Zamora

I'm totally gutted for Bobby Zamora who suffered a broken leg yesterday and will be out at least 4 months.
He'd finally got a chance to play for England and looked really good in his brief appearance and now this.
A bit of a joke player at West Ham due to the fact his shooting was on the whole abysmal, but you could never fault his effort, even when we were getting thrashed he was trying his best and that's why I was so annoyed when they sold him to Fulham.
As it turns out it was the best move of Bobby's career as Roy Hodgson gave him the chance to play every week and he showed last season just how good he really was (and his shooting improved).
Hopefully he can come back just as good, Heskey got all those caps because he could hold the ball up but Bobby does it better and can actually score as well.

Saturday

Well the predictions were rubbish (as usual) but it seemed like a good day in the Premier league.
Arsenal won helped by a dubious sending off of Gary Cahill, all the goals were supposed to be goal of the month contenders so it will be worth watching, also we can have a laugh at Alex Songs new haircut.
Fulham won despite having lumps kicked out of them by Wolves Bobby Zamora didn't survive the battle.
The Hammers obviously lost but it might have been closer the commentary said that Piquionnandon managed to miss an open goal from a yard out after Parker had finally pulled one back (the first league goal conceded this season by Chelsea).
Man Utd managed to drop 2 points after leading 3-1 in injury time, Rooney was rested .
Blackburn held Man City thanks to some great defending.
Tottenham held West Brom thanks to Carlo Cudicini, Modric became the latest Spud on crutches.
Asamoah Gyan came on to score and pay off some of that £13 million for Sunderland against Wigan but it wasn't enough as Wigan equalised.
The star performance of the day was Blackpool who won at Newcastle although it sounded like Blackpool keeper Gilkes was the man of the match, Holly should be buzzing.

You Gotta Laugh

The missus bought me this several years back and sadly it's still relevant :(

I work for a company full of glory hunters all fans of Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal and Tottenham so things aren't easy at the moment, but it was nice to talk to a new guy who started this week who was proud to be a Leyton Orient fan ... made me feel all superior haha, no it was great to talk to someone who wasn't full of s**t.

Predictions (Week 4)

Back from the International break and several teams missing a few players, a couple of games catch the eye - Everton v Man U with Rooney back to Goodison probably expecting a hard time even before last weeks stories and Moyes v Ferguson is always a good battle.
The big one West Ham v Chelsea
Chelsea 3 wins, top of the table and a goal tally of 14-0
West Ham zero points, bottom of the table 1 goal and 9 against
Foregone conclusion ..... a West Ham win :)

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

England 3 Swiss 1

I would comment on the England performance but I can only go on the interrupted commentary I heard on Radio 5 while I was at work :(
I got home and said to the wife "what time are the highlights on?" and she said "are you sure it was on tonight?", "yeah I've been listening to it, we won 3-1" I said, "well it's not on tonight" she says.
It turns out it was only on Sky and the BBC and ITV don't even have highlights, bastards!!
It's the fucking national team why do we have to pay a fortune to that cunt Murdoch to watch it, these games should always be on the terrestrial TV.

Anyway it sounds like we played well so that will have to be my review.
Did have fun taking the piss out of my Scots workmates when they were losing to the mighty Liechtenstein but sadly they came back to scrape a win in the dying minutes.
Other highlight of the night was World champions Spain getting tonked by Argentina 4-1.

England And The Press

After the first decent England performance in a long while and definitely the best performance by Wayne Rooney since his injury the scum press have decided it's time to do a character assassination on the Shrek lookalike.
Obviously a succesful England team doesn't sell papers so they've trawled up some old news on the eve of our first big game since the World cup to try and scupper any praise that might be flying around after Friday's decent win against Bulgaria.
I'm guessing this was going to be used just before the World cup but they realised everyone would turn on them as we were all expecting them to do it at a time when Rooney was being hailed as the man who would win us the World cup.
So Wayne visits prostitutes, I seem to remember he's been doing this for years and would Colleen be sleeping with him if he was a penniless scouse chav? I doubt it so why the shock.
At the time of the alleged incidents last year he was playing like one of the best players on earth so I think Fabio and the team should chip in and buy him another prossie before Tuesday :)

As for Friday's game I realise Bulgaria aren't Germany but it was a good performance, Joe Hart looked super confident on his full debut, Ashley Cole just gets better, Rooney was excellent and Defoe did what he does best.
Gerrard benefited from not having Lampard in his way and even Gareth Barry looked like he'd remembered how to play, Dawson got injured which is a stroke of luck as he makes Upson look like Usain Bolt, Jagielka is a good player who I feel is still a bit nervous but should get better with more games under his belt.
Walcott had a few good moments but disappointed on the whole while sub Adam Johnson took his chance to shine very well.
Glen Johnson was probably the failure of the night and was lucky that Bulgaria didn't test him as some better teams will in the future, although I'm struggling to think of another decent English Right back to challenge for his position.
So on to Tuesday with an away game to Switzerland who should be our hardest opposition in this tame group, a draw will be an acceptable result (probably not for the scum press) and we should win all the other games.
My prediction would be an England win though as the Swiss despite beating Spain at the World cup really arent't that good.

The pick of the other results was France's 1-0 home defeat by Belarus proving that the Irish curse put on them after they cheated their way into the World cup is still going strong :)

Missed It

Just catching up with everything after my four days in the wilds of Cornwall, no TV or internet so missed everything that's been happening, and then the computer wouldn't work when I got home yesterday (just managed to fix it again).
Looking at the scores I see a few unexpected results, Chelsea only managing 2, Wigan winning at Tottenham which took West Ham to the bottom but it was worth it to have a go at the Spuds fans, Man city losing to Sunderland I have MOTD2 recorded so I haven't seen the miss by my favourite Argentinean yet, and Blackpool claiming another point (only another 36 needed possibly).
The transfer window closed with a few names moving, Sunderland signed Asamoah Gyan the Ghana player which could be a great move or expensive flop? Spurs signed Van der Valk from Real Madrid, West Ham signed someone called Rude Boffin?, Stoke sign 4 players who used to be good once upon a time, and Blackpool signed a DJ to get Holloway dancing. Will have a closer look at everything when I get some time.

England play Friday and I've just read that Berbatov has retired? so won't be playing for Uncle Bulgaria, as for England the curse of the keeper has struck again with Ben Foster getting his usual pre-England injury and Scott Carson doing the decent thing and picking up a bad back meaning Hart's back up's are likely to be Loach, Fielding or James Shea? I think I'm in front of Rob Green so he might as well hang up his England gloves.
Plenty of injuries for the outfield players as well with Lumpard, Terry, Zamora and Crouch all missing and several others carrying injuries like Defoe and Jagielka so the starting line up is a bit of a mystery, hopefully Theo Walcott will get a chance.

Just checked my predictions and it was a bit better this week 6/10 with 3 correct scores so probably would have made some money if I'd been at home to back them?
Back soon gotta go to bed now :)

Predictions (Week 3)

I'll get these in early as I'm off to the rainy south-west to visit one of the kids this weekend and he hasn't got internet :(
Hopefully a better try than last weeks pathetic 4/10 with no correct scores .. rubbish.

Blackburn v Arsenal 1-2
Blackpool v Fulham 0-1
Chelsea v Stoke 6-0 (of course)
Tottenham v Wigan 2-0
Wolverhampton v Newcastle 1-1
Man Utd v West Ham 3-0 :(
Bolton v Birmingham 1-1
Liverpool v West Brom 2-1
Sunderland v Man City 0-2
Aston Villa v Everton 1-1

No games next week due to internationals which take place on a Friday night for some reason, annoying as I'll be at work and the radio reception is crap.
Hopefully West Ham can do the decent thing on Saturday and crock Berbatov as we're playing Bulgaria :)

Week 2

The big 3 are already in position after just 2 games which doesn't look good for the rest, worryingly for me West Ham with Wigan are already looking like relegation candidates :(
Can't believe some of the scores recently, results over 5-0 have been rare in the premier league throughout the years but since Chelsea and Spurs went mad at the end of last year we've had a mass of crazy results, this weekend alone Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle!! have all hit six, the Newcastle result can't have been expected by anyone even die hard bar-codes.
Andy Carroll has pushed his England claims a bit further and maybe he is the answer to our problems?

Impressive

Chelsea have made a dream start with two 6-0 wins and they play Stoke next who they smashed 7-0 last season followed by West Ham and Blackpool, looks like they're going for a 100 goals before Christmas.
At least they have 3 tough games after that where we should find out if they really are as good as they seem at the moment.

West Ham's season is already looking bad with 2 defeats and games against Man Utd and Chelsea next up! At least Wigan managed to drop below the Hammers on goal difference for a week at least.
Next week the Hammers go to Old Trafford and Wigan face Tottenham who beat them 9-1 last season.

Holloway's On Form

4.25pm Blackpool are currently 5-0 down which brings them back to reality after last weeks amazing result, but I was just watching Ian Holloway's latest press conference :)
He mostly made a lot of sense but loses the plot brilliantly near the end when comparing running the team to the film "Men in Black"? Bosh!! Zap!!
BBC Video Link - Some young players are Monsters

Oh s**t, the Hammers are now 2 down with a missed penalty and an Upson own goal :(

Ray Winstone Says ..

Ray Winstone tells us to back the 2018 World Cup bid by wearing our England shirts on Tuesday, so who's gonna argue with Ray? we'd better do it but it just seems strange that there he is wearing a black jumper with an ordinary shirt underneath? is he also saying we mustn't wear an England shirt on any other day?
Ray has been known to wear football shirts before (see below) so it just seems an odd choice of picture to front a campaign?

Are They Serious?

William Gallas to Tottenham, Craig Bellamy to Cardiff, Edgar Davids to Crystal Palace?
It's not April 1st is it?

Predictions (Week 2)

Last weeks effort produced 5/10 correct results with 2 correct scores, not great but good for me :)
This weeks attempt (with added bookies odds for correct score)

Arsenal v Blackpool 3-0 (6/1)
Birmingham v Blackburn 1-0 (6/1)
Everton v Wolves 2-1 (15/2)
Stoke v Tottenham 1-0 (7/1)
WBA v Sunderland 2-1 (17/2)
West Ham v Bolton 1-1 (6/1)
Wigan v Chelsea 1-4 (10/1)
Newcastle v Aston Villa 1-2 (17/2)
Fulham v Man Utd 0-2 (13/2)
Man City v Liverpool 1-1 (11/2)

Betting info:
So 2 correct scores again would make a profit if you covered all 10 games, although with my hit and miss gambling record I wouldn't recommend anyone putting their life savings on these :)
My biggest successes on football gambling have come on foreign games that I've known little about! Won £370 predicting correctly 7 results from the Swedish league for a £2 bet and a couple of years back won £240 on a Seville win due to my ignorance! I looked up the latest scores and saw Seville were 1-0 up with only 5 minutes left so I checked the in-play odds and Seville were 3-1 to win? so chucked an £80 bet on thinking this was easy money not realising that the other team had equalised before I put the bet on! the odds were up to date my scores weren't ... but luckily Seville scored a last minute winner ... phew!! :)

Wigan v Chelsea is one of those games that shows it's virtually impossible to predict correct scores, last seasons results were -
Wigan 3 Chelsea 1 and Chelsea 8 Wigan 0 !!

I only predict a draw for West Ham as they always seem to lose if I tip them to win and vice versa, I was in a well known footie forums prediction league a few seasons ago and the Hammers end of season impressive run coincided with my decision to predict them to lose every week, I know most people think Carlos Tevez saved them that season but I think my reverse logic helped out no end :)

Jokes

Best one I heard today -
Police officers arrive at the Steven Gerrard mansion after a recent robbery "I swear officer, there were 6 Premiership medals in the cabinet", says Stevie,
"Come on Mr Gerrard, you're a good player, but you're no Phil Neville".

Having A Bad Week

Joe Cole must be wondering who he's upset after having a pretty bad time recently, obviously his Liverpool wages will be some comfort to him but it's been a downhill slope since signing for them.
Dropped by England, sent off (unluckily) on his premier league debut, in court over a possible driving ban for speeding last November, and now missing a penalty in the Europa league qualifier while also being blamed for a foul he didn't commit causing another goal to be disallowed.
Not sure why he took the penalty as I've never seen him take one before (or again?) and Torres was on the field who has taken pens before.

Comedy Gold

I heard so many jokes yesterday about the Spuds game against the Young Boys at the Wankdoff stadium, most of them in serious bad taste so I won't repeat them here (.. just Google the keywords), but the biggest laugh of the night was hearing the kids were 3 up after just half an hour :)
Sadly Arry's mob came from behind .. to grab 2 away goals which probably means they've got a good chance of going through but it was great while it lasted :)

Calamity Keepers

Going on the Robert Green experiences I'm guessing these two with be total laughing stocks and never play for their clubs again?
Oh yeah? I'm sure they will both be playing next week and most supporters will have forgiven them already because they're not English and don't play for West Ham

First Day

First day done and trust Chelsea to spoil it, the big story of the day was Blackpool's 4-0 drubbing of Wigan, I expected Wigan to struggle this year but didn't expect that :)
I'll gloss over Villa's win till I've seen it (sure it was lucky), fancied by some? teams Spurs and City had a bore draw, Everton started badly again.

To be continued when I've seen the highlights

Predictions (Week 1)

Depending on my success rate this might be a one off :)
Here are my score predictions for this weekends premier league games.

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