England are in a strong position, and if they beat Ukraine on Wednesday will have one foot in the finals. They were impressive in their 4-0 friendly win over Slovakia but the unbeaten Eastern Europeans will be a much sterner test. England are already 5 points clear and will maintain that advantage with a victory.
David Beckham set a new outfield record for England caps against Slovakia (109) – but Rooney’s two goals on his 49th appearance showed we may not have to wait long for the record to be broken again – not to mention the goalscoring one…
Looking at our squad to face Slovakia and then the Ukraine, our weakness is our strikeforce. Carlton Cole? Really? Heskey is an able foil, Crouch an impact sub… and Rooney is yet to find his best position or arguably form for his country. That is a severe paucity of options. Where are the world class English forwards? They are not abroad; are they being overlooked in the Premiership? Let’s have a look at the top scoring Englishmen…
Lookalikes are ten-a-penny – anyone can make Dirk Kuyt look like Sloth from the Goonies, or Peter Reid look like a monkey. It takes more to put two people together stylistically and functionally; players who remind you of one another, players with similar styles – players that could be clones of one another. Number four in our series: Shay Given and Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Are you a fan of Championship Manager? If so, Football Manager Handheld (PSP) is for you. It’s Football Manager lite, stripped of the superfluities; a nod to the old days, the original Champmans, where you picked and managed a team, chose from a set of formations, and bought and sold players. You could rattle through a season in a few hours, tweaking and changing, moving positions, dropping those out of form and giving youth a chance, resting your stars in the cup, and gradually bleeding your latest starlet into the first team…
Watching Arsenal’s thoroughly deserved victory over Newcastle, when they stepped up a gear in the second half and totally outclassed the Geordies (our tip to be the ‘surprise’ relegation), the introduction of Abou Diaby in a forward role revealed an interesting aspect of Arsenal’s squad – the proliferation of strikers. Even if you take out the young and the tenuous, leaving only out-and-out indisputable forwards (albeit a couple who play in midfield sometimes) you still have Walcott, Arshavin, Vela, Van Persie, Adebayor, Eduardo and Bendtner – an embarrassment of riches.
You can watch highlights of the Premier League action legally here, via Virgin Media’s syndication; or illegally (I assume) here, on 101greatgoals, who have action from all football everywhere. Less ads on that…
Recently we have asked; Can Anyone Stop United? Can United Really Win the Quintruple? And then, in the wake of Liverpool’s 4-1 destruction of United at Old Trafford: Is the Title Race back on? We can safely say, on the back of United’s defeat to Fulham where for the first time in recent memory they self destructed (with Scholes and Rooney both dismissed), that the answer to all of those questions is ‘yes’…
Here are our fantasy football tips for the weekend. We’ve gone for a player new to the Premiership, a player newly returned from injury, and a player new on the ‘must have’ list. Read on to find out who they are…
The Champions League draw took place this morning and threw up some juicy ties: Villarreal v Arsenal, Man Utd v Porto, Chelsea v Liverpool (again) and Barcelona v Bayern Munich. The winners of the first two games will play each other, as will the winners of the second two. No need to read this article now… (seriously)
