Sir Alex Ferguson is preparing to unleash a fit-again Wayne Rooney on the Premier League as Manchester United look to kick-start their title charge at Blackburn Rovers today.
Rooney made his first start for United since early October in Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Glasgow, scoring from the penalty spot to secure a 1-0 victory over Rangers.
Ferguson admits Rooney is a long way from being the unstoppable force that saw him score 34 times in all competitions last season on his way to scooping the Players’ Player of the Year award, but the United boss plans to give Rooney as much game time as possible to restore him to full match sharpness.
“He needs games,” Ferguson said. “The way we are going to do that is to keep him on the pitch for 90 minutes. That will continue now as we try to get him to his level. He is rusty, that is obvious, but it is a start for him.”
United are currently level on points with Chelsea at the top of the table and can pile the pressure on the out-of-form champions with a victory at Blackburn.
Chelsea, meanwhile, travel to Newcastle United tomorrow, with boss Carlo Ancelotti hoping his injury-hit side can snap a dismal run of results that has seen them beaten three times in four league matches.
Chelsea attacker Salmon Kalou has played down the speculation surrounding Ancelotti’s position following the departure of assistant coach Ray Wilkins earlier this month.
“It has not been weird for us,” Kalou said following Chelsea’s Champions League victory over MSK Zilina at Stamford Bridge in midweek. “Everything has been the same. We have trained like normal. This weekend against Newcastle is a big game. We are back to winning ways and we have to continue. This weekend will be a good game again for us.”
Arsenal can take fleeting possession of top spot if they manage a victory at Aston Villa in today’s early kick-off.
The Gunners’ hopes of scoring an away victory have been dealt a blow, however, by injuries to captain Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Eboue, who both face spells on the sidelines.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is likely to have Dutch international Robin van Persie available for selection as the Gunners try to recover from last week’s home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby.
Spurs entertain Liverpool at White Hart Lane with confidence sky high after the away win at the Emirates and having reached the Champions League knockout rounds with ease in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Werder Bremen.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has repeatedly stated Spurs can mount a serious league challenge this term and the signs are that the manager’s confidence is rubbing off on his squad.
“After Saturday, I think the players know we can do something,” Spurs centerback William Gallas said, referring to the 3-2 comeback win at Arsenal. “We have the quality, so what we have to understand is to believe in ourselves, and go on the pitch and fight for 90 minutes.”
Spurs striker Peter Crouch, who rejoined Spurs from Liverpool last year, also believes Tottenham have the talent to push for the top.
“Right from the start when I came to this club, I was looking around the dressing room thinking: ‘How have we not achieved anything?’ and I think it’s only a matter of time,” Crouch said. “Last season, obviously finishing fourth was a great achievement, but I think we can go one better and try to win something this year.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier