EPL Match Results for 08-Nov-2014

The highlight for Saturday's game will definitely be the game between Liverpool vs Chelsea. The home side started the match in a great manner and they were rewarded with a goal on the 9th minute. Even though the goal came through a deflection but it was the goal that the Reds required to boost their morale. The Blues held on and showed their dominance mentally and in their game to come back and win the game at Anfield. Diego Costa was at the right place and time to score the winning goal!

And Burnley finally gets their first win after their promotion in EPL. The header from Ashley Barnes was good enough to secure all 3 points for Burnley and hopefully this will be the start of a good momentum if they would like to stay up in the Premiership.

The Red Devils played this match at Old Trafford and the expectation was for them to win as usual. Man Utd had defender problems as majority of the senior players were injured and some suspended for this game. Louis van Gaal had to make shift the defence to cover for the loss of the senior players. They managed a win at home but still didn't look that sharp up front. I would say a disappointing win for the Red Devils with lots of room for improvement.

Southampton continued their run at home and Leicester City proved to be of some resistance. The goal came at the 76th minute and it was the Ireland International Shane Long put them ahead. The home side has always made it difficult for the visiting teams at St. Mary's stadium and their perseverance for the game gave them the second goal. Overall, it was a great result and game for the Saints. 

Aston Villa was going through a tough spell and to secure 1 point from their trip to the Olympic Stadium. The home side tried to push their way through and secure 3 points but credit to the Villans to hang on to share the points.

Manchester City was playing catch up to the league leaders Chelsea as they played their match later that evening. Chelsea won their match at Anfield and Manchester City was hoping that they could win and close the gap too. Unfortunately City could only manage a draw as they were pretty sloppy at times in their defensive area. Sergio Aguero has always been the saviour and his goals helped the defending champions to secure a point.

The Saturday's matches did not produce too many goals and let's hope there will be more goals later today.

Match Prediction | Manchester City vs Manchester United

The match of the week would definitely be the Manchester derby. Manchester City will play host to Manchester United. It would definitely be an interesting match to watch as both teams trying to prove a point to each other.

Manchester City playing at home has a fixed odds of 1.89 for winning the game, 3.67 for the game to end in a draw and 4.12 for the away team to win. For me, the odds look great for the home side to steal all 3 points. However when you play against the Red Devils, it will never be easy and the home side will definitely need to play their A game!

Image source: www.express.co.uk

Manchester City's top goal scorer Sergio Agüero has 9 goals to his name and he was influential for his team when he tore Spurs apart with his goals. Having Agüero back fit and in a mood to score will definitely increase their chances of winning the derby. No doubt about his talent but he himself alone will not be able to tear down the Red Devils. He will need his team to come up with their best game for sure.

Image source: www.101greatgoals.com

Another key player for Manchester City is Pablo Zabaleta. I believe most would mention that Yaya Touré or Vincent Kompany would be the key person for the team but Zabaleta's runs all over the pitch really needs recognition. I always feel more confident with the City team when Zabaleta is playing. Up till today, Zabaleta has 2 assist to his name and countless key passes for his teammates. If Zabaleta is having a bad day on the pitch then maybe United might have a chance to sneak in some goals.

Image source: www.ibtimes.co.uk

Ángel Di María has definitely made a name for himself at Manchester United with his great start to the season. Till now, he has 3 goals and 4 assists from 7 games. I would say that is a fabulous result for a new comer to the English Premier League. Through the early days when Manchester United was struggling, Di María was the key factor that the Red Devils managed those wins. I would say the Manchester City midfielders will have to keep Di María quiet on the field to reduce the chances of United scoring.

Image source: www.thesun.co.uk

Many would not have put Rafael as a key player for Manchester United. I have watched the Red Devils playing a bit this season and I would say that Rafael's contribution for his team is outstanding. His tireless runs around the pitch and his darting runs down the right flanks really bring out the attacking part for the Red Devils. Although he only has 1 assist to his name but I believe his overall contribution to the team needs mentioning and recognition.

As for injured players, David Silva is the latest injured player for Manchester City. Together with Frank Lampard and Yaya Toure, they will be out of the derby game. Silva has been influential in the attacking build up for City and his loss will definitely be felt. As for Manchester United, there is a long list of injured players but it seems that Wayne Rooney might be back in contention for this derby although there's report that he picked up a knock in training. Phil Jones, Jonathan Evans and Antonio Valencia could all be back from injury which is a boost for the Red Devils team.

The recent results for the Manchester derby favors Manchester City. I am predicting that with home ground advantage, a fit and in form Sergio Agüero is all that it takes to differentiate these teams. If Manchester United is unable to keep Agüero quiet, it will be an easy game for City. I'm predicting for a 2-1 victory for the home side!

EPL Match Results for 18-Oct-2014

There was 7 EPL matches last night and we saw a total of 28 goals which averages out to 4 goals per match! That's a lot of goals for sure and it is always great to have lots of goals in the match. Now let's check out the results of the matches played last night.

The early kick off at the City of Manchester Stadium resulted in a comfortable victory for the home side. Manchester City's Sergio Agüero scored all the goals in that match and could even afford to miss one penalty. It was a one sided game and Agüero shined in it for sure. The visitors, Tottenham Hotspur's Federico Fazio was sent off on the 67th minute and this made things worse for them. All in all, a fantastic home victory for Manchester City and a great game for Sergio Agüero.

The Arsenal match kicked off at 10PM where they took on Hull City. Arsenal were up to a flying start when Alexis Sánchez put them ahead on the 13th minute. Hull City managed to equalized on the 18th minute but the Arsenal players were claiming that there was a foul earlier on Flamini. Poor defending allowed Hull City to score the second goal. Fortunately for Arsenal, they were able to find the equalizer in stoppage time. Although playing at home, Arsenal was unable to find ways to be creative and score goals.

Chelsea had an early lead through Oscar who scored from a wonderfully taken free kick. Chelsea was reduced to 10 men on the 40th minute as Cesar Azpilicueta was given a red card for his reckless challenge. Great exchanges of passes between Eden Hazard, Oscar and Fabregas led to the goal. Crystal Palace managed to pull a consolation goal but it wasn't enough to earn them a point. Chelsea hanged on to the lead to secure the vital 3 points.

A solid performance from the Goodison Park saw Everton claiming a comfortable victory over Aston Villa. 

When a team scores 8 goals against you, it is a total demolition. All credit to the tactics and players from the Southampton team who went out and executed the plan well. The Sunderland manager, Gus Poyet will have lots on his mind about tactics, players and answers to his board for such a display.

Alan Pardew needed a win and Newscastle managed to scrape through with a goal from Gabriel Obertan. It was a win that will help to rebuild some confidence in the players, fans and manager. 

A great Saturday I would say with lots of goals. The top teams managed to win and secure 3 points except for Arsenal who drew 2-2 at home. Liverpool and Man Utd will be playing later today so it would be interesting to see if they are able to keep up with the rest of the top teams.

EPL Match Fixtures and Predictions for 18-Oct-2014

The EPL fixtures are back again after a short break due to the International duties by the players. It was the Euro 2016 qualifiers last weekend and we definitely saw a few shocking results. Well let's get back to the EPL and stay focused for this weekend.

The early kick off by Man City vs Tottenham will be a fantastic match to kick start the weekend. Man City has secured more victories against the Spurs for the last few years and they would certainly hope that this winning streak continues. The International break sometimes might help the team but at times take away the momentum so it's pretty hard to predict right now. I would say with the home support and strength of the Man City team, they should be able to win this one with a slim victory. 

My prediction, I'll go for Man City to win this at home with the scoreline of 2-1.

The next EPL match to kick off would be at 10PM where Arsenal will play hosts to Hull City. Arsenal's last game was pretty disappointing against Chelsea where they lost 2-0 but Hull City who played at home secured a comfortable 2-0 home victory. Previous meeting between these clubs favour Arsenal much more as they have won 5 out of the 6 meetings in EPL. Arsenal has some injuries but their players from the bench should be able to come in and fill the gaps. One huge problem for Arsenal is their inability to be creative in scoring goals. They seem to rely on the same old tactics to score and its proven costly at times as their opponents defend deeply.

My prediction for this match would be Arsenal securing the victory by 2-0 in a hard fought match.

The high flying Chelsea will travel to Selhurst Park to continue their fantastic start to the EPL. Jose Mourinho would want to secure the 3 points for this match and ensure that Chelsea remains at the top. No major injuries for the Blues which means the top eleven from Chelsea will start. I don't think Crystal Palace will have the depth to stop the Blues. 

My prediction for this match would be Chelsea winning comfortably by 2-0.

That's my Saturday's prediction for tonight's EPL games. May the best team win and hopefully there will be lots of goals for us to enjoy!

Trip to Malacca - Visit to Nadeje

I believe if you are heading to Malacca, besides the historical places you will also be checking out the delicious food in that town. For now, I won't be talking about the Portuguese food or the local delights but I will talk about the famous Mille Crepe.

Nadeje would be the place that you want to head to for some yummilicious handmade Mille Crepe. Once you step into the cafe, you will be greeted by the friendly staff which is great. I was amazed by the number of selections that you could choose from to enjoy the Mille Crepe.

This is the original Mille Crepe and for those that haven't tasted it before, you should start with this first before trying others out.

Food was just too tasty and looking back at this picture now, I can't recall the exact name. All I can remember is the delicious taste of it and this is a combination of strawberry and chocolate. I managed to browse to the Nadeje website and if I'm not mistaken, this is the Strawberry Chocolate Crepe.

And the final crepe is the Cafe Mocha Crepe. All I can say is each and every crepe was delicious in their very own way. The texture and blend of taste were something very unique and different from the normal desserts that I've been eating.

This place is always packed with locals and tourists that come all the way to enjoy the delicious Mille Crepe. I would strongly recommend this to all those that haven't tried this out yet. I believe you are missing out on something good thus far.

For more details and promotions, you can refer to their Nadeje facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nadejefans or their official website at http://www.nadeje.com.my/ for all the information that you need. 

Looking back at these pictures make me hungry and wanting these desserts. For those that aren't in Malacca but in Petaling Jaya, you can head to their other branches at Sunway Giza or Dataran 3 Two Square. More details at http://www.nadeje.com.my/Contact.aspx.

KitKat 4.4 is here for Asus Zenfone 5!

I was meddling with the phone last night and decided to click on the magical update and I was surprised to see the download sign appearing on the top left of the screen. I checked again and the file size was 446MB if I'm not mistaken. Instantly, it struck my mind that KitKat 4.4 has now been released for Asus Zenfone 5.

It's still not the latest version of KitKat but at least it's 4.4.2 for now. I believe more updates will be coming my way in the near future. I have heard that with the latest KitKat version, the android phone system will be more efficient in terms of memory and more! Looking forward to test things out and hopefully all is well!

Match Review & Predictions : Chelsea vs Arsenal

For me, this would be the match of the week definitely. Both these teams remain unbeaten in the English Premier League. Chelsea sitting comfortably on the number 1 spot for now while Arsenal is lying on the 5th spot.

The last fixture where these 2 teams played on the Stamford Bridge ground, it ended with Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0. Although it might be another high scoring game but I do feel it will not be of such a thrashing again. Chelsea do not have headaches for injuries but Arsenal do have a few key names missing through injury.

Image source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Chelsea has the benefit in their attacking sense with Cesc Fabregas linking well with Diego Costa. Fabregas has provided Costa with key passes which led to goals. Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry have both excelled in the defensive area thus not allowing their opponents to score. This game will be played at home and I believe Mourinho would be going all out to attack and secure all 3 points. 

Image source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Arsenal on the other hand is not consistent with their performance in the Premier League thus far. They have been winning matches some matches and then the next match they draw against their opponents. Welbeck hit his first hattrick for the Gunners during his midweek match against Galatasaray in the Champions League. He will have to prove himself week in week out in the Premier League for consistency and goals scored.

Image source: www.telegraph.co.uk

The midfield of Mesut Oezil, Jack Wilshere and Mathieu Flamini have not been consistent too. I believe if you want to win at the Stamford Bridge, you will need the A game from all the Arsenal players. If Flamini is on his best day, he might be able to keep Costa quiet and kill off their chances of scoring. The Arsenal defense also needs attention as I believe they are adjusting to Calum Chambers who was the pre-season signing.

Image source: www.independent.co.uk

My prediction for this match would be for Chelsea to win comfortably at home with the scoreline of 2-0. I believe Diego Costa will continue his run to score goals at Stamford Bridge. The only exception to this if someone can keep Fabregas and Costa at bay then Arsenal might have a chance to secure a point here. It would be a hard fought match by both the tacticians and it would definitely be something worth watching later.

Image source: www.soccersouls.com

Cheap Investments With Huge Returns!

Depends on how you see it, many of us will require the extra cash and even more so in times like these. With the implementation of the GST next year and the recent petrol price increase, many would feel that they can do with some extra cash.

You can invest in the share market, forex, public mutual, fixed deposit and lots of other investment opportunities. Many would consider going to the casino and buying of 4D numbers as gambling but I term them as short term investment. That is because you buy a ticket with a mere RM2 and you get to know of the results later in that day itself. It's either you made money from your investment or it is a total lost.

Take for an example, you invest in the counter A in the KLSE. You would not know if the share price will go up or go down as there is a lot of factors which could influence the share price. Some news either internal or external might have a huge outcome on the share price too. With that said, it would definitely be uncertain when you invest in the share market. The same can be said about the rest of the investment types as we are unable to clearly say that it will go up and give us back a profit.

The 4D Jackpot game by Magnum cost us RM2 but if you strike Jackpot 1, the payout will be in millions. You might say that it is nearly impossible to strike Jackpot 1 but the track records from the Magnum 4D website will show you that there is a Jackpot 1 winner every month or so. Not too bad right? So what's RM2 to buy a ticket which might land you millions!

The Supreme game introduced by Sports Toto is also a game of RM2. Same concept as in you will invest a small amount and reap huge returns if you strike! What's RM2 these days anyway? You can't buy much anyway but for just RM2 you can buy hope ... the hope to strike and be a millionaire! Good luck to you all!

KitKat Update for Asus Zenfone

I have always enjoyed getting updates for my Android system and the news of KitKat 4.4 being released to the Asus mobile phone family is out great news. It is believed that the Asus ZenFone 5 (A501CG), ZenFone 6 (A601CG) as well as the ZenFone 4 (A400CG) users for China and Taiwan have started to receive this update.

Image source: gadgets.ndtv.com

The KitKat update is pretty huge and it is advisable to use WiFi to download the file which is approximately 450MB. So for the proud owners of the Asus Zenfone, do check from time to time for this update. You can browse to Settings > About > System Update > Check Update.

I checked for updates a while ago on the Asus Zenfone 5 and there was an update available. I do trust the updates that are being released to my phone as I'm comfortable and eager to have them. Well at times these update might cause a problem but I'm always lucky!

So I installed the update and the phone rebooted with the latest update from Asus. I checked again to see if I was lucky to get KitKat but I'm still stuck with the Android version 4.3. I'll check again in a month's time to see if KitKat has been released. 

Match Review : Liverpool 1 Everton 1

The first match to kick-off yesterday was Liverpool taking on their old rivals Everton. The match was played at Anfield with 44,511 fans in the stadium.

The first half ended 0-0 but there was a few incidents where a penalty should have been awarded. Liverpool's Alberto Moreno was tugging and holding on to Everton's Romelu Lukaku at the edge of the penalty box. The linesman and referee waived it off. Another incident was Raheem Sterling's shot being blocked by Everton's Gareth Barry but he blocked it off by using his hand over his head. It was a clear penalty claim but the referee shook his head. The Liverpool players were fuming since the penalty was not awarded.

Image source: www.theguardian.com

The goal that Liverpool wanted so badly came at the 65th minute from a set piece. Steven Gerrard took the free kick and hit the ball to the right post. Everton's Tim Howard could only parry the ball but it fell into his own net. A curling shot avoiding the row of Everton defenders before creeping inside the left hand post of Tim Howard. A great strike from the Liverpool captain and a goal deserved. As expected, the Anfield stadium erupted with joy celebrating the goal against their bitter rivals.

Image source: www.independent.co.uk

Everton was hanging on as Liverpool piled up the pressure after the goal. They had their magical moment at the 91st minute with a late stunner from Phil Jagielka. The ball was headed out of the penalty box by the Liverpool defender and Jagielka came running towards the loose ball. He unleashed the strike that rocketed into the roof of the Liverpool goal! It was travelling with speed and swirling to the left of Liverpool's goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. It was too good for Mignolet as his dive missed the ball by inches and he could only watch the ball fly inside his net. That strike from Jagielka was worthy of equalizing any match. 

It was all square for the teams and they had to share the points. I believe the Liverpool players will be questioning the referee's decision on the penalty claims as they would have felt they were robbed off 2 points today. Everton had their chances too but only managed to make 1 of them count. A typical derby match with some talking points from the entertaining game.

Match Review : Arsenal 1 Tottenham 1

Although some might say that it was a point earned last night, I strongly believe that it was 2 points dropped. Maybe it might have been 3 also but in the end, the scoreline was Arsenal 1 Tottenham 1.

Despite having a huge possession of the ball, Arsenal failed to convert their chances and many a times felt as though they might have lost their creativity to score. 

Image source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Tottenham took the lead on the 56th minute through Nacer Chadli. Mathieu Flamini lost his concentration on the ball and was robbed by Christian Eriksen just 40 yards outside the penalty box. Flamini and Eriksen were tugging away when Erik Lamela carried the ball forward. Lamela spotted Nacer Chadli unmarked on the right and delivered a through ball into the penalty box. The pass left both the Arsenal defenders Kieran Gibbs and Laurent Koscielny stranded and they could only watch the ball roll into the net. Credit to Nacer Chadli who controlled the ball before slotting it into the left post to the dismay of Wojciech Szczesny. I would say this was a moment of poor defending and lost of concentration off the ball which cost the goal.

There was more urgency by the Arsenal team after the goal came. They started to push forward in greater numbers and became more aggressive. The goal for them came at the 74th minute through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Image source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Alexis Sánchez picked up the loose ball on the left flank of the penalty box. He was immediately marked by 2 Tottenham defenders and as a result of this, Sánchez squared the ball to Santi Cazorla who was just outside the box. Cazorla tried his luck by shooting from just outside the box and the ball was deflected by Younes Kaboul. The loose ball bounced in front of  Danny Welbeck but he mistimed his kick thus allowing the ball to bounce towards Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. His on the volley shot directed the ball towards the roof of the net and the Arsenal stadium erupted with joy!

I feel that even though the depth of Arsenal's squad should have claimed all the 3 points, the results from last night was definitely disappointing. I think Arsenal will have to gain their focus back again to get the job done. The next match is the Champions League game where Arsenal will host Galatasaray. Good luck Gunners!