Szczesny and Mannone set to battle it out for the top spot

The 24-year old Mannone is not giving up his place in the team anytime soon.

A few months ago, he found himself at a lower league club trying to find his way as a goalkeeper. Now, he appears to be first choice for Arsenal after a few impressive displays.

Who were you reading about there? Up until a few weeks ago, this would have illustrated Polish goalkeeper Wojchiech Szczesny's rise from Brentford on loan to being first-choice for one of the Premier League's better teams. However, a certain Italian seems to be usurping the Pole after a series of solid performances. 

It was not long ago that he was out at Hull on loan, finding himself below Szczesny and Lukas Fabianski in the pecking order, but ever since Arsenal suffered a double-stroke of bad luck, losing both keepers to injuries, Vito Mannone has been impressing against difficult opposition such as Liverpool (yes, really) and Manchester City. 

And this week Arsene Wenger gave the biggest hint yet that Mannone may even go on to wrangle the top spot from Szczesny. After all, the apparent No.1 didn't do himself any favours against Southampton when he returned for one game from injury, with the only Southampton goal being fully his fault. 

1st choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is also relatively inexperienced, and he didn't cover himself in glory against Southampton.

There has been a lot of criticism surrounding Szczesny, not least because he finished last season with the worst saves-to-shots ratio in the Premier League, prompting some rumour mills to suggest that Arsenal could be in the market for France captain Hugo Lloris. As it turned out, Lloris made his way to another North London team, Spurs, and Szczesny could breath easy. As it happens, the Frenchman is also fighting a battle to replace Brad Friedel as No.1 this season. Szczesny's sending-off against Greece in the Euros for Poland didn't exactly help him either, leading to the Pole missing the rest of Poland's tournament. 

But Vito Mannone is not without his detractors. Let's not forget that both keepers are relatively inexperienced, and the goal that the Italian conceded to Manchester City last week showed a huge amount of naivety from all the Arsenal team concerned, but especially Mannone, who ran out unnecesarily and tried to punch the ball, missing it completely. Indeed, he is one in a long line of Arsenal players who are playing above and beyond their ability in recent weeks, but will surely be found out in some areas of their game in the future, such as Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson, who have matured rapidly.

Whatever the case, Szczesny is still Number 1, and I have rated him for a long time. He may be inconsistent and inexperienced, but moments such as these only highlight his potential. He is one of the most agile goalkeepers in the Premier League, and has an impressive Youtube showreel.  For the moment, he is No.1 but he will have to be on his toes (literally!) next time he is selected to prove that he is better than Vito Mannone. 

By Tomas 

The Battle of the Bundesliga

The club where nobody's position is safe, and anyone can replace anyone, as Mario Gomez will now know after watching Mario Mandzukic (above).

FC Hollywood always win the league. And when they miss out on it one year, they always, win it the following year. Always.

Until recently, the above statement was true. Since 1995/6 when Borussia Dortmund won the title, FC Hollywood (or, as they are more commonly know, Bayern Munich,) have won the Bundesliga 9 times. And in every case when the team formed of superstars have not been dominant in the league, Die Roten have won the league next time round...this was true, until last year that is. Dortmund's youthful team, famed for its skilled, pacey, fluid midfield triumphed, under the guidance of acclaimed Jurgen Klopp, broke the trend of Bayern's dominance. It would be foolish, incorrect even, to say that Bayern are the only team to win the Bundesliga. In the last 10 years alone, 5 different teams have lifted the iconic dish, more teams have won the top division in Germany in that period, than teams in the Premier League, Serie and, of course, Spain. However, none of Werder Bremen, Stuttgart or Wolfsburg ever retained the trophy. Hollywood always bounced back to bite them in the rear. 

And so, it was largely expected that Bayern, now under the guidance of experienced and proven Maestro, Juup Heynckes, would demolish Dortmund in the league. However, such an event did not occur. Dortmund won fairly comfortably in the league, and smashed Bayern in the Pokal final. They even fended off Bayern in the transfer market, securing the signing of Gladbach revelation Marco Reus, despite public interest from Die Bayern, a coup which shocked Bayern to its core, and was previously unheard of. In order to replace this disappointment with optimism, Bayern decided to announce a 'big-money signing' on its Facebook page...it turned out it was a 'twelfth man', a picture of all the faces of Bayern fans...a nice gesture? Or a massive let down, which enraged Bayern fans everywhere? You decide.

By the end of the season, Bayern had been in two finals, and had a crucial title-deciding game against Dortmund in the league. They lost all three. This was, simply, not good enough. So Heynckes and the board moved quickly to strengthen the squad. Exciting prospect Xherdan Shaqiri put pen to paper, and supreme strikers Mario Mandzuckic and Claudio Pizarro were also signed. Tom Starke and Dante, were both useful signings...and, just to tidy things up, Spanish starlet Javi Martinez was secured for a fee in the region 40 million Euros.

So the fans were appeased, and Bayern had shown they were still the major players in the transfer market. The start of the season loomed, but before that was the small matter of the Super Cup...against Dortmund. Bayern came from behind to win 2-1, a win and a trophy, which surely gave a team prone to losing in finals, restored confidence. So, the league? How would Bayern cope? Well, the scores say it all. Furth 0-3 Bayern, Bayern 6-1 Stuttgart, Bayern 3-1 Mainz and Schalke 0-2 Bayern. A decent start, I'm sure you'll agree, with Muller top of the scorer charts, and with Mandzukic and Kroos tied for second. Oh, and they're top of the league too, already five points ahead of Dortmund. 

There is a common theory amongst successful managers, with Jose Mourinho being part of the group, that you should stay at a winning club for two years, by the third year, you will have exhausted your motivation and tactics on the players, and unless new-blood is introduced on a large scale, the team won't succeed. It is what happened at Inter when Jose left, and, to a lesser extent, at Chelsea. Will Dortmund be able to triumph for a third year in a row, whilst also trying to make the mark on the Champions League? The answer, in my opinion: probably not. One thing is for sure though, Bayern will be incredibly difficult to stop.

Mancini missing the mark?

Anxious to get back to a game of Football Manager. 

It's a question often asked of some of the best managers at the best clubs. Would they be able to cut it at clubs with a finite supply of transfer funds and a strict wage budget- clubs such as Wolves and Stoke, as oppose to Real Madrid and Manchester City? Today we examine a prime target for this kind of questioning, the glossy-haired but perhaps underachieving Roberto Mancini of Manchester City. Previously, Mancini has rescued success in the darkest of situations, namely at Fiorentina, where he won the Coppa Italia whilst they were in a dire financial situation, but also Lazio, who are not exactly blessed with funds. Now he finds himself in the unique position of having gone from 'rags to riches' as it were, first with Inter and now with one of the world's richest clubs- Manchester City. Has he traded overachieving for underachieving? 

On the final day of the Premier League season, Aguero slotted home to give Man City the title after a gut-wrenching 90 minutes. The crowd went wild and so too Roberto Mancini, but later when he would come to examine the match video, something would surely be niggling away in the back of his mind. Shouldn't City have won the title more convincingly? There were times when they thought they had thrown it away. The Emirates where Mario Balotelli lost his temper. The hard-fought loss against Swansea. Perhaps too early on, but when Man City lost their first game of the season to... Ji Dong-Won's Sunderland. Indeed, Mancini's tactics have been often criticised.

There were even grumblings the season before, when City finished miraculously third, after a spectacular collapse from Arsenal in the final stages. With the amount of money that the Sheikh had poured into Man City, they should have easily made it into the Champions League by this stage. What many people don't realise, is that those dying moments of the QPR game in which City turned it around saved Mancini's job.

It would have represented an almighty turnaround in fortune if Mancini hadn't won the League, from when City had been crusing to when it looked as if United would win the title. His record in the Champions League is questionable with Italian clubs, and for City their 2012-13 debut in Europe's top competition ended in heartbreak as they threw away a 2-1 lead at the Bernabeu to lose 3-2 in what was a clash of the titans.

But there are, inevitably, some positives to Mancini's reign. Otherwise, why would the Chairman have sacked such an experienced Premier League manager as Mark Hughes and replace him with this stylish Italian? His man-management skills have come in handy often. Tevez's refusal to come off the bench against Bayern Munich is well-documented, but the way that Mancini handled the situation is often understated. Now back firing in goals at the Etihad, supporters are once again singing the Argentine's name. It is overlooked that Mancini was the one that got a whole squad of 'mercenaries' dancing to the same tune just in time to pip United to the post, and nobody can doubt they were deserving winners.

The problems still linger, especially with City not having kept a clean sheet as of yet in the Premier League or Champions League, but for now Man City persist with Roberto Mancini. We can only hope that one day Mancini will switch on his computer and play a game of Football Manager as Stoke City. We'd love to see it happen, Roberto. 

By Tomas