London Football/Soccer
News from the round ball game.
Arsenal players take the Tube
What are the chances you’ll ever see this quartet sitting on the platform at Arsenal Underground station again. The four in question are Arsenal players Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silva, Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas promoting the clubs new away kit for the forthcoming season.
Date: June 15th, 2007 |
No Comments
London’s football pre-season
Professional football clubs across London have been finalising their pre-season fixture schedules for the second half of July and the beginning of August. The players generally come back from their summer holidays around the end of June and after a couple of weeks of hard training start taking part in warmup games. Some clubs like Chelsea will be playing all their games overseas, others such as Arsenal have a mixed schedule. If you haven’t yet booked a ticket for the Emirates Cup tournament that Arsenal are hosting here are some other games on in London, just in case you can’t wait for the regular season to start for a football fix.
Date: June 12th, 2007 |
No Comments
Tickets for Arsenal’s pre-season games on sale
Tickets are on sale for Arsenal’s pre-season friendly matches, including games at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal have a seven game schedule starting with the traditional opener against Barnet at their Underhill stadium on 14 July. The first team squad then go to Austria for a training camp during which they’ll play Turkish team Genclerbirligi Ankara in Bad Waltersdorf on 19 July and FC Red Bull Salzburg in Salzburg on 25 July.
Date: May 31st, 2007 |
6 comments
London’s Final Weekend
This weekend London hosts the climax to not only the club football season in England but also to European club rugby. On Saturday afternoon at 3pm the new Wembley Satdium gets its first showpiece event, the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea and on Sunday at 2.30pm Twickenham hosts the final of the Heineken Cup, club rugby’s Champions League.
Chelsea v Manchester United should produce a good final, plenty of skill on both sides and both teams determined to win.
Date: May 18th, 2007 |
No Comments
London Football review
The Premiership finished today and its been a mixed season for the London clubs. Looking at the final table there are three teams from London in the top five, pretty good going on the face of it but Arsenal and Tottenham are in the same positions as last season and Chelsea have dropped to second. The other three London teams Fulham, West Ham and Charlton (four if you want to count Watford) have been fighting the relegation battle all season. Here’s my take on how the teams did.
Arsenal Fourth place but a very disappointing season, 11 draws and 8 defeats in 38 games is never going to win the Premiership. Key injuries to Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie the two top goalscorers really hit Arsenal and the rest of the squad couldn’t fill the gap.
Date: May 13th, 2007 |
No Comments
Premier League schedule is out
Next season’s Premier League schedule of fixtures was released this morning, an exciting time for fans to see who their team will open the season against, when the local derbies are and what the end of season run-in is like.
My team Arsenal start the season with a home London derby against Fulham on 11 August (sorry Fulham fans but we should win that), then have three games against clubs who finished mid-table last season before an unusually early North London derby, away at Tottenham on 15 September. Other Arsenal highlights are home to Manchester United on 3 November, home to Chelsea on 15 December and home against Tottenham on 22 December.
Date: June 14th, 2007 |
No Comments
England to play Germany at Wembley
Talking of football tickets, the Football Association has announced that England will play Germany at Wembley on Wednesday 22 August at 8pm. They’ll be a three day priority sale to members of the England Supporters Club then tickets will go on general sale through a ballot. To enter the ballot you need a FAN number which you get by simply registering on the FA website. The sale to supporters club members runs from noon on 29 June to 5pm on 1 July and the general public ticket ballot will close at 5pm on 2 July. To take part in the three day priority sale you need to join the Englandfan supporters club by 2pm on 26 June. Tickets for the England-Germany game will cost between £30-£60.
Date: May 31st, 2007 |
No Comments
Carlito’s doppelganger
He was the saviour of West Ham this season, giving everything for the team and is tipped up to being heading to Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United or Real Madrid depending on which rumour you like, so its a bit unfair for a newspaper to compare Carlos Tevez to Ugly Betty. Quite funny though.
Date: May 25th, 2007 |
No Comments
Football at the theatre in London
This Saturday is the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium and London’s Unicorn Children’s Theatre is starting a short run of a play called Billy the Kid to tie in with the final.
Its nothing to do with gunfighters in the Old West, its based on the book by Michael Morpurgo about a young boy whose dream is to play for Chelsea, which he does but his career is interrupted by the Second World War and he then goes down hill after being injured by a mine and turns to alcohol. Down and out, he’s eventually befriended by a family whose son he helps become a footballer for Chelsea.
Date: May 17th, 2007 |
No Comments
England World Cup winner dies
Alan Ball, one of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team died today at the age of 61. He was the youngest member of that team and went on to have a 22 year playing career with clubs like Blackpool, Everton, Arsenal and Southampton. He also managed seven clubs including Southampton, Manchester City and Portsmouth in the 1990s.
Alan Ball (third from left, front row) played 177 games for Arsenal between 1971-76 and scored 45 goals, pretty good for a midfielder and though the club didn’t win anything during his time, it wasn’t down to him, the club was just in transition after the high of the 1971 league and cup double.
Below are some clips of Alan Ball scoring for Arsenal during the 1970s.
Date: April 25th, 2007 |
No Comments
