Klopp and Wenger in search of lost flow…See full details

Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp / AFP PHOTO / Paul ELLIS /

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Liverpool counterpart Jurgen Klopp have their backs to the wall as their teams go in search of restorative victories in the Premier League this weekend.

Arsenal have fallen 12 points off the pace after successive losses against Watford and leaders Chelsea, while Liverpool are a point further back following a dismal sequence of five league games without victory.

Klopp’s men entertain second-place Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Saturday and Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum is hopeful they will rise to the occasion.

“To be fair, in the big games it’s been the best kind of football we’ve played this season, so I think it’s easier for everyone to perform in those kind of games,” he told the Liverpool website.

“Sometimes you’re in a flow and sometimes not. We’re in a situation where we’re not in a flow, but we must have confidence and faith we can change it.

“We showed it against Chelsea (in a 1-1 draw last month), but we have to show that against other teams we’re playing against.”

Liverpool, who have dropped out of the top four, lost 2-0 at third-bottom Hull City last weekend, following previous losses against Bournemouth, Burnley and Swansea City.

But they have a strong record against other sides in the top six, having taken 13 points from a possible 21 in matches against the other teams in the Champions League mix.

Following a disappointing 0-0 draw at strugglers Sunderland, Tottenham reasserted their title credentials with a narrow 1-0 home win over Middlesbrough last weekend.

Spurs went through a slump of their own in October and November, winning just once in 10 outings in all competitions, but have won 11 of their 14 matches since.

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, like Klopp, favours a high-energy, high-pressing style of football and he has backed the German to come through his team’s current slump.

“I cannot speak for another coach, but Klopp with his experience, he is clever like other managers to provide good balance,” Pochettino said.

“If you win, you are a genius; if you don’t win, you are criticised. You need to be natural, spontaneous and believe in the way you play, use your methods.

“It’s an easy answer: only work in the way you believe you can achieve big things.”

– Arsenal ‘in a fight’ –
Arsenal’s title hopes appeared to be ended for another season by last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at Chelsea, which left Wenger’s side below Spurs and Manchester City in fourth place.

Amid mounting dissent within Arsenal’s fanbase, Wenger has urged everyone associated with the club to rally behind his team ahead of Saturday’s home game against Marco Silva’s revitalised Hull.

“You cannot be a fan until last Tuesday (when Arsenal lost 2-1 at home to Watford) and not be a fan any more and not be behind the team this Saturday. It doesn’t make sense,” Wenger said.

“All the other clubs, everywhere we fight with Man United, Man City, Liverpool, they have big expectations as well and big histories.

“We are in a fight there. We absolutely have to be united or we have no chance to do it.”

With Chelsea not tackling Burnley at Turf Moor until Sunday, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs all have opportunities to eat into their advantage.

But with 16 wins from their last 18 league games, there appears to be no stopping the leaders and head coach Antonio Conte has urged his side to maintain their current momentum.

“Now we are on top of the table, but this league is very tough,” Conte told BBC Sport.

“For me now it’s important to continue to push and to exploit this momentum. If you send the right signal for us and not for the other opponents, it’s very important.”

Manchester United will be hoping for slip-ups from their rivals ahead of their home game with Watford, having closed to within two points of the top four by winning 3-0 at Leicester City last weekend.

Buoyed by a timely FA Cup win over Derby County in mid-week, ailing champions Leicester face a crunch clash at Swansea, with both teams a solitary point above the relegation zone.

Fixtures

Saturday (1500 GMT unless otherwise stated):

Arsenal v Hull (1230 GMT), Liverpool v Tottenham (1730 GMT), Middlesbrough v Everton, Manchester United v Watford, Stoke v Crystal Palace, Sunderland v Southampton, West Ham v West Brom

Sunday:

Burnley v Chelsea (1330 GMT), Swansea v Leicester (1600 GMT)

Monday (2000 GMT):

Bournemouth v Manchester City

Throwback: Read the Shocking Thing Muhammadu Buhari Told the Senate When Musa Yar’dua was Sick

This report dates back at 2010 when President Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was sick.

President Buhari advocacted for the impeachment of the former Katsina governor in his message to the Senate.

Read the report below:

Former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has declared that the only solution to present political uncertainty in the country is for the National Assembly to set machineries in motion for the impeachment of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

The 2003 and 2007 presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) made the declaration yesterday while addressing members of the National Unity Forum (NUF) which had visited him in Kaduna.

The forum led by Alhaji Maigida Musa Abdu had from last week began visiting notable northern leaders to seek their opinions on how best to handle the Yar’Adua mess and at the same time ensuring that the region does not lose out completely in the power equation, especially as the country approaches 2011.

For instance, when it met with former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf, last week, the former police boss seized the occasion to call on the north to ensure that it produced ‘credible and acceptable replacement’ for Yar’Adua in 2011 presidential election.

Incidentally, like Buhari, the former police boss is also from Katsina State, like Yar’Adua. And Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that until the president took ill, Dikko was one of his honorary advisers.

But unlike Dikko, Buhari was more forthcoming when he further said the Federal Executive Council must save the nation from the current agony by declaring the president incapacitated to pave the way for his impeachment.

He further argued that Nigeria, as a nation, should not have been in the present situation if the provisions of the constitution were respected by the leadership of the country, insisting that the constitution has specific provisions on how an ailing president could be succeeded, even as he noted that the refusal by the FEC to respect and apply the constitutional provisions had led to the present crisis in the country.

In an apparent reference to the resolution passed by the National Assembly, which empowered Goodluck Jonathan to function as an acting president, the former head of state noted that it was wrong to introduce extra-constitutional measures to tackle problems already addressed by the constitution.

To this end, he stressed that the joy of political expediency would never replace clear laid out regulations spelt out by the laws of the land, adding that ‘political expediency won’t remedy this kind of problem because if the FEC had acted in accordance with the constitution by invoking the necessary sections to declare the president incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation.

‘As you can see, adopting extra-constitutional measures have not addressed the problem. If it had, we would not have been subjected to the raging debates and controversy going on. So we must go back to the constitution. The exco must do the right thing because once we start moving away from the constitution, then we are inviting anarchy,’ Buhari added.

He also called on the acting president to make electoral reform the priority of his government, saying that he has a feeling Nigerians would stand up for the truth and reject any imposition, or any government that wins election through ‘unfair’ means in 2011.

While maintaining that unless free and fair polls are conducted next year, both the polity and the country would not be stabilized, the former military leader further said the first measure of commitment to the electoral reform agenda was to reorganize INEC and make it more effective.

He said INEC, as presently constituted, could not give Nigerians what they need in 2011, given what happened during the recent governorship elections in Anambra State.

Two suspected female suicide bombers arrested in Maiduguri (Read full details)

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Borno Command, on Tuesday intercepted two female suicide bombers, who tried to ram into motorists at the NNPC Mega Station along Damboa Road, Maiduguri.

The Commandant of the corps, Ibrahim Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Tuesday that the incident occurred at about 6.45 a.m.

“Our personnel at the NNPC station intercepted two female suicide bombers, who were targeting motorists on the long queue at the NNPC mega petrol station at about 6.45 a.m.

“One of the bombers got scared and threw her bomb and was instantly arrested, while the other one started running after people with her explosive but luckily, she was shot on the leg by our personnel after he chased her to a safe place.

“We have deployed our Anti-Bomb Squad to the area,” Abdullahi said.

The commandant said that the few insurgents remaining were looking for soft targets where they could cause havoc and appealed to all residents in Borno to be on alert and vigilant.

Nasty C – Verge ft. Tellaman [Mp3 + Lyrics]

Nasty C continues his 2017 music spree this time by releasing Verge, featuring singer Tellaman.

Verge becomes Nasty C’s third release this month following NDA and Golden. Listen to his latest offering below…

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