What direction is football heading in? Sunday afternoon was supposed to be a feast of world class football; a battle between the titans; Manchester United versus Chelsea. Instead, Howard Webb and his team of assistant referees were determined to leave their own mark on the game, and for that reason football was robbed of one of its great goals.

One cannot help but notice that when it comes to the German football players, not many of them fancy playing in the Premiership. I first started following the German Bundesliga around half a decade ago; the reason why I tuned in every single week to catch up with some Deutsch football was that I could never get to see enough German representation in the Premier League.

If there is one team that is secretly thriving in a summer of high-profile transfers, it is Birmingham City. As mentioned by my fellow Premiership Talk writer, Brian Lofrumento, the newly promoted outfit is reportedly pursuing former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera, which is in addition to a handful of other acquisitions made recently.

Fabio Capello may have led England to one of its best starts in a World Cup qualification campaign. However, as the Three Lions' last outing against European Champions Spain suggests, there is still a lot of learning to do for Mr. Capello before he gets his starting eleven completely right. At least I feel this way.

Ten things I noticed from this week's Champions League semifinals:

1. Much Ado About Nothing – Much to the woe of slobbering, over enthusiastic journalists everywhere, the Barcelona myth was partially debunked on Tuesday. It's not that they were awful by any stretch of the imagination, but when faced with an equally good team who didn't stand aside and let them play through them they looked more than a little stumped.

Jens Lehmann knows about it. What does pressure do?

Every little kid dreams of scoring the winning goal for their favorite football club. On Sunday at Old Trafford, that dream became reality for one kid.

After a Gabriel Agbonlahor goal put Aston Villa up 2-1 in the 58th minute, Sir Alex turned to an unsuspecting bench player. Federico Macheda, a mere 17-year-old Italian boy, was given his first playing time for United in one of Manchester United's biggest matches of the season.

The PFA Player of the Year nominees are now out, and what a farce they are. It's not that five Manchester United players have been nominated for the main award that I find farcicle. Nor that Steven Gerrard is the only representative from the 19 other clubs. Nor that Aaron 'I can run very fast but I get a little stumped when I have to do something with this ball thingy' Lennon is in with a shot of winning Young Player of the Year.

Ten things I noticed from this week's Champions League semifinals:

1. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Results lie. Sometimes. If not, then in the last 5 years I've been privileged enough to watch the great Greek team of 2004 justly claim their prize as the greatest international team in Europe.

While Emmanuel Adebayor's infamous lack of sportsmanship this past weekend has overshadowed Manchester City's emphatic 4-2 victory over his former club Arsenal, it is impossible to overlook the strong impact he has made at the Eastlands already.

With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's winners and losers.

Winners Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain Defoe.

The PFA Player of the Year nominees are now out, and what a farce they are. It's not that five Manchester United players have been nominated for the main award that I find farcicle. Nor that Steven Gerrard is the only representative from the 19 other clubs. Nor that Aaron 'I can run very fast but I get a little stumped when I have to do something with this ball thingy' Lennon is in with a shot of winning Young Player of the Year.

On yet another pulsating night in European football, Shakhtar Donetsk became the first ever Ukrainian side to lift the UEFA Cup following a 2-1 win over the German Bundesliga's Werder Bremen. In the process, they also became the last team to ever win the competition as it will be reprised as the Europa League next season.

Another season of the Premier League is now in the books, and Premiership Talk today celebrates its first birthday! On June 7, 2008, Premiership Talk was founded, and a year later the site stands lightyears ahead of its basic roots...although we're still talking about the same things today that we were a year ago (the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga was the very first post on Premiership Talk).

A great majority of the football world has grown used to laughing off Arsene Wenger's dramatic remarks over major incidents in recent years. This is precisely why the Arsenal manager was largely ignored when he labeled the accusations over Gunners striker Eduardo's recent "dive" against Celtic as a "witch-hunt".