Shearer9

Whereas if the article hadn't been published it'd be "How come Owen is silent on the matter? Little fucker is probably scheming on how best to fuck over Newcastle and leave us for Sunderland on a free" Can't win at all in this can he? You're probably right, that crowd would be out too if he didn't. I'm not on either side, but clearly the best thing for him to do is just to get back in the team and start scoring again. I don't really care what he says or doesn't say in the media, I really care about what he does on the field.

Shut up and prove it.

I didn't think the red card decisions were bad at all. He acted within the laws of the game. Obviously he missed that one at the end, but there's something suspect going on in every close game Liverpool play. It's more that they get every 50/50 decision rather than getting all the big ones though.

Who is this twat on Setanta with the waistcoat who can't sit up straight?

Another centre half with a fantastic goal from a freekick, Toure this time.

Alex for Chelsea. wow.

The page title bit, not the story headline.

Bolton are making this Arsenal game awful. Lampard's been class today though for Chelsea. I'm no huge Lampard defender, and hardly think he's the world's best midfielder, but it just shows how misused he his by McClaren. And I took Santa Cruz out of the starting lineup for my fantasy team, he's already got a goal and an assist. :'(

That game was unbelievably congested, is Goodison really that small? Great game as well, thought Clattenburg did a good job until the end there.

I'd be happy with Riise, Enrique is by no means the finished product, and as we've seen with Zoggy, young players can go through very bad spells where the quality of play is shocking. I'd be excited by the prospect of Riise.

Didn't Barton stir things up in the England camp when he got called up, simply because he was a lot more down to earth? Especially with Lampard IIRC...

It seems like every time I turn on the SPL it puts on a good show, and there's generally a good atmosphere. To be honest, watching non-Premiership football really doesn't do it for me, but I generally like to watch the SPL over La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, etc.

He just blatantly threw that thing out there about Butt, Smith, and Geremi in midfield knowing their past histories. Surely he can't have complemented if he's seen it. The reality is that there are much more functional defensive-minded midfields that could be put out there.

Smith and Geremi, what are they doing? Smith's been nowhere to be found for at least 25 mins, while Geremi's done nowt but take corners and throws. Butt's put himself about but he's also been very, very clumsy. We have big problems in midfield.

More fruitful play from Alan Smith

We literally got nothing for £10m and probably £5-7m in wages. Just £15 or more chucked out the window.

I'd let Ashton have this year to try and get back to fitness. I really think his injury probably set him back 2 years, at least. It's really sad when you think about it, I think he could make a great strike partner for Owen both at Newcastle and for England.

Good Lord, I'm the first to admit that I thought Heskey never should have been called up, but how can he be removed now? And surely Barry should keep his place.

I know most of these are probably fabricated but I guess its possible that we tried to get a few of these players but nothing came of it. I can think of actual concrete evidence (ie, quotes, very widely reported from reputable news agencies) from these players: Belletti Baines Heinze Ben Haim I think its also likely we were interested in Shorey, Campbell, and maybe Brown.

Huge apologies for the extreme tardiness of the last two match reports but they have both been written from a hospital bed... literally.... What happened?

Why shouldn't Twickenham be used? Has it ever been used for football? And do they ever use Wembley for rugby?

1. Chelsea 2. Liverpool 3. ManU 4. Arsenal 5. Everton 6. Blackburn 7. Spurs 8. Newcastle 9. Man City 10. Villa 11. Pompey 12. Reading 13. West Ham 14. Bolton 15. Birmingham 16. Sunderland 17. Wigan 18. Fulham 19. Middlesbrough 20. Derby

This has really started to boil my piss as well, people talk about all the problems in the game in England now. Fair enough, I think there are problems at the youth level, how young players are developed, English player's inflated value, etc. But don't blame the national team's poor performance on that. It's entirely the fault of McClaren and the people who appointed him. It just drives me up the wall that he's England manager in the first place, but when people try and lay the blame elsewhere, it really pisses me off. If young English players are ever going to be good enough to play for the national team, then they'll make it through the youth ranks into Premiership clubs. I would get worried if only, say, 5% of the Premier League was English or if the English national team had 10 or more players from the Championship in a squad.

I too, think Liverpool will take 3rd. Everyone always talks like this at the beginning of the season and its always back to normal by May. I'm curious though Digger, what do you think Liverpool need to become a league winning side? I think Torres-Kuyt is a fantastic strike partnership, Gerrard and Alonso are dynamite in midfield, Pennant's come on strong, Babel could be one of the buys of the window, and Finnan, Carragher, Riise, and Agger make a really good defense for me. I suppose the depth is perhaps not there like it is at Chelsea or ManUtd, but it still seems like a very strong squad to me. Goalkeeper and Left wing are the 2 weak points for me. I still think Blackburn, Everton, and Spurs will take 5th-7th, just because they've been together and successful for the last few years. Leaving us with 8th. There's just something about Villa that I don't really like, I think they're only just barely a top half side, as are Reading. Now that I think of it, I think its the youth at Villa that bothers me as far as their European prospects go. They're relying on a lot of young talent to attempt to go such a long year, I think they'll fade at the end. The rest are pretty much equal. I think people have been too harsh on Derby, they've also had a really tough start, and play us and Arsenal next. While I think such a poor start will be too much to come back from, they're not far off Boro, Fulham, etc.

Yeah but we know they're crap jpd. Downing is average, but Pennant has really stepped it up this season so far. I was surprised that Rafa was going to let him get a lot of playing time, but he seems to have done well, able to both beat his man and put in a decent cross.