By ADAM TROXTELL
A full slate of Sunday action in England begins with a modern Premier League classic.
Liverpool hosts Manchester City while on a streak of 12-games without a loss, and both teams will look for a valuable win. The Reds can draw level on points with fourth-place Arsenal, at least temporarily, with a victory.
Man City will try to take advantage of league leaders Chelsea being out of action and cut their lead to just two points. The Citizens were victorious when these teams met in August, thanks in part to a Stevan Jovetic brace.
Chelsea will not play in the Premier League this weekend because they’ll be at Wembley, battling London-rivals Tottenham in the League Cup Final. With a 5-3 thrashing of the Blues on New Year’s Day in mind, Spurs will try to copy their efforts from the 2008 final when they took the cup at the expense of Chelsea.
Finally, Arsenal attempts to maintain an advantage in the race for UEFA Champions League spots when Everton visits the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners had to come back from two goals down to draw Everton the last time they played, with Olivier Giroud netting the late equalizer.
In Spain, Real Madrid hosts a Villarreal side trying to keep pace with European qualification spots. Sevilla and Atletico Madrid meet under similar circumstances, and Paris Saint-Germain will try to take top spot in France with a win against Monaco.
If you will be watching today’s action, feel free to leave your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (today’s soccer on TV schedule after the jump):
7 a.m. — NBCSN — Liverpool vs. Manchester City
7 a.m. — Fox Soccer Plus — Celtic vs. Aberdeen
8 a.m. — beIN Sports USA — Nantes vs. Guingamp
9:05 a.m. — NBCSN — Arsenal vs. Everton
9:30 a.m. — GolTV USA — Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Paderborn
11 a.m. — beIN Sports USA — Chelsea vs. Tottenham
11:30 a.m. — GolTV USA — Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg
1 p.m. — beIN Sports USA — Sevilla vs. Atletico Madrid
1 p.m. — Univision — Toluca vs. Cruz Azul
2 p.m. — GolTV USA — Corinthians vs. Mogi Mirim
3 p.m. — beIN Sports USA — Real Madrid vs. Villarreal
4:30 p.m. — GolTV USA — Santos Linense
6 p.m. — UniMas — Guadalajara vs. Monterrey
Fabian Johnson scored a goal at home against Paderborn. He’s been fairly active thus far in the first half. Gladbach 1-0 at HT.
Played on the left it looked like. I didn’t get to see much of the game.
He took the ball outside top of box and did a nice job to create space for his shot, eluding 2 defenders. Fortunate deflection wrongfooted the keeper. Couldn’t tell if the shot would have scored without the deflection.
Sebastian Lletget leaves West Ham for LA Galaxy. Kid’s Californian, of course, but if that’s his reason, why not San Jose? He’s from Santa Clara.
It’s not everyone’s goal to spend their adult lives in their childhood home. Or maybe San Jose wasn’t interested. Plenty of possible reasons.
Whoa! Could be great move for LA. His reason, I’m sure, is to get playing time at a level higher than the West Ham Developmental squad moreso than going home. Also, if he has hopes of eventually trying Europe again, LAG is a much higher profile situation. I’m interested in seeing this kid play. He was pretty highly rated a couple years back.
Wenger gets a lot of grief about money and recruits, but right now, would you rather have RVP or Giroud? Even if RVP is healthy, its close. Throw in the money saved which can be sprinkled around…maybe Wnger did OK.
Did you see Giroud almost single handedly (well, okay, with Mertesacker to be fair) lose the Monaco match? He’s certainly a good striker, but he’s nowhere near RVP at his best. Giroud has had 27 league goals in his 2 year Arsenal career while RVP had more than that in ONE SEASON before he left and added 26 for Man U the next. Giroud also hasn’t had much more luck than RVP in staying healthy. Giroud is a very solid EPL striker, but RVP was world class.
Coutinho with a nasty strike to bring victory. O come ye, O come ye to Anfield…
What have they been feeding Coutinho in the last few weeks? Can I try some?