More important than Cristiano Ronaldo – how Xabi Alonso’s absence against Sporting Gijon ended Jose Mourinho’s nine-year home record

By KS Leong

When it comes to under-rated and under-appreciated footballers, no player fits that description better than Xabi Alonso, as unfortunate as it may be.

While players like Fabio Cannavaro, Claude Makelele, Carles Puyol and Xavi have attained the recognition they deserve after years and years of consistent, magnificent performances, Alonso hasn’t quite been given his due yet.

The 30-year-old Basque-born midfielder is very much a no-frills, no-thrills type of player, a player who has to do the dirty work but does so without fuss; a player who makes a difficult task look effortless and a simple task look elegant.

We have frequently examined the importance of Puyol and Xavi to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side, stars who regularly have to live with Messi hogging the limelight. If Puyol is the heart of Barca and Xavi the brains, then Alonso is both for Madrid.

With the ability to control the midfield, win back possession, exert his dominance with his forceful challenges, and exhibit superb passing range and vision, Xabi - in a way - does the job of Puyol and Xavi combined.

Xabi’s importance to Madrid cannot be highlighted enough, especially against a team like Sporting, who are expected to be very stubborn at the back and very dangerous on the break. Madrid need a player like Xabi who can spray a variety of passes around the opposition half, someone who is comfortable on the ball under pressure to retain possession, and able to break up a counter-attack.

It’s not just his individual ability that will be missed. His teamwork has been vital to Madrid’s successes this season. At present, he has the second-best pass completion rate in La Liga with 1062 clean deliveries, behind only Xavi with 1273. He has released 221 accurate passes down the wings for a team-mate, more than any other player at Madrid; he is also the second-most fouled player at the club at 23 times, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo’s 30. 

All of these numbers suggest just how much his colleagues rely on him, and how much possession he has of the ball one game after another to keep the team’s increasingly-fluid midfield and attack ticking like clockwork.

Mourinho will have more options now, compared to last season, to fill the void left by Alonso. Sami Khedira, Lassana Diarra, Nuri Sahin, Kaka, Fabio Coentrao - although not all of them are direct replacements - will give the Portuguese coach numerous combinations to work with and allow him to shuffle the pack throughout the game to accommodate Xabi’s absence.

But despite the extra alternatives to fall back on, Madrid are unlikely to find their trip to El Molinon any easier. Manolo Preciado seems to have found a strategy to frustrate both Madrid and Barca in recent seasons. Los Blancos, since scoring a total of 11 goals over two games against Sporting in the 2008-09 campaign, have failed to beat the Asturians by more than two goals in their subsequent four meetings. In fact, Preciado’s men have conceded just four times to the capital giants in their last four encounters. The most significant of those four, of course, was Sporting’s 1-0 victory at the Bernabeu last season, which famously ended Mourinho’s nine-year undefeated streak at home in league games. And that came with Alonso missing from the field.

Even Barcelona, despite all their attacking firepower, have failed to score more than a goal a game against the Gijon outfit in their last four meetings.

Alonso’s absence against Sporting could prove decisive, and if the result doesn't go Madrid’s way, it could be one of the key turning points in this season’s title race. But ultimately, Madrid, Madridistas and Mourinho would rather be sure of having Xabi Alonso with the team to face Barcelona in El Clasico.

Swanselona! How Rodgers has turned his team into the talk of the Premier League

By ROB DRAPER

On Saturday evening, Brendan Rodgers and his Swansea team will be preparing for the match of their lives. Manchester United will be in town, not for a romantic Cup tie or a benign friendly, but as Premier League opponents. 

While it would be incongruous to describe them as equals - Manchester United's turnover last year was £286million, Swansea's just £10m - next weekend they compete as such. Squeezed into his tiny cupboard of an office, provided for him by the health club where Swansea train, Rodgers is relishing the challenge.

'This club and this city have been waiting years to host such a great team, a great club and a genius of a manager,' says the man who took Swansea into the Premier League via last season's play-offs. 'It will be a brilliant occasion and for me there's real excitement.'

Growing reputation: Brendan Rodgers has enjoyed phenomenal success in the past 18 months with Swansea

Excitement and deep regret, too. Rodgers does not say it but he will surely feel it next Saturday evening, as the dusk descends on the Liberty Stadium before kick-off.

For the visit of United is the kind of occasion his mother and father would have relished. But while their son has enjoyed phenomenal success in the past 18 months, forging a reputation as one of the game's brightest young managers, 38-year-old Rodgers has also been a man in mourning, having lost both his parents at relatively young ages and at a time that has been the most successful and fulfilling period of his professional life.

The cruel irony of his loss is an obvious source of pain. 'My mum and dad had worked so hard all their lives,' he says. 'They had arrived at a good moment, seen their son develop his life and could get over to watch games and come and share in what you've done.

'Then, all of a sudden, they're gone. There's a real empty feeling, you know. I spoke to them every day, sometimes you get into the habit to phone, in the car, away to a game…' His words tail off. But there is no self-pity, just grief.

Two months ago, as Swansea struggled to find their feet in the Premier League and were being defeated by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, their manager was 400 miles away in Carnlough, a picturesque village of just 1,500 inhabitants perched on the County Antrim coast where, on a good, clear day, you can look across the Irish Sea to the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.

In ordinary circumstances, the beaches, the pretty harbour and the glens would have made for a serene location. But in the early hours of that morning, Rodgers's father, Malachy, had died, aged 59. 'To be with him when he took his final breaths, that was important to me,' says Rodgers.

'He died on the day of the Arsenal game. I had been with him as much as I could. I was flying back to Northern Ireland every chance I had to spend time with him. Then, whenever it looked like he wasn't going to pull through, as much as I loved Swansea and as much as I love football, I needed to be with my father.'

Hard times: Swansea endured a tough start to life in the Premier League

The grief was so acute for Rodgers because only a few months before his father had been diagnosed with lung cancer, his mother, Christina, had died of a heart attack. She was aged just 53.

'She went out one morning to get her hair done, eyebrows done, all that stuff that women do,' says Rodgers. 'She came back in at a quarter to 11 and my dad went out.

'He said he was going to get a plug and he was on his way home when this ambulance came flying past him. Unbelievable. He thought, "Where's that going?" 'When he arrived down at our village, and our house is just on the edge, the ambulance was outside our house. My mum had collapsed and died.' 

His was a tight family where his brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles grew up alongside each other, helping each other through tough times in the Seventies and Eighties. 

'They had no fancy jobs,' says Rodgers. In fact, his father was a painter and decorator but his mother raised millions of pounds and ended up travelling the world as a volunteer for the Irish Catholic charity, Trocaire.

Tue faith: Rodgers has rebuilt his career at Swansea

When she died, Rodgers had only recently been sacked by Reading and was yet to be appointed at Swansea.

Now, amid his grief, he has rebuilt his career and is reviving the reputation of the club whose Premier League credentials many might have questioned.

'The time when I think is when I'm on my own in the car,' says Rodgers. 'To be at this level as a football manager, you have to be strong-willed. On my own I'll have my moments, of course, but the focus is very much on the job of turning our good performances into results.'

Swansea were on the verge of financial extinction and bottom of League Two just eight years ago. They were saved by their fans to rise into the Premier League. Even now, though, they hardly bear comparison to the men who will be their opponents on Saturday. While United have at their disposal the huge Carrington training complex, where a small army of security men prevent anyone bothering the players, Swansea's finest must mingle with young mums relaxing in the health club bar after their morning gym sessions.

But with more than a quarter of the season gone, Rodgers's players now sit 10th in the table. Since that Arsenal game they have not only achieved results but in some style. Last weekend they were applauded off the pitch at Anfield by Liverpool's own fans, impressed by the way Swansea had gained a 0-0 draw while, by some observers' reckoning, out-passing their more illustrious opponents.

'I said to the players afterwards, "Write that down in your diary. November 5, 2011: You got a standing ovation from the Anfield crowd. That doesn't happen often. I think iy was a measure of our performance and the respect they had for our game.The figures show that Swansea consistently out-pass their Premier League rivals, have more touches on the ball and pass more accurately. Nor are they a soft touch; Swansea have achieved five clean sheets in 11 games and all from a squad of desperados and rejects culled from the lower leagues.

Their 'Swanselona' nickname is well earned, for Rodgers likes Spain and its football so much that he learned the language in his spare time. 'My biggest influence has been Spanish and Dutch football, that Total Football idea,' he says. 'Barcelona have been doing it for years, since Johan Cruyff was coach.'

Perhaps inevitably, the tale returns to his father. 'He loved Brazilian sides. He loved gifted players and I suppose when you're brought up in that environment, you swing more towards that type. He was always keen for me to be a creator and a technician, so that was the influence for me.

'The British type of football never suited me as a player. It was very much smash it up the pitch and play the percentages. The only percentage I was interested in was possession and I didn't think it was rocket science. If we have the ball, you can't score, no matter how big or strong you are. I've always worked off that.'

At Reading, he had grown up as a youth team player but never made it to the first team. He rose to head the club's academy but they never quite absorbed his ideas. He implemented them so well at junior level, though, that he was poached by Jose Mourinho to join Chelsea. 

When he returned to Reading as manager, he lasted just six months before being sacked.

Swansea, whose chairman, Huw Jenkins, knew and liked his style, gave him a second chance. And the fans, as Rodgers points out, had been well schooled under the management of Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa before him.

'They understand what we're trying to achieve,' he said. 'But I could take this group of players to play the same football at other clubs and we wouldn't get the reaction we get from these fans.'

Pass masters: Brendan Rodgers salutes the fans after his side was clapped off the pitch at Anfield

At present, it is a mutual appreciation society. Club and fans have embraced a manager who reciprocates. 'From the age of 16, I was living in Reading, dominated by the city of London, which I loved but when I came here it was like home, really. I was back on the sea again having lived on the coast all my life as a child. What makes it is the people: they're real. It's the real world. There are areas that are deprived, areas that are really modern and improving. But they love life.'

On his desk is a commemorative plaque, made by a fan, which records the date, result and scorers of the club's first ever Premier League win: 3-0 against West Bromwich on September 17. It was a week after the death of his father and came in the week when four miners were killed at the Gleision Colliery in the Swansea Valley.

'That was a sort of monumental game,' says Rodgers. 'The disaster had happened, a young kid had also lost his life here, so it was an emotional time. I was fully aware that football can provide a beacon of hope. And we were very determined to get our season up and running.

'We're in the business of winning, irrespective of style. We understand that we're a million miles away from other people in terms of budget, the size of the club and our resources. But we're here to compete.'

That they are and, with no small thanks to Rodgers, they are doing so in style.

Petr Cech unmasked! Behind the mask of a man who's still the No 1

By MATT LAWTON

Standing over a golf ball at Wentworth with an audience, Petr Cech looks a little uneasy. A childhood spent playing ice hockey probably explains why he swings a club a bit like Happy Gilmore and he seems rather miffed when he heads for the clubhouse. ‘I just don’t get to play enough,’ he complains. ‘I can shoot 10 over one day and 30 the next.’

Amateur golfers the world over can sympathise but Chelsea’s giant of a goalkeeper seems to be unflappable in every other respect, on and off the football pitch.

He is extremely bright. He insisted on completing his education in the Czech Republic even after joining Chelsea seven-and-a-half years ago and he can speak five languages. ‘At  the moment I’m studying Spanish for fun,’ he says. ‘We have many different nationalities in the dressing room and it allows me to converse with most of them.’

But Cech’s linguistic skills also enable him to articulate his thoughts and feelings on a variety of issues. From the recent problems at Stamford Bridge and the questions that remain about Andre  Villas-Boas to his personal journey at Chelsea; a journey as memorable for the setbacks as the success. 

I last interviewed him, one-to-one, in August 2004, a couple of weeks into his first season in  English football and long before he needed a head-guard or the  services of a plastic surgeon for a facial injury that required 50 stitches. Just lately he has needed a mask too, this time to protect a broken nose. He says it does not bother him in the slightest.

‘I can see a line at the top of my nose but it’s not a problem,’ he says. ‘When I played as a goalkeeper in ice hockey I would wear a full mask so I am used to it, although I hopefully won’t have to wear it in another week or so.’

But I have to ask him if he ever feels vulnerable. If he ever fears that the next 50-50 ball could leave him with another serious injury. Particularly when the club’s medical experts now suspect that being one of triplets has left him with a fractionally thinner skull than the average man and particularly when he concedes that a head injury as serious as the one he suffered in a collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt back in 2006, at that time obviously without the protection of his head-guard, could kill him.

‘I guess whatever produced the bones had to be shared between three kids and they do say my skull, in terms of the thickness, is slightly under the average,’ he says. ‘They don’t know for sure but they do  say it could be because I was one  of triplets.

‘But once I’m on the pitch I’m  giving 100 per cent for the team. If that means if I have to put my head somewhere I will do it. Even after the head injury it meant I ended  up with a broken nose against  Blackburn and I needed plastic surgery after a training session.

‘If I have to put my head in to  get the ball I will do so because I don’t want to concede a goal. To be  honest, if you have a bit of fear you should not go on the pitch because if there is a bit of hesitancy you  will probably end up with a more serious injury.’

Even so, one can only admire his courage and his resolve. ‘If I ever feel differently, if I ever feel I cannot give 100 per cent, I will stop,’ he says. ‘But it never once crossed my mind to stop playing. Obviously I was initially thinking, “Thank God I’m still alive”. But I was also relieved I could still play.

‘The day it happened they told me I might not play again that season. Perhaps even the following season. They said it would be a case  of seeing how things progressed. The first priority was my life. It was not about football.

‘But as soon as I realised I would be able to play again I was determined to get back as quickly as possible. There were some days when I could not even think about training. But I was back after three months and a month later we won the Carling Cup. It remains one of my favourite trophies because of what I’d had to overcome. I was happy not only for myself but for all the people who had helped me through that time.’

He says he will always wear the head-guard. ‘I have to because another crack and it’s all over,’ he says. ‘And because nobody can guarantee what would happen if I took another blow like that to the head. I don’t think it’s wise to risk my career, perhaps even my life, for the sake of not wearing a helmet.’ He has always been brave. You have to be to face an ice hockey puck travelling at up to 100mph.

‘When I played the padding and protection was not as good as it is today and, boy, it could hurt,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘I was good, and when I was younger I probably enjoyed it more than football. Probably because there was more to do. More shots to deal with.

‘It was only because the  equipment was too expensive for my family that I chose football. But if you got hit by the puck between the pads, it was terrible — really painful. The bruising could be unbelievable.’

It might, nevertheless, explain why he has long made goalkeeping look relatively easy. It is impossible to find fault with any aspect of his game but his ability as a shot stopper is second to none, perhaps because he grew up facing a considerably smaller, faster flying object.

That said, he has conceded a few more goals than usual this season. It has not really been his fault, the decision by Villas-Boas to play a more aggressive, ambitious style at times leaving him exposed.

But Cech has an interesting take on what led to a run that saw  Chelsea suffer five defeats in nine matches before what appeared to be a return to more familiar tactics enabled them to beat Manchester City and Newcastle and progress to the last 16 of the Champions League with an impressive win against a much-fancied Valencia team. 

He dismisses talk of tactics being the problem before Chelsea’s game at Wigan today. ‘The problem was that we were making too many individual mistakes,’ he says.

‘The high defensive line was not the issue. The problem was that at moments we would lose balance. We would have too many people attacking and we could not recover fast enough. Now we keep more people behind the ball. That is the major change.

‘It means if we lose the ball we are now better organised. Against Valencia and Manchester City we played deeper but we did that because they played really well. We couldn’t play high because we didn’t have the ball. They had spells of possession and we had to organise ourselves to deal with that. 

‘We talked about the individual mistakes we were making and the fact that, while we were attacking really well, we were forgetting to defend. We put that right and you can see the result.

‘But it’s about adapting to the challenge of each game. Against Wigan this weekend it will be  different to the last two games because I would expect Wigan to defend and wait to hit us on the counter-attack.’ 

Cech speaks with real authority and he does so as one of Chelsea’s most senior and influential players. He is a member of the four-man players’ committee at Stamford Bridge, along with club captain John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

So it seems appropriate to ask him about Villas-Boas and the  attitude of the players towards their 34-year-old manager. After all, there have been mutterings of discontent; this sense that the return of Jose Mourinho’s DVD guy as  manager might have been met with a touch of scepticism. When Luiz Felipe Scolari was sacked as  Chelsea manager, Cech was singled out by the Brazilian as a reason for his downfall. Scolari said he had problems with Cech, Drogba and Michael Ballack, claiming he clashed with his goalkeeper when his demand for a personal coach was not met. 

Cech has since refuted the claim, insisting he has never had a personal coach and never asked for one either. Judging by what he says, he seems to have genuine respect for Villas-Boas.

‘Every manager is different,’ he says. ‘But the people identifying problems at the club are making those judgments from the outside.

‘They are never at the training ground. They never see what we are doing on a daily basis. I know that everybody is looking only at the results, but sometimes it is not always a reflection of what is happening. And everybody with Andre is talking about his age when in football there is no such thing as age. There is only quality.

‘It’s about the talent, quality and character of the individual. Edwin van der Sar was still a top, top  goalkeeper at 40. If you have the quality and the character to win things, and the manager won  with a big club like Porto, then I am not worried about the age. He has the experience.

‘Whether you like or dislike a  manager is not important. There have been so many managers I have not liked but I might have liked the way they are working; the way they prepare the team, the way they organise the training. If they understand the game, I am happy.

‘You don’t have to love the manager, you don’t have to love the other players. You can hate half the dressing room but if you are happy to play with them on the same pitch that is all that matters.

‘In training we are doing some very interesting stuff and that gives me a lot of confidence. It gave me confidence even when things weren’t going so well in matches.’

But what about Scolari? What about this group of senior Chelsea players some managers might find intimidating?

‘I was really surprised by Scolari,’ he says. ‘If you think a player is a problem, if you think they are not good for the team, you take them away. You are the boss after all. Well, I played every game and I always gave my best, for the team and for the coach. When Scolari arrived I had big respect for what he had done. He was a world champion with Brazil and he did good things with Portugal. But it didn’t work out for him at Chelsea.

‘I will never do things for myself. For me the club and the team come first. Petr Cech is not important. I might be an important member of the team but compared to the club I am not important.’

And the dressing room? ‘If you are the manager it has to be a massive help that the dressing room is united,’ he says. ‘It’s a good working environment, easier to manage. The players should not be intimidating.

‘Yes, it’s a strong dressing room. We have a lot of experience and we have won things together. We have also had plenty of difficult moments and we have always managed to come through them as a group. We have had so many different managers but the strength of the team has remained and we have enjoyed great success.

‘You discover the character of the team in difficult moments. I think you have seen that character in the last couple of weeks. We have been through another tough period, and it’s not over yet. But I think we have found a way out. We are back on the right track.’

And with that Cech heads back to the driving range, to the nice chaps from TaylorMade he wants to fit him for a new set of golf clubs. You never know, they might even make him hit the ball more like Nick Faldo than Wayne Gretzky.

An unknown at first, but Swansea have found... Vorm the penalty killer

By RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

In the next few hours Demba Ba might have cause to wish his goalkeeper had kept his mouth shut.

It’s been four months since Tim Krul took a call from Michel Vorm. At the time, Krul was breaking through at Newcastle after five years of trying and was one of the few people this side of the North Sea with an idea of who Vorm was. 

They had read about each other for years - Krul, now 23, was the hyped prospect who left Holland for the  Premier League in 2006; Vorm, now 28, was the ‘Penalty Killer’ of FC Utrecht - but they only met at the start of the summer when they were two understudy  goalkeepers with Holland.

‘We got on really well,’ Vorm says. ‘We’re both easy-going, both goalkeepers. We talk quite a lot, maybe once every  two weeks. One day I asked him what it was like playing in the Premier League.’

He had good reason to. It was August and Swansea had just agreed a  £1.5million fee with Utrecht for a  goalkeeper whose height only tops 6ft when he’s got boots on; a goalkeeper who was not Brendan Rodgers’s  first-choice replacement for Dorus de Vries; a goalkeeper who some are not convinced is the best shot stopper in the Vorm family.

Suffice to say, there were a few doubts among Swansea supporters when Vorm was first linked with the club. There were none whatsoever in the advice Krul gave Vorm.

‘He told me, “It’s a beautiful competition, you have to come”,’ Vorm recalls. ‘I had loved the Premier League since I was a kid watching Overmars and Bergkamp at Arsenal. I wanted to come. Tim thought it was a good idea.’

Later today Krul might not be so sure. He has been outstanding this season, a key component in Newcastle’s excellent start. But Swansea arrive at St James’ Park with arguably the signing of the season between their posts. 

Last weekend Vorm pulled off a wonder save when, with three minutes remaining and Swansea 1-0 up against Fulham, Clint Dempsey put a penalty to his right. It led to his seventh clean sheet of the  season - a record matched only by Manchester United in the Barclays  Premier League.

Three months earlier he went low to his right to stop Ben Watson’s penalty when Wigan were chasing a late winner. In between he has been nothing short of exceptional.

‘He is the best keeper I’ve played with,’ says Swansea defender  Ashley Williams. ‘Put it this way, in training whoever has him on their team that day is likely to win. There’s a lot more to the guy than penalties.’

Vorm grew up in Utrecht, the middle child of five to a barber and a housewife. His father was a  goalkeeper, and a good one at that if the stories are to be believed. ‘I never saw him play,’ Vorm says. ‘He’s 71, so quite old and he never played professionally. But he tells me he was very good and I used to hear it around the barber shop from people who saw him play.

‘Football was always big in my house. My younger brother Eddy is also professional.’

Vorm, like many Dutch children in the mid-Nineties, grew up as an Ajax fan and admired Edwin van der Sar. ‘It was around the time they won the Champions League (1995),’ he says. ‘But I loved all football.

‘England, Spain, Italy - I loved it, especially the Premier League. As a kid, when anyone would ask me what I wanted to be I said, “Footballer”. I used to dream of playing for Ajax, but loved to think I could come to the UK.’

He has had the opportunities to do both. As a 14-year-old he was invited for trials with his local side, Utrecht, and also Ajax.

‘I’ll never forget when I saw the Ajax letter on the doormat offering me a trial,’ he says. ‘I was so excited. It’s Ajax!’

It wasn’t what he hoped it would be - even though they offered him a contract after a month.

‘My feeling was the club was a bit cold,’ he says. ‘I didn’t have the feeling that I could play for this club I wanted to play for.

‘At Utrecht it was different. Ajax was a very big organisation - so many people. Utrecht was a lot more like Swansea - small, friendly, a family. The fans of Utrecht all come from Utrecht, it is that kind of club. Again, like Swansea. It was a hard decision but my instinct said Utrecht.’ 

He joined at 14 and left 14 years later having secured his place as Holland No 2 - he was on the bench for the World Cup final last year - and is already a folk hero at Swansea. ‘Life is great at the moment,’ he says. ‘Everything is going so well.’ 

Especially the penalties. 

‘I don’t know where this Penalty Killer name came from,’ Vorm says. ‘No-one at Utrecht called me it. I think it was maybe in the  newspapers and then it got on Google. Now when I save a penalty it comes up. It will be an  embarrassing name if people start scoring every time.’

That doesn’t seem likely. Vorm estimates he saved ‘about 60 per cent’ of the penalties he faced in his first three seasons as a pro. ‘It was not as good the last two  seasons, but still quite high,’ he says. A compilation called ‘Michel Vorm Penalty Killer’ was posted on YouTube a year ago and offers some details. 

‘I remember facing (Yevhen)  Levchenko when he was at  Groningen,’ Vorm says. ‘He was on a big run of scoring penalties. I saved it! But I think a lot of it is luck. 

'Yakubu beat me a couple of weeks ago against Blackburn. I have a method and it is good but there is nothing smart about it. It’s  obvious.’ 

That will be of no  comfort to Ba today if he becomes Vorm’s latest victim.

All my friends train camels... but can Ali Al-Habsi give United the hump?

By CHRIS WHEELER

A keen interest in camel racing is not one you can easily pursue around Wigan in winter, but at least Ali Al-Habsi has been able to put his knowledge of fire fighting to good use in English football.

Few goalkeepers are called upon to rescue their team quite as  frequently as Al-Habsi, whether it was bailing out his old club Bolton or answering the call of duty on a regular basis for Wigan. He came up with an outstanding penalty save in Wednesday’s draw against Liverpool and will doubtless  need further heroics at Manchester United on Boxing Day.

That the 29-year-old does it with an easy smile and a humble nature is even more admirable considering he has not only kept goal at the wrong end of the table throughout his career in England, but he also carries the responsibility of being the only player from the Persian Gulf in the Barclays Premier League at a time of huge Arab interest in football.

It has been a fascinating journey for Al-Habsi; from an upbringing in the deserts of Oman and his job as an airport fireman, to the freezing climes of Norway and eventually east Lancashire.

As the dark clouds gather over Wigan’s training ground, he is aware of the expectation from a distant part of the world where he enjoys almost iconic status.

‘Yes, of course, it’s a huge pressure,’ says Al-Habsi. ‘It’s not just Oman. It’s Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and all the Arab countries. They all follow me every game I play. You can’t believe how much they love Wigan and the Premier League.

‘When you see Manchester City with Sheik Mansour, Abu Dhabi and Etihad, or Qatar getting the World Cup and buying Paris Saint-Germain, football is more interesting than before. To be from  Oman or the Middle East and play in Europe is massive, but I really enjoy it.

‘It’s harder now because everybody believes in you. You are the face for them.’

Al-Habsi didn’t plan for a career in Europe, or to be a goalkeeper for that matter. He was a striker until the age of 16 when his brother, Abdulaziz, coach of their hometown team in Al-Mudhaibi, advised him to change position.

Four more of Al-Habsi’s nine brothers - his father Abdullah and mother Aza also have six daughters - played for the team in Oman’s Third Division, although the absence of grass meant they trained on sand and played home games in a neighbouring town.

Indeed, Al-Mudhaibi, 75 miles from the capital Muscat, is famous for its Al Fath camel racing track. A third of the 56,000 population are said to work in the sport.

‘I love that village,’ says Al-Habsi. ‘It’s the most famous place in Oman for camel racing. All my friends train and ride camels. I’ve had a try - not going fast, just walking.

‘When I go home I love to go there all the time to watch how they train and feed them.’

Even though he was only playing for Al-Mudhaibi in the lower leagues, Al-Habsi earned a call-up to the Under 17 national team. His career changed from the moment John Burridge, the much-travelled veteran English goalkeeper and coach who was working with Oman’s senior squad, saw him save a penalty in a friendly.

‘He thought I could make it in England,’ recalls Al-Habsi. ‘To be honest I just laughed. No player from the Middle East had been given a trial or played in Europe. He was telling me I could play in the Premier League.’

Burridge is mentioned in reverential tones. On the coach’s advice, Al-Habsi moved to Muscat, where he got a job as a fireman at Seeb Airport and split his shifts around training with his mentor, who also helped him to learn English. In summer, Al-Habsi would travel 16 miles by bus to start sessions at 5am before the heat hit 50 degrees.

‘It was hard but when someone believes in you, you do everything,’ says Al-Habsi. ‘John Burridge said he wasn’t going to leave me until he’d put me in the Premier League. When I was 18 he brought me to England. I trained with Bolton and had a trial with Man United.

‘He took a picture of me at Old Trafford. He said, “It’s to remind you, Ali. You will play here and you will be a star”. When I played there for Bolton, I got man-of-the-match and John was there. It was brilliant.’

Burridge paid for the trip, such was his belief in Al-Habsi. Sir Alex Ferguson wanted the youngster, as did Kevin Keegan at Manchester City and Sam Allardyce at  Bolton, but work-permit problems meant that he headed for a three-year stint with Lyn Oslo instead.

‘When I got to Norway there was snow everywhere and it was minus 15. In the first week of training we were outside on the artificial grass. Afterwards I sat there looking at my frozen hands and feet.

‘But when you have a dream, you forget everything around you. I promised my family that I would stay there and work hard.’

Al-Habsi got his move to the  Premier League with Bolton in 2006 after a transfer to City had fallen through 12 months earlier.

He struggled to displace Jussi Jaaskelainen despite an impressive stint at the end of the 2007-08 campaign that helped keep Bolton in the top flight. He had more  luck taking Chris Kirkland’s place when he moved to Wigan on loan last season, winning the club’s player-of- the-year award.

The deal, which turned into a £3million transfer in the summer, also meant he did not have to uproot his wife, Basma, and their four-year-old daughter Renaad. 

A sunny disposition has served him well at Wigan. After avoiding relegation on the final day of last season, Roberto Martinez’s men are locked in another survival battle. Al-Habsi’s heroics on Wednesday night earned a draw just four days after Chelsea had also been held.

It gets no easier with Old Trafford next up. Much has changed in Al-Habsi’s life in the 12 years since that photo was taken. ‘I’m looking forward to it,’ he says. ‘I’m so happy and loving my club.’

Tony Pulis: I am a working class lad who's made the best of his chances

By MATT LAWTON

As a resident of Lilliput, albeit the one in Dorset, it’s perhaps not surprising that Tony Pulis likes to keep a low profile. Take the remarkable progress he has made as the manager of Stoke City. He is reluctant to accept too much credit, preferring instead to praise his players and the family that has provided him with so much support.

‘I’m indebted to Peter and Denise Coates [club owners],’ he says, and in fairness they have done a marvellous job alongside Pulis in turning Stoke into an established Premier League club. A solvent one too. 

The smart new training ground appears to be Pulis’s pride and joy. He insists on giving a guided tour, introducing everyone from the medical staff to the laundry lady. ‘That’s where the players go for their cuddles,’ he says as we stroll past the treatment room.

Pulis loves a cuddle. You could not meet a more tactile person. Everyone gets an arm around the shoulder or a friendly nudge with an elbow, as well as a smile that could stretch from the Britannia Stadium to his home on the South Coast. 

‘My wife has never wanted to move,’ he says. ‘I have a place up here and I go back when I can but she’s right; football can be a precarious business and it was better to bring up the kids in one place.’ 

She is right, even if her husband must now rank alongside Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes as one of the most secure managers in English football. He did not just guide Stoke to promotion but he has kept them there while also taking them to last season’s FA Cup final and into Europe. 

They were the only British club to progress from the group stages to the last 32 of the Europa League, their reward a glamorous encounter with Valencia. ‘Have you been to the Mestalla?’ he says with all the excitement of a kid at Christmas. ‘We can’t wait.’ 

Pulis is like everyone’s favourite uncle. So much energy and enthusiasm; the kind of personality that clearly inspires those around him. ‘I have my grumpy days,’ he says. ‘The players will tell you that. But you have to be positive because you have to lift them.

‘The biggest thing about management is self-motivation. The biggest thing about being in the Premier League, if you’re a club like Stoke, is recognising that you are going to lose games on a fairly regular basis. If you can’t handle that you are going to go under. You have to be strong.’

There is no doubting Pulis’s strength, because for all this bonhomie there is another side to this son of a Welsh steelworker. The hard as nails side and one that does not suffer fools or tolerate indifference. ‘If we have anyone who doesn’t buy into what we are doing here, we try and get them out as quickly as possible,’ he says.

One particular incident springs to mind, two years ago. There was a problem involving James Beattie, and what was said to be a row over the cancellation of a Christmas knees-up after a game at Arsenal. There was a physical confrontation, Pulis emerging naked from the showers to challenge his then striker. 

‘It’s not very good Matt, is it?’ he says with an uneasy laugh and a squeeze of my arm. ‘But the biggest thing for me is what happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room, and I’m not telling you buggers what went on. But everything was sorted. The lads went out.

‘I’m actually a lot softer now than when I first started in management. Society has changed. Football has changed. The world has changed. If you don’t change with it you’ll get left behind, so we all have to adapt. But you still have to be in charge of the group, and there are times when you have to show you are in charge of the group.’ 

Beattie moved on, Pulis moved on, again with the full support of his chairman. But he accepts now that such incidents probably helped him cement his position at Stoke. One only has to see the way he engages with his players in the staff canteen to realise that Pulis is very much the boss. 

There were reports that it was only after meeting Pulis that Peter Crouch decided to leave Tottenham for Stoke. The Welshman’s infectious personality seduced the England striker, enabling the club to secure the services of a player in a deal that amounted to a ‘real statement of intent’. 

Again, though, Pulis is reluctant to take any real credit. ‘I think the biggest thing was getting to the Cup Final and into Europe,’ he says. ‘We felt it gave us a better chance of selling the club to one or two bigger name players.

‘At the same time, though, I think there’s a respect for what we’ve done and the way we’ve done it. When it came to speaking to players like Crouch, Woodgate and Upson, they recognised the fact that we have progressed gradually year after year.

‘This place helped as well. We couldn’t have brought Crouchy to the training ground two years ago when there were just Portakabins where the car park is now. Now we can show them this and we can tell them they will enjoy it, because the spirit is fantastic here. Everyone gets on well. It’s a good place to come to work.

‘Signing Crouchy was a real statement of intent, and he’s not let us down. He’s been absolutely fantastic. All the lads who have come in have been fantastic. On and off the pitch. They’ve embraced the club, bought into what we’re about. It’s given everyone a lift because the players who were here already enjoy working with good new players too.’ 

They must enjoy working with this guy as well. ‘I’ve come from a working class background in South Wales with eight of us in a three bedroom house,’ he says. ‘Four boys in one bed, two sisters in the other bedroom and mum and dad in the box room.

‘My dad was a steelworker but I had the opportunity to become a player. A very average player but a player all the same. But I worked my socks off to make something of myself. When I left Newport on the train at 16, to go to Bristol Rovers, I told myself then that I was never going back to that life. Not because I don’t love South Wales. I still have friends I went to school with. A couple of weeks ago I had four lads up for a game from my under 12s team.

‘I just thought this is my chance and I wanted to take it. And after playing I was lucky enough to be guided into coaching. My attitude has always been to make the most of it, and I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world. Every day is Christmas Day.’ 

When Pulis was first at Stoke, they would have Christmas dinner every week. ‘We’ve stopped that because the chef got a bit tired of doing it,’ he says. ‘But we have a theme day every week. Chinese one week, Indian the next. And we’ll have our Christmas dinner this week too.’

They’ve certainly earned it, the four straight wins that came prior to Wednesday’s defeat at Manchester City propelling them to eighth in the table and so proving that a club of Stoke’s stature can juggle the demands of domestic and European football. 

‘I actually think some of our players were looking forward more to playing in Europe than in the Premier League, because it was fresh and new,’ he says. ‘We’ve embraced it, I’ve enjoyed it, and the Britannia on a Thursday night can be amazing. 

‘We just want to give it a good crack. We need to make sure we stay in the Premier League but we like to give the cup competitions a good go too.’ And yet people still have a go at them. Their long-throw specialists get accused of wearing towels under their shirts; Arsene Wenger brands them a rugby team. It must annoy him. 

‘Most of it just makes me laugh,’ he says. ‘Manchester City have one of the biggest pitches in the league and the grass is half an inch shorter than ours. They also have the best players and the biggest budget. Everything they want. We go there and we give it our best shot and we don’t complain when we lose.

‘But then teams come to the Britannia and our grass is half an inch longer, the pitch is within regulation but smaller and they moan if they lose. That pitch is the same size as the one Arsenal played on for 120-odd years at Highbury. The same as Goodison Park. 

‘Our fans are great. Arsene Wenger called us a rugby team and our fans now sing “Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot” when we play Arsenal. And this thing about towels is ludicrous. They all wear undershirts and a couple of the lads have had them cut because they rub under the armpits. It might look like a towel but I can assure you it’s not.’ 

But what about Wenger? ‘In life you do the best you can with what you’ve got,’ he says. ‘I’ve got no gripes with what people say. I get annoyed if other clubs criticise us as a club, but personally I try not to let it affect me. I can’t affect what Wenger thinks so I don’t worry about it. We all need to stop worrying about things we can’t affect. We worry ourselves into our graves.’ 

Instead, Pulis tries to draw inspiration from criticism. ‘We played Bolton first game of our first season in the top flight and got beaten 3-1, and one of the big bookmakers offered to pay out on us going down there and then,’ he says.

‘They made a big song and dance about it and got a lot of publicity but I’ll never forget that. It was actually a real source of inspiration. It helped us immensely. Nobody expected us to get promoted just as nobody expected us to stay in the league. And the greatest thing about it is the fact that we’ve done it at our own pace. We’ve not got carried away. We’ve been sensible. 

‘This is something the Coates family always had in mind; to build an infrastructure that will last a long time. This year we will spend more on our academy than ever before. Peter wants us to achieve the top academy status and that takes a lot of money. 

'But we realise we are surrounded by some strong competition — north, south, east and west — and the aim is to try and fight against that and bring more of our own players through.

‘This place is a great story, and I hope I’m here for a long time yet. But when I do leave one day it’s a proper football club I want to leave behind.’ 

It would make him the proudest man in Lilliput. 

The amazing statistics behind Premier League's 20,000 goals

The Premier League's 20,000th goal was scored when Marc Albrighton netted for Aston Villa against Arsenal in the 54th minute of their match at Villa Park.


Barclays, the league's sponsors, will be handing over a £20,000 donation to the 22-year-old winger after his milestone goal, which will be donated to a charity of the Albrighton's choice.

To celebrate such a landmark moment, have looked at some of the most interesting statistics to emerge from the rebranded top-flight in the last two decades.


Premier League highest scorers by position

* Goalkeeper: Paul Robinson, one goal

Right-back: Dan Petrescu, 25 goals

Centre-back: John Terry, 27 goals

Centre-back: Sami Hyypia, 24 goals

Left-back: David Unsworth, 41 goals

Right midfield: Cristiano Ronaldo, 84 goals

Central midfield: Paul Scholes, 103 goals

Central midfield: Frank Lampard, 147 goals

Left midfield: Ryan Giggs, 106 goals

Striker: Alan Shearer, 260 goals

Striker: Andy Cole, 188 goals

* Goalkeepers Brad Friedel and Peter Schmeichel have also scored a goal.

Premier League goals in numbers
20000 - Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton scored the 20,000th goal in Premier League history against Arsenal on December 21, 2011 at Villa Park.


1063 - The amount of goals scored last season, which saw the highest goals-per-game ratio ever in the Premier League era at an impressive average of 2.80 goals per match.


931 - The worst year for goals was 2006-07, where only 931 were scored at an average of just 2.45 for each game.


11 - The amount scored in the highest ever scoring Premier League match, which was Portsmouth 7-4 Reading in September 2007. Reading were also involved in the match tied second in those standings, as they went on to lose 6-4 to Tottenham just three months after that crazy game at Fratton Park. 


9 - Two teams have scored nine times in a solitary game. Manchester United beat Ipswich 9-0 in 1995, while Tottenham hammered Wigan 9-1 more recently, in November 2009.


102 - The minute in which the latest Premier League goal was scored, when Dirk Kuyt netted after 101 minutes and 28 seconds against Arsenal in April of this year. Juan Mata (100:03) is second after his strike against Norwich in August.


10 - The number of seconds it took Ledley King to score the fastest Premier League goal in history against Bradford City in December 2000. Alan Shearer (10.4 seconds) and Mark Viduka (11.1 seconds) are close behind.


1079 - The number of goals scored at Old Trafford, which perhaps unsurprisingly has witnessed more than any other ground in the Premier League era. Tottenham are known as an entertaining team to watch, which is backed up by the fact White Hart Lane sits second in the list on 1047. Stamford Bridge (1033) and Anfield (1007) are the only other grounds to have seen more than a thousand.


5795 - London is far and away the city which has seen more Premier League goals than any other. Liverpool (1973) edges out Manchester (1926) for second place. Birmingham is fourth with 1175.


12 - In contrast, Swansea is the city which has seen the least amount of Premier League goals, with just 12 so far in the past two decades. Burnley (55), Barnsley (60), Swindon (70) and Blackpool (71) are the other cities which have been starved of top-flight goal action.


260 - Alan Shearer is the highest Premier League goalscorer with 260, Andy Cole is second with 188 and Thierry Henry is in third spot having netted 174 times in the top-flight. Robbie Fowler (163) and Les Ferdinand (151) round off the top five.

149 - Of all active current Premier League players, Michael Owen of Manchester United has the most goals to his name with 149. Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney are not far behind in second and third respectively.


15000 - After much build up and anticipation, Fulham full-back Moritz Volz was the unlikely scorer of the Premier League's last big milestone goal.


10000 - Les Ferdinand was the man who scored the 10,000th goal in Premier League history for Tottenham against Fulham in December 2001.


1 - So who scored the first ever goal? That was Brian Deane playing for Sheffield United, who defeated Manchester United 2-1 in 1992 to kick off the era. The goal is often wrongly credited to Teddy Sheringham, but his strike for Nottingham Forest was simply the first one to be scored in a live televised Premier League match.


1222 - The amount of goals scored in the first Premier League season, 1992-93 - a tally which was never beaten, mainly because the top-flight was cut from 22 teams to 20, and from 42 games to 38, just three seasons after the new division had been created.