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11/02/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two teams in the Premiership will tangle at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday when old rivals Arsenal and Manchester United renew acquaintances.
The Gunners have been one of the big stories of the season as they have come flying out of the gate with an unbeaten record that includes eight wins in 10 games. The departure of captain and star striker Thierry Henry was expected to slow this team of young stars, but they have cruised through the first 10 games in great form and are coming off of a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.
United did not get off to such a great start, going winless in its first three games. However, the club has rebounded to win its last eight matches in league play and looks like the hottest team in England at the moment.
"We couldn't be going into the game in any better shape or form," United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said at a pre-match press conference. "But I'm sure Arsene Wenger will say the same thing."
Much of the reason for United's success has to go to the strike tandem of Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez. After another foot injury set Rooney back at the start of the season, United struggled to score goals and had to rely on its defense to win games.
Since Rooney's return, however, he has teamed with Tevez to form one of the most dangerous duos in the league. The two have combined to score eight goals, and with Cristiano Ronaldo chipping in three tallies of his own, the Arsenal defense will have plenty to do to keep this trio off the scoreboard.
United has received good news throughout the week concerning injuries as well. Defender Patrice Evra is once again ready to play after shaking off a calf injury, while Owen Hargreaves, Louis Saha and Michael Carrick should also be ready to go.
Hargreaves in particular will be key since he will be charged with slowing down Arsenal's playmaker in the midfield, Francesc Fabregas.
The Spanish midfielder is the catalyst for the Arsenal attack, with five goals on the season and plenty more helpers. Everything runs through Fabregas, so shutting him down will be United's top priority.
Arsenal's other big gun is striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who leads the team with six goals. He will be the main target for Arsenal in the absence of Robin Van Persie, who is out with a knee injury.
Adebayor is a big, physical target, but United will have the services of both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic to combat the Togo international.
The game shapes up as a very even contest, with both teams bringing plenty of firepower to the occasion. While Arsenal has been good defensively this season, it is United's stingy back line that could make the difference.
With just four goals conceded in 11 matches, the Red Devils have the best defensive record by far in the league, and according to Vidic, that is something that the team takes great pride in.
"At the back, we will take just as much pride from a clean sheet as our strikers will from scoring a goal," Vidic told the club's website. "Arsenal will be a big test but I believe we can stop them and have another clean sheet to our names."
In other action in England on Saturday, Liverpool tries to remain unbeaten when the Reds visit Blackburn, Chelsea attempts to maintain its place among the top four with a win at Wigan, Portsmouth and Newcastle are both top-half sides and get together at St James' Park, while Tottenham tries for just its second win of the season at Middlesbrough. Fulham has earned three draws in its last four games and entertains Reading, Everton hosts a Birmingham side that has lost three of its last four and last-place Derby visits Aston Villa.
On Sunday, disappointing Bolton travels to West Ham, and Manchester City tries to rebound from its 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea last Saturday when the team hosts Sunderland on Monday.
<< Spurs try to make it three straight wins against Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The defending world champion San Antonio Spurs try to open
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<< Lakers, Suns meet in playoff rematch
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Lakers will try and ignore the Kobe Bryant
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<< Clippers play first game of campaign against Golden State
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers open their 2007-08 season when
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devastating i
<< New-look Celtics start season at home against Wizards
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Va. Tech tight end out for season >>
Blacksburg, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Virginia Tech starting tight end Sam Wheeler
will miss the remainder of the 2007 season after suffering a torn anterior
cruciate ligament in his left knee.
The injury occurred in the first quarter of
Better than the Super Bowl? >>
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You can almost hear Eric Mangini's pre-game speech.
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Other than finding happiness in the misfortune of teams unlucky enough to have
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Struggling Falcons, Niners, Take Stage at Georgia Dome >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers are not where they want to be right
now in regard to their season. But like most teams this year, the club may
enjoy a trip to Atlanta, where it will try to halt its five-game losing streak
in a battle
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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