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from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Set your watches for Rooney Recovery Time
Anyone tempted to suggest Wayne Rooney's minor groin injury might give him a nice rest before the World Cup would be wise to fire up their copy of the Mathematica GraphMonkey iPad app* and first try to factor in one of the great immeasurables of English football -- Rooney Recovery Time.
Rooney Recovery Time is comparable in its unfathomability only to Scotty's estimates of how long it would take to get warp engines back on line as the Enterprise hurtled towards a collapsing Lime Dyson sphere*.
Rooney was in the stands on Saturday as United kept the heat on Chelsea with a 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Alex Ferguson then set the scene for weeks of excited punditry by suggesting the striker may have played his last game of the domestic campaign.
"It's difficult to say, groin injuries are groin injuries and I think it probably will maybe take two to three weeks to be honest," he told Sky Sports television.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Predicting the unpredictable: the Premier League title run-in
Chelsea and Manchester United seem to want to make the Premier League title run-in as exciting as possible by dropping points in recent weeks. There's just a point between them with three games left and you can't get much tighter than that.
Sadly the same can't be said for our predictions league where leader Paul Radford pretty much has the title wrapped up, but let's see what this weekend brings.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Champions League Live: Man Utd v Bayern, Bordeaux v Lyon
We're following the Champions League quarter-final, second legs live this evening. Join us here for updates and on-the-spot comment from Manchester United v Bayern Munich and Bordeaux v Lyon. Can Bayern hold on to their slim lead at Old Trafford? Will Wayne Rooney be fit? Is there any way back for Bordeaux? And can anyone match the feats of Lionel Messi in Barcelona's victory over Arsenal last night?
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Champions League quarter-finals — live
We're live blogging the night's two Champions League quarter-final first legs, with expert commentary and analysis, including on-the-spot details from our reporters in the stadiums (or stadia, if you prefer).
Join us here from around 1645 GMT for all the build-up and action from the biggest club competition in town.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Should fans have the right to buy into their clubs?
Interesting story in the Guardian this morning, saying Britain's Labour government, if re-elected, are ready to unleash plans to give fans the right to buy their clubs when they come up for sale, and to insist that current club owners give up a stake as high as 25 percent to their supporters.
If we can leave the politics aside (there is an election on the way, and the opposition Conservatives have said acting now, after 13 years in power, makes it a pre-vote gimmick) do you think this is a good idea?
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Predicting another great leap forward from Arsenal
Now all that Winter Sports malarkey is out of the way, we can cast all thoughts of the Couver out of our minds and get back to the serious business: the title race run-in, and the predictions league tussle that goes along with it.
Chelsea are the weekend's main absentees, as they toil on in the FA Cup against a stoked City, so could we see another great leap forward from Arsenal?
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
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.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
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).
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Score predictions come out of the freezer
Last week's snow-show in all but three of the games means there's been very little movement on the scores front, at least here at Reuters Soccer Blog Towers.
Premier League grounds may be as sludgy as Dutch pea soup but at least they're fit for purpose once more and as long as the thaw continues we should get a full programme again this weekend. About time too. Here are the weekend's games:
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
UPDATE: A New Year, a new chance to show your prediction skills
The good news is, if you missed the midweek fixtures you've hardly been scathed, with one of the two games called off and the other a 3-2 thriller that no one predicted.
So let's start 2010 as we mean to go on with your predictions for the Premier League matches this weekend. Read on after the break for the rules if you're a newbie, and if not ... well, you know what to do.
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