Match Review | Arsenal vs West Brom

It was the last game at the Emirates Stadium for the 2014/15 BPL season. Arsenal just needed one point to secure the third place and playing at home would definitely boost their chances of doing so.

It was indeed a great evening as The Gunners managed to secure all three points and the third place. 

Also, Theo Walcott managed to secure a hattrick this evening. Just back from a long term injury and he managed to show how valuable he is to the team. Wenger played Walcott in the middle this time around and he showed how good he was in the new position. Maybe we would be able to see him more often in this position next season.

Jack Wilshere was also on the scoresheet tonight. It is great to see the link up between the whole team to produce goals and I believe this is the trademark of the typical Arsenal goals. Wilshere has a huge gap to fill and step up to be the next key midfielder for Arsenal. 

Images source : www.arsenal.com

The BPL gets tougher each year. In my opinion, finishing third in the league is not an achievement. The fans would expect Arsenal to be challenging for the championship rather than just qualifying for the Champions League. 

Wenger was fortunate to have Alexis Sánchez in the team who emerged as the Top Scorer for the club this season. Olivier Giroud was out injured but I would have expected him to come back to the games and get himself on the score sheet. Maybe and just maybe he will need to step up and prove to us all that he is a consistent striker who is capable to putting in 25 goals every season.

It was Mesut Özil's first season in BPL and I would term it as pretty disappointing. With Mezut's skillset, I would have expected him to have more influence on the team. Let's hope he redeems himself next season.

With the FA Cup Finals in the next few hours, I would expect the Arsenal team going all out for the Cup victory. Good luck to the Gunners!

Barcelona's Best Midfielder : Xavi Hernandez

It is common for us to only remember the goal scorers as we often forget the architect behind the goal. The midfielders and the play makers are extremely important to provide the crucial pass that leads to the goal.

If you ask majority of the football fans today, their favourite footballer at the FC Barcelona would be names like Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez or Neymar. But for me, as good as the strikers are, the fundamental midfielders would be playing the key roles to ensure that the strikers up front get consistent good opportunities to score.

Barcelona has an excellent servant in the midfield section and he is no other than the great Xavi Hernandez.

Check out the tribute from the players and fans towards Xavi!

Video source : www.youtube.com

Images source : www.facebook.com/fcbarcelona

Xavi will definitely be missed and he will be leaving a very big void in the midfield for Barcelona. His great vision together with clinical passes, his work rate during the game, the freekicks and overall performance would be tough to be replaced. Sergio Busquets and Andrés Iniesta will have to step up their performance to fill up the gaps left behind.

I believe Barcelona might be going to the transfer market for some talent with big names like Paul Pogba amongst the few shortlisted. We will definitely know their decision in the coming weeks when the transfer market is active again.

Thank you Xavi for all the years at Barcelona! You will be truly missed as you are irreplaceable! After 17 seasons with the club and winning 23 trophies, Xavi has made a name for himself and he earned a grand exit to the Qatar side Al Sadd. All the best Xavi!

Crazy Traffic!

These days I am forced to drive to work for some reasons and I am just curious how would the other drivers on the road feel during peak hours. The traffic in Kuala Lumpur is extremely bad.

As for me, I am glad that I have installed Waze on my smartphone. Waze accompanies me to work daily and guides me through the traffic conditions that I come across. Waze is available for download on the android, iOS and Windows platforms. You should try it out and maybe your journey to work daily will be much easier moving forward.

I would like to hear from you too about how you pass time in the bad traffic daily. I spend around 1 hour 15 minutes to get to work daily. If there is a thunderstorm or flash flood, God knows how long I will be stuck in the traffic. Worse still if you need to pee and you are at a stand still for the last 30 minutes! It is always a nightmare for sure. Let us hope that with the extension of the train system, there will be less congestion on the highway and roads.

Digi | Reload and win every day!

It's always good to know that there's prizes to be won! Everybody loves to win something and Digi is doing just that in the month of May 2015!

Image source : www.digi.com.my

And what goodies would you be able to get? Daily 20x smartphones, weekly 200x tablets and 2x Ford Ranger as the grand prizes. With a minimum reload of RM10, you could walk away with a smartphone, tablet or even a Ford Ranger!

Image source : www.digi.com.my

You could join in this contest even though you are not a Digi user yet. All you have to do is to subscribe to the prepaid plans and you could stand a chance to win for sure.

Image source : www.digi.com.my

So reload and win daily! There's no limit for the number of prizes that you could win so reload more to stand a higher chance to win more prizes!

Image source : www.digi.com.my

Good luck and may you be a winner from this contest!

Spanish La Liga Top Spots - Barcelona & Real Madrid

The Spanish La Liga fight to be the Champion for 2014/15 continues with both teams still capable of being crowned as Champion! Barcelona visited Cordoba at the El Arcángel Stadium while Real Madrid visited Sevilla at the R. Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium. Both teams had to continue winning as the gap between them is only 2 points. Both teams managed to keep up with the pressure and they won their games.

Image source : www.fcbarcelona.com

It was a battle between first vs last placing in the Spanish La Liga and Barcelona had no troubles tearing down the defense. The usual suspects were the goalscorers and Luis Suarez had a night to remember with his hattrick. 

Image source : www.livescore.com

And we can see all smiles from the Barcelona players and who can blame them for their magnificent team effort against Cordoba.

Image source : www.fcbarcelona.com

Barcelona will play host to Real Sociedad at Camp Nou in their next match on May 10. Real Sociedad is currently lying at the 11th spot with 35 games played. There isn't much for them to play for and it might be in Barcelona's advantage when they meet them. I believe it would be another high scoring game at Camp Nou once more!

Image source : www.realmadrid.com

Real Madrid who is just 2 points behind Barcelona had a nervy night out but they managed to overcome all the odds to secure the victory against Sevilla. Real Madrid's manager Carlo Ancelotti was definitely pleased with the efforts from Cristiano Ronaldo who scored a hattrick on Sunday morning to keep their title hopes alive!

Image source : www.realmadrid.com

What else can be said of Cristiano Ronaldo as his treble takes him to 42 goals scored in the La Liga this season after playing for 32 matches. That would also mean that Cristiano Ronaldo scores 40% of the total amount of goals scored by the team which is 105 thus far.

Image source : www.realmadrid.com

Image source : www.livescore.com

It was great to see Gareth Bale back from injury and the introduction of the Welsh star created the vital assist for Cristiano Ronaldo on the 68th minute. They had to hang on to their lead for a nervy final 11 minutes. This victory still keeps in pace to win the Spanish La Liga title if Barcelona slips as the difference is only 2 points with 3 games to play.

Real Madrid will play host to Valencia at their home stadium, Santiago Bernabeu. Valencia are currently lying at the fourth spot and they are equal on points with Sevilla as they all challenge for the final spot to qualify for Champions League. Real Madrid will not have an easy game but they should be fortunate to know they have more attacking options with Gareth Bale. 

From previous meetings, it has always been a tough game for both teams and the game can be decided by just the single goal. My prediction on this would be Real Madrid edging this contest with a 2-1 victory. 

Walking your way to good health

As much as we would like to run, jog or enjoy a fitness workout, not everyone is fit enough or might be suffering from some other kind of sickness or pain which might prevent them to do so. Most of us would still be able to enjoy a walk around our neighbourhood which is equally effective if you walk the right number of steps.

According to some websites that I've been reading from, the number of steps that we should be achieving per day ranges from at least 8,000 steps to 10,000 steps. Well these figures aren't plug out of the air but the researchers have found some benefits if we were able to reach that many steps per day.

Image source : www.active.com

One study found that women who increased their step count to nearly 10,000 steps a day reduced their blood pressure after 24 weeks. Another study of overweight women found that walking 10,000 steps a day improved their glucose levels.

Walking 10,000 steps a day is not an official recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, the agency recommends adults engage in 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking. If you normally walk about 5,000 steps a day, getting in an extra 30-minute, brisk walk into your day would take you to about 8,000 steps. 

So how would you know how many steps have you walked per day? That's pretty easy. You can head out to your local pharmacy and purchase the pedometer. These devices are pretty cheap and you should be able to purchase them for less than RM100.

Image source : blog.foodnetwork.com

Get up and get started today! Walk your way to good health and enjoy a healthy lifestyle!