Arsenal 2-0 Fulham (18th Jan 14)

Arsenal FC capitalised on Santi Cazorla's second half brace to defeat fellow Londoners Fulham FC in a Barclays Premier League encounter at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

The win - which owes everything to the Spaniard's double - enabled the Gunners to retain their top spot on the PL points table.

The full-time scoreline may suggest it was a comfortable victory for the home side, but in reality, it was a hard-fought result, as the Cottagers tried their best to stifle the game and escape with a draw.

The visiting team's new boss Rene Meulensteen restored his regulars in the starting line-up after giving several fringe players a chance in the FA Cup third-round replay win over Norwich City in midweek.

The Dutchman's side almost went behind just minutes into the game when Jack Wilshere fed Mesut Ozil on the right side of the penalty area, and even though the German international's weak, right-footed effort got past Maarten Stekelenburg, Fulham's fit-again captain Brede Hangeland was there to clear it.

Coach Arsene Wenger's men increased their efforts to get a breakthrough but the opposition matched their efforts with some superb defending.

Ozil then wasted a free kick before his countryman Serge Gnabry's pass was met with a similarly wayward effort from striker Olivier Giroud.

Fulham's first real chance came in the 20th minute when former Gunner Steve Sidwell's fierce half-volley was saved by Wojciech Szczesny with his left hand. The big Pole came to his side's rescue again when Ashkan Dejagah tried to latch on to a through ball but was beaten to it.

Arsene Wenger's men then earned two free kicks in quick succession but couldn't convert either of them. The teams went into the halftime break all even.

The Gunners could have easily fallen behind at the start of the second break as Fulham debutant Dan Burn's header was goal-bound, but Per Mertesacker was at hand to ruin what would have been a dream debut for the 21-year-old.

Arsenal increased their attacks on the opposition goals and came close to opening their account with Cazorla and Gnabry's efforts before defender Laurent Koscielny's went even closer as his shot hit the post.

They finally succeeded in the 57th minute when Giroud passed to Wilshere on the left whose cut back was finished by Cazorla. Just five minutes later, the former Malaga man doubled his and his team's tally. This time, a defensive clearance by Burn fell in Cazorla's path, and he expertly hit a low drive past Stekelenburg.

A few minutes later, Arsenal fans were left worried; not because of any Fulham moves but because of a hard challenge by Sidwell on Giroud. The Frenchman took a hit on his ankle and was visibly in pain, but fortunately for the home side, he didn't suffer any damage.

With 20 minutes remaining on the clock, Lukas Podolski was introduced into the game at the expense of the excellent Gnabry. Podolski looked quite lively in his cameo and produced several impressive efforts, one of which was a sweet shot from 20-yards out that needed close attention from Stekelenburg.

Substitute Darren Bent - who has a history of scoring against Arsenal - had a decent chance to halve his team's deficit late in the game, but he couldn't cut the ball back, which was all that was required to score.

FC Barcelona - The Rivalry With Real Madrid

As long as there have been sport teams, there have been rivalries. Whether it's the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox or the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, the two rival teams inevitably end up meeting again and again, forming an ongoing heated rivalry that delights fans of the sport. One such rivalry is between Spanish football teams FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

FC Barcelona (also known as Barça by its fans) and Real Madrid are two of the earliest Spanish football teams, both forming in the 1890s. From the start, the two teams were seen as representatives of two rival regions of Spain, the ancient kingdoms of Castile and Catalonia. Both teams were part of La Liga, a Spanish football league and a rivalry that went far beyond football quickly took root.

It was during and after the Spanish Civil War that the rivalry took on more political overtones. Dictator Francisco Franco banned all peripheral languages, such as Catalan, the language of Barcelona. Catalonia had long been associated with more progressive fashions and political ideas, such as democracy-which was the diametric opposite of Franco's dictatorial regime. FC Barcelona suffered as a result of being a part of the Catalonian culture. Real Madrid, on the other hand, was seen by many Spaniards (and Catalonians in particular) as the "establishment" club. Though Franco seemed to favor Real Madrid, members of both teams suffered under his regime.

The fierce rivalry continued into the 1950s when both clubs sought to sign Alfredo Di Stefano to play for them. Real Madrid eventually won out and Alfredo Di Stefano went on to lead them to many wins. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid went head-to-head twice at the European Cup in the 1960s, with Real Madrid winning one and FC Barcelona winning the other. The two teams clashed once again over a player in 2000 when Luis Figo left FC Barcelona and signed with Real Madrid. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid competed against each other again in the UEFA Champions League semi-final in 2002, with Real Madrid getting the win. The Spanish media dubbed the match "The Match of the Century".

In the mid-2000s, the rivalry ascended to further heights when it acquired its own name, El Clasico. The term El Clasico was traditionally assigned to any South American football rivalry, but the growth of football in the Americas coupled with these two great teams' rivalry led to the coining of the term as applied to FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. This was mostly a marketing scheme communicated via GolTV, an all-football satellite channel, but the term has been embraced by fans worldwide.

El Clasico shows no signs of slowing. To this very day, the two teams inevitably seek each other out on the field to find out who is the best team in Spain. Sometimes FC Barcelona wins and sometimes Real Madrid wins, but ultimately football fans worldwide are the ones who win whenever these two giants meet on the field

A Brief History of Futbol Club Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona was founded in 1899 by a team of English, Swiss, and Catalan footballers, headed by Joan Gamper and today the club enjoys spectacular worldwide support, as well as being one of the most popular expressions of Catalanism and Catalan culture. This sometimes puts it at odds with Real Madrid and the result is a long-standing rivalry between the two biggest clubs in Spain, whose highly anticipated matches are dubbed "el clasico", with Barcelona representing a Spain of regions against Real Madrid's centralist vision of the country.

The club first got off the ground when Gamper put an advertisement in the Los Deportes regarding his desire to form a football club, and soon he found some supporters who met at the Gimnasio Sole on 29th November to discuss plans. The meeting was attended by Walter Wild who went ahead to become the first director of the club, Otto Kunzle, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Josep Llobet, Otto Maier, Josep Llobet, Carles Pujol, John Parsons, Lluís d'Osso, Bartomeu Terradas, and William Parsons - FC Barcelona was born!

The club had a successful start in the regional as well as national level, and it went from strength to strength. The team won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya in 1902. Since its inception, FC Barcelona has achieved fame across the world with its consistent efforts to excel and create a mark in the history of football. Such is the support that the club even has an official anthem, called the "Cant del Barça", written by Josep Maria Espinas and Jaume Picas.

Contrary to many other football clubs, FC Barcelona is owned and operated by its members. The club is often considered to be the second-richest football club in the world, in terms of revenue. Barcelona is the only European club that has consistently played European football matches every season since 1995 and is also one of only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga, alongside arch-rival Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

In the year 2009, FC Barcelona became the first Spanish club ever to be victorious in the treble, constituting of Copa del Rey, La Liga, and the Champions League. In the same season, the club also became the first in Spain to win six out of six matches in the same year. FC Barcelona has fans across the world eagerly waiting for each season to see how their favorite team will battle out with other teams for the trophy

The Best Ways to Get Tickets For a FC Barcelona Football Game

FC Barcelona has Europe's biggest football/soccer stadiums. Built in the 1950s, Camp Nou, or the New Camp has earned the fans of Barcelona the nickname of "Les Cules" - literally meaning "the arses" as the opposing supporters could see the back of the bums on seats of the loyal Barça fans from outside the stadium. Match day is a fantastic day out, especially against bitter rivals Real Madrid, or local derby matches against RCD Espanyol - indeed such is the draw of the venue, that the last world tour of U2 was performed here, due to the enormous capacity - around 99,000 people, with plans already approved to increase the capacity to 106,000. So how do I get to see a match, I hear you cry?! Well relax; there are some foolproof techniques you can employ before resorting to those ticket websites.

First of all, you can try the official website. Tickets go on sale approximately 2 weeks before match day, and you can be lucky and find seats this way. Alternatively, if you're already in town, you can make your way down to the ticket office at the stadium - with such a high capacity, it's rare for games to sell out - unless we're talking about the previous fixtures of Real Madrid or a semi final in the Champions League, of course! However, this information is readily available on the website or any affiliate program of Barcelona. What I'm going to reveal are the tricks.

Season ticket holders to FC Barcelona can only ever give their ticket back to the club, or maintain that ticket with the surname. So many older generation season ticket holders, simply hold on to their relatives' season tickets and sell on these seats on match day. Let me explain. Say my father and his 4 brothers were all season ticket holders, but of those 5 siblings, only 1 had children (me). I would renew those season tickets each year, due to their privileged location within the stands, and simply turn up 30 minutes before kick off each home game and sell on those tickets for face price, with the guarantee of having better view than the box office tickets and probably paying off my own season tickets from the profits by the end of the season. This is perfectly legal within the eyes of the club and the governing bodies of football, as long as money doesn't change hands. So those clever OAP's you see hanging around the metro station are the ones with the best tickets! The security guards at the turnstiles know the score, but as long as they haven't seen money changing hands, then its fine by them. This is the best way to get tickets for the match, as you are effectively escorted in by the seller (you will sit next to them), so no security risks with regards fake tickets. It does however, have its risks in that if anyone sees you pay for the ticket, then you run the risk of losing your money and the ticket.

Tickets for matches are released to the general public after the FC Barcelona Members can buy them. You pay an annual subscription to the club if you can't get a season ticket (based on my previous paragraph, you won't be surprised to hear that the waiting list for a season ticket extends back to the 1970`s) and then have first refusal for the tickets before the public. In this way, many "touts" will buy up their share of the ticket allocation, often meaning they take all of the second tier seats in the stadium or the second best seats, after the season ticket holders. They then have a mark up of around 5 Euros per ticket, which for the majority of tourists is a steal, considering the better seat you will be able to get for this first time experience.

My final tip is again, not one that is well publicised and although this means that you don't have the choice of the better seat allocation, it's an official way of going about getting a ticket. You may be surprised to hear that ATMs or cash machines of the bank "La Caixa" also sell FC Barcelona tickets. The Catalan bank sells concert tickets, opera entrances and theatre stalls, so it's no surprise to be able to find seats for the football, either. The reason why I left this tip for last is that due to the previous methods, the Cash point tickets are usually always the last to be sold, meaning you will have the cheapest seats (therefore be higher up in the stadium) which is not to put you off, as any seat in the stadium is well worth the price, but just so that you know you have various options. This option, for example, is great for larger groups who all want to stay together, as it means tickets can be bought in bulk - this way guaranteeing adjacent seating arrangements.

My last tip is to wrap up warm if you happen to go to a winter fixture! Although the winters in Barcelona are fairly mild, the height of the stadium coupled with its geographic location means that often the wind chill factor is very high within the stadium.

Integration, Football Style

Ball carriers and offensive linemen have different jobs. They have independent skill sets that are needed to help a football team succeed. Although these skill sets are independent of each other, they don't have to remain mutually exclusive to each group.

Walter Jones, a former offensive lineman with the Seattle Seahawks, will probably be in the NFL Football Hall of Fame. He was one of the best offense lineman with his combination of size, power, and speed. Marshawn Lynch, a running back presently with the Seattle Seahawks, is a beast because he brings size, power, and speed to his position. I am not sure if Marshawn will become a hall of famer, but I am certain that he will be in the Seahawks Ring of Honor.

Walter Jones is a big powerful man. These attributes are typical and needed to be a dominant offensive lineman in the NFL. However, what is not typical about Walter are his quick precise feet. His feet help him put his defensive assignment in complete lock-down. Marshawn Lynch has great speed, quickness, and vision like most exceptional running backs in the NFL. What sets Marshawn apart from most other elite running backs is his formidable power. He is able to consistently move the pile several yards after defensive contact has been made. He has established himself as a genuine beast on the football field.

Ball carriers are trained to be shifty and elusive. The good ones can anticipate a defender's movements and use the defender's body weight against him whether contact had been made with him or not. Most ball carriers work best in an open space where the running lanes are larger and more accessible. Only a small number of ball carriers deal well with tight crowded area running situations where the running lanes are narrow and less accessible.

Marshawn's wide base helps him establish a firm center of gravity and maintain great balance in tight spots. An offensive lineman has to move and / or maintain control of his defensive assignment. His job requires a combination of power and speed. Power is important in the process, but speed is essential in order to maintain control. Superior foot speed made Walter Jones special. He could maintain control of his defensive assignment for a longer period of time than other lineman. The defensive player who cannot disengage from a lineman like Walter Jones, who could push a Cadillac up a steep hill, would have problems doing his job well.

Offensive linemen and ball carriers should cross train with another at least once a week, because each group has a skill set that would benefit the other group. Ball carriers would benefit from training with offensive linemen because they would attain more power by pushing sleds and going head-to-head against bigger stronger offensive lineman in controlled practice drills. The desired result would be that ball carriers develop wider bases like offensive linemen and Marshawn Lynch. It would help them run powerfully in tight crowded spaces on the field. Ball carriers could simply readjust to a typical narrow base once they got into the open field. In addition, ball carriers asked to block larger defensive linemen. Wouldn't it be great if these ball carriers had some of the requisite training to block them effectively? It would sure make some quarterbacks happier.

Offensive linemen would benefit from cross training, because their feet would become quicker. Ladder and quick-cut ball carrier drills would help the linemen control their defensive assignments better. Linemen could stay engaged with defensive players for longer periods of time. Just like the ball carriers, the linemen would learn to anticipate where their defensive assignments are going and to perfect the footwork needed to beat them to the spot. In addition, coaches might discover a linemen with legitimate ball carrying skills who could be used in a jumbo package situation.

Argentina away jersey 2014/15

Argentina away jersey 2014/15 will update again