Gary Speed

RIP Gary Speed :(

What a shocker, a great player for many years and he was turning out to be Wales best manager in many years.
Really saddened by this.

Gone To The Dogs

Premier Predictions (Week 13)

Got to end this serious losing streak :(

Stoke v Blackburn
Bolton v Everton
Chelsea v Wolves
Man Utd v Newcastle
Norwich v QPR
Sunderland v Wigan
West Brom v Tottenham
Arsenal v Fulham

Swansea v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Man City

Huddersfield

Congratulations to Hudderfield Town on breaking Nottingham Forest's record of 42 unbeaten football league games today.
They still need another 7 to break Arsenal's all time English record of 49 unbeaten which was achieved in the FA Premier league a few years back, but still a brilliant achievement so far.

One trivia fact from my youth - many years back around 1970? I collected footie cards in packs with bubble gum and had most of the cards from 21 of the 22 of the teams, for some reason no Huddersfield players were available?

Premier Predictions (Week 12)

Back to proper footie again and hopefully I can stop the rot :)
This weeks games over 3 days and sadly for me the Tottenham game could be the decider again (I might tip them to win so I won't feel so bad if I get that one wrong again).
Big games this week are Man U going to hard to beat Swansea, and Newcastle taking their unbeaten record to top team City also Torres v Liverpool :)

Norwich v Arsenal
Everton v Wolves
Man City v Newcastle
Stoke v QPR
Sunderland v Fulham
West Brom v Bolton
Wigan v Blackburn
Swansea v Man Utd

Chelsea v Liverpool

Tottenham v Aston Villa

A Rare Treat

England friendlies are usually pretty dull affairs and I expected this to be the same.
Odds were that Spain would play the ball about and probably snatch a winner after England had given the ball away on countless occasions but it ended up as a really good contest.
The first half was pretty even and a bit predictable, but the second half was probably England's best performance for a long while.
Lescott, Jagielka and Cole looked solid at the back and Parker despite him being a money grabbing judas was excellent.

Good Luck

Good luck to East Thurrock United who take on Macclesfield later in the 1st round of the FA Cup, it's the first time the Rocks have got this far so hopefully they can put in a decent display.
My interest comes from the fact they used to be the nearest club to where I grew up, although I've probably only seen them play half a dozen times as the Hammers, Southend, Grays and Tilbury were the teams I followed in my youth.

Premier Predictions (Week 11)

All the top sides play Saturday, and they should all win?
But it doesn't always work out that way :)

Newcastle v Everton
Arsenal v West Brom
Aston Villa v Norwich
Blackburn v Chelsea
Liverpool v Swansea
Man Utd v Sunderland
QPR v Man City

Wolves v Wigan
Bolton v Stoke
Fulham v Tottenham

Premier Predictions (Week 10)

Week 10 and it's all square 3 wins each and 3 draws.
Last week looked an easy one to predict but I only managed 1 point!! so I might have to go for a few results that I wouldn't put money on.
Games over 3 days including a Halloween special with scary Stoke and Newcastle who must have done a deal with the devil to be as high as 4th.

Everton v Man Utd
Chelsea v Arsenal
Man City v Wolves
Norwich v Blackburn
Sunderland v Aston Villa
Swansea v Bolton
Wigan v Fulham
West Brom v Liverpool

Tottenham v QPR

Stoke v Newcastle

Muppet

Losing The Plot?

Probably not a good idea to ask refs to keep a close eye on Luis Suarez because they might just notice what the rest of us see on telly, I admit he did actually stay on his feet once yesterday against Norwich when he had the opportunity to go down for a penalty but on the whole he hits the floor with ease.
Listening to Kenny recently I reckon a return to the retirement home isn't too far away.

Attendances

Top 20 average attendances so far 2011/12 season

1 Manchester United 75,478
2 Arsenal 59,995
3 Manchester City 46,905
4 Newcastle United 46,111
5 Liverpool 44,932
6 Chelsea 41,611
7 Sunderland 37,890
8 Tottenham Hotspur 36,184
9 Everton 34,707
10 Aston Villa 32,447
11* West Ham United 29,408
12 Stoke City 27,371
13 Norwich City 26,276
14* Derby County 25,847
15* Southampton 25,309
16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 24,779
17 Fulham 24,768
18 West Bromwich Albion 24,244
19 Bolton Wanderers 24,089
20* Leeds United 23,098

Premier Predictions (Week 9)

Highlight of the weekend is the Manchester derby, nothing much else to worry about so should be a good points week?

Wolves v Swansea
Aston Villa v West Brom
Bolton v Sunderland
Newcastle v Wigan
Liverpool v Norwich

Arsenal v Stoke
Fulham v Everton
Man Utd v Man City
Blackburn v Tottenham
QPR v Chelsea

The Big One

1 Southampton - PL 11 PTS 23 GD +13
2 West Ham - PL 11 PTS 21 GD +12

West Ham's second chance of the season to go top (they blew the first one against Ipswich a few weeks back).
Southampton are looking the best team in the Championship so far having just come up from League One and five straight league victories at home is pretty impressive.
The Hammers seem to be improving all the time and Fat Sam's squad are gelling together nicely.
The Hammers are unbeaten in five away games this season so something has to give.
Saturday's 4-0 win over Blackpool was probably our best game so far even without Lansbury, Green, O'Brien and Cole.
Would be a good game to win although there is still over three quarters of the season to go.

Premier Predictions (Week 8)

Back to the proper football this week :)
A few big ones this week with Man U off to Anfield, Chelsea at home to bogey team Everton, City playing unbeaten Villa and Newcastle's first big test.

Liverpool v Man Utd
Man City v Aston Villa
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Blackburn
Stoke v Fulham
Wigan v Bolton
Chelsea v Everton

West Brom v Wolves
Arsenal v Sunderland
Newcastle v Tottenham

Lucky Escape?

So the Olympic stadium move is dead in the water, although Mrs Brady old lady is still talking about us renting it for some reason?
Surely we should just back off for about 10 years when I guess we will have a big white elephant stadium making absolutely no money and we should be able to pick up the site for a fraction of the money and all this legacy crap has been forgotten.

I see Harringay council are bribing the scum to stay in Tottenham with a deal that would save them £17 million if they build a new stadium where they are? sounds like state aid to me?

Chelsea Travellers

Interesting pair of Chelsea stories this week.
One is about Chelsea asking shareholders who bought shares back in 1993 known as the "Chelsea Pitch Owners" to sell them back to the club for the same price they paid then £100. Considering Chelsea were in deep shit back then and are now one of Europe's big teams you would have thought they would be willing to pay a bit of a loyalty premium to thank their fans for keeping the club safe through the dark times, but it seems not? Chairman Bruce Buck says "the club would not be held to ransom, and there was no room for negotiation".
The other Chelsea story this week ties in with this one quite well, Roman Abramovich is currently in court accused of intimidating former partner Boris Berezovsky into selling his shares in a Russian oil company at a fraction of their value, sounds familiar.

Chelsea fans are going mad at proposals to knock down Stamford Bridge.
One fan said "You can't just bulldoze 7 years of history".

England

Friday at 8pm England play Montenegro in our most important game since last years World cup, but does anyone care?
Nobody at work has even mentioned England this week and even listening to Radio 5's football chat last night it was an after thought at the end of the programme just to remind you to listen on Friday.
I suppose England's dismal performance last year killed a lot of people's enthusiasm, but the fact that most England games are not even being shown as highlights on terrestrial television anymore means most people don't actually care anymore.
Darren Bent's best England matches have all been in games not shown and it has amazed me how many of my relatives and friends didn't know he was even an England player?

Sunday Football

No Torres = 5-1 away win for Chelsea, obviously AVB's boot up Lumpard's fat arse did the trick as he has returned from his spell on the bench with a hat-trick today after his goal in midweek.
Who would have believed after Bolton's 4-0 away win on the opening day that 6 games later they would have lost the lot and conceded 23 goals?

Fulham 6 QPR 0 !! Hahahahaha ... sack Warnock.

Swansea 2 Stoke 0 Nice to see Danny Graham finally managed to hit the target.

Spuds v Arses to follow ..... can't be bothered

Table Toppers

West Ham blew their chance of going top this week, but my local club managed it tonight after beating Shrewsbury 3-0 :)
I post this because I have a feeling they won't be there later in the season although I hope I'm wrong ... well done Southend :)