The Draw:

Bristol Rovers v Southampton

Cardiff v Wolves

Sheff Utd v Middlesbrough*

Liverpool v Barnsley

Manchester United v Arsenal*

Preston v Portsmouth*

Coventry v West Brom

Chelsea v Huddersfield

(Ties to be played on February 16th and 17th)

With just 6 Premier League sides left in the 16 teams in the 5th round, it promises to be a very interesting cup.

The choice fixture of course is Manchester United hosting Arsenal at home. The FA Cup has thrown up some crackers between these two teams over the years, and none more so than the semi-final replay in 1999 - Beckham opened the scoring with a great long-range goal, Bergkamp equalised with a neat one himself, Roy Keane got sent off, Schmeichel saved Bergkamp's penalty, and then Ryan Giggs scored THAT wonder goal, and United went on to win the treble. Then in 2003, Arsenal sent a second-stringish side to Old Trafford and won 2-0, with goals from Edu and Wiltord, and Franny Jeffers putting in a memorable hard-working performance up-front. The next meeting was the semi-final in 2004, Arsenal were unbeaten and top of the league, and a few players were rested for this fixture. United ended up winning 2-0, some might say unjustly, after Arsenal had had the post twice and wasted several chances to take the lead early on in the game. And finally, in 2005, the teams met in the final of the FA Cup. Arsenal were negative and lucky (but decimated by injuries), and nervously saw out the 90 minutes goalless, before Jens Lehmann made an excellent save from Scholes' spot-kick to seal the penalty shootout and cup for Arsenal.

You can expect another very entertaining fixture, although both teams will be resting players because of the Champions League, and Man United are likely to have the better side out, since they have a larger, stronger squad.

The other matchup of interest is Sheff Utd vs Middlesborough. The Blades have an excellent cup record, and have engineered many upsets over the years. Even though Neil Warnock is gone, they still have a strong setup, and Bryan Robson keeps his troops spirited. Middlesborough had some difficulty seeing off lowly Mansfield Town in the previous round, and are ripe for an upset given their indifferent form over the season. The arrival of Afonso Alves might just give them a big boost though.

Chelsea won't have much trouble with Huddersfield, although Liverpool might with Barnsley, especially given the proximity of these fixtures to the Champions League ties. The Blues' young striker Scott Sinclair started out at Huddersfield, and may just get a long run-out in this fixture.

Portsmouth should be able to beat Preston, although it will be a very tricky fixture for them. Pompey benchwarmer Dave Nugent will be coming up against his former club, where he did so well and earned his first England cap. 

Cardiff and Wolves will be a tight all-Championship fixture, as will Coventry v West Brom (in addition to being a Midlands derby), and Southampton should dispatch Bristol Rovers without much trouble

There were a few upsets in this round of the cup, although 11 of the 20 Premiership sides had already been eliminated in the previous round.

Two Premierleague sides went out this time, although only one of them was really an upset.

Derby lost 1-4 away to Preston, and it's been a tradition over the years for teams at the foot of the Premier league table to lose clubs that are doing well in the Championship. This was one such case, and I think Paul Jewell will already be looking at how best to mount a challenge in the Championship next season.

The other upset, which was significantly more shocking, not just for the result, but the events of the match as well, was Sheffield United beating Man City 2-1 at Bramall Lane. City have an awful record there, having not won in 6 games, but no one could have expected to see what happen.

The incident, in case you haven't seen/heard about it yet, was caused by several balloons thrown onto the pitch by the travelling Man City fans. Joe Hart dealt with whatever crosses and shots came his way, but unfortunately failed to deal with the balloons, and they just lay around in the home penalty area. The eventual irony was of course majestic - a cross coming in from the left hit two sets of balloons in the area, the path of the ball went wonky, and it ballooned (haha) away to evade the foot of Michael Ball(oon), sitting up nicely for Luton Shelton to pop home. Jonathan Stead scored a neat second, and City were in trouble. Elano came close, hitting the post with a free-kick, but it was his second-half replacement, youngster Daniel Sturridge, who scored City's consolation with an excellent strike.

The unfortunate Man City squad had more misery heaped on them after it was found that the dressing room had been robbed, with money being stolen from the players and staff. 

Arsenal and Emmanuel Adebayor recovered from the Spurs' debacle, beating Newcastle 3-0. Keegan's men started quite promisingly, but were outplayed by the end of the encounter with two top quality goals from Adebayor, and and own goal from Nicky Butt.

Cristiano Ronaldo meanwhile continued his amazing form, scoring a brace to give Man United a 3-1 win over Tottenham, and giving him 25 goals for the season. Robbie Keane had scored first for Spurs, but Carlos Tevez equalised, before Ronaldo scored a penalty and then the winner.

Chelsea had a few hiccups against a decent Wigan side, but easily prevailed as 2-1 winners, with Nicolas Anelka scoring his first for Chelsea. Shaun Wright-Phillips scored their second, and Atoine Sibierski scored a consolation. 

In other news (apologies for not going into detail, but I can't be bothered), Cardiff just edged out Hereford in a 2-1 win, Wolves absolutely hammered Championship title challengers Watford 4-1 away, and in Saturday's "fairytale" fixture of non-league Havant & Waterlooville vs Liverpool at Anfield, the Hawks actually took the lead twice before being put down 5-1.

The full list of Round 4 results is listed below. The amazing thing about this round is that all the matches were conclusive (wins), meaning no 4th round replays for the first time in 57 years.

Southend 0-1 Barnsley
Mansfield 0-2 Middlesborough
Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle
Barnet 0-1 Bristol Rovers
Coventry 2-1 Millwall
Derby 1-4 Preston
Liverpool 5-2 Havant & Waterlooville
Oldham 0-1 Huddersfield
Peterborough 0-3 West Brom
Portsmouth 2-1 Plymouth
Southampton 2-0 Bury
Watford 1-4 Wolves
Wigan 1-2 Chelsea
Hereford 1-2 Cardiff
Man Utd 3-1 Tottenham
Sheff Utd 2-1 Man City

Liverpool kept their dreams alive with a somewhat fortuitous 4-1 over Porto yesterday. The scoreline was very flattering to Rafa Benitez's men, but they won't complain as they are still in with a chance to go through.  They must now go and win in Marseilles, in what is a very tight group. All 4 teams are still in with a chance of going through, with Porto on 8 points, Marseille and Liverpool on 7, and Beskitas on 6. It won't be an easy task though, as Marseille have already gone to Anfield and taken 3 points, and all they need is a draw to progress.

The other two British teams with clouds hanging over their qualification hopes are Glasgow rivals Rangers and Celtic. Celtic are away to AC Milan, although the Italians are already qualified, and Celtic need just a draw to progress, so we might well see a stalemate. Even if they lost, Shakhtar would still need to overcome Benfica to have a chance, and that won't be easy since Benfica will want a place in the UEFA cup.

Rangers have a slightly more high pressure situation. They play Lyon in what is basically a direct contest for the second spot. Rangers need a draw to advance, and Lyon need to win. It is probably going to be an epic encounter, and the press will not doubt be bringing up the France vs Scotland allusions from the recently concluded Euro 2008 qualifiers. Rangers will be disappointed though by their performance versus Stuttgart, losing 3-2 late on after being 2-1 up.

Well, if everything goes correctly for the three Brit sides, the knockout stage of the Champions League might just see an astonishing 6 out of the 16 teams come from Britain.

The 8 teams qualified thus far are: Chelsea, AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Roma, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Arsenal.

My picks for the remaining eight are: Porto, Marseille, Schalke, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Celtic, Rangers and Fenerbhace.

Spare a thought for the once great Dynamo Kyiv, who have 0 points, and for Valencia... they're not even in contention for a UEFA Cup spot at the moment.

In a recent interview, Alex Ferguson said that it was his duty to produce English players, because nobody else was going to. Whether he intended it that way or not, the media interpreted it as a pop at Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, and probably a bit at Liverpool as well.

Of course, this all comes on the back of England's defeat to Croatia, and their generally bad football over the last year, and how all this is somehow the fault of foreign players coming in, and how clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool don't produce enough English players. Of course clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea are hailed for having "English souls" and whatever else, but that's really a lot of crap. It's easy for the two richest clubs in the country to go out and spend 10-20m on an English player and then claim that they have homegrown players. It's also nonsense.

So I thought i'd take a look at the two clubs named as the big "saviours" of English football, and see just exactly how many English international players they've "produced".

From the England squads, Manchester United have Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Rio Ferdinand and Ben Foster. Which is fine I suppose, it's nice to have 7 England internationals, and I guess Alex Ferguson can be proud of that. But when it's used as stick to beat other clubs and managers with, then it becomes very, very unfair, because how much did these players cost?

Well, Rooney cost £27 million, Carrick cost £18m, Hargreaves cost £17m, and Ferdinand cost £33m. Ben Foster was a £1 million buy from Stoke, and ONLY two players - Gary Neville and Wes Brown - are from United's "famed" youth setup. Well, that's a total cost of £96 million! It's easy to brag about your "English core" when you're filthy rich isn't it!

And Chelsea? Well they have Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Shaun-Wright Pillips. Once again, errr... well done for having all these Englishman in the squad, but again, how many have Chelsea produced? Just one - John Terry. As for the rest? Ashley Cole cost about £17 million (£5m + William Gallas), Wayne Bridge cost £7m, Frank Lampard cost £11m, Joe Cole cost £7m and Shaun Wright-Phillips cost £21m. Total cost: £63 million.

Chelsea and Manchester United spend more on their beloved English players than most clubs (Arsenal included) do in 2 or 3 seasons on ALL their players. And how many can you say are worth it? Is Owen Hargreaves really worth £17m when Mathieu Flamini cost £1m? Is Rio Ferdinand really worth £33m when Kolo Toure cost £750,000? Is Wayne Bridge worth £7m when Patrice Evra was only £4.5m? And Michael Carrick £18m when the far superior Xabi Alonso was only £11m? There's a reason that clubs look abroad for players, and it's not because they dislike English players or want to harm English football, it's because the prices and hype that surrounded even a moderately talented English player are ludicrously high, and clubs other than Chelsea and Manchester United can't really throw the money around.

In any case, we've seen that between them, Chelsea and Manchester United presently have only three club-produced England internationals in their squads. So why don't we look at the recent England squads, and the number of players that have been club-produced by the "Big Four", and when they won their first caps:

Manchester United: Gary Neville (1995), David Beckham (1996), Phil Neville (1996), Wes Brown (1999)
Arsenal: Ashley Cole (March 2001), David Bentley (September 2007)
Liverpool: Steven Gerrard (2000), Michael Owen (1998)
Chelsea: John Terry (June 2003)

OK, so Manchester United have the most home-produced players of those 4, but the most recent cap of them all was Wes Brown in 1998, and he's not even that important. They're basically still living off the reputation of their much vaunted "Golden Generation", but the fact is that United have not produced a decent English player in years and years, and their present crop are decidedly ageing and average at the ages of 32, 31, 32 and 28.

And I'd like to follow that up by asking you which club from the "Big Four" has produced the most number of players to be capped in this decade? Well the answer to that, funnily enough, is Arsenal! Two is not a large number, but it's certainly more than Manchester United have given to English football in the last 7 years. And if you look at the recent England youth squads, you will find that it's Arsenal who are producing the most talented young English players, and in good numbers as well. Surely this can only be because of their foreign manager, and all the incredibly talented foreign players that are there in training and on the field?

Incidentally the two clubs that have contributed the most to recent English squads are Leeds and West Ham. Leeds - Aaron Lennon, Paul Robinson, Alan Smith, Scott Carson, and Jonathan Woodgate
West Ham - Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe (although the latter was schooled mostly at Charlton)

Well... not madness per se, but again a great example of how British players just seem to cost so much more than they need to.

Dave Nugent has signed for Portsmouth for a fee of  just over £6 million. He joins from Preston North End, where he has played well enough to earn an England cap (and score a goal too).

The former Bury youngster is only 22, and has a bright future ahead of him, but the fee is still on the higher side, considering that he has no Premiership experience and that his record of 33 goals in 96 games for PNE is hardly prolific.

I think Nugent has chosen well with Portsmouth though. He could have signed for Sunderland, but at Pompey he doesn't have to have the pressure of relegation and expectation, and he's also got an experienced manager who knows how to get the best from his players. He'll have better players around him as well, and be in a settled team that is financially able.

John Utaka also signs for Portsmouth from Rennes. The fee is undisclosed, but is probably around the £3-4 million mark. This is a transfer that has been going on for ages, and Utaka let the media know a while ago that he was looking forward to joining his compatriot Kanu at Portsmouth.

Utaka is a good, but inconsistent player; very talented, but seemingly very raw at times. He's 24, and Redknapp will need to work on him a bit. Still, he's tall, strong, fast, and an exciting dribbler. He's skillful, although a hit-and-miss finisher, and is also not too bad in the air. This is going to be an exciting signing for Pompey fans, and it's nice that they have options in attack now.

Hopefully you cringed at that photo, I know I did. Well gimpy, chavvy, wannabe enfant terrible Craig "Bellers" Bellamy has signed for West Ham for a reported fee of £8 million. EIGHT! Somehow... Liverpool managed to sell Bellamy on for a profit. A player who signed for £6 million, scored just 7 league goals in 27 games, got arrested for hitting a girl in a nightclub, and hit a teammate with a golf club, has somehow been sold on for a profit. Lovely!

Bellamy is a serious talent - quick, tricky, left-footed and with a powerful shot, but he has the personality of a menstruating Satan. He first arrived in the Premiership at Coventry, as a replacement for the Inter-bound Robbie Keane. Since then, he's gone to Newcastle, Celtic, Blackburn, Liverpool, and now West Ham all in the space of 6 years (giving Anelka a run for his money). Anyways, good luck to West Ham, Eggert Magnusson and "Bellers".

Jason Koumas, has signed for Wigan for £5.3 million. This probably tops the list of ridiculously priced transfers, and furthermore the present Wigan manager Chris Hutchings has one of the worst transfer records ever. When Jewell left Bradford, it was Hutchings who stepped up from Assistant to Manager, and spent about £10 million (that Bradford couldn't afford) on awful players, got them relegated (and was sacked), and they are suffering in League One now. Wigan are a stronger side than that, and chairman Dave Whelan has money, but spending this much money on Koumas is wild.

Now don't get me wrong, Koumas is a talented guy, as he kid he was very highly rated and in West Brom's first season in the Premiership he had some great moments. He then went through a huge slump, and was out of favour and on-loan at Cardiff. But last year at the Baggies he had a great season, helping them to the playoffs, and was named the Championship player of the year. But he's 27 now, and has only really had ONE season at the top of his game, and that too in the Championship.

After Liverpool have painstakingly gone ahead with meeting Atletico Madrid's massive transfer demands, they now have to face up to the prospect of meeting exorbitant wages for the increasingly diva-like Fernando Torres.

El Niño has apparently asked for a massive £31.2 million contract! He has allegedly demanded a 6-year deal, worth £100,000 per week, because those are the same terms that Inter Milan offered.

I have no doubt that Inter offered ridiculous wages, but were they even serious about signing Torres? They've already got Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Adriano, Julio Cruz, Alvaro Recoba and now David Suazo. Perhaps they offered Torres this ridiculous contract as a means of trying to coax him into making his situation with Atletico very sour, and thereby lowering the transfer fee? Who knows.

In any case, Liverpool will have to negotiate trickily with this one, because there are very few players in the history of the Premiership who have been on £100,000 per week or higher. Thierry Henry, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Steven Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo are all proven talents and performers, and even Frank Lampard and John Terry haven't been able to bump their contracts up to that level. Not only will Torres earning that much ruffle a few feathers, but given Torres' inconsistency and the fact that he is not yet at the top of his game, it will be quite a financial burden on the 'Pool.

Of course it could all just be paper talk. After all, only a week ago it was rumoured that Torres' had the words "You'll Never Walk Alone" on the underside of his captain's armband, and that he was desperate to join Liverpool.

Sorry to interrupt everyone's Copa America fever (who would have thunk it eh?), but I just thought I'd take a quick look around what's been happening in the transfer market. Please note that this is more or less just what is on my mind, so sorry if I miss out on discussing any transfers that people want, but you can always add on in the comments, or discuss it on the forums.

David Rozehnal
From PSG to Newcastle - £2.9 million
This is an interesting signing, and the type of signing you continually find with the German or French leagues - decent players being sold at decent prices, without the ridiculous over-hypedness/over-pricing(England) or buyout clause nonsense (Spain) or just general bickering, corruption and co-ownership (Italy and South America). Lyon, Marseille and Bayern Munich aside, all the clubs in those leagues seem perfectly content to transfer players between each other, irrespective of nationality or rivalries.

Newcastle have acquired a very solid, decent defender at an excellent price. 26 year old Czech centre-back Rozehnal is good in the air, has decent pace, and is a great reader of the game who can play the ball out of defence as well. It's one of those situations where the bigger clubs have busied themselves going after defenders who are quicker, stronger, and bigger, and Newcastle managed to strike a quick deal with struggling PSG, and Rozehnal was probably more-than-happy to come to a well-supported club in the "almighty" Premier League. Good luck to him, and Sam "I am the Walrus" Allardyce has added solidity to a backline that was about as stable as a jellyfish when featuring the talents of Titus Bramble, Ogyuchi Onyewu, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Craig Moore. NEXT.

Darren Bent
From Charlton to Tottenham - £16.5 million
Tottenham have continued their policy of "If it's English and runs, buy it". Livewire striker Darren Bent has signed from Charlton for a colossal feel of 16.5 meeyun quid. It's basically got most of England asking - "Did I hear correctly? Is Darren Bent actually more expensive than Thierry Henry?" I don't think that there will ever be an end to this ridiculous intra-England policy of deciding that English players are 100 times more valuable than their foreign counterparts (most of whom speak better English than them anyways). What is only slightly more bizarre is that West Ham had bid £18 million, and offered Bent £75,000 per week (he eventually signed for Spurs on £45,000 a week).

Still, Bent is a really good young player, very quick, subtly powerful, and with a real enthusiasm to score goals. He's still very raw, but will inject much needed pace into Spurs' front line. He will complement Berbatov well, but there are rumours that Berbatov is being lined up by Manchester United. His arrival will put into doubt the future of fellow Arsenal fan and Spurs teammate Jermain Defoe, who has gone from being a 20-goal a season man to a 20-minutes from the end substitute.

Olivier Kapo
From Juventus to Birmingham City - £3 million
Almost 4 years ago, Olivier Kapo was touted as being one of the biggest talents in France. Kapo, one of those weird attacking players who has never really been allowed to settle in any role (an AM LC/FC on FM), was a product of Auxerre's acclaimed youth system, and a member of the "golden generation" that saw the emergence of Philippe Mexes, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Khalilou Fadiga and Djibril Cisse (admittedly, some a bit less "golden" than others).

Unfortunately, instead of taking gradual steps up, he made the mistake of signing for Juventus (who promptly signed about a dozen other midfielders the next day), and never saw any first team football. He went on loan to Monaco and Levante, but seemed to be in limbo, and now has the chance to resurrect his talents in the midlands. If Birmingham do manage to sign Mathieu Flamini from Arsenal, then Flamini's workrate and running, and Fabrice Muamba's covering and tackling should provide a great base for Kapo to attack freely. Of course this is all dependent on Steve Bruce showing at least a little bit of tactical ability, and I have no faith in that.

And in the realm of rumours:

Djibril Cisse from Liverpool to Marseille (rumoured fee of £7 million)
About time really. All Cisse has done at Liverpool (apart from scoring in the FA Cup final) is break his legs. We all know the biggest part of Cisse's game is his hair, and he made the massive mistake of marrying his hairdresser on Merseyside... a marriage clearly not made in heaven, because in almost Samson-like fashion his hair and football ability both went to shit, and he was later arrested for assaulting his wife. Off you go.

Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool (rumoured fee of £27 million)
If Rafa Benitez wants to sign El Niño, he is going to have to pay a hefty fee. The iconic young no. 9 is supposed to have a release clause of about £25 million pounds, and Atletico also want Liverpool to pay the £2 million loyalty bonus that Torres is supposed to be receiving from the Madrid club. Loyalty bonus. Can you believe that?

Anyways, although Torres has a lot going for him, he is very overrated. He has the potential to be a great player, but so far has always flattered to deceive. I wonder if he will flourish under Rafa Benitez, because Rafa doesn't really have a great record for grooming young players (or playing attacking football for that matter). He might have done better under the tutelage of Wenger or Ferguson, but it looks like Liverpool it is. Torres is talented, he's got bags of potential, and he's got great charisma and marketing value, but he is VERY overrated. When Djibril Cisse arrived, he was an expensive, overrated player, but one who had scored bags of goals. Torres arrives(?) as an expensive, overrated player as well, but one who really hasn't scored many goals.

Juninho Paulista to Hull City
THIS IS THE STRANGEST RUMOUR OF THEM ALL. Juninho, once the darling of the Middlesborough fans, one of the most talented players to have played in the Premiership, and one of the stars for Brazil in their 2002 World Cup triumph, is going to end up in the orange strip of Hull City FC. Bizarreness. In a career that has taken him from Sao Paulo to Boro to Atletico to Boro to Vasco to Flamengo, back to Boro AGAIN, and then Celtic and then back to Brazil with Vasco and then Flamengo (I AM COMPLETELY CONFUSED BY THIS MERRY-GO-ROUND NOW), Juninho is now set to go back to England.

He seems to have a special place for the English fans in his heart, and English fans all over remember him fondly as well. Hull City would be an interesting option. They are one-tier below the Premiership, and if Juninho was to help them get promoted, he might enjoy one last-love affair with the Premiership, and it might be worth it just for the reception at Boro vs Hull alone. That's assuming that Hull get promoted. Or that Boro get relegated :) Either way, it'll be the only way that Middlesborough manage to fill up their stadium for the first time in years.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, i'm done. That was long. Hope you enjoyed it.

Well... ticket sales for this years Champions League Final (Athens 2007) seem to have ended up in a right old mess. I'm watching it on TV at the moment (as the poor and distant are wont to do), and things seem noisy enough so i'd hope that most of the loyal fans who tried their best to go have managed to, but there has been an unhappy sinister note to the way the whole thing has been handled.

* WHAT A ROULETTE FROM KAKA! *

Anyways, sorry... back to the business. The first big problem, is that forged tickets have flooded the market - there are said to be in excess of 1500 tickets, and arrests have already been made, although the number in circulation is thought to be huge. Many fans had bought tickets in advance, and some are concerned that these might now be fake , which is heartbreaking considering that the minimum paid was probably about €400.

* TYPICAL OPPORTUNISM FROM PIPP INZAGHI, MILAN 1-0 UP. STUPID HALF-TIME PANELISTS SAY HANDBALL, I SAY WATCH THE REPLAYS PROPERLY *

Fans have also been sadly let down by the system in this case. The Spiros Louis Stadium holds only 63,000, so the per club allocation of roughly 17,000 tickets was never that large to begin with. Fans have thus had to go around to all manner of touts and ticket agencies to try and find those golden tickets, and have these been very vulnerable to trouble. Many ticket agencies sold packages to clients without having the requisite number of tickets in hand, and they did so in anticipation of ticket prices falling, and subsequently making huge profits. Unfortunately that never happened, and so several hopeful fans have been left in the lurch. The majority of these agencies simply took the money and ran, and obviously since the deals were dodgy to begin with, the clients could do nothing.

Travel & sports travel companies weren't much better - most of them refunded the ticket cost (face values) to the fans, but kept the travel expenses portion of it - presumably under the argument that said fans could still have gone and had a holiday and stay in some hotel.

* SECOND HALF AND LIVERPOOL ARE 2-0 DOWN. PERFECT FINISHING FROM PIPPO INZAGHI AGAIN, AND MILAN HAVE SHOWN THEIR PEDIGREE *

Adriano Galliani didn't help things this with his statements saying that only season ticket holders should receive tickets to the final (not sure how much this affected things, especially because Italian fans are the most notorious sellers of their tickets). When you consider the fact that Liverpool and Milan are two of the world's biggest and most popular clubs, it becomes obvious that the ex-pat and international fans would probably be travelling in numbers rivalling those of the local fans.

There is also the great story of the one Italian tour operator who was selling close to 3,000 ticket packages for the final, but actually had 0 tickets. He had anticipated receiving these tickets directly from Milan, and that never materialised. I'm not sure whether the fans eventually received any money back, but I hope they did. So much for the beautiful game eh?

* MILAN WIN. 2-1 AT FULLTIME WITH A CONSOLATION GOAL FROM KUYT. HE WAS OFFSIDE WHEN CROUCH FLICKED IT ON, BUT IT TOUCHED MALDINI ON THE WAY THROUGH AND SO IT STANDS. IT WAS A SCARE FOR MILAN, BUT THEY COMFORTABLY WRAP THE GAME UP, AND IT WAS MEN vs BOYS REALLY *

Last night was my first ever time at Stamford Bridge, and I have to say that I was underwhelmed. Most of the fans didn't know the songs (most of which were quite uninspired), some were audibly saying stuff like "how does that one go?" and "what are they saying?", and all the shirts were from this season or the one before - no history eh?

They also have some ridiculous anthem, and silly flags that they wave about, and it gave the general impression that I was in some bizarre kind of football Disneyland. I don't really mean to slag them off at Chelski, but it was seriously uninspiring stuff - there were chants of "Chewwseaaa", "Champeeeeyuns" and one or two others that are quite generic and which i'm fairly sure have been nicked off others. Ditto for the player songs. And their support mostly seemed to be in the form of vitriol and abuse at opposition players and fans, and maybe that is just emblematic of the Chelsea/Mourinho mentality of "Us Against The World". Anyways, enough of that, on to the football...

...which as you might expect in a Champions League semi-final was a very tense, cagey affair. I personally don't think that 1 goal is enough for Chelsea up at Anfield, and Fat Frankie Lampard had a chance from which he really should have scored. Shevchenko came close a few times (but was a passenger for the rest of the game), and Joe Cole and Didier Drogba were generally a dangerous duo for most of the game, although Drogba was heavily marked and didn't really have too many shooting opportunities (but he created chances for others, including the goal).

Seeing Drogba play in the flesh really gave me an idea of just how difficult an opponent he is - he's absolutely massive and a good athlete as well. Tall, very well built, and quite quick, time-and-time again he was first to long balls, and/or easily able to get the upper-hand at balls played into the channels. He works hard and really organises the game from the front (and on more than one occassion he lectured Shevchenko, whose timid personality doesn't do him any favours in this team).

Carragher dealt with him decently, but Agger was at his wit's end, and Drogba mostly operated in his area. In the second-half they dealt with him by having Mascherano/Xabi track him and pick-up the second ball when Agger challenged him in the air, but he had already done the damage with his contribution to the goal in the first half. He charged past Agger on the right-flank and put in a low cross to Joe Cole who neatly steered the ball in. Cole was influential all game and he finally gives Chelsea that bit of attacking flair and intelligence that they've missed this season.

Mamamamakekekekelelele was solid, Mikel was decent, and I finally saw Lampard for the overrated "lucky" player that many claim he is - he did nothing all game, doesn't beat players, and thumps long (/diagonal) balls up for the winger or Drogba to get to. But he does pick up scraps in front of goal, and if it wasn't for a super save from Reina, he would have volleyed in for 2-0 and more or less killed the tie. Ashley Cole might as well not have been there - at Arsenal he was an exciting, tenacious, attacking fullback; at Chelsea he is a slightly confused, reasonably steady left-back who just thumps 50-60 yard curling balls into the box for Drogba, and occassionally makes forays and crosses into the box. Chelsea really isn't the place for footballing fullbacks, and on the night Paulo Ferreira didn't seem like fullback who even knew how to play football - he was beaten time and time again by Boudewijn Zenden of all people, and he's just lucky that Zenden couldn't shoot, cross or pass to save his life.

That was it really, there were more poor performances on show than good ones, and Liverpool were really bad. I can't believe why Rafa Benitez put out the side that he did, but i'm sure that we'll see a completely different Liverpool at Anfield. Resting Peter Crouch was strange, and omitting Pennant (who has been in good form of late) was a sign that they were willing to play for a draw and maybe steal one on the break with Bellamy's pace. As it were, Bellamy was just awful - Chelsea defended deep, and never pushed up so he never had anywhere to run into. Kuyt can't quiyt act as the proper foil for him, and Liverpool generally looked like a side that didn't know what they were doing.

Gerrard was excellent, and influential, but had nothing happening in front of him (constant comments from the Chelsea fans all night along the lines of "ee should of come to Chewww-seee", which was also what they said in reference to any other good player that someone decided to talk about... amazing what a bit of money does to people eh?). He had one fantastic volley saved by Cech, which was the only real save that he made all game. This was in stark contrast to Pepe Reina at the other hand who made a series of breath-taking saves at the other end. He was Drogba's rival for Man of the Match, and if Liverpool go on to salvage anything in the second leg, they have him to thank for keeping the scores level.

Finally, a quick mention about the "ghost penalty" that Mourinho keeps going on about - I haven't seen the incident on TV, but I was seated directly in line with it, and to me it seemed that the ball bounced up off Arbeloa's knee or thigh onto his hand (which was by his side). Ball-to-hand if there ever was one and I think the referee made the right decision, although Mourinho being Mourinho, the Special One with Special Needs, no decision will ever satisy him.

Anyways though, it's all just fuel for the fire that is the game at Anfield. There will be the Kop and all the fans to deal with, as well as (i'm hoping) a more attacking line-up. Steve Finnan was badly missed, and Pennant and Crouch will play in the second-leg, maybe even Mark Gonzalez. The attack in London was completely void of any guile or invention, and Luis Garcia, inconsistent as he is, is a big loss in this department.

Anyhow, next week should be quite the game, and the atmosphere will be something special up there... let's see if Chelsea can handle it.