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The draw for the 2026 World Cup was made yesterday and there are some interesting games to look forward to when the tournament kicks off next summer. This will be the biggest World Cup since it's inception as there will more teams taking part than usual and more games being played due to the change in format. This is what I think of the draw. The draw itself look very open as there is no group of death, some of the groups having just one clear favourite to reach the last 32 a

GK: BART VERBURGGEN (BRIGHTON) - Verbruggen kept 3 clean sheets during November and conceded just one goal as Brighton ended the month in the European spots. He made some big and crucial saves throughout the month including his penalty save against Brentford to deny Igor Thiago. RB: NICOLO SAVONA (NOTTINGHAM FOREST) - Savona scored 2 goals during November and also put in some solid performances defensively. His contributions at both ends were key to Forest getting some points

SATURDAY: ASTON VILLA V ARSENAL Villa showed character to come from behind to win at Brighton during the week and it was good to see Ollie Watkins back on the scoresheet following his recent drought. A win for them here could put them in the title race as they're only six points behind Arsenal and are also one of the in-form teams in the league. Arsenal made changes against Brentford during the week and it was the right decision to do so as we're approaching the busiest stage

Ballers are players who are incredibly skilful, have many flicks and tricks up their sleeve and aren't afraid to take risks. They're the players who love taking on opponents and will back themselves to beat them in one on one duels because of how gifted they are. The game of football has seen many ballers light up the game over the years and especially during the modern era as the majority of ballers were around during the modern era , which was arguably when the term was cre

The definition of a one season wonder is pretty straightforward. It's a player who has just the one good season. The Premier League has had many of them over the years and they're well remembered purely based on what they did during that one good season they had. It is a shame that they delivered for just the one season because we would've liked to have seen them doing it in the seasons that followed after showing a good a player they were during that one season. There are a

TUESDAY: BOURNEMOUTH V EVERTON Bournemouth have a good record against Everton and especially at home as they're unbeaten in eight league games against them in this fixture. But they are not in the best of form at the moment as they're on a four game winless run with three of those four games being defeats. Their slump was bound to happen sooner or later as it does with any so-called lesser team when they started well, but they need to bounce back soon so they can get themselv

Thiago is Brentford's new talisman After both Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa left Brentford in the summer, a lot of people will have been wondering who will step up as the Bees' new talisman because of how important both players were last season. A lot of people had Brentford to be relegation contenders at the start of the season because of them losing those two players in particular as their goals were key to them having the season they had last season. But thanks to Igor Thia

SATURDAY: BRENTFORD V BURNLEY Brentford have proved a lot of doubters wrong this season and Keith Andrews deserves a lot of credit for the job he's done. They lost some key players over the summer and they haven't missed them one bit as the players who have replaced them have stepped up and delivered. Burnley have looked competitive in a lot of their games this season but they haven't been able to turn enough of those performances into results. I don't see them doing that in

Throughout the years since football was invented, many fans have been lucky enough to witness some of the greatest moments in the game at some of the most iconic stadiums. There are one or two factors that make a stadium great with one of them of course being the atmosphere generated by the fans which spurs on the home team to play well. The other is the venue itself because of it's size and the history of it as well because the bigger the ground the bigger the atmosphere, an

Attacking midfielders have been in the game for at least the last 10-15 years as the role of a midfielder has evolved as too have formations. As I've mentioned in previous top 10's, the majority of teams during the early years of the Premier League played 4-4-2 which required two box-to-box midfielders whereas now most teams play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 with the latter in particular requiring a attacking midfielder to play behind the striker. This top 10 might as well hav

Arne Slot under serious pressure at Liverpool Liverpool's poor form continued over the weekend following their 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest which saw them drop down to 11th in the table and 11 points behind leaders Arsenal. I asked a few weeks back if Arne Slot was under pressure when the reds were in the early stages of their poor form and with things now arguably worse, I now think Slot is under serious pressure. Slot does have credit in the bank after leading the r

SATURDAY: BURNLEY V CHELSEA Burnley have been competitive in a lot of their games this season and especially at home where their better results have come. I'm expecting them to give Chelsea a tough game here by being difficult to beat and getting men behind the ball. I asked before the international break in my key points of the weekend post if Chelsea are title contenders after their win over Wolves moved them up to third and four points behind leaders Arsenal. We were askin

What makes a good captain? First of all you need to be able to lead as being a captain is about being able to lead a group and command a group of individuals. You also need to have a personality, be vocal, take control of situations and be someone who your teammates can trust. Not every every captain is vocal or a big personality as they all like to lead in a different way due to the different characters they are. Some leaders like to bark out orders on the pitch whereas some

This top 10 might as well be called the top 10 strikers or top 10 centre forwards as those kind of players are often referred to as no.9s. The role of a no.9 has changed a lot in recent years as they're now being asked to do more than just score goals in that they're being asked to be involved with the build up and work hard without the ball. We do still have the out and out no.9 who teams get the ball up to straightaway and it's Erling Haaland who brought that kind of player

England's World Cup qualifying campaign concluded yesterday following their 2-0 win over Albania which ensured that they ended the campaign with a 100% record and without conceding a single goal. Their main focus now will be on their preparations for the tournament itself and Thomas Tuchel will of course have a lot of things to think about. Two of them included his best starting 11 and the players he will include in his squad. Let's see who I've got in my England team and whi

Winning a league title in any country is never easy because it's a long season and you need to be incredibly consistent because the team below you may be one or two points behind you. There have however been teams who have won titles rather comfortably for several seasons due to no teams really pushing them with Bayern Munich and PSG being key examples as they've dominated the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 respectively for many years with no teams really challenging them. Every leag

A box-to-box midfielder is a midfielder who has a lot of energy and is effective at both sides of the game and the Premier League has seen many of them over the years. It was around about 10 years ago where they were beginning to be phased out of the game as the majority of teams were moving away from playing a 4-4-2 to playing a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 with the latter using two defensive midfielders in front of the back four and an attacking midfielder behind the striker. But I d

Are Chelsea title contenders? Chelsea have had a somewhat inconsistent season and it's probably been down to their participation during the latter stages of the Club World Cup in the summer as they've picked up a number of injuries as a result of that. But they are currently 3rd in the Premier League and only six points behind leaders Arsenal and because of this, could they be title contenders? We were asking that question this time last season when they were on such a good r

Thomas Tuchel announced his England squad earlier today ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania. Alex Scott is the only new name to the squad whilst there are recalls for Nick Pope, Adam Wharton, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. Let's see what I think of the squad. I'm very surprised that Alex Scott has been called up because I wasn't expected him to receive a call up. He has been part of a Bournemouth side who are having an excellent season but I still

SATURDAY: TOTTENHAM V MAN UNITED This game is a rematch of the Europa League final from last season which Spurs went on to win in Bilbao. Spurs won all four of their games against United last season and have won this fixture in each of the last two seasons. But their home form this season has been very poor with just one win at home all season which came on the opening day against Burnley. They win at home in midweek though against Copenhagen which they won rather comfortably