Trumpet

West Ham will get it at this rate. Hope we keep you alive in the battle with a win at St. Mary's next saturday.

16 points from 7 players. Oscar and Marshall with fat ZEROs, The only defender to actually keep a clean sheet (Davies) on the bench, and all sort of terrible stuff. Well, Suarez/Sturridge/Sterling/Ade to rescue me from what is shaping up to be my worst FF team. Just as I was 5 points off top in N-O league

Underwhelming day of results so far...hope Crystal Pulis make it a bit more entertaining.

Is it me, or has Oscar been very off form for a couple of months now ?! (Since his great sub appearance at Southampton on New Year's Day)

With Rooney staying, then signing Mata makes nosense whatsoever, unless the plan is to flog RVP this summer. Mata never is, and never will be a Moyes-esque winger in a 4-4-1-1

Was bored off my mind last night, so did a mock draw: Group A: Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Armenia, Macedonia, Kazakhstan Group B: Greece, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Wales, Lithuania, Luxamburg (Wales genuinely will have a chance here) Group C: Germany, Czech, Romania, Belarus, Moldova, Gibraltar Group D: England, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Azerbaijan, Andorra (Roy returns to the country of his second citizenship ) Group E: Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Scotland, Georgia, Malta Group F: Netherlands, Denmark, Serbia, Estonia, Albania, Faroe Islands Group G: Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Bulgaria, N.Ireland, Lichtenstein (The revenge of Ibra) Group H: Russia, Croatia, Turkey, Montenegro, Cyprus, San Marino (Somewhat competitive group and maybe San Marino can sneak a draw off Cyprus ?) Group I: Bosnia, Ukraine, Norway, Latvia, Iceland, (France) .

Over to you Houghton to take advantage of Spurs' long flight back from East Ukraine (Who am I kidding, Norwich will get twatted on Sunday by an Adebayor brace)

Reckon a group of Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Faroe Islands will be boss

40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage. 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying stage and final tournament. 20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament. No wonder when you consider Iceland were quiet woeful for 2010 or 2012 qualifying campaign. FIFA is the one, that only takes the current ranking into equation (Hence Norway ended up being top seed for WC qualifers group due to their run of form in Euro 2012 qualifying campaign having beaten Portugal and drawn Denmark). It takes a couple of more good campaign for Iceland to properly establish themselves up there, which I suspect they will do as their team is very young and will only get better.

Konoplyanka looking very dangerous. Nice.

Draw is this Sunday. Thought this needed a thread of its own. The pots have been decided: http://i62.tinypic.com/11r4x89.png Teams will be put into 9 groups. Eight groups of 6, and a group of 5 (Plus France, whose games don't count). 23 teams could qualify (France already there as the host) - For television rights reasons, England, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands shall be drawn into groups of 6 teams - For political reasons, Azerbaijan and Armenia (due to disputed status of Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as Spain and Gibraltar (due to disputed status of Gibraltar) shall not be drawn in the same group. Unlike the previous UEFA qualifying tournament, Russia and Georgia have agreed to play each other if they are drawn together - France (Coeff: 30,992; Rank: 11) are partnered with the five-team group, which enable the 2016 tournament hosts to play friendlies against these countries on their 'spare' dates. These friendlies do not count in the qualifying group standings. 9 group Winners and 9 Runners up qualify directly, leaving 5 spaces open for play offs. The best 3rd team also qualifies....and the remaining 8 3rd teams will do play-offs for the remaining 4 spots. ------------------------------------------- Shame despite Iceland's great WC qualifying campaign, they couldn't make the cut to pot 4, still think some lesser nations will have a great chance of qualifying here. As for England, I guess the tough draw would be: England, Belgium, Serbia, Armenia, Iceland, and Kazakhstan. or the easy root of: England, Ireland, Norway, Latvia, Moldova, San Marino. Personally hoping for a good draw for Nordic teams, and Poland.

It's interesting to note, that considering French teams' abject performances in European Competitions this year (PSG) aside, and the fact that 09-10 season will be irrelevant for next season's rankings, Russia could take over Ligue 1 in coefficient points if their representatives do well. As of now, France only has PSG left in Europe, whereas Russia has Zenit, Rubin Kazan, and Anzhi. CSKA Moscow's last minute loss to Plzen and not coming 3rd in their group will be hurting if Russia come up short by .3 coefficient points.

Love the Europa League, hope we'll see more spectacles tonight than the last 2 days of CL which has all the ties already dead and over. Will be watching Plzen vs. Donetsk, and Esbjerg vs. Fiorentina

Kyiv-Valencia game moved to Cyprus. Wondering if Spurs will still play in Ukraine on Thursday, by all means, it appears it's quiet unsafe there at the moment.

Iranian Premier League ends in 3 weeks, which means Queiroz will have the players in camp 1.5 months prior to start of the WC. Of course, plenty of players play abroad, but it bodes well for preparations. Seeing the FA Cup draw, it's a good possibility that Ghoochannejad will be the first Iranian player to play at Wembley for FA Cup semi with Charlton. Hope Magath gives Dejagah more time as he managed him in Wolfsburg. Good to see Davari pulling a match-winning save for Branscheweig this weekend as well. My confidence has gone up ever since seeing Nigeria's WC kit.

No idea how we lost this game. Think we've been the better side for most of the game...well, 12 cup finals until end of the season then. Just can't remember the last time Webb had a decent performance. The guy is Mugabe of referees.

Fucking hell, they are one easy draw away from another Wembley appearance.

The f*ck

Spare a thoughts for all those with Yaya and Silva in their Fantasy teams. on bright side, that means Marshall will replace Mannone in my team

F*ck me, what a result. If we take care of the business tonight, I'll be cheering on Moyes to end his away at big teams' drought tomorrow night. Christ, what did I just say....

Fulham asking the Premier League to postponed their game vs Liverpool on Wednesday due to tube striker and how the stewards and safety people may have trouble getting there. Are they for real? How come West ham and Arsenal (Who have a lot more fans and bigger stadiums) not considering it? The game is at 8 PM and from what I remember at my time at Craven Cottage, is a mere 10 minute (max) walk from the bus station to the stadium. Not to mention, the bus they parked at Old Trafford lat season can probably fit all the fans and stewards in it anyways. Opportunism if there ever was one. They're physically shot after the effort they put today and have a 15M striker to get fit, so they're trying to postpone this game. Hope the FA doesn't fall for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow's verdict was the game is cancelled. Seriously a nothing club. Premier League will be a better place when these no bodies fuck off and are replaced by a proper club next season.

3 points to be fair, and 4 if you count the GD. Having said that, please twat those jammy fuckers on Wednesday, I hate the sight of them. Have to admire their resilience away from home though. That's what has kept them in it. It's a nuisance to see them behind but their March is Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H), Saints (H), and Liverpool (A), and I am confident we'll beat them at Anfield.

I very much would like to look upwards from now on, but if you offered me 4th now, I'd probably take it due to being a pessimistic fan by nature. However, with European duties to come back for the top 3 (And Spurs), and us having back another couple of our defenders fit next week...well, if we win games, you never know. It's probably better to review the situation after the next 3 games, which makes it with 10 games to go. I think things could change all over the place. Chelsea: WBA (A), Everton (H), Fulham (A) Arsenal: Man U (H), Sunderland (H), Stoke (A) City: Sunderland (H), Stoke (H) Liverpool: Fulham (A), Swansea (H), Southampton (A) If we get 9 points from this lot, irrespective of how the rest of top 3 perform, I'll believe we are in the race. Big ask, especially with that Southampton game as they had the better of us earlier at Anfield (though without Coutinho and Suarez). We've broken a few voodoos this season at White Hart Lane and Britannia and Arsenal (H), so if we can correct our bad recent history vs. Saints, then things could look interesting. And of course, we could conceivably be 3 points short of Arsenal with superior GD on Wednesday night, seeing they always mentally shit themselves vs. Man United. OR, be level on points with Spurs after a shock away defeat at Fulham. Having said that, hope you will do us a favour and get something from Spurs, so it'll be better. All in all, nothing is yet decided. This is the most exciting and unpredictable season in years, for every single team, bar Newcastle I would say. I am still absolutely baffled at how your owner and management threw the towel on the season on new year's day, when you were within touching distant of the top 5. Could have made the whole thing a hell lot more interesting !

Their next home game in all competitions is on MARCH 16th !!! against Liverpool. Until then it's Arsenal, Palace, Olympiacos, and WBA all away.

Reminded me of Chelsea 3-3 Villa a few years ago when Chelsea went 3-2 up in extra time and the team and manager celebrated massively....only for them to concede the equalizer with a few seconds to go. This gif has the potentials of a classic by the way http://abload.de/img/dsdsadsadsnljxy.gif