Premier League Roundup: News from all the clubs (part 4)
Newcastle United
Newly promoted Newcastle United would be playing their Carling Cup Third round match on Wednesday, the 22nd of September. The kick off from Stamford Bridge would be at 7.45 pm. That would mean that the fixture would be in between two premier league fixtures. Newcastle would be travelling to Goodison Park on the previous weekend and then host Stoke City on the coming one. This would create issues for Newcastle United on the selection front and are likely to suffer from the hectic schedule in the form of draws and/or losses.
Stoke City
Newly signed former Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen has confirmed that he lacks match fitness owing to his unemployment in the pre-season. Eidur has completed a one year deal with Stoke City from French club Monaco and has claimed that he just needs to play football, feature in games and play as many minutes as he can in the shortest span of time. The forward added that he can do little on his own and has done a lot of individual training so that he can stay in shape. The newly signed player thus stated that getting into day to day football is all that is lacking and that is exactly what he needs in order to get his form and fitness to the highest level.
Sunderland
The Black Cats manager Steve Bruce aims to maintain the impressive form of the club against Barclays Premier League top teams. Last season, Sunderland defeated the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool at the Stadium of Light and has already taken care of Manchester City last season. Sunderland handed the 160 million pound team their first defeat of the season, thanks to a late goal from Darren Bent from the spot. However, they would now be facing some tough challenges in the form of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in successive matches following their 11th September fixtures against Wigan.
The manager claimed that although the fixtures would be hard on the team, yet this is the premier league. Bruce added that going towards the end of September, there are a lot of difficult matches but they had a similar run in last season as well. The manager stated that last season, it was dreadful to host Liverpool and Arsenal on back-to-back matches at home, but managed to defeat them both. However, when they travelled to Wigan, Birmingham and Burnley, they lost. So such a situation is always unpredictable and Bruce claimed that playing against the big teams always brings out the best in the outfit.
Tottenham Hotspurs
English International Jermain Defoe’s strike against BSC Young Boys has taken his goal tally to a total 92 in all competitions for Tottenham Hotspurs and the player aims to make it at least a 100. It would be a huge honour for the player as a total of only 15 players have ever made it to the 100 goal mark for the Spurs. The list also contains Spurs legend and Defoe’s team mate Robbie Keane, who has scored over 120 goals with the side.
Jimmy Greaves currently tops the legendary list, with 266 goals. The list includes legendary names like Bobby Smith, Martin Chivers, Cliff Jones, Alan Gilzean, Glen Hoddle and Teddy Sheringham. Jermain Defoe thus claimed that there are some great players on that list who are undoubtedly legends for the club as well as English football. The player continued claiming that he would love to be in that list and scoring goals for Spurs has always been his proudest moments.
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