Village Idiot

Which Dutch fella? Rafinha is Thiago's brother.

Ah, that Tamas guy behaved like a cunt last year when you played West Brom. This pleases me.

The times I have watched him for Ajax he's always seemed to me not good enough for either position. His attacking play benefits greatly of coming from deep, usually always seems muddled when deployed as a conventional LW. Reminds me a lot of Glen Johnson really.

Rivaldo has signed for Sao Paulo.

Emanuelson playing as fullback? Good idea that

His agent is that cretin Mino Raiola, same as Zlatan and Robinho. Underwhelming signing for Milan really. Probably a kickback for bringing both to Milan.

Our players aren't "incredibly fit and hardly injuried". Iniesta had a horrid injury-ridden season last year (a lot of our improvement in play this year is due to him being back and on form), Xavi had to stop playing for a month early this season due to an achilles problem and body fatigue, Messi missed a few games through a sprained ankle... I'd say that we aren't too different that most other La Liga sides, this is admittedly a league with way less contact than the PL. There was a list comparing the injuries of several of Europe's top teams last season, we were pretty much average on that regard. Wish I could find it again... Messi went through specialized conditioning to reduce the injury problems that plagued his early career (he even changed his center of gravity) and has repeatedly credited that for saving his career.

Málaga claiming that yesterday's referee told their goalkeeper that he was s*** (literally "you should learn to rush out lad, you're very bad")

Haven't you been "close to singing a player" since early January?

We had to sub Puyol out due to a knock and then Xavi because he can't play 90 mins too often these days, so we only had one "bedding in" sub and Guardiola went with Bojan to try to give him some confidence after being criticized a lot lately. Afellay has looked handy and was the only good thing to come out of the Betis game, but his movement is still out of tune with the rest of the squad. Needs more time to absorb our tactics.

But that just highlights another strength. Your 'main' players are seemingly incredibly fit. Very few injury problems. We are walking on the edge of the razor though. One of Puyol/Piqué goes out for a significant amount of time and we have to put Milito (woeful this season) or an out of position Abidal at CB. One of Xavi/Iniesta drops and we are stuck with Keita (decent player but not a creative force), and we have Bojan as our *only* backup forward. The signing of Afellay is meant to supplement our options in midfield and the wings.

Yes, we are vulnerable to good counters but I'd say that's more a tactical "weakness" (and that's inevitable when you play with a high defensive line) that not having good players in that position.

None. Our lack of depth is usually pointed as our main weakness, something I'd agree on.

This kind of video ads/banter for big games is pretty common stuff in Spain, though, so Sevilla aren't really out of the line here. This is the one we did for the home leg of the CL's semifinal last year:

"Marca" reporting that Hamburg are asking €4m for RvN (Marca themselves reported the previous €2m bid had been accepted two days ago, mind).

Iván Campo was a shit CB, amongst the worst I have seen wear the Spain shirt. Cult hero/laughingstock in here. People were amazed he could salvage a career as DM.

Slightly cringeworthy video Sevilla have released to promote their semi home tie against Real Madrid http://vimeo.com/19070177 It's the shitty voiceover guy who does it for me, although probably not as funny if you don't understand Spanish

Tottingham linked again with Forlán in our press today, citing him as 'Arry's scouting target the other day.

We seem more subdued lately, which I'm fine with if it means we'll hit top gear come March (and beat Arsenal in February). I'm also satisfied with so many people chipping in again. There was a lot of times last year that we genuinely looked a one-man team with Messi being everything.

Dunno, but the Spanish FA certainly gives much more leverage on this matter. We get yellows for people taking off their tops, but most other stuff gets a pass (this week Cronaldo told the Atlético fans to shut up after scoring, for example).

Rooney's been playing decent, but his confidence in front of goal seems to be shot. I don't know if it's the miss you're alluding to, but I saw him miss a point blank header that was just embarrassing.

7 games, late winner, refereeing drama. This has been a class game

Can't wait for the fallout of this game

Typical Baptista goal that. The Beast is back. Epic if Málaga salvage a point of this game.

Málaga playing some classy stuff despite being one man down. Glad to see Pellegrini managing a proper team again