The big freeze and the dismal failure of England’s 2018 World Cup bid will not stop the Premier League from rolling on. Its game week 16, time to forget the disappointment, put the heating on and enjoy another weekend of Football.

Spurs enjoyed a much needed rest midweek and will be hoping to capitalise on any signs of a Birmingham hangover following their Carling Cup exploits. Both sides are on a good run and Harry Redknapp will be desperate to keep the pressure on the teams above them. The Blues have a fantastic home record but I have a feeling Tottenham are going to leave with all three points.

Birmingham will be relieved to see that Rafael Van der Vaart is once again doubtful, but Jermain Defoe(8.6), Aaron Lennon(7.5) and Luka Modric(7.2) are looking good, and they will need to be on their game if they are to breach a Birmingham back line that boasts some impressive points tallies. Ben Foster(5.0) 71 points, Liam Ridgewell(5.8) 65 points and Roger Johnson(5.2) 56 points, are in the top five points scorers so far this season in their positions. “If you score two we will score three” seems to be Spurs attitude, so there will be chances at the other end too. Cameron Jerome(5.7) and Nikola Zigic(5.3) are the cheaper alternatives in a match that promises goals.

Man Utd have been on the receiving end of a fair amount of criticism this season, yet they are undefeated and top of the Premier League table. United are off to the seaside Saturday evening and a certain Wane Rooney(11.5) will be desperate to get back in the goals after failing to get on the score sheet during the massacre of Blackburn Rovers last week. A special mention this week for Rooney’s team mate Nani(9.3) for reaching the 100 points mark this season.

Game week 16 concludes with a slightly rejuvenated Liverpool hosting a Villa side that are on the slide. The Reds are still missing inspirational Captain Steven Gerrard but the usually ineffective Lucas has added some steel to Liverpools midfield. The Brazilian is available for a mere 4.5 million and could be a shrewd acquisition in Gerrards absence. Jamie Carragher is facing three months on the sidelines after dislocating his shoulder against Tottenham. It could mean a recall for Sotirios Kyrgiakos(5.1) and the Greek will be hoping to recapture his early season form.

Villa rallied well in the second half against Arsenal but they are struggling without Marc Albrighton, skipper Stiliyan Petrov and punch-line Emile Heskey. Robert Pires(5.0) who has a wealth of experience and young Ciaran Clark(4.5) could prove to be important players for Gerard Houllier in the run up to Christmas.

That’s your lot for this week. If you feel like joining in the fun then join the EPL League by visiting: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ the code you need to join is 13413-5300

Well this season is just getting harder and harder to predict. Having just absorbed last week’s action Game Week 15 is here and no doubt will throw up plenty more surprises.

The Premier League weekend kicks off Saturday lunchtime at Villa Park. Two wounded team’s line up looking to bounce back from disappointing results. The majority of Villa’s midfield is currently residing in the treatment room. Step forward Barry Bannan and Stephen Ireland, Bannan (4.5) has performed well so far and Ireland (5.9) is eager to get his Aston Villa career up and running. Arsenal are still sitting pretty in third, despite apparently being in crisis, it’s a crisis that 17 other Premier League sides would be delighted to find themselves in. Robin Van Persie (9.5) will be looking to get his season up and running this weekend. Cesc Fabregas will be out for two weeks after picking up a hamstring injury against Braga. But Arsenal still have a wealth of talent to call upon in the absence of their inspirational skipper.

West Ham host Wigan in the basement battle of the weekend. It’s a must win game, both teams will be hoping their match winners will see them through a nervy encounter. Carlton Cole (5.8) has voiced his frustration at the lack of quality balls into the box. Now would be the ideal time to give the Hammers front man the service he craves. Wigan will miss star striker Hugo Rodellega (Suspension) but have the continually impressive Charles N’Zogbia (5.7).

Top of the table Chelsea are struggling too and face a long trip to St James Park this game week. The last time Chelsea lost two league games on the bounce everything was in black and white. They visit a Newcastle side who can’t quite decide whether to score five or concede five every week. My head say’s it all adds up to a dull no score draw But my heart is saying goals so get Andy Carroll (6.1) in your starting XI, John Terry is still absent from the Blues back line and the boy Carroll is guaranteed to give any defence a rough ride.

Sundays late game see’s Tottenham host Liverpool. Spurs cruised past Werder Bremen and into the last 16 of the Champions league Wednesday night. There can be no excuse of tiredness come Sunday, Harry Redknapp’s side had time to stop and feed the ducks on their midweek walk in the park. Jermain Defoe (8.6) is fit again and looks desperate to make up for lost time. If you have the funds available snap him up, he’ll be back in the goals sooner rather than later. Rafael Van Der Vaart (8.5) looks certain to feature after missing out in midweek. Liverpool are starting to turn the corner, but their form on the road is horrendous and they look likely to head home empty handed.

Final mention goes to Johan Elmander (6.3), Kevin Davies (6.5) and Chung-Yong Lee (5.3), I tipped them to be in the points last week and they didn’t disappoint. A home tie against Blackpool this weekend almost guarantees another return from them and hopefully, they will again keep my final shreds of credibility intact for a little while longer.

That’s your lot for this week. If you feel like joining in the fun then join the EPL League by visiting: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ the code you need to join is 13413-5300

For years on end managers across the country have sent their players away  to represent their country and spent the whole time of their absence praying they all return fit and well.  But after a week that saw several big name players pick up injuries while playing for their country, the pressure from managers for a change in the scheduling of international games will be higher than ever.

You can see where the likes of Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp are coming from. Take the Arsenal manger, Theo Walcott went away to play for England in arguably the best form of his club career but after suffering an ankle injury against Swtizerland, he now faces weeks on the sideline.

Wenger also lost Robin van Persie to injury where as Redknapp will see Jermain Defoe and Michael Dawson both missing for Spurs for some considerable time. Elsewhere Roy Hodgson will be without Dirk Kuyt for some time as well.

While I can understand all their frustrations, I can’t see a way to resolve the problem. You can’t arrange them all in a block because this simply wouldn’t work, it would lead to a lack of development and a lack of opportunity for players at international level.

I also don’t see that scrapping international friendlies is the answer.  This will only again create a lack of opportunities to progress. Although they are often described as pointless, they are a vital for a player’s transition in to international football.

The only option as I can see would be to schedule international games around transfer windows, thus allowing for sides to replace a player should they get injured.  For example a friendly game in January not February as well as arranging the first qualifying games for late August and not early September.

I’d be interested to hear your suggestions in to how to minimise the impact of players getting injured on international duty?

While Jermain Defoe took the goal-scoring honours on Friday night at the other end of the pitch Joe Hart was going a long way to establishing himself as England’s goalkeeper for the foreseeable future with another fine display.

Fabio Capello’s decision to opt for an experienced ‘keeper at the World Cup at the expense of Hart was one of the biggest blunders he made in South Africa. Hart was a bench warmer throughout the tournament but since then it appears that Capello has seen the error of his ways.

The former Shrewsbury man has now well truly established himself as number one for club and country and if all goes well this should be the case for many years to come. It makes a refreshing change for England who after the retirement of David Seaman have been craving somebody to take on the role as England’s long term ‘keeper.

David James, Paul Robinson and Robert Green have all threatened to make the position their own. But a general lack of form, or high profile mistakes have ultimately lead to their downfall. Now it is Hart’s chance to shine, and if he can fulfil his early promise, Capello may finally have found the answer to the position which has become the most debated spot in the England side.

Hart’s confidence is the key to his success.  We must remember that at only 23 Hart is a baby in the goalkeeping world. But his commanding presence and immaculate performances demonstrate his confidence and portray a sense of stability that can only help build confidence in an England side which after the World Cup is understandably insecure.

The worry for Hart is that he succumbs to a Scott Carson like mistake. Carson was tipped to claim the England number one spot ahead of that infamous defeat to Croatia at Wembley. But ever since he failed to deal with Niko Kranjcar’s long range effort Carson has struggled to rebuild his career and only recently managed to fight his way back in to the England squad.

Should Hart make a similar error we may be searching for a keeper once more, but without meaning to jinx the former Shrewsbury Town man you just can’t see this happening, and even if it did you’d be backing Hart to bounce back a lot quicker then Carson.

To couple his obvious ability he appears to have a strong mentality, which for a ‘keeper is oh so vital and with him in goal the future of English football seems to have a securer base in which to build on.

After a successful, if occassionally indifferent 4-0 win over Bulgaria on Friday, England have won 11 successive home games. Before this game, the British tabloids were ready, knives sharpened, to cut England’s manager to pieces. In his England-Bulgaria preview last week, titled ‘Fabio Capello has lost his players and now he will lose his job’, The Mirror columnist Oliver Holt cites Fabio Capello’s body language as proof that he has given up. ‘It’s obvious from his body language’, he writes, ‘…he didn’t celebrate when England scored.’ There are so many instances of the punditocracy fancifully leaping to conclusions on negligible evidence that it would take a million monkeys writing on a million laptops for a million years to come up with them all, but this laughably unsubstantiated claim takes all the biscuits. Capello should be judged on his results, rather than any apparent lack of enthusiasm when England score, and on this score he has been quite magnificent.

Appointed in 2007, Fabio Capello has the highest win percentage of any England manager ever. Ever. Out of 30 matches since taking over the post he has won 70% of them, nearly 10% more than Sir Alf Ramsey, who actually won the World Cup, and over 20% more than Sir Bobby Robson, who led England to a World Cup semi final in 1990. His bravery – playing Theo Walcott in Zagreb when every other pundit wanted (and expected) David Beckham to play – led to an historic 4-1 victory. His team topped a fairly tough qualifying group ridiculously comfortably, leading Jonathan Wilson to write ‘England have more realistic hope of winning the World Cup than at any point since 1970′. Rather than the disjointed, egotistical, blathering nothingness of the Eriksson era, England (in November 2009) actually had a good team who played good football. England, as usual, expected, and England’s best players, whether due to a lack of fitness, loss of form or both, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Aaron Lennon – essentially England’s six best players in the qualifiers – failed quite miserably. To blame Capello completely for England’s failure in these circumstances is absolutely ridiculous. Perhaps only Spain could cope with six of their best players completely unfit or misfiring. England quite clearly couldn’t.

That is not to say he hasn’t made mistakes, and he made plenty in South Africa. Picking Ledley King, Terry, Ferdinand, Jamie Carragher and Matthew Upson as his centre back options for the World Cup was a disaster waiting to happen (and it did). The mythically well-stocked English centre back cupboard was a little bare, but picking Joleon Lescott – indifferent at Man City, but surely no worse than the horrific Upson at West Ham – or Phil Jagielka would surely have been a safer option. Upson and Terry were brutally exposed as the sham they were against Germany, where, without the guidance of a more tactically aware (or even quicker) centre half, Terry and Upson leapt around to prevent Klose (yes, that 300 million year old Miroslav Klose) turning, when it really created space behind them that neither had the pace to fill. The centre backs had made mistakes (such as playing offside at a goal kick), but Capello was stuck with them and had stuck himself to them. His reluctance to play Joe Hart, despite the limits (age and talent-wise) of his other options, David James and Robert Green, is also a mistake which looks even more unfathomable with hindsight.

Moreover, whilst England managers have picked injured players to play at the World Cup since the dawn of time, having a palpably unfit Gareth Barry as the squad’s only holding midfielder (he doesn’t even play there for his club), thus leaving Scott Parker and Phil Neville at home, was naiveté to the point of idiocy. His substitutions against the USA and Algeria were fairly uninspired, and bringing on Emile Heskey for Jermain Defoe against Germany was always going to play badly with an English media obsessed with Peter Crouch’s height. The much criticised system, an ‘ancient 4-4-2′ in The (riotously hypocritical) Sun (there is something so curious about Harry Redknapp criticising a manager for playing a 4-4-2), but a ‘modern, continental 4-2-3-1′ for the whole of qualifying, only held England back because of the players invovled. Someone has to tackle in the centre of midfield, and Barry was never going to do that when unfit – so England often couldn’t get the ball back when Germany, Slovenia or Algeria attacked. This failure again is only really damned with 20-20 hindsight, such was the mood of arrogant euphoria before England set off.

Despite these problems and errors on his part, England still reached the last 16 of the World Cup. Their group, rather than being EASY was deceptively tricky. Not only the Confederations Cup Finalists, but the fourth placed team in the African Cup of Nations, and a team who knocked out Russia over two legs – and all three were known for their organisational abilities. England could still have done better, but to dismiss their opponents as muppets would be a disservice. Once in the last sixteen, they were a television replay away from 2-2 having been 2-0 down, and the typical lack of craft and calm when behind the second half was something not even Capello could beat out of English players.

Moreover, since South Africa, England have won twice against sides who performed creditibly in the last qualification period. Hungary threatened to knock out Portugal, while Bulgaria only failed to qualify because of their phalanx of draws. Both were fairly limited opponents, but creditable scalps by anyone’s standards. And there are further successes: Ashley Cole, largely indifferent under Capello’s predecessor, is playing like the player he almost was at Arsenal; Capello has shown that he has learned from many of his mistakes – Hart is in, Upson is out (for now) – and deserves to keep his job at least until the Euros. Rooney and Defoe as a partnership may well struggle against teams who don’t give England early goals, or who can mark Defoe out of the game, but Capello remains very much in credit, whatever the tabloids say.

(feel free to drop me a tweet on http://twitter.com/mickyscallon )

With the pressure on Fabio Capello,  England finally delivered a performance to make the country proud. But was this result and the performance the start of a change in fortunes for Capello or another result that get’s our hopes up only to be disappointed down the line?

England may have gone some way to igniting some confidence amongst fans last night. While it wasn’t a faultless performance it was a lot better. They played with the pace and confidence that was so desperately lacking in South Africa.

Jermain Defoe showed the sort of clinical finishing that nobody was able to show at the World Cup, and in midfield Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry were easily dominating the midfield battle. At the other end of the pitch Joe Hart looked assured between the sticks. Wayne Rooney was also looking somewhat like his usual self.

The negatives for Capello’s side were that 4-0 probably flattered England a little. Bulgaria had plenty of chances themselves. While Michael Dawson and Phil Jagielka didn’t look out of their depth Capello will have been concerned at the amount of chances the visitors had.

But we should probably take in to consideration the missing experience at international level of both defenders, and I highly doubt whether Bulgaria would of had so many chances if John Terry was representing the Three Lions last night.

So the signs are good looking forward ahead to England’s potentially crucial qualifier in Basel on Tuesday night. This will be the result that will really indicate just how far, or how little Capello’s side have progressed since the disastrous defeat to Germany in South Africa.

England are going to have to improve on last night’s performance if they are going to get anything from Switzerland.  But the pleasing thing is for Capello that some confidence will have been restored in his management.

Had England dropped points last night or even stuttered to a win last night the knifes would of been out for Capello, but a convincing win may just have bought Capello more time to please the ever doubting English faithful. But after a desperate World Cup, Capello’s tenure is very much one game at a time, and a disappointing result in Switzerland will see the knifes out for the Italian once again.

For England supporters who can’t get enough of seeing how England scored the goal against Slovenia today in the 2010 World Cup, here is the video replay of the goal scored by Jermain Defoe.

And what a beautiful cross it was that led to the goal. Defoe got into a good position and was able to slot the ball away with ease.

Jermain Defoe is the hero in England today after he scored the only goal of the game that helped England move into the second round of the 2010 World Cup.

In a game that England dominated, despite some good chances by Slovenia to equalize, Defoe’s goal was what separated the sides and enabled England to finish in second place in the group. England will now play on Sunday at 10am ET against either Germany, Serbia or Ghana.

Man of the match, for me, was England defender John Terry who put in a herculean effort to prevent Slovenia from scoring. And in one part of the game, you could see him diving through mid-air, low to the ground, to try to prevent a shot by Slovenia finding its way into the back of the net.

While this wasn’t a glamorous England performance, it was enough to win the three points for England and to take the pressure off, if ever so slightly.

In terms of Capello’s tactics, he got them right for the first time in the game. England were stable at the back and they were much better in midfield where Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney all linked well together.

When Rooney was substituted in the second half, there was no temper from the Liverpudlian. Instead, he walked off, keeping his dissatisfaction in check and allowed Joe Cole to come on in his place.

In the game, England had a goal disallowed for offside. And another shot that hit the post. But overall, they did what was necessary and can now be buoyed by the confidence to do well in the second round.

Congratulations to England.

Tottenham Hotspur isn’t one of the most fashionable clubs in the English Premier League, but judging by the amount of “jump out of your seat” incidents in the second half, maybe it’s time to start paying more attention to the boys from White Hart Lane even though they failed to capitalize on a golden chance to get all three points and leapfrog Arsenal into third place.

In a thoroughly entertaining second half, Tottenham were leading 2-0 but succumbed to a 2-2 draw after Louis Saha and Tim Cahill scored two crucial goals to tie the game. Then late on in injury time Wilson Palacios was knocked to the ground by Tony Hibbert in the penalty area which resulted in a penalty for the Lilywhites.

Jermain Defoe walked up and struck his penalty straight down the middle of the goal and was saved by American goalkeeper Tim Howard. In a joyful moment for American viewers, Howard’s reaction was an adrenalin fueled high as he showed in just a few seconds how vital he is to Everton’s Premier League season and how much the Merseyside club means to him.

Other highlights of this game included a wonderful bicycle kick by Saha which skimmed just past the post.

While Tottenham supporters will feel a great loss at not securing all three points, the game showed how much quality the Tottenham side has as well as how well they’re coping with difficult away trips to places such as Goodison Park and Villa Park, where they played last week. After watching last week’s match between Villa and Spurs, I was surprised that no one commented about that game or posted an article. Tottenham looked very dangerous and did well to come back after going down 1-0 against a difficult to beat Villa side.

I saw that same enthusiasm and team spirit in Tottenham’s game today. As long as they keep on playing like that, they’ll have plenty more chances to challenge for third or fourth spot in the Premier League.

And as for Everton, we saw the grit and determination and a little bit of luck that was needed to secure a draw, which hopefully will give the Toffees the confidence boost they need to begin climbing up the Premier League table again instead of staring down into the relegation zone.

With the season starting slightly earlier this year due to the World Cup, most teams in the Premiership have played 8 league games already. Last season, the 8th round of matches was played two weeks later, on the weekend of October 18th/19th. By the end of it, Tottenham were staring up at every other team in the league with a lowly 2 points. A 2-1 loss against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium had left Spurs trailing Newcastle by 4 points and Stoke and Fulham by 5.

A club in disarray, the fans in despair, the players lacking leadership on or off the pitch, things were not looking good. Not since 1988* had Tottenham propped up the table, ironically on Halloween. That season was to shadow a remarkable turn around in events at White Hart Lane as the week continued to get worse as Udinese beat Spurs on the Thursday 2-0 with a implosion in the last 15 minutes. Juande Ramos cut a depressed figure on the touchline in Udine, a man completely at a loss to explain what was happening or it seemed able to arrest the decline.

Daniel Levy’s reign as chairman had seen plenty of ups and downs during the course of the 7 years that had led to this point. Ramos was supposed to be the marquee managerial signing to move Spurs onwards from the work of the underrated and under appreciated Martin Jol. It was fast becoming a disaster of epic proportions as the club lurched from crisis to crisis. After 5 managers in that time, Levy was under enormous pressure to finally deliver, yet here they were, bottom of the league, winless, shapeless and facing relegation.

After the defeat in Italy, Ramos made the usual “We can play our way out of trouble” statements, but they rang hollow in the ears of the Spurs fans. Other than a well deserved point at Stamford Bridge, there had been nothing to cling to in the way of optimism. No-one else could see where the win was going to come from, the team looked beyond help. On Saturday, October 25th as the fans prepared for another inevitable defeat the next day against Bolton, things couldn’t get much worse.

As Match of the Day finished, I flicked over to Sky Sports News, just to see if perhaps anything at all had happened. As the image flicked on, the newsfeed at the bottom of the screen suddenly went in to to overdrive. “Tottenham have sacked Juande Ramos, Gus Poyet and Daniel Comolli with immediate effect…..Harry Redknapp has been confirmed as the new manager of Spurs …. Discussion with Redknapp next on Sky Sports News.” Then the adverts kicked in. Damn it!

I’d had a drink, who wouldn’t when you’re team was bottom of the league and playing like Worksop Town. I rewound the pictures and watched it again. Yep, still said the same. I shot to the PC, went on the BBC football site. It was the top story, Breaking News. The I checked the Guardian, yep, same there. It was true. I ran to the bedroom and woke my better half up, she told me to stop winding her up. I insisted it was true, and probably to simply placate me, she got up and went downstairs with me to see for herself.

Chelsea fans don’t believe a lot, though living with a Spurs fan means you get used to false dawns on a seasonal basis. Sitting down, SSN burst in to life once more, BOOOOOOOOOM went the special effects, WHOOOOOOOOOOSH went the graphics and then it was confirmed by the presenters clearly excited that people would actually be watching for once late on a Saturday night. Redknapp was indeed the new manager of Spurs. I let out a hearty cheer! My other half wasn’t impressed at all, ” Oh no, I’ve always really liked Harry. What has he done that for!” Time for another drink I decided, my despair transformed in minutes to optimism! Ah the joy’s of football eh!

As managerial announcements go, for me, its quite possibly one of the oddest I’ve ever come across, late on a Saturday night, less than 24 hours before a team is due to play a match. I bet every newspaper editor was cursing Levy throughout the United Kingdom. Yet, in the 38 League games Redknapp has managed Spurs in now, his record reads Played 38, Won 19, Drawn 8 Lost 11.With this season’s excellent start, Redknapp has assured that for the first time in 4 seasons, Spurs are not playing catch up after a slow start. 16 points from 8 games is Tottenham’s best ever start to a Premiership season.

No Spurs fan thinks that we’ll win the League, or finish in the top 4, but after the year of hell that was the Ramos era, it’s a whole lot better. The oddity of Ramos’ tenure, Spurs won the League Cup, their first trophy in 9 seasons and a 5-1 victory against Arsenal, yet it will always be viewed as a dreadful year.  Two shots of sunlight do not make a summer, but at least Harry’s got Spurs fans smiling again.

There is still plenty of work to do at Tottenham, the centre half issue needs resolving due the injuries King and Woodgate now have. The midfield have to learn to be able to play without Modric against big teams and not let Palacios do all the running, Keane needs to keep performing as he did against Burnley and Hull City. Defoe needs keep running and not get downhearted and the players outside the first 11 need to knuckle down and try and force themselves into Redknapps plans rather than whining to the media. Then maybe a top six place wouldn’t be out of the question, anything else would be a bonus.

*Spurs became the first team to be bottom of the First Division on Halloween in 1988 and not be relegated, actually finishing 6th as Gascoigne and Waddle combined to drag them up the table. The following season saw Spurs finish 3rd with Lineker joining the team as Waddle went to Marseille.