Posts Tagged ‘Ashley Cole’

Terry excited by draw

Arsenal troubles mount after Gibbs injury

• Gibbs hurt playing in England Under-21s draw with Lithuania
• Arsenal waiting for news on suspected broken metatarsal

Arsenal will not know the full extent of the injury suffered by Kieran Gibbs until later today after the left-back left the England Under-21s’ goalless draw against Lithunia in Vilnius last night on crutches.

Gibbs becomes the 12th player on Arsenal’s ever lengthening injury list – he had been the club’s first-choice left-back due to a stress fracture of the back suffered by Gaël Clichy.

Gibbs was forced out after only 21 minutes of the game against Lithunia, with initial reports suggesting he may have broken a metatarsal.

If the 20-year-old has suffered serious injury it will be a blow to his prospects of breaking into Fabio Capello’s senior squad for next summer’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

The Italian has received glowing reports from the England Under-21 coach, Stuart Pearce, regarding Gibbs’ progress, and Wayne Bridge’s uncertain recent form has cast doubt over whether the Manchester City left-back is still the obvious deputy to Ashley Cole.

Beyond Gibbs and Clichy, Arsène Wenger also has Rob van Persie (ankle), Nicklas Bendtner (groin), Denilson (back), Abou Diaby (calf) and Johan Djourou (knee) currently ruled out. Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski, Theo Walcott, Armand Traoré and Carlos Vela have also all suffered recent injuries, and are yet to return to complete fitness.

England sweating on Terry as injury problems mount

• John Terry reported to have suffered achilles injury in training
• Capello still optimistic defender will play against Brazil

John Terry could miss England’s friendly against Brazil with a swollen achilles as injury problems mount for the manager Fabio Capello.

According to reports the captain was hurt during a training session when blocking a shot from Jermaine Jenas during their preparations for tomorrow’s match in Qatar. The 28-year-old centre-half was due to speak to the media at the Ritz Carlton Hotel today but did not emerge, leading to concerns over his fitness.

However, Capello said he remained optimistic that Terry would feature. “He has hurt his ankle and we need to check him but I think he will be okay,” the manager said. The Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry attended the press conference in Terry’s place.

The FA has not yet confirmed the injury while England’s medical team are yet to make a final decision on Terry.

England are already without Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Ashley Cole, Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and David James for the match. Lampard flew home on Thursday after suffering a thigh injury in training.

It means only Wayne Rooney and Barry of Capello’s first-choice starting line-up are likely to feature against Brazil.

If Terry does miss out, Wayne Rooney could assume the captaincy given the number of senior players absent.

Ferguson to avoid FA charge for raging at referee in Chelsea loss

• Manager’s comments did not question referee’s integrity
• Ferguson claimed to be ‘losing faith in refereeing’

Sir Alex Ferguson will not face any action from the Football Association over his criticism of the referee, Martin Atkinson, following Manchester United’s defeat by Chelsea.

Ferguson condemned the decision to award the free-kick that led to the goal as “absolutely ridiculous” and said he is losing his faith in refereeing.

The FA, however, is not planning to take any action against the United manager as he did not question the referee’s integrity or claim there was any bias.

Atkinson awarded a free-kick for Darren Fletcher’s challenge on Ashley Cole and Wes Brown appeared to be impeded as Frank Lampard’s delivery was turned into the net by John Terry.

Ferguson said afterwards: “Clearly, Darren Fletcher’s won the ball – Ashley Cole’s never touched and has jumped up in the air – and then [Didier] Drogba’s pulled Brown to the ground for the goal.

“The referee’s position to make the decision was absolutely ridiculous – he can’t see anything. He’s got a Chelsea player [Joe Cole] standing right in front of him – and he doesn’t even move.

“It was a bad decision, but there’s nothing we can do about it. You lose faith in refereeing sometimes, that’s the way the players are talking in there – it was a bad one.”

Chelsea reinvigorated by Carlo’s way

Just when Chelsea’s power appeared to be waning, Carlo Ancelotti has restored the invincible aura of old.

Chelsea must appear to Manchester United as a Terminator rolling out from under a blazing oil tanker, shoving an eye back in and remounting its Harley Davidson with shotgun primed. The old aura of power and indestructibility is returning.

The Premier League leaders were ordered by their new chief executive last week to “shoot for the stars”. But Roman Abramovich had to pay the stars first. Huge new contracts have been awarded to the team’s glitterati to fuel the resurgence United face in London today.

The big push is on at Stamford Bridge. Abramovich’s inner circle of long-servers can glimpse the end of their Chelsea days and a core of diehards have been financially doped to restore the club’s hegemony, which ended with the second of José Mourinho’s Premier League title wins in 2006. Peter Kenyon’s promise to “turn the world blue” seemed all the more laughable as the English landscape went back to red.

In the past 12 months big new deals and contract extensions have been dished out to Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda, Alex and even Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole, 28 today, is next on Abramovich’s list of men-who-must-be-encouraged. The Russian owner tired of being fleeced in the international transfer market. To end a three-year run with only a couple of FA Cups to show for his £150m annual wage bill, the oligarch turned back to the strength within.

“With the new contracts the club wants to maintain this squad and think of the future. To have a very good atmosphere – this was important,” Ancelotti says. “Joe Cole wants to stay here and we want to keep him. There will not be a problem with his future.”

The fruit of forking out these fidelity premiums has been 14 wins in 17 matches in all competitions, a smooth Champions League progression, leadership of the domestic title race and 17 goals with none conceded in four outings before the 2-2 midweek draw at Atlético Madrid. As with all things in the English game, there is a risk of over-statement. The victims in the recent 4-0, 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0 thrashings were Bolton (twice), a disintegrating Atlético and Blackburn. Errant defending at set plays were at the root of two Premier League away defeats, at Wigan and Aston Villa.

But the sense of renewal is palpable. Chelsea’s players, remember, can see that Liverpool are diminished, Arsenal raw and United currently below their symphonic best. Drogba, who signed for an extra two years in August, is unstoppable, with 12 goals in 13 matches. Ancelotti’s midfield diamond has unleashed the defence-trashing power of Drogba and Nicolas Anelka and rendered the side more expressive. These are feats that were beyond Luiz Felipe Scolari, Abramovich’s original choice to wipe away the greyness of the Avram Grant era.

On Friday came another victory: the suspension of the club’s transfer ban, courtesy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which allows Chelsea to stockpile new talent in January in case the Fifa penalty is eventually enforced. Ancelotti, though, says reinforcements are “not necessary”, despite the impending loss of four players for six to eight games in January for the Africa Cup of Nations. Here, Abramovich is reaping the harvest of hiring a manager who is accustomed to coaching the players he already has. In Serie A, incoming coaches seldom start with the obligatory English declaration about transfer war chests.

“I think he [Ancelotti] has done a really good job quickly and he is helped because he has had experienced players round him,” says Sir Alex Ferguson. “They can understand a change of tactics better than younger players. If you look at Ballack and Deco, they come from places where tactics are more of an issue. Anelka and Drogba have played abroad so it’s not surprising they have adapted.

“It’s the same as how he operated in Milan, with the difference being that at Milan he had Kaká. That made a hell of a difference to what he was able to do at Milan and the point I would make is that Chelsea are still looking for someone in a forward role to balance their team better. They have tried Lampard there, they have tried Deco there, they have even tried Malouda there and now they have brought in Joe Cole. But they have the experience to cope.”

Recently, Ancelotti defined his tactical thinking: “I prefer to play with two strikers and one midfielder behind the strikers. These [Chelsea] players can play in this system, with a diamond in midfield.” Liberation was Scolari’s aim, too, but the players rejected the culture shock of being bounced into a Brazilian/Portuguese style, with a lone striker, and insufficient attention to defensive drills.

At Chelsea’s Cobham training ground on Friday, a faintly tense Ancelotti waved away the theory that his side are now more entertaining than United. “Exciting play arrives because you can use players with quality. We can use those players but so can Manchester United. I don’t think we are playing the more exciting football.”

Yet Chelsea are outscoring their northern foe and can move five points clear in the table if they extend their record of not losing to United at Stamford Bridge in nine games stretching back to 2002. The muscularity and relentlessness of the Chelsea midfield has been one of United’s toughest obstacles and has encouraged Ferguson to set-up more cautiously against Lampard, Ballack and Essien for fear of being swamped. Ancelotti insists that Arsenal will play a hand in this title race, but already the debate is about whether United can maintain their narrow superiority over Arsène Wenger’s neighbours.

The return of Joe Cole, to the tip of ‘Carletto’s’ diamond, revives the cliche of an influential player returning with the glow of a new acquisition. “I trust in his quality. He’s a very good runner and he’s dynamic,” Ancelotti says. “His return is very important for the club. The same is true of Paulo Ferreira. For that reason I say we don’t need other players.”

Yet the age profile of United’s opponents this afternoon encourages urgency in a team of Champions League nearly men. For three consecutive seasons, Chelsea have chased home Ferguson’s men in domestic combat, finishing second, second and third. Lampard is 31, Michael Ballack 33, Anelka 30, Drogba 31, Deco 32, Carvalho 31. Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda and Terry are all in the golden 28-29 range. Essien, at 26, is the pup.

At Milan, Ancelotti presided over a gerontocracy, so he can hardly be expected to agree that time is running out for the team Mourinho mostly built. He says: “Terry is a young player, Lampard is a young player, so is Ashley Cole. When a player is 30-years-old he is in the centre of his career. Ten years ago he was an old player. Not now. With the new physical training and other things 30-years-old is the best moment of your career.”

But this ignores the reality that United and Arsenal are more adept at self-renewal. The youth programmes of those institutions shame Chelsea’s poor record of feeding homegrown players into the first XI. Their transfer ban stemmed from the over-zealous pursuit of Gaël Kakuta, a gifted youngster from France who was the club’s Scholar of the Year last season and has earned glowing reviews. As the Terry-Lampard generation continue to feast on Abramovich’s largesse, there has been panic further down the age line, as the owner’s entourage grapple with the latest loss (£65.7m) and seek the mythical break-even moment in a business that has paid £23.1m in compensation to sacked coaches, and returns 70% of its turnover to the players.

There was further evidence of this corporate unease when Kenyon’s successor, Ron Gourlay, announced that naming rights to Stamford Bride were up for grabs. “Our sponsorship architecture” was Gourlay’s novel phrase to describe this part of the business plan. “Maybe you won’t see as much brashness going forward [now that Kenyon has gone],” Gourlay said, and then proceeded to pick out two Champions League titles in five years as a realistic target. “That may sound aggressive, but I think we can do it.”

These Orwellian pronouncements never sound good from people with attaché cases, and there remains a risk that this brand of thinking will infect the playing side. Joe Cole seemed to have caught the bug in midweek when saying: “Chelsea are building a genuine claim to be as big as the Manchester Uniteds, the Real Madrids, the Milans, but you have to win trophies.”

The revival started not with Ancelotti but Guus Hiddink, who, in his five months, understood the team’s core strengths and saw that not too much was wrong with his best 20 players. According to Ferguson, Ancelotti will not feel Mourinho’s shadow, as Grant and Scolari did. “I don’t think Carlo is worried about that at all; he has his own CV. It is impressive, he has won two European Cups and the Scudetto and how many European medals has he got? His European pedigree is unquestionable.”

To most eyes today’s collision is a battle of the two best teams in the land, and therefore a synopsis of the fight to win this year’s Premier League. Mourinho’s Chelsea “raised the bar” between 2004 and 2006, Ferguson said at the time, and now United’s pre-eminence is again under assault from a team stabilised by Hiddink and Ancelotti and spurred on by lavish contract extensions.

The task was never to buy a new winning machine but to recalibrate the one that lost perhaps 10% of its effectiveness when Grant and Scolari were playing with the levers. If Chelsea are a team that runs itself, as many believe, the leaders appear remotivated to leave behind the agonies of the Champions League final penalty shoot-out defeat to United in Moscow and the injustice of last season’s semi-final loss to Barcelona, in which they almost tamed one of the best club sides ever assembled.

They always had the power, now they just need the glory back.