Two-goal Gerrard relishes his return to France as Liverpool ease to victory in Marseille

The locals like to think they can intimidate visiting teams with their firecrackers and constant din, but Steven Gerrard clearly has a liking for Marseille.

One of Michael Owen's Liverpool milestones came to grief on Gerrard's previous visit here last December. He scored in a 4-0 rout and, in the process, became his home club's record marksman in Europe.

It was a lot tighter on his return, but there was still no mistaking his relish for the occasion and surroundings as he launched Liverpool's latest Champions League campaign in style with two goals.









Marseille skipper Lorik Cana had increased the noise level inside their concrete bowl of a ground with a 23rd-minute opener when Gerrard decided it was time to take charge with an inspired curling finish in the 26th minute and twice-taken penalty shortly after. That left him on 99 goals for Liverpool overall, 27 of them coming in Europe.

Liverpool almost paid for allowing carelessness to creep in near the end as Mamadou Niang somehow headed wide from six yards, then compounded his misery in injury time with another glaring miss.

Credit Pepe Reina for sticking out his right boot and pulling off a crucial save, but the Liverpool keeper should not have had a hope as the normally lethal front-runner took aim from no more than eight yards.






Rafa Benitez refused to point an accusing finger at the way his side almost threw away the winning start he had demanded, as he said: 'Marseille were looking dangerous in attack and maybe we were feeling a little tiredness in the closing minutes but I have to be really pleased. Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven are going to find it difficult here, so to come away with three points is really important.

'We needed to work really hard in defence and make the most of our counter-attacks and I thought Stevie's first goal was fantastic. But what I really liked was his reaction at the end. He felt there was room for improvement from everyone and that is a positive sign for me.'

Marseille are still unbeaten in the French League after launching their campaign with eight goals in their first two games. It was easy to see why as Niang blazed over after bursting clear in the 14th minute and Cana broke the deadlock nine minutes later.


The Marseille captain timed his run to perfection to beat Liverpool's offside trap as he latched on to Benoit Cheyrou's through-ball and held his nerve to slot the ball past the advancing Reina.

Liverpool have made a welcome habit of recovering swiftly from such setbacks this season and they were back on terms in the 26th minute after Fernando Torres won the ball in the centre circle and released Dirk Kuyt on the right. An early ball towards the surging Gerrard and Liverpool were on terms, as a superb curling first-time shot from 20 yards floated beyond a bemused Steve Mandanda and into the far corner.

Ryan Babel, influential with some of his approach work but again infuriating with his finishing, earned the penalty as he brought down a long ball from Jamie Carragher and swept past hapless centre back Ronald Zubar, who could only floor the Liverpool forward with an outstretched leg.

If Gerrard's opener was a product of instinctive brilliance, his second six minutes later was down to nerves of steel as he slotted his kick in off a post, only to be ordered to take it again by referee Konrad Plautz. By the time he gathered his thoughts and composed himself once more, a good two minutes had elapsed after the Austrian official had pointed to the spot. It made little difference as Gerrard, in his first start since groin surgery, unerringly drove the ball into the same corner.

Babel squandered two inviting chances in the 75th and 78th minutes, driving one point-blank shot against Mandanda's outstretched gloves and the other against the outside of a post. It looked like proving costly as Marseille sensed a reprieve.

In the end, the let-off was Liverpool's as Niang failed to cash in and Gerrard was clearly perturbed by the way his side surrendered the initiative. He said: 'They pinned us in for spells in the second half and we were hanging on at the end.

Being under pressure like that is something we are going to have to look at. We stopped playing in the second half and never passed it. 'We were not good enough, but we are a force in Europe and even when we don't play well throughout a game, we still get the results.'

Marseille manager Eric Gerets looked crestfallen as he fumed: 'We had more than enough clear-cut chances to have won and it feels like a real missed opportunity.

'It was incredible to lose like that and it makes me really angry. Not many players could have scored that first goal of Liverpool's, though. It was an exceptional piece of skill from a truly world class player.'

Barclays monthly awards go to Chelsea's Deco and Middlesbrough's Southgate

Chelsea playmaker Deco has been named Barclays Player of the Month for August with Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate picking up the managerial award.

Following his £8million summer transfer from Barcelona, Deco has made a seamless transition to life in the Barclays Premier League with two goals - both brilliant long-range efforts - and two assists in three matches.

Southgate has been named manager of the month for the first time in his career - in the process becoming only the second man, after Stuart Pearce, to win the player and manager awards.





Boro have won six points out of nine so far, beating Tottenham and Stoke at home and only losing at Liverpool due to a Steven Gerrard strike deep into injury-time.

Southgate said: 'I feel it's a great honour, not just for me, but for everybody at the football club.

'It's an honour I very much accept on behalf of myself and my staff because everything that we have achieved so far has been a team effort.

'I think the award is reward for the hard work everybody here put in during July to prepare for the new season.

'We have a really united club here and everybody has pulled together, and in that I include the players as well.

'There's a great atmosphere around the club at the moment and around the town, and long may it continue.'

Southgate is starting his third year in charge at Boro and has guided the club to their best start to a campaign for nine years.

I hope to be as successful with West Ham as I was with Chelsea, says new Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola

Gianfranco Zola has promised to give the West Ham squad the full benefit of his 20 years in football after being named as the club's new manager.

Italy and Chelsea legend Zola has agreed a three-year deal at Upton Park, replacing Alan Curbishley, who resigned earlier this month in disagreement with the Hammers' management structure.

Zola said: "I'm delighted to be here. It is a great honour for me to be involved in such an important job.






'I can promise to do my best to make good for this club. The club has got tradition and I am just here to help develop the team and to develop the players.

'That is my duty and I will do it with all of myself. 'I will give to these players all of my experience and all of my knowledge - I am here to be somebody good for them.

'That is my aim and I will do everything I can to succeed in this.' Zola's previous coaching role was with the Italy Under-21 side and although he admits his managerial CV in thin, he is confident in his abilities.




'I know I am not the most experienced manager around but I have ideas, I have been in football for 20 years.

'I know what we're talking about and I will certainly give something to this club; whether it is enough or not we will see. But I have a lot of knowledge of the game and the players will help me with this.'

Zola said he hoped his second stint in English football will be as successful as the seven he spent as a player with Chelsea.

'I take The Bible everywhere with me'

Manchester United's club-record signing, Dimitar Berbatov, has revealed a previously unknown side to his character and one that may surprise a few people as well.





Berbatov, 27, who joined the Premier League and European champions for £30.75 million on transfer deadline day, dislikes swearing in all walks of life, as befits someone who describes himself as "religious" and who "takes The Bible everywhere with me".

All of which could make for some interesting times ahead, especially if the Bulgaria international finds himself confronted by his manager Sir Alex Ferguson's now infamous 'hairdryer', possibly starting with his United debut at, of all places, Anfield in the Premier League this Saturday lunch-time.

"I've done many stupid things because of my stubbornness, only because I didn't want to listen to my parents' advice," Berbatov told the Sun.

"And then it always turned out that they were right. My father always told me not to be swell-headed. He repeated that so often that it still helps me.

"When I realise I give myself airs, the red light in my head flashes. Many times I was ashamed because of some of the things I had done. I have paraded with the fact that I'm Dimitar Berbatov. Then I always heard my dad's voice in my head.

"Besides, I am religious and I take The Bible everywhere with me. There are many good pieces of advice for those like me in The Bible."

As for the thorny issue of swearing, a common, albeit unwanted, feature no doubt on the football field these days, the moody forward is insistent that he could never bring himself to curse at another opponent, unlike his likely strike partner at Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney, one can imagine.

"This is a matter of good upbringing. I don't swear in my daily life. My every second words are not da mu eba maikata (**** your mother)," he said.

"I try to do everything with style – not only in football. If I manage to give any positive examples for young people, then that is great.

"To be honest, sometimes I lose my temper when I am on the pitch. I even shout at my team-mates too much and then they are a bit angry. But this is who I am.

"I often tell them: 'Dudes, no problem, you can shout at me if there is something! I won't be angry. When the game is over, it's over.'

"But some of them take it to heart and are angry with me. They don't realise this is the way I release the stress."

Meanwhile, one of those team-mates, Carlos Tevez, has said that his sending-off in Argentina's World Cup qualifier with Paraguay on Saturday night was the worst moment of his career to date.

United striker Tevez was sent off for the second time in his last three internationals in Buenos Aires following a reckless two-footed lunge that resulted in a straight red card, leaving the Argentinean to reveal: "I haven't slept for two nights. What happened is very ugly. It's the unhappiest moment of my career. I can't let this happen again."

Brazilian's Real escape

Robinho's agent Wagner Ribeiro has admitted that he deliberately used Chelsea's interest in the winger to get any deal which would take the 24-year old out of Real Madrid – whether the controversial winger ended up at Stamford Bridge or not.

The Brazilian joined Manchester City in a British record deal on deadline day and Ribeiro said: 'I went to London to plot a get-out strategy with (Chelsea chief executive) Peter Kenyon.

'I filtered out the details of the Chelsea offers to the media - I was just playing according to the rules of the game.'


Ribeiro continued: 'Kenyon was desperately phoning me to find out what was happening but I'd come to the conclusion that Chelsea and Real were not going to reach an agreement so we said yes to City.'


It was very clear that Robinho was intent on leaving Real before the transfer deadline, and I think the majority of non Real fans were sympathetic to his plight. But now that his agent has come out and revealed the lengths they were prepared to go to achive their aim I am sure I am not alone in viewing the transfer antics of Robinho and his agent with distaste. Not very honourable behaviour gentlemen.

The guns were out as Andy Murray twitters on about the Will Ferrell effect after he overcomes Rafael Nadal

Andy Murray finished off his stunning victory Spanish star Rafael Nadal in the US Open semi-final with a trip to New York restaurant Redeye Grill and spoke of his delight in meeting film star Will Ferrell.

The movie comedian, who has starred in films such as Talledega Nights and Anchorman, was in the Arthur Ashe Stadium to watch the Scotsman's victory.




Murray had said over the weekend: 'This is my favourite tournament. I had the guys from Entourage, which is my favourite show, and Will Ferrell, who’s my favourite comedian, watching yesterday. You don't get that at home.'


Ferrell clearly has a strong affinity with the Scotsman too as he was pictured flexing his muscles in a style of the tennis star while watching the match against the Spaniard at Flushing Meadows.

And after his amazing win over Nadal Murray said on his Twitter site after his victory over Nadal: 'sat in redeye getting dinner. good to get the job done today. pumped to meet will ferrell! wish me luck!'

Andy Murray marches on to semi-final of US Open after beating Juan Martin Del Potro

So Britain's Andy Murray will be on television screens across America this weekend, after his four-set victory over Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro earned him the prize of a first grand slam semi-final, and a guaranteed slot on the US Open's ˜Super Saturday' broadcast.


Here in the United States, this is tennis primetime for Murray, the most important run of his young life.

This was a day match and a night match. The quarter-final began under beautiful blue skies, but, after four hours of tennis, anyone at the top of the Arthur Ashe Stadium could have looked across and watched the sun setting on the Manhattan skyline.

When he was a break up in the third set, Murray looked as though he was on his way to a straight-sets win. But he eventually made his way through to the last four on the New York cement, eventually beating a South American teenager who had arrived on court on a 23-match wining run. Murray was the one to snap Del Potro’s streak, winning 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, and so became the first British man to make it to ‘Super Saturday’ since Tim Henman four years ago.

One interested observer in the stands was Rafael Nadal, the world No 1 on a scouting mission. Murray’s victory took him through to play Nadal after the Spaniard beat Mardy Fish, of the United States, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in their quarter-final.

One bookmaker had offered odds of 50-1 on Murray and Del Potro swinging fists as well as rackets at Flushing Meadows. On their previous meeting, in Rome this year, Murray had been angered by Del Potro making a remark about his mother, Judy. Murray responded by telling Del Potro to “shut his mouth”.

But there weren’t any punches thrown on court. If there was any senseless violence it was off Del Potro’s strings. Before going for it on the forehand side, he took a giant, almost theatrical wind-up on his back-swing and then unleashed his racket at speed. On some occasions, it worked spectacularly, but there were other times when those in the front row needed to take cover behind their pop-corn.

A few hours before Murray and Del Potro came on court, the large video screen outside the stadium was showing a trailer for the quarter-final, with pictures of the players. Or what the tournament staff thought were the players. Instead of Del Potro and Murray, it was Del Potro and Murray’s brother, Jamie.

Still, by mid-afternoon, the younger of the Murray brothers was out in the world’s largest tennis stadium, in front of 20,000-odd spectators. This was Murray’s second appearance on the main show court this week, but his first during a day session.

It took a while for the crowd to get into this encounter. The opening set was an untidy affair. Murray built a 4-2 lead. But it was then that Murray played a soft break to be broken to 15; he hit two double-faults, including one to finish the game.

By now, Del Potro had found his range and his rhythm off the ground, and he broke Murray once more two games later, with the Briton again hitting a double-fault on the last point of the game. So that left Del Potro serving for the opening set at 5-4, but the South American could hardly get a first service in court, and dropped his delivery.

After a couple of points of the tie-break, Murray asked the umpire whether it would be possible to find the off-switch for the giant video screens inside the stadium. But the screens had been on all week, and the official came back with the message that they would have to stay on. Still, despite that hold-up, Murray played the smarter, cuter tennis, dropping just two points in taking the set decider.

Del Potro, all arms and legs on the cement, called the trainer on court before the second set for an examination of his left leg, and he later had some strapping applied. Murray broke for 6-5, which left him serving for a two-set lead. And yet he promptly played a terrible game, losing his delivery to love after striking four unforced errors.

Again, Del Potro was very much second best in the tiebreak. No wonder he resorted to flinging his racket on the concrete. The teenager won just one point during the climax.

Before the third set, Murray walked around behind the baseline juggling tennis balls on his feet, but his support group in the stadium couldn’t relax. Murray was 3-1 up with a break and later had two break-points for a 5-3 lead.

But it was Del Potro who came through to take the set. In the fourth set, Del Potro was twice a break up, only for Murray to twice find parity. And Murray broke for the set, the match and a place in the semi-finals, when Del Potro put a backhand wide.

Now, ‘Super Saturday’ is beckoning the young Scot to take the biggest advance of his increasingly exciting career.

City's new Arab owners make £160,000-a-week Robinho top Premier League wage earner

Manchester City have made Brazil star Robinho the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League at an incredible £160,000 a week.

And the front man for City’s prospective new owners from the Abu Dhabi royal family fired a warning shot at neighbours Manchester United by even threatening a future bid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Robinho was promised the enormous wages to persuade him to give up his dream of joining Chelsea. And the extent of City’s new wealth and ambition was emphasised when manager Mark Hughes was told he could buy the Brazilian and Dimitar Berbatov on the same day



Berbatov decided to join United but hinted that City were also prepared to push the boat out for him.

He said: ‘The red shirt is a really, really big thing for me. I don’t play for the money. If I want to play for the money, I would have accepted Manchester City’s offer.’


With Robinho now earning £30,000 a week more than Chelsea’s John Terry and £100,000 a week more than City’s second-highest earner Shaun Wright-Phillips, it would appear that the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment mean business.

On Tuesday night, Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the front-man for ADUG, said: ‘I’m happy and really excited to have Robinho at this club, but we wanted both of the players. We would have had both of them if we could.

‘I’m going to see the performance in the first half of the season and then we’ll decide what we do on transfers at the halfway stage. Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious.

‘Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160million (£89m) but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more. I would think $240m (£135m). But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.’

It was thought Al-Fahim was mischiefmaking with his comments about United, but, asked later in the day by Sportsmail about his ambitions for City, he suggested that the club’s owners have indeed set their sights on toppling United.

He added: ‘Manchester is a big city, one of the biggest for football in the UK. I can’t say we’re necessarily going to be bigger than United because every club has the right to grow and might do so, but we certainly believe we can challenge them from now on.’






Al-Fahim offered assurances on Tuesday night that Hughes and executive chairman Garry Cook will remain at the club when it eventually passes from Thaksin Shinawatra into Arab hands later this month.

The 31-year-old will meet Hughes for the first time in London on Friday morning and also seek a meeting with Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards in order to explain ADUG’s plans for the club.

Hughes is understandably delighted at the takeover of the club he joined only in June but he has already been made aware that City must be playing Champions League football this time next year.

Al-Fahim added: ‘We will certainly not pay £40m for a player if he is only worth £10m and we must also makes sure that the club is doing well.

‘That means finishing in the top four this season and fighting for the title in the next two or three seasons.’

On Tuesday at the City of Manchester Stadium, fans queued to renew season tickets and buy first team shirts bearing the names of Robinho and Wright-Phillips, who returned to the club last week.

Robinho met Hughes in London yesterday before flying to South America for international duty with Brazil this weekend.

Hughes said: ‘With the environment we create, we help good players become better and we hope Robinho can become the best in the world. We certainly think he can be.’

Hair not apparent: Footballer Wayne Rooney's mop gets a little thin on top

He might be from the city that gave the world the famous moptop hairstyle as pioneered by the Beatles, but that's where the similarity ends.

Wayne Rooney, 22, revealed his thinning locks as he trained with the England squad and it seems that the premiership star's hair is rather less luxuriant than it used to be.





Compared to a picture of the young soccer star just two years ago, Rooney's brown hair appears to have thinned out a little.

His cropped new hairstyle has removed most of his boyish curls, but appears to have exposed a severely receding hairstyle.

Maybe the stress of organising a £5million wedding earlier this year, to wife Coleen Rooney, has taken its toll.

Meanwhile, wife Coleen seems determined to shed her WAG shopaholic tag as she has written another book on style.

The 22-year-old revealed that her new book - Coleen's Real Style - will be her last ever project under her maiden name Coleen McLoughlin.

And to show her love and commitment to husband Wayne she has vowed to use her new surname in all aspects of her life.

She told the Sunday Mirror: 'I'm changing my name completely. At first I thought about keeping my own name, then I thought about using both names and then I said to Wayne, "What do you want me to do?"

'And he said, "I want you to change it". I thought, "You know what, when I have children I'd like us to have the same name."

'It also means a lot to Wayne. If you ask him what he finds special about being married, he'll say it's the fact that I took his name and we've now got the same surnames.'

Chelsea war with Real Madrid over Robinho

Peter Kenyon is attempting to salvage a deal for Robinho after Real Madrid attacked Chelsea's conduct and suggested that the Brazilian could only leave if he bought out his contract.




With the transfer window closing imminently, relations between Real Madrid and Chelsea have deteriorated badly over the past 24 hours with the clubs becoming embroiled in a war of words.

Real are particularly angry that Chelsea mistakenly advertised a replica shirt on their website with Robinho's name printed on the back, and the Spaniards have reiterated their "decision" not to sell him.

"Madrid profoundly regrets the behaviour of the directors of Chelsea FC who, despite knowing perfectly well that our decision was to not sell, have continued to make gestures and comments, even going so far as to sell the player's shirt on its website," said the Real statement.

Real also criticised Robinho for speaking out about his desire to leave. Under Spanish rules, Robinho can take the unlikely option of becoming a free agent by paying off a buy-out clause in his contract of £120 million. "If the player's final decision is to unilaterally rescind his contract then the club would have no choice but to accept that," said Real.

Chelsea said they "completely refute" any criticism of their tactics. "There is nothing wrong with publicly confirming our interest in a player when the club involved is well aware of it, has been in receipt of two bids and is negotiating to sell the player," said a Chelsea statement. "As for the issue regarding the website, Real are well aware this was a regrettable accident by an external supplier which was rectified as soon as it was brought to our attention and not a single shirt was sold."

Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, is still hopeful of pushing through a deal after Robinho admitted his "head was at Chelsea". He added: "Bernd Schuster [the Real coach] isn't my father, he's my coach. He can't make me do anything."

After seeing his team held to a 1-1 draw by Tottenham, Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted he had no idea if Robinho would join. "It's not my business," he said.