The only thing in Chelsea’s favour was they had been here a few times before and unlike other European clubs were ready for the challenge; and would possibly not be phased by the occassion.

Chelsea started well and occasionally played their way into Barcelona’s half.  But as with the first leg, the Catalan side had the majority of possession; and just as there was talk that it would be a great achievement if Chelsea could get to half-time at 0-0, it all started to go wrong.

Sloppy defending allowed Busquets to open the scoring on 35mins which was followed by John Terry rightfully being shown a red card for a needless and sly act of aggression as he pushed his knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez. And when Iniesta made it 2-0 on 43mins it looked likely that Chelsea were going to be shown more red cards and be completely battered.  But as in the first leg, Chelsea scored a goal before half-time out of nothing.  A through-ball by Frank Lampard found Ramires who scored with a delightful chip over goalkeeper Valdes which turned the tie in Chelsea’s favour once again.

But there was still more excitement to come in one of the most truly amazing Champions League matches of all-time.  Lionel Messi, who has never scored against Chelsea had the chance from the penalty spot and against all the odds hit the bar! Chelsea played a strict game of lockout. ‘Parking the bus’ in front of Petr Cech was their only hope.  Wave after wave of Barcelona attack was thwarted by Chelsea; and then, to top it all Fernando Torres, a second half substitute who had tormented Barcelona so many times when playing for Athletico Madrid was given the chance to score the winning goal in injury time that secured Chelsea’s place in the final of the Champions League.  Amazing comic book stuff that doesn’t happen in real life; a real-life Hot Shot Hamish moment!

Against all the odds Chelsea drew 2-2 on the night and won 3-2 over two legs.  They will now face either Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, who would have home advantage, in the final. Chelsea will be without John Terry for his straight red and Ramires, Meireles and Ivanovic for picking up second yellow cards.  Gary Cahill, who limped off with an injury in the first half is expected to be fit.

This was an amazing game of football.  But I think without key players, lifting the Champions League trophy for the first time is going to be a bridge too far for Chelsea.

On Saturday Liverpool went behind in the Merseyside derby to a first-half goal by one of the signings of the season, Nikica Jelavic. But Everton appeared to get it tactically wrong when they appeared to play deeper in the second half and invite Liverpool to attack.  In doing so, the inevitable happened when Luis Suarez pounced on a weak back pass from Sylvan Distin to goalkeeper Tim Howard.

From there on, Everton looked shell shocked while Liverpool was in the ascendency and deserved to go on and win the game. By scoring the winning goal in a semi-final against Everton, Andy Carroll has gone some way to repaying his over-inflated £35 million price tag.

Television played its part in a bizarre kick off time for the second semi-final between Chelsea and Tottenham at 6pm on Sunday.

The game was finely balanced in the first half with both teams having chances to take the lead.  Chelsea were playing good free-flowing football, and though Spurs appeared to be a little less relaxed, the speed and ability of both Gareth Bale & Aaron Lennon continued to torment Chelsea and threaten them on the break.

Didier Drogba continued his great FA Cup Semi-Final goal scoring record when he was allowed to turn and blast the ball into the top corner passed former Chelsea keeper Carlos Cudicini.  William Gallas (another ex-Chelsea player) could hardly be blamed as he appeared to do everything right, apart from give Drogba the time to shoot.  Half-time analysis had Roy Keane & Gareth Southgate arguing the point.  Southgate stated, as a centre half, Gallas had done everything right in steering Drogba away from goal & leaving him only six inches or so.  But as Roy Keane rightly said in true Brian Clough style: “You can do a lot with six inches!”

Chelsea continued to push forward in the second half.  But it was referee Martin Atkinson’s decision to award a controversial second goal as early as the 49th minute that really turned the match in Chelsea’s favour.  There was a goal line clearance that ended with Cudicini, Ledley King, Assou-Ekotto and John Terry in a pile when Juan Mata followed up with a shot that appeared to be stopped from crossing the line by Assou-Ekotto’s leg.  The truth is that even after several replays from various angles, it was still unclear if the ball had crossed the line.  Though the most telling point was that John Terry didn’t appeal for the goal, and he was the closest Chelsea player to the ball.

You win some – you lose some; and that decision not only put Chelsea two up but also meant that Tottenham had to chase the game.  For a while they did just that, and when Gareth Bale scored just seven minutes later it looked like Spurs were back in the race.  But the Spurs goal wasn’t without its own controversy.  As Adebayor was put clear through he was brought down by an on-rushing Petr Cech as he managed to pass the ball to Gareth Bale.  Bale scored as Martin Atkinson played the advantage, and Petr Cech escaped being shown the red card retrospectively.

As time pushed on, Harry Redknapp had no choice but to change the Spurs formation.  As soon as he went to a 4-4-2 there was more room in the midfield for Frank Lampard and Juan Mata to take control of the game.  Redknapp had little choice but his decision backfired and when Juan Mata put Ramires through to score Chelsea’s third goal, the game appeared to be over.  Two further goals, a fantastic free-kick from Frank Lampard (81 mins) and a fifth by substitute Florent Malouda (90 mins) flattered a Chelsea side who will now go into Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final 1st leg against Barcelona brimming with confidence.

However, while the current Spurs manager is the red-hot bookmaker’s favourite to lead his country into the Euro 2012 finals, punters looking for a bigger return on a free bet may want to back a candidate at longer odds.

Step forward Glenn Hoddle.

This past week, former England boss Hoddle has been touting himself for a return to the post he was sacked from back in 1999 after making controversial remarks about people with disabilities.

He has even gone as far to say his life would be “incomplete” if he were to die and not have the chance to manage England again.

In terms of England “success”, he did OK. He won 17 of his 28 matches in charge, drew six and lost five, a win percentage of almost 61 percent.

Not as high as Capello’s 66.7% win rate, statistically positioning him as the most “successful” England manager of all time although the Italian of course did not take change of as many games as the likes of Sven Goran Eriksson, Bobby Robson or World Cup winning boss Alf Ramsey.

But, going on win percentages alone, Hoddle is the second most successful. He took England to the second round of the 1998 World Cup, as well as Capello did in 2010 and has more experience at international level than Redknapp.

After the circumstances surrounding his dismissal more than a decade ago, he would not be the politically correct choice but compared to other former managers like Steve McLaren (50%), Graham Taylor (47.4%) or Kevin Keegan (38.9%) appointing Hoddle is unlikely to be a disaster.

The alternative to Redknapp as far as the betting goes is current West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson who is a vastly experienced manager on the international stage.

Prior to spells in charge of the United Arab Emirates and Finland, Hodgson guided Switzerland to third in the FIFA rankings, taking them to the World Cup in 1994 and Euro 1996.

But, I quite like the idea of recalling an England “old boy” to the post and my choice would be Terry Venables.

His win percentage is not the highest at 47.8 percent, but he is arguably England’s most “successful” manager in recent years after taking his country to the semi-finals of Euro 96 – losing on penalties to eventual tournament winners Germany.

Venables has already parked up at “Wembley” too – in an technical advisor role at non league Wembley FC who play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division.

Perfect!

Who would you like to see in charge of England? Let us know in the comments below!

Newcastle on the other hand had other ideas and raced into the lead after just 6 minutes from a flowing moving down the left. Their new talisman Papa Cisse managed to bag his 4th goal in just 7 games for the magpies after a sublime cross from Ben Arfa.

It was Ben Arfa who doubled Newcastle’s lead just 6 minutes later causing havoc in the West Brom defence. After jinking past a couple of players he cut back inside on his left foot before powering past Ben Foster to double Newcastle’s advantage.

The second goal seemed to spur West Brom into life a little but they were unable to capitalise from a string of attacking opportunities mainly from corners.

The game was as good as over after 34 minutes when the Toon scored their second and Cisse completed a brace. It was once again Hatem Ben Arfa who proved to be the undoing as he linked up neatly with Demba Ba before cutting the ball back across the face of goal for Cisse to power home. Ben Arfa proved once and for all what a fine talent this young Frenchman really is.

At half time Cisse was as much as 10/1 on the Mobile Betting markets to score the next goal and he nearly put the game out of reach when he was one on one with Foster early in the second half. Foster managed to pull off a smart save however which gave his team a little hope.

With the second half starting West Brom knew they had little to lose and even managed to get them right back into the game with a goal from substitute Shane Long. Eye brows were eased prior to the game with the Irishman starting on the bench and he proved his worth taking advantage of a mix up at the back between centre half Mike Williamson and goalkeeper Tim Krul.

This was as close as West Brom were to get however and as the game fizzled out they were unable to provide any real quality in front of goal to cause Newcastle a threat.

It wasn’t all good news for the Magpies as at half time captain Collocini was taken off and is thought to be out for 2 weeks (hamstring) meaning he misses the next game at home to Liverpool. Papa Cisse was also taken off which what is now believed to have just been cramp, a relief to Alan Pardew no doubt.

As far as the two team’s seasons are going Newcastle find themselves level on points with Chelsea in fifth and just 8 games remaining. West Brom are 14th but will have too much to fall into a relegation scrap this season. Roy Hodgson will no doubt be looking for a strong finish and a chance to improve his squad for the coming campaign.

In 1991 Brian Clough bought Edward Paul Sheringham for £2 million to play for Nottm Forest alongside his son, Nigel Clough.  But this proved only to be a stepping stone.  The next season Sheringham was sold to Tottenham where he scored 76 goals in 166 appearances.

Jürgen Klinsmann, a strike partner with Sheringham during the 1994–95 season, has claimed that Sheringham was the most intelligent strike partner he had ever played with. But it wasn’t to be the pinnacle of Teddy’s football career.

In 1993 Teddy Sheringham won his first England cap at the age of 27.  But it was under the management of Terry Venables, who had brought him to Spurs, that Sheringham was the first choice partner for Alan Shearer.  Together they helped England to the semi-finals of Euro 96 – their best performance coming in a 4-1 drubbing of a shell shocked Holland.

In 1997 Sheringham joined Manchester United for £3.5 million as a replacement for Eric Cantona. But Sheringham’s strained relationship with Andy Cole was one of the factors why United finished the season trophy-less and Alex Ferguson bought Dwight Yorke the following season.  Yorke and Cole was a successful strike force that meant Sheringham had few first-team starts and instead was used generally used as a second-half impact player.  No greater than when he was brought on in injury time in the 1999 Champions League Final where United had scored a very late equaliser.  As Sheringham ran onto the pitch he told David Beckham, who was waiting to take a free-kick, to find his head.  Beckham duly delivered an inch perfect cross and Teddy Sheringham scored the winning goal that won Manchester United the treble of Premier League, FA Cup & Champions League.  Along with his 51 England caps, this was probably the pinnacle of Teddy’s playing career.

In 2001 he returned to Spurs as a free transfer before playing for Portsmouth and West Ham, before finishing his professional playing career making 19 appearances for Colchester United in the 2007-08 season.

Sheringham was an intelligent player and this coupled with his experience playing for the likes of Clough, Venables, Ferguson and Hoddle, I assumed he would step effortlessly into coaching or football management.  But instead he turned to football analysis for television before following his old striking partner Tony Cascarino into making money playing poker online.

Sheringham now plays poker professionally and apparently is as sharp and quick thinking around the card table, as he was around the penalty area.

John Dungworth, UK Football Trials head coach said

“We are looking for the countries best footballing talent to attend their nearest trial area, bringing them to scouts instead of waited to get spotted. Not all players live in big cities where scouts often go to look for players, so by us running these events and inviting scouts, this gives players a great opportunity to impress”

The day will consist of a series of football skill tests that will measure your potential as a professional football player. John Dungworth our head coach holds a UEFA Pro Licence and has developed the tests and will attend each event. John is former Leeds United Academy coach and has worked with and developed some of the countries top players, including Paul Robinson, Jonathan Woodgate, Stephen McPhail and Alan Smith. John has personally selected a coaching team across the country to help him find these future stars.

At the end of the day you will come away with a UKFT Rating which we will use as a basis to measure your skills and abilities as a professional player. Scouts from clubs all over the country will have access to this data and will be able to compare players on our website by position, age or UKFT Rating. This will back up what they see on the day and reinforce in their minds when they unearth the UK’s the next football star.

If you think you have what it takes to go from Player to Pro and can impress our coaching staff, then visit the website and book onto an event in your area. Call 0845 496 1213 to speak to our team or visit www.ukfootballtrials.com to book onto an event.

UK Football Trials

UK Football Trials run open trial days across the UK to help identify talented players who otherwise might not get spotted and have the chance to make it as a professional.

We provide every player with a unique UKFT Rating that measures all aspects of their game and skills. The UKFT Rating is designed by our head coach John Dungworth and looks at football skills and talent rather than personality or how you get on with a coach. Although these attributes play a big part of a footballer’s career, our tests are purely bases on your football skills and abilities.

Scouts are free to attend our events to watch players and if they like what they see we can supply them with access to our website so that they can view their results online and compare players.

Our events have been a success so far and we are expanding in 2012 to new areas. We have previously had players go onto trials or have interest from Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, QPR, Reading, West Ham and Macclesfield Town. This list is growing with every event that we run and the more quality players we get the more players we will get trials for.

As a player and a manager, Gary Speed was a model professional who embraced a forward-thinking approach and modern methods. This pioneering attitude made him a stand-out choice as an ambassador for the UKFA for Verheijen and co-founder Guus Hiddink when the institute launched in November. The new coach-education body is dedicated to bringing the world’s best coaches and football experts to the doorstep of UK football people. Speed had been due to speak at the February 8th event.

The Gary Speed Football Congress will become an annual fundraising event on the football industry calendar, supported by Gary’s close friends Shay Given, Craig Bellamy and Alan Shearer, in association with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the League Managers Association (LMA).

Alan Shearer comments:

“Speedo’s forward thinking approach transformed the Wales National Team. He left a true legacy. The Gary Speed Football Congress will allow coaches to learn from this approach. It is an honour to support this event as it will not only remember him but also celebrate his achievements and everything he stood for.

The dedication of the event and setting up of the fundraising has been organised in collaboration with Gary’s wife Louise Speed. All proceeds of this year’s event will go towards a charity of Louise’s choice.”

Shay Given adds:

“Throughout his career Speedo never stopped giving to football. He would never resist the opportunity to discuss the game or to pass on advice to anyone who asked. This event will enable him to continue to give something back to football.”

The Gary Speed Football Congress will be open to managers, coaches and practitioners at every level of the game, where Hiddink and Verheijen will be joined as keynote speakers by UKFA ambassador, Sam Allardyce. Former Wales Head of Performance, Damian Roden will make a special presentation in memory of Gary entitled ‘ Building a Successful Team’ – A Tribute to Gary Speed.

As well as plenary presentations, the congress will comprise specific sub-sessions for professional, amateur and youth football, and also for medical and sport science staff. All presentations will be delivered by internationally-renowned football specialists, including Marcel Lucassen (Football Technique), Frans Hoek (Goalkeeper Coaching), Ton Van Roon (Football Management), Nigel Mitchell (Football Nutrition), Simon Bitcon (Football Strength Training) and Frans Lefeber (Monitoring Football).

For further information or to register for the Gary Speed Football Congress, visit www.ukfootballacademy.net.

To make donations or to discuss sponsorship opportunities please visit www.acornpeople.com or contact Mandy Atherton on 01633 660000. Acorn Recruitment is one of the UK’s leading recruitment agencies, and a Welsh-headquartered business that Gary Speed had a long-standing relationship with.

The game lived up to expectations and was full of goals and incidents.  Vincent Kompany’s two-footed challenge was in every way a fantastic, clean tackle.  He won the ball and didn’t touch the player.

However, both feet were off the floor.  To the letter of the law, that is a red card offence.  Ridiculous though it may be, the referee had to make a split second decision, and got it spot on.  Even though a red card is unwarranted for such a clean challenge that in no way was reckless or dangerous.

Man City were clearly shaken at losing their influential captain in the 12th minute not long after conceding an early headed goal from Wayne Rooney.

Ferguson and Manchester United fans were probably looking to avenge the thrashing from earlier in the season when they found themselves 3-0 at half-time.  But in the second-half Manchester City showed how far they have come as a team rather than a group of individual players and fought back to within an inch of saving the game.

A brilliant free-lick from Aleksandar Kolarov gave the blue half of Manchester hope while Paul Scholes was introduced to tighten up the midfield.  Unfortunately a lack of match fitness showed, and when Aguerro scored a second, it was City that looked the more likely to score again.

It ended 3-2 to Manchester United who will now face Liverpool in the Fourth Round.

Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town caused the upset of the round as they beat Premier League Wigan; and when Sam Allardyce announced a weakened West Ham team, it wasn’t a surprise to see League One promotion contenders Sheffield Wednesday win through to the next round.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

•    Brighton or Wrexham v Newcastle
•    Sunderland v Middlesbrough
•    Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall v Southampton
•    Hull City v Crawley Town
•    MK Dons or QPR v Chelsea
•    West Brom v Norwich
•    Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday
•    Arsenal or Leeds v Aston Villa
•    Stevenage v Notts County
•    Watford v Tottenham
•    Liverpool v Manchester United
•    Derby v Stoke
•    Everton v Fulham
•    Macclesfield or Bolton v Swansea
•    Sheffield United v Birmingham or Wolves
•    Nottingham Forest or Leicester v Swindon

All matches to be played over the weekend of the 28th & 29th January.  Too soon for a Suarez v Evra rematch. Though don’t be too surprised if Sir Alex Ferguson is calling Edwin Van Der Sar & Peter Schmeichel.

What with Chelsea continuing to stutter under the ‘leadership’ of Andre Villas-Boas as he attempts to stake a strong air of Mourinho-like authority and dampen any dissenting voices from the old guard, going into the Christmas period it seemed that Manchester United & Manchester City were going to sprint away from the chasing pack.  That was until last weekend when both clubs lost.

Unfortunately for the chasing pack didn’t take full advantage.

After scoring no less than 10 goals against Fulham & Wigan, Manchester United lost at home to bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers 3-2. Take nothing away from Blackburn whose mix of young and experienced players appeared to be playing out of their skins for under-fire manager Steve Kean, Manchester United were shocking; and Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave Wayne Rooney out of the squad for some petty disciplinary decision backfired.  Why when it comes to Ferguson making blatant mistakes do football pundits & journalists alike not tell it as it is? Yes he’s the most successful manager English football has ever seen.  But when he gets it wrong, say so!

Chelsea & Tottenham failed to capitalise on Man Utd losing points (Chelsea lost at home to Aston Villa 3-1 & Spurs drew with Swansea 1-1), leaving Arsenal as the only top 6 team to win last Saturday.

To cap a weekend of surprising results in the Premier League, Manchester City failed to take advantage of Ferguson & United’s blunder on Monday, knowing that winning at Sunderland would have opened a three point gap at the top.  But they failed to beat a rejuvenated Sunderland on Monday as Martin O’Neil continued to steer the Black Cats away from the threat of relegation & into the top half of the Premier League.

As the busy Christmas & New Year fixtures reached a final round of matches this week there were wins for Manchester City (Liverpool 3-0), Spurs (West Brom 1-0) & Sunderland away to Wigan 4-1 on Tuesday; and yesterday was a chance for Bolton to start the New Year with a win and for Man Utd to make amends for ending 2011 with their tail firmly between their legs.

Bolton was captained by Gary Cahill at Goodison Park as they took on an Everton side that included American Landon Donovan in his second loan spell from LA Galaxy. Cahill was probably playing his last match for the North-east side before moving to London.  Though it was interesting to see Harry Redknapp & his chief scout at Goodison, as personal talks between Cahill & Chelsea appear to have stalled.  I expect Redknapp to do everything in his power to sign Gary Cahill. The decision I believe is going to be down to Cahill.

The match produced the most bizarre goal of the season as Tim Howard hoofed a big clearance downfield only for the ball to get caught up in the gusty wind & end up in the Bolton net.  Howard becomes only the fourth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League after Brad Friedel, Peter Schmeichel & Paul Robinson.

The other Premier League game saw Manchester Utd travel to St. James Park (yes, I kmow its been renamed!). Newcastle were in the midst of a bad run with only one win in their last three games, so I was thoroughly expecting Manchester Utd to hit them for four.  Wayne Rooney started along with Dimitar Berbatov.  But United played worse than they did last Saturday.  While Newcastle played with confidence and bossed the midfield.  Alan Pardew’s Newcastle went on to win 3-0.  Another shock result. United have leaked 6 goals in two games.  But more than anything else I believe they are missing a midfield general.  I wonder what Paul Scholes thought of Man Utd’s performance.

At the weekend Manchester United play Manchester City in the FA Cup.  I can’t wait!

But midway through the 2011/12 season and it isn’t too clear who will be the eventual winners.  Although Tottenham are having a great season, and by winning their game in-hand will only be four points off the lead, I can’t see the title going anywhere else than Manchester.  The problem is whether to choose Manchester United who have a habit of being stronger in the second half of the season, or Manchester City who remained unstoppable and unbeaten until they a late penalty against Chelsea earlier this month.

The Championship is almost as tight with Southampton three points clear of West Ham & a rejuvenated Middlesbrough.

League One has been dominated by Charlton who are currently seven points clear of the chasing pack after almost completely changing their squad last summer.  Sheffield United & Sheffield Wednesday are both showing good form with MK Dons & Huddersfield Town a further two points adrift.

Finally, Crawley Town are leading the way in League Two in their first season and look likely to continue their ascension from non-League football, though they are only three points clear of Cheltenham and four ahead of Southend, who have a game in hand.

So last weekend, unsure of the outcome of all four leagues I decided on Manchester City, Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday & Crawley only to see Man City held by West Brom to a 0-0 draw while Man Utd thumped five passed Wigan, and Crawley Town lose at home to Gillingham.

My initial choice, and one I would have stuck to if it wasn’t offering such a poor return was Manchester United, West Ham, Charlton & Crawley.  Here’s hoping my bet is still alive come next May.