LONDON -- When the English Premier League champions take on the runners-up, the stage should be set for a clash between two teams bursting with confidence.That wont be the case when Leicester hosts Arsenal on Saturday.Not after both teams slumped to embarrassing defeats on the opening weekend of the new season. Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri even talked about his teams target of avoiding relegation after a 2-1 loss to newly-promoted Hull, while Arsene Wenger conceded that his Arsenal side just wasnt ready for an opening match that ended in a 4-3 home defeat by Liverpool.Along with the final score, a worrying aspect of Leicesters game was just how much Ranieris defense lacked the protection of combative midfielder NGolo Kante, who has joined Chelsea.Having built last seasons success largely on a counter-attacking game, Leicester also found it harder to change roles and take the game to its opponent.We need to put things right early, look forward to the next game and get a result there, captain Wes Morgan said. Were at our home ground and we want to put on a good display.There was better news off the pitch, though, with Leicesters announcement on Wednesday that Algeria playmaker Riyad Mahrez, a key figure alongside 24-goal Jamie Vardy in last seasons title triumph, had signed a new contract through to 2020.The King Power Stadium is already sold out for a game that will set Vardy, who squandered a series of chances at Hull, against the team he rejected following a transfer offer soon after the end of last season.For their part, traveling Arsenal fans will be hoping that some of the first-team regulars who were rested against Liverpool -- including center-half Laurent Koscielny -- will be back in the side but there will be no expectations of a repeat of their teams remarkable 5-2 victory in the Midlands last season.The 66-year-old Wenger said he may be tempted to take the gamble of reintroducing Koscielny into the side while revealing both Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi face three weeks out after picking up knocks against Liverpool.I will have to take a gamble maybe, but I will still have 48 hours to decide that, Wenger said Thursday. If I have to take a gamble on one, its certainly on him (Koscielny).Wenger also took time to hit back at long-running claims that he is unwilling to spend big money to bring in players.You are absolutely convinced that I do not want to spend the money, but I reassure you we are ready to spend the money, he said. Buying calms the fans, of course, but we have to make sure...it is important to spend money but we have to spend it the right way.Elsewhere, Liverpool heads for newly-promoted Burnley, while Chelsea is away to Watford after Antonio Conte celebrated his first league match as Blues manager with a home win over West Ham on Monday night.Here are some other things to look out for this weekend:---POGBA POISEDThe action starts early, with Manchester United at home to Southampton on Friday night.Buoyed by his teams encouraging 3-1 win at Bournemouth, which included a debut league goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Jose Mourinho takes charge for his first league game at Old Trafford.However, the spotlight looks certain to fall on the return of midfielder Paul Pogba to United from Juventus for a world record fee of $116 million. Suspended for the game at Bournemouth following yellow cards collected in Italy, Pogba has declared himself fit after going all the way to the Euro 2016 final with France last month.You have to ask the manager, but I feel very good and have been training for 10 days. I am OK, Pogba told the Manchester Evening News on Wednesday. I am quite used to this (busy summer). I played the World Cup two years ago when at Juve, and three years ago I was at the under-20s World Cup as well. So I am OK. It is about your body and I have been training on my holidays.---BROKEN HART?The team sheet for Manchester City before Saturdays game at Stoke will reveal if there has been yet more heartbreak for Englands struggling goalkeeper, Joe Hart.Dropped in favor of Willy Caballero for the win over Sunderland and then the midweek victory over Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League playoffs, Harts future is already the subject of intense speculation.New manager Pep Guardiola, who has also dropped City regulars Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri, wants a `sweeper-keeper who can play a supporting role outside the penalty area.Its the latest setback for Hart, who was criticized during Englands lackluster campaign at Euro 2016.---WEST HAM WOESA right-thigh injury sustained by West Hams record signing Andre Ayew in the loss to Chelsea has left the Ghana striker facing a significant rehabilitation period, according to the clubs head of medical and sports science, Stijn Vandenbroucke.Ayew, who was signed for 20.5 million pounds ($26.75 million) from Premier League rival Swansea, had a scan on Wednesday. Vandenbroucke said the medical team would assess the results with a leading consultant before drawing any conclusions.However, Jack Sullivan, the son of West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan, wrote on Twitter: We are devastated that Ayew will be out for about 4 months. He needs surgery. Discount Sneakers Ireland . Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. Wholesale Sneakers Ireland . The incident occurred at 19:56 of the second period of the Kings 4-2 road win over Edmonton on Sunday. Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum. http://www.cheapsneakersireland.com/ . Hazard cut in from the left and scored with a swerving right-footed shot for ninth goal of the season, which proved to be enough for the victory despite Chelseas forwards again lacking a cutting edge up front. Cheap Sneakers Ireland . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Sneakers Sale Ireland . LOUIS -- Lance Lynn was one of the more enthusiastic participants as the St. While the big league NASCAR world travels south to Homestead, Florida, from Charlotte to crown a national champion, the stock car short trackers are migrating east. From all corners of the grassroots racing world, trailers and tow trucks pulling late-model race cars are headed to Myrtle Beach Speedway for the annual Myrtle Beach 400 in South Carolina. Its an event that signifies the end of the season for many of NASCARs home track racers.Among those pilgrims will be the racer with the Kid N Play fade and his friend with the partially shaved head. Their trip to Myrtle Beach started more than a year ago, a road thats carried them around bullring racetracks, through cancer wards and, they hope, ultimately into Victory Lane.Im so excited about this weekend I cant hardly stand it, Erika Newcome said Tuesday evening.The 21-year-old had just walked out of class at Akron University in Ohio, where shes a fourth-year public relations major. She was heading home to pack, load her car, and make the seven-hour drive to Mooresville, North Carolina, There shed meet up with her friend to carry on toward Myrtle Beach.I cant believe everything that Dylan has done for me since we first met, she said. And I cant wait to get back to a racetrack with him.Dylan is Dylan Smith, aka Black Mamba, the 24-year-old racer who most recently created a social media buzz among NASCAR fans by winning the highly coveted Best Costume honors at Tony Stewarts annual Halloween party.He was dressed as Halle Barrys Catwoman.I told yall I wasnt messing around this year, and that trophy looks oh so good on my mantel. @halleberry ???? #HappyHalloween pic.twitter.com/OEuGiddQrP- Black Mamba (@DylanSmith34) October 27, 2016Erika and Dylan met on Oct. 21, 2015 -- at a racetrack, naturally.Newcome was a late-model racer from Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of a short tracker who, inspired by her trips to Columbus Motor Speedway, started driving her own racing machines at the age of 8. By 2015 she was voted that speedways Most Popular Driver.Smith was a resident of Concord, North Carolina, by way of Randolph, Vermont, where he landed after being adopted out of his native Haiti. He too loved his local racetrack, Thunder Road SpeedBowl in Barre, Vermont, and convinced his adopted father to buy him a go-kart at the age of 4.After wins at tracks scattered all over the American map, Newcome and Smith met in a hotel lobby in southeastern Virginia. Both were there as invited participants in NASCARs Drive For Diversity Combine, an annual talent-scouting event held at the legendary Langley Speedway, a four-tenths mile oval strikingly similar to Newcomes Columbus track.It was the night before we went to the track and there were 23 of us there. A lot of them had been to the combine before. I hadnt and I was really nervous, Newcome recalls. Dylan had done it before and he noticed I was being kind of quiet, and he immediately started talking to me. I was so relieved.At that combine orientation meeting, she was equally relieved to see that the nameplates for the assigned seats in the classroom had her sitting next to Smith. What she didnt know at the time was that hed switched those plates around to ensure that theyd be paired up.We just hit it off immediately, Smith says. I think what we know now is that our instant friendship wasnt just a coincidence.Racers are driven people by nature, but their business is one built on rejection; no is a constant answer, whether from a potential sponsor, a car owner, a would-be car owner or even a loan officer. The Drive For Diversity program is designed to help young racers step out of the shadows, but what happens past that initial push is up to the individual.Smith finished out 2015 but had trouble landing a ride for 16. Hes taken jobs working with other teams, doing everything from building race cars for other drivers to using his significant social media skills to help those teams with their PR efforts.Newcome went back to Ohio and resumed racing, but she couldnt shake a nagging pain in her shoulders. In August 2015 she had crashed into a wall at Columbus, dislocating her right shoulder and tearing her labrum. It seemed odd, though, because the wreck wasnt that hard. In fact, shed kept running and finished the race. And why was her left shoulder hurting, too? The next spring, during a visit to her orthopedist, she wwas about to leave but asked one last question about an odd-looking blood vessel in her neck.dddddddddddd He sent her to have it checked out via ultrasound. On May 18, it was identified as a blood clot, odd for a just-turned 21-year-old.On June 2, 2016, Newcome was told that she had masses in almost every organ of her body. She was suffering from Stage 4 sarcoma, a cancer that aggressively attacks the bodys soft tissues.Now that were looking back on it, what sarcoma damages are things like your muscles, Newcome explains. So thats why my labrum tore so easily. I had been weakened and didnt know.She immediately began treatments that have continued to this day: chemotherapy, an immunotherapy drip and blood thinners to battle the clot. Shes doing it all while also being a full-time college student. When the chemo started thinning her hair on one side, she shaved only that side, leaving longer blonde locks on the other. But its the blood thinners that dont allow her to race, as thinned, freer-flowing blood makes racing too risky. For a moment last month it appeared as through that might no longer be an issue, but the clot returned and so did the thinner.Being in school gives me normalcy, she says. I really feel pretty normal. But cancer is all anyone can talk about. Its all anyone can see when they look at me. Thats hard. But Ive come to peace with it. Still, thats what makes encouraging talks and phone calls and texts so important. At my low points, I always hear from Dylan and he always knows just what to say. He always says we because were in this together.Really excited for this weekend, @dylonwilson really hooked it up with the @AmericanCancer & @WendellScott_34! #FearTheFade #CancerSucks pic.twitter.com/XAC508wmEO- Black Mamba (@DylanSmith34) November 16, 2016Last month Smiths call was even more enthusiastic than normal. Hed been kicking around an idea for a while and it was starting to come together. While Dylan had been encouraging Erika during her treatment, shed been returning the favor, pumping him up during a summer when he hadnt turned a single competitive lap on the racetrack.I havent raced all year and its driven me crazy, Smith said earlier this week, en route to work. So I thought, if Im going to race only once this season, then Im going to make it count.He secured a late-model car he could race from one of his employers, racer Travis Millers father Matt and team co-owner Chris Florian. Then he went looking for support. He used LinkedIn to track down the national marketing director of the American Cancer Society, who just so happened to be looking for ways to reach out to blue-collar cancer victims about services such as its transportation-to-appointments program.Smith also reached out to the Wendell Scott Foundation, run by the family of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer. Wendell Scott, the only African-American to win a NASCAR Cup Series event, is Smiths hero and the family has become one of his biggest supporters. Scott died in 1990, killed by cancer.Smith set up a GoFundMe page titled Beating Cancer 1 Lap At A Time, promising donors that any money raised and all winnings from the Myrtle Beach 400 would be split between the American Cancer Society and an account to help pay Newcomes mounting medical bills.I couldnt believe it when he told me what he was doing, she said Tuesday night. But thats Dylan. Thats the kind of person he is. Hes so unselfish and hes so positive. I knew I had to go with him this weekend. Just being back at a racetrack again, theres no more positive atmosphere than the racetrack. And working with the American Cancer Society to let people know about sarcoma. This is all the best medicine I could possibly think of.On Thursday, the dude with the fade and the girl with the half-shaved head traveled east toward Myrtle Beach on a mission. In the front seat were two reunited friends. Behind them was a towed late-model race car, painted baby blue with a big white 34 on the side. Its modeled after the rides of Wendell Scott. The duo racing it will do so fueled by one of Scotts favorite sayings.Wendell always said, When it gets too tough for everyone else, its just right for me, Smith explained. That sounds like my friend Erika right there. ' ' '