The Madness of Managers...

To embark on a career in football management there are two indispensable traits (aside from the obvious need for technical/tactical nous and man-management) that are required if the candidate is to have any chance of success or survival.

The first of these is an ultra thick skin with which to protect the fragile creature within from the onslaught of criticism from the fans, the media, his chairman and even from his own players.

Manchester United retained the English League Cup beating Aston Villa 2 to 1 at Wembley.Villa had break the deadloack with a penalty from James Milner following a foul by Nemanja Vidic in the 5th...
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Arsenal 2 Wigan 0
I could moan about Carlos Vela's failure to take numerous chances in the first half. I could equally moan about Theo Walcott's woeful finishing and poor crossing in the second half.
But that would be missing the point. In a sense, the Wigan match was exactly the match we've been waiting for all season - a 2-0 victory, where the opposition didn't create anything and it was just a solid victory.

Working in the same building as Stan Collymore has its ups and downs. On the down side my colleague is a big, strapping Brummie skinhead with a short fuse who upon first meeting me looked me up and down as a convict would fresh meat. On the plus side I get to hear his hilariously biased score predictions of any fixture involving his beloved Aston Villa.

Tottenham went into this fixture looking for their first win over Man United at Old Trafford in more than two decades but the Lilywhites will have to wait as they lost 2-0 to Sir Alex Ferguson's men. Man United 2-0 Tottenham ( Nemanja Vidic 31′, Nani 84′) Nani's second goal came in somewhat controversial circumstances ( see [.