We are getting better...

'We're getting better, more mature,' said former Liverpool boss Gerald Houllier before the current France League Leader,Lyon travelled to Rennes this weekend.

'I'm very proud of our performances so far and of the kind of football we're playing,' added Hollier, whose team are yet to lose a match this season

Lyon kept 100 % record in Champion League by beating Rosenborg, even they won many games, still in some of them like vs Bordeaux and Nantes they didn’t looked good, and were saved by the ref or by goalkeeper Coupet.

On the other hand, the home side managed to enter UEFA Cup group stages, now they can concentrate on climbing the table, Rennes is long without defeat they took some precious points vs Monaco,Bordeaux and Lens but in order to break through top half of the table they must win games in a row. Rennes will have almost complete squad, while Lyon will have Diatta, Reveillere and Berthod suspended.

My prediction will be a draw here

Mission Impossible for Everton

Out of form Everton face Dinmo Bucharest in the UEFA Cup tonight in an almost impossible task to salvage something from their poor start to the season.

Everton, who surprisingly finished 4th in the Premiership last season, have lost 6 games in a row and 8 in 9 competitive matches.

They have also been knocked out from the Champion League and now face Bucharest in an attempt to peg back a 1-5 deficit from the 1st leg of the 1st round.

David Moyes and the Toffees are having a tough week ahead as they will face Man City this Saturday. Surely, the Everton boss would very much like to continue their Eurpoean Campaign, but the most important thing to the team now was to get out from the bottom of the league table.

Sure the Romanians will take to the field all relaxed as they have no less than 3 goals to spare (bearing in mind Everton's 1 away goal makes a 4-0 margin sufficient to see them through to the next round) & the Romanians will no doubt play attractive football here.

My pick will be a draw among these 2 team & Everton be will lucky to win here today!

Accept that handicap!

Revenge Time...

A late 85th minute goal from Van Nisteroy had saved Man Utd from another disater.

Tonight, a battle for Britain, no doubt most interesting match of this Champion League round.

Painful memories for Chelsea as they were eliminated in famous semifinals last year at Anfield. Liverpool went on to win the Champion League trophy thereafter.

Chelsea looks untouchable at the moment with seven straight wins in the EPL, Liverpool started bad in Premiership and Blues advanatage is big even season just started. Morientes is still out and luck of strikers , natural goalscorers is major problem for Reds.

Chelsea is complete, but Mourihno will probably combine, and Drogba would play from first minute ahead of Crespo. Chelsea is in better shape at the moment, but both teams could settle for a draw. Although Chelsea would very much want a win for a revenge.

At the end it is not too important as both side are expected to progress. For me, I would pick Chelsea to win by 1 goal.

Now Players may turn on Ferguson...

A 1-2 defeat by Blackburn at Old Trafford last week had caused some players, like fans, are unhappy with the 4-5-1 formation.

Man Utd, now 10points behind leaders Chelsea, and prompted home fans to boo Ferguson, Britain's most decorated manager, from the field for the 1st time in years.

Tonite Man Utd, will face Benfica in their Champion League Group D match, with Wayne Rooney being suspend on the substitutes bench plus 3 injured defenders, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Gabriel Heinz.

Ferguson is aware of his players view but is not inclined to change tactics, he reasoned that since the team is going to play without Rooney, so why not the team get accustomed to playing without him.

"3 points are the target. Home form has guranteed us entry to the 2nd stage in the last 5 or 6 yrs, and of course, we want to win the group" said the cofident Man Utd Manager.

But to Benfica coach, Roanal Koeman, he has a different point of view,

" Unite without Kene,Heinze,Neville & Rooney is one team that can be beaten"

" We have won the last 3 games & that raised morale. Aginst United, it will not be enough to defend well. We need to attack and get a goal"

Juventus Unbeaten Continue...

Juve played a fantastic game to fiht back at the Stadio Tardini with Mauro Camoranesi and Patrick Vieira to make it five wins out of five.

This was extrmely important when Juve will meet Inter Milan next weekend.

After two seasons trailing Juventus and AC Milan, Inter finally look capable of launching a serious bid to win their first Serie A title since 1989

'We will have a good chance against Juventus, as always,' Mancini, Inter Milan manager, was quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday.

'We will go to Turin to win. There is no doubt it will be a fantastic match.'

An interesting match not to be miss between the 2 giant...

Getafe go top again !!

Atletico Madrid 0 - Getafe 1

Getafe once again sit atop the Primera Division after a victory over Atletico Madrid.

The surprise package so far in La Liga won yet again, this time at the expense of a side who had beaten Barcelona just a week earlier.

Midfielder Mario Cotelo was sent off on the hour for a wild challenge on winger Martin Petrov, but defender Mariano Pernia struck the winner 10 minutes later when he fired a free kick through a ragged Atletico wall.

Getafe are now 2 points clear of Celta de Vigo, who play Sevilla on Sunday.

Important night for Devils & Gunners...

Tonight is an important match for Man U & Arsenal if they still wanted to win or keep pace with the current league leader, Chelsea.

Tonight Man U will face BlackBurn Rovers. Man U are still undefeated in this season, they won first five than drew last three games in all competitions. Last week they took point at Anfield, and will be keen to keep unbeaten record vs Rovers at Old Trafford in Premirship. Both teams were drawn both times last season. Neville,Keane,Heinze,Brown and Fortune are out for Man U. Todd and Pedersen are back for Rovers. Dickov and Emerton will be relegated to the bench. However, there are too huge gap between these two teams, Man U should win....

On the other hand, Gunners showed different faces away from home, as they still have no point on the road.They will be keen to show class vs London rivals, as West Ham played some very good matches this season and they are undefeated four games in the row. West Ham won only once vs Arsenal in Premiership,but they are in good form and can be dangerous at Upton Park. Alladiere is the only one absence for West Ham. Bergkamp,Pires,Henry are all out for Arsenal. Ljunberg is still doubtful. Last two visits of Gunners at Upton Park finished in draws. Although without some key players, Arsenal are still favourites. In my point of view, it was not a surprised if West Ham managed to get a draw or even or win...

Souness won't rush...

NewCastle Manager Graeme Souness says, "When we are not winning the games, if all our best players are on the pitch, then I will have to hold my hands up"

However, Graeme Souness has injury doubts over Kieron Dryer, Emre and Nolberto Solano for Saturday's home game against

The trio are all rated 50-50 for the weekend clash but Souness insists he will not play them unless they are 100 per cent fit.

Dyer and Emre both have hamstring injuries while Solano is nursing a calf problem, and the United boss is determined not to rush them back to first-team action and aggravate their problems.

"We can't afford to get into a situation where they are back for half-an-hour in a game and are then out for three weeks," said Souness.

"So if it means we have to leave them out this weekend then we'll do that.

"I'm very happy with the squad I've got here.

"It's just unfortunate we haven't yet had them all out on the pitch at the same time, but that will come soon I hope."

Two more wins or no title !!

(Extracted from Soccernet.com)

Manchester United have no chance of winning the Premier League this season if they fail to win their next two games against Blackburn Rovers and Fulham, says midfielder Paul Scholes.

Just over a month into the new season, United are already seven points behind leaders and champions Chelsea, albeit with a game in hand. Last term, United finished 18 points adrift.

'If we can't beat Blackburn and Fulham we have no hope of winning the league,' Scholes told MUTV.

'It was against the lower teams that we dropped so many stupid points last season and why we fell so far behind. If we are to have any hopes this year we cannot afford to do that.'

Scholes is not dismayed by Chelsea's flying start to the season - in which Jose Mourinho's side have scored 12 goals and conceded none to take maximum points from their first six matches.

'Apart from Arsenal, Chelsea have not played many of the top teams while we have had three or four really tough games,' said the former England midfielder.

'We have dropped four points but I am sure Chelsea will drop points as well, we just can't afford to drop many more.'

Chelsea will be strongly tipped to beat a struggling Aston Villa side on Saturday but face a much trickier encounter on October 2 away to European champions Liverpool.

Benitez for Real Madrid??

After a 0-1 defeat at Espanyol has piled a great pressure on Real Madrid FC manager Vanderlei Luxemburgo and he could be asked to leave if Real can't beat Athletic Bilbao tomorrow or at Alaves this weekend.

Benitez, current Liverpool FC manager, has been linked with the job, reported the Mirror. But does that mean he would drop everything at Anfield should Real really approach him?

But as according to Benitez, he is not interested in the Real job. The CEO of Liverpool FC had made it clear yesterday, that he wanted Benitez for the long term.

Of course, to Luxemburgo, his faith lies on next match, where he will be missing 3 key players - Zidane, Sergio Ramos & Baptista.

The Return of Sol CampBell...

Arsenal Beat Everton 2-0. Both goals from Sol Campbell, an England regular until the start of last season, when his injury problems saw Terry take over as Rio Ferdinand's regular partner, while Ledley King and Jamie Carragher also emerged as genuine contenders.

However, he marked his first league start of the season by converting two free-kicks by Jose Antonio Reyes to ensure Arsenal did not lose any further ground on Chelsea.

Arsenal now lying at 7th position with 1 less game played and 9 points away from the league leader Chealsea. Everton continued their wretched start lying at the last 2nd bottom of the table, collecting only 3 points so far

Oh No...Real Madrid Lose Again

Third Defeat in a row...what Vanderlei Luxemburgo going to do next?

After losing at home to Celta de Vigo last weekend and getting drubbed away to Lyon in the Champions League on Tuesday, Real Madrid fell to defeat yet again, this time at the hands of Catalan side Espanyol and finished the game with just nine players.

The only goal of the match was scored in the 68th minute when Daniel Jarque from Espanyol got in behind the Madrid defense to head in a free kick by Iván de la Peña.

It went from bad to worse on 88 minutes for Madrid when Sérgio Ramos was sent off for his second bookable offense of the match, and striker Julio Baptista was dismissed in injury time for a studs-up foul on Jonathan Soriano, drawing a straight red card.

Latest from Pompey

Had been away for the past few months. Back now and hope to post more soccer news to keep my blog running....

Let's start with my favourite club again, let's here what Pompey's Manager had to said after the 1-1 draw with Birmingham :
Portsmouth manager Alain Perrin
"Sometimes when you play against a team who has had a man sent off it is difficult.
"It is difficult to find the space. We deserved to win and we had a lot of chances to score but had no success. "Only one man didn't see the penalty but sometimes you are unlucky. In front of the goal it's too difficult for us to score at the moment."

Somehow, I feel that if Portsmouth still really want to stay in the Premiership, they really should buck up now...