By Chris Wright
After just pipping the first leg 1-0, Pep Guardiola covered his arse by naming an incredibly
strong side in the return leg against Hospitalet at the Camp Nou last night and it payed off, with
Barcelona crushing the third-tier outfit thanks to goals from Pedro, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and
braces from three players aged just 20: Isaac Cuenca, Thiago Alcantara and substitute Cristian
Tello.
How Pippa Middleton made an arse of Joey Barton and Luis Suarez's daft quote of the
week
After Joey Barton's recent Tweets about "mentally deficient, fame-hungry z-list celebs" who
would "turn up to the opening of an envelope" helped win him a reported £150,000 advance from
Penguin books for his thoughts on life, philosophy and porridge, the QPR midfielder will no doubt
be delighted to hear that the same firm have just ordered up a party-planning book from Pippa
Middleton.
Season's greetings Arse addicts. It's been an unusual kind of week with two away games yielding
mixed results. Yet we've probably found more praise for our performance in defeat at Eastlands than
we did for our somewhat serendipitous victory at Villa Park. Football is a funny old, blah, blah,
blah etc.
Just when I had considered giving up on Father Christmas altogether, he fills my stocking with
dropped points by all of Chelski, l'Arse, Liverpool and even Man City. And – and - he
even un-twinges VDV's hamstring. I'm not sure there has ever been a Christmas quite like it.
No reason not to expect another high-class performance, missed chances a-plenty and ultimately
three more points tonight.
