Alexandre Pato is coming home. Well, actually he’s leaving home. But he’s making a move back to his home away from home--Europe. The one-time Brazilian prodigy has reached an agreement with Chelsea for a six-month loan deal. At the end of the six months the club will have the option to extend the loan, make it a permanent deal or kick him to the curb.
It’s time to settle down and prepare yourself for some emotion, because you are about to watch a man be reunited with a long lost mentor he met as a boy. The fact that it’s set to the music from The Shawshank Redemption is almost unfair.
Javier Hernandez has been linked with Liverpool lately, and it isn't exactly hard to see why. Chicharito has been in magnificent form this season, scoring 21 goals in 24 games in all competitions for Bayer Leverkusen. A player of his skill set could be exactly what Jurgen Klopp needs. The German's team has played some good football at times, but a lack of clinical finishing (and some suspect defending) has seen them fail to make any headway in the Premier League table.
Chelsea's defensive record is in shambles: they've allowed 34 goals in 23 matches this campaign. Last season's title winning defense allowed only 32 goals throughout the entirety of the season. More worringly for the Chelsea heirarchy is that the situation doesn't have any immediate remedies in the form of contracted players. Their backline is comprised of ageing stalwarts John Terry, 35, Branislav Ivanovic, 31, and Gary Cahill, 30.
The name Matthew Taylor may not resonate with soccer fans as powerfully as Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard or Yaya Toure, but the former Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham United man scored his fair share of screamers in the Premier League.
The 34-year-old midfielder currently plies his trade with Burnley in the Championship, but Taylor quietly amassed 40 Premier League goals over 12 seasons in the English top flight. That’s currently more than Cesc Fabregas, Roy Keane, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and David Silva.
Sunday January 17 Wayne Rooney scored a goal in the 78th minute vs. rival Liverpool, helping propel Manchester United to a 1-0 victory. This goal was important for two reasons: it gave Man U a needed win, and three points in the standings of the EPL, where they currently sit fifth overall, and this goal put Rooney atop the record books as the player to score the most goals for one team in Premier League history.
With 176 goals for United, Rooney passed Thierry Henry's Arsenal record.
According to Miguel Delaney of The Independent, Jose Mourinho has supposedly crafted a six-page letter to the Manchester United hierarchy expressing a desire to manage the struggling outfit.
What were you doing when you were 19? I wasn't doing much. I was probably was sitting around my house in college watching some stupid netflix show. But Dele Alli, now he's doing stuff. The English wonderkid for Tottenham scored an absolute beauty of a goal today. Remember that one Neymar goal? Yeah, I think this one is better.
Betting legally can make the mundane seem not so mundane, and not so mundane seem like you just consumed two red bulls and a shot of espresso. It’s fun, and exciting, and heart pounding. Until someone loses $500,000, at least. In that case it’s just heart-pounding. But it’s a risk any bettor knowingly takes, so I’ll spare the lecture.
TV Preview: Arsenal v Chelsea: the Bundesliga is back after a month off although most German sides were busy during the sabbatical. Chicharito did what Chicharito does, scoring goals in Florida of all places and with 19 goals in 22 appearances, the Mexican National player is getting glances from English sides once more.