Hello there,

This is my first blog and for those of you who are actually going to read this (which probably isn't a lot of you, if any) you are in for a treat. It will include match reports, previews and whole load of other stuff that will surely make you come back for more. See how I'm drawing you in here. Yes. Moving swiftly on though, today's blog will touch on a vareity of things ranging from the this weekend's football games as well as basketball in America (NBA)

Yes, before we start I suppose I should make a few things clear. Firstly, as much as I enjoy the Premier League, I have taken a liking to American Sports in recent years and whilst I know this is a football website, I will try and break the mould somewhat by branching off into other areas of the sports spectrum. Secondly, you should all know that I'm an Arsenal fan and despite this I will try to do my best to be as unbiased and fair as I can be. Sometimes.

Right, onwards with the blog then. During the week they were several Premiership games, we had Chelsea beat the living shit out of some lousy pub team at Stamford Bridge bringing them five points behind leaders Arsenal. Frank Lampard scored four goals, including a second half hat - trick in ten minutes (TEN!), and Salomon Kalou and Joe Cole added to misery that is Derby's absolute bloody nightmare of a season. When you concede 63 goals in season, like Derby have, then you might end up having the worst Premiership season of all time, which is what Derby are having. Oh dear. We also had Portsmouth come off their big FA Cup upset over the weekend to beat Birmingham 4 -2 at home. Villa drew against Boro after Gareth Barry converted a late, and contentious, penalty.

Now, on to this weekend's game.

First off, we have Derby hosting Manchester United in what will be a complete joke of a game as Ronaldo and Rooney will look to do better than the six that Chelsea put past the hapless Rams during the week. With the win, (and let's face it , they're going to to crush them) United will go top of the table, as Arsenal will play Boro in the day's late kick-off.

With league form being complete shite recently, the Gunners will need all three points here to reatin their position at the top of the table. Boro are the only team to have beat Arsenal in the league this season but that was at the Riverside and Hleb, Fabregas and Flamini were all absent. I fully expect a win from Arsenal, we really can't afford to drop any more points at home (especially with a trip to Chelsea coming up next weekend) and with the return of Mr Glass himself, Robin van Persie, I'm hoping for some goals at the Emirates on Saturday. COME ON YOU REDS!

Reading head to Anfield to take on Liverpool in what should be a good game. Reading are looking to continue their good form and push themeselves out of the drop zone. Liverpool will want to tighten their hold on fouth place and coming off their big win in the San Siro during the week it's hard to bet against Liverpool in this one. Mind you, Reading did beat Liverpool 3 -1 last time round, so you never know. But I think it will be a case of too much Torres and Gerrard for the Royals on Saturday.

Chelsea visit Sunderland in what could be a close one. Sunderland aren't exactly safe from relegation so they will come out fighting I think. But Chelsea have too much money and too much talent for Roy Keane's squad to deal with as they will want to keep the pressure on the top two.

West Ham don't want another four goals put past them (three games in a row yikes!) and Blackburn probably couldn't do it even if they wanted to so I'm saying a draw here. I give the Hammers a slight edge as they are at home but with Santa Cruz's dip in form and a lack of goals generally from Blackburn, this could be a 0-0 snore - fest.

Villa make the trip to Fratton Park to take on a Pompey side which is full of confidence right now. Villa are losing ground in the race for fourth place (and that means last Champions League spot) and with a win, Portsmouth could overtake Martin O'Neil's team for sixth place. Even though Pompey's home form was a joke earlier in the season it has improved somewhat and they are on a roll right now so Pompey will proabably wint this one.

Sunday's games include Everton vs Fulham, and with Everton being eliminated from the UEFA Cup during the week on penalties, they will come out with a chip on their shoulder. The only way I see Fulham getting anything from this game is if Jimmy Bullard gets a free kick in a decent position, seriously, he won't miss.

There is a relagation six - pointer between Bolton and Wigan this Sunday aswell. Wigan have managed to put a decent string of games together recently as Steve Bruce has worked wonders on that crap pitch of theirs. With a win, Bolton would drag themselves out of the relagation zone and manager Gary Megson showed where his priorities lie last night as he rested pretty much the whole of his first team against Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup, a game they lost anyway. Tough to say who'll get this one but I think Wigan will take all three at the JJB.

Man City are such an odd team. They started the season so well and now have become possible the most inconsistent team in the league. Eriksson's men can't seem to string two wins together. Tottenham will head up to Manchester having been knocked out of the UEFA Cup during the week (penalties again!) and they certainly can score lots of goals, as can Man City, and both their defenses are utter crap, so it should make for an entertaining game.

Big game on Monday for Kevin Keegan and his joke of a football team. Everybody thought he was going to turn this team around, and to be fair they have had a lot of injuries, but it just hasn't happened for them and now they are plummeting down the table with one lackluster performance following another. Birmingham are teetering just above the bottom three and a win here would do very nicely for them. They've been playing well of late and I think they will just want this one more than Newcastle.

Right that's it for the football. Now onto the NBA (National Bsaketball Association).

Not too sure how many of you actually follow basketball here but I'm going to talk about it anyway.

Biggest news of the week is of course the Houston Rocket's 20 game (that's right 20) winning streak. What makes this streak so impressive is that they have done it (mostly) without their superstar player, 7 foot 6 Yao Ming, who is out for the rest of the season with a foot fracture. They have also managed to do it in a loaded Western Conference which is full of talented teams. The streak is tied for the second longest in NBA history (tying the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks) and if Houston can win all their remaining games this season they would break the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers record of 33 straight wins. That won't happen though and my money is on the Rocket's streak coming to an end tonight as they host Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

The Miami Heat, already the worst team in the NBA, just got even worse as they decided to put an end to Dwyane Wade's (their best player) season. He has had knee problems all year and with Miami's season already over, this is probably for the best. But with Shawn Marion now on the team and possibly the No.1 pick in this year's draft (and that means Michael Beasley) and a rested Wade back next season, the future is bright down on South Beach.

The other big topic in the NBA this week is the MVP (Most Valuable Player) race. It now looks like a two horse race between Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers and Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even though Chris Paul is still muscling his way into the picture for the award, (he killed the Spurs to the tune of 26 points, 17 assists, 3 steals and 1 turnover as the Hornets beat the defending champs 100 - 75) I have to agree that it is definitely either going to be Kobe or Lebron who walks away with the MVP award this season. Both make strong cases. Kobe is playing with a broken finger and still managing to be the best player in the league. You take Lebron off of the Cavaliers, though, and they are simply nothing. The same can't be said about the Lakers who have Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom along with the very talented Andrew Bynum (who should return in the coming weeks). Lebron's numbers are better (30.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7.4 apg 49 FG%) but Kobe has his team on top of the better conference whilst James plays in the shockingly bad Eastern Conference. It's going to be close, and as much as like Lebron, I think Kobe will be awarded his first, and long overdue, MVP award

That's about it for this blog but I will be back (on Sunday probably) with a round up of the Premier League games and more news from the NBA. I bet you just can't wait.