I can't wrap my head around the racism issue. I thought this matter was taken care of already after Spanish fans ripped Samuel Eto'o during his Barcelona days. A big worldwide movement with dark skinned players like Thierry Henry strongly behind it. To still say multiple dark skinned players cannot be on the same club is outrageous!! I don't think skin color should determine where you play. As long as the player holds the natural, raw talent of the league, they belong. And the Nigeria thing, African players are naturally going to be big in body size. That is one thing people cannot change whatsoever. So bigger bodies will mean physicality, thus you see the Africans that prosper are defenders or holding players. Strikers you see every now and then, but their natural strength is perfect for defensive capabilities. And I don't agree with the saying that the French national team is like an outcast to the rest of Europe. Maybe the black players are more athletic and fit than the white players. I don't understand. If they possess a wealth of talent, why should skin color even matter? The manager of the French team isnt black. He is simply choosing the best player for each position. Since when did "the beautiful game" become a "white man's sport"? This sport can unite a whole country...hell and even is supported by EVERY country in the world. There is not a single country in the world that would not want to participate in the World Cup. So why should racism be a part of this sport?

Arsenal are in the finals!!! One of many trophies to come this campaign. After conceding a goal to Ipswich Town in the first leg, Gunners knew what they had to do exactly and came out with their job in hand. Arsene Wenger went with his rotation to keep the squad fresh and still had a dangerous first team selected. For an hour Ipswich looked poised to hold the one goal advantage, but once Bendtner scored the opener, it was smooth sailing. Nothing was going to stop us from grabbing another and we did with Laurent Koscielny. And fended off a Ipswich comeback to then finalise the deal with a third from Cesc Fabregas. So we play the winnner of the West Ham/ Birmingham City winner. I dont really care which side makes it. We demolished Birmingham a few weeks ago and West Ham are bottom of the league table. Of course when clubs get this far, they play their hearts out to salvage a dismal league campaign, so it will be tough, but the form this side has been in. It is no question Arsene Wenger will pick a good on form side to play for the win.

And more on that sexism scandal, I can't believe Andy Gray would say such things. I admired him as a great man of the game, about at the same level as Tommy Smith, but now, it seems he doesn't admire women for their knowledge, just their looks. What separates men from women and doing their jobs? What's so surprising for a girl to do the job of calling offside? She wouldn't be on the touch lines if she was not thoroughly qualified for that role. And what if she is a party girl? How does that affect her image when officiating? She isn't going to dance on the corner flag pole. Or walk down the touch line like its her own personal runway. She gets paid to call offside just like every other linesman who do the same week in, week out. Simple as that. Just go on about as if nothing happened. Nothing has changed.

More later Pips, mind has gone blank.

Oh my, this sexism saga is refusing to die, with Andy Gray now sacked from his ?1.7m role as anchor football pundit and his second in command Richard Keys future still in the balance, a third video has surfaced which appears to have been the last straw for Sky?s programme controllers.
At college this morning to the whole ?Andy Gray, sexism in football? debacle has seen some furious confrontational arguments, resulting in a group of 3rd year students, members of the ?Man Collective? being caught in a pincer movement on the main staircase between the Hong Kong Theatre and the Shaw Library after the UEL Women?s Group TOL (talk out loud) mounted a simultaneous rapid counter manoeuvre when the ?Man Collective? tried in vain to escape chambers as the ?debate? spun out of control, Handbags and a number of backpacks were wielded and swung two handed style like medieval mace and chains, brushes and applicators from the Boots no 7 range were cleverly utilized to scrawl graffiti over visible skin and clothing....

One important point is that both Andy Gray and Richard Keys made these remarks privately and off air.

To be fair to the Russian FA ...........Dmitry Medvedev has promised football racism crack down ... Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to punish far-right football fans who staged a vicious race riot at the weekend........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8199329/Dmitry-Medvedev-promises-football-racism-crack-down.html

THE ODD COUPLE: FOOTBALL AND GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY...........David Goldblatt....A great read....

"Football matches do not change social structures; no victory, however comprehensive, can shift the real balance of power or change the actual distribution of wealth and status. But they offer glory"

http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/PDFs/GCS%20Part%203_Infras_GCS%20Part%203_Infras(3).pdf

Cut and paste ....

Japan 2-2 South Korea....After Extra Time on Japan 3 0-South Korea on penalties .....Nuff said poor Kayoko ......

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/match/55989/japan-vs-south-korea/report

......after me Mr K, tears on my pillow Johnny Nash..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g4oqjQ3P1E

Lastly ....... Arsenals ?On the ball? from 1970 ......My Uncle swears this is a England World Cup song ............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCRV3unIuA

When Qatari representatives were seen hand shaking and hugging FIFA officials even before Qatar was called to host the 2022 World Cup, there was already suspicion rolling around about the scam of the Qatari's paying the voters. A biased way of getting themselves into the spotlight after being the "outcast" country to even attempt to host. I caught everyone by shock. Austrailia was surely shocked as they thought they would have the green light to host, but fell in the first wave of votes. Korea and Japan, who hosted the 2002 tournament together were soon to drop out as well, something I was not happy to hear. So it left the US who held the 1994 tournament. From a normal spectator's view, the US had it in the bag, there was no way Qatar could even possibly beat out America. But no, Qatar cheated and scammed their ways to the podium and said their thanks as if it the votes were done right down the middle. So besides the cheat they all done to win, what made the voters so intrigued to vote for the Qatari's? Well, though the images of the stadium proposed looked amazing, they are just images. The darn country didnt even have stadiums built and hoping to have about 6 of them built and running perfectly by 2022. And when the tournament is finished, they are to be taken apart and "donated" to other countries who are in need of stadiums. So the idea was just to pick the stadium up and send it off to like let's say Switzerland in Vienna. Great news for Vienna, but how the f$%^ do they plan on moving the whole thing without demolishing it. Rebuilding it would probably take the same time it took to build it the first time. And for maintenance to get it operating and functioning properly for use would take even more time. Everything was pointing against Qatar, so what the eff was "giving Qatar a chance supposed to do"? Sure it is 12 years away, but the country's land size cannot expand in 12 years nor can the temperature of 100+degrees in the summer when the World Cup is held cannot be lowered. So Qatar proposed AIR CONDITIONING for crying out loud to counter that natural disaster! Do they even have enough funding to air condition the whole country for a span of 3 weeks or so? It would have to be constantly running to keep the temperature of the entire country low by nature and from the body heat from the excessive amount of people populating that area. How will housing work? Will they build state-of-the-art hotels as well? I've never heard of anyone who went on a tour to Qatar before. With so little land and a population of less than one million people, you can get an idea of how small the land mass of the country really is. Tourists and supporters of the competing countries would have to stay in hotels in other countries and fly into Qatar just to watch matches and getting the flights checked in and everything would cause a major uproar. The heat, being busy constantly, claustrophobic like space....This could very well be the start of World War III. I'm sure the heat was a major problem to deal with even for Sepp Blatter to realise despite his hard ass head. So what next? Qatar wishes to hold the first ever Winter World Cup to counter the heat measures. That as a whole would eliminate the heat and everyone can go about the tournament without getting a stroke. There is a problem. There is a reason the World Cup tournament is held in the summer. Because of the fact that normally, people go on vacation and such in the summer, they are able to make it out to the country hosting and they have a good two months to enjoy it. If they hold it in the Winter, you will see support fall drastically. No one wants to go see a World Cup match during Christmas. Everyone is at work that time of year and business is busy, very busy that time of year. There is no time in everyone's schedule to fit in the WORLD CUP!!!!!

SEPP BLATTER needs to be replaced. And when the 'tard of the corruption is gone, call for a revote and keep Qatar out of the ballad for good. No disrespect to the Arab population who are proud of the fact that that area of the world will now be able to hold something as big as the World Cup, but the country is just too small to host an event on a scale of these proportions. If they wanted to host, then at least include at least two more countries to host together as Korea and Japan did. Greed took over everything...and the tournament better not be cancelled due to any difficulties. I'm going to the 2022 tournament with Pips for sure. If they are excited to being able to host it and have big plans for such an occasion, then I want to see it for myself. Anything short of me not having my jaw open in disbelief for its classy design and the organisation of the whole thing for the duration of the tournament is a complete failure and a waste of time.

Let it out, Pips. There is till alot of argument left on this topic.

2022 FIFA World Cup? Bid Evaluation Report: Qatar
From 14 May 2010....includes 2018...too

The official Explanation of the fact-finding process. .......

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/01/33/74/56/b9qate.pdf

...and........

Trouble continues for FIFA for 2018 and 2022 bidding process
http://blogs.bettor.com/Trouble-continues-for-FIFA-for-2018-and-2022-bidding-process-a37350

Kayoko, so not to sound like some screaming Banshee, before I let rip...please read ....

The preposterous and farcical decision on awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar ignoring comprehensively FIFA technical committee report that clearly details why Qatar is totally unsuitable exposes FIFA?s insipid seedy behaviour.
Qatar a nation with a population of some 1.8m, spread over some 12,000km squared, covering a living space the size of York, Doha the only major populated city, with an airport the size of a putting green coupled with a human rights record that criminalises sexual preference, with zero tolerance to alcohol.

To chose Qatar over USA, Japan, South K and Australia is a affront to logical common sense, the serious flaws clearly reported by FIFA?s independent technical team, that were asked to formally audit, and present a detailed inspected report for all the bidding countries, highlighted the searing 40/50c heat through June/July the hottest months of the year, the close proximity of the Stadia,10 out of 12 stadiums are within a 25-kilometre area, causing a huge logistical nightmare, the construction of the stadia alone is conservatively estimated at over $6 billion, 2/3rds the entire operating budget for the 2012 London Olympics, the promised air conditioning technology that at present does not even exist, making the additional cost factor is at best a wild guess!!

So when taking into consideration the independently identified deficiencies, what is left is a huge question mark ......why Qatar?

Was it a political decision?
Well the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) President Bin Hammam played a decisive role, the executive committee applying huge pressure to acquire 11 votes in the first round!......Korea had just 4 and Australia a miserly 1 vote, without the transparency of the IOC voting system, the doggy horse trading has smeared the process.

For the interests of balance one has to admire Qatar?s presentation, highlighting as effectively as Russia, and Australia the benefits of hosting a competition in new challenging territories.....Interestingly Sepp Blatter used this justification alone to bring ?on message? and effectively ?skewing and influencing? the decision making process to focus on more opening closer relationships between Islam and western cultures.

However going completely against their technical committees report and discounting outright USA, Japan, South K and Australia bids proves that political deals count significantly in FIFA?s decision making process.
This evidence alone has done considerable damage to FIFA?s reputation.

There can be no other reason why Qatar won the bid aside from these geo-political shenanigans, all making future bids irrelevant, irrespective of their suitability or strength, if you don?t process political backing you have little chance of success.

England?s 2018 strong technical bid report, highlighting a strong football heritage, independently accessed as the strongest presentation, was rewarded with just two votes and a first round exit.

A humiliation for our Prime Minster, and future King and Queen (Posh and Becks)...... Prince William wasn?t happy either .....


Over to you ..Mr K.......

So the past years, I've seen the England "back the bid" websites up 2,3 years prior before the voting ever even started. So all those in the making and the efforts put into it for England to host had only a mere 2 votes to show for? That is outrageous. That Posh and Becks had all the rights to be furious. But all around the speculations on cheating and bribing, I guess the real loser on this is Spain and Portugal. Having worked out some sort of peace treaty with the Qatari's, they hoped working as a team would get each other through, Spain/Portugal representatives voting for Qatar and Qatari representatives voting for Spain/Portugal. A "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" situation. Too bad Spain/Portugal voted for Qatar it seems and Qatar did not return as Russia won the bid. Disgraceful this whole process was.

But going away from that, news from the past week. Manchester United save themselves from another scare against newly promoted Blackpool, down 2-0 after 75 minutes and firing all out to win behind a Berbatov double and another added by Chicharito to win 3-2. I don't know how, but they are being compared to the 2004 Arsenal "invincibles"???? I don't see how you can compare the United squad to the Gunners. Maybe by record, but Arsenal then steamrolled past opponents. Thierry Henry blew past everyone and led the league the scoring I believe. Possibl the best Arsenal squad ever...and arguably the best squad the Premier League had seen. The whole season undefeated. United are on pace to achieve such a feat, but with the close calls they come by. Its only a matter of time before Berbatov can no longer save United. Rooney will have to step up now and carry the load as he once did for United to reach perfection.

FA Cup, fourth round, Arsenal slip past Huddersfield Town 2-1 behind a late penalty from Cesc Fabregas. News on the match. We will be even shorter centre defenders for a match though as Sebastien Squillaci received a red card. And FA Player of the Year possibly, Samir Nasri suffers a heartbreaking hamstring that could leave him out for three weeks which means he could mean the tie with Barcelona in CL, somewhere we need him desparately. If that's the case, then our chances on claiming the most prestigious European trophy of them all seems too far to reach, Arsene Wenger's arms will look to be too short, or the trophy will be too heavy for the Frenchman to hoist. So transfers for a cenre back. Arsene Wenger stated Arsenal can cope with what we have in the meantime. A deal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will look to wait until the summer along with other possible candidates in the centre half. So I don't see any deals being made unless he pulls a last minute deal as he did for Arshavin a few years ago.

BREAKING NEWS!!! Liverpool has been reported to have accepted the offer from Chelsea for the rights for Spanish striker Fernando Torres. The deal was agreed for 49million pounds and Chelsea has been given the right to talk with Chelsea to finalise personal terms and passing a medical will see him wearing blue as early as this weekend. Lampard said Chelsea acquiring a player the caliber of Torres will help any club so he looks to be the one to get Chelsea back in contention for the title. But was this the right move? Ancelotti's formation does not suit Torres as Drogba is the lone striker up front supported by Anelka and Malouda. Adding him into the squad would see Ancelotti changing formation as he would more than likely like to ease Torres into the club rather than put him in an uncomfortable position and be criticised for bad form. We shall see how soon Torres will play in Blue. Pips, what now for Chelsea? Perhaps they really are abandoning the financial play rules.

Chelsea?s FC latest financial statement shows a ?70m loss on the back of winning the ?double? last season!!, yesterday the Chelsea board insisted that the club will meet the UEFA fair play solvency eligibility rules due to come into effect in 2013.
The rules are clear and will be implemented over 2010/11/12 becoming mandatory from the beginning of the 2013/14 financial reporting period.......failure to comply will trigger the UEFA financial control panel to pronounce sanctions, based on reconciled financial statements for 2011/12 and 2012/13.

The Financial Fair Play Regulations detailed in the PDF below, Auditors will have a field day with ANNEX X: Calculation of the break-even result from page 75 through to 84 where exclusions are mentioned or should I say mumbled.........

Scope:

a) Depreciation / Impairment of tangible fixed assets.
b) Amortization / Impairment of intangible fixed assets other than player registrations.....

Using Amortization (debt) formula P = A * ( R - 1 ) / ( 1 - R-N ).

A is amount borrowed, N number of calendar fixed installments, 1 is annual percentage rate, P is the net monthly repayment process and R is the reconciliation(APR + 1/12)

If studying ACCA economics.......

The full Derivation, and I have used a Sage ?cheat?, sorry I did not break the formulae down...

Let A = P[0] The amount owed increases by the interest accrued, P'[1] = P[0]*(1+i) or P'[n+1] = P[n]*(1+i)........remember this is a generalisation...

So P[1] = P'[1]-p = P[0]*(1+i) ? p or P[n+1] = P'[n+1]-p = P[n]*(1+i) ? p so R = 1+i.....Allowing P[1] = P[0]*R-p, P[2] = P[1]*R-p = P[0]*RR-pR-p,P[3] = P[2]*R-p = P[1]*RR-pr-p = P[0]*RRR-pRR-pR-p, P[N] = P[0]R^N-pR^(N-1)-pR^(N-2)...-pR-p, After N payments the loan is paid off, P[N]=0, Remember that P[0]=A......So the finite sum of the geometric series is S[n] = a(1-r^(n+1))/(1-r) = a + ar + arr + , (+ ar^n <---Checking for deviation) ...A = (p/R)*(1-(1/R)^N..()should encase the N/(1-(1/R)).....

The outcome is that Chelsea blaming the loss on the amortisation of player transfer fees, the amount a player is worth decreases over the length of his contract, is mathematically doubtful that Chelsea can ever make the fair play rule., along with Man City......Man U is another case altogether .........

Credits and Sources:

http://en.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/Clublicensing/01/50/09/12/1500912_DOWNLOAD.pdf

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/chelsea-we-are-strong-despite-16370m-losses-in-double-season-2200213.html

Well Kayoko it would take a miracle on the scale of water into wine and five loaves and two fishes to get past the fair play rules ........

Well, it seems the big clubs will be attempting to overthrow UEFA's "strict" ruling, though I think this is well made and is necessary for clubs so they no longer "ruin" the transfer market every time the window opens. The point of having youth academies exists for this very reason. UEFA is encouraging the development of younger players instead of having established clubs buy players for long term to replace their stars short term. Trying to overthrow UEFA's ruling just because owners and clubs don't have patience to endure mediocre seasons is ridiculous. Fans will not take their support elsewhere. Otherwise this sport would not be as great as Pips and I state it is. I hope UEFA ban the clubs who do not make profit from major European tournaments. The operating association being strong-armed into submission to rid of the rule would spell corruption even more. I can live with not seeing Barcelona in CL...I hope they are the first club banned !!(Very strong distaste for the Catalan club. Filled with unimpressive talent and even more massive egos.)

Transfer:
Torres to Chelsea. Liverpool play Chelsea this weekend, Sunday!! Perfect time to move. Bookies favourite Jamie Carragher to be first to foul the Spaniard. I put my money on him as well. Liverpool use the cash received on Torres to spend an unprecedented ?35m for the 22 year old striker, Andy Carroll from Newcastle. Liverpool wanted talent up front for Gerrard and since Torres could not fill the void by himself, and believed newly Luis Saurez would be able to pick up the scoring slack all by his onesy. Carroll, only with half of a season of top tier football and with a mere one international call-up where he played less than 90 minutes bought for that amount would scratch the heads of most owners and fans too, but Liverpool believe he is the right man for the job at the moment to help them to glory once more in the long run, but for short term, to help salvage a top ten finish.

All this info on Liverpool bolstering the squad makes it seem as if I am counting out the Blues, but no. This is more than just revenge for Liverpool. But a good match for Torres to prove he is still a world class striker and he could not play at the level Liverpool wanted him to. Deadly the Blues front look(glad we beat Chelsea 3-1 at home) and to add more, they look to have acquired the guy they need to stabilise the defence in David Luiz, something desparately needed. He can provide pace in the back, something Chelsea needs to cover for Terry and a solid consistent performer...the man next to Terry lacked focus often and led to goals for the opposition. Expect that no longer with Luiz in the back.

Also news regarding the suppoed "witch hunt" on Arsenal midfielder and captain Cesc Fabregas after his remarks regarding the offside call on Louis Saha and the goal being allowed after the whistle was not blew when it was clear Saha was in an offside position. Sayin such things as how much was the referree and the linesman paid to throw the match and not make the call. Everton manager David Moyes believed Fabregas deserved to be sent off for it calling unclassy for a player as in Fabregas to say such things.

what else to add before the weekend?

Chelsea 0 ? 1 Liverpool, exactly a week ago today the British transfer record was smashed twice, firstly by Andy Carroll who signed from Newcastle to Liverpool for ?36m, and Fernando Torres who left Liverpool for Chelsea for ?50m, as the Transfer window closed, but this is not the end of the story by any means, these two signing heralded a astonish 24 hour spending spree, as Monday 31st drew to a close both Liverpool and Chelsea spent a record ?134,000,000 between them.
Chelsea splurged ?50m on Torres, and ?25m on Benfica?s David Luiz, while Liverpool spent the humungous ?36m million on Carroll and a further ?23 million on Luis Su?rez.
All four deals were completed with just hours to spare, with Torres and Carroll putting pen to paper just 10 minutes before the transfer deadline.
For Torres this meant the tantalizing prospect of Champions League with his new club.

Torres: ?It?s my dream to win the Champions League and I?m sure I can, playing for Chelsea, I think all my team-mates share that dream with me, this is the target for every footballer - to try to play for one of the top clubs in the world and I can do it now. It has been two, three, four very, very hard days for me but I can now say that I am a Chelsea player.?

The foremost catalyst for all this spending was the sole decision of one man, Roman Abbramovich, who clearly has more money than sense, taking the decisive step as a source close to the Russian billionaire indicated , to ?get things sorted? as he tried in an instant to make Chelsea competitive again and ensure they finish in the top four.

I was sat glued to Sky ?real-time? as the whole saga unfolded. Some hours after the whole deal was thought to have fallen through Abbramovich in a single phone call, personally had taken over the negotiations to revive Luiz?s protracted transfer from Benfica to Chelsea that everything started to fall into place. Luiz literally having to rush to Lisbon Airport for the third time that week, papers he had signed had then to be rushed across Europe to the Premier League London offices to seal the move.

So on Sunday Chelsea hosted Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, Torres made his debut, but Caroll joined Liverpool carrying an injury so remained on the side lines..

For Liverpool and manager Kenny Dalglish Sunday turned out to be a moment to remember.

With the clock ticking away on one of the most significant matches in both the clubs histories. It was Liverpool that connected and gelled, with Sammy Lee and Steve Clarke assisting Dalglish in the dugout. Liverpool took a pragmatic approach with players pairing up to thwart Chelsea building up any momentum moving forward. It was a sight, Dalglish as ever the Liverpool loyal servant with Lee, Clarke in tow.

Liverpool fans from the outset took no prisoners Chelsea stewards failed in their numerous attempts to grab the banners, one shoved in Torres face screaming, ?He who betrays will always walk alone?, and ?Torres a pawn on our chessboard but the King remains.? the chanting of ?Su?rez? or ?Dalglish? rang out incessantly drowning out Torres?s name.

The Drogba Torres Anelka partnership needs lots of work, or just simply abandoning, losing Anelka maybe, Chelsea were desperately lacking width , particularly with Liverpool?s wing backs moving forward, Glen Johnson pushing Cole and Bosingwa deep.
The shocks simply added to the drama, the astonishing miss from Liverpool?s Maxi Rodr?guez, who managed to hit the bar from just three yards out with the goal mouth gapping wide, Chelsea were lucky not to have been a goal down at that point, then the sight of Chelsea?s Ivanovic and Cech arguing?? to the backdrop of ?You should have stayed with a big club,? could be heard from the chanted Liverpool hordes, clearly homing in on Torres parting words, that he was joining a ?big club????Are they to be ?famous last words? we will see ?..
I know Kayoko is livid at the Arsenal v Newcastle draw which saw Newcastle came back from four nil down, but they still managed a point, Man U dropped a game against Liverpool. Chelsea desperately needed a win and on a day that history was made ?.

A long time since I've posted. So sorry, Pips. You were worried I'm sure. Too many news since my very brief hiatus, so much to cover. So may I just cover the more recent news and Pips can add more on the ones I fail to mention. Lets start from the top.

Chelsea's buying of Fernando Torres was expected to pay off the the blues as they put a major upgrade on their attacking front. But it seemed as if they had abandoned their attempt to be "financially fair" and just bolstered their squad. Why not? ALL the other powerhouse clubs in Europe have not even tried yet. Their succumbed to the pressure of their rivals doing well and they were stumbling across the league as if they were drunk. As many fans alike thought they were officially "back" after winning two matches straight with goals plentiful, the buying of Torres and David Luiz at the window seemed to bring the play down even further facing defeat to Liverpool, a goalless draw to Fulham, then a disappointing loss to the hands of Everton in penalties 4-3, notable moment much to the distaste of Pips, the shot into the crowds from Ashley Cole. Carlo Ancelotti is now desperately seekeing salvation in any form. None of the players are looking in the same direction and have declined in play. Drogba after his start is not scoring as he used to, and Lampard's hernia surgery seemed to have broken the heart of the blues and basically burned out not having a deep squad because of many injuries. Misfortune one would call. SO what's the answer? Roman Abrramovich is looking to bolster the squad once more. Many names being mentioned, Alexis Sanchez from Udinese being the top name mentioned to help the attack. So more money being spent....*sigh Will Abramovich ever let his side just play? Even the managers are frustrated. Having a strong side is all well and good, but when one manager is faced with so many of them at once, he can get very stressed picking teams and faces fierce criticism when they do not get maximum points every outing. Something needs to change. They have FC Copenhagen on Tuesday for CL....Torres wanted CL football. And he got it. Time to play, boy.

Manchester United is no longer "invincible". After a loss to lowly Wolves, they rebounded very well in the Manchester derby with City. I expected United to drop this match as well, but Wayne Rooney showed why he is one of the very best in the world with his cool finish, the highly eye-appealing bicycle kick. Undoubtedly the goal of the season. The quality of the finish and the significance wins it in my book. And nine changes made Sir Alex look like a professional gambler. But he thought, "Crawley? You must be joking!!!" Not so much of one though. 93 positions ahead in the league tables above the fifth tier Red Devils, a rare, emphasis on rare, goal from Wes Brown was all they could get to earn the win. But one goal or sixteen goals, it gets them into the next round. But major kudos to the Crawley team, Sir Alex even had to upmost respect for them saying they deserved a draw and a replay for a second leg. They poured it on late and the bicycle kick from one their players should have made it level.. They have French Ligue 1 champions Marseille on Tuesday. That should be a very god match. Marseille surely has the quality to beat them, I hope they do.

And finally Arsenal. After that horrible second half against Newcastle, giving up 4 goals to settle for a point, they played host to Wolves, a week after they slayed the might Manchester United. They wanted to do the same to the Gunners, but at home, we are nearly unbeatable and showed that with a 2-0 win. CL followed being linked with the major powerhouse Spanish champions, FC Barcelona. ALL the tabloids marked this THE best pairing for CL, the rematch from last year's Quaterfinals and the rematch of the 2006 CL finals. Fives matches against Barcelona has ended in defeat. Barca came into London with the same mindset to do it once again and cruise into the Nou Camp with the advantage and surpass us once more....I guess they thought too far ahead. This match fancy football with the most stylish football clubs in the world going head to head. THe biggest story was how Arsenal would contain Messi. 28 goals in 35 matches this season, surely he was expected to score and create a ton more for his teammates. He did...to David Villa. But the resiliency showed for the Gunners, who showed they were kids no longer and stood face to face with their opposition. Djourou and Co. pestered the likes of Messi, Villa, and Pedro and held them to a single goal while scoring two themselves to win? Yes, win. Van Persie's form in goalscoring has been unreal somewhat, 10 goals in the last 7 matches heading into the match, he provided the equaliser. And Arshavin fought off some critics to score the winner and prove he is still a great player. A great player he is. CL resumes 8 Feb at the Nou Camp. Arsenal leads in aggregate 2-1, but Barcelona do not disappoint in Spain, they are looking at defeat...not even considering it. Not an option, they will surely bring the pressure and we will be heavily dependent on the defence to show up and play the way we did in the first tie. Well, enough of the upset....the match after CL seemed easy somewhat. Arsenal goes to Brisbane Road to derby with Leyton Orient. Barry Hearn, the chairman on Orient said his club had no chance in beating the mighty Arsenal. On paper, Arsenal were leap years above Orient, but matches like this proves that games are not won on paper as Orient fought back late in the match, something Crawley did against United, to score the equaliser and secure a rematch at the Emirates. Maybe fatigue could have played an issue. Not many great players were starting and they lacked presence at times. We have been notorious to not play well against lower tier clubs and this was another one of those matches...

covered everything from the big 3...anything else Pips?