Football Fantasy

Sir Alex Ferguson last night taunted Manchester United's main rivals saying: 'Have you got the bottle to win the title?" United go into the New Year top of the Premier League on goal difference from noisy neighbours Manchester City. Fergie's men are also facing stiff competition from Arsenal, champions Chelsea and Tottenham as the title race hots up. The United boss is convinced it will be a five horse race and reckons the last month of the campaign will show who has the nerve to land the crown. Arsenal have previous when it comes to fading in the second half of the season, while both City and Spurs have no experience of challenging for the title. Fergie knows this could be a deciding factor and he said: You could have a situation and certainly its looking that way at the moment - with five teams involved in the last month o...

How about a crossbar challenge to ring in the New Year! Enjoy and thanks for supporting the site see you in 2011! Heres the links: Top 10 moments of 2010 [Just-Football] Fantasy tips [FPL Transfers] Paul Konchesky talk [Live 4 Liverpool] Darren Gibson thoughts [ManUtd24] Football fights [Caught Offside] Top 100 players [The Footy Blog] Podcast [World Soccer Reader] Year end review [That's On Point] EPLs seven burning questions [ESPN] Gossip and quotes [101 Great Goals] Feel free to follow me on Twitter and let me know if youd like to suggest an article, video or photo for inclusion on the Premier League Links Of The Day. Related posts: Premier League Links Of The Day: December 27, 2010 Premier League Links Of The Day: December 20, 2010 Premier League Links Of The Day: December 6, 2010 Football Betting Tips, Odds, Asian Handicap, Picks, Preview & Prediction

Gameweek 21 kicks off on New Years Day, the perfect time to have a quick recap on some of the seasons best performers so far. Starting between the sticks we have Manchester Citys Joe Hart, the Blue half of Manchester are serious title contenders and much of this is due to the brilliance of their young stopper. Points wise Hart is head and shoulders above all other Goalkeepers with an impressive total of 95. If his 6.8 million price tag puts you off, there are cheaper alternatives. Birminghams Ben Foster(5.1) 81 points and Blackburns Paul Robinson(4.6) 72 points provide excellent value for money. There is a reason Nemanja Vidic(8.0) is at the heart of 32% of Fantasy League defences, well actually there are 87 reasons. Man Uniteds rock at the back is top of the defensive pile going into the New Year. Following closely behind are Chelseas Ashley Cole(8.3) with 86 points and Evertons Leighton Baines(7.5) 85 points. Sneaking into the top ten defenders is Sunderlands Ahmed Elmohamady(4.8) wi...

As yet another fantastic year of football comes to an end, I took a look at what made this years highlight reel. Match Of The Year Tottenham 3-1 Inter Milan What a bloody match. As debutants of the worlds finest European competition, Spurs were paired with last years champions Inter Milan, FC Twente and Werder Bremen. They were not expected to progress from the group. But, as we have come to learn since September, Spurs can take on anyone on their day and they defied the odds to top their group, only losing once in the process. This match was the return fixture of that fateful night at the San Siro, with the presence of a certain Mr Bale earning credibility for Spurs. Bale was again phenomenal in this match at White Hart Lane, setting up two and starring in a rather marvelous performance to beat Inter Milan. Player Of The Year Florent Malouda I was forced to think long and hard about this one. On one hand we had the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, etc. who perform superbly year in, year...

Now that Qatar has bought won the 2022 World Cup, what do we know about this tiny nation? Well, they are the home to the Al-Jazeera television network, they will host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, and they are known as Qataris (Qintendos would have been a tad cooler). Also, Qatar is spelled Katar in German. So theres your German word of the day. As far as the Bundesliga goes, there are a few connections. After Felix Magath foolishly tactically decided he no longer needed central defender Marcelo Bordon at Schalke, Marcelo skipped over to Qatar and signed on with Al Rayyan. Currently, Al-Rayyan is tied for 5thin the Qatari League with the 3rdbest Goals Against Average. Meanwhile, Schalke has underperformed this season. 2004 Asian player of the year and former Bayern-bust Ali Karimi eventually left Munich to try his luck with Qatar SC. After one season there he moved over to Al-Siliyya for a reported 4.7 million euros. Karimi proved he was too big (or too homesick) for the Q League and is cu...

A photograph purportedly of Manchester Uniteds home shirt for the 2011-12 season has been leaked on the Internet. The new Manchester United home jersey features a retro collar and an otherwise simple but appealing design. The retro collar reminds me of the classic Manchester United kit from 1978 (pictured). The 2011-2012 design by Nike also features the Red Devils crest as well as sponsors name. Overall, the shirt design is plain but simple, reminiscent of recent designs by Umbro which have married class and tradition with simple lines. As weve seen with many recent shirts, including the leaked photo of Arsenals home jersey for next season, shirt designers are delving deeper into retro designs instead of creating something new and flashy. For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit theEPL Talk Shop. What do you think of Man Uniteds new home shirt for next season, if the photograph is in fact the approved design? Share your opinion in the comments section ...

2010 was a bad year for Italian football. I tried to think of the positives, but very few came to mind. A disastrous World Cup in South Africa, a bad showing in the Europa League, and only a Champions League victory (guided by a Portuguese mastermind) which retains some dignity for Italian football. While 2010 was a poor year, it now allows all of Italian football to rebuild in 2011. Just looking at the Serie A, a much more competitive league has formed after an exciting summer of transfers. AC Milan have strengthened considerably with the super-signings of Ibrahimovic, Robinho, and Kevin-Prince Boateng. Juventus are rebuilding properly under Luigi Delneri, who is creating a team which plays through the electrifying Milos Krasic. Inter Milan are in a rebuilding phase as well after the disappointment of Benitez's failure, and now Leonardo trying to make a proper impact with a treble-winning side. These changes along with a general strengthening of teams like Lazio, Napoli, Palermo,...

Since I am currently on holiday with my family, I hadnt planned to do a second match review this week. However I caught the replay of yesterdays Chelsea-Bolton match, and thought Id at least give the starting formation and a few thoughts. Chelsea v. Bolton Starting Formations - This matchup of Boltons 4-4-2 and Chelseas 4-3-3 leads to the typical 3-on-2 central midfield matchup, where the two CMs (in this case, Stuart Holden and Fabrice Muamba) would be outmanned by the three CMs in the 4-3-3 (Frank Lampard, Ramires, and Michael Essien). This is misleading, though. Throughout much of the match, Frank Lampard was well-advanced into the attacking quadrant, nearly leading Chelseas formation to be a 4-2-3-1 a la Arsenal. Im not sure if this was Carlo Ancelottis attempt to generate scoring, but the announcers remarked at the effectiveness of Holden and Muamba, and I think this is partly because of the shape of Ancelottis midfield as much as the workrate of the two Bolton center midfielders....

Belgiums teen football sensation Romelu Lukaku has already begun the process of causing greed and chaos to reign. As a postscript to the recent affair in which Wayne Rooney and his agent Paul Stretford held Manchester United to ransom, player power seems to be growing out of all proportion to talent and quality. Dubbed the new Didier Drogba, the young Belgian, having heard that his club have already accepted bids for his services from Chelsea and Manchester United, has made an astonishing come-and-get-me plea to Real Madrid in an interview published this morning in Marca which has shocked his English suitors. Having said for years that hes a Chelsea fan and been seen at Stamford Bridge at least five times over four years since they tried to sign him as a 13-year-old, Lukaku had his photograph taken last week in both Manchester and Chelsea shirts. Indeed, on Monday, his father, former pro Roger Lukaku, spent a large part of the day negotiating on the phone with David Gill. Natura...

Lay Aston Villa for relegation at 4.5 to 1 with Betfair Aston Villa are in freefall and are most likely going to be in the relegation zone after the first round of New Years games, when they play Chelse at Stamford Bridge. There is very little spirit in the camp right now and the manager is trying to instill some discipline, and rapidly losing friends. Hes sacked the skipper Richard Dunne and seemingly also fallen out with John Carew and Stephen Ireland. They have been backed in to 4.5/1 to get relegated and I think all of the bad news is already factored in and we are reaching the time to back them to stay up. The bottom line is that Villa need freshening up, but they do have money to spend and intend to spend it in the January transfer window, whereas most of the teams around them dont. As long as they spend wisely, money will talk and they will stay up. Advices Well, we could not have called the Ashes series any better. We laid Australia at the start at 6/4 and then locked in profit...

LEE CATTERMOLE last night warned Blackburn that Sunderland will be going into Saturdays game on a massive high. And thats despite losing two games in a row for the first time this season. The Black Cats went into the festive period looking to consolidate their top-six placing, and while the Boxing Day defeat at Manchester United was hardly a shock, their first home reverse at the hands of Blackpool certainly was. Cattermole, however, reckons the performance on Tuesday was arguably Sunderlands best of the season. It was a weird game, strange for all of us, he said. We created more chances than any of our players have probably ever created in our lives and we werent really slack at the back either. I...

A photograph of Arsenals home shirt for the 2011-12 season has been leaked on the Internet. The new Arsenal home shirt features a design that is similar to the current 2010-11 one, but the most prominent new feature is a wreath around the Arsenal crest. Also noticeable is that the sleeves are white with no red trim apparent. Meanwhile, the collar on the shirt is red instead of the current white color. Personally I think the design is too similar to the current shirt except for the wreath. But since the wreath marks the 125th year anniversary of Arsenal, it has a deeper meaning and therefore will be a prized possession among many Arsenal supporters. For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit theEPL Talk Shop. What do you think of Arsenals new home shirt for next season, if the photograph is in fact the approved design? Share your opinion in the comments section below. Related posts: Man United Home Jersey for 2010-11 Season: New Leaked Photo Manchester Ci...

Ian Wright talks about the Holiday period for footballers. Check out the video here Heres the links: City go for Dzeko [BBC] Comparing EPL to NBA [Bleacher Report] Betting surprises [Sports Trading Life] 12th man clothing [Sabotage Times] Maradona linked to Fulham [Footie] Fergie fuming [Mail] Bassong challenges teammates [Espn] Football art [Sabotage Times] Feel free to follow me on Twitter and let me know if youd like to suggest an article, video or photo for inclusion on the Premier League Links Of The Day. Related posts: Premier League Links Of The Day: December 28, 2010 Premier League Links Of The Day: December 22, 2010 Premier League Links Of The Day: December 2, 2010 International Soccer Clubs & Leagues News | Video | Commentary