METRO NAIJA

Friday, 1 January 2016

Man Utd title hopes are far from over, insists Jones

Phil Jones says Manchester United are still well in the race to win this season's Premier League title.

Manchester United defender Phil Jones believes his side's Premier League title hopes are far from over despite their recent poor form.

Louis van Gaal's men have failed to win in six league matches and drew 0-0 at home to Chelsea last time out.

Those results have left United sixth in the table and nine points behind joint-leaders Arsenal and Leicester City ahead of Saturday's home match against Swansea City, but Jones insists they can still finish top of the pile.

"It is strange but the table shows that literally anyone can win the league this season," the 23-year-old said to MUTV.

"Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester, [Manchester] City, ourselves, Tottenham, Stoke, Watford - nobody seems to want to win it.

"It only takes a good run of five, six, seven games and getting a few wins and it soon turns around.

"We are disappointed with the way we have played over the past few games, although we did well against Chelsea, but by no means are we out of [the title race].

"If we can put a few wins together we will be right back up there."

Odion Ighalo's exploits in front of goal have led to reported interest from Atletico Madrid, but the striker is planning to stay at Watford.

In-form Watford striker Odion Ighalo insists he has no intention of departing Vicarage Road during the January transfer window.

Ighalo's 30 goals were more than any other player in the English Football League during 2015 and his return of 14 in the Premier League this season is bettered only by Jamie Vardy and Romelu Lukaku.

The Nigeria international's form has led to reported interest from elsewhere, with La Liga side Atletico Madrid thought to be contemplating a move.

Captain Troy Deeney spoke of his belief that Ighalo will reject advances from other teams earlier this week and Ighalo has himself moved to quell the speculation.

"I want to finish the season strongly with Watford and prove that we have a good bunch of players here," he told BBC Sport.

"When the focus is on a strong finish, transfer talk will not get to you.

"I haven't really bothered myself about statistics because I've always had my feet on the ground and I never forget where I come from.

"I am just focused on getting better, doing things right on the pitch and being myself on the pitch."

Ighalo was on target as Watford were beaten by an agonising last-minute goal in a 2-1 defeat against Tottenham last time out.

And he is now focused on bouncing back against high-flyers Manchester City on Saturday.

"We didn't get the result we deserved against Tottenham but we want to put that right against Man City - that's what is in front of me right now," he added.

"It's a new year in front of our fans, I want to keep scoring for my team and fight hard alongside my team-mates."

Kevin De Bruyne thinks he would have succeeded at Chelsea had they paid as much money for him as Manchester City did.

Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne feels he would have had a better chance of succeeding at Chelsea had the Stamford Bridge side paid big money for him.

The Belgium international joined Chelsea from Genk in January 2012 for a transfer fee in the region of £7 million, but eventually left the club on a permanent basis for Wolfsburg in 2014 after failing to secure regular first-team action.

He quickly became a key figure at the Bundesliga outfit and earned himself a big-money move to City at the start of this season, where he has wasted no time making a name for himself.

De Bruyne feels his £55m pricetag has been beneficial to him rather than a hindrance and thinks things could have panned out differently at Chelsea had he arrived on the back of mega-money transfer.

"It makes a huge difference [whether a club paid a lot of money for you]," De Bruyne told La Derniere Heure.

"I would have played more at Chelsea had they paid as much for me as City did. That's the way things work in this business."

De Bruyne has quickly become an integral part of Manuel Pellegrini's side and is loving life at the Etihad stadium.

"Everything has gone really well for me. It normally takes a bit of time to adapt to your new surroundings, but I immediately got to play a lot due to injuries and that sped things up a bit," the 24-year-old added.

"It's great to play for an attacking team like City. It gives me more space. If I didn't play well at Wolfsburg, the team struggled as well. That's not the case here at City.

"We have a lot of stars, but everyone acts normal. There are no groups within the team, we all get along very well. It's hard to compare this group to that of Chelsea. Maybe we are more united."

The attacking midfielder won the Belgian league title with Genk in 2010-11, but has yet to taste success in the Premier League and he hopes to change that feat in 2015-16.

"The Premier League title is one of our main objectives. Most of my team-mates have already won the league before with City, but not me," De Bruyne said.

"The Champions League is something else. Anything can happen there. The Premier League title is the result of consistent performances."

Marc Albrighton admits winning the Premier League would be "unbelievable" but Claudio Ranieri still refuses to contemplate the prospect.

Not content with Leicester City's astonishing start to the season, Foxes winger Marc Albrighton is dreaming of winning the Premier League this season.

The Foxes, who were pre-season relegation candidates, are second in the table and behind leaders Arsenal only on goal difference after a stunning first half of the season.

Leicester look to continue their success when the second half of their league campaign kicks off with a home game against AFC Bournemouth on Saturday and Albrighton is aiming high.

Asked what one thing he would choose to have in football during 2016, he told BT Sport: "To win the Premier League.

"For obvious reasons it would be unbelievable. We will wait and see what happens.

"I have never been up there at the top of the table at this stage of the season with any team so I am enjoying every minute of it and long may it continue."

Manager Claudio Ranieri, though, remains reluctant to contemplate the possibility of winning the title, insisting that remains a target for bigger clubs than Leicester.

The 64-year-old said: "You would love it if I said 'we are champions' but no, I say 'we want to beat Bournemouth'.

"At the beginning of last season we were only talking about relegation, this season it is top of the league. So it is important to maintain the right balance.

"We can say 'start to win the title' but it is not our job, our job is to win the next match.

"The other [clubs'] jobs are to win the title. We have to fight for the next match and we want to win. That is our philosophy."

Manchester City will face a Watford side full of confidence when they head to Vicarage Road on Saturday, according to Valon Behrami.

Valon Behrami is confident of getting a result against Manchester City after Watford's performances against Chelsea and Tottenham over the Christmas period left them in high spirits.

Quique Sanchez Flores' men lie ninth in the Premier League table and, although they only took a single point from their tough festive fixtures, they continued to impress.

Reigning champions Chelsea, who remarkably lie nine points shy of Watford in 14th, were held to a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day.

Two days later, following a red card for Nathan Ake, Son Heung-min flicked a late winner for Spurs to sink the 10-man hosts 2-1.

Watford return to Vicarage Road on Saturday, when victory would close them to within four points of title-chasing City who have not won on their travels in the Premier League since September.

"We know that at home we have the quality to get a good result, and if we keep working like this we can be more lucky than we were in our last game," Behrami told Hornets Player.

"We've just played against two great teams but you could see no difference. Chelsea was a really good game and we took a risk with the penalty, but luckily they didn't score, and against Tottenham we made a great effort with 10 against 11, but in the end it was unlucky what happened.

"We'll just keep going with the same mentality, and we are positive for the next game."

City will be the first team to play Watford twice in the Premier League this season, having registered a 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium in August.

Former West Ham midfielder Behrami concedes his team-mates may find the going tougher during the second half of the campaign against teams now wise to their strengths and capabilities.

"It is more difficult because now the teams start to know us, they start to see that we have a great team, but we are working hard to improve every day and to make sure we don't make any mistakes," he added.

"We are in a good situation, the team is performing very well, and we are going to try and keep going like this."

Premier League club AFC Bournemouth have signed Roma forward Juan Iturbe on loan until the end of the 2015-16 season.

Roma forward Juan Iturbe has signed for AFC Bournemouth on loan until the end of the season, the Premier League club have confirmed.

The move is subject to ratification by the Football Association and the granting of a work permit, and Bournemouth retain the option to make Iturbe's switch permanent for an undisclosed fee at the end of the campaign.

The 22-year-old, who was heavily linked with a move to Bournemouth's Premier League rivals Watford, trained with his new team-mates for the first time on Friday but will not be eligible for Saturday's trip to Leicester City.

Slaven Bilic believes West Ham star Dimitri Payet is in the same bracket as Mesut Ozil with the Frenchman set to return from injury.

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic believes Dimitri Payet is on a par with Arsenal attacker Mesut Ozil.

The Germany international has been one of the stars of the Premier League so far this campaign and already has 16 assists in 18 league appearances, eight more than Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne.

Payet, meanwhile, has provided three goals in 12 appearances, while also netting five times himself.

The Frenchman has missed West Ham's last seven league games due to injury, but recently resumed squad training and is expected to make his comeback in Saturday's home game versus Liverpool.

Bilic has high expectations of Payet ahead of his return and has even gone as far as to liken him to the in-form Ozil.

"I rate Dimitri on the same level as Ozil," the West Ham manager told reporters.

"He makes other players better. He creates space for others, he creates chances, he can take three or four players out of the game.

"He adapted immediately to the club and the players recognised his ability straight away.

"We'll have to see how much he can participate but his return is a great boost for us of course. I think he'll be involved for the squad for Liverpool."

The Paris terror attacks were a "nightmare" scenario that left Paris Saint-Germain players "scared", says defender Thiago Silva.

Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva has reflected on the tough time endured in the French capital following November's terror attacks.

Multiple terrorist strikes across Paris on November 13, including suicide bombers targeting the international friendly between France and Germany at the Stade de France, left 130 people dead.

Speaking to Omnisport, Brazil star Thiago SIlva explained that the aftermath of the atrocities were difficult for team-mates such as Blaise Matuidi – who played against Germany – and those like himself who were far away on international duty at the time.

"It was difficult for everybody," he said. "Especially because many players were on international duty.

"Many players were at Stade de France and were playing there. Blaise told me that it was a nightmare scenario.

"A lot of negative things happened but we tried to stay calm and give our support to the families who had lost someone.

"After that, even if we were playing for our countries, Pocho [Ezequiel Lavezzi], [Angel] Di Maria, David Luiz, they were scared to come back here and be in this difficult situation.

"What happened is unreal. But we always try to give our best, for everybody, especially when we play at Parc des Princes, there is always a fantastic atmosphere.

"We try to give our best on the pitch to give joy to everybody."

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis used an unusual metaphor to describe the club's methods in the January transfer window.

Tony Pulis says West Brom are likely to have to wait until the end of the January window to pick up the "crumbs" in the transfer market.

Chairman Jeremy Peace is thought to be willing to allow head coach Pulis to bring in additions, but only if players are moved off the wage bill first.

Pulis is hopeful reinforcements can brought in to The Hawthorns, although he is not expecting quick activity.

"If we move people out, I'm hoping we get a little bit of money to reinvest, because we need to," Pulis told BBC West Midlands.

"But we have to move people out before we can move people in. The chairman showed in the last window that, unless a deal is right, he won't do it.

"We're not in a position where we can spend millions blowing everyone out of the water, where we can go out and offer people £100,000 a week.

"We're sat on the top table but we feed off the crumbs. You have to understand that.

"You have to wait for those crumbs to drop off the table and that hopefully you're in the right place at the right time to pick them up.

"And that doesn't happen at the start of a meal. That usually happens at the end of the meal."