MikeO

Have to say that watching people play on a Wii looks far more entertaining than actually playing the thing. Looks like a swarm of bees have been let loose on the epilepsy ward (apologies Si). One of those situations where imo they'd do far better toning down the truth of the product for the advertising....like chewing gum ads where you never, ever see anyone chewing because it looks so disgusting . Er...Happy Christmas .

Looking at the games tomorrow they've fallen nicely for us, Liverpool/Pompey and Villa/Man City, plus the fact that Blackburn are playing Chelski. Nice couple of draws would do....and Blackburn getting beat then even if we lose we don't give away too much ground.

Shame. The man is a saint in my book and has been for nineteen years . Good luck to him.

Aplogies....set up post of the year to Craccer .

Nomination for post of the year Mark ! So we meet (all being well) Kroldrup again. That'll be interesting.

Where's the press kit Louis? Get your bloody finger out !

That's the longest standing unbeaten home record in Europe broken by a pretty much second string. Thirteen games unbeaten. Poor performance? Good grief .

Add... Aberdeen SK Brann AEK Athens

Great corner from Faddy...2-1!

Enjoyable enough game....be happy with a draw to keep the run going. Given they've not lost at home in Europe for thirty-two games it'd be no disgrace. (Larissa beating Nuremburg 1-0 so AZ may be through even if we beat them)

That is the team, with Jack Rodwell, John Irving, Patrick Boyle, Bjarni Vidarsson, Lukas Jukiewicz, James Vaughan and John Ruddy on the bench.

Great shame we couldn't go into it at full strength, Ossie will be missed but we've not gone to Old Trafford (or anywhere for that matter) in such good shape for many years. Still be very happy with a point. One thing. If we're 2-0 up after an hour we won't concede four .

Example... Benitez believes Crouch was provoked and said: "That decision finished the game. Mikel tried to kick Crouch twice. "That is the reason Crouch lost his head. If the referee blows his whistle before, you avoid the sending off." Crouch's dismissal came just after Frank Lampard had put Chelsea ahead in a win sealed late on by an Andriy Shevchenko goal. Benitez added: "It could be a sending off but I have seen more dangerous tackles and sometimes they are a yellow card or nothing." So have I....Kuyt springs to mind moron .

Excellent vid though. Brilliant.

Galatasaray is always a dodgy place to go, but they were extremely luck to qualify....0-0 home draw against Austria Vienna last night and only Bordeaux coming from 2-0 down to beat Panionios put them through on goal difference with four points. Aberdeen is another interesting possibility, if they beat Copenhagen tonight .

Upon hearing the draw, Chelsea manager Avram Grant said his team faced a tough challenge to reach the final. "Any game is not easy. Everton are very good this year," he said. "It's not easy to play against them but it's two games so anything can happen and I hope we will be in the final but I expect us to lose because Everton are better than us." OK so he didn't really say the last twelve words, that was me .

Happy with Chelsea tbh. Arsenal ressies have already knocked us out twice and Spurs are on the up, both sets of players looking at the Carling cup as their most probable chance of silverware. Chelski put out a strong team but it's certainly not their top priority. Also second leg at home which is a big plus. Exciting times!

Chelsea. No problem !

First potential opponents for the last 32 (draw Friday at 12.00) after groups E to H completed tonight are... Zurich Galatasaray Anderlecht Bolton finished third in Group F but pretty certain the rules say we can't play them at this stage.

Looking at the teams they've put out tonight it'll be a miracle if Liverpool get through. Strong Chelsea line-up against poor looking Reds, hope I'm wrong. Chelsea 01 Cech 18 Bridge 06 Carvalho 35 Belletti 22 Ben-Haim 05 Essien 12 Obi 08 Lampard 21 Kalou 07 Shevchenko 17 Sinclair Substitutes 23 Cudicini, 09 Sidwell, 10 Cole, 13 Ballack, 20 Ferreira Liverpool 30 Itandje 17 Arbeloa 23 Carragher 46 Hobbs 12 Aurelio 22 Sissoko 21 Lucas 14 Alonso 10 Voronin 15 Crouch 19 Babel Substitutes 40 Martin, 04 Hyypia, 06 Riise, 11 Benayoun, 42 El Zhar Edit....us against London then . Bring it on!

Injured in the mini-derby on 5th December in fact. (Edit.."A shin injury has denied Andy van der Meyde a return to the Everton side. David Moyes revealed that he planned to bring van der Meyde to play against AZ Alkmaar, but the Dutch winger required stitches in a gash on his leg. The Everton boss will make several changes after bringing several untried youngsters on the European trip. Moyes told evertonfc.com: "We wanted to bring Andy to play but he has got a gash in his shin that required 13 stitches. "We hoped he would recover in time to play because it would have been an opportunity for him. "He has has his problems but we never exclude anybody at Everton, we want him here working hard. "He is a terrific talent and we hope he can show what he can do.") Gonna be some interesting names in the team tomorrow though, very much looking forward to seeing it.

According to Toffeeweb.. Howard, Yobo, Arteta, Cahill and Yakubu have not travelled to Holland, along with the injured Stubbs, Baines, Osman and Van der Meyde — who needed 13 stiches in a leg gash from playing in the Reserves!

....and, "Are you watching Manchester?" Best part of 100,000 singing that at Wembley (only Charity Shield in my case sadly) was special. Be nice to see/hear it again.

Spurs and Arsenal 3rd XI through to join us tonight. Would like to think we could beat either over two legs even if Spurs are a different proposition to what they were. So my guess would be that we'll play the winner of tomorrows game .

He won't go that far....and if I was a Zenit or Nuremburg fan I'd be well pissed off if he did.