Barca nick Cesc from Arsenal

BARCELONA stars Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol have finally nicked Cesc Fabregas back from Arsenal.

The pair — Fabregas' close pals — risked the wrath of Arsene Wenger by fooling around with a Fabregas picture at the Gunners' training ground.

Pique and Puyol infamously forced Fabregas to wear a Barca shirt in the World Cup celebrations last summer. 

And they may well have overstepped the mark again.

The Gunners have been kind enough to let Barca use their training facilities at London Colney this week.

Barca were forced to fly to London two days early to beat the Icelandic ash cloud.

And though clearly meant as a bit of fun, Pique and Puyol's actions in the Arsenal dressing room are sure to raise eyebrows.

Pique posted the picture on his Twitter account, with the message: "Puyol and I stealing a picture of Cesc in the Arsenal dressing room."

It will do nothing to ease the tension that exists between the two clubs over Barcelona's long-standing pursuit of Fabregas.

The end of another disappointing season for the Gunners has sparked more intense speculation about Fabregas' future.

A summer move to Barcelona has once again been mooted.

But Gunners boss Wenger is desperate to keep Cesc and he is certain to be frothing at the mouth at these antics.

Source: Thesun.co.uk

Manchester United 19th EPL Champion Celebration

Let see the Manchester United celebrating the 19th EPL Champion fully!



Watch more in player's dressing room

Top 10 - Amazing Goals in Premier League

See the top 10 amazing Goals in Premier League (I like the Beckham's shot at the most)

Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa: Gunners automatic CL place in doubt

Arsenal were made to pay for their remarkable inability to put the ball in the back of the net when they lost 1-2 to Aston Villa at the Emirates this afternoon.

The result leaves Arsenal's ambitions of a third place Premier league finish in the balance, while confirming Aston Villa's top flight status for yet another season.

Arsene Wenger has lamented Arsenal's end-of-season capitulation after a 1-2 loss to Aston Villa hands Manchester City the advantage in the race for a third placed finish in the Premier league.

A win would have taken the Gunners to within a point of second placed Chelsea but as it stands, City have a game in hand at home against Stoke, with a win seeing them leapfrog Arsenal in the table.

With the top three in the Premier League assured of automatic Champions League qualification, the fourth placed side face the potential banana-skin of a two-legged qualification tie - which almost provided a stumbling block for Tottenham earlier this season.


After the game, Wenger admitted that failure to finish in the top three represented a poor return for his side who were fighting on four fronts just a few weeks back, yet have now slumped to three defeats in their last four Premier League games.

"Of course we are frustrated," he told reporters.

"We dropped three points today that could cost us automatic qualification for the Champions League. It will be a big setback to finish fourth.


"We have been hit hard recently by bad performance and results. You can see we suffered at the start today but we have to raise above that. We were nervous defensively."


source: Goal.com

How to stop Lionel Mess

ALEX FERGUSON will head for Wembley armed with the most detailed dossier EVER compiled about any player in a bid to stop Lionel Messi

Ferguson has tapped into his wide network of scouts, staff and contacts - including his brother and Manchester United's chief European scout, Martin - to study Barcelona and Messi over the last two years.  

Ever since United lost the 2009 Champions League final to Messi and Barcelona, Ferguson has wanted revenge.

Now they meet again in the final at Wembley on May 28. And the Old Trafford boss could not be better prepared to negate the threat from the world's greatest player.

Ferguson has statistics and information even the Argentinian maestro may not know about himself.

He knows how Messi gets the ball, what he does when he gets it, how to stop him getting it and how to neutralise him when he does.

In fact, he has been preparing for their next meeting since the final whistle blew on United's disappointing 2-0 defeat in Rome two years ago.

Ferguson was so annoyed that Barcelona had undone him because he felt his players simply did not follow orders.

The United boss has stopped Messi before. The Barca star was completely shut out over two legs of the 2008 semi-finals when United held the Catalans to a goalless draw in the Nou Camp and then won the return 1-0.

But it was a different story in Rome's Olympic Stadium when the little maestro scored the second goal in Barca's 2-0 win.

The United boss will not rely just on his staff at Old Trafford.

He will also talk to close friend Jose Mourinho whose Real Madrid side were dumped by Barca in the other semi.

And Ferguson, 69, has also used his own eyes, too, rather than take in live games or replays on TV and recordings.

After United beat Schalke 2-0 in the first leg of their semi in Gelsenkerchen on April 26, the team stayed over in Germany rather than fly straight back to England after the match as they normally would.

And the following day, Ferguson did not travel back with the team - but instead was on a plane to Madrid to watch Messi, 23, score both goals against Madrid in the first leg of the other semi.

Many may think Mourinho is not the best sounding-board, having been well beaten by Barca in the semi-finals and thrashed 5-0 in the Nou Camp in La Liga earlier this season.  But Real blotted out Messi in the Copa del Rey final - which they won 1-0 - and also in the most recent league meeting, a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu.

Tottenham legend Ardiles admitted: "For some time I thought that Diego could never be surpassed, nor Pele. But no longer.

"I would now say that Lionel Messi will go down in history as the No 1 player of all time, the best that there ever was.

source: The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk)