Holders Arsenal kept up their bid for a hat-trick of FA Cup trophies, marching into the quarterfinals as Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott netted twice in a 4-0 replay win at second-tier Hull City on Tuesday. France striker Giroud had not scored in his 11 previous games but made the most of a terrible back pass after 40 minutes and then doubled the lead with 20 minutes remaining following a sharp volley from close range. Walcott sidefooted the ball home to make it 3-0 before his low drive capped Arsenal’s first win in six games. Victory though came at a…
Author: David Folami
Arsenal players held a “closed doors” crisis meeting without their manager’s or coaches’ knowledge before Tuesday’s FA cup win against second tier Hull to discuss a woeful run of five games without a win in all competitions, striker Theo Walcott said. Arsenal are third in the Premier League table, eight points behind Leicester City, and are facing a Champions League last-16 exit for the sixth year in a row unless they can overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit when they travel to Barcelona next week. “We are not going to lie,” Walcott told reporters after Tuesday’s game. “We know as a…
As Tottenham prepare to host their bitter north London rivals Arsenal in a Premier League six-pointer on Saturday home coach Mauricio Pochettino offered generous praise to his opposite number Arsene Wenger. The match is Wenger’s 48th North London derby in his 20th season at Arsenal, and comes as the Frenchman’s team are faltering in their title charge in third on 51 points, three adrift of Spurs in second while leaders Leicester have 57. “It is about the special capacity that Alex Ferguson had and now Arsene Wenger,” Pochettino said, comparing Wenger to the more successful but now retired counterpart at…
Keeping manager Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur for the foreseeable future is key to the club’s ambitions of challenging for major honours in the seasons to come, defender Kyle Walker has said. Pochettino, who joined Spurs in May 2014, has overseen an impressive campaign this season, with the club second in the Premier League behind Leicester City and challenging for a first league title since 1961. Tottenham also face German side Borrusia Dortmund in the last 16, first-leg of the Europa League on Thursday and Walker wants Spurs to hold on to the Argentine, whose achievements have not gone unnoticed…
Van Gaal has played down talk that the heated rivalry between Liverpool and United adds extra significance to a two-legged tie that begins with a match at Anfield on Thursday, saying Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat at West Bromwich Albion was just as significant to him. “Several people are thinking that they (Liverpool) are the enemy,” Van Gaal said. “I am not thinking like that. I am thinking that they are the opponent. We want to beat the opponent. “For the fans, it’s a bigger something, but for me, no. I want to win every game. When we win against…
Louis van Gaal has suggested that anyone who derides Manchester United and Liverpool for being in the Europa League is living in the past. The English giants have been champions of Europe eight times between them –- Liverpool on five occasions, United three – but now find themselves facing each other in Europe’s secondary club competition. Van Gaal though has dismissed suggestions that it is a sign that the bitter rivals are in decline, claiming instead that all clubs go through troughs at some stage. Liverpool failed to qualify for the Champions League after finishing sixth domestically last season, while…
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has suggested that his team’s Europa League meeting with Manchester United has a claim to the title of “the mother of all football matches”. The two teams have one of the longest-standing, and most keenly felt rivalries in world football, but have never met in European competition before. It means that Thursday’s round of 16 first-leg meeting at Anfield will be a first, and Klopp sees it as one of the biggest matches on show anywhere in the world. That is despite the fact that they will be meeting in European football’s secondary club competition rather…
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp stands on the brink of history ahead of their Europa League clash against Manchester United on Thursday, but it is an unwanted record the German coach is battling to avoid. Never during the two sides’ fierce 122-year rivalry have Liverpool lost five successive matches against United, but they stand on the brink of the unwanted milestone after four straight defeats. Liverpool boss Klopp has only been in charge for one of those games, having joined the club in October, and feels recent history will not affect the outcome of Thursday’s last 16 first-leg match. The squad…
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s affection for his players pushes them to put every last drop of effort into their performances, past the point where fatigue has taken its toll, midfielder Adam Lallana has said. One of the most iconic images of the German’s first game in charge in October is of an exhausted Lallana being enveloped in a warm hug by his manager having harried and chased Tottenham Hotspur all over the pitch in a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane. “I didn’t know what to expect coming off the pitch,” Lallana told the Liverpool Echo. “He went for a…
With Chelsea 10 points below the top four in the Premier League, they face next season being almost certainly their first without Champions League football since Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Saturday’s FA Cup quarterfinal at Everton represents their last potential path to silverware this season and Hiddink said the club’s hierarchy would need to think hard about their next managerial appointment. “Chelsea is now in a transition period,” said Hiddink, who has returned last season’s Premier League champions to an even keel after succeeding the sacked Jose Mourinho in December. “They have to see…
Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc said that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had answered his critics by inspiring his team to victory over Chelsea in the Champions League last 16. Ibrahimovic created the opening goal for Adrien Rabiot and then volleyed in a 67th-minute winner as French champions PSG won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to complete a 4-2 aggregate victory. The outspoken Swede, sent off during PSG’s success against Chelsea in last season’s competition, has faced criticism throughout his career for failing to reproduce his domestic form in European competition, but Blanc said that he had proven his worth. “Zlatan played…
A staff of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has told a court that a written statement allegedly volunteered by the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, was destroyed by Mr. Metuh partly because it made references to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Junaid Said told the court that Mr. Metuh admitted in the statement that he received N400 million arms money and used the sum for political activities and his personal needs, and made references to Mr. Jonathan. The EFCC on Friday amended its charge of “destruction of evidence” against Mr. Metuh, the Peoples Democratic Party…
Senate President, Bukola Saraki has said that the economic challenges currently facing Nigeria are a blessing in disguise. Saraki made the remark while receiving a report from a team of consultants working with the Department for International Development (DFID) in Abuja. “The National Assembly through our legislative agenda seized on the moment to chart a new course for the nation’s economy. The legislative agenda we have adopted s one framed largely around good governance, accountability, opening up of the economy for greater investment, ease of doing business and security of lives and property,” Saraki said according to The Nation. “Our…
The Special Adviser to Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Special Duties, Moshood Mustapha has said that his boss has always driven the best cars in the world. Mustapha made the comment in reaction to the recent outrage over Saraki’s new luxury vehicles said to be worth N330 million. “Saraki had created the most democratised, participatory and rigorous budgeting process as we have all seen,” the Senate President’s aide said according to Daily Trust. “This is perhaps the most disciplined Senate since 1999 when we have ministerial screening and budget approval process without bribery and other forms of corruption. It is…
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has described the government of President Muhammadu Buhari as a “one chance” bus. Fayose also said that Buhari’s decision not to pay N5,000 each to unemployed youths was the height of fraud. The governor made the comments via a statement released by his media aide, Lere Olayinka. It reads: “Everything Buhari and his party promised Nigerians when they were looking for votes, they have denied and it won’t be a surprise if one day, Buhari comes out to even deny that he was elected on the platform of the APC.” “They have not fulfilled any…
The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, on Friday said no fewer than 40, 000 maternal deaths were recorded in Nigeria annually. Entwistle said in statement in Lagos that many pregnant women in Nigeria often delay in seeking health care until potentially life-threatening conditions arose. “There are 40,000 maternal deaths per year in Nigeria. We believe that no mother should die from preventable causes. “Unfortunately, the state of primary health care in Nigeria paints a dismal picture for the future of many children. “The excessively high maternal, neonatal and under-five death rates are reflections of inadequate availability and…
Alhaji Suleiman Alege, the Commissioner of Health in Kwara, on Friday said the state had not recorded any case of Lassa fever. He attributed the feat to the efforts and contributions of health workers across the state. The commissioner made the statement in Ilorin South at the commencement of a four-day immunisation campaign against polio and other childhood killer diseases. He said that the campaign would be held in the 16 Local Government areas of the state. Alege said that the first rounds of Immunisation Plus Day for 2016 would be held in Ilorin South Local Government, Pake and Okelele…
A total of 65, 061 children were immunised against polio virus in Miga Local Government Area of Jigawa during the last round of polio immunisation. Malam Abdullahi Yakubu, the council’s Information Officer, disclosed this on Saturday in Dutse. Yakubu, who spoke on behalf of Malam Nasiru Zubairu, the Manager, National Programme on Immunization (NPI) in the area, said the council received enough doses of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPVs) for the exercise. He commended religious and traditional leaders in the council for their support to the success of the exercise. Yakubu said that the NPI manager attributed the success during the…
President Muhammadu Buhari is set to launch the cleanup of Ogoniland in the coming weeks, says the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed. The minister announced this when she paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers. “It is hoped that we will have this launch in the coming weeks and the president himself will launch the cleanup. “It is really to us a turning point in the history of the struggle. Ogoniland is the first place where actions need to be – cleanup. “There is a wide challenge of pollution in the Niger Delta. We are here to…
Yemi Olayinka, one of the trusted former aides to Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State0 has left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC. According to a report by Daily Post, the ex-Special Assistant to Governor Fayose on Youth Matters gave the governor’s ruling style as the major reason he defected. The former PDP chieftain who holds sway in Ado Ekiti Ward 8 said his ex-boss rules the state as a dictator. Read: Fayose says Buhari lacks mental capacity to rule Nigeria Olayinka stressed that he can’t afford to stay in a party that…