Footballbits and pieces

Q: Why don’t Arsenal score from corners A: Because Van Persie takes them! Q: What’s the most popular item in the Arsenal club shop? A: The Van Persie tea tray, because it carries 10 mugs! Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… Unless you’re of a distinctly Arsenal persuasion, you’re probably sick to the back teeth of these stats [...]

All of UEFA’s perspex balls of destiny have been drawn from their respective goldfish bowls of fate and, as a result, the groups for the 2011/12 Champions League look like this… Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati [...]

Despite being paid handsomely (the irony is not lost!) to talk about things, Iain Dowie is a man that cannot actually talk – and, by the looks of things, neither can he think that good about stuff like numbers either. Schalke whupped Inter 5-2 in Milan last night meaning that, by Dowie’s calculations, the Nerazzurri [...]

Maybe he’s mellowing in his old age, or merely becoming a little more scrambled, but neither fits, really, as a plausible reason for Sir Alex Ferguson’s compulsion to tinker with his team. Last night’s Champions League game against Valencia was the 150th successive game in which he has made changes to the starting line up, [...]

Refereeing performances have come under increased scrutiny in recent times, with cameras picking up incidents the referee has not seen, but FIFA and UEFA remain reluctant to provide officials with technological solutions. Platini admits referees cannot be expected to get every decision correct, but feels the introduction of goalline assistants – as seen in the [...]