A week of Football - The Good, Great, bad and ugly!

The next day is building up to be quite a day or so of football. Big mersey, lancashire, and Birmingham derbies. A top of the table clash between Arsenal & Chelsea and The FA Cup 2nd round with the draw to follow. It should be quite spectacle and if yesterday is anything to go by there'll be goals galore!

In merseyside this could be the most critical derby in a long time - they say both managers have got quite a bit of pressure upon them but as far as I can see its Rafa under pressure today. A loss in todays game could be the end for him, after such a poor recent record this could be the straw that breaks the camels back. They say that the Liverpool fans are behind Rafa still but I can't see them being too impressed with being kicked out of CHampions league and losing to your closest rivals in the space of a few days. In the other dugout is Moyes, also under a little pressure but unwarranted in my opinion. Everton may be languishing towards the relegation zone but a win today sends them up into top half of the table. They've been in this situation before with Moyes and he has to be trusted. Managers whinge about injuries all the time, Moyes has barely uttered a complaint even though his squad has been seriously depleted for the majority of this season.

In London a win for Arsenal against Chelsea would be great for football in general as it would keep the title race well and truly open. None of us as neutrals wants to see United and Chelsea in a 2 horse race for the rest of the season, just think how much better this season could be if we have at least United, Chelsea and Arsenal in serious battle til May as well as the 4th spot being fought out by the likes of VIlla, Everton, Man City, Liverpool and Spurs. In the rest of the table things seem exceptionally tight with a win or loss moving teams from one half to the other. More football on Monday night live on sky from the Championship should also be a feisty encounter - PNE V Blackpool. Its been a long time since these clubs fought out similar league positions so Lancashire pride is well and truly at stake! We also have the magic of the FA Cup today, unsuprisingly the "big club" Leeds are on against Kettering but the excitement for most surrounds the draw at 3.45pm. Hopefully it'll throw up some fantastic games especially for the lower league sides.

Finally I'd like to make a point of mentioning a couple of positive and fun incidents this week. Yesterday saw one of the funniest goal celebrations I've ever seen from Jimmy Bullard of Hull City. His re-enactment of the famous half time team talk last year against Man City as a goal celebration was a welcome sight in the footballing world it had me chuckling to myself. Also, well done to the Wigan players - after last weeks humiliating 9-1 defeat at Tottenham they agreed to repay all 400 fans who travelled down to the game. Okay its only 400 fans and for a 20 odd man squad it isn't much to the players but still its a gesture of apology that is barely ever seen in football today. Giles Smith in The TImes was critical of the gesture saying it would set a dangerous precedent- how can you respond to that?! Oh dear o dear do some people just enjoy being critical of good gestures no matter what.