The Night Time Race

      After a fascinating Grand Prix at Monza with the top 5 of the drivers championship finishing in the reverse of that order, Aloson 1st, Button 2nd, Vetterl 4th, Webber 6th and Hamilton DNF.  The top 5 are now separated by 24 points which means that anyone of them could be top after this weekends race.  This weekend the formula one convoy has made its way to Singapore for the third time and the dynamic of this day/night race is very different to all others.  Lets see how the Red Bull's, McLaren's and Ferrari's do in the often variable weather conditions. Lewis Hamilton got on pole and won last year he'll be hoping for a repeat of that.

Arsenal - A Different Football System

      Arsenal are one the top sides in the history of the Premiership and they still are a contender.  The problem is Arsenal are a side which has now gone for 5 years without a trophy and have been renowned for not spending much money in the transfer market.  Their manager Arsene Wenger has always bought young players coached them into superstars but when the egos get big Wenger tells them to move on, Pires, Henry, Viera, Toure and Adebayor all left when they still had good years in them.  But today Arsenal Football Club has announced record pre-tax profits of £56m.  The men in the boardrooms at Arsenal are doing things very differently to most of the other top clubs.  But the question is by keeping the club on a sound financial grounding stopping Arsenal from challenging for major trophies?

Russell v Lawro : Week 3

Well the challenge continues with a better performance, would of been even better if Sunderland and Tottenham didn't score in injury time, from me last week predicting 4 results right and 1 correct score compared to Lawro's 4 results right and 2 correct scores.  Not beaten him yet but lets see if this weekends action from the Premiership can set a new trend of me beating Lawro. Here are last weeks results.

Onwards and Downwards?

      The farce is over.  Now time to move on to one the greatest sporting rivalries, forget Liverpool versus Manchester United and England versus Germany in Football, forget any other sporting rivals.  England are getting ready to travel to Australia to compete for 'The Ashes',  Played since 1882 the series is named after a satirical obituary published in 1882 after a match at The Oval, in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.  The trophy urn is reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump.  Today England annouced their squad and the lucky players who have won much-coveted places in the Ashes squad to tour Australia this winter.

The Carling Cup - Part 2

      I have already wrote on this blog about how teams will fail in this competition and how daft it is here.  But last nights performances from Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City has made me want to talk about it again but hopefully in a different way as not to repeat myself.  Liverpool fielded a side which contained no of the starting eleven that played against Manchester United, City also fielded no players from the starting eleven that beat Wigan 2-0 at the weekend and Chelsea played two, Ferrira and Ramires, but they also played Terry for the first half.
     What I want to talk about is how Newcastle and West Brom beat the second teams from Chelsea and Man City.

The Diving Pool

       Last night Tottenham showed a spirited performance against Arsenal only to be defeated by a couple of easy penalties, one of which Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp accused Samir Nasri of diving.  But Redknapp fumed: "I thought the first penalty was harsh. He fell over. Really, I think he dived for it."  Nasri is a very good player and on this occasion he could stayed on his feet and made an attempt on goal but he chose to go over easily.  Now if it was my team and we where drawing or losing I would shouting at them to get into the penalty box and fall over, but the only reason I would do so is soft penalties are being given more often now.  Is British football getting soft?

The Final ODI

      Today is the date of the final ODI match between England and Pakistan and after this match what will be known as an infamous tour will come to and end.  Pakistan arrived in England on the 5 July and in just 80 days this tour has possible damaged the sport of cricket irreversibly.  With the allegations, of the Pakistani players, of Spot fixing, deliberately bowling no-balls to set up betting coups, in the fourth Test match and the irregular scoring patterns in the thrid ODI.  It would be hard to say that Pakistani cricket, as we know it, will survive and they may have shot themselves in the a foot after Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Butt said he had heard from bookmakers that England had been paid to lose Friday's third one-day game at The Oval. 

For me I am amazed at the England players continues to play the series and here is why.