England vs Holland - Nagpur, 22nd February 2011

Nagpur, the so-called “Orange City” in India, was Tangerine-clad in more ways than one on 22^nd February 2011.

For not only were the British cricket commentators noshing out on various Orange delicacies the region has to offer, such as Orange Laddus and Orange Barfi, the Orange-Men of Holland were feasting on some pretty abject bowling from England’s finest, whilst their fielders making a meal of taking a catch, stopping an overthrow or even putting the requisite number of fielders in the correct area of the pitch at the appropriate juncture.



Great Ton by Ten Doeschate

That's not to take away what a superb job Holland did with the bat. Ryan Ten Doeschate's century was superb and exhibited strokes all around the wicket that the faithful followers of Essex will know only too well he is capable of, and he was backed up by other useful knocks throughout the Dutch batting line up.

Having said that, it was schoolboy stuff from England for the first 50 overs, in a match which genuinely threatened to cause one of the biggest upsets in world cricket since, well, the last time Holland beat England 2 years ago at Lords.

Take the moment James Anderson and Kevin Pietersen both converged on the same skied ball, only for both men to leave the catch to the other, and instead watch it land safely with a thud on the dry Nagpur outfield . Or when Graeme Swann, having been in the country a mere 48 hours, went down on one knee to take another catch at third man, only to lose it’s flight completely and see the ball fall between, well, everything but his hands, KP dropped one on the boundary, Trott dropped a tough diving catch, oh yeah, and to top it all off, Ryan Ten Doeschate reached a ton off an overthrown 5!

“This is a different England mentality to the one I left Jan 7,” mused Jonathan Agnew on his Twitter, and it’s hard to disagree. Since then England have been walloped 6-1 in the overly-superfluous One Day series in Australia, losing a host of players to injury in the process, have returned home for 5 days, and then jetted out to reconvene for the World Cup, without the chance to even unpack and wash their tidy-whites. Throw these boys a bone, how on earth can they re-charge their batteries in that short amount of time?



"To You!" "To Me!"

 Anyway I digress. Regular followers of this blog will know my feelings on England’s schedule leading up to this world cup and it’s sub-optimal nature, so enough of the how’s, the why’s, and the do-you-mind-if-I-don’t’s. Was yesterday’s exciting yet flawed victory by England really as bad as everyone’s harping on about?



Well, yes, in parts it was actually! The fielding was embarassing, with catches going down all over the place, throw-ins from the boundry ropes not being backed up at the stumps, and the unforgivable crime of only having 3 fielders in the ring when 4 were required - a situation that

caused the no-balling of a wicket-taking delivery, was shocking. I actually cringed when Pietersen and Anderson did their best impersonation of the Chuckle Brothers and let the ball drop to the ground between them both.



 The bowling too looked ill-disciplined, notably from Jimmy Anderson, with a lot of long-hops and full-tosses chucked down which were easy pickings for the Dutch, who notwithstanding Ten Doeschate had other useful contributions from Cooper and Borren, the latter even executed a Dilscoop! And the lack of a second spinner (Swann bowled beautifully) just seemed to restrict Strauss’s options. Pietersen bowled 2 overs for 19 and half of those were full-tosses. Yardy, surely, has to warrant a place in the side, given the dry nature of the wickets that this World Cup will be played on in the Sub-Continent.

 

KP was shackled with the Dutch
Wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps

Englands batting conversely was quite good. Pietersen started aggressively but was halted by the wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps, stopping him charging down the wicket. A good tussle that, but one he ultimately lost when he chipped a slow left-armer to mid-wicket. Again!

Everyone contributed though, Bopara came in and “Finished” the match off with some big hitting, never a bad thing, and Collingwood showed a lot of experience to get the run-rate ticking over again when it seemed to stall around the 40 over mark.

So a win’s a win, but lets not get too carried away.

India in Bangalore next up on Sunday and atmosphere-wise it’ll be like the first day of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. Lets hope the mentality that we all remember from that test returns and England’s intensity, focus and aggression in the field comes flooding back to them, because Sachin, Sehwag and Co will make mincemeat of bowling and fielding shown at Nagpur.

Go and Whack Some Balls for us, Kevin darling, but don’t get Bored



Who's the man? ME!

General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, in the final scenes of Blackadder Goes Forth, sent his loyal assistant, Kevin Darling to the trenches, for the final push over the top. Darling went, begrudgingly, and honoured his General’s decision.



For this years Cricket World Cup, Kevin Pieterson has been asked by his General’s; Messer’s Flower and Strauss, to go in at the top, of England’s batting order, to give the team some much needed welly in the first 15 over’s of the game.

Pieterson is a superb batsman who likes nothing more than smashing the ball to all parts, and with a hard, quick ball coming onto him from the start of the innings, bowled by the best bowlers the opposition has to offer, he will relish the task of opening, leading the team into battle.

In the 2011 World Cup, it is going to be crucial to get quick runs on the board early and get your run-rate up in first 15 overs, making the most of the hard ball and the power plays. Who better to accelerate things for England then Pieterson?

Strauss will become the more defensive-minded batsman in the partnership, hoping to anchor down and bat long into the innings. He will play his shots, but only when it’s there to be hit. He will surely err on the side of caution and let Pieterson force the issue at the other end, although the only drawback in this strategy comes if Pieterson gets out early. Who can accelerate out of Strauss and Trott?

This change also means Prior can move back down the order, and I think that suites him too. He is a quick scorer, and a big hitter, but he’s sketchy, and flashes hard at wide balls and gets a lot of edges, when the field is in, as it is early on in an ODI innings, he is susceptible to getting caught. Lower down the order when the field is spread and the ball is coming off slower, he will add valuable runs.

He’s no Eoin Morgan, but he’s good enough (and he’s also all we’ve got, as finishers go!)

Bowling wise, Broad has looked good since coming back from a stomach injury, and Anderson is a consistently strong performer at the highest level now. Swann has also returned, so a familiar bowling line-up should field against the Dutch when England’s campaign kicks off on Tuesday 22^nd.

And so the format for the 2011 Cricket World Cup: The competition is broken down into two groups of 7 teams. Each team will play 6 group games with the top 4 in each group going through to the knock-out phases of quarter final, semi final and final.



Cheer up lads, only another 7 weeks and 92 games to go......

Basically, the key change since the last World Cup in 2007 is that the ICC have scrapped the Super-Eights round-robin idea and replaced it, essentially, with 2 round-robin groups that feed the quarter finals instead.

Given the tournament is still 6 weeks long, surely they could have streamlined a little further?

The ICC’s main priority seems to be getting the top 8 teams safely through to the quarter finals, where the real competition starts. So why not scale down the tournament to 12 teams, have three groups of 4 and have the top 2 from each group, plus the two best 3^rd placed teams going through to the quarter finals?

That way you would have 43 games in total, 36 in the group stages, which you could play in 18 days, or 2 and a half weeks. You’d have less “Dead-Rubber” games and get onto the knockout stages more quickly.

It would also mean you could have more “Surprise” teams progressing through to the Quarter finals, as one good (shock) result in the group stages could go a long way to securing a quarter final place. And what’s wrong with that?

If you look at the Football World Cup in 2010, the performances of teams like Ghana are what illuminated an otherwise dull and predictable competition. Surely the same 8 teams going through to the business end of hte competition all the time does little to improve the standard of the emerging teams, which is why they are at the competition after all, isn’t it?

In any case, England will play the Netherlands, India, Ireland, South Africa, Bangladesh and West Indies in their group, with the top 4 teams progressing to the next stages of the competition. England should navigate their way through comfortably but I can’t help feeling some of these games not including the hosts are going to be poorly attended, and will stunt and stall the momentum of the tournament.  

But it’s a World Cup, and so whatever the format, England have got to fancy their chances and give it a ruddy good go.

In Pieterson, England are gambling that their best player delivers at the top of the innings. Irrespective of whether it’s the right move or not, the fact that everyone’s talking about him in itself will get his juices flowing. And mine. Bring on the Dutch!

Is Wenger a Genius or a Mad Man?

Wednesday night saw the coming together of two of the greatest footballing sides in the world, and against many peoples expectations, Arsenal emerged victorious.



"Come home Cesc" "I'm a little busy right now amigo"

For Wenger it was vindication that his "philosophy" of attacking football could triumph against “The Best Team In The World” (that tag isn’t getting tiresome at all!), and at last put to bed any lingering doubts that this side wouldn't be strong enough when the going got tough.

To trail 1-0 to an at times mesmerising Barcelona, and come away with a victory was fine work. And apart from a 20 minute spell either side of David Villa's opening goal, where they couldn’t get near the ball, Arsenal stayed competitive and confident enough in their own ability to come back at Barcelona all night, a mentality Wenger has been publicising of his team all season.

Sure, they had a couple of close shaves; a penalty claim and an offside goal, not to mention Messi’s miss just before Villa had given Barcelona the lead, but Barca were always going to create chances; it was a case of Arsenal restricting them by defending well and maintaining their own game plan of attacking at pace on the break, which they did to good effect.

With 20 minutes to go, Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola made the surprising decision to bring goal scorer David Villa off. Whether this was the catalyst for Wenger's substitutions or whether he would have made them anyway, who knows, but off came Alex Song and Theo Walcott and on went Andrei Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner, and the balance of the match switched.

It was a brave move, and Wenger admitted as much after the game, saying he went for broke because “We had to score 2 goals”. A 1-0 result from the 1^st leg would have meant Arsenal were gonners, and had Wenger's plan not worked, or they conceded another goal, it would have been even worse.



Wenger's philosophy will be defined by trophies he wins

And so Wenger; genius or mad man? On Wednesday night’s evidence you’d have to say the former. He factored in that Barcelona would tire, and when Villa was substituted he seized his opportunity, took off the defensive shield Song, and went for broke. You can always say, “what if it hadn’t worked?” but such are the fine-lines between success and failure, titles and trophies are won and lost on such decisions.

Wenger has been criticised in the past, even by Arsenal fans, for the lack of trophies over recent years. Wenger has always guaranteed that success would come to this team. At an AGM a couple of years ago, Wenger told shareholders this team would win a trophy by 2010.

He was wrong, moving friends of mine (Arsenal fans) to tell me that he should be under more pressure from the board to deliver on his promises and he should be made to invest more money in the team. Ok, but top 4 finishes every season, with all the money being invested in players at other clubs, is hardly a sackable offense is it?

The Arsenal team of 2011 that Wenger has built over the past few years is his vision of how the game should be played. A philosophy that is exemplified by his most trusted lieutenant; Cesc Fabregas.

I almost find it awkward watching Fabregas playing for Arsenal against Barcelona at times. He is Barcelona. From La Masia, where he and all the other great Barcelona players grew up playing and learning the game together, Fabregas at times looks like the boy who had to switch sides to make up the numbers.

Wengers vision. The talent in the team is undeliable. Can they win the top prizes though?

Wenger and Fabregas have created this idealistic style of football, with which they are looking to beat Barcelona at their own game. If they succeed at the Nou Camp they progress only to the quarter finals of the Champions League, but their philosophy will be vindicated. That will rank higher than victory over Birmingham in the Carling Cup surely?

Maybe it's taken longer than he expected for some of the players to fulfil their potential. Perhaps injuries, to Van Persie and Walcott especially over recent seasons have hampered them.

Maybe, with Wilshere and Fabregas dictating play in midfield this season, pushing the team forward, an Arsenal equivalent to the Xavi/Iniesta axis, maybe this is the season for Wenger and his team to realise their philosophy?

Or maybe it was just a good win over “The Best Side in the World” that will quickly be wiped out at the Nou Camp on 8th march?

Lose in Barcelona and we might see Wenger's philosophy fail, for his Lieutenant will surely leave this summer if no significant titles are won this term.

So genius? Well perhaps, but a lot is riding on the next few games.

Every Dog Has Its Day

The image of Gennaro Gattuso, kicking his feet and punching his fists on the San Siro turf in frustration will live long in the memory of the White Hart Lane faithful. And rightly so.

His behaviour reminded me of my 2 year old son, Liam, when he can’t get his own way.

As Liam normally finds out, his strops are not big, or clever, and normally get him 5 minutes on the naughty step. Gattuso might have a more severe punishment heading his way than that, now that UEFA are investigating his actions.

So, how's Glasgow these days?

Putting his imbecility to one side though, last night belonged to Tottenham, and their magnificent performance at the San Siro,

They were superb from front to back. Their defence looked rock solid which is staggering when you think what it looked like on their last visit here, and the two holding midfielders, Palacios and Sandro were immense, providing a shield to the back four that stopped Milan’s front three playing.

The first half was one-way traffic, with a succession of Tottenham crosses causing the Italians all sorts of problems. Milan could easily have been down and out by half-time.

And it wasn’t until 20 minutes into second half, when Flamini leapt into a reckless 2-footed tackle on Corluka that the game really kicked into life for the home side. As Corluka laid in agony, Flamini, the former Arsenal midfielder, gesticulated to the crowd triumphantly, as if to get them going.

It was a poor show and warranted a straight red. He got a yellow.

Why UEFA cannot go back and look at the referee’s decision again is a ridiculous; it may not be within their protocol, but challenges like this must be sufficiently punished, and if that requires retrospective action, so be it. Referees cannot be expected to get decisions right all of the time in the heat of battle.

Gattuso then started hounding the officials to restart the match, with Corluka still on the ground in pain. He then became embroiled in a heated debate with Joe Jordan, the upshot of which saw Gattuso grabbing Jordan by the throat and pushing him away.

“We were talking in Scottish, which I learnt when I played in Glasgow” Gattuso explained later. He seemed to know what he was talking about alright.

For a while, I thought Spurs might lose their cool, but they didn’t. Harry substituted Van Der Vaart, perhaps sensing he was starting to rise to the bait, and threw on Modric. A masterstroke.

Spurs cooled their heads and began retaining possession again.

In the 80^th minute, as Milan went in search of that elusive goal, their attack was broken up, again, by the outstanding Sandro, who fed Modric to unleash Lennon.

Lennon’s 60 yard dash with the ball under close control reminded us all what an asset he could be to England in this kind of form. Crouch’s finish was clinical, but Lennon made the goal almost single handedly.

"You can stop running now Aarron, Gattuso is still talking to JJ."

1-0, and richly deserved. Milan later scored, but it was ruled offside, correctly, a decision that sparked the chaos at the final whistle that led to Gattuso planting a head-butt, albeit a lame one, on Joe Jordan’s face.

Spurs will fancy their chances of getting the job done back at the Lane, and progress to the last-eight of the Champions League at the first time of asking. Easy isn’t it, this Champions League malarkey?

Gattuso, the “Dog”, as Graeme Souness described him after the game (brilliant), will miss the 2^nd leg; he’ll be busy putting together his case for the defence for his UEFA enquiry.

Good luck with that.

“Instinctive and Unstoppable, there’s no better volleyer in the game”

When I was younger, my best friend, his brother and I all used to get the Man United season review on video. We watched it so much that we’d memorise the commentary as well as the goals scored.

I remember in the 1989/90 season against Man City Mark Hughes scored a spectacular volley for United. The ball was crossed from the right by Russell Beardsmore and Hughesie, at the edge of the 6-yard box at the back post, executed a sort of sideways-on bicycle kick with his right foot that saw the ball smashed into the opposite corner of the net in spectacular fashion. United still lost 5-1.



Did you get a receipt with that hair cut? 

It was hit with the same power that was the Mark Hughes staple, but this goal was executed in such acrobatic, almost gravity defying style that made it all the more special. At school, everyone wanted to score the same goal, I used to go to afternoon lessons with skids all over my trousers (not those kinds of skids….!) having been diving all over the pitch trying to nail a Hughesie-esq volley at lunchtime.

As soon as I saw Rooney’s goal on Saturday, I thought of Hughes’s strike all those years ago – the man that used to make spectacular, acrobatic volleying look like child’s play would certainly approve of Rooney’s goal on Saturday.

Football is so intriguing because it has the ability to throw up such amazing and memorable moments. Sometimes the absurd and ridiculous too, but on Saturday we saw something truly exceptional. I’ve read on forums fans claiming it was a lucky strike and it was a shin roller and so on.

Absolute rubbish!

To even attempt a strike like this, to even react to the deflection off the defender and to still be in a position to get a shot in was good; To then volley the ball, with pace and power, from behind and above you directly into the corner of the goal, bypassing the goalkeeper as though he was a statue stuck to the spot shows superb technique, an appreciation of where the goal is, and improvisation of the highest order, that only the top, top players in football possess.



Rooney's goal against City in 78th minute won the derby for United

Whether it was the best ever or not, well, even Sir Alex is allowed to get carried away from time to time isn’t he? He is also a supreme man-manager and I wonder if he used the goal as an opportunity to heap praise onto Rooney in a bid to get him properly firing for the remainder of the season, because United’s push for honours would be boosted massively by the return to form of Rooney, and this goal may just be the catalyst for that.

Rooney’s goal, and the juxtaposition of it in the game itself and the Championship more significantly would have made it a huge goal even if it had been a tap-in from 5 yards.

The Manchester derby; the closest there has been at Old Trafford for years and in which City had genuine chances to win, was settled by this goal. Moreover, City’s chances of winning the title were effectively ended by this goal, and finally United, having fluffed their lines, and their unbeaten run, the week before, needed to get back to winning ways, and did so because of this goal. Titles are won and lost over less – Rooney’s goal could be the pivotal moment in the race this year.

Goals like Hughes’s live long in the memory for the sheer skill level required. It’s less common to find a goal of such skill and contextual importance as well. Rooney’s goal on Saturday had both, and for that reason it will be remembered for a very long time.

Talkin’ Jetlagged Ashes Blues

When I returned from holiday a few weeks ago, we got off the plane at Bournemouth International Airport (“International”?! – It’s just a series of Porter-cabins!), lost our way to customs from the runway, waited an age for our cases to come through, then had to wait for our taxi which was 1 hour late. Not ideal.

<<I just want to sleep>>

Andrew Strauss, fresh from a 23 hour flight back from Australia via Singpore, after a 3 month tour, might think that was easy pickings, for he had give a press conference when he arrived back in the UK on Monday morning. Just about the last thing in the world he would have wanted to do I’m guessing!

3 practice matches, 5 tests and 7 ODI’s for Strauss, the same plus two 20-20 matches for some of the others; it’s been a gruelling series for them. Add to that all the injuries England have picked up and I’d forgive them all for being absolutely pooped to be honest!

So aside from the fact we decimated Australia in the Ashes, then fell apart against them in the One Dayers, was the tour overall a success or not?

Well it's clear the balance of focus was proportionately spread across the tests and one dayers at a ratio of about 80% to 20%, but apart from that....

I would have liked to have seen the ODI’s taking place before the Ashes themselves, and I think 5 matches would have been sufficient, 7 was just too many. This would have required the series starting earlier in the year (October), but at least then the players would have been home mid-January for rest and recovery ahead of the World Cup.

No one in hindsight would agree with me more I suspect than Eoin Morgan, who now misses the World Cup with a broken finger. Devastating for Morgan himself; even more so for England’s chances of winning the tournament, as Eoin is one of our genuine match-winners. Lots of pressure now rest on KP’s shoulders, but he loves big pressure, doesn’t he?

Now, there’s no guarantee switching the schedule would have spared Morgan, but a longer recuperation time would have definitely helped.

In addition to the “recuperation time” argument; surely the ECB knows that most England cricket fans care more about the Ashes than the ODI’s for the purposes of this series (granted it's different for the impending World Cup), so at least by having the Ashes at the end of the tour, the climax of the series would have been the bit everyone (including the players, lest we forget) were looking forward to/watching/spending money on the most.

Remember this moment lads - when we get home in about 97 days

Ending with the Ashes would also have given the players the chance to travel back to the UK together, and begin preparations for the World Cup at the same time. Further, in the event the team did well (which it did - BLODDY WELL, if you can remember that far back), it would have opened up the opportunity of the players parading the little Urn through the streets of London, to the millions of fans who watched in their hordes over the course of the winter, on their return.


Beats a Stella any day

Instead the players landed back in Heathrow and quickly went their separate ways. Straussy met the press, as did Flower, Finny tweeted “No massive fan fair at Heathrow, just a taxi driver holding a sign for me with my name spelt wrong” and a roast dinner cooked by his mum waiting for him at home. What a  way to end a tour which few who watched it would deny was one of the most exciting and satisfying they'd ever seen!

All of that said, in securing a 3-1 series win in the Ashes that will live as long in the memory as it is sure to do in the record books, this England team can be rightly proud of themselves.

And so to the World Cup: England leave Saturday 19^th February, and hopefully Bresnan, Swann, Broad and Colly are all fit. Hopefully (well, I hope) Trott moves up to no.2 and Prior down to no.6 in the batting, and with the spin that’ll be on offer in India, I also hope Swanny’s fit, and I’d pair him with Yardy, with Brezza, Broad and Jimmy bowling quicks.

Selection: done.

Ok so maybe the preparation wasn’t so bad after all!

Is Life Too Long For a Couple of No-Balls?

This weekend saw bans handed down to the three Pakistani cricketers involved in the Spot Fixing scandal that erupted after the Lords test against England last summer.

"You see that News of the World journalist over there?"

Salman Butt was given 10 years with 5 suspended, Mohammad Asif got 7 years with 2 suspended, and the youngest member of the trio, Mohammad Amir, got 5 years, with none suspended.

So five years all round then?

Butt, captain of the team and whose responsibility it is to select which bowler bowls when, instructed both Asif and Amir to bowl the exact overs that would coincide with the terms of the bet his agent, Mazhar Majeed, had put on with a News Of The World journalist prior to the game. Said conversation between Majeed and NOTW was video recorded and released to the world and hey presto, here we are 6 months later. Majeed and Butt in particular are as guilty as a puppy sitting next to a pile of poo surely, no?

This was calculated cheating of the highest order and whilst the outcome of the no-balls is negligible to the game itself, the fact that Majeet, Butt and his bowling colleagues were seeking to make financial gains from bowling no-balls is a disgrace and should not be tolerated in the sport, or any other for that matter.



MASSIVE no-ball - as subtle as a brick in the face



In the case of Amir, I have some (some!) sympathy for him. He was still stupid/weak/influenced enough to go along with the scam, whether he wanted to or not, but as a young boy (23 only), it is possible, or plausible at least, to put a case forward that he has been influenced, or coerced into going along with it. 

That said, in a bid to save his own skin, perhaps he could have broken ranks and said he was intimidated or influenced to bowl the no-balls. The fact he didn’t could be interpreted in two ways; either he has no regrets, or he is still being intimidated.

The latter, for the bigger picture of Pakistani cricket more generally would be worrying, especially given stories of other players being intimidated for not participating in similar scams. It would be terrible to find out down the line that this isn't a one-off and is actually a problem imbedded in Cricket more generally.

However, the final point to make on this is that, whilst these players have clearly been made an example of, in the case of Amir particularly, he is a young test cricket bowler with huge promise, and he couldn’t possibly be banned for life: Test cricket is under huge pressure to deliver exciting, intriguing action, given the emergence of 20-20 cricket, and to lose someone as gifted and exciting as Amir would be counter-productive to this form of the game.

It's almost a case of cutting your nose off to spite your face. The ICC has to eradicate cheating from its sport no question, but it cannot afford to lose kids of Amir's promise at the same time. These sanctions are firm, and in Amir’s case, probably fair. At least he has time on his side to learn from his mistakes and perform at the highest level again in the future.

Torres and the Ex, and other weekend favourites

Gary Neville has retired! Edwin Van Der Sar has also retired!!

Normally these would have been pretty big stories, but news that these two fine sportsman’s careers have drawn to an end has been drowned in the sea of money that’s been dished out as a result of Monday’s Transfer Deadline Day - sponsored by Sky Sports News, which has produced headlines of even more mouth-watering significance (allegedly!)

First Torres went to Chelsea, finally, after a week of posturing. Apparently they’d been flirting for 2 weeks. Slags. Oh well, at least they got it on in the end.

Carroll felt a little used and abused by his sudden ejection from St James Park. “We’ve had our fill love, here’s a tenner for the cab ride, all the best for the future,” said Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew, as they  counted the wheel-barrows full of cash that Liverpool had paid them for him. “Best get off to the casino MA,” professed Pardew, tongue firmly lodged in his bosses’ pants.

And Luiz Suarez finally signed on the dotted line for Liverpool on Monday too, after a week of treading water, like a ferry waiting out at sea for a liner to set sail and leave its dock free for it. “This is my patch now Fernando, sod off!”

All this makes for an intriguing weekend. I look forward immensely to Super Sunday (who’s presenting/punditing?!) to see Chelsea versus Liverpool at the Bridge This is going to be a Royal Rumble all right; can you imagine how Gerard et al feel towards Torres now?! Carragher also has a point to prove to the Spaniard, he said today it was “probably best all round” for Fernando to move on – may want to wear a box Fernando.



Smile! Ancelotti shows us his pearly whites. Nice.


Other highlights this weekend are the re-match of the Carling Cup Semi-Final; West Ham vs Birmingham. The former have a couple of new players and Robbie Keane in particular could be useful for them. Weird one for him though, if West Ham stay up, he has to stay with them. If he hates it there do you think he’ll stop trying? Or try and score an own goal or two at least?

The Toon take on Arsenal. No strikers left of note for Newcastle and an Arsenal team going from strength to strength – it can only be one result right? Yep, a home win - all day long.

Villa could be an interesting one, both in pretty good form but Fulham only have 1 win away from home in a year, so perhaps not.

And finally, for my brief and incomplete analysis (I’ve only got 500 words!), Wolves vs United. Massive game for Wolves - they’re bottom now. Any kind of result would give them a boost, whilst defeat might see them fall well off the cliff. I expect the latter, so get prepared for the Championship Mick and the gang (sorry chaps!)

Other than that, I think Stoke-Sunderland will be a draw, Everton to beat Blackpool, City to crush the Baggies, Spurs to beat Bolton and Blackburn to win away at Wigan.

523 words. Damn it! Have a good weekend