EPL Talk » Blackburn Rovers

Time For Capello To Restore Paul Robinson As Englands No.1

Paul Bestall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:50:32 +0000

For me, there is only one English goalkeeper that can be England’s number one for South Africa next summer and that man is Paul Robinson. After being so badly treated at Tottenham under Juande Ramos and unfairly blamed for giving away a soft goal for England against Croatia, Robinson has finally got back to his best. He was hung out to dry by Steve Mclaren after Gary Neville’s wayward back pass bobbled over his foot.

Everyone conveniently forgot the string of saves Robinson had made to keep England in a game they were a poor second best in that night. Right now, he is playing better than any of his counterparts, with probably the exception of Steve Harper at Newcastle United and Joe Hart at Birmingham City. Forget the Robert Green argument, he’s nowhere near good enough.

Of the goalkeepers available to Capello, Robinson is head and shoulders above all others and has been for the best part of a year. David James is injured and playing for a team in free-fall, both on and off the pitch. Robert Green is bang out of form and consistently makes mistake after mistake. He also has a tendency to try and deliberately foul players whenever possible.For all his bravado and wearing “England’s number 6″ on his gloves, he’s not good enough. He’s always been poor coming off his line and his aerial ability is not the best.

Poor old Ben Foster has suffered from some rather unnecessary criticism but still can’t shift the dreadful Thomas Kuszczak from between the sticks at Old Trafford.There is no doubt that the lad can go a long way in the game, but he’s suffering from a crisis in confidence at the moment, but he’s still a better goalkeeper than Kuszczak.

Scott Carson still suffers from a lack of concentration at West Bromwich Albion and still seems to bear the scars from the defeat to Croatia in November 2007 at Wembley. For all his shot stopping ability, Carson can still make some all mighty howlers from out of nowhere and seems to have fallen away from anywhere near the England team.

Poor old Chris Kirkland simply can’t keep fit, whenever he gets on a great run of form, his long standing back injury seems to flare up and take out of the side. Despite the 9 goal mauling Wigan Athletic suffered at White Hart Lane, it’s no exaggeration to say it could have been twenty if it wasn’t for Kirkland. He showed such promise at Coventry but injuries blighted his time at Anfield and he’s never been able to shake the tag of being injury prone.

Other than Robinson and Hart, the other stand out candidate for the three places in South Africa for me is Steve Harper at Newcastle. He’s now getting the opportunity to show just how good a goalkeeper he actually is week in week out after Shay Given left last January for Manchester City. Whilst most people would have been itching for a move, Harper has shown incredible loyalty to Newcastle over the years.

After 16 years service, with 12 of those as Given’s back up, he’s incredibly only played 151 games for Newcastle, with 86 of those appearances coming in the last four seasons. He has constantly served the club with pride and is now in the form of his life. Whilst others may have viewed Given’s depature as a real blow, having a player of the ability of Harper would certainly soften the blow.

Whilst some people seem to point out that you need a great goalkeeper to win the World Cup, with the exception of Buffon in 2006, you have to go all the way back to 1982 to find a team with a world class goalkeeper that won the World Cup. Every other winner since then has had good, and in some cases distinctly average custodians between the sticks. Paul Robinson is far better than average and Capello would do well to welcome him back into the fold. With Harper and Hart, that would be a dependable and quality set of goalkeepers to choose from.

Newcastle United Begin To Make Excuses Already

Paul Bestall — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:48:20 +0000

Why do managers always complain about opponents resting players on the last game of the season? Alan Shearer became the latest to ignore 37 games in a season when he admitted he was worried that Manchester United and Chelsea will rest players for the last round of Premiership matches. Yes they’re playing Hull City and Sunderland, Newcastle’s relegation rivals, but the Geordies aren’t 3rd bottom out of bad luck.

They’ve been dreadful all season, in fact it’s a miracle they’ve managed to take it to the final game. Forget Middlesbrough and Southgate’s insipid “it’s not impossible” comments over the weekend. Boro are down and Southgate has to hold his hands up and take the blame, completely out of his depth, Saturday’s crowd of 27,621 said it all about how the Boro fans felt towards him. There is one place left in the relegation battle and it’s going to come down to one of 3 teams, Hull City, Newcastle United and Sunderland.

Surely Shearer must realise how foolish he sounds, clutching at straws after Newcastle’s worst season since 1988-1989, which also saw them relegated out of the top flight. Manchester United could play 11 clowns against Hull City and lose, but it won’t cover up the fact that Newcastle have been dreadful all season. By saying he’s worried about who United pick on Sunday, it just sounds a little bit silly. They’ve a Champions League final 3 days later, they’ve won the Premiership again, so why not let a few squad players have a run out. It’s not like they’re going to play 11 players who will be making their debuts in the Premiership is it.

The conspiracy theorists are already unpicking the relationship between Sir Alex Ferguson and Phil Brown, looking at the fact they actually are good friends and Ferguson helped Brown get the managers job at Derby County. That Shearer turned Ferguson down twice as a player, that another of Fergie’s mates, Sam Allardyce, also Phil Browns mentor, was crudely booted out by Newcastle United. Add in to that the derision that Manchester United fans have towards Newcastle and Shearer’s media friends are having a field day.

All this seems to miss out the fact that Newcastle will still have to get something out of Sunday’s game, have won 2 games in 19 and only taken 12 points this year. After beating Middlesbrough last week, they returned to form by losing to Fulham, who are 7th. Some fans were disgusted they could have lost to Fulham, but I suggest they look at the league table.You’ve won two home games in 6 months Newcastle, so how they thought they’ve beat high flying Fulham is beyond me. Yet they travel to Aston Villa, a side managed by one of Alan’s buddies, who are dreadful form themselves. Will Shearer be complaining if Villa field a weakened side? Of course he won’t but his supporters in the media will overlook that fact.

By beginning to make excuses already, Shearer is perhaps readying the fans for Sunday and the underlying fact that relegation is 90 minutes away. A win on the road is something Newcastle can just about remember, but they’ve only done it twice this season, at Portsmouth and at West Bromwich. Forget the conspiracy theories, this is a side who have only beaten the two teams below them this year.

A side that goes into Sunday’s game with 3 defenders, a club with only one left back who’s injured, with no players who’s contracts includes terms for wage reductions if they’re relegated, a side with a midfielder so dislikable even his reflection looks away.With no real sell-able playing assets, no bright youth system and the transfer kitty looking empty already, relegation could destroy Newcastle United.

The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter who plays in the last game of the season, it’s how you’ve done over 38 games, not the last one. Newcastle may yet stay up, but if they don’t, it’s because they’ve not been good enough over the whole season and not Sundays final 90 minutes.

Bolton Wanderers Push For Two Tier Premiership

Paul Bestall — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:20:38 +0000

Well interesting news has appeared this morning as Bolton chairman, Phil Gartside’s has put forward a proposal to increase the Premiership to two leagues of 18 teams with 14 clubs from the Championship and Rangers and Celtic. The proposal is to be put before the Premier League at their meeting this Thursday and it raises some interesting points. Gartside cites a wider audience with the addition of Scottish clubs, fresher players as 4 games a season would be cut from the league campaign and the old chestnut of benefiting the England national side. You know, the reason that the Premiership was set up for in the first place. The amount of International trophies that England have won since 1992 is simply staggering isn’t it?

Firstly, the addition of Rangers and Celtic to the Premier League has long been mooted as a situation of when rather than how but to get there they need the permission of the Scottish FA, The Football League, The Premier League and the biggest obstacle, UEFA. Now UEFA, when they’re not attacking the Premier League in thinly veiled xenophobic attacks, claim that no club should be able to play in a league outside their own country. That would be fine if the precedent wasn’t already in place.

With Platini being a Frenchmen, you’d think he’d know that his arguement is flawed, or can he not remember where Monaco is? What about Cardiff City, Swansea City, Wrexham, Colwyn Bay, Newport County and Methyr Tydfil, all members of the English pyramid system but all Welsh clubs. Technically, Barcelona, Espanyol and Valencia play in the Spanish League but are based in Catalonia and Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao represent the Basque region. UEFA may push the point but they’re argument is already flawed by the teams mentioned above.

To get the motion passed, 14 clubs need to vote in agreement on the proposal, which is where I think the issue may fall down. Can we honestly see The Premierships big four, plus Aston Villa, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City voting for less money? Whilst the games would reduce, so would the money, but then again, for teams that drop out of the Premiership or face the real possibility of relegation, would you rather get £30 million a year than the current two year parachute payments of £11.5 million that clubs currently get.

The other worrying issue is how would the remaining 14 places be decided? Would it be a straight situation of the top 14 sides out of the Championship? What if some of the larger sides miss out due to league position when the cut off is made. If it happened tomorrow there would be some famous names missing out again, but then again what about Leicester City and Leeds United?

When the Premier League began, way back in the 1992-1993 season, Notts County and Luton Town, both missed out due to relegation but had resigned their memberships from the Football League in 1991 when the plan was concluded. Ironically, neither has ever returned to the top tier since, Luton Town in fact have just been relegated out of the Football League, due to a draconian points deduction that didn’t penalise the perpetrators, just the club.

What would happen if clubs resigned their membership from the Football League, only to finish outside the 14 team cut off. Or worryingly, would the Premier League court the 14 biggest clubs not in the Premiership to make up the new league? What would happen to the Football League and the Football Conference? Why only have Rangers and Celtic, when you could argue Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen could therotically add more to the mix than Burnley?

That would be a worrying event, which could lead to a dangerous precedent. Why not simply block clubs from promotion if they weren’t “big” enough? If they didn’t sell enough merchandise or their viewing figures deemed not large enough. Would the Premier League finally become the monster that some people always feared it would and simply banish relegation from it and have caveats for promotion. When I first read about the proposal this morning, I was sure it would fail. Now, I’m not so sure, in football, nothing surprises me when money is involved.

Samba Saves Blackburn Blushes

Johnathan Starling — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:17:48 +0000

Blackburn Rovers have to consider themselves fortunate they are looking at a Ricoh Arena replay instead of losing in front of the most faithful of the faithful at Ewood Park.

After Roque Santa Cruz put Blackburn ahead inside of ninety seconds, two second half goals from the Sky Blues should have been enough. But the man who deflected Michael Doyle’s shot to give Coventry the lead saved Blackburn the embarrassment of losing to the mid-table Championship outfit.

Let’s be honest, the football on offer wasn’t all that great. Coventry made this a scrappy affair after going down a goal and the results were well deserved. About the only decent things on offer at Ewood park were the goals of Roque Santa Cruz and Aron Gunnarsson, Gunnarsson’s a thing of beauty. But let’s get down to the defining moments of this match.

1) Blackburn’s two disallowed goals. The first one is hard to decipher, but Steve Tanner was in the right position at the right time to see Gael Givet’s shirt tug on Scott Dann. While Allardyce can complain about the legleslation used in giving the foul, Tanner was well within the laws of the game to call it. McCarthy’s disallowed goal for offsides was off by a mile.

2) Christopher Samba’s equalizer. You hate to blame a keeper who was called into action just minutes before kickoff, but this one is all on Andy Marshall. He should have fielded that ball safely but instead of catching it, saw it bounce off the chest. He catches the ball, Coventry are in the quarter finals. Coventry’s back four who had defended so well in the initial ninety minutes were left out on an island in injury time as they simply lost all their shape. Nice make up after helping concede Coventry’s second goal.

3) The refereeing of Steve Tanner. People say we don’t praise referees when they have a good day. Steve Tanner had a great day at the office. He and his officials got all the big calls right and while Allardyce maybe complaining, he should be doing more complaining with regards to Blackburn’s second half performance than about one call that Tanner got right.

The five thousand Coventry City fans made the faithful Blackburn few sound mute. It makes you realize what is more important to those fans. Chris Coleman should fancy his side’s chances at home of a quarterfinal draw, but they will lamenting the one moment of glory that should have been. Blackburn got too big for their britches in the second half, and should have paid the price.

Other Thoughts From Saturday’s FA Cup Action
1) Roberto Martinez needs better forward play. For all the beautiful cutting passes they had against Fulham, there was zero cutting edge in front of goal. Now that could have been because of the brilliant defending Fulham did at marking him out of the game, but if you didn’t know who was playing, could you have known who were the Championship or Premier League side?

2) West Ham United are lucky to have escaped with a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

3) Chelsea are the same old story. Their slogan should be changed to ‘we only play once we go a goal down’. Roman’s fake smile wore extra thin on me and it was nice to see grumpy Guus looking about as somber as Chelsea’s performance truly was.

4) Hull City complaining about Sheffield United’s opener was downright comical. Well taken equalizer though.

5) Five matches, four draws. Could we see a weekend where in seven matches, we have five replays?

Man City Finish Transfer Window Back Where They Started

Matthew Semisch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:41:25 +0000

When the financial and managerial reins to Manchester City Football Club changed hands early on this season for the second time in fairly quick succession on both fronts, this time with the Blues having instantly catapulted to the top of the world football rich list, everyone’s attention immediately turned to the January transfer window. What already looked a fairly competent side on paper, it was thought, was mere months away from becoming a sure-fire threat to retain its UEFA Cup spot – and not via the Fair Play rule this time.

Fast-forward to the past 30-odd days, and the verdict? Yeah, not so much.

While City did make a handful of sensible moves – Nigel de Jong in from Hamburg and only putting Jo out on loan to Everton being probably the best among them – it appeared at times that the Blues, a club with suddenly more money than they’d know what do with…well, didn’t.

Several bids for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz, one of first-year City manager Mark Hughes’ former charges, were turned down by the Ewood Park club, and who could forget the audacious (and ultimately fruitless) bid in excess of £100 million for AC Milan midfielder Kaká, which Hughes seemed particularly gung-ho about until the very end and which club executive chairman Garry Cook had the gall to accuse the Italian giants of “bottling it” on a deal that would have paid Kaká the obscene sum of £500,000 a week at Eastlands and in turn set a potentially dangerous precedence where footballers’ pay, especially in a global recession, is concerned.

The Kaká narrative is what the January window should (and will) be most remembered by in the blue half of Manchester, especially as, much like with City’s successful bid for Newcastle and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, it was one that would have sent the wrong message to those players in the Blues’ current lineup. Throwing the two transfer targets together for the sake of argument, bringing in both Kaká and Given would have been seen as replacements for Stephen Ireland and Joe Hart, arguably City’s two best players so far this season.

The transfer window has left Hart especially unlucky. The 21-year-old keeper has been a rock for City since coming back from loan spells in 2007 at Tranmere Rovers and Blackpool, rarely if ever putting a foot wrong since taking over the starting job at Eastlands. What’s more, Hart is arguably the reason City are still alive in Europe, having made two saves in a penalty shoot-out at the end of the club’s UEFA Cup qualifier at FC Midtjylland back in August, a shoot-out that City really only made it into by accident after a late own-goal from the Danish side gifted City what at the time was a largely undeserved shot at reaching the competition’s first round proper.

Bearing that in mind, while City are bringing in another reliable goalkeeper for what is believed to be in the vicinity of £8 million, something will invariably have to give there. Hart will likely not remain a candidate for a regular spot in the full England squad any time soon if he’s playing the understudy at his club team, and it therefore seems inevitable that either he or third-stringer Kasper Schmeichel – who at one stage looked a solid prospect for an international call-up for Denmark or possibly even England as the Danes haven’t yet capped him – will be on their way out in the summer.

With what we know about what has transpired over the last month and change, then, it’s hard to look at City’s dealings in the transfer window as anything much better than one step forward and one step back. The Blues did manage to shore up a couple of their shortcomings so far this season, but at what cost? City stand to lose one if not two solid goalkeepers come the end of the season on account of lack of first-team playing time, and they’ve loaned out for more or less the same reason a player they had spent a reportedly estimated £19 million on to another Premiership side that’s still in with a shout to be back in the fold for European football again next season.

Then again, if the new signings fail to help steady the ship, how other clubs in the Premier League’s top half are getting on will be the least of City’s worries.

In This Year’s Relegation Battle, No One Is Safe

Dave Warner — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:30:50 +0000

The beauty of the Premier League is that there are always three distinct races within the table, and after 23 rounds of this Premier League season, none of those races are decided.

In the race for first place, only two points separate top-of-the-table Manchester United from Liverpool and Chelsea, while Aston Villa is only three points off the lead. Villa, however, is five points ahead of a struggling Arsenal side in the battle for the fourth place and the final Champions League bid. Only a late goal by Robin Van Persie at Goodison park kept Arsenal five points ahead of Everton for the UEFA Cu… *ahem* Europa League bid.

The real story, however, is the relegation battle, and it would appear this battle is currently being fought by everyone else in the league.

Only five points separates 11th place from 18th place, and the bottom eight clubs are within three points of each other. One win could lift any of the current cellar dwellers three places out of the drop zone, and a couple of losses could put anyone in bottom half of the table in jeopardy.

Even 1oth-place Hull City, the early season Cinderellas, are only 6 points clear and not out of the woods yet. Perhaps this is why Phil Brown made his team sit outside during halftime at Manchester City. He knows as well as anyone that a few more 4-0 halves could put his club right next to West Brom and Stoke City, Hull’s promotion partners, in the drop zone.

Manchester City, meanwhile, is only a point ahead of Hull, and it only took them three wins out of four to get there from 17th place. Plus, if West Ham is unable to find a buyer and goes into administration, 10 points will be deducted from their total, putting them only one point clear of the drop. So that’s as many as 13 clubs out of 2o in danger of being relegated this year.

The end result is that half this weekend’s matches are relegation six-pointers:

Middlesbrough v. Blackburn
Bolton v. Tottenham Hotspur
Fulham v. Portsmouth
Hull v. West Brom
Newcastle v. Sunderland

This probably won’t be the last time this season that we see five relegation six-pointers in one weekend. If Man City slips or if West Ham goes into administration, we could easily see six relegation six-pointers in one weekend.

So if you think you can pick which three clubs will fall back into the fizzy drink mixer at season’s end, chances are you’ll be wrong. This battle is as wide open as it’s ever been, and every goal and every victory will matter that much more. It does beg the question, though — would the Premier League still be as exciting if 13 clubs had a shot at the Champions League right now?

Website Interview: Classic Football Shirts

Paul Bestall — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:41:25 +0000

If, like me, you’re always looking around the Internet for those hard to find football shirts from your past, frustrated as someone gazumps on you on e-bay for the classic 1987 Tottenham away kit with 3 seconds to go, then there has to be only one website for you to visit: www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk

To say it’s extensive doesn’t do it justice, this is a site that has kits from the 1970’s up to the 2004-2005 season, all originals, no fakes and no re-issues. It’s a football fans dream, a real goldmine of memories for people like me who were placed as the football boom really returned in the late 1980’s in the UK. The 1980’s were when the kits got trendier, sponsors names started appearing all over the place and away and third kits began to appear for the first time.

It also saw the boom period for when people actually wanted to buy replica kits, a strange concept to us these days that football merchandise at the beginning of the decade seemed to consist of bland scarfs, hats, rosettes and gloves in your teams colours.Between 1987 and 1990, the football shirt fashion came from out of nowhere, now its seen as normal.

I just love browsing the site, clicking here and there on link after link after link, each one reminding me of certain moments of my footballing life, like a polyester time capsule, bursting with memories about the girls I kissed at the time, the music I was listening to, the great players and the world around me. So, I thought I’d ask the Doug, one the guys behind this wonderful website a few questions:

Paul : First of all, thanks for taking the time to talk about the website with me, I really appreciate it. So, to anyone out there who doesn’t know about you, what can you tell us about www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk?

Doug : We are essentially an online shop which sells original and official replica shirts for a wide selection of clubs and national teams from all around the world, from the late 1970’s through to the 2000’s. For the big teams, we stock quite large quantities of home, away and third shirts from many different seasons in a range of sizes. But we try to offer something for everyone from Manchester United to Accrington Stanley, AC Milan to Bari, Boca Juniors to Chicago Fire, England to the USA.

Paul : I’m amazed at some of the kits you’ve got on the site, what gave you the idea to start?

Doug : The two directors of the site were both students when the idea came about and to make ends meet, realised there was money to be made in original, vintage football shirts. The company has grown from this very small base to a relatively large online store stocking close to 10,000 shirts!

Paul : I’m a bit of a football shirt collector, with probably about 80 to 100 myself, but what are the site’s top sellers?

Doug : The most popular shirts are the Holland home shirt from their famous triumph at Euro 88, the Manchester United Newton Heath design away kit from 1992-1994, Liverpool shirts from the time of their last league title, the Arsenal kit worn on that glorious night at Anfield in 1989, the England home shirt from Spain 82 and generally anything that has a great design, sparks memories of great victories or shirts that are very obscure.

Paul : How do price the kits that you sell on the site?

Doug : The shirts are priced first and foremost on the rarity. If it will take us a year to source another one then we have to charge a price for it that takes that into consideration. After that, it goes down to size and condition. Shirts have to be suitable for an adult to fit into really and the most popular sizes are M, L and XL. We try to stock shirts in excellent condition, this means that they may have been worn in the time between when they were first purchased in the shop in whatever year and when they arrive with us, but don’t really show any real signs of this and are great examples for their age.

Paul : Do you just sell replica kits?

Doug : We also sell shirts that have been worn by players. These bear a number of different features that set them apart from the replica kits that you could buy in the shop. We have people who have had the shirt thrown to them in the crowd, handed to them at the training ground or passed on from a family friend etc, selling these type of shirts to us. In the past we’ve had some great items worn by quite a few legendary players.

Paul : So what are your personal favourites and what are the fashion disasters?

Doug : A favourite of mine are the tiger skin pattern design shirts worn by Hull City between 1992 and 1995, but they are only for the brave to wear them really! All of the Italian club and national kits from the late 80’s and early 90’s have a great style and class to them. As for a design that’s pretty shocking, look no further than the infamous grey Manchester United away shirt from the 1995-96 season. Ferguson blamed the shirt for United trailing 3-0 at half time against Southampton at the Dell and they were never seen again!!

Well Doug, thank you very much for spending some time talking about your fantastic website with me and the readers of epltalk.com. All the best for the future and if I can recommend one website out there for fans, collectors or just curious fans who want to get a feel about how kits have moved on in the last 30 years, www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk certainly ticks all the boxes.

No Excuse For Frozen Pitches While Rafa Fails With Words

Johnathan Starling — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:17:15 +0000

How would you like to have been a Manchester City or Blackburn Rovers fan heading from the north of England to the south, only to do a turnabout and head home after finding out your upcoming fixture was canceled? I know if it was me, a few words of the four letter variety would have came forth from my mouth. (If you were traveling to one of those two games, or any other game this weekend that was called off, what was your reaction to finding out that it was indeed canceled?)

While yes the cold snap in England last weekend took out a huge chunk of the English footballing schedule, there is no excuse in my mind for a club to have to call a match off because of a frozen pitch. If you are a top flight club, making sure your pitch can withstand a freeze should be something that is easily taken care of. Using heaters on the pitch (as was reported on the BBC Text Commentary on Saturday morning) should never happen. As for Fulham, if Sam Allardyce is to be believed, they don’t even have underground heating.

With only the threat of fines being thrown about over this, to me this isn’t enough. The only two things a Premier League match should be called for is fog and the fact it’s raining harder than the field can drain (which with today’s technology would have to be one hell of a downpour). If it was up to me, both Portsmouth and Fulham would be losing the three points via forfeit. A strong message has to be sent out that unnecessary postponements will not be tolerated, and the only way for that to happen is if teams start losing the points they could possibly gain.

I would have thought that after Rafa Benitez went off on Fergie, saw his Liverpool side draw with Stoke, and then saw Manchester United defeat Chelsea this past Sunday, he would have kept his mouth shut. I guess I was wrong. Instead, Rafa has now turned his attention towards David Gill and his position within the FA. Look Rafa, after being humiliated in the manner in which you were last weekend, now isn’t the time to be turning the screws on a rival club. In fact, dare I say you’ve actually allowed this to turn into a major distraction to the club you manage?

Rafa is not the person to decide what is normal or not within the FA. Bringing David Gill up after your humiliating weekend only cries of sour grapes and desperation. Being top of the league and desperate is something you never want to show.

Other Stories
This story is just funny after the fact. What was Jose Bosingwa thinking when he said ‘we know what to do to stop him’ (him being Cristiano Ronaldo).

Is Manchester City fixing to buy up Andrei Arshavin away from Arsenal? Just remember the source of this story.

Phil Brown states the obvious when he says there are 14 teams in a relegation fight. That’s only for now, it’ll slowly start to clear up…eventually.

Stoke City welcome back James Beattie to the Premier League. How much help Beattie gives Stoke up front remains to be seen.

This is an interesting set of stories from Chelsea. While Nicolas Anelka is saying the Blues chances of winning the title are alive, one of the red top specials tonight speaks of a bust up between Luiz Felipe Scolari and Nicolas Anelka. While I wonder how much of that second story is actual fact.

Premier League Preview: Manchester United v Chelsea

Johnathan Starling — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:00:14 +0000

Please note all times are Eastern Time and TV Schedules are subject to change without notice.

Manchester United v Chelsea (Sunday 11 am, Fox Soccer Channel. Replays: Sunday 11 pm, Monday 1 pm, Friday 11 pm). This is a critical match for Chelsea. A loss here more than likely sees them drop to third once Manchester United play their game in hand. Sir Alex set up his team talk speech with the Derby County match and with the shambolic nature Chelsea have been playing of late, one would assume Old Trafford would see an easy home win. Chelsea’s previous three ‘big four’ clashes have resulted in only one point, and I see one point a piece in this one. Draw

The Rest of the Schedule
Aston Villa v West Bromwich Albion (Saturday 7:45 am, Setanta Sports. Replays: Saturday 10:15 pm, Monday 2:45 pm, Thursday 9:15 am). This West Midlands Derby has mismatch written all over it. However the last three times these two played at Villa Park in the Premier League, Villa has only won one of those (the other two were draws). If Martin O’Neil gets Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry back, I don’t think this result is a doubt. Aston Villa win.

Arsenal v Bolton Wanderers (Saturday 10 am, Setanta Sports. Replays: Saturday 8:30 pm, Sunday 6:45 pm, Monday 9:15 am, 7:45 pm, Tuesday 9:15 am, Wednesday 11 am, Thursday 6 pm). Arsenal at home against Bolton should be an easy win for the Gunners, but is never an easy fixture. With the injuries Arsenal have, this could be the same old tricky tie it always is. Add Bolton’s physicality to the mix, and it will make for yet another interesting fixture. Arsenal win.

Everton v Hull City (Saturday 10 am. On delay Setanta Sports: Saturday 6:30 pm, Monday 11 am, Wednesday 7:15 am). This is a watershed match I feel for both sides. Everton are taking on a side that is in free fall at home, where they haven’t exactly set the league alight. If Hull City lose this one, they will be dragged into the relegation fight. I just don’t see how Everton give points away in this one. Everton win.

Fulham v Blackburn Rovers (Saturday 10 am. No TV). Fulham have 8 draws this season, Blackburn have yet to lose under Sam Allardyce. Jimmy Bullard could be relegated to the bench, Roque Santa Cruz is making noises about leaving. I’m more curious to see if Blackburn’s resurgence continues or if Fulham will stop that dead in it’s tracks. Draw

Middlesbrough v Sunderland (Saturday 10 am. On delay Fox Soccer Channel: Saturday 8 pm, Thursday 1 pm). Boy I wouldn’t want to be Stewart Downing on Saturday. I have a feeling he could very well be booed out of the stadium. Maybe they will cut him some slack for the Tees-Wear Derby. It’s amazing to me what happened with Sunderland since Ricky Sbagria, but I have a hunch this is another draw for all of us to see. Draw

Newcastle United v West Ham United (Saturday 10 am, Fox Soccer Channel. Replay: Friday 3 am). Maybe the distraction of a football fixture will take things off the mind of West Ham United. It’s just been a while since they went up to St. James Park to get all three points. Things could change this matchday as Newcastle United have a growing injury list. This is a tie where the turmoil could unite the Hammers. West Ham Win

Portsmouth v Manchester City (Saturday 10 am, Setanta Xtra. Replays Setanta Sports: Saturday 5 pm, Monday 6 pm, Friday 3:45 am). It’s all up to Peter Crouch up front for Portsmouth. Manchester City away have been well below par. I don’t think this game is going to be as entertaining on the pitch as the current situations are off the park. Draw

Stoke City v Liverpool (Saturday 12:30 pm, Fox Soccer Channel. Replays: Tuesday 1 pm). I wonder if the word revenge is going to be going through Liverpool’s mind after the 0-0 draw at Anfield earlier this season? Stoke City of late haven’t exactly been a unit. Maybe Delap being fully fit gives them a tiny chance. This will probably be well in hand by halftime. Liverpool win.

Wigan Athletic v Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 8:30 am, Setanta Sports. Replays: 1 pm, 5 pm, 10 pm, Monday 9:15 am, Tuesday 11 pm, Friday 5:30 am). If you were to believe the home/away table for these two teams, the words ‘complete mismatch’ come to mind. However with Defoe partnering Pavyluchenko up front, Tottenham may possibly get three points on the road. Wigan though will make that job every bit difficult. I do see Tottenham pulling this one out late. Tottenham win.

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U.S. TV Schedule For Premier League Games: Aug Through Nov 09 (Updated)

Time For Tottenham Fans To Forgive Hossam Ghaly

Paul Bestall — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:13:34 +0000

Why are Tottenham fans still so unforgiving toward Hossam Ghaly is a mystery to me, but Friday night left me even more perplexed as to why the Egyptian is still disliked so much still at White Hart Lane. There were 12 minutes to go on Friday night and Ghaly seemed set to be sent on by Harry Redknapp to add a bit more steel to midfield and help close the game out against Wigan Athletic. As he stood up, a fair amount of booing and jeering began to echo around the stadium, Ghaly looked stunned, Redknapp horrified and a couple of minutes later, Ghaly was sat back down, tracksuit top now zipped up and looking beyond crestfallen. The day after, Facebook groups and petitions began to appear, all appealing for forgiveness towards the midfielder and the club have acknowledged hundreds of letters and phone-calls sending Hossam their best wishes and sympathy for the events.

Let’s be honest, to still be giving the lad stick nearly 2 years after he threw his shirt down in a fit of pique is pathetic and I don’t understand the boo boys at all. The shirt throwing incident happened against Blackburn Rovers in May 2007 and saw Ghaly substituted for tactical reasons after actually coming as a substitute in the first half for the injured Steed Malbranque. Spurs were desperately pushing for 5th place and Martin Jol made the decision to increase Tottenham’s attacking potential, Ghaly didn’t agree and as he reached the touchline, threw his shirt down and stormed down the tunnel. Three days after the incident, Ghaly issued a public apology and offered to redeem himself by his performances on the park for Tottenham, but he’s never been close to the squad until Friday night.

Now I know football’s a passionate game, but surely this is getting a bit stupid when someone makes a mistake, apologies and yet two years later, people still castigate him. After the Sol Campbell debacle at Portsmouth earlier this season, the last thing Tottenham fans need right now is more abuse aimed at a player which can quickly be leapt upon by morons using the situation to vent more than their displeasure at Ghaly’s treatment of the shirt. Look at the Campbell issue; fine vent your displeasure at him for leaving Tottenham for Arsenal, but racial and homophobic abuse? For any moron to racial abuse players as a so called Tottenham fan makes a complete mockery of the clubs history, squad, integration and location. Tottenham fans and players are a multicultural bunch from all creeds, races and areas. These are the people that will jump on the Ghaly situation to use for their own twisted agenda’s.

Hasn’t this gone on quite long enough? I can understand the treatment given out to players who cause injury on and off the pitch, who walk out to go to other clubs just for the money and who simply don’t try when they’re out on the pitch, but Ghaly realised he made a mistake, apologised and yet still for some it’s not enough. It’s a sad indictment of an extremely vocal minority of Tottenham fans that they cannot find it in themselves to let the situation die down and allow the lad a chance to show us some of the form he’d given in the 2006-2007 season. It’s time to forgive and forget Spurs fans and give Ghaly the opportunity to make it up to us on the pitch.