Sheriff Kimbo's Thursday Thoughts #16

Forgive me for starting off with Aston Villa, but doesn't a 6-4 score line feel worthy of discussion?! (Football Weekly clearly didn't think so - ED) It was a very weird game, and one that had me on a - cliché alert - rollercoaster of emotions! I mostly want to talk about the absurdity of Sam Allardyce though. He moans a lot, that man. He is in the Benitez class of blaming the ref for his the shortcomings of his team! But as MON pointed out, we should have had two penalties at Blackburn, so when Allardyce said, "They say these things even themselves out by the end of the season, but they don't"... er, I think they just did, you clown.

On the subject of Benitez (I am not obsessed with Liverpool, honest! They are just doing my head in even more than usual lately) I had to laugh when I saw that they had already sent their e-mail regarding tickets for the 4^th round. Oh justice really did happen to that vile, arrogant bunch of scumbags.

A few weeks ago I dismissed Arsenal's chance of getting involved in the title race. Long term I may be proven right but in the short term... fair is fair, pass me the humble pie! Arsenal are a funny team. I love watching them, and I think they are an absolute example of how to run a football club. On the flip side, while I respect the way Wenger builds his team and gets them playing, his teams generally whinge and are, erm, less than sporting, shall we say. In addition their fans moan SO much! My lord, how many clubs would love to have Arsenal's problems?! But still, fair play to them and I genuinely hope they stay up there and make a real fight of it.

There has been plenty of talk about Manchester United must be regretting not keeping Carlos Tevez. I get that - I genuinely do - and there is probably some truth in it. But look at the situation - Rooney and Tevez are at their best in the same position and, as good as Tevez is, he is not Wayne Rooney. They would be better off with Tevez in the squad but they miss Ronaldo a lot more.

I hope Joe Cole keeps progressing nicely, as in theory he should be ready to go with all guns blazing come the World Cup! I felt sorry for Cole a lot during Sven's reign; the amount of times that he looked like the most likely midfielder to do something for us but got taken off when somebody like Lampard was doing nothing was pretty bad. As it is, I don't see things like that happening under Capello unless they are deserved.

People will probably say, "Yeah, if that was true why isn't Jermaine Defoe in the team?". BECAUSE HE DOES NOTHING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX! Yes I know that scoring goals is what wins matches but leading up to the goal is more complicated than just getting it in the box isn't it! To be honest I am not convinced we can win the World Cup with a conventional 4-4-2 but the beauty of the England team there is Wayne Rooney; tackling aside he could be a great central midfielder if he wanted to be!

I think that will do for another week. Before I go... looking at a final score of 6-4, don't you wish you had the Sports Almanac from Back to the Future II?! See ya!