Villains Everywhere

Arsenal 5 - 0 Aston Villa

1 - 0 Adebayour (19)
2 - 0 Henry (25)
3 - 0 Henry (47)
4 - 0 Van Persie (71)
5 - 0 Diaby (80)

With Tottenham being taken apart at St James Park, these three points are vital in the race for fourth place. One defeat in eight games, a run including six wins, shows that this team has finally got into gear and is capable of launching a proper challenge to Chelsea next season.

Aston Villa may have started reasonably brightly enough but it became obvious early on that they were a team shorn of confidence. Indeed for Adebayours opener, heading in Henrys' cross off the underside of the bar, two defenders chose to defend the line rather than attack the ball as it came over the area - a sign that they do not feel that they have the ability to defend properly.

Henry made it two with a simple lob over Sorensen having yet again sprung the Villa offside trap whilst his third came from a deft backflick from Adebayour, which Henry then curled around Sorensen who appeared to think it was going wide. With a match in Turin on Wednesday the Frenchman was withdrawn to protect his energy. Van Persie replaced him and showed immediately he has not lost the goalscoring knack during his injury lay-off when his happy feet dragged the ball back several times before planting the ball in the far corner from a seemingly impossibly angle. The Ghost of Patrick Vieira remained at THOF seeing Diaby charge from end to end, lashing the fifth into the roof of the net.

The downside is the injuries picked up by Fabregas and Eboue - both are rated as 50 - 50 for Wednesday which in Wenger speak means they will make it for Wednesday but I bet he wishes that he'd taken my advice yesterday and rested the mercurial Catalan ahead of the Juve tie.

Todays Tunes come from The Quantic Soul Orchestra - thanks to Chippo for putting me on to this one. Two songs from the album Stampede which you are strongly urged to purchase. Whack this one on the stereo and be transported back to Harlem, 1970...

Assassin

Stampede

More Bungling From Soho Square

Unsurprisingly the new Wembley Stadium is not going to be ready in time for England's first European Championship Qualifier, indeed it will not be able to host a match until 2007. It is the latest in a long line of cock-ups on the building of a new stadium and is in stark contrast to the building of Arsenal's new Stadium at Ashburton Grove which appears to be well on track to enable top flight football at the start of next season. Typically, the FA blame Multiplex who in turn cast blame on everyone but themselves. Interestingly, concerts by fading rock star and football empresario, Robbie Williams, is now canned and zimmer frame wielding Rolling Stones are to relocate to another venue in London. Why mention this? Well, the Stones tour promoter or some such mouthpiece was on Radio 5Live this morning, opining that "if England can't build a stadium then they should not win the World Cup". Mick Jagger and Co need to come out immediately and rebuff this claim otherwise I urge people to boycott their product on the basis that they are unpatriotic. Oh, and crap.

Aston Villa become the latest team to attempt to halt the Arsenal Steamroller when they visit THOF. Team news is that only Sol Campbell of the injured list are due back and even that is likely to be just a place on the bench, which is of concern on two fronts. Firstly, it is unlikely that any of them will do better than a place on the bench for Wednesday's return with Juventus which in itself is not particularly a problem other than if injuries are suffered tomorrow. The second problem that this raises is that it limits the amount of tinkering that Wenger can do to rest key players. It is probable that Adebayour will return tomorrow, probably at the expense of Reyes with Van Persie replacing Pires. The only other change that I expect is Fabregas to be rested with Diaby replacing him.

It is a big weekend for The Gunners challenge for fourth place and one in which I would expect to be quite decisive in this challenge. Bolton entertain Manchester United, an away win on current form although Bolton have developed the habit of upsetting "big" clubs in recent years but I just feel that United have too much for them. On Monday, Blackburn entertain Wigan which ought to give them three points but could be just the one if Wigan regain the form they were showing in the first half of the season. The game that is hard to call is the Tiny Tots visit to St James Park. Whilst Newcastle have had a wretched season, their home form is the reason they are not involved in a relegation dog fight, having only lost to Liverpool, Blackburn and Manchester United at home this season in the Premiership. That said, they have lost their last four games in League and Cup which is not the sort of form to inspire confidence that they will do Arsenal any favours. By the same token, Tottenham have only lost one of their last seven but cannot keep a clean sheet for toffee which always gives opponents hope. It appears that this one is ripe for a draw which would suit Arsenal who will be seeking maximum points that would leave them three points behind with one game in hand.

It is not a habit of mine to plug a TV Channel but I am making an exception for ESPN Classic which is available to Sky (and presumably Cable) customers. It is re-running a number of European Cup and Cup Winners Cup Finals from yesteryear in an hour long highlights show. The finals shown this week were 1972 (Ajax v Internazionale), 1974 (Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid), 1978 (Liverpool v Bruges) and 1981 (Bayern Munich v Aston Villa). This weekend they are showing Aberdeen's 2 - 1 win over Real Madrid in 1983's Cup Winners Cup Final. Next weeks schedule for the channel, No. 442 on Sky, includes:

Champions Cup Finals:

1973 Ajax v Juventus
1976 Semi Final Bayern Munich v St Etienne
1980 Nottingham Forest v Hamburg
1984 Roma v Liverpool

Cup Winners Cup Finals:

1985 Everton v Rapid Vienna
1991 Manchester United v Barcelona

Other football includes a weekend's homage to Barcelona v Real Madrid including highlights of the 1983 and 1990 Copa Del Rey Finals as well as a couple of documentaries on the rivalry and one of Johann Cruyff.

As well as these, the channel is also showing a great selection of Boxing including such luminaries as Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson and Joe Louis.

And no, I don't work for them nor am I on any kind of backhander. Although obviously if I was then I'd be promoting it a damn sight more. Check further info at their website, here.

Today's Tunes sees the blog return to a soulful mood, Peter Prince and the Trauma Unit, with two tunes that are a throwback to the late 60's / early 70's Hi-Records and Sly and The Family. Thanks to the Reverend Tastyfresh for these two and there are some more on his blog for you to download.

Friends

Coming From Everywhere

Fighting Like Two Brothers Who've Got The Pox

Tough tackling Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires has found a new ally in his battle for an extended contract at Highbury in the shape of Tony Blair. In a twist that doesn't even do this surreal blog justice, the Highbury Hardman will soon be able to take advantage of new Employment Regulations that forbid any employer discriminating against employees on the grounds of age. Apparently, when these rules come into law on October 1st 2006, L'Enforcer will be able to sue Arsenal if he is only offered a one year extension on the basis that he is over thirty years of age when younger players are able to gain five year contracts on roughly 40% more pay each week. Pires it seems will be able to take Arsenal for millions according to the sharks, without lifting a finger or putting much effort in. Curiously enough, this is exactly what he did for the first four months of the season so it remains to be seen if anyone will be able to notice the difference.

The identity of the new investor in Liverpool Football Club became known today when Condeleeza Rice flew into John Lennon Airport on a whistle stop tour of the North West. It had previously been thought that Spanish Swagman Jose Billabong was the leading player but he has since decided to go Waltzing Matilda instead. According to well informed sources, Rice is keen to invest in the club as money can't buy her love. Sorry, as a means to pursuing the biggest source of evil that European Football has ever faced, namely Chelsea FC. It is believed that she wants Peter Crouch to head up a new initiative on Merseyside - strikers that score goals on a regular basis. Rice confirmed this when she cited Peter Crouch as the biggest "weapon of mass distraction the footballing world has ever seen". She further commented that he was the most entertaining player to watch since Bambi stumbled onto a frozen pond. Well, she obviously didn't see Gus Caesar in the 1988 Littlewoods Cup Final then.

Having bitched and baited the clubs, UEFA has gone back to its' favourite pastime of criticising FIFA president Darth Blatter. According to a Nyon suit, Blatters comments about the G-14 have been less than helpful. Presumably those attributed to Lars-Christer Olsson, the erstwhile UEFA Chief Executive, about the group are helpful, constructive criticism. Just in case you missed them, I reproduce them below:

"Actually we don't have a relationship with the G-14, so it's quite simple from our point of view"

"We don't think they are of any relevance for European football as an organisation."

"We don't really see the need for a grouping like the G-14, unless they would like to discuss their internal matters - and this is fine."

"To be honest, I can't identify one single matter where they have made a difference - where they have even had a joint opinion" (Ed - I presume Mr Olsson has not heard of the legal action in which the G-14 is backing Charleroi against FIFA. Seems pretty unified to me.)

These quotes are extracted from a report on the BBC Sports Website, the full text of which can be found here

Todays Tunes are from the finest band ever to come from the city of Hull, The Red Guitars. A band that was highly rated by the critics - I've never worked out if that is a compliment or a curse - they produced two albums that I can recall, the superb Slow To Fade followed by the not so superb but better than anything 98% of all chart groups can ever hope to produce, Tales Of The Expected. These two tracks are from the former:

Steeltown

Marimba Jive

This Time, We'll Get It Right

Popular Beat Combo, Embrace, have been picked as the official cheerleaders for the England World Cup campaign. With the ringing endorsement of Soccer AM there is seemingly no problem with them coming up with a suitably catchy tune to dominate the summer’s charts, as some of the previous efforts by England squads have done so.

The first official World Cup song was the 1970 effort, Back Home, which sat at Number One for numerous weeks and gave the nation their view of the squad in their best bib and tucker, crooning as only footballers can, on Top Of The Pops. A cheery little tune, that sung of giving their all for “the folks back home”, who would be “watching and waiting and cheering every move” but that stiff upper lip attitude came through as modestly the squad proclaimed, “Though we think we’re the best, that’s what we’ve got to prove”. Sterling stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. Not content with a Number One single, an album was spawned from this, "The World Beaters sing The World Beaters", with the squad murdering hits from yesteryear such as “Sugar Sugar”, “Lily The Pink”, “Puppet On A String”.

Failure to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups spared us the sight and sound of those particular squads in all their pomp and glory but 1982 brought forth a similar style of ditty that football has long been famous for producing, “This Time We’ll Get It Right”. In keeping with the squads performance on the pitch, it was not up to the 1970 squads efforts reaching its’ peak at Number 2. Kicking off with the thoughtful, “we’re on our way, we are Ron’s twenty-two”, rubbing in the fact that they were considered the pick of the nations footballers at the time and climaxing with, “We’ll Get It Right, This Time, Get It Right, This Time” sung in a manner that in no way could be construed as uplifting. Perhaps despondent would be a better description.

Travelling to Central America, a hop, skip and jump away from lands of Rumba, Samba and Sunshine rhythms, the England Squad of 1986 chose to resort to a reworking of Nottingham Forest’s 1980 European Cup Final song, “We’ve Got The Whole World At Our Feet” and the record-buying public voted with their feet, showing more sophistication than previous generations to leave the song languishing in the Top 75 rather than the Top 10. The song, instantly forgettable, eulogised the various members of the squad and their skills and has nothing else going for it.

1988’s European Championships in Germany heralded a truly low point for English football, on and off the pitch. Pathetic performances against the Republic Of Ireland, Holland and Russia plumbed the depths but never got as low as “All The Way”. A quick straw poll in the office revealed that nobody, and I mean nobody, could even remember hearing the song, let alone knowing any of the lyrics. Where this did change was the use of Stock, Aitken and Waterman in producing the tune – if you do not know who they are, ask your parents. They will. For those who cannot be arsed, they were the first to inflict Rick Astley, Sonia, Kylie on an unsuspecting public. No, I never forgave them either.

The Summer Of Love of 1990 was pure magic for England fans. On the pitch, England got to the Semi – Finals and football took centre stage for the right reasons following two decades of the wrong reasons. Even better, some bright spark at The FA decided that the England Teams World Cup record needed some credibility so they invited New Order to write (with Keith Allen) and record “World In Motion”. Still considered the Daddy of all England records, from the beginning to the end it is proof positive that a decent football record can be made. Perhaps it’s saving grace is that aside from John Barnes “rap”, the only involvement the squad had in the record was singing the chorus. Smart move. Indeed, Pete Davies recalls in his book All Played Out that the England team went into the studio and as soon as it was finished, all disappeared off to commercial activities or the pub. Commercially, the record was a resounding success, helped in no small way by the willingness of New Order fans to buy anything that the band are involved in. There is no doubt that the band could probably record the singing of the Greater Manchester Telephone Directory and it would still get to Number 1 in the Album Chart.

Buoyed by this success, the FA decided that Euro ’96 would be a football festival. As luck would have it, “Three Lions” summed up the mood of the nation perfectly helped by the writers being football fans. Baddiel and Skinner were at the height of their popularity with the TV show Fantasy Football, this being before the smugness of the programme ad become nauseating. A sing-a-long song, it was caught on at the England matches with Wembley reverberating to the crowd chanting this almost tunefully. Add to this mix the Group victories over Scotland and Holland and everyone was bouncing along to this tune. The Quarter – Final win over Spain released more tension and England started believing that winning the trophy could become a reality. Then the Germans went and cocked it up again for us, whereas Waddle’s shot against the post had denied England in 1990 would that Peter Crouch had been stretching for the cross Gascoigne just failed to connect with in 1996. As I didn’t mention Pearce and Waddle’s penalty misses earlier it would be unfair to ask Gareth Southgate to step forward and take a bow for his miss this time around. So I will not be doing that. Oh, bugger.

By now, England’s Governing Body was getting cocky. Believing that they were the Hit Factory of the football family, The FA decided to have collaboration from a selection of the day’s most popular bands, entitled "On Top Of The World". And they dropped a bollock in doing so. Like many a match in football, the initial line-up pairing Echo and The Bunnymen with Ocean Colour Scene to create a formidable strike partnership seemed commercially and artistically sound. It all went wrong with the midfield of Space being backed up by The Spice Girls. The song itself was a dirge, rescued partially by McCulloch’s vocals but sunk as soon as Chav, Minger and co opened their mouths. Much like the team, having started the tournament with much promise they fell apart at the first knockout phase, the song peaked at number 9. To the chagrin of the FA, two songs they rejected – a reworking of "Three Lions" and "Vindaloo" by Fat Les (Keith Allen and chums) – filled the top two spots of the charts during the tournament. Allen in particular has a canny knack of writing football songs as his involvement with "Three Lions" and "World In Motion" proves.

This experience has however proved too much for the FA to handle. For Euro 2000 and the last World Cup, the squad produced no official songs. Instead the England fans adopted Fat Les’ version of "Jerusalem" for the tournament whilst the last World Cup produced a number of “comedy” records from such luminaries as Ant and Dec, Bell and Spurling, accompanying the third re-working of "Three Lions" into the very depths of the Charts. Euro 2004 saw The Farm reworking their song, All Together Now, to restore the cultural faith in football and music and this was designated as the official Tournament Song for England. Which to me is all a bit of a cop out. If the team are involved in the tournaments, let them be involved in the songs. After all, they make an arse of themselves on the pitch often enough so let them have their fun in the studio and give us all a return to the days when the songs were badly sung by footballers out of their depth.

There is however one constant in all of this. No matter how bad the songs were, they were a damn sight better than anything the Germans could muster. So it can’t be all that bad, can it?

Today’s Tunes ought really to be a celebration of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of English football. But they aren’t, mainly because I don’t have the MP3 files of the truly bad England songs. Never mind, here are some from The Kings Of Leon from their appearance at the Haldern Pop Festival in 2004.

Red Morning Light

Holy Roller Novocaine

Jumping Cesc Fab - Re - Gas Gas Gas!

Arsenal 2 - 0 Juventus

1 - 0 Fabregas (40)
2 - 0 Henry (69)

Phew Wow! and for once I'd have to agree with what The Farmers Boys opined. An absolutely storming performance by Arsenal coupled with a truly uninspiring one from Juve meant that the two goal advantage sealed in tonight's first leg could not be argued with. There is simply no way to pick a Man Of The Match from the team - they all deserved it. There were those on top form in defence, midfield and attack and even the ones who did not play to the top of their capabilities - Hleb and Gilberto - just worked so damned hard for the team that their contributions cannot be overlooked.

Wenger said before the game that Vieira would find tonight too emotional and be overawed by the occasion. He wasn't. He was steamrollered by Fabregas. By the seventieth minute he looked shot to pieces and it came as no surprise that he received a booking which now rules him out of the second leg. As a final appearance at Highbury it will be one that Paddy will want to forget and also it looks as if Wenger was yet again spot on when it comes to shifting players on to pastures new.

Not that he will be alone in the stands in the Stadio Delle Alpi next Wednesday as he will be kept company by Camoranesi and Zebina who were both sent off for two yellow cards as Juve fell apart towards the end. Thuram was also lucky not to join them when he whipped Henry's leg away on the edge of the area just as Legend was about to regain his feet and shoot. The saving grace for Thuram was (a) a lenient referee and (b) Zambrotta coming in like an exocet to clear the ball after Thuram's little tug. Ordinarily I would not stoop to pure abuse but tonight I make an exception. Camoranesi is a complete twat. A bigger pillock you will not find this side of Christmas. His applause to the crowd on his slow trudge to the dressing room showed what an idiot he is and reminded me of Joe Worsley's reaction after being expelled from the field of play against Uruguay in the last Rugby World Cup. He learnt his lesson after a bollocking from Clive Woodward. Whether the Italian is so lucky remains to be seen. I would not like to hazard a guess as to what Capello said to him after the game but he deserves nothing less than the full on hairdryer treatment.

In what has been a difficult season for the club, the younger members of the team are growing in stature with every game. Fabregas once again lived up to the hype. For a mere whippersnapper he put two World Cup Winners to shame by outtackling, outrunning and outthinking them. And that is without mentioning the goal and the assist. Senderos was a colossus in defence - KT was outstanding as well. The discovery of the season though is surely Eboue at Right Back. If he continues to play as outstandingly as this, it is hard to see how Lauren will get back in the side as part of the defence. Perhaps he will be used on the right hand side of midfield which was his original position before Wenger converted him to full - back. The last time that I remember seeing any full back play with the gusto, bravery and tactical awareness as Eboue does, would be Stuart Pearce when he first signed for Nottingham Forest. Finally, Flamini may like to consider a permanent change of position, so comfortable does he look now at Left Back. Whilst there is little doubt that Ashley Cole will get back into the side when he is fit, perhaps it would not be the unmitigated disaster that it looked three months ago if he left the club in the summer.

Special mention must go to the patched up defence for equalling Milan's record for consecutive clean sheets in the tournament. Tonight's match was number seven without conceding a goal. The last team to put the ball in the Arsenal net in this years competition were Ajax. The way the back four are playing it would be interesting to see what odds are offered on them being the last full stop.

The older hands were superb as well. Henry chased and harried as if someone was going to shoot him if he stopped. And tonight was also a first for Robert Pires. It's the first time he has put in a tough tackle on someone who is roughly twice his size, won the ball cleanly and then set off on a forty yard run to set up Fabregas goal. A perenial favourite to be substituted after around an hour or so, it is a sign of the level of commitment he showed in the centre of midfield that Wenger let him stay on the pitch for the whole of the match without even considering replacing him.

Hard work still to be done in Turin next week but mix up the performances from tonight and both games against Real Madrid and By George, they may just do it.

Today's Tunes - a difficult choice dear reader / listener. Mentally shattered after the match, it is hard to find the energy to sift through the masses of live tracks, demos and sessions that I have collected. After the event, it's difficult to see why I was so nervous but suffice to say my the nails on one of my fingers have been completely bitten off. Ordinarily I don't post off of official releases but these two are exceptions. Taken from one of my favourite albums, Gorgeous, these two are by 808 State:

Moses (Ian McCulloch vocals)

Plan 9

What the heck - you can have a third one so long as you promise to go and buy the CD tomorrow.

Nimbus

PS John - the tension headache went after about twenty minutes. Not sure if that was the way the match was going or whether it was the third can of beer taking effect...

PPS Mrs Yogi came out with a classic tonight:

"I don't mind the football on telly but do they always have to have that annoying sound in the background?"

"Eh?"

"The shouting"

"What? You mean the crowd?"

"Yes"

Don't Tell The Old Lady

Arsenal's first Champions League Quarter Final appearance since the treble blew up in our faces two seasons ago is upon us, with Juventus arriving at THOF tomorrow night. Indeed, as a member of the G-14 "biggest clubs in Europe", it is somewhat surprising that this is only the third time that the club have made it this far. The two previous occasions have ended in close run defeats with the home league being our downfall, conceding an away goal against Valencia and then losing to Wayne Bridges late winner against the Evil Empire. This is something that will have to be put right against the Italian Champions tomorrow night with a win vital but equally so is a clean sheet.

Despite beating Real Madrid in the last round, Arsenal again go into the tie as underdogs which is probably correct given Juve's form this season and the lack of experience in The Gunners line - up. The Old Lady have been consistently dominant in domestic league football over the past two seasons and have almost as big a lead as Chelsea in Serie A. However, their performances against Werder Bremen in the last round give Arsenal plenty to work with and that Del Piero and Nedved will be missing from their line - up tomorrow is a plus point. The flipside of that is Del Piero's replacement is Zlatan Ibrahimovich, a more than adequate replacement...would that there was this kind of strength in depth for any position at Highbury.

Team news emanating from the Marble Halls has Campbell on the bench, accompanied by Van Persie and Reyes. The expected Line - Up is: Lehmann; Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Flamini; Pires, Fabregas, Gilberto, Hleb; Bergkamp, Henry. I suspect that Reyes will be on the bench due to his lay-off but Wenger may use Van Persie as he is recovered from his lay-off and replace him with Bergkamp for the last twenty minutes, depending on how things pan out.

With the amount of press coverage in the UK about this game, there is some interesting stuff coming out about the Italians, not least of which is that their new Stadium is likely to have a capacity of around 36,000 rather than the 68,000 that the Delle Alpi currently has. Having seen the increase in ground sizes here in England it is striking that Juve have decided to cut theirs in line with their average attendances. It is has always been noticeable that they do not sell out the ground very often, especially for Group Stage games, and the banks of empty seating must make it a strange atmosphere for the players. Mind you, if Arsenal do not qualify for next seasons Champions League and Henry buggers off, then that is something the players will need to get used to in the new Emirates Stadium....

Today's Tunes are two Joy Division covers from 10,000 Maniacs, a live gig in New York some years ago with thanks to New-Order.net for these.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

She's Lost Control

Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad

Stamford Bridge has seen Chelsea win with a regular monotony this season. The football is not fluent and flowing but it is effective. The players have a superior technical ability to most of their opponents and should therefore be capable of winning without resorting to cheating or outside assistance from the match officials. And yet this is exactly what is happening week in, week out. Yesterday saw two prime examples of this. Firstly, Didier Drogba's second goal was as a direct result of a deliberate handball and should have been disallowed. Whereas their counterparts last week at Fulham had the balls to guess correctly that Drogba had deflected the path of a pass to seek an advantage, the weak-willed Referee and his Assistant did not have suitable position to see this happen nor did they seek to guess that it had happened - mindful no doubt, of the poor publicity that Bully-Boy Mourinho will heap in their direction. To compound this, Rob Styles then gave Distain a second yellow for not giving the ball back to him at half time. What????? Surely Mr Styles is capable of handling a discussion, and it appeared that the Manchester City captain did not raise his voice to the official. Was the Referee really that upset at this attempt to usurp his authority? Surely he is man enough to deal with the failure to give him the ball in a more "manly" manner?

"Give me the ball, Sylvain"
"No - how did you miss the handball?"
"Give me the ball, please"
"No"
"Give me the ball or I'm going to f****** well twat you"

More effective as (a) he'd have got the ball back - all players know assaulting a referee is a sine die ban and (b) the players and crowd would have had more respect for him.

Drogba meanwhile was given about six feet of rope by an interviewer and proceeded to hang himself by admitting that sometimes he dives, a comment he has found particularly difficult to retract despite the best efforts of himself and his club. Whilst one applauds his honesty, it is not an earth - shattering revelation as anyone who has seen his triple salko with pike and double twist routines will attest. The part that gets my goat is the apologists who say that he either didn't understand the question - bullshit - or that he has to do it otherwise the club will suffer when they get into the European competitions - Pat Nevin. Two things - 1) it didn't do them any good in Europe as they were exposed as one dimensional by Barcelona and 2) will the FA ask him to explain his comments or have Chelsea clogged up the intrays of the Disciplinary Committee too much in recent weeks.

Bolton cocked it up today, losing 4 - 3 at 'Boro (as I predicted - smug git of an Ed). All the more galling as they came from 3 - 1 down to level the sccores at 3 - 3 with less than ten minutes to go. It will now take a Herculean effort for them to stay in touch with the race for fourth place with the sequence of games coming up for them being Manchester United (h), Birmingham (a), Liverpool (a) and Chelsea (h). Realistically, they need seven points from those games to stay in touch bearing in mind the matches their opponents face, to even stay in touch. Whilst they have done well this season, progressing well in European and Domestic Cup Competitions but the feeling is that they may have found their natural level in the Premier League at present, with the top four challenge realistically being two or three seasons away unless major investment is made.

Today's Tunes come from The Charlatans who I believe have a new album coming out in April, called Simpatico. You can check this out at their Myspace group, here. It is hard to believe that they have become the most enduring band to emerge from the baggy scene some fifteen years ago but that is testament to the strength of their songwriting and their sterling live performances, a band who I have never seen put in a bad gig in the 15 or so that I have seen over the years. These tracks are taken from their Glastonbury performance in 2002. Enjoy.

Love Is The Key

Then

One To Another