The headlines wrote themselves this morning for all the wrong reasons. Rob Styles' itchy whistle finger contrived to invent a new type of offence for awarding a penalty of which he is yet to explain to the media.

It was pretty clear to everyone that it wasn't a penalty and Styles was spooked by the OT faithful and immediately blew.

Click to continue reading...

Sir Alex says he has a difficult decision to make for this Sundays match against Chelsea. "I have got a decision to make about centre-back, whether I go with Evans and his ability but lack of experience or whether I opt for Wes Brown's experience,"Ferguson told reporters. Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United shouldn't have this problem! Click to continue reading...

We'll be underway at the top of the next hour, here are your line-ups: Howard; Baines, Yobo, Lescott, Neville, Castillo, Arteta, Cahill, Anichebe, Yakubu Bench: Nash; Valente, Kissock, Wallace, Agard, Gosling, Rodwell, Vaughan, Baxter Espinoza; Camozzato, Onyewu, Sarr, Dante, Dalmat, Defour, Nicaise, Witsel, De Camargo, Mbokani Bench: De Vriendt; Goreux, Mikulic, Ingrao, Toama, Jovanovic, Click to continue reading...

United started their Champions League campaign against La Liga runners-up Villarreal. United's starting eleven was: Van der Sar Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Park, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Nani Rooney, Tevez Suprisingly, no Vidic, Brown or Giggs United had a great opportunity in the 9th minute from the first corner kick in the match. Click to continue reading...

Everton 2-3 Blackburn

Absolutely gutted about that but I can't really comment about the game 'cause I was down south at a family do...look at that midfield though. Arteta plus two defenders and a kid. Not strengthening the side during the close-season is little short of dereliction of duty. Click to continue reading...

A quick check of sub's bench for Newcastle, versus the options last May in Moscow, show just how much the squad is being stretched at the moment:

Saturday

Kuszczak, Neville, Evans, Gibson, Possebon, Da Silva, O'Shea

Moscow

Kuszczak, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Giggs

*Gulp*

Click to continue reading...

David Moyes has stated publically that Leighton Baines is considered the best left back at Everton. However competition for starting spots in the Everton backline is fierce, and the things have been shaping up that Baines may not have gained a starting role. His smaller size seems to have counted against him as Lescott and Yobo are more robustly built, and these players seemed to be the favorites of the gaffer. Click to continue reading...

The Community Shield is the annual pre-season event that pits the winner of the FA Cup against the winner of the Premier League. It's an exhibition match for charity but can often provide some tense action since it's usually contested between fierce rivals. For the first time in God knows how long (mid-90s? Click to continue reading...

Blackburn confirms they have signed Manchester United right-back Danny Simpson on loan until the end of the season. The 21-year-old made 8 appearances last season, but with Grandpa Neville back in good form the likely hood of Simpson seeing the pitch this upcoming season was very slim. So he opted for a move to Blackburn. Click to continue reading...

Nothing like playing in a friendly to get yourself injured... This week saw two popular defenders injure themselves: Bosingwa of Chelsea and Bouma of Villa. Both are likely to miss the start of the season.

Bouma sustained the worst injury, dislocating an ankle in Villa's Intertoto Cup third round victory over Danish side Odense. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday it came to everyone's knowledge that 5 players from the United academy were released. A club statement was issued: Midfielders Michael Barnes, Sean Evans and Ritchie Jones and defenders Kieran Lee and Michael Lea are all free to leave Old Trafford as of 30 June. Academy striker Chris Fagan and fellow scholar Conor McCormack have [. Click to continue reading...

Louis Saha has trained all summer long, attempting to regain fitness lost after a series of injuries which saw the French striker start only 5 Premier League matches last season. Come on United, get rid of these charity cases: Neville, Giggs, Saha, and Silvestre have played their fare share of games and their best years are [. Click to continue reading...

Footballer Phil Neville has applied for planning permission to build a multi-million pound mansion in the Bolton area. The design, complete with a Southern Gothic pillared facade, will include a swimming pool, cinema, games room and gym.

The house, which is to be built in High Bank Lane, Lostock, is just 10 minutes away from his brother Gary Neville's home.

Click to continue reading...

The month of June in the year 2008 will be remembered for the endless stream of speculation surrounding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo. Especially if the boy wonder helps Portugal win Euro 2008, which looks a distinct possibility after a hot-to-trot display against Turkey. Despite the forward not wanting to talk about where he'll be playing [. Click to continue reading...

It's no secret United have been searching for Gary Neville's long-term replacement. United had been linked with Porto right back, Bosingwa, up until Chelsea sealed a £16.2million deal earlier this week. Having sealed Bosingwa, its only obvious Chelsea have dropped out of the race for Sevilla right-back Daniel Alves. Click to continue reading...

The official club website reports that the next Chelsea spending spree has started already. Rather than continue to get the very best out of the existing squad, it's all about throwing money at the cause to ensure that the Blues wrest the Premier League title back from the hands of Manchester United. Click to continue reading...

Goodness me, what a catalogue of incidents to report both during and after the big match on Saturday. There was the usual 'controversial' refereeing decisions made, including the award of a penalty to Chelsea for an apparent 'ball-to-hand', the non-award of a penalty at the other end of the pitch after Michael Ballack got up [. Click to continue reading...

Whilst Cristiano Ronaldo revelled in the limelight of his decisive goal against Derby on Saturday afternoon, celebrating in dramatic fashion by signaling each of his five missed chances on the fingers of his hand, the player who provided the telling cross, Wayne Rooney, lept in the air as if he'd scored the winner himself, as his team finally got the goal they were searching for. Click to continue reading...

With Wes Brown's Manchester United future still in severe jeopardy and club captain Gary Neville's seemingly endless struggle to regain match fitness, the Red Devils could well be in danger of starting next season without a right-back. So what options will Ferguson be looking to consider if worse comes to worse? Click to continue reading...

The Daily Mail reports that Everton captain Phil Neville, whilst conceding that the battle for fourth place will be as tight as a ducks butt, claims that all the pressure is on Liverpool - that they have everything to prove while Everton remain underdogs. Neville said: "There is still so much for us [. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian reports that Manchester United are set to receive a boost in the coming weeks, akin to signing two new quality players. Gary Neville has not featured for the champions since last March, while Paul Scholes has been out for three months. Could their return to action help the Red Devils overcome Arsenal and [. Click to continue reading...

- Reading this, I wonder if it was purposely taken out of context. Was Sissoko asked if he regrets not to flat out leave Liverpool to go to Juventus or was he asked if he thought he would have more playing opportunities at Juventus? I sort of doubt Sissoko wants to leave. I'm sure he has told friends at times that he would like to, but who doesn't at times bitch about their life and wishing for change to their closest acquaintances? Click to continue reading...