Rio Ferdinand: Rooney Ready To Roar

Wayne Rooney Close To Form

Rio Ferdinand has insisted that Wayne Rooney is close to hitting his prolific goal scoring form, Rooney has struggled this season with his form and off the field issues, which has been well documented.

Rooney scored 34 times for United last season, but has managed two goals from the penalty spot during the current campaign, but Ferdinand suggests that Wayne Rooney’s sharpness is starting to return at training and is only a matter of time before he delivers on the pitch.

"Everyone knows what happened over the last couple of weeks beforehand but Wayne's come back and he's looking sharp," said Ferdinand.

"He didn't score in our last game but he looked sharp and set up a good number of chances for other people.

"It's only a matter of time before he scores and then goes on one of those runs where he scores loads of goals.

"Just having him back around the place in a good mood is fantastic. He's a great lad to have around and long may it continue.

"Arsenal are a good team but I'm concentrating more on what we've got in our dressing room. I'm confident in our team and the individuals as a collective that we can go out there and beat any team and I'll be looking to do that on Monday."

Title Chase

"Arsenal and Chelsea are very big games for us. We're playing two of the teams at the top of the league back-to-back. They'll be hard games but games we all enjoy playing in.

"They'll be big spectacles with everybody watching and we'll be going out there to win. Fingers crossed we can do that and if we can it will put us in a great position for the rest of the season."

England Lose Against France

Benzema scored the first goal

England have lost against France 2-1 in a friendly match that was played at Wembley tonight. The Three Lions failed to get off to the best of starts with France dominating most of the possession in the first half. They knocked the ball around with typicla French panache in comparison to their English opponants.

In terms of performance, it has to be admitted that England were woeful.  Unable to retain possession and make any meaningful passes, they gave the ball away on numerous occasions.

England went behind early when Karim Benzema played a nice one-two with Sami Nasri around the seemingly hapless Rio Ferdinand. Benzema lashed in a low left footed shot in the area which went underneath England goalkeeper Ben Foster.

Fabio Capello gave his first international caps to Andy Carroll, Kieron Gibbs and Jordan Henderson. Two of them will probably find cause to regret this. Andy Carroll gave a good performance, winning all the balls in the air that came his way, and holding up the play and bringing in midfield players.

The other pair had an undistinguished time representing their country.

England were unable to create any clear cut chances in first half and were relying on Carroll winning battles in the air, hoofing long balls up field for the Newcastle man to challenge.

In the second half Capello made three changes, taking off Kieron Gibbs, Rio Ferdinand and Theo Walcott for Stephen Warnock, Micah Richards and Ashley Young.  Thein hope was that this would create more chances for England, but this tactic failed miserably as England fell further behind.

Bacra Sagna was allowed space and time to cross on the right hand side for Mathieu Valbuena to volley home making the score 2-0. Moments later Andy Carroll was substituted for Jay Bothroyd who was making his Three Lions debut.

England had more chances in the second half but they failed to capitalize on these opportunities.

Steven Gerrard burst through in the the French area a couple of times, only to see his efforts whisk wide of the goal.

A dangerous move - it was one of those runs from Gerrard that forced the Liverpool player to withdraw due to a hamstring problem.

Peter Crouch was then brought on for the injured Gerrard and made an instant impact getting on the end of a back post cross to volley home, making the score 2-1.  Despite this, England were unable to find an equaliser towards the end of game.

A time to gather thought for the squad, perhaps.

Twitter Brings Robbie Savage & Rio Ferdinand together

Rio & Robbie Twitter Fans

Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Savage have never been the best of friends and let's face it - they weren't afraid for anyone and everyone to know it.

However, Rio has revealed how Twitter has brought him together with rival Robbie Savage. Ferdinand and football's Mr Marmite have had numerous encounters with each other on the pitch, including a half-time bust-up during Blackburn's Carling Cup semi-final at Old Trafford in 2006.

Savage admits in his autobiography, that during that particular incident he kicked Rio in the tunnel (which sounds painful on any level). Ferdinand also got sent off three weeks later after a challenge on Savage.

Generally, the two were not getting along very well.  To say the least.

However, social networking comes along like a benign fairy godmother and sprinkles fairy dust on the pair of them.  Both players are huge fans of the social networking site that is Twitter and can regualrly be seen poking fun at each other and exchanging banter like the regular guys that they are..

“I actually hated him. I hated him as a person, I didn’t like him,” Rio told Football Focus and not in a flouncy, childish or immature way at all.

“I didn’t know him. As a football thing. I got sent off in a game. I thought he was acting and he made more of it and I thought I didn’t like him, he’s not my type of guy...and then Twitter brought us together.”

'After Rio comments on Football Focus, Robbie Savage tweeted, “It's official ! Rio loves me ! I love you to Rio xx.”

Of course, the path of true love never runs smooth and it is only a matter of time before the pair fall out of their double pram and in to the headlines again - for all the wrong reasons.

We would say we warned you when it happens, but it's not exactly rocket science, is it?

Rio Ferdinand retains England captaincy

Rio Ferdinand has been confirmed as England captain by manager Fabio Capello, Steven Gerrard had been given the job by Capello while Manchester United defender was fighting back to fitness from the injury which ruled him out of England's disastrous World Cup campaign. But now Ferdinand has regained full fitness, Fabio has decided that Rio should take the armband back. Gerrard captained England at the World Cup and the opening two Euro 2012 qualifiers in the absence of the injured Ferdinand.

"I spoke with Steven yesterday evening and explained why Rio will be captain against Montenegro," said Capello.

"He understood everything - he knows the rules. I have also told the players that Rio would be captain.

"I decided when I started as England manager who will be the captain and the vice-captain. The players understand why Rio is the captain, and after him Steve Gerrard, and after Gerrard another one.

"When I spoke with Steven I told him, 'you were a fantastic captain and you have to play like a captain tomorrow."'