Gooner Talk

Manchester United new-boy Chris Smalling conceded a penalty on his debut against Celtic — showing Arsene Wenger exactly why he was never worth the £10 million fee United paid for him.

Smalling, 20, famously chose Alex Ferguson’s side over Arsenal last January, signing a pre-contract with the Red Devils. However, his final campaign with Fulham was littered with poor decision-making and costly errors, just like the one you’ll see below.

The Greenwich-born defender was penalised for a needless foul on Joe Ledley and former Manchester City striker Georgios Samaras scored from the spot.

Meanwhile, Wenger will be quietly pleased with the acquisition of highly-rated Laurent Koscielny for the same price as smalling. The ex-Lorient star will be making his debut against Barnet later today.

The News of the World has signed up hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood to front its brand new World Cup marketing campaign – promising to ‘pimp’ its readers’ experience of the tournament and, in the words of Westwood: “Turn your World Cup up to the max.” 

It is the first in a series of brand marketing activities featuring the DJ – made famous fronting the MTV show ‘Pimp My Ride’ – and has been designed to promote the newspaper’s market-leading football coverage and promotions in the run-up to this summer’s tournament.

Westwood will be penning an online column for the newspaper’s website during the World Cup and will be appearing in further TV and print ads, digital, CRM and PR activity.

News International’s Rob Painter, who led the campaign in his role as Interim Marketing Director for the News of the World, said: “We know News of the World’s football coverage is top of its game – and there’s no doubt it will be the unmissable World Cup destination every Sunday from now until the World Cup Final this July.

“Westwood is high octane with an infectious enthusiasm for all things football, he will bring to life News of the World’s fantastic content and promotions for readers this summer.”

Westwood’s first column – a very good read it must be said – can be found here!

Since pizza is one of England’s favourite meals to eat while watching football, Domino’s Pizza will follow the game together with all British fans. To coincide with England’s campaign in South Africa, Domino’s Pizza is hosting three competitions with delicious prizes.

Domino’s Pizza has launched a competition on Facebook to find the current squad’s best lookalikes. To enter the Footballer Lookalike Competition, fans can upload a picture of themselves or their friends via the events tab of the Facebook fan page of Domino’s Pizza UK.  Every week, Domino’s will hand out free pizza vouchers to the best Lampard lookalike, Defoe double or other imitation of one of Fabio Capello’s chosen 23. Meanwhile, Facebook users can vote for their favourite picture too by clicking ‘like’ under each picture. After four weeks, the public’s favourite will win a free pizza party (worth £100) for the final.

Fans on Facebook can also win a free pizza during every England match. If, for example, Defoe is the first English player to score a goal, the first person to write “Defoe scored me a free Domino’s!” on the official Domino’s Pizza UK fan page wins a free pizza.

And last but not least, footie fans can compete for the Domino’s Cup in the online football game On me ‘ead. Prizes include 25 Domino’s Pizza Parties, each worth £100, and various discount codes.  Players have to head footballs from one side of the screen to the other, without letting them hit the ground. Not recommended during the match – you don’t want to miss the first goal!

Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas is 23-years-old today.

Everyone at Gooner Talk would like to wish the Spaniard a very happy birthday, and future success at the Emirates.

Mini-Bio of Cesc’s Arsenal career so far:

Having spent his formative years at Barcelona’s La Masia training facility, Fabregas moved to English Premier League side Arsenal in 2003 and made his first team debut in the League Cup at just 16-years-old.

Although he rarely featured in that debut season, Fabregas quickly forced his way into the first team the following season and in the six seasons since, he has averaged 44 appearances per season for the Gunners. He has also averaged almost eight goals and 14 assists per season in that time and was made club captain in November 2008. Although an FA Cup medal is so far his highest club honour, the influential midfielder was a European Championship winner with Spain in 2008, featuring in UEFA’s Team of the Tournament.

The PFA Young Player of the Year for 2007/08, Fabregas has been the subject of seemingly endless speculation linking him with a return to Barcelona, despite regularly committing to the Gunners. To date, Fabregas has 47 caps for Spain.

After his theatrics at the Emirates and most notably at the Nou Camp, Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets has done it again. The Spanish defensive midfielder, once an Arsenal target, used a mixture of diving and play acting against the Gunners over the two-legged tie. Tonight, as Barca faced Inter Milan, he did it again.

Busquets’ attempts to win cheap free-kicks and cards for Arsenal players was bemoaned by fans alike, yet the media took no notice. Yet as the GIF imagine above clearly shows, it’s in his nature. This cheeky look to see if former team mate Thiago Motta had been dismissed epitomised the blatant cheating which was not stopped. A firmer line is a must in European football.

Mirrorfootball.co.uk has this week entered the mobile market with the launch of its new iPhone app.

The launch of the app, which will have a one-off price of £1.19, will bring the Mirror’s specialist, standalone football website to a new audience of iPhone users.

Building on the success of the Mirrorfootball.co.uk website, the app allows users to personalise their homepage with a bookmark for their chosen Premier League club.

It will also offer extensive photo and video-led content, club-specific news and live match-trackers for up-to-the-minute results.

As well as having instant access to a 24/7 news service and a wealth of exclusive daily opinion pieces from some of the best writers and names in the game users will also be able to comment on articles, send them on to friends and publish to Twitter and Facebook.

Rick Gleave, Head of Interactive and Mobile, Trinity Mirror, said:

“We’re really excited to be launching our Mirror Football App. It condenses Mirrorfootball.co.uk’s extensive content into what will work best for consumption on iPhone or iPod touch and it offers users a level of interactivity around video, social media, comments and wealth of content that competitors’ apps simply can’t match.”

Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry could start against his old club next week, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed Barcelona’s match with Athletic Bilbao through injury.

The Swede is a serious doubt for Tuesday’s evening clash due to a calf strain and it looks likely that either Henry or the in-form Bojan will now start against Arsene Wenger’s side.

This positive-looking news  for Arsenal comes off the back of today’s last-gasp win against Wolves, with Nicklas Bendtner scoring in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Arsenal need to win at the Nou Camp on Tuesday, although a 3-3 score draw or above would see the Gunners also go through to the semi-finals on the away goals rule.

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