Taylor Swift

Is Spurs a recent thing? There doesn't seem to be any historical or geographical factors there (except maybe the cockney thing but then surely every London club deserves the same treatment?), but merely more topical because they're loved by the media and are apparently our rivals for the Euro spots. I like to laugh at them, and obviously want them to lose because it benefits us, but there's no genuine dislike of them or their fans. I know a few Spurs fans and they're all quite canny lads actually. But with the others, especially Man Utd and Liverpool, there's definitely a childhood growing up element to it which just makes me dislike them to the point that I almost enjoy them losing as much as I enjoy Newcastle winning. Almost.

Messi will be back for Barca in the semis and that obviously gives them a real shot at winning it all, though I have to say Man Utd's form atm is scarily good.

1. Liverpool 1. Man Utd 3. Spurs 4. Chelsea I don't hate Arsenal. Admire Wenger a lot and even though they've got a few dirty little cheats in the team, they're probably my second favourite team.

So why did they have to win by a flukey pen? Nothing less than they deserved. Liverpool were strong minded enough to take a hammer blow like the goal and kick straight off and blast down the other end to win the penalty. You cant take that kind of positivity away from Liverpool as most other teams would have allowed their heads to drop for a minute or so. Where good fortune comes into it is how a player like Toure, who had been pretty solid all game, gets skinned and commits a stupid challenge in the box. In most other cases, against most other teams, Toure wins the ball and clears the danger. Bitter? Of course. In most cases the referee wouldn't have awarded a non-existent penalty to one of the two scummiest teams on Earth. Yes I'm bitter as well. Very bitter.

That sitter he missed was ridiculous, easiest chance for either team over the two legs. Indeed. I thought Arsenal had blown it then until Theo's magical run. I hate to say Arsenal deserved to win it because generally, you deserve what you get in football, but I'll say that Liverpool certainly did not deserve to win 4-2.

Missed a couple of long shots (that I would have probably creamed over, tbf) but wasn't that involved in the general play that much. Kuyt had a good game, but Mascherano and their defence really shone after about 20 minutes in.

How shit is Adebayor's first touch btw? I thought he had improved it but at least for tonight, it was fucking dogshit.

Not been Chelsea's best season so far but maybe this will be the year they do it? I'd say they've been favourites for both the ties against Liverpool that they've lost but this time I'd make them underdogs because of how good Liverpool are in Europe. Come on Chelsea.

I've just seen the replay of Walcott's run (again and again). Skinned 5 players before that perfect layoff. Top class. So unexpected but motherfuckingly awesome.

My god that run by Walcott is jaw-droppingly awesome. And the layoff as well. Arsenal have been robbed. If that was a penalty, what the fuck was the Hleb one last week?

What a run by Walcott. What a motherfucking run. Holy shit. I fucking can't get over it. Fuck. Liverpool can fuck off. Never a fucking penalty. Fuck.

Fuck yeah.

Since he beefed up (because of an apparent attempt to become the new Shearer/Roeder told him to) he's looked slower than ever and doesn't even have the same unpredictability to his game anymore.

But rumours don't end after ninety minutes, or even a week. If they're all mixed in with each other then it becomes really tedious keeping up with developments in the one particular rumour that you're interested in. Time seems to be just about the worst thing to organise them with, to me anyway. If that rumour develops in any sort of way then surely it will stay at the forefront of the rumour thread?? Exactly. Rumours are rumours, they stay in the rumour thread that week and any developments or updates go into which ever week it is. If it comes something serious a new thread is made for that actual transfer. It doesn't seem that difficult to me to maintain, i'm sure James would love to deal with it no probs.

were you happy with him when he was playing alongside Smith, Milner and Duff? Were you happy with Martins alongside the same players? (in particular pre-African Nations when Owen was still in and out, and Viduka was injured). Different formation, different manager. Martins is the key player in our new formation because of his ability to stretch the field, thus allowing Owen to drop into the space created by Martins Without Owen I reckon we could still play our normal game (well, what constitutes as normal atm) but without Martins, we'd suffer.

The Euros will keep the normal footie section going.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article1292722.ece Apparently only 3 now.

From googling, I found.. Five other excluding Zesh Rehman. So six in total.

There used to be this kid at Leeds, Harpal Singh or something. He was quite naff but the Asians I knew were excited about him (years ago). I read a FourFourTwo article a while back that said that there's only 4 British-born Asians playing in the 4 leagues in England. Shame. But we're more into being doctors and economists anyway

Best work ethic in the Prem. Can play any position in the midfield. Better than Lennon! (ducks for cover) honestly though, Park being a Korean is more of a minus than a plus for me because that means if he comes to us the s*** Korean media would be writing s*** stories about us 24/7. If you think your rags are s***... Even if Fergie really held us ransom, He'd probably cost less than Lennon would cost and would do a better job. I say why not. I like Park. He's not spectacular but does a decent job (and that's better than what the likes of Butt/Geremi/Barton can do). Asian pride!

Martins for sure.

Park? You just went for him 'cos you're Korean

Because they don't develop an attachment to wherever they grew up? It might be hard for Asians in England to develop an attachment to their birthplace if their culture (parents, religion etc.) is entirely different to what you'd normally class as 'British' culture. Maybe that's why Asians tend to stick together seeing as they have more in common as well? And since this culture doesn't include football, you'd have to be pretty 'against the grain' to go to football matches. I don't know how to explain the liking big clubs thing but maybe it's similar to foreigners like myself in that there's no geographical attachment and therefore there was actually a choice, and who'd want to support Wigan when you can support Man Utd?

Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 1-1

Is it acceptable to boo any substitutions? Debateable but I thought booing that one was particularly ridiculous, given the circumstances, it being obvious what the manager's thinking was and what happened against Blackburn previously. I don't really approve of booing the manager / the players full stop. I thought the 'You don't know what you're doing' aimed at Allardyce was bad craic even, given it's never anything other than unhelpful and divisive. I'm not sure why people booed that substitution tbh, although I agree with Skirge's point about keeping your quick players on if you're looking to sit on a lead rather than someone like Viduka, I think Keegan took him off because of his reaction to being substituted against Birmingham anyway as if to say that his tantrum won't any affect on how he does things, I think the fan reaction might have shocked him though. As for Allardyce. the 'You don't know what you're doing' is bad craic but it's hard not to get frustrated when you're chasing a game and he replaced Milner with N'Zogbia, the worst for me this season was the stick Barton got during the Blackburn game, the over the top groans when he gave the ball away compared to everyone else was pretty bad, as was the booing after the 0-0 against Villa. I totally agree there, especially re: Barton in that match. The poor fucker must have been scared to touch the ball. The thing is I think Keegan would have brought him off if it wasn't for the fear of the fans reaction towards him (Barton) which is worse than him getting stick for taking Oba off. The crowd is our own worst enemy at times. indeed, nice to see that there was no booing bartons name before the match against reading, that's the first time since his christmas behaviour, just goes to show people will forgive you if you put in a few good performances. anyway back on topic, i've never been a big fan of oba, obviously i can see he's got talent but he's frustrated me more then excited me which i dont take as a good sign. however, since kk came in he's been getting better and better and i'm starting to think that oba might actually get a lot more consistent with kk guiding him, lets hope so because on his day he's un-stoppable, and there's not many players in the world you can say that about. He's only been inconsistent this season because he's been played out of position.