Matches You Can't Miss This Weekend

Amid the endless number of football matches available for viewing this weekend, here's three can't miss encounters. That means - unless your girlfriend is dragging you to some lame brunch with her parents (which is still not a decent excuse), get your ass to a TV and watch!

MANCHESTER UNITED VS LIVERPOOL

The bitterest and most hotly contested of the northwest derbies. Pride and much needed confidence boosts are on the line Sunday at Old Trafford – perhaps more for the players involved than the teams themselves.

Wayne Rooney, who as one United correspondent so aptly described as filling 'more column space than the Iraq war in recent week,' needs to get back in the headlines for good things. Between cheating on his pregnant wife and playing terrible, anonymous football, Rooney needs to up his game and what better platform than this. Luckily for United, Berbatov has started to show his £30 million worth. Rio Ferdinand is back from injury. Can he sure up a United defense which has shipped four points and more injury time goals in the past two weeks than SAF's already red face can take?

EPL Week 2 Wrap-Up

The number 6, scribbled three times in succession, has haunted the superstitious and religiously fanatic world for centuries as the mark of the devil. To be honest, superstitions don't quite do it for me. All they do is incite and create unnecessary fears. I do believe in karma though, and with a capital K, Karma swept through West London and Craven Cottage as the real Red Devils of United got bit in the ass. However, it's still impossible to ignore how the remainder of England witnessed devilry in the South, Northeast, and middle of the country as Arsenal, Chelsea, and Newcastle each put their opponents to the sword by a score of 6-0. In Chelsea's case it's the second successive game doing so.

Chelsea are running rampant having scored 29 goals in their last 5 league games. They already enjoy a +12 goal difference and don't appear to be letting up one bit.  It's hard to truly judge their dominance after wins over the likes of West Brom and Wigan. Especially Wigan, who have now been outscored 10-0 in the first two weeks following an opening day drubbing to newly promoted Blackpool. I was wrong to predict Roberto Martinez being sacked by Thanksgiving. It looks to be an overly generous prediction at that, and he could very well be axed by the end of September depending on how things progress. As for Chelsea, they're next three games are home to Stoke City, away to West Ham, and home to Blackpool. Sounds like another 20 some-odd goals. We'll get a better idea how good they really are the last week of September when they travel to Manchester City followed by a home stand against Arsenal. In the meantime, enjoy the goal-fest while it lasts Blues fans.

EPL Week 1 Wrap-Up

First weekend is in the books and to be quite honest, it was as exciting as any opening weekend in recent memory. Opening match days are always an entertaining affair - newly promoted teams, reigning champs setting out to defend their trophies, the one month of the year when the UK enjoys sunlight and warm weather... This weekend had a different feel to it though. A sense that there was so much more at stake for every team involved. Whereas in years past the EPL has mirrored Spain and Scotland's two horse race, but with four teams, there are new kids on the block disrupting the established order. It is no longer a formality that Chelsea, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool will claim Champions League spots. Clubs are in economic shambles, so the money earned by qualifying for a European tournament is a vital lifeline. Throw in the fact that an extremely quiet transfer window has resulted in minor changes (except on the blue side of Manchester of course), and you can see why this past weekend made first impressions ever so important.

The results were a mix of the expected and the extremely unexpected. For the latter, we go straight to the DW Stadium in Wigan.

Weekend Couch Guide

If you love your couch, you'll love this weekend. Um, there's a couple games on...

Saturday, August 14
7:45am  Tottenham vs Manchester City --  ESPN2

10:00am  Aston Villa vs West Ham -- FSC

10:00am   Blackburn vs Everton -- FSC Plus

12:30pm  Chelsea vs West Bromwich Albion -- FSC

2:00pm  Wolverhampton vs Stoke City (tape delay) -- FSC Plus

2:30pm  Bolton vs Fulham (tape delay) -- FSC


Sunday, August 15
11:00am  Liverpool vs Arsenal -- FSC


Monday, August 16
3:00pm  Manchester United vs Newcastle United -- ESPN2

English Premiership Predictions

With the season getting underway tomorrow, it's time for predictions!! Here's how it's all going to end up in May...for serious:


1. Manchester City

2. Chelsea

3. Manchester United

4. Arsenal

5. Liverpool

6. Tottenham

7. Everton

8. Birmingham

9. Aston Villa

10. Fulham

11. Stoke City

12. Bolton

13. Blackburn

14. Newcastle

15. Sunderland

16. West Ham

17. Wolverhampton

18. Wigan

19. West Bromwich Albion

20. Blackpool


Let's see how you think it'll pan out. Top 4? Relegation? Champion? Feel free to drop a comment and contribute whatever predictions you have for the upcoming season.

Steinbrenner buying Tottenham?

There are always perks to owning the highest valued team brand on the planet. One of them, of course, is the ability to buy pretty much anything you want. Now, leave it to the English rags to release a story like this only days after The Boss passed away, but it is nonetheless intriguing. The Daily Star reported on Sunday that the Steinbrenners have considered a bid of £450 million to buy Tottenham Hotspur. Hank supposedly turned down an approach by Tottenham some years ago to buy a 33% interest in the club for about £20 million.

You can take the story for what it's worth. English tabloids like the Daily Star are less believable than even the National Enquirer by some margin. But let's just remember that the precedent already exists for American ownership in the English Premiere League. Four of the biggest clubs in the country are owned by Americans - The Glazer Family owns Manchester United, Tom Hicks and George Gillett own Liverpool, Randy Lerner owns Aston Villa, and Stan Kroenke is very close to owning a majority stake in Arsenal. Everyone has mixed reviews but to be fair, Steinbrenner would be better than all of them combined.

Vuvuzela Ban

(Dirtytackle)

I have no idea why anyone thought these stupid pieces of plastic would make their way to stadiums abroad after the World Cup. I'm still pissed that nobody saw it for what it could be, a weapon, and threw it onto the pitch during one of the games so they'd finally be banned.

Luckily for us, England is good at something other than playing football. A number of clubs in the Premiership including Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham United, Sunderland and Birmingham City have banned the horns from their grounds. A number of others look set to follow suit. Some cited the need to ensure the most enjoyable environment for fans while others noted the health issues due to the incredibly high decibel level.

Lets be honest though. This is England. If a fan blows that horn in someone else's ear, at the very least something like this could happen.  If you bring a couple more vuvuzelas into the mix, all hell could break loose. And obviously, the last thing you want to do is piss off the police!!

This ban is preventing WWIII from erupting in the stadiums, short and simple.