Best Player Votes Accumulator

     In a weekend where most of our top 5 players in the English Premier League failed to light up the pitch or didn't fail to dampen expectations due to poor performance, external commitments or nebulous circumstances (Diego Costa), other huge performances come to fore. We can't look past Tottenham's complete decimation of Tony Pulis' team or Chelsea's immediate bounce back. Too much focus can still be on the former events in a weekend where King-Kong did a blackflip (Andy Carroll scored a majestic bicycle kick), Harry Kane followed up becoming a father by scoring a hat trick, Burnley's imperious home form continued and Paul Pogba decided to put this site's recent merited adulations to shame. Still one has to pick the best 5 based on performances since the season's commencement.

     Harry Kane and Dele Alli are currently kicking up a storm with ridiculous short term scoring statistics. Harry Kane has accrued 6 goals and an assist in his last 4 games while Alli has 7 goals and an assist in his last 6 games. Their upsurge in form is great but too recent to bump into the top 5 ratings. Tottenham's two wing/fullbacks (only Pochettino knows which) have been excellent all season. Rose is the Premier League's best left back by my ratings. The best right back is in a tight tussle between Kyle Walker and Antonio Valencia. A bit too Tottenham-centric I agree but this team is complete if everyone is on top form.

     Another recent gate crasher is Zlatan Ibrahimovich. This isnt unexpected as it's Zlatan, isn't it? Zlatan Ibrahimovich has scored 10 goals in his last 10 matches with 3 assists to boot. Him, Paul Pogba and everyone's git, Ander Herrera are completely responsible for Manchester's United's upturn in form. But likewise, he would need to do more to get into the top 5.

     The top 5 Premier League players therefore doesn't change form the last time. It reads:

• Diego Costa
•  Alexis Sanchez 
• Eden Hazard
• Sadio Mane
• Paul Pogba (one poor game doesn't spoil half a season) 

Funny video of the week

When your destiny isn't remotely linked with football, this happens.

Hindsight is always right.

     Praise to God/gods (whichever suits you) for the Premier league that continued this weekend. We've missed it more than it can ever know.

     This weekend saw Pablo Zabaleta have his second stint at playing in the midfield, proving it's either Guardiola is a crazy genius or a crazy blind man. Manchester City as a whole had a rotten game with their current problem of defensive ineptitude and an inability to take chances coming back to haunt them. But come on, you don't expect to put away your chances if Raheem Sterling is your 'clinical' second striker. Without overflogging this, what did Guardiola expect from Zabaleta? Marauding runs from deep midfield, defence splitting passes? Let's just throw this defeat at Fernandinho's feet, him and his lack of discipline, picking up needless red cards here and there. Guardiola who preferred playing Zabaleta at central midfield to a 'ball playing, poor at defending' John Stones cannot be at fault. Looking at you Fernandinho. 😎

Pointless point: Manchester City have conceded 4 goals both times our 'Argentine regista' has started in midfield this season.

     Diego Costa to Shanghai SIPG! These transfer reporters must be high on Ayahuasca. Then all you guys believing them, ugghh! Costa can go to China of course, but now? No. That won't happen. Let's just move on.

     I always knew Real Madrid would lose at last. 😁 Their unbeaten run was hugely impressive especially if you factor in the number of injuries their squad has experienced. Expect Celta Vigo to experience the full brunt of their rebound anger tomorrow. A blood bath is on the cards.

     Manchester United and Liverpool also had a cracker at The Theatre of Dreams. I thought I made an objective assessment of the game until I started reading some comments online. That's when I asked myself, "Was it me watching the back of the TV or these guys?" Please who deserved to win the game more, Manchester United or Liverpool? Because now I am confused.

     Lest I forget, all you guys that still burnt money this weekend, when will you learn? Just leave the Over 2.5 when it comes to the big games this season in the Premier League, Under 3.5 looks smarter these days. Don't forget on Wednesday, Real Madrid win and Over 2.5, 1 and Over 2.5 against Celta Vigo. Liverpool to win both halves against Plymouth. The fairytale is over for this League 2 team.

Hello Arsene! I need to make a video compilation.

 

     Like how water gradually eats away rock at the bottom of a waterfall, something has constantly being hewing away at the fabric of my mind. Ridiculous as it reads, it seemed eerily funny to me that I always came across Arsenal in many, no, most embarrassing video compilations. As the years passed and I came across more, the notion reinforced itself in me. Yesterday, I watched two free kick video compilations titled "Funny and smart free kicks ever" (Yes, no joke that's the title) and "Top 20 free kicks ever in football". The latter featured Cristiano Ronaldo belting two cracking shots from distance into Manuel Almunia's net (Almunia was Arsenal's keeper). The first video didn't feature Arsene Wenger's team but it did feature the Arsenal's female team conceding a well planned, poorly defended free kick. My mind immediately raced to how I had just downloaded a video compilation of top 10 own goals. Trust the bhoys not to slack as the video had 2 different own goals by Arsenal players, Carl Jenkinson's own goal was a beauty, one only gets to see such probably twice in a lifetime, can't wait to see my second.

     As the rationale of "This is just a coincidence" was succeeding in washing away the fatuous thought that Arsene Wenger somehow had a hand in helping YouTube creat video compilations, it occurred to me take note of strikers whose names strike fear into the heart of whatever defence was present at the Emirates since Wenger's tenure started.

• Cristiano Ronaldo
• Lionel Messi
• Didier Drogba (Drogba vs Arsenal was just comical)
• Wayne Rooney
• Harry Kane (slowly becoming Didier Drogba's Arsenal reincarnation).    

Note: Any of these guys versus Arsenal as a goals compilation would be killer.  

     

     To be objective, Arsenal also featured in some pretty good highlights reels. I just recently watched a top 10 penalty save compilation and true to type, Wojneich Szczesny was one of the heroes. He saved Kirk Kuyt's penalty and the rebound. Arsenal also featured in a video compilation titled "Top 10 tikitaka goals", it had Tomas Rosicky's goal and Jack Wilshere's glorious team goal. I also remember that one of Thiery Henry's goals featured in a top 20 best solo goals compilation I watched. Then I remember Supersport once featured a video showing the best goals in the Premier league since its inception, Dennis Bergkamp's 'back to goal - flick the ball lightly' goal against Newcastle was ranked number 1.

      With all this proof, I hope I have confused and not convinced you as to the issue of whether Arsenal is just a compilation team or not. It's funny to think anyone looking for a killer video compilation just calls Wenger, "Hello Arsene! I want to make a video compilation." and Wenger readies the boys. The next match then features either the sickest moves or the most asinine, either way you have a part of your reel. I am now intensely aware of how preposterous this is, the whole write-up. But it's already written and look at the bright side, it's going to be fun for conspiracy theorists.

Break it down

 

     20:45 on Sunday, 08/10/17, saw Barcelona face an upbeat Villarreal at the Estadio de la Ceramica. Barcelona were on a 24-game unbeaten streak against the Yellow submarines and fielded the expected starting 11. Fran Escriba of Villarreal also laid out his preferred starting 11 in a 4-4-2 with the resurgent Alexandre Pato partnering Nicola Sansone in attack.

     The tactical layout of both teams was also easily anticaipated, Barcelona are never going to change from the Holy Grail of the 4-3-3 and Villareal looked to neutralise Barcelona's bite by holding two compact lines of four players behind their two forwards. Villareal's back line played extremely flat throughout the game probably fearing Barcelona's quick transition and counter-attacks. They also set up themselves to counter-attack with pace offering one or two runners from the first line of four during their counter-attacks. Well drilled by their coach, Villareal's tight defense gave Barcelona little joy. Not that Barcelona didn't creat chances but they were always second to the ball. This was expected as the Villareal players overpopulated the box, it had to take a very sleepy set of defenders to allow Barcelona get to the final ball. Villareal themselves carved out decent chances but Pique, Mascherano and Busquets seemed up to the task.

     In the first half, Barcelona were on the front foot, Messi and Iniesta were especially busy. Luis Enrique's team would probably have created more chances if their summer signing Andre Gomes was more tactically flexible and didn't just sit. Messi as part of an attacking three doesn't feature in Barcelona's game until the final phase of attack, Messi always starts out as the widest man in Barcelona's in-game midfield four. This means many of the times Andre Gomes and Messi occupied the same space, a tactically better player such as Arda Turan or Ivan Rakitic would have understood this as a chance to creat better vertical penetration or horizontal width. When Messi occupied Gomes' halfspace, Gomes refused to make runs into the Villareal defense or fan out wide to occupy another Villareal defender. If he had done that he would have given Messi another passing option instead of forcing him to always pass out left or try to dribble his way into the Villareal box. The latter effect had been prepared for by the team in Yellow, double and triple teaming Messi when he was on the ball, they succeeded in regaining possession a lot of times. Neymar also had a decent game, creating the highest number of chances by any player in the game. He constantly provided balls into the box but Villareal's numerical advantage always ensured they came to fruition.

    

     The second half started with Barcelona still on the front foot until a poor pass by Lucas Digne which led to a Villareal counter-attack. Pique refused to commit himself in marking Pato giving the Brazilian time and space to lay out an inch perfect pass to Sansone, who picked his spot and put the ball there despite a quickly receding shot angle. Immediately after the goal, Villareal started a high press preferring to force Barcelona into errors early in their build up. It turned out to be a bad idea as Barcelona easily passed around the press to fuel quick paced attacks, creating 1v1 situations as most Villareal players were still up the pitch. This made Villareal return back to type, sitting back with tight banks of four. Luis Enrique was sentient enough to notice what Gomes' lack of movement was causing as Gomes moved better and was a far better threat in the second half. With greater attacking verve, good substitutions and a slight tweak in formation to a 3-4-3, Barcelona created better chances in the second half even forcing Villareal player, Bruno into a blatant handball in his box which the referee missed. In the same vein, referee Ignacio Iglesias also missed Mascherano's outstretched hand which blocked Soriano's shot. Barcelona almost broke the deadlock with Messi hitting the woodwork in the 73rd minute. Barcelona didn't deserve to lose and they didn't as Messi buried his 90th minute free kick in the far right corner of the post after being awarded the kick from a foul by the second half substitute, Sami Castillejo.

     Villareal would have ended the game the more satisfied team with their defensive performance almost earning them the win but Messi's brilliance extended Barcelona's unbeaten streak against Villareal to 25 matches.   

4 Top Footballing Midfield Maestros

     After a long session of watching Paul Pogba's pass to Rooney against Hull City on repeat and lacking the ability to control the stirring it brings to my loins, my mind got caught up in attempting to lay out football's 5 best midfielders right now. In no particular order, they are:

• Paul Pogba: After a rocky start to life on the red side of Manchester, Pogba has truly come into his own. Statistics never lie and they support Pogba all the way but sometimes just looking up statistics is reductionistic and takes away the beauty of the game. Just watching Pogba tear down other midfielders throughout a game will suffice, after satisfying yourself on the Pogba-snack, then you can go look up the stats if you feel your eyes just lied to you.                        

 

     Meanwhile for all you number crunchers, Paul Pogba has 4 goals and 3 assists from central midfield making 2.8 dribbles per game and is second on average number of passes made per game with 73.6 passes.

    

• Toni Kroos: Fresh from being named on FIFPro World 11 alongside his teammate, Luka Modric, who is also on this list, Toni Kroos is the tied leader of the La Liga assist chart with 7 assists. But it's the intangibles that matter now, Kroos has evolved from the fragile, timid, tired-looking midfielder of his early Real Madrid days to become a mastermind who evades crunching tackles with his ability to read 5 steps into the game, 2 steps creates acres in what seemed like stifling situations, an unrivalled passing range and preterhuman passing accuracy, topping the La Liga with 92.8% passing accuracy. Toni Kroos reminds one of a certain La Liga ex-player who played for Real Madrid's archrivals.

Thiago Alcantara: Currently the most important player in Carlo Ancelotti's Bayern Munich, Thiago always had the talent and charisma even while at Barcelona. Go figure now that Thiago Alcantara features as the Bundesliga best player so far, running the game as part of a midfield 3. Thiago's guile, style, dribbling ability and eye for space puts him on a higher plane than all others. A 90% passing accuracy just takes him away from the plane farther from us on earth.

Luka Modric: This man continues to confound, you think it's finally safe to say he is past his prime and Modric takes the next match to make you tear up the worksheet and chase other conclusions. Modric defines the modern Regista, a deep lying playmaker who does more than creat chances. His only seeming weakness is a lack of defensive application but football is anachronistic. And taking a cue from Brazil's famed "Joga Bonito", attack is the new defense.

Man on the Spot

      Luis Suarez

      For a man so talented, Luis Suarez is a polarising character. His career ,riddled with misdemeanors and achievements alike, makes Eric Cantano look like Pope John Paul.

     Suarez once headbutted a referee when he was 16, he gathered a plethora of yellow and red cards early in his career, twice handled the ball which directly effected the falling out of Mansfield Town and Ghana from the FA cup and World cup respectively (causing African Press to name him Public Enemy Number 1 in 2010), once found guilty of racial abuse, thrice involved in biting incidents. That looks more like a rap sheet for a convict than one for 2015/2016's La Liga Pichichi award winner.

 

         Suarez has won the golden boot in all 3 European leagues he has played in, many other accolades follow which make his football crimes very tolerable, mildly acceptable if one is a cynic. Suarez is the highest goal scorer in Uruguay's history, he scored 20 goals in 15 games, the shortest in English Premier League history. He is the only man to top both the goalscorers' and assist charts simultaneously at the end of a La Liga season and to do it during the epoch of the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly makes it all the more impressive.

   It's easy to overlook such phenomenal players while still under the hypnotic delirium of witnessing Messi and Ronaldo but even when we can force ourselves to cast our gaze upon the Uruguayan magician, his image is forever tainted by the unpopular goal line handball clearance against Ghana and that sociopathic tendency to bite "when things aren't going right".

     

     Perhaps Suarez is best described by Liverpool's owner John W. Henry, "He is a good person 99% of the time, and 1% of the time his desire to win overcomes everything else."

   

The Best FIFA Awards 2016

     The inaugural edition of The Best FiFA awards took place yesterday, 09/01/17, at Zurich's PTC studios in Switzerland. After last year's split with the Ballon d'Or, returning the Ballon d'Or back to the French Football Federation, FIFA renamed their new annual merit award, The Best FIFA awards.
     For The Best FIFA Men's and Women's Player and The Best FIFA Men's and Women's Coach awards, the winners were determined through a voting system similar to how it was when the award was joint with the Ballon d'Or. 50% of votes were decided by captain's (25%) and head coaches (25%) of national teams. 25% decided through an open online public ballot of football fans and 25% by a selected group of media representatives from round the world. FIFA Puskas Award and FIFA Fan Award were voted for exclusively by the fans.

Winners:
The Best FIFA Men's Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
The Best FIFA Women's Player: Carli Lloyd
The Best FIFA Men's Coach: Claudio Ranieri
The Best FIFA Women's Coach: Silvia Neid
FIFA Fan Award: Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool supporters.
FIFA Fair Play Award: Athletico Nacional
FIFA Puskas Award: Mohd Faiz Sunrise
FIFPro World 11: 4-3-3
Manuel Neuer, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Andreas Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Talking Points

• Cristiano Ronaldo reigns for the fourth time: Kudos to Cristiano Ronaldo for an overwhelmingly successful year, the Champions League, UEFA Euro cup and Club World Cup in the same year is a title list that every player envies. Due to be 32 years old in less than 4 weeks, Ronaldo can now be referred to as  ageing, tempting some to say he has taken his last chance at topping the game. But if there's anything learnt from Cristiano it's that he never gives up and another jaw breaking 2017 won't be suprising.
• Claudio Ranieri: No soothsayer would have shown Claudio 'The Tinkerman' Ranieri a glimpse of his 2016 before 2016 and not get rebuffed. Taking Leicester City from the plinth of the English Premier League to the top in the 2015/2016 season and getting them to qualify top of their group in the Champions League this season while continually looking befuddled in the league during the same campaign is a script only seen in Hollywood. Let's hope he gets them out of their struggling state before the season's end.
• FIFA Fair Play Award: Athletico Nacional's gesture of asking CONMEBOL to make the Brazilian side Chapecoense the posthumous winners of the Copa Sudamericana, in recognition of the lives lost when their plane crashed, is touching and serves as one of the closest things to altruism one will see. Thumbs up to FIFA for not missing that and giving a good end to a tragic story.
• Mohd Faiz Subri, winner of the FIFA Puskas Award: Words cannot explain. Watch and be amazed.

The Best of the Weekend

     In the absence of Premier League football in the weekend past, we bring to you the best of 'everything' this weekend.

Note: It reads best of everything so forgive odd categories.

• Best goal: When you have to choose between Pedro's second goal against Petersborough and Messi's late late free kick, the best choice is none at all.
• Best pass: If you missed it, please take a couple of moments to watch it. A drilled pass over 30 plus yards deleting 5 opponent players and skipping 5 passes in potential build up has to win it.
• Best comeback: It's safe to say Olivier Giroud is looking good, an 89th minute winner no matter how scrappy makes a wonderful/gut wrenching comeback, depends on who you support.
• Hat trick of the weekend: Wissam Ben Yedder gave a killer performance, 3 goals and an assist to get your team to win 4-0 and taking Sevilla to second spot above Barcelona is ace.
• Cheapest goal: Not to subduct from Marcos Rashford's performance, but that was the cheapest goal he would ever score. Ali Al-Habsi had to be high on something to offer him such a gift.
• Dickest move: After gifting Rashford the goal, Al-Habsi went ahead to blame his players. You f**king missed a simple kick!!! 
• Biggest 'Lago': Al-Habsi wins the third category on this list, how do you miss a ball rolling at less than 2km/hr. I don't understand and I've watched it a million times.
• Best assist: I was really tempted to give this to Michael Carrick for his assist for Rashford's goal but Marcelo's decimation of his marker against Granada before sending a sumptuous cross for Christiano Ronaldo's goal deserved it.
• Worst punt of the weekend: When a team is given 1.16 as odds to win then it is expected to win, with a lot of goals too. So when you add 1.16 to your slip and the team goes ahead to play a stalemate you can only look to the skies and ask why, Liverpool alone can answer that question.

Hindsight is always right

   

     It's a new week everyone, I congratulate everyone who made money during the weekend. The Yoruba say a man's palms never lie, I prefer to say your betslip never ever lies and with a bottle of palm oil hitting a thousand naira, your betslip better not lie.

     Let's start with the goodies, congrats to my guys with the big guns, Villarreal 1X, beautiful bet. Athletic Madrid, 2 & No goal goal, if you played that you're a genius, my man. AC Milan under Vincenzo Montella is a different beast, straight win was the most sensible bet. Lastly Brighton and Hove Albion of the English Championship is in rude form, they were always going to beat 'Manchester United 4-0 whoopers' (Remember that!! 😎) MK Dons in the FA cup.

     Now let's go to the stubborn ones among you, after all my warnings on what not to play last time out. You went and outdid yourselves, Arsenal 1st half win, Kaii!!! In this Buharious economy, someone is throwing away hundred naira or more, wey no fit buy one Peak milk can of palm oil, you just 'throwe' one cup of rice. Them some of you with your crazy combos, after placing Arsenal to win with handicap (1:0, 2) you went ahead to combine with Barcelona to win with Over 2.5, if you did that do not step foot in any betting outlet in your life again. Some people need to wash their heads in a powerful river, in the absence of a river, any nearby tap will do. The point of the exercise is the head washing. 

 Game to play/ not to play: Coppa Italia, 11/01/17

                                                 Juventus vs Atalanta

                                                 1 & GG   

Funny video of the week

Sensational run by Maroune Fellaini

     It's these sort of runs that made Messi who he is today. Going past 1, 2, 3 players, confounding players and spectators alike and evading opponent's challenges. Fellaini really had it all here.

Download video here

Break it down

      
      Tottenham vs Chelsea

     Fresh from matching Arsenal's 13 game winning streak, a record that has existed for 14 years now, Antonio Conte's men could not dig deep enough to match the outright record for consecutive wins in the Premier league, a record also held by Arsenal for wins stretching from February to August, 2002. During Chelsea's 13 game winning streak, only one team realistically looked liked beating Chelsea and it was fitting they got to did it now.

     Tottenham matched Chelsea's formation from defense till midfield, varying in attack with a 2-man attack instead of Chelsea's 3. This was probably the winning hand from Pochettino, why match 3 attackers with 3 central defenders when you could play with a 5-man midfield with he advantage of a number 10. Chelsea's 3-4-3 has always given them well spread coverage of the entire pitch when facing other formations, evident when Chelsea counter by switching play far into another flank to an unmarked free man, usually Marcos Alonso or Victor Moses. Tottenham's 3-5-2 effectively killed that edge and playing Wanyama, Dembele and Eriksen is a formulae for a midfield of steel, guile and creativity.

     Pochettino might have gotten the formation right and with able personnel to boot, but one thing gave him the edge. Poch has instilled into Tottenham a high energy, high pressure style with a knack for punishing opponent's mistakes and early fouls on budding breakaways. This normally comes to play when he plays a high profile team as the creative onus is on Tottenham when they play lesser teams. Tottenham's 'high octane's style gave them possession and verve in the game but there was an obvious glut of clear cut chances, testament to Antonio Conte's impressive drilling of the Chelsea defense. Apropos to that, Harry Kane had a thoroughly rotten game, outrun, outscored and outplayed by his striking partner (for the game) Dele Alli, Harry Kane wasn't doing enough for Tottenham to elicit a breakthrough.

     Tottenham for large seats of the first half totally skipped the midfield, playing a bit of traditional English football, punting the ball forward from a center back to attacking players majorly Kyle Walker. Poch probably did this as that sort of football, most other than not, gets the team to lose the ball only in attacking regions. This played to Tottenham's strength giving them the propensity to Harry and hassle Chelsea for the ball high up the pitch. This is the main reason why many of Chelsea's attacks started very deep and didn't get very far as winning the ball high up is Tottenham's forte.

     

     The 2 goals had to have some spectators with a jinxed feeling, the same passing combinations, the same side of the pitch, the same defending players involved, the same scorer and the same assister. For the first goal, two Chelsea defenders could have done better, right before Eriksen crossed the ball on receiving it from Walker, David Luis stepped away from Harry Kane to mark no one in particular. This doesn't directly affect the goal but on viewing the goal again, Eriksen could have picked up Kane far more easily than Dele Alli with his cross. That was careless defending. Victor Moses was the main culprit for the goal anyways, his inability to move in tandem with Azpilicueta and Luiz to keep an otherwise correct offside trap had him playing Harry Kane, Danny Rose and Dele Alli onside without the chance of his marking anyone of them.

     The second goal was more of the same, Walker to Eriksen, Eriksen to Alli but this time Azpilicueta keeping both Alli and Rose inside without any odds of proper marking. Matic also lazied around this time, glaringly failing to pick up or close down Eriksen.

     Chelsea took charge after the second goal but Tottenham looked solid throughout. This was a tactical masterpiece by Mauricio Pochettino, taking advantage of Chelsea's light midfield and lack of planning as to who marks the number 10 of the opposing team.

Man on the spot

    Olivier Giroud  
  

     In the summer of 2012, Arsene Wenger in typical fashion bought a tall, handsome Frenchman for a fee rumoured to be around 12.4 millions euros, a direct replacement for Robin Van Persie who had earlier left for Manchester United. It looked a shrewd buy, not surprising give the buyer, Olivier Giroud was the top scorer in his final seasons in the Ligue 2 with Tours and the Ligue 1 with Montpellier. Olivier Giroud then went on to lead Arsenal's lines for the next four seasons, with a season's average of 14 goals in the league. It's this paltry output that had Arsene using Sanchez as a striker this season effectively condemning Giroud to the bench. Sanchez, ever grateful, has taken the to role like a duck to water 13 goals and 7 assists at the season's midway places him on route to score 26 goals at the season's end not regarding his assists. It's safe to say Giroud better get comfortable with the surroundings on the bench.

     The point is not Olivier's output in this case, although it really should be, it is the intangibles. Olivier is the best header of the ball i know besides Sergio Ramos (Yes, better than Christiano Ronaldo). Olivier is a sage when it comes to 'tap and move' football and his passes could be sublime but if football was all about headers, Sergio Ramos would win the Ballon D'ors. Sanchez has a 'run till I run into the ground' attitude, an attitude that puts him in a far better light than an equally talented Mesut Ozil. Sanchez is a very good dribbler, seems to continually play with an insatiable desperation and gives off airs of being totally dismayed by Arsenal's comfortability with the 12 year vacation of the Premier League winners' medal from the Emirates. As a bonus, Sanchez's jog is Giroud's lung bursting run.

     It is therefore a given that Sanchez remains Arsenal's frotman. But what does Giroud embody that has to have Arsenal fans worried. Arsene Wenger's misguided decision to stick with Giroud for four seasons is not a blip, it's the norm. For Giroud, see Ramsey, Ox-lade Chamberlain, Walcott, Debuchy, Monreal and Wilshere. Some of these guys may still turn out great, Nacho Montreal has. But imagine Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho or any other serial winner as Arsenal gaffer, these guys would be long gone. Sanchez is the blinding light in the crepuscular Emirates' atmosphere and his body language coupled with his dithering on signing a new contract implies a suspicious amount of dissatisfaction. For Arsenal fans' sake, let's hope the supporting crew step up so as to convince Sanchez to stay. But for Olivier, taking a cue from Nigerian pidgin sayings, 'Life na turn by turn.'. This is Giroud's turn on the sidelines.

World Beaters

           

  

                          Nico Rosberg

     There's a certain undefined flavour of of joy that comes with finally attaining something you've spent a large part of your life chasing, that dream for finally saying yes, your first million, your first car and for many of us Nigerians, your father finally looking at you with admiration reserved for folks he regards as equal. And as expected, the reaction is generally the same, you stop 'tomcatting' and chasing other girls, you stop cashing in your all now you're a millionaire, you stop working so hard to make 'dad' even look at you.

 

  

      So it's understandable that Nico Rosberg finally retires. The only son of former Formula 1 World champion, Keke Rosberg, Nico had probably looked up to that milestone for the past decade. In a vicious rivalry with multiple F1 World champion Lewis Hamilton who is also his Mercedes teammate, Nico always seemed to fall at the final hurdle, serially coming second to his talented teammate. Victory for persistence here as Nico finally clinched top spot in 2016. With the world beaten, Nico Rosberg can now shift focus to other parts of his life.

Hindsight is always right.

 

   

     About a few hours ago I followed my aunt to get back her canopy and chairs that had been rented out earlier today. It was already night, I totally wanted to go the next morning. On our way there our truck developed something of a fault and stopped on the road. My heart eagerly did its"I told you so" victory lap, it was safe to say I was right. In truth, it's just hindsight and Hindsight is always right.

     That latter point gives me the gumption to say, being that the game is done and dusted and I couldn't possibly be wrong 'now', why the h*** would you play Liverpool straight win against Sunderland. Straight win and over 2.5 again, talk about guts. Liverpool just matched their season's best winning streak for the second time, 4 wins on the bounce. Come on!!! Try to plot before you play nah and plot well. I am pretty certain I would have played Pool X and over 1.5 if I had played. 😀😁

   

     Before I go, I heard someone played Manchester United 1st half win. You should be beaten. And here I am preaching United to win second half.

     It's safe to say the matches are over now anyways, safer for me sef.

You think you know football

 Every week we are going to release a set of 4 football related questions and 1 random question. The rules are simple, prove you know football and give the correct answers through comments.

• Who was the first player to win 3 consecutive Ballon d'ors?
• 3 men who won the UEFA Champions League as players and coaches.
• Ramon Azeez played for which Liga BBVA team?
• The only player to play in 2 world cup finals for different teams is ...............

Note: A special weekly gift for the first correct set of answers.

The Best Player Vote Accumulator

   

     The 'Bester Speiler' Best Player accumulator grades our top 10 best players in the English Premier League and then in Europe. The rankings are adjusted weekly in accordance with your ratings. Comments for rankings should contain each person's top 10 best players and all rankings are accumulated till the end of the season.

     The first lists have already been decided, to be adjusted by your rankings. The lists are in no particular order.

In England:

- Alexis Sanchez: A front runner in   the early race for the PFA player of the year, 12 goals and 7 assists in 18 apps would get you into any list.

- Diego Costa: Previously known for his bullish aura and perennial aggression, Costa has channelled his fury to the ball. Football fury can only be good if it gets you 14 goals and 5 assists in 18 apps, not mentioning fantastic hold up play and consistently drawing fouls.

- Eden Hazard: A former PFA player of the year, Hazard has banished the ghosts and ghouls of the 'Mou third season curse" with 9 goals and 2 assists coupled with a pretty high Whoscored.com rating of 8.03 Hazard's twinkle feet have not left him, not sure just ask Simon Francis.

- Adam Lallana: A vital cog in Jurgen Klopp's Gegen pressin machine, Lallana has made himself arguably Liverpool's best player this season. The stats do not lie here, 7 goals and 7 assists for someone playing in a midfield trio is excellent work, good auld English boys and their lack of talent, look at the Spanish play.

- Sadio Mane: A player Jurgen confessed he wished he had bought at Dortmund, endeavour, pace, dribbling and relentlessness, traits personified by Mane make Liverpool tick. Talk about the look on the faces of Liverpool fans when they remember Sturridge is in line when Mane leaves for Africa Cup of Nations.

- Paul Pogba: The '100 million pounds' player is yet to reach the dizzying heights expected of him but it's still early days. Lately Paul has been the heart and soul of Manchester United's recent resurgence, 4 goals and 3 assists from the middle have not been bad either. It's just lovely seeing a player have a hand and control the ball from defence to midfield to attack, early days #zidane-ish.

Note: Person with the highest number of first weekly rankings gets a thousand naira at the season's end.