In a bit of a hurry today, so I’ll just drop in a few links that you might have missed.
Keeping up with my Holland vs England friendly coverage, Micah Richards (Manchester City) has been called up to England’s squad. Backup for Neville, and FINALLY something better than plugging an ageing Phil or an inept Carragher at right-back.
Speaking of England, they are due to play Spain in a friendly at Old Trafford in Feb. Last time the two sides met, a bad performance by England (is there any other kind) was overshadowed by “monkey” chants directed towards SWP and A. Cole. No such fun this time around, except that Gary Neville will be licking his lips at the thought of tangling with Reyes again.
Rio Ferdinand thinks for all of us when he says that provided that United are at the top or close to Chelsea at Christmas, we’re in with a shot at the title. I think the match against Chelsea, which comes a month earlier than Christmas, will pretty much decide the title now.
Paul McGrath’s interview with Guardian’s SmallTalk.
Talking about SmallTalk, here’s Perry Groves’ interview as well. Arseblog get’s a passing reference in it, props to arseblogger for getting Perry on the arsecast as well.
Sky Sports reports on Fergie not being happy at Mourinho’s meeting with the chief of refs. Despite the fact that the report looks bogus (they picked up a crap story from The Sun today so they’re no saints), I don’t think it’s worth discussing. Hackett is happy to meet Mourinho because he wants Chelsea and their players to stop getting on the media’s bad side, and let’s face it, who before has asked to speak to Hackett Mourinho’s made a very smart move, let’s see how it plays out.
Eric Cantona’s interview is up on ManUtd.com. Guy sounds like a philosopher more than a footballer – either that or everything is well rehearsed. I was toying with the idea of posting the article here page by page, but why get involved in another copyright tangle The interview is here.
EatSleepSport thinks Henry wants to leave Arsenal. If only it were that simple, you silly, silly $5/hour scrapper.
More Tomorrow morning – preview of the two key games – Blackburn vs United, and Arsenal vs Liverpool.