As.Roma’s sensational start of the season saw them winning their opening 10 matches of Serie A as they scorched the top of the Italian League looking like the team to beat but in their latest 4 encounters they have only managed to secure 4 points allowing other clubs to get a chance to get into higher positions, especially Juventus.
Francesco Totti is set to miss a few Serie A games as he discovered a hamstring injury while featuring for his side Roma in the game against Napoli on Friday. However, despite his absence in most parts of that game, Roma managed to secure a 2-0 win and maintained its first position in the Serie A points table.
Totti left the field around the 30th minute in the game against Napoli after feeling pain. When the game got over, he went to the hospital for a few tests and the reports of those tests made it clear that his hamstring was injured.
Juventus might have to go into their upcoming Champions League game against the Turkish club Galatasaray without their star striker Carlos Tevez who discovered an ankle injury while playing in the Serie A game against Torino on Sunday.
Tevez has been in tremendous nick so far in the season. He has already scored 3 league goals for Juventus so far.
The 29 years old Argentinean forward has joined the Italian club this summer after leaving Manchester City.
Juventus released a statement about Tevez’s injury earlier today. That statement says, “Carlos Tevez is struggling a bit with his ankle. His condition is being assessed, but, there are doubts over his availability for the match against Galatasaray.”
Tevez himself has expressed disappointment over the fact that Ciro Immobile whom he had collided with to suffer that injury wasn’t shown a red card.
On his Twitter account, Tevez uploaded quite a few snaps of the stitches on his ankle. The Argentinean striker also wrote, “The guy because of whom I almost suffered a fracture was shown a yellow card only.”
Meanwhile, the manager of Juventus, Antonio Conte, has said that his side is not relying on Carlos Tevez only.
Talking to the reporters yesterday, Conte said, “Carlos has been in fine form, but, it’s not fair to say that we are relying too much on him. We have got other quality players too.”
“In the last season, Carlos wasn’t here, but, we won the league. So, we can do well without him as well.”
“Carlos is a high class player, no doubt about that. It’s great that he is a part of Juventus, but, we are a side which is not dependent on a particular player.”
Juventus is currently at no. 3 in the Serie A points table with 19 points in 7 games.
Argentine forward Carlos Tevez is an absolute beast of a player and there can be no doubt about his abilities on the field. He is a fine dribbler and is well built and is capable of producing magic on the pitch that makes fans go absolutely crazy. However, he also has a crazy temper and the first man to admit that will be the former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini who had his fair share of run-ins with the player.
Back in September 2011, Tevez defied the orders of the manager and refused to do a warm up before being sent on against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League. Although the Argentine denied this charge leveled against him, Mancini froze him out of the squad till March 2012. It is unbelievable that Carlos Tevez will be able to get away with such an outburst at Juventus, a club known for its strict discipline.
Results are always given priority over the players and for the proper results, any player can be sacrificed. Manager Antonio Conte played for a lot of his career under this system and there is no doubt he will be strict with Tevez if he tries to pull any such stunt. The # 10 jersey is a fabled one at the club, having been worn by legendary figures like Roberto Baggio, Michel Platini and Alessandro del Piero, players who have brought a lot of success to the club over the years.
Fans will be looking for success on the pitch and nothing short of a 100% performance from Carlos Tevez will be enough to appease them. And with the club going all guns blazing for the UEFA Champions League, a trophy they last won in 1996, the Argentine will have to play a key part if the club is to achieve that.
The manager of Manchester City, Roberto Mancini, has denied the fact that the recent punishment handed to Carlos Tevez will have an impact on Manchester City’s performance in the upcoming games.
Recently, Tevez has been handed a community service punishment. He was found guilty of driving without license. According to the orders of the court, Tevez will have to serve the community for 250 hours and he will not get any pay for that. He needs to complete this task within a year.
Also, the Argentinean striker has been banned from driving for six months and has been asked to pay $2000 as fine.
Carlos Tevez has been in amazing form off late. In his last 7 matches, he has found the net 6 times. City has to face United on Monday and just before that high profile clash, Tevez has been handed this punishment.
When Mancini was asked if this punishment is going to affect City’s performance, he said, “No, it’s not going to be the case. I haven’t talked to Carlos yet about the punishment, but, he will not let that reflect over his performance.”
“This was a mistake committed by Carlos and he got the punishment for that. But, usually, he is not that sort of a guy who breaks rules. He is a well behaved guy.”
Roberto Mancini also denied the fact that this incident has had an adverse impact on the image of Manchester City. He said, “It will not affect club’s image. The club doesn’t interfere in the personal lives of the players. So, whatever happened wasn’t in our hands.”
Tevez is the second Manchester City player who has been punished because of driving offences this week. A few days ago, Samir Nasri had also got a driving ban of 6 months.
Manchester City has been defeated by Southampton in a Premier League match played at St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday. Southampton won the match convincingly by 3-1. This was a great performance by the Southampton team. They played out of their skins and completely outplayed a powerful Manchester City side.
This was Southampton’s sixth win in the competition. They have jumped up to no. 15 in the points table courtesy of this win. Southampton presently has 27 points in 26 games.
There were a couple of changes in the starting XI of City. Yaya Toure was back from his national duty and he was given the Captain’s armband. Samir Nasri also returned to the starting line up. James Milner was the one who made way for Nasri.
Jason Puncheon opened the scoring for Southampton in the 7th minute of the match. It was a display of poor defense by Manchester City. Jay Rodriguez’s shot should have been cleared by the City defenders, but, they didn’t manage to do it. Jason Puncheon got the ball and he pounced on that chance. He deflected the ball past Joe Hart and the score became 1-0 in the favour of Southampton.
Southampton got up by 2-0 in the 22nd minute. This goal came because of Joe Hart’s fault. Rickie Lambert’s shot went straight towards Hart, but, he wasn’t able to gather it cleanly. The ball fell in the path of Steven Davis and he tapped the ball home comfortably.
Manchester City came back into the game with a goal by Edin Dzeko in the 39th minute. Pablo Zabaleta was the one who assisted the goal. This was Dzeko’s 12th goal in the ongoing league.
That was the last goal to be scored in the first half. At the half time break, City was trailed by 1-2.
Southampton got a great start in the second half. They took a lead of 3-1 in the 48th minute courtesy of a terrible own goal by Gareth Barry. He deflected Lambert’s cross into his own net and increased the problems of his team. The Citizens were not able to make a comeback after that and they lost the game.
Manchester City’s next match will be a FA Cup clash against Leeds United at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said that he is in a position where he cannot criticise Carlos Tevez because the Argentine has been performing brilliantly for the Premier league champions this season.
After almost coming close to leaving the club last season, Tevez has once again found the joy of playing football and has been at the forefront of everything good done by Manchester City this season. Even though they are yet to reach the heights of last season, City are just six points behind the leaders United in the table.
Carlos Tevez was crucial in the last few months of last season when he helped the club will lift the first Premier league title of their history. This season, he has been amongst the top scorers in the league, which has helped City keep pace with United at the top of the table. He has also been one of the hard-working members of the team, which have led to the manager saying that it is extremely difficult to criticise Tevez at the moment. The player has already scored seven goals in the Premier league this season, while his goal against Everton helped the team preserve their unbeaten start to the season.
"No, I'm not disappointed about his form recently. About Carlos I can say nothing because when he plays, even if he is not 100%, he's a fighter, he puts everything he can on the pitch, so I can't say anything against him," said the Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini. The former Inter Milan manager has come under intense pressure of late due to the early exit from the Champions League, which left the club facing embarrassment of being the first British club to not manage a single victory in the group stages of the competition.
The Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has come out in criticism of the former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville by saying that his presence is a reason for England performing badly at international level.
Tevez has said that he does not see any major footballing nations employing a person who is both the right-hand man in the national team, while also being punditry work on television. This is not the first time Carlos Tevez and Gary Neville has come at loggerheads with each other. The two have been seen to criticise a lot since the Argentine striker moved to the Etihad stadium.
Carlos Tevez has also questioned the loyalty of Gary Neville by saying that he should choose either between the punditry work and the role as the coach with the national team. He has also said that it is easy to criticise players referring to them in the PlayStation sense, but Gary Neville must have won world cups only in PlayStation according to the 28-year-old. After coming extremely close to leaving Manchester City in the January transfer window last season, Carlos Tevez has found himself as one of the important strikers at the club this season.
“I can’t believe that any of the top countries would employ a television pundit as a part-time coach. Can you imagine Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Brazil or Argentina employing a manager’s right-hand man whose day job is a television pundit? I can’t ever see it happening. This week, I saw that Gary is part of a venture to build a new hotel in Manchester. How does that benefit England and Roy Hodgson?” said Carlos Tevez ahead of the friendly match between Sweden and England. Gary Neville's first job within the England national team came at the Euro 2012 when he travelled with Roy Hodgson's coaching staff .
The manager of Manchester City, Roberto Mancini, has backed his decision of not including the start striker Carlos Tevez in the first XI in the match against Arsenal which was played on Sunday.
Manchester City didn’t manage to win that match and the match ended in a draw. Carlos Tevez has been in fantastic form in the current season. So, his exclusion from the starting line up against Arsenal was a bit strange.
But, Mancini explained why Tevez had been sidelined in Sunday’s match to Man City news. The Manchester City manager said, “Tevez had worked very hard on his fitness before the start of the season. So, he looked extremely fit for the first 20 days. But, he went to Argentina for having some rest and that rest has affected his fitness a bit. That was the main reason why we decided not to include him in the first XI against Arsenal. He will get into his groove in a couple of days and you might see him starting the match against Villa.”
Manchester City has not lost even a single game in the ongoing Premier League and they will take on Aston Villa on Tuesday. Mancini looked quite happy with the performance of City so far in the season.
Mancini said, “We are going all right. We are definitely capable of winning the league again and we are determined for it. We could have played a bit better against Arsenal, but, that game has gone now. We need to look forward to the upcoming games and we would like to return to winning ways against Villa.”
When asked about the dismal performance of the defenders in the ongoing season, Mancini said, “Our defenders has struggled a bit in the season so far, but, they are the experienced ones. I am sure they will regain their form back in the upcoming matches.”
Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry is progressing well in his battle to recover from an operation on his hernia, although as yet neither player nor club has pencilled in a definite date for his return to the first team squad.
Barry has yet to take to the field for City this season, but the news that he is on his way back to full fitness will be a relief to fans and manager Roberto Mancini following a rather shaky defence of their title in the first few matches of the new season.
City are the favourites with both the majority of the football writers and with those betting on the outcome, at online casino and sports bet sites many of which also offer other games such as online blackjack Australia, to retain the Premier League title this season, but they have looked less than convincing in the opening matches.
After needing two late goals to overcome newly promoted Southampton at the Etihad in their first match the team went on to require another late goal from Carlos Tevez to salvage a point against Liverpool. There has also been concerns expressed amongst fans and the media about the four goals conceded in those matches, which indicates that the steel that a player like Barry adds to the centre of midfield is something badly needed.
Barry has taken to the field again, in the wake of his operation, playing for the 45 minutes of the Elite Development Squad’s game against Middlesbrough, and he is hopeful that a return to first team action for City will be possible before long:
“I’m not a good spectator and I don’t enjoy watching the games,” Barry said in an interview with the official Manchester City website, adding:
“I’d much rather be out there playing so I’m obviously really looking forward to getting my season off and running again.”