturally his road has not led him there. All in all, he’s plodding through a roller coaster career in Europe which is more than most american players could say. He’s not “the US’ Pelè” but he’s not equivalent of Sam Bowie as some would suggest……
Sam Bowie reference! BOOM goes the dynamite!
The position is his by JK’s decree. You can say he can score at the national level but after all, a blind squirrel will find the nut every once in a while.
Roughly, Jozy has scored in every third game he played for the USMNT (avg). He ranks 5th all-time of US players in goals. I’d hardly describe either of those instances as a “blind squirrel find[ing] a nut”…..
thanks for being another great example of hyperbolic commenters here on SBI……
Giovani dos Santos had 14 games in 4 years for Spurs but he has done well for Mexico. He scored 9 goals in 4 years including loan spells. So Its not just Jozy.
Altidore does well for the US and always has.(He has dry spells but they aren’t for too many games.)
valid point. another talent who has shown he is good yet isn’t set up for EPL; yet that doesn’t mean he is “THE WORST PLAYER EVERRRRRR” as some suggest hyperbolically.
Giovani 2 Saints isn’t a a striker, he is an attacking midfielder/wide forward and sometimes even plays as a winger and he spent most of those years on loans without any time to adapt to a team, once he got to Mallorca and became a starter there he started to show the same level he had with Mexico.
i think you’re missing the point. regardless of positions, people said Gio was terrible when he wasn’t performing in the EPL, yet that didn’t mean he wasn’t a good player as he has since shown.
Yup, that’s the point. He’s a good player just not right for England. Jozy is just a bit soft just like Gio.
you are comparing two different players in two different circumstances, Gio moved to Tottenham at 19/20 under Juande Ramos, he started ok but got injured and had to be loaned to Ipswich (where he did ok) so he could regain his form, when he got back to the Spurs, Ramos was sacked and they hired Redknapp who always criticized Dos Santos for his commitment, never gave him a chance and just kept loaning him away after Gio refused a deal from Serie A because he wanted to go back to La Liga instead. The only reason he was finally alowed to move away was because he only had 6 months left in his contract and Tottenham had to sell or let him go for free.
Jozy on the other hand was a 23yo coming from a great season in the Eredivisie and was supposed to be a star signing for Sunderland, he had a lot of support from Di Canio and Poyet but has failed to deliver after over 40 games.
completely different.
“2 Saints”? You know his name is Portuguese. His father Brazilian. It literally means “the Saints”
Of the Saints
De Os Santos = Dos Santos
true…I stand corrected
In Jurgen’s defense so far, he doesn’t have a huge amount of alternatives at the moment. I was fairly confident Boyd would get a good shot at it this year, but then tore his ACL. AJ is just returning from injury himself – if he starts potting goals like last year, I could see him getting time from Altidore. Rubin is too green at this point for non-friendly matches (and has only one professional goal so far), and although I expect Zardes to get a deserved camp cupcake, he’s still pretty raw and has no international experience yet and will need to prove himself. Unfortunately, Jack McInerny and other American MLS strikers had a bit of a down year. Hopefully someone breaks out next MLS season.
Problem is there is no one else.
It wasn’t a tap in.
Looks like Bedoya has an assist today – anybody see it?
And he almost scored. He seems to be playing with a lot of confidence right now.
Altidore continues to do himself no favors and display that he has no business in this league.
he was actually one of the best players on the field today, but you’re right–he can’t miss an opportunity like that (especially with sunderland) and expect to keep playing in the epl.
I like the kid and want to see him succeed.
However, I’m a bit put off by the tweet he made (that I was unaware of until yesterday) stating: “Stop blowing up my agent’s phone”, adding: “No means no.” If that tweet was legit, it’s completely unacceptable.
I’m shocked by the lack of humility, especially given the context of this season (and his entire EPL career). Perhaps that’s a large part of the issue for Altidore: no self-awareness.
Good kid. Average career. Below average professional.
He is done in the EPL, that is for sure.
Wow. I agree with you Old School. Everything you wrote is spot on. I was on of his biggest defenders– and I love European Soccer– but after that LA tweet, no more. He should really try to understand that playing for the Galaxy is still better than being a punchline in England.
You do know it tongue-in check and he was messing around, right?
oh, please. You don’t know the context for that tweet, and neither do I. Get off your high horse.
Sunderland’s twitter accurately mentioned that both Jozy and Connor missed great chances today, FWIW….
Altidore flubbed a golden opportunity today. I’ll be surprised if he gets another opportunity before the transfer window opens
Eh, the ball was behind him. Although, you could say it was a matter of running in too deep and having the pass cut off by the positioning of the defender.
I would direct my criticism the fact he ran in to far rather than the fact that he didn’t somehow magic the ball in front of him. Two different issues. If he held his run up sooner then it would have been a sitter and an easy goal but… he ended up too close to goal.
immediately when i saw it i thought this as well.. i also thought no other commenter would notice/point that out. kudos. at the end of the day, you WANT a player to put that in and DO consider that good service. he was just a little bit a head of it (aka expecting a slightly different ball- perhaps a higher lofted back post service?) and made it look worse by losing his balance briefly. I’d attribute it to lack of chemistry than evidence of a terrible player.
good eye sir
What’s the point of the commentary post if half the games are over? Why bother?
if you’re interested, we just started commenting in the “UCLA finds golden goal” post.
Well what do you expect out of a website that’s run out of a basement by one semi-professional writer?
I don’t understand why one of the other writers can’t post it then?
While I still come to this site regularly for news, the quality declined with the move to Goal and being spread too thin in general. I miss the posts discussing the tactical side of the game or other in depth topics (credit to Caitlin Murray who still does some of these). And no, I don’t like being redirected to Goal for those. My favorite part of the site is the community – especially the running commentary. Of course you have to ignore some of the more obnoxious posters, but overall I enjoy what people here have to say.
+1 on everything
One of the primary problems I currently have with the website is multiple posts of the exact same story/content by different writers that end with repetitive news and burying any commentary already taking place by posters on the website.
This also negatively affects active commentary stories/posts that suddenly disappear from the front page in favor of old articles from earlier in the day that have no active commentary and result in a complete nullification of activity and discussion.
I’m not trying to rail on the website. I understand it’s free and I appreciate the efforts. However, it leaves a lot to be desired and the quality on a number of fronts has dipped dramatically.
Well Ives ran for the money instead of being patient and letting this site grow a bit longer, he was at the door and could’ve probably made SBI into something big but now it won’t. ASN (American Soccer Now) is a far better website for tatical topics and interviews.
Spot on. This site used to be a daily check for me, but now I’m here one every week or two and almost always disappointed.
Plus, the ads/layout are pretty intensive and cause my browser to freeze/crash on a pretty regular basis. I visit this site a lot less often than I used to.