The best and brightest here at Reuters Soccer Blog continue to show they’d struggle to tip their own hats in a stiff breeze, let alone a correct score in the Premier League.

Our leader, Paul Radford, managed an unhappy three points this week … and look, who’s that chap who has sneaked through to replace him at the top? That was not the most impressive display of the week, however … for that look at one Julien Pretot, our new signing from the Paris bureau who leapt in with a 14 in his first week!

I expect to see him racing down the entire length of the Channel Tunnel, sliding to his knees and celebrating in front of Reuters Soccer Blog in Canary Wharf.

Remember, you get one point for predicting the right result, and make that five if you hit the nail exactly on the head. This week, I’m giving an extra point to Mike Collett for cheekily predicting Adebayor to score against Arsenal, even if he was a way off on the score. No other points for style as yet, but I expect there’ll be some pleas coming in.

Here are the latest standings:

Reuters Soccer Blog: Kevin Fylan 35, Paul Radford 34, Patrick Johnston 34, Simon Evans 32, Miles Evans 30, Mitch Phillips 24, Mike Collett 18, Neil Maidment 14, Julien Pretot 14, Asia Sports Desk 10,  Mark Meadows 8

The Rest of the World: Insert your score in the comments, please. We’ll believe you. Thousands wouldn’t.

Back on Friday with the tips for the weekend and remember, you’ve got to be in it to be able to, er, gloat about how much better you are at tipping scores than we are.

PHOTO: Fulham’s Paul Konchesky (R) celebrates after scoring against Everton at Craven Cottage in London, September 13, 2009. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

Very few of our panel should be enjoying their English Bank Holiday Monday. Most must hang their heads in shame.

Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal was an eventful game to say the least, with a penalty, bizarre own goal, a late strike disallowed for offside and Arsene Wenger harshly being sent to the stands where he didn’t have a seat.

Nevertheless, 2-1 to the champions was a pretty predictable score but only our Kevin had his wits about him to forecast it.

Three of our panel (the flying Justin Palmer, Simon Evans and Neil Maidment) correctly guessed Everton would end an early slump and beat Wigan 2-1 but in truth it was only thanks to a penalty deep into injury time from former Wigan man Leighton Baines.

Justin got another bumper five points for predicting Chelsea’s 3-0 victory over Burnley to gain the top score of the weekend with 15. Simon was close behind after bagging a second maximum for Manchester City’s attacking riches grinding out a 1-0 win at Portsmouth, who have finally starting buying rather than selling players.

So here’s the run down overall (with a few sunbathing absentees last week): Paul Radford 31, Justin Palmer 28, Patrick Johnston 25, Simon Evans 25, Miles Evans 24, Kevin Fylan 23, Mitch Phillips 16, Mike Collett 14, Neil Maidment 11, Asia Sports Desk 5, Mark Meadows 5 (last three on debut)

Let us know how you did and what your general total is (remember 1 point for correct result, 5 for correct score). I see maid did very well indeed…

PHOTO: Fans react as Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger climbs onto the stand after being sent off during their English Premier League soccer match against Manchester United in Manchester, northern England, August 29, 2009, REUTERS/Phil Noble

There’s been a fair bit of speculation, here and elsewhere, about whether Manchester City could actually win the Premier League title but a more realistic goal is a top four finish. That being the case, the summer spending spree seen by some as being brash and uncoordinated is actually very shrewd.

Look carefully, and what City have managed to do, with the recruitment of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure from Arsenal, is to weaken two of their rivals for fourth place.

Last season Villa and Arsenal fought tooth and nail for that position and with his transfer policy Mark Hughes has struck an early couple of blows in this season’s fight.

Note that City also have their sights on defender Joleon Lescott from Everton, another team with Champions League aspirations.

Add to that the hugely satisfying signing of former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez and there would seem to be a pattern to their spending spree — even if results are not yet going their way.

Football nostalgia is not what it used to be but there were times on Saturday when the Champions League, 120,000 pounds-a-week contracts and “the business of the game” were forgotten in a return to the days when the FA Cup was the only thing that mattered.

As I walked down Wembley Way towards the stadium, the massed Everton fans out to squeeze every last drop from the day brought back memories of countless other sunny Saturdays in May, when everything stopped for the Cup final.

For generations of fans, players and managers, getting to the final was often the pinnacle of their season if not their lives.

For those not lucky enough or too young to attend there was the consolation of hours of build-up and the rarity of a live TV match, followed by hours of re-enacting it all outside with friends.

The stadium has changed since then but that walk from Wembley central underground station, now shadowed by the arch, rather than the twin towers, remains one that every fan should experience at least once.

It was a well-trodden one for Everton fans in the 1980s as they reached four FA Cup finals and also a League Cup decider but things have been lean since then, with their 1995 victory over Manchester United a rare taste of the big time.

The fans were back at the stadium for the semi-final against United last month, but it is not the same thing at all.

Effort and imagination had gone into the design of Everton’s special final T-shirts and banners and there was a terrific atmosphere in and around the ground.

Just as in the semi, Everton’s singing and supporting put to shame the followers of the “Big Four”, for whom a mere FA Cup final, or especially a semi-final, has become small beer.

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink said he was brought up loving Cup final day - and he was talking about the FA, not Dutch, competition - and there was no disguising his delight at delivering the trophy to Chelsea after a barren spell since the departure of Jose Mourinho.

Chelsea’s fans eventually warmed to the occasion to play their part in an uplifting day and their players, particularly the extraordinary Frank Lampard, gave everything they had in scorching conditions.

At the end, Chelsea’s jubilation and Everton’s desolation merely reminded us of how important the FA Cup is and underlined the anger and frustration felt by so many when it is treated as something of an inconvenience by so many Premier League managers during the season.

PHOTO: Badges are seen on the shirt of an Everton fan prior to their English FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in London, May 30, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

There is not much romantic about Everton’s current lineup, especially now they are operating without injured Spaniard Mikel Arteta, but the unceasingly honest boys in blue certainly injected some desperately-needed colour to this season’s FA Cup with their penalty-shootout win over Manchester United on Sunday.

Yes it was an awful semi-final, with neither team really testing the opposing goalkeeper, but at least Everton, and their fans, took it seriously.

If United’s reserves had gone through to play Chelsea, again, it would have been another nail in the coffin of a competition that used to be the highlight of the season.

Alex Ferguson decided to rest his big names to keep them fresh for Premier and Champions League action. Everton boss David Moyes couldn’t have done the same even if his team had anything else to play for.

So bye bye to Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck, Anderson, Federico Macheda and Fabio and Rafael Da Silva. Their day will come, but, thankfully for lovers of the FA Cup and neutrals alike, it will not be Saturday May 30. (more…)

So, it will be an all-Blue FA Cup final this year, after Everton set up a date with Chelsea thanks to the penalty shoot-out heroics of goalkeeper Tim Howard in the semi-final against Manchester United.

Howard, a former United keeper, you may remember, saved the first two penalties from Dimitar Berbatov and Rio Ferdinand and Everton didn’t look back.

I suppose people may criticise Alex Ferguson for his gamble in picking so many youngsters but it was perfectly understandable, given the (more important) games United have coming up.

In any case, let’s concentrate on the achievement of David Moyes in taking Everton through to a major final with a squad built for a fraction of the money spent by Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and the rest.

Not bad for a ’small club’…

PHOTO: A Manchester United fan uses his scarf to shade his eyes from the sun during their FA Cup semi-final against Everton at Wembley, April 19, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Speaking as someone who once sat in a brick-built outhouse at the bottom of the garden for five years writing a book about the FA Cup, I have rather a soft spot for the old pot.

And so, it seems, after all these years, do Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and many other managers, some of whom have not always treated the competition with the respect I still think it deserves.

It seems almost every year at about this time, the same stories are run about how the FA Cup has lost its magic and the competition is now a mere end-of pier show compared to the Champions League and Premier League.

The doomsayers point to dwindling attendances at grounds and dipping TV viewing figures to prove the FA Cup is not what it was.

Last season the jump-on-a-bandwagon team proclaimed the cup “was back” because of all the upsets along the way that meant that just one Premier League team — Portsmouth — reached the semi-finals. Portsmouth v Cardiff was an “old-fashioned” final, a throwback to the 1920s and 1930s.

This season the same voices are proclaiming the cup is dead again because Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton are all in the last four with Arsenal set to join them, although Hull City are still involved, and can still of course win it for the first time in their history.

But the critics can’t have it both ways. Some years there are upsets, some years there aren’t — and irrespective of the outcome, an FA Cup match does have a different atmosphere, a different tempo and a different level of excitement to a league match, even if both teams are in the same division and regularly play each other.

I was at Fulham v Manchester United on Saturday and saw a magical performance from Michael Carrick, Carlos Tevez and their team mates as United crushed the home side 4-0.

Despite modern improvements there is still a timeless feel about watching matches at Craven Cottage next to the River Thames, just as there is still a timeless feel about the FA Cup.

Sometimes it ebbs, sometimes it flows. I still believe that for most fans, nurtured on just a little history who still appreciate the romance of the game, you can’t miss it for a moment.

PHOTO: Everton’s Marouane Fellaini (R) challenges Middlesbrough’s Justin Hoyte during their FA Cup quarter-final at Goodison Park, March 8, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble

For all its great crowd noise, emotion and late drama, Wednesday night’s FA Cup replay between Everton and Liverpool was an shocking indictment of modern football, where stopping the other side scoring has become so important that teams have almost forgotten that there is another, more decisive and infinitely more entertaining way to achieve success.

Throughout the TV commentary there were references to the 4-4 draw when the teams met in the the competition in 1991, and Liverpool’s 3-2 aet final win 20 years ago, but we were never going to get a repeat after an excruciating first hour where both penalty areas might as well have been sealed off with barbed wire.

Everton, at least, have a bit of an excuse in that just about all their strikers are out injured, and the one that wasn’t, Victor Anichebe, seemingly talked himself out of the squad by rowing with manager David Moyes.

In their absence, midfielders Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini have toiled manfully and productively upfront in recent weeks but it was tough on Wednesday for Everton to break out of the midfield mire.

Liverpool and coach Rafa Benitez again lacked ideas. They did not manage a single worthwhile effort on goal in two hours. After all Benitez’s talk of rotation and squad resources since he arrived, he has played Steven Gerrard and an unfit Fernando Torres into the ground this season, while allowing others to sit in the stands.

With Gerrard off early with a hamstring strain and the exhausted Torres eventually substituted, Liverpool brought on winger Ryan Babel to lead the line, with predictable results. What Robbie Keane must have made of it all is anyone’s guess.

Everton boss Moyes hasn’t been fooled. “The way you (the media) build that side up, I bet you’re completely stunned tonight,” he said after the game.

And the final insult to the millions watching on TV, or at least those still awake for the closing moments? ITV cut to an unscheduled ad break, returning to show a bundle of celebrating Evertonians, having missed the only goal of the game.

PHOTO: In case you missed it, here’s a photo of Everton’s Dan Gosling shooting past Liverpool’s Jose Reina during their FA Cup fourth round replay, Feb. 4, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Families will be divided and bars will be filled with talk of nothing else this weekend when Everton host Liverpool on Saturday and the Milan derby takes place a day later.

Despite the plethora of foreign players on show at Goodison and the San Siro, as well as Spanish, Scottish and Portuguese managers, the two derbies will still sum up what is great about being a football fan.

Two packed stadiums will have fans singing their hearts out and every tackle will mean so much more. (more…)

The usual new season optimism was in short supply at Everton on Saturday.

Never mind the last-minute defeat by Paul Ince’s Blackburn, that was merely salt in the wounds for a club whose preparations for the 2008/09 campaign could barely have been worse.

After recording sixth and fifth-placed finishes in the previous two seasons, Everton’s hopes of continuing that momentum look doomed already when you consider the scant options available to manager David Moyes.

If modern football is a squad game then what hope does Moyes have when he could call on only 10 senior players for the first game of the season?

The Scot had no option but to give a first start to a 17-year-old in central midfield and later introduced a 16-year-old debutant upfront, plucked from a bench filled with untested teenagers.

How could a team in the so-called richest league in the world be so ill-prepared?

The absence of a handful of injured players - plus another away on Olympic duty - has not helped Moyes but the real question is why Everton have not signed a single player during a close season where five first-teamers departed, including defensive midfielder Lee Carsley and England striker Andrew Johnson.

The economic downturn has affected Premier League clubs with spending down notably on last year - even Everton’s neighbours Liverpool have had to sell before they could buy - but Everton’s case is the most extreme.

Unfortunately, the future looks increasingly uncertain for a club who, on limited resources, have gone as close as anyone to threatening the dominance of the ‘big four’ in recent seasons.

Their planned move to a new stadium in Kirkby looks in doubt after the government’s decision to call a public enquiry, owner Bill Kenwright has declared he is willing to sell up to a “billionaire” and Moyes himself is stalling on signing a new contract.

If new signings do not appear soon, the Goodison gloom could well deepen.

PHOTO: Everton coach David Moyes and Blackburn Rovers boss Paul Ince watch their English Premier League soccer match, Aug. 16. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis