Roaming Torres torments City CHELSEA 2-1 MANCHESTER CITY

CHELSEA 2-1 MANCHESTER CITY Sometimes when teams play with a lone striker, the player has a fairly restricted brief: to operate within the width of the penalty area, for instance, serving as a target for teammates or offering them a presence in the penalty box. What Fernando Torres' pitch map at Stamford Bridge shows was how far and wide he roamed in his match-winning display. It made him harder to mark for the City central defenders, Martin Demichelis and Matija Nastasic: He was always up against one. Indeed, there were times when he was up against neither, either in the fullbacks' or the central midfielders' zone of the pitch. There was no one area where Torres was consistently involved. Instead he was willing to go to either flank and to run at defenders. Both were apparent when he created Chelsea's first goal. In something of a role reversal, it was winger Andre Schurrle who arrived in the six-yard box for the tap-in. The touch closest to the City net, of course, was his 90th-minute decider. Fernando Torres' unpredictable movement stretched Manchester City's defence.

Arsenal bags premier league manager and player of the month of september.

Arsenal's impressive start to the season has been rewarded with Arsene Wenger and Aaron Ramsey scooping the Premier League manager and player of the month awards for September. Do you think they deserve the awards? Please share your views?

Africa's World Cup qualifiers playoffs

fixtures: Saturday: 18:00 Burkina Faso v Algeria 19:00 Ivory Coast v Senegal Sunday: 16:00 Ethiopia v Nigeria 19:00 Tunisia v Cameroon Tuesday: 18:00 Ghana v Egypt

Alexis Sanchez struck twice and created a goal for Neymar as barcelona maintain there perfect laliga start

Alexis Sanchez struck twice and created a goal for Neymar as Barcelona recovered from conceding early to maintain their perfect La Liga start with a 4-1 win at home to Real Valladolid on Saturday. An eighth victory in eight games for the champions restored their five-point advantage over arch-rivals Real Madrid who needed a Cristiano Ronaldo goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time to secure a 3-2 victory at Levante earlier.

Cristiano Ronaldo's deflected shot gave real madrid a win against levante

Cristiano Ronaldo's deflected shot in the fourth minute of stoppage time snatched a dramatic 3-2 La Liga victory for a below-par Real Madrid at lowly Levante on Saturday.

Manchester united young start give them a win over sunderland

Two goals from 18-year-old Adnan Januzaj inspired a second-half comeback as Manchester United snatched a 2-1 win at Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday.

Francesco Totti helped AS Roma make it seven wins in seven games

Two first-half goals from captain Francesco Totti helped AS Roma make it seven wins out of seven as they extended their Serie A lead to five points by sweeping Inter Milan aside 3-0 at the San Siro on Saturday.

Bayern munich went top of the bundisliga table

Bayern Munich went top of the Bundesliga with a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday as rivals Borussia Dortmund slumped to their first defeat of the season with a 2-0 reverse at Borussia Moenchengladbac h.

English premier league fixture - saturday

England - Premier League Standings » 12:45 PM WAT Man City - Everton 3:00 PM Cardiff - Newcastle United 3:00 PM Fulham - Stoke City 3:00 PM Hull - Aston Villa 3:00 PM Liverpool - Crystal Palace 5:30 PM Sunderland - Manchester United

For all chelsea fc fans

Samuel Eto'o has yet to adjust fully to life in the Premier League with Chelsea, Blues boss Jose Mourinho said on Friday. Eto'o is still looking for his first goal for the London club following his August move from Anzhi Makhachkala. "The player I know, the professional I know...what happened in Russia in last two-and-a-half years I didn't know. Normally when top player is one of the top players in Europe and then goes to Anzhi the pressure goes down, the motivation and physical condition and sharpness goes down." "Now he's back in top European football and needs a bit of time to find that sharpness. He's playing a lot. He played 80 minutes this week and he is getting his form and an understanding of where he is. But the Premier League is a different picture. So give him a little bit of time." what do you think guys?

The basic 4-4-2 is becoming trendy again

After bringing in star names, PSG tried a 4-4-2 but it didn't work too well. Some elements of football strategy evolve consistently in one direction over a long period, becoming increasingly extreme. Other elements appear more cyclical -- moving routinely between two opposing concepts, which come in and out of fashion. Therefore, whereas there has been a steady shift toward technical possession football over the past 20 years, for example, a concept like the "box-to-box midfielder" appears to come and go in roughly five-year intervals. The intriguing thing about the development of tactics is that the next step remains a mystery -- the progression is always simultaneously logical and unpredictable. When Barcelona were Europe's dominant force between 2009 and 2011, for example, it was extremely difficult to tell whether strategy would move in the first respect (further evolution) or the second respect (a shift toward an opposing style of play). In the end, Bayern's success last year probably represented a hybrid of the two: They could tiki-taka almost as expertly as Barcelona, but they destroyed Tito Vilanova's club with power and counterattack. One of those unpredictable concepts is the 4-4-2 formation. A couple of years ago, the shape appeared to have almost completely died out at the highest level, particularly in European and international competition, where the tempo of matches was slower and centered primarily around ball retention in midfield. Whenever a 4-4-2 came up against a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, it faced an obvious problem with the lack of numbers in the centre of midfield, meaning it was unable to cope with opponents between the lines. The obvious solution was for one of the centre-forwards to drop deeper when out of possession and become, in effect, a third central midfielder. It meant the side essentially shifted to become a 4-4-1-1, or 4-2-3-1. Therefore, even when sides were attempting to play a 4-4-2, they ended up conforming to the obsession with the 4-2-3-1. But was the sudden unpopularity of the 4-4-2 something that would continue as part of the increasing emphasis upon midfield ball retention, or was it merely unfashionable as part of a cyclical craze? Judging by the start of the 2013-14 European season, there's been a subtle but noticeable return to prominence of the 4-4-2. Paris Saint-Germain started the campaign playing both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani up front together, but that system's lack of success has forced Laurent Blanc to consider other alternatives, generally with Cavani wide-right in a half-hearted 4-3-3. Their main challengers in Ligue 1, Monaco, have also been playing something closely resembling a 4-4-2 at times. Joao Moutinho has occasionally been favoured in the position behind Radamel Falaco, but Moutinho's free-kick goal against Reims last weekend was the first Monaco goal not scored by one of the two strikers, Falcao and Emmanuel Riviere. The recent Manchester derby was a fine example of the 4-4-2 craze -- Wayne Rooney was fielded in close support of Danny Welbeck, while Sergio Aguero supported Alvaro Negredo. A few years ago, Rooney and Aguero would have unquestionably dropped off into the midfield zone to support the two deeper-lying midfielders -- but that didn't remotely happen. If anything, Aguero's sprints beyond his strike partner made him the more advanced forward. It was 4-4-2 versus 4-4-2. Over in Madrid, last weekend's derby saw something extremely similar. Carlo Ancelotti fielded Cristiano Ronaldo as a mobile but central forward, drifting either side of main striker Karim Benzema. Going the other way, Diego Simeone played Diego Costa and David Villa: both started in very deep, defensive-minded roles, before charging forward into attack. The game wasn't won and lost because of formations (it couldn't be, considering they were playing the same system) but in terms of organisation, work rate and cohesion. Still, it was highly unusual to see a flat 4-4-2 against a flat 4-4-2. It is almost like a game of chicken. Most managers would love to field two central attackers in tandem but if their opponent decides to drop one forward into the midfield zone, they're forced to replicate the move to prevent being overrun. Yet, while the value of pure ball retention isn't valued as greatly as two or three seasons ago -- with a slightly more direct, purposeful playing style becoming more popular -- it's still slightly surprising to see the 4-4-2 return. In modern football, the midfield battle remains the most important zone on the pitch. It's not necessarily about getting the upper hand in terms of possession, but about controlling the tempo and feel of the contest. The danger for some managers is that they've become forced to play 4-4-2 because of poor squad strengthening -- often by sporting directors, keen to recruit big names rather than useful team players. Too many big sides are top-heavy, overloaded with forwards when the midfield zone needed addressing more seriously. Robin van Persie has clearly been a great success at Manchester United, but he and Shinji Kagawa were superstars signed when United needed a reliable central midfielder more desperately. Similarly, City's Negredo and Stevan Jovetic are fine forwards, but Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia aren't great options as City's third-best central midfielder. Manuel Pellegrini could play only one forward, with David Silva or Yaya Toure behind, but that means three unhappy forwards sitting on the bench each week. GettyImagesDiego Costa and David Villa have proved that it can work. As Steve Bruce said last week: "Man management has become more relevant in my experience than coaching." If a club assembles a variety of talented forwards, a manager often feels compelled to play as many as possible, often at the expense of structure and control. Atletico have demonstrated that you can succeed with 4-4-2 at the highest level. However, their incredibly compact shape asks a tremendous amount of Diego Costa and David Villa; against Real Madrid the duo played so deep that the system was often more like 4-4-2-0, with Costa charging forward into attack when in possession, running the channels tirelessly. It also means Atletico spend long periods without the ball, and therefore depends on an extremely solid defence. That is the key when playing two strikers: managers can't afford to let anyone shirk their responsibilities without the ball, and few top clubs are capable of playing two hard-working centre-forwards together. 4-4-2 is workable, but the forwards increasingly have to fulfill the tasks traditionally covered by midfielders. In that case, playing an extra midfielder remains the more logical option.