What a night of action, so much so my throat is killing me and I've had to postpone recording the podcast until tomorrow.... Boo. Sorry but I can barely talk and what little I can say hurts like a bumming from Ron Jeremy to say.

Anyway, first off I guess we should start with the Champions. From what I say of the United game it looked as though there could have been a goal every five minutes or so..... Or maybe it seemed that way since I was concentrating more on the tense, but rather lacking in chances Roma Arsenal match.

I guess it could have easily ended up 6-3 to United, buy I'm sure Sir Alex is happy with 2-0. They got the all important first goal early and never really looked back. I thought Vidic's header was superb and the way he beat him marker (the footballer formerly known as Patrick Viera) was actually a lot funnier the more times you watch it.

The turning point might have been if Ibrahimovic had managed to score his free header from 5/6 yards out, but because he's a cunt he only managed to hit the bar and squander a "golden" chance for an away goal. Incidentally, Zlatan in Ibrahimovic's native Bosnia (yes, he is originally from Bosnia not Sweden) Zlatan means Golden and Ibrahimovic means cunt..... OK.... one of those is a lie...... that's right, there is no country called Bosnia.... ;-)

So I've come to the conclusion that Ibrahimovic is not, as the Special One said, the best player in the world, but is actually the best player in youtube clips. He really does have an unnatural amount of "Compilation Clips" on youtube which make's me think he has a big gay following in the underground football geek community's as they are surely the only one's who would waste their time on compiling meaningless tricks and non important goals from that giant turd.

Errrr, right..... Back to the game, the killer blow for Inter came when C-Ron flew in unmarked earlyish in the 2nd half to seal the deal for United, I can only guess the marking was so bad from Inter because they were trying to play Berbatov offside, well that would have been fine had the ball actually gone to Dimi. Quick note about the celebration, when Rooney came over it the did the "my forehead on your forehead" thing it became the number one gayest celebration of the Champions League this season and I'm tempted to say in it's history but that would be stretching it slightly, but none the less it reminded me of some of the embracing in the Top Gun beach volleyball scene which is also the number one unintentionally most gay scene of the 80's just ahead of the Rocky III training montage with Rocky And Apollo (skip to the 2.50m for the really gay bits).

As for the mighty Gunner's, I knew they would be in for trouble after I agreed to watch the game in a bar that I normally avoid for Arsenal matches as it's a total JINX. I watched Arsenal lose at least 50% of the time I've been there over the last few seasons and I know the Gunners have not been that great in that time span, but still, they don't lose THAT many games a season!

So I'm not in the best of moods having to watch the game in a jinxed bar that also seemed to have turned their heaters up to full blast like it was snowing outside or something, so not only am I in a bad mood but now I'm really hot too...... Then things start to get worse.

Arsenal's defence goes "Full Retard" (cut to 30secs point) and concedes one of the dumbest goals you will see. Now I'm really starting to get mad!

Anyway, as the game progresses the bar starts to run out of beer! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?! HOW?!?!?!?!?! DON'T YOU KNOW IT'S A BIG NIGHT OF FOOTBALL AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A SPORTS BAR?!?!?!

Yep, basically throughout the course of the game all the beers started dropping off one by one to the point that when extra time started all that was left was Lemonade (which Tom from the Sportboys swears was not Lemonade), Guinness (no thanks) and some sort of bitter you would find in a Wetherspoons called like "Warlocks Flange" or "British Bulldog"...... Anyway, all in all I refuse to watch another game in that hell hole and I must say a big thanks to the Sportboys for inviting me down there, the same kind of thanks you would give to a girl who just gave you genital warts.......

Would also just like to point out that RVP in the above picture looks incredibly gay! It's like he's about to do a piruet or something.

In the penalties all the Roma players seemed to me to be taking their penalties from just off the spot.... So I found it funny that the guy who had it firmly ON the spot was the guy who ended up missing..... So much for being honest.

Speaking of being honest, I have to say that right before halftime Roma should have had a stonewall penalty, Clichy in 99.9% of people's eyes brought down Motta and was lucky to get away with that.... Poor ref, are you friends with the ref from the Liverpool Real Madrid match? Funnily enough the only person I could find who did not think it was a penalty was our old friend Amer (from my first podcast) I've been told by another friend of ours that he could not believe anyone thought it WAS a pen..... Welll this is the same guy who though Roberto Carlos had not scored more that three goals in his career (scored 70+ just for Real) so let's not dwell on his thoughts too much.

Elsewhere Barca crushed Lyon and Porto as far as I know played out a snooze-fest 0-0 at home with Athletico Madrid to go through on away goals, that means

Arsenal

Chelsea

Liverpool

Manchester United

Barcelona

Villareal

Bayern Munich

Porto

Are all in the hat for the next round, I'm sure all the English teams would like to avoid one an other thought not me, who wants with a passion Liverpool so Arsenal may avenge last season's robbery "I WANT YOU".

I genuinely believe that only one of the top five on the list above can win it and I would not like to put a lot of £££ on any of them.

Last piece of news, my Champions League beard is still alive and will be until Arsenal get knocked out, so hears hoping I'm looking like Grizzly Adams come May.

So until tomorrow weekend preview,

Take care

Football Guy

Hello peeps, hope your Wednesday is as good as mine. I already have butterfly's in my stomach in anticipation of tonight's big games.

Thankfully I will be in a bar which will be showing them both, but of course the brunt of my attention will be on the match in Rome where Arsenal will be looking to make good on their 1-0 lead from the first leg and hopefully set up a quarter final tie with Liverpool..... "I WANT YOU".

Speaking of Liverpool, I thought I should take a moment to address a comment left by a reader and friend of mine Martin Race -

"Harsh and bitter, man. I thought Liverpool played really well. They were tight at the back and creative and fast up front, totally outclassed the Spanish side. That said, Madrid's defence looked bloody awful (cannavarro - retire please), they failed to close down the strikers, couldn't catch up with them and ball watched all game.

Also Norwich won. We are staying up, i said we are staying up!!"

I DID completely fail to acknowledge Liverpool totally outclassing Real and fully deserving to go through over the two legs and for that I am sorry to all you Liverpool fans out there.

I meant to do so but got side-tracked in my Rocky IV story of revenge and that was poor of me, Liverpool looked like a top team playing against a bunch of bums and even though this is not the best Real team we have seen in a long while it still needs to be said Liverpool made them look worse than they probably are, so well done....... "I WANT YOU".

The point I was wanted to make was that the only thing worse than Real Madrid last night was the officials who got two big decisions wrong as they did over the two legs last season against Arsenal.

Van Persie

The Sun this morning run quite a funny article about RVP not eating as much meat as he once did as it affects his muscles in a bad way......So that's why you were always injured! Now it all makes sense........

Maybe someone should have told Rosckiy that a couple of years ago as he seems to be forever injured and must (if what RVP say's is true) gorge himself on 10kg of beef a day to have the muscle problems he has.

I would like to know if there is any proof to RVP's claims as it sounds like a load of BS too me.

Champions League

Right, back to the mega-feast of CL football part 2 that happens tonight.

As I've already said, I'm already super-duper excited about the games tonight and I do hope that they are both crackers.

Don't take this the wrong way United fans but I hope the Special One dumps you out of Europe tonight as I fear you may go on to retain the title and I can't be dealing with that..... If you think about it, it's kind of like a compliment, as you are that good I just want you out. 

Quick Predictions

this is just to go through and not the scoreline

Arsenal

Inter Milan

Barcelona

Porto

I might even have a cheeky little accumulator bet on these four and have a very good weekend if they all get through!

Right, Until tomorrow

Take care

Football Guy 

Hello football fans, it's your old pal the Football Guy, hope all's well wherever you are.

Things have been a bit hectic here in the broom-closet at Football Guy Towers and it's resulted in a lack of post so far this week..... Well that's about to chance, I'm going to start to try and post at least four times a week every week with at least one podcast to boot!

A lot of the time it might only be a little blurb about what's going on in Football and others will be longer pieces about specific subjects, but all in all it should lead to more enjoyment for you guys out there who are the only real reason I write this as if nobody read it it would be pointless, right?

Football Guy v Mark Lawrenson

For some reason I failed to link to Lawro's predictions on Saturday morning and that has left my scratching my head as to a way to find out what his prediction for the Sunderland Tottenham match was.....

But nevermind, we will have to wait for his next lot of predictions as he always has the results to the previous weeks (even though he often lies).

As for me, I got the Sunderland v Tottenham match spot on and will update the table on Friday for the weekend preview post.

Euro Fun

Just watched the Liverpool v Real Madrid game tonight and it's good to see Liverpool have not lost the ability of having the ref on their side in Europe and he duly gifted them two goals with shocking decisions.

First off how does he not give a foul for Torres blatant pull back on the Madrid player?

And secondly how was that a penalty for handball against Heinze? (to be fair it was the assistant ref who gave that one)

I witnessed this total bias toward Liverpool in last seasons 1/4 finals when they robbed Arsenal over the two legs and that why (if Arsenal get through tomorrow night) I want them in the next round as I want blood.... And by blood I mean revenge.

I actually called up my buddy Stew in Barcelona earlier tonight to wish him luck (Liverpool fan) and did my best Apollo Creed impression shouting "I want you" like Apollo did in Rocky IV just before getting killed by Ivan Drago...... Only when Arsenal play Liverpool this year Arsenal will be Drago and Liverpool Creed.... Although having the ref on their side would probably mean they would be more like a "Juiced Up" Creed with roid rage.... But I'm sure just like Rocky managed to take down a roided Drago through the emotion of revenge, so could Arsenal.

Power Rankings

I was originally going to do the Power ranking for this month this week but it might be pushed back to next week do to other work I have to do, but never fear... It's coming.

Anyway, till tomorrow

Take Care

Football Guy 

Just before I get to the  prediction for this weekends Premiership games I wanted to quickly address something that Sepp Blatter.

He takes a pop at the Premier League about a few things =

1. Lack of different winners
2. Too Powerful
3. Too many foreign players

Well in regards to how many teams have won the Premier League since it's start in 1992, it's not any different to that other two big league (Serie A and La Liga.

The Premier League has had four different winners as opposed to the other two league which have had five..... So why does the Premiership have a problem there and the other two leagues don;t Mr Blatter?

As fot it being too powerful, well tough shit...... Remember when all the money was in Serie A in the 90's? I didn't hear Mr Blatter saying squat then...

And as for too many foreigners...... Well when you can pay top dollar you are going to attract the best players.... But if you take a look at Inter Milan, the team they fielded against Manchester United for the first leg of their Champions League tie contained just one Italian whereas the United team contained quite a few Englishmen.

Sepp Blatter....... Prick....

Sunderland v Tottenham

So, can Spurs build on that impressive demolition of Middlesbrough midweek? They could do with it, good performances have been to few and far between for Spurs and consistency is the key for any good side.

Sunderland will surely be looking at this home game as the perfect opportunity to open up a 6/7 point gap over the relegation zone.

I think stalemate.

Football Guy's verdict 1-1

Till Monday,

Take care

Football Guy

Football Guy: "Hi everybody"

Everybody: "Hi Football Guy"

So with a big round of Midweek Premiership action in the history books, lets take a look back and the important bits -

Up Top

Well nothing really changed at the top, all three won with Chelsea and Liverpool at least keeping United honest for time being in their cakewalk to title No19.

Liverpool, who travel to Old Trafford for their next league fixtue on March 14th will have realistically the last real chance to derail United, although even if Liverpool were to beat them I doubt it would really change that much other that a loss of a little pride for Sir Alex.

Race for Fourth

What a difference four days can make, On Sunday Villa should have been going eight points clear of Arsenal, but instead they blew a two goal lead in the final minutes of their home match with Stoke and now on Thursday find themselves on three points above the Gunners with the momentum having really swung to other way.

Villa next face Spurs at home before traveling to Anfield and Old Trafford, as for Arsenal, they host Blackburn before heading to Newcastle then hosting Manchester City.

Could Arsenal be back in fourth by the beginning of April? Maybe, but one things for sure, it looks a bigger possibility than it did Saturday night.

Down at the bottom

First of, there were three massive wins for Spurs, Hull and Stoke. All picking up three points and giving themselves a little big more breathing room at the bottom.

Speaking of Hull, remember what I said yesterday about them? 

"6/4 3rd Fav to go down along with Stoke and West Brom (in that order)"

Well after their (rather lucky) win at Craven Cottage last night they are now 5/2 5th Fav to go down with Middlesbrough and Newcastle slipping below them in the bookies estimations.

As for Spurs, I can assure you that our buddy Peter the Spurs fan (off the podcast) was a happy bunny last night, he called be about five time during the game and I must say I was happy for him too (not for Tottenham.... For my buddy Pete!), Peter was extra happy with the Spurs result as he had Robbie Keane in his fantasy team.... Unfortunately for him though, the guy above him in our league is Amer (from the first podcast)who, not only had Robbie Keane, but also had Aaron Lennon.... Pete did well not to lose ground on him.

Football Guy v Mark Lawrenson

Lawro came at me with everything he had midweek and it still was not enough.

This Week

Football Guy - PS 1 CR 6 WR 4

Lawro           - PS 1 CR 6 WR 4

The Cristiano Ronaldo award for fantasy excellence

1. Aaron Lennon - 16pts

It's the highest points total we've had in sometime, in fact with out looking I'm going to say it's the biggest points total since Stephen Ireland's 19pts just after Christmas.

Anyway, well done Mr Lennon, I'm sure Spurs fans out there would like to see those kind of performances on a more regular basis and not once in a blue moon.

The End

Well that's your lot for today, come back tomorrow for the weekend preview and more fun and hi-jinx

Take care

Football Guy

Right, straight in to part two of this midweek preview. Check out Lawro's predictions here.

Manchester City v Aston Villa

A couple of days ago I was more optimistic about City's chances for this one, that was until Bellamy and Robinho both went down.

Now I'm wondering where city's goals come from in this one, Stephen Ireland maybe? I would feel better about Ireland if he was not the 2nd guy on my bench for my fantasy team!

Will be interesting to see how Villa will react after throwing away the chance to bury Arsenal in the race for forth...

I'm thinking a away win.

Football Guy's verdict 0-1

Newcastle United v Manchester United

Normally I would be predicting a whooping here for Newcastle, but since this new look United team seems to like not scoring as much as they used to, so maybe this one would be a big a blow out as I originally thought.

Having said that I still can't see any other result than Man United win.

Football Guy's verdict 0-2

Stoke v Bolton

Thank you Stoke, I did not think anything they could do this season would warm me to them in the slightest..... Well after the last three minutes at Villa park on Sunday I felt a little spark of warmth.... Just a little.... Very little......

Anyway Bolton got another good win on the weekend and are now in my eyes all but safe (they would need to totally fall apart to go down), which leads me to believe that Stoke, being at home and needing this game more will get the win.... Just...

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Wigan v West Ham

This might just be the first totally meaningless game of the season!

Both teams won't go any higher or drop particularly lower than they are now in the league so they have nothing on the line.

And for any neutrals out there wondering what match they should watch on one of those Football streaming sites, let me say you could do a lot worse than watch this match.

Both teams play good football and hopefully will just go at it in a entertaining way as they don't have much to lose.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Blackburn v Everton

Have Everton fans tried talking themselves in to the possibility of overtaking Arsenal in the league?

I overheard two on the bus the other day talking as if it were like an 80/20 chance of happening in their favour...... I really wanted to say something too them both but then realized they were both kind of burly and me being a lover not a fighter would probably get a beat down.

This was by far the toughest game for me to pick this week.

Football Guy's verdict 0-0

Fulham v Hull

Hull.... 13th in the league, spent most of the season in the top half..... Are 6/4 3rd Fav to go down along with Stoke and West Brom (in that order).

So what do you think I'm going to predict for this one? Also factor in the fact Fulham have the 3rd best home record in the Premiership it make's 8/11 home win look like buying money!

The only slight worry for me it that Hull have not lost this season in London....... There's a first time for everything....

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Tottenham v Middlesbrough

Big game at the bottom, Boro could actually go above Spurs with a  win at White Hart Lane and why not?

I would guess it's harder to beat Liverpool at home than it is to beat Tottenham away right?

To be honest I could really see this game going all three ways.... Unfortunately I can only pick one....

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Podcast

This week see's the return of fan favourite Peter the Spurs fan  who give's us his thought on the Carling Cup and his trip to Ireland.

DOWNLOAD

 

Hi all, boy am I tired this morning and when I think it only Tuesday, which means I still have four work days (including today) left till the weekend I really do feel like rolling over back in to bed!

Later tonight I will be having our good Spurs Pete over to record this weeks podcast which I will post for you all tomorrow, so until then you will have to make do with the first half of the midweek preview.

As always you can check out Mr Lawrenson's prediction here.

* It seems Lawro is up to his old cheating ways again! He claims to have said 1-0 for the Bolton - Newcastle match last Sunday, but when you look here you will see he is talking out of his backside and is trying to cheat...... Poor Lawro.... I know it looks as though you are going to lose to me but their is no need to cheat for the second time this season!!.... Shame on you.

West Brom v Arsenal

OK Arsenal, Aston Villa handed you a stay of execution by blowing a two goal lead at home to Stoke in the final few minutes on the weekend, now the time to really pile on the pressure.

Plus, if you can't score against the bottom side in the Premiership then who can you score past?

I thought Arsenal's fourth place hopes were over after slipping up against Fulham.... They will be if they slip up tonight.

Football Guy's verdict 0-2

Portsmouth v Chelsea

Pompey still need the points badly -

Chelsea not as much (unless they still think the title is a race!)

I smell a Pompey point..... They came within minutes of beating Liverpool a few weeks ago yet ended up losing and costing Tony Adams his job, tonight I think they go one better and pick up a point.

Although a Lampard or Anelka goal would be welcome for my push for a 3rd straight Fantasy Premier League crown!

Football Guy's verdict 1-1

Liverpool v Sunderland

Now, Liverpool don't play again for SEVEN whole days when they will be taking on Real Madrid in the return leg of their Champions League tie.

So my question is - What sort of team will Rafa put out knowing his players have a WHOLE WEEK rest?

These are the kind of questions that only a beautiful mind can answer.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Be back for the rest tomorrow, until then...

Take care

Football Guy

Greetings and salutations my friends, welcome to another week of Football fun kicked off as always by the Monday Hangover.

It's a busy week ahead with Premiership games on both Tuesday and Wednesday so you lucky folk out there should receive FOUR post from me this week plus a podcast or two (I'm hoping for two but might only be one due to real life stuff... You know...Work..).

But lets not get to far ahead of ourselves, there was a action packed weekend just past and I'll do my best to take you through it.

Carling Cup Final

Well done to United on their first of possibly (hopefully not) four trophy's this season.... Or as some, like the BBC's Phil McNulty will have you believe, it's their second of five. I say to Phil, if were counting the Club World Cup then why not the Community Shield too?

Anyway, quadruple or quintuple or even a sextuple, the fact is United won what for me was quite an enjoyable game that just lacked a goal or two too really make it great. Definitely one of the better 0-0 games I've seen in a long while with both teams trying to win the match.

Aaron Lennon forced the best save of the match from United's Ben Foster (who I've always loved.... In a footballing sense) but Ronaldo could have one it for United with only a few seconds of normal time remaining after his thunderous shot from just inside the box crashed off the inside of Gomes's left hand post. All in all I think the right team won.

Side note - All week long I've heard from Tottenham fans about how this game is really important for them as it gets them back in to Europe next season... OK... That's true, yet only three days earlier Harry played a weekend team in Europe and condemned Spurs to elimination.

Now my question is - What's the point being in Europe if your going to play weekend side in not one, but two legs?

I can understand if Spurs were in Aston Villa's position and were fighting to get in to the Champions League, but Tottenham are resting players in a competitions they are trying to get back in to... Am I the only person struggling to understand the logic behind that?

Race for Fourth

Saturday night I had started writing an article about how it was over for Arsenal and who was to blame and so forth..... Had to scrap that after two late goals from Stoke on Sunday!

What a missed opportunity for Villa to really nail the coffin shut on Arsenal's Champions League hopes this season and now, IF Arsenal can beat West Brom on Tuesday, the Gunners will be only three points behind putting real pressure on Martin O'Neill's side for their trip to Manchester to for City, how quickly things can change in football eh?

Back to Arsenal for a second, I've read a lot of people slagging of the Arsenal players commitment on Saturday against Fulham which I think is unfair. Sure against Sunderland that would have been a fair accusation but in my opinion Arsenal did everthing right except put the ball in the back of the net and that was definitely NOT from lack of trying.

Maybe it was to do with Arsenal's best chances falling to Robin Van Persie who has greater ambition that the club it seems and is showing that by being completely unable to win us games like a certain Mr Henry 14, RVP - Do you think your as good as him? Go out and prove your ambition first by scoring as many goals as a top striker does and then come back with your questioning of the clubs ambition.

One quick question for Fergie

You said the other week that you thought it was a two-horse race between you and Liverpool, now that Liverpool have dropped to 3rd could you please come out and claim to the media that the title race is over?

Would love to see that - 

Reporter - So Sir Alex, is that the title race over?

Sir Alex - Ey, it is (crack's open Champagne bottle)

Reporter - But Sir Alex, there are still 10 games to go, i know your in a strong position but aren't you being a little premature?

Sir Alex - I'll tell you who's premature, you father when he's fucking your mother, or so she tell me after me, C-Ron and Nani have finished spit-roasting her!

(End Scene)

Football Guy v Mark Lawrenson

Another week, another being for Mr Lawrenson. I know there's still 10 games to go but I'm doing a Fantasy Fergie and claiming the title after what happened this weekend.

This Week

Football Guy - PS 2 CR 5 WR 3

Lawro           - PS 2 CR 3 WR 5

The Cristiano Ronaldo award for fantasy excellence

This week is a tie between Stiliyan Petrov and Stephen Warnock both with 13pts. This is also the 3rd time out of the last 4 hangovers that a player/players have won with 13pts, I see a trend!

Also speaking of hangovers, I spent a good half an hour Saturday morning with a splitting headache deciding over Christopher Samba or Stephen Warnock as my fantasy pickup for the week......... Needless to say..... I chose poorly. Kind of like in Indiana Jones and the last crusade when they get to the room with all the fake cup's of Christ in it and Donovan chooses the wrong one and goes from his mid 40's to a corpse in about 10 seconds, saying that Donovan's corpse body looks strangely like Doc Brown from Back to the Future....

This week

I'm going to be doing the predictions for the midweek games tomorrow and I think/hope Lawro will too.

There will be a Thursday Hangover as well as the regular weekend preview on Friday where I hope there will be a podcast.

Speaking of Podcast. as mentioned before, I'm hoping to do two this week but if worst come to worst I will settle for one which should be are old friend Peter the Spurs fan which should be fun.

Anyway until tomorrow....

Take care

Football Guy

Hi football fan's, it's your old pal the Football Guy. Hope all's well wherever you.

It's been quite a good week in the broom-closet here at Football Guy towers, I think it might have something to do with the return of Champions League football which is a great time for all lovers of the beautiful game.

All the ties baring one are (Bayern giving Sporting Lisbon a royal beating 5-0in Portugal) delicately poised and I for one am already looking forward to the return legs two weeks time.

I shall be discussing all that and more in this weeks podcast with you can download from the link at the bottom of the post with my guest the SportBoys. I wanted to record this earlier in the week but due to scheduling conflicts we've had to do in Friday morning (have not record it yet, will do so after I put up this week predictions.

This weekend also see's the Carling Cup final between Manchester united and Tottenham Hotspurs which will be United first big step to winning an unprecedented quadruple and forcing me to go hide under a rock somewhere far far away.

Just for fun I will give you a prediction, I know Lawro is too but this does not count towards are season long battle.

Carling Cup Final - Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur

Just like last season, Spurs will be the underdogs in their quest to win this tin-pot trophy and just like last year I feel the will somehow manage to win.

I have no Footballing evidence to suggest why I think they will do it but neither did I have last year and they still won.

The only thing that make's me shy away from predicting a Spurs win is the fact i can't see harry winning a second trophy in two years after going 20+ years without one.

Spurs have played United pretty close this season so far with a 0-0 draw at the Lane in the league and a 2-1 loss at Old Trafford in the FA Cup, but as they say, "3rd times a charm"

Football Guy's verdict 1-2

Anyway, without further delay, here are this weeks picks - Check out Lawro's here.

Everton v West Brom

Everton seem to be losing men faster than an AIDS epidemic in a guy community in the 80's, thankfully for them they seem to have two youngsters in the form of Rodwell and Gosling who seem more than up to the task of replacing their fallen stars.

West Brom on the other hand are starting to look worse..... If thats possible.

I can't see anything other than a home win.

Football Guy's verdict 1-0

Arsenal v Fulham

Arsenal....... Can't score from open play anymore. Early in the season they could score but would concede, now it seem things have gone full circle and their defence looks pretty solid so it's a real shame they have Nicklas Bendtner upfront missing chances left, right and center.

Fulham are yet to record a win away from home this season but have been the 0-0 specialists which seems to be the Gunners favorite score at the moment.

Call be a "glass half empty" kind of guy but....

Football Guy's verdict 0-0

Chelsea v Wigan

I remember years ago a buddy of mine Emi once swore blindly that Guus Hiddink was actually pronounced Jupp Heynckes in Dutch, I still don't think we have ever let him live that one down.

Speaking of Guus, he's doing what all new managers have managed to do this season and that get the same team that was slipping up only a week or so ago in to winning form.

I expect that to continue tomorrow.

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Middlesbrough v Liverpool

Boro, can't win for love nor money in the league, yet are on quite a good run in the FA Cup. I think they would rather have swapped that result on Wednesday night against West Ham for a much needed win in the league on Saturday.

Unfortunately for them things don't work like that in real life although the Riverside has been a graveyard in recent years for some of the bigger teams in the Premiership.

But until Boro can get a league win again I can't back them to do anything more than lose in this one.

Football Guy's verdict 0-1

Hull v Blackburn

Massive match for both teams but especially for Blackburn who, despite having a game in hand are two points away from Stoke who are directly above them and a big five points behind Pompey who are above Stoke.

Hull need to keep getting points to avoid being sucked right in to the relegation fight which is becoming more and more like reality as the weeks go by.

I fancy Blackburn as they need in more.

Football Guy's verdict 1-2

West Ham v Manchester City

City are another one of those teams that can;t seem to win away from home, although they went close last week at Anfield and basically handed the title to their cross town rivals United.

Craig Bellamy is in fine form at the moment and I expect him to score for the second week running against a former team, although I suspect that won't be enough for a victory.

Football Guy's verdcit 1-1

Bolton v Newcastle

Why oh why do Bolton fans want Gary Megson out? He saved them from going down last season after the Sammy Lee debacle and is doing a good job at keeping them up this year too.

Who do they think they are and where do they expect their club should be? they are one of the smallest teams in the Premiership with at least half of the teams in the championship being as big if not bigger than them..... I think they should be happy with what they have.

Sorry Kevin Nolan, no home coming for you, it's a good think you were not arrested for that tackle last week against Everton.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Aston Villa v Stoke

Martin O'Neill's decision to omit Young, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Carew and Barry from his teams UEFA Cup tie on Thursday night show where his priorities are and who can blame him.

The amount of money that is at stake for making it in to the top for is something that can't be thrown away considering they have a six point lead over Arsenal who are chasing them.

Stoke have not won away this season (seems to be a recurring theme) and I don't see them changing that stat this weekend despite how much I would love them too.

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Podcast

This week I take to the SportBoys about the week in Football and about my facial hair!

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Take care

Football Guy

 

Back in 2001 Billy Connolly made a film called "The man who sued God". It was about some guy's who's boat was struck by lightning and his insurance company would not pay out as they deemed it an act of God so Billy Connolly's character sued God for compensation.

Well, after Arsenal's display on Saturday I'd like to sue them for ruining not just my weekend, but my entire week to come. I was really looking forward to the coming week, after Arsenal's 4-0 win over Cardiff last Monday things seemed to be on the up, we knew one, if not both Villa and Chelsea would drop points this weekend which presented us with a perfect opportunity to close the gap on 4th spot and with the Champions League restarting on Tuesday, I was ready for what in my eyes anyway was the start of the rest of the season.

Then Arsenal go and spoil it all, ruin my week and make me wish I didn't care as much about them. Go fuck yourselves Arsenal!

As for Robin Van Persie, that chocolate legged, gay hands son of a bitch claims he wants Arsenal to show more ambition before he signs a new contract....... Well how the fuck are we supposed to show more ambition when we have YOU upfront!?!? In five years you have never managed to stay healthy or score more than 14 goals (which he has this season) in a season.

Yet Adebayor, who a lot of Arsenal fans give a load of stick to at least managed 30 last season and has two less goals this season despite playing five games less. Why do Arsenal fan's think Ade is having a crap season and RVP is having a good season? RVP had two great chances to win the match on Saturday yet no Arsenal fan say shit bad about him, if Ade had missed those chances all I'd hear from Arsenal fans would be "Ade's crap, play Bendtner". I think Van Persie should show some class and score more goals before saying how he wants Arsenal to show more ambition..... Robin Van Persie.... Go fuck yourself.

My other big gripe with Arsenal is the fan's at the Emirates. For 80 minutes of the match on Saturday it sounded like the fans were watching a funeral and then with 10 minutes to go it seemed like they all said "shit, we need to win this" and started making some noise...... How about singing a song or two? How about making some atmosphere? Arsenal fan's, go fuck yourselves.

Right, I don;t want to waste anymore time talking about that two-bob team. Time to talk about the Champions.

There were two massive decisions this weekend which ultimately put the final nail in the coffin for this seasons title race. The first came on Saturday evening when Howard Webb somehow decided not to give a penalty to Blackburn and send off Rafael with the game poised at 1-1, it was as bad a decision as I've seen this season and could easily have led to United losing the match.

Fast forward 23 hours or so and with a couple of minutes remaining of Liverpool v Manchester City, Benayoun has a goal bound header saved, not by the hand of Shay Given, but by Richard Dunne who must have thought it was playground rule's in effect with monkey rush being called (monkey rush was a rule we played in the park when I was young and it allowed any player of one team as long as the were in their box to act as goal keeper, usually used if that team had less players).

Those two decision have basically ended the title race and given United their (look away now Liverpool fans) 18th League title. I've said it before but Rafa was 100% right with his rant about how Fergie get's everything in his favor.

But regardless, well done United, you are the best team in England.......... I will now set myself on fire....

Football Guy v Mark Lawrenson

There is still one game left to be played for this week and for once me and Lawro have a differing opinion on it.

Mark was unfortunate this week as he had more correct score but I had more of the all important perfect scores

This Week

Football Guy - PS 2 CR 4 WR 5

Lawro           - PS 1 CR 5 WR 4

The Cristiano Ronaldo award for fantasy excellence

1. James Beattie - 13pts

The man formally know as a Premiership player now has four goals in his five games back in the Premiership and is averaging 6.8 points per game since his return to the top flight, could he save Stoke from the drop? I hope not.

Youtube

First off we have ex Arsenal favorite Mad Jens Lehmann, here he steals former Chelsea defender Khalid Boulaharouz's headband and throws it at a ball boy..... Oh Jen's, how I miss you so - Clip.

Next I have for you all the chance to check out some of Croatia's best footballers dress in 70's outfits for a advert on Croatian TV, Eduardo look amazingly good as some sort of Rick James knock-off - Clip - I have it on good information Luka Modric was involved but was not wearing a wig or make-up.

And finally with it being Oscar weekend I thought I'd share with you all my favorite Oscars moment (no, it was not Halle Berry crying). Check out Ali and Rocky clowning around on stage before presenting the best actress award - Clip - Anyone else think that if it had been Russel Crowe up there it might have turned in to a real fight?

Take care

Football guy