There have been eighteen permanent and five caretaker managers of Arsenal since the appointment of the club’s first professional manager, Thomas Mitchell in 1897. The longest-running manager in terms of time is George Allison (1934–1947) while the longest-running in terms of games is current manager Arsène Wenger (1996–).

Wenger is also Arsenal’s only manager from outside Great Britain or Ireland and is Arsenal’s most successful permanent manager in terms of percentage of wins with 57.36% (as of 11 May 2008), while Leslie Knighton is Arsenal’s least successful (34.46%). Two Arsenal managers have died in the job – Herbert Chapman and Tom Whittaker.

The Arsène Wenger Era

In 1997/98, Wenger’s first full season at Highbury, Arsenal achieved, for the second time in the Club’s history, the League and FA Cup ‘double’ enabling the Frenchman to pick up the Carling Manager of the Year Award. Dennis Bergkamp was also named Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year. A tremendous season was rounded off perfectly for French Internationals Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira as the Gunners stars played their part in France’s victorious World Cup campaign.

Three consecutive league runners-up medals followed and in 2000 Arsenal appeared in the UEFA Cup Final where they lost on penalties. In 2001 the Club reached the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Champions League before being knocked out by Valencia. 2001/02 however saw a reversal of fortunes as the Club recorded their third ‘double’ by beating Chelsea in the FA Cup and ending their league campaign with a 13-game unbeaten run and a memorable 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Arsenal remained unbeaten at home for the whole season. For that, Arsène Wenger was named Barclaycard Manager of the Year while Robert Pires was named Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year.

The following season Arsenal narrowly missed out on retaining the title but the Gunners became the first English club in more than 20 years to retain the FA Cup with their 1-0 victory over Southampton at Cardiff. Thierry Henry was voted player of the season by both the PFA and the Football Writers’ Association in a term which saw him join Dennis Bergkamp in the hallowed 100 Club having scored a century of goals for Arsenal. Season 2003/2004 saw Arsenal win back the title in unbeatable fashion managing to go though the entire league season without a single defeat. Finishing 11 points ahead of second-place Chelsea, Arsenal smashed several records on the way to their 13th league title win. Spanish youngster Cesc Fabregas arrived in January and by the end of the season had broken the record for the youngest Arsenal appearance aged 16 years and 177 days.

A Semi-Final defeat in the FA Cup by Manchester United and the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League by Chelsea ended any hope of a remarkable treble. The unbeaten league run continued the following season and in August 2004 Arsenal overtook Nottingham Forest’s record for the longest all-time unbeaten sequence in English league football. The Gunners made it five trophies in four seasons by winning the FA Cup in a penalty shoot-out victory over Manchester United.

The 2005/06 campaign was the Club’s last at Highbury and the Final Salute celebrations proved to be a fitting goodbye to the Club’s home of 93 years. Fourth place in the league — and Champions League football — was secured on the last day of the season with a 4-2 win over Wigan Athletic (coupled with Tottenham’s loss at West Ham United). Arsenal’s alltime record at Highbury reads as follows: Played 2,010; Won 1,196; Drawn 475; Lost 339; Goals Scored 4,038; Goals Conceded 1,955.

The highlight of the season was the Club’s amazing journey to the 2005/06 Champions League Final in Paris. A 12- game unbeaten run, including a new competition record for the most amount of consecutive clean sheets (10 in all), saw Arsenal line-up against Barcelona in the Final on May 17 at the Stade de France. Despite having Jens Lehmann sent-off after just 18 minutes, the Gunners scored first through Sol Campbell before, in the second-half, the Spaniards scored two late goals to break the hearts of the travelling Arsenal support.

HONOURS

Arsenal’s tally of thirteen League Championships is the third highest in English football, after Liverpool and Manchester United, while the total of ten FA Cups is the second highest, after Manchester United. Arsenal have achieved three League and FA Cup “Doubles” (in 1971, 1998 and 2002), a joint record shared with Manchester United, and were the first side in English football to complete the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993. They were also the first London football club to reach the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2006.

Arsenal have one of the best top-flight records in history, having finished below fourteenth only seven times. Arsenal also have the highest average league finishing position for the period 1900–1999, with an average league placing of 8.5. In addition, they are one of only five clubs to have won the FA Cup twice in succession, in 2002 and 2003.

For the majority of their time in south-east London, Arsenal played at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, a three-year period at the nearby Invicta Ground between 1890 and 1893 excepted. The Manor Ground was initially just a field, but the club installed stands and terracing in time for their first Football League match in September 1893. They played their home games there for the next twenty years (with two exceptions in 1894–95), until the move to north London in 1913.

Arsenal Stadium, widely referred to as Highbury, was Arsenal’s home from September 1913 until May 2006. The original stadium was designed by the renowned football architect Archibald Leitch, and had a design common to many football grounds in the UK at the time, with a single covered stand and three open-air banks of terracing. In the 1930s, the entire stadium was given a massive overhaul, with new Art Deco West and East stands constructed, opening in 1932 and 1936 respectively; in addition, the North Bank terrace had a roof added, which was later bombed during World War II and not restored until 1954.

At its peak, Highbury could hold over 60,000 spectators, and had a capacity of 57,000 until the early 1990s. The Taylor Report and Premier League regulations forced Arsenal to convert Highbury into an all-seater in time for the 1993–94 season, reducing the capacity to 38,419 seated spectators. This capacity had to be reduced further during Champions League matches to accommodate additional advertising hoardings, so much so that for two seasons (1998–99 and 1999–00) Arsenal played Champions League home matches at Wembley, which could house more than 70,000 spectators.

Expansion of Highbury was restricted because the East Stand had been designated as a Grade II listed building and the other three stands were close to residential properties. These limitations prevented the club from maximising matchday revenue during the 1990s and early 2000s, leaving them in danger of being left behind in the football boom of that time. After considering various options, in 2000 Arsenal proposed building a new 60,000-seater stadium at Ashburton Grove, since renamed the Emirates Stadium, about 500 metres south-west of Highbury. The project was initially delayed by red tape and rising costs, but construction was completed in July 2006, in time for the start of the 2006–07 season.

The stadium is named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth approximately £100 million; however some fans refer to the ground as Ashburton Grove, or the Grove, as they do not agree with corporate sponsorship of stadium names. The stadium will be officially known as Emirates Stadium until at least 2012, and the airline will be the club’s shirt sponsor until the end of the 2013–14season.

Arsenal’s training centre is in Shenley, Hertfordshire, at a purpose-built facility which opened in 2000. Before that the club shared training facilities with University College London Student Union nearby, having trained at Highbury up until 1961.[38] It is also where Arsenal’s Academy teams play their home matches, while the Reserves play their games at Underhill, home of Barnet FC.

STATISTICS AND RECORDS
David O’Leary holds the record for Arsenal appearances, having played 722 first-team matches between 1975 and 1993. Fellow centre half and former captain To
ny Adams comes second, having played 669 times. The record for a goalkeeper is held by David Seaman, with 563 appearances.

Thierry Henry is the club’s top goalscorer with 226 goals in all competitions between 1999 and 2007 having surpassed Ian Wright’s total of 185 in October 2005. Wright’s record had stood since September 1997, a feat which overtook the longstanding total of 178 goals set by winger Cliff Bastin in 1939. Henry also holds the club record for goals scored in the League – 174 – a record that had been held by Bastin until February 2006.

Arsenal’s record home attendance is 73,707, for a UEFA Champions League match against RC Lens on 25 November 1998 at Wembley Stadium, where Arsenal formerly played home European matches because of the limits on Highbury’s capacity. The record attendance for an Arsenal match at Highbury is 73,295, for a 0–0 draw against Sunderland on 9 March 1935, while that at Emirates Stadium is 60,161, for a 2–2 draw with Manchester United on 3 November 2007.

Arsenal have also set records in English football, most notably the most consecutive seasons spent in the top flight (82 as of 2008–09) and the longest run of unbeaten League matches (49 between May 2003 and October 2004). This included all 38 matches of their title-winning 2003–04 season, making Arsenal only the second club ever to finish a top-flight campaign unbeaten, after Preston North End (who played only 22 matches) in 1888–89.

Arsenal also set a UEFA Champions League record during the 2005–06 season by going ten matches without conceding a goal, beating the previous best of seven set by A.C. Milan. They went a record total stretch of 995 minutes without letting an opponent score; the streak finally ended in the final against FC Barcelona, when Samuel Eto’o scored Barcelona’s equaliser in the 76th minute.

Royal Arsenal’s first crest, unveiled in 1888, featured three cannons viewed from above, pointing northwards, similar to the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. These can sometimes be mistaken for chimneys, but the presence of a carved lion’s head and a cascabel on each are clear indicators that they are cannon. This was dropped after the moved to Highbury in 1913, but in 1922, the club adopted their first single-cannon crest, featuring an eastward-pointing cannon, with the club’s nickname, The Gunners, inscribed alongside it; this crest only lasted until 1925, when the cannon was reversed to point westward and its barrel slimmed down.

In 1949, the club unveiled a modernised crest featuring the same style of cannon, the club’s name set in blackletter above the cannon, the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and a scroll inscribed with the club’s newly adopted Latin motto, Victoria Concordia Crescit (meaning “victory comes from harmony”), coined by Harry Homer, the club’s programme editor. For the first time, the crest was rendered in colour, which varied slightly over the crest’s lifespan, finally becoming red, gold and green.

Because of the numerous revisions of the crest, Arsenal were unable to copyright it. Although the club had managed to register the crest as a trademark, and had fought (and eventually won) a long legal battle with a local street trader who sold ‘unofficial’ Arsenal merchandise, Arsenal eventually sought a more comprehensive legal protection. Therefore, in 2002 they introduced a new crest featuring more modern curved lines and a simplified style, which was copyrightable. The cannon once again faces east and the club’s name is written in a sans-serif typeface above the cannon. Green was replaced by dark blue. The new crest received a critical response from some supporters; the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association claimed that the club had ignored much of Arsenal’s history and tradition with such a radical modern design, and that fans had not been properly consulted on the issue.

COLOURS

For much of Arsenal’s history, their home colours have been bright red shirts with white sleeves and white shorts, though this has not always been the case. The choice of red is in recognition of a charitable donation from Nottingham Forest, soon after Arsenal’s foundation in 1886. Two of Dial Square’s founding members, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, were former Forest players who had moved to Woolwich for work. As they put together the first team in the area, no kit could be found, so Beardsley and Bates wrote home for help and received a set of kit and a ball. The shirt was redcurrant, a dark shade of red, and was worn with white shorts and blue socks.

In 1933 Herbert Chapman, wanting his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. The origin of the white sleeves is not conclusively known, but two possible inspirations have been put forward. One story reports that Chapman noticed a supporter in the stands wearing a red sleeveless sweater over a white shirt; another was that he was inspired by a similar outfit worn by the cartoonist Tom Webster, with whom Chapman played golf. Regardless of which story is true, the red and white shirts have come to define Arsenal and the team have worn the combination ever since, aside from two seasons. The first was 1966–67, when Arsenal wore all-red shirts; this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. The second was 2005–06, the last season that Arsenal played at Highbury, when the team wore commemorative redcurrant shirts similar to those worn in 1913, their first season in the stadium; the club reverted to their normal colours at the start of the 2006–07 season.

Arsenal’s home colours have been the inspiration for at least three other clubs. In 1909, Sparta Prague adopted a dark red kit like the one Arsenal wore at the time; in 1938, Hibernian adopted the design of the Arsenal shirt sleeves in their own green and white strip. In the 1930s, Sporting Clube de Braga’s coach returned from a game at Highbury and changed his team’s green kit into a duplicate of Arsenal’s red with white sleeves and shorts, giving rise to the team’s nickname of Os Arsenalistas. These teams still wear these designs to this day.

Arsenal’s away colours are traditionally yellow and blue, although they wore a green and navy away kit between 1982 and 1984. Since the early 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away colours have been changed regularly; the general rule currently is that they are changed every season with the outgoing away kit becoming the third choice kit for the following season.

Generally, the away colours in this period have been either two-tone blue designs, or variations on the traditional yellow and blue, such as the metallic gold and navy strip used in the 2001–02 season, and the yellow and dark grey used in 2005–06 and 2006–07. Arsenal’s current third kit for the 2008–09 season, which is used for games where both the first and second choice colours clash with those of their opponents, consists of white shirts with redcurrant shorts and hooped white and redcurrant socks; it was previously the away kit for the 2007–08 season.

Blackburn have dropped more points (61) and conceded more goals (49) to Manchester United than any other club in the Premier League.
United had to rely on a dramatic equaliser in the last two minutes to avoid defeat on their last visit to Ewood Park in April.

TEAM NEWS

Blackburn are likely to be without goalkeeper Paul Robinson who is struggling to shake off a calf injury.

Vince Grella is also a doubt, while Benni McCarthy is back in training but is unlikely to start.

Wayne Rooney is a doubt for Manchester United after injuring his ankle in the midweek European win at Aalborg.

Paul Scholes was carried off in that match with medial ligament damage and joins Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick on the sidelines.

SQUADS

Blackburn: Brown, Robinson, Bunn, Nelsen, Samba, Ooijer, Warnock, Emerton, Olsson, Tugay, Derbyshire, Santa Cruz, Villanueva, Fowler, Andrews, Fowler, Grella, Treacy, Pedersen.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Amos, Neville, Brown, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, O’Shea, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Nani, Tevez, Berbatov, Rooney, Welbeck.

QUOTES

“This is the exciting thing about coming to the Premier League. It’s a chance to pit yourself against Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of all time as far as I’m concerned.” (Blackburn manager Paul Ince)

“At the end of the day it is how you tell your own story and how you impart your knowledge to players that counts.” (Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson)

LAST SEASON’S CORRESPONDING GAME

Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Manchester United

19 April 2008 - Ref: Rob Styles

Blackburn scorer: Santa Cruz 21

Man Utd scorer: Tevez 88

PREDICTION

I expect a tight match and a narrow away victory.

Possible correct score: 1-2

They are one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in England, having won the First Division Championship seven times and the FA Cup seven times.

Villa are also one of only four English clubs to win the European Cup, which they did in 1982 with victory over Bayer Munich, under caretaker manager Tony Barton.

Aston Villa is the fourth most successful club in English football history, having won 20 major honours, although many of these were won before the Second World War and the most recent was in 1996, when they won the League Cup (3-0 against Leeds United).

CLUB HISTORY
In 1874, a group of cricketers needing something to occupy them during winter happened to see a game of football in the park. Thus Aston Villa was born. Their fisrt match was unusual in that the fisrt half was played under rubgy rules and the second under football rules. Villa fast became the Midlands’ dominant side, beating Small Heath Alliance – later to become arch-rivals Birmingham City – 22-0 on one occasion.

Aston Villa were one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888 and enjoyed instant success. In the 1890s, they won five titles in seven seasons. Villa were also the first side to the league and cup double in 1897. A week later, they moved to Aston Lower Grounds, which the fans dubbed Villa Park.

Villa’s winning ways continued into the early 1900s, but their fortunes dwindled and in 1937 they were relegated. After the Second World War, the team was totally rebuilt. But apart from a 1957 FA Cup win, previous levels of success were never achieved.

Aston Villa reached a new low in 1971, when they were relegated to the Third Division. The club’s fortunes changed 10 years later when Ron Saunders led them to the league title. The following year, in 1982, under caretaker manager Tony Barton, the club won the European Cup with victory over Bayer Munich.

Villa were relegated from the top flight in 1987 but bounced back at the first attempt. They finished Premier League runners-up under manager Ron Atkinson in 1993 and they won League Cup twice over Manchester United and Leeds in 1994 and 1996 respectively.

They have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local rivals Birmingham City, although West Bromwich Albion is actually the closest professional football club. The Birmingham derby between Aston Villa and Birmingham City has been played since 1879.

STADIUM
Aston Villa’s current home venue is Villa Park, which is a UEFA 4-star rated stadium, having previously played at Aston Park (1874–1876) and Perry Barr (1876–1897). Villa Park is currently the largest football stadium in the Midlands, and the eighth largest stadium in England. It has hosted 16 England internationals at senior level, the first in 1899, and the most recent in 2005. Thus it was the first English ground to stage international football in three different centuries.

Villa Park is the most used stadium in FA Cup semi-final history, having hosted 55 semi-finals. The Club have planning permission to extend the North Stand; This will involve the ‘filling in’ of the corners to either side of the North Stand. If completed, the capacity of Villa Park (42,640) will be increased to approximately 51,000.

The current training ground is located at Bodymoor Heath in north Warwickshire, the site for which was purchased by former Aston Villa Chairman Doug Ellis in the early 1970s from a local farmer. Although Bodymoor Heath was state-of-the-art in the 1970s, by the late 1990s the facilities had started to look dated. In November 2005, Ellis and Aston Villa plc announced a state of the art GB£13 million redevelopment of Bodymoor in 2 phases. However, work on Bodymoor was suspended by Ellis due to financial problems, and was left in an unfinished state until new owner Randy Lerner made it one of his priorities to make the site one of the best in world football. The new training ground was officially unveiled on 6 May 2007, by current manager Martin O’Neill, former team captain Gareth Barry and 1982 European Cup winning team captain Dennis Mortimer, with the Aston Villa squad moving in for the 2007–08 season.

CLUB COLOURS AND CREST
The club colours are claret shirt with sky blue sleeves, white shorts with claret and blue trim, and sky blue socks with claret and white trim.

Nobody is quite sure why claret and blue became the club’s adopted colours. The main theory surrounding the colours suggests that with the Scottish influence of characters such as George Ramsay and William McGregor the kit was created from the combination of the maroon of Hearts and the blue of Rangers, with the Scottish lion rampant included in the badge.

Aston Villa’s success inspired some other clubs to adopt claret as their home colours, most notably Burnley and West Ham United.

A new crest was revealed on 2 May 2007, for the 2007–08 season and beyond. The new crest includes a star to represent the European Cup win in 1982, and has a light blue background behind Villa’s ‘lion rampant’. The traditional motto “Prepared” remains in the crest, and the name Aston Villa has been shortened to AVFC, FC having been omitted from the previous crest. Randy Lerner petitioned fans to help with the design of the new crest. The three kits that carry the new crest were unveiled on 17 July 2007, in The Mailbox, Birmingham.

On 2 June 2008 it was announced that Aston Villa will forgo commercial kit sponsorship for the 2008–09 season; instead they will advertise the charity Acorns Children’s Hospice, the first deal of its kind in Premiership history.

PREMIER LEAGUE HISTORY
1992-1993 – Premier League runners-up
1993-1994 – Wins the League Cup (Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United)
1994-1995 – Brian Little replaces Ron Atkinson as manager
1995-1996 – Wins the League Cup (Aston Villa 3-0 Leeds United)
1997-1998 – John Gregory replaces Brian Little
1999-2000 – Lost FA Cup final (Chelsea 2-0 Aston Villa)
2001-2002 – Gregory quits in January. Former manager Graham Taylor takes over
2002-2003 – David O’Leary replaces Taylor in May
2005-2006 – At the end of the season O’Leary leaves. Randy Lerner buys a majority share in the club. Martin O’Neill is appointed manager
2006-2007 – Signs Ashley Young from Watford for a club record £9.65 million
2007-2008 – Signs Nigel Reo-Coker and Marlon Harewood from West Ham United and Zat Knight from Fullham

STATISTICS AND RECORDS
To date Aston Villa have spent 98 seasons in the top-flight, the only club to have spent longer in the top-flight is Everton with 105 seasons. As a result, Aston Villa versus Everton is the most played fixture in English top-flight football.

Aston Villa is one of an elite group of seven clubs that has played in every Premiership season, they are: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Aston Villa is fifth in the All-time FA Premier League table. Aston Villa is the fourth most successful club in English football history, having won 21 major honours.

Aston Villa currently hold the record number of league goals scored by any team in the English top-flight; 128 goals were scored in the 1930–31 season. Villa legend Archie Hunter became the first player to score in every round of the FA Cup in Villa’s victorious 1887 campaign. Villa’s longest unbeaten home run in the FA Cup spanned 13 years and 19 games, from 1888 to 1901.

Aston Villa are one of four English teams that have won the European Champions Cup. The other three are Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. They did so on 26 May 1982 in Rotterdam, beating Bayern Munich 1–0 thanks to Peter Withe’s goal.

The original record held was for playing heads up poker continuously for 72 hours and was held by an American player, Larry Olmsted. The former record has stood since 2004.

The new record now stands at “74 hours and 4 minutes” according to David.

The record attempt started on the 14th September and was completed on the 18th September. The event took place at the Lincoln University, UK.

With fears of David’s health looming, he decided he should pull out shortly after breaking the world record. The following are quotes taken from his site:

“During Wednesday afternoon I had something of a mental breakdown, it was extremely scary for me and even worse for friends and family who witnessed it.”

“I even had to be taught how to play poker-Literally everything from scratch. I complained that the blinds were not necessary and that there should be a flexible amount of community cards and that the game was too linear so should be played in a circle. Following that I felt like I was in a cage being taunted tortured and punished for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Congratulations to the new world record holder and his team for all of their hard work which paid off and resulted in an excellent world record being broken!

‘Inconsistency’ might be considered to be the most accurate word to describe a club like Tottenham Hotspurs for several years now. This is the third consecutive season Spurs have lost three of their four opening Premier League games and also their worst Premier League start for 34 years. Tottenham have taken just one point from their opening four Premier League games. They started the season with a loss against Boro and were victims of a late goal against Sunderland. Their hard fought draw against Chelsea gave hope to supporters, but was followed by a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Monday, a defeat which condemned them to the bottom of the table. At the moment, they seem unable to get off the foot of the table.
Tottenham manager Juande Ramos has said it could take more than 10 games for his winless side to get back on track. The Spaniard seemed eager to prove how his own adaptation is coming along by giving his first press conference in English ahead of a UEFA Cup tie at home to Wisla Krakow last night.
“We need to improve, little by little. It could be 10, 12 or 15 games. No limit”, Ramos said.
“Yes, I am worried because we need points. We have a good squad and, I’m sure in the future, we’ll be better.”
Ramos admitted Dimitar Berbatov departing for Manchester United had disrupted his squad: “The worst thing for us was losing Berbatov at the last moment and we didn’t have time to sign a new player.”
Nevertheless, the former Sevilla coach said he was confident results would improve and that new signings such as Luka Modric, Giovani dos Santos and David Bentley, who have so far been below par, would settle.
“I’d say to the supporters that they need to have confidence in the team. We have a good squad and, I’m sure in the future, we’ll be better.
“I don’t know about top four, but anything is possible. There are 34 matches left to play.
“The fans, myself, the club - we want the best performances quickly, but we need to be patient. This process takes time.”
The club’s sporting director Damien Comolli, who scouts and signs players for Ramos, has come under criticism, particularly as Spurs were left short of options up front following the summer departures of Robbie Keane and Berbatov.
But Ramos and first-team coach Gus Poyet have defended Comolli, with Ramos declaring: “Everyone is together in the club.”
“The decisions are made together. Not one person is responsible. Whether it is winning or losing, we do things together.
“I think in some positions we are better than last year, in others we are worse. The squad is the squad.
“For me, the big problem is adaptation and the need for time. The worst thing for us was losing Berbatov at the last moment and we didn’t have time to sign a new player. But business is business. It was impossible.”
Tottenham have a chance to resurrect their season against Polish side Wisla Krakow in the first round of the Uefa Cup on Thursday.
Moreover, Ramos admitted that winning Uefa Cup would be easier than finishing in the top four.
“I never think about losing. In my head, that’s not possible. In football, you can win or lose. But I’m not thinking about losing,” he said.
“We want to win all the matches, but it’s harder in 38 league games to finish above Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. In the cups, you can win five or six matches and win a trophy, so that is easier.”