My Top 5 Premier League Players 2017/18

My Top  5 Premier League Players  2017/18

The Premier League season is about to reach its climax and some people have already started to pick their favourite stars of the season, here's my top 5 picks of the season.

5. Jordan Pickford

As Russia 2018 is just around the corner, Gareth Southgate is still searching for his no: 1 keeper. Joe Hart seems to be the obvious choice, but boy is Everton's Jordan Pickford trying to knock down that door with his terrific, acrobatic, reflex saves. Although he has picked up 11 clean sheets this season, I would say that he's the best English goalkeeper out there at the moment.

It would be a shame not to see him on the plane to Volgograd, Russia. England also have more good quality keepers such as Burnley'sTom Heaton, Stoke City's Jack Butland and last but not the least Joe Hart, but Pickford for me should be in that starting lineup against Tunisia on Monday 18th June. It wouldn't surprise me if teams like Arsenal and Liverpool become interested in signing him, especially Liverpool who keep on swapping Simon Mingolet and Loris Karius after every two or three games.  

4. Fernandinho 

Pep Guadiola and Manchester City are having a terrific season in the Premier League. The Citizens are just one victory away from claiming their fourth league title and third Premier League inside six years. Brazilian left back Fernandinho has been one of the stand out players in City's terrific season.

What impresses me the most is his ability to quickly win back possession of the ball as soon as the team loses it. I also like the way he protects the back line of City's defence as it allows the front players to have more freedom to move into more attacking areas along with that solidity in the midfield areas.       

3. Leroy Sane 

In City’s pursuit to win the title, Leroy Sane has been the most influential player for Guadiola’s side. The German international has scored 19 goals and made 15 assists in 26 Premier League appearances for the club. What has impressed me is his pace, which gives the opposition defenders a nightmare. I think that he, Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho have been the key to City’s success this season.

The way in which they have controlled the midfield has given the opposition defenders a nightmare with their slick and creative passing skills. 

2. Mohammed Salah 

Liverpool are producing a star out of Mo Salah. The Egyptian winger seems to be having the time of his life for the Reds and Jurgen Klopp. Salah is currently this season's top scorer with 29 goals and is level with Harry Kane's tally for last year and is still hungry for more.  For me, one of his best goals came against Everton, where he managed to beat two defenders from just outside the penalty box and then scooped the ball over the diving Pickford and into the top left corner with a touch of speed and class.

I suppose the only issue against Salah is, can he keep up the same level of consistency and intensity through season after season? This is the difference between a good player and a top class player, it's consistency. Salah certainly has the talent to do so, but does he have the right mindset to become a legend at Liverpool Football Club? 

1. Harry Kane

One of the Premier Leagues deadliest strikers is Tottenham's Harry Kane. The English centre forward has been a joy to watch with his bag full of goals. Kane has so far scored 24 goals for Spurs this season. What is so great about him, is his ability to score a variety of different types of goals, this includes headers, volleys, penalties and strikes from outside the box. 

Although he did not have the best of times at the 2016 European Championships, I would expect him to make an impact in England's chances at Russia 2018. There are other strikers such as who could be available for Southgate such as Leicester City's Jamie Vardy and Glen Murray from Brighton and Hove Albion, but Kane is probably England's first choice centre forward in most people's view as well as mine.   

Aussies put world cricket in shame

Aussies Put World Cricket in Shame 

Australia's ball tampering issues put world cricket in shambles

During the third day of the third Test in South Africa, Australia captain Steve Smith and teammate Cameron Bancroft were caught by the ICC for tampering with the cricket ball. Bancroft appeared to have taken out a piece of yellow tape in which he used in order to change condition of the ball by rubbing it on the tape. According to law 41 in the book of Wisdom,  'If the umpires agree that in the match there has been any further instance by that team of unfairly changing the condition of the ball, they shall repeat the procedure in 41.3.4.1 and 41.3.4.2.' 'If the further offence is committed by the fielding side, additionally the bowler’s end umpire shall direct the captain of the fielding side to suspend immediately from bowling the bowler who delivered the preceding ball; he/she shall not be allowed to bowl again in the match.'
41.3.5.2 - direct the captain of the fielding side to suspend immediately from bowling the bowler who delivered the preceding ball; he/she shall not be allowed to bowl again in the match. 

This incident appeared to have been shown on camera and so the ICC along with Cricket Australia came to the conclusion to suspend the Australia captain and Bancroft for one test match following this incident.

Smith attempted to defend his teammates stating that It was a premeditated and calculated plan to alter the condition of the ball, however there is still a debate going on about ball tampering being classed as an actual crime in cricket. Later on, The Australian captain and Vice-captain did declare themselves guilty and were extremely sorry for the incident. "I am truly sorry for my actions and will now do everything I can to be a better person, teammate and role model.

"I have today let Cricket Australia know that I fully accept the sanctions imposed on me. I am truly sorry for my actions and will now do everything I can to be a better person, teammate and role model."

This is not the first time that cricket has witnessed this incident. Former Pakistani captain Inzamam Ul Haq was also accused ball tampering during a test match against England in 2006. Inzamam was banned from the firs four matches of the One Day series as a  consequence of this crime.

This was a sad day for world cricket as the Australians were breaching the rues and not playing accordingly to sprit of the game. Former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie hit out on Smith's side for their behaviour on the field  "It's hard to think there isn't going to be a fall-out and a big change in personnel. It appears there's going to be some big changes on and off the field.' 

This quote from Gillespie sums up the crisis in which Cricket Australia are now facing post the ball tampering incident. It will  be interesting to see  what step they will take post this incident. 

Will Smith and Warner be stripped from captain and Vice-captain? 

What direction will Warner's career take post this 12 month ban?  

Will this also have an impact on Bancroft's career which has only just started? 

Managerial Changes

Managerial Changes

The Premier League is famous for it's drama and revolving door of managers being ditched and appointed by clubs.  But what is the reason for this? Watch this programme to find out more.   Managerial Changes

Wiggins defends Team Sky For DCMS Report

Wiggins defends Team Sky For DCMS Report

Sir Bradley Wiggins speaks to Dan Roan about his take on the DCMS Report which claimed that he along with team Sky had not 'crossed the line' for the use of performance enhancing drugs.

Olympic gold medalist Sir Bradley Wiggins was accused along with Team Sky for the use of drugs for performance enhancing instead of medical purposes, but Wiggins denies these accusations. 

"No. We didn't, not at any point in my career did we cross the ethical line. As I have said before, I had a medical condition that I went to a doctor - this has been being treated since 2003 when I was diagnosed with it through the doctors at British Cycling at that time.'

Wiggins also claimed that he was undergoing treatment for a medial condition which was asthma. 'I had problems with asthma attacks, 'I had problems with breathing that flared up through pollen season.' 

In reaction to Shane Sutton's comment on Wiggins use of drugs, The British cyclist gave a strong reply to Sutton's statement. 
"That hurts me, actually. Shane knows exactly why I was taking that medication. My asthma inhalers that I had been on throughout my career, I had complained of these problems during the Dauphine, complained after the Dauphine.'  

So this suggests that Sutton was giving a false statement about Team Sky using drugs during the Tour de France in 2012. 

The two time Olympic champion also questioned Sutton's motives behind his statement "I don't know what his motivation is, that's all I'll say." 

Wiggins also also gave positive statements about the way the team looked after themselves as hypochondriacs.   
 "We are constantly there. We are hypochondriacs as athletes, especially coming to the height of the season, the biggest race of the year, whether it is the Olympic Games or the Tour de France.

This was an abnormal for Wiggins as it was the first time that he was accused for something in his career thus far. 'The first time I am aware of being accused of anything was today.' So now Wiggins needs to prove that he along with Team Sky are innocent. "So I have got no comeback on this, this is now taken as fact. I have now got to prove that this is wrong." 

Backlash From Fans Hits Hammers

Backlash From Fans Hits Sullivan and West Ham FC

West Ham supporters hit out on Chairman David Sullivan

Following West Ham's 3-0 home defeat to high-flying Burnley, Hammers fans began to express their feelings on their teams woeful form in the Premier League and especially at the board for numerous reasons to do with the move from Upton Park to the London Stadium and use of the Transfer Window. Captain Mark Noble indulged in a heated confrontation with one of the supporters for the team's lack of form and courage to fight. There were also banners going up, which were targeting the chairman of the club David Sullivan who apparently was hit by a coin from one of the supporters.

The Hammers are currently 16th in the Premier League table and have only won one of their last five games which include four defeats.With eight games remaining in the season. the Hammers have a huge  battle on their hands to stay in the Premier League, as half of their remaining fixture include teams from the top half of the league Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. 

This was a sad day for West Ham United Football club and after the game Noble and manager David Moyes summed up their feelings on the situation and urged the fans to get behind the players.

'I think as a supporter, you can't cross the line. You know here it is, you can't come on the pitch and the players know they have ti perform on the pitch. We were one goal down, in with a real good chance still, game was tight and whatever happened we lose a second goal within a minute and we are two goals down.' 'We want you behind us.' 
Sir Trevor Brooking also gave his statement on the situation "There weren't sufficient stewards and they couldn't really cope with what was sometimes going back to the bad old days of 25 years ago," "The club are obviously going to have to look at things with the local police and make sure that trained stewards and police are in place -- you're almost looking at it and saying: 'This is out of control.'"A lot of the stewards who are on duty on matchdays are not West Ham people -- they're actually stadium people and sometimes, until they get a job there, haven't had any experience dealing with football crowds."They were quite young and couldn't deal with the aggression they were faced with." 
Post this mess, it would be intriguing to see how the Hammers react too this, especially for the remainder of the season, can they avoid relegation? Will Moyes be able to pick his team up and encourage them to fightback? What will the future hold for West Ham United Football Club?

  

ITTF Team World Cup

ITTF Team World Cup

Table tennis isn't a top sport of mine, however when I attended the International Table Tennis World Cup on 22nd January, there were some intriguing contests going on at the Copper Box. 

As many as 20 countries took part in this event which was a prestigious one on the Table Tennis calendar.  The Germans looked the strongest out of all 20 teams.  There were also other countries competing such as USA who looked a pretty good team and showed their potential in a doubles match on Table 3 where they swept aside Australia after a fairly tight first set. The American duo took the match 12-10,11-5, 11-1.

The pick of the action came on Table 2 in the mens singles where Germany beat Australia 11-7, 11-8, 8-11 and 11-4 in what was a fairly close and competitive game. Although Germany looked the stronger of the two according to the ITTF rankings, Australia did manage to make it into an intriguing contest.  

In between each match, there were some coloured soft balls being shot into the crowd for some light entertainment. At first, I thought this was a bit cheesy in the sense that you would probably see this in a crowd of a slightly younger age, but on the other hand, table tennis is a ball game, so I can sort of see where they are coming from.

Given the fact that table tennis is a fast paced sport, the matches were still straightforward to follow as they had the scores of each match on the screen. The event itself was well organised and you could clearly see what was going on in each court.

What was slightly confusing but more interesting about this event was the fact that you had two teams in the same country by means of China and Hong Kong China, which to me didn't make sense as Hong Kong is actually a city in China, so was there really any need to have a Hong Kong Chinese team? It's like saying you have England and London England, which wouldn't make any sense at all. But on the other hand Hong Kong is an autonomous part of China who have their own independence, so I can see where they are coming from. 

As far as my views on the event as a whole, I would say that it was quite interesting but a little boring at the same time. This was purely because I'm not really a fan of table tennis, so I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did. As far as thee atmosphere at the event itself, it was a little quiet in terms of the spectators who were watching the matches. All you could hear was the sound of the ball constantly being hit by the players along with the crowd applauding every point won by each team.    

PalaceforLife Interview

PalaceforLife Interview 

Crystal Palace Football Club one of the Premier League's well known club in South London have a national charity called the PalaceforLife foundation who enable young disabled people to get involved in sport. So how does it all work? Listen to Micheal Harrington to find out more. 
PalaceforLife Interview