Barrie's View

It was looking like doom and gloom for Wolves when Daniel Sturridge took advantage of Ronald Zubar’s errant backpass on February the 2nd to hand Bolton 3 points that left Wolves bottom of the Premier League.

Ending Manchester United’s Unbeaten Run

That results was followed up with the first defeat of Manchester United’s Premier League season, meaning the home fans at Molineux this season have seen their side beat both Manchester sides and Chelsea – meaning Arsenal are the only top four side not to have fallen victim to Mick McCarthy’s side in the West Midlands this season.

Derby Win

This weekend, Matty Jarvis’ goal earned a valuable 3 points for Wolves that moved them up to 18th in the league at the expense of Birmingham City, and now only 1 point below Aston Villa. That goal and Jarvis’ performances this season have earned in his first England call up ahead of England’s upcoming games with Wales and Ghana. Manager Mick McCarthy will be hoping the international break has not come at a bad time for his side.

Mick McCarthy

It is Mick McCarthy who will be deserving of praise should he lead his side to safety for the second consecutive season in the Premier League. The former Republic of Ireland and Sunderland manager has put together a hard working side that warranted their victories over top four sides this season.

An honest manager who gives a good pre and post-match interview, McCarthy has the trust of his team, something that cannot be said of his combatant in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Aston Villa. Gerard Houllier has fallen out with a number of his squad members and the fans were vocal about their disappointment of his management skills, or seemingly lack of.

Wolves are only 3 points short of 12th placed Fulham whom they host towards the end of April. 12th place won’t be on Mick McCarthy and his players minds right now, but rather any place in the top 17 will do.

Remaining Fixtures

Wolves have a favourable run in, or at least one that sees them in control of their own destiny this season. After a trip to Newcastle on April 2nd after the international break, they host Everton and Fulham in back-to-back Premier League games. There are trips to Stoke City, Birmingham City and Sunderland left on the list, before hosting West Brom and finishing the season with a home game against Blackburn Rovers. A lot of “6 pointers” as the media will describe.

Lack of Goals

Without having a regular goalscorer up front in any of their Premier League seasons, even going back to the disappointing 2003/04 season with Henri Camara, Kenny Miller and co, Wolves are battling for their results. This season, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake leads the way with 6 goals, while both Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher have 5 each.

Defensively, Mick McCarthy made the decision to drop Marcus Hahnemann in goal after the American had failed to keep a clean sheet in 14 appearances. His replacement, Wayne Hennessey has kept 5 clean sheets in 16 games. The young Welshman has looked solid in goal, as he did when he was their starter in the Championship. This without the experience and leadership of Jody Craddock who has missed most of the season through injury.

Inspirational January Signings

Inspired January signings Jamie O’Hara and Adam Hammill may not have brought as much attention as those signed by West Ham before transfer deadline day, but they’ve been a big part of the change in fortunes of the inaugural UEFA Cup runners up…

Last night, Javier Hernandez scored a brace to help Manchester United progress into the quarter finals of the Champions League for a record twelfth time.

The young Mexico, nicknamed ‘Chichartio’ (Little Pea) signed at the end of last season and impressed during Mexico’s short-lived World Cup, scoring the first of Mexico’s goals in their 2-0 win over France, and then a consolation in their 3-1 defeat to Argentina in the second round, going out of the World Cup hours after England.

He proved as almost-instant hit with United fans when he he scored a bizarre goal on his debut in Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Chelsea in the community shield at the start of the season, kicking the ball against his face and into the net.

The former Guadalajara hitman has had to wait patiently for his chance this season, behind Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. Hernandez played in just 2 of Manchester United’s first 6 games this season and didn’t get a full 90 minutes until their 2-2 draw with West Brom in mid-October. He scored and then scored 2 more the following weekend, including the late winner at Stoke in their 2-1 victory.

Hernandez has scored late winners in both games versus Stoke this season as well as the winner at West Brom on new year’s day. This, and his intelligence on the field has had him compared to former Manchester United hero Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Hernandez has 10 Premier League goals in 20 appearances this season, playing 90 minutes on just 3 occasions, while 9 of those appearances has been starts. In comparison, Wayne Rooney has 7 goals in 20 Premier League games this season, of which just 2 have been from the bench.  Hernandez has 16 goals in 33 games in all competitions so far this season.

But what do statistics mean? Dimitar Berbatov is the Premier League top goalscorer so far this season with 19 goals and has seemingly lost his place to Javier Hernandez, and notably in key fixtures too. Berbatov started in Manchester United’s last Premier League game, against Liverpool, having been a substitute in the previous 3, including fixtures with Manchester City and Chelsea.

The hardworking duo of Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez look to be the future of Manchester United’s strike partnership. With Nani and Antonio Valencia down the wings there is a lot of creativty and potential goal threat to come. If Manchester United purchase a creative central midfielder this summer, they’ll have something special brewing next season.

The threat of Javier Hernandez and his movement will also open up space and give more freedom to Wayne Rooney. While defences haven’t always taken Dimitar Berbatov too seriously with his lack of movement, defences have mainly been focusing on Rooney previously, taking him out of the game. With Hernandez in, defences will know they need to mark him, thus opening up space and more freedom for Wayne Rooney to come good once again.

No doubt Dimitar Berbatov will get his chances between now and the end of the season. With this weekend’s fixture being at home to Bolton Wanderers, there’s every chance he’ll start that one. Sir Alex Ferguson will continue to rotate his stars, but how much more time Berbatov gets in the big matches remains to be seen.

With Fernando Torres failing to make an impact in his first five appearances for Chelsea, Tiote at Newcastle notching up the yellow cards, Peter Odemwingie experiencing a winter droubt, Nikola Zigic only just coming good, the whole Manchester City team being inconsistent, Rafael van der Vaart is the only one in contention right now for the newcomer of the season in the Premier League.

Regardless, Javier Hernandez has been an astute signing by Sir Alex Ferguson, and at age 22, seems to have a very bright future ahead of him at Manchester United.

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Last night saw Manchester United nervously progress into the quarter finals of the Champions League for a fifth-successive season and a record twelfth time.

A Javier Hernandez brace looked to be sending Manchester United comfortably through before an own goal by Wes Brown in the 83rd minute left Manchester United clinging onto qualification, with Marseille only needing a score draw to progress.

Didier Deschamp’s defending French Ligue 1 champions failed to equalise, and in truth, rarely threatened Edwin van der Sar’s goal much in either leg.

Manchester United were without both Nemanja Vidic and Darren Fletcher, making them vulnerable down the middle like they were exposed at Liverpool 10 days ago in a 3-1 defeat. Even with the highly-rated group of stars including Lucho Gonzalez, Andre-Pierre Gignac, Loic Remy and Mathieu Valbuena, the 1993 winners failed to impress at Old Trafford.

Another lacklustre performance from Manchester United was enough to see them reach the final 8 of the Champions League for the fifth-successive season. They are currently 8/1 fourth favourites, ahead of Friday’s quarter final draw. Barcelona are 13/10 favourites, ahead of two teams looking to book their places in the last 8 this evening; Real Madrid and Chelsea respectively.

This Saturday, Manchester United host Bolton Wanderers in a 3pm kickoff on Saturday at Old Trafford where Sir Alex Ferguson’s side will look to maintain or extend their 3 point lead over Arsenal in the Premier League. This is the first of their 9 remaining league fixtures, having played 1 more game than their London title rivals.

With Manchester City down 2-0 in their Europa League last 16 match, the likelihood of them progressing now is slim, meaning the Manchester derby FA Cup semi final match will more than likely take place on Saturday 16th April (Europa League quarter final 2nd leg date: Thursday 14th April) and not be moved to Sunday to clash with the Arsenal-Liverpool Premier League match. Manchester United are 11/10 favourites to win the FA Cup. Should they eliminate their local rivals, they will play either Bolton Wanderers or Stoke City in the final.

SkyBet have the following odds:

Manchester United to win No Trophies: 7/2
Manchester United to win A Major Trophy: 1/6
Manchester United to win the Premier League: 4/6
Manchester United to win the FA Cup: 11/10
Manchester United to win the Champions League: 15/2
Manchester United to win the Domestic Double: 2/1
Manchester United to win the Treble: 16/1

So, how many trophies do you think Manchester United will win this season? Please vote above.

Following a freak injury to Wojciech Szczesny in Arsenal’s 2nd leg Champions League defeat at the hands of Barcelona, Lukasz Fabianski already out for the season with a shoulder injury, Arsene Wenger has called upon a goalkeeper he can rely upon.

Jens Lehmann was Arsenal’s goalkeeper during their unbeaten 2003/04 season and kept a record 10 consecutive clean sheets in the Champions League en route to the final in 2006, where he was controversially sent off in a 2-1 defeat to Barcelona.

In between those seasons, due to a loss of form in 2004/05 he lost his starting position for 10 games to Manuel Almunia before eventually leaving Arsenal at the end of the 2007/08 season as backup to the Spaniard. He left Arsenal to go to German outfit VfB Stuttgart for two seasons which would prove to be the only club he never lifted a trophy with, before retiring in the summer of 2010.

Vito Mannone has had his own injury problems whilst on loan at Championship side Hull City this season, leaving Arsene Wenger with limited choices with the transfer window long passed.

Jens Lehmann’s role will seemingly see him play backup to Manuel Almunia until Wojciech Szczesny is ready to return. The German was becoming a liability towards the end of his career at the Emirates stadium, and Arsenal fans must fear him making an appearance this season, nearly 3 years after he left London and 9 months after he retired, now aged 41.

Arsenal remain well in the title race, 3 points and 3 goals behind leaders Manchester United with a game in hand. Arsenal travel to West Brom on Saturday before hosting free-falling Blackburn two weeks later after an international break.

Arsenal are unsure on the fitness of Johan Djourou following his shoulder injury picked up at Old Trafford on Saturday. Should Arsenal confirm he needs surgery and miss the remainder of the season, perhaps Arsene Wenger will travel to Azerbaijan to find out if Tony Adams will come out of retirement to add his name to the Arsenal squad for the rest of this season, having retired from the game in 2002.

This evening, Harry Redknapp became the first English manager to take an English side to the quarter finals of the Champions League as his Tottenham Hotspur side held AC Milan to a 0-0 in the second leg of their last 16 meeting.

Tottenham Hotspur came into their second leg at White Hart Lane with a 1-0 lead thanks to a late winner from Peter Crouch at the San Siro.  This evening, there was a lot of last ditch defending in the first half that included William Gallas clearing Robinho’s deflected shot off the line. Gomes was forced into a few key saves in the first half and from Robinho in particular in the second half when the Brazilian’s initial shot was parried and follow up scrambled behind.

Sandro was a key player in front of their back four, making a number of interceptions around his own box and in Tottenham’s half. Calm on the ball, he played simple passes not to put his team into danger, except for the occasional run into Milan’s half, which thankfully didn’t prove costly.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was kept quiet throughout the match while Pato was limited to long range efforts – one notable shot hitting the side netting that the Milan fans thought had given their side the lead as the temporarily celebrated (along with Luca Antonini on the pitch throwing his hands in the air).

Tottenham are joined in the quarter finals with German side Schalke 04, who eliminated Valencia this evening. Last night Shakhtar Donetsk eliminated AS Roma, leaving Inter Milan as Italy’s only remaining side left in European competition this season. They face a tough test against Bayern Munich next week; a rematch of last year’s final.

In some controversial style, Barcelona eliminated Arsenal last night. The Gunners cruelly reduced to 10 men with over half hour to go in Camp Nou following two soft yellow cards to Robin van Persie, whom few expected to play the whole 90 minutes anyway Arsenal lead on aggregate for 47 minutes of the 55 that the game was 11 versus 11. Barcelona once again helped out by a favourable red card decision, thinking back to the days of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea versus Frank Rijkaard’s Barca.

The four remaining Champions League second round matches take place next week. Barcelona are 11/8 favourites.

Blackburn Rovers owners, Venky’s have today denied that manager Steve Kean’s job is under threat.

Following the sacking of Sam Allardyce on December 13th, Steve Kean initially took over as caretaker boss with no previous professional managerial experience. He won 3 of his first 6 games in charge, including a 3-1 win over Liverpool in what turned out to be Roy Hodgson’s final game in charge, before signing a two and a half year contract in January.

Blackburn’s Indian owners then told Steve Kean they would never remove him from his position whilst under contract, until June 2013.

With only 1 win since he signed his permanent deal, and just 1 point from their last 6 Premier League games, Steve Kean doesn’t look so unsackable now.

The Scot has left his side just 2 points above the relegation zone after suffering a 3-2 defeat at Fulham on Saturday.

Blackburn host Blackpool in a big relegation six pointer on Saturday. Aside from Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool, Steve Kean has only managed to beat West Brom (twice) in the Premier League during his 12 games in charge. Steve Kean is 9/4 favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post, while Blackburn Rovers are an enticing 7/2 to be relegated.

When asked to talk about a penalty and disallowed goal incident late in yesterday’s goalless draw with Sunderland, Arsene Wenger told the bbc he was “too disgusted to speak about it, frankly”.

Andrey Arshavin was pushed in the back by Titus Bramble when one-on-one with Simon Mignolet yesterday, causing him to fall over as he blasted his shot off target. Later, Andrey Arshavin tucked away a one-on-one with the Belgian keeper after the referee’s whistle had blown for offside. Replay’s show the Russian was onside.

Steve Bruce rightfully pointed out that his keeper would have made an effort to save it had the whistle not blown, and therefore it was no guarantee to be a goal. These decisions happen every week – some times they go your way, some times they don’t. That’s football. Arsenal had 90 minutes and 1 minute more than than the 4 minutes of stoppage time allocated to score, and they failed to do so. Robin van Persie’s absentee was notable. While Samir Nasri has not been able to match his early season form.

Sunderland ended a 4-game losing streak by taking a point away with them from the Emirates yesterday. Titus Bramble now has clean sheets versus Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea this season.

Arsenal are now 3 points behind leaders Manchester United with 10 games remaining. The title race is still very wide open and if anything, Arsenal have a much better run in. Manchester United go to Liverpool today to face Kenny Dalglish’s side who have yet to lose at home during his second stint in charge.

This time last weekend Arsenal were very much in the hunt for the quadruple. Defeat in the Carling Cup to Birmingham has been followed up with a draw against Sunderland in the league. On Tuesday Arsenal travel to Camp Nou with a 2-1 lead over Barcelona in their Champions League last 16 tie. Will that be enough to see them through? Or more likely, how many will Lionel Messi score? Barcelona are only 3/8 to qualify following injuries to Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Alex Song, Theo Walcott and the continued absence of Thomas Vermaelen.

After today’s game, Manchester United don’t play again until they host Arsenal in the quarter final of the FA Cup next weekend.

So, how many trophies will Arsenal be in the running for this time next weekend? Arsenal are 7/2 to win the FA Cup which requires them getting a result at Old Trafford.

One race Arsenal will not be out of this time next weekend is the Premier League. At worst, they will be 6 points behind with a game in hand. They could be 3 points behind with a game in hand should Liverpool win today. Arsenal have a very favourable fixture list, playing West Brom away, free-falling Blackburn at the Emirates and out-of-form Blackpool away before they host Liverpool on April 17. Arsenal are 5/2 to win the Premier League.