Football

Fret not poor Arsenal, for ye has a date with the Villa on Saturday!

Schalke shouldn't be in the competition, let alone Drogba.

I think I'll be giving MOTD a miss this weekend. Again.

I think I'll be giving MOTD a miss this weekend. Again.

What's your run in for the next few weeks like? You'e not going to do anything silly like get involved in the pig fight down at the bottom are you?

It's Fulham on Saturday, then QPR away and Norwich at home. I'm hoping we can take a minimum of five points from those three games because our subsequent run of fixtures makes me want to hide under my duvet and cry.

I'm like a day or two late but i still have to toot my real madrid whistle

Barca really should be starting VIlla up front with Messi cause clearly Pedro (or Fabregas or whoever) isn't cutting it and the other plays haven't been stepping up when Messi's been shut down lately.

Not uncommon for Barca to look somewhat jaded and uncomfortable between January and March then resurgent later, but with the players more or less managing themselves in Vilanova's unfortunate absence, it'll be interesting to see how they get on between now and the end of the season.

Bet AVB had a bit of a laugh (in his detuned radio voice) looking at the Premier League table last night. A deserved poke in the eye for Chelsea and particularly for the press, whose pathetic stories of crisis during his first few months at Spurs are now conspicuous by their absence.

The only injustice going on last night was Ferguson's unwillingness to come out and give the 98% of humanity that despises him a few guffaws through his timeless brand of belligerent grandad post-match interview schtick.

I find it rather amusing that the same folks who were ready to lynch Nigel De Jong for essentially the same foul in the World Cup final are now outraged that the ref gave Nani a deserved red card.

If you launch yourself at an opponent with studs showing, you're crossing a line - especially in the current climate. Nani was reckless, and the ref made a harsh but correct call. What I'd be interested to know is whether Nani going down as if injured (which you'll often see when a player knows he's in trouble and wants to deflect attention) swayed the ref's decision in any way or gave him more time to deliberate. Pure speculation on my part of course, but he may have had a chance of escaping the red card had he got straight back to his feet afterwards.

Defeat to Schalke is rarely a secondary matter but today it is (still incredibly annoyed, mind). Thank goodness for that. Had to win, HAD TO WIN. When Baker spoons one into his own goal like that you weigh up the options, planning the midweek journey to Barnsley for August or reaching for the Samaritans hotline. Must beat Wheeler Dealer next week, please God let it happen.

If you launch yourself at an opponent with studs showing, you're crossing a line - especially in the current climate. Nani was reckless, and the ref made a harsh but correct call. What I'd be interested to know is whether Nani going down as if injured (which you'll often see when a player knows he's in trouble and wants to deflect attention) swayed the ref's decision in any way or gave him more time to deliberate. Pure speculation on my part of course, but he may have had a chance of escaping the red card had he got straight back to his feet afterwards.

?????

He was controlling the ball and Arbeloa can from behiend.

I wasn't saying Nani showed intent to maim, I was saying that he couldn't have realistically expected to leap kung-fu style, pluck the ball out of the air and remain completely unchallenged. In games against teams of Real Madrid's quality, being granted that sort of time and space simply doesn't happen.

And so, Sunderland continue to do what Sunderland do best - capitulate. On paper, we have the makings of a reasonable first eleven, but I honestly believe that some of those players just couldn't care less. It's okay, I'll turn up, go through the motions and pick up my £50k a week (or whatever) and an extra bonus if we get a corner. That seems to be the mentality, and I'm sick to the back teeth of it.

Now, needless to say, the Norwich game is an absolutely massive one. It's vital that we pick up a win ahead of Man United's visit to the SoL and trips to Chelsea and Newcastle - anything less and the threat of relegation once again becomes all too real.

Lionel Messi: "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Lionel Messi: "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

He certainly did split Milan's defence in twain last night.

Great footballers - making mugs out of kneejerkers since forever.

So near yet so far for Arsenal. Clearly, they're better than their first leg showings against Bayern and Milan last year, but neither are they as good as the second leg results might suggest. In truth, they're somewhere in the middle.

Still, the fans can always cheer on Emmanuel Eboue in the next round, while Man City fans can shout for Roque Santa Cruz.

I wonder what happens at Sunderland in the summer if they stay up. For what its worth, I suspect they will, possibly due to others being more incompetent more than anything else. Would they give O'Neill a boat load of cash? Would O'Neill walk away if they didn't? Do they go for someone else? Sell the pampered underachievers for a loss?

I wonder what happens at Sunderland in the summer if they stay up. For what its worth, I suspect they will, possibly due to others being more incompetent more than anything else. Would they give O'Neill a boat load of cash? Would O'Neill walk away if they didn't? Do they go for someone else? Sell the pampered underachievers for a loss?

Hard to say at the moment, I suppose a lot will depend on where we end up finishing. Short is reportedly growing rather frustrated at the lack of progress being made, and understandably so since he’s sunk another 30-odd million of his own money (the Bent and Henderson fees only went as far as bankrolling Bruce’s final spending spree) into the team this year. O’Neill really hasn't done much to help himself either - he's placed far too much trust in Bruce signings who simply aren’t up to it, and his own signings have been a very mixed bag. Johnson hasn’t quite been the flop some have labelled him as, but neither has he been the matchwinner we were expecting. He appears incapable of performing for longer than 15 minutes at a time and his aimless lame-o attempts at stepovers get on my wick. Can’t fault Fletcher, he’s managed to grab us 11 goals despite being restricted to about 14 chances all season by the tamest supply line in the league. N’Diaye, there’s not much to tell. He runs past opponents, they run past him, sometimes they bump into each other. Graham desperately wanted to move back to the north east, did so and then appeared to think ‘well I’m here now, I don’t have to try any more’. I get the impression that he'd have even considered going back to Boro if the money had been right. He looked half-decent at Swansea though and it's still early days, benefit of the doubt and all that.

There's a lot of panic going around at the moment and I can't deny that we're in a scrap, but I do think we’ll just about be okay. I'd be surprised if we were able to get ourselves north of the 40 point benchmark with time to spare, though. It’ll probably be another flirtation with the ‘R’ word before we limp over the line again in decidedly underwhelming fashion. Unfortunately, such things just seem to be written into the DNA of the club, it doesn't seem to matter who's in charge, what players we have or how much money we throw around.