News from the English FA filtered through yesterday confirming that they will definately be bidding for the 2018 World Cup now that FIFA have dropped their rotation policy.

After the 2014 World Cup venue had been decided thoughts now turn to the bidding process for the next tournament.

England won't be the only country hoping to host footballs biggest event. Australia, China, Russia and Mexico among others are all hoping their countries will be picked.

However if England was picked as the destination for the World Cup 2018 finals, which stadiums should be chosen to host the matches?

Of course there are some rules. Fifa prefer to have a maximum of 12 stadiums chosen to host matches. At each of these venues the capacity must be at least 40,000 and they also prefer only one city to be the location for more than one stadium.

So taking these rules into consideration, which stadia do you think should be chosen for matches if England are chosen to host the 2018 World Cup?

My choices would be:

Wembley (90,000)

Old Trafford (75,000) 

Emirates Stadium (60,000)

New Anfield (60,000)

St James Park (52,000)

Villa Park (40,000)

Stadium of Light (49,000)

Elland Road (40,000)

Hillsborough (39,900)

New Portsmouth Stadium (36,000)

Well there's 10 stadiums that would all do well at hosting any match in a World Cup. It seems a shame to exclude the City of Manchester Stadium on a technicality but that's Fifa for you!

Comments on your ideas for stadiums will be appreciated.

Juande Ramos became the new Spurs coach this week and his aim is to try and take Spurs up into the top four and break the mould of United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal which has been the layout of the top four for a few years.

It seems a long time ago now but Spurs did come close to breaking the mould in the 05/06 season when all they had to do was beat West Ham in the final game of the season but they failed, for one reason or another.

Martin Jol remains the best coach Spurs have had for many years, in my eyes anyway, and so Ramos will have a job on his hands if he is to achieve that which Jol could not.

Of course most new coaches bring a different way of doing things to a new club, a new way of training, new personel, a new philosophy if you like.

I expect this to be no different with Ramos. He made Seville one of the best sides in Spain, winning two Uefa Cups, two Spanish Cups and a European Supercup along the way.

It is this kind of consistency that the Tottenham board dream about.

For the moment Ramos remains tight lipped about his future aquisitions in the transfer market but surely the Spurs squad needs a bit of an overhaul. 

Daniel Alves and Kanoute have been two players rumoured to be arriving in January but Ramos' first challenge is to take Spurs out of the bottom four, never mind taking them to the top.

What kind of an impact do you think Ramos will have at Spurs? Comments will be appreciated!

If you believe everything you read in the Newspapers then you will have gathered by now that Arsenal competed in their first real test of the season last Sunday when they went to Anfield to face a stuttering Liverpool side.

The parallels between the two sides seasons couldn't be any more different at this stage of the season.

Arsenal, "The Kids" as some people refer to them, had been tipped to make an exit from the top four this year with Spurs replaceing them. By November they're top of the league and unbeaten in all competitions.

Liverpool were the team people were expecting to do great things. Millions being spent in the Summer on new players but still no consistency as poor results in the league have seen them lagging behind the top two and they also lay bottom in their Champions League group with one point from three games.

Onto the match and it was an entertaining affair with Liverpool grabbing an early goal after their captain Steven Gerrard smashed in a powerful free kick from the edge of the area. 

Even though Liverpool had gained an early advantage in the game as an Arsenal fan I somehow knew that we would be able to come back. Sure enough we went on to produce some brilliant moves through our great football and it was just a final pass which was lacking.

Even so Adebayor had a one on one with Reina but was denied and then Eboue tried a volley from a difficult angle after the Spanish goalkeeper crazily ran off his line to save but the young Ivorian's shot was going wide.

The second half continued much in the same way but this time Liverpool had even less possession. Time was running out before Hleb waited and waited to play a beautiful through ball into Fabregas who had made a timely run from midfield and then our little genius managed to poke the ball home for his 10th goal of an incredible season.

If people weren't taking Arsenal serious as challengers to Manchester United's crown then they certainly would be by now. Arsenal stood up to the challenge of Liverpool at Anfield and even the most die hard Scouser would have to admit they were lucky to get away with a point.

So onto Manchester United this weekend at the Emirates. Another blockbuster game is to be expected between two great sides and every football neutral should be rubbing their hands together in excited over this one.

One thing is for sure though. Even if Arsenal fail to get a point this weekend they should still be respected as potential winners of the Premiership this season.

Until next time.

The game of the weekend takes place in the English Premier League this Sunday. Liverpool vs Arsenal is being billed as the first real challenge for Arsenal in their near perfect start to the season.

You see, although the North London club sit pretty at the top of the table with a game in hand, remain unbeaten and continue to please the neutrals with their aesthetically pleasing style of football there are still some critics.

These critics say that Arsenal haven't played any top, top team yet. We're talking about the top four here, and Arsene Wenger reckons that is the only challenge that remains for his young team to perform.

However what Arsenal have been doing right this season is picking up points against teams lower down the division which they might not have collected last year.

Matches against Man City, West Ham and Portsmouth can hardly be classed as easy and Arsenal picked up maximum points from those matches. And even though they might not be doing too well this season, a North London derby against Spurs is always a feisty affair and it was certainly a potential bananaskin.

So I don't buy into what some people are saying about Arsenal's easy season. Afterall, you can only beat what's in front of you and they have done that, and they've done it in style.

Will they beat Liverpool tomorrow afternoon? Maybe, maybe not. But if they don't I still expect them to put up a hard challenge for the league title with their unique and beautiful style of football.

Good afternoon to you all.

Now that the Premiership season is ten games old it's nearing the time when we can start making accurate predictions for the future. 

It's been an eventful start in the first few months of the season and there have been teams doing better than expected and of course ones that also aren't doing as well as people thought they would.

For todays blog I thought I'd go through a list of teams I thought had been doing better and worse then expected at the start of this season.

Going Up

Man City - After a dismal 06/07 season the less talked about team in Manchester have taken all by surprise lately with some excellent football and what's even more important, some excellent results.

The Man City board decided that wholesale changes were needed to compete for European places in Englands top league so out went Stuart Pearce and several overrated and overpaid players and in came Sven-Goran Eriksson, the controversial ex-England manager.

Many said that Sven didn't have what it takes to manage in England, but my how he is proving those doubters wrong. Bringing in several players of quality such as Elano, Martin Petrov, Vedran Corluka and Geovanni and fusing them with promising Man City youngsters such as Micah Richards and Michael Johnson the Swede has moulded an entertaining team that is hard to beat but also one that can score plenty of goals.

You certainly wouldn't rule City out of winning one of the domestic cups and a Uefa Cup finish.

Portsmouth - Harry Redknapp has been managing Portsmouth for a few seasons now and you get the feeling that only now is his vision for the club starting to be realised. 

After signing a couple of bargain African players in the Summer it looks as though Portsmouth finally have the depth to their squad that they have been searching for.

Utaka, Diop and Muntari have all contributed this season and Benjani seems to be fulfilling his potential with 7 goals so far in the League.

Blackburn - In recent memory Blackburn have always been a team no manager looked forward to playing. Not only is this statement still apt now but Blackburn also have the armoury going forward to trouble even the best defences.

Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy form an excellent striking partnership and when they are supported by Bentley and Pederson on either wing it's not hard to see why they are sitting 6th in the table at the time of writing

Going Down

Chelsea - How strange does it feel seeing Chelsea in this part of the list? However they have not been performing as a team this season and with Drogba and Lampard missing a handful of games at the same time they struggled for goals. 

I'm sure they will go on a winning run at some point but being outside the European places after ten games gone is pretty dismal for a team that has spent however many millions over the past 3 years. 

Tottenham - Pundits and fans were saying that they would be the team to break into the top four, pipping Arsenal and pleasing the neutrals in the process.

No one could have expected them to play so poorly and pick up so few points. They only have 7 to their name after a possible 30 and that is relegation form.

They will certainly have to pick up wins quickly or a Uefa Cup place might even become impossible for a team that spent £45million on new talent during the Summer.

Bolton - Sam Allardyce is a great manager. What else can you say after seeing a Bolton team play without him? He got the best out of average, scrappy players and I'm afraid they're the only things Bolton have.

Sammy Lee couldn't do it and promptly left after a few months in charge, and now some other poor sap is going to have to come in and fix this mess.  

Anelka is the only shining light for them and they will rely on his goals for salvation.

Well there you go folks, another blog and I'm off to get some lunch. Until next time. 

Hello once again.

Well after the International break the "real" football was allowed to kick off once again all around Europe. What a bore those Internationals were, eh?

I mean, I watched one match in one and a half weeks. I was in Wales for the England vs Estonia match and I only caught bits of the Russia game because of the silly kick off time.

The World is a much darker place without football and I hope that all this silly qualifying can be done with soon and that International breaks become non-existant so that we can watch football from the top European leagues every week without fail.

Quite a few interesting results to tell you about.

Man United seem to be easing into top gear after they rolled over Aston Villa by four goals to one. Aston Villa actually took the lead early on through Gabriel Agbonlahor who seems to be maturing into a very talented young striker.

However Manchester United have so many good attacking players in their ranks that it was a matter of time before they started scoring goals for fun and unluckily for Villa this was their time.

Elsewhere at the top Arsenal also won fairly comfortably against Bolton to record their 11th straight victory in all competitions. Many people had predicted Arsenal to have slipped up by now but they just keep going and another excellent win against a team they might have dropped points to in previous seasons has been overcome.

If both Arsenal and Manchester United keep up their winning ways we could be in for a tight race for the Premiership this season, which is what all the neutrals want to see.

Liverpool and Everton played out a typically controversial match at Goodison Park. Things were given that shouldn't have been and things weren't given that should have, supposedly. Liverpool still managed to pick up the win though to keep them in the top four.

And guess what, Man City managed another win as well! Elano was the main man for them as usual with another well taken goal to keep up their 100% home record. Sven is working wonders in his new job and he is proving to everyone just how good a manager he is.

Chelsea also managed a win with none other then Didier Drogba on the scoresheet. After claiming he wants to leave the club he ironically gave one of his best performances for Chelsea so far this season. Let's see if he keeps it up, because Chelsea certainally need it. They still sit outside the top six which definatelly isn't good enough after ten games.

That's your lot for today, see you all soon

Hello to you all.

So now that the International break is complete we can start looking forward to the real football once again. Clubs will be welcoming back their players with open arms and making sure that they haven't lost any through injury.

So you can assume that Arsene Wenger won't be happy with the news that Robin Van Persie could be out for over four weeks after twisting his knee against Slovenia. Losing one of the in form strikers in the Premiership for crucial games against Liverpool and Manchester United could prove to be a massive blow for the Premiership leaders.

Another manager who won't be happy about one of his strikers returning could be Avram Grant, but for entirely different reasons. Didier Drogba recently gave an interview to France Football magazine about how much he wants to leave Chelsea and how something is "broken" at the club since Jose Mourinho left.

Now I'm no Chelsea fan, indeed everyone of their players can somehow manage to annoy me just by kicking a ball. But Drogba is being completely unprofessional by saying what he did in an interview during the middle of the season while he is still very much their most important goalscorer.

A January move does seem likely for the Ivory Coast frontman, but who would want to invest in him when he could miss up to 10 games during the African Nations Cup?

Moving on now onto the news that Sammy Lee has left Bolton by "Mutual Consent". So he was sacked?

Bolton have suffered a terrible start to the season in which they've collected just 5 points from 9 games and the only team they sit above is Derby. On goal difference.

There does seem to be some irony in the fact that Bolton are probably playing more aesthetically pleasing football this season and not picking up the results, whereas in years gone by their trademark brand of "Lump the ball forward and kick the shit out of the opposition" seemed to work wonders.

A manager can only work with the players he's got and with the exception of Anelka, Bolton don't possess any truly gifted football players.

Credit where credit is due, Sam Allardyce did know how to get the best out of what he had.

And that's about it for you in his blog. We've got some big matches over the weekend and I can't sign off without wishing the England Rugby players the best of luck for the final against South Africa. What spirit they have shown to go all the way, after being written off by every man and his dog over the past year.

And also good luck to young Lewis Hamilton who will be competing to become the first person to win the F1 World Championship in his debut season.

I am off to Norfolk for the weekend so I'll see you all next week.

Good evening to you all.

In case none of you know me, which I'm sure none of you do, my name is Pierce and I will be trying to make this blog as interesting and eventful as I can. I always have trouble starting up these blogs but hopefully this one is here to stay and I will try to update it as often as I can.

Now I am an Arsenal fan but I will not be writing about Arsenal 24/7. Sure, they might get a lot more of my time then some other clubs (like Bolton Wanderers, for example, a team I love to hate) but I will try to mix my topics of conversation up a fair bit.

Now that I've said that let's get right into things.

Last night England lost to Russia in a crucial Euro2008 qualifier. The English players somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and let two goals in during the space of a manic three minutes in which millions of England fans up and down the nation must have been holding their heads in their hands as well as thinking quietly to themselves that England might not actually reach the finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1994.

Going to Russia and getting a result was never going to be easy, but Steve McClaren - the dumbfounded England manager - made sure that England were going to have to go to Russia and get a result by not knowing his strongest team at the start of the campaign and quite frankly, just being a poor manager.

However all blame can't be placed on his head. He may appear to be a numpty who only plays the big names, sticks to his 4-4-2, plays players out of position, gives Downing far too caps, drops players and then recalls them a few months later realising that he might have made a mistake... Well he is! But the England players also have to take a look at themselves and ask "Are we good enough?"

We hardly created anything going forward last night, Rooney and Owen don't seem to be able to work together. We all know how much Owen loves a big man next to him winning all the headers for him to run onto and Rooney isn't one of those players. And nobody knows Rooney's best position. Dropping off the forward in the hole? Playing more towards the wing? Right up top on his own? On the bench?

Shaun Wright Phillips has been one of my favourite players for England recently but he was hardly in the game all night. I think he fell over a few times, but nothing more of note. And on the other wing Joe Cole tended to beat a man and either fall over or give the ball away.

Steven Gerrard is seen as a modern day Roy of the Rovers but even he missed a sitter from 6 yards out. A player of his quality should have put England 2-0 up and out of reach, but it wasn't to be.

We now live in hope that Russia fail to beat Israel or...*cough* Andorra...

But even if England do still somehow manage to limp out of this group, bruised and battered into Austria and Switzerland next year something has to change. 

Oh well, who cares? We're England and we'll win the World Cup next time! ;)

Thanks for reading.