City of Manchester Stadium

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2ND

Kick Off 19.45 (GMT)

A young enthusiastic Arsenal teams goes into this last eight tie with Billionaires Manchester City with nothing prove and everything to gain.

Whilst it is a tournament that has little prestige it is a domestic trophy that both teams know will be their best chance of glory this term.

City go into this match on the back of seven league consecutive wins in a league campaign that is threatening to go off the rails and putting severe pressure on boss Mark Hughes.

TEAM NEWS

Arsene Wenger has already stated that his first XI will not be picked tonight, instead continuing with the blooding of his talented young Gunnerers. Vela, Ramsey, Wilshere, Eastmond, Merida and Bartley will all be givn te chance to shine along with experienced fringe players Senderos, Eboue and Silvestre.

Manchester City are back to full strength after Robinho came back against Hull City. Gareth Barry is carrying a groin injury but is expected to return along side Argentinian fullback Pablo Zabaleta.

Referee- C J Foy (Merseyside)

VERDICT

Arsenal will be looking to prove everything to their boss and themselves in an attempt to win what the senior side can’t, but an experienced and battle-hardened Manchester City have far more to lose than their professional reputations and will let it all hang out. Whatever happens it will prove to be an enthralling match as both sides like to play football and score goals.

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Betting Tip

Eduardo to score first 7/1 BETFAIR

City to win

Chelsea will hold crisis talks with their captain, John Terry, later today as the England centre back returns for pre-season training amidst a storm that is currently surrounding his future. Chelsea have already rejected two bids from Manchester City that have been aimed at poaching the Chelsea legend away from Stamford Bridge.

Terry has not yet had a chance to talk to his club and it appears that Carlo Ancelotti is wasting no time in talking to one of his most influential players. The reason that Terry has not yet said any thing is quite simple, he has been on holiday while most of this drama has been developing.

Chelsea fans will be hoping that it is the case that he simply walks into the manager’s office, sits down and states his intention that he has no desire to leave the club at all. If there are any doubts what so ever about his future at the club then Chelsea could well be swayed by a third Manchester City bid, which is currently being prepared.

This bid could be well over the £40 million mark and could see Terry earn wages that get close to the highest paid player in the Premier League, Robinho. However, you would question why he would want to move at all. Chelsea have a much better chance of immediate success than City do and Terry has come through the ranks of the club to lead the first team.

In effect, he is the main man at Chelsea and this is something that he may not have the luxury of should he choose to move up north. Many would question his ambition and temperament if he made the move as it would defy all football logic. It would also lead to a lot of fans branding him as nothing more than a mercenary and he would lose a lot of the respect that he currently has from fellow playing and coaching staff.

He will be encouraged by the fact that the club clearly want him to stay and the fact that they are wasting no time at all in holding talks with him. No sooner has he walked back through the door to start pre-season preparations and he is straight into the office to talk to the manager.

This prevents Terry from thinking that he is considered nothing more than a financial asset at the club and it could be a move that strengthens his desire to stay at Stamford Bridge. Had the club left the issue and waited for City’s third bid to come in the Terry would not be blamed for thinking that the club did not have his best interests at heart and he may well have walked through the exit door and got on the M1 to go up north.

A lot of players when they have left a club that they clearly admire and love have said that the thing, which pushed them out of the door, was that club’s reluctance to show any desire in making them stay. In a world that is dominated so much by huge sums of money it can e very easy for club’s to lose sight of the most important thing in their players and fans.

It is highly unlikely that Terry will be leaving Chelsea and it will take a very special deal from City for it to happen. It would have to be a deal that defies normal and logical thinking in the respect that it would allow Chelsea to move forward in maybe three or four areas.

The point is that should Terry stay and ultimately when he is asked questions in public about the whole affair, he will probably say that the main reason he stayed at the club was the fact that the manager wasted no time at all in showing his desire that he wanted him to remain as Chelsea captain. The club are clearly going to show him some loyalty and they clearly want him to stay put and for a non-egotistical man such as Terry this may well be enough.

It is a weird scenario because it is all of these values, which will be the main reasons that Mark Hughes wants Terry to join City. Many people will not look too far into the links but it is obvious that Terry would be the ideal sort of player to lead the City revolution. Someone that clearly has no ego and someone that would clearly give every thing for the club he is paid to play for.

This is why City are preparing a third bid for the England skipper, and would probably prepare another two or three after this if that’s what it would take to get him to make the move. Obviously City are better positioned than anyone else to be able to offer Terry a highly lucrative contract that would give him more money than he has ever earned before but the point is that there is clear logic behind their bids.

It is different from last January when they tried to sign Kaka from AC Milan because on that occasion it was probably more a case of, we will have a go and see if we can sign him. On this occasion it is a case of, this is the man that would be the ideal person to front our club over the next three to four years.

It would be a signing that would virtually see Manchester City set down the home straight. They would have a player around whom they could base the entire vision of the club and this is why Terry is so important to them. However, the discussion in the manager’s office today is likely to be the deciding one and it is likely that it will be a discussion that sees Terry state his desire to remain at the club, which he defines.

If he stays then it will be very much business as well expected but if he chooses to go then the party poppers will be going off all over the blue half of Manchester as many will quite obviously not be able to believe their luck. Realistically Terry will stay at Chelsea but the whole issue proves the growing strength that City are slowly obtaining.

The USA were well on the road to their first ever men’s FIFA tournament win today (June 28th) after they took a 2-0 lead over Brazil in the final of the 2009 Confederations Cup at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. However, they made the fatal mistake that most teams do once they get a lead, they simply stopped playing and let the game slip through their fingers as Brazil came back and punished them for it wad walked off the pitch with a 3-2 win after 90 minutes.

Clint Dempsey got the Americans of to a great start as he scored in the 10th minute on their first attack of the game as he bounced a shot past Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar.

Robinho came down left wing in the 13th minute and unleashed low right-footed shot that toward the far low corner, but keeper Tim Howard dove and turned it away with a fine save. Howard also made excellent stops in the 25th and 27th minutes and then Landon Donovan scored his 41st goal for the USA on a lightning-quick counter attack. Donovan slotted home a left footer into the low corner to the left of Cesar after a pass from Charlie Davies and the USA found themselves up 2-0 after just 27 minutes.

Howard made a fine save in the 35th minute and then Luis Fabiano headed over the bar just a few seconds later on the ensuing corner kick. Fabiano then missed a chance to get Brazil on the scoreboard before the half ended as he missed a low cross in injury time.

However Fabiano made amends for it in the first minute of the second half as he drove home a low left footer from edge of the box to make it 2-1. It was obviously the worst thing that could have happened for the Americans and it was a sign of things to come.

Howard made another fine save from a corner in the in 58th min and just a few moments later, Kaka, with a downward header, looked like he had tied the game up, but the ball was pushed out by Howard and off of the crossbar. Television replays couldn’t show if the whole ball definitely crossed the line because of their angles, but it looked like it may have gone in.

Dempsey had a chance to make it 3-1, but his left footer was saved by Cesar in 66th minute. In the 67th, Brazilian manager Dunga made a double substitution as he brought on Elano, and Daniel Alves came on for Andre Santos and Ramires.

That seemed to spark the team and Fabiano beat the offside trap in 70th minute and broke in on Howard, but the keeper came off his line well and made the save.

Brazil finally tied it at 2-2 when Kaka’s close-range shot hit the crossbar and bounced out right to Fabiano, who headed the rebound into the net for his tournament-leading fifth goal in the 74th minute. The inevitable happened just 10 minutes later as Brazilian captain Lucio headed in a corner kick from Elano in the 84th minute for the 3-2 winner and Brazil’s third Confederations Cup title.

The Americans only have themselves to blame as they didn’t continue playing the style that had put them in front 2-0. They failed to attack with any consistency at all in the final 45 minutes and paid the price for it.

In the third-place game, Spain beat hosts South Africa 3-2 in extra time.

Manchester City have signed up Blackburn Rovers striker, Roque Santa Cruz, in an £18 million deal. It was a transfer that was expected to happen last January but with City’s widely reported interest in trying to get Kaka the deal took somewhat of a back seat.

It was in fact Mark Hughes who signed him when he was Blackburn boss a couple of seasons back, snapping him up for a few million pounds from his then club, Bayern Munich. It is a very sensible and shrewd signing on the part of City who are looking to build an impressive squad that can push for a top four place by the end of the season.

Santa Cruz should now become the main man in the City team and should link in well with Brazilian, Robinho, in attack. The Paraguay international has often been noted for his terrific ability to hold the ball up, create space and bring other players into the game and the fee is a relatively small one compared to what City could raise if they were pushed.<

Sam Allardyce at Blackburn will have to work very hard to try and replace him. He has been by far and away the best Rovers player over the last couple of seasons and even managed to finish as one of the club’s top goal scorers, despite having been out for some of last season with a significant injury.

It had been thought that Blackburn were not going to budge from their original asking price of £20 million, even when City made it clear that they only valued the player at £5 million less than this number. Therefore the over all compromise that was reached seems to benefit each side. City have finally got a player that they have been tracking for a long time and Blackburn have got a little bit more money than the player may actually be worth. A good bit of business.

This is unlikely to be the end of the Manchester City spending this summer as they are continuously linked with high profile players on a daily basis. However, the point that Mark Hughes has so often stressed is the fact that the club will not be able to attract these players until they start getting some success on the pitch.

His theory seems to be very good and very smart. So far City are buying up the most under rated players that the Premier League has to offer and they are creating a squad that is full of quality in every position. They may well end up having their best season in the Premier League next year and with the sensible way the business side of the club now appears to be running, it could be the makings of a very bright immediate future.

City have also bought into a player that does not seem to have an ego or a problematic personality that could bring the club down. They are buying frequently and they are buying well. It is actually quite nice to see a club with so much money deploying the advantages in a positive and efficient way.

Manchester City are about offer their player of the year, Stephen Ireland, a new contract worth around £4 million a year. It is a fitting reward for a player that has so consistently performed in and around some of the best talent in the English game.

The reason the news is so significant to neutrals and City fans alike is that fact that Manchester City are poised to try and buy some big names this summer, names that would easily be considered automatically better than Ireland. For this reason the fact he has made such an impact, regardless of Robinho coming in, is doubly significant.

He is a very likeable man as well, seemingly one of the Paul Scholes club who don’t tend to create much drama or draw much attention when off the pitch. The new deal is pretty much physical proof that there is still reward for genuine hard work in a game where foreign imports can so easily be snapped up at a moments notice.

He has cured a headache for Manchester City for the simple fact that he has managed to hold down a key position in the side they may have gone and looked to fill in. City could have easily gone and bought a high calibre star but Ireland has now proved himself as one of the best current players in the Premier League.

His signature is a sign of the club’s ambition but it is also a sign to Ireland admirers that is set to get even better. The players that City are likely to bring in will only help Ireland improve his own game. This will raise his levels of performance on a more consistent basis and he could easily become one of the most talked about names in European football in years to come.

City boss, Mark Hughes, obviously thinks quite highly of him, hence the contract offer before the close season has even kicked in. It is a sure sign of his commitment and any bids that come in for Ireland now will have to be stupidly big to have any impact.

There is the added fact that Ireland no longer plays international football for his country. This seems to have allowed him to focus on his own game and the fact he has more time to concentrate may have lifted his levels of performance. However, he will have his critics for this as many see the international games as the pinnacle of football.

The lad has a bright future and he is at a growing club, if City can materialise all of the ambitions they are currently talking about then Ireland could be instrumental in the success, from a point where he struggled to play he is now becoming one of the most talked about players in the country.

This is a player who has cost next to nothing to develop, until now that is. The massive wages will bring with them pressure but it seems to be a breeze to this young man.