"He picked me again." "Should have picked me though." "Idiot."
So here it is, I'm putting myself out on the line. More vulnerable than ever. Almost 12 weeks down, 26 to go. While we still have 70% of the Premier League season remaining, I'm in the midst of my worst "Captaining" stretch in 5 years, and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing a similar misfortune or has in the past? Click to continue reading...

Last week, I asked you to vote for you favourite 20 players of the decade, here in this very post, are the Top 100 players of the last 10 years, voted for by you, the readers and bloggers of the offside. First thing I want to say is thank you, everyone for the absolutely amazing response [...] Click to continue reading...

Forget Haye v Valuev, this is the big one Chelsea v Manchester United. This year's favourites take on the Premier League champions. But while Chelsea and Drogba are in top form, United's injury problems mount.

And it is Didier Drogba who pundits alike are talking about. He is in the best form of his life, and if there was a better time to face United for the Ivory Coast forward, it would have to be now as he will be up against a rather depleted looking back line.

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Frank Lampard today hailed Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba as the best in the world!. Lampard said: "Nico has been fantastic all season. Along with Didier they are a great partnership," Lampard said. "He (Anelka) has tremendous pace and balance, particularly when he runs at defenders. "He is so cool, so we have two players who for me are the best at what they do in the world" Nico gives

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It was a Super Saturday treat for Premier League fans as all the top names in the game came out to the fields. Chelsea went to Bolton and won 5-0 in an emphatic show of their reign at the top. Lampard got the proceedings going through a freekick in the fag end of the first [...] Click to continue reading...

Bolton managed well in their match against Chelsea, until the dying minutes of the first half but Jlloyd Samuels challenge earned him a red card and a penalty for Chelsea and Lampard made no mistake converting it before the break. The Blues dominance continued with an extra player and pure quality all over and goals [. Click to continue reading...

Apart from being the lionheart that every team needs a lesser known fact about Lampard is that he has an IQ of 150 which puts him right up there with other Bill Gates and other such geniuses.Really.

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Here's another monthly look at what at what the stats tell us about Chelsea's progress: this time with revelations about Lampard's scoring rate, Chelsea's deceptively good defence and a continuing reliance on Drogba. My obsession with football stats continues...
At this rate Lampard won't score 20
Such is the quality of Frank Lampard that scoring just one goal in 12 games was a crisis.

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Here's another monthly look at what at what the stats tell us about Chelsea's progress: this time with revelations about Lampard's scoring rate, Chelsea's deceptively good defence and a continuing reliance on Drogba. My obsession with football stats continues...
At this rate Lampard won't score 20
Such is the quality of Frank Lampard that scoring just one goal in 12 games was a crisis.

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Despite a woeful recent record away from home, you might have expected Allardyce's Blackburn to have put up more of a fight against Chelsea yesterday. But this was a masterclass performance from the Ancelotti's men who unleashed a second half blue-coloured blitzkrieg to put five past a hapless Blackburn Rovers.

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Despite a woeful recent record away from home, you might have expected Allardyce's Blackburn to have put up more of a fight against Chelsea yesterday. But this was a masterclass performance from the Ancelotti's men who unleashed a second half blue-coloured blitzkrieg to put five past a hapless Blackburn Rovers.

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Chelsea sent a major warning to title rivals Liverpool and Manchester United ahead of today's massive clash at Anfield by demolishing a poor Blackburn Rovers side at The Bridge. The Blues never moved out of third gear in their 5 - 0 victory over Rovers who saw their dreadful away form continue. A dominant performance from Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba and a continuation of England midfield star Frank Lampard's return to form swept aside a Blackburn outfit that must now face a further daunting away trip to Old Trafford next weekend. Click to continue reading...

There's been a lot of debate in the media regarding Rafael Benitez's position as manager as Liverpool football club and we would like to know what you think? Should he be sacked?
Liverpool have now lost 4 games in a row and are heading into a crunch derby game with Manchester United at the weekend, with Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both struggling to be fit in time for the match.

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Atletico Madrid were no match for Chelsea.A dismal 4 - 0 loss is what they came up with.Two goals from Salomon Kalou and one each from Lampard and Luis Perea.

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With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in terms of debating the winner, right?

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Another away match, another defeat. Overall, in losing to a good Aston Villa side, Chelsea didn't actually put in a bad performance. But errors both in defence and attack, and a worrying lack of leadership from Ancelotti, were enough to get me concerned.
Even in deserved defeat, there were some positives.

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Another away match, another defeat. Overall, in losing to a good Aston Villa side, Chelsea didn't actually put in a bad performance. But errors both in defence and attack, and a worrying lack of leadership from Ancelotti, were enough to get me concerned.
Even in deserved defeat, there were some positives.

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1966 was a great year, or so I'm told by those of an age able to remember it.

It has been a long time since England lifted the highest honour in International football, too long in fact, and many have been brave enough to predict South Africa will be the location for the Three Lions to finally end the years of hurt for the England faithful.

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A can of worms has been opened with this list, time for you all to feast on it!

Watch England vs Belarus Live Online!

Four Four Two completed their annual top 100 players in the world list and here are the top 30 ranking Premier League players, the number stated is where each player figures in the entire list.

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Ducky's Note: This bugger preempted me and wrote a note to my note. So now I'm going to post-preempt him, and not write him a note. Suffice to say, he's been mentioned here before. And he's a Chelsea fan.

Lighter's Note to Ducky's Note: Did Ducky mention very smart, very funny and very single?

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How many international breaks (interlullâ„¢) have there been this season already?
The game against Ukraine on Saturday – which I didn't watch, incidentally – sounds like it was one of the more unconvincing England displays we have seen for a while. To be fair to Capello and the team however, it wouldn't be the first time football sides have turned out sub-standard performances having previously completed the job at hand.

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How many international breaks (interlullâ„¢) have there been this season already?
The game against Ukraine on Saturday – which I didn't watch, incidentally – sounds like it was one of the more unconvincing England displays we have seen for a while. To be fair to Capello and the team however, it wouldn't be the first time football sides have turned out sub-standard performances having previously completed the job at hand.

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Scoring a goal, some would have us believe, is better than sex. It is an old saying that has done the rounds over the years. The elation, the surge in adrenalin, the massive high felt by the goal scorer is all comparable I suppose. Hopefully, your mates only come and jump on you after scoring a goal and you probably would not light up a fag after putting one in the onion.

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Well done to Sutton for winning his first game in charge at Lincon.

Lampard not worried about his lack of goals (Never Captain Nicky Butt)

A lovely addition to the WAG index (Who Ate All The Pies)

Braveheart Paul Hart (Guardian Via 3 nil)

Who is England's number one?

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Oh how different one week makes...last week's review had me raving about Liverpool's form and their attacking potency, I then had the displeasure of watching Liverpool lose in the Champions League against Fiorentina and the gut-wrenching loss to Chelsea, the team I disliked the most. The media is already writing off Liverpool's chances but I will defer my opinions until after the Christmas/New Year matches. Click to continue reading...

What did Big Phil do to those guys? For a long time say, from the latter days of Mourinho through the start of the Hiddink Intercession the Chelsea dressing room was a hive of choler and pique. The players visibly didn't like each other, didn't trust their manager (whoever he happened to be), and generally had the air of passengers who have all privately concluded that the ship they are on is sinking as they eye the exits and edge toward the only lifeboat.

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11am, live in the US on FSC
Last 4 head-to-head:
4-4 (a; CL) 04.14.09
1-3 Chelsea (h; CL) 04.08.09
2-0 Liverpool (h) 02.01.09
1-0 Liverpool (a) 10.26.08
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 0-2 Fiorentina (a); 6-1 Hull (h); 1-0 Leeds (a)
Chelsea: 1-0 APOEL (a); 1-3 Wigan (a); 1-0 QPR (h)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Torres 8; Benayoun, Gerrard, Kuyt 3; Babel, Johnson 2; Ngog 1
Chelsea: Drogba 6; Ballack 3; Anelka, A Cole 2; Deco, Lampard, Malouda 1
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Guess at a squad:
Reina
Johnson Skrtel Carragher Aurelio
Lucas Mascherano
Kuyt Gerrard Benayoun
Torres
The sooner Tuesday's forgotten the better. Click to continue reading...

What sounded incredible two years ago, when Jose Mourinho arrived to Milano was precisely the idea that the Serbian player will stay so long at Meazza. The media hurried to label him as number one man for throwing out, especially because he was very close to former coach Mancini, with whom he played in Lazio too.

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General Review
General Review II
AC Milan 0 - 1 FC Zurich: San Siro shocker
Leonardo defiant despite defeat
Player Ratings
Apoel 0 - 1 Chelsea: Struggle in Cyprus
Harris: Lampard stuck in a rut
Bayern Munich 0 - 0 Juventus:
Old Lady looks better
Bordeaux 1 - 0 Maccabi Haifa: Ciani winner
CSKA Moscow 2 - 1 Besiktas: Krasic winner
Porto 2 - 0 Atletico Madrid: Atletico woe
Manchester United 2 - 1 Wolfsburg: Owen hurt again
Jolly: Berbatov takes his chance
Real Madrid 3 - 0 Marseille: Ronaldo double
Player Ratings
Best of the Week in the Champions League Click to continue reading...

Ancelotti s under pressure at Chelsea.

Apoel Nicosia vs Chelsea:

How fast things change. Ancelotti is learning this first hand after Chelsea's shock defeat to Wigan this past weekend. He is under a obscene amount of pressure because of this loss and while he says he is not feeling it I'm sure a win would do him good.

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Both this year and last much has been said about the age of Chelsea's squad and how it will hinder the club's charge for the title. Having kept detailed stats – on both the team's performance and for individual players – since the Premier League began back in August I decided to take a look back at the records for the season so far to see what, if anything, they told us about the impact of an ageing squad.

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Both this year and last much has been said about the age of Chelsea's squad and how it will hinder the club's charge for the title. Having kept detailed stats – on both the team's performance and for individual players – since the Premier League began back in August I decided to take a look back at the records for the season so far to see what, if anything, they told us about the impact of an ageing squad.

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With the arrival of the weekend, football fans across the world are returning to following their respective teams in another series of cracking fixtures. However, excitement is going to reach a whole different level next weekend, when the much awaited FIFA 10 releases in Australia (October 1) and Europe (October 2).

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- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and even occasional general football items.
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER! Click to continue reading...

Unstoppable
While Wayne Rooney is also in the form of his career, we can't overlook the recent play of the unstoppable Didier Drogba.
No one can contain him at the moment. Perhaps his calf injury will be his undoing, but the man just looks unstoppable - he's physically dominating everyone in his path. Click to continue reading...