Posts Tagged ‘Phil Jagielka’

Everton v Tottenham preview

Manchester United 3-0 Everton

Manchester United had won only two of their previous five Premier League matches, and were eight points behind Chelsea at kick-off, but they quickly trimmed that back to five with a comfortable victory over the basket case poor Everton resemble at present.

It is interesting to note that, at this stage last season, United were running third, behind Chelsea and Liverpool, and they stayed there until the new year, when they hit the top on the back of an irresistible surge of 11 successive wins.

Traditionally, they move up as the Christmas decorations come down. This time, however, there is no Cristiano Ronaldo to leave opposing defenders with what, in George Best’s heyday, they used to call “twisted blood”. Ronaldo’s replacement, Antonio Valencia, not only lacks his predecessor’s mesmeric skills on the ball, he is not contributing his share of goals.

No team has experienced a worse catalogue of injuries than Everton and they were again without seven first-teamers, including such important figures as Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville and Steven Pienaar. On the credit side, Tim Cahill was passed fit to play. Notable absentees from the United line-up were Rio Ferdinand, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans and Dimitar Berbatov. Without Berbatov, injured on international duty with Bulgaria, Sir Alex Ferguson partnered Little and Little, aka Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, in attack for only the second time in the league. Ominously, on the only other occasion, United lost at Burnley.

The combination provided an interesting sub-text: might they dovetail effectively for England at the World Cup? Probably not, on this evidence. They were rarely on the same wavelength in the first half.

Louis Saha, who spent more time in the treatment room than on the field in his mutually frustrating spell with United, was back at Old Trafford for the first time as an Everton player and keen to demonstrate his worth by adding to the nine goals he had scored this season – the most recent at West Ham last weekend.

His first attempt left something to be desired, a “Thierry Henry”, as surreptitious handballs will now be known, found Steve Bennett eagled-eyed where Sweden’s Martin Hansson had been Mr Magoo in Paris.

As might have been expected, United made all the running and were rewarded after 35 minutes, when they took the lead in handsome fashion. Valencia’s headed knockdown fell to Darren Fletcher in the centre of the D, where the Scot met it with a flying right-footed volley that ripped into the top right-hand corner of Tim Howard’s net.

Everton’s visible discomfiture was reflected in back-to-back bookings for Cahill and Marouane Fellaini, and Howard had to be smartly off his line to thwart Owen in pursuit of the second goal that would have settled the issue before half-time.

David Moyes sent on an extra striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, in place of young Dan Gosling for the second half. It was a midfielder, John Heitinga, however, who raised Evertonian spirits with a curling 20-yarder that demanded Edwin Van der Sar’s careful attention. The United keeper was soon called upon again, advancing from his line to sprawl at the feet of Cahill. In the collision, both players were injured and needed treatment.

The Owen of old would surely have put the outcome beyond doubt 10 minutes after the break, when he took the ball wide of Howard, but nudged it too far to the left to get in a decent shot. Rooney was more impressive when he clipped the crossbar with a shot from 25 yards out.

The second goal United needed for comfort came midway through the half, when Ryan Giggs’s corner from the left came back to him and his second delivery was driven in by Carrick from 17 yards out. Everton knew the game was up. One goal was likely to be too much to pull back, two was mission impossible. Valencia drilled in the third from wide on the right, with the aid of a deflection.

Everton’s Jagielka robbed at knifepoint

• Raiders force defender to hand over car keys and jewellery
• Phil Jagielka is 11th Merseyside star to be robbed at home

An injured Premier League footballer has been robbed at knifepoint at his Cheshire home while watching his team play on television in the latest of a string of raids on footballers’ mansions.

Phil Jagielka, the Everton and England defender, was watching his side play Hull in the Carling Cup yesterday when three men burst into his £2m home in Knutsford and forced him to hand over jewellery and the keys to his Range Rover, which was among a number of luxury cars in his driveway.

No one was hurt in the incident and the car was found abandoned.

Jagielka, 27, is convalescing after rupturing knee ligaments in April and did not travel with his teammates to the cup game, which Everton won. It is not known if his wife and two children were at home during the break-in.

A spokeswoman for Cheshire police said: “Three men gained entry to a house in Knutsford. The homeowner was threatened with a knife and forced to hand over jewellery and the keys to his Range Rover car, fortunately nobody was injured during the incident and the car was found abandoned a short distance away.”

The incident follows a series of armed raids on the luxury homes of footballers in the north-west over the last three years. Last month Blackburn midfielder Vince Grella was also held at knifepoint when thieves broke in to his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

Last December, masked robbers stole jewellery from a home belonging to his former Blackburn Rovers teammate, Roque Santa Cruz. The Paraguayan star’s wife, who was looking after the couple’s two children, was robbed at knifepoint.

Jagielka is the 11th Merseyside footballer whose home has been robbed in recent years. Police believe the gangs target footballers’ luxury homes when they are scheduled to be playing. Premier League stars have responded by boosting the security around their homes with electronic gates and extensive CCTV but that appears not to have deterred the thieves.

In February an armed gang burgled the Cheshire home of Manchester United star Darren Fletcher, hours after he had flown to Italy for a Champions League tie.

Fletcher’s fiancee and mother-in-law had knives held to their throats, while the robbers stole jewellery. The couple’s twin sons, aged two, were asleep in the house at the time.

Following the robbery detectives said they were looking at a possible link with other brazen robberies, which have included raids on the homes of Liverpool players Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt and Pepe Reina.

A spokesman for Everton football club, who said the defender was shaken by the incident, told the BBC Jagielka was “helping police with their inquiries”.

Lescott’s Everton future uncertain as Man City circle

• Eastlands club expected to offer around £15m
• David Moyes adamant none of his players are for sale

Joleon Lescott has pointedly refused to pledge his future to Everton in the wake of suggestions that Manchester City are preparing a formal bid for the centre-half. City hope to follow their signing of Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry by adding his England team-mate to their squad and will offer Everton around £15m, a move the FA Cup finalists will resist.

Their manager, David Moyes, has publicly stated that none of his players are for sale, especially his centre-backs, given Phil Jagielka’s potential absence until Christmas as he recovers from a knee injury, yet much will depend on Lescott’s attitude.

The defender is contracted to Everton until 2012 but, when asked whether a switch to City would interest him, he opted against reaffirming his commitment to Goodison and instead replied: “That’s not a question I want to be answering. Nobody has told me otherwise, so I’m an Everton player.”

Everton trio sign new deals at Goodison Park

• Jagielka, Yobo and Howard commit to Everton
• Moyes pleased with clubs ‘efficiency’

Phil Jagielka, Joseph Yobo and Tim Howard have signed new extended contracts with Everton. All three had agreed to their new deals in the last few weeks but now the formalities have been officially completed.

Jagielka, the Toffees’ player of the season, has committed his long-term future to the club, as has fellow defender Yobo, despite losing his place to Joleon Lescott. Howard, who broke Neville Southall’s 13-year-old club record for league clean sheets this season, was also keen to pledge his future to the FA Cup runners-up.

“It’s great that three valuable members of the squad have committed themselves to the club for a lengthy period,” said manager David Moyes. “Tim, Phil and Joseph have been big players for us over the last few years and it’s great news that they will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. I have been pleased with the way we’ve gone about our business. We spoke to Phil, Tim and Joseph and we got everything done and dusted efficiently and quietly, which is the way we like things to be done.”

Moyes has already stressed he has no plans to sell any players from his squad, which is one of the smallest in the Premier League, and instead intends to strengthen in a bid to improve on this season’s fifth-place finish.