Brendan Rodgers signs new Swansea City deal

Brendan Rodgers has joined to The Swans in July 2010 and now he has signed a new contract that will keep him at the Liberty Stadium until summer 2015.

Rodgers: "I'm delighted to sign the new deal. I've been very pleased with my work over the last 19 months".

"I can only promise that over the next 3 and a half years I will continue to fight for the club and its people to help us become a sustainable Premier League club".

Manchester United VS Liverpool

A match-up fueled by a rivalry that was recently re-ignited with the Evra-Suarez incident, this game will be an interesting one. Manchester United proved their mental strength in their last game against Chelsea, showing that they’re not just an outfit of extremely expensive players who can’t be moved from their comfort zone.

Coming back from what could have been an embarrassing result of 3-0, United drew deep to equalize with 3 goals. Some have argued that the two Roonie penalties were perhaps not rightly awarded, but at the end of the day, bad decisions go both ways and United was definitely applying the type of pressure that will eventually bring goals through penalties or otherwise.

The last Premier League game between these two teams ended in a 1-1 draw, but in the FA Cup match-up Liverpool overcame the Red Devils chalking up a satisfying 2-1 victory thanks to a late Dirk Kuyt winning strike. Both teams are hungry for the points. United will be looking to challenge City in the rankings while Liverpool are running out of time if they’re to somehow forge their way into the top four. Motivation will not be an issue.

Liverpool are the underdogs although they will have Suarez back on the field having completed his ban of eight games. Will favorites Manchester United build upon the confidence they created with their performance against Chelsea?

English Premier League – Transfer news and match round-up

It was a pretty dramatic week for the English Premier League with some surprising match results and lots of hype surrounding the final signings squeezed in before the transfer deadline.

Manchester United + Arsenal = Abuse!
Manchester United's thrashing of Arsenal 8-2 sent ripples through the football world as Wayne Rooney racked up an inspiring hat-trick. Not only will Arsenal have to step up their game with adrenaline shots to the heart, but psychologically they now how have a huge hurdle to overcome.

Manchester City vs Tottenham
Another big result was Manchester City's victory over Tottenham 5-1 leaving the Hotspurs at the bottom of the table, pointless after playing two games. Both Manchester teams now have three consecutive wins under their belts.

Newcastle vs Fulham
Newcastle is enjoying a solid start to the season. They topped Fulham 2-1 thanks to two goals by Leon Best.

Queens Park Rangers vs Wigan
Franco Di Santo scored twice in Wigan Athletic's home game against QPR, leading the team to a 2-1 victory.

Last Minute Shopping
This week's transfer deadline led to a lot of interesting signings, some for the better and others arguably for the worse. Here's a short summary of some of the significant buys that took place this week...


Cesc Fabregas: Arsenal to Barcelona for around £30 million
Stewart Downing: Aston Villa to Liverpool for £20 million
Samir Nasri: Arsenal to Manchester City for £26 million
David de Gea: Atletico Madrid to Manchester United for £18 million
Juan Mata: Valencia to Chelsea for £23.5 million
Sergio Aguero: Atletico Madrid to Manchester City for £38 million
Mikel Arteta: Everton to Arsenal for £10 million
Yossi Benayoun: Chelsea to Arsenal
Craig Bellamy: Manchester City to Liverpool
Owen Hargreaves: Manchester United to Manchester City
Scott Dann: Birmingham to Blackburn
Scott Parker: West Ham to Tottenham for £5 million
Phil Jones: Blackburn to Manchester United
Ashley Young: Aston Villa to Manchester United for £17 million
Charlie Adam: Blackpool to Liverpool
Gervinho: Lille to Arsenal for £10 million
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain: Southampton to Arsenal for £12 million
Peter Mertesacker: Werder Bremen to Arsenal for £9 million

Drogba hurt as Chelsea beats Norwich

Chelsea avoided an early blow to their Barclays Premier League title hopes but lost Didier Drogba to a sickening injury as they struck late again to beat 10-man Norwich 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.

The Canaries looked set to stun the Blues when Grant Holt pounced on a horrible error from Hilario to equalise and Drogba appeared to be knocked unconscious in an aerial challenge with Goalkeeper John Ruddy.But Frank Lampard blasted home from the penalty spot after Ruddy was sent off for bringing down Ramires and Juan Mata scored on his debut, adding to Jose Bosingwa's first goal for almost three years. Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas and captain John Terry used their programme notes to urge the home fans to get fully behind their team today after some booed them off at half-time against West Brom last week.

But supporters could be forgiven for wanting to see a performance to give them hope Chelsea have what it takes to topple Manchester United as champions this season, something called into question by their opening two displays. Villas-Boas responded by pairing Fernando Torres and Drogba together in what was a 4-4-2 for the first time this season. Possibly expecting a 4-3-3, Norwich began the game with a five-man defence and they duly fell behind inside six minutes.

After allowing Ramires to test Ruddy from 25 yards, they made the same mistake with Bosingwa, who brilliantly found the back of the net via the inside of the post.

Norwich began to settle and should have levelled in the 17th minute when Holt beat the offside trap but was unable to get a touch on Wes Hoolahan's brilliant ball over the top.Chelsea's passing was becoming ragged, although Torres was close to teeing up Drogba as the pair began to demonstrate an understanding that had been lacking in previous outings.

Chris Martin wasted another great chance to equalise, Hoolahan playing him clean through only for Hilario to save before crowding out the forward's rebound attempt and tipping over Kyle Naughton's 25-yarder. He also smothered Holt's header before City boss Paul Lambert withdrew Zak Whitbread for Anthony Pilkington on the half-hour mark and went 4-4-2.

 

Designed by Dalglish – Liverpool 3:1 Bolton

 

Saturday was a great day for football fans as we watched an inspired Liverpool team blow a hole right through Bolton, providing the latter with a cruel wake-up call after what until now had been a fairly positive season for them. Kenny Dalglish looked on in satisfaction as his recent signings worked well together to provide the Anfield fans with a very convincing victory.

Although failing to score, Luis Suarez played a fantastic game keeping the Wanderers' defense on its toes while providing the Reds with a strong foundation that they could base their attacks upon. An example of this was the first goal which began from a beautiful cross in from the outside of Suarez's boot. Suarez met Downing who failed to put the ball passed Jussi Jaaskelainen. Kuyt collected the deflection and fed it to Henderson. The summer signing was blocked, but re-collected and shot one right passed Jaaskelainen into the left corner.

The next goal came from Martin Skrtel in the form of a cracking header off a nicely placed corner from Charlie Adam. The newbie soon got some reward for his efforts by putting the lid on the game with the third goal coming off his right boot.

A late goal by Klasnic may have won the Wanderers a bit of face, but it was pretty clear that they never really showed any presence against the hosts with sloppy defense work throughout the match and Jaaskelainen chalking up another weak performance.

Can Liverpool's solid form be carried over into another victory? Can Bolton's flaky performance predict a sure loss against Manchester United