The Cup

There's a one in the year so it must be Tottenham's cup ... Ha!! :)
So at least we don't have to look forward to a Chas and Dave reunion in May.
The big 4 are still alive but they all struggled, Man U and Arsenal winning 2-1 against League 1 teams and Chelsea and City facing replays.
Leyton Orient, Crawley and West Ham got through against the odds.
Crawley face a trip to Old Trafford but after seeing them against Torquay they are hard to like.

The 5th round draw
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West Ham v Burnley
Notts Co/Man City v Aston Villa
Stoke v Brighton
Birmingham v Sheff Wed
Leyton Orient v Arsenal
Everton/Chelsea v Reading
Man Utd v Crawley Town
Fulham v Bolton/Wigan

Chances are it will be an all premier quarter finals but you never know?

Arsenal Return

I have really tried to like Arsenal this season, not as a supporter but just for the fact they played the passing game so well earlier in the season.
Despite whining Wenger they were playing the sort of football you hoped your team could play, but recently they have reverted to type cheating, moaning, diving.
Today's game against Huddersfield in the cup showed the worst after struggling to break down the division 1 team we had Bendtner going down like he'd been poleaxed by David Haye after the Huddersfield defender breathed on him, and then we got Fabregas running up to the ref waving his imaginary card :(

Rumours

I hear Liverpool are considering letting injury prone striker Fernando Torres go to Chelsea in exchange for £50 million quid or possibly about £40 million plus sulky frenchman Anelka?
Liverpool must be feeling a bit sick after agreeing a deal to bring Cannibal Suarez to Anfield then finding out Torres can't wait to get away rather than play with him?
Chelsea obviously hope that Torres will be fit enough to cover malaria stricken Drogba for some of the remaining games, but trying to offload Sturridge and possibly Anelka won't do much for their confidence if both stay.

FA Cup 4th Round Results

Good first day of the cup, all the big names through to the last 16 - Crawley, Brighton, Burnley, Sheff Wed, Reading, Leyton Orient.
Aston Villa, Birmingham and Man Utd also scrape through as well.

FA Cup 4th Round

This weeks FA Cup games.

Saturday
Everton v Chelsea
Swansea v Leyton Orient
Aston Villa v Blackburn
Birmingham v Coventry
Bolton v Wigan
Burnley v Burton
Sheff Wed v Hereford
Stevenage v Reading
Torquay v Crawley
Watford v Brighton
Southampton v Man Utd

Sunday
Arsenal v Huddersfield
Wolves v Stoke
Notts Co v Man City
West Ham v Nottingham Forest
Fulham v Tottenham

5 more prem teams will fall and possibly more?
32 teams left made up of Premier - 15, Championship - 6, Div 1 - 6, Div 2 - 4, Non League - 1

Predictions (Week 22)

This weeks predictions are actually for next week? it's the cup this weekend but there is a full prem fixture list on Tuesday and Wednesday so I thought I'd get in early.
The Lee v Longy challenge is going well and it's all square at 5-5.

Tuesday
Arsenal v Everton 2-1
Sunderland v Chelsea 0-2
Man Utd v Aston Villa 2-0
West Brom v Wigan 1-0

Wednesday
Birmingham v Man City 1-1
Blackburn v Tottenham 2-1
Blackpool v West Ham 2-2
Bolton v Wolves 1-1
Fulham v Newcastle 2-1
Liverpool v Stoke 2-0

Andy Gray

Andy Gray is obviously sexist and a complete twat, we all knew he was a twat which he proved by suggesting the female lino needed to learn the offside rule, when he should have just said all premier match officials need to learn the offside rule.
Every week we are treated to incompetence by the usually male officials but he decided to pick on the woman for some reason, as it turned out she made a really good decision in the Liverpool v Wolves game meaning Liverpool actually scored a rare onside goal :)
Still can't believe Sky paid this idiot £1.7 Million a year for his "expert"?? services, so hopefully that means the prices will come down now?

They also got rid of that weird hairy guy Keys who I doubt anyone will miss.

I'm now hoping that unseen footage of Lawrenson, Townsend, Shearer and smarmy git Lineker will appear so we don't have to put up with that lot any more.

O'Neill O'Neil

So is it possible that an insider told the press we were signing O'Neil and they got the wrong end of the stick?

Gutted

Had to listen to the match on the radio at work as I don't have Sky at home so it wasn't worth taking time off, I know I could have gone to a local pub and watched it but that usually ends up in aggro even if we win.
As it was my co-workers gave me plenty of space as I tend to get a bit emotional during these ocassions throwing a selection of expletives their way if things weren't going my way, when I shouted "c***" it wasn't directed at anyone in particular just a reaction to the state of the game :)
The highs and lows of football supporting were all there tonight, the elation of taking a 3-1 aggregate lead and looking like certs for Wembley to the total despair as we went 3-1 down on the night for a 4-3 defeat.
My take on the game was that we played really well and just lacked a little in front of goal with Walton's decision to send Piquionne off on Saturday costing us dear again, having to bring Fatboy McCarthy on proved we were a striker short.
Rob Green will no doubt get criticised for the winning goal but once again had played a blinder making half a dozen world class saves to keep us in the match, Tomkins again putting Upson to shame as the class act of the defence, Parker doing what he does best and Carton Cole scoring a brilliant goal and looking more like the striker he was last season.
Birmingham probably played as well as they ever have in the second half and possibly deserved the victory, if I wasn't so biased I'd be happy for Craig Gardener who really deserved the goal after hitting the post twice.
The ref had a reasonable game being blind in equal measures, missing several good penalty shouts for both teams although I think he should have sent Jerome off for his deliberate stamp on Tomkins and he missed Beausojor's? attack on Dyer which left the injured one with a bloody nose.
I don't dislike Birmingham so hope they can show the same form against Arsenal in the final, for a "big" team just one main trophy in their history is not much of a return so it would be a good time for a second.

Hero To Zero?

Freddie Piquionne scores late on with a possible winner in West Ham's best performance in ages and then it all goes to pot as another premier referee decides to make a name for himself ("twat" seems like a good one).
I just watched Match of the day and the league show and countless players who scored ran to the crowd and several jumped in and only one of them got booked and that was Piquionne? who then gets sent off for a second bookable :(
In the same game Fellaini ran to the crowd after scoring (and he'd already been booked) but nothing was done ... surprise surprise.
Paranoid? yeah I'm getting that way, earlier in the season Piquionne scored a great late winner away to Wolves but Twattenburg claimed he had handled and disallowed the goal and booked him even though it was obvious to everyone he had chested the ball down, one of many crap refereeing decisions that have cost us a bundle of points.

Just had one thought, if we move to the Olympic stadium this might not happen again because he'd be worn out by the time he reached the crowd :)

Prem Predictions (Week 21)

Some extra games this week catching up with those postponed due to snow.
I've actually predicted a Hammers loss this week (trying the reverse psychology?) so I can't lose :) not a happy hunting ground for us, but not many are these days.
Most games are a bit run of the mill this week, only stand outs are can Wolves do the double over Liverpool, will the slightly improving Chelsea perform against Bolton who have gone off the boil and will Blackpool pull off something against Man U?

Saturday
Wolves v Liverpool 2-1
Arsenal v Wigan 4-0
Blackpool v Sunderland 2-1
Everton v West Ham 2-0
Fulham v Stoke 1-1
Man Utd v Birmingham 2-1
Newcastle v Tottenham 2-2
Aston Villa v Man City 1-2

Sunday
Blackburn v West Brom 3-2

Monday
Bolton v Chelsea 1-1

Tuesday
Blackpool v Man Utd 1-3
Wigan v Aston Villa 1-2

Wednesday
Liverpool v Fulham 1-1

The Lee v Longy Challenge so far - Lee 5 Longy 4 Draws 2

Laughing Stock

Should have expected a bunch of tits when the ex Sunday sport chief took over, but never believed they could fuck things up quite so badly in a such a short space of time :(
These people were supposed to have done a good job at Birmingham but seem not to have a clue how to run a football club now? ... piss up, brewery etc.
They come in and straightaway undermine Zola, after telling him his job was safe Sullivan uses the press to criticise him and slag off the team daily then we have the "one game from the sack" routine going for the rest of the season.
Sullivan announces that the whole squad apart from Parker are up for sale.
Finally they sack Zola after he keeps us up and bring in Grant who has just overseen Portsmouth's relegation, again they say they will back him but as Grant says "I had more money to spend at Portsmouth" who were close to going out of business.
A few months into the season and the comments start appearing again and we've had several "save our season" games already.
Then we get Saturday's "O'Neill is the new Hammers boss" headlines ahead of our game with Arsenal, Grant seems to deal with it quite well but gives the appearance it's goodbye but you can't blame him for not walking when they're going to have to pay up his contract to sack him.
As expected O'Neill seems to have ruled out the move and who can blame him, he quit Villa due to the lack of investment in the team and if he goes to West Ham he'd have absolutely nothing to spend and just a fight to keep the players he inherits.
So where does that leave us? Grant to carry on after he's been totally undermined? or bring in Allardyce or Jol or some other failed manager.
I think Sullivan, Gold and Brady might have ridden the storm if they could land O'Neill but anyone else just ain't gonna do it.

R.I.P Nat Lofthouse

One of the true legends of English football Nat Lofthouse died today aged 85.
He spent his whole career at Bolton scoring 255 goals in 452 games, and scored 30 goals in 33 England appearances.

What's Happening?

Currently watching West Ham being taken apart by Arsenal :(
No Parker and Noble injured early on means it doesn't look good for the second half.
Anyway what is going on with the Hammers manager situation? reports seem to suggest that Martin O'Neill is the new Hammers manager yet Grant is still there? if it's true why on earth would you keep him there for such an important game when he's out of the job whatever the result, just do the decent thing and sack him.
But as we saw with Zola, Sullivan and Gold seem to do anything but the decent thing as far as managers are concerned.
If it is to be Martin O'Neill I would be happy as he was the only one of the names mentioned that I actually like, but last week he was supposed to have ruled himself out of the job so I don't know.
Hopefully whoever takes over will keep faith with the young talent coming through like Sears, Hines, Collison, Tomkins etc and not buy a load of dodgy foreigners for short term success.

Predictions (Week 20)

After all the cup games it's back to the league, so here's my take on this weeks games which include a lot of derbies.
The Hammers take on Arsenal and I'm guessing they might try the long ball game after Arsenal started whinging about it after losing to Ipswich :)
Kenny Dalglish will try to break his 100% losing record against Everton, I fancy Everton to keep the misery going.
Man Utd probably face their toughest game this season against in form Tottenham, could go either way?
North East cup failures Sunderland and Newcastle meet at the stadium of gloom and I don't really care who wins, just hope it's a bad tempered game with lots of sending offs :)
Brum v Villa, current form means they'll both lose but I fancy Birmingham to sneak it.
The other games Chelsea and City should win, West Brom's chances have improved as Carson has been dropped, and I predict wins for Stoke and Fulham in the last 2.

Chelsea v Blackburn 2-0
Man City v Wolves 2-0
Stoke v Bolton 2-1
West Brom v Blackpool 2-2
Wigan v Fulham 1-2
West Ham v Arsenal 2-1
Birmingham v Aston Villa 3-2
Sunderland v Newcastle 1-1
Liverpool v Everton 0-1
Tottenham v Man Utd 1-1

Avram Grant

He wouldn't have been my choice as West Ham manager and I still find him a bit creepy, but surely it's time for everyone to get off his back and let him get on with it, rather than every day hearing that it's going to be his last day in the job.
All the names being talked about as successors have one thing in common they've all been fired for being crap somewhere or other so why not give this guy the rest of the season instead of bringing in another failed manager to fuck things up even more.
I'm beginning to warm to him as despite having a bunch of players out injured and supposedly no money our recent results haven't been too bad.
The last 7 games have seen 4 wins 2 draws and just that one bad defeat at Newcastle when he lost his lucky scarf!!
Our season start was terrible with 4 defeats but since then the record stands at 9 wins 8 draws and only 6 defeats which isn't too terrible, it looks bad that we're bottom of the table but one win puts us 14th.
Two of the defeats hurt, the one at Newcastle and the surrender to a shite Liverpool team but if the winner against Wolves hadn't been disallowed by the blind ref and we'd been given the blatant penalty at Birmingham we'd have been in 12th position today.
I say carry on Avram ... no doubt with my prediction history though the headlines will be Grant sacked tomorrow :)

The Cup

A good weekend in the 3rd round of the FA cup, 5 Premier league teams bite the dust and 4 more face replays.
Best results saw the big 2 in the North East lose to lower league teams Newcastle thrashed by Stevenage (such a shame haha) and Sunderland lose at home to Notts County.
Blackpool were beaten by Southampton but I guess Holloway wasn't too upset, and West Brom's poor run continues by losing to Reading.
Chelsea put the league behind them to put 7 past managerless Ipswich, Fulham hit 6, Everton hit 5 and even West Ham win :)
Dalglish's return to Liverpool failed to inspire the players as they looked even worse against Man Utd who were pretty poor themselves with only Giggs performing with credit, the only goal was a penalty after Berbatov went down easily and if Dalglish (who spent most of his Liverpool playing career diving for penalties) says it was a dive then it probably was.

Bye Roy

So finally Roy Hodgson joins the unemployed in Liverpool, the first premier manager we've actually expected to be sacked this season.
Seems a bit odd to do it on the eve of their match with Man U, but obviously the new owners are hoping that by appointing Kenny Dalgish it will inspire the team to perform tomorrow?
Dalglish last managed Liverpool 20 years ago but you can't help thinking whoever fills this job permanently needs a complete new team Gerrard, Torres and Reina might be great players but they must all be looking elsewhere for a team likely to win something.

Strongest Team In The League ...

11 Everton 21 25 -2
12 Liverpool 20 25 -3
13 Blackpool 19 25 -5
14 Fulham 21 22 -2
15 Birmingham 20 22 -5
16 West Brom 21 22 -13
17 Wolverhampton 21 21 -13
18 Aston Villa 21 21 -15
19 Wigan 21 21 -15
20 West Ham 22 20 -16


Only 5 points cover the bottom half of the table, still all to play for.

The Next Week

No predictions this week as it's FA Cup and League cup time.
Although there is one league game next week which might be Roy Hodgson's final nail in the coffin (if he's still there) as Liverpool go to Blackpool.
One thing that might save Hodgson is if Liverpool win at Man Utd in the cup, I can't see it happening myself but you never know if Fergie is going to stick the reserves out to concentrate on the big 2 trophies.
Other FA Cup highlights are some tricky ties for a few of the premier teams, I'll be praying we don't have our usual cup struggles against lower league teams when we take on Barnsley.
Leeds won at Man U last year and this year travel to Arsenal which might be good, Birmingham go to Millwall, Villa go to Sheff Utd (I hope Villa win as I hate Sheff Utd for obvious reasons), Blackburn take on form team QPR, Wigan go to Hull which might be difficult, Newcastle go to Stevenage which could be a good story.
On Sunday there's the big game United vs Liverpool, Chelsea should scrape through against Ipswich who will probably field a reserve team ready for next weeks big Carling cup game, Man City have to go to Leicester now managed by former city boss Sven and Spurs play Charlton who have just sacked the management team for some reason?

Next Tuesday the big one West Ham v Birmingham, only the first leg but pretty vital we come away with a win as I believe this is what is keeping Grant in a job.
Arsenal v Ipswich should be a walk in the park for the Gooners.

Current Form

At Longy's request here's the current form (last 6 games) table for the Premiership.
Good news for Chelsea is that thanks to their dodgy win against Bolton they are only the 4th worst team in the league now :)
West ham despite the unexpected thrashing last night are still showing better form than 10 others, so still some hope left.
One thing it shows is that Roberto Di Matteo and Alex McLeish could be joining the sack race.

Top 6 - W D L GD PTS
1 Man United 5 1 0 +11 16
2 Man City 4 1 1 +8 13
3 Arsenal 3 2 1 +5 11
4 Tottenham 3 2 1 +3 11
5 Blackpool 3 1 2 +2 10
6 Sunderland 3 1 2 +1 10
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10 West Ham 2 2 2 -3 8
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15 Blackburn 2 1 3 -2 7
16 Liverpool 2 0 4 -2 6
17 Chelsea 1 3 2 -2 6
18 Birmingham 1 3 2 -3 6
19 Aston Villa 1 1 4 -8 4
20 West Brom 1 0 5 -7 3

Only Fools

An oldie but goody :)

Transfers

There have been no actual transfers in the Premier league yet, so silly season seems to have begun.
Blackburn's chicken farmers have made noises about bringing Ronaldinho and Beckham to Ewood park!! as well as Roque Santa Cruz and Damien Duff.
The last 2 are possibles but Ronaldinho? has he ever heard of Blackburn and as far as I know he's having a good season at Milan so he's not over the hill and looking for a last pay day, Beckham no chance and it also looks like he won't be going to Tottenham either after Redknapp finally realised it would screw up his team.
West Ham's one "done deal" for Steve Sidwell seems to be falling through after passing a medical he now wants to talk to other teams? obviously Grant actually wanted him to play for his money rather than sit on the bench as he's done for Chelsea and Villa.
Tottenham and Liverpool seem to be linked to a whole host of players and maybe they might get one or two of them.
Adebayor looks certain to be loaned or sold after the latest bust up at City, but I've heard no more about him coming to the Hammers, City look like buying Bosnian Dzeko from Steve McClaren's Wolfsburg for about 30 million meaning Adebayor will have virtually no chance of a game.

Gary Neville

Relegation

Getting very tight at the bottom, it's going to make for a very good end of season

09 Liverpool ... 19 -1 25
10 Blackpool ... 18 -4 25
11 Blackburn ... 21 -8 25
12 Newcastle ... 19 -3 22
13 Everton ..... 20 -3 22
14 West Brom ... 20 -10 22
15 West Ham .... 21 -11 20
16 Aston Villa . 19 -14 20
17 Wigan ....... 19 -14 20
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18 Fulham ...... 20 -5 19
19 Birmingham .. 19 -6 19
20 Wolves ...... 20 -14 18

Referees

Having refereed a few games in the past I know it's not easy to see everything and watching on television with multiple camera angles can make you look a fool, but once again this season you just wonder if these well paid guys and their assistants have actually taken an eyesight test? some of the decisions this season are beyond belief.
Both Man U and West Brom were victims of Chris Foy's blindness yesterday with Neville's obvious foul nowhere near the ball and Thomas's blatant handball both being missed? that one evened out but Bolton must be sick after having been done twice in a week this time by Kevin Friend and his lino who somehow didn't see that Joe Cole was never onside for his goal and also missing obvious handballs in the penalty area by both teams.
I suppose it gives us all something to talk about, but it shouldn't be.