Hi and hello football fans, it's your old pal Roko The Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are! I was unfortunately rather ill at the back end of last week with some good old man flu and rather shockingly my cpu went down with a virus which meant I had to format my hard drive, good thing my man flu was a lot less serious.

Anyway, since last we spoke there has been quite a fair bit to talk about in the world of football and I'm raring to throw in my 10p worth!

Rooney earns controversial penalty..... Again

For those of you who missed it you can check it out here - LINK.

Last week Rooney claims he's an "honest player"....... Hmmm. Now on Sunday morning me and my buddy Spurs Pete were playing XBox live (Gears of War 2) and had a conversation about this, Pete say's to me he did not think Rooney dived....... I agree with him, I felt Rooney lunged for the ball and missed. But I would love to know why he was sitting there appealing for a pen if he is an "honest player"?

Firstly it's Rooney who's doing the shirt pulling and then to make matters worse he lunges for a ball he could never reach and ends up badly hurting the Slovenian defenders ankle in the process....... Again, what was Rooney appealing for? As far as I'm aware UEFA punished Eduardo for deceiving the Ref, well to me it seems Rooney did a pretty good job at in on Saturday and managed to get a player off injured with it.

There were two quote that summed it all up for me, both were from Slovenian players -

Aleksander Radosavljevic said:

"Everybody knows it wasn't a penalty - that's the price you pay for being a small nation.

Robert Koren, Slovenia's captain said:

"This week there has been a lot of talking about diving, about Eduardo. I think Rooney went down a bit too easy and let's see if someone will say something against him."

I don't think I need to add anything else to the discussion.

Chelsea transfer embargo

So Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until January 2011. The punishment was meted out by world governing body Fifa after the club was found guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

I bet anyone right now £100 that Chelsea will be buying players next summer. I'm sure they will appeal and get this ban reduced to just this winters transfer window, which is still good news for the other "Big Four" as it means Chelsea will not be able to strengthen anymore this season and at the moment they look like the team to beat.

The thing is is that this has now brought about calls for under 18 year olds to be banned from transfers which to me at least seems like quite a drastic move. I'm not even sure if it's legal under EU law?

One things for sure, if that sort of ban came in what would that do to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger's transfer policy? Might actually have to spend some cash!

The thing that I find stupid is that the law is already in place and there is punishment there for it already. If a player has a contract and a team "induces" that player to break it than they get banned from making transfers like what has happened here to Chelsea, but unfortunately in this age of over reaction and media hyperbowl we see calls for something much more drastic. How about just enforcing the ban you have given Chelsea UEFA? That would make a lot more sense right?

Argentina 1 Brazil 3

This seemed to me to be the match everyone was looking forward to this weekend and I have to say I was a little disappointed having stayed up to watch it. Poor defending by Argentina cost them dearly, how can Brazil's main striker be totally unmarked from a free kick? I'm sure if a bunch of us from Oleole got together to defend that free kick we would have done a better job!

The only real memorable thing for me from the match was when the home fans started to chant Dunga's name........ Not a good sign!

El Deigo is now under real pressure to make sure Argentina don't fail to reach the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1970.

I'm still pretty sure the Argies will make it to South Africa next summer, but how strange would the World Cup feel if there was no Lionel Messi and no C-Ron (Portugal I think will not make it) The two best players on the planet? Has there ever been a World Cup without the two clear best players?

Igor Shitov

Whilst watching a very unimpressive Croatia beat Belarus on Saturday evening I noticed that the away team had a player who's name must rank up there with some of the best names ever in Football....... Igor Shitov!

If this guy played for your team you would have to buy his shirt right? I know I would. Just think of having Shitov on your back..... Awesome!!! Put's Paul Dickov to shame!

In my all-time best footballing names I'd have to rank Shitov 3rd -

3RD - Igor Shitov

2ND - Creedence Clearwater Couto

1ST - Christ Bongo

Face it, the same way you'd never beat Des Walker for pace (apart from when Marc Overmars did at Wembley in 93) You'll never beat Christ Bongo in the best footballer names ever..... FACT!

The End

Take care

Football Guy

Hi and hello Football fans it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are. Things are good here in the broom closet at Football Guy towers, due to me having no work this week I've found myself going to bed later and later at night and waking up..... You've guessed it, later and later, which can be a good thing..... But when it's a nice day like it is today and you are walking up at 2pm it kind of make you want to hang yourself, but not in the Justin Fashanu way.

Last night was good for me though as I finally beat the bookies!!! It seemed like an age had passed since I last one some money from those scumbags. I had a £10 treble on England, Spain and Bosnia all winning..... Funnily enough it was Bosnia who gave me the least trouble beating Belgium at home 2-1 (although Belgium's goal came right at the end), it was Spain and England who made me wait till the death, with both scoring their winners in the last five minutes and in fact Spain's winner came in the 93rd minute against Turkey (Hahaha, How does it feel now Turkey? Not nice when teams scum you late on is it?!?!?! HAHAHAHA). So anyway, I'm looking at about £60 profit which will do me quite nicely, I might even have a Pims later by the river...... Or not..... Pims is shit.

England

I said yesterday that I thought Ukraine were a poor team and that England should beat them comfortably...... Well I still think Ukraine are a poor team who tactically played England right and made England look like a team with no creativity, unless it was a set piece.

I also think England got a lot of help from the officials last night, I would love to hear the ref's explanation on why Gareth Barry was not sent off and Ukraine awarded a penalty?

I'd also like to hear why Rooney was not at least give a yellow card for that horrible follow through tackle in the second half? Please don't give me that bullshit about how he got the ball, I was a dangerous tackle that could have broke the guys leg, I believe in the rules it states that a dangerous tackle will result in the minimum on a booking and anyone who thinks it was not dangerous is a fool, basically that means if I was a player every time I went to clear the ball and a opposition player was within kicking distance I would  follow through and kick him as hard as I could every time and say "oh ref, I get the ball though, didn't mean to kick the guy in the kneecap".

Before I talk about the winning goal, I'd like to point out that I love David Beckham, I also love winning money (this goal won me my bet) but I HATE INJUSTICE!!!!!!

Beckham conned the ref into winning a free kick by basically running into a guy who didn't move to block him, nut was standing still and Beck's run in to him and to make matters worse JT scores from the resulting free kick from an offside position......... Now as I said, I love winning money, BUT I HATE INJUSTICE!!!! Great nod back by Stevie G though, might well win Football Guy's player of the Year.

Scotland

Well done to Scotland for getting the three points they needed last night, It was not pretty but they did enough.

The problem I think they will have in the end though will be that it looks as though whoever comes second in that group might well be the 9th best second placed team and therefore miss out on a playoff spot.

Harsh, but I think it might be so.

Rep of Ireland

Well done too to Ireland who picked up a BIG point in Italy.

I watched extended highlights of that match last night and it almost sent me to sleep, but hey, a point in Italy is a point well won and keeps the Irish in a good position to challenge the Italians for top spot in the group.

I would not count out Bulgaria just yet though, they have yet to lose and have a game in hand which if they win would put them just two points behind the Irish and Ireland needing to go to Sofia at some point too.

Northern Ireland

Another good result for the "Fighting" Northern Irish has them at the summit of Group Three.

Their problem in the end I fear will be their away form which is like a mirror opposite of their home form..... Shit.

They have a one point lead over Slovakia (who won in Prague last night) and the Slovakian's have two games in hand.

I wish them all the best, but I fear it will all end in tears.

Wales 

Wales are a poo team and I don't want to waste my time talking about them.

To talk about their chances of qualifying for the World Cup would be like talking about the chances of surviving AIDS.

Other Blogs

Read a interesting article about why Sepp Blatter and Michel Paltini hate English Football on the blog "Let's talk about Cesc baby".

I implore you all to check it out and weight in to the discussion.

So until tomorrow Football Fans,

Take care

Football Guy 

Hi and hello Football fans, it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are. Things have been moved around in the broom closet here at Football Guy Towers, due to me having no work this week I was driving myself crazy yesterday trying to stave off chronic boredom, so I reconfigured the lay out of the broom closet and now have a little extra space to be bored in........ Woohoo........ I've also developed a nasty little sore throat which as long as in stays just a sore throat will be dealt with just fine.

Return of the king

Now, if only I was as good as my good friends the Sportboys at photoshop, I could have knocked up a little pic of Big Al as Aragorn from Lord of the Rings...... Unfortunately I have better things to do with my time (like re-arranging the layout of the broom closet).

I always though Big Al was putting off becoming Newcastle manager because he was smart enough to realize he'd probably be shit and tarnish his rep on Tyneside.

So now with him finally getting the job (until the end of the season) have I changed my mind? Not one little bit!

You see, for me I think Big Al see's this as a no lose situation as there are only two things that can happen from here to the end of the season.

Newcastle go down

Oh well, I came in and tried my best but the team was crap and I didn't have enough time to change that.

Big Al rep is still intact as no one from the Toon Army would blame him for Newcastle going down as they were crap and looking like going down when Big Al arrived....... No lose.

Newcastle stay up

Look at me, the savior, swooping in to rescue the club from it's darkest hour in many a year!

If Big Al keeps Newcastle up he becomes an either bigger legend and everyone is happy...... Well apart from Stoke or Hull...... Big Win.

So you see, Big Al has nothing to lose here, go down and nobody will blame you, stay up and you become bigger than Jesus. 

*Note - Big Al in Newcastle is already on par with JC in Newcastle, this would push him over the top.

England v Ukraine

I watch Croatia play Ukraine in Kiev a couple of days after England beat Croatia 4-1 and I can honestly say Ukraine are a poor team.

Croatia drew 0-0 but really should have won that match easily (probably suffering from the England beating)

I fully expect England to win this one comfortably and walk away from Wembley in a commanding position.... If they were not already.

Football Guy's verdict 3-0

Italy v Rep of Ireland

Ireland blew a golden opportunity to keep pace with the World Champions in their group.

Now they will have to go through them if they are to stop them pulling away.

But who better to stop the Italians than an Italian? The Irish secret weapon might well be the man on their bench, Mr Trapattoni.

To be fair I just talking shit here as with Trapattoni or without Trapattoni Ireland are not beating Italy in Italy and I doubt they will even get a draw.

Italy are never prolific in qualifying, but always do enough and I expect them to do so tonight.

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Northern Ireland v Slovenia

So, the "Fighting" Northern Irish got a big three points at the weekend, the question is, can the follow it up with three more tonight?

I don't see any reason why not, Slovenia are no better than Poland and I expect Northern Ireland to play better than they did on Saturday.

Having said that, I expect Slovenia to play better than Poland did as well.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Scotland v Iceland

Massive game for Scotland, they must put what happened in Holland behind them and concentrate on picking up a vital three points at home to a team which if they think they can qualify they should beat.

I feel pretty confident the Tartan Army will get the job done tonight....... (Big Jinx.... Sorry)

They just have to beat these teams and the rest will take care of itself.

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Wales v Germany

Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice....... No chance!

I'm never backing Wales to beat anyone ever again apart from San Marino or Liechtenstein. They are just about better than them.

To be fair, Wales are just the kind of team this Germany side will pound and that's what I expect to happen.

Ballack and co are going to enjoy themselves tonight....... John Toshack will not.

Football Guy's verdict 0-3

OK peeps,my throat has got worse since started writing this and I think I off back to bed.

Take care

Football Guy

Hi and hello Football fans it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are, things are Grey and depressing here in the broom closet at Football Guy towers.

Remember last week I mentioned that I had forgot to book my hours for work this week? (I think I mentioned it?) Anyway, I was told to call up Monday and the guys in scheduling would give me what they had left, so I called them and they gave me what they had left........ Have a guess........ If you times 0 by 0........ You get 0. Yep that's right, no work for me all week, now that might not sound like the worst thing in the world, but when you consider that I don't get paid if I don't work and that this weeks pay is a very important for me as it's the weeks pay I pay my Direct Debits with you can see why I'm feeling a little down. 

It's also the reason there was not Monday Hangover yesterday...... Well part of the reason, the other part was that it was an International weekend and that means no hangover.

So if anyone needs a handyman to maybe paint a room or fix something in their house or mow the lawn this week and is willing to pay cash in hand, by all means please do drop me a line!

Weekend Prediction Review

Since I was not battling Lawro this week and it was just for fun I felt I let myself down ny not bringing my A Game to the prediction.

If you can't remember them, take a look here.

England v Slovakia

I had 2-0 and was right....... Until England needlessly scored another two goals...... Bastards!

Good performance by England and without too much effort, Capello has shown he can beat the teams he should beat with England, the only question is, can he take them to the next level and beat the likes of Spain, Brazil or Argentina? (the latter two for me are the favorites for the 2010 World Cup as it's being held outside of Europe and a European team has never won the World Cup out of Europe).

Against Spain England got outclassed, but there is still plenty of time for Mr Capello to figure things out.

Oh yeah, big congrats to "old Becks" for becoming England's most capped outfield player, I'm sure he will add a few more to that record before it's all said and done

Northern Ireland v Poland

This game really annoyed me as Northern Ireland played like complete BUMS, but fortunately for them Poland played like dingleberries ( the pieces of poo that get stuck in your arse crack hair).

I thought the Poles would win 3-1 yet they very nearly ended up losing by that scoreline. So what went wrong? Well I didn't take in to consideration that Artur Boruc would all of a sudden become Frank Spencer and cost Poland two goals!

So well done N.I. you beat a team by playing slightly less worse than they did...... (Clap, Clap, Clap)

Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria

Silly, silly me, I wish I could have this one back. Those of you who read my weekend prediction regularly will know I'm a big stickler for trends, as in "if team A has not won at team B's ground in a long time" or something like that.

So, if you read what I wrote for my prediction for this game -

"Bulgaria are yet to win a game in these qualifiers, but then again they have not lost yet either".

Football Guy = Dumbass.

That's right, I had a trend and mentioned it, yet failed to apply it to my prediction...... What a chump..... I said 2-1 Ireland....... Not surprisingly it was 1-1.

Wales v Finland

This one I actually don't feel that bad about, I said 2-1 Wales yet it was 2-0 Finland.

Well how was I supposed to know that Wales at home could not beat the mighty Finland in a must win game for them?

I know Wales don't have that many good players, but neither do Finland! I guess Sami Hyypia can still cut it, but other than that..... They have 167 year old Jari Litmanen playing up front!!! Why didn't Wales just bring Ian Rush out of retirement? He's only 185!

Basically Wales are poo and I'm never trusting them to beat anybody at home ever again...... Sorry to those of you who took my advice on backing Wales to win the match at the bookies, but really you shouldn't blame me, blame Wales for fooling us that they were a OK football team.......

Holland v Scotland

Should have said 3-0....... Stupid 2-0..... Anyway, at least I was right about Scotland having no chance in this one.

OK peeps, will be back tomorrow with another round of International preview and more nonsense.

Till then,

Take care

Football Guy

Hi and hello Football fans, it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are. It's been a busy morning here in the broom closet at Football Guy towers, I've been running around doing favors for people all morning (not moaning.... Was doing stuff to help friends out) and had to get my hair cut........ Now for those of you who know me and have seen me of late I can tell you my hair is as long as my beard.... If that makes sense? And with Arsenal in a good position to get through to the next round of the Champions League the CL beard looks like it will be going head to head with my head hair to see who wins the title of "Longest Hair on the Football Guy"! At the moment Paddy Power have installed my beard as 11/8 Fav with my hair coming in at 2/1...... Almost as close as the Premier league just less interesting.......

Anyway, as there is no Premiership action this week I thought id give a few predictions for the Internationals this weekend that feature the home nations.

England v Slovakia

So "Fab Fabio" decided to call up a cripple to the national team (I guess it has something to do with equal opportunities or something like that) and then surprise surprise, he get injured and will not be featuring against Slovakia after all........ Was that the most predictable thing so far in 2009? It's got to be up there with crap weather in England during summer, rain during Wimbledon and Liverpool playing Chelsea in the Champions League.... Right?

So with a much bigger game on Wednesday against Ukraine coming up midweek, I doubt Capello will give to many of the first team a real run out on Saturday, but non the less I expect a comfortable victory for England and the newspapers spouting on Sunday how England are the best team in the world.... EVER (that too should be in the most predictable things of 2009).

Football Guys verdict 2-0

Northern Ireland v Poland

Poland have already won in Ireland in the last six months..... OK , so it was the Republic, but since the Republic are a better team than the Northern that means Poland should win right?

Well things don't always work like that, just take a look at David Healy's goal scoring record from the Qualifiers for the European Championships, you'd think he was the new Van Basten....... More like the new Jason Lee.

Anyway, Poland are a solid team and I think they will have too much for Northern Ireland who, if David Healy does not score for will find it hard to find the back of the net.

Football Guys verdict 1-3

Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria

The Republic were mighty lucky to beat Georgia last time out in February at Home, A dodgy Pen and an offside goal in the last 20 minutes helped them overturn a one goal deficit.

Bulgaria are yet to win a game in these qualifiers, but then again they have not lost yet either. They will be without Dimitar Berbatov for this game which will be a big blow, not sure how good their attack will be without him.

The Irish DO have quite a decent home record (by hook or by crook) and I'm sure the fan's will be behind them, maybe even the ref too..... ;-).

Football Guys verdict 2-1

Wales v Finland

This is a must win game for the Welsh if they are to stand any chance of finishing in the top two in their group (Russia and Germany).

They will by no means be playing in front of a packed house, as reports have been coming through that only 20,000 or so of the 75,000 tickets have been sold. It's led to quite a few high profile Welsh players saying how they feel the smaller games should be played in Swansea where at least if the crowd is small the stadium will be full...... I totally agree, better to play in a packed 25,000 capacity stadium then play in front of a 1/3 full 75,000 stadium.

Having said all that I think the Welsh will find a way to get it done and I recommend anyone looking to make a little be of money this weekend to back the Welsh at 11/10 win. Good price I think.

Football Guys verdict 2-1

Holland v Scotland

I urge any member of the Tartan Army who is reading this to watch this link........... Did you watch it? I know you've seen it a thousand time before, watch it again.......... How great did that feel?

That's as close as your going to get to feeling that on Saturday.

Don't get me wrong, I would love it if Scotland managed to beat the Dutch (especially for my buddy Stew) but unfortunately I'd love it if I won the lottery too, won't happen though.

Maybe if Scotland didn't have half their team out things would be different, but maybe if I had not been such a cunt to my ex girlfriend we'd be married and have kids right now....... Get my point?

If if's and buts were candy and nuts then every day would be Christmas.

Football Guys verdict 2-0

Readers questions.

I've had a bit of flack from people commenting on the site and sending me emails about my awards preview yesterday.

All I'm saying is that the PFA and Football Writers awards are a two horse race between Vidic and Gerrard and thats why I only wrote about those two.

Yes I think Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Stephen Ireland, Ryan Giggs, Robin Van Persie, Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonglahor, Mikeal Arteta, Brede Hageland, etc have had great seasons, but do you really think any of those guy will WIN either of the awards? No..... I'm not saying they don't deserve to, I'm just saying they won't win.

There......... Hope that clears a few things up.

Anyway peeps, it's been a fun week and I've noticed from by blog counter program that I have installed that many more of you are coming back (repeat readers) which is great and I thank you all very much for doing so.

I'll be back next week with more bullshit and hopefully a few jokes to go with it....... Oh yeah and Football as well!

Take care

Football Guy

Hope you enjoyed part one. No intro's for part two, straight in to the action.

1996/07 - Brought to you by The Spice Girls and Tupac

Middlesbrough lose both cup final's and go down

This has to rank up there with one of the most depressing season's any team has ever had. Two cup final's, lost both, get relegated. Pretty bad. What's worse is that they would have stayed up if not for a three point deduction due to them not turning up for a game against Blackburn. There excuse was that they did not have enough players fit due to illness and injury (the plague was rife that year on teeside). Although they did appeal the points deduction they were not as fortunate as Tottenham who a few years earlier had a points deduction over turned that would have sent them down.

Arsenal hire some guy called Arsene Wenger

Yep, a couple of months in to the season Arsenal brought in a little know Frenchman as their new manager and boy did he look strange! I will refrain from making joke's about what he looked like back then, but let's be fair, it would have been a tough decision over whether to let Gary Glitter or Arsene Wenger babysit your kids.

Anyway, it was one of the most important appointments in Arsenal history and the man over the coming years went on to revolutionize not on Arsenal, but English football as a whole.

Au revoir, Cantona

On 18 May, Eric Cantona dropped a bombshell on Manchester United by announcing his retirement from playing. The news hit football like a tidal wave. Cantona was one of the most idolized footballers of his day. Cantona wowed the footballing world with his talents and the way he bounced back from his long suspension won him even more admirers. In five seasons at Old Trafford, he had won four Premiership titles and two F.A Cups as well being voted PFA Player of the Year in 1994 and FWA Player of the Year in 1996. He had ironically been part of the Leeds United team which pipped Alex Ferguson's men to the league title in 1992, and proved himself to be one of the biggest bargains in Premiership football when he moved to Old Trafford the following November for little over £1million. That's why people think Howard Wilkinson is a idiot.

Keegan does a Keegan

On 5 January 1997, Newcastle United were hit with perhaps the biggest shock in their history: Kevin Keegan had resigned as manager. His reason for quitting was that he felt he had taken the club as far as he could. And during his five years at St James's Park, Keegan had overseen a revolution in Newcastle's fortunes. On his appointment in February 1992, Newcastle had been second from bottom in the old Second Division and looked favorites for relegation. But he kept them in the Second Division and they were founder members of the new Division One in 1992-93. A superb run of form kept them at the top of the division all season and they went up to the Premiership as Division One champions. Third and sixth place finishes followed before Newcastle led the Premiership for most of 1995-96, only to be overhauled by Manchester United in the final weeks of the season. He had walked out on Newcastle as they looked well place to challenge for a league title.

Kenny Dalglish was appointed manager of Newcastle in Keegan's place - ironically Dalglish had replaced Keegan as Liverpool's main striker 20 years earlier!

Side Note

Alex Ferguson famously blamed this kit for a 6-3 drubbing at the hands of Southampton. His excuse was that his players could not see one another....

Manchester United - Producers of the first Cloaking Device used in football.

1997/98 - Brought to you by Elton John and Princess Di

Arsenal clinch double

In Arsene Wenger's first full season as manager, Arsenal went on a storming run during the final three months of the season to take advantage of having three games in hand over leaders Manchester United and clinch the Premiership title after overhauling United's 11-point lead. Two weeks after being crowned champions, Arsenal went to Wembley and beat Newcastle Unted 2-0 to clinch the FA Cup. In doing so, they became the only team to match Manchester United's record of two "doubles", though it was achieved with an entirely different squad to the Arsenal side that had been double winners in 1971.

Michael Owen hit's the scene

With an injury to Robbie Fowler, Owen was thrust immediately into action as a first team regular alongside the likes of newcomer Paul Ince and playmaker Steve McManaman. He scored his first European goal for the club against Celtic in the UEFA Cup and recorded his first professional hat-trick against Grimsby Town in the League Cup. Owen ended that season as a joint top scorer in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers' Chris Sutton and Coventry City's Dion Dublin, scoring eighteen goals, and was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year by fellow professionals. 

David Beckham becomes hate figure

It was all because of this. Silly boy,if your going to kick someone, don't do it right in front of the ref. The public's reaction to this incident was ridiculous. I remember effigies of Beckham being burnt and the media completely destroying him. It's also the reason why I don't do the Sun's fantasy football, after the game they gave ALL the England players 10's except for Beckham who got a 0. Now, let's not forget that the Sun charged you to enter and there was a £50,000 prize at stake, so for them to completely nullify the legitimacy of their competition with that act of jingoistic stupidity was a step to far for me and thus they have never been graced by England's finest fantasy player of his generation ever again!

It is funny though, that Beckham went from public enemy number one to the nations savior in the space of four years... Who ever said English supporters were fickle?

1998/99 -Brought to you by Britney & Monica Lewinsky

The best domestic game of the last 25 years

After a utterly forgettable first game four days earlier the Football world was treated to arguably the best game of domestic football in the last 25 years. I still remember when the final whistle went not being angry but in awe of what I had witnessed over the last 2+ hours.

It had everything with both sets of fans going through all the emotions. I'm still glad to this day that it did not go to penalties as a game like this deserved a goal to finish it and what a goal it was.

Vieira for some reason decided to pass the bass cross field to no one, Giggs ended up getting the ball and the rest was history. My only question would be why Bergkamp (who had missed 3 of his last 5 penalties) was allowed to take what would have been the winning goal?

Check out hairy chest and co here.

That memorable night in the Nou Camp

Clive Tildsley seems to remind us of it every Champions League match for the last 10 years. The game capped of what was a unique treble and at the time, the greatest club achievement in English football. I would say the greatest but I feel it can be done again and will be done again.

It was also the first time I remember seeing a team in the Champions League final get totally dominated yet win the match, something another English team who plays in red would go on to do a few years later.

It must go down as the worst lose for fans in CL history, I can't imagine how Bayern fans must have felt (although after Croatia's Euro 2008 quarter final against Turkey I've got some idea). I remember me and my buddy Pavel watching it around a friend of ours house called Chris who was supporting United because "Their playing the Germans", despite being an Arsenal fan. Me and Pav were supporting Bayern as all good Arsenal fans should have. Anyway when United equalized I remember saying to Pav "Oh well, atleast we've got extra time". 30 seconds later we didn't and I think me a Pav just stared at each other for a good couple of minutes in silence as Chris jumped around.

Watch the drama here if you can stomach it.

All hail Sir Alex

That's his name now, not Alex Ferguson or Fergie, but Sir Alex.

On 12 June, Alex Ferguson received a knighthood in recognition for his services to football - making him the seventh knight of English football and the third knight to be associated with Manchester United, the others being Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton.

Could someone tell me why Bobby Charlton was Knighted and not put to sleep? Old prick.

1999/00 - Brought by Oxide & Neutrino and Sarah Knauss

The year were nothing interesting happened.

United win the League

United retained their Premiership title after losing just three league games all season and finishing 18 points ahead of runners-up Arsenal. Roy Keane was voted Player of the Year by both the PFA and FWA and Andy Cole finished as the club's top scorer with 19 Premiership goals. United lost their defense of the European Cup after losing to eventual winners Real Madrid in the quarter finals. United got demolished against Real, it was also the game Redondo did that famous trick.

Famous debutants

• Ashley Cole, 18, was involved in Arsenal's League Cup tie at Middlesbrough in November 1999, with his first taste of league action following in a loan spell at Crystal Palace.
• Shaun Wright-Phillips helps Manchester City win at Burnley in the League Cup in August 1999, two months before his 18th birthday.
• Michael Carrick is brought off the bench in West Ham United's 3-0 win at Bradford City in August 1999.

That's how boring that year was.

2000/01 - Brought to you by Limp Bizket and Bush v Gore

Sven is England's first foreign coach

With pressure building up on him following England's dismal Euro 2000 campaign, Kevin Keegan di "A Keegan" and resigned as manager of England's national team minutes after a 1-0 defeat to Germany in the opening World Cup qualifying game. The match, played October 7, 2000, was also the last played at Wembley Stadium (I watched that game in my old local sitting next to David Bowie). Howard Wilkinson and Peter Taylor each had one-match stints as caretaker manager before Sven-Göran Eriksson accepted the F.A's offer to become the new national coach. Former Lazio coach Eriksson, 52, was the first foreigner to be appointed coach of the England national team. His first match in charge was a 3-0 win over Spain. England would go on to win their first five matches with Eriksson in charge and all the critics who were opposed to Eriksson being appointed looked to have made a major misjudgment.

Sir Alex makes history with United

Sir Alex became the first manager in English football to win three successive league titles after Manchester United were crowned Premiership champions for the third season running. Their title was secured with 80 points and a 10-point gap between themselves and runners-up Arsenal. Most bookmakers had closed their books before the turn of the New Year and admitted that United were certain of their seventh Premiership title in nine seasons. A 6-1 demolition of Arsenal in late February crushed any lingering doubts over the title's destiny.

United were not the first team to win three straight league titles. Huddersfield Town, Arsenal and Liverpool had all done it before, but with managerial changes in between.

Houllier delivers three for Liverpool

Liverpool captured the 2001 UEFA Cup on 16th May with a 5-4 win over Alavés. I watched this game in break for the Boarder which is sadly not with us anymore, great venue for Karaoke on a Wednesday night. The game was won in the 116th minute by golden goal, and it completed a triplet of trophies for Liverpool which ended their six-year trophy drought as well as delivering their first trophies under Houllier's management. The League Cup had already been won with a penalty shoot-out triumph over Birmingham City in the first English final at the Millennium Stadium, and the FA Cup was secured after a dramatic 2-1 win over Arsenal in which Michael Owen scored two late goals after Freddie Ljungberg had put Arsenal ahead.

Arsenal were well and truly mugged in that game. Liverpool should have had Henchoz sent off for a deliberate hand ball on the line (This started a trend for Henchoz who went on to handball in his own box against Arsenal a further two times, also not getting caught). Arsenal also missed 4-5 glorious chances with Liverpool clearing off the line twice (not counting Henchoz).

To this day I blame my mate Chris for this defeat as we were 1-0 with about 15 minutes to play, he walks in to the pub and Owen equalizes, he buys a drink and comes and sits down next to us, Owen scores the winner, I get up and walk out. Don't really remember the next hour or so...

2001/02 - Brought to you by DJ Otzi and 9/11

Closest title race in years

At the start of 2002 the title was wide open as teams such as Newcastle Utd and Leeds Utd were flying at the top of the table along with the big boys. Newcastle, after two back to back Christmas away wins 3-1 at Arsenal and 4-3 at Leeds stamped themselves as genuine title challengers and led the league at the turn of the year. Leeds were also top at Christmas before losing that dramatic 4-3 thriller at Elland Road to the Magpies.

Come March time, the Premiership was mainly contested between Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, due to Chelsea, Newcastle and Leeds failure to stay in touch with those specific clubs.

Liverpool appeared to crash out of the title race. Despite being top of the table at the start of December and eleven points clear of Manchester United, they suffered a slump into fifth place and five points behind United.

January saw Liverpool head to Arsenal and Manchester United, all in a fortnight. Danny Murphy scored a late winner to give Liverpool the three points at Old Trafford, while John Arne Riise salvaged a point against Arsenal. Manchester United were top of the table for the first time in the season after Liverpool and Arsenal's stalemate draw.

Liverpool's defeat to Tottenham in March installed Arsenal as favorites for the title. The Gunners win against Bolton Wanderers, in April saw them close the gap to just three points for an Arsenal Championship victory.

All eyes were on the match at Old Trafford between Arsenal and Manchester United. Arsenal needed a draw to guarantee the title for the second time in five seasons, while United needed a win to have any say in the outcome of the league. Sylvain Wiltord was the only scorer in the fiercely battled rival, which had meant that Arsenal secured their third double in ironic fashion. United's loss allowed Liverpool to leapfrog into second place, after their win against Blackburn Rovers, on the same night.

Liverpool confirmed second place and another season of European football on the last day of the season. They trashed and relegated Ipswich Town, 5-0 at home. Arsenal displayed their trophy in style after beating Everton 4-3 at Highbury, while Manchester United could only manage a draw against Charlton.

Sir Alex does a U-Turn

Sir Alex announced in February that he would be postponing his retirement as Manchester United manager by at least three more seasons after he signed a new contract as manager. The news came just after United completed an impressive revival in the Premiership which saw them rise from ninth to first in the space of two months.

United's failure was largely put down to the inability to find a suitable replacement for Jaap Stam, the brilliant Dutch central defender who had been sold to Lazio for £16.25million just after the start of the season. Another disappointment was the failure of Juan Sebastián Verón, at £28.1million the most expensive player ever to sign for an English club, to never live up to his hefty price tag. On a positive note, Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy lived up to his £19million price tag by scoring 34 goals in all competitions during his first season at Old Trafford - breaking the club record that had been set by Dennis Viollet 40 seasons earlier.

Side Note

Arsenal made history that season by becoming the first team in the modern era to go unbeaten away from home all season and score in ever game.

2002/03 - Brought to you by Las Ketchup & The Beltway Sniper

Tragedy - Mar-Vivien Foe dies

On 26 June 2003, Cameroon faced Colombia in the semi-final, held at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, France. In the 72nd minute of the match Foé collapsed in the center circle,with no other players near him. After attempts to resuscitate him on the pitch, he was stretchered off the field, where he received mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and oxygen. Medics spent 45 minutes attempting to restart his heart, and although he was still alive upon arrival at the stadium's medical centre he died shortly afterward, in spite of the efforts to save his life. A first autopsy did not determine an exact cause of death, but a second autopsy later revealed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and concluded that Foé's death was heart-related.

Foé's death caused a profound shock. Numerous tributes to the man's joyous personality and infectious humor were expressed in the media. Also Thierry Henry and other players pointed to the sky in tribute to Foé after Henry had opened the scoring against Turkey in France's Confederations Cup semi-final that evening. Many suggestions for ways to honor the life of Marc-Vivien Foé were made after his death: it was suggested that the Confederations Cup and the Stade Gerland could have been renamed after him, and former Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan announced that the club would no longer use the number 23 shirt Foé wore during his successful season there. At Manchester City's ground; the City of Manchester Stadium there is a small memorial to him in the stadium's memorial garden, and on the walls of the players' tunnel are plaques paid for by supporters, with their names, dubbed the Walk of Pride. The first plaque on the wall is for Marc and reads "Marc Vivien Foé - 1975 - 2003". His first club (Racing Club de Lens) has given his name to an avenue near the Félix Bollaert Stadium. Foé was given a state funeral in Cameroon.

United win 8th Title

Manchester United ended the campaign as champions for the eighth time in eleven years - an achievement made all the more remarkable by virtue of defending champions Arsenal having led by eight points in the beginning of March.

Although this was a season of breaking new English domestic records for the Gunners and leading at all fronts come the halfway stage, they threw away a priceless lead against Bolton Wanderers and finally surrendered the title with a 3-2 home defeat to Leeds United, in the penultimate game of the season. This result all but saved Leeds from relegation, with a game to spare.

Wayne Rooney becomes the youngest-ever goalscorer in FA Premier League history when he scores a last-minute winner against Arsenal, five days before his 17th birthday, to end the opposition's 30-match unbeaten Premiership run.

He would end something far more greater a few years later through cheating.

2003/04 - Brought to you by Usher and Gavin Arvizo

The most impressive achievement in English football

The Invincibles

Call me biased if you will but I don't care. For me this is the more great an achievement than a treble because it will never be done again. People have done different forms of trebles and United's is the best, but especially in recent seasons teams have come close to it and I feel someone will do it again.

No one has ever gone undefeated in modern English football, no one has come close to it and that's why it's the best!

Rant over.

Abramovich come's to town

Chelsea had been bolstered by a £100 million outlay on world-class players, a spree funded by the extensive financial resources of their new owner Roman Abramovich. He would go on to spend alot more in the coming seasons

Rio disappears for a afternoon

Rio Ferdinand was ruled out for the final four months of the season after being found guilty of the "failure or refusal to take a drugs test". The case of Rio Ferdinand started a debate about punishments relating to drug testing in football, with there being differing views on whether the punishment was too harsh or too lenient.

The fact of the matter was, he missed a test, the rules say punishment and in actual fact he was probably lucky it was not longer.

Arsenal's season

Arsenal, had only signed German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the 2003 close season, but French striker Thierry Henry was instrumental in Arsenal's success. Away from the Premiership, Arsène Wenger's team suffered disappointment in the cup competitions. They lost their defense of the FA Cup (which they held for two seasons in a row) after losing to eventual winners Manchester United in the semi-final. Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Chelsea (3-2 on agg)

That game broke my heart, we were by far the better team for three out of the four halfs and Chelsea had not beaten us for like 10 years... Famously in my local after Bridge scored I took my shirt off and threw it at the screen. I'm not really sure why it was that big a deal or why so many people in their always talk to me about it?

Anyway these two blows came with a few days of each other and I really feared that Arsenal might squander their lead of the Premiership for the second successive season, but Arsenal thumped Liverpool (I swear Biscan would have tackled Henry for the second goal if not for Caragher falling over into him) only days later and never looked back. Arsenal's Invincibles finished the season with 26 wins, 12 draws, 0 defeats and 90 points.

Battle of Old Trafford Part Two

I remember being very upset over the media's reaction at Arsenal over this. One hack from the Sun went as far as to say "Arsenal stand for all that is wrong in football today"

The fact is Arsenal were being robbed in that game and temper boiled. Veira's red card and the penalty were both harsh at best.

Watch

For some reason it's very hard to find good clips of this on the internet.

Side Note

Cesc Fabregas, 16, is given his first taste of first-team football at Arsenal in three Football League Cup ties, the first against Rotherham United in October 2003.

2004/05 - Brought to you by Eric Prydz and Tsunami

The Special one arrives

He was hailed as a breath of fresh air for the Premership, fresh from winning the Champions League with Porto, Jose Bought brought his Midas touch with him winning the Premiership in his first season at Stamford Bridge ending their 50 year drought for the title in their centenary year.

It also ended one of my favorite Arsenal chants for Chelsea -

"You won the league, On radio, you won the league on radio. You one the league before TV, you won the league on radio".

We sing a similar one to Tottenham which goes -

"You won the league, in black and white, you won the league in black and white. You won the league with no colour, you won the league in black and white".

Rooney and United rob Arsenal of 50 unbeaten

This is in my top three Arsenal tragedies and I don;t want to talk about it - Watch.

Never a penalty! Here's what Wenger thought about it

Liverpool mug AC Milan

It what has to be one of the strangest night in football history, Liverpool come back from humiliation with 3 goals in 9 minutes in the second half and go on to win on penalties.

Liverpool were dead and buried at half time and how they managed to come back will remain a mystery. although the warning sign were there with Milan who only a year earlier had let slip a 4-1 first leg lead against Deportivo.

The key goal for me was the second which Dida should have saved, it was a tame shot from Smicer from the edge of the box which Dida somehow let slip through his hands. It gave Liverpool the momentum they needed.

The maker of this video conveniently leaves out Gerrards dive for the penalty - Watch

I must say that that double save from Dudek near the end has to go down as one of the greatest saves of all time.

Brian Clough dies

The man, the myth, the legend. My favorite manager in football history. I loved the great man and very sad to hear of his demise. I actually heard about his death whilst on holiday in Philadelphia having just read his column in 442 magazine only days earlier. 

He achieved league title success as manager with Derby County in 1972 but is best remembered for his achievement at Nottingham Forest - where he won promotion to the original First Division and established Forest as one of Europe's top sides. They were league champions once, European Cup winners twice and League Cup winners four times. He underwent a liver transplant in January 2003, 20 months before his death from stomach cancer in a Derby hospital.

2005/06 - Brought to you by Gnarls Barkley and Robin Cook

Chelsea retain title

Chelsea secured a second successive title with 29 wins and 91 points. Their domestic title challenge saw them lead the Premier League from the opening weekend of the competition, but their chances of winning their first double were ended when they lost to eventual winners Liverpool FC in the FA Cup semi-finals. Their European season came to an end in March, as they met a resurgent FC Barcelona side, whom they had defeated the previous year. In the round of 16, Barca knocked them out over two legs.

Frank Lampard contributed another 20 goal season, and was again named player of the year, and excellent seasons from John Terry, Petr Cech, and newcomer Michael Essien. The season was, in part, defined by three major victories over Chelesa's title rivals throughout the year. In October, the blues crushed Liverpool at Anfield to the tune of 1-4. This was the Merseyside club's worst home defeat since the First World War. In December, Chelsea gave a convincing performance against Arsenal at Highbury, solidly defeating them 0-2 and cementing their status as league leaders.

Finally, with the title already won Chelsea confirmed their status as champions in late April by beating their nearest contenders Manchester United 3-0 at Stamford Bridge with Joe Cole scoring a sensational individual goal. Though they did not match their two trophy haul from the previous year, it was still an excellent season for Jose Mourinho and his expensively assembled side. But their lack of continental success this year saw them embark on signings the following summer to improve their form in Europe.

Arsenal become first London team to reach Champions League Final

In a season that saw their worst league performance under Wenger ironically saw them do the best they ever had in Europe.

I remember before the game saying to my buddy Pav that, "I only hope we score a goal that means something, I don't want use to lose 1-0 and never have anything to celebrate"

Well I got my wish, Eboue dive's and wins us a free kick which Campbell nods home. It's strange to say this considering we lost, but that goal was the second best moment in my football life behind winning the league at Anfield in 1989. The pub I was watching in was so packed you could not move and when the goal went in there was just a wall of noise a can't describe, it seemed like we were cheering for 10 minutes solid (I'm sure if I could see it again it was probably only 30 seconds) but for that moment in time nothing else mattered. Strange that such a big defeat would be my second most cherished Arsenal moment of my life.

George Best dies

I've talked about my feeling on George "simply the" Best before, read about them here

2006/07 - Brought t0 you by JT and Youtube

Another quite season.

United win back title

United ended Chelsea's two year dominance of the Premiership by taking back the title after Chelsea failed to beat Arsenal at their new Emirates stadium.

C-Ron starts his dominance

The PFA Players' Player of the Year award for 2007 was won by Cristiano Ronaldo. He had won the PFA Young Player of the Year award earlier on in the awards ceremony, making him the first player to win both awards in the same year since Andy Gray managed the same feat in 1977.

15,000th goal

The Premier League expected to have the league's 15,000th goal scored at some point in the period between Christmas and New Year. The target was reached on 30 December when Moritz Volz scored for Fulham against Chelsea. Barclays, the Premiership's sponsor, donated £15,000 to the Fulham Community Sports Trust in Volz' name. Additionally, a fan who correctly predicted that Volz would score the historic goal in a contest presented the player with a special award prior to Fulham's game against Watford at Craven Cottage on 1 January. The honor of scoring the 15,000th goal has led to Volz being nicknamed "15,000 Volz"

2007/08 - Brought to you by Rihanna and Antonio Puerta

More United success

United successfully complete the European double despite a poor start to the season, finding themselves in 17th place in the Premier League after three matches. However, on 11 May 2008, United retained the Premier League title with a win over Wigan Athletic. With title rivals Chelsea only able to draw with Bolton Wanderers, United finished the season two points clear.

The club also reached the European Cup final for the third time in their history, having knocked out such clubs as Barcelona and Roma en-route to the final. They beat Chelsea 6–5 on penalties in the final in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, after a 1–1 draw in normal time on 21 May 2008. With this win, they earned their third European Cup title and kept up their record of never having lost a major European final.

Coincidentally, this season marked the 100th year since Manchester United won their first League title, 50 years after the Munich air disaster and 40 years after Manchester United became the first ever English side to win the European Cup. The European Cup final also saw Ryan Giggs make his 759th appearance for the club, overtaking Bobby Charlton as the club's record appearance maker.

John Terry cries

Possibly my favorite football comedy moment of the past 25 years - Watch.

In a game which for me anyway was very much Alien vs Predator, I.E. whoever wins I lose, at least I've got the image of John Terry slipping, losing the Champions League final for Chelsea and crying afterward

Go here and click on the audio link for a very funny John Terry song - skip to 1:10

Check out highlights of the game here.

Record breaking year

There were quite a few, some good and some very bad and some I bet you didn;t know about.

• Derby County finished with the worst record since the league was founded in 1992-93 and also the worst since the introduction of the three points for a win rule. Among the records set by the Rams were:
  • A final record of one win, eight draws and 29 losses for a total of eleven points, worse than the Sunderland team from 2005-06, with the previously set lows of three wins, six draws and 29 losses totaling fifteen points. The single win, coming at home against Newcastle United 1-0 on 17 September was also a record for the fewest wins in a Premiership campaign.
  • Derby's 20 goals scored as a team (with Ronaldo, Adebayor and Torres each scoring more goals individually) was lower than the 2002-03 Black Cats' total with 21 goals scored. This marked the third time a team was outscored by one or more players. The team also failed to score in 21 of their 38 games.
  • Their −69 goal difference (20 goals scored, 89 conceded) was worse than Ipswich Town's 1994-95 goal difference of −57 (36 goals scored, 97 conceded). The 89 goals they conceded was the worst defensive performance by a team since Ipswich Town conceded 97 goals in 1994-95.
  • The 29 defeats they suffered equaled the 2005-06 Sunderland team for the most losses suffered in one Premier League season.
• Chelsea's 85 points accumulated was a new record for the most points gained in a 38-game season without securing the title. The 83 points achieved by Arsenal was a new record for the most points gained in a 38-game season for finishing third.
• Manchester United's goal difference of +58 is the greatest ever attained in a Premier League season, beating the record set by Chelsea in the 2004-05 season.
• Cristiano Ronaldo beat his own record for most goals scored by a midfielder, raising the record to 31 goals. The previous record was 17 goals, from the the previous season. Furthermore, his goal total equaled the highest number of goals ever scored in the Premier League during a 38-game season, equaling the record first set by Blackburn Rovers' Alan Shearer during the 1995-96 season.
• Marcus Bent and Roque Santa Cruz each scored a hat trick for their team during Wigan Athletic's 5–3 victory over Blackburn Rovers on 15 December 2007. This is the first time in Premier League history that players from opposing sides both scored hat tricks in the same match.
• Emmanuel Adebayor scored two hat tricks home and away against Derby. This was the first time in the Premier League, that a player had scored a hat trick against the same team twice in the league.
• Fernando Torres scored 24 goals for Liverpool, a new record for goals scored by a foreign player during his debut season.

Side Note

England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, that's what happens when Steve McCalren take's charge.

2008/09

Who knows, we will come back to this at the end of the year.

Until then, let me leave you with what will undoubtedly be the best Youtube clip of the season -

Thanks Steve, you really know how to brighten my day

I will be back tomorrow as always for the weekend preview.

Take care

Football Guy

Hi all,

As promised I've got a special treat lined up for you all. As I turned 25 last Friday I thought it would be a good idea to look back over the last 24 and a half season in English football.

Due to the length I've decided to do this in two parts as I don't think I have the stamina to shoot this through all in one go. Also bare in mind that this is not a review of the last 25 years, it only covers domestic team's (mostly) and is only the things that I deem relevant as I'm the one who's writing it!

So let's get cracking, as there is a lot to get through. We shall start with the season of my birth 1983/84 Season.

1983/84 - Brought to you by Billy Joel and Microsoft Word

Liverpool win the first "Treble"

Bob Paisley retired in 1983 and like Shankly before him, Paisley handed the reins to his assistant, veteran coach Joe Fagan. The succession of coaches came from the Anfield Boot Room where the Liverpool staff discussed strategy and allegedly stored gin. Liverpool won three trophies in Fagan's first season in charge: the League, League Cup and European Cup, becoming the first English side to win three trophies in a season.

They beat Everton first in the League Cup in what was the first all-Merseyside Cup Final. It took them two attempts though as the first match was a 0-0 draw (Yes, back then cup finals could go to replays). In the replay the red half of Liverpool celebrated as Liverpool went on to win 1-0 thanks to a first half Graeme Souness goal.

A little over a month and a half later Liverpool rapped up the League with a 5-0 win over Coventry in which Ian Rush scored FOUR goals! It also marked the first time since the great Arsenal team of the 1930's that a team had would the English league three time's in a row.

The final part of this historic feat came 23 day's later when in Turin Liverpool dispatched Roma on penalties to win their 4th (and last for the next 20+ years) European Cup and becoming only the second team behind Real Madrid to win it that many times.

Not bad for Fagan's first season in charge, though you have basically screwed yourself as your never going to top that!

Side Notes

England Fail to qualify for Euro 84, Denmark top their group and take their place.

Bruce Grobbelaar did his now famous "Wobbly legs" during the penalty shoot out

1984/85 - Brought to you by Band Aid and Harrods

A season mark tragically by death on the terraces

Bradford City fire

56 spectators died and more than 200 were injured when a fire ripped through the Main Stand at Valley Parade during Bradford City's Third Division fixture with Lincoln City on May 11th. This tragedy was seen by many as a wake-up call for English clubs to improve the state of their grounds and take more drastic safety measures to bring an end to problems which had been plaguing the game for years without any effective action being taken.

Unfortunately it would take another tragic event a few years later before things really started to change.

Heysel Disaster

Less than three weeks after the Bradford fire, 39 spectators (mostly Italian) were trampled to death on the terraces of Heysel Stadium where defending champs Liverpool took on Juventus in the European Cup final. As a result, all English clubs were banned indefinitely from European competition with Liverpool ordered to serve an extra three years whenever the other English sides were re-admitted. Imagine that happening no, I think the magnitude of that has been somewhat forgotten.

Despite the tragedy, the match was played and Juventus beat Liverpool 1-0.

I really have never or will ever be able to understand why that game was allowed to continue? The usual excuse is that abandoning the game would have caused more problems but, come on! The players knew fans had died, how are you supposed to play a game in those sort's of conditions? I'm not going to delve into who was to blame or why it happened as that's not what this column is about, I will say tough that I don't that for me, that European Cup final had no victor. The fact that the Liverpool players didn't even protest against the penalty decision that decided the game shows me how much they cared about it. That's not to take away from Juve that they won (first in their history) I just feel the game should have been replayed.

Side Note's

Neville Southall win's Football Writes Player of the Year, to date the last goal keeper to win the award and also the last Welshman to win it.

Norwich City became the first team to win a major trophy and be relegated in the same season (Did you know that Martin?)

1985/86 - Brought to you by Falco and Nintendo

Jock Stein die's

On 10 September 1985, Scotland virtually ensured qualification for the 86 World Cup with a 1-1 draw with Wales at Ninian Park. However, Stein suffered a heart attack at the end of the game and died shortly afterward in the stadium medical room. He was 62 years old.

Stein had previously managed Celtic to a domestic treble for the first time in the club's history, winning the Scottish League Cup, the League Championship and the Scottish Cup. He guided Celtic to victory in the final of the 1967 European Cup against previous champions and Italian giants Inter Milan. Despite initially falling behind to an Italian penalty his team triumphed 2-1, winning much admiration for the positive attacking quality of their football.

After Stein's death, Scotland were managed by Stein's assistant, one Alex Ferguson until the surprise appointment of Andy Roxburgh after the tournament finished.

Side Note's

Ron Atkinson managed Manchester United won their first 10 game's of the season and no, they didn't win the league.

George Graham took over as manager of Arsenal.

The first half of the season was witnessed only in the flesh, as a dispute over the television rights meant no Football League action was seen by TV viewers until January 1986.

1986/87 - Brought to you by Europe and Mike Tyson

Alex Ferguson becomes Manchester United manager

It's defiantly the most significant managerial appointment in my life time, if not in the whole history of English football as 22 years later Sir Alex (as he is now known) has become the most successful manager in English football.

George Graham wins first trophy for Arsenal

George Graham's return to Arsenal as manager was a success as he guided the North Londoners to glory in the League Cup after an eight-year trophy drought. Arsenal embarked on a memorable run in the League Cup including a famous semi-final tussle with their arch rivals Tottenham which they eventually won with a 2-1 replay victory at White Hart Lane. The final itself against Liverpool was a landmark because it was the first time the Merseysider's had lost a game in which Ian Rush had scored first. The Welshman gave them a first half lead only for Charlie Nicholas to bag two goals, the first a scrambled effort from a free-kick, and in the second half a low deflected shot past Bruce Grobbelaar after Perry Groves had broken away down the left hand side.

Side Note's

Tottenham striker Clive Allen (him off ITV pundit school) scored 49 goals in all competitions (eat your heart out Cristiano Ronaldo), was voted Player of the Year by both the PFA and FWA - although his prolific goalscoring was not enough to win any trophies for Spurs who had been in the hunt for all three domestic prizes throughout the season (I'm sure their used to it by now).

20-year-old Arsenal defender Tony Adams was voted Young Player of the Year by the PFA for contributing to his side's good progress in the league as well as their League Cup triumph. All that champagne must have started him down that road.

1987/88 - Brought to you by Tiffany & The Great Storm of 87

Wimbledon shock the footballing World

Wimbledon caused one of the biggest footballing upsets of the 20th century by defeating champions Liverpool 1-0 in the FA Cup final. The winners had only been league members for 11 years and First Division members for two years, while the losers had just wrapped up their 17th league championship.

Just think, the team had only been the the football league for 11 years! That's basically like if I told you today that Histon (who recently knocked Leeds United out of the FA Cup) was going to win the FA Cup in the year 2020 only that they wer also going to beat Manchester United in their prime, incredibly!

The Match

Wimbledon took the lead shortly before half-time, when (Northern Ireland's finest) Lawrie Sanchez's header, from a Dennis Wise (horrible twat) free kick on the left, went across goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar and into the net. Liverpool created a host of chances, including a strike by Peter Beardsley disallowed as the referee had already awarded a free kick to Liverpool, but were unable to find a way past Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave Beasant. The Merseysiders were awarded a controversial penalty on the hour mark following a foul by Clive Goodyear, but John Aldridge's shot was saved by Beasant, who thus became the first keeper to save a penalty in a Wembley FA Cup final. The Londoners survived more pressure from Liverpool to secure their first major trophy and a historic upset.

Side Note's

David Pleat resigns after 15 months as manager of Spurs, following allegations that he was involved in kerb crawling.

Chelsea became the first top division club in 90 years to lose their status after playoffs. They lost to Second Division Middlesbrough in the playoff final and surrendered their First Division place to the Teessiders.

1988/89 - Brought to you by Madonna and Ben Johnson

More tragedy

The Hillsborough disaster

A total of 94 people died on the day, with 766 other fans being injured and around 300 being taken to hospital. Four days later, the death toll reached 95 when 14-year-old Lee Nicol died in hospital from his injuries. The final death toll became 96 in March 1993, when Tony Bland died after remaining in a coma for nearly four years.

BBC Television's cameras were at the ground to record the match for Match of the Day, but as the disaster unfolded the events were then relayed to their live sports show, Grandstand, resulting in an extreme emotional impact on the general British population.

There was comment afterward on television about lack of metal-cutting tools, and that there was no way to get ambulances onto the pitch.

It was remarked that the Bradford City stadium fire would have caused many more casualties if there had been pitch-edge fences there like there were at Hillsborough and indeed many other stadiums at the time.

There are these permanent memorials to the victims:

• Alongside the Shankly Gates at Anfield.
• At Hillsborough stadium, set up in 1999.
• A memorial stone in the pavement on the south side of Liverpool Cathedral.
• A headstone at the junction of Middlewood Road, Leppings Lane and Wadsley Lane, near the ground and by the Sheffield Supertram route.
• Flames were added either side of the Liverpool badge in memory of the 96 who lost their lives.
• In the grounds of Crosby Library, to the memory of the 18 football fans from Sefton who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster. The memorial, sited in a raised rose bed containing the Liverpool Remembers red rose, is made of black granite. It is inscribed "In loving memory of the 95 football supporters who died tragically at Hillsborough, Sheffield on April 15th, 1989. Of those who lost their lives the following young men were from Sefton families:"

The memorial was unveiled on 4 October 1991 (before the final death toll reached 96 on the death of Tony Bland) by the Mayor of Sefton, Councilor Syd Whitby. The project was carried out by the Council after consultation with the Sefton Survivors Group.

Due to the Sun's coverage of the disaster the newspaper has a very low circulation in Liverpool.

Arsenal win League title in closest ever finish

The match between Liverpool and Arsenal had been postponed due to the Hillsborough disaster until the very end of the season, in the meantime Liverpool had won the FA Cup and had the chance of completing a historic second Double (or a double double). Before the match, Arsenal were on 73 points with 71 goals for and 36 against (a goal difference of +35); Liverpool were 3 points ahead on 76 points with 65 goals for and 26 against (a difference of +39). It meant that Arsenal needed to win by at least two goals to take the title on goals scored; Liverpool had not lost by two goals at Anfield for nearly four years.

After a goalless first half, Alan Smith scored soon after the restart, heading in a free kick from Nigel Winterburn (it was an indirect free kick and to this day I'm not sure smudgier ever touched it), but as full time approached it looked as if Arsenal were not going to score the second goal they needed. However, in injury time, in Arsenal's last attack, Michael Thomas (who would ironicaly go on to play for Liverpool) surged forward from midfield, running onto a Smith flick-on, evaded a challenge by Steve Nicol and shot low past the advancing Bruce Grobbelaar to score Arsenal's second, and win the title, Arsenal's first in eighteen years. You can watch it here, watch out for Steve Mcmahon's famous "one minute" comment. (this column was delayed for about 45 minutes due to me watching this over and over again - David Pleat was still a cock back then)

Football Guy's thoughts

Even after almost 20 years, watching that brings me close to tears. I remember being 5 1/2 years old, Football Kid, crying my eyes out distraught in front of the TV 10 minute's to go, praying for a goal. I'll never forget the Football Dad trying to comfort me saying "don't worry, Arsenal will score" but not really believing. I remember being a total and utter emotional wreck, nothing he said made me feel any better and then, just when all hope was lost, Brian Moore uttered those famous words "it's Thomas, he's through on goal, it's up for grabs noooow" and the Football family household went bananas!

The thing about that night, which I have gone on to realize is, that no matter what Arsenal achieve, it will never top the feeling of that night on May 26th 1989. The Football Guy, peaked at age 5 1/2.

I remember watching the second leg of the Arsenal Liverpool Champions league quarter final last season in a pub, with 10 minutes to go Arsenal needed a goal and I thought we were finished, so I decided to go to the toilet and on my way I saw this kid who was no older then 12 with his mum close to tears and I said to him what the Football Dad said to be 19 years previous, I patted him on hte head and said "don't worry, Arsenal will score". They did and the place went bananas and the joy in that kids eyes was priceless..... Unfortunately the referee had other ideas and less than 60 seconds latter had robbed Arsenal of a place in the semi finals..... C@NT.

I almost lost my job the next day due to refusing to speak to my boss Adrian who was a Liverpool fan, Adrian, if you are reading this, I'm sorry.

1989/90 - Brought to you by Snap! and The Berlin Wall

Liverpool win their last title to date

If you had said to any football fan at the end of the 89/90 season that it would be Liverpool's last title for at least 19 years you would have been called crazy. It's basically like saying today that United don't win another title until 2027, amazing right?

This season capped off a remarkable 18 year period in Liverpool's history which saw them win 11 League titles, 3 FA Cup's, 4 League Cup's and 4 European Cup's.

Fergie almost get's sacked, then goes on to win his first trophy as United manager

It seems amazing now, but things were not always colored silver for Fergie. After a poor start to the 89/90 season fan's were grumbling he was not taking the club forward and were calling for his head. Thankfully for Fergie (and to the detriment of us all) he went on to win the Cup Winners Cup that year, beating Barcelona in the final courtesy of two Mark Hughes goals who ironically, had played for Barcelona only a few years previous.

1990/91 - Brought to you by Vanilla Ice and the Gulf War

Battle of Old Trafford - Part One

13 years before what is now known as "The Battle of Old Trafford" the original took place. It involved 21 of the 22 players on the pitch (only David Seaman) was not involved, why? I don't know) and resulted in Manchester United getting a one point deduction and Arsenal getting two points deducted. More remarkable was the fact that despite losing two point Arsenal went on to win the league comfortably by seven point ahead of Liverpool who had the shock resignation of Kenny Dalglish to deal with.

Step forward Graeme Souness, the man who destroyed an empire.

Tony Adams goes to jail

If losing points was not bad enough, Arsenal had to contend with losing their captian for four months due to drink driving. How they only lost one game this season I will never know.

I've alway thought this was one of the most down played stories from the last 25 years. Imagine John Terry or Steven Gerrard ploughed their car into someone's front room due to drunk driving! How he recovered his career after this is truly mind boggling.

Side Note

Manchester United sign a certain Welsh youngster called Ryan Giggs.

1991/92 - Brought to you by MJ and Robert Maxwell

Leeds win last Old Football League title

Leeds United won the last-ever league championship before the creation of the F.A Premier League, two years after returning to the top flight. Driving force in the title triumph was experienced midfielder Gordon Strachan, who helped Leeds overtake Strachan's former club Manchester United in the title race.

Break-out Season

Little known Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel quickly established himself as one of the most feared shot-stoppers in Europe in his first season with Manchester United, helping them win the League Cup and come within a shout of championship glory. He also went on to win the European Championships with Denmark that summer.

English back in European Cup

Arsenal became the first English team since 1985 to compete in the European Cup.

Burnley enter the history books

Burnley won the last ever Fourth Division championship to join Wolves as only the second English team to have been champions of all four divisions of the English league. It was Burnley's first successful season after a period of misery which had almost seen them relegated to the Conference in 1987.

1992/93 - Brought to you by Shaggy and the Aegean Sea

The money era begins

The Premier League

The FA launched its new Premier League of 22 elite clubs, which broke away from the Football League. The new league was backed up by a £305million exclusive T.V rights deal with BSkyB. This paved the way for the Premier League's members to spend heavily on new players and also to convert their stadia into an all-seater format, which was necessary as a result of the Taylor Report's requirement that top division stadia should be all seater from the start of the 1994-95 season

In 1992 the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate. This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the Football League with three. There was no change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained on the same terms as between the old First and Second Divisions.

This was the year when things started to change for, in my opinion the worse. I don't blame the club's mind you. They wanted the money that was entitled to them, after all, we pay to watch them.

United's 26-year title wait ends

Manchester United won the first Premier League championship to end their 26-year wait for the league title. They fought off stiff competition from runners-up Aston Villa, third-placed Norwich City and fourth-placed Blackburn Rovers to finish top of the league. Brilliant young winger Ryan Giggs was PFA Young Player of the Year for the second year running, while Alex Ferguson received the Manager of the Year award. Other significant players in the title winning side were top goalscorer Mark Hughes, temperamental but brilliant French striker Eric Cantona, reliable center back Gary Pallister and confident midfielder Paul Ince.

Funny how United hit the mega bucks era of football in perfect stride.

Arsenal complete unique double

Arsenal became the first team to win the FA Cup and League Cup in the same season, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in both finals. Steve Morrow scored the winning goal in the League Cup final, but was accidentally dropped by captain Tony Adams (that dam booze again!) during the post-match celebrations, broke his arm and missed the FA Cup triumph. Arsenal's double gave them two places in UEFA competitions, meaning that Norwich City were awarded a UEFA Cup place for finishing third in the League. Norwich had never qualified for Europe before. (You are welcome Martin)

Side Note

Bobby Moore, 51, who captained England to World Cup glory in 1966 as well as winning an F.A Cup and Cup Winners Cup with West Ham, died after a two-year battle against bowel cancer.

I used to work with a Millwall fan back in the day who, like all Millwall fan's, hated West Ham with a passion. This is a song he used to sing, it goes to the theme of Robin Hood.

"Bobby Moore Bobby Moore
Running from the den,
Bobby Moore Bobby Moore
He has sex with men,
Queer as they come,
Takes it up the bum,
Bobby Moore, Bobby Moore, he's know more".

1993/94 - Brought to you by Will Smith and Pablo Escobar

United win the double

Manchester United won the Premiership title and F.A Cup to become only the fourth club this century to be league champions and F.A Cup winners in the same season. Only a 3-1 defeat against Aston Villa in the League Cup final prevented them from winning a unique treble of domestic trophies. They led the Premiership from the fourth game onwards and in the final table had an eight-point lead over second-placed Blackburn Rovers. French striker Eric Cantona scored 25 goals in all competitions and was voted PFA Player of the Year. Ryan Giggs, Lee Sharpe and Andrei Kanchelskis also hit the headlines with their brilliant form. In the F.A Cup final, United crushed Chelsea 4-0 thanks to two penalties from Eric Cantona and single goals from Mark Hughes and Brian McClair.

Sir Matt Busby dies

Sir Matt Busby died on 20 January at the age of 84. He had been associated with Manchester United since being appointed manager at the end of the Second World War, and remained at the club as a director after calling time on his glorious managerial career in 1969. Busby was regarded by many as the greatest football manager who ever lived, as he built three great United sides in the quarter of a century which followed.

Bungs scandal hits Tottenham hard

After the end of the season, Tottenham Hotspur were found guilty of financial irregularities dating back to the 1980s and hit with the most severe punishment handed down on any English club: a £600,000 fine, 12 league points deducted for the 1994-95 season, and a one-year ban from the F.A Cup. The points deduction and F.A Cup were eventually quashed after a series of appeals, although the fine was increased to £1.5million.

If they had not had the point's deduction reversed Spurs would have gone down as they only avoided relegation by three points. So for all you Spurs fan's out there who say Arsenal bought their way out of relegation after the first world war, maybe you should think twice before opening your mouth.

1994/95 - Brought to you by Pato Banton and Yahoo!

Blackburn win the League

Blackburn Rovers ended their 81-year wait for the league title thanks to the strike partnership of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton which scored a total of more than 50 league goals. It also lead to the best name ever for a strike partnership, SAS. Manchester United would have made it three league titles in a row if they had been able to turn a 1-1 draw with West Ham United into a win on the final day of the season. Newly promoted Nottingham Forest finished third and qualified for the UEFA Cup along with fourth placed Liverpool (also League Cup winners) and fifth placed Leeds United.

After this season the Premier League would be reduced to 20 clubs, so there would be four relegation places this time round. They were occupied by Crystal Palace, Norwich City (who had narrowly missed out on the league title two years earlier), Leicester City and Ipswich Town.

Robbie Fowler's 5 minute Hatrick

Instead of me talking about it, how about you watch it here.

The Eric Cantona kung-fu incident

Eric Cantona, the Manchester United and France striker had a unique talent but unpredictable temper. On the 25th January 1995 he was sent off in a Premiership game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park for lashing out at Eagles defender Richard Shaw. Cantona then kicked Palace supporter Matthew Simmons, who taunted him from the stands.

His club fined him two weeks wages and banned him from playing for the rest of the season. The FA fined Cantona £10,000 and extended his ban from football to September 30, 1995, for a total of eight months - one of the longest suspensions ever handed out in English football. FIFA later confirmed that this ban was worldwide. A jury at Croydon Magistrates Court found him guilty of common assault and the judge sentenced him to 14 days in prison, although he was immediately released on bail pending an appeal - which was successful in quashing his prison sentence. He received a 120-hour community service order instead, opting to coach children in the Greater Manchester area.

Cantona was not the only player facing jail. Chelsea captain Dennis Wise was convicted of assaulting a taxi driver and jailed for three months, although a successful appeal saw both his conviction and his prison sentence quashed.

Arsenal break the law

Arsenal were another Premiership club to be hit by controversy in the 1994-95 season. In November, winger Paul Merson admitted that he was addicted to alcohol, cocaine and gambling. He went on a three-month rehab course before resuming his career. Just before Merson's return, it was revealed that manager George Graham had accepted £425,000 worth of illegal payments from a Scandinavian agent who had overseen the signing of Pal Lydersen and John Jensen three years earlier. Graham, one of the most successful managers in the club's history, was sacked after nine years at the Highbury helm. It should have been obvious that someone would have to pay you to buy those two.

David Seaman, meet Nayim

Despite the controversy of George Graham's sacking and Paul Merson's personal problems, Arsenal reached the European Cup Winners Cup final under caretaker manager Stewart Houston, where they faced Real Zaragoza of Spain. The scores were level (1-1) at half time and a penalty shoot-out was looking certain with 120 minutes on the clock. But a freak goal from 40 yards out from Nayim - a former Tottenham player - in the dying seconds of the game saw the trophy go to the Spaniards.

1995/96 - Brought to you by Oasis and O.J. Simpson

Newcastle blow 12 point lead

Do you remember when Newcastle's problem's were not the relegation kind? This must still hurt the whole of the Toon army. They looked great, playing an amazing attacking style of football, who could ever forget those two 4-3 defeats to Liverpool? Alas for the Geordie's, it was not meant to be, but at least they can look back at this time with fond memories as blowing 12 point title leads must be better than fighting to stay in the Premiership, right?

Double history for United

Manchester United made history as the first English club to repeat the double of the league title and F.A Cup. The triumph was made all the more incredible by the fact that manager Alex Ferguson had sold key players Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis before the start of the season, and not bought any new players. Instead he placed his faith in young players like Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Phil Neville, who fitted in well with a team still containing more experienced players like Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Eric Cantona.

It was also the same season Alan Hansen made his famous comment "you will never win anything with kids". A bit like Clinton's "I never had sexual relations with that woman"

Jean-Marc Bosman

Better know by his current name - Dr J-Mac Bosman-Ruling PhD

A legal challenge in the European Court of Human Rights by little-known Belgian midfielder Jean-Marc Bosman gave out-of-contract players aged 23 or above the right to become free agents and move to other clubs for no fee. There was widespread controversy following the announcement, as many clubs feared that they would lose expensively signed players for nothing. The Bosman Ruling also saw an end to the three foreigner rule which restricted teams to fielding a maximum of three players born outside the country that they were employed in. In the Premiership, the limit of three foreigners in a match squad had covered Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish players. But the Bosman ruling allowed clubs in EU countries to field an unlimited number of players who were of EU nationalities, although they were still restricted to fielding 3 players of non-EU nationalities.

Bob Paisley dies

Bob Paisley, who won a record total of 21 trophies during his reign as Liverpool manager (1974 until 1983), died on 14th February at the age of 77. His success, which included six league titles and three European Cups, was all the more amazing because he had not originally wanted to take over as manager. On his promotion from the coaching staff to the manager's seat, Paisley (55 at the time) had tried to persuade his predecessor Bill Shankly to carry on. But Paisley eventually agreed to take over as manager and established himself as a world class manager. After retiring, he remained at the club as a director and later president.

End of Part One

Well that's your lot for today, will see you tomorrow with Part Two.

Take care

Football Guy

Weekend Preview is back this week after making way for the Power Rankings last week. I'm sorry for not giving you anything to chew on through the week but since most of the football world was on a glorified break (International Friendly) I thought I would too.

I do have something planned for next week and it's called "Michael Jackson Syndrome". That's all I shall say for now!

I would like to point out that one funny thing did happen this week during the International break and that was Terry Butcher's comments about how he was going to deck Maradona  22 years ago. Now, Why would Terry Butcher who now works for Scotland, bring up a game against England that happened 22 years ago? Maybe he feels he needs to be relevant again? Well the greatest footballer of all time summed it up best with his post match comment of " Who is Terry Butcher?" My thoughts exactly!

Chelsea v Newcastle

So, Newcastle looked like losing at home to Wigan with 10 minutes to go, then with 1 minute to go looked like winning, then had to settle for a draw.I don't know who should be more pissed off after those last 10 minutes were done. Chelsea on the other hand did what they did best last week and that's dispatching poor teams with ease. Look for Chelsea to win by at least a two goal margin. That's what they seem to do against poor sides and (despite me thinking otherwise in the last couple of weeks) Newcastle are still a poor side. I'd take Chelsea to Score 3+ goals @ Evens and watch the goals fly in. Fantasy Football Side Note - With United and C-Ron venturing to Villa Park, people might be looking elsewhere for their Captain choice this week, If like me you have both C-Ron and Lampard in your team this could be a week to profit from not making the great one Captain and going with Lampard. Although I would not fully recommend it.

Liverpool v Fulham

Liverpool had a solid win last week away to Bolton and you would think they should follow that up with another three points on Saturday. On Sunday we were told Stevie G would be out for 7-10 days with a torn muscle (Convenient is a word I would like to use). I can find any odds on whether or not he will play but I'd bet heavily on him playing. I do think it's a bit unfair the Gerrard got a lot of stick for missing England's game and Lampard did not. In fact as you may have noticed I did not mention that about Lampard a paragraph ago. Maybe the media has finally decided to leave Fat Frank alone and start picking on Stevie instead (how the tables have turned). Fulham have been very good over the last few weeks with back to back win's for the first time since games two and three of the season where they beat Arsenal and Bolton. Did you know that 5 of Fulham's 12 games this season have ended 2-1? Could happen at Anfield as I do believe they will score, unfortunately for the Cottagers I know Liverpool will score more. Take Fulham to score exactly 1 goal @ 9/4 and hope I was right.

Manchester City v Arsenal

Now in this game anything could happen and I would not be shocked in the slightest. Arsenal could win 4-0 and I would believe it and could lose 4-0 and I would believe it, or it could be and boring 0-0 draw and I would not bat an eyelid. That's because the way these teams have been playing this season is very reminiscent of how Britney Spears has been living her life lately. This game has entered the "Britney Spears Zone". Now let me explain, you most probably have read some of Britney's exploits from the past 2-3 years in the press (Shaving her head, going out with no knickers on, the whole will she wont she keep her kids, Ect) Anyway the point is that after a while of reading all of these stories of craziness you start to be less and less shocked by each one until you reached a stage like Britney (The Britney Spears Zone) where someone in a pub tonight could tell me that they saw on the news Britney pissing on Elvis Pressley's grave and I would say "OK, that sould about right". So with the results these two teams have been having this season if I did not watch the match and afterwards someone told me that Arsenal won 3-2 with Almunia scoring two and Gallas getting sent off for elbow dropping Van Persie off the cross bar I'd probably believe it. Don't bet on this match, it's not good for you.

Middlesbrough v Bolton

As I have mentioned in the past, I do quite like Boro this season. They have been playing pretty well and getting good results. They lose this one though, I'm not falling for there B.S. this week. If you are sure Boro or Wigan are going to win a match bet against them! That's what happens when your "Craps Shoot Hall of Fame" teams. Bolton played well in their loss to Liverpool and were unlucky not to be level at halftime after they had a goal rather dubiously disallowed. If you need another omen to back Bolton in this game here it is, as I was writing this bit a pop-up of Vernon Kay appeared on my screen and we all know where he if from........ Bolton. Take Bolton win @ 3/1 and watch it happen.

Portsmouth v Hull

I really enjoyed watching Man City v Hull last week, not just because of the entertainment but because I had Stephen Ireland and Giovanni in my Fantasy Team, I got a massive 23 points from those two! Now here is a question for you lot out there. Who do you think has more chance of winning this week, Arsenal or Hull? A win here for Hull could put them back up to fourth in the league, but a defeat could see them slip down to ninth. A worry for Pompy has to be the fact the Defoe and Crouch have only one goal each in their last seven games in all competitions. They need those two guys to keep scoring if they want to push for a UEFA cup spot. Fantasy Football Side Note -  Did you know that Diarra has as many bonus points as Amir Zaki? How is that right?

Stoke v West Brom

Get ready for a preview of a 2009/2010 Championship game. You get it a whole season early! If you like rough and tumble football, up and under style of attack and Rory Delap grenade throws then find yourself a stream for this game at 3.00pm on Saturday. Otherwise you will have to wait right until the end of Match of the Day to catch the highlight as I'm sure this will be the last game they show.

Sunderland v West Ham

I told you it was a good thing Kenwyn Jones was back for Sunderland, he got them back in the game last week and I fancy him to do well this week. West Ham's Matthew Upson had a good game midweek for England (Would Arsene like him back at Arsenal? I read somewhere long ago his French was very good) and looked a lot better than his more celebrated partner at the back JT. Speaking of JT, I would love to see a beat-box fight between JT-John Terry and JT-Justin Timberlake. I think the comedy value would go through the roof! Come on BBC, if you can arrange that for next years Children in Need you will have an extra £100 from the Football Guys deep pockets! BTW I'm not going to check this out but who does George McCartney  play for again? Is it Sunderland or West Ham? And are his middle names John and Ringo?

Tottenham v Blackburn

I'm writing this on Friday, this game is on Sunday and that makes it very hard for me to get a definitive yes or no on whether Gareth Bale plays or not. If he does not start then I'm saying Spurs win this one, if he does start I'm saying Spurs don't win this one. Simple as that, end of discussion. I'm also going to say "there will be blood goals". These two teams have 3.2 goals a game combined scored in their matches and I say take over 2.5 goals @ 8/11 and as David Bentley is playing against his former team look for him to score against them just like he did at the Emirates (OK not exactly like he did at the Emirates) Bentley anytime goal @ 16/5.

Final Thoughts

Look out for the "Michael Jackson Syndrome" column later next week and as always the Monday Hangover on....... Monday.

Until then, take care

Football Guy

Hello all, were back with this months Power Rankings and to be honest, its been pretty tough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Did you know that only SEVEN teams in the Premiership have positive goal differences? Or that Fulham have a better home record than Chelsea? It really is a strange old season outside the top four and I hope I will be able to make some sense of it all for you. But before we get on to that I have a few thought to share with you all.

1. Drogba

By now I'm sure you have all heard about Didier Drogba's coin throwing incident. Now it seem to me that people are going slightly over the top here, none more so than this hack from the the Telegraph.

Now I know that Drogba is not the most liked fellow in the land and I've never ever thought about defending him but hold on sec, the way he is being vilified here is beyond belief. Yes he was wrong to throw ONE coin back at a crowd who pelted many more at him. How is this fair to condemn Drogba for this (people will say it could have injured someone - well they bloody well could have injured Drogba) at yet not the Burnley fans? Why are the Police investigating Drogba's part in the incident and now any of the Burnley fans who pelted him with objects? This reminds me of the time when John Prescott was hit with an egg (with could not hurt him - other than his pride) and reacted buy punching the guy in the face (which certainly did hurt him) and the public and media reaction was completely opposite, Prezza was praised for what he did. But how is that any different? Maybe what Drogba should of done was climb in to the crowd and start laying people out and the media might have reacted in a more positive light. I'm sure if Drogba had done that it would have been the Burnley fans arrested and not him, just like the farmer who got punched in the face by Prescott.

2. Arsenal's Youth Team

They seem to have a good track record in the last few season of dispatching teams which the first team has problems with. Lets take Wigan for example. Arsenal beat them comfortably on Wednesday night at the Emirates, yet last season in the league Arsenal scarped a 2-0 victory with goals in the last 10mins for Gallas and some player who used to play for the Gunners called Tomas Rosicky and the season before that (a game I was at) again scored two late goals to win 2-1. Now this bring me to the question - Why does Arsene not play the team he played on Wednesday in the league since thay seem to be able to beat these types of teams pretty easily? I'm not saying he should but I think he should at least consider it as they seem to be doing a pretty good job at dispatching teams the first team has problems with. I guess it's like the question - Why if a team has a free kick by the corner flag the defending team will but at least a one man wall there but if its a corner they wont. Someone answer this for me.

3. David Pleat v Ron Atkinson

Why does David Pleat (a horrible commentator) still have a job when Big Ron does not. Yes I know Big Ron made a racist remark after that Chelsea Monaco game a few years ago and rightly was stripped of his job but at least what he did was not illegal! David Pleat was twice caught curb crawling (which is illegal) and still has one and lets me fair, no one like's it when Pleat is commentating on their games. The BBC fired Angus Deayton for his Romp with a hooker and cocaine binge and has suspended Jonothan Ross and Russell Brand for prank phone calls, why can't ITV fire David Pleat?

Power Rankings

Right enough of my thought and on to the matter at hand, sorting out the glorious mess that is "The Premier League". Last month positions will be in brackets

In The Thick of it 20th - 13th

These teams at the moment are worrying about the top flight status and will be for the foreseeable future. Like winter follows autumn they know they are in for a long cold winter and HOPE that by the time spring come's around things will be considerably more rosey.

PR 20th (15th) - PL 20th (11th)  WBA

In a season were nobody seems to be the clear cut worst team in the league WBA find themselves at the foot of the table and at the Foot of the Power Rankings (someone has to). West Brom have a horrible problem, it that they don't seem to score a lot and don't seem to keep many clean sheets. Add those two together and you have a recipe for disaster. They host Chelsea on Saturday but after that is were they must start picking up some points, they face both Stoke and Wigan away, they need something from both those games if they want to start moving in the right direction. Tony Mowbery is a funny man, he says he wants to bring in some players with top flight experience,well you had one this summer, his name was Kevin Philips and he might have helped with your lack of goals problem. That decision still annoys me, why let KP go? I hope West Brom go down because of it.

PR 19th (14th) - PL 17th (14th) Wigan

I don't get why Wigan are not getting more points. Thay have some very good players in Zaki, Heskey and Valencia yet can't seem to win games thay should. Then I remember that they are in the Craps Shoot Club (so don't bet on their games) and they have yet to win a game if Amir Zaki has not scored. Four points from their last six games does not sound too bad but when you think that three of them were won in a game they had no business to win against Portsmouth it dosent paint a pretty picture, also failing to beat Stoke at home was a big blow. Their last good performance was against Manchester City a big SEVEN games ago. Steve Bruce needs to sort things out or they will be in for a long winter.

PR 18th (12th) - PL 19th (12th) Sunderland

In last months Power Rankings Sunderland were in the "Looking Over your shoulder" section and I wrote -

"I do however believe the next time we do the Power Rankings next month Sunderland might well be in the section above this".

I was wrong. I should have said they were going to be in the section below this. Sunderland just don't seem right. The good news for them is that Kenwyne Jones is back and I think he could steady the ship. God knows it won't be Roy Keane who seems to not get any critisim thrown his way about the amounts money he has spent on average/poor players.

PR 17th (17th) - PL 18th (19th) Newcastle

I have been saying for a couple of weeks that I believe that Newcastle are playing better and improving, They just don't seem to be going anywhere........ At least they don't seem to be in the news that much which must be a welcome relief for the Toon Army who's club was reaching levels of media coverage that only Britney Spear or Amy Winehouse receive (see Joe Kinner press conference). The good news for the Geordie's is that if they continue climbing the league at this pace (one place a month) they will be in 12th come may and I think Newcastle fans will have something to build on for next season.

PR 16th (19th) - PL 12th (18th) Stoke

Good win over Arsenal, Good point at Wigan, No good football to be seen anywhere. That sums up Stoke. Launching throw ins from 40 yards in to the box does not constitute good football. On the other hand Rory Delap is a good player to pick up in Fantasy Football, He is cheap, gets you a few points here and there and enables you to spend more more on the likes of C-Ron and Lampard. Stole are a Championship team and they probably will be next season.

PR 15th (10th) - PL 14th (8th) West Ham

West Ham seem to play well and lose. Horrible combo. They had 3 points in the plam of their hand against Everton at home last weekend and blew it. At least they are entertaining to watch, there have been 44 goals scored in their 12 Premier League games this season which works out to 3.6 a game! Bare that in mind next time you put a bet on the amount of goals in a West Ham match, I wish I had before predicting a 0-0 draw for their game last week.

PR 14th (16th) - PL 11th (15th) Bolton

Have ad two good back to back wins which have propelled them up to 11th in the league but don't be fooled, Jussi Jaaskelainen's heroics last weekend saved them from what should have been a pounding from Hull and if they had lost that they would have been 19th. Bolton's big problems lie in the fact that they have no one to rely on for goals. Other than Kevin Daives who has four (and probably won't break in to double digits) no one else has more than two. - FF Side Note - 11pts from Jussi last weekend, great hall! he is not that bad a keeper for fantasy proposes due to him always making saves which count towards points.

PR 13th (18th) - PL 10th (16th) Fulham

Fulham seem to be getting the right results against the teams they have to I.E. the teams who are going to be fighting to stay up. They have beaten Newcastle, Bolton and Wigan with a draw against Sunderland, the only poor result there was the defeat at West Brom (point would have been good) if they keep doing that they should survive, but not by much.

Looking over their Shoulder 12th -10th

These are the teams that are thankful that for now there are teams that are worse than them, but need to keep looking over their shoulders in case they get sucked in.

This section is a  lot smaller this month as there are so many teams who are as bad as each other below them.

PR 12th (9th) - PL 15th (9th) Blackburn

It's strange to think that the team with currently the worst defence is not bottom of the league, even stranger some might say why I have not included them in the "In the thick of it" section. The reason belong is that I believe Blackburn's defense will improve and as long as all their strike force dose not die they should do enough to stay out of a relegation fight. My big question with Blackburn is, what ever happend to Morten Gamst Pedersen? Remember when he was a Fantasy Football stud? scoring and creating goals every week? Maybe this is really what he is about and those season past were a fluke.

PR 11th (13th) - PL 8th (13th) Middlesbrough

I like Boro this season, I like the way they play, I like their goalkeeper Turnbull for Fantasy Football and I even like Garath Southgate who does not seem to age only get uglier. But seriously, check out a Boro game and you will see that they do play some decent stuff. OK its not like watching Brazil (Alfonso Alves is not Brazilian, more Scandenavian in play. Also why can't we call him "The Fonz" and get him to play in a leather jacket?) but it shows that if you want to you can put together a side who plays football and will survive. Hope I'm proved right as the Premier League needs more teams who do try to play football.

PR 10th (11th) - PR 6th (3rd) Hull

Three defeats in a row for the Tigers! OK two of them were against Manchester United and Chelsea but the defeat to Bolton at home must have hurt. I still beieve Hull will be alright this season but don't fool yourselves in to thinking they will be anything more than mid table. FF Side Note - Remember the other week when I wrote about not bringing in Michael Turner in to your Fantasy side? Well a good friend of mine Pete who is in our league decided to do so anyway.........  This is yet another reason why I will be coming above you Pete at the end of the season!

Your Season Ended in August

This is for those teams who will end up in mid table mediocrity, who's fans barring a cup run will have very little to get excited about. Hence, your season ended in August.

Well as you can see there is NOBODY here this month. Every team in the league is either looking over their shoulder or pushing for Europe or higher. Ladies and Gentlemen...... Your 2008/2009 Premier League season.

In the Hunt for Europe 9th - 5th

For those who are looking at a UEFA cup spot but not quite top 4 spot.

PR 9th (20th) - PL 16th (20th) Tottenham Hotspur

Yes I know some of you out there might feel I'm over reacting to Tottenham's resurgent form and I know they have had more than a little luck in quite a few of these games but the point is they have been winning and if you look at their fixture they are set up nicely until Febuary! which give them plenty of time to erase the 8 point gap between them and Aston Villa who currently occupy 5th spot. FF Side Note -  A lot of Tottenham's players have suddenly become very attractive in the world of Fantasy Football, mainly because their price has dropped since the start of the season. If your looking for a bargain then definitely check out the likes of D-Bent, Modric and Bentley all under valued at the moment. Father/Son Side Note - At the Beginning of the season the Football Dad and I had a another argument  (much like how good Manchester City are) over who was the better keeper, Gomes or Almunia? I sided with Almunia he went with Gomes and after asking him Wednesday night after the Spurs Liverpool match if he still thought so he gave me a very evil look and walked off...... Nuff said.

PR 8th (6th) - PL 13th (10th) Manchester City

A lot of people over reacted to City's new found wealth and their purchases of SWP and Robinho. They are not really any stronger than they were last year and have arguably a worse manager to boot. How they might strengthen in January is another matter but unless the start to improve it might not only be new players coming in in January. I wonder what Sven is up to now?

PR 7th (7th) - PL 9th (7th) Portsmouth

Portsmouth are a team which has been a little unlucky of late but still have what it take's to fight for a European spot. I do feel that Sol is starting to show his age and it might be something Tony Adams needs to address along with getting rid of Kaboul! The only thing that might hold Pompy back is Tony Adams, who until shown otherwise I don't have a lot of faith in. I'm sure Joe Jordan left Pompy to go the Spurs because he feels they have a better chance of finishing higher than Portsmouth. I do hope I'm wrong.

PR 6th (8th) - PL 7th (16th) Everton

Lt Warf a.k.a. Joleon Lescott is back in the goals! Does this mean rush out a bring him back in to your Fantasy Football team? No, he still has a long way to go to get the trust factor back and at £7m+ he is still way over priced. It's a good thing for Everton that Louis Saha seems to have found his scoring touch, fingers crossed all you Toffee fans out there that he does not rediscover his I'm injured touch.

PR 5th (5th) - PL 5th (6th) Aston Villa

I think there is a large percentage of people who agree that Aston Villa are the 5th best team in the league, I am one of them. A tough loss at home to Boro should be only a bump in the road on there march to 5th spot in the league, or is it? At the moment its all Kool and the Gang at Villa Park but they don't want to get in to a habit of dropping points at home to teams they should beat if they want to firmly establish themselves as England's 5th best team. Slight cause for concern for Villa should be the form of Ashley Young who whilst not being terrible has not really been that good either. I do believe however he will pick it up sooner or later and they must also hope John Carew's niggling injuries don't turn in to a serious problem. Other than that they should be fine.

Fourth Spot Chasers  4th

I think you can guess what that means.

There is only one team here and until proven wrong it will stay like that!

PR 4th (4th) - PL 3rd (4th) Arsenal

Their very good win over Manchester United did little to hide the fact they still look like they can concede at any moment and if United had taken some of those good chances that came their way especially in the first half it might have been a very different Saturday lunch time for the Gunners. Having said that I don't think Arsenal are too far away in terms of personel, they are deep in most places and probably need a top class defensive midfielder and a commanding center half to be able to push for the title. If they can stay with in touching distance going in to January and Wenger addresses those areas when the transfer window opens it could be a good new year for the Gunners.

Title Chasers 3rd - 1st

The big boys, the ones who dream it will be their captain lifting the trophy in may.

PR 3rd (3rd) - PL 4th (5th) Manchester United

I still think it's very unfair any team should be able to have Carlos Tevez on the bench week in week out. It's like having a Ferrari parked in you drive way and never driving it because you have other sports cars to have fun with. My point of concern for United Fans would be the form of there defense which looks considerably more shaky than it did last season of late and the fact that they have only managed 1 point from their 3 encounters with the other big four this season. The big thing in United's favour going forward is they have Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all to play at home which will be key later in the season and still have loads of time to improve. United always seem to do better in the second half of the season when it really matters.

PR 2nd (2nd) - PL 2nd (2nd) Liverpool

If not for those two games against Spurs (one in the league and one in the cup) Liverpool might well have been sitting on top of both the Power Rankings and the League. But both those games exposed weakneses in Liverpool we all though were there before

1. Alot of Liverpool's wins have be come from behinds and they have a real problem for me finishing teams of.

2. The game on Wednesday really exposed Liverpools biggest weakness which is strength in depth. They have about 15 players who are good to play in the first team for extended periods of time, the others I would not fancy relying on in crunch times later on in the season when injuries start to pile on.

They do however enter a good part of the season in terms of fixtures for Liverpool and really need to push on if we are to believe they will end their 19 season title hunt with their 19th title.

PR 1st (1st) - PL 1st (1st) Chelsea

Drogba's on his way back, although will probably face a suspension due to his coin throwing incident Wednesday night. I still feel Chelsea are best equipped to win the league. They have strength in depth which has been shown with them sitting on top of the premiership despite being with out some of their best players and the one thing I really like about Chelsea this season is their ability in the league to put to the sword teams they should. You won't see to many slip ups against the lesser teams in the league. The strangest thing about Chelsea this season has been their Home/Away form, over the last 4 years they have been so dominant at home you began to wonder if they would ever lose. Well this season things have not been son good at the bridge, 3 wins 2 draws and 1 defeat does not look like title form but when you take a look at their away form 6 wins out of 6 with only 1 goal conceded you start to realize why I believe they will be the title winners. Their home form will no doubt improve and if they keep up their away from its going to be tough for anyone to catch them.

Betting

After last week most unimpressive preformce in my betting tip's I have decided to take a week off to power up my engines. I will however leave you with one cheeky bet for the weekend. Aston Villa are unbeaten at the Emirates with 2 draws in the last 2 season and were less than 10 mins away from victories in both back Arsenal v Aston Villa Draw @ 11/4 and see if that run continues

Football Guy 

Hello all. Firstly I would like to apologize for the absence of the Monday hangover. You can blame my internet provider for that, I won't name them but they have "The Mother of all Broadband" ads voiced by Mr Samuel L Jackson. Maybe instead of pay Samuel a ton of cash for his voice over talent they could make sure my broadband does not disappear for almost 3 days!

My second apologize is to all of you out there who used the "weekend preview" betting tips. I'M SORRY...... VERY VERY SORRY, 1 of 13 is bad and when your wrong you say your wrong just like Jerry Orbach in Dirty Dancing (4.25m) Side Note - I still can't get over how big Jennifer Gray's nose is, how did she get cast? Also, it would be great if people in real life just started dancing in big groups in public for no real reason.

Back to the betting, I was close on a couple of them, C-Ron should have scored against Arsenal just after they went 2 down, there were 3 goals not 4 in the Manchester City v Spurs match, Chelsea scored 2 not 3. But as we all know close is not good enough and I was wrong.

What we learned this weekend.

That Basically everyone from 5 to 20 is about as good/poo as each other, which also makes predicting anything a complete dice role.

Its made even harder by the members of the "Craps Shoot Club" or CSC for shot. Lets take Aston Ville for example, at home versus Middlesbrough. 3 points right? WRONG. Why? Because Borough are a member of the CSC.

What is the CSC?

The CSC are teams which are so unpredictable your better of rolling the dice (like you do in a game of craps) to decide who wins. But there is a certain predictability in their unpredictability (don't worry it will make sense). These teams seem to win when you think they will lose and lose when you think win. See what I mean?

Boro are a great example of a CSC team. Lose at home to WBA, beat Aston Villa and Wigan away and it dosent surprise you. Its this predictable unpredictability that makes them a CSC team.

Who are the CSC teams

Middlesbrough

For reasons we just mentioned and a few others. Boro go to Anfield and lose are winning 1-0 untill the 85minyet at home v Chelsea they get gashed 5-0! They beat Manchester City and Aston Villa but fail to beat teams like West Ham and Blackburn. But like all great CSC teams you are never surprised with there results even if you didn't think that would be the outcome before the game.

Wigan

Another team which has strange results that don't surprise you. Wigan beat Hull 5-0 away then lose at home to Boro (clash of the CSC titans) they beat Pompy away then fail to beat Stoke at home. Don't bet on Wigan (unless on Zaki to score which is still ok) you will only loose loads of cash trying to work out what they will do.

Who are close to being CSC?

Pretty much everyone out side the big four as they all seem to fit the bill, Hull losing to Bolton yet beat Arsenal? how does that work? I don't want to review the team in to much detail as this months Power Rankings will be out later this week but seriously, how close are the rest of the league to each other? We are over a 1/4 of the way through the season and I can't tell you who the worst team is in the league. If you asked be who I thought would go down I'd list half the league and if you asked me who I thought would get into Europe I'd say the same half plus the other!

Why is the league so close?

Well that I do not know, all I can say is that I don't remember a season like this where there is so little to choose form the teams 20th to 5th. You could give me an argument on how anyone of them could be in a relegation fight and I'd buy it. 

What in store?

Well the Football fan in me is hoping this continues for for the rest of the season as it make every game interesting as you really don't know who will win. On the other hand the betting man in me hates it as it makes life very hard. FF Side Note - At least all this crazy parity has not affected C-Ron, OK he didn't do much on the weekend but you can count on a great Fantasy performance from him 3 out of 4 weeks.

YouTube

Now as deepest darkest winter draws near think back to those pleasant times this summer playing beach football, here's some "Action" between Uruguay and Argentina. Three questions, why did it start?Who are all those black guys at the end? And why did the whole Uruguay team crap their pants?

Now I know C-Ron and Rooney are probably still a little upset from missing good chances against Arsenal this weekend but hopefully this will cheer them up and show that people can miss even easier chaces than theirs

Arsenal v Manchester United

To quote are old pal Andy Gray "What a GAME". It really was non-stop action for 96mins (-5mins for Almunia's down time) Chances galore, great football and great excitement. Its was by far in my opinion the best game of the season so far and one of the best I've seen in a long while. It goes to show how great football can be when two team attack and play football. To think that at the same time Wigan were Playing stoke who neither like to "Play Football" and only "Attack" using combat techniques and grenade throws, which would you rather watch?

Final Thoughts

Again I'm very sorry for the disruption this week, the Monday Hangover will be back next week at it right time (or I will be using a different broadband provider) and to make it up to all of you out there I will be posting this months Power Rankings together with the weekend preview later in the week.

Till then take care

Football Guy