Yup, looking forward to watching it at my local. Will you be in the crowd?
I’d wish you luck but . . . I can’t. Let’s just hope for a good game.
Have to go order a wedding cake at the weekend, so i will just have to make do with PremPlus. I’ve only been away to one so far (Blackburn), not including the Carling Cup final, but i’m trying to increase the number of games I make it to.
Good luck to the Eagles & may the better team win 
Dear Graham Souness,
Aside from the fact that you are a muppet of the highest order, you’re incredible man-management system has ensured that Celtic have got the extra firepower we’ve lacked this season, and look good to seeing off the challenge of you’re beloved Rangers.
Get It Right Up Ye.
I want to add to the list of impressive players Shawn Wright-Phillips of Man City. Always one of the smallest men on the pitch he is excellent down the wing with his pace and ball control and he even has a rocket for a shot. Sven Goran-Erikson surely has noticed, no?
Seconded. However SWP would have to displace Beckham to get in the England team - and there is simply NO way that Sven would do that.
So much to write…
I’ll start with last night’s game. Excellent game. What does it say about Vieira when a man 5 years older than him and 5 inches shorter than he is, dominates the middle of the pitch. Roy Keane is arguably one of the greatest midfielders of all time. Best moment of the night (other than John O’Shea’s deer in the headlights look when he scored) was Keane going in for a 50/50 ball with Vieira and Viera pulling out of the tackle. That was it for Vieira as a force in the match.
I thought Giggs was world class last night and for some reason Sol Campbell decided to have a nightmare of a match at home (for those of you not familiar with Sol Campbell, he one of the best central defenders in the world). Dare I add fuel to the fire and say that Henry bottled it again on a big night?
It’s imporatant to note that Rudd Van Nistelrooy was injured. He’s as prolific as Henry though a different sort of player entirely. 14 games left so anything can happen but my money would be on Chelsea.
Speaking of Chelsea, I can’t see them getting past Barcelona in the Champions League so I think that the treeble is out.
IMHO (and this is just MHO!!) Abramovich purchased Chelesea to increase his profile in the west. I think this is a play against potential reprecussions from Russia due to some of his dodgier dealings. All speculation on my part but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
The real danger to football is overexposure. There’s simply too much football on tv these days (I love Fox Sports World though). A European super-league also doesn’t appeal to me.
And by treeble I of course mean quadrupple.
Oh yeah, about the match last night, I wanted to say that I thought Graham Poll did an excellent job officiating the match, not perfect - he clearly missed a penalty in the box, Cole clearly deserved a yellow for his dive, and he probably showed too much leniancy to Rooney. But it was a tough match and he did a fine job.
I thought he did well too. He let the football do the talking. After the Cole and Pires dives in the first couple of minutes I felt Poll’s missing the penalty call as karma.
Agreed. It’s his get out-of-jail free card - as well as being the world’s biggest laundry.
He actually wanted a Formula 1 team, and nearly bought Jordan (the team not the slapper with big bristols).
You have to wonder what happens if he drops dead (not completely unlikely given his background). Chelsea wouldn’t last a day.
Yes, Highbury is a small stadium by big-club standards - but that’s because it’s basically an antique, and they’re building a new one, to hold 60,000.
Many stadiums used to hold 60-70k easily - but that was when large sections were terraces (ie standing-room-only). After the Hillsbrough disaster, they were all very quickly converted to all-seater, thus cutting capacity by a third or even half. Therefore, ticket prices had to go up by the same amount - it’s now a big economic as well as physical challenge to increase capacity back to the old sizes.
Wow - glad to see others have weighed in.
Saw the second half of Arsenal-Man U. match last night on Fox Sports World. Overall, good game - one of the better one’s I’ve seen. Ronaldo appears to be fulfilling his promise as an uber-talent. I wasn’t impressed initially when I first saw him play earlier in the season (he looked good, but couldn’t finish).
And Keane was spectacular - it still amazes me how important mid-fielders are to being a successful club. You can have great strikers and defenders, but if you don’t have the mid-fielders to “set the table”, so to speak, then you aren’t going to win on a consistent basis. After yesterday’s match, I now know why Keane is so highly regarded.
In re impressive players - those I listed were those I had seen personally. I agree Andy Johnson has been quite good. Even if Crystal Palace gets relegated, I’m sure he’ll remain in the premiership.
And I REALLY like Shawn Wright-Phillips. I haven’t seen him play this year - only highlight clips. But I did catch a few Man City games last year and was dutifully impressed.
I want to like Liverpool (in fact, I absolutely loved it when they beat Arsenal on Mellor’s blast in stoppage time), but I can’t quite commit. Injuries have plagued them all year. Morientes will help, but I don’t think all the Spanish players that have been added have created the right “mix”. It has to have been a frustrating season for Gerrard.
I’m disappointed the Mateja Kezman hasn’t done well at Chelsea. I got to watch a few Dutch league games last year and he looked quite good. He’s quick enough for the EPL, but is probably too small to be used on a regular basis.
I’m also disappointed that Tim Howard isn’'t getting the playing time he deserves. Part of his lackluster early season performance can be attributed to Man U’s poor defense (no Rio).
Oh, and props to all the Yanks playing in Europe (but especially EPL): EPL - Howard, Friedel, Bocanegra, O’Brien.
What do you make of the talk that it was a toss-up between Spurs and Chelsea for Roman A.? The only two big clubs in London that were being run like whelk-stalls, and hence ripe for the taking. Chelsea won out due to Ken Bates’ world class incompetence. Long-term you probably dodged a bullet, but there’s no denying it would be sweet to ride to the championship on the back of the dodgy Russian, at least in the short term.
Apparently he has noticed, but wonder-boy-who-in-Sven’s-eyes-can-do-no-wrong Beckham plays in his position, so if he does get a game, it’ll likely be on the left. How I wish we had a manager who could see beyond the money…
Why do you want to like Liverpool? 
You must fight this emotion, it will only bring bitterness, self-loathing and regret.
Seriously, I think a strong case could be made for Stevie G la being the player most repsonsible for carrying his team in the history of the EPL. Stevie takes responsibility for corners, free-kicks, goals, shots on target, crunching midfield tackles, tracking back and box to box running; the other ten handle the duties of standing around like a shower of t#*ts!
Sorry, forgot to respond to this…yeah, I guess the East Anglian rivalry is hardly one that’s well known outside of, errrrm, East Anglia 
…
It’d be awful to see Wigan go up. Apart from the embarassment of having a Premiership team with a support base appropriate for the Scottish second division, they simply wouldn’t cope in the Premiership. Any of the other teams in top positions would cope better.
As for Ipswich, my eternal pessimism has been running overtime for the past couple of months…we’ve got a team that know each other, play well off each other - but any injuries to key players and we’re screwed. (Fat chance of Joe Royle coping with actually having to do something.)
Then you’ll be pleased to hear that Norwich have just been sent packing from Goodison park with no points, courtesy of a 78min goal from the mad blue bastard Duncan Ferguson! 
Everton steady the ship with a vital home win. Hold on, please hold on…
Dude, can you use a spoiler box for results. Most of us Yanks catch these in replay (if at all). Thanks.
Myler Keogh,
Well, part the dilemma is precisely because Everton has done so well this year. I’m rooting for them to stay in the top 4. But I like Gerrard along with Riise and a few other players (Baros, Hyypia, Mellor).
Until Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira or some other good midfielder bosses him out of it. Gerrard is very overrated and does all of those things because his ego demands it. Anyone for a two-footed lunge? Anyone…