EPL Daily 12.18: Man City gets good news, not so for many other EPL teams today

Is Nery Castillo the missing piece for Sven Goran-Eriksson and Manchester City? The pacy and tenacious winger has joined the Blues on a one year loan from Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. With Castillo and Elano – both Copa America 2007 standouts – I can’t imagine that Eriksson’s Citeh will be falling much lower than 4th place in the standings. Unless, of course, Castillo steals a PK from Elano, prompting an all-out inter-squad brawl. That didn’t exactly happen, but it was close enough…Castillo’s last spat was on field, in-match with Claudio Lucarelli over a PK. I’m expecting nothing but good to come of this though….

Two Carling Cup Quarterfinals today: Manchester City vs. Tottenham; Arsenal vs. Blackburn (Tottenham is already up 1-0, in the 20th minute as of 3:00pm est).

Bunch of Negative Headlines:

Liverpool downgrades stadium plan.

Manchester United party to be investigated after rape claims.

John Terry injured. Leon Osman injured.

EPL Daily 10.17: Goodbye Sammy Lee; Terry out; Brad Guzan targeted by Gunners?

Less than a year after taking over at Bolton, Sammy Lee has parted ways with the Wanderers after just 9 EPL games in charge. Pretty easy to see why – when you have Nicolas Anelka, Kevin Nolan, Gary Speed, El-Hadji Diouf at your disposal and somehow ALL are underperforming at the moment, it is time to move on. Mutual consent is the word on the street and no word on the replacement as of yet. Bolton – in European contention last season at this time – sits right above league whipping boys Derby. Did anybody else think Lee’s appointment was a bit of a hasty one to begin with? He has a superb knowledge of the game, but can’t man-manage worth crap. It could be that he was faced with big egos like Anelka and Diouf from the get-go, but almost every EPL manager has to deal with that. Wonder where he’ll end up next.

John Terry is out against Russia for England’s second-to-last Euro 2008 Qualifier. Wayne Rooney has stated that not qualifying for Euro 2008 would be devastating and Terry’s injury certainly doesn’t help, but injury problems have plagued England as of late and yet they have still come up with results. A win versus Russia potentially guarantees a qualification and without Terry – Sol Campbell comes in. Don’t mean to jinx anybody, but England has been looking good and were without Terry against Estonia. Therefore, if the offense is firing – Campbell is more than capable of shoring up an ailing defense.

Apparently, Chiva USA’s Brad Guzan is being scouted by Arsenal and it looks like he is at the top of their keeper shortlist with a goalkeeper at 30 and 38 years old. Lehmann is ready to go and Almunia has been decent lately, but Guzan – 23 years old – would be well-suited for a career in the EPL and as many have seen, although he has been improving, Guzan has only begun to scratch the surface of his potential. At 6’4″, 215 lbs., Guzan possesses the size to be a goalkeeper but it’s his ‘wise beyond the years’ knowledge of the game that is extremely appealing to EPL scouts. An American in goal at Arsenal? That would cover three of the Big Four – Friedel at Liverpool, Howard at Man Utd, and Guzan?? What do you think of him? Does Guzan have the tools to make it across-the-pond? Other news from the Emirates is that the Gunners have launched a $20 million bid for the apparently unsettled Olympique Lyonnais striker Hatem Ben Arfa (Karim Benzema stealing all your thunder)?