| QPR and Lions face crowd trouble fines • FA to study footage following 11 arrests around Loftus Road• QPR manager criticises Football League over schedulingThe Football Association is gathering evidence about the crowd trouble before and after the match between Queens Park Rangers and Millwall last night before deciding whether to charge either club."We're in contact with both clubs and gathering footage and evidence," an FA spokesman said.A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed there had been 11 arrests after outbreaks of disorder in two pubs before the match and on the streets surrounding Loftus Road after it as Millwall fans clashed with police."The Metropolitan police service has a great deal of experience in policing high-profile football matches in London," said the spokesman. "We liaised with all clubs [Chelsea were also playing at home] before the event and used intelligence to put into place an appropriate policing plan for last night's match."QPR's manager, Neil Warnock, criticised the Football League over the scheduling of the match. "It doesn't make sense and you'll never get any sense out of them [football's authorities]," he said. "It will be a computer or somebody who has never kicked a football or thought about fans."Of the 11 arrests two were for possession of offensive weapons, one for being drunk and disorderly, two for assaults on police, two for public order offences, two for affray, one for common assault and one for an immigration offence.The FA would charge either club with failing to control their fans only if there was evidence that they had not done everything in their power to control them and assure their safety.West Ham were fined £115,000 by the FA this year following violent scenes before, during and after a Carling Cup tie with Millwall the previous August that led to 64 arrests.The FAQPRMillwallFootball violenceOwen Gibsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Inter Milan 4 Werder Bremen 0: match report In-form Samuel Eto'o bagged a hat-trick to help injury-hit holders Inter Milan rip apart a dreadful Werder Bremen 4-0. telegraph.co.uk |
Socceroos to face Egypt, UAE The Socceroos will warm-up for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar with matches against Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. foxsports.com.au |
Arsenal 2-1 Birmingham City | Premier League match report Arsenal's early season stutter has been checked. A deflating run of three matches without a win was exorcised, albeit never comfortably, at Birmingham City's expense to restore much needed momentum to this team's challenge, though it still came tinged in controversy. Jack Wilshere's stoppage-time dismissal for a challenge on Nikola Zigic drew the focus just as the hosts were preparing to celebrate a welcome success.Perhaps there was an inevitability that, after so much debate over ugly and deliberate fouls, this contest would be marred at the last. Wilshere was late in his slide, making contact with Zigic's shin, with Martin Atkinson not hesitating to dismiss the young midfielder. Wilshere departed down the tunnel dismayed, though the sending off was valid. That prolonged the anxiety, though there was relief to be had at the final whistle.This was a tight victory against awkward opponents, Marouane Chamakh's goal early in the second period squeezing out the win with the home side, not for the first time, too often guilty of over-elaborating in their frequent and slickly constructed forays forward. Indeed, this had been fractious at times. The home side and support were exasperated that their early forays forward had yielded no reward – particularly with Sébastien Squillaci denied by a dubious offside decision – and then that their team's own resistance had been breached. Zigic, a giant of a centre-forward, hardly needed to leap to tower above the poorly positioned Gaël Clichy and Johan Djourou to thump a wonderful header back and across Lukasz Fabianski from Keith Fahey's centre and City, who had not won at Arsenal since 1957, had led from their first attack.The Serbian celebrated a first Premier League goal with gusto and, critically, should have registered a second moments later from Roger Johnson's nod across the box, with Clichy again cleverly exposed at left-back, only for Arsenal's route back into the contest to prove immediate. Chamakh exchanged passes with Wilshere and tumbled in the area, the grounded Scott Dann aghast at the award of a penalty with contact by no means clear, for Samir Nasri to convert.That raised the heckles, Alex McLeish exchanging furious words with the home support behind his dug-out having been incensed by Nasri's inadvisable flick out at Liam Ridgewell, and Johnson appearing to lead with his arm in aerial challenge with Chamakh in front of the home bench. The Moroccan saved his riposte for early in the second period, collecting Wilshere's pass and spinning away from Stephen Carr and around Dann and Ben Foster to poke in the hosts' second at the near post.For all the visitors' huff and puff thereafter, the sense persisted that the hosts were likelier to plunder on the break than City to prise parity, only for Wilshere to provide the contest's late sting in the tail. Arsenal survived, though the debate on ill-advised tackles will go on.Premier LeagueArsenalBirmingham CityDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Everton v Liverpool: Anfield club fired up after running Texans out of town Liverpool looking forward to the future after takeover trauma, starting on Sunday at Goodison Park. telegraph.co.uk |