Many people believe, myself included, that there's no better place in the world to follow the Premiership than in America. Sure, we're thousands of miles away from the live action, but we have an incredible amount of live matches and programming to choose from.

So it's a great pleasure to introduce a soccer show that many of you may not be familiar with. It's called Inside Soccer and it's hosted by two former professional players with a long history in the game, Brian Quinn and Brian Halliday.

The four hour show is broadcast every Saturday afternoon (2pm-6pm PT) and features interesting interviews and news about the world's game. Taking a look at past interviewees, Inside Soccer has an impressive repertoire of guests that have included Sir Alex Ferguson, Gordon Strachan, Marcus Hahnemann, Lawrie Sanchez and many more.

Yours truly was interviewed this past Saturday on the topic of why EPL Talk was created, my thoughts regarding a few of the clubs in the Premiership and what the future holds for the EPL Talk business.

Listen to the interview on Inside Soccer here.

This week's EPL Talk Podcast features an interview with Football365 columnist John Nicholson (pictured right). Without a doubt, it's one of the most interesting episodes out of the 30 we've done thus far.

Why? Whether it's his column or this interview, Nicholson is as honest an interviewee as you can find. There's no holding back with Nicholson, whether it's his tales of traveling America in a pub band or his brutally honest thoughts about the state of the current game and the England national team.

Nicholson's latest endeavour, a book entitled FootyRocks, is a collection of his 50 favorite "rants and dribbles" from his Football365 columns from the past six years. You can win a copy of the book, autographed by Nicholson. Just listen to the podcast interview to find out how to win it.

England's next match is November 15th in a friendly against the Netherlands, and it's a perfect opportunity for Steve McClaren to regain the confidence of England fans and determine which players need to be on the teamsheet for their next Euro 2008 qualifying match on March 24, 2007.

It'll be a perfect opportunity to test new systems and players. Here's who I would pick:

Robinson
Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, Bridge
Agbonlahor, Gerrard, Hargreaves, J. Cole
Johnson, Walcott

Robinson needs to play again to regain his confidence. The only change in the back four I would make is to drop the ineffective Ashley Cole. In midfield, I would give Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor (pictured above) his national debut to add width to the England side, with Gerrard in the middle along with the holding midfielder Hargreaves (if fit), and Joe Cole to add a different dimension down the left wing.

Up front, it's Arsenal's Theo Walcott to add speed and unpredictability to England's attack, and Andrew Johnson to rip the Dutch defense apart.

If you were Steve McClaren, what team would you pick against Holland?

Unfortunately this week's episode of the EPL Talk Podcast will be delayed. Instead of being released late Sunday night, it'll be available Monday evening. I apologize for any inconveniences, but we experienced some technical difficulties (the microphone isn't working and has to be replaced).

Thanks for your patience.

We've received a tremendous response to the call for bloggers to join the EPL Talk Community. After a lot of review, here are the five bloggers who'll be featured at http://epltalk.communityserver.com/blogs

BillEShears: Listeners to the Football Weekly Podcast by The Guardian will be familiar with this American who always has something interesting to share. The Michigan resident frequently writes on The Guardian Sport Blog, and is already a regular contributor to the forums inside the EPL Talk Community. BillEShears is taking a year off before doing a History PhD program in the States.

The Scout: Many of you may already be familiar with The Scout, the Winnipeg resident who has been an EPL Talk Correspondent for several months now after writing for the EPL Talk Magazine, this blog and over at FoxSoccer.com. His writing and research results in very factual and detailed reports, and we look forward to seeing him shine once again for us.

Squid: A resident of Charlotte, North Carolina and a huge Sheffield Wednesday supporter, Squid (real name John Griffin) was recently featured in the EPL Talk Email Newsletter with his story about how he became a Wednesday fan.

Thor: A film and historical researcher, Tim Horsburgh (aka Thor) is an avid Tottenham Hotspur supporter who recently moved to Chicago from London. Even though he currently works at the Chicago Film Archives, Thor still finds plenty of time to watch Fox Soccer Channel.

Brad Hudson: The Dallas resident is an Arsenal fan and Sergeant in Arms for ArsenalAmerica.com. While the Gunners is in his heart, he'll aims to keep his blog from becoming Arsenal centric. A tech writer by trade, we're looking forward to seeing his contributions.

Thank you for all five for volunteering their time to write. A couple of them have already written some great posts (check them out at http://epltalk.communityserver.com/blogs).

In the meantime, we have several other people waiting in the wings to write blogs in the future. If one or more of the bloggers "retire" from writing in the future, we'll call on the next person who has expressed an interest in writing.

Editor's Note: We're now accepting "applications" for additional spots on the EPL Talk Blog. If you're interested, email me at thegaffer@epltalk.com If you've already applied in the past and weren't selected for the first five, I'll follow up with you directly within the next 24 hours.

Correction: Saturday's 10am ET match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur will not be shown on Setanta Xtra at that time, but will be shown at 3:30pm ET on same day delay on Setanta Sports instead. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Excellent news this evening. ITVN, the company that offers Setanta Sports via a high speed internet connection to your TV, has added an "On Demand" feature to its offering.

While the set top box that ITVN provides doesn't provide recording capabilities, the "On Demand" feature will allow ITVN subscribers to watch games after they've completed. This will especially be helpful during those weekday Champions League matches when many of us are working and away from our TV sets.

Some of you may remember that EPL Talk was the first to interview Setanta Sports and ITVN about the Premiership availability. If you don't have a satellite dish and you want to watch as many of the Premiership games as possible, click on the banner at the top of the page to sign up for ITVN. You'll be supporting EPL Talk for doing so.

For those of you who are new to EPL Talk, here's a brief introduction.

EPL Talk was created to provide English Premier League fans outside the U.K. a unique experience to help them enjoy the most popular sports league in the world. Sure, there are hundreds, if not thousands of web sites out there, but there's only one that focuses on what the experience is like to watch the Premiership on TV each week.

Because most of our visitors are from the U.S., we feature TV listings on the EPL Talk web site for Fox Soccer Channel, Setanta Sports and GolTV. The web site also includes a live league table that's updated as the goals go in, as well as live match reports and -- uniquely -- an EPL Talk Chat every Saturday and Sunday as fans from around the world log on to the web site and chat with each other as they watch the action unfold on their TV screens.

And here's where EPL Talk is even more unique. The EPL Talk Podcast is the only interview podcast on the internet featuring weekly interviews with the experts in the game such as Seamus Malin, Simon Inglis, Nick Webster, Ray Hudson, Sean Wheelock and many more.

The EPL Talk Email Newsletter, meanwhile, is delivered to your in-box every Friday with the TV listings for the upcoming weekend of Premiership matches, as well as insight and the top news stories on the game.

The EPL Talk Magazine is a quarterly online magazine, the only one of its kind to focus on the Premiership TV viewer and what it's like to be a fan watching matches on TV.

This blog, meanwhile, is updated on a daily basis with the latest developments, insights and observations effecting you.

And last, but not least, we just launched the EPL Talk Community which brings soccer fans together from around the world to discuss the latest hot topics, to participate in blogs, view images, download files and much more.

Welcome aboard everyone!

Breaking news. I just received fantastic word that Alan Mullery will be the guest on the next EPL Talk Podcast. The England, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham legend will be discussing his new autobiography.

If you have any specific questions you'd like me to ask Mr. Mullery, please hit the 'Comments' link below and post them there between now and Saturday morning.

For more information about the legend, view his page here: Alan Mullery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newcastle and England legend Alan Shearer will be making a guest appearance in Tampa for the USL's SoccerFest, scheduled for November 16-21.

He'll be available for autographs. Exact time and location are to be determined, but more details are available via their press release and the USL SoccerFest site.

The United Soccer League (USL) is a professional league in the U.S.

If you were a cable company and you wanted to redistribute the Fox Soccer Channel feed on your local satellite network, how much do you think it'd cost?

Well over in Jamaica, cable company SportsMax Limited is paying $300,000-$400,000 per year for the rights. The channel recently launched Fox Soccer Channel Jamaica, which broadcasts much of what we're accustomed to seeing on Fox, but they also provide cricket plus other programming on the network.

More information about the deal is provided by The Jamaica Observer.

While Setanta Broadband has been available since earlier this year, Fox Soccer Channel has started testing the streaming of live matches via its web site, FoxSoccer.com.

The first test was conducted this past weekend for the Denmark against Northern Ireland match. The next test will be Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifier between Iceland and Sweden. You can access the webcast page here. The technology FSC is using is impressive and the quality is very decent.

Fox is using a player from a company named Vividas. The player is easy to install (download only takes a few seconds on broadband) and when it plays video, it takes up the entire screen. That's great for most users, but some people may want to surf and watch a match at the same time.

While the test is a great idea by Fox, what will be more interesting is what matches will be available by broadband in the future. FSC obviously has the broadband rights to show certain Euro 2008 qualifier matches, but what about the Premiership? Could this be a glimpse of how Fox will provide their entertainment in the future? Will this continue to be available for free, or will Fox charge a subscription fee similar to Setanta Broadband?

Read more news about it from Fox Soccer Channel here.

While I'm nervous about England's chances against Croatia Wednesday night, I'm more hopeful for England's future after watching the highlights of the under-21's team 2-0 win against the German youngsters.

Two fantastic goals from Arsenal's Theo Walcott sealed the victory. Why Eriksson didn't give Theo a run-out against Portugal, I don't know. His speed, skill and accuracy are fantastic. He shows glimpses of Michael Owen andThierry Henry all rolled into one. If you get a chance to watch the highlights from this match, go ahead and do so. You'll see some bright young hopes for England.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa's Agbonlahor was in fine form down the right wing and Preston's David Nugent impressed again. But let's not forget manager Peter Taylor's contributions. He's a brilliant manager with a lot of experience at clubs like Leicester, Hull City, Gillingham and other clubs.

Note: Through the magic of YouTube, or will it be GoogleTube soon, and the hard work of Ronaldo Assis de Moreira from the 101 Great Goals Blog, here are the links to the two Walcott goals.

TalkSport scored a huge coup today after it won a rights package to broadcast Premiership matches in the UK starting next season through 2012-2013.

Currently, BBC's Radio Five Live owns the rights, but beginning next season they'll be sharing them with TalkSport, the national commercial station. Read more information at the following article: Guardian Unlimited Football News TalkSport wins Premiership radio rights package.

What does this mean for Premiership fans outside the UK? Not much if TalkSport blocks listeners from hearing the broadcasts via their live streaming audio on their web site. But perhaps the cash infusion which will come from advertisers will enable TalkSport to offer more football programming that we can listen to. We'll have to wait and see.

Okay, my head is starting to spin. Not really, but this is going to be another busy and rewarding week for EPL Talk and its readers. First up is tomorrow's international matches. Unfortunately, I'm predicting that England is going to lose to Croatia. Even with McClaren changing the formation to a 3-5-2, I don't see where the goals are going to come from.

Then, of course, we have the return of the Premiership this Saturday. I previewed some of the matches on this week's EPL Talk Podcast interview with Jeff Rusnak, and I'll include more previews in this week's EPL Talk Email Newsletter (due out Friday morning). For those of you who haven't experienced the EPL Talk Chat, give it a try this Saturday. We'll be there (at the EPL Talk homepage) starting from 7:30am ET.

Other important news happening this week:

• I'm going to be the guest 'Fone-A-Fan' in this Thursday's show by The 2 G's. If you get a chance, be sure to listen live at Noon ET or download their podcast.
  
  
• This Thursday night I'm interviewing football writer David Wangerin for an upcoming episode of the EPL Talk Podcast. Although you may not be familiar with him, Wangerin writes for the excellent "When Saturday Comes" magazine and has just published a new book entitled "Soccer In A Football World."
  
  
• The book chronicles the history of football in America, telling many untold stories about the characters, teams and failures of the sport in this country. If you want to submit any questions you'd like me to ask him, please e-mail thegaffer@epltalk.com between now and Thursday.
  
  
• Interestingly, if you want to help the author on future topics for his books, read his projects page.
  
  
• The winner of the World Soccer Shop for posting the best message on the just-launched EPL Talk Community site is BillEShears. If you want to win your own World Soccer Shop T-shirt, listen for the trivia question on this week's EPL Talk Podcast. Plus, you have another chance to win a World Soccer Shop. All you have to do is participate in the EPL Talk Chat on Saturday, and we'll pick one lucky winner.
  
  
• Earlier this week, we spoke with Football365.com columnist and writer John Nicholson. His interview will be featured on an upcoming episode of the EPL Talk Podcast. And this one will definitely be more lighthearted than previous episodes. That said, Nicholson shared many pearls of wisdom. More about that later this week.
  
  
• Now on to the biggest news of the week (are you still with me?!). Well, I can't announce who it is yet until it's confirmed, but EPL Talk is on the verge of confirming an interview with the biggest star yet for an upcoming EPL Talk Podcast. As soon as I get confirmation, I'll let you know on this blog so you can send in your questions ahead of time.
  

Thanks everyone for your support!

GolTV has announced that it'll be airing a new show on its channel soon entitled "Mourinho's Ultimate +10 Team."

This star-studded special brings together some of the world's finest soccer stars to battle it out in a series of fun, physical, strategic challanges designed to test the dexterity and skill of the players. The show pits 14 teams crammed with soccer greats. Team captains include David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Djibril Cisse, Damien Duff and others. The program will introduce viewers to the hero team captains and follow them and their teams through five exciting rounds of competitive play.

There are a total of 7 episodes.

Last week I introduced many of you to a fantastic show on GolTV named "Soccer Academy," which traced the steps of young French players from the Nantes academy. The good news is that I just heard from GolTV and their spokesperson said that the third episode will air this Thursday at 7:30pm ET!

GolTV has been running re-runs of episodes 1 and 2 quite often, so check their TV listings to catch up on the episodes you're missed. GolTV will be showing the fourth and fifth episodes of the show in the coming weeks.

In other news from GolTV, they'll be adding an additional program:

• "Fans United": No information available about this show, as of yet, but it sounds intriguing.

EPL Talk just launched two major new areas of the site today:

• the EPL Talk Community, and
• an online store.

Both can now be accessed from the navigation bar at http://www.epltalk.com The EPL Talk Community features an online discussion forum, photos, downloads, RSS feeds and much more.

The online store, meanwhile, features a large array of items for purchase including shirts from Premiership clubs, rare collectibles, video games, other merchandise and more.

To celebrate the launch of the EPL Talk Community, we'll be awarding the person with the best post (all it takes is one) between now and Monday at 11:59pm ET with their very own World Soccer Shop T-shirt.

Please give us your feedback on the new sections to the EPL Talk web site, and let's go ahead and start building a community for us all to benefit from.

While the resurgence of soccer in America continues to ramp up, there are always a few bumps along the way. For example, FoxSoccer.com blogs have been down for the past 24 hours and Setanta Sports was experiencing some technical difficulties with their broadcast this evening.

Watching the Leeds against Chelsea match on Setanta Sports tonight, the screen displayed the words "Back Soon" for more than 10 minutes. The match, which is part of the Chelsea Classics that they show, must have experienced some technical difficulties.

At FoxSoccer.com meanwhile, the popular blogs section has been down and the pages time out. That means no blogs, for the time being, from Bobby McMahon, Jamie Trecker, Nick Webster or Jeremy St. Louis.

Let's hope they both return soon.

Editor's Note: While Setanta's coverage soon returned shortly thereafter, it's not the same case for the Fox Soccer blogs unfortunately. It's currently Sunday, October 8 and -- by my account -- the blogs have been down since Thursday.

Let's hope that Glenn "Mooch" Myernick is on the road to recovery soon after he just had a major heart attack and is currently in a coma. The assistant US coach, who coached the Colorado Rapids (and has been a fixture of Major League Soccer for years), is currently in a Colorado area hospital in stable condition.

Read the article by Jamie Trecker for more details.

Editor's Note: Sadly, I just read that Glenn Myernick passed away yesterday (Monday, October 9). Myernick's familiar face was synonymous with MLS. And now with Doug Hamilton and Myernick passing away, these are two huge losses for Major League Soccer. More details about the story are at http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/6044074

If you're the type of football fan that loves the game and the stories that goes on within it, you'll undoubtedly enjoy these two articles.

The Independent reports about an intriguing match-up this weekend against two fierce rivals who are steeped in history. But it's definitely not the clubs you'd expect to read about it. Read this fascinating story here.

Another pearl of wisdom from The Independent newspaper is a piece about last weekend's match between Forfar and Peterhead, and how it especially made one Canadian very prosperous.

Some interesting news of note:

The Sun newspaper has the exclusive story and pictures of Chelsea dumping sand on their Stamford Bridge pitch 12 days before their important home leg against Barcelona in the Champions League. The move is bound to cause controversy and will add to the tense nature of the Barca-Chelsea matches of previous seasons.

Amazingly, The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Premier League bung inquiry may result in zero illegal payments have been made to club officials, according to Premier League insiders.

Thanks to a tip-off from The Tokyo Toffeeman, BBC Sport has announced that they're shutting down their sport message boards. One of the main reasons for the change is the online wars and abuse thrown at fans on the boards. We saw a glimpse of that recently on the EPL Talk Blog when irate Villa and Chelsea fans responded with adult language against the EPL Talk correspondent. Let's hope the forthcoming EPL Talk message boards will be devoid of this type of abuse and language.

The Soccer Mad In America blog includes a clip of a forthcoming documentary about the German World Cup team. Although it's in German, the trailer gives a fascinating insight into the German World Cup team.

While the football world has been quiet this week, EPL Talk has been "under the cosh" as the Brits would say (i.e. insanely busy).

First, congratulations to Aaron Fennimore for being the lucky recipient of the World Soccer Shop T-shirt for correctly answering the question posed on the EPL Talk Podcast. Keep on reading this blog over the next few days to learn how you can win the second T-shirt we're giving away.

Second, the next episode of the EPL Talk Podcast will feature an interview with South Florida Sun-Sentinel soccer columnist Jeff Rusnak. If you have any questions you'd like me to pose to him, please e-mail them to thegaffer@epltalk.com before Thursday at 5pm ET.

Third, I mentioned on the most recent EPL Talk Podcast that we'll have two surprise announcements to unveil this week. I can now announce the first of those. EPL Talk will be unveiling a discussion forum so you can read and post messages with fellow EPL Talk fans from around the world. Just like everything that EPL Talk does however, these discussion forums won't be ordinary. I'm anticipating that they'll be live this weekend, but I'll update the blog as soon as they're live.

The second surprise announcement will also be made during the next few days.

Fourth, I hope to make some time this weekend to work on the next issue of the EPL Talk Magazine. I have some incredible story ideas, some of which have never been explored before, so I'll make every effort to get the next issue ready for primetime in the future.

Thanks for your support!

The qualifying matches for Euro 2008 will continue this weekend. For many of us - whether we're European or not - it doesn't conjure up much excitement, but why?

Growing up as a kid in Britain in the 70's and early 80's, I was accustomed to placing international teams as the pinnacle of the sport. I fondly remember the Home Championships where the British national sides played each other in a memorable tournament each year. I also adored the World Cups with the 1978 and 1982 ones being extremely memorable for me still to this day.

But over the years, club football has overtaken the international teams. I believe that one of the reasons is that we're so used to seeing international players in the Premier League and Champions League now that club football is essentially made up of all-star teams. If sides like Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan can buy the best talent in the world, isn't that much better than watching an international side.

The perfect example of this is England. The national side is improving under Steve McClaren, but let's consider the starting eleven that'll probably start against Macedonia.

Paul Robinson, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Shaun Wright Philips, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Scott Parker, Stewart Downing, Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch

Out of these players, is there one that's playing at the top of his game right now?

Crouch has been the best performer for England recently, but he hasn't played for Liverpool much due to Rafa Benitez's squad rotation system. Rooney has been pathetic and should have been dropped. Downing has been injured. Parker means well, but has been suffering with a weak Newcastle defence. Lampard has been improving, but is still way below par. Gerrard has been less influential for Liverpool as of late. Wright-Philips has been practically invisible for Chelsea (no matter how much I rate the player).

The backline of Terry, Ferdinand and Neville have been below-par also with all three of them looking suspect at times this season. Robinson meanwhile has been a sieve for Spurs although he did make an incredible save for Tottenham against Portsmouth this past Sunday.

If you look at the players who are lighting up the Premiership, most of them are foreign with Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba the two best examples.

That said, let's give the international teams the benefit of the doubt over the next week to see how they perform. Watch for a listing of the matches being shown on U.S. TV in this week's EPL Talk Email Newsletter (subscribe via the link from the homepage of EPLTalk.com).

During the EPL drought for the next 10 days, I thoroughly recommend you watch a new program to American airwaves entitled "Soccer Academy," which airs on GolTV.

The program is a fascinating glimpse inside the real-world of a football academy and what the teenagers have to go through to realize their dream of playing professional football. The French documentary captures the mood and hunger that these young stars have, and the program guides the viewer through the adventure until we get to see which players make it.

One of the reasons why the program is so well done is that it evokes fond memories for myself, and I'm sure many people, of their desire as a youngster to play professional football for a living. As like many young kids, that dream never materialized, but we can live through the hopes and dreams of these French starlets.

The documentary is interspersed with interviews as Zidane, Deschamps, Desailly, Thuram and others offer their insight and their own memories of what it was like in the academy when they were younger.

While the program is new to American TV, it debuted in May in France. The program begins with a set of players entering the academy for FC Nantes, one of the most historical clubs in France.

Check your local TV listings for "Soccer Academy." The five-part program is being shown throughout the week on GolTV.

When is the Premiership referred to as the English Premier League (or the acronym EPL)? The answer is when it's typically referenced by people outside the UK.

The Premier League markets the world's most popular sports league as the English Premier League, which makes total sense because there are several other forms of football that use the "Premier League" description (Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Wales, just to name a few).

If you don't believe me, here are two examples of the EPL reference from Patrick Barclay at The Daily Telegraph, and Australian striker Scott McDonald.

Surprisingly, the topic of the "EPL" name usually generates quite a bit of controversy.

Unfortunately this was not a good weekend for referees in the Premiership.

In the Bolton against Liverpool match, the free kick that led to Bolton's first goal should never have counted when Jose Pepe Reina came nowhere close to handling the ball outside of the penalty area while he was booting it upfield. How the assistant referee messed that one up, I do not know.

In the same match, Bolton's Faye elbowed Dirk Kuyt in the head requiring the Dutch striker to enter the training room during the match to receive more than eight staples in his head. Faye didn't even receive a yellow card.

Of course, then there's the flagrant dive by Didier Zokora for Spurs against Portsmouth. While the dive resulted in a penalty that secured the win for Spurs, Zokora will not win many admirers in the English Premier League with cheating like that. Let's hope he doesn't continue this trend. Otherwise he'll be booed by away and neutral fans just as much as Diouf from Bolton.

There was talk of blatant penalty decisions not being awarded in the Chelsea against Aston Villa match, but I unfortunately missed those incidents.

In fairness to the referees, they're judging these decisions without the aid of TV replays. We're at a unique, and unfair, advantage over the refs where we can judge the decision made in mere seconds. Harry Redknapp, especially, was furious at the Premier League for not allowing refs to use modern technology to resolve such critical calls. And in terms of the Zokora dive, it looked like a foul to me when I saw it in real-time. Only by watching the TV replay was I able to see that it was a clear dive.

The headline writers at The Times newspaper saw the funnier side of the matter. Their headline: Tottenham In The Diving Seat.

What are your thoughts? Is it time for the Premier League to introduce technology to make decisions about critical moments during a match?

By Mark Fishburn, EPL Talk Correspondent
(who was at Stamford Bridge yesterday and filed this report from London)

I should have known when I was woken up at 5.30 am by the loudest clap of thunder, that the gods were in disharmony. Later this was evident on the field at Stamford Bridge. I’m not sure what game Mourinho was watching: “Chelsea played incredible attacking football:”

To be honest the game did have some moments. When Didier Drrrrrrrrrogbarrrrr bundled the ball into the net when the game was a couple of minutes old, my seat was so far up in west stand that I actually hit my head on the roof when I jumped up to celebrate. The goalkeeper was tentative and he was punished by Drogba. For the next twenty minutes Chelsea created chances against a truly abysmal Aston Villa side. Gradually, Chelsea started to play two touches where one would do and Aston Villa started getting some possession and creating chances. After 40 minutes however, Essien, Lampard and Shevchenko finally put together a slick move that only lacked a better final pass from Lampard.

Then on the scene came “Curse of the Wenger.” Ashley (bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep) C*l* had been tightly making the Villa right flanker from a distance of 30 yards and then flew in with a tackle and was skinned by Agbonlahor. Luckily a last minute tackle by Terry (maybe it was Carvalho) forced the corner, after which the same player headed the equalizer from 12 yards.

C*l* had another wretched game and I’m trying to start a rumor that he’s being put out on loan to a Nationwide team till he learns marking 101. What the TV doesn’t show is how far off his winger C*l* plays. In the second half he repeated the maneuver and jumped in late to be roasted again. Apparently Sheva overheard a similar loaner conversation in the tunnel at half time because for the next twenty five minutes he started to attack Villa with pace and had his best spell since joining Chelsea. Even so, most of the efforts petered out. Agbonlahor again influenced the play with an excellent tackle when Lampard was put through on the edge of the 10 yard box. Drogba battled with limited service and Essien was the best of the midfield.

If heaven is where the Germans are the engineers and the police are British, chefs French, etc, then yesterday, Chelsea was where the back passing was by Lampard, the forward passing was by Makelele, the mazy dribbling was by Geremi, the right footed crosses were by Robben and the penetrating wing runs were by C*l* stumbling into defenders. Maybe they were all woken up by the same thunderstorm and stumbled out the wrong side of bed.

Clumsy Kalou came on and played like he’d been drinking Kahlua. (Just like the other times he’s played). SWP also brought a couple of good runs but then couldn’t get any passes when unmarked and finally had a shot from a very acute angle that glance of the crossbar.

Aston Villa created a few threats near the end but it’s evident that they still have problems.

Best moment for me was when Sheva was unfairly tackled and lost his right shoe. He demonstrated to Graham Poll by taking the other shoe off.

If Chelsea had been able to string a few more passes together and Lampard had attacked the goal aggressively, then a 2-1 result would have been fair. But they didn’t. Hurry back Joe Cole and Wayne Bridge.

Editor's Note: If you're a Villa fan, listen to the interview with lifelong Villa fan and former World Cup commentator Seamus Malin, or listen to the interview with fellow lifelong Villa fan (and stadium author Simon Inglis). Both are available on the EPL Talk Podcast.