2 out of 2 - not a great start

It was a 452-1 bet for the Arsenal v Spurs match to finish 4-4, apparently a lucky punter put £10 on it! Stoke beat Sunderland 1-0 with a spirited performance but Chelsea and Vila did win but tips wise I need to go back to the drawing board - ah well we shall see what the weekend may bring...

Head of the Olympics Jacques Rogge has stated that London's new 2012 stadium doesn't need to have an athletics track and therefore could be used in the future for other forms of recreation. The IOC boss said: "If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favour of that."

Tottenham's Daniel Levy said that he did consider this as a potential option for Spurs and West Ham United have been rumoured to be interested in the proposition.

Hull 0 Chelsea 3

Hull City's outstanding winning streak was brought to an end last night by an outstanding Chelsea team. The first goal you have to check out - Frank Lampard has been displaying world beating midfield skills recently and this delicate chip was another example of why he is one of the easiest choices for Capello to make in the England set up. Anelka added a second which made Hull crumble against the Premiership high flyers and Malouda scored to truly finish off the Premiership new boys. On reflection Phil Brown will take this as education for his team that have so far over delivered - 7-8 more wins and they will have secured premiership safety which is amazing with the resources this club have.

North London derby game of the season

Arsenal 4 Tottenham H 4

An 8 goal thriller at the Emirates stadium was the game of the night of the midweek fixtures. A potential goal of the season from David Bentley opened up the game and forced even more pressure on the Spurs defence as a result. From a football spectator's point of view this was a classic but defensive/goalkeeping coaches would have been cringing. Both Almunia and Gomes made terrible errors as well as Clichy and Hutton - but this contributed hugely to the entertainment factor. On this evidence, Arsenal have the same beautiful game that we know of but are defensively too naive to win the Premiership as things stand. Tottenham Hotspur need strengthening but Harry Redknapp has galvanised his squad giving the players more spirit and confidence. All four goalscorers for Spurs were English (Bentley, Huddlestone, Bent and Lennon) which is also an encouraging positive point for the international scene.

Paolo Maldini looking forward to teaming up with Beckham

AC Milan veteran Paolo Maldini backs Beckham's imminent loan move to the Italian club as not just a means of keeping fit but that he is still hungry for success at the very highest level. Despite the deal being not completely signed and sealed it looks on the cards that he will be joining Kaka, Ronaldinho and other big footballing stars.

"Beckham is coming here to train, to remain in good form and to still be an important part of his national team," Maldini said.

"Milan has no reservations signing veteran players and has always taken into account the image and communication factors.

"As long as you have image and technical values together, all is well."

NEW Football Betting Tips

I would hate anyone to lump on seriously with any Football Tip I give. Why? Because I have the kiss of death when it come to gambling on anything. However I want to try out a theory which is if I give football tips but don't gamble on them, does my record improve? It may become obvious therfore that I am superstitious when it comes to this stuff but anyway here goes.

On Wednesday there is a full premiership programme (shown below) and I would go for Arsenal to beat Spurs at the Emirates, Aston Villa to beat Blackburn at Villa Park, Chelsea to beat Hull and Sunderland to beat Stoke. Lets see now how good my predictions are....

Wednesday 29th October 2008
Arsenal	vs.	Tottenham	20:00
Aston Villa	vs.	Blackburn	19:45
Bolton	vs.	Everton	20:00
Fulham	vs.	Wigan	19:45
Hull	vs.	Chelsea	19:45
Liverpool	vs.	Portsmouth	20:00
Man Utd	vs.	West Ham	20:00
Middlesbrough	vs.	Man City	20:00
Stoke	vs.	Sunderland	19:45

Harry Redknapp replaces European style management team at Spurs

Well, as a loyal Spurs fan I must admit that I am completely speechless afer this weekend's developments. The madness started with Daniel Levy sacking Juande Ramos, Gus Powet and Damien Comolli being sacked late last night (26th October 2008) after a series of tragic results underpinned from some tragic player acquisition at the Lane. I awoke to a text message at 8.15am from an old friend who is a Bradford City fan telling me that Harry Redknapp was our new manager. With a mixture of shear disbelief and excitement I scrambled for the trusty Sky Digital remote control to go on to SSN. Then the news unfolded. After taking 2 points from a potential 24, this premiership campaign had gone terribly. The disharmony from Ramos and Camolli was so blatant; here was a Spanish coach who wanted to demand his player choices stuck but then had more than a thorn in his side with Levy having a bias towards the Sporting Director's views.

After a decade of trying to force a square peg into a round hole with the Director of football two-tiered management structure, Daniel Levy has hit rock bottom and ate Humble pie at the lowest ebb of Tottenham Hotspur's Premiership history. Ramos was the man that Levy and Camolli both gambled on with great confidence, prizing him away from Spanish side Seville after Martin Jol's results took a downwards turn. With relegation staring Gus Poyet and Jaunde Ramos right between the eyes, something had to give.

"The results are what counts in football and we all know how this world works," Ramos said. "Now we just have to see if this decision is the best one for the team to recover and have a good season."

Harry Redknapp joins Tottenham Hotspur from a very successful second spell in management at Portsmouth. After winning the FA Cup and getting Pompey into Europe, Redknapp hinted that the £5 millon that Levy offered was too tempting a payment for Portsmouth to take. However, emotionally this move to Spurs had been on his mind in previous years and his willingness to succeed came from connections with the club on many levels.

"I could have come here maybe 18 months ago, in all honesty," said Redknapp. "I nearly came here, it was a long story but things happened.

"I nearly went to Newcastle and people said I didn't want to take on the challenge of a big club. I felt that once this happened (with Spurs again), I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

Whatever will happen at the Lane next? A great start today with a 2-0 victory against Bolton with Pavlichenko and Bent scoring, but relegation is still a huge threat to Tottenham Hotspur - the table does not lie. Either way, today was a huge step forward for the Spurs. Harry Redknapp is the best English manager that we have and shows the strength and resilience that Tottenham need to either get out of the bottom three or to bounce right back into the big time.

Sunderland v Newcastle United result 25th October 2008

Sunderland 2 Newcastle United 1 Attendance 47,936

This midday Premiership fixture was a mouth watering North East derby and lived up to the expectation with both teams showing lots of commitment in the tackle and desire to win. Cisse scored first in the 20th minute stabbing home a Melbranque cross. Shola Amoebi then made it even only ten minutes later with a well worked move finished off with a firm header from the Nigerian.

But it was in the second half that Kieran Richardson made the Stadium of Light erupt with a thunderbolt free kick hitting the top corner of the net. This was a wonderful goal showing superb techinque to bend and swerve the ball at high speed - Shay Given had no chance.

Newcastle's performance was stronger and are showing more signs of improvement currently from Spurs but Joe Kinnear will feel the pain of losing a local derby whilst being in the bottom 3.

Everton v Manchester United result 25th October 2008

Everton 1 Manchester United 1 Attendance 36,069

Darren Fletcher opened the scoring 22 minutes in at Goodison Park from a Ryan Giggs assist. Man Utd then dominated the possession with slicking passing and movement. In the second half Everton were subjected to more pressure from the Red Devils but then in the 63rd minute Everton turned the game on its head with a counter attacking football spell beginning with great passing move involving a Phil Neville cross which Fellaini headed home to make it 1-1. Quickly after this Yakubu then hit the post from a narrow angle at close range. Anderson came on for Park in an attempt to take some pressure off of the Manchester United defence. Everton played with style and aggression in attack with Yakubu putting heavy pressure on Ferdinand and Vidic. The game evened out and although Fergie will see this match as two points lost in the premiership battle, Man Utd could have easily dropped all three.

Iain Dowie sacked at QPR

Chairman Flavio Briatore has sacked Iain Dowie after only 15 games from his managerial role at Queen's Park Rangers. With 8 wins, 3 draws and 4 wins this year. This is the second time that Dowie seems to have been prematurely sacked after 12 games. There have been rumours that Briatore has been trying to tinker with the QPR team selection and there have been board friction with the sporting director Gianni Paladini and vice chairman Amit Bhatia.

Terry Venables, Darren Ferguson, Roberto Mancini and Alan Curbishley have all been linked with the positon.

Premiership preview 24th October 2008

The big game of the weekend is on Sunday 26th October as Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge taking on in-form Chelsea. Despite missing Torres through a hamstring injury, Liverpool have displayed good team cohesion and depth in squad this season. Benitez seems to have got the core to his team right and must have more focus on the leagure than ever before. In their victory against Manchester United in September they proved that they can now be competitive with the big boys without Gerrard and Torres. Catch this big game on Sky Sports 1. That said, the one team no-one wants to face currently is Scholari's men...

Manchester United are away at Everton and will be hoping that Wayne Rooney's explosive, prolific form continues. The England striker is chasing his 100th League goal of his career - he only needs one more!

Down at the bottom, Juande Ramos faces the Trotters at White Hart Lane. Bolton will be looking to capitalise on Tottenham Hotspur's low confidence and lack of discipline which has been illustrated by 2 red cards in the last games - as well as unforced errors leading to losses.

Tottenham 2 Udinese 0

Tottenham Hotspur's dreadful start to the season worsened with a 2-0 away loss to Udinese. Udinese's first goal was an unforced error from goalkeeper Gomes who failed to deal with a run of the mill back pass and brought down italian striker Fabio Quagliarella for a penalty kick. Di Natale converted the spot kick in the 24th minute. Spurs looked good in the first half but struggled to capitalise from their possession. Luka Modric had a good game but during the second half was let down by team mate Jamie O'Hara who received 2 yellow cards in a minute to be sent off. However after this, a Darren Bent assertively headed a superb cross from Giovani goalwards which was superbly saved from closs range. In the 87th minute Udinese add to Spurs woes by making it 2-0 with a cool finish from substitute Simone Pepe.

Chelsea 1 Roma 0

Chelsea 1 (John Terry) Roma 0

Match report to follow

Athletico Madrid 1 Liverpool 1

Athletico Madrid 1 (Simao) Liverpool 1 (Keane)

Match report to follow

Beckham joins AC Milan on loan

David Beckham has agreed a loan move from LA Galaxy to AC Milan. His season in the US Major Soccer League ends this week and after being selected for the England squad in consecutive World Cup qualifiers Becks is clearly looking to boost his ftiness and club playing profile.This is a short term move as the MLS starts again in April 2009. He will join great players such as Ronaldinho, Kaka and Alexandre Pato in the AC Milan squad. AC Milan will have the option of playing Beckham in the UEFA Cup aswell as Serie A.
Beckham's club history
Manchester United - 1994 - 2003
Real Madrid - 2003 - 2007
LA Galaxy - 2007 - 2008
AC Milan - 2008 - ...

Coach Carlo Ancelotti said: "For me, it will be a pleasure. Beckham is a serious athlete, a great professional," he said. "If he'll be available for us, we'll be very happy."

Fenerbache 2 Arsenal 5

Fenerbache crumbled in the first half at home against Arsenal with their visitors taking a 3-1 lead. Adebayor opened the goal tally with a cool side footed finish in a one on one situation. Walcott added the second showng great pace and a cool head in finishing. In the second half Arsenal continued fantastic attacking football against the Turkish side and despite a late second goal, Ramsey made it 5 to conclude a great away vitory for the Gunners.

Champions League action with Arsenal and Manchester United

Arsenal will have to face the hositlity of Turkish supporters as they face Fenerbache in Group G of the Champions League. It is expected that they will play a 4-1-4-1 formation with Adebayor as the sole striker. It is expected that The Walcott will play. Manchester United play Celtic in the classic Bristish tie at Old Trafford. Celtic will be looking to repeat their 1-0 victory at Parkhead 1 year ago.

Newcastle get a point against Manchester City

Newcastle Utd 2 Manchester City 2
A 4 goal thriller at St James Park saw Newcastle getting a point against Manchester City. Newcastle had a man sent off for fouling Robinho who showed flashes of brilliance, played with spirit and determination but couldn't keep it tight enough at the back to stay at 2-1. Ireland got the equaliser quite late though (86 minutes) after a superb through ball from Robinho. A fair result and a lifeline for the Geordies.

Milano 3 Sampdoria 0

San Siro - 'The place where dreams come true' - well, this ground did have a lasting impression on me. The Meazza lies in a beautiful suburban area in South Milan and has a carnival like atmosphere with memorabilia stalls everywhere and lovely little bars and restaurants. On Sunday 19th October it was a sunny day and on entering the ground I was in awe of this fortress of football. we were in the upper tier of the North Stand which seemed very very high - the views were amazing as on a clear day you can see the famous Duomo Catherdral from this seat position.

And the football? Sampdoria I thought had the better of the first half and put 2 men on Ronaldinho. In the second half both teams started brightly but it was AC that broke the deadlock with a penalty. The defender who was judged to have handled a drive from Clarence Seedorf was sent off which from a neutral's perspective is always a shame. Ronaldinho drove the pen home into the roof of the net.

After this the home team dominated the game completely with Ronaldinho and Seedorf running the show. It was not long until Ronaldinho netted a second with a flowing football move leaving the Brazillian in a great position and he clinically finished.

Inzaghe finished off a hard afternoon for Sampdoria to make it 3-0.

A memorable day for me - superb stadium and seeing Milan's hero in great form made it all a fantastic experience. Thanks Lucy!!!

18th October 2008 Carling Premiership football review and fixtures

After winning 5 out of the first 7 fixtures, Chelsea are away at the Riverside playing Gareth Southgate's men. Liverpool have also won 5 out of 7 in this Premiership campaign.

Man United won their last 2 matches with Wayne Rooney on fire.

Stoke Spurs 18th October 2008 Carling Premiership football fixtures Middlesbrough v Chelsea Arsenal v Everton Aston Villa v Portsmouth Bolton v Blackburn Fulham v Sunderland Liverpool v Wigan Manchester United v West Brom Sunday Hull City v West Ham Stoke v Tottenham

Michael Owen injury

Michael Owen has picked up a groin injury in training just days before their clash with Manchester City (21st Oct, Monday). Owen will have a scan but Joe Kinnear is concerned that a torn muscle could keep him out for 1 month. This comes at a bad time for Owen from both club and country angles as England's 4th highest scorer of all time has struggled to impress Fabio Capello.

He joined Newcastle United after a brief spell in Real Madrid in 2005 and has suffered from injury problems over this 3 year period.

England score World Cup Qualifier: Belarus 1 England 3

England have played 4 and won 4 in Group six now after a professional 3-1 victory in Minsk against Belarus. England started steadily and played good containing football. Steven Gerrard opened the game up quite early however with a wonderfully crafted 20 yard shot. However Belarus managed to string together some good passing sequences and managed to equalise wth Sitko (28). In the second half England then took the lead again with a counter attack from Emile Heskey setting up Wayne Rooney to score from close range in the 50th minute. Rooney then added a superb second strike with a wonderful passing move with Gerrard involved in the build up (74). Gerrard said after match: "Playing for England you've always got a point to prove. As long as I've got a place in this team then I'm happy. There have been lots of times that I have felt that I haven't hit the heights that I can do but I always keep going."

Rio Ferdinand added: "The key was to make sure we were a tight unit firstly and we did that. I'm delighted for Gerrard, he's been over critical of his play but we've seen him do it for Liverpool and we've seen him do it for England so I was really pleased for him."

Editor's note 15/10/2008 SAN SIRO SIZZLER!

As I am a very fortunate man, my partner has arranged for a weekend away in Milan for my birthday. I was delighted to find out on my birthday that we will be going to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, or better known as the San Siro. AC Milan take on the mighty Sampdoria (lying in 17th after the first six games) and I cannot wait to go to one of the great football grounds in the world. Boasting an 82,000 capacity, the San Siro has a carnival atmosphere with history going back over 80 years. I feel fortunate that on this trip our timing co-insides with a game; when I was in Madrid a few years ago there was no game at the Bernabeu but I went on the tour anyway. This was a fantastic experience in it own right and you can do the same with the san siro stadium and these tours are hourly on match days with regular coaches to take advantage of.

If its good enough for Ronaldinho its good enough for me...

O'Neill working on keeping Young

At the end of the current 2007/2008 premiership season Ashley Young will have 2 seasons left but already Martin O'Neill is putting in place a plan and some type of remuneration package to retain the player.

When questioned by the Birmingham Mail O'Neill: "We are making progress. There's nothing untoward about it.

"I would have liked by now to have been able to report something and maybe by the end of the week I might be able to.

"With a bit of luck the contract should reflect the progress that he has made and where he is positioned.

"He has just won the Player of the Month again, which is great."

2008 African players award contenders

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that 4 premiership players - Amr Zaki, Emmanuel Adebayor, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba have been shortlisted for the 2008 African Player of the Year award.

THE CONTENDERS...

Zaki
What a year 2008 has been for Zaki. The striker scored 4 goals in the African Nations Cup in Ghana this February for Egypt in their successful defence of this trophy.

Didier Drogba
The Ivory Coast striker is a big face in the Premiership. Drogba has already won the award in 2006 and has been in the top 3 over the last 5 years. Drogba has a distinct achievement in that he is the only professional footballer to have scored in 3 League Cup finals, in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Michael Essien
Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien finished second last year to Sevilla striker Fredi Kanoute and has made the top three for the last three years. The Ghanian midfielder is nicknamed 'the Bison' and has played for Chelsea for 3 years having moved from Lyon in 2005 for £24m.

Emmanuel Adebayor
Togo striker Adebayor is in his second season at the Emirates and made a big impression in te 2007/2008 season by coming joint second with Fernando Torres for the Premiership golden boot.

The results of the African players award will be announced in December after 53 managers of the international associations have voted.

England travel to Belarus without Robert Green

West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green will not be travelling to England's fourth World Cup qualifier due to a sore knee. The squad will travel to Minsk this Tuesday without Green, with David James and Scott Carson being the only 2 options for Fabio Capello to choose from. David James will be expected to start as England's number 1 with Carson on the bench. Capello's men go into this Belarus game with much confidence after opening with a 100% record in the Group six qualifying group.