First Arsenal and now Man Utd Stumbling Fast (April 26th)
Arsenal at one point enjoyed a 5 points lead over Man Utd. After a run of 4 consecutive draws and a loss to Chelsea, that lead evaporated.

Man Utd recently dropped 2 points at Middlesborough and Blackburn. And then they faced Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. And loss 1-2 just like Arsenal. Is Chelsea slaying the giants? Will Chelsea will the league?

Chelsea plays Newcastle away on Mon May 5th and Bolton at home on May 11th. Man Utd plays West Ham at home on May 3rd and travel to the JJB to play Wigan on the final day. All Man Utd have to do is simply win both games and they are save. Can they do that?

R.I.P. Arsenal (Apr 13)
Arsenal started the season very brightly although their top scorer, Thierry Henry left for Barcelona. The young "guns" of Fabregas, Adebayor, Hleb, Eduardo and Flamini gave all Arsenal supporters hope.

Arsenal made it quite clear that they were going to challenge for 4 titles with their young and inexperienced squad. Unfortunately, they were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Tottenham (1-5), out of the FA Cup by Manchester United (0-4) and out of the Champions League by Liverpool (3-5 aggregate over 2 legs).


Their Premier League Title hope was shattered at Old Trafford. After taking a 1-0 lead, Arsenal self-destruck to gift Man Utd a win with a penalty and needless freekick that was briliiantly taken bu Owen Hargreaves.

The pressure is on Arsene Wenger to buy in the summer so that he has a bigger squal to last the entire season.

Ps. Rumors has it that Flamini and Hleb are leaving. If Wenger can hold on to his players that will be stronger and more experenced next season.

Grand Slam Sunday left a lot to talk about(Mar 23)
The much-anticipated Easter Sunday fixtures (dubbed Grand Slam Sunday by Sky Sports) lived up to the hype in my humble opinion. Man Utd got the better of Liverpool 3 - 0 in a game that featured the sending off of Javier Mascherano and Chelsea came back from 0 - 1 down to beat Arsenal 2 - 1 in a very hectic game.

Liverpool came to Old Trafford on a run of 7 undefeated games. They were brimming with confidence and heaping praise on the Torres-Gerrard dynamic duo that was demolishing opposing defenses.

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher felt the time was right for his team to get the better of Man Utd after 7 unsuccessful tries in the Premier League. He felt the dynamic duo of Torres and Gerrard would unsettle Man Utd's back four and give them a chance to beat their hated rivals. Before the match Carragher said, "When you put great players together, you get results. Torres and Gerrard are certainly that, they are both very clever on the pitch. Torres stretches defenses and Gerrard gets into the hole behind; Stevie then is able to produce the passes for Fernando to run on to."

Apparently Carragher ignored the fact that Man Utd has the stingiest defense in the league and has kept the most clean sheets so far this season. Sunday was no different for Man Utd. They kept another clean sheet and moved 6 points clear of Arsenal before the Chelsea - Arsenal game.

The Man Utd win at OT placed a huge pressure on the Arsenal and Chelsea. A draw would not be good for either team. So both teams set out to secure a win. Arsenal was desperate for a win after 4 successive draws and 8 points dropped.

The game was played at a hectic pace but ended 0 - 0 at half time. Arsenal took the lead with a header by Sagna. Then Drogba stunned the Arsenal supporters with 2 goals in ten minutes. Chelsea is now second in the BPL table and only 5 points behind Man Utd. Man Utd have to go to Stamdford Bridge for a game that could determine the eventual winner of the BPL title.

The fight to avoid relegation (Mar 22)
The following teams are fighting to keep their stay in the Premier League: Newcastle, Wigan, Reading, Sunderland, Birmingham, Bolton and Fulham. Derby is as good as relegated since it is highly unlikely that they will win all or most of their remaining 7 games.

Today's results brought some hope and despair. Kevin Keagan was smiling as Newcastle defeated Fulhan 2 - 0. Reading beat Birmingham 2 - 1 and Sunderland surprised Aston Villa 1 - 0 at Villa Park.

There were no smiles for Wigan as they lose to Blackburn and for Fulham who squandered chances against Newcastle. Bolton secured a point in their draw with Manchester City.

Tomorrow's anticipated clashes between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford and Chelsea versus Arsenal at Stamford Bridge will likely play a big part in deciding the eventual winner of the Premier League Title. If Man Utd beat Liverpool and Chelsea and Arsenal play to a draw, that would put Man Utd 5 points clear of Arsenal and 7 points ahead of Chelsea. Then there is the matter of Man Utd and Liverpool going to Stamford Bridge later in the season.

This may well be the most keenly contested title chase!

The race for the title (Mar 19)
Last Saturday Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea were looking to solidify their position at the top of the table. Man Utd and Chelsea played on the road while Arsenal had a home game.

Surprisingly Arsenal dropped points at home by drawing 1 - 1 with Middlesborough, the only team to beat them this season. Man Utd missed several chances before Ronaldo put them ahead in a 1 - 0 affair with Derby and Chelsea won by the same margin against Sunderland.

Man Utd is now level on points (67 points) with Arsenal with one game in hand. Chelsea is lurking right behind with only 3 points back. Today Man Utd and Chelsea play their "catch-up" games - Man Utd hosts Bolton at OT and Chelsea travel to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham. This is one heck of a race for the Barclays Premier League title.

The Fight for Survival in the Premier League! (Mar 2)
With 10 games left to be played (11 for a few teams) the fight for survival in already intense. One thing is already certain. Derby is going down. Eight other teams, Fulham, Reading, Bolton, Birmingham, Sunderland, Wigan, Newcastle, Middlesbrough are trying to prevent the drop.

On Saturday March 1st, there were 3 games that were decided in the 90th minute. Arsenal were losing 0 - 1 to Aston Villa when Bendtner scored with Arsenal's last touch of the ball.

Middlesbrough and Reading were heading for a 0 - 0 draw when James Harper grabbed all 3 points for Reading in the 90th minute. Newcastle looked certain to secure a point at home when Blackburn's Matt Derbyshire scored a goal in the 90th minute. That was a heartbreak for Kevin Keagan and the Geordie faithfuls.

Birmingham secured a vital win at home against Tottenham to move out of the bottom 3. Newastle has not won a game in their last 11 matches and is sinking perilously close to the drop zone. Their next game is against Liverpool and things look very bleak for Newcastle.

There will be more sleepless nights and heartbreaks over the next 3 months.

IS THIS A JOKE? - AC Milan's Dida crocked sitting on bench! (Feb 16th)
AC Milan goalkeeper Nelson Dida was injured during yesterday's 0-0 draw with Parma while sitting on the bench!

The Brazilian is now a serious doubt for Milan's Champions League clash with Arsenal after his back seized up before halftime. Dida was stretchered off at half-time after finding he couldn't get up off the bench.

The weekend the title was decided? (Feb 12th)
The big 3 all played at home over the past 2 days. Manchester United was at home playing Manchester City in the Manchester Derby. Chelsea took on Liverpool at home in a quest to extend their remarkable unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge. And Arsenal hosted Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates.

The first of the three games was played at Old Trafford where a special tribute was paid to those who died in the Feb 6 1958 Munich plane crash. The Old Trafford faithfuls were looking for a victory but saw their team put on the worst performance of the season. They could not pass, they were second to the loose balls and they could not finish. If the legs of Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson, Vidic, Brown and Ferdinand were tired from midweek friendlies, then Giggs, Tevez and Scholes had no such excuse.

Manchester City were the deserved winner. Ater the loss Manchester United were hoping Blackburn could hold Aresenal or else the lead at the top of the table could extend to 5 points. But Monday's result placed Arsenal securely at the top with 5 points clear of Man Utd and 12 games to play.

Chelsea also dropped points after playing to a dull 0 - 0 draw against Liverpool. Chelsea now sit 8 points behind Arsenal. Chelsea can only hope that Arsenal will drop points at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge later this season. Chances are Chelsea will not gain 8 points to overtake Arsenal. Man United has a better chance only if Arsenal is defeated at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.

It will be a very interested season from here on out!

What they are saying about Ronaldo! (Feb 1st)
Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp - "George Best was the best player I've ever seen, but Ronaldo is certainly in the top two or three players in the world at the moment. He really is special. If he runs at you, you're in trouble, he'll do 14 step-overs and give you twisted blood. He is an amazing player - he's got the lot really. He's big, strong, six-foot tall and great in the air."

Uefa president Michel Platini - "If Ronaldo is the best player in the world or Europe he will have to prove it in the Euros because that will be the only way we can judge him, when all the best players will have had the chance to be recognised. It's difficult to compare players in competitions and teams. Is it more difficult to play right wing in Manchester than it is in Italy, where it doesn't exist? Ronaldo has a number of advantages to his game and, of course, the last matches in the finals of the European Championship this summer will be decisive."

President of the Portuguese Football Federation, Gilberto Madaíl - According to the last FIFA Player Award the best player in the world is Kaká, and that I am not going it to discuss. He is not yet better than the Brazilian. But in my opinion I believe that Christian Ronaldo should have been in front of Messi in that voting. So, as a minimum he is one of the best players in the World.

"I am content that a Portuguese player is scoring so many. And some still forget the goals he has scored for Portugal this season, of which there have been a few."

That Boy Ronaldo! (Jan 31th)
Love him or hate him, you must admit "That Boy Ronaldo" is special. He has scored 27 goals in all competition this season. On 6 occassions this season he has scored 2 or more goals including his brace against Portsmouth on Wednesday. Remember he scored another brace against Tottenham on Sunday in the FA Cup competition.

What can be said about that freekick against Portsmouth? It had just the right pace, power and placement to clear the wall and leave David James stranded as he watch in disbelief.

Ronaldo is good with both his right and left foot. He is good in the air. He is good at penalty kicks and freekicks. He is fast and his dribbling is second only to Barcelona's Messi. He may easily win the Barclay's Premier League (BPL) Player of the month for January and the best player for the BPL 2007/2008 season.

It will be interesting to watch Ronaldo and Adebayor "duke" it out for the top goal scorer award. After 24 games Ronaldo has 19 BPL goals and Adebayor 16.

Trivia: Anton Ferdinand and Rio Ferdinand scored today (Jan 12th)
Anton Ferdinand gave a fitting response to a half-time ear-bashing from his manager by scoring the winner as West Ham came from a goal down against Fulham.

Manager Alan Curbishley said: "We didn't start so well and Anton copped it at half-time. I wasn't happy with how he and Matthew Upson started.

"But they came out to put it right. We wanted to cement our position in the top half and this was a big result for us."

Rio Ferdinand got a little adventurous after Manchester United took a 3 - 0 lead against Newcastle. He started showing up on the right wing and delivered a terrific cross to Rooney in the 64th minute. Unfortunately Rooney did not make the best of his header.

Minutes later Rooney returned the favor and delivered a cross to Rio which he finished in style. Rio's finishing had a striker's touch to it, a touch that eluded Rooney throughout the match.

Should the "Wenger Babes" be taken seriously? (Dec 30th)
Have you ever heard the cliche "Nothing is guaranteed; that is why you play the games?" Saturday's football results make sense of this cliche.

Manchester United was "SUPPOSED" to beat West Ham and stay atop the table. Arsenal was "SUPPOSED" to struggle against an organized Everton team at Goodison Park. There was a "strong possibility" that Arsenal would gain 1 or Zero point after playing Everton. Everton scored the first goal and it seemed like Arsenal was following part of the script.

However, whoever wrote the script is not a prophet. And he was not aware that "Nothing is guaranteed; that is why you play the games."

The second half of the Everton-Arsenal match is reason to believe the "Wenger Babes" are to be taken seriously. Eduardo was an ASSASIN. He was clinical and he was deadly. He had a job to do and he did it like a professional "paid assasin."

His performance should not be surprising. Did you see his performance against Blackburn in the Carling Cup?

The "Wenger Babes" reached the Carling Cup final last season, and by beating Blackburn Rovers 3-2 on the road they reached the semi-finals of the same competition this season. And they did it despite being reduced to 10 men for the whole of extra-time.

The average age of the "Wenger Babes" that played Blackburn is 19. Eduardo, at 24, was the oldest.

Mark Hughes was full of praise for these youngsters. He compared them to the 'Fergie's Fledglings' of 15 years ago.

"Arsenal's players have the same mentality and they are very competitive. They can do very well too. Their mentality is that they expect to win games — they don't just hope to win games.

"At United, lads like Beckham, Scholes, Neville and Butt all had that same mentality. You could see it in them right from the time that they were in the youth team.

"I look at Arsenal's young players and I see that in them as well. They will always get the ball down and pass and move, and they'll create opportunities."

Hughes also noted "What Arsenal have are two excellent teams — a first-choice team and another one which is made up of all the other exceptional players they have."

During the second half of the season it will be interesting to see how Wenger integrate some of the "Wenger Babes" into the first team. Arsenal will lose Toure and Eboue (Ivory Coast) for the 2008 African Cup of Nations. However they will have Adebayor - Togo did not qualify - van Persie and Eduardo as available forwards. Also Johan Djourou is set to return from his loan spell at Birmingham to bolster the defence when Kolo Toure is away.

The second half of the season is shaping up to be one "hell" of a competition. The "Wenger Babes" may very well help Arsenal secure the Premier League Title.

Shocking Day of Football (Dec 29th)
NOTHING IS GUARANTEED! That is why the games are played.

Manchester United was "supposed" to beat West Ham and Arsenal had "little chance" against the well organized Everton at Goodison Park.

As it turned out Man Utd lost to West Ham after giving up 2 late goals from set pieces and Arsenal fought back from 0 - 1 down to defeat Everton 4 - 1. (Ronaldo missed a penalty. He is human after all.)

Tottehham keep entertaining us but they keep leaking goals. They gave up 4 goals but fortunately take scored 6 of which Berbatov had 4. Will Berbatov leave during the transfer window?

Boxing Day Treat (Dec 26th)
For most of the English-speaking world (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad etc) the day after Christmas is Boxing day, traditionally a big sporting day. Unfortunately the USA does not celebrate Boxing Day so while I was at work (here in Florida) the rest of the world was trated to a memorable day of English football.

Fox Sports World and Setanta Sport replayed all the games later that day so I was able to watch the Chelsea-Aston Villa games and parts of the other matches. I am tempted to say the game of the day is Spus 5 Fulham 1 but with 3 red cards, 2 penalties and 8 goals, the Chelsea-Aston Villa was arguably the top game on the Boxing Day schedule.

There were other interesting "events" of the day. Early in the day Manchester United went top of the table with a 4 - 0 trashing of Sunderland. Arsenal failed to reclaim position no 1 after they drew 0 - 0 with Portsmouth. Next up for Man Utd is West Ham on the road. Arsenal will play Everton on the road. Arsenal will be desperate to take 3 points away from that game but a win against Everton on the road will be very difficult.

The "injury bug" bit Chelsea again as Frank Lampard had to leave with a thigh injury. Michael Ballack played his first Premier League game for Chelsea this season and was infuential in creating a controversial penalty and scoring a freekick.

The Tale of 2 Penalties...(Dec 24th)
For me there is no one better than Eric Cantona at taking penalty kicks. He had an uncanny ability to send keepers the wrong way. If a keeper studied his penalties, he would not find a tendency. He was able to beat keepers to their right and left with ease. And it was hard (or impossible for some keepers) to look at his body language and predict where the ball was going.

Fortunately for many keepers Cantona no longer plays football. However there are excellent penalty "takers" in today's game. Some notable examples are Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) and Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspurs).

Over the weekend Robbie Keane and Ronaldo were given the chance to break a 1 - 1 tie in their respective games. The ever reliable Keane missed his penalty kick and Ronaldo made his. What's the difference?

Keane usually hits his penalties hard to the left (the keepers' right). In some cases they are driven to the top left corner with no chance of the keeper getting a hand to it. However his penalty against Arsenal on Saturday was not hit with the usual power and it was low and close to the keeper. The keeper guessed right and gave himself a good chance of stopping it which he did.

Ronaldo usually stikes the ball hard to the left. This time however he struck his penalty to the right (Tim Howard's left) and completely fooled him. Even if he had guessed where the ball was going he probably would not have stopped the ball because it was struck hard to the top right corner.

Keene let the pressure of the moment get to him. His team was playing on the road and against a Arsenal team that has not lost to the Spurs since November 1999. Robbie wilted under the pressure.

Ronaldo on the other hand was cool, composed and decisive in where he wanted to ball to go. Tim Howard's antics did not changed Ronaldo's mind. The penalty was well taken and struck out of the reach of the keeper. Fooling Tim into going the wrong direction was adding insult to injury.

The Gunners are unstoppable... (Dec 22nd)
...at least for now. After struggling to break down Tottenham in the first half, Adebayor quickly put Arsenal on track shortly after the break. Robbie Keane hit the post before Berbatov equalised in the 78th minute.

Robbie Keane failed to convert a penalty that would have put the Spurs up 2 - 1. That mistake proved costly as substitute Bendtner headed in to give Arsenal a 2-1 lead which they never relinquished. Arsenal are still top of the BPL Table with 43 points from 18 games.