No shortage of talking points this weekend. Manchester United grind out a win at Craven Cottage...Javier Mascherano makes his Liverpool debut....West Ham gets a hiding from Charlton and the Hammers have a difficult last 10 games.....Real Madrid largely outplayed by Atletico and have Barcelona coming up in two weeks....meanwhile Barcelona and Sevilla will face each other this coming weekend.....Lyon fight-back to take a point after being two goals down....Schalke 04 - are they going to sel####estruct again? ........and there was a piece of silverware handed out in England.

Amy Lawrence contrasts Arsenal’s attitude to youth development and Chelsea’s.

Paul Wilson takes a look at the issue of standing at games. “When Saturday Comes” ran a a similar feature this month a looked at the experience of Borussia Dortmund.

Hugh McIlvanney – the dean of British football writers – provides his view on the Craig Bellamy and his short-game.

Nick Townsend on what might have turned out to be a tragedy in Lens last week.

The two faces of Arsene Wenger from James Lawton.

Michael Grant writes about Thomas Gravesen’s inability to gain a regular place in Celtic’s midfield. MLS bound?

Jim Duffy on the future of Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke.

Greg Lalas on Lyon’s very underrated Juninho.

Some possible topics to get stuck into.

Daniel Finkelstein “The Fink Tank” on the Cole – Gallas swap and statistically which club got the best deal.

Mihir Bose on the West Ham Argentine transfer “coup” in last Thursday's Daily Telegraph. Bose wrote the definitive book on the aborted Sky takeover of Manchester United - "Manchester Unlimited".

Some more details on the upcoming “Panorama” program to be broadcast in the UK concerning corruption.

Neil Clark has a story in The Independent about Argentine clubs selling the rights to players to businesses.

David Lacey looks at Peter Crouch the England scoring machine.

Meanwhile Nick Townsend takes a bit of a different view.

Is Crouch one of the world’s great strikers as 11 goals in 14 England games would seem to indicate? Or is it a case of an awkward forward riding an international hot streak and that his ratio of slightly better than 2 goals in every 7 Premiership is a fairer reflection of his true worth?

 Here is a list of the top 100 Premiership goalscorers to the end of August 2006. Crouch’s stats have inserted at the relevant level even though he has yet to break-in to the top 100 club. (The number attached to each player is their position in the all-time goals list as opposed to their goals to games ratio).

Source: premiersoccerstats.com

Player Goals Games Avg.

3 Thierry Henry 164 239 1.46

13 Ruud van Nistelrooy 95 150 1.58

1 Alan Shearer 260 442 1.70

7 Michael Owen 125 228 1.82

10 Ian Wright 113 212 1.88

2 Andy Cole 186 389 2.09

8 Jimmy Hasselbaink 125 266 2.13

 29 Eric Cantona 70 156 2.23

4 Robbie Fowler 161 361 2.24

5 Les Ferdinand 149 352 2.36

26 Mark Viduka 72 176 2.44

74 Yakubu Aiyegbeni 42 104 2.48

19 Ole Solskjaer 85 219 2.58

16 Kevin Phillips 87 226 2.60

36 Stan Collymore 62 163 2.63

12 Matthew Le Tissier 101 270 2.67

22 Robbie Keane 79 214 2.71

33 Nicholas Anelka 64 174 2.72

6 Teddy Sheringham 145 405 2.79

31 Paolo Di Canio 68 190 2.79

11 Dion Dublin 111 312 2.81

24 Tony Cottee 78 220 2.82

45 John Hartson 55 155 2.82

9 Dwight Yorke 122 348 2.85

51 Mark Bright 50 144 2.88

20 Chris Sutton 82 247 3.01

63 Wayne Rooney 44 133 3.02

64 Louis Saha 44 133 3.02

28 Chris Armstrong 71 216 3.04

37 Robert Pires 62 189 3.05

75 Marian Pahars 42 129 3.07

48 Efan Ekoku 52 160 3.08

52 Paulo Wanchope 50 156 3.12

68 David Hirst 43 135 3.14

23 James Beattie 79 252 3.19

40 Peter Beardsley 58 185 3.19

 94 John Spencer 35 112 3.20

55 Craig Bellamy 47 156 3.32

 69 Frederic Kanoute 43 144 3.35

46 Eider Gudjohnsen 54 186 3.44

47 Gustavo Poyet 54 187 3.46

56 Jermain Defoe 47 163 3.47

70 Andrei Kanchelskis 43 151 3.51

42 Kevin Gallacher 56 198 3.54

17 Dennis Bergkamp 87 315 3.62

34 Dean Holdsworth 63 229 3.63

54 Ian Rush 48 176 3.67

76 Juan Pablo Angel 42 155 3.69

77 Julian Joachim 42 156 3.71

83 Tore Andre Flo 38 141 3.71

14 Paul Scholes 89 342 3.84

39 Gianfranco Zola 59 229 3.88

Peter Crouch 97 25 3.88

91 Paul Dickov 36 142 3.94

18 Emile Heskey 87 344 3.95

21 Kevin Campbell 82 325 3.96

32 Duncan Ferguson 68 269 3.96

81 Steffen Iversen 40 159 3.98

84 Dean Sturridge 38 155 4.08

30 Brian Deane 70 286 4.09

38 David Beckham 62 265 4.27

78 Nwankwo Kanu 41 175 4.27

41 Niall Quinn 58 250 4.31

57 Fredrik Ljungberg 46 199 4.33

43 Jason Euell 56 244 4.36

60 Rodney Wallace 45 197 4.38

95 Peter Ndlovu 35 154 4.40

65 Dean Saunders 44 196 4.45

25 Frank Lampard 75 337 4.49

71 Darius Vassell 43 201 4.67

44 Harry Kewell 56 262 4.68

35 Mark Hughes 63 296 4.70

15 Ryan Giggs 89 437 4.91

 61 Alan Smith 45 224 4.98

96 Benito Carbone 35 177 5.06

85 Darren Huckerby 38 201 5.29

62 Kevin Davies 45 241 5.36

66 Robbie Earle 44 244 5.55

97 Damien Duff 35 196 5.60

72 Noel Whelan 43 243 5.65

92 Patrik Berger 36 208 5.78

49 Nicky Barmby 52 302 5.81

98 Marcus ####le 35 204 5.83

73 Nolberto Solano 43 252 5.86

86 Don Hutchison 37 220 5.95

58 Paul Merson 46 280 6.09

93 Ruel Fox 36 223 6.19

87 Steven Gerrard 37 234 6.32

59 Graham Stuart 46 293 6.37

53 Gary McAllister 50 325 6.50

67 Lee Bowyer 44 295 6.70

79 Steve McManaman 41 275 6.71

27 Gary Speed 72 486 6.75

50 Trevor Sinclair 51 346 6.78

99 Muzzy Izzet 34 248 7.29

80 Paul Ince 41 306 7.46

100 Dennis Wise 34 278 8.18

88 Darren Anderton 37 319 8.62

89 Tim Sherwood 37 341 9.22

82 Roy Keane 39 366 9.38

90 David Unsworth 37 352 9.51