Predictions league hails the power of Drogba

Didier Drogba’s second goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal was the epitome of the Chelsea striker’s immense power.

It’s hard to know how any defence can stop him, even Inter Milan’s…

Top Premier League strikers are certainly having the best of it at the moment with Manchester United talisman Wayne Rooney scoring another in the 5-0 thrashing of Portsmouth.

Constrast Drogba and Rooney with Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has scored once in his last 10 matches, and misfiring Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero. His side have slid all the way to seventh in Serie A.

Europeans baffled by fuss over Terry’s private life

Michel Platini’s Gallic shrug said it all. “I’m not bothered. What do you want me to say?” he said.

The UEFA President and former France captain had just been asked for the third time in a few minutes on England coach Fabio Capello’s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy because of something which happened off the field.

Platini was speaking in Warsaw at a news conference and was supposed to be talking about the qualifying draw for Euro 2012, an event which involved all 53 of UEFA’s associations.

Euro 2012 qualifying draw throws up England v Wales

The Euro 2012 qualifying draw in Warsaw got off to a mixed start with a less than tuneful performance from a Polish boyband.

However, when we finally reached the main event, those famous coloured balls did not disappoint with Andriy Shevchenko (who surely should have been voting in Ukraine’s election) helping dish out some fabulous encounters like England v Wales. Germany, Turkey and Austria are in the same group while Denmark, Norway and Iceland will also all meet.

Here’s the full draw. What do you reckon? England in the group of death? Interestingly, Armenia were switched from the same group as Azerbaijan on political grounds.

John Terry stripped of England captaincy – your views

John Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy following revelations about his private life.

Here is England coach Fabio Capello’s statement:

“After much thought, I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry.

Robben teaches Germans to love long johns

Germans used to laugh at soccer players who wore long johns in the winter, belittling anyone who opted not to play in shorts as a light-weight. Germans even have a derogatory name for the thermal underwear: Liebestoeter  (passion killers). 

That was before Arjen Robben scored two goals and led Bayern Munich to three straight wins in his woolly grey long johns. They may make him look like a 19th century grampa getting ready to get into a cold bed. But they’re “hot pants” as far as Bayern are concerned.

And no one’s laughing anymore.  In fact all of Germany is talking about the unstoppable Dutchman who has made a fashion statement in the baggy underwear.

“I know they don’t look very good — even my wife tells me that they don’t look very good,” Robben was quoted telling Bild newspaper the other day after scoring a goal and setting up another in Bayern’s 3-0 win over Mainz last Saturday. “But they feel really good when I’ve got them on. They keep my muscles warm. The long johns belong to the club. At home I never wear anything like that.”

Predictions league foresees more doom for Arsenal

Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat at home to Manchester United last weekend has led many of our panel to predict similar gloom for Arsene Wenger’s men at Chelsea this Sunday.

It’s been a tough run of fixtures for the Gunners but for most of our “experts” here at Reuters Soccer blog, it’s been painful throughout the season. Do you think you would be better than our panel at predicting the Premier League scores each weekend? Believe me, it’s not hard to beat us.

Five points for a correct score and one point for the right result. If you are joining now for the first time you can have double points until the end of the season, plus innumerable bonus points for way-out guesses on goalscorers, red cards, streakers etc. The best part is you total up the scores yourself and we trust you!

Heynckes turning talented Leverkusen into title contenders

The qualities of the young Leverkusen team were already evident last season. Under Bruno Labbadia, they were exciting to watch for the first half of the campaign but crumbled after the winter break to end up in ninth.

New boss Jupp Heynckes seems to be succeeding where Labbadia failed.

Undefeated and boasting the league’s best attack and defence, they have every right to dream of the Bundesliga title that has eluded them for so long.

Heynckes’ experience and his winning pedigree, including the Champions League with Real Madrid, has helped instil the mental steel needed to turn a losing position around.

Who needs Ronaldo when Nani plays like that?

Has Alex Ferguson got lucky or did he see something in Nani that nobody else could?

The Scot has always stood by the Manchester United winger despite his extremely unfavorable comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo and on Sunday against Arsenal all the pieces appeared to fall into place for a player who has flattered to deceive.

Nani’s bamboozling dribble was too much for Arsenal defence as United went in front at The Emirates. The Portuguese then displayed perfect timing and weight of pass to slide the ball though for the marauding Wayne Rooney that effectively settled the game as they went on to win 3-1.

‘Iniesta generation’ flooding Barcelona maternity wards

The first week of May 2009 was a rather good one for Barcelona fans and it seems like many of them celebrated in the time honoured fashion.

An historic 6-2 humiliation of arch rivals Real Madrid at their Bernabeu home on May 2 that effectively wrapped up the La Liga title was followed on May 6 by Andres Iniesta’s brilliant, last-gasp goal at Stamford Bridge that took Pep Guardiola’s side through to the Champions League final at the expense of Chelsea.

According to a survey of hospitals and clinics by a local radio station, the euphoria (and other emotions) generated among Barca fans by those two performances has had a rather unexpected result nine months on.

Maternity hospitals say they are struggling to cope with demand for beds and the survey, by COMRadio, of four hospitals and a clinic showed births this week and those expected next week are 45 percent higher than the average.

We predict the worst … you show us how it’s done

It seems like ages since we last managed a proper weekend programme*  but at last, here we are, with an all-singing, all-dancing snow-free extravaganza, with the dubious attraction of Arsenal v Man Utd’s traditional handbags at 10 paces highly competitive fixture being shown in 3D at select boozers across the land.

Below you will find the Reuters Soccer Blog standings and predictions for the week but remember, we’d like you to join in as well. If you’re a newcomer, you get 10 points for correctly predicting the exact score from the weekend’s Premier League game, or two for getting the right result. (If you’ve been with us for a while, it’s five points and one point).

Being on double-bubble means you can catch us up in no time, especially with huge bonus points on offer for incidental details like scorers, penalty misses, substitutions, or indeed anything else. So please send in your scores and have the satisfaction of out-predicting the stat-obsessed football nerds here at Reuters Soccer Blog Towers.

Reuters Soccer blog panel: Patrick Johnston 194, Mitch Phillips 182, Paul Radford 181, Neil Maidment 166, Kevin Fylan 148, Mark Meadows 142, Simon Evans 142, Julien Pretot 137, Mike Collett 132, Asia Sports Desk 115, Martyn Herman 109, Miles Evans 107, Sonia Oxley 71, Justin Palmer 41