Arsene Wenger feels that 80 points will be enough to win the title as bigger teams drop points to the harder pushing smaller teams and Man City, the new billionaires on the block.

His calculations put Chelsea 65 points short with 33 games yet to be played and there is no reason why the Blues can't maintain their fast start.

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Wales 1 – 3 Russia
World Cup Qualifier 2010, Group #4
Millennium Stadium, Wednesday, 9Â September 2009, 7.45pm

The build up to Wales's most recent and irrelevant World Cup qualifying group game was punctuated by the rather petulant and juvenile civil war of criticism levied by legend Welsh players towards the ineptitude of the current national team.

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Man City's Richard Dunne and West Ham's James Collins will attempt a tall task, to take over for Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg. They come to Villa Park at a £11m price tag.

We saw a few problems on opening day against Wigan, where Curtis Davies made some errors of judgment which led to Jason Koumas scoring the second goal.

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From The JJB Stadium, Attendance 18,164 , Referee Howard Webb Wigan 0 5 Manchester United

Wayne Rooney (56)
Dimitar Berbatov (58)
Wayne Rooney (65)
Michael Owen (85)
Luis Nani (90)

Wigan Team Statistics Manchester United 0 Goals 5 5 Shots On Target 11 6 Shots Off Target 3 6 Shots Blocked 5 3 Corners 3 0 Offsides 4 11 Fouls 9 2 Yellow Cards 2 0 Red Cards 0 48. Click to continue reading...

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The Wolves displayed some fighting football to get some points against their names in their second match of the Premier League here last night. Andy Keogh's early header was the only goal of the match after which the Wolves managed to hold Wigan Athletic defensively.

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After the first round a huge transfer-frenzy started. Players get transferred in such speed you'd think half the premier league's been injured. At the top of the wanted list are names like Jason Koumas with 66,563 transfer in and Rodallega with the 49,817.
Wigan is burning hot in the transfer market.

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After the opening round's somewhat surprising outlay of points, there is already a wave of activity happening on the fantasy transfer market. This means some players are set to rise in value, and if you are after a short term monetary gain, then jumping on these players at the earliest opportunity is the way to make it happen. Click to continue reading...

So the opening weekend of the Premier League has come and gone. For the most part it was pretty much by the book, with two 'upsets' and one massive outlier scoreline in Everton's 6-1 whipping by Arsenal. There is still plenty to talk about...
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First gameweek is now played. There were no really big surprises, except maybe that none of the games ended in a draw. Let's see who were the players that we all hope we'd had in our FPL-team.
Top 3
Goalkeepers
1. Thomas Sorensen, Stoke City 9pts
1. Shay Given, Manchester City 9pts
3.

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An early candidate for goal of the season as Colombian striker Hugo Rodellaga's perfectly dipping shot flies over Brad Friedel sending Wigan one up. Jason Koumas makes it two. Villa fall to Wigan at home and the fans are none too happy. I have a feeling the name Hugo Rodellaga will be on the lips of many soon.

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Wigan has quietly become a favorite club of mine. I don't know why. Maybe I liked Palacios as a player, or because they brought in blog favorites like Jason Koumas and Charles N'Zogbia. Or maybe because Rodallega inexplicably scored against Manchester United when I had him on my team for a 2-game week. Click to continue reading...

HBL had a column from Christoffer Herberts this morning, riffing on the idea that Wales and Finland are so similar as to be almost mirror images of each other. They both have a lot of injuries, they've both struggled to qualify for a major tournament for over 50 years, they both sruggle with a dominant [. Click to continue reading...

HBL had a column from Christoffer Herberts this morning, riffing on the idea that Wales and Finland are so similar as to be almost mirror images of each other. They both have a lot of injuries, they've both struggled to qualify for a major tournament for over 50 years, they both sruggle with a dominant [. Click to continue reading...

HBL had a column from Christoffer Herberts this morning, riffing on the idea that Wales and Finland are so similar as to be almost mirror images of each other. They both have a lot of injuries, they've both struggled to qualify for a major tournament for over 50 years, they both sruggle with a dominant [. Click to continue reading...

What is Rafa Benitez playing at? Liverpool have had a nightmare January and from being out in front, now find themselves back amongst their rivals in third place, having dropped 6 points in the last 3 league games. Comparing their performances in the Premiership since their emphatic win at Newcastle on December 28th, they seem like a different [. Click to continue reading...

You never commit too soon. Mike Pollitt did just that towards the end of the first half of Wigan's home tie with Liverpool and paid the price. While Mido equalize late in the match, this was a game where Wigan seriously had a chance at getting all three points. Yes it's harsh to blame one person with [. Click to continue reading...

Koumas...please don't shoot
2007/8 Review
Wigan struggled for goals last season. Marcus Bent scored just seven but he was their runaway top marksman, no-one else netted more than four. Defensively, Wigan did just enough to ensure survival, managing to contain most teams and getting Chris Kirkland through a season (almost) injury free for the first time since the dawn of time. Click to continue reading...

Poor Arsenal. They've now experienced three successive draws in the Premier League and their title dream is going to quickly start fading away unless they can nab a win from somewhere. It's clear that the Gunners weren't helped by the state of the pitch at the JJB Stadium, with The Times reporting that Arsene Wenger [. Click to continue reading...

Sky Sports reports that Blackburn Rovers have firmly denied that they have made any bid whatsoever for the Wigan Athletic midfield Jason Koumas. There had been a series of press speculation in England that Blackburn manager Mark Hughes, a self-admitted admirer of the Welsh international, was keen on signing the player with whom he had [. Click to continue reading...

Jason Koumas has completed a £5.3million move to Wigan, the club have confirmed.

Koumas had already passed a medical, and the Wales international agreed terms on a four-year contract.

The deal represents a £3million profit for West Brom on a player who cost them £2.25million from Tranmere in 2002.

Koumas has since made 141 appearances for the Baggies, scoring 23 goals, while he netted a further 13 during a season-long loan with Cardiff in 2005-06.

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