Taylor Swift

MARTINS!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA

Owen off for Martins after 60 minutes then Viduka off for Carroll after 70 minutes - would be what I would do.

Half time. That's ok. Man, I thought that first goal would kill us but the crowd were massive in us getting back into it. Viduka looks like he needs a break so I think he won't last 75 minutes. We can do this. I like how our fullbacks are overlapping constantly, which although leaves us vulnerable to the counter-attack, just means we can get more bodies into the box. Something will drop for us in the second half and we have to score.

COME ON!!!!!!!

Holy shit. Relegation.

Here we go.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=645234&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5739 Get in there

Bookies obviously only have the odds like that because people have put a lot of money on us staying up. The average punter is someone who thinks Michael Owen still rocks.

Worst possible news for Barca http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=645140&sec=europe&cc=5739

Was a great match... Damn. They're only a point away from Valencia and they play each other at the Vicente Calderon next week. Big battle for the last CL place.

Unless I misunderstand, you're more likely to be throwing your money away betting against the big guns away from home for the sake of your pattern though surely? The Big 4 have lost 3 away matches each. If the odds are good enough in those matches for the home team, then the profits will cover the other 15 or so matches which they win (and I lose). I don't know. I want to find a formula which can be applied to most, if not all, matches in the Premiership and just bet using that formula. Obviously I'll need to do research over the past couple of seasons first, to see whether it's been successful. But if I can find one, even if I change it for the big 4 (say, bet on all home teams except when big 4 play away, then bet on them) - then formula will be easy to follow and should make money. I'd rather not bet based on my hunches because they have proven to be incredibly (!) unreliable.

Has anyone tried betting with a formula? Say single bets on all home teams every single Premiership weekend. When I have some free time over the summer, I'll try going back for a couple of seasons, 'betting' using this formula. Who knows, it might be easy money.

Who can Chelsea really rest, though? Their whole first-team squad is full of world-class players. They had nothing to play for today but they still showed up. We have to hope Arsenal can beat Man Utd or else the title's over.

There is no problem of the top 4 monopolising the CL places in the short-term. When a team has a good core of players, like Liverpool with Gerrard, Carragher and now Torres, Chelsea with Terry and Lampard, Man Utd with Rooney, Ferdinand and their older contingent, and Arsenal with their youngsters, you're going to get a sustained period of dominance from those teams. That's just football. If you have good players and you can keep them, you're going to be good for quite some time. In the long-run, however, new talent should spread. Other teams, like Villa and Everton, should be able to develop talent that can compete with the top 4. The problem that we have is that the top 4 are hoovering up all this talent, so they're just perpetuating the status-quo. That is the problem. You need to prevent them from easily beating the system and maintaining their superiority. You need to reward teams who actually develop the youngsters in the first place (higher fees for youngsters or forcing youngsters to remain at the club that developed them) because the system we have now is one where the poorer clubs are forced to sell their good 19 and 20 year olds to bigger clubs who benefit when these kids mature into world-class footballers at 24 and 25. So abolish the loan system because a) it will mean that if Man Utd want to develop their youngsters, they're going to have to give them first-team football at Man Utd - something that they've been quite reluctant to do, and b) kids with good agents will realise that playing in the reserves for 2-3 years won't help their future prospects. If they're after big money, they've got to prove themselves first. So off they go to a club which can guarantee them first-team football - clubs like Everton, us and West Ham, clubs who don't have the big bucks. That spreads the talent around the league, which means that now, finally, teams who can really develop their youngsters will eventually consistently challenge the top 4. I also don't agree about the playoffs system. If you play 38 games and come out ahead of another team, you should be rewarded for that. There's no logic in saying 'ok, Arsenal have got 69 points this season, Villa have got 58, but we're going to make them play one more match to determine who gets into the CL'. If you come in 4th, you get the final CL spot. That's it. There's no need to complicate this.

2-0, Anelka. Good strike.

Fabregas should be off.

1-0, Alex.

No loans fixes this problem. You'll always have greedy footballers so if some kid wants 10k/week to play for the Liverpool reserves then so be it. I bet the majority of youngsters would move clubs within a season or two if the loan system was abolished.

It's a real shame about the Tevez situation. The guy started most games in a season where they won the CL and the Premiership, and the team scored a shitload of goals whilst blowing every other team out of the water. And then suddenly a replacement is bought and he's getting games in the League Cup and FA Cup. I don't know what Fergie's thinking is - Berbatov's older than Tevez, more injury-prone and has an attitude problem.

that's all to do with their new stadium which is very impressive btw They should be in a much better position if they make it to the CL. The main problem is that construction has stopped on their new stadium, but they got a new loan last month and now qualification for the CL should mean they're in a much better position next year. I hope it means they don't have to sell Silva or Villa.

I've been thoroughly impressed with what Shearer's done so far. He's tried different tactics, he's shown a willingness to drop players who don't perform, he's obviously implemented a disciplinary system that hasn't existed at the club for 6-7 years and he talks like someone who knows what he's talking about. He doesn't give excuses like Souness did when we lose. He doesn't try to sugar-coat how shit we are - a trait that the Fergie, Rafa and Mourinho seem to have. I like him, a lot. Of course, everything will come down to results but there's no way you can really judge his managerial ability after 8 games with this squad of players. He needs time. A year, hopefully more - whichever league we're in. He's still a noob at this so he's going to get better quickly, too. Based on the little we've seen, I think Shearer will be a successful manager.

Except for the group stages, the CL is pretty good. But you need the group stages anyway to give the smaller teams a chance. Platini will never reduce the number of teams in the competition. It's tough to balance giving smaller teams in small nations a chance in the CL and not dilute the quality of the competition. Until you have financial parity, giving spots in the CL to clubs in Latvia, Greece etc. only makes the group stages boring. But maybe you have to keep doing that to achieve financial parity?

Are neutrals going to lose interest, though? This season's CL has been pretty good. Last season's, in general, was pretty good. I don't see how creating other competitions of lesser quality will help teams in general. It seems only the foreign teams care about the UEFA Cup now. Look at Spurs, look at Villa - just giving up on the UEFA Cup because they wanted to qualify for the CL. I still like the UEFA Cup and some of the teams who have won it have been quality teams (Sevilla twice, Valencia way back, Porto etc.), but it's obvious the neutral interest there has waned.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=644765&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5739

Obviously depends on what the cap is, though. If it's relatively low, then the whole of Europe will be competitive but that means many teams in the Premiership, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A will have to sell a lot of players to come below the cap. If it's not low enough then what's the point? Caps were implemented to help create parity. I'm not sure any of the big leagues in Europe will willingly sign up to a cap unless they were forced to by UEFA (not allowing entry to CL? what happens then?).