Premier League, Rooney, Europa League

Man Utd 3-0 Wolves. Didn't bat an eyelid did you. As expected a comfortable home win and return to winning ways for the champions, but a lot of the talk surrounding the game is on the Wolves team selection. They made 10 changes from the team who beat Spurs on Saturday, only the goalkeeper kept his place - it'll be no surprise to learn that Wolves' next game is a crunch home fixture with Burnley. You have to feel some sympathy for the Wolves fans that travelled to Old Trafford on a Tuesday night, shelling out a whopping £42 (thanks, Utd) for a ticket, to see what effectively was a reserve side get beat handsomely. But if any of the aggrieved fans want to make trips to Old Trafford a regular occurrence then they better get used to this and get behind their manager and their team. As I wrote yesterday, 2 away trips to Spurs and Utd in the space of 3 days is just about as tough as it can get in the Premier League, not to mention going to Man City and Liverpool in the next few games. McCarthy would have probably been happy with a point from those 6, and delighted with 2. So to have 3 is a massive bonus and he deserves credit for the way his team played on Saturday, and credit for being brave with what he did last night. All promoted teams will tell you that the games against the big boys are bonuses, you're not expected to get anything (especially away) so you need to target the games against the teams in and around you (Burnley) because those are the ones that will decide your season. For the record it's worth mentioning that Wolves picked up a couple of knocks on Saturday, they've recently lost the likes of Kightly for extended periods of time, and they're hardly used to playing 2 away games in the space of 3 days. We take for granted maybe our European sides who fly to a Turkey on Wednesday night, get back early on Thursday and have to travel to a Sunderland on Friday for a game on Saturday - Wolves just aren't build for this type of treatment. In the other games, Villa moved back up to third after going to a tough Sunderland side and beating them 2-0. James Milner continues to impress and it's surely unthinkable now that he'll go to the World Cup? His flexibility to play in many positions in no longer the best thing you can say about him, it's the way he performs in each of those positions that is now the talking point - centre midfield is the latest. West Ham lost 3-1 at Bolton and for the first time I feel very concerned about them. I'm not sure what else they can do right now but just hang in there until January, get the likes of Cole and Upson back and then battle on until May keeping everything crossed. Finally, Birmingham move up to a frankly ridiculous 6th place thanks to a 2-1 win over Blackburn. McLeish has done a superb job, but if you honestly ask yourself why they're doing so well, it's near impossible to quantify. Bowyer playing well in his twilight years? Jerome finally finding out how to score? And 'Chucho' being one of those great Zaki/Geovanni type gambles that is paying off? Tough to say, but they'll try to keep on doing it.

Another 4 games tonight and probably the biggest clash is at Spurs who host Man City. Villa are setting the pace right now for that 4th Champions League spot so both these teams will be desperate to win tonight to keep up with them. Spurs are plenty inconsistent at the moment, beating Wigan 9-1 one week and then getting beat at home to Wolves the next. We know they have the players, the strength in depth and are USUALLY very strong at home, but this will be a big test for them. As for City, despite the good win over Chelsea, they are plenty consistent drawing 8 out of their last 9 league matches. I'm sick of hearing about the fact they've only lost 1 game all season, when are they going to realise that it's the points column in the table that matters, not the fucking losses. Of those 9 games they've taken 11 points from a possible 27 which is equal to 3 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats - very average form. Hopefully a draw then. Liverpool take on Wigan at Anfield, once again this is the 'start of the season' as the manager likes to put it. How many false dawns are the Scousers going to give him? While their form pre-Utd game was a surprise, no-one could have predicted how far they would have fallen post-Utd game. It was expected that that great result would turn their season around but it looks like it was a blip in what has been miserable for the Reds. Chelsea will get a proper Italian shafting if they fail to beat Pompey at Stamford Bridge, and the Arsenal go to Burnley, the scene of a few scalps already this season. If Arsenal have any hopes of winning the league then we have to follow up great results like Sunday's, with another win tonight. Burnley tend to raise it for the big boys so it'll be a tough test but I expect our quality and our Arshavin to come through with the 3 points.

A lot of talk about the Wayne Rooney dive on Saturday and how he has previously spoken out about how he would never go down without a challenge, and that he's a very honest player. It's all bullshit really because the truth is that he like probably most players in this league would do anything it takes to get a win. He's got previous too, at least one shocking one against Arsenal, off the top of my head one against Spurs, and perhaps the most blatant was one against Villareal in the Champions League. Following that game, Fergie even came out to apologise to the Spaniards for Wayne's behaviour, you don't remember that? That's because twats like Danny Murphy (his Eurosport column) and Adrian Durham (Talksport) only see a national flag so ignore the English divers (Gerrard much?), and don't focus on what the individual has done - so that makes N'Gog and Eduardo fair game. Diving isn't contingent upon what national anthem a person sings, all diving is wrong and cheating and so all diving should be treated the same way. The only reason, Mr. Talksport, that Rooney didn't complain to the ref was because he got completely caught out and his actions were all over the telly. Are you telling me that if he'd have won a pen he wouldn't have picked the ball up and stuck it away? Shut it you prick.

Finally, good luck to Fulham tonight who travel to Basel knowing that they have to beat the Swiss to progress to the last 32 of the Europa League. You hear that UEFA? The last 32? It should follow the structure of the Champions League and be the last 16, and forget about the nonsense that allows the 3rd place teams in the CL to drop into another competition - for me when you're out, you're out. Take her easy.