Welcome to the Man Utd show...

Or rather the Wayne Rooney show..

The lad has had an amazing week - 4 goals last weekend vs Hull, the winner at the death of the all Manchester Carling Cup tie and he made Arsenal look like the school kids most of them really are. My hat goes off the the fella and I sure hope he doesn't burn himself out before the World Cup in South Africa.

With United sweeping Arsenal aside 3-1 at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, it really does give the Gunners a humongous mountain to climb once again if they are to have a last stab at the title - with in form Chelsea next Sunday and a re-grouping Liverpool the fixture after, surely Arsenal will know by then whether they need to fill their Easter basket full of Champions League eggs if they are to have any joy this term.

Carlos Tevez also had a good week in scoring at Old Trafford and having a pop at G.Neville - he just sadly missed out on the ultimate prize of going to Wembley instead of his ex-employers.. bad times. A win at home today helped City's cause for 4th spot where they must slog it out with Spurs and Liverpool to get there. Villa need to step up their game again if they are to make it. A win away at Fulham was a good starting point.

Pompey are still in trouble with another loss this weekend after their previous heroics in the cup and a draw at West Ham. The transfer window is still open for a few more hours so their dispair could increase if they are to lose a few more players...

Burnley and Brian Laws have had a poor time of late with them dropping into the bottom 3 - ironically thanks to their old Gaffer jumping ship to Bolton who have made their way out despite losing to Liverpool this weekend. Is it really fair of the Burnley fans to name Coyle a Judas??

Rumours are around that Rafa is off to Juve - even more so as the Old Lady fired their boss this week.. thoughts?

Andy Murray crashed to defeat in the final of the Aussie Open on Sunday morning after his heroics throughout the tournament. It wasn't a case of his performance lacking - Federer was just fantastic. Upping his game to a level higher than he's played in a while. Bad luck Andy, next time! Keep up the good work.

And finally.... John Terry... tut tut naughty boy!? Not really the actions you would want your son to look up to as the Captain of England and Chelsea so should he step down? Personally I think that he should just hold his hand up and say yeah I have made a big mistake, but I have never allowed it to interfere with my job. He hasn't ever really had a 'bad patch' in his play as a result of this scandal so why should he now give up everything he has worked so hard for just because he's been a bit naughty in his private life....
 

Midweek Footy - Tuesday

A few Premiership fixtures tonight with very few goals and not much worth talking about. Spurs beat Fulham 2-0, Liverpool's bad run continued with a goalless draw at Wolves. Pompey maintained their slight bit of good form with a 1-1 draw against fellow stragglers West Ham and Owen Coyle's new Bolton beat his old Burnley 1-0.

The real drama was in the Championship and League 1 with goals galore!!! Most notable results were Nottingham Forest thrashing QPR 5-0, Bristol City were smashed at home 6-0 by Cardiff and my personal favourite - Swindon Town beat Leeds United 3-0. The same Leeds United that beat Man Utd and drew with Tottenham!! Not much change in League 1 for the Robins though, but they do have 2 games in hand on 3rd place. The play-off's and the Championship is a very real target now.

Goals from the youngster Charlie Austin and a brace from Billy Paynter saw the Reds entertained a packed out crowd against a Leeds side who had familiar names such as Beckford and Snodgrass leading their attack. Reports from fans at the game said that Town were fantastic and should have netted 5!

Away at Southend next week who were beaten by Millwall tonight then another top of the table clash at home vs Charlton Athletic (beaten by local rivals Leyton Orient last night)

Danny Wilson is doing a fantastic job at the County Ground. Hopefully Austin and Paynter will remain in Swindon beyond January and Wilson himself finishes the job before venturing to higher Leagues...


Credit to my cousin Alex for the photo from the Arkell's Stand at the County Ground.  

More fixtures tomorrow night including the all Manchester Carling Cup Semi Final second leg. Arsenal away at Aston Villa, Chelsea entertain an in-form Birmingham. Under pressure Blackburn face Wigan and Everton and Sunderland hope to bounce back from their FA Cup exits at Goodison Park.

Transfer news.

It has been very quiet on the transfer front with the only big signing made by Man City.

With only just over a week to go do you have any gossip on who is going where?

Apparently City have had a 2m bid for Victor Moses turned down from Crystal Palace.
Arsenal have also showed interest in the young talented forward.

Spurs have said they won't be signing Rudd Van Nistlerooy as the Dutchman wants a crazy £100K a week! This would break the current wage structure at Spurs so this deal is now dead in the water. Surely it's a central defender Spurs need to replace King. Maybe City will sign Rudd, they can afford that kind of money and need another striker...ha ha!

Everton have agreed a loan deal with Arsenal for Senderos, this is good deal for Senderos as he wants to play first team football ahead of the World Cup. With Sol Campbell back at Arsenal you feel Senderos would have been further down the pecking order.

Man Utd won't be signing anyone surely, the news this week confirmed the club were £716m in debt! Mind you this has never stoped Real Madrid.

Liverpool would like to sign some players surely but again the club has got debt if we are to believe reports and so they might look at loan options or swapping players.

I think there will be activity next week as the transfer window always goes a bit crazy with just a few days to go....watch this space and please let us know your thoughts folks.

FA Cup weekend and the premier league.

So it's FA cup this weekend! Who do you think will be making the headlines?

Spurs will be looking to bounce back against a Leeds team who knocked out none other than Man Utd in the last round. Spurs will need to be focused on this game as Leeds have nothing to lose and will go for it.

Chelsea are currently 2-0 up against Preston and look to be having a comfortable afternoon.
Fulham are away to Accrington, could Fulham slip up here? Unlikely but what a story it would be for the FA Cup romantics.

Top of the league Arsenal travel to Stoke in what should be an interesting game, Stoke will no doubt "throw" balls into the Arsenal box and it will be a tough test physically for the Gooners.
Though if Cesc decides to turn on the magic we will all no doubt be amazed once again.

Another all premiership tie is Everton at home to Birmingham, this should be a really good game as in recent weeks Everton have got so much better with some of the players returning from injury. Birmingham haven't lost in 15 I believe so I wouldn't like to bet on this one.

Aston Villa host Poyet's Brighton, hopefully Brighton will make a game of this one. Some 6000 fans are coming up from Brighton, now that is good support.

What are your predictions for these games and all the others?

Also can Man Utd claim top spot in the premier league by beating Hull? Or will Myhill find his cape once again and put in another super human display?

Cup week!

Carling cup ties tonight and tomorrow with the Manchester derby first. Fergie has said himself in the papers this morning that he fears City and feels that the lads from down the road could turn over his side at Old Trafford tonight. With problems both on and off the pitch, he could be right - and most bookies think so too giving preferential odds to City. I wouldn't go with that though. United know when to wake up and at 2/1 odds I'd fancy a dabble on the devils.

Villa are already 1up in their tie with Blackburn and should put them to bed easily, however Martin O'Neil's side stuttered at the weekend with a goaless draw vs West Ham - surely points were up for grabs there? Blackburn's strikers need to start pulling their weight if they are to progress.

The FA Cup continues at the weekend leaving only 1 Premiership fixture (yes that's right, United are catching up on Prem matches as they are out of the Cup!) I personally shall be watching Stoke vs Arsenal on BBC1 on Sunday lunchtime :-) any upsets in your accumulator?

Liverpool have a crucial six-pointer vs Spurs tomorrow night, Arry's men will be looking to get over their woes of the weekend where they drew with Hull - but managed yet another clean sheet despite their ragged defense.. Do they really need David James?

Arsenal and the Cesc Fabregas show play Bolton for the second time in a week where a repeat scoreline will see the Gunners fire to the top of the table for the first time this season (at least until the weekend!) not bad considering that they were 11points behind Chelsea after that thumping in November...

Thierry Henry has been cleared after the handball incident vs Ireland and is all across the papers today. No doubt there will be uproar across facebook statuses and his name will be back in the mud. Should he be banned from the World Cup?

Other news is that Michael Essien has (as I thought) been played too early since his injury and has got himself injured again! Out for a month on first inspection but the Chelsea doctors need to have a look at him. Is this bad news for the blues?

Another exciting week full of footy then!

Enjoy

What a festive period!

Wow well what a treat you guys had over Xmas and New Year!! Mainly snow related I might add!

Big blog coming soon!! Xmas/NY fixture round up. Fa cup. Mancini. Liverpool. African Nations. Adebayor. Brian Laws. Happy New Year all!!!

The glory of the FA Cup kicked off again with a huge upsets - Man Utd losing to Leeds! Didn't see that one coming!
 Mancini has got off to a flyer at City with 4 out of 4 wins.
Liverpool have gone in to complete meltdown now having won 10 out of their last 20 - out of the title race, Carling Cup, FA Cup and Champions League. Now with only the Europa League to save their blushes! Rafa has surely got to be on his bike soon! Liverpool legends are calling for his head and the press are constantly on his back. Credit to him though for soldiering on despite the constant barrage of hatred mounting towards him.
With news of Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun out injured for extended periods of time and unrest in the camp elsewhere Liverpool like like they are in real big trouble. They MUST get 4th place or there might be riots on Merseyside!

The African Nations got of to a shaky start with the news that the Togo team were ambushed and attacked by gunmen - 3 members of the backroom staff died which is terrible news. Adebayor however made a bit of a gaff when he appeared on national television to talk about the incident wearing an Arsenal polo shirt - whoops! He recified his mistake by wearing a City version in his second interview, must have been the shock, sent his mind into disarray... He'll be back playing for City soon as Togo's government pulled them out of the tournament.
Elsewhere in the tournament there have been some crazy results! Angola were 4-0 up against Mali only for Freddie Kanoute's crew to hit back and level at 4-4 in the last 12 minutes of the match! Nigeria and Cameroon have experienced losses to far inferior opposition meaning that the second week is going to be very interesting for the big guns hoping to qualify for the later rounds. Drogba hasn't been in the form we saw at Chelsea before he left for the ACN but surely its only temporary. Is Essien back from injury? Pretty sure he was crocked but the London Evening Standard claimed that he would be lining up against Drogba last night for Ghana vs Ivory Coast? hmm! Turns out I've just read that he played 46mins as Ghana lost 3-1 - Eboue got sent off...

Saturday's results threw up some crackers! Chelsea scored 7 WITHOUT Drogba! As much as I would like to say the title race is still on... and it is mathematically.. Chelsea are on fire again and will be tough to beat! I think the more interesting battle this year is for 3rd place onwards - Arsenal look to have 3rd semi secured at least but Liverpool will have one hell of a fight on their hands if they are to topple City, Villa and Spurs to that lucrative 4th spot. Few fixtures still to play today.


We're always interested in your thoughts and comments so please do let us know what you reckon!
Thoughts on the Championship and below are welcome also!