Yeah, great finish.

Great save by Cech now... *cough*cough*

FT Blackburn 0-1 Chelsea

Hard win. Cech injured again.

Man I love Joe Cole. I'm happy that he has finally secured his spot for Chelsea. Shame about Cech. Hopefully he can enjoy the Christmas and New Year with family.

How r Man City doing ?? Haven't been following them for sometime now ... But planning on seeing how they do this month.

Do they look good enough to hold 4th place ?! or will they loose it ?

Ah. Tomorrow... BOXING DAY:

Citeh has a terrible away record. Brilliant at home, but away is poor to say the least. Because of that reason i dont think that they can hold 4th.

On a good note, Rolando Bianchi has been playing more and is banging in the goals

Kurt, you actually have a chance today. Both first Chelsea keepers are injured and Hilario is expected to start...

Well, that is no good !! Then again, Erikson is on the verge of strengthening his team even further ..

And Bianchi, he has been having his good share in the sports sections every now and then.


What about their young Gkeeper, Schmeichel ?! How is he doing on loan ? From Wiki, I understand he will be coming back in Jan to City, as the 2nd Gkeeper .. Is he living up to the hype ?!

I read on Sky Sports that they've had the 2nd easiest fixture list so far this season. They've only played 3 times against the big 4, and only played 3 teams in the top half of the table at home. They've yet to play Liverpool at all and their home schedule for the 2nd half of the season is tough. They play Liverpool on the 30th of December.

Man City are currently 4th, 1 point ahead of Liverpool, but Liverpool have a game in hand. They're only 5 points above 8th position so far, which means even though they're in a CL spot, they're not far from not being in Europe at all.



Lampard is in the team, that's enough for me to say we'll lose. 3-1 Chelsea.

(^^THis post taken from Inter-Milan match thread - I feel the reply should go in hear to save going off topic.)

I have to disagree with this actually.

It has nothing to do with United, I'm not really sure where Knighthoods, OBEs and MBEs are decided. Maldini could be knighted for his services to football, but he can only receive an honourary Knighthood since he's not a citizen of a country that aknowledges the British sovereign as its head of state, and therfore can not have the title of 'Sir'.

As for Sir Alex, I think it's been made clear that I hate United with passion, but in this case, Knighting him is certainly something I agree with. He's not some every day person, and it's not something 'heroic' you have to do for your country, it's something recognisable though personal bravery, acheivment or service Sir Alex recieved his Knighthood, I believe, for his services to football.

He's possibly the greatest manager of all time (He IS the greatest manager of all-time for me) and to say his acheivments do not deserve a Knighthood? Decide for yourself.

Aberdeen 1978–1986

Domestic competition
Scottish League: (3) 1979-80, 1983-84, 1984-85
Runners-Up: (2) 1980-81, 1981-82
Scottish Cup: (4) 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1985-86
Scottish League Cup: (1) 1985-86
Runners-Up: (2) 1978-79, 1979-80

European competition
European Cup Winners Cup: (1) 1982-83
UEFA Super Cup: (1) 1983-84

Manchester United 1986-Present

Domestic competition
Premier League: (9) 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07
FA Cup: (5) 1989-90, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1998-99, 2003-04
League Cup: (2) 1991-92, 2005-06
FA Charity/Community Shield: (7) 1990 (Shared), 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007

European competition
UEFA Champions League: (1) 1998-1999
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: (1) 1990-91
Intercontinental Cup: (1) 1999
UEFA Super Cup: (1) 1991-92


Manager Awards
FA Premier League Manager of the Year: (7) 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2002-03, 2006-07
Ferguson has won the FA Premier League Manager of the Month award 19 times (a record).
LMA Manager of the Year: 1998-99
LMA Manager of the Year: Manager of the decade: 1990s.
UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year: 1998-99
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award: 2001
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 1999
Football Writers' Association Tribute Award: 1996
Mussabini Medal: 1999
World Soccer Magazine Coach of the Year: (3) 1993, 1999, 2007
Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award: 2007

Other awards
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award: 1999
Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year: 2000

How anybody can compare to that? As for the Paisley/Shankly arguement, they both have an OBE, but they didn't do half of what Fergie has done, Shankly barely won anything.

Fergie's won 34 trophies.
Paisley won 19 trpohies.
Shankly won 8 trophies.

Paisley is known for how great he did in Europe (3 European Cup wins).
Shankly, alot of people don't seem to know about, he's not so famous for winning trophies, he just took Liverpool from a team in Division 2 to Champions of England and built a team that went on to dominate Europe, even though he didn't do it himself. They both did great jobs, and possibly deserve more than OBEs, but SAF is the greatest in my opinion.

That'll do for my rant today.

I think SAF's greatest achievements take place from 1999 onwards. He had done more than great before that too but his greater challengers come after that. To me he is not the greatest manager of all time because he has continuously failed to prove himself in Europe.

I knew somebody would mention this.

As a personal preference, what you do in Europe isn't as important as what you do in your own league, that's just me. I'm not sure how many times he's made QFs/SFs or anything, so I don't know how good his record is in Europe.

I'd also argue that using Europe is very unfair. There were 3 or 4 managers, pre WW2, that had very good records, they didn't have the chance of Europe so it's not really a fair measuring stick for me.

Being great in your own league and being average in Europe > Being great in Europe and average in your own league. For me it is at least.

And I knew you'd say this!


Yeah... so what? Now all managers have this chance so...


Why does it have to be one of the two!?? Sacchi's Milan won everything and SAF did win the treble in '99 too... If it only had to be this way, then I agree with you; even if I consider the CL to be more prestigious than any league, a championship race requires less luck and much greater consistency! But I don't see why United cannot repeat what they did last season more often...

HT Chelsea 1-2 Villa.

Sheva scored a penalty in the 49th minute, Zat Knight sent off.. Oh yeah, it was a dive, typical big 4 bias.

Cech made did a mirror image of the error Scott Carson did for England.

And a trademark Ballack dive for the penalty.

Shevchenko 2-2.

Now it's 11 v 10... easy task for Chelsea. Lucky Blues.

3:2 Alex. Sheva made it for him

BTW Lampard also got ingured in the first half. Chelsea's bad lack with injuries is something else.

EDIT: What a game. Laursen 3:3.

BALLACK!!!! 4:3

Good dive by Joe Cole.

Damn it, I missed it... I thought it would be just another boring Chelsea game!

It seems like every goal came from a dive!??

And... how was Sheva, Misha!?? I'm glad to see him find himself!

BARRRRRRYYYY 4-4!!!!!!

GRANDE VILLA!

Wow!

FT 4:4

Two penalties, 3 red cards (2 to Chelsea). What more can you ask for

Onighted, LaLigapool and L'Arsenul will be extra-motivated this afternoon.

We were robbed, penalty was a dive, the last minute free-kick was a dive. Robbed, but the greatest game I've ever seen.

THESE LIONS NEVER SAY DIE!!

Why were you rooting for Villa, you think Pool can make it or is it because they sacked Mourinho?

I like A Villa. Maybe what they did to Mourinho influences too.

PS: What a goal for Torres. 0-1 for L'pool.

If he continues like this, Liverpool will be hard to beat. They generally don't let many in and Torres keeps scoring. It seems United and Arsenal have to consider another team in the title race.

I think it's over for Chelsea now. They're going to lose a few players to the African Nations, Terry and Lampard are both injured, Cashley and Carvalho are both suspended. Not the best of times.

United 3-0 up at the Stadium of Light at the half. Rooney, Saha and Ronaldo.

What a FK by Rouneyldouh.

His 17th goal this season.

I never saw it, but to have 12 league goals half way into the season is impressive. Especially when the EPLs top scorer last seasom, Drogba, only had 21 over the whole season, I think.

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1637486

Really superb FK by the 3rd ( ) best player in the world.

Torres made his 9th in the league I think, 15 overall in his first season in England. Not bad too.

Wow, that was a great free-kick!

Yeah, I think Torres has 9. Getting 15 in the league/20 in all comps in your first season in England would be really, impressive.

Derby 1-1 Liverpool

67' Derby 1-1 Liverpool.

Liverpool players sleeping...

Derby 1-2 Liverpool.

Stevie G.

89' Captain Marvel. Gerrard. 1-2.

They won.

But can someone explain me what was Voronin doing as RW for the - almost - entire 2nd half.

Kuyt is mediocre. Same for Voronin.

The best fowards in LFC are Torres and Crouch.

If "El Nino" were not at Liverpool, they would be mediocre at best

Liverpool will never win the EPL as long as Benirez is there IMO

We can say the same @ Milan-Kaka', Inter-Ibrahimovic, United-Ronaldo...

i agree most teams have 1 outstanding player they build the team around the only thing i would say is that we have pirlo sa well who is just as important imo.

I suppose

hehe so kurt you got ur point sounds like an amazing game

P'mouth 0-0 Arsenal. FT.
Agonisingly close game, Rosicky coming extremely close twice.

Arsenal lost two points against Pompey.

United - 45
Arsenal -44
Chelsea -38
Liverpool -36 (game in hand)

Sheva played amazing !!!

Yep. The second goal and the assist were quality.

Arsenal are never going to win the c'ship race if Wenger insists on the idiotic one forward formation... it's just not working for the Gooners and the French has been more stubborn and chicken-hearted than ever!

It was an amazing game, but we more than deserved the 3 points.

I think it shows who Chelsea's defense is. How many goals do they conceed with Terry in the team compared to when he isn't?


I agree. The only way I think you can play with 1 striker is if you have the ability of some top wide players in my opinion, Arsenal don't really have those wide players. They really do need another striker though, Eduardo's has been good in the Cup against lower division teams, but I've not seen anything from him in the EPL yet.