The former Newcastle captain Alan Shearer is tipping Andy Carroll to follow him into the England ranks.

Shearer, who scored 30 goals in 63 appearances for his country, worked with the now 21-year-old during his brief spell in charge at St James' Park and said he was well aware of his potential.

However, he believes Carroll has improved so rapidly since the start of the season that he could now be ready to make his mark on the senior international stage, with Fabio Capello preparing to name his squad for next week's friendly against France.

Shearer told the Evening Chronicle: "A month ago, I would maybe have said it was too early, but he's getting better and better every game.

"He has to put him in sooner or later and I don't think it would be a surprise if he was picked now."

The Gateshead-born Carroll is the latest successor to Shearer, a player he watched from the stands as a boyhood Newcastle fan, and scored his sixth goal of the season in the club's surprise 1-0 win at Arsenal on Sunday.

But Shearer, who also made his England debut against France in 1992, has been impressed by his contribution in both attack and defence.

"He just needs to keep on doing what he is doing. As Chris Hughton [the Newcastle manager] has said, there will be times when he doesn't score and he might have games that are a bit iffy. That's part and parcel of the game but at the minute, he's on a high. He was absolutely awesome at Arsenal on Sunday. He completely bullied the defence and that's great to see.

"It's a huge thing that he's contributing in the defensive areas too. He sees the problem and takes it on. He's like a magnet at the back, and that's a really important part of his game."

The one thing that always struck me about the Invincibles was their power, precision and devastating speed. Teams wouldn’t attack them because they knew that if Arsenal got the ball it would be in their 18 yard box within ten seconds, they would also do everything within their power to keep the ball away from the left hand side of our team. Cole, Pires, Henry – no three players have complimented each other better since – for Arsenal or any other team in the Premier League.

Since that season Arsenal’s style has changed, power and pace has been replaced with a greater emphasis on technique and passing ability, you feel the perfect balance lays in a mixture of both styles, this side is miles from having that perfect mix that will help it leap over the final hurdle to glory.

I guess the best way to show the difference is with the stars of the midfield: With the Invincibles we had Patrick Vieira, tall, leggy, strong – very athletic whilst also being blessed with a very good passing ability. We now have Cesc Fabregas – in his own right a simply stunning player but much smaller in stature and less of a physical player, and in my opinion, the worlds best passer of a ball. Yes, better than Xavi.

If you look at the youth team now, the players looking at breaking through are all massive physically – is this a sign of the direction Arsene wants to go in? Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is absolutely huge, a monster.. Chuks Aneke is nearly a similar size… two players who look like playing a massive part in the future of Arsenal.

Looking at the comments that Arsene made in his interview with ATVO before tonight’s game he hinted at changing his style to become slightly more direct and you can’t argue that sometimes you wonder just what may happen if the players just took a pot-shot or tried something slightly different. In the past few games we have looked so predictable, teams know what to expect and they have had the time to come up with, and deploy, a system designed to stifle our attacking play and you know what? It has worked.

“We had problems to win the games. We might find a way to play a bit more direct in some situations because everybody drops deep against us and as soon as you make a mistake it becomes even harder.

“For example on Sunday clearly I think we were serious but we didn’t create enough. We looked at some stage that we could play for a while without scoring a goal and that is of course a worry.”

As well as a change of style, a change of attitude might serve them well too. The first ten minutes of a game as just as important as the last ten when we are going all out to save one, you can pretty much seal a game in the first half if you catch a team cold.. I can’t remember the last time we came flying out of the blocks and got a really important early goal. We  need that in the big, big games, as well as when we need to break down the more defensive sides.

One player we will need tonight is our captain. At the weekend he was woeful, misplacing the most passes in a game since 2007 if my memory serves me right – he has declared himself fit to play tonight and the manager reckons we will see a ‘different player‘:

“It has taken a lot out of him mentally and I believe that the fact he came through well against Newcastle you will see a different player on Wednesday night.”

I don’t think it was wise to play Cesc at the weekend, but hopefully his hamstring holds up. For us to win something this season we need our captain more than ever, especially to drag us out this horrible November rut we are stuck in.

A win tonight is a must, we just can’t drop more points. Wolves will make it as difficult as possible, they have nearly got one over on United twice this season, whilst Chelsea found life very difficult when they played them. Last season we only won at home by the skin of our teeth and away from home they gave everything in search of a result. Don’t look at where they are in the table and assume it will be a walk-over – I’m more concerned about the players doing that to be honest.

I guess all we can do now is get behind the players and hope they give the fans the performance they deserve – the away fans that it.

Etihad Player of the Month

  Etihad Airways are the flag carrier airline of Abu Dhabi, United Emirates and the official sponsors of Manchester City Football Club


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Нападающий "Шахтёра" Эдуардо да Силва поделился мнением о своём бывшем одноклубнике по лондонскому "Арсеналу" Андрее Аршавине.

"Очень хороший футболист. Всё, что должно быть у классного игрока атаки, у него есть: видение поля, скорость, дриблинг, удар. А что критикуют… В Англии, где каждый матч пресса рассматривает под микроскопом и выносит подчас противоречивые вердикты, критики избежать невозможно в принципе", — цитирует Эдуардо "Спорт-экспресс".

"Арсенал" заинтересовался защитником дортмундской "Боруссии" Невеном Суботичем. "Канониры" готовы выложить за футболиста 20 миллионов фунтов стерлингов уже в январе. Контракт серба с нынешним клубом действует до лета 2014 года, сообщает издание Daily Mail.

В нынешнем сезоне чемпионата Германии Суботич провёл за "Боруссию" 11 матчей.

Ранее, также сообщалось об интересе лондонского клуба к защитнику "Ромы" Филиппу Мексесу.