Sterling and Delph, to play or be benched

Something unusual is happening over at the Etihad Stadium. Manchester City is stockpiling their squad with "English players"!

Looks like the "homegrown" rule is hitting Manchester City hard.

After the departure of James Milner, Micard Richards, Frank Lampard and Scott Sinclair, only Joe Hart, Richard Wright and French left-back Gael Clichy (due to his formative years at Arsenal) meet the criteria.

So unless they sign more British footballer, they have to operate with a smaller squad.

And sign they did. First was Raheem Sterling followed by Fabian Delph.

But one has to ask, are the signings out of necessities or requirements, necessary for the club to be competitive or required by the law of the game?

Lets see how the duo measure up against the direct competitors for a place in the team.

Looking the table tallied by WhoScored.com, Yaya Toure is the sure shoo-in. With more goals scored, more tackles and interceptions per game, Fernandinho has the slight edge. Unless Manuel Pellegrini move away from his favoured 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 formation, Delph might have to spend some considerable time on the bench.

Raheem Sterling - Played: 34(1) / Goals: 7 / Assists: 7 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.27

David Silva - Played: 32 / Goals: 12 / Assists: 7 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.53

Samir Nasri - Played: 18(6) / Goals: 2 / Assists: 6 / WhoScored.com ratings 6.94

Sergio Aguero - Played: 30(3) / Goals: 26 / Assists: 8 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.67

Edin Dzeko - Played: 11(11) / Goals: 4 / Assists: 2 / WhoScored.com ratings  6.63

Wilfried Bony - (Swansea)Played: 16(4) / Goals: 9 / Assists: 2 / WhoScored.com ratings: 7.22

Wilfried Bony - (Man City)Played: 2(8) / Goals: 297 / Assist: 2 / WhoScored.com ratings: 6.88

Jesus Navas - Played: 23(12) / Goals: - / Assists: 8 / WhoScored.com ratings: 6.98

Stevan Jovetic - Played: 9(8) / Goals: 5 / Assists: 3 / WhoScored.com ratings: 6.87

David Silva and Sergio Augero, not only are they fans' favourites, their statistics make it very hard for Pellegrini to drop them.

Transfer rumours regarding Nasri, Dzeko and Jovetic should be music to Sterling's ears but if Man City manage to offload them, it will means they will have extra spots for some world class "foreign" players.

Assuming the situation remains the same, Sterling's should make it to the first team, partnering Silva, Augero and Navas in one of the fastest and mobile attacking quartet.

Will the duo follow in the footsteps of Milner and Sinclair? Only time will tell. My guess, looking purely at playing time, they will regret moving to the blue half of Manchester.

Who should Arsenal go for? Benzema or Llorente?

Having watched the Barclays Asia Trophy and the Emirates Cup, I have to say Arsenal is looking very good.

The defence seems much calmer with Petr Cech in goal and the movement of the midfielders look very promising, especially the inter-play between Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey.

The only area that needs improvement is in the attacker department. While Oliver Giroud and Theo Walcott had scored in both the tournaments, they too missed quite a few good chances, too many in fact.

The Gunners might be able to overcome this against weaker oppositions where they will create tons of chances but against defensive strong outfits like Chelsea, where chances are at a premium, they have to find the back of the net whenever they have a sniff of the goal.

And it seems like Arsenal is keen to address the issue and have been linked with a few strikers, among them, Karim Benzema and Fernando Llorente.

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Benzema is believed to be the number one choice after been linked with Arsenal for a few seasons. Even thou Benitez had stated that Benzema is not for sale, it had not stop rumours of the Frenchman being unsettled at the Bernabeau.

It is believed that the Gunners are prepared to up their initial bid of £31 million to £35 million for the Real Madrid striker and if the deal fails to materialise, Wenger will turn his attention to Fernando Llorente.

Over the weekend, Arsenal were reported to offer Serie A champions, Juventus, £8 million for the 30-year-old.

Llorente had proved invaluable to Juventus' domestic and international success the last two seasons. Despite his age, it is hard to believe that the Old Lady will let him go for that sum of money.

But how does the Benzema and Llorente measured up to Giroud and Walcott?

Fernando Llorente - Played 25(6) / Goals 7 / Assist 1 / WhoScored.com ratings 6.70
Karim Benzema - Played 29 / Goals 15 / Assist 10 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.56
Olivier Giroud - Played 21(6) / Goals 14 / Assist 3 / WhoScored.com ratings 7.23
Theo Walcott - Played 4(10) / Goals 5 / Assist - / WhoScored.com ratings 6.61

Based on statistics, Benzema is an upgrade while Llorente isn't going to improve the squad much.

And to finally end their 10 years wait for the Premier League title, Arsenal have to go for only the best.

Minus 16.5 million man likely to solve Liverpool woes

In January 2011, Liverpool completed the most expensive transfer between British club when they agreed to sell Fernando Torres to Chelsea for £50m. In replacement, they got the minus £15m man, Andy Carroll.

How did both transfers turned out? The lesser said the better.

Fast forward to now, the Reds had just completed another massive deal, shipping out contract rebel Raheem Sterling to Manchester City for a cool £49m.

And if rumours is to be believed, Liverpool had triggered the £32.5m release clause for Christian Benteke and the move will be completed on Wednesday.

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For the best part of the 2014 / 15, Benteke looked like an one-season wonder, scoring just 2 goals in 27 games. However, his form took a massive upturn with the appointment of Tim Sherwood, scoring 11 goals in 9 games. Like they say, form is temporary, class is permanent.

But how did Benteke compare to Sterling, the player he is suppose to replace?

Raheem Sterling - Played 34 Goals 7 Assist 7 *
Christian Benteke - Played 26 Goals 13 Assist 2 *

In the 2014 / 15 season, creating chances was not a problem for Liverpool. Putting it in the back of the net was. Looking at the statistics of both players, Rodgers looked to have solve the issue that derailed them last season.

Both are big. Both are powerful. But can the minus £16.5m Belgian surpass the minus £15m man? There is every chance he will.

* Players' statistics provided by WhoScored.com

Manchester United looks set and ready to go

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When Louis Van Gaal was appointed manager of Manchester United, the objective is simple, to return the Red Devils to the heady days under Sir Alex Ferguson.

In the first part of the Dutchman revamp, he brought in the likes of Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind, Victor Valdes.

While the new recruits did not set the Premier League alight, they did just enough to secure a Champions League spot.

Not satisfied with just that, Van Gaal went out and get more reinforcements, great reinforcements.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, Matteo Darmian, Memphis Depay and Morgan Schneiderlin.

Some had questioned the logic for getting Schweinsteiger, especially after the German had suffered a few injuries in recent seasons. But in 21 appearances, 6 of them as substitute, the midfielder had scored 5 goals and had 4 assists to his name, averaging a score of 7.42. Very good returns indeed.

Schneiderlin did not have a statistics as impressive as the German but he is no slouch. 4 goals and 1 assist in 21 Premier League appearances for Southampton. But the Frenchman is more of a defensive central midfielder compared to his new club-mate.

A strikeforce of Van Persie and Falcao will send fear down the spine of any defenders. But the pair had such poor season that Van Gaal had decided to let both go. In came Depay to partner Rooney up front. From a forward left position, Depay scored 22 goals in 30 appearances for PSV Eindhoven. If Depay can match his fellow country-man, a certain Ruud Van Nistelrooy, the Red Devils will be purring.

Any opposition team will dread to see a Man Utd lineup of Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger and Fellani in the middle of the park and an attacking trio of Rooney, Depay and Di Maria. If this is not frightening enough, they will see the likes of Blind, Herrera, Mata on the bench, waiting to be unleashed.

If LVG can keep hold of De Gea and get one more world class defender, the fans will be singing Glory Glory Man United soon.

* All statistic provided by Whoscored.com

Messi, is the wait going to end soon

Going into Copa America Final, I was torn between rooting for the Chileans or to support the Albicelestes.

I always have a soft spot of Argentina because of players like Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Claudio Canniga and now Lionel Messi. Some of them might be controversial but they are all brilliant players.

On the other hand, the Chileans have in their ranks, players like Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo, Gary Medal and Eduardo Vargas. A golden era for Chilean football.

Instead of choosing side, I decided to remain neutral and enjoy the final.

120 minutes could not separate the two teams and it was down to the penalty shoot out which Chile prevailed.

While the host nation celebrates, the camera panned in on Lionel Messi. Like a year ago in the World Cup final, the downcasted magician from Argentina ends up as a loser in a major tournament.

Will Messi follow the footsteps of Zico and Johan Cruyff as one of the best players of their generation to have never won any major international honours?

Here is the team of the tournament, made up of players with the highest rankings.

Liverpool overhaul squad

After the disappointment of last season, Liverpool wasted no time seeking new additions to try and grab the Champions League spot back.

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The main problem with the Reds last season was the lack of goals and they addressed the issue by signing Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings from Hoffenheim and Burnley respectively.

Despite Bunrley going down, Ings had a breakthrough season and was the shining light for the Clarets. From some of the clips on Youtube, Firmino looks a promising addition. Then again who doesn't look good on Youtube.

If Daniel Sturridge can stay clear of injuries, together with Coutinho and Raheem Sterling (if he is still around), the five of them have the capabilities to set the Premier League on fire.

Beside the attacking duo, Liverpool has also recruited goalkeeper Adam Bogdan (Bolton), midfielder James Milner (Manchester City), defenders Joe Gomez (Charlton) and Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton).

Clyne performed brilliantly last season, so much so that if Calcum Chambers was still at Southampton, he would find it hard to dislodge Clyne from the right back position.

As for James Milner, while he is not regular at Manchester City, he did reasonably well when called upon. He belongs to one of those players that do not come with a high profile but consistently performed beyond what is required of him.

Exciting times for Liverpool? For his own sake, Brendan Rodgers can only hope.

Roberto Firmino
Position: Attacker
Nationality: Brazil
Transfer fee: €41million
Bundesliga: 33 (appearances) / 7 (goals) / 10 (assist) / 7.79 (whoscored.com ratings)
Copa America: 3 / 1 / - / 6.56

Danny Ings
Position: Attacker
Nationality: England
Transfer fee: Free
Premier League: 35 / 11 / 4 / 6.89

James Milner
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: England
Transfer fee: Free
Premier League: 18 / 5 / 7 / 7.02
UEFA Champions League: 6 / 1 / - / 6.60

Nathaniel Clyne
Position: Defender
Nationality: England
Transfer fee: €17.6million
Premier League: 35 / 2 / - / 7.04

Adam Bogdan
Position: Goalkeeper
Nationality: Hungary
Transfer fee: Free
Championship: 10 / - / - / 6.83

Joe Gomez
Position: Defender
Nationality: England
Transfer fee: €4.9million
Stats not available

* Player statistics provided by WhoScored.com