With their lead atop the Soccer Betting Premier League standings gone, Liverpool is starting to feel the heat. Fans are upset, players are upset and manager Rafa Benitez is under fire. It didn’t help Benitez that he criticized the league over the favored treatment of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson or that he took out his two best players, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Wigan. “It is not driving me crazy. I’m OK,” said Benitez, “The game (against Wigan) was crazy. We will see if the game on Sunday will be crazy, too. I am calm because I cannot control this craziness. Maybe it has to be crazy for years. I was talking to the players about how to stop the craziness but I do not know if we can.”

Liverpool had a 1-0 lead against Wigan but took a late penalty and ended up with a draw. Benitez took out Torres and Gerrard and sent in striker Robbie Keane who is not known for his defense. “I am disappointed with a number of things,” Benitez said. “It has happened in the last three games (including two 1-1 draws with Everton). They have something in common I don’t like. I know why but I cannot say anything.”

The game against Chelsea on Sunday is now a critical one for Benitez and for Liverpool. “When you are top of the table you know that every single game is really important so when you lose two points you have to be disappointed [...]

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Manchester United defeated Derby 4-2 at Old Trafford on Tuesday to win the two leg match and advance to the Soccer Betting League Cup Final. Manchester United will play defending champion Tottenham on March 1st at Wembley. Tottenham was able to get past Burnley 6-4 on aggregate even though they lost the second leg 3-2.

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Manchester United will be favored against Tottenham even though the Spurs are the defending champs. “It’s good to reach another final,” United manager Alex Ferguson said, “Our record in going to finals at Wembley is terrific.” If United is able to win the League Cup it would be their third in the competition. United will be making their seventh appearance in the final and their first since winning it in 2006.

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Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA World Player of the Year award on Monday. It was a magical year in 2008 for Ronaldo who led Manchester to the Soccer Betting Premier League and Champions League titles. Ronaldo was well clear in the voting for the Player of the Year with Barcelona midfielder Lionel Messi finishing second. Liverpool striker Fernando Torres finished a distant third.

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“It is an overwhelming moment, a very special moment in my life,” Ronaldo said, “I would like to say to my mother and sister that the fireworks can be fired off now.”

Ronaldo is the first player ever from the English Premier League to win the award. Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions last season. This year he has struggled with injuries and has just eight league goals in the Premier League.

Ronaldo also won the Ballon D’Or as European player of the year and he won the World Soccer magazine’s player of the year award. Ronaldo is the second Portuguese player to win the award as Luis Figo won in 2001.

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The semifinals of the Carling Cup begin this week with Burnley at defending champion Tottenham on Tuesday and Manchester United playing at Derby on Wednesday. United will be playing their second game in just 17 days but is not expected to be tested by a weak Derby squad. The second leg will be played in two weeks at Old Trafford. The winner will face either Burnley or Tottenham for the Soccer Betting Carling Cup title.

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Manchester United is expected to mix up their lineup with regulars and reserves in Wednesday’s match against Derby. United has a key game upcoming on Sunday against Chelsea in the Premier League so some starters will be rested. United had little trouble over the weekend in the FA Cup, winning 3-0 against Southampton. One player who will get some playing time against Derby though is Carlos Tevez who missed the team’s last two matches while he was in Argentina.

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Manchester United will be playing Japanese club Gamba Osaka in the semifinals of the Soccer Betting Club World Cup in Japan on Thursday. The other semifinal match on Thursday will be South American champ Liga de Quito vs. Mexico’s Pachuca. The winners will play on Sunday while the losers will play a third place match, also on Sunday.

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Manchester United has not played yet in the tournament, having received an automatic bid into the semifinals. Manchester United is coming off a scoreless draw in Premier League action against Tottenham on Sunday. Manchester United qualified for this semifinal spot in the Club World Cup by beating Chelsea in the Soccer Betting UEFA Champions League final. The match on Sunday against Gamba could be more difficult than most people believe for Manchester United simply because of the travel. Manchester United is about a 2/5 favorite on the three-way Manchester United soccer betting against Gamba while Pachuca is about a 5-4 favorite on the three-way line against Liga.

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Arsenal is already facing a must-win game in the Soccer Betting Premier League as they host Manchester United on Saturday. Manager Arsene Wenger has said the team must come away with a win if they expect to contend for the title this season. A loss would make it very difficult for the Gunners because they would be four points back of United and could fall as many as nine behind Chelsea and Liverpool. “It’s a massive game of massive importance for us,” Wenger said. “Manchester United-Arsenal is always a special one. It’s important for us that we do well in the big games in this league now.”

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Arsenal has not won in any of its last three matches. They played to a 4-4 draw with Tottenham after leading 4-2. One of those matches was a draw to Fenerbahce at home in the Soccer Betting Champions League. Wenger is not happy with his players or with the referees. “In the second half, we dropped physically and were less dangerous from then on,” Wenger said, “We were not sharp enough to put our strikers into good positions. You expect us to make chances in the last 20 minutes and this didn’t come because physically we didn’t have the resources.”

Wenger is really upset about the amount of penalties his team is getting in the Premier League. “Look at the fair play table. Who is top? Arsenal,” he said. “Look at the team that makes less fouls. Arsenal. (Yet) who gets more yellow cards after four or five fouls? Arsenal. Some teams get their first yellow cards after 15 fouls.”

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The Soccer Betting Premier League has been dominated by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal in recent seasons. Liverpool wants to join those three teams and so far in the 2008 season, they have. Liverpool star Dirk Kuyt believes his team can stay at the top. Every three games we have a big game. We had Everton and PSV last week, and our target is just to win every game and try to be there by the end of the season. But it was vital to keep pace with Chelsea before the internationals. We can leave with a good feeling. We’ve already had one international break and we came back in our first game after it and beat Manchester United, so I wouldn’t say it comes at a bad time. Anyway, we don’t need any excuses. We’ll just keep on going and see how we do against Wigan in our next game.

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One problem for Liverpool is that they will be without defender Martin Skrtel for months after he suffered damage to his posterior cruciate ligament of his right knee.

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Many Soccer Betting Premier League teams are dealing with injuries heading into this weekend’s action. Chelsea is at the top of the standings with their unbeaten start but they will be missing a number of key players in Sunday’s match against Aston Villa. In their Wednesday Champions League match with FCR Cluj they were without Joe Cole, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and Ashley Cole. What is even worse is that they lost Didier Drogba to a knee injury in that match and he could be out of a while. John Terry and Alex were also hurt in that match. “I need to think for the game on Sunday,” said manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, “I have a few days to build the team again. I don’t know now what the possibilities I have for Sunday are.”

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The injuries really could cause Chelsea to fall out of first place. “If Didier is out for a while, we will have to pitch in with goals from all around the team, which we can do, though the situation is not ideal,” said midfielder Frank Lampard, “The experience is not really there, but I believe the quality is.”

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Chelsea and Manchester United played to a 1-1 draw on Sunday and both teams came away from the game feeling differently. Chelsea is battered and bruised while Manchester United is encouraged. Chelsea will be without defender Ricardo Carvalho who is out for up to a month with a knee injury and Deco will miss two weeks because of a torn thigh muscle. Chelsea is already without midfielder Michael Essien who is out for months.

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Manchester United feels very encouraged after their draw at Chelsea. “That was definitely a point gained for us and was an answer to our critics,” said United’s Wayne Rooney. “As soon as we saw the fixture list we knew it was going to be a tough start to the season. We have just had three really hard games, possibly our toughest of all. Now we have got them out of the way, hopefully we can go on a run.”

Manchester United nearly ended Chelsea’s 85-match unbeaten home record but they were still pleased to come away with a draw. “Chelsea have a really good record here, so although we were in front for quite a long time and did well, a draw was a good result and probably quite fair given how the game went,” Rooney said. “I had a half-chance before they equalized which I might have done a bit better with. But it wasn’t to be and overall we did well.”

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Manchester United has Cristiano Ronaldo back and the rest of the world should sit up and take notice. The world’s best soccer player has missed the start of the Soccer Betting Premier League season but he returned in Champions League action against Villarreal on Wednesday.

It was expected that Ronaldo was going to be out until October but he has recovered nicely from ankle surgery and is a welcome sight for Manchester United. The defending champs of the Premier League are without Michael Carrick for weeks and new addition Dimitar Berbatov is doubtful this weekend. Ronaldo’s return definitely spices up this weekend’s game against Chelsea. “Cristiano is a massive player for us and it’s great to have him on our side,” said United’s Carlos Tevez. “It’s like having an extra player when he’s there because he’s such a danger to our opponents. It will be a big boost to have him back.”

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