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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has no hesitation in declaring Gary Neville to be the best English right-back of the Premier League era.

Neville announced his retirement on Wednesday, ending a stellar career that has brought him eight Premier League titles and a Champions League triumph, plus 85 England caps.

"Best English right-back in the Premier League? Certainly," Wenger said. "If you look at his record, he has won absolutely everything and with the number of games he has played, he is without a doubt the best."

Although Neville's talent is in danger of being underplayed, Wenger concurs with the widespread view that the Bury-born star achieved the levels he did through sheer force of will and persistence.

"I respect what he has done a lot because he was certainly not one of the most talented players in the league," he said. "But what he has achieved is consistency.

"His record is down to intelligence and motivation - he is an example to players who are maybe less gifted than the Ryan Giggses or the David Beckhams.

"He still made a fantastic career because he is intelligent and highly motivated. He deserves great credit."

Copyright © 2011 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

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Labels: Association, hails, Neville, Press, retiring, Wenger

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Fabregas: Barca admiration

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There's more live football on Sky Sports than ever before, including the Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, England away Euro 2012 qualifiers and La Liga. With four live Sky Sports channels, as well as Sky Sports News, you'll never miss a moment on Sky. Click here for more.Cesc Fabregas reckons Arsenal's Champions League win over Barcelona on Wednesday night is the greatest match he has played in.

Barca took the lead at the Emirates but the Gunners stunned the tournament favourites by snatching victory with two late goals.

Arsene Wenger's men will now take a 2-1 lead to the Camp Nou as they aim to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

And World Cup winner Fabregas believes Arsenal were worthy winners from a memorable clash of two sides famed for their attacking styles.

"It's a massive victory," said the Spanish midfielder. "It's the best game I've experienced in terms of quality and intensity.

"They had the ball, they went for it. We had the ball, we went for it.

"I've never experienced a game with so much quality on the pitch from both teams. Of course it was the right result."

Fabregas came through the Barca youth ranks before joining Arsenal at just 16 and reckons the current Barca side is the "best team in football history".

They won an unprecedented treble in 2009, claiming a third European crown, and Arsenal are eager to capture their first Champions League title after enjoying their first win over Barca in six attempts.

"We want to prove we can win a trophy like this one," Fabregas added. "There are 90 minutes to go and we're playing against a big team.

"If you want to beat them you have to give everything. We will have to give our hearts.

"The second leg will be very difficult. We have to perform very well. They will go out to win and we want to attack.

"You never know what can happen in this type of game."

While Fabregas admits there is plenty of work to be done to knock out Barca, he felt it was important to maintain the feel good factor at the Emirates.

"Winning last night is definitely uplifting," he said.

"We are in the final of the Carling Cup, we have an FA Cup match coming on Sunday and two Premier League games coming up before the second leg against Barcelona.

"I'm hoping this win will be good for the team because since the New Year we've only lost one game and we've won most of our games.

"At the moment we're on a good run and we want to keep it going."

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Bayern Munich legend Franz Beckenbauer hailed wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery and believes that their return from the sidelines will give the Bavarians a big lift for the remainder of the 2010-11 campaign.

The duo played together for the first time this season in the 4-0 victory over Hoffenheim at the weekend and Beckenbauer was pleased with what he saw.

"If you want to reach a certain level of class, then you need players like them," said the German legend, according to Fifa.com. "The Lionel Messis and the Cristiano Ronaldos also make the difference, and Robben and Ribery are in the same category.

"They turn a good team into a very good one. All top clubs are dependent on individuals of this caliber and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

“Robben is absolutely world class - one of the best players around - but I would not rate Robben higher than Ribery, they are both on the same level and are both in this category."

He added, "I don't know of anybody not wishing somebody success or all the headlines. Everybody should be happy that they are here.

"The whole team is playing well, and successfully. Thanks to Robben and Ribery, somebody like Thomas Muller or Bastian Schweinsteiger also thrives."

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Labels: Arjen, Bayern, Beckenbauer, Franck, Franz, Goalcom, hails, Munich, Ribery, Robben

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Celtic manager Neil Lennon hailed his team's attacking threat after they restored their five-point lead over Rangers.

PA PhotosNeil Lennon was delighted with the way his strikers performed

• Dundee Utd 1-3 Celtic

Anthony Stokes and Mark Wilson benefited from deflections to put Celtic in command before the break and defender Daniel Majstorovic dived to head home a 78th-minute clincher after David Goodwillie had got United back in the game.

Celtic could have added more goals to their tally with Gary Hooper hitting the post, seeing a late goal ruled out for offside and completely losing his footing with only Dusan Pernis to beat.

Lennon has been hit by some bad news with full-back Cha Du-ri set for a lengthy lay-off with an ankle injury but he was delighted with the form of Hooper and Stokes as his team secured their fifth consecutive SPL win.

"I thought the front two set the tone," he said. "In the first half they were sensational. We could easily have gone in with a more comfortable lead.

"At 2-0 you are always concerned that Dundee United could get back in the game, and they did, but there was a real belief about the team that they could have got another one, which they did, and really we should have picked Dundee United off a lot better on the counter-attack when they were throwing bodies forward.

"We got a bit of luck with the first two goals but I thought we earned it. We missed easier chances and should have been more clinical at times, but the fact we created quality chances really pleased me.

"I'm really pleased with the threat we have and we defended solidly too."

Lennon played down a fresh injury to Scott Brown, who came off early in the second half after shaking off a groin problem to start, but Cha has a more serious issue following his return from South Korea duty.

"Cha took a bad one. We are sending him to see another specialist to get another opinion," Lennon said. "We are hoping that he will not require surgery, but even if he doesn't require surgery he will be out for a significant period of time.

"He felt it in the first day of training when he came back. He seemed to jar his tendon. It was pretty innocuous really because he came through the training session okay and only really felt it afterwards."

On Brown, Lennon said: "It was the other side. He felt a little tweak in his adductor area I think. We took him off as a precaution so hopefully he should be okay for the weekend."

Wilson evaded a second yellow card for a foul on Craig Conway just before the home side scored and, having been booked for his goal celebrations, he admitted Mike Tumilty could have sent him off.

"I was fortunate. It was a bad tackle, and I can only thank the referee for not giving me a second yellow," Wilson said. "I thought I could have won the ball. I didn't go in to hurt him or anything, but I was pretty lucky."

Lennon agreed with his player but United manager Peter Houston could not remember the incident and accepted they had lost to the better team.

"I don't think we turned up in the first half. I don't think we played anything near what we have been doing recently," Houston said. "For some reason we didn't come out the traps and if you give a good Celtic side a two-goal start you are always going to be up against it.

"When your better players can't pass the ball to each other, they are either nervous or Celtic put them under pressure. I felt Celtic put us under real pressure when we had possession.

"Rather than criticise my players, and yes they should have done better, I give credit to Celtic because they did the job properly."

Houston was pleased with the way his side fought back after Danny Swanson added some attacking spark to their midfield play but he added: "We didn't defend a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick properly.

"They attacked it and we were on the back foot and that's why we lost the third goal, and the game petered out after that."

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Labels: attack, hails, Lennon

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By Sportsmail Reporter
Last updated at 12:06 PM on 7th February 2011

Mike Tindall believes Friday night's victory over Wales could go down as one of the seminal moments in England's development towards the World Cup and beyond.

We won in Wales: England's two-try hero Chris Ashton (left) celebrates with kipper Mike Tindall

England had not won at the Millennium Stadium since 2003 and ended that barren run with a 26-19 triumph, secured with two tries from Chris Ashton and Toby Flood's faultless kicking display.

The tournament is now set up perfectly for England to challenge for the RBS 6 Nations title, with successive home fixtures against Italy, France and Scotland before a trip to Ireland on the last weekend.

But Tindall warned England all their efforts in Cardiff will go to waste if they allow their standards to slip against the Azzurri on Saturday.

'That was a great win. You hope it will be an important win in the team's development - but we mustn't get ahead of ourselves,' said Tindall, who captained England for the first time on Friday.

Dan Lydiate believes 'fingers will be pointed' this week as Wales seek a rapid response to their RBS 6 Nations defeat against England.  Wales flanker Lydiate said: 'We need to get back to winning ways. Once we do that, we will get some momentum and it will give us a boost. There were times we were sloppy against England, and we need to cut out those mistakes. If we do that, we will really be firing. We were a bit rusty, and you cannot be that way at this level. Nobody is hurting more than the players, and we are all disappointed for the fans. We will take a good long hard look at what happened. Fingers will be pointed this week, and we will sort it out for next weekend.' 

'We have to use the win as a stepping stone. Yes, there will be more expectation as we are at home but that comes from ourselves as well.

'Italy won't come to Twickenham and lie down to let us win. We have to demand performances from ourselves.

'We don't want to win ugly and scrape through. We want to win with the brand of rugby we have put out there over the last 6-8 months. If we do that we believe we will beat teams.'

In last year's championship England did scrape an ugly victory over the Italians in Rome - and it proved to be a watershed game.

England's attitude soon changed and their fortunes have been on the rise ever since, helped by the injection of youthful new blood into the team.

The likes of Flood, Ben Youngs, Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Courtney Lawes and Tom Palmer have all become key members of the England side.

No way through: Wales' Ryan Jones is tackled by Nick Easter (left) and Mike Tindall

That new attitude means England's players will gather back at their training base today expecting a 'few rollockings' from manager Martin Johnson, despite their victory.

'You don't get better by patting yourselves on the back too much,' said Johnson.
For those players who were involved in last year's Six Nations, that is a welcome development.

'In the last Six Nations we painted over a few cracks rather than addressed the problems,' said number eight Nick Easter.

'We beat Wales convincingly at home, won in Italy and thought we were there. We didn't win a game after that.

'We realised we weren't really on the right track in certain aspects - and one of those was the honesty calls.

'It's a big shift of approach but that's what you must do. You have to be brutally honest.

'If you want to be the best in the world - and nobody's hiding from the fact that we do - we're going to have to iron out our problems.'

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Labels: buildup, Daily, Englandaposs, hails, Tindall, vital, Wales, World