Norwich City striker James Vaughan out for months with knee injury

 

Vaughan's three appearances for Norwich have all come from the bench 

 

Norwich City manager Paul Lambert says striker James Vaughan will be out for "three or four" months after suffering a knee injury.

The 23-year-old hobbled out of Monday's 2-1 win over Sunderland, just 10 minutes after coming off the bench.
"He's going to be out for about 16 weeks or so, it's a blow for him and us," Lambert told BBC Radio Norfolk.
The Scot also confirmed midfielder Korey Smith will be out until next year with an ankle injury.

VAUGHAN IN THE WARS

• September 2005: Operation to fix knee ligament injury while at Everton
• April 2007: Suffers severed artery in leg
• August 2007: Dislocates shoulder
• March 2008: Undergoes knee surgery
• November 2008: Has more work done on troublesome knee
• October 2009: Loan spell at Derby cut short by injury
• May 2011: Ruled out of the start of Norwich's season with knee injury
• September 2011: Receives plastic surgery on cut lip
• September 2011: Has another knee injury after hobbling out win over Sunderland

Meanwhile, defender Zak Whitbread will not recover from a hamstring problem in time to feature at Manchester United on Saturday.
Vaughan, who has made three appearances for Norwich since joining from Everton in May, said on social networking site Twitter: "So not good news on my knee, I will be out for a few months!
"I'm absolutely gutted but I will work hard and make sure I come back stronger!"
Lambert added: "He had an operation the other day, his meniscus [cartilage in the knee] has been repaired.
"He was shattered the other night and you can understand why, because he battled really hard to come back and every injury he's getting seems to be a long one."
Injuries blighted Vaughan's time at Goodison Park, restricting him to only eight Premier League starts in six years.
He was forced to miss the start of the current campaign with a separate knee injury and has had three previous operations across both of the joints.

Dalglish returns to where he left off

The last time Kenny Dalglish stood in the Goodison Park dugout as Liverpool manager, he knew he was only days away from leaving a job that would ultimately take 20 years to get back.
Dalglish watched impassively as Liverpool carelessly cast aside the lead four times to draw in an FA Cup fifth-round replay at Everton that has taken its place in Merseyside derby folklore for events on and off the pitch.
It was Wednesday, 20 February 1991. Dalglish had already made up his mind to quit and events at Goodison Park - where he later admitted his trademark decisiveness deserted him during the game - only confirmed the decision in his own mind.
The next morning, broken by the pressures of an entire career spent dealing with the stresses of football at elite levels with Celtic and Liverpool - and the burden of guiding the Anfield club through the tragedy of Hillsborough and its emotional aftermath - he informed then chairman Noel White and chief executive Peter Robinson of his decision to resign.
Dalglish confirmed his departure at a press conference on the Friday morning and it appeared an iconic Liverpool figure had concluded his career at the club where he won eight league titles as player and manager, claimed the European Cup three times and won the Double in his first season as player-manager.

Kenny Dalglish will return to where his first spell at Liverpool ended.

On Saturday, refreshed, rejuvenated and leading the club into a new era of optimism under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group with a squad he has expensively restructured, Dalglish returns to the place where his first spell at Liverpool ended.
Dalglish's delight at being back at the helm since succeeding Roy Hodgson is rarely disguised but it would be no surprise if his mind drifts back a couple of decades when he walks up the tunnel at Goodison Park.
He has been back to Everton as manager with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United of course but Merseyside derbies are different and Dalglish's story within the fixture provides an historical context.
Jan Molby played in that fateful game. Indeed Dalglish later confessed his hesitation about whether to move the Dane back from midfield into defence that night helped to confirm his decision to leave.
Molby recalls: "The build-up to the game was normal. We spent our time in our hotel and there was no suggestion Kenny was considering his future.
"It was a crazy game and we couldn't believe how we didn't win it. We gave away some terrible goals and, when we got back to the dressing room, there was an altercation between [goalkeeper] Bruce Grobbelaar and [coach] Ronnie Moran over one of them.
"Kenny didn't get involved but he rarely did over things like that. He was very quiet but you assumed that it was just disappointment at drawing a game we should have won, not any indication there was something wrong.
"We had a day off on the Thursday and I remember we arrived at Anfield on the Friday as we were leaving early to train on Luton's plastic pitch. The whole place was alive with activity and the girl on the reception said she thought we were about to announce a major signing.
"When it became clear Kenny Dalglish was resigning it was total shock and disbelief around the whole club. The players were stunned, the whole club was in shock.
"If we had been told John Barnes had been sold we could have taken that in because that's football but Kenny leaving Liverpool was something else altogether. He was one of the greatest figures in the club's history and was in charge of a team at the top of the league and in the FA Cup. Nothing was broken.
"When the full reasons came out we totally understood. If he was not well he needed time to recover and he felt the best way to do that was to leave management - absolutely the right decision in his own best interests. He had made so many decisions in Liverpool's best interests that he was right to make one in his own if he was concerned about his health."
Even now, the day Dalglish left is remembered as if it was only an instant ago by those of us covering Merseyside football at the time.
As a reporter on the local morning newspaper, I recall taking a phone call from chief executive Robinson, the great Liverpool administrator, summoning us to Anfield with the words: "I know you joke about holding the back page but this time you should hold the front as well. It's quite sensational."
Dalglish, full of emotion at leaving the club he and his family grew to be an integral part of, made his announcement in Anfield's Bob Paisley Suite before driving his white Mercedes out of The Shankly Gates. It seemed he was now as much a part of Liverpool's past as his legendary predecessors.
Now he is back and attempting to write another chapter in his Liverpool story but, even in the sadness of his departure on that Friday, he was still keen to jealously guard the club's reputation.
Hearing on the Merseyside rumour mill - always fertile ground for gross misinformation - that he had actually left after a row with Liverpool's hierarchy, another more surprising call came into the newspaper office early on that Friday evening.

It was Dalglish, sounding relaxed, to tell me that the reasons he had cited for leaving, the increasing pressure that was starting to impact on his health, was simply the truth of the matter. And so it was. There was never a hidden agenda, no secret story that has never been told - there never was.
Molby says: "It was one of the most incredible, memorable days of my career and I am sure he will have a little think when he takes his place in the dugout at Goodison Park because I suppose he might have thought that [it] was the place where his career might be ending.
"If Kenny felt he had to walk away from a club he loved so much, then I suppose he must have wondered if he would come back anywhere else, which he then did so successfully at Blackburn."
Moments of black humour did emerge from the uncertainty - including one involving Dalglish's great friend, double-winning Liverpool captain and now Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen.
Molby says: "A couple of weeks later Alan Hansen came in and told us all he had been appointed player-manager. He told us we would now train on Sundays, we would go through videos time and again after games to see where we were going wrong, told us he was taking the captaincy off Glenn Hysen and giving it to Steve Nicol and that he knew every pub we drank in on the Wirral and in Southport and they were now all out of bounds.
"You can imagine the faces of everyone in the dressing room as he walked out. I bet he was listening at the door to hear what we all thought about him, which wouldn't have been nice, and then came back in a bit later to tell us he was actually retiring from the game and would not be involved with the club at all."
Unlike Hansen, Dalglish has returned to Liverpool and any old ghosts that may be lingering at Goodison Park will have been replaced by a fierce determination to give his Anfield story a happy ending.

Tottenham stadium: Club offered White Hart Lane deal

 

White Hart Lane's current capacity is just over 36,000

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has been offered a deal which could save it £17m, if it stays in north London.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) and Haringey Council have offered to relieve the club of all community infrastructure payments that planners would normally require.
The GLA's £8.5m contribution would fund regeneration in the Tottenham area, rather than the stadium itself.
There is consent for a new stadium on the current White Hart Lane site.
GLA funding for regeneration works associated with the project would come from a £50m regeneration fund to improve areas of London affected by the riots.
Haringey Council, meanwhile, has agreed to scale down a list of community projects it wanted Tottenham to contribute to, saving the club a further £8.5m.
'Final offer' Representatives of the GLA and Haringey Council have urged the club to press ahead with its plans for the venue at Northumberland Park.
The package laid out includes improvements to transport links to and from the area at Tottenham Hale and White Hart Lane stations.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "The club knows there is no more money available from the public purse and I sincerely hope that they accept the offer we have made."
Tottenham wants to become the long-term tenant of the Olympic Stadium after next year's Games.
The club mounted a legal challenge against West Ham's winning bid.
'Critically important' It has won the right to a judicial review which is due to be heard on 17 October.
In 2008, the Northumberland Development Project was launched by Spurs to turn White Hart Lane into a 60,000-seat stadium.

However, soaring costs meant the plan, which involved building a new stadium on the current site, was shelved.

Haringey Council leader Claire Kober said: "It is critically important that Spurs commit to Tottenham to help drive forward regeneration in this very deprived area."
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy confirmed that talks had taken place but said it would be "wholly irresponsible" to announce whether it was proceeding without the necessary agreements.
He added: "The overall scheme requires a complex package of financing of which the correct level and nature of public support is critical."
The club said it has already spent £60m on assembling land and £25m on planning, with the Northumberland scheme likely to cost hundreds of millions of pounds once complete.

Wake-up call: Manchester United boss frustrated with 'careless' Manchester United performance

Sir Alex Ferguson after the game

 

Sir Alex Ferguson labelled his players "careless" and "lax" after Basle came close to inflicting a home humiliation on Manchester United.

Ashley Young's last-minute header rescued a point for United but Ferguson was not happy with the 3-3 draw.

He said: "I thought there was a carelessness about us throughout the game. The attacking part was very good at times - we played some very good football, particularly in the first half.

"But there was a carelessness about us and really, they could have scored three goals in the first half.

"I suppose in many ways, it is 'welcome to European football' because they were very lax for parts of the game."

He added: "We were careless. It's a wake-up call in many ways. A lack of concentration saw us give the game away really, but we rescued it."

United had appeared to be cruising through two goals in 80 seconds from Danny Welbeck but the Swiss side, who had missed some clear chances in the first half, stunned Old Trafford to go 3-2 up.

Two goals from Alex Frei, one from the penalty spot, and one from his namesake Fabian Frei, saw United come close to their first home defeat for 17 months.

Ferguson insisted Italian referee Paolo Tagliavento had been wrong to award a penalty against Antonia Valencia for a foul on Marco Streller.

He said: "We are disappointed with the penalty decision - I don't think it was ever a penalty kick, and a poor decision I felt.

"But it turned out to be a fantastic game with a great end in terms of excitement."

Ferguson said his defence still should have had enough experience to cope with Basle even with 19-year-old Phil Jones in central defence but admitted they are suffering from inconsistency.

"There is still enough quality in the back positions - Evra and Ferdinand are very experienced. But you always like to have a back four playing consistently and we don't have that at the
moment.

"It is not a problem for us because of the quality we have in the forward positions guarantees us goals, and we really should have put that to bed tonight in the first half.

"We played with too many forward on the pitch tonight, far too many. I think that is possibly because we were playing a team like Basle, who in the players' minds, although we prepared properly, are a team where they can do that.

"In doing that, they left so many gaps in the back four and really if everybody had concentrated on the defensive part, I don't think we would have had so many problems."

Ferguson did praise Welbeck's contribution, saying the 20-year-old "did very well" in the first half but had tired in the second.

Basle coach Thorsten Fink - who was a player for Bayern Munich when they were beaten by United in the 1999 Champions League final - said: "It was a great result for us - I don't imagine many teams go two goals down here and then turn the game around. It was a great achievement.

"It was a great game for the fans, I think we were rather nervous in the first half but we settled down after the break and were able to take some chances.

"We deserved at least to draw and as a coach it feels good to come to a club like Manchester United and get such a result.

"The final in 1999 was more of a negative experience and I'm glad my team is able to celebrate tonight."

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce bemoans errors against Norwich

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce said that his team were let down by poor individual displays as they lost to Premier League newcomers Norwich.

The Black Cats won their previous fixture 4-0 against Stoke but did not compete until after Leon Barnett and Steve Morison scored for the hosts.
And although Kieran Richardson scored late on to give some hope Bruce said he was disappointed with his big players.
"That was the big thing on the night, we made too many mistakes," he said.
"Big players kept giving the ball away in silly areas and putting us under pressure.
"The resilience was there to make something out of the game, but we needed to score 10-15 minutes earlier than that and then it might have been a different story."

ANALYSIS

It was a really good performance by Norwich, who definitely deserved to win. It was too little, too late by Sunderland, I wondered where they were for most of this game, they just don't convince

Bruce said he was surprised by the media's "mass hysteria" before the Stoke win, where in some quarters it was deemed that his job was under pressure after the Black Cats failed to win any of their first four Premier League games.
But he said the defeat by Norwich was a result of his players not performing to their normal standards.
"The one thing that we did very well against Stoke was to take care of the ball and certainly at this level if you keep surrendering possession like we did then it is going to be a hard night and that's summed up with the two goals," he said. "We switched off defensively and we got punished.
"On the night we had too many of our players playing below the level that they can set themselves.
"And to win a game in the Premier League you have to have eight or nine playing well like last weekend and tonight we did not have enough unfortunately."
Norwich manager Paul Lambert said his team's first home victory, which lifted his side to ninth in the Premier League table, was down to a fine team performance.
They were hanging on towards the end, especially when substitute James Vaughan went off injured with the Canaries having used all their replacements.

 

Lambert - we were excellent

But Lambert was pleased his side delivered back-to-back wins.
"I just think there were big performances from the players," he told
"When we stick together collectively we are a decent side but I thought that individually we were very good.
"Being in the top half is great and I am delighted with the start we have had, the desire, work rate and hunger has been great."
The only sour note was the injury to Vaughan, who also had stitches after being elbowed by West Brom defender Gabriel Tamas just over a fortnight ago.
"His knee is locked, which doesn't look great," added Lambert. "It is a bit of a nightmare for him at the minute with injury after injury, which is a shame, but hopefully it isn't too bad."

Premier League - Dunne OG hands QPR point

Richard Dunne's late own-goal gave 10-man Queen's Park Rangers a 1-1 Premier League draw against Aston Villa at Loftus Road.

The Villa captain put through his own net in the third minute of stoppage time, as an attempted Stephen Warnock clearance ricocheted in off the luckless Irishman.
Dunne is the Premier League's record own-goal scorer, and increased his tally to nine with this latest misfortune.
It cancelled out Barry Bannan's controversial 58th-minute penalty, which was awarded for a slight shirt-pull by Armand Traore, who was sent off late on for a second bookable offence.
A draw was probably a fair result after a fiercely competitive encounter in which six Villa players were booked.
After last week's win against Wolves, QPR boss Neil Warnock lamented the focus on Joey Barton's personal feud with Karl Henry, which rather ignored a fine team performance.
Another unwanted consequence is that Barton has become the Premier League's ultimate marked man - the equivalent of somebody playing football with a large 'KICK ME' sign stuck to their back.
When Stephen Warnock flew into a rash challenge a few minutes before half-time, you did not need to ask who had just been left in a crumpled heap.
Such is Barton's lot these days, though his competitive instinct is robust enough to relish the physical challenge.
Barton's arrival risked marginalising last season's player of the season Adel Taarabt, who lost the captain's armband to the controversial midfielder.
But the Moroccan was in lively form here, smacking the outside of Shay Given's post with an audacious banana shot early on.
That set the tone for a long spell of Rs dominance, and Taarabt might have scored when fed inside the box by Shaun Wright-Phillips, but he saw his effort deflected for a corner.
Jay Bothroyd then flashed a header wide from a Barton corner - for all his all-round play Bothroyd is not a natural finisher and such a player will surely be high on Neil Warnock's January shopping list.
Villa hit back late in the first half, coming close through a superb Bannan free-kick that brought a diving save from Paddy Kenny.
The visitors' dominance continued after the break, when Fabian Delph saw one goalbound effort blocked, and prodded just wide when he beat the onrushing Kenny to a ball at the edge of the box.
Referee Michael Oliver caused controversy when he penalised Traore for his microscopic infringement on Gabriel Agbonlahor. It was a tough decision - there was a tug of the shirt, however slight, but Agbonlahor certainly made the most of it.
Bannan converted with a low effort that just beat the diving Kenny's glove to the right corner of the goal.
Wright-Phillips came close to levelling with a low shot that brought a brilliant save from Given, before referee Oliver turned down Rs penalty appeals when Alan Hutton blocked a goalbound Shaun Derry header with his hand.penalised Traore for his microscopic infringement on Gabriel Agbonlahor. It was a tough decision - there was a tug of the shirt, however slight, but Agbonlahor certainly made the most of it.
Bannan converted with a low effort that just beat the diving Kenny's glove to the right corner of the goal.
Shaun Wright-Phillips came close to levelling with a low shot that brought a brilliant save from Shay Given, before referee Oliver turned down Rs penalty appeals when Alan Hutton blocked a goalbound Shaun Derry header with his hand.
Oliver turned down a second, less convincing appeal, for handball against Hutton, before Traore saw red for a reckless foul.
Just as Loftus Road threatened to explode with frustration the equaliser finally came.
Subsitute Heidar Helguson crossed low from the left, and Stephen Warnock could only clear into the body of Dunne, which diverted the ball into the Villa net.

Torres turns hero and villain for Chelsea

Torres turns hero and villain for Chelsea

Fernando Torres scored his second goal in a week for Chelsea before being sent off in their match against Swansea.
The £50 million Spanish signing opened the scoring for the Blues on 29 minutes, but was given a straight red card ten minutes later for diving in studs first on Mark Gower.
Two goals from Ramires and one from Didier Drogba, with a lone consolation from Ashley Williams saw ten-man Chelsea win 4-1 against the Premier League new boys.
In the early kick-off, second-half substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner both scored to help Manchester City see off Everton at the Etihad Stadium 2-0. Roberto Mancini's men had lost their previous four meetings with the Toffeemen.
Arsene Wenger's nerves were calmed with a comfortable 3-0 win over Bolton at the Emirates. The visitors had a man sent off as Robin van Persie scored twice to take his Gunners goal tally to 100.
Liverpool put an end to their two-match losing run by beating Wolves 2-1 at Anfield.
A hat-trick by Senegal international Demba Ba saw Newcastle beat Blackburn 3-1 at St James' Park.
Ten-man Wigan went down fighting 2-1 at home to Tottenham, with Steve Gohouri's dismissal making it tough to overcome first-half goals from Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale.
West Brom keeper Ben Foster ensured his team came away with a point with some great saves during their goalless draw with Fulham at The Hawthorns.
In the late kick-off, Stoke halted Manchester United's 100 per cent start to the season. Peter Crouch's first goal for his new club, cancelling out Nani's first-half strike, with the champions held to 1-all draw at the Britannia Stadium.