Hi and hello football fans, it's your old pal Roko The Football Guy, what's going down? I hope all is well wherever you are! There is a bout of sore throats going about Football Guy towers this morning and it seems that even the penthouse suite here is not immune to contamination as I am finding it quite hard to swallow (insert joke here). Hopefully it's just one of those morning things and it will go away come the afternoon!

I was originally going to post something yesterday but since it was the last day of the transfer window that has been put off until Thursday and instead today you get to read my opinions on who went where yesterday and since there were no deals done by the "BIG FOUR" hopefully this will quash some of those rumors that I only write stuff concerning them...... EAT!!!

Aston Villa

IN

John Collins

My old pal Stew The Footy Doc once told me that every top team needs a Ginger player, well Villa now have two in Steve Sidwell and John Collins............

Collins is an unassuming centerback who will act I'm guessing as cover for Richard Dunne (still not official at time of writing) and........ actually he might well be first choice as Villa hardly have many Booby Moore wannabes in their squad.

Not a particularly glamorous singing but at least it addresses some of the concerns people have about Villa's lack of squad depth.

OUT

With a squad this small selling anybody would be like an Ethiopian child saying I don't like Broccoli.

Birmingham

IN

Teemu Tainio

On loan from Sunderland, are resident Norwich Fan Martin might remember seeing Teemu score against his beloved Canaries the other day in the Carling Cup.

I've always thought Teemu was a decent player for a mid to lower Premier League club as he has a bit of skill and works quite hard, both things a crap team needs. Plus he has one of the best first names in football, say it with me - Teemu......... once more..... TEEEEEEEEEEEMU. I swear there was a character in The Lion King called Teemu and I think he hung around with some wild pig called Pumba, maybe Birmingham could ask Lee Bowyer if he could go all Brazilian on us and call himself Pumba and have it on the back of his shirt as that would mean City instantly have the Football Guy's backing for the best Midfield names in the league!!!

OUT

Do they have anyone worth selling?

Bolton

IN

Ivan Klasnic

I've always thought of Klasnic as the Croatian Kevin Davis, so I was quite amused yesterday to see that Kevin Davis will now be playing with the Croat version of himself. I would love to believe that Gary Megson called Klasnic by video phone and asked to see his Kevin Davis impression, kind of like Will Ferrell did in the Startsky and Hutch movie when asking Owen Wilson to do a Dragon impression. Well now they have two dragons!

One slightly interesting fact about Dragon number two is that he almost had to retire a couple of years ago due to Kidney failure and I believe it was his father who donated him one of his kidney's to save his life........ Just the kind of player I want taking a medical for my club.....

OUT

Need all of their dragons.

Burnley

IN

Dave Nugent

If you have ever wondered why people think Harry Redknapp might be involved in dodgy transfer deals then look no further than Exhibit A - Dave Nugent.

Harry bought him for £5m a couple of years back for Pompey and then less than a month later he was trying to flog him back from whence he came....... Hmmm...... I used to do that with video games a couple of year ago, I'd buy them, copy them then use the receipt to get a full refund....... Me and Harry, partners in crime.....

I guess Nugent can't be worse than the bunch of no marks Burnley have at their disposal right now and who knows, he might actually be have decent when given a run of games?

OUT

Running out of joke's to put in the out section........

Everton

IN

Johnny Heitinga

Everton needed some extra cover at the back and I guess Heitinga is a decent signing, hell he's Dutch and they never have overrated players (looking at RvP....... but mainly Huntelaar).

They also bought Distan but since that deal went through a few days ago I'm not going to talk about it as this is just about yesterday......... Heitinga is quite versital according to Football Manager and his stats are good enough to play for a "BIG FOUR" team, can't understand why Wenger didn't buy him as he could easily covered CB and DCM and even at LB and RB, MAN if I can do this on Football Manager why can't Wenger do this in real life?!?!?! I'd make such a better manager, did you know I once won the Champions League with Newcastle........ That's right, Newcastle!!! If I did that in real life every bird in Geordie town would suck me off until the end off time and Big Al might even shake my hand, they should really add that feature into the next Football Manager!

OUT

...........................

Fulham

IN

ELM

Anytime you have the chance to buy a player who sounds like he is a disease that kills trees I think you have to make that deal!

I'll be honest, I don't know much about Elm other than the fact he's a striker from Sweden and for Fulham's sake I hope he is more Euro 92 Tomas Brolin than late in his career fat Crystal Palace Brolin. I wonder if Brolin was related to Goonies star Josh Brolin because if he is that might clear up where chunks "Truffle-Shuffle" came from........

OUT

LINK

Hull

IN

Ibrahima Sonko

Poor mans Christopher Samba? Well since Hull are above Blackburn in the league table maybe that's not the case. Will he be able to replace the man who left though?

OUT

Michael Turner

Hull's answer to a certain Mr Lescott, the goal scoring defender, don't think he's hit the back of the net this term but I know quite a few people who loved him in their Fantasy teams last year and in all fairness he was the only Hull defender worth having. I personally don't rate him very highly but now that he does not have a complete prick for a manager maybe my opinion will change.

Portsmouth

IN

Ben-Haim, Williamson and Yebda

What does it matter, they are still going down.

OUT

Dave Nugent

See Burnley

Nico Kranjcar

Their best player....... Good luck in the Championship.

Stoke

IN

Danny Collins

Collins is the latest Ex-Sunderland player to join Stoke, or Sunderland South as they might be called soon. Quite surprised about this move as Collins was Sunderland's Captain for their first two league matches this season!

I'm sure he will fit in to the system there quite well and even though I don't think Stoke will be particularly better because of him, they sure as hell won't be any worse.

OUT

Ibrahima Sonko

See Hull.

Tottenham

IN

Nick Kranjcar

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was ready to disown Croatia as my footballing country due to too many of their players playing for teams that I hate, well now with Klasnic at Bolton and Nico at Spurs I have officially renounced my love of Croatia in football........ They are dead to me. They only thing I could think off that would be worse is that if I had a son and he supported Spurs, but lets face it that won't happen as I would love my son too much and would rather chain him up in the basement of Football Guy towers than let him be a Spurs fan..... Maybe that's what Josef Fritzl was doing to his kids all these years?

OUT

LINK

The End

See you all tomorrow with more fun and games

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! I writing to you today from the comfort of my desk at work, not sure why I have never done this before as it means I can goof off at work and speed my day up!

Due to the wonderful feedback I got from you guys out there I decided to include a bench of the season to my Manager of the season column. The format is as follows - 1GK 2DF 2MF and 2 FW.

So here it is -

Edwin Van Der Sar

As these guys only managed the bench I deem them not being worthy of a picture, puls Edwin is ugly as sin and I don't wont people to be put off coming to the site!

Other than that VDS had a very good season and it's quite hard not to include the goalkeeper who set a Premiership record for most minutes without letting in a goal. I do think that had a little more to do with the defense in front of him but hey-ho, I doubt Gomes would have managed it!

Jussi had a few supporters amongst my readers but I just feel it would be wrong to keep VDS out of the team all together as breaking those sorts of records don't happen ever year.

Side Note - Calling him VDS does save time, but also makes him sound like a sexually transmitted disease!

G. Neville - Rio, what did you do at the weekend?

Rio - Banged some bird innit brov!

G. Neville - Cool, was she hot?

Rio - Course brov, but I fink she gave me VDS!

Leighton Baines

When your wrong, you say your wrong. I was wrong when I said there had not been any good left backs this season...... I'm sorry.... Thanks for reminding guys.

Baines had a fine season, in fact he had the most assist of any defender and actually was only three of the league lead of ten. His haul of seven was the same amount as Wayne Rooney and one more than C-Ron.

Had I thought about this better yesterday he might just have made the first XI, but just like god's word I can't go back on mine so he will have to settle for a place on the bench and hope for better next season.

Brede Hangeland

Another popular choice amongst the readers and I had considered him, but ultimately he fell short. Fine season from "Big" Brede (isnt that an Irish girls name?) and it will be interesting to see if he is still in a Fulham shirt next season and more importantly if he can play as well as he did this term.

I myself am still not fully sold on Hangeland, but I can't deny, he did have a top season.

Stephen Ireland

Ireland, IRELAND, together standing tall!!! Shoulder, TO SHOULDER, WE'LL ANSWER CITIES CALL!!!

Stephen Ireland or as friend of the site Spurs Pete calls him - the little genie. One of the few people who have a blad head but yet have sideburns as well, apparently according to Pete, Mark Hughes rubs Irelands sideburns before a match and makes a wish...... Obviously not many were football related as City would have done much better but it didn't effect the diminutive Irishman's form and I believe he was a staple of many a fantasy teams midfield.

Basically he's the poor man's Frank Lampard, which anit really that bad of a thing

Andrey Arshavin

I'm struggling to think of another player who had such a big an impact in such short a space of time as Ar Ar Arshavin, Russia's greatest goal machine. Shame it was not enough to help Arsenal achive anything......

But at least Gooners have a whole season of him to look forward to next term and if he keeps the form he had from last season I think he could well become the poor man's C-Ron and by that I mean still expensive in fantasy terms but still a lot cheaper than the big man himself.

Will be interesting to see if he is played in a more advanced role next season or if Wenger keeps him on the wing, I think that decision will be made a lot easier if "dead man walking" Tomas Rosicky comes back from the land of the dead and plays again.

Dirk Kyut

Now, whilst I never actually had deadly Dirk in my fantasy team, I did advise some of the players in my fantasy league (Sportboy T) that he should bring him in.......... Did he take my advice? No..... And in doing so missed out on the 4th highest scoring fantasy player of last season.

Dirk had what I like to call a "sneaky good" season and by that I mean you didn't really notice him scoring but he managed to rack up 12 goals in the league along with 8 assist..... Pretty good huh?

That's actually five more goals than Ashley Young with one less assist, the problem I think Dirk had was that while Young was instrumental to Villa for most of the season, you never really felt that without Dirk Liverpool would suffer and I think that's why he is on the bench and Young is in the first XI.

Robin Van Persie

This was quite a tough decision to make as I didn't want to seem like a "homer" (someone who is blinded by their own team) but if you look at the formula  I used to put RVP on the bench you will see why he's there.

I basically added up the goals and assist each candidate had over the course of the league season and RVP 21 narrowly beat out Agbonlahor, Rooney and Robinho who each got 20, 19 and 19 respectively.

The Dutchman did have a very good season which might have been even better had he not missed most of March and April due to injury, but then again that's like saying the weather would be great in London if it didn't rain so much......

Final Thoughts

Well that's that, despite my fairly high opinion of myself I know that I can't please everyone, but really, who can?

Manager of the Season

Now before I get to the who and why, I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the unlucky losers -

3rd  Sir Alex -  League and League cup double, Champions League Runner up and an FA Cup final - Why didn't he win?!?!?! Well it's because that is whats expected of him and when you think about it the only thing he won which was worth winning was the League...... Again I know I say "ONLY" but lets be fair, they had already won it the previous two years and were favorites to win it again this year.

2nd Roy Hodgeson - Fulham almost went down last season and were one of my favorites to go down this year. But how wrong was I...... Not only did they not go down but they actually achieved a Europa League spot for next season. all in all a great season for the Cottagers.....  But not great enough for me!

And the winner is.........

DAVID MOYES

That's right, the ginger Scot managed to steer Everton back to 5th spot in the league and to their first FA Cup final in 14 years..... Now that normally would not be enough to win the award but the fact Moyes managed to do all this without having any fit strikers for most of the season is truly remarkable.

For the most part he had to rely on his Saved by the Bell combo of little A.C. Slater and lanky Screech or Tim Cahill and Fellaini to you and I to play upfront, couple that with losing Arteta for a good chunk of the season I'm actually quite surprised they finished as high as they did.

And that's pretty much why he wins it for me over Roy Hodgeson, had Fulham had some devastating injuries and not just losing Andy Johnson old Roy might have won. But for me David Moyes is the most worthy candidate and a deserved winner

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 still as busy as ever here in the broom closet at Football Guy Towers, although it can all be remedied if the world just decided to add a few more hours to it's day..... But since the world is a selfish git I'll have to make do with the 24 hours it gives me and try to be more efficient with them.

Anyone watch the games last night?

United back on top

United pretty much cruised back to the top of the Premiership. They scored early through Wanye Rooney and then really should have added a few more before half time, then the inevitable nerves started to kick in when you only have a one goal lead, but thankfully for United, Michael Carrick popped up to seal the deal in the 82nd minute having only come on 6 minutes earlier.

Back to their best?

Well, I would not say that quite yet, but since their 4-1 beating at home by Liverpool this was their most assured performance in the league.

OK, I know it was only Portsmouth and it was at Old Trafford but after the last  month or so I think United fans will be happy about the way they played last night,

They now need 13 more points to be crowned Champions for the 3rd year running and a record equaling 18th time overall and unfortunately for all Arsenal fans I've looked at the fixtures United have remaining and it looks as though they will be lifting the trophy at Old Trafford against Arsenal on May 16th....... Hopefully the Gunners will have knocked them out of the Champions League by then to soften the blow of having to watch them win the league.

Injury blows?

Last night United lost Garry Neville and John O'Shea for the next couple of weeks to injury, How big a blow will they be?

Well I don't think Neville will be missed that much, for me he is past it and anyone from their reserves could fill his boots at the moment and grow a better tash.... You know, the one Neville has been cultivating for the past decade. John O'Shea on the other had could be missed IF United suffer any further losses to their defense as his versatility at the back has been very handy for when Vidic has a suspension or when Rio's back starts to spasm or when Neville is injured like he has been most of the last 18 months.

Regardless, I'm sure they will be able to come with the loss.

Chelsea v Everton

Guus Hiddink said after last night's match that the title was over for Chelsea, I say to Guus that it was over quite a while ago but hey, you can still dream right?

Everton played very well last night and if you look at the chances created, they were pretty unlucky to go home with only a point. They also should have had a clear penalty when Alex brought down..... Errr... I can't remember who it was, but regardless it should have been a penalty. Don't think David Moyes should complain too mach about it though as United should have had a clear penalty against his side on Sunday in the FA Cup...... Swings and Roundabouts huh?

Lampard award snub

Michael Ballack talked today about how he was shocked to see Frank Lampard miss out on being nominated for the PFA Player of the year awards and I have to say that I agree with him.

I'm not saying Lampard should win it, but he should be in the final six short list and the guy who should miss out is Ryan Giggs!

Ryan Giggs has started just 12 of United's 32 Premiership games this season........ 12 of 32....... Not sure how that is good enough to be considered as one of the Premier Leagues best players (only scored one goal)

Fat Frank on the other hand has played in 32 of Chelsea's 33 games and has 12 league goals this season which is one less than both Gerrard and Torres and only three less than Anelka and Ronaldo who at the time of writing are joint top goal scorers. It's not inconceivable that Lampard might yet win the golden boot!

Basically I think Ryan Giggs making the final six shortlist over Fat Frank is a joke, but if you think about it, the votes are done by Footballers and most don't have two brain cells to rub together in the first place!

Fantasy Premier League

Twas another good week in fantasy for the Football Guy, I managed to pull away a little bit more at the top of my league, although it was just by a few points, having Arshavin really helped, although it would have been nice had I made him captain instead of C-Ron.

1	Better Than Milan 89	Football Guy	70	1808
2	FC Pizdets	SportBoy P	66	1745
3	Cesc's Superstars	SportBoy T	81	1702
4	Armegadon	Amer	55	1653
5	Lilly White 49'ers	Peter	55	1650

Players you wish you had not made Captain

1. Nicolas Anelka      - 1pt
2. Didier Drogba       - 2pts
3. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3pts
4. Frank Lampard     - 3pts

Players you should have made Captian

1. Andrey Arshavin - 21pts
2. Fernando Torres - 12pts
3. Wayne Rooney   - 9pts
4. Stephen Ireland  - 7pts (Only said hin because Pete in our league picked him as Captain)

Players you should have made Captain but never would

1. Chris Brunt       - 14pts
2. Danny Collins   - 12pts
3. Liam Lawrence - 11pts
4. Phil Bardsley     - 7pts

The Cristiano Ronaldo award for fantasy excellence

1. Andrey Arshavin - 21pts

Of course, 21 points... WOW, it's the most this season, just pipping Gerrards hat trick against Aston Villa where he scored 20 points. Since I've been playing Fantasy Football I think it's the joint second highest I've seen, I think C-Ron got 23 last season against the Millennium Magpies but I'm sure I've seen 21 points before as well.

Right peeps, I'll be back tomorrow with the weekend preview.... Happy St Georges day!

Take care

Football Guy

OK guy's and gal's (yes, I'm presuming there are some women who read my stuff.....) it's time for February's Power Rankings. This one might prove to be my most controversial one yet (that's not my intention though) with some of you out there disagreeing with my placement of certain teams..... Well, you know what to do if you disagree... No?... LET ME KNOW!

Before we get to that however, I've got a few things to say about last nights Everton v Liverpool match

The Actual Match

You can read a minute by minute account of this peach of a game here by my buddies The SportBoy, who I'm not entirely sure why they don't let me now about when they will be doing minute by minute accounts of games as I would be more than happy to let people know on here before hand?

Anyway, the game was.... How to put this kindly.... Poo. I've seen more creativity in an 18 month old child's nappies. It also seemed to me that neither team really wanted to win this game for the most of it, too be fair to Liverpool it was more Everton's fault, I was really disappointed in them for not really attempting to attack to any real degree until about 10 minutes after Lucas was sent off. Shame on you Everton, do you have no pride? Did you feel like in was an away game? Or are you just not really that good enough a team to attack the away team properly when it's 11v11? You are basically Bolton under Fat Sam and that's nothing to be proud of.

Tony Hibbert

This guy might possibly be the worst Footballer I've seen in the Premiership. I'm sure I've talked about Hibbert before and if not, it was probably because I was trying to blank him out of my mind.

This guy has less technical ability on the ball than a one legged Moose, all he can do is foul and anytime he get in to any sort of advanced position (like near the half way line) and has an opposition player a couple of yards in front of him he will never try to take them on (which I know would be pointless as he is not really a footballer therefore can't do two kick-up's let alone take on a player) instead he will 99% of the time pass it backwards (the 1% is for when he hoofs it forward).

This guy is so bad I've decided (with your help) to create the "Tony Hibbert Hall of Fame". A team of players who are SOOOOO BAD we question wherever we genuinely could do better.

The first player to be inducted in to the "Tony Hibbert Hall of Fame" is......... (drum roll)...............................

Philippe Senderos

Imagine the right hand side of your defence consisted of Sender's and Hibbert? Would you not shoot yourself straight away? Could that be the two most non-technically gifted players ever to have come in the top four in the Premiership?

I'm 100% sure that AC Milan will be issuing a "Return to Sender" with old Sender's once his loan deal is finished, but the funny thing is, someone half decent will still end up buying him and he will continue to make money from football.

ITV

The only good thing I will say about ITV's coverage last night was that at least they didn't force David Pleat upon us.

Instead we all had to listen to the slightly less annoying Jim Beglin and Clive Tildsley... Or was it Jon Champion? Seriously, they both sound the same and it wouldn't surprise me if it was the same guy and he was cashing in two paychecks from ITV (Idiots TeleVision)as they are so stupid I'm sure someone could get away that.

Finally, after being subjected to 118 minutes of a crap match with crap commentating and the crap play of Tony Hibbert and the fact that my head started hurting from asking myself the question why didn't Rafa start with Ryan Babel and have him run all night at Tony Hibbert, ITV for some unknown reason (unless you are the child of a chimpanzee) they decide to go to an ad break with TWO MINUTES TO GO!...... ARE YOU FU"KING RETARDS YOU SONS OF BI&CHE$. So they cut back to the scene of the Everton players jumping on top of themselves and me betting my dad that the guy who was responsible for making sure the adverts start when they are supposed to is paid double the amount be and him are on. (hopefully not anymore).

Power Rankings

In The Thick of it 20th - 11th

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 rosy.

This section seems to be getting bigger and bigger each time we visit the Power Rankings! 

* Last months place in brackets

PR 20th (20th) - PL 20th (20th)  WBA

A massive point at the weekend against Hull saw them stay within touching distance of safety.

In a crazy season where at the beginning of February any 3 of 10 teams can still easily go down I wont be writing anyone obituary yet, though I still maintain they are favorites to go down.

I do like the signing of Jay Simpson on loan from Arsenal, I think in the 3-4 games he's played so far it's clear to see he has some talent.

Fantasy Football Side Note - Whilst watching Saturday's Arsenal v West Ham game with my buddy Pavel, he joked about another friend of our Tom having Jay Simpson in his Fantasy Team..... Needless to say about five minutes later we found out he had scored... Point of story - Never insult your rivals fantasy players whilst they are playing, you will only succeed in upsetting the Fantasy Gods who can hurt you bad if they want too.

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

I'm not really sure if I'd have Marlon King over Mido, I am sure however that if my team were entering their 3rd month without a league win I'd be crapping my pants right now.

I still do think Boro have played some decent stuff over this barren period, but I guess that really dose not matter in you go down.

I hope they stay up but until proved otherwise they are my 2nd favorites to go down.

 

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

So Stoke actually moved up a place in this months Power Rankings, I'd say that's more down to Boro being bad than them being good.

James Beattie seems to be a signing that has already paid some dividends, two goals in his first two games are making the £3.5m man seem like a steal, although I would be tempted to make a bet that he wont score more than three more goals all season or than Henri Camara (who they just got from Wigan) will score more than him.

Stoke's next two games are MASSIVE, Sunderland (a) and Portsmouth (h). Take four points from those two and the Potters might find themselves a touch higher come the March Power Rankings.

PR 17th (14th) - PL 16th (12th) Portsmouth

So in last months power rankings I said -

"I'm willing to give Tony Adams ONE more month to show me he knows what he's doing cos so far it seems like he does not."

Well just like the transfer window, I'm willing to give him a little extension, just to see how these signings turn out.

Let's not forget, Tony has lost through injury and transfer pretty much the whole midfield from last season and has tried to address that with the signings of Basinas and Gekas, now I know neither are world beaters, but I do think they could bring some solidity to a midfield much in need of some.

I've also started to become quite concerned about Tony Adams on a personal level, as this must be the most stress he has been under in quite some time I hope this dose not push him back towards to booze.... Stress can do that too you don't you know!

PR 16th (13th) - PL 15th (14th) Newcastle

Newcastle's league record since Boxing day reads like this - P 6 W 0 D 2 L 4 GS 6 GA 15 - Not the kind of form that's going to see you survive now is it?

I'm also not sure if Kevin Nolan for £4-5m is good value or not as the guy seems to have played his last good game about a year and a half ago, maybe a change of scenery will do him good.

They also lost veteran goalkeeper Shay Given to City, obviously he was fed up being in front of a back four who couldn't defend for $hit, so moving to Manchester City was the logical idea.....

 

PR 15th (17th) - PL 18th (19th) Blackburn

Last month I wrote -

"Now despite my general dislike for Fat Sam, I do however respect that he knows what he's doing in these parts of the league (after all it's not rocket science) and I'm 99% sure he will keep Rovers up."

Since then Fat Sam has won one and draw two of his three league games, add that to that two draw and a win he had before that you'll see their chugging alone at a decent pace, also if they win their game in hand they would fly up to 14th.

Didn't really sign anyone worth shouting about, but I'm still 99% sure he will keep Rovers up.

PR 14th (9th) - PL 16th (16th) Tottenham Hotspur

You know what might just keep Spurs up? Their vastly superior goal difference compared to most of the other teams down there in the relegation dogfight, well that and the £48m Football/Championship manager-esqu spending spree they have just went on.

They seem to have set their sights on rebuilding Martin Jol's Spurs side, only they could have saved themselves a lot of time and effort if they had just kept in together in the first place and been happy with two 5th placed finishes. Tsk Tsk.

Random fact - Spurs spent more money than Manchester City, who are the high rollers now?

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

Hull have finally slipped in to the "In the thick of it" section after spending most of the season in the "looking over the shoulder" part.

I know some of you might think that's a tad harsh since there are nine teams below them but consider this - Hull have lost six of their last seven games with their only point coming at home to West Brom, hardly a good result.

Phil Brown promised to "blow your socks off" with some of his transfer window signings......... Jimmy Bullard and Zinadine Kilbane are hardly anything worth writing home about, in fact it make me think you will be going down all the more.

PR 12th (18th) - PL 13th (15th) Sunderland

Last month a was a little bit worried about Ricky bringing back Michael Chopra from loan at Cardiff, I even questioned if he knew what he was doing, turns out though he knew exactly what he was doing as it was all a ruse to get Cardiff to pay £4m for a player they were getting for free. Good move Ricky, good move!

Unfortunately for Ricky, the previous bloke in charge seemed to have spent all the money so no new transfer signing could be made. Probably better as you would hate to have to pay money for Tel Ben Haim.

 

PR 11th (12th) - PL 12th (11th) Bolton

Was not really much to separate Bolton and Sunderland so I went with who was higher and it was Bolton by +1 goal difference.

Bolton also signed two guy's on loan I'd never heard of, one being Benfica striker Ariza Makukula and the other, Jaap Stam clone Sebastien Puygrenier.

Puygrenier scored on his debut against Spurs at the weekend, Makakula is not fit apparently.

Couple more wins for Bolton and they will probably be the the "Looking over shoulder" section next month.

Speaking of which -

Looking over their Shoulder 10th -8th

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.

PR 10th (8th) - PL 9th (9th) Fulham

I think Fulham need another 10 more points from their remaining 16 games (they have two games in hand on most teams) to be safe. 39 points should be enough for this season, maybe even a tad lower.

To make sure they get these point they have decided they don't need to spend a penny, instead have load in Derby prospect Giles Barnes and veteran Inter Milan star Olivier Dacourt.

I remember Dacourt scoring a free kick for Leeds against Arsenal at Elland road about 8-9 years and me walking out of the pub and kicking a back of rubbish I didn't realize had glass bottles in it....... Hurt quite bad.

PR 9th (10th) - PL 8th (10th) West Ham

My only real big worry for Hammers fans last month was the fact all we heard was how they were going to lose half their team due to the "Credit Crunch". Well as it turn's out, the only "First Team" player they lost was Craig Bellamy (Lee Bowyer and Matthew Etherington don't count)

I think everyone on the planet like Zola, in fact I think he is so well liked that the UN should use him as a special envoy to the middle east, kind of like Tony Blair but not a prick, they do have a similar smile though despite one being evil.

PR 8th (9th) - PL 7th (7th) Wigan

I don't care what any of you other Arsenal fan's out there think, if Arsene Wenger left tomorrow and Steve Bruce was put in charge I'd have no problems with it.

I'm sure that despite the loss of Heskey and Palacios Wigan's form will not falter. Two impressive draws against two of the top four (Villa and Liverpool) in their last two games makes me think so. Only question mark for me would be the lack of form from Amir Zaki, other than that there in good shape.

Your Season Ended in August 7th - 6th

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.

PR 7th (8th) - PL 13th (13th) Manchester City

Here's a interesting shopping list -

Nigel de Jong

Wayne Bridge

Craig Bellamy

Shay Given

Total : £47m

Dose not really seem like £47m pounds worth of players does it?

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

Last month Everton were in the "Hunt for Europe" section, I now think they will need an assist from one of the teams above (win a cup) to push that UEFA  Europa Cup spot down.

Side Note - Everton, you are anti football. I had a brief go at them earlier in the column but now I'm telling you. You play a horrible brand of football. Your not Stoke or Bolton or some other little team who would find it extremely difficult to survive any other way. Your a team with a rich history and I know you don;t have loads of money to splash about but still.... Where's your pride?

Fourth Spot Chasers 

I think you can guess what that means.

 

PR 5th (4th) - PL 5th (5th) Arsenal

So after being evolved in one of the more annoying transfer sagas of recent memory, Arsenal finally bought someone, someone who might just bring the needed creativity to help them get in the top four..... Shame he's not played any football in two months.

I've finally dropped Arsenal to 5th in the power rankings as I could no longer deny Villa a place in the top four.

Luckily for Arsenal this isnt the last Power Rankings of the season and they still have plenty of time to make it back in to a champions league spot.

Title Chasers 4th - 1st

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

PR 4th (3rd) - PL 3rd (2nd) Chelsea

Chelsea have come crashing down the Power rankings in recent week quite hard. It's not all that long ago they were top of them.

This might be the most controversial move this month but seriously, who's in better form? Who at this point in time looks more likely to finish above of who? 

I'm not saying Chelsea will finish fourth at the end of the season, but neither has them signing Ricardo Quaresma made me feel like things are going to get any better for them.

PR 3rd (5th) - PL 4th (4th) Aston Villa

I guess if Aston Villa come top four Martin O'Neill wins manager of the year right?

Villa picked up just the signing they needed in Emile Heskey and didn't lose anyone either. Now with john Carew back as well their front line looks as good as ever.

I still feel the rest of their squad could fall apart at any second, but since I've been saying this for a while now and it has not happened, maybe i should shut up about it.

PR 2nd (1st) - PL 2nd (1st) Liverpool

So Liverpool's reign at the top of the Power Rankings was a brief as the time they had left to find an equalizer last night.

Lucas is rapidly turning in to Rafa's Alex Song, a player none of the fans know why he is anywhere near the first team yet the manager loves playing him.

Rafa decided that he didn't need anyone to bolster the squad (did he really deiced?). Quite a worrying decision since what happens if the often injured Fernando Torres picks up another hammy strain?

I guess David N'Gog becomes a good Fantasy pickup.

PR 1st (2nd) - PL 1st (3rd) Manchester United

So for the first time this season I'm glad to welcome the greatest, bestest, most super team in the universe ever, better than Batman, Spiderman, Superman and The Hulk combined MANCHESTER UNITED!!!!!

(Bobby Charlton was standing with a gun to my head as I wrote that)

What can I say, they look the most balanced team in the land and the only team without any glaring weaknesses, add that to recent history telling us of good United are after taking the lead after Christmas we might say the title is over.....

But it's not, we all know nothing is decided in Football until the fat lady sings and I can confirm she's still in Dixy Chicken waiting for her family bucket. If I had to put my life on it I'd say it's United's title...... Thank God it's not my life on the line.

Take Care

Football Guy 

Hello all, never underestimate how important a good sleep is. I finally had one for the first time in a couple of night and I feel all the better for it!

Now, before I get on to the predictions I would like to quickly clear up a few issues from yesterday, first of all it seems that Lawro DID in  the end do a preview as was pointed out to me by the Sportboy in the comments section yesterday. Now I can categorically tell you that when I looked on the BBC's football home page yesterday at 11.00am (the time I started writing) it was nowhere to be found! And that's a fact...

Secondly, I hate being write about something I wish to be wrong about.... Do you follow?.... Yesterday I questioned my OWN decision to drop Kenwyn Jones from my fantasy team in favor of Jason Roberts..... Turns out I was right to question my silly decision, I still fell Jason Roberts will do me good but I think I should have dropped Zaki for him.... I guess time will tell.

Thirdly, Congratulations to Manchester United for setting a new record of 11 games without a conceding. What makes this run all the more impressive is the fact United have used about 10 different players at the back due to injury and suspension with only Nemanja Vidic being ever present. Speaking of Vidic, I was thinking about him last night and came to the conclusion that in a year with no real stand out attacking performances (e.g. Ronaldo's 42 goals last season), is Nemanja Vidic in pole position for PFA and FW Player of the Year? If I had a vote in the matter he would get it from me and I will say this, even if you don't agree the Vidic should definitely win I would ask you to give me a case for a player who is 100% definitely more deserving..... I might have to wait a while.

Chelsea v Middlesbrough

Boro have not won a league game since the 9th of November.... That's quite a long time and spans 10 matches, I'm pretty sure we can add one more to that list.

Chelsea on the other hand have no clean sheet in their last six league and cup games and have been on a very uninspiring run of form and to be honest, it's quite difficult to give you a good case as to why I think they will win this match but it basically comes down to this - Boro are currently POO and until otherwise notified I'm backing against them!

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Manchester City v Newcastle

Not been the best 10 days or so for young Robinho, firstly he up's and leaves training which ended up netting him a £300k fine and this morning we find out he's been arrested over an alleged sex assault,as I said.... Not the best 10 days or so.

All you really need to know about the Toon army's changes of a win tonight are that they have claimed just two points and scored two goals in their last five visits to Manchester City and with only one fit striker don't expect that form to get any better.

Football Guy's verdict 3-0

Wigan v Liverpool

Wigan might need a few games to adjust to life without Heskey and Palacios and Liverpool really need to take advantage of this. 

Should be interesting to see how Wigan Egyptian boys hook up up front and I'm sure Steve Bruce will be hoping that the Zaki/Mido partnership can be as effective as the Heskey/Zaki one was.

Wigan have also never beaten a "big four" club EVER.

Football Guy's verdict 0-1

Blackburn v Bolton

Fat Sam host a second former club in as many league games and will no doubt be hoping for for a similar outcome to the 3-0 home win he enjoyed last time against Newcastle.

I'd be quite happy with that too as it would mean two goals for the latest addition to the "Better than Milan 89" fantasy football team which has won two title's in as many years!

I don't really think Blackburn are any better than Bolton but I have to go with the form team here.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Everton v Arsenal

I fear for Arsenal in this game, They were saved last season turning round a 0-1 deficit at half-time with some Eduardo heroics.

Everton welcome back Fellaini from suspension and I can see him scoring from a set piece as he is about 5in taller than any Arsenal player and defending crosses is definitely not their strong point.

Having said that the Gunners have been on a good run of form and will really need Adebayor and Van Persie to lead from the front if they are to keep pace with the four teams ahead of them.

Football Guy's verdict 1-1

West Ham v Hull City

Five straight league defeats for Hull..... Worrying times. I think they will be fighting for their Premiership lives before the season is out.

By contrast, West Ham have been on quite a good run of late and are unbeaten in their last four league games winning three of them.

I think they will notch up another one tonight despite the fact Hull have a 100% winning record in London this season.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Take care

Football Guy

 

So as you may have noticed, despite me saying differently at the end of my Thursday post there was no weekend preview. It's funny that since I woke up earlier than normal on Friday to write  it and it was then I realized...... poo.... it's the FA Cup fourth round. I don't really start getting interested in the FA Cup until the last 16, which just so happens to be this next round so don't worry, I'll have a preview for that when it comes around in a few weeks.

Also due to the FA Cup there is no Monday Hangover (at least as you normally know it). As there was no preview it means the "Football Guy V Lawro" battle for supremacy was postponed for a week (kind of like the way in WW1 the British and the Germans stopped fighting on Christmas Day and played a game of football). Also missing from what would normally be the Monday hangover is fantasy football since fantasy premier league only counts in.... well... the Premier League, so that has been cut too for the week, but fear not, there will be a special "Thursday Hangover" this week to go over the midweek league action.

Beckham

So everyone's favorite ex-England captain was in the news this weekend. He scored his first goal for Milan and sparked a fresh debate over his future at LA Galaxy.

This lead to me last night finding a rather amusing article on ESPN.com's front page about the goal. ESPN for those of you that don't know is a major sports network in the US of A and is usually rather exclusive on it's North American sports. Anyway, I started to read through the comments ;eft by readers and stumbled upon one that cracked me up.

Only an American can sound this funny talking about soccer - (quoted as was with spelling mistakes)

SL1CKvic (1/25/2009 at 9:19 PM)

I dont understand the basis for anyone hating beckham. You can hate his image but really he is a standup repectful guy from what I gather. I have followed his career since he was number 10 on Man U and he brough the Tri-fecta to Man U - he also won a championship in spain where he was benched most of the season b/c the manager didnt like him.....then he throws him in in the second half of the season and he goes off on points. He really just wants to play world class ball; and here thats impossible. So someone please explain why you hate beckham. And dont say the money b/c you know if you were offered that cash or his promotions you would take it in half a heartbeat.

So it's great to hear that are American pal "SLICKvic" has followed Beckham's career ever since he was number 10 "on" Man U. Though the best has to be that fact that D-Becks10 brought the Tri-Fecta to United..... Tri-Fecta....... Tri "F-ING GENIUS" Fecta! Needless to say for the next 30 minutes after reading that I started thinking of other "Americanized" ways SLICKvic would say for Double, the best I could come up with was instead of winning the double you'd "play the deuce", I throw it out to you at home for some better ones. One last thing about Beck before we move on, Do you remember the second half of his last season in Spain when he help Real win the championship after going off on points?..... No neither do I.

Just in case you were wondering if that was real, have a look at the 2nd from top post on this page.

Some things are funny without being made up

Merseyside Derby

So that's Two Merseyside Derbies in six days and not one red card to be seen! I wonder what the odds were on that? I did think Everton should have had a penalty early on after Arbeloa accidentally clipped Pienaar's heels but Steve Bennett didn't agree with me. I guess I should have know better and not be surprised, after all an Everton player has only been fouled in the Liverpool box at Anfield once in thelast 71 years.

I'll be back tomorrow with a mid-week preview and some thoughts on the flurry of recent transfer activity in the Premiership, until then.

Take care

Football Guy