SportsViews

Arsenal has again shown that depth, and a good young squad of backup players is one of the main ingredients to succeding at both premiership and Champions League level. The average age of the players sent to Fenerbahce was 23, his previous ‘youth’ team averaged 19, both delivered stunning victories. Yesterday over Fenerbahce, it was a 5-2 goal feast.

If you compare Arsenal to Tottenham who are languishing at the bottom of the table, you can see the contrast. Spurs struggle to put a decent team on the pitch each week following the sale of their top players during the off season. For some strange reason, the Spurs management sold of their star players before securing any new signatures on contracts. The end result, an exodus of talent and the non-arrival of new talent.

Teams such as Arsenal, buy first - assess their needs then sell the excess. Always looking to build the team first. Add to that a program of developing the youth and the club not only survives, it thrives. There is always talk about money in sport and how money tends to destroy sport. Arsenal hasn’t spent big, they have developed and traded cleverly.

Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has named Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Robin van Persie and Didier Drogba as divers. For those who are unaware, diving is the fine art of falling to the ground when tackled, even if the tackle is feather soft. In fact, some players are so good there have been calls to nominate them for Academy Awards.

Diving is an accepted tactic in some European areas, and actively taught in both Spain, Italy and reportedly in Brazil as well. In England, it is not accepted and players accused of diving can be penalized and sent off. What is Mourinho’s thoughts on diving?

[source]“I hate diving, but I’m not happy if a player is kicked by somebody in the box and he tries to remain standing,”

Since Mourinho is no longer Chelsea manager he doesn’t have to defend his good friend Drogba. Whether they are divers or not is up to others to judge. Is Mourinho providing an honest assessment or is there some sour grapes talking. Possibly a little of both.

Do you accept diving as a part of modern football or should it be stamped out? It can be a lot of fun watching some players take a dive however, in the long run it destroys the game.

Referee Rob Styles is in the spotlight again after issuing a red card and awarding a penalty shot at goal in the premiership game between Newcastle and Manchester City. Once again most observers feel it was a fair tackle and the game should have been allowed to proceed.

Instead, the referee sent off Newcastle’s Habib Beye and awarded a spot kick which was duly converted. This is not the first time that Mr Styles has been in the spotlight. Last month he apologized to Bolton for a similar decision that cost them the game.

The time has probably come for a video referee to review decisions in the penalty box. A wrong decision in the penalty box always has a bearing on the outcome of a game. This decision could have cost Newcastle their position in the premier league next season if they cannot now claw their way out of the relegation zone.

A lot has been said about this match and about the refereeing decision. A lot more has been said about Mr Styles as a referee. Perhaps it is time for him to be retired from the premier league. To continually make poor decisions such as this is a blight on the game and in the long run will do more harm to the sport in general. Have your say on this or any other aspect of sport that may concern you at SportsViews.

Liverpool met Chelsea this coming weekend in a match that will have a lot of bearing on the rest of the season for both clubs. Everyone is predicting Chelsea to win, and win easily. The more I think about the game, the more I wonder about that.

Chelsea won last weekend beating Middlesbrough 5-0 and everyone is raving about how good Chelsea were - and they were good. However, Liverpool are not Middlesbrough. In fact Liverpool, like Chelsea, are unbeaten so far this season.

If Chelsea go into the match thinking they are invincible, they may find that Liverpool kicks their pants. Football is a strange game sometimes and unlikely wins occur all the time.

For Liverpool, they have struggled to win convincingly, yet they continue to win. The chatter on some of the forums is that they are doing just enough to win and that’s all. As the competition gets tougher, so will they. I am yet to be convinced.

One thing I do know, it is competition like this that gets people talking. The Red Sox - Devil Rays baseball playoffs have been a good example. Sites such as forums, and sites like SportsViews, promote conversations and the sharing of opinions.

The European player of year nominations have been revealed and all I can say is, there are a lot of them. Manchester United have four players nominated, Chelsea three and Euro2008 champions Spain with seven nominations.

This is the first time since 2000 that Thierry Henry has not been nominated. I would print the all the nominations here but it would fill the page.

Some of the bigger names include: Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Edwin Van Der Sar from Man U. Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba from Chelsea. Fernando Torres, Karim Benzema, David Villa and Cristiano Ronaldo are others in the list.

How would you like to be the one picking the winner from that list. Might just make a good a bet on SportsViews.

Once again the crowd - I wont call them fans, they have more respect - the crowd at an English football match have ruined the game by hurling objects at match officials. This time, whilst not seriously injured, an assistant referee at a premiership match between Portsmouth and Aston Villa was struck in the head by a missile. The match was held up whilst the assistant referee received treatment.

What I fail to understand is why? Nothing is gained by hurling objects at players or match officials apart from the fine issued to the club though to be responsible. In this case it appears to have been an Aston Villa supporter so they will most likely wear the fine.

Although willing to hurl objects from the middle of a crowd, the people responsible are never big enough to do it out in open or to take responsibility for their actions. By the time security arrived you can guarantee the culprit(s) had either disappeared or gone into hiding in the middle of the crowd.

These acts don’t change results, they don’t change any decisions made and certainly don’t influence match officials the next time a match is played at that venue. In this case, the match still ended up in a draw. Do you support these people or should they receive life bans?

English football club Chelsea have over half their team absent due to injury. The conservative worth of the missing players has been valued in excess of 100 million pounds - yet they continue to win. Today they won 5-0 against Middlesbrough who are not easy beats by any means.

With players such as Didier Drogba, Joe Cole, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack and Deco missing from the run on side you would think that Chelsea would languish at the bottom of the table, not Spurs.

Those eight players could beat many of the lower teams with little effort, in fact many of the lower teams would gladly accept one or two of them into their ranks. Little is said about the depth of sporting clubs, Chelsea obviously have plenty of that.

I wonder if any other club has had so many key players out injured yet still managed to win games? If you have any thoughts I would love to hear from you. You can share your thoughts and opinions at SportsViews where free to join, free to participate and free to have fun.

Once again the words ‘match fixing’ are rumbling throughout the football world. Rather than Italy or Asia, this time it is the bastion of world football, England. The clubs in question are Norwich City and Derby County, clubs that are battling away at the bottom of their division.

Match fixing is one of those areas of any sport that is incredibly hard to achieve and keep quiet over any length of time. Someone will always ’spill the beans’, more so in English football than anywhere else. You would be surprised how much is said given the consumption of a few beers.

It appears that certain betting patterns have been detected that have arisen suspicions. In the past, any accusation of match fixing has come from bookmakers who have lost a lot of money on a particular event and they want to blame someone for it, perhaps even recoup some lost money. I don’t know if they can be insured against such an event. But it always smells of sour grapes.

The truth is that a player or fan close to the action knows that either someone is carrying an injury or a player has been training really well. They pass the info on to friends and family who, if they are the betting kind, quickly jump in and secure good odds. The bookie misses out - oh didums - they win enough as it is.

What are your experiences with online betting. Ever had a ‘hot’ tip that duly paid of at good odds? I am sure we all have. Come and share your experiences on SportsViews. SportsViews allows you to express your view on any sporting related topic.

Former Manchester City defender David Sommeil will not play soccer again following a heart attack at training. At the tender age of 34, he would have been hoping for a few more years in the game he loves.

34 is such a young age to be suffering heart attacks yet it seems to be on the increase. Sports medicine has been concerned at the growing problem and have spent many hours researching possible causes. The game at the top level is stressful (although ironically, sport is supposed to decrease stress) and it is stressful on the body in many ways.

Alcohol is known to cause problems, particularly for athletes who imbibe within an hour of competing. Dehydration, heat stress, poor nutrition are also thought to play a role. Yet workers in other industries such as laborers working on building sites endure the same conditions without any significant heart disease at young ages.

Training regimes often push players beyond their limits in an effort to raise that baseline of fitness. Perhaps that heavy workload on the cardio-pulmonary system is causing problems. Sports injuries are discussed a lot on SportsViews, however they rarely touch on the area of heart disease, most likley because the player effected often dies. It is a growing problem and is worth talking about. Do you have any ideas on why sporting people seem suffer more heart problems at a young age?

David Beckham made it onto the pitch for the last four or five minutes of England’s game against Belarus, it was long enough to give him his 107th cap for his country and move him into third place on the list of most capped English players.

The 33 year old Beckham requires one more game to equal 1966 captain Bobby Moore’s tally of 108 caps, the highest total by an outfield player. Beckham, despite his age, continues to be selected as a substitute, however his days must surely be numbered as younger highly talented players come on the scene.

The current selection policy is pick players into the squad based on form has seen a resurgence in their standing in the football world. Beckham needs another 18 caps to set an all time appearance record for England. Peter Shilton holds the record at 125 caps. He will need to appear in all of the remaining games as well the 2010 World Cup. He will be 35 come World Cup time so there is doubt as to whether he would be selected. There is no longer room for sentiment when it comes to professional football, no matter what any of the fans have to say.