The Best…..

Slovenia’s amazing performance in reaching their second World Cup Finals was unfortunately overshadowed by angst and ringing of hands.  When you consider that Slovenia finished a very poor fourth in Group 5 of World Cup 2006 qualifying and sixth (only Luxemburg finished lower) in Group G of Euro 2008 qualifying it only reinforces a magnificent achievement.

Algeria bounced back from a heart breaking late goal from Egypt on Saturday to qualify in the play off. Antar Yahia the Bochum striker scored the only goal and it was a cracker.

Sunderland gave a clinic on how to shut down Arsenal. Resolute in the tackle, diligent in their marking and closing down Sunderland implemented Steve Bruce’s game plan to a t.

Spurs’ performance in putting nine goals

The Best…..

Emmanuel Adebayor garnered the headlines but for me Craig Bellamy was the main reason Manchester City beat Arsenal on Saturday. He worked tirelessly on the left hand side – one moment charging forward, the next making sure that Wayne Bridge had support. I didn’t hurt that he scored what also turned out to be the winning goal.

Sunday night’s marquee game in Serie A lived up to billing with Genoa and Napoli going at it. The game swung one way and then another as Genoa recovered from a goal down and a man down to beat Napoli 4-1.

The game became ten-on-ten when Napoli’s Campagnaro gave away a penalty and was sent off in first half added time. The goal of the game – perhaps of the weekend – came from Genoa’s Mesto who picked up

<sup>The start of the new Premier League season is only days away and over the next five days I will preview all twenty clubs. It is an opportunity to stick your own neck out as well. Criticize my picks and the picks of others as much as you like – but be ready to back up your statements with your own predicted finishes. No trolling – instant red card.  You can also predict the first manager to leave their post as well as the three teams that will come up from the Championship.

Prediction contest rules are:
1. Five points for every exact finishing position predicted correctly.</sup>

^{2. Bonus points for correctly predicting the following:
           Champion 25 points
           Runner}

We are all inclined to place our behaviour or motivations in the best possible light when it suits us. Players are obviously no exception to this and just recently we had Kolo Toure explain his motivation for leaving Arsenal and joining Manchester City.

Admittedly Toure’s explanation falls short of former teammate Freddie Ljungberg’s classic from 2007 when he moved to West Ham. Ljungberg was quoted at the time that the ambition of the West Ham board exceeded that of the Arsenal directors and so it was time to move on.

Considering that West Ham had not, at the time or since, won a major trophy in over a quarter of a century, had never finished higher than 5th in the Premier League and had just survived a near-relegation-experience Freddie’s assessment of ambition must surely