I went into a pub for some beers last night and got very drunk and have a MASSIVE hangover. I think my hangover is worse due to the fact I had to listen to some guy who tried to argue how Cantona was better than Zidane! I was going to tell him to piss off straight away but he suckered me in by buying me a pint and so I felt obliged to talk to him for the remainder of my drink. A pint of Carlsberg is by no means worth the crap I had to listen. I wont go in to the details of his argument as it was pointless then and still is now, needless to say I wont be accepting drinks from him in the near future.

On to this weekends games.

Aston Villa v Fulham

My buddy Pete has missed out on 19 points from Martin Laursen over the last two weeks by not starting him in his Fantasy team, I guess I understand why he did not play him as they were playing Arsenal away and Man Utd at home. The four points Villa picked up in those two games have gone a long way in improving their belief they can make it in to the top four this season. They also kept two clean sheets in both games so I would be funny if they failed to keep one tomorrow, I think they should. Fulham played pretty well against Liverpool at Anfield and in particular Mark Schwarzer who I had on my Fantasy teams bench and missed out on his 11 point haul, he will again be on my bench and Villa should win this one.

Middlesbrough v Newcastle

Remember me telling you last week Bolton would beat Boro? I hope you stuck a large sum of money on that @3/1. If not I can't blame you, my betting tips have been up and down of late and unfortunately more down than up! Newcastle "parked the bus" so to speak at Stamford Bridge but I don't think they will be doing that tomorrow. I feel a Score Draw @ 3/1 would be a good bet.

Stoke v Hull

Tony Puliss made a statement yesterday about how he "Hopes for a big name casualty" to go down this season so his Stoke side can stay up....... Well Tony, I hope to win the lottery each week too but hope only goes so far. Instead of hoping, how about playing more like Hull and amounting 40+ points by the end of May and you wont have to hope someone else f**** up.

Sunderland v Bolton

There are some very horrible games on Saturday and this ones no exception. Roy Keane will celebrate 100 games incharge on Saturday and here is what he had to say:

"It's a little milestone but it's just a number, there are a lot of managers out there who have in excess of 1,000 games."

"Clearly, I'm still learning my trade (CLEARLY). I've made plenty of mistakes (Yes you have) but I'm positive that we can improve and get better over the course of the season (I'm not so sure)."

It does feel like Sunderland have not won in a long time but in reality it's only been two weeks. Although if they fail to win this one I don't think they will be able to rite the ship next week as the travel to Old Trafford so thy best make hay while the sun shines.

Wigan v West Brom

So to round up arguably the worst bunch of Saturday games this season we have arguably the worst team in the league visiting the team that finally managed to win a game Amir Zaki did not score in.

I feel Wigan should be higher up the table than they are and I also feel West Brom should be in a lower division which they will be in about 6 months time.

West Brom really need this game and I would not be surprised if they got something from it.

Manchester City v Manchester United

The last time United beat City Tony Blair was still Prime Minister and I doubt many of you knew who Barak Obama was. Mark Hughes record against United as a manager is pretty good, Hughes has won two, drew two and lost three of his seven league clashes and might improve on that come Sunday.

United have failed to score in their last two games with City not conceding in their last two. None of that matters though as I feel we should see some fire works in Manchester for this one and that man C-Ron will kick it of. Back Ronaldo First Goalscorer @ 5/1 sit back and enjoy the show.

Portsmouth v Blackburn

Poor old Tony, he was 6 minutes away from a famous victory against AC Milan and then it all went wrong. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see Crouch, Gattuso and Ronaldinho all on the field at the same time as I hoped they would morph in to their FIFA STREET 3 versions of themselves for comedy value. The great thing about their computer alter-egos is that Gattuso looks like he swallowed a keg of bear, Crouch looks like a pipe cleaner and Ronaldinho somehow is better looking than real life!

Tottenham v Everton

Whats going on with Spurs? Two clean sheets in a row! Unfortunately for them Gareth Bale looks set to start on Sunday which means no three points for them. Good news for Everton who have not had a good performance since drawing with United at Goodison back at the end of October. Back Draw @ 12/5 as I can't give a stong case for a victory by either team

Chelsea v Arsenal

*Before you read the rest of this section please note I am trying my hardest at a reverse jinx.

Get ready for the "Stamford Bridge Massacre". That's right folks, at 4pm on Sunday the Arsenal team will be lead out on to the field in west London and any lingering hopes they had of winning the title will be killed of in spectacular fashion.

RIP Arsenal League Campaign 2008/09 - It was over before it even began

As an Arsenal fan I don't think I have ever been so terrified to go to Stamford Bridge and that's in a season where Chelsea's home form is a lot worse so far than recent years. Arsenal have looked God awful in their last three games and I've seen nothing to suggest there will be an improvement on Sunday. I wish we could go back to the good old days where we dominated Chelsea for a decade. Unfortunately Doc Brown would not lend me his DeLorean from Back to the Future otherwise I'd be out of here faster than Arsene Wenger holding contract talks with a good player over 25 years of age.

I might be in a bad mood come Monday.

Take care 

Football Guy

Well, what an interesting weekend we just had. Lets start with woeful Arsenal, a team that very nearly won the league last season looks like it's on the verge of a total meltdown. I will say that up until City scored the first goal that neither team looked very good, it was probably the worst half of football I have seen all season. Arsenal without Cesc, Ade and Walcott (at least Walcott can beat people and cause some problems) looked like a team if given 270mins would struggle to score a goal. The total lack of inventive play from the gunners was amazing. Very rarely have Arsenal under Arsene Wenger gone back to back games without scoring and this might be the first time I remember them really never looking like doing it. But how has it come to this? 

I think we can safely say that Arsene's "Invest in youth" policy has failed. But not because he has invested in youth but because he has failed to back it up with experience. I'm all for teams building their squad up with players from their academies but that does not mean you can't add to that with some quality players who are older than 25 and not Mikel Silvestre.

Lets take a look at United famous younglings that came through in the early 90's. Giggs Beckham, Scoles ect came through and were complimented with older experienced players like Bruce, Pallister and Irwin in defense, Ince in the middle and Cantona up front. This is how you build a team with youth Arsene. You don't have pretty much the whole team come up, you bring them through with the older players there who have quality and leadership. What leader is there in the Arsenal team at the moment? Fabregas? How long will he be wiling to stay there without winning trophies? Wenger's next move will undoubtebly be to make Fabregas captain because he feel's he will lose him otherwise, just like he did with Viera and Henry before.

It's a massive monster Arsene has created which could be his undoing. The worrying thing is though that I'm not sure he see's it. If his post match interview was anything to go by he seemed to claim Arsenal were the better team against City! Now I know Arsene is famous for the "I did not see it" line but know he seems to be seeing things that are not even there like Arsenal deserving anything more than the beating they received or that Alex Song is a good player. My only hope for Arsenal fan's out there would be that Arsene has realized the error of his ways and buys in January and forgets about "Hindering the progress" of players who although talented, are just not good enough for the very highest level were Arsenal should be playing. In 20 years of being and Arsenal fan this is the first time I truly am worried with the direction we are going.

Anyway, back to the rest of the league. Now regular readers will know that I always say more often than not, one of the Big 4 will slip up each week. Well this week all four slipped up and even more amazingly all failed to score! When was the last time that happened? Has it ever happened it the Premiership era? If someone knows the answer to this please email me. (You will get your name in the blog :-)

The fact that none of them scored is more remarkable due to the fact Liverpool and Chelsea both had very easy home games against teams not know for their defensive prowess. I really don't know what's up with Chelsea at home this year? P7 W3 D3 L1 is hardly the home form of champions, but their away record of P7 W7 D0 L0 F19 A1 is the record of immortals! Anyway I'm sure Chelsea will get that home form back on track with a easy win next weekend.............. They play Arsenal.

Weekend in Pictures

• All those who think Arsene is doing a good job, raise you hands 
• Torn hamstring on the horizon
• You want a piece of me?
• Torn hamstring part 2
• Can I play against these guy every week?
• Maybe I could be the guy to add experience to this side?
• Was seen parked at Stamford Bridge

Gareth Bale Watch

The man with the most unenvious record in the Premier League did not play this weekend and surprise surprise Spurs won. Spurs have Everton at home next week, watch out for a Bale start and a Everton win!

Quote of the Week

"We had a good focus and I believe it is a flattering victory for Manchester City. We were quite in control but after the goal the game turned and they played on the counter-attack. We played into their hands. We lacked the maturity to deal with being in a dominant situation and not getting caught." - Arsene Wenger

If by "played into their hands" you mean "played crap" then yes I agree. Two other questions Arsene. When were you the dominant team in that match? And why don't you have the maturity?

Website of the Week

This week it's a little site called Footballsite.co.uk. Do check out the Colemanballs section in the Facts and Figures area for some truly great quotes.

Fantasy Football

Players you wish you had not made Captain

1. Wayne Rooney     - 2pts
2. Fernando Torres   - 2pts
3. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3pts

Players who you porbably had on the bench and are gutted you did not start them

1. Mark Schwarzer  - 11pts
2. Gretar Steinsson - 11pts 
3. Michael Turner     - 9pts  *Yes Pete, that's for you!

The Cristiano Ronaldo award for Fantasy Football Excelence

     1. Tie - Mark Schwarzer, Stephen Ireland and Gretar Steinsson - 11pts

Well done to you guys, I'm sure that two of you will never receive this award again. I will let you guys guess who they are.

Things we found out over the Weekend

1. Maybe Stevie G was injured and so I should apologise for saying he would definitely play against Fulham, but I believe that due to the massive palava over Capello forcing him to report to the training ground and Rafa defending him I think Rafa just thought F*** IT, we can beat Fulham with or without Gerrard. Guess not. I was right about Lampard playing though........So there.

2. Like we needed anymore proof to Middlesbrough being the King of the Craps Shoot, they go and lose and very winnable game at home to Bolton after being unbeaten in their last five. Those who read my weekend preview column will know that I predicted that, which brings me onto....

3. I found out that it's silly of me to give you bets each week as I clearly lose you money, so instead I thought long and hard about it over the weekend and decided to take on a challenge I was sure I could handle (beating Mark Lawrenson at Challenge Lawro). To my disgust it seems Lawro got wind of my up coming battle to destroy his (very poor)reputation at predicting the weekends football and has buggered off. I guess he is smarter than he looks!

Youtube

• What would you do if you lady did this in bed? 
• This baby does it best Carols Tevez voice
• Speaking of which

 

Final Thoughts

Look out for the "Michael Jackson Syndrome" column on Wednesday, 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 

So here we are again with another weekend of football ahead. Remember what I told you last week about not betting on all the big four to win? Well I was right last week with Arsenal slipping up at Stoke, but it seems a friend of mine who also has a blog called Sportboys didn't take my advice. OK, his midweek champions league betting didn't say back all of the big for to win but did say back any three of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United plus Inter and Barcelona. Needless to say none of those team managed to win their respective games and to make matters worse for the SportsBoys not ONE of his midweek bets cam of. Now I love their stuff and I recommend you check them out, but avoid their betting tips like you would a Shakespearean drama staring Keanu Reeves and The Rock.

On to the games

Wigan v Stoke

Now this has all the making of a craps shoot game and as Wigan are one of the founding members I'd steer clear. You can never tell with craps shoot teams as Wigan proved last week beating Pompy away yet they will lose to Fulham and Middlebrough. Tony Pulis Has been moaning all week about Arsene Wenger moaning all week so it might have thrown them out of rhythm and we might see a Rory Delap  throw in fly over the crossbar in to row 32 at the JJB. Despite that I'm going to say home win. Take Wigan @ 5/6 and maybe throw in a Zaki anytime goal @ 13/10 as Wigan can't seem to score any point without him scoring.

Hull v Bolton

My good friend Michael Turner who is now a whooping £5m in Fantasy Football managed to score 0pts in hios last two game since me warning you of him. He and hull mihgt fair a little better this week as they are not playing one of the title contenders but a Bolton team who could very well go down this year. Bolton managed a win against another of the craps shoot hall of fame (Manchester City) last week. It will be interesting to see how these last to games have affected Hull. I'm going to say not much and back Hull win @ 11/10

Sunderland v Portsmouth

Sunderland received a good old fashioned beat down at the hand of Chelsea last week. Pompy on the other hand remained win less under Tony Adams, yes they were unlucky against Wigan but screw it, I'm still blaming Adams and I think they will stay win less for this game as well. Go with Draw @ 9/4. Side note - I think Sunderland on the whole have looked pretty poor this season dispite spending quite a bit of cash in the summer. When will Roy Keane have some serious questions put to him about the amount of crap he has bought for good money?

West Ham v Everton

Two teams not scoring much. Two teams with no fantasy players I like (other than Arteta but he has done jack for a couple of games) Two team which I have very little intrestest in their match this week. Don't bet on this game, it will only upset you. If you must take 0-0 @ 17-2 and hope that it will be the snooze fest you thought it would be.

Liverpool v WBA

Liverpool are now win less in two games and probably should have had back to back defeats if not for Stevie G and his well won penalty LOL. Liverpool need to bounce back and with the run of games they have coming up their should be very few slip ups. There is not much value in this game betting outright so take Liverpool to win by 2 goals @ 11/4. This game should also see the return of Fernando Torres from injury, I was tempted to say back him to score but thought against it as I doubt Rafa will give him the whole game.

Blackburn v Chelsea

Blackburn, as I have told you before, can't defend to save their life (most conceded in the league). They make Arsenals defense look like their famous back four of old. Now Chelsea had a back midweek, but one thing you can count on Chelsea doing this season is dispatching these middle of the road teams very easily. Go with Chelsea to score 3+ goals @ 11/4. Worked last week and should work again this week. Fantasy Football - If you have not got Lampard in your team ask yourself why? Maybe you already have C-Ron in there and can't afford him, well make space! He worth it and he is only going to get more expensive. Also have a look at Drogba, especially if you have Adebayor who is out for 3 weeks. Drogba could be just the man to fill in for the Adesaurus.

Aston Villa v Middlesbrough

I was silly last week forgetting that I had praised Newcastle for improving their game over the last couple of weeks and wish I could have a do over on backing Aston Villa to beat them. Borough, craps shoot specialist are about and knowing them they will spoil the show here in a game they are not expected to get a result from. Villa have been pretty good at home and I expect that to continue. So take Villa win @ 8/11 and I also fancy a John Carew goal so back Carew anytime goal @ 5/4

Manchester City v Tottenham

Spurs!!! Best team in the league over the last 2 weeks. 3 wins and a draw (including UEFA cup) has seen Spurs fans faces resemble that of a child on Xmas eve, all for of joy and expectation at the wonders ahead. City on the other hand are the best of the craps shoot teams. I've been having constant arguments with my dad (lets call him Football Dad) about where Manchester City will finish. Football Dad seems to think they will push hard for a Champions League spot due to who they will bring in in January (who being the right word). I say they will be too far back come January making it irrelevant "who" they bring in in January. It's become as polarizing as the great debate we had all F1 season about whether Felipe Massa is a loser or not (note Hamilton is a bottler, different to loser). I say despite Massa being good he is a loser and things just go wrong for him. Anyway Manchester City will be interesting to watch how their season unfolds. For this game I don't like either defense and will say we are in for some goals. Take over 3.5 goals @ 7/4 and enjoy the fireworks.

Fulham v Newcastle

As mentioned earlier, Newcastle have been playing a lot better of late and I think will start to pull themselves out of the relegation zone. Saying that I still don't trust them on the road and think this will be a draw, take Draw @ 23/10 and watch something else. Fantasy Football note - Did you know that Mark Schwarzer is the most selected GK in fantasy premier league? In fact he is the second most selected player behind Zaki (Zaki 39% - Schwarzer 35%) who would have guessed that?

Arsenal v Manchester United

Now despite this being the first game if the weekend I decided to write about it last as its probably the biggest game. I also decided to consult the Oracle! Those who read the Monday Hangover column this week will know that I have discovered an AMAZING thing about FIFA09 a.k.a. The Oracle. It can predict the future as seen with its powers of predicting that Liverpool would lose 2-1 to spurs last week. So I asked it very nicely and it showed be what the future held................... and boy was it BORING.... 0-0. A right stinker of a game. Arsenal started the brightest with Bendtner testing Van der Sar early on but after that United took control and never looked back yet failed to create any real chance of note. Now that's a bunch of BULL, noway Arsenal stop United scoring in this match with their two bob defense. But maybe the Oracle was on to something with the result, draw could be good and because of the Oracle I changed my mind from United win to draw. Take Draw @ 9/4 and take C-Ron anytime goal @ 9/5 and you should be good for you Saturday beer money.

If you have time this weekend do check out the Calzaghe v Roy jones Jr fight on Saturday night. I really hope Calzaghe whoops him even though it wont change the way Americans view him which it that of someone who never fought "their" top fighters when they were in their prime. Well Yanks, the reason he never did is because they DODGED HIM FOR YEARS!!!!!!! None of you top fighters wanted any piece of him and now you say that its his fault. Screw you and your economy.

Football Guy