Liverpool Moves Into Top Spot of The Premier League Table

Liverpool moved to the top of the Premier League table with a comfortable 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at Anfield.
Liverpool began in fine style taking the lead just 13-minutes in when Luis Suarez managed to sweep the ball home 12-yards despite being surrounded by defenders.

Just moments later and Daniel Sturridge's kept up his brilliant start to the new season when firing home after turning Damien Delaney inside-out.
The third, just before the break, was somewhat harsh on Palace as Dean Moxey was adjudged to have pulled Raheem Sterling back just inside the back and skipper Steven Gerrard made no mistake to slot him his 99th Premier League goal for Liverpool.
Palace did improve after the break and they claimed a goal with 15-minutes left as Dwight Gayle flicked home Jose Campana's free-kick from close-range - but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation.
The win takes Liverpool above Arsenal into top spot, whilst Palace remain second from bottom after their sixth defeat of the season.

Owoeye becomes SuperSports’ 1st pidgin-English commentator

Timi Owoeye has become SuperSports’ first Pidgin-English commentator.


Owoeye emerged on Friday to clinch the position out of more than 1,000 candidates who entered for the month-long maiden SuperSports ‘Follow Ya Mouth’, Pidgin-English commentator search.

SuperSports said in a statement in Lagos on Friday that Owoeye was given one year contract with effect from Nov. 1.

He would be expected to thrill followers of the Glo Premier League (GPL) via the Pidgin- English commentaries.

The `Follow Ya Mouth search’ took the contestants from Lagos to Warri, Port Harcourt and Uyo in the quest to pick a lucky Nigerian.

No fewer than 12 contestants emerged from the regional auditioning.

At the end, three finalists: Babah Kay, Benedict Wakama and Owoeye were short listed

The Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Nduka Irabor, witnessed the event

The judges were veteran broadcaster, Deji Omotoyinbo, Tega Onojaife and Nedu Ani

Owoeye said, “winning the search is a golden opportunity that will have positive impact on me and I appreciate everyone who contributed to my emergence.’’


The General Manager of SuperSports, Felix Awogu said: “we are making available a new window of opportunity to young talented Nigerians to contribute to the development of our football.” (NAN)

Teenager, Januzaj scores twice to save Manchester United

Teenage starlet Adnan Januzaj scored twice as Manchester United came from behind to win 2-1 at Sunderland on Saturday and revive their flagging Premier League title defence.



The champions had made their worst start to a season since 1989 and were set on course for a third consecutive defeat when Craig Gardner scored an early goal for bottom club Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

However, on his first league start for the club, 18-year-old Januzaj scored two fine goals in the space of seven minutes early in the second half to snatch victory and send United up to ninth place in the table.

United manager David Moyes has been bullish about his ability to turn United’s season around, but he saw Gardner give Sunderland a fifth-minute lead after Nemanja Vidic fluffed an attempted clearance.

The visitors were then indebted to goalkeeper David de Gea for a breath-taking full-stretch save to touch away a header from Emanuele Giaccherini, who also blazed wastefully over on the verge of half-time.

United had struggled to cope with their hosts’ furious work rate, but they levelled in the 55th minute when Januzaj met Patrice Evra’s drilled cross with a measured side-foot finish that flashed into the net.

The Belgian youngster’s work was not finished, and minutes later he claimed a glorious winner, thumping a sweet left-foot volley into the bottom-right corner after Nani’s cross was headed into the air by United old boy John O’Shea.

Robin van Persie spurned a late chance to make the game safe, but Sunderland, for whom caretaker manager Kevin Ball remains at the helm, could not find an equaliser.

Liverpool returned to the top of the table after in-form strike duo Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge both found the net in a 3-1 win at home to Crystal Palace.
David Moyes

David Moyes

Suarez was making his first Anfield appearance since completing a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic last season and with new-born son Benjamin in attendance, he broke the deadlock in the 14th minute.

The goal showcased the Uruguayan’s flair for improvisation, as he hooked the ball into the net from a prone position after slipping as he shaped to shoot.

Top scorer Sturridge added a second three minutes later, turning Damien Delaney inside out before lashing home his fifth league goal of the season.

Captain Steven Gerrard made it 3-0 with a 38th-minute penalty, taking his tally of Premier League goals to 99, before substitute Dwight Gayle replied for the visitors with a late glancing header.

Victory took Brendan Rodgers’s side a point clear of Arsenal, who can reclaim top spot if they avoid defeat at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.

Liverpool manager Rodgers heralded strike duo Suarez and Sturridge, saying: “They were exceptional today. Their combination play was outstanding and they are right up there with the best in this league.”

Earlier, Manchester City bounced back from defeats by Aston Villa and Bayern Munich to end Everton’s unbeaten start to the season with a 3-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

Everton took a 16th-minute lead through on-loan Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku, but Alvaro Negredo equalised immediately from Yaya Toure’s fine reverse pass.

City lost captain Vincent Kompany to injury, but Sergio Aguero put the hosts ahead just before the interval.

A foul by Seamus Coleman on Pablo Zabaleta gave Aguero a chance to extend City’s lead from the penalty spot in the 69th minute and although Tim Howard turned his shot onto the post, the ball bounced against the American goalkeeper and into the net for an own goal.

“Equalising immediately was important, but more important was the character of the team, playing against Everton — the only unbeaten team in the league,” said City manager Manuel Pellegrini.

“After a defeat (by Bayern) on Wednesday, it was important for me to see how the players reacted.”

Loic Remy scored twice in the space of eight first-half minutes as Newcastle United claimed a first win in three games with a 2-1 victory at Cardiff City, who replied through Peter Odemwingie.

Fulham climbed out of the relegation zone after a neat 83rd-minute strike from Darren Bent secured a 1-0 win at home to Stoke City, while Aston Villa were held to a 0-0 draw at Hull City.

Osaze — I Regret Insulting Keshi But He Wasn't Fair To Me

Estranged Super Eagles attacker Osaze Odemwingie has said he regrets his abusive Twitter comments. He claimed they were made because coach Stephen Keshi was not fair to him. He even described Chris Green, whom he had also abused, as a good man:

“I remember it was Green who settled my case with Siasia then, but I was too angry when he called me over this matter, and was impatient to listen to him.”  

“My comment was not directed at him personally, but to those who made the decision, but I think I overreacted then.”

On his face-off with Keshi, Osaze said:

“I called the coach two or three times within that period, maybe two or three days before the list was made public and told him of my commitment to be part of the Nations Cup, and have told my (club) coach I will be going to the Nations Cup.

“I told the coach I was ready to report to camp by January 3, even before other professionals start reporting to camp, if I were in his programme for the Nations Cup, and even told him to feel free to drop me, if I were not in his programme.

“I felt betrayed after that seeming heart-to-heart discussions with the coach few days to the release of the team list and he could not hint me I was not in his plan for the Nations Cup.

“I am human and open to errors by the way I may have taken the issue, and regret the whole controversy, and want to put all this behind me now and focus on my club career, while wishing the team the best of luck as a Nigerian.”

Recall that the West Bromwich striker had in the wake of the release of the Nigeria provisional team list for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations taken to his Twitter account and made disparaging comments against Keshi, the team captain and some Nigeria Football Federation officials. 

Past coaches, including Samson Siasia and Lars Lagerback, were not spared and continued days later with direct hits at ex-Nigeria international Victor Ikpeba.

However, Osaze said his mistakes were made in a fit of anger.

Talking Horses

They race on Wednesday on the all-weather at Lingfield, above, where Yarroom is the best bet in the opening race. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

11.45am Dettori gets six month ban for positive drugs test

Tony Paley: Frankie Dettori has been suspended from riding for six months after being found guilty of taking a prohibited substance, his legal representative Christopher Stewart-Moore said on Wednesday morning.

The three-times British champion jockey, 41, tested positive for what is believed to be cocaine following a routine examination at Longchamp on September 16. Dettori's suspension runs from November 20 to May 19 and is likely to be reciprocated by racing jurisdictions worldwide, including by the British Horseracing Authority.

He will be back in time to ride in the Epsom Derby. You can read more details throughout the day in our story here.

9.30am Catterick gets go-ahead but more weather worries for racing

Tony Paley: Wednesday's meeting at Catterick goes ahead following an early-morning course inspection. With temperatures having only dipped to minus 1C, allied to a dry night, the jumps fixture was promptly given the go-ahead at 7.30am.

Catterick clerk of the course Fiona Needham said: "It's very good news. We had no snow and overnight temperatures got down to minus 1C, which wasn't a problem." The going is soft, good to soft in places.

Meanwhile, Thursday's meetings at Wincanton and Leicester must pass 8am precautionary inspections on raceday morning. Although the Somerset circuit is raceable, course officials are taking no chances. Overnight temperatures are set to drop to minus 2C, but the inspection has been called in case the frost is sharper than has been forecast.

Wincanton Clerk of the course Barry Johnson said: "I'm very confident we'll be fine - we'll be OK with minus 2C - but some forecasts are predicting minus 4C. There's no frost in the ground now, but the ground is quite wet. It's very much a precautionary inspection."

Frost is the main issue at Leicester, with temperatures set to drop to as low as minus 5C. A maximum daytime temperature of 2C on Thursday has also been forecast.

Clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson said on Wednesday morning: "There's no frost whatsoever this morning - we are perfectly raceable - but there is quite a severe frost forecast tonight. If we think we have a chance at 8am, we'll probably call another inspection later in the morning and then, possibly, look again. We've got to be patient."

Wednesday's best bets, by Tony Paley

It was snowing, OK it was sleeting, this morning in north London, but with the weather forecast suggesting freezing temperatures overnight, more flurries of snow and heavy rain on the way by the end of the week it's probably best to grab that all-weather form book and take a peek at life on the sand.

Lingfield is a good place to start as the course is starting an extended run of eight days racing caused by the temporary closure of Wolverhampton and flooding at Southwell which is likely to set to keep that track out of action until the new year.

The first race there on Wednesday features the best bet of the day in the shape of Yarroom (12.00) from Roger Varian's yard. The Cape Cross colt impressed when getting off the mark at Wolverhampton last time, easing clear to win by seven lengths and it will be disappointing if he can't follow up off top weight on his handicap debut.

Hometown Glory (1.30), who should be suited by stepping up in trip to a mile for trainer Brian Meehan, is another to consider on the Polytrack card. He has a good record on the surface and everything looks in place for him to give a good account on Wednesday afternoon.

Catterick getting the go-ahead on Wednesday is a bonus as Rear Admiral (12.20) looks well worth a very close look in the opener at the Yorkshire track. He has been in excellent form in the point-to-point field since his last run over hurdles with four easy wins from five starts. The selection hails from the shrewd Mick Easterby camp and they could well have a very well handicapped runner on their hands.

Tipping competition, day two

Perhaps the Anglo French race at Folkestone wasn't the friendliest race we could have chosen yesterday. In any event, no one had the winner, Fitandproperjob (9-1). Yossarian24 had the other two, Rouge Et Blanc (100-30) and Angel Cake (6-1), giving him the early lead.

This week's prize is a copy of the Racing Post's annual, now in its second year and a really good-quality offering that any fan of the sport will enjoy, with masses of lovely pics and contributions from Tony McCoy, Richard Hughes and Willie Mullins. If you don't win, you can buy a copy here.

To kick things off, we'd like your tips, please, for these races: 2.40 Hereford, 2.50 Catterick, 5.50 Kempton.

You'll see that we have a new presentation format for comments in the sports section of the website, below. Apparently, a bug means that you can't display more than 50 comments on the same page, but they're working to fix this so that you will, once again, be able to display all comments at once.

As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today but you will start on -3.

In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.

For terms and conditions click here.

IKHANA: WHY WE FAILED IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Former chief coach of Super Falcons, Kadiri Ikhana has shed light on why the senior women’s national team he led to the African Women’s Championship in Equatorial Guinea failed to retain the trophy and the reason why he resigned his appointment. He told RICHARD JIDEAKA that the host country's antics and absence of two key players frustrated his team from doing well…

How did you feel leading the Super Falcons to relinquish the AWC title without a fight in Equatorial Guinea?

Well, I felt very sad and disappointed that we failed to retain the cup as we planned to do from the beginning. A lot of factors actually affected the team from performing at its optimal best. To show how devastated I felt after we lost in the semi-final to South Africa, I took a decision to resign and which I did as soon as we returned to Nigeria.

Coach, were you forced to resign or you did that out of your own volition considering the fact that your contract said you should at least reach the semi- final of the championship?

But you know me very well that nobody can force me out. I resigned because I failed to meet the target I set for myself. My target was to win the trophy but having surprisingly lost in the semi-final, I just knew it was all over for me.

You mentioned that so many factors were responsible for the Super Falcons’ poor outing in anAfrican championships; can you divulge some of these factors?
 
Yes, one of them was that 10 days to our departure on a training tour of Ghana, the NFF technical department with the directive from the technical committee chairman released two of my key attackers to a foreign club without my consent. I protested this action which I regarded as a deliberate attempt to frustrate and weaken the team. I expressed my bitterness when I went to defend the list before the technical committee members but I was assured that the club would release the players for the competition which they never did. The players in question- Desire Oparanozie and Francisca Ordega, are by all standard players who could have turned things around for the team. When it became obvious that I would not have them for the championship, I had to quickly draft in some new players as replacements.

Another factor was the late arrival of foreign-based players to join the team. Five of the foreign-based players invited for the AWC were only able to join us three days to our departure to Ghana and the sixth player, Perpetua Nkwocha, joined us on the day of our departure to Ghana. This short period did not allow us to evaluate their fitness level; psychological and mental preparedness but having registered them based on their pedigree, we had to make do with them.

Could there be any other factor that led to your dismal outing at the AWC?


Of course, the major factor why we lost was the antics of the host and organizers. It was as if they had mapped out strategies to frustrate us and this began as soon as we landed at the Malabo airport on Thursday October 25. They made things difficult for us and easy for other teams. They succeeded because at the end, our players lost concentration and became frustrated. Some of them even fell sick and could not play some games. They made us stay for about five hours at the airport before we could board our flights to and from Malabo and Bata. They provided inadequate rooms for the team and some of us had to stay in different hotels. Can you imagine that for us to eat we had to move from one hotel to another three times in a day and none of these took nothing less than an hour. We were made to shuttle between Bata and Malabo. We traveled more than all other teams during the championship.

Back to your preparation for the championship, would you say it was adequate and that the NFF played their role very well?

To be fair to the federation, they gave us the best of preparation any team can ask of. The team lost because we fell to the antics of the hosts and despite all the efforts made by Dr. Sanusi Mohammed and others to lift the girls’ spirit, nothing came out of it.

What is the way forward for Nigerian women’s football?

The NFF should settle the feud in the women’s league and ensure that the league becomes competitive and attractive. Again, they should use the age grade teams for developmental competitions and not the ‘you must qualify’ idea that is ruining the progress of the senior team. I mean players must not be allowed to play any age grade competition twice and any player in the senior team must not be allowed to return to the junior team no matter how young she may be. I think, we still have what it takes to rule Africa again if the whole of next year is used to build a new team since there would be no competition next year. I also think that the so- called foreign based players should be made to join camp at least two weeks before any major competition or we forget about them. From my observation, it seems that they either do not play football regularly over there or that the standard of the league they play is too low.

Would you give female football another try if given the opportunity?

In my resignation letter, I thanked the NFF president for the opportunity given me to serve the country and I hope to serve again if they find me suitable for any job. So, I would be ready to coach the girls again because I was able to instill discipline in the team and I know I can do better than I did last time.
 

AGBIM: VENEZUELA WIN WILL BOOST OUR AFCON PREPARATION

Super Eagles reserve goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim has told IZUCHUKWU OKOSI that last Thursday’s international friendly game in USA was the beginning of good preparation ahead of the 2013 AFCON in South Africa

How would you describe the Super Eagles’ performance in the friendly match against Venezuela in Miami, USA last week?

It was not an easy game despite the result. The Venezuelan side has some experienced and gifted players so it was not easy at all to beat them. We also have very good players who are motivated to do well and fight for their places in the Nations Cup squad.

You did not play any part in the game in Miami, were you disappointed?

Well, I would have loved to play a part in that game because it was a friendly affair, but I have to respect the decision of the coach to leave me out. Being in the team was a privilege in the first place but I know that my time to play consistently in the national team will come.

There are plans by the Nigeria Football Federation to arrange more friendly games this time with African teams before the Nations Cup. How are the players looking forward to playing those games?

The friendly game against African sides will be fine because of the Africa Nations Cup coming up in less than two months in South Africa. The countries that have been mooted as our likely opponents are very strong sides and I believe that we will give a good account of ourselves in those games as usual.

The Nigeria Premier League season has not kicked- off yet, don’t you think it will affect the match fitness and invariably the chances of the home-based players to make the Nations Cup squad?

It is a worrisome development but the coaches know the abilities of the players in the Nigeria Premier League- especially those who have been part of the national team set-up. Hopefully, when the camping for the Nations Cup opens on December 17, everything will be sorted out before the end of the exercise.

The whole team celebrated the win over Venezuela in Miami after the game. What was the mood amongst the players and coaches like?

The win was a morale booster and it also means that the team is improving and can get better when the Nations Cup comes around.

How did Stephen Keshi motivate the team before the game?

He told us to prove that we merit a place in his team for the Nations Cup. He was happy that the likes of Shola Ameobi and Bright Dike opted to represent Nigeria. From all he has been saying to the players, he has confidence in our abilities. He respects our feelings and always inspire his players which is very important in the game of football.

The team will camp in Faro, Portugal ahead of the Nations Cup. Do you think weather factors will hinder your preparations for the Nations Cup?

The camping in Europe will not affect us rather it will help us, the home-based players especially. It will be winter in South Africa in January and playing Venezuela was like playing away from home.

The likes of Shola Ameobi and Bright Dike made their Super Eagles debuts against Venezuela. What impact would you say they made in the team?

Both players were excited to play for Nigeria and it showed in their performances. Dike plays in the MLS but despite that, you could see that he was happy to play for Nigeria. Ameobi is an experienced player and his qualities are needed in the team. If you have such players in your team, you know that you have a genuine chance to do well against your opponents. He was a source of inspiration to other players.

Sammy, Shola’s brother has decided to wait for a chance to play for England in future; do you think he should emulate his brother and play for Nigeria?

It would be nice to have both of them play for Nigeria because they are both gifted players.

Sammy was invited to the Flying Eagles camp in the past even though he eventually did not play for the team.
Well, it’s his decision to make. Let’s see if he would have a change of mind.

With the determination of other African Nations to win the Nations Cup, do you think the Eagles are ready for the threat of other teams?

The spirit amongst the players is very high and we want to win the Nations Cup. We will be ready for the challenges ahead surely.

You moved to Rangers FC of Enugu. How would you describe the new atmosphere?

Rangers are the pride of the eastern people, and I was warmly received when I got to the club. I could see that it was a team where you can develop as a player. It’s a friendly place to work and hopefully, I will do well with them.

Are you setting any personal target for the year 2013?

Of course, I do, every player does. I want to win the league with my new club, Rangers. It’s
been long since they won a title in the domestic scene and I want to be part of the team that will break that jinx.

Thank you for your time…

It’s always a pleasure to speak with you.