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Blackpool inhibit Spurs ambitions

Blackpool prevented Tottenham from moving into third with a 3-1 home win. Charlie Adam’s penalty put Blackpool ahead before D J Campbell scored just before halftime. Brett Ormerod made it 3-0 before Roman Pavlyuchenko’s late consolation goal. MORE

Wenger ‘enjoys’ busy schedule

Ars?ne Wenger has described squad rotation as “difficult but enjoyable”. Arsenal host Stoke City tonight, their first game in a run of five matches in 13 days, and Wenger believes that the chance to give the whole squad first-team games is positive. MORE

Hateley offered bribe to miss game

Former Rangers striker Mark Hateley has revealed he was offered cash not to play a crucial Champions League fixture against Marseilles in 1993. The French club was later stripped of their domestic title theywon that year because of match-fixing. MORE

Deschamps: United short of ‘fantasy’

The Marseilles coach, Didier Deschamps, said that this Manchester United team “maybe has a bit less fantasy” than some in the past, ahead of tonight’s tie between the two teams. He accepted that a 0-0 draw would be good for his team. MORE

Anelka double fires Chelsea ahead

Two goals from Nicolas Anelka gave Chelsea a crucial lead after their first leg away at FC Copenhagen. Carlo Ancelotti partnered Anelka with Fernando Torres, with Didier Drogba relegated to the bench. The approach was vindicated as Anelka put the visitors ahead after 17 minutes, intercepting a wayward back pass from former Chelsea winger Jesper Gronkjaer (right), before bursting past his defender and shooting into the far bottom corner. Chelsea created other first-half chances but most of them fell to Torres, who was still lacking sharpness in front of goal. Anelka scored his second early in the second half, receiving Lampard’s pass on the turn and again finishing powerfully low across Johan Wiland. After defending well in the second half, they take a strong advantage back to Stamford Bridge. MORE

Gomis levels late onfor Lyons

An equaliser from Bafetimbi Gomis denied Real Madrid a firstleg win in Lyons. Karim Benzema had put the visitors ahead soon after coming on as a second-half substitute. But Gomis volleyed Lyons level from close range with seven minutes left. MORE

Wilkinson keen to win back berth

Jonny Wilkinson has described having to win his place in the England team back from Toby Flood as “a big challenge”, but insisted that “it’s about continuing to learn, continuing to grow”. Flood will start against France, but Wilkinson may come on. MORE

Djokovic adds to his game in Dubai

Novak Djokovic believes that he will improve his game by coming to the net more often. “I’m working on that variety in my game,” said the Australian Open winner, who beat Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship. MORE

Poulter questions early start time

Ian Poulter will begin his defence of the World Match Play tomorrow at 7.25am. “I guess I could be on an airplane by mid-afternoon,” he said of the chance of being knocked out. “How many people are going to be through the gates at that time?” he asked. MORE

Contador let off by negligence clause

Alberto Contador’s lawyer has said that his client’s suspension for doping was lifted because he ate contaminated steak. Andy Ramos revealed that if riders can prove there was no intentional negligence, as Contador did, they are freed of responsibility.

King hopes for Cheltenham glory

Alan King hopes to have a better Cheltenham Festival this year than last, and craves a winner. Medermit, one of the country’s top novice chasers, represents his best chance. “Deep down, I wasn’t really expecting a winner last year,” he admitted. MORE

England struggle to narrow victory

England won their opening game against Netherlands yesterday by six wickets, although they will be disappointed to have conceded 292, after some poor fielding, before 88 from Andrew Strauss helped see them home. MORE

Opinion: James Lawton

Fernando Torres, at his most imperious, would have buried the two chances that came to him in the first half but such peace of mind does not come easily when you are the poster boy for your oligarch boss’s cravings.

Labels: February, Independent, Matrix, Sports, Wednesday

So lightning doesn't strike twice. But short of bowling and fielding in metal boots in Nagpur yesterday, England could not have left themselves more open to another shock defeat by the Dutch before eventually launching their World Cup with a badly needed win.

The batting was hardly electrifying, either, but having allowed the opposition to score 292 for six – and that is to take nothing away from a brilliant knock of 119 by Ryan ten Doeschate – Andrew Strauss's team hauled themselves across the winning line with half a dozen wickets and eight balls to spare.

It sounds almost comfortable, doesn't it? Make no mistake, though, England were sweating until the penultimate over when Ravi Bopara – the injury replacement for broken-finger victim Eoin Morgan – hit a six, the only one of the entire innings, and two fours off medium-pacer Bernard Loots.

With those blows, Bopara made sure the Netherlands would not repeat their stunning, last-ball victory over England at Lord's in the 2009 World Twenty20. Strauss's men can also say they have registered the third highest run-chase in World Cup history. But the feeling in their dressing room last night had to be one of enormous relief – and a realisation that a repeat of this sort of performance against better sides than the Dutch will bring only humiliation.

Strauss had warned his team they would be in trouble if the Netherlands played well and their own performance was 10 per cent under par. In fact, the men in orange were terrific – and England dire in the first half of the game with some dreadful bowling and fielding.

Yes, the pitch was good and the outfield fast. But Jimmy Anderson, who conceded 72 runs from his 10 overs and bowled more dross in this match than throughout his three-month tour of Australia, set the tone for a performance which only Graeme Swann saved from being a total write-off.

Anderson began so badly with the new ball that Strauss hauled him out of the firing line after a couple of overs. But it did not get any better for the Ashes hero when he returned later on – and he could have been ordered from the attack by the umpires for sending down two illegal deliveries above waist height. Unfortunately for Anderson, the officials were lenient. He stayed on and Dutch captain Peter Borren promptly hit him for three consecutive boundaries at the end of the innings.

England surely erred by not picking a second specialist spinner with both Michael Yardy and James Tredwell left redundant. Swann, who could have been excused for looking rusty after not arriving in India until Sunday night, conceded only 35 runs from his 10 overs while taking two wickets. And while it could be argued that extra batsman Bopara came in handy, another slow bowler might have kept the target to much more manageable proportions.

But it was not only the bowling that betrayed England. A side that has come to pride itself on being a top-class fielding unit had a day that will give specialist coach Richard Halsall nightmares for weeks to come. At least three catches were dropped, there were misfields and overthrows and even a complete lack of concentration by Paul Collingwood, who failed to give England a fourth man inside the circle and therefore turned the delivery from Stuart Broad that bowled Borren into a new ball.

Nothing, though, summed up England's performance in the field better than the moment when Ten Doeschate skied a shot and watched with as much amazement as anyone else as Anderson and Pietersen left the catch to one another. Ten Doeschate, the 30-year-old Essex all-rounder, had made 47 – and he went on to more than double that score before being dismissed by Broad.

"We got a lot of things wrong with our bowling and fielding," said Strauss, who could do no more, at least in public, than state the obvious. "We have to improve as the tournament goes on."

The saving grace, of course, is that England did not lose – leaving Ten Doeschate with nothing more to celebrate than a man of the match award. For a long time it looked as if the player whose three previous ODI centuries were scored against Kenya (two) and Bermuda would be a match-winner.

He began slowly, taking 12 balls to get going. From then on, though, the innings was perfectly paced with 52 coming off his final 26 deliveries as the Dutch showed how to make good use of the final power play – plundering 50 from five overs towards the end.

England could not afford to make a stuttering start. They didn't, with Strauss and Pietersen putting on 105 at the required rate. But Pietersen lost his way and it was left to Strauss to take control with a reassuring innings of 88. And yet, whenever it looked as though the favourites would win at a reasonable canter, the Dutch struck back to keep the contest on a knife edge.

Jonathan Trott fell victim to a wonderful stumping and Ten Doeschate looked every inch a hero once again when bowling Ian Bell as the batsman tried to make room with 52 runs needed and only seven overs left.

It was crisis time, but fortunately for England, Collingwood and Bopara were cool enough to cope.

England's field day

1st over, Netherlands 7-0

Tim Bresnan misfields, deflecting Wesley Barresi's shot over the boundary.

19th over, 88-2

Further sloppy fielding allows the Netherlands to add runs, as Ian Bell's needless throw bounces over Matt Prior's head and runs away for overthrows.

28th over, 136-2

Tom Cooper cuts to long leg where Kevin Pietersen drops a catch to his right.

31st over, 147-3

James Anderson and Pietersen both go for a Ryan ten Doeschate shot before leaving it for one another to claim.

41st over, 199-4

Ian Bell slides to prevent a two but kicks it a further 10 metres instead.

45th over, 239-5

Jonathan Trott's direct hit deflects off the stumps past Andrew Strauss's dive and goes for four overthrows.

46th over, 253-5

Anderson bowls a full waist-high delivery to Ten Doeschate, which is declared a no-ball. It whistles past Matt Prior's glove, conceding a no-ball and four byes.

47th over, 259-5

Peter Borren sweeps Bresnan to short fine leg but Trott fails to hold the catch.

49th over, 284-6

Stuart Broad bowls Borren, only for the umpire to signal a no-ball owing to four fielders not being inside the 30m circle.

50th over, 292-6

Graeme Swann drops a simple catch off Borren.

Harry Brooks

Nagpur scoreboard

England v Netherlands

Nagpur: England (2pts) beat Netherlands by six wickets; Netherlands won toss

Netherlands

A N Kervezee c Prior b Bresnan 16/0/2/25/24

†W Barresi st Prior b Swann 29/0/6/25/48

T L Cooper c Anderson b Collingwood 47/0/3/73/83

R ten Doeschate c Bopara b Broad 119/3/9/110/160

B Zuiderent c Collingwood b Swann 1/0/0/10/18

T N de Grooth b Broad 28/0/3/31/47

*P W Borren not out 35/0/4/24/41

Mudassar Bukhari not out 6/0/0/5/10

Extras (b3 lb3 w2 nb3) 11

Total (for 6, 50 overs) 292

Fall 1-36, 2-58, 3-136, 4-149, 5-213, 6-274.

Did not bat P M Seelaar, B P Loots, B A Westdijk.

Bowling J M Anderson 10-0-72-0, S C J Broad 10-2-65-2, T T Bresnan 10-0-49-1, G P Swann 10-0-35-2, P D Collingwood 8-0-46-1, K P Pietersen 2-0-19-0.

England

*A J Strauss c Cooper b Bukhari 88/0/9/83/113

K P Pietersen c Borren b Seelaar 39/0/5/61/70

I J L Trott st Barresi b ten Doeschate 62/0/4/65/89

I R Bell b ten Doeschate 33/0/1/40/61

P D Collingwood not out 30/0/3/23/39

R S Bopara not out 30/1/2/20/25

Extras (b1 lb2 w11) 14

Total (for 4, 48.4 overs) 296

Fall 1-105, 2-166, 3-224, 4-241.

Did not bat †M J Prior, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad, G P Swann, J M Anderson.

Bowling Mudassar Bukhari 9-0-54-1, B A Westdijk 7-0-41-0, B P Loots 9.4-0-74-0, P M Seelaar 10-0-54-1, R N ten Doeschate 10-0-47-2, T L W Cooper 3-0-23-0.

Umpires Asad Rauf and B N J Oxenford.

England's remaining Group B fixtures (times GMT)

27 Feb India, Bangalore, 09.00

2 Mar Ireland, Bangalore, 09.00

6 Mar South Africa, Chennai, 04.00

11 Mar Bangladesh, Chittagong, 08.30

17 Mar West Indies, Chennai, 09.00

Labels: abysmal, after, Bopara, England, errors, fielding, Independent, saved

Even if you are one of those famously self-assured Germany midfielders, it can be a nervous time waiting to make your debut. Thomas Hitzlsperger had to hang around six months before finally making his first West Ham appearance last night, having suffered a thigh injury while playing for Germany against Denmark in August.

But good things do indeed come to those who wait. The midfielder took less than 25 minutes of his West Ham debut to conjure a 30-yard wonder goal. It sent the London club on their way to an FA Cup quarter-final place against Stoke.

Hitzlsperger's strike quietened critics who feel he might prove an unfortunately injudicious signing because of his injury problems. The 28-year-old even added an assist, supplying Winston Reid for West Ham's fourth goal. That margin gave West Ham manager Avram Grant the luxury of substituting the German midway through the second half and the player left to a well-deserved ovation.

"I thought the fans might have forgotten about me," joked Hitzlsperger afterwards. "But they didn't."

Carlton Cole had taken the game out of the Championship side's reach with two goals in the space of a minute early in the second half, making it 3-0. However, it was still Hitzlsperger's night.

He will be an important figure in West Ham's Premier League run-in. "He was one of our best players in pre-season," said Grant. "What you saw here is not even half of what he can do."

Before kick-off, club sources rubbished reports that West Ham will be without injured centre-back Matthew Upson for the rest of the season. That was encouraging for the home side as their defence looked uneasy early on.

Burnley made a positive start but they were deflated when Hitzlsperger produced his powerful, swerving, long-range strike in the 23rd minute. That breakthrough allowed West Ham to rediscover some swagger, but Burnley had still been competitive and, at half-time, looked capable of a comeback.

Then the two Cole goals changed the game. "The result could have been very different," said Burnley's manager Eddie Howe. "We had a bad start to the half, looking shaky and West Ham took advantage."

Within three minutes of the re-start, Mark Noble created Cole's first. He lofted the ball over the top of Burnley's defence to his team-mate on the edge of the 18-yard box. Cole's first shot was blocked by goalkeeper Lee Grant but he let the ball slip out of his fingertips, allowing the West Ham striker to steer it in at the second attempt.

The game was effectively over when Cole added his second. The England striker had been lucky with his opening goal, as his first touch was not ideal, but there were no such problems this time. He sent in a powerful, long-range effort out of Grant's reach.

Then it was just a question of how many West Ham would score. The fourth came in the 59th minute when Reid took advantage of some slack marking to head in from Hitzlsperger's corner.

Grant's pleasure was temporarily tainted by a terrible mix-up between Wayne Bridge and Green. Bridge sloppily rolled the ball back for Green, whose poor clearance struck Tyrone Mears and then reached Jay Rodriguez, who headed in a 71st-minute consolation.

West Ham had the final say, though. In injury-time, Jonathan Spector chested the ball down on the edge of the box, allowing Freddie Sears to latch on to it and score with a powerful finish.

West Ham United (4-4-2): Green; Jacobsen, Reid, Tomkins, Bridge; Sears, Parker, Noble, Hitzlsperger (Barrera, 67); Cole (Spector, 73), Ba (Piquionne, 82). Substitutes not used Boffin (gk), Boa Morte, Da Costa, Hines.

Burnley (4-3-3): Grant; Mears, Duff, Carlisle, Fox; Marney (Alexander, 72), Cork, Elliott; Rodriguez, Wallace (Iwelumo, 73), Eagles (Thompson, 84). Substitutes not used Jensen (gk), Edgar, Bikey, Easton.

Referee M Atkinson (West Yorkshire).

Labels: debut, Hitzlspergeraposs, Independent, strike

Defending champions Australia extended their unbeaten streak in the World Cup to 29 matches with a 91-run win over Zimbabwe in their opening Group A game at Ahmedabad.

Batting first, Ricky Ponting's side endured testing spin conditions but Shane Watson's 79 and some late hitting by Michael Clarke (58 not out) took them to 262. In response, Mitchell Johnson picked up three wickets as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 171.

Zimbabwe's use of spin early on paid dividends when Brad Haddin was trapped lbw but Watson progressed to a half-century during a 50 partnership with Ponting (28). Australia put on 90 runs in the last 10 overs, with Cameron White, David Hussey and Steven Smith providing valuable support to Clarke.

The holders struck early in the run chase, with Charles Coventry (14) caught and bowled by Brett Lee and Tatenda Taibu caught at slip for seven.

Sean Williams (28) and captain Elton Chigumbura (14) steadied the innings with a 44-run stand for the fifth wicket before the latter lobbed a simple catch for wicketkeeper Haddin off Jason Krezja, while Williams fell soon after to Tait. Graeme Cremer and Prosper Utseya put on 49 for the eighth wicket but the target proved far too much.

Labels: Australia, Clarke, Independent, opening, Watson

As trip wires go, it lacks the element of surprise. But the fact that England have fallen flat on their faces once before when confronted by the Dutch national cricket team is no guarantee against them again coming a cropper in Nagpur today.

"It underlines the point that you cannot underestimate teams like the Netherlands," said captain Andrew Strauss when asked about England's last-ball Lord's loss to the men in orange during the 2009 World Twenty20. "They have played a lot of cricket now and are a side with some obvious strengths. We need to be good enough to overcome those. If we are 10 per cent off and they have a good day, we're in trouble."

Bas Zuiderent, the former Sussex and now the Netherlands' most experienced batsman, agreed. "There is massive belief in our team that we can beat them," he said.

Whatever happens today, England's attempt to win the World Cup at the 10th time of asking will not be made or marred. Such is the format of this competition that big boys can lose to lesser lights at the group stage and still finish in a top four qualifying spot.

Being beaten, however, would leave only the minimum of margin for further error. And, in any event, a team that quietly fancies its chances of spreading a thick layer of icing on top of that perfectly created Ashes cake should not just put the Dutch in their place but do so with some style.

New Zealand, thumping Kenya by 10 wickets, Sri Lanka – crushing Canada by 210 runs – and Australia, overpowering the Zimbabweans, showed the sort of ruthlessness that has generally eluded England when up against small fry. Embarrassing losses have been few and far between but, generally, they make heavy weather of their task and, as a result, confidence levels take a hit.

England will hope to avoid any nervous moments today. But as for their chances of making a real impact over the next six weeks, it is difficult to know whether to feel optimistic about their prospects or simply resigned to witnessing another disappointing campaign to follow those let-downs of 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007.

The captain is not one for finding his way onto the nearest rooftop and then shouting the odds. He spoke in measured terms before the Ashes series and did so again last night.

"Everyone is fit and healthy and ready to go," said Strauss, who indicated that a decision over whether to play No 1 spinner and new father Graeme Swann against the Dutch would be left until this morning. Swann arrived in India on Sunday following his paternity leave but the rest of the party were together in Bangladesh for a week.

"The six days we had there were really good in terms of preparation for the tournament. We were quite buoyed by our performance against Pakistan [a 67-run, warm-up match victory to follow the considerably less impressive 16-run win over Canada]. "It was a frustrating two or three weeks in Australia [losing the one-day series 6-1], with some key performers injured at the wrong time and not playing smart cricket. So it was reassuring to play the way we did against Pakistan."

Stuart Broad – bursting with energy and intent once again after having his Ashes tour cut short by injury – was the star act of those two practice games, taking five wickets in each. And Matt Prior produced a pair of promising innings at No 6. But the main talking point has been Kevin Pietersen's new job at the top of the order, a role which will continue to attract attention for as long as England remain in the tournament.

England have done very little to make opponents sit up and take notice during the last four World Cup campaigns (we can probably discount the tactic of opening the bowling with spinner Richard Illingworth in the 1996 quarter-final against Sri Lanka as he went for 72 off 10 overs and the game was lost with nine overs to spare). But the Pietersen ploy will cause a bit of head scratching.

It should not matter too much either way whether Pietersen piles in against the Dutch today. But if he can get a real feel for the job – and there were signs that he was doing that while making 66 against Pakistan last week – then England could be on to something (as they were when Ian Botham opened with a fair amount of success during the 1992 tournament).

There is plenty to be said for opening the batting in one-day cricket when the ball is hard and the field is up. But knowing when to attack and when to defend has not always come easily to Pietersen, to put it mildly, so watching him trying to weigh up situations should be fascinating.

Labels: England, flying, Independent, Pietersen, Running, start

Here was a tale of two strikers, whose contrasting departures from the field tell us which of the two is keeping his manager awake in the small hours.

The smile Edin Dzeko wore as he left was born of a job well done. It was not just the headed goal he had so needed after a week when his current manager had questioned him and his former manager, Steve McClaren, suggested we may have to wait until next season to see the best of him. This was also a significant blossoming of a partnership with Carlos Tevez, whose 50th City goal in 74 games underlined City's dependence on him. Tevez's clipped cross delivered Dzeko's goal; Dzeko's two exquisite touches released Tevez for his own breakaway goal which delivered such a devastating – if flattering – scoreline. Symmetry in motion.

The cause of Roberto Mancini's insomnia is Mario Balotelli – by far the more naturally gifted of the two strikers; so naturally gifted, in fact, that the manager sees him as developing into a name which chroniclers of the sport will one day bracket with Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona. But the snood was cast to the floor as he disappeared down the tunnel and Balotelli was in hospital last night, undergoing tests after a clash of heads with Krystian Pearce. The clash was the last act of an afternoon in which we saw some flashes of the acceleration which makes Balotelli so dangerous but also brought his sixth yellow card of a season in which he has started only eight games.

Mancini, who can tame the 20-year-old if anyone can, brushed all this off with his usual insouciance last night. "Sure, he was unhappy," Mancini said. "But it was our plan. We decided before the game that he would play only 60 minutes [because it was] the first game he played from the start [in two and a half months]."

Privately, Mancini is more frustrated than he is showing, and his side's early struggles revealed that his journey towards an established strike force is still in its infancy.

Paul Ince's defence was pitifully frail enough to paper over the problem, though the kind of run City might have in the FA Cup suggests they will need a better-oiled machine than this.

Everton may lie ahead in the quarter-finals if they beat Reading and City progress beyond Aston Villa and as Mancini quite rightly pointed out last night: "We never beat Everton." The manager said there were no signs that Balotelli had suffered renewed pain in the knee which has troubled him all season. "He always holds his knee when he shoots," the manager joked, though the news that Shay Given has aggravated the shoulder he dislocated last season, during last week's warm-up in Greece, is a more serious preoccupation. Given will visit a London doctor this week.

Mancini also said in his programme notes that his players had "learned what the FA Cup is all about at Meadow Lane" though this was not evident in an opening 25 minutes during which Ince's side again deconstructed the notion that a club with a £152m squad will always dominate one worth considerably less than £50,000. The uncertainty Joe Hart displayed when he flapped at and missed a first-minute crossed ran through Mancini's side. You felt in that prolonged period that Ince's impressive record against City – his only defeat was the 5-1 Maine Road reverse in his second appearance for Manchester United 22 years ago – would remain intact. Hart had clawed Alan Gow's 10th-minute free kick around a post before Karl Hawley delivered the outstanding moment of the first half, stepping up to a short pass 20 yards out on the left to bend the ball right-footed beyond Hart and against the angle of his left-hand post.

This shook City out of their stupor. Micah Richards finally delivered Dzeko a cross of the kind he feeds on and watched him hammer a header straight at Stephen Darby – and the momentum shifted. The Bosnian had miscued a header from Aleksandr Kolarov's corner and Yaya Touré's clean connection from David Silva's short pass was turned around the post by the resilient Darby before Patrick Vieira rose to Kolarov's 37th-minute corner to deposit his first goal.

The second was resonant of the first, Vieira heading home another Kolarov corner, though the Balotelli head-clash occurred during the penalty box melee. Tevez ran across the box to collect fellow substitute Gareth Barry's left-footed clipped pass and lift it onto Dzeko's head for the third. Dzeko returned the favour five minutes later, sending Tevez through to round the goalkeeper. The Bosnian should have had a second and Vieira a third though Richards was more assured when he lashed home a defensive clearance from Lewis Gobern.

MATCH FACTS

Subs: Man City Tevez 7 (Balotelli, 60), Jo (Silva, 80), Barry (Y Touré, 81). Unused Taylor (gk), Kompany, Boateng, Nimely. Notts County Thompson 6 (Darby, 60), Gobern (Hughes, 80), Chilvers (Pearce, 90). Unused Burch (gk), Lee, Spicer, Smith. Booked: Man City Balotelli. Notts County Hawley. Man of the match Silva. Match rating 7/10. Possession Man City 54% Notts County 46%. Attempts on target Man City 13 Notts County 3.

Referee M Jones (Cheshire). Att 27,276.

Labels: Balotelli, Dzeko, finally, fortunes, Independent, Mixed

Six-nil, six-nil, two-nil. That reads like the start of a demolition job in tennis, of someone on their way to a three-set victory. For Carlo Ancelotti those numbers represent Chelsea's first three results in the Premier League this season. Right now, with his club's title challenge in tatters and their exit at the weekend from the FA Cup, he can probably scarcely believe it is the same campaign.

Yet by the end of August people were already talking – and getting carried away, it must be said – about the west London side romping away to a fourth Premier League title. Big wins also followed against West Ham and Blackpool. However, five months later that three-set victory, that league triumph, which seemed so inevitable, is looking more like defeat in the fifth for the Italian. And without even forcing a tie-break.

Ancelotti admitted on Saturday, in the wake of the FA Cup holders' defeat on penalties to Everton, that he knows there have been problems since November, specifically the Birmingham game, when they lost 1-0 at St Andrew's.

Maybe it was his memory playing tricks, but that Birmingham defeat was Chelsea's third loss in the space of four games. There was already evidence that all was not well. At the start of November they lost 2-0 at Liverpool – Roy Hodgson's Liverpool, remember – and then came the insipid 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland, easily the Blues' worst performance since Ancelotti arrived at Stamford Bridge in July 2009.

Losing to Lee Bowyer's goal six days later merely confirmed the impression of the previous fortnight. It was a slump that turned into a title collapse as it was five more league games before they would win again. They are now two points outside fourth place and Champions League qualification.

Progress in the Champions League in the autumn was serene but they were having to get by without Frank Lampard, absent for four months, while John Terry was out for the Sunderland and Birmingham games.

Those two are back and what is more they have Fernando Torres to call on. But while Chelsea appear, for the moment, to have created their own problem in trying to marry the ?50m signing with Didier Drogba, their current concerns pre-date the Spaniard's arrival.

Roman Abramovich decided to dig deep for Torres but for the best part of three years that has not been his way. Having invested so heavily between 2003 and 2006, which resulted in two league titles, the Russian put the brakes on. Stung by his lack of return on his ?30m investment in Andriy Shevchenko, it was almost as if he finally realised the league could not always be won by cheque book alone.

The theory was that, at the same time as the spending freeze, Frank Arnesen, as sporting director, would oversee a youth team whose graduates would work their way into the first-team. But four years later, that has not happened – if you discount the rarely tested Josh McEachran. There has certainly been no equivalent of Jack Wilshere to carry Ancelotti's confidence.

All the while, the likes of Lampard, Terry and Drogba ploughed on, unchallenged in their grip on the first-team. But Drogba is almost 33 and Lampard is 32. Terry is the youngest of the trio but his back has been creaking for two years and he is 30.

Critically, last summer, Ancelotti, and by direct implication, Abramovich, allowed an ageing squad to become a thin one. Michael Ballack, considered important enough to start last season's FA Cup final, was let go, as were Joe Cole, Deco and Juliano Belletti. On their own, they were considered fringe players. Yet, taken as a whole, they could come in at any given moment and lend their considerable experience.

Having pollarded the squad, like some ageing oak, Ancelotti perhaps realised last season's Double was achieved despite, not because of, what was at his disposal. They only won the league by one point. In came Ramires, who was mainly a substitute in Brazil's poor World Cup campaign, who has looked neither like the next Michael Essien nor the next Lampard, while Yossi Benayoun was struck with a bad injury almost immediately.

Yet then came that bulldozing start to this season although Ancelotti, while he never said so, is too shrewd not to have feared there were problems waiting to happen. By November Chelsea had become more 2CV than JCB.

For David Moyes and Everton the manager is hoping the victory can lift their stuttering season. "To be through in the Cup gives you a great boost," he said. "If you put out the team who are the holders and the champions, you've got to think that you've got a good chance to win it. Obviously, it's been a tough place to come over the years. But Chelsea haven't enjoyed games against us lately because they have been tight."

Scorers: Chelsea Lampard 104. Everton Baines 119. Subs: Chelsea Essien 5 (Mikel, h/t), Anelka 6 (Malouda, 91), Zhirkov 5 (Kalou, 111). Everton Bilyaletdinov 6 (Cahill, 70), Anichebe 5 (Beckford, 80), Heitinga 6 (Osman, 95). Booked: Chelsea Ramires, Malouda, Terry. Everton Baines, Distin, Coleman, Arteta. Man of the match Baines. Match rating 7/10.

Attempts on target Chelsea 6 Everton 5. Referee P Dowd (Staffs). Att 41,113.

Labels: ageing, Ancelotti, catches, Independent, squad

England are taking no chances as they prepare for tomorrow's opening World Cup match against the Netherlands in Nagpur – right down to refusing to play ball with the Dutch when it comes to virtual cricket.

Andrew Strauss's team need no reminding that the men in orange caused major embarrassment by beating them in a World Twenty20 game at Lord's in 2009 and they are determined there will be no repeat in the 50-over format – so determined that, according to the Dutch, cheeky requests to borrow video footage of Jimmy Anderson and Co have been rejected.

"The funny thing is there is a new practice facility called 'ProBatter' with a hole in the screen where the ball pops out from footage [of various bowlers so batsmen in the nets feel like they are facing the real thing]," said Netherlands team manager Ed van Nierop. "The boys really like that the England team management refused to give us the footage of the England bowlers, so they must be a little afraid of us!"

What England must be, of course, is respectful. And they are, insists Matt Prior. "Netherlands are a team you absolutely cannot be complacent against," said the keeper-batsman. "We've seen what happened in the past and we don't want that to happen again."

A few weeks ago, Prior was expected to watch the World Cup from home. Then, having been recalled to the one-day squad at the last minute instead of Steve Davies, he seemed certain to open the batting. Now, with Kevin Pietersen promoted to the top of the order, Prior is being cast as England's "finisher" – the middle-order batsman with the responsibility for seeing the team to a big total or guiding them to a target.

"The middle overs in this World Cup are going to be very important, playing the spin and with the seam bowlers using a lot of cutters and slower balls – trying to manipulate the ball around," said Prior. "It is going to be hard, but playing on the subcontinent is something I feel confident about, so I'm looking forward to it.

"The minute anyone says the word 'finisher', you panic a little bit and think: 'That's a lot of responsibility.' But I love being a part of a team, and you want to be a cog in the wheel and one of those that wins games and helps set up games.

"Being a 'finisher' gives you the responsibility, and I enjoy that. I don't think Eoin Morgan's boots can be filled – he's a phenomenal player – but I'll certainly try my best."

If Prior could pick his own position it might not be six. But he knows he cannot – so will continue to give it his best shot, wherever he is deployed. "I've always thought opening suited my game better," he said. "But the way the last couple of games have gone I've found a tempo I'm very comfortable with.

"I don't think, opening, I managed to get that tempo ever – which was hugely frustrating, because I know that if I get that tempo right I can be very, very successful. Right now, this role is suiting me – and I feel very comfortable in it."

Prior averages only 25 in ODIs, compared to almost 43 in Tests. "People throw stats around and say your one-day stats aren't that good," he said "They aren't. But I'm working very hard to improve them."

Labels: Avoiding, Dutch, England, Independent, preview, refuse, sneak, upset

Against the club who humbled Barcelona last week, it took a well-travelled French striker whom not even Arsène Wenger had heard of before yesterday to claim a famous FA Cup fifth-round draw for Leyton Orient.

Jonathan Téhoué, a 26-year-old substitute who has played for, among others, Bastia and Huddersfield Town, scored a dramatic 88th-minute equaliser that gives Leyton Orient the chance to play a lucrative replay at the Emirates next week. It would be hard to imagine them winning on Arsenal's home turf a week on Wednesday but the prize is even greater: an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

It was an embarrassment for Wenger, who gambled on playing a much weaker first team and looked to have edged through with Tomas Rosicky's goal, only for Téhoué to bring the house down with his late strike. In 11th position in League One, Orient were not embarrassed all afternoon and when their chance arrived they took it beautifully.

For Wenger, the replay is more of an irritation. He has the Carling Cup final on Sunday but this was the sting in the tail after that famous win over Barcelona on Wednesday. His team had chances to build upon Rosicky's goal in the second half and then they failed to deal with Téhoué's pace and directness.

For Orient, it might have been the same club who beat Barcelona four days earlier that they faced yesterday but it was certainly not the same team. The only starter for Arsenal from that side was Alex Song, although there were a further seven of Wednesday's team on the substitutes' bench.

In that respect, the teamsheet suggested Wenger was determined this would not go to a replay. Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere were among those available if needed, but with the Carling Cup final meaning another extra game, Wenger preferred not to use them.

He gave a debut to Catalan-born defender Ignasi Miquel, who has been at the club's academy since September 2008, and the 18-year-old looked very composed in the first half, which was more than could be said at times for his fellow central defender Sébastien Squillaci.

There were times when Orient must have felt very much as Arsenal did playing against Barcelona last week. It was tough for the League One side to get the ball back from their famous opposition at times but that is not to say that Arsenal did significant damage.

They had plenty of shots but very rarely did they manage to get in behind Orient on the wings and cross the ball from dangerous positions. And the longer it went on, the more onerous a task it became for this Arsenal side made up largely of players on the periphery of Wenger's first team.

For the likes of Manuel Almunia, Denilson and Tomas Rosicky, who have been first-choice, first-team players at times during their Arsenal careers, this cannot have been the most rewarding of afternoons. Orient were well-organised with the former Arsenal trainee Jason Crowe sitting just in front of the back four as the holding midfielder.

There was a good performance from another former Arsenal man, the centre-half Ben Chorley and his defensive partner Terrell Forbes. Chorley played in the Arsenal under-18 team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2000 and 2001, captaining them in the second year, and it is remarkable that from that very promising 2001 side Jermaine Pennant has had the most notable professional career.

Arsenal's best chance of the first half came when Andrei Arshavin played in Kieran Gibbs down the left wing and his cross should have been put away by Marouane Chamakh, but the Moroccan was a yard off the pace and could only direct it wide.

There was not much of a goal threat from Orient before the break although that should not diminish the contribution they made. Charlie Daniels, the left-back whom Wenger had identified as one of Orient's best players on Friday, hit a confident drive from a corner played out to him on 14 minutes but cleared Almunia's bar.

Wenger must have been considering unleashing one of his famous substitutes when Arsenal broke through at last. It was an unlikely kind of goal for Orient to concede given that it was a header from Rosicky from a cross from Nicklas Bendtner from the right – the kind of cross Orient had dealt with comfortably for most of the afternoon.

Although they had battled on manfully, Orient's players had started to tire in defence and Arsenal's greater fitness levels were telling. Rosicky should have scored again when the ball was cut back to him by Arshavin, increasingly influential in the second half, on 69 minutes but the Orient goalkeeper Jamie Jones saved well and got up for the rebound.

Téhoué came on as a substitute with 27 minutes remaining and left Song behind on a run down the left wing. His cross was met by Alex Revell who could not keep his shot on target. It had not been a busy afternoon for Almunia.

Téhoué, who has played in France, Belgium and Turkey, caused problems again with eight minutes remaining. His cross to Revell was struck at Squillaci and hit him in the face, which prompted appeals for a penalty. The pace of the French striker at last gave Orient a cutting edge and it was Arsenal who looked tired.

The goal from Téhoué was a beauty. He picked the ball up in the right channel before weaving around the challenges of Gibbs and Miquel before striking his shot low and hard under Almunia before the Arsenal goalkeeper could get down to save it.

Téhoué had done enough to lay claim to a starting place at the Emirates. As for Arsenal, they will have go through it all again. There is no doubt that this was a side good enough to beat Orient yesterday but Wenger will not be free to make quite so many changes in the replay as he did yesterday. He cannot afford to allow it to go to penalties.

Given that Arsenal play against Barcelona just six days after they play Orient it will put further strain on Wenger's resources. The FA Cup is hardly his priority either. But these are the kinds of games that every great side must tick off over the course of a successful season.

Subs: L Orient Carroll 6 (Crowe, h-t), Téhoué 7 (McGleish, 63), M'Poku (Revell,84). Unused Butcher (gk), Omozusi, Mike, Kane.

Arsenal none. Unused Szczesny (gk), Koscielny,

Clichy, Eboué, Fabregas, Nasri, Wilshere. Booked: L Orient Whing. Arsenal Denilson. Man of the match Arshavin. Match rating 6/10. Possession L Orient 41% Arsenal 59%. Attempts on target L Orient 4 Arsenal 12. Referee K Friend (West Midlands). Att 9,136.

Sixth-round draw

* Stoke v West Ham/Burnley

* Man City v Everton/Reading

* Birmingham v Bolton

* Man Utd v Leyton Orient/Arsenal

* Ties to be played over the weekend of the 12/13 March

Labels: Independent, medicine, Orient, taste, their, Wengeraposs

The souvenir hunters were out in force at Old Trafford.

Anything not nailed down was quickly hoovered up. Signed shirts, pictures and programmes were carefully packed away while one tourist from the Blue Square Premier took away a piece of grass to ensure he would remember Saturday 19 February 2011 for the rest of his life.

In fact, so much memorabilia was gathered to commemorate the biggest day in Crawley Town's history that they could have done with another coach to take it all back to Sussex with them.

Heaven knows where manager Steve Evans found space to fit the bottle of red he had been handed by Sir Alex Ferguson as a parting gift.

David Hunt, the midfielder on loan from Brentford, bagged the prized shirt of Wayne Rooney. "He [Rooney] was stood next to me. I'd got the whack in the face so I think the shirt was an apology," said the former Crystal Palace player.

Sergio Torres, one of the names to stand out during this season's FA Cup, was as inventive at the final whistle as he had been throughout Crawley's historic run. "When I was coming off I thought, 'I need to have a memory of this day', so I put a bit of grass in my socks," said the Argentine who has gone from shelf stacker at Boots to FA Cup hero. "I've put it inside my boots and now I'm going to frame my boots with the grass because I'm not going to wear them again."

Then there was the moment a member of Ferguson's back-room staff knocked on the visitors' dressing-room door at Old Trafford after the whistle.

The mood inside was sombre as realisation sank in that an adventure which had started in Wales four months earlier with a fourth qualifying round victory over Newport County had come to an end after a rare Wes Brown goal.

Yet the United official was the bearer of more gifts and the atmosphere lifted. "We've gone in after the game and a member of staff has come in and given us a load of signed shirts by all the big players – the Rios and Giggsys," said Evans. "I said to Sir Alex, they set the standards on the pitch because they're top of the Premier League, but they set the standards off the pitch as well."

But for all the keepsakes, mementos, blood, sweat and tears, it was Ferguson's body language at the end of the tie which Crawley's players should freeze-frame and store away in their memory banks as the United manager failed to camouflage his relief after an uncomfortable experience at the hands of the non-Leaguers.

"Some came in and didn't do themselves justice. No doubt about that," said Ferguson after his fringe players fluffed their latest audition. "We might have some players who don't understand what the FA Cup is all about."

For Bebe, in particular, it was a chance to put right all the wrongs following United's shambolic Carling Cup exit at West Ham. He failed. What now for Gabriel Obertan? The French player has had 18 months to blossom at United yet there were times when he looked out of his depth against opponents from the fifth tier. The presence of 17-year-old countryman and midfield talent Paul Pogba on United's substitutes' bench ought to tell Obertan he faces being left behind if he does not step up.

It says everything about United's performance that the most positive news for Ferguson was that André-Pierre Gignac, the in-form Marseilles striker, will not face United in the Champions League on Wednesday after suffering a groin injury.

To be fair, United did what was needed. They are through to the sixth round and a scrappy, disjointed, lacklustre performance against Crawley will be forgotten if Ferguson brings the FA Cup back to Old Trafford in May. But while United's focus now shifts to the Champions League, Crawley, denied a stoppage time equaliser when Richard Brodie hit the woodwork, must now lift themselves as their quest to win promotion to the Football League continues at home to Southport tomorrow.

Scorer: Man Utd Brown 28.

Subs: Man Utd Rooney 6 (Anderson, h/t), Smalling 6 (Rafael, 54), Fletcher 6 (Fabio, 69). Crawley Brodie 7 (McAllister, 63), Cook 6 (Gibson, 69), Rusk (Smith, 81). Booked: Man Utd Brown, Rooney. Crawley Torres. Man of the match McFadzean. Match rating 6/10.

Possession Man Utd 47% Crawley 53%.

Attempts on target Man Utd 4 Crawley 3.

Referee L Probert (Wiltshire). Att 74,778.

Labels: Crawley, Independent, leave, prized, scalp, souvenirs, Trafford

Wakefield know the extent of the damage done to their season by going into administration last week – and they will be relieved that it is not worse.

The Rugby League ruled yesterday that Trinity should be docked four points for breaking the body's rules on insolvency.

The punishment is the same as that handed out to Crusaders for the same infraction this winter, although the League has the power to deduct a maximum of six points.

The Wildcats, now under the new ownership of local businessman Andrew Glover, begin the task of getting their points tally into the black at the Catalan Dragons tonight.

They must do so with a depleted side, having lost three players to rival Super League clubs this week. Their coach, John Kear, has promised new recruits to fill the gaps and that process has already begun.

None of Wakefield's new signings so far – Craig Harvey from Warrington and Kyle Amor from Leeds on loan, plus two permanent signings from Huddersfield, Josh Griffin and Greg Johnson – will be involved in Perpignan, however, but Kevin Penny is in line to make his debut. Setaimata Sa is in the Catalans' squad, despite being carried off at the Millennium Stadium, but Clint Greenshields is out.

In today's other Super League match, Martin Aspinwall could make his Castleford debut against Huddersfield, the club he left this winter. The 17-year-old hooker, Daryl Clark, is also in the squad for a possible first senior game, taking the place of Nick Fozzard.

The Giants' squad is unchanged from the one which beat Warrington at Cardiff. Both sides had impressive victories there last weekend and a second win in a row would give either of them a morale boosting start to the season.

Jordan Tansey, the utility back sacked by Hull last week after a series of disciplinary breaches, has joined the Championship club, Dewsbury. He could make his debut in the Northern Rail Cup match against Doncaster tomorrow.

St George-Illawarra warmed up for next Sunday's World Club Challenge at Wigan by beating the Canterbury Bulldogs 28-14 in Woolongong. They could have lost the utility player, Nick Emmett, from their squad to travel to England after he went off with an arm injury.

Labels: against, begin, Dragons, Independent, process, rebuilding, Wakefield

Bernie Ecclestone is to monitor the political unrest in Bahrain over the weekend before making a definitive decision on the future of the season-opening grand prix next month.

Ecclestone appreciates the shifting sands of a volatile situation are too difficult to predict, and that he will be better equipped to appraise the matter in a few days.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, where teams have been testing for the new season, world champion Sebastian Vettel posted the fastest time of the day in his Red Bull, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso second.

Labels: Ecclestone, Independent, keeps, violence, Watch

As if Bernie Ecclestone, the 80-year-old workaholic head of Formula One, did not have enough worries with riots in Bahrain threatening the start of the international season, there are also rows on the home front because of an upcoming book.

The biographer, Tom Bower, has a track record of upsetting the people about whom he writes, but when he started work on his latest opus it did seem to be one that might get off the presses with less fuss than usual.

Mr Ecclestone, a working-class boy who made good and become fabulously rich by bringing business acumen to motor sport, is thicker-skinned than a lot of billionaires. When he and Mr Bower discussed the project in its early stages, the writer warned that if he turned up anything bad, he would use it. Mr Ecclestone shrugged off the warning and replied: "I'm no angel", thus furnishing Mr Bower with a title for his new book, which is to be published on Monday. He even took the author around in his private jet.

But trouble began when an extract from the book appeared in the Daily Mail. As usual, when a newspaper buys the rights to a book, the section that was likely to cause the most controversy and upset was given the greatest prominence.

In this case, the newspaper pulled out the story of how Mr Ecclestone ended his 17-year relationship with Tuana Tan to marry Slavica Maric, a feisty Croatian model who stands 1ft taller than the diminutive Mr Ecclestone and was pregnant with the first of their two daughters.

Mr Ecclestone has dominated the world of Formula One for decades. Before he arrived, it was more like an amateur club, but he turned it into a multimillion-pound business. In 1997, he hit the headlines when it was found that he had quietly donated £1m to the Labour Party – a huge sum by the normal standards of political gifts, but for Mr Ecclestone it was not more than a week's income.

Yet at home, his strong-willed wife was easily a match for him. They first met on the Italian race circuit in 1982, when she was 23 and he was 51. Their stormy 23-year union ended in November 2008. The former Mrs Ecclestone and their daughters did not like what they read, causing a rift between the biographer and his subject.

This is not the biggest problem on Mr Ecclestone's plate right now. The 2011 Formula One programme is scheduled to begin on the Bahrain International Circuit on 13 March.

The same circuit was the setting for the GP2 Asia series, but yesterday its organisers announced that they had cancelled the rest of the race weekend because of political unrest. Bahrain's authorities are insistent that the Formula One fixture will go ahead, but that depends on whether political stability has returned to the desert kingdom.

"We'll have to keep our eye on things and make a decision quickly," Mr Ecclestone said yesterday. "I spoke to the Crown Prince this morning. He doesn't know any more than you or I, but they're monitoring exactly what is going on. Next week we will make a decision on what we are going to do."

Another problem is that German prosecutors are investigating the sale in 2005 of 48 per cent of Formula One by a Munich bank, Bayerische Landesbank, to a private firm, CVC Capital Partners. The banker who engineered the deal, Gerhard Gribkowsky, is currently in the same prison that held Adolf Hitler nearly 90 years ago, accused of taking a huge bribe disguised as consultancy fees. The police have not said who paid the alleged bribe. Formula One and Mr Ecclestone have denied any knowledge of payments to Mr Gribkowsky.

With all that to worry about, Mr Ecclestone understandably did not need a family row and is now expected to stay away from next week's party to launch the new book.

For Mr Bower, who declined yesterday to comment about his relations with Mr Ecclestone, it is another in a series of clashes with his subjects. The 64-year-old author – who lives in Hampstead and is married to the former Evening Standard editor Veronica Wadley – was a reporter for BBC's Panorama in the 1980s, before branching out on his own as an investigative writer. He has a track record for writing "warts and all" biographies of rich men, many of whom have vehemently objected.

Two years ago, he won a hard-fought libel case brought by the owner of the Daily Express, Richard Desmond, who objected to a single paragraph referring to him in Mr Bower's biography of Conrad Black, the former owner of The Daily Telegraph who was sentenced to jail in the United States for fraud.

Mr Bower's other targets have included Richard Branson, Tiny Rowland, Mohammed Al Fayed, the late Robert Maxwell, Gordon Brown, the Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson and the seamy side of the football world.

Bower's other victims

Richard Desmond Bower's biography of the owner the Daily Express remains unpublished, but Bower won a high-profile libel case against him in 2009.

Robert Maxwell The crooked former press baron was Bower's first living subject. Maxwell tried to intimidate him by setting private detectives on him.

Richard Branson "It is a foul, foul piece of work from the first words to the last – really rotten, nasty stuff" is what Branson said after reading what Bower had written about him.

Harry Redknapp and Brian Clough They may have been heroes to football fans, but in Bower's book, Broken Dreams, they were portrayed as greedy men who were only too happy to pocket bundles of unearned cash.

Labels: Bernie, biography, hates, Independent, Itaposs

Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League win in Milan on Tuesday night has come at the price of two new defensive injuries, with both Jonathan Woodgate and Vedran Corluka facing absences as a result of problems sustained at San Siro. Woodgate, who was returning from a long-term spell out of the side, strained his groin, while Corluka's ankle was injured by a Mathieu Flamini tackle.

Woodgate sustained his injury after coming on as a substitute for Corluka 59 minutes into Tuesday's game. It was Woodgate's first Tottenham appearance since the 9-1 home victory over Wigan Athletic in November 2009. But the 31-year-old strained his left adductor muscle in the half an hour he was on the pitch and will be assessed over the next few days. He is likely to miss the next few weeks.

Despite the recurrence of his groin problems, Woodgate was delighted to return to the Tottenham side, and saw it as a vindication of his mental strength through adversity. "It was a great feeling to get back", said the former Real Madrid player. "There is nothing worse than when you can't play football.

"Watching games is painful when you're injured but you try to spur the lads on and give them all the confidence they need. A lot of people doubted whether I'd be able to get back but you have to show determination to not let bad times get you down and you have to just keep going."

The player Woodgate replaced on Tuesday, Corluka, will also join the host of Tottenham defenders currently unavailable; Ledley King, Younes Kaboul and Alan Hutton all missed the game in Milan with injuries. The Croat was the victim of a reckless tackle from former Arsenal midfielder Flamini and expects to be out for a month. The Frenchman received a yellow card from Stéphane Lannoy for a challenge that Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said risked breaking Corluka's leg.

Corluka said that the injury was not as bad as he had initially feared. "Luckily nothing is broken", he said, "but I will still be out for at least four weeks. When I first saw my ankle, I was sure it would be at least two months, but luckily it is not so bad." The club later confirmed that he had sprained part of his ankle joint capsule, and will make a gradual return to training next week. If his return is successful he will be back in full training in a few weeks.

The Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso has escaped a charge of assault for his headbutt on Tottenham coach Joe Jordan after Tuesday's game, Uefa said yesterday. The 33-year-old midfielder has instead been charged with the lesser offence of gross unsporting conduct, which, according to Uefa's disciplinary code, carries a minimum one-match ban.

Assault, in contrast, brings a minimum three-match ban while serious assault leads to a five-match suspension. Gattuso will learn of his punishment on Monday. Regardless of the sanction, he will miss the return leg at White Hart Lane on 9 March after being booked for a tackle on Steven Pienaar on Tuesday. Gattuso later apologised for his actions. "I lost control", he admitted. "There is no excuse for what I did."

Labels: another, despite, Independent, injury, setback, upbeat, Woodgate

Barcelona were still confident last night of a second-leg comeback against Arsenal in the Champions League because they believe Arsène Wenger will not be able to copy Jose Mourinho's ultra-defensive tactics in the Nou Camp next month.

Barça went out of the competition at the semi-finals stage last season having lost the first leg away to Internazionale 3-1. Then the Inter coach, Mourinho said: "We did not park the bus, we parked the plane," after seeing his side defend for 90 minutes in the second leg to go through following a 1-0 defeat.

Wenger's natural attacking instincts are now seen as Barça's biggest ally and last night Barcelona players were consoling themselves by reflecting on the amount of chances they were allowed at the Emirates before Arsenal's comeback.

Midfielder Xavi said: "We had infinite opportunities to kill off the tie; we didn't take them and we ended up paying but there are 90 minutes left and I am still optimistic. I'd like to think that we are still favourites with the second leg to come at home and in front of our supporters."

Lionel Messi will need to find the goalscoring touch that deserted him in London. The Argentine has now failed to score in seven games on English soil for Barcelona. "Jinxed" was the one-word verdict on the Argentine after he made it 626 minutes without a goal in England.

Messi does have happy memories of last year's home-leg against Arsenal however when he scored all Barcelona's goals in a 4-1 win. The Spanish Champions have scored 103 goals so far this season but could have far bigger problems at the other end of the pitch with Gerard Pique's suspension ruling him out of the second leg and putting more pressure on captain Carles Puyol to return quickly from injury.

In 40 games this season Barcelona have only lost four times and Puyol has been missing in each of the defeats. He has been out with a tendinitis problem in his left knee for three weeks but was due to return for this Sunday's home game against Athletic Bilbao. Barcelona have no defensive cover and coach Guardiola would be forced to pair Gabriel Milito with Eric Abidal if the 32-year-old Puyol does not return on time.

His La Liga return could now be delayed to ensure he can face Robin van Persie and company in the Champions League, sparing Guardiola the necessity to call on Milito who has struggled for form and fitness this season.

Despite the optimism in Spain over the second leg, there was still an inquest over Barcelona's second-half capitulation with special attention paid to England starlet Jack Wilshere's second-half domination of Xavi.

Barcelona paper El Mundo Deportivo eulogised: "Wilshere confirmed all the good things that have been said about him in the last few months. The great hope of English football looked like the complete midfielder. He started the game as a holding player and in the second half played further forward in the style of Xavi who was not comfortable at the Emirates and whose experience could not save Barça from a nervous end to the game."

Nicola Rizzoli was the other protagonist of the enquiry into why Barcelona had thrown away a lead at the Emirates for the second year running. The match official known as "Mourinho's friend"' was accused of denying Barcelona a penalty as well as wrongly ruling out Messi's first-half goal.

Rizzoli mistakenly gave Inter a penalty in 2009 that enabled Mourinho's team to draw 3-3 with Roma. He was demoted to Serie B for the mistake and his past misdemeanors were not forgotten as replays showed Messi onside when he headed over the line in the first half.

Barcelona now play four games in the 19 days leading up to the return. After Sunday's home game they travel to Mallorca and Valencia followed by a home fixture against strugglers Zaragoza on the Saturday before their most important 90 minutes of the season so far.

What the Spanish papers said...

Cesc's Arsenal breaks Barcelona

Marca praised the counter-attacking threat that Arsenal posed throughout the game. However, it did describe Robin van Persie's goal as a "fatal error" by goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Marca.com also conducted a 40,000-strong survey which pinpointed the failings of Lionel Messi, Maxwell and Pedro in Barça's defeat, but praised the performance of Eric Abidal, who played out of position at centre-back.

Forgiveness

Mundo Deportivo criticised Barcelona's "forgiveness" in front of goal and their failure to kill off the game. They also questioned manager Pep Guardiola's change in formation following David Villa's substitution in the 67th minute: 16 minutes later Andrei Arshavin added Arsenal's second to complete an unlikely turnaround.

A 'good fit'

AS described Barcelona as becoming "too enchanted by their own football" and argued that Barça's first hour of dominance at the Emirates only helped to spur Arsenal on: "A wounded Englishman is very dangerous. And if he knows how to play on the counter, even more so. And it turned out that power, in the end, overcame technique."

However, the Madrid paper led with Emmanuel Adebayor saying Cesc Fabregas would be "a good fit" at Real Madrid.

The Camp Nou comeback

Sport backed a Barça win in the return leg after refereeing decisions went against them at the Emirates. Messi had a goal "unfairly disallowed" and there was no penalty awarded for a "foul" on Pedro.

And the rest...

El Pais

"Last night Arsenal fought like champions. They didn't give up even when the night looked at its bleakest."

"Arsenal have definitively shed their respect for Barcelona, who yesterday were more functional, less ambitious or, at the least, more vulnerable and less punishing."

El Mundo

"Arsenal won deservedly, thanks to their noble resistance and the drive of Wilshere."

The idea that La Liga is the best league in the world "fell apart in a single trip to London."

Michael Butler

Labels: aposto, Arsenal, busapos, confident, crash, Independent, refusal, Wengeraposs

Perhaps a lack of intensity was part of the problem for England during their uninspiring 16-run victory over Canada earlier this week. Well, there should be no shortage of either passion or full-blooded commitment in Fatullah today with Pakistan providing the opposition.

In football, it would be termed a friendly international. In cricket, it is called a World Cup warm-up game, which is probably for the best considering the less than cordial relations between these two countries in recent times.

The other 12 teams have completed their preparations, and all 14 captains lined up alongside one another at last night's opening ceremony in Dhaka. But with most attention now switching to tomorrow's first match of the tournament proper – between many people's favourites, India, and co-hosts Bangladesh – there is a bit of unfinished practice for England and Pakistan to squeeze in.

England won a five-match one-day series against Pakistan last September by a margin of 3-2. What most people remember, though, is the bad feeling between the two sides in the immediate aftermath of the spot-fixing storm that engulfed the tourists during the Lord's Test.

Andrew Strauss and his team were furious that their summer of triumph had been soured by events completely beyond their control – and anyone needing confirmation of their anger received it when Jonathan Trott and pace bowler Wahab Riaz clashed in the nets before the penultimate match of the one-day series.

Both teams are presently staying in the same Dhaka hotel, but have not been chatting about old times by all accounts. "We have not seen a huge amount of them in the hotel," said Stuart Broad. "We haven't been going out for dinner with them.

"Obviously it was a tough summer for us last year – all England players will say the same. We enjoyed playing the cricket but our wonderful summer of cricket was damaged. But you've got to move on. It is international sport and we've got a job to do."

Right now, that job is to suggest Wednesday's performance against Canada was a one-off so far as this World Cup campaign is concerned. Apart from Broad, who returned from his Ashes-wrecking side injury with a five-wicket haul and some aggressive lower-order batting, there was precious little to indicate England are anything other than the long shots most people believe them to be.

Kevin Pietersen's first attempt at an opening was a partial success, at best, and Canada – World Cup no-hopers – not only hit more boundaries than England but also threatened to pull off a remarkable victory.

England have argued that they had only been in Bangladesh for a few days and were still acclimatising to playing conditions different in just about every aspect to those they encountered in Australia while losing that one-day series 6-1. Today, though, there needs to be significant improvements in all departments.

Pakistan, as ever, are just about impossible to weigh up. They have sufficient talent – even without the banned Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – to win this World Cup, and the capacity to self-destruct so completely that a first-round exit is not impossible.

On the evidence of their first warm-up game, though, the good Pakistan are in town. They trounced potential dark horses Bangladesh by 89 runs on Tuesday with the mercurial Abdul Razzaq taking three wickets after centuries from opener Ahmad Shahzad and Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

That was one of several impressive victories this week. No one, though, will enter the tournament in better heart than India, who defeated holders Australia by 38 runs and New Zealand, by a whopping 117 runs.

Sri Lanka have also looked good. And South Africa's supporters will feel entitled to predict a first ever World Cup triumph after the way their side performed against Australia – winning by seven wickets.

Few people, though, will be brave enough to write off the Aussies on the strength of two defeats in warm-up matches. And even fewer, perhaps, will want to talk up England's chances too much, regardless of how they perform today.

Some signs of encouragement would be handy, though, with Strauss's men facing a potential banana skin, in the shape of the Netherlands, in their opening match of the tournament on Tuesday. Thankfully, Graeme Swann, England's all-important spinner, will be available: his wife gave birth to their first child, 8lb 9oz Wilfred, yesterday.

Probable teams

England A J Strauss (captain), K P Pietersen, I J L Trott, P D Collingwood, M J Prior (wkt), M H Yardy, J C Tredwell, J M Anderson, S C J Broad, A Shahzad, R S Bopara

Pakistan (from) S Afridi (captain), M Hafeez, M ul-Haq, A Shafiq, Y Khan, U Akmal, A Shehzad, K Akmal (wkt), A Razzaq, A Rehman, W Riaz, S Ajmal, U Gul, S Akhtar, J Khan

Today, Fatullah, 8.30am

Umpires B Oxenford (Aus) & B Doctrove (WI)

Weather Expected to be warm and sunny, with a maximum temperature of 27C.

Labels: desperate, England, grudge, Independent, Match, Pakistan

The moral of Chelsea's season might end up being "be careful what you wish for". Their owner, Roman Abramovich, spent £75m on Fernando Torres and David Luiz during the January transfer window to re-energise their flagging campaign but the result has been the polar opposite.

The sums never seem to add up at Chelsea, who announced a loss of £71m on the same day they spent even more again on two new recruits. The profit and loss margin since that day makes just as uncomfortable reading as the recent set of club accounts – two games, one point, no goals.

Those who enjoy a dash of schadenfreude with their football will no doubt be taking great delight at the sight of Torres struggling for a goal in a Chelsea shirt. The great Spaniard seemingly had forgotten the skill of bringing the ball under control against Fulham on Monday night, as four chances to break his duck for his new club went begging. However, it was not just Torres who looked a little lost on a chilly night by the Thames. The rest of the Chelsea side were laboured and off-key, as if the arrival of Torres and the defender Luiz had destabilised the team, rather than strengthened it.

Their fledgling recovery following the worst run in form for more than a decade has been blown off course by the intervention of Abramovich. Before Torres joined, Chelsea had won four and drawn one of their previous five games; since he arrived they have lost one and drawn one.

Ancelotti has tinkered with his formation in an attempt to accommodate Torres but it has not so far worked. He did not dare to change tactics when Chelsea were going through their "bad moment" in the build-up to Christmas, having been talked out of making alterations to the system by the players. But he has done just that to squeeze in Torres, and the goals have dried up as a consequence.

What Ancelotti needs is time; time to work in training on building up an understanding between Torres and the other strikers; time to settle on a formation that will work, and then putting in the hours in training to make it happen instinctively; time for the other players to become accustomed to how Torres likes to receive the ball; time for the back four, and the midfield, to adjust to the arrival of Luiz and his tendency to dribble from the heart of the defence.

However, time is something Ancelotti does not have, and it is something not even Abramovich can buy. Chelsea are finding out the hard way why so many clubs do not like buying players in January, because it can cause damage in the short term. Bring in new faces in the summer and you have weeks to make the necessary alterations to tactics; do it in the winter, and you only have a few days to make a few hasty adjustments.

Torres is simply too good a player, and Ancelotti too good a manager, for the whole thing not to work, sooner or later. The danger is that Chelsea could slip so far behind Tottenham in the race for fourth place that instead of contesting the Champions League next season, they could be looking at the Europa League.

The recent dropped points to Liverpool and Fulham have left Chelsea in fifth, two points behind Spurs. That could be about to get much worse, however, as the fixtures are starting to conspire against Ancelotti. Should Chelsea beat Everton in their FA Cup fourth-round replay on Saturday, they will have to move their upcoming home game against Manchester United to later in the season to accommodate their fifth-round tie with Reading. That would mean their next league game would be the trip to Blackpool on 7 March, by which time they could have fallen eight points behind Tottenham, should Harry Redknapp's side win their games at Blackpool and Wolverhampton.

Chelsea would have games in hand, but the pressure would be immense on them to win them. Ancelotti said on Monday night he is confident Chelsea will finish in fourth place, despite their recent hiccups. The arrivals of Torres and Luiz have certainly increased the options open to Ancelotti. However, it could be argued he is now spoilt for choice, and the pressure is mounting on whether he can find a solution in time to save Chelsea's season.

Upsetting the applecart?

Before Torres:

9 January Chelsea 7-0 Ipswich

15 January Chelsea 2-0 Blackburn

24 January Bolton 0-4 Chelsea

29 January Everton 1-1 Chelsea

1 February Sunderland 2-4 Chelsea

P5, W4, D1, F18, A3

With Torres:

6 February Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool

14 February Fulham 0-0 Chelsea

P2, W0, D1, F0, A1

Labels: Ancelottiaposs, Chelsea, choice, Independent, spoilt, Suddenly, upset

Manchester City did not leave Greece last night with a coveted away goal, although they did their chances of Europa League progress little harm after drawing 0-0 with a competitive Aris Thessaloniki side.

Their hosts have not lost a home European tie for 40 years and it was easy to see why. They were disciplined and feisty, preventing City from turning an advantage in possession into a set of goal-scoring chances. Those opportunities the visitors did fashion, most of which fell to Edin Dzeko, were smartly denied by Greek international goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis. After a cautious approach in the first half, the Greek side pushed City much harder as the game went on, led by the brave shuttling of Brazilian winger Darcy Dolce Neto. All of this took place in front of a vocal and colourful crowd in the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, with flags and banners in the club colours of yellow and black.

Perhaps realising that after last Saturday's derby defeat, the Europa League provides City's best chance of silverware, Roberto Mancini deployed his strongest side yet in the competition. No Shay Given, Patrick Vieira, Jo or Dedryck Boyata; Edin Dzeko led the line with support from Carlos Tevez, David Silva and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

While Aris's pressing was initially brisk, City had sufficient quality to find space in the host's half. Sifakis was forced into a sharp early save. David Silva, again City's most imaginative player, spun on the edge of the box and shot but Sifakis stretched to his left to keep it out. Most of City's first-half chances, however, fell to Dzeko. The Bosnian took advantage of Silva's touch before stabbing the ball at Sifakis. Soon after he broke through again but the keeper's save was more comfortable. After just one goal so far for City, and that in an FA Cup tie at Notts County, Dzeko looked keen to score his second goal for the club. His shots were often snatched and at times he turned down better passing opportunities, to the frustration of his colleagues.

City's first-half build-up play was patient enough to get bodies forward but not quick enough to break through the massed Aris lines. Mancini's team have, at times this season, struggled to break through opponents who have the intention and discipline to defend in numbers. In contrast, Aris attacked in spurts, relying on lively combinations between Neto and Argentinian forward Raul Bobadilla. When the precision of the visitors' passing dropped, Aris broke forward quickly, and sharply. Jerome Boateng, moved to centre-back, had to make some important interventions. It was Neto who went closer than anyone else in the first half to scoring. Joe Hart was ruled to have carried the ball out of the penalty area after colliding with Gareth Barry, and Neto's free-kick curled just beyond Hart's far post.

Aris started the second half as well as they did the first. Neto, a driving presence down the right flank, did not allow Aleksandar Kolarov to play quite as cavalier a game as he sometimes enjoys. The Brazilian's delivery to the near post was impressive and Bobadilla headed another good chance softly wide. It was a shot from near the touchline, rather than a cross, that asked the most of Hart, diving far to his right.

While Wright-Phillips traditionally does his best work close to the touchline, he had City's two best chances at the start of the second half from infield areas. Twice he moved inside the left-back and twice he was found by Dzeko. The second time Sifakis had to make a save as Wright-Phillips shot at him. The Greece goalkeeper made his hardest save of the evening just after the hour mark, turning Dzeko's near-post header over the bar from Barry's expert cross. Ten minutes later, Sifakis could only watch as a shot from City's new target man flew beyond his outstretched arms, but it went wide.

Aris manager Yiannis Mihalitsios sensed that there might be a better chance to take a lead back to Manchester than he initially suspected. Unlike the first half, they did not follow a good start with a retreat back towards their goal. Rather, they continued to press and thereby provided the space required for an open game.

Mancini, in the hope of reinvigorating his attack, introduced Italian striker Mario Balotelli. It was his first football since his hat-trick against Aston Villa on 28 December last year. An attempted overhead kick was shot wide in his only meaningful contribution. Dzeko was withdrawn soon after, but was first denied a fairly unlikely penalty claim by Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco.

Mancini, however, is not one to risk sacrificing a clean sheet in the desperate pursuit of a late goal. His players had a few corners in the final minutes but there was never a sense of any great siege. A stronger sense of urgency might be needed, though, when the teams meet again in eight days' time.

Aris Thessaloniki (4-4-1-1): Sifakis; Michel, Guiaro, Vangjeli, Lazaridis; Sakata, Faty, Prittas, Neto (Castillo, 88); Toja; Bobadilla (Cesarec, 72). Substitutes not used Vellidis (gk),Oriol, Kaznaferis, Mendrinos, Cesnauskis.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Hart; Kolarov, Boateng, K Touré, Richards; Barry, Y Touré; Tevez, Silva, Wright-Phillips (Balotelli, 77); Dzeko (Zabaleta, 84). Substitutes not used Given (gk), Kompany, Lescott, Vieira, Jo.

Referee A Undiano Mallenco (Spain).

Labels: failure, Independent, progress, spite, wellplaced

Celtic moved eight points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League table last night with a 3-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

The home side had to play virtually the whole game with 10 men after defender Andrew Considine was shown a red card for a foul on Scott Brown in the penalty area inside two minutes. Jamie Langfield saved Anthony Stokes' penalty but Celtic took the lead in the 12th minute through Gary Hooper.

Mark Wilson got the second with 15 minutes to go and Stokes made amends for his penalty miss soon after.

Labels: Celtic, clear, eight, Hooper, Independent, lifts, points

Steve McClaren has today parted company with German side Wolfsburg following a string of poor results.

The Wolves' 1-0 loss to Hannover on Saturday was the club's second on the spin and continued a miserable sequence of just one win in 11 in the German top flight. In 21 games at the helm, McClaren managed just five wins.

The former England manager leaves with the club, champions just two seasons ago, sitting 12th in the 18-team Bundesliga, just one point above the relegation zone.

Pierre Littbarski, McClaren's former assistant, has been named as his replacement.

Wolfsburg chief executive Dieter Hoeness said: "We were not convinced that we could have a stable collaboration with Steve McClaren until the end of the season. We tried it, but unfortunately we have now lost the belief.

"Following the recent negative results we cannot underestimate our situation in the table.

"Being only one point clear of the relegation places, we are alarmed.

"Now it's just a question of increasing the gap to the relegation places as soon as possible."

Explaining Littbarski's elevation to the hot seat, Hoeness added: "We talked at great length with him. He has convinced us that he will take the necessary measures in our situation."

McClaren has seen his stock plummet in German football after joining Wolfsburg amid much expectation in May last year, fresh from guiding FC Twente to their first ever Dutch title.

In joining the Wolves the 49-year-old became the first Englishman to manage in the German top flight, but quickly found that he was unable to replicate the success he had enjoyed in Holland, with Wolfsburg losing his first three league games in charge.

Although the team recovered slightly, wins remained hard to come by and a recent sequence of seven straight league draws underlined their lack of cutting edge.

Wolfsburg chairman Dr Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz revealed the club gave McClaren every opportunity to turn their season around, but in the end were forced to act with the Yorkshireman just nine months into a two-year contract.

"We have not seen any alternative," he said. "Of course we all want to see continuity, particularly in the coaching position. Therefore, we have been waiting a long time with the decision.

"The supervisory board and management now believes, however, that the team cannot continue under Steve McClaren."

McClaren began his managerial career at Middlesbrough in 2001 having earlier had spells as assistant to Jim Smith at Derby and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

McLaren enjoyed much success at Middlesbrough, winning the Carling Cup in 2004 and reaching the final of the UEFA Cup in 2006.

He was subsequently appointed as Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor as England boss in August 2006 but was sacked when the team failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

Labels: Independent, McClaren, sacked, Steve, Wolfsburg