Race for fourth hots up

The race for fourth place in the Premier League and a place in next seasons Champions League is tighter than ever as we enter the business end of the season.

With Manchester City and Manchester United seemingly battling it out for the title, along with Tottenham Hotspur who sit 5 points behind United, we can assume that the top 3 will finish that way, with Spurs 10 points clear of fourth placed Arsenal.

That leaves the battle for fourth between four clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and the surprise package, Newcastle United.
With Arsenal and Chelsea both on 43 points, Newcastle on 42 in sixth and Liverpool on 39 in seventh, it really is anyone's guess as to who will finish in that all important Champions League spot.

Arsenal's points tally this season has to largely go down to the brilliance of their captain Robin Van Persie who has 22 goals already this season in the league. His impeccable form has lead to the Gunners' resurgence after a sluggish start to the season. With Arsene Wenger under pressure to deliver a trophy to the Emirates as well as Champions League football for another year, Van Persie is key to the future success of the club. If Arsenal can qualify for the Champions League, we will likely see the Dutchman in an Arsenal shirt next season. If they fail, we may see him leave the club in the summer.

Chelsea have had an indifferent season under Andre Villas-Boas, who at the age of 34 is by far the youngest manager in the Premier League, have struggled to get results on a consistent basis, which has lead to them being cast adrift in the title race and in a battle to gain Champions League football next season. The key men for Chelsea will be Juan Mata and Dider Drogba. Both men can propel the Blues to fourth place. Although the form of Fernando Torres continues to be dismal, he is another man who needs to step up otherwise the men from the Kings Road may find themselves in the Europa League next season. It's still quite feesable for them to miss out on Europe all together.

Liverpool, much like Chelsea, have struggled to go on a consistent winning run, which is why they find themselves in seventh place, three points behind Newcastle. The suspension handed out to controversial striker Luiz Suarez for racist abuse towards Man United's Patrice Evra left Liverpool without their star man for eight games at the back end of 2011 and early 2012, has had a detrimental affect on their season to date. However, Suarez is back and manager Kenny Dalglish knows he, along with Steven Gerrard, are essential to Liverpool having a chance of qualifying for Europe, let alone the Champions League.

Finally we have the seasons surprise package, Newcastle United. The Geordie's enjoyed a 11 game unbeaten run at the start of the season, which saw them rise as high as 2nd, which has set up the platform for the chance to qualify for Europe next season. With the loss of key men during the summer, which was well documented, many tipped Newcastle for the drop, but they have defied a lot of critics and still are very much in the hunt for a place in the Champions League. Demba Ba has been a revelation with 16 league goals, and much like Arsenal with Van Persie, the Magpies have relied on their front man. Manger Alan Pardew has made inspiring new signings such as Yohan Cabaye, Davide Santon and Papiss Cisse along with the players who were already there including Fabricio Coloccini, Cheik Tiote and Tim Krul, will be key as the Toon Army look to cause a massive shock and claim a place in Europe's premier competition next season. What a remarkable story that would be for a club who were playing Championship football 2 seasons ago.

Pardew will have to take a massive amount of the credit for the Magpies wonderful season, but their squad depth may have a detrimental affect on their chances, therefore I expect them to just miss out on the top six, but seventh place represents a remarkable season at St James' Park. The club will look to build in the summer to mount an even more serious charge for Europe next season.
Therefore I believe that it will be Chelsea who will claim that sort after fourth place, with Arsenal just missing out in fifth and Liverpool completing the top six this season.

Captain Cook shines as England bounce back to thrash Pakistan

Alistair Cook scored a magnificent 137 that helped England to their first win over Pakistan this year. Ravi Bopara and Steven Finn also performed as Pakistan were brushed aside in Abu Dhabi. 

England entered the One Day series looking to make up for the embarrassing 3-0 white-wash by Pakistan in the test series, with a young looking squad.

With the likes of Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Monty Panesar returning home after the test series, there were question marks over who would come in to the one day side, with youngsters Jos Butler, Jonathan Birstow and Jade Dernbach all pushing for places. However, one day skipper Cook pipped for Ravi Bopara and Craig Kieswetter to replace the out going batsmen and Steven Finn added to the bowling ranks. Spinner Samit Patel also retained his spot in the ODI line up as the second spinner.

Cook won the toss and elected to bat first, which seems to be the common thing these days in day-night matches, with batting becoming harder under lights. Kevin Pietersen was chosen to open ahead of the regular one day opener, Kieswetter and both he and Cook got England off to a solid start.
With the score on 57 after 12 overs, the ever reliable Shahid Afridi made the breakthrough for Pakistan, with a ripping leg-spinner that bamboozled Pietersen and clipped his off stump. This brought England's 'Mr Dependable' Jonathan Trott to the crease, but Afridi produced a wonderful googly to bowl Trott through the gate, leaving England now fretting on 57-2.

It looked like the same old story for England against spin on this tour as Ravi Bopara joined Cook in the middle as England desperately needed a big partnership. Cook and Bopara batted patiently, yet aggressively to rebuild England's innings that looked in trouble after Afridi's double strike. The Essex pair put on a superb 131 run partnership before Bopara was stumped off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal for 50, with the score on 188.

Wickets then started to tumble as England looked on course to making a score in excess of 300. Morgan and Kieswetter both fell cheaply leaving Cook, who is not known for his big hitting, to try and score the runs. The captain brought up his 3rd ODI hundred in style with a trademark back-foot cut for four. Cook then fell for 137 off the bowling of Ajmal, as he looked to accelerate, but what a performance he had produced to put his team in a position to post a competitive total. Stuart Broad failed with the bat as he chipped one straight back at Ajmal, but Samit Patel and Graeme Swann helped England to 260-7 off their 50 overs. Indecently, the ever impressive Ajmal picked up figures of 5-43, with all 5 of his wickets coming in his last 4 overs. 

As Pakistan did with their spin attack during England's innings, the tourists kept to their strengths and looked to force a win with their highly talented pace attack. Steven Finn immediately ripped through the Pakistan top order with 4 wickets in his opening spell leaving them reeling on 40-4.

Enter the England spin attack of Swann and Patel, who with their controlled but attacking style of spin bowling, managed to not only restrict the runs but to also take wickets at regular intervals. The only real resistance from Pakistan came with Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi at the crease, however Swann accounted for Akmal whilst Patel dismissed Afridi, dispite dropping him off Swann's bowling previously. Patel ended with figues of 3-26 and Swann 2-19 leaving Stuart Broad to rap up the innings as Ajmal lofted his shot to Cook at mid-off to complete a 130 run victory for England, and their first competitive win since defeating India in the final test at the Oval last summer.