Moment of truth

Spurs' title ambitions tested by Old Trafford visit

LONDON (AP) -- With north London neighbor Arsenal hot favorite to run away with the league title again, second-place Tottenham can't afford to fall further off the pace.

That makes Saturday's visit to Manchester United a crucial test of Spurs' title potential.

Tottenham's last four visits to Old Trafford have resulted in losses, the last one being 4-0. With Arsenal flying and expected to beat Bolton at home on Saturday, Glenn Hoddle's Spurs must end that run and take at least a point or fall four behind.

Spurs led the standings early this season until Arsenal took over. They are point point behind the Gunners, with Leeds, Chelsea and Liverpool a further point back and ready to pounce.

But the bookmakers still rate Hoddle's team 100/1 shots to win the title for the first time since 1961, while Arsenal is 4/6 favorite and Manchester United and Liverpool are 7/2.

Irish international Robbie Keane, 22, has added pace to a Spurs attack which has relied too much on the aging Teddy Sheringham (36) and Les Ferdinand (35).

Jamie Redknapp is restored to fitness in midfield but there was bad news for Spurs on Thursday when German international Steffen Freund had to postpone his comeback after tearing his hamstring in a reserve game.

While confidence is high, the problem is whether it's a good time to be going to Old Trafford.

Before Wednesday's 5-2 beating of Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League, the Reds had lost two games in a row as Alex Ferguson's team got off to its worst ever start in the 10-year history of the Premier League.

There were strong doubts about the form of England captain David Beckham, Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron and strikers Ruud van Nistelrooy and Diego Forlan, while Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt were all missing through injury.

Although his team was stunned by an eighth minute strike by underdog Maccabi, Ferguson hopes that the five-goal reply has restored confidence in a team that had dominated the Premier League until last season with seven titles in nine years.

Van Nistelrooy ended his goal drought Wednesday and Forlan finally hit the target after 27 games, although his goal came from the penalty spot two minutes from the end.

"Goals help strikers and it was particularly pleasing that our goalscorers scored," Ferguson said. "Diego deserved his goal. He has been so unlucky recently but his enthusiasm and movement is terrific and anyone who puts so much effort in deserves a break.

"Even in the half hour he was on, he created half a dozen chances. Although it was a penalty, hopefully that one will settle him down and now he will go on to get lots."

Third place Leeds goes to Blackburn on Sunday, while Chelsea is not in action until Monday when it goes to sixth place west London neighbor Fulham.

Liverpool, beaten and outplayed 2-0 by Valencia in Champions Cup action on Tuesday, hopes to bounce back by beating promoted West Bromwich Albion at Anfield on Saturday.

The Baggies are surprisingly high at seventh after three wins in a row. Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier might be tempted to have Michael Owen on the starting lineup after putting him on the bench for the team's last two games because of his lack of sharpness.

"I will rest him whenever I get a chance because, if we don't, we run the risk of losing him for three or four months," said Houllier. "The strikers who went to the World Cup are not as fresh as I imagined they would be -- whether that be Michael, Emile Heskey, or (Senegal's) El Hadji Diouf."

While Liverpool wants to shrug off that loss in Spain, two neighbors near the foot of the standings face each other hoping to end their nightmare starts to the season.

Next-to-last Newcastle, which lost 2-0 to Dynamo Kiev in the Champions Cup, hosts Sunderland, which is one place above.

The atmosphere at St. James' Park is likely to be hot, with both teams desperate for points. Bobby Robson's team started the season with a 4-0 beating of last place West Ham but has lost three out of four since then, including last week's 3-0 defeat by Chelsea.

Sunderland managed a surprise 1-0 victory at Leeds but last week's 3-0 loss at home to Fulham was its third of the season. Only a victory over Newcastle will put things right in the short term.

Two more strugglers, Southampton and Charlton, meet at St. Mary's. Aston Villa, beaten 3-0 by neighbor Birmingham on Monday, hopes to improve its lowly position by beating mid-standings Everton at home on Sunday.

Birmingham, helped by a freak goal when Villa 'keeper Peter Enckelman failed to control a throw-in from teammate Olof Mellberg, goes to eighth-place Middlesbrough.

The big game in division one involves runaway leader Portsmouth at third place Norwich, while second place Leicester visits Sheffield Wednesday.

Harry Redknapp's Pompey holds a three-point lead over the Foxes, with Norwich a further three behind.

Houllier vows to protect misfiring Owen

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -- Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier is planning to rest striker Michael Owen at intervals throughout the season to avoid him suffering a serious injury.

The England forward has scored just one goal this season -- a penalty against Newcastle -- and he has started the last two matches on the bench.

Houllier has pledged to continue protecting the 22-year-old and give him a chance to recover from his exertions at the World Cup finals in June.

"I will rest him whenever I get chance because if we don't we run the risk of losing him for three or four months," the Frenchman was quoted as saying in the British press on Thursday.

"The strikers who went to the World Cup are not as fresh as I imagined they would be, whether that be Michael, Emile Heskey or El Hadji Diouf.

"But I'd be happy if Michael played 70 percent of the games this year. If he did, I know we'd be successful."

Houllier insisted the decision to drop Owen to the substitutes' bench every so often will prove to be good for him in the long-term.

The Frenchman added: "I've talked to him about it and he only has to look back at his own experiences to understand my thinking.

"I'm managing a player, a person, but he needs me because I'm backing him 100 percent.

"He knows I will play him but at the same time we have to be careful. There's a split second of sharpness that's been lacking."

Man obsessed

Since the end of last season, Owen has managed just one goal from open play in his last 10 matches for Liverpool and Houllier believes the drought was starting to affect him.

He said: "I'm hoping the rest will have taken a bit of the pressure off him. He was coming off after every game stressed about not having scored.

"He was becoming more or less obsessed with scoring a goal - you could see the relief on his face when the penalty went in - and it wasn't doing him any good.

"I don't think he's a lad who particularly lacks confidence, though when you miss chances it does affect you.

"Michael should be the league's top scorer at the moment and was unlucky not to score more against Aston Villa, Newcastle and Birmingham.

"When the goals do come I'm sure there'll be goals galore but at the moment he doesn't appear to have the freshness."

Owen is expected to be restored to the starting line-up for Saturday's league match against West Bromwich Albion at Anfield.

Wise considers legal action after sacking by Leicester

LONDON (AP) -- Former England midfielder Dennis Wise may take legal action against Leicester City after being sacked for breaking a teammate's jaw in a fight, his agent said Thursday.

Wise had his contract terminated by the Foxes after the July 26 fight with Callum Davidson during the club's preseason tour of Finland.

The former Chelsea star took the matter to the Football League's Football Disciplinary Commission, which ruled that Leicester could only fine the player and not fire him.

But City appealed to the League's Appeals Committee, which ruled in the club's favor after a six-hour hearing Wednesday.

"Of course we can take monster, monster legal action if we want to, we haven't decided," agent Eric Hall said. "He [Wise] is a million miles away. He is shocked at what has happened.

"He has got to sit back now and have proper talks with me and his legal people. Realistically in the next two of three days he will make a decision."

Hall said the decision to sack Wise set a precedent.

"If you have a big fight or a small fight you don't go round sacking players," he said. "If you got every single club from the Premiership to the Third Division there are fights every day. It's private. These things happen. There's never been a player sacked for this."

Advocaat leaving Rangers to take full-time charge of Dutch

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) -- Dick Advocaat is leaving Glasgow Rangers in November to assume full-time duties as manager of the Dutch national team.

Advocaat, director of football at the Scottish club, has been carrying out the Dutch job on a part-time basis. He moved to the director's role at Rangers in December 2001 to allow Alex McLeish to take over as manager.

Advocaat succeeded Walter Smith as Rangers boss in 1998 and took the club to five trophies in his first two seasons before Celtic won the last two league titles.

"Dick Advocaat's achievements with Rangers should not be underestimated in any way," honorary chairman David Murray said. "Twice voted manager of the year, he won a double and a treble with the first team.

"His determination in creating training and youth development facilities benefiting our club has created a solid foundation for the future. I thank him for his contribution."

Long throw specialist Hutchinson dies after long illness

LONDON (AP) -- Ian Hutchinson, a Chelsea FA Cup winner who was famous for his long throws, died Thursday at age 54 after a long illness, the club's website said.

A Blues star between 1968 and '76, Hutchinson scored the equalizing goal in the 1970 cup final for a 2-2 tie with Leeds United at Wembley, and his long throw set up the winner for Dave Webb in the replay.

According to the Web site, Hutchinson died in hospital at 9:30 am (0830 GMT).

Chelsea players were due to wear black armbands at Thursday's UEFA Cup game at home to Norway's Viking, and a minute's silence before the game also was planned.

"I knew he had been ill for quite some time and just recently he had got steadily worse," Ron Harris, a Chelsea teammate, told Sky Sports News.

"Ian was very much part of the side. He was big brave lad who was fantastic from a defender's point of view because if you got a ball down the line he was that brave he used to go where other people feared to go.

"He was a 110 percent player and I think that was why he went down ever so well with Chelsea," Harris said.

"At the moment I'm playing a golf tournament with a lot of the old Chelsea players and most of them are devastated."

 

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