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Danny Wellbeck’s late goal gave Manchester United a well deserved win over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium and ensured they remained hot on the heels of rivals City at the Premier League summit.

With Roberto Mancini’s side emerging victorious from a thrilling contest earlier in the day to move six points clear at the top it was left up to United to close the gap once again. The pressure looked like it was getting to Sir Alex Ferguson’s men as they laboured to break down a stubborn Gunners side with Antonio Valencia’s header on the stroke of half time loosening the restraints after the break.  It was the hosts who upped their game in the second half and deservedly equalised through leading scorer Robin Van Persie just moments after he had missed a glorious opportunity. However Arsene Wenger’s decision to replace the impressive Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andriy Arshavin failed to pay dividends as he Russian allowed Valencia to ghost past him and cross for Danny Welbeck to secure the points for United and put them three points behind City.

Wenger certainly sprung a surprise before kick off as he opted to give 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain his full Premier League debut and it wasn’t long before the teenager was causing havoc robbing Phil Jones in possession on the left and driving into the penalty area only to be thwarted by Johnny Evans. The Gunners bright start saw them fashion the first real chance of the game through Aaron Ramsey’s tame strike that trickled into the arms of Anders Lindergaard. The visitors were struggling to create anything of note and they were dealt a blow just after the quarter hour as Jones landed awkwardly on his ankle and had to be stretchered off. Despite that United steadily increased the tempo as they took control of the first period but just couldn’t get the better of an uncompromising home defence. That was until the stroke of half time when Ryan Giggs whipped in a terrific cross for Valencia to nod in at the back post and give United a deserved lead going into the break.

To Arsenal’s credit that came out firing after the restart although their comeback was put into doubt when Van Persie went down under a challenge from Valencia and required lengthy treatment before returning to the fray. That injury scare seemed to have had an adverse reaction on the Dutchman as his usual composure deserted him seven minutes after half time as his wild effort strayed well wide after Thomas Rosicky’s selfish pull back. Ramsey then scuffed a shot over the bar after being picked out by a superb ball from Oxlade-Chamberlain who then flashed an effort wide of the post. The Gunners had their opponents on the rails and finally made the breakthrough with in the 71st minute as Van Persie atoned for his earlier miss calmly slotting home after being picked out by Oxlade-Chamberlain in the area. The former Southampton winger was then giving a standing ovation by the Emirates crowd as he replaced soon after by Arshavin but seven minutes later all the fingers were pointed at the Russian as United regained the lead. The winger allowed Valencia to skip inside him way too easily before the Ecuadorian played a neat one-two with Park Ji Sung and crossed for Welbeck who made no mistake with an emphatic finish. It was a hammer blow to Wenger’s side who’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season took a huge hit as Ferguson’s Red Devil’s kept themselves firmly in the title race.

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On Friday, it was revealed that Liverpool will be signing a new kit deal with American firm Warrior Sports when their current supplier’s contract with Adidas expires in 2012/13. The biggest revelation from the deal is that the Reds will be getting £25m a year, taking over Manchester United’s deal with Nike (£23m a year) as the biggest kit supplier deal in British football.

Liverpool are currently the fourth largest replica shirt sellers in the world, with 900,000 sold per year, only trailing behind Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Reds deal with Warrior Sports will be the first football shirt deal for the American company, who are little known outside of the United States.

So who are Warrior Sports? There were set up in the 1992 by former champion Lacrosse player David Morrow. Since, they have been at the forefront of new Lacrosse equipment and jerseys, becoming the first supplier to develop titanium shafts for Lacrosses sticks. They eventually branched out into Hockey, but they have yet to breakthrough into any other sports.

So how, you may ask, could they afford to outbid global giants Adidas for the right to make Liverpool replica shirts? In 2004, they were taken over by American Sportswear firm New Balance. New Balance have been going since the early 1900s, and are most famous in the US for developing footwear for athletes. New Balance grew steadily as a company and is now worth over $1billion, which is still only a tenth of the size of both Nike and Adidas. The American company, in addition to acquiring Warrior, has also bought out Dunham, PF Flyers, Aravon and Brine Sporting Goods.

The connection to New Balance for Warrior is crucial though, as they are a New England based firm, which will certainly have heavy business connections around Boston. It is no coincidence that the Liverpool deal, quickly followed one that saw Warrior Sports take on the role of manufacturing kits for the Boston Red Sox.

It seems then that Fenway Sports Group connections to American businesses was crucial in this bumper deal. There is a no real connection between a Lacrosse kit supplier firm and Liverpool other than FSG, and the massive marketing potential of Liverpool, and the exponential rise in their brand awareness around the world, must have been enough for Warrior to cough up the record £25million a year.

Although New Balance and Warrior Sports are small compared to Nike and Adidas, the fact the Reds will have no competition from other football teams, means the benefits could be hugely mutually beneficial. While the Reds get a massive kit supplier deal with a big firm fully behind them, Warrior Sports will get a massive benefit from their name being spread throughout the world by Liverpool FC.

Tremendous credit must go to FSG and the Reds marketing team for pulling off such a deal; a deal which would not have been possible a year ago.

David Tully is the editor of Live4Liverpool.com

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This week, our featured future England star in the making is West Ham United and England U-19 defender Jordan Spence.

Spence is a product of the hugely successful West Ham academy which has produced a number of notable England internationals, including the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick and Spence will be looking add his name to this illustrious group of West Ham players who have gone on to feature regularly for England.

He joined the academy back in 2004 as a precocious 14 year old and impressed almost immediately at Upton Park. The 2005-2006 season saw a young Spence make his academy debut in West Ham’s 5-1 defeat at Ipswich Town. In addition to featuring for the academy side, Spence’s talents were such that he was selected to play in the reserve team that very same season, making his reserve team debut as a substitute in the Hammer’s 3-0 defeat to Watford. A 15 year old Spence would go on to make a total of 5 appearances for the youth team and 2 substitute appearances for the reserve team.

His potential was not to go unnoticed by the England youth setup who called up Spence to the U-16 team. He played 6 times for Kenny Swain’s team, captaining the side and leading them to triumph in the Victory Shield in November 2005.

The next season saw Spence become a regular fixture in the academy side while also making the jump up on the international stage to U-17 football. The summer of 2007 saw Spence captain the England squad which competed in the FIFA U-17 World Cup where England produced a solid display, reaching the last 16 round under Spence’s leadership.

As a result of Spence’s increasing reputation, he found himself more heavily involved with the reserve team during the 2007-2008 season. He scored his first goal for the reserves in a 2-2 draw with Arsenal and went on to make 11 appearances for the reserve team as well as playing regularly for the academy side and the England U-18 and U-19 teams.

Manager Alan Curbishley rewarded Spence’s form by calling up the defender to the substitute’s bench for West Ham’s first two Premier League games of the 2008-2009 season and again in the Hammer’s League Cup victory over Macclesfield Town. September saw Alan Curbishley replaced at the Upton Park helm by Gianfranco Zola. The Italian sent Spence on loan to League One team Leyton Orient to give the youngster a taste of first team football. He joined the O’s in November 2008 initially on a one month deal and made his debut for the club in an FA Cup second round tie against Bradford. He returned to Upton Park in January only to be loaned back to Orient where he played regularly for the O’s until the end of the season.

The beginning of last season saw Spence go out on loan again, this time to Championship team Scunthorpe United on a one month deal which was extended until January 2010. Spence played eleven times in all for the Lincolnshire side before returning to West Ham where he was named captain of the reserve team.

After 6 years at the club, Spence finally made his first team bow at the end of last season when he came on as a late second half substitute for Alessandro Diamanti in the Hammer’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

During his time with West Ham and the England youth team, Spence has distinguished himself as an outstanding England prospect. He plays with an assurance beyond his years and possesses pace, versatility, positional awareness and is comfortable in possession. His style of play is very much reminiscent of fellow West Ham academy graduate and England captain Rio Ferdinand. He has captained England at U-16, U-17, U-18 and U-19 level so he certainly has the necessary leadership qualities to be a future England captain down the line. Time will tell whether he will be able to reach these lofty heights but there is no doubt that he has the potential to do so.

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The excitement is building as the Christmas period begins and it is now just a matter of days until the January transfer window opens. Plenty of festive football for everyone to tuck in to before the year ends is exactly what is required for players to put themselves in the shop window if they want out of their current clubs as soon as possible.

Over 100 players are out of contract at the end of the season and clubs will be looking to get whatever money they can for them in January to prevent losing the individual for free in the summer. It could be like walking into a footballing pound shop next month as players that would have been worth multi million pound bids in the past may now be able to leave for next to nothing.

Here is a look at the top ten likely transfer snips to be had in the Premier League over the next few weeks and who will be a possible bargain of the season.

Click on Junior Hoilett to unveil the top 10

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Earlier in the season I wrote a blog commenting on how ridiculous it was that so many people, fans and journalists alike, were comparing the transfer fees of James Milner to Manchester City and Mesut Ozil to Real Madrid when there were a number of extenuating circumstances. And predictably enough, as a new transfer window swings into action, we get the same shock, horror and outrage at the fee being discussed for the transfer of Darren Bent from Sunderland to Aston Villa. Yet again people are all too keen to point out other transfer fees as some sort of proof that he is overpriced.

Why is it so black and white with some people when discussing transfer fees? Every transfer is unique – so many factors come into play that decide what that fee is, that the actual skill of the player becomes the tip of the iceberg. And what is a market value for a player? Well the fact is there isn’t one. There’s no manual available, no graphs to check to see what a player is worth, no complex formula – it is a figure that cannot be determined – what is the worth of a human being to a football club? Almost impossible to say. And there are other costs as well of course – wages, signing on fees, payments to agents and so on. The transfer fee is just the beginning, and it often includes add-ons that will only be paid if the player is successful anyway, plus sell-on clauses, image rights, and so much more.

So it might be stating the obvious, but what are the factors?

Do the selling club need to sell? If the selling club are desperate to sell, this puts the buyer in a better position to haggle a good price.

Do the selling club want to sell? If the buying club is after a player the other club had no intention of selling, then the price will inevitably rise. The favourite quote of those shocked at the Bent fee over the last 24 hours has been to mention that van der Vaart only cost £7m. Good value for sure, but then he wasn’t wanted by Madrid, was languishing on the bench, and thus probably wanted out anyway, and Madrid were a few hours from being stuck with him for at least another 4 months. Any potential buying club was in a very strong position.

Does the player want to leave? If he is angling for a move, it of course helps the buying club to come to a deal on their terms. If there is one criticism of Villa’s fee that I personally would make, it’s that Bent wants to leave – but of course Sunderland could make him stay if they so wished, though the player usually gets his own way in the end.

How good is the player? Quite important consideration I guess!

Continue to PAGE TWO for more factors…

In what position does the player play? Quite simply, strikers cost more than anyone else, a simple fact of life. Every world record transfer fee of the last 10 years has been for a forward/attack-minded player – Zidane is the nearest to an exception. The seven highest ever fees show a similar pattern.

What nationality is the player? Yes there is a premium on English players in English leagues. I imagine there is for French players in France too. In a world where success is demanded instantly and a club is never more than 3 games away from a crisis or a manager 3 games away from the sack, their worth in being able to adapt and settle instantly should be apparent, and their experience in the league in question should not be underestimated either. Familiarity breeds high prices.

How long does he have left on his contract? The Bosman ruling changed everything, not just in snapping up free transfers, but in shaping transfer fees too. Any player can be purchased much more cheaply if he is near the end of his contract than if he has years left to run. And this is the crux of why Ozil cost less than Milner, in addition to some of the factors previously mentioned. Ozil was nearing the end of his contract – he had told his club he wasn’t going to sign a new contract, so the club had two options – keep an unhappy player and lose him for nothing at the end of his contract or sell him on the cheap (relatively speaking). Real Madrid signed Khedira under similar circumstances. And this is of course why Steven Pienaar is available for £3m.

Are there a number of clubs after him? Always useful for the selling club to instigate a bidding war.

Age? No need to explain this one. Bent has a good seven or eight years left in him, fitness permitting, maybe more.

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The factors listed above are just some of the reasons. There will be more that I haven’t mentioned – injury history, attitude, lifestyle – the player might have a release clause – as I said, every deal is unique. But the facts are that Darren Bent is the 3rd top scoring player of the last 18 months in the Premier League. He has scored consistently for years, and not in one of your “Top 4” teams. In the last 5 years he has scored one less goal than Rooney or Drogba. Those statistics suggest to me that he also is not too injury-prone. He is English, under contract, and Sunderland were not looking to offload. Yes, it probably is still too high a fee when looking at that set-in-stone market value, but the fact is that we won’t know how good value the fee represents until he has stopped playing for Villa – if he is the difference between staying up and getting relegated (not that I think they will anyway), then he will have been worth every penny.

In the end, only time will tell.

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With James Milner on the verge of a big money move to Manchester City, his days at Villa Park seem to be numbered. However, James Milner would be wise to resist the overtures of City’s millions and stick with Aston Villa, given that he is guaranteed a first team place and an integral role in the development of Villa’s future.

Under Martin O’Neill, Milner has become the fulcrum of Aston Villa’s midfield, becoming a dynamic and reliable presence in the middle of the park. His ability to link the play and provide assists has become a trademark of his game. Milner’s contribution of seven goals and twelve assists certainly proves his value to the attacking play of this current Villa side.

Along with his attacking prowess, Milner’s versatility is another great asset to the squad. Milner is naturally a winger by trade but his ability to adapt to different positions has proven invaluable to Martin O’Neill.

Milner has played in a number of different positions for Villa this season from right back to winger to his current position of central midfield. By incorporating different facets from each position that Milner can play to his new central role, Milner is able to bring unparalled nous to a hugely important role.

His displays in Villa’s claret and blue have resulted in Milner being crowned the PFA Young Player of the Year 2010, ahead of Cesc Fàbregas and Wayne Rooney. Unfortunately for Villa, the PFA weren’t the only ones to notice Milner’s potential as Manchester City declared their interest in signing the playmaker as part of Roberto Mancini’s new-look midfield.

With the promise of megabucks for Milner to sign on the dotted line, the temptation for Milner is certainly high. But he would be well-advised to steer clear of the Eastlands revolution as he would find himself near the bottom of the pecking-order at the City of Manchester stadium.

Mancini already boasts a wealth of midfield talent at his disposal with the likes of new signing Yaya Touré, Nigel De Jong, Patrick Vieira, Steven Ireland and Lord Voldemort himself Gareth Barry all vying for a few places in the centre of midfield. If Milner were to join Manchester City, he would be hard pressed to command a regular first team place with the amount of competition for a limited number of spots in the line-up.

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Similarly, on the wing, Mancini has the likes of David Silva, Adam Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy battling it out for two places in the team.

Given the ferocious competition for places in the Manchester City squad, Milner would be foolish to join. If he did so, he would most probably find himself warming the bench and in so doing, severely damaging his chances of cementing his place as an England regular in the years to come.

Unless Manchester City match Villa’s £30 million valuation, Milner is going nowhere. And that is absolutely fine by me.

Tottenham attacker Rafael van der Vaart has confirmed that he is fit and available for selection for this weekend’s trip to take on Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, but understands why he was only on the bench against Bolton last Saturday.

The Netherlands international had been sidelined with a persistent hamstring injury, and Harry Redknapp preferred to partner Jermain Defoe with Emmanuel Adebayor in the White Hart Lane side’s 3-0 win over The Trotters.

Redknapp faces a selection dilemma with two in-form players vying for the one position, and Van der Vaart has stated that he is ready to play.

“With regards to my injury I can say it feels pretty well, up to 100 per cent fit. I just have to keep up the hard work this week and hope I start next game,” he told the club’s official website.

Despite at times displaying temperamental behaviour, Van der Vaart understands and accepts his omission from the Spurs team that beat Bolton.

“I fully understand I had to start on the bench. I could only train once with the group. Then there are some more players the manager can pick, so of course I had to start off the bench,” he concluded.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Former Hoffenheim boss Ralf Rangnick has been appointed as Felix Magath’s successor at Bundesliga club Schalke.Despite steering the club into the Champions League quarter-finals, Magath was sacked by Schalke on Wednesday due to their poor domestic record, which sees them sit in 10th place in the Bundesliga, just seven points above the relegation zone.It will be Rangnick’s second spell at the club after season-long stint in which he guided the side to the German Cup final and a second place in the league.A statement on the club’s official site read: “FC Schalke 04 have a new head coach in Ralf Rangnick and he will be presented at the Royal on Monday March, 21.””The 52-year-old signed a contract at Schalke until June 30, 2014 and his first game in charge will be away at FC St. Pauli on Friday April 1, 2011.”Rangnick stepped down as Hoffenheim boss in January after the club sold midfielder Luis Gustavo to rivals Bayern Munich against his wishes.The 52-year-old guided Hoffenheim from the lower reaches of German football in to the top-flight during his four years at the Rhein-Neckar Arena, and has also coached Stuttgart and Hannover.

Wigan Athletic boss Roberto Martinez accused his players of lacking courage and commitment following their season-opening defeat to Blackpool.

The Latics lost 4-0 at the hands of newly-promoted opposition and afterwards Martinez pulled no punches.

"The first half was unacceptable," he said."When you play against a team that is newly promoted you know they are going to be ready for the battle and we were a yard off.

"We were very slack and sloppy and Blackpool took advantage of that. Then after that everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

"At the start of the Premier League you need to be ready. That's nothing to do with any football issue.

"You need to be ready to earn the right to be on the ball and we didn't do that.

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"We allowed Blackpool too much space and we thought having the ball would be enough to win a football game and that's what cost us."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Grant Holt scored a stoppage time penalty to rescue a point for Norwich who fought back from 3-1 down against Blackburn who looked on course to win their first away game of the season.

The Norwich skipper climbed off the bench for a second consecutive week to save the Canaries again after heading the equaliser against Liverpool seven days prior. The result was incredibly on Blackburn and their boss Steve Kean who must have thought his side had picked up their first victory away from Ewood Park only to be pegged back at the death. However the boo boys who have been hounding the club to sack Kean over the course of the season will have been silenced after Rovers produced an enterprising performance in what as a fast paced and absorbing encounter. The point lifts the away side off the bottom and into 18th although a win would have seen them rise out of the bottom three for the first time in over a month. They’ll be deeply unhappy with referee Anthony Taylor after his decision to punish Steven N’Zonzi for handling in the area with the decision seeming a tad harsh.

Going into the game the consensus was that Kean needed a win and a performance to stave off the sack for another week and his side looked intent on prolonging their manages stay in the dugout. The away side, boosted by an extra time win against Newcastle in the Carling Cup, carved out numerous opportunities to take the lead with Mauro Formica setting the tone with rasping 25-yard drive early on. Thats not to say Norwich weren’t involved as they created chances of their own and but they were only woken up from their slumber after Yakubu sliced an effort wide. David Fox brought the best out of Paul Robinson from range before Elliott Bennett fired into the side netting. That proved to be a costly miss from the former Brighton man as Junior Hoillet deservedly put Rovers in front during first half stoppage time. The Canadian evaded a few challenges before lashing a super striker past John Ruddy from 20-yards.

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Improvement was needed from the Canaries and they came out for the second period looking revitalised and they equalised through Steve Morison. The Welshman has been a key figure in recent weeks at Carrow Road and he finished with aplomb from the edge of the area after being set up by Leon Barnett. Once they concede Blackburn usually crumble but they looked to have secured their first win on the road with two quick fire goals. Firstly Yakubu saw his tame shot creep underneath Ruddy’s body before Christopher Samba established a two goal cushion flicking Morten Gamst-Pedersen’s free kick into the net. However it wasn’t to be as Rovers came under siege from a home side determined not to concede defeat in what was a frantic final few minutes. Midfielder Bradley Johnson reduced the arrears with seven minutes remaining with a crisp finish from the edge of the area before referee Taylor pointed to the spot in stoppage time after he adjudged N’Zonzi to have deliberately handled. Despite strong appeals from the visitors the decision stood and Holt kept his cool to slot the ball past Robinson from 12-yards to conclude a frenzied afternoon in Norfolk.