Goalkeepers

• David James (Portsmouth)
• Robert Green (West Ham)
• Ben Foster (Man Utd)

Defenders

• Leighton Baines (Everton)
• Phil Jagielka (Everton)
• Joleon Lescott (Everton)
• Ashley Cole (Chelsea)
• John Terry (Chelsea)
• Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd)
• Glen Johnson (Portsmouth)
• Matthew Upson (West Ham)
• Ledley King (Tottenham)

Midfielders

• Gareth Barry (Aston Villa)
• Michael Carrick (Man Utd)
• Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
• Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough)
• David Beckham (AC Milan)
• Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City)
• Aaron Lennon (Tottenham)
• Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)

Strikers

• Carlton Cole (West Ham)
• Peter Crouch (Portsmouth)
• Emile Heskey (Aston Villa)
• Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)

What do you think of this squad? Are Ledley King and Leighton Baines good enough to play for England, should Ashley Young and Agbonlahor have been dropped, are there to few players from the ‘big four’?

Please feel free to comment below.

The draw for the UEFA Champions League was made today at 11am (BST), the draw was for the finals stage including the quarter finals, semi finals and the final itself. Here are the results of that draw.

Quarter Finals

Semi Finals

The home team in the final will be from Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea or Liverpool.

Being a Manchester United fan myself I am quite pleased with this draw and I only hope that we make it to the Final along with Liverpool so that we can rectify our poor performances in the League against them. Liverpool and Chelsea must be sick of the sight of each other in the Champions League as they always seem to meet, this being the 5th consecutive meeting in the competition.

Based on the draw who do you think is most likely to end up winning the trophy?

The game of the week in my eyes will be the London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal, with the last game at the Emirates finishing 4-4 i would recommend everyone watch on Sunday.

The January transfer window has now closed and Premiership clubs spent a record £160 million, this figure could rise if any more deals come through today though. 

Out of all the transfers that happened in January, who do you think got the best deal?

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but i have moved home and have been without the internet for a while. But it’s back now so hopefully from tomorrow i will get back to posting some articles for you all to read and enjoy.

Thanks

Villa celebrating their late winner

Aston Villa beat Everton 3-2 in yesterday’s live game on Sky Sports. The game was one of the best games of the season so far and both teams deserve credit for this, and it was a shame that their had to be a loser.

 

 Aston Villa went ahead in the first minute thanks to a goal from Steve Sidwell, who smashed the ball in from 20 yards, after a neat bit of play from Luke Young and James Milner to set him up. Everton looked shocked but they carried on fighting and applying pressure on Villa searching for the equaliser. It eventually came in the 31st minute from Jolean Lescott, a tap in from 5 yards from a perfect Mikel Arteta cross.

In the second half Villa agian took the lead after a dreadful passback from Phil Jagielka was played right into the path of Ashley Young who finished impecablly past Tim Howard. Everton again piled forward in search of another equaliser and eventually got reward in the 2nd minute of stoppage time. Lescott again finding the net from close range but this time with an exceptional overhead volley.

Everton thought they had secured the point they desrerved with this goal but 20 seconds later Ashely Young turned Lescott inside out and placed a curling shot pat Tim Howard to win the game for Villa.

It truly was an exciting game and the best of the season so far. Do you agree?

I have decided to make it a bit more interesting and compare my predictions with Mark Lawrenson’s predictions from the BBC website. (Thanks to soccer blog for this idea) Lawro’s predictions are the one’s in green.

Saturday 6th December

Arsenal  V  Wigan  15:00  (3-0)  (2-0) (1-0)

Blackburn  V  Liverpool  15:00  (1-2)  (0-2) (1-3)

Bolton  V  Chelsea  15:00  (0-1)  (0-2) (0-2)

Fulham  V  Man City  12:45  (1-1)  (2-1) (1-1)

Hull City  V  Middlesbrough  15:00  (0-0)  (1-1) (2-1)

Man Utd  V  Sunderland  17:30  (4-0)  (3-0) (1-0)

Newcastle  V  Stoke City  15:00  (2-2)  (2-0) (2-2)

Sunday 7th December

Everton  V  Aston Villa  16:00  (2-1)  (2-2)  (2-3)

West Brom  V  Portsmouth  15:00  (1-0)  (2-0)  (1-1)

Monday 8th December

West Ham  V  Tottenham  20:00  (1-1)  (1-2)  (0-2)

So all the results are now in and I have decided to follow Monkey magazines point scoring allocation of 3 points for a perfect match, and 1 point for a correct result.

So after the first week of predictions the scores are as follows:

Myself:   10pts

Lawro:     7pts

Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted the best player in Europe by France Magazine this morning in Paris. He is the first Premiership player since Michael Owen in 2001 to win the Ballon d’Or.

The award is given by a poll of 96 journalists, each voter names five players on their final ballot, awarding five points to their first choice and one point to their fifth. Ronaldo’s was the only name to appear on each of the 96 ballots, polling 446 points out of a maximum 480.

His goal scoring feats from last season helping Manchester United to the Premier League Crown, and the European Cup ensured Ronaldo would be the winner of this award. Lionel Messi finished in second place and Fernando Torres of Liverpool in third.

Do you agree with the judges and think Ronaldo was a deserving winner, or do you think another player deserved the award more?

Feel free to comment below.

This weekend for the first time in 16 years not on of the Premierships so-called ‘big four’ managed to find the net. Chelsea and Liverpool were both held at home 0-0. Man United were also held 0-0 away at Aston Villa, whilst Arsenal were beaten 3-0 away at Manchester City.

Do these results prove that the Premiership is getting better and that the other teams are slowly catching the top teams, or was it just a freaky weekend in football?