Tipped Treble:
@Palace Both Teams to Score 4/5
@Spurs Spurs to Win 4/9
@Fulham Under 1.5 1st Half Goals 4/11

Palace are looking a little more solid this season, but Everton have been volatile – dangerous at both ends – and I see that continuing this weekend. I believe both teams would be happy leaving this with a draw, but expect up until 75 minutes they’ll both give it everything for the win as early points can build vital momentum.

Spurs and Newcastle are so inconsistent in truth I wouldn’t want to touch it with a bargepole. However… a gut feeling tells me that Newcastle’s win over West Ham speaks more of the Hammers than the Magpies and their true guise is more likely within the defeat at Brighton. Spurs are in a good flow and have benefitted from the postponed match with Leyton Orient in midweek. At home to Newcastle should be a simpler challenge than Everton provided on the opening weekend.

Goalless at the Cottage? At least for 45 minutes but do not be surprised if both sides fail to hit the net in the full ninety. Villa and Fulham understand goals are imperative to their season, or (as I suspect) they will both be relegated without a fight. An early six-pointer can lend itself to mayhem at both ends, but let’s have a bit of decorum about it – it’s at the Cottage afterall. Under 2 1st half goals provides the safety net of one goal slipping in.

Standout Match: Crystal Palace vs Everton
I know the sensible money would be on Liverpool vs Arsenal, or the Yorkshire derby between Sheffield United and Leeds, perhaps even Man City vs Leicester – but I’m sticking to the big guns at the top of the table. Palace are keen to show their result at Old Trafford was no fluke and the purchase of Eze and loan of Batshuayi appear to have driven competition for places into improved performances from Zaha and Ayew. Then there’s Everton, who are looking on fire – albeit with some questions remaining over their backline. No doubt Hodgson and Ancelotti will spoil my plans by deploying traditional Italian defensive lines and a 0-0 will be played out but barring my paranoia, this is the one to watch.

Standout Performance: Marcus Rashford
I’ve seriously set myself up with predicting individual players for success when my Fantasy Football history will tell you I have awful luck with guessing starting line-ups.

As Chelsea proved on the opening weekend, there’s space and opportunities to exploit against this Brighton defence, and I suspect Man Utd’s creative force and blistering pace will find them too. Any of United’s attacking players may prove to be the difference on the day, but I believe it’s Rashford’s chance to step up and own the main man role at United whilst all the rumours continue around more attacking talent joining the club.

Notable other contenders for me (aside from the rest of the United attacking threat) would be Kasper Schmeichel away to Man City, Jimenez away to West Ham and Thiago at home to Arsenal.

Acca Basher: West Brom vs Chelsea
Back in the days of settling football accumulators by hand (an experience I am all too familiar with), as the bookie you would just hope for one of the odds on favourites to throw a wobbly – ruining almost everyone’s weekend accumulators – saving you a lot of work. This season is very early days to be sure of anything, but if I could pick one to avoid it would be Chelsea to win away to West Brom. I won’t go into details, there’s plenty of matches there for debate – I’m just putting my name to this one.

RACISM is not football’s problem to resolve, but once again stakeholders to the beautiful game are asking themselves, ‘how do you solve a problem like xenophobia?’.

From the early 1900’s, football was becoming established, initially alone amongst its own social circle, the sport has grown into the number one sport in the world, across all classes, cultures, nations and religions. It is rightly loved by billions of people, yet is only 100 years old as an organised establishment.

On the flip side, The existence of ‘isms’ is the curse of humanity. There is no period of history in which there was not conflict to report of. We as a people are determined to achieve and succeed and declare our value over the importance of others. Discrimination and xenophobia has existed for millennia.

The latest event to get the pot stirring has occurred in Ukraine, specifically in Donetsk. In a high profile match between hosts Shakthar and Dynamo Kiev, offensive chants had been heard from the away “fans”, particularly targetting the home forward Taison.

It overwhelmed Taison whose reaction was to gesture offensively back at the stands and then violently kick the ball towards the fans too. The accompanying footage shows Taison didn’t put anyone’s safety in doubt, but nonetheless it crossed the line on acceptable behaviour.

At this stage on 77 mins, the referee called the game to a halt and removed the players from the field. Taison was in tears, and was being consoled by two opposition players in the face of discrimination. It’s exactly the reaction that should be seen in the face of racists.

However the game took an unexpected turn as the players re-took to the field the referee issued Taison with a straight red card. The reason this was unexpected is not because it was not justified but that it occurred not at the time of the event, but after all of the waiting around as play was about to re-start.

The following statement should not be controversial. Taison deserved a red card. Professional footballers, nee all footballers, cannot show aggression to or incite aggression from the fans. The fact that this is in response to racism from the crowds is completely irrelevant, as we know that two wrongs do not make a right.

It is appalling that racism does exist, but taking matters into your own hands is a punishable offence. So what’s the drama?

“Sanctioning a victim of racial abuse is beyond comprehension and it plays into the hands of those who promote this kind of disgraceful behaviour” Fifpro

The organisation representing footballers on a global scale, the worlds players’ union, has voiced its disgrace at handing out a red card and subsequent one match ban. No-one here is arguing that racism is acceptable, indeed its a disease of the world beyond football. However, Fifpro are clearly neglecting their responsibility to footballing stakeholders, and the world beyond football too. Defending the right to swear back and target the crowd physically is not appropriate from any organisation, particularly one that represents global role models. There is a bigger picture at play here, and condoning this behaviour is how hate becomes pandemic.

What is more concerning is how these incidents are represented on the global stage because whilst discrimination does need to be stamped out, there were positive behaviours that should have been celebrated, such as the Dynamo Kiev players showing solidarity with Taison when leaving the field. There’s also the appreciation that this is a global issue that needs addressing, not fixating on the individual incidents, as presented by Marcos Antonio of Shakthar Donetsk,

“The game needs real fans instead of the people who come to the stadium and behave like that, not respecting the athletes.

“We need to work on this because such episodes upset us all.”

All of the headlines are about Taison and his red card but had he not been sent off this incident was not likely to even reach the press.

Racism is undoubtedly a scourge on the beautiful game, but it should not be forgotten that racism is a scourge across all humanity. Football, as the largest connection across the majority of humanity, is not itself responsible for bridging this gap, but those calling for more action from organisations such as FIFA, UEFA and the FA are completely just too. We just need to keep a sense of realism and cannot justify a reaction of any means necessary.

Football has the ability, the potential, and the history to show the world how to be a better place. The most famous football game of all is arguably the Christmas Day match between Allied Forces and the German Army on no man’s land. At the height on international war football brought peace.

Less than two months ago, South Korea crossed their northern border for a fixture in Pyongyang, North Korea for the first time in almost 30 years. Football is special. We need to see more and embrace the power of bringing people together, and on that note I thank you #15 Tsyhankov and #10 Shaparenko (I have concerns about the squad numbers and corresponding names as it doesn’t appear to be Shaparenko in the image but that’s an investigation for a different day!)

Horrific.

There are many words that will be chosen to describe the scene at Goodison Park on Sunday evening, but I am choosing horrific.

In what was otherwise an extremely poor encounter in which the two clearly off form sides were separated by an isolated moment of footballing stupidity, this match will rightly forever be remembered for entirely non-footballing reasons. However, I will not claim that one is VAR and the other is the Andre Gomes injury. I believe they can be summarised as one; Refereeing.

[1] Let’s start by addressing the injury, and in isolation. Heung Min Son has intentionally thrown himself into a challenge to foul Gomes, being nowhere near the ball, arguably out of control, and with no evident motivation other than to disrupt the game with Spurs 1-0 up. All signs point to a yellow card.

[2] Then, after a little furore on the pitch to the challenge from Son, it is noticed the severe injury that Gomes has suffered. Referee Martin Atkinson immediately changes his mind on the yellow card and upgrades the punishment to that of a red card, presumably for endangering another player.

[3] Gomes is obviously the victim of this situation, and the horrified look and response from all players, coaching staff and fans highlighted the extent of the injury. Watching from home, my partner had to look away and could not shake the image from her mind. That level of damage to the human body is horrific in any walk of life. A reminder of our fragility.

[4] Now, beyond isolation, we immediately have another consideration to this spectacle; Retaliation. It can not be forgotten that moments earlier, Gomes has swung an arm out whilst in possession of the ball, a stray arm that has caught Son with an elbow right in the face. Son was incensed that this was not given as a deliberate or indeed unintentional elbow, especially with the VAR review. It is highly probable Son was motivated to carry out retribution on Gomes.

[5] “He’s not that type of player” voiced Dele Alli after the match. Dele should be given a lot of credit for how well he carried himself in the post match interview and what must have been a hugely difficult moment, and not made any easier by the very intrusive line of questioning, but his quote simply isn’t true. There is more evidence that Son deliberately set out to hurt Gomes. In the penultimate game of the season, Son was red carded for retaliating to what he deemed was a stamp on him that went unpunished. Son got up and pushed the opposing player in the face and was rightly sent off and given a 3 match ban. This action was entirely in Son’s character despite his constant smile otherwise.

[6] Son didn’t just feel wronged by the elbow from Gomes. He was furious with the officials and the VAR system when denied a first half penalty. With clear evidence of contact from what appears to be no attempt at playing the ball, it is hard to fathom how this was not a penalty, and VAR took a long hard look at it before deciding against it. Son felt wronged.

[7] It wasn’t just Son that felt wronged. VAR has been a further iron stoking the fire of football debate, creating more questions than delivering answers, at a time when the whole country is caught up in 50/50 debates over a lack of clarity and understanding, and finding a greater distrust of those in a position of power. To those at home, the 3 minutes deciphering whether the ball has hit Dele Alli’s arm and thus a penalty was excruciating. To those in the crowd, they didn’t even know what was being considered. To Dele Alli himself, he had the contrast of being the victim to an elbow or the deception of handball in his own box.

It’s fair to say that our disgust for referees has got worse, but they have just managed to share that burden over an ‘idea’ of authority that is “VAR and Friends” rather than the immediate “wanker in the black”. This feeling was evident in the crowd and on the pitch, and challenges were being allowed to increase in ferocity.

[8] These VAR and non-VAR incidents were coming together to create a hostile environment and yet, when the moment came… Martin Atkinson did not consult VAR and immediately sent off Son. For those of us brave enough to witness the replays, even without the full gory detail, it became very apparent that Son did not deserve a red card. Going back to [1], Son was deliberately impacting on the opposition player, but actually Gomes’ continued momentum, weight distribution, and impending contact from Aurier were what caused the injury. Atkinson has made a gross error in emotionally reacting and thinking he is doing the right thing without pausing to follow due process. There is also absolutely no ruling that the punishment is relevant to the result of the challenge but should be on the challenge itself. Bad Martin Atkinson.

[9] The rules of the beautiful game can sometimes be ambiguous. There is a widely accepted grey area on contact in a contact sport. We allow so much contact to occur than an outsider that has never played the game cannot understand. For example, Gomes’ elbow in Son’s face is widely accepted as a ‘part of the game’, but how do we justify that the player in possession is allowed to swing their arms so violently around themselves? An outsider cannot understand that, and I am lost for words in trying to explain it, yet for me, that was not a foul.

Spurs have now lodged an appeal against the Son red card, feeling that the punishment is beyond the letter of the law. We’re certainly in a time of uncertainty regarding the laws of the game, with the handball law being changed this summer to help give VAR have the clarity in making decisions, and there’s a feeling that more laws of the game require review. This incident will certainly flag one such area, retaliation.

Son’s actions are directly comparable to a host of red cards in footballing history, the most extreme of which is Roy Keane’s infamous career ending challenge on Alfe Inge Haaland. Whilst Son did not set out to end Gomes, it was borne out of the same frustrations of “Take that you cunt”. A determination to take action into their own hands and inflict hurt on an opposing player. I believe that crossing this line, and retaliating should be an act punishable by red card, but actually being able to prove this is what makes the rules of the game such a grey area.

It falls under the same miscellany as diving. Everyone knows that diving is wrong. Where there is no contact and a player intentionally acts to deceive the referee is cheating, and all cheating should be a red card. It is wholly against the spirit of the game. However referees are not permitted to give straight red cards for this, and its because it’s almost impossible within live action to know without doubt a player has dived. It’s why we have the term “simulation”, which goes on to cause even more doubt in the decision making process, as Son demonstrated with the first half penalty appeal that was rejected by VAR. For the points made in [6], it is also very clear that Son has fallen to the ground from his own momentum and not that inflicted by the defender; Simulation.

No-one wants to see what happened to Gomes happen to anyone. Tim Cahill says he enjoys seeing challenges like that in the game, and he is far from being alone, but we do have to behave professionally and with due care to make such challenges.

Son was visibly distraught by the consequences of his actions, but his actions were without control, calculated, and intended to hurt the opposition player even if only a small impact injury or discomfort, and arguably that has crossed the sufficient line in what makes a red card. Whether the FA agrees in review will also generate much debate and there will definitely be those on both sides of the coin that later in life may end up contradicting themselves when the boot is on the other foot.

I believe the main thing to learn from this incident, is how VAR and absent-minded refereeing is causing us to lose control of the game. Whether it’s because of communication, whether it’s because of poor decisions, or whether its because we’re afraid of change the system is not right.

Andre Gomes is undoubtedly a victim of this incident but the biggest victim of all was football itself. That we have no clear and obvious answer to this but all of the decisions that are being debated in the Premier League this season, is causing more anxiety and frustration than settling anything. Who knows what a correct decision is anymore.

VAR could and should have learned lessons from social media, as the replays and the slow motion just encourage more and more varied opinions of what is right and wrong, from the extremists, to the fans, to the unbiased and no-one at the top is able to take control. It does not help that we are unable to trust the major players in football given the corruption enquiries and insulting punishments for breaches of rules that FIFA and UEFA are now synonymous with.

Without an actual figure of authority determining what is right and wrong, we’re a herd of sheep following the loudest voices. Historically we know FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League are just following the money, not the spirit of the beautiful game. It is very evident that, whilst we have been encouraged to embrace technology and moving the game forward, we don’t actually know what we’re trying to achieve. It certainly does not appear to be getting everything right. In setting a low threshold that we hear so often about in the Premier League, all we’ve really done is invest in the Emperor’s New Clothes. Nothing and everything has changed.

I welcome someone at the top with the balls to accept this isn’t working, and take ownership of how to make it work, because right now we have too many Indians and not enough Chiefs.

Just a fortnight ago those associated with the England Football Team – players, coaches, fans and journalists – witnessed an extraordinary level of an orchestrated display of racism. It was very clearly above and beyond the “norm” of a racist group of fans, but more vividly a right wing sect that was using the presence of international media to make a point to their agenda.

What our country and football as a whole witnessed in Bulgaria is not acceptable, and of course, we must follow the right processes in attempting to reform a footballing venue to embrace and enjoy all cultures that portray the beautiful game.

But how does one quantify the appropriate punishment to fit the crime?

Bulgaria have been handed a two match stadium ban (one suspended) and a fine in the region of £65,000.

The reaction has been immediate and ferocious. HOW IS THAT ACCEPTABLE?

A few of my social groups have laughed “Yeah, that will stop racism”.

To understand this challenge, one must understand the objective of UEFA in completing this punishment and the disproportionate levels of both crime, morals and finances across the whole footballing estate. It is not an enviable task.

English football fans will immediately see a figure like £65,000 and know it’s around a tenth of the extortionate weekly wage Aaron Ramsey is earning at Juventus. It’s pitiful. It’s not a drop in the ocean, it doesn’t even break the surface. Of course it’s not enough.

On the flip side, Andorra is still a country fielding a team of semi-professionals who have to earn their living in full time jobs. UEFA must find a balance.

It’s not just the financial implications though, as many are arguing a straight expulsion from Euro 2020 should have occurred. If we consider the threat to competition as a result, we will open the doors to a very dangerous precedent.

Bulgaria have been in trouble on several occasions in the recent past, but without clarity as to what leads up to an expulsion from competition, what is to say that Liverpool did not deserve to be expelled from the Champions League following their inappropriate banner of Divock Origi that has been deemed racist? What about the trouble in Paris when Chelsea fans were pushing black people off trains? What about just the mere possibility that an organised collective could group purchase tickets and turn up to any football ground making Nazi salutes and unveiling offensive banners?

There was a celebration for UEFA implementing and following process during that game, and the need to improve disciplinary processes is without doubt. Bulgaria clearly have an issue with controlling deemed racism within their football venues, and a series of offences should be increasing in punishment and not re-setting and allowing the same mistakes to continue.

But without that clarity, consider what extremes we would allow all of those just interested in violence and chaos to have control over the every day fan.

And this leads back to, what deems this racism so unacceptable against the racism we see in our own leagues? This outrage has merely been fuelled because it was England on TV and the truth is none of us have cared remotely about the sanctions held against Bulgaria for their previous offences, nor Italy for their on-going offences, nor England – the MIGHTY MIGHTY ENGLAND – because we’re too ashamed to admit our awful truth.

I do not refute that the punishment handed to Bulgaria is indeed “not enough”, but curing Bulgaria of racism is not UEFA’s responsibility, and we all have our own responsibility to measure these things rationally.

The truth is, it will never be enough… because it’s not what solves the problem.

The rivalry between Manchester clubs is constantly being reviewed and highlighted in this modern era of football which sees the two clubs constantly battling each other at the summit of English football. However, with Manchester City’s poor form resulting in a 12 point defecit to United in the League, being out of Europe completely and the small chance of re-capturing the FA Cup, the spotlight has switched to the rivalry in the south. Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are in a three way dogfight to be crowned the top London team in the Premier League.

The history of London’s top club may be quite surprising. From 1904 Woolwich Arsenal entered the football league as the only London club, a league dominated by teams from the north, and finished a commendable 10th out of 18, and thus the first ever top London club. Next on the scene were Chelsea, whom in their first season finished above Arsenal, thus taking their first crown as top London club. But history of football this far back is too dismissive. The post-war era gives this battle more content.

In the 1946/47 season. the Gunners celebrated the end of the war by finishing 13th out of 22, ahead of Chelsea, Charlton Athletic and Brentford. Since then Arsenal have been the dominant force in London, finishing as London’s top club 31 times. Tottenham Hotspur went on to dominate London during the 50s and 60s earning the title 10 times in those decades, but merely four more times to the current date, whereas Chelsea’s recent run from  the 2004/05 – 10/11 has seen them earn the title 13 times in total. In this post-war era, only Queen’s Park Rangers (6 times), West Ham United (1985/86) and Fulham (1982/83) have taken the title.

In the Premier League era, only once have the top 3 been displaced. QPR’s last fling as top London club came at the start of the Premier League in 1992/93, a promising 5th place that failed to herald a new dawn for the Loftus Road outfit, but actually signalled the start of their demise.

The difference between these top three London sides is narrowing by each season, with Tottenham’s game improving almost at the same rate at which Arsenal and Chelsea have faltered. Although Tottenham have finished above Chelsea previously (notably last season when despite finishing fourth, Chelsea’s victory in Europe denied them another Champions League place), they haven’t finished above Arsenal since the 1995/96 season. This run has inspired a tradition amongst Arsenal fans known as ‘St. Totteringham’s Day’, the day in the calendar year that it is mathematically impossible for Tottenham to finish above Arsenal. This run-in holds much promise for Tottenham fans of ending a run which has gone to the final day in the past two out of three seasons.

So who are the favourites? With 11 league games to go Chelsea are slight favourites across the bookmakers, albeit a best bet of EVENS with Ladbrokes. Tottenham just edge Arsenal in the rest of the betting, but it is fair to say this whole market hinges on the result at White Hart Lane this weekend when Arsene Wenger’s under pressure side attempt to re-ignite not only their season, but his career.

Bragging rights is a big deal in football, arguably the fundamental element of competitive sport. You may often hear fans debating ‘down the pub’ whether they want their domestic rivals to do well in Europe. Last season’s Champions League victory for Chelsea directly affected Tottenham, relegating them to the Europa League, but this incident aside, one English team’s success in Europe can only benefit the status of English football, so why is there a debate?

The reason is bragging rights. On a day to day basis, Arsenal fans do not have to face Real Madrid fans. Man Utd fans do not have face AC Milan fans. Chelsea fans do not have to face Barcelona fans. However, how many times have you had to put up with hearing Chelsea fans singing “Champions of Europe”? How many times have you heard Liverpool fans talk about THAT Milan game? The truth is, we don’t really want other English teams to do well… because on any given Sunday, they’re our rivals.

And that rivalry, can sometimes turn nasty. “Let’s be honest, I don’t like Arsenal… I don’t want them to win anything… it’s a North London rivalry, that’s all” Teddy Sheringham. “That’s all” might be playing it down a little bit. Following Sol Campbell’s move from Tottenham to Arsenal, fans created a hanging effigy of the player, and posted his phone number online encouraging abuse, and berated him in the ground. The furore from Arsenal fans wasn’t dissimilar following “Cashley” Cole’s move from Arsenal to Chelsea. Let’s not leave the Chelsea fans out of it either, with this young man being arrested following the last fixture between Tottenham and Chelsea, his motive being footballing rivalries alone.

Bragging rights… this season’s climax promises to be intense.

Tonight sees the end of the 2013 January Transfer Window, the 10th in the history of The Premier League. In that time fans have seen billions of pounds change hands, and millions of players change clubs. One such club to be heavily involved in this 10 year period, is Chelsea FC. In this period, Chelsea have made a net loss of £524.5 million. HALF A BILLION POUNDS. Let’s consider the most expensive 20 of those transfers: Fernando Torres £50m; Eden Hazard £32m; Andriy Shevchenko £30m; David Luiz £26m; Oscar £25m; Michael Essien £24.4m; Didier Drogba £24m; Juan Mata £23.5m; Shaun Wright-Philips £21m; Ricardo Carvalho £19.85m; Yuri Zhirkov £18m; Romelu Lukaku £18m; Damien Duff £17m; Hernan Crespo £16.8m; Claude Makelele £16.6m; Jose Bosingwa £16.2m; Jon Obi Mikel £16m; Adrian Mutu £15.8m; Nicolas Anelka £15m; Juan Sebastian Veron £15m… To be fair, in that time, here’s a list of the trophies they have won: The Premier League (x3), The FA Cup (x4), The League Cup (x2) and of course, as no Chelsea fan will let you forget, they are currently Champions of Europe. Everyone is very aware of Roman Abramovich’s funding of Chelsea FC, and no-one really cares anymore that they spend that much money, or that he can whimiscally just dismiss manager after manager… but what we don’t want to hear is Chelsea FC moaning about it.

This week, The Sun printed a story regarding Rafa Benitez’s problem at Stamford Bridge of not having a big enough squad. This is the same club that has spent £524.5m net in 10 years. This season has seen Chelsea compete in an unprecedented amount of games, and astonishingly next Thursday will see them compete in their 8th competition of the season when faced with Sparta Prague in the Europa League. We have consistently seen before that when a club is challenged with the extra baggage of success that they can struggle to cope. A prime example to back up the Chelsea saga would be that of Newcastle United this season. However at Newcastle United, there is an element of sympathy.

Newcastle have been a victim of their own success, with a squad not strong enough to fulfill two fixtures a week whilst in European competition, a host of injuries to key players, and a poor run of form culminating in their star striker Demba Ba leaving on a budget to Chelsea this transfer window.

Chelsea have no such sympathy. Whilst they indeed have had to play more fixtures, and travel the world for the luxury of more medals, they have the budget and knowledge necessary to avoid the kind of player fatigue Gary Cahill felt was the reason for poor 2-2 draw at Brentford in The FA Cup last weekend “We haven’t got enough time to do our recovery work and sometimes we feel leggy”. Rafa Benitez’s complaint of not having a big enough squad has been met with dismay, with 23 players out on loan, at a total cost over £80m (pictured left, the extra two line-ups Chelsea could play).

When the January transfer window (which often feels sponsored by Sky Sports News HD) was introduced 10 years ago, there were plenty of mixed feelings and predictions as to how it would affect the current model that English, European and World football was used to. The previous model held only one transfer deadline towards the end of March. Teams that were involved in a relegation battle opened their cheque book when they needed to. Teams pushing for promotion and trophies opened their cheque book when the time was right. Teams that suffered horrific injuries were able to delve into the market as and when necessary. This sudden fear that you could only make purchases at defined times panicked teams and fans across the country.

10 years ago, one huge fear would be that the large clubs would develop squads big enough to run an insurance policy ie having 20 or so players out on loan that should you have an injury crisis you were able to re-call them to your first team. The problem at Chelsea, is “We cannot bring back some of the players who are out on loan because we have an agreement that they will carry on for the rest of the season”.

Looking around the big clubs, both domestically and abroad, it is hard to feel sympathy for Rafa Benitez. Understandably, these decisions to loan players out without re-calls was out of his control, but he understood the constraints of the poison chalice he took on, and I’m fairly certain we’d have all had a go for less than half the salary. The two Manchester clubs have not been so apologetic for their poor form to base it on too small a squad. Manchester United have actually suffered all season from defensive injuries, but despite on occassion having to field Michael Carrick at centre-back, and conceding goal after goal, and coming from behind on 9 occasions to win in the Premier League this season, not once has Sir Alex Ferguson raised the issue that, frankly they don’t have enough players.

A club that could be justified in lamenting the extra fixtures that comes with unprecedented success and the struggle of managing those games in a tight schedule and a squad on a budget, is Bradford City. The immense success that is happening at Valley Parade highlights the romance and excitement of cup football. Having beaten Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa as Premier League scalps on their way to the League Cup Final, they went down 4-1 away to League 1 Crewe in the Johnstone Paint Trophy North Semi-Final, and a 4-2 after extra time loss against League 1 Brentford in the 2nd Round of The FA Cup. Both Chelsea and Bradford have used 22 players this season, with the former having 5 players having made over 30 appearances, and the latter having 9 players that have made over 30 appearances.

And if Cahill really wants to use fatigue as an excuse for the team’s performance at the weekend, he may be pleased to hear from scorer of Brentford’s second goal Harry Forrester, whom during Sunday 17th February’s 3rd Round Replay could be making his 40th appearance of the season. Good luck.

Eden Hazard has added his name to an illustrious list of Chelsea players that he may not necessarily be proud to be a part of. Following Adrian Mutu’s arrest and sacking for cocaine, Didier Drogba’s unrelentless attack to the camera when knocked out by Barcelona, John Terry’s bullet proof white cloak and hood, Jon Obi Mikel’s character assassination of Mark Clattenburg,and Ashley Cole’s brazen labelling of The F.A. as a ‘bunch of twats’, Eden Hazard has again demonstrated how Chelsea can buy quality, but they cannot buy class.

On the evidence in writing, it is difficult not to throw the metaphorical book at Hazard. With Chelsea having lost the first leg of the League Cup Semi-Final at home to Swansea, they were still trailing 2-0 on aggregate with 10 mins to go of the second leg. With Swansea looking to hold out for a historic victory, a ball boy took it upon himself to waste a little time. Hazard, desperate to keep momentum going, tried to pry the ball from the ball boy, before eventually kicking at the ball under the fallen pitchside assistant. Having consulted his fellow officials, Referee Chris Foy had very little choice in issuing a red card. An automatic 3 match ban will result from Hazard’s dismissal for ‘violent conduct’. Should this be the end of it?

A lot has been made of the fact that the ball boy was not a ‘child’. It is not in my interest to debate whether the ball boy play acted, whether he had it coming, or whether he should ever be allowed in a football ground again. His actions were wrong, but he is not a professional footballer, he is a child and he is a victim. Whatever he did to incite Hazard’s reaction, Hazard is a professional footballer and thus should behave like a professional.

There is history here. Let’s consider Eric Cantona’s infamous kung-fu kick at Selhurst Park in January 1995. Cantona’s incident was very clearly a lot more extreme in its violence, but also consider that Cantona’s victim was an adult. Cantona was issued with 120 hours community service (by the courts) and a 9 month ban (from The F.A.). Remember, Hazard kicked a child. Is three games really sufficient?

Outside of football, consider Tim Henman’s early career. At the age of 20, Henman made it past the first round at Wimbledon for the first time in his career, but then quite controversially was disqualified from the Grand Slam tournament for hitting a tennis ball into a ball girl in frustration. Henman became the first person ever to be disqualified from the tournament in 120 years of competition. His thoughts now? “That was my first real taste of the media and I got absolutely crucified… I kind of said to myself, ‘Shit, I’m going to have to produce some results, because this is not how I want to be remembered’.”

It is fair to say that this could be the making and maturing of a young man like Eden Hazard. Eric Cantona wasn’t a young man, but he took 9 months out of the game, and came back stronger and hungrier, leading Manchester United to a second double after a trophyless 1995 without him.

Gordon Taylor, Chairman of the P.F.A. has stated that Hazard “lost his head”. If the Players’ Football Association can’t bring himself to support you, you have to expect the worst when it comes to The F.A.’s disciplinary panel. It is all a terrible shame for a player that has been in remarkable form this season, culminating in an absolute screamer from 30 yards with his weaker foot last weekend away at Stoke.

Whatever the outcome of this saga, it is not outlandish to expect another Chelsea story to overshadow this one in the coming months. Ballboygate will be dealt with and finished, and the media will soon be hovering around Stamford Bridge for its next episode.

But I’ll leave you with this. If the ball boy wanted to be so involved at The Liberty Stadium, maybe he needed a little more nonchalance like this lad at White Hart Lane.