Having just defeated the World Cup holders, Spain, and then Sweden, their bete noire (Sweden were undefeated against England for almost half a century, until Tuesday evening), England have gone nine matches without defeat. Fortunes are good, expectations are up, possibilities are endless. England beat Spain without Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Steven Gerrard and then they beat Sweden with Bobby Zamora, Stewart Downing and Theo Walcott in attack and Jack Rodwell and Phil Jones in midfield.

1. 1-0 to the Eng-ger-land. Who said the defensive approach was just for the Spain game? Jack Rodwell, Gareth Barry and Phil Jones in midfield. Now if we could just replace Theo Walcott and Stewart Downing with Scott Parker and Lee Cattermole to add a bit more stability. 2. Hopefully the goal will be given [.

Spain focus on winning, England stay distracted

ANOTHER international break – another weekend to find something else to do. No live Premier League games, no Match of the Day, no Sunday papers full of match reports and laughable opinions about your club. It's like summer, with less daylight and even less rain.

With England's ticket to the 2012 European Championships now booked, Fabio Capello's thoughts will be away from the colder temperature and focused on his 23 man squad selection for the tournament next summer.

The question of who to take, and who to leave out, always excites a media frenzy, with the age-old debates of club form, age, and experience brought out to trump up heroes or tear down villains.

England will head into their Euro 2012 showdown with Montenegro without two of their most experienced players after Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard were both left out of Fabio Capello's squad.

The Three Lions need a draw in Podgorica on Friday to book their place at next summer's European Championship finals, and Capello has decided they can achieve that mission without two men who have amassed a combined total of 167 caps.

I don't know about anyone else, but it kinda frustrates me when I watch football matches in the Premier League and I hear commentators and the like praising a player or stating how important he is... yet in my opinion that said player is actually massively over-rated, and rarely contributes much to a game at all.

The Ipswich Town team seemed to take a while to come out of the dressing room on Saturday evening: what do you think Paul Jewell was saying?
If you were him, what on earth would you have said?
Having not made it to Portman Road this season, this weekend was the first chance I've had to see the rapidly self-destructing side for myself.

Birmingham City keeper Ben Foster could be making his way back to the Premier League if a BBC report is correct.

West Brom is looking for a keeper after Scott Carson left and manager Roy Hodgson is thought to favor bringing in the former Manchester United backstop.

The Blues were unable to stay in the Premier League last season with Foster as their keeper, but they did manage a Carling Cup title.

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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

West Brom goalkeeper Scott Carson has joined Turkish club Bursaspor for an undisclosed fee, the Premier League club announced on Friday.

England international keeper Scott Carson (25) has left West Brom for Turkish Champions Bursaspor for an un-disclosed fee.

West Brom have already set their sights on a replacement in former Baggies keeper Tomasz Kuszchak (29) who has fallen down the United pecking order following the club's signing of David De Gea.

England international keeper Scott Carson (25) has left West Brom for Turkish Champions Bursaspor for an un-disclosed fee.

West Brom have already set their sights on a replacement in former Baggies keeper Tomasz Kuszchak (29) who has fallen down the United pecking order following the club's signing of David De Gea.

When Transfers Go Wrong: 11 Players The Premier League Will Never Forget - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester United and Liverpool have both be criticised for over paying for players, however, what about those clubs that got it totally wrong? Here are 11 of the worst signings from recent Premier League history.

Under-21 Euro 2011: Players To Watch - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With no senior tournament for Europe this summer, it is the chance for the next generation to shine. Here are eleven youngsters hoping to catch the eye at the forth coming 2011 Under 21 European Championships in Denmark.

Fabio Capello's fall from grace in the eyes of the English public since the 2010 world cup has been almost as hyped as his team's chances for the same tournament. One of the main problems journalists have cunningly picked up is his lack of communication skills due to his sub-standard grasp of the language.

Bobby Zamora fully deserves his call-up to the England squad for the UEFA EURO 2012 Qualifying game against Switzerland, with the Fulham man registering a superior minutes per goal rate in the 2010/11 Premier League to any of the other forwards in Fabio Capello's latest squad.

Zamora has endured an injury-hit season, but in his limited playing time he netted five goals, one more than Spur striker Peter Crouch, despite a more substantial playing time.

Fabio Capello has revealed his original 26 man squad for the Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland on the 4th June with Bobby Zamora earning an England call-up after a string of impressive performances, including his double against Arsenal in a 2-2 draw this weekend. Wayne Rooney's suspension rules him out of the qualifier and Fulham striker Zamora is called up in the forwards along with Sunderland striker Darren Bent and Tottenham strikers Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe.

Match highlights. I shall endeavour to update these with longer and better ones when they are available. Newcastle United: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Taylor, Jose Enrique, Ryan Taylor, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Shane Ferguson, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi. Subs: Ranger, Soderberg, LuaLua, Tavernier, Kuqi, Smith, Best.

One Carlos Tevez (and two goals) forced a barn door re-think on my part. That's not entirely true. Your comments and a viewing of the Premier League Review Show also "helped". I had to grab Carlito. I'm not convinced he'll play at Bolton, but I wanted the option. So out went Ba and Hennessey with Carson coming in as an enabling keeper.

While Harry may feel that Spurs are only a couple of players away from being a top four side again, many fans and TV pundits think that one extra player is needed in all areas of the pitch – goalkeeper, defence, midfield and attack.

For the rest of this week we'll take a look at some of the names available and try to work out who the club should sign to get us back in the Champions League running.

With Carson (@Wolves) enabling. Thoughts from the crowd?

After a disappointing result in midweek against United, Chelsea needed a good performance and a win against West Brom on Saturday. As I said in my match preview beforehand, our hosts had been on an impressive run and were unbeaten since February so it was going to be no easy game. However, Chelsea put in a good performance inspired by Didier Drogba who had a hand in each of our goals.

For the time being at least, transfer gossip is turning away from Spurs' need for new strikers and looking at the issues in our defence. Injuries to Kaboul, Corluka and briefly Gallas have highlighted the problems in having two long term victims such as King and Woodgate in the squad. Irrespective of the club's plans for those two, it seems likely that Harry will move for at least one new defender in the summer.

David Stockdale's been on twitter saying more or less what he's thinking, e.g. I want to play first team football. Whether this is the correct medium for the message, and what he accomplishes by making these comments is a debate for another day, but there they are: Stockdale wants to play.

The problem is big, yellow and Australian.

In my infinite capacity to mess with a good thing, and in clear violation of the fantasy rules, I've made the following trades today: Howard to Carson. I don't trust any of the cheaper keepers, but West Brom is coming off a six-match unbeaten streak. They are on the road against a Sunderland team in dire form and may see this match as their last chance for points for a while with Chelsea and @

Chris Brunt's second-half penalty double enabled West Brom to win the battle of Liverpool managers past and present at The Hawthorns.
Current Reds manager Kenny Dalglish saw Martin Skrtel head his side in front five minutes into the second half.
But his predecessor, Roy Hodgson, was indebted to Brunt for initially levelling matters from the spot and then scoring the 88th-minute winner.

While we peer out onto the dark and deserted ice-rink that is a post-elimination FA Cup weekend , here is a something about West Bromwich Albion and why Roy Hodgson probably felt comfortable taking the job.

The official 25 man squad is below. What's interesting is the number of players who have been linked to Fulham which, when you factor in the players we already have from there (Gera, Greening, Kamara), does make you think.

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Scott Carson produced yet another major gaffe in West Brom's 3-0 defeat at Fulham.
Simon Davies' long-range shot bounced off his fingers into the net to give Fulham the opening goal..
The wierd thing about this is that just about a year ago,the very same Carson was doing the very same thing.

Let's not get too excited - West Brom are a bad team in worse form but you can't beat a good 3-0 home win to boost morale, can you?

A strange game in the end. Fulham bossed the first 20 minutes without looking threatening, and when West Brom grew into the game it felt like West Ham all over again.

How can I afford myself in fantasy? How can I afford not to? Jeremy Spitzberg: what have I missed? Neal Thurman: no Rooney :-( but Nani in and with an assist Neal Thurman: Chicharito goal Neal Thurman: Brum goal from Hleb Neal Thurman: WBA lost another defender to injury (Cech) Jeremy Spitzberg: and thus the barn door conundrums begin Neal Thurman: Philips started for BPL - probably should

Arsenal demolished sorry Birmingham this evening 3 0 to stay within touching distance of Manchester United and Manchester City.
A Robin Van Persie free kick, a sublime individual goal by player of the season Samir Nasri and an own goal by Roger Johnson ensured Arsenal stay two points behind with a game over their City counter parts.