Arsenal will head into this weekend's north London derby against Tottenham buoyed by comments from Patrick Vieira that the current team are playing better soccer than when he captained the Gunners.
When Vieira left for Juventus in 2005, and his France team-mate Thierry Henry quit Arsenal for Barcelona at the end of last season, there were fears that Wenger's men would struggle to compete for major honors.
But Vieira, who in the course of nine years with Arsenal won three Premier League titles, is in no doubt about the quality of manager Arsene Wenger's current squad.
"Arsene has done some great things and the players are responding to him at the moment," the midfielder told Thursday's London Evening Standard.
"In my time, we had a great team. We played well and were physically strong. But this current team plays better football than in our day," he said.
"Whether that means they are going to win something is another story. But, whatever happens, Arsenal are one of the two or three teams in Europe who play the best football," Vieira said.
Tottenham have gone 19 games against Arsenal without a win. But under new boss Juande Ramos Spurs have lost just once in their last 11 games and on Wednesday ended Manchester City's perfect home record this season with a 2-0 League Cup quarter-final victory.
"It was the best performance since I came to the club and it sets us up for the rest of the season," Ramos said ahead of this weekend's trip to the Emirates Stadium.
Liverpool, left 10 points behind Arsenal and outside the top four following defeat at home to Manchester United, have a chance to restore the confidence of the Anfield faithful against Portsmouth.
However, the seventh-placed south coast club, whose push for European soccer suffered a setback when they lost at home to Tottenham last weekend, have been impressive away from Fratton Park this campaign, winning six out of nine on their travels.
Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham City will both look to pull further away from the relegation zone when they meet at the Reebok Stadium.
Manchester City will look to recover from their League Cup reverse away to Aston Villa with England Under-21 international Joe Hart given another chance by ex-England boss Sven Goran Eriksson to become his team's first-choice goalkeeper ahead of the likes of Kaspar Schmeichel.
Fulham and Wigan, both in the bottom three, have a relegation "six-pointer" to look forward to at Craven Cottage while English managers Gareth Southgate and Alan Curbishley go head-to-head when Middlesbrough play West Ham.
Reading, who risk being sucked into the scrap for top-flight survival, are at home to struggling Sunderland in tomorrow's other Premier League match.
Chelsea, six points off the top after losing to Arsenal, are away to Blackburn on Sunday which also sees Derby, six points adrift at the bottom of the table, at home to Newcastle.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care