2010 Football Round Up

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2010 has been a fantastic year for lots of Sporting events, but the football calendar year has had its fair share of success, drama and excitement.

This post takes a look at the past year, and brings some video entries from the more important events.

We start with January, where the first Premier League match of 2010 saw Fulham head to the Britannia to face Stoke City, with the visitors three points ahead of the Potters. It was a taste of what we grow to expect from the Premier League; goals, goals and more goals as you can see below.

There wasn't too much movement in the transfer window, with Niko Kranjcar joining Tottenham Hotspur from a doomed Portsmouth for a nominal fee.

On the manager front, Owen Coyle was appointed as Bolton Wanderers' new manager after leaving Burnley. Brian Laws, who has been sacked this week, replaced him at Turf Moor.

January also saw David's Gold and Sullivan take over at West Ham United after selling Birmingham City.

February usually means one thing in the footballing calendar; League Cup final day, and it wasn't to be a let-down as Manchester United came from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley. You can watch the goals below, with Wayne Rooney scoring the winner after James Milner had given Villa an early lead.

February saw another change on the ownership front, with Ali Al-Faraq taking over Portsmouth before the club became the first in Premier League history to enter administration.




Pompey hit hard times, on the pitch and financially, only 2 seasons after their FA Cup success at Wembley.

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To compile a miserable month for Avram Grant's side, they lost 5-0 to Manchester United, scoring three own goals in the process, although one was later declared as a Michael Carrick strike.

March saw Chelsea head out of the Champions League to the eventual winners, Jose Mourniho's Inter Milan.

United progressed through the last 16, but met Bayern Munich in the semi's, where they lose Wayne Rooney for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

Arsenal also made it through to the Quarter-finals whilst the FA announced that Fabio Capello's England side would complete their World Cup warm-up with games against Mexico and Japan.

The news that Wayne Rooney might not be fit his national supporters hard, but Bobby Zamora was strengthening his claims for a call up by scoring against Juventus to send Fulham through to the Quarter-finals of the Europa League, alongside Liverpool.




Fernando Torres scored 7 goals in 6 appearances in March as Liverpool found form.


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Phil Brown became the next managerial casualty and his 'gardening leave' absence caused confusion before Iain Dowie took over until the end of the season after only five league wins all season and four straight defeats.

April saw the title race hotten up but Arsenal dropped off the pace after a demolition away at Barcelona.




How ironic that this year sees a repeat tie, but only four points from 5 games after the result left the Gunners reeling yet another unsuccessful season.

United were also knocked out of the Champions League at the same stage after Arjen Robben scored this late on at Old Trafford.

Some incredible goals and incredible scenes as Portsmouth were the first team to be relegated from the Premier League.

Despite this, the consolation was that Pompey reached the final of the FA Cup, where they were set to play Chelsea before their pending relegation to the Championship.

May, as usual, brought up its surprises, with Manchester United being pipped to the title by Chelsea, who were crowned Champions by one single point, after scoring a record 103 league goals.

Burnley and Hull both were relegated before the last day of the season and it was confirmed that Newcastle, West Brom and Blackpool would replace both them and Portsmouth in England's top flight.

Portsmouth's FA Cup dreams were smashed by Avram Grant's former employers, Chelsea, who beat them 1-0 at Wembley thanks to this goal from Didier Drogba, who finished top scorer with 37 goals in all competitions.



The Champions League final saw Mourinho top of the pile again, with Inter Milan beating Bayern Munich 2-0 before the coach announced he was leaving for Real Madrid.

Fulham could have counted themselves unlucky to lose in the Europa League final to Atletico Madrid after losing 2-1 to a brace from Diego Forlan, but manager Roy Hogdson was later announced LMA Manager of the Year after taking the side much further than the most hopeful of fans could have hoped.




June saw a brief break in the football before Fabio Capello named his England squad for the World Cup.

Notably, Wayne Rooney was selected, but there was no room for Theo Walcott or Scott Parker, despite the West Ham midfielder making the preliminary 30 man squad.

England, however, took a side seat as South Africa kick-started the tournament with a Siphiwe Tshabalala goal against Mexico, a game which finished 1-1.

Tshabalala scored the first goal of the 2010 World Cup.




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The tournament saw some flowing, entertaining attacking football and, although the hosts went out at the first stage, the locals were excited to see the World's best teams excel themselves.

That was until, in July, when Brazil and Argentina were both knocked out, after England had lost 4-1 to Germany in the last 16.

Instead, it left a final of pre-tournament favourites, Spain, and the Netherlands, who has Wesley Sneijder in top form.

Spain went on to win it, but it was Andreas Iniesta who scored the winner, rather than David Villa or Fernando Torres to ensure the European Champions became Champions of the world.



That brought about transfer rumours surrounding Cesc Fabregas leaving for Barcelona, rumours which were proved untrue.

Despite the failure at the World Cup, Fabio Capello was kept on as England manager but the nation was left disappointed with a shambolic performance.

Barely one month later, after a summer which saw Rafael Benitez leave Liverpool, Gianfranco Zola sacked by West Ham and former Manchester United forward Mark Hughes take charge at Fulham, the English football season had started again with Manchester United beating Chelsea 3-1 in the Community Shield at Wembley.



Less than a week later, Martin O'Neill resigned from his Villa post after a disagreement with owner Randy Lerner, and was later replaced by Gerard Houllier.

The first game of the Premier League saw Manchester City play out a 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, who pipped Roberto Mancini's side to a Champions League spot after a 1-0 win at Eastlands in April.

The first goal of the season came from Stewart Downing against West Ham, while Blackpool started their Premier League history off with a 4-0 away win at Wigan, a game rescheduled after development on Bloomfield Road was left incomplete.



Bloomfield Road had to be redeveloped over the summer after Blackpool's surprise promotion.



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August also saw the Champions League draw for the group stage, with the hardest task falling to debutants Tottenham Hotspur, who were drawn with FC Twente, Werder Bremen and Inter Milan.

September saw Chelsea sitting pretty at the top of the league after winning their first 5 league games to nil and having scored 6 on two occasions.




Chelsea started the 2010/11 season well.

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The month also saw a huge upset in the third round of the league cup, with Northampton Town knocking out Liverpool on penalties at Anfield.

Moving on to October, where the main headline was yet again Tottenham Hotspur, with Rafael van der Vaart, a deadline day signing, showing his worth and Gareth Bale finally finding his potential, scoring all 3 goals as ten man Spurs lost 4-3 to Inter Milan at the San Siro.

Liverpool's much hated owners, George Gillette and Tom Hicks, were finally ousted from the club, with New England Sports Ventures buying the club after the side had beaten Chelsea 2-0 at Anfield.

At the other end of the table, one of the most significant derbies, Newcastle against Sunderland, ended up with a 5-1 demolition in Toon's favour.

Kevin Nolan scored a hat-trick that day and Steve Bruce was hanging on to his job.



November saw Chelsea slip off the gas at the top, after the Blues picked up only 4 points from a possible 15, while United beat Blackburn 7-1 at Old Trafford as they found form.



Berbatov scored 5 as Manchester United ran rout in one of the new Blackburn owners, Venky's, first games at the club.

The month also saw Arsenal slip up to Braga and Shakhtar in the Champions League, while Manchester City began to find form, remaining unbeaten throughout the month.

Bolton Wanderers, under Owen Coyle, began to play some nice football as the Whites fought off their tag of long ball specialists. Their form saw them beat Tottenham, Wolves and Newcastle as they also went unbeaten in November, a run which saw manager Owen Coyle and striker Johan Elmander both receive monthly awards.

December has been an eventful one also, with Sam Allardyce and Chris Hughton both being sacked by their respective clubs. Steve Kean and Alan Pardew took over their reigns.

Hughton and Allardyce were the last managerial casualties of this year.

The Champions League draw saw Tottenham be paired with another Milan, AC, and Arsenal drawn against Barcelona again as we headed into the new year with the final game, a 1-0 win for Wolves at Liverpool to complete a miserable calendar year for the Merseysiders.

All that remains is for me to wish you all the best for the new year!

Premier League Predictions- Week Five

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Each week, I will now post my predictions for the weekend, and see if i can get more right than BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson.

This week, for the 1/2 January, the predictions below stand.

This week's predictions	Score	Lawro	Edward
Birmingham v Arsenal	0-3	1-1	0-2
Chelsea v Aston Villa	3-3	2-0	4-0
Liverpool v Bolton	2-1	2-1	1-1
Man City v Blackpool	1-0	2-0	3-0
Stoke v Everton	2-0	1-1	1-0
Tottenham v Fulham	1-0	2-0	3-1
Sunderland v Blackburn	3-0	2-1	1-1
West Brom v Man Utd	1-2	0-2	0-3
West Ham v Wolves	2-0	1-1	2-2
Wigan v Newcastle	0-1	2-2	0-0

I expect the big winners this weekend to be Chelsea. Their 1-0 win against Bolton might just be the result they were looking for to raise the optimism around Stamford Bridge. The Champions have been struggling of late under Carlo Ancelotti and have dropped off the pace in the Premier League after not winning any of their 6 games previous to Wednesday's win.



Chelsea have been slipping down the Premier League, but John Terry will be looking to record some clean sheets heading into the new year.

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You could see the relief when Florent Malouda scored the winner and it's clear that they aren't playing the flowing football we saw at the start of the season, but they're returning to their best line-up now, with Michael Essien, Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka now free of injury.

If they are to challenge for the title, they can't slip up at home to the likes of Sunderland and they usually do well against Aston Villa, beating them 7-1 at home last season after a 2-1 loss at Villa Park.

Perhaps the game might be another chance for Ramires to kick-start his career in English football. The Brazilian is yet to score for the side who sit 4th in the league, but will fancy his chances against a Villa side who are struggling to turn up to games at the moment.






Ramires has yet to find his feet in the Premier League.

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I constantly predict Blackpool to lose on here and I love it when they surprise me with a result like their 2-0 away win against Sunderland.

It would be hard to suggest the Seasiders would come away from Eastlands with as good a result, after City beat Aston Villa 4-0 on Tuesday, but miracles do happen.

Mario Balotelli was the star on that occasion, scoring his first hat-trick in English football, but Roberto Mancini made changes which included Adam Johnson and Patrick Vieira coming in.

There is no guarentee that the fiesty Italian striker will start with Carlos Tevez all ready to be unleashed upon some unfortunate defence.





Carlos Tevez has 12 league goals this season but might not start against Blackpool after Mario Balotelli's showing against Villa.

At the other end, it seems crucial that Fulham and Wolves can start picking up results after their recent slides and, while I can't see Fulham having enough against Tottenham, Wolves' visit to West Ham is a vital game in both their seasons.

West Ham manager Avram Grant has yet to win over David's Gold and Sullivan and, after only one win in their crucial last three games, the pressure might not be fully off his shoulders.

Equally, Mick McCarthy's side might have beaten Liverpool in midweek, but they are average at the minute and this promises to be a dog scrap of the highest order at Upton Park.

One man who will be keen to shine is Carlton Cole, who has returned to form after a lacklustre year.





Carlton Cole has scored only 3 league goals this season but has improved in form of late.

He should be partnered by Frederic Piquionne or Victor Obinna as the Hammers look to climb out of the relegation zone, as do the Midlanders, who will be buoyed from midweek.

Good luck to everyone's teams this weekend.

Thierry Henry's Top 10 Arsenal Goals

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Thierry Henry has been a frequent visitor to the Emirates and Arsenal games of late, and to celebrate his return as a spectator, here's a video entry on the Frenchman's top 10 goals during his spell in England.

First, here comes a few entries to get those taste buds tingling.

If ever there was a player to bank on, it was Thierry Henry and goals like this often gave the Gunners a route back into games.

This, against Birmingham and is a great finish, but with it being his 200th goal for Arsenal, it was always going to deserve its place amongst his top goals.

We start with number 10, and this comes against Charlton Athletic, but this was one of Henry's better strikes from distance.

His strikes weren't limited to the Premier League, however, and this, number 9, came against Real Madrid to give Arsenal a vital away goal.

It's not all about technique, sometimes it's best to be one step ahead of everyone else and Henry is, yet again, when he dances around Carlo Cudicini to score this for number 8.

And Real Madrid weren't the only European side who couldn't cope with his pace. Inter Milan were on the wrong end of this counter attack from Arsene Wenger's side.

It didn't matter who Arsenal were playing, and this might not be the same quality opposition as Real Madrid, Inter Milan or Chelsea, but it's still a fantastic individual piece of skill which slots in at number 6.

Number five comes against Henry's favourite team, Liverpool, who appear again in a few videos time, and this gave them a 3-2 lead minutes after going behind 2-1. Henry takes it upon himself to score the goal, and some goal it is.

This next clip, number 4, might not have commentary from Ewood Park, but a lack of able defending led to this superb breakaway from Cesc Fabregas and Mr va va voom himself.

Sometimes you're better off lucky than good, but this piece of improvisation, again against Charlton, from the number 14 wins a well deserved place as number 3.

Number 2 comes from Liverpool's FA Cup tie with Arsenal and it's Thierry Henry doing what Thierry Henry did best for the Gunners, scoring a magnificent goal.

This, number 1, has to be the best goal Henry ever scored for the Londoners and it's probably one of the best the Premier League has ever seen. Apologies about the poor quality video, but replays show exactly what he pulled off.

Did Thierry Henry agree with the choices?

Well he spoke out after his Arsenal career came to an end, so what were his favourite 3 goals?

Christmas Time is Unlucky for Laws

Brian Laws might have had a successful start to his playing career at Burnley but his return as gaffer was been far from that.

Laws has today resigned after just under a year in charge at Turf Moor, where he has seen the Clarets fall from mid-table in the Premier League to 9th in the Championship.

It seems Christmas time is unfortunate for Laws, who was sacked as manager of Sheffield Wednesday on the 13th December last calendar year, before taking over at Burnley one month later.

A statement on the club's website read: "Burnley Football Club can announce that first team manager Brian Laws has today stepped down with immediate effect.

The club would like to place on record their thanks to Brian for his hard work and commitment to the club since he took the role in January 2010.

Chairman Mr Barry Kilby said: "I have telephoned Brian today and have asked him to step down as manager of Burnley Football Club.

"Everyone is naturally disappointed and frustrated that recent results have not gone as we would have hoped.

"The Board of Directors has therefore decided that we need a fresh approach in order to achieve our goal of returning to the Premier League."

Burnley Football Club will make no further comment at this time."

The last 12 months have been a hard time for Brian Laws, with both of his teams, Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley, being relegated in May.

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Laws only won 3 out of 18 games in charge of the side in the Premier League and has seen his side slip off the pace in the race for promotion back to the top flight after defeats to the likes of Scunthorpe in the past few weeks.

In fact, Laws has only won 8 games out of the 22 played, with 5 other defeats coming to Leeds, Coventry, Reading, Middlesbrough and Swansea.

The side seem to have taken a turn for the worse since the departure of Owen Coyle to neighbours Bolton in the first week of 2010, although Laws' side did beat Bolton 1-0 in the Carling Cup this season.

It seems as though promotion back to the Premier League is the most important thing for the chairman is getting back into the promised land, and eight points away from automatic promotion is evidently not good enough, despite the team having a game in hand on Cardiff in second.

There have been some managers sacked over the past few weeks, namely Chris Hughton and Sam Allardyce, for precious little, but this was one decision that has, perhaps, been coming for some time, and the 2-0 home loss at the weekend put the icing on the cake for the 49 year old boss.




Chris Hughton was unfairly treated at Newcastle, but may fit the bill as Burnley search for a new boss.






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Personally, I'm surprised that the Burnley directors didn't look for a little more experience after Coyle left in January, and maybe this time they will take a little more time to ensure the right man is picked to take the club forward.

That man could well be Chris Hughton, if he is ready to return to management and, after his success with Newcastle, he would surely be a popular choice in helping establish Burnley as automatic promotion contenders.

The club haven't done that badly this season, beating rivals Preston 4-3, but some key players, including Chris Iwelumo and Chris Eagles have gone off the boil since.

The Scottish international striker, who features on my top misses blog post, has scored nine goals for the side this season, but it's been at the other end where the team have struggled. They have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 10 league games and that is somewhere that will need tightening up.

If they act smartly and quickly, the manager will have time to act on the squad in January and make any necessary adjustments and there are sure to be numerous candidates to fill the hot-seat at a stable club.







Graham Alexander has no managerial experience, but is well loved by the Burnley fans. It's unlikely the directors will gamble on inexperience again.





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Whoever comes in doesn't come into an absolute shambles, but instead a club that has been in the Premier League, has some good players and high expectations.

If it's turned around quickly and they make the right choice, Burnley will make the play-offs this season at least, and it won't all be doom and gloom at the North West club.