He looks like a woman but plays like a half-man, half-beast
We've had some exciting midweek matches and a mouthwatering Carling Cup semifinal between Manchester City and Manchester United is soon to come, but all eyes are on the Premier League (and the World Cup draw) this weekend.

The groups have been drawn and are as follows:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
Take your pick of places to check out guides to the group stages from English media, American media, or the Official FIFA World Cup site.

The fine folks over at Footy Factor beat me to it this bit of well-clothed information well done, good sirs but this tiny footnote had actually struck me right after the League Cup tie with Blackburn.

So the Blues have lost three matches this season (@ Wigan, Aston Villa, Manchester City).

Spanish sports fans have gained a sad reputation for abject behaviour toward minority groups.
English fans will remember the night in November 2004 when Spanish fans hurled racist abuse and made monkey chants at England's black players in a match between the two countries. This prompted Ashley Cole to announce that he will never play for a club in "racist Spain".

As we head into the festive season, English fans are wrapping the present they give themselves before every World Cup – the gift of unbridled confidence in their national football team. And yet, as they have for the past 40+ years, those English fans are likely to stick their thumb in the Christmas pudding and pull out something far less enjoyable than the plum.

The Beauty: OK, I must admit up front that while I don't find Cheryl Cole to be the most gorgeous gal in the world, she is according to all objective polling the world's most beautiful WAG. And while I hunger for other player's hags more than Ms. Cole, I can certainly see why she is the champion and the consensus #1 WAG.

This decade has seen the Premiership continue to grow and attract some of the worlds greatest players throughout the last ten years. By continuing to attract some of the biggest stars in the world, only La Liga can truly consider itself a rival for the quality of the players on show throughout the league.

Tonight Chelsea travel to Blackburn for the Carling Cup quarter finals at Ewood Park and I have a feeling that the side that takes to the field tonight could be very different to the side that took the field at the Emirates last Sunday.
Ray Wilkins has said before the game:
"We certainly approach every game to win it and we'll be doing the same tomorrow evening.

Another week, another manager under-fire. This week it is Arsene Wenger's turn to assume what has recently become known as "The Rafa Benitez" position in front of the media's firing squad. Back-to-back league defeats, coupled with a League Cup exit, have led to some uneducated souls calling for the Frenchman's head.

Robert Koren will be a player to watch

The focus has already shifted to England.

Bob Bradley on how facing England, a team with which the U.S. is very familiar, affects the team's preparations:

"I think it just creates a huge match, good for fans and exciting for the players.

Tonight we are back in Premier League action against the richest club in World Football. Chelsea travel to Manchester to take on the pretenders at Eastlands. After our midweek disaster against Blackburn the big guns are back and will be raring to go as we look to carry on our impressive form after a fantastic performance at the Emirates.

Given - Unlucky with the goal and earned the points with an excellent penalty save. 8
Richards - Injury permitting he has now regained his spot. Excellent defensive display. 8
Toure - Strong in defence, purposeful moving forward. 7.5
Lescott - Impressive again. Contained Drogba for the most part.

So following on from my report on the defeat at Eastlands yesterday and our third away defeat of the season Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the press. This is what he had to say:
"We don't have any reason to be worried. We are doing well at the moment but today it was difficult because Manchester City played very well.

Chelsea have been the early season pace-setters, beating Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United on their way to the summit. Up until a week ago many pundits thought the Premiership title was on its way to West London. But things change very quickly in football.

Out jumping Adebayor, this Serbian has some ups...
Our Funny Feeling Friday selection this week is Serb Branislav Ivanovic. The 25 year old Chelsea defender is in excellent form this season, and has proven to be a capable right back in the absence of Jose Bosingwa (and his unibrow) to injury.

Who can forget the last time we played Everton. Under much different circumstances and compared to events of the last 10 days, much happier times. Today is a chance for Chelsea to get their form back on track after a nightmare 10 days with losing on pens to Blackburn, losing away at City and then drawing at home to APOEL.

Começam a fazer-se contas pelas convocatórias dos jogadores pelas diversas selecções e consequente retorno financeiro para os respectivos clubes. Não me parece que os valores sejam assim tão altos para tirar o sono a Abramovich, no entanto sempre é melhor que nada. Veja-se este artigo:
Final Inglaterra x Portugal pode encher cofres do ChelseaClube inglês levaria cerca de R$ 2 milhões com convocadosSe há uma equipe sempre lembrada nas listas das mais ricas do munto, esta é o Chelsea.

Spanish sports fans have gained a sad reputation for abject behaviour toward minority groups.
English fans will remember the night in November 2004 when Spanish fans hurled racist abuse and made monkey chants at England's black players in a match between the two countries. This prompted Ashley Cole to announce that he will never play for a club in "racist Spain".

Chelsea struggled to overcome a resilient Pompey side with a penalty from Frank Lampard being the decisive moment at Stamford Bridge. Avram Grant returned to his former club and his Portsmouth side gave it their all with Piquionne leveling Chelsea Striker Anelka's opening strike.

Get Chelsea Tickets at Fantastic Prices Now!

Ahead of last nights game I called for us to just win and put three points on the board after our form has stuttered in recent weeks and as United had won and were level on points with us before the game. Chelsea delivered the three points thank god and on the run of play we deserved the win.
It was no easy game as Pompey had their gameplan and stuck to it and made it difficult for us by flooding their midfield and looked to press and hassle the man on the ball and once in possession looked to feed off their one man up front.

A great weekend for Arsenal ended up even better after Chelsea could only manage a draw with West Ham at Upton Park. Gianfranco Zola's West Ham took the lead just before half time when Jack Collison was fouled by Ashley Cole in the box and Alessandro Diamanti scored the resulting penalty.

Leaders of the Prenmier League table couln't cash in on Manchester United's shock defeat to Fulham as they settled for a tame draw to a fighting West Ham side 1-1. It was the Hammers who got into the act early on and Alessandro Diamanti scored through a penalty. Jack Collison was fouled by Ashley Cole [.

Cologne's Milivoje Novakovic of Slovenia scored twice this weekend in the Bundesliga

ALGERIA

• Algerian Captain Yazid Monsouri and FC Lorient were crushed by league leaders Bordeaux 4-1 in Ligue Un.
• Nadir Belhadj scored a spectacular first half goal in Pompey 2-0 victory over Liverpool at Fratton Park.

DMB continued his strong run of form with a goal and an assist in another Rangers romp this weekend... You'll note that he was cutting in from the right on the goal. Interesting. I'd been thinking that Donovan on the right would keep Ashley Cole...

A quick Xmas party roundup:

1. Arsenal held theirs at Zuma, the yumfest resto in London. Sendy fans, enjoy his hotness and fetching neckwear. (Before you ask, we've yet to see any photos of Cesc and Carla.)

2. Tottenham's fake-out party has left Harry Redknapp fuming.

3. Man United's party was at Rosso, where the lads handled their booze like men and the women in attendance did not.

A quick Xmas party roundup:

1. Arsenal held theirs at Zuma, the yumfest resto in London. Sendy fans, enjoy his hotness and fetching neckwear. (Before you ask, we've yet to see any photos of Cesc and Carla.)

2. Tottenham's fake-out party has left Harry Redknapp fuming.

3. Man United's party was at Rosso, where the lads handled their booze like men and the women in attendance did not.

Watch WHU-C||HQ|| in Sports | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Its taken me a couple of days to digest Sunday and the conclusion I have come to is that we've done it again, blown the chance to extend our lead at the top of the Premier League and really take the title race by the scruff of the neck.

How times have changed in recent weeks. A month ago we were flying high and playing well and looked formidable. A couple of niggling injuries but that was about it, and Ancelotti rotating players to keep them fresh. Now we are struggling with injuries, not playing well and to be honest in the last few games I have been saying that we will take any kind of win against sides we should be beating easily and given our form at the beginning of the season.

The 17 year-old Arsenal defender Jack Wilshere is being touted as a future England player already, and Arsene Wenger feels that he can follow in Ashley Cole's footstaps by going out on loan for six months. Wilshere still has hopes of being selected by Fabio Capello for the England squad to go to South Africa next [.