At 3.00pm GMT, today, it will be exactly 12 days until the first round of Premier League fixtures get underway.
At Ewood Park, Craven Cottage, Anfield, Loftus Road, White Hart Lane, The DW Stadium and at St. James' "We-don't-know-quite-what-the -stadium-will-be-called" Park, the first whistle of the season will blow, and with it, absolute joy will wash over millions of football fans up and down the country!
After the (shorter-than-it-seems) Summer period where limited football is played and the back pages become filled with news of Cricket and Golf, we will finally start to see normality return as football will start to dominate
The fixture list in full, then, for the weekend of 13th-15th August: Saturday, 13 August 2011 Blackburn v Wolverhampton, 15:00
Fulham v Aston Villa, 15:00
Liverpool v Sunderland, 15:00
QPR v Bolton, 15:00
Tottenham v Everton, 15:00
Wigan v Norwich, 15:00
Newcastle v Arsenal, 17:30
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Stoke v Chelsea, 13:30
West Brom v Man Utd, 16:00
Manchester United were delighted to confirm, today, that the Aston Villa winger, Ashley Young, completed his move to Old Trafford, signing a five-year contract.
A club statement read: "Manchester United is delighted to announce it has reached agreement with Aston Villa for the transfer of Ashley Young. The player passed a medical in Manchester this week and has agreed a five-year contract."
A short while after the season ended, Ashley spoke with the Villa board to inform them of his intention to play Champions League football. Having made 15 appearances for England, I feel he now realises his potential, and sought bigger challenges.
Young, 25, had just one year left on his deal at Villa Park and with the new Aston Villa (and former Birmingham) manager, Alex McLeish, resigned to losing Young, the deal has now been completed.
He joins Blackburn's England Under-21 defender Phil Jones who moved to Old Trafford for between Ł16.5m and Ł20.5m earlier this month and with Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David de Gea likely to move to Manchester before the new season, United have really begun to signal their intent for 2011-12.
The new domestic and European Aston Villa away kit for the 2008-09 season has been unveiled. Featuring a colour scheme of "Laser" Blue and Black, the shirt features the same design including its V-neck pattern as the 2008-09 home kit.
The groundbreaking shirt partnership with charity 'Acorns', the Children's Hospice, is boldly displayed across the front.
After a fantastic 2007-08 season for Villa, capped by getting back into Europe again for the first time since the 2001-02 season, this upcoming season's two kits are a must buy for Villa fans everywhere.
Other features include: Nike Fit-Dry design, embroidered Aston Villa club crest, printed Acorns sponsor and AVFC logos.
English Premier League side Aston Villa has released a new home shirt for the upcoming 2008/09 Barclaycard Premiership season.
Finished in the traditional club colours of claret/sky, Villa will be playing in Europe again for the first time since the 2001/02 season in this new kit which features a V-neck collar and a groundbreaking shirt partnership with charity 'Acorns', the Children's Hospice.
Other features include: Nike Fit-Dry design, embroidered Aston Villa club crest, printed Acorns sponsor and AVFC logos.
One of the forgotten men of football, Wayne Routledge, is expected to sign for Aston Villa today.
The twenty three year old winger is leaving Tottenham Hotspur after starting only three games for them in the three years he has been at the club.
Not too long ago, Routledge was being hailed as the future of English football. His pace, dribbling and ability to deliver a cross saw the player make a big money move to Spurs from Crystal Palace, for whom he had played 110 games. He also represented the England under 21 side on 12 occasions.
It has all gone wrong for Routledge over the past couple of years but at 23 he has the time to turn things around. He will be given the opportunity to flourish under Martin O'Neil, and if anyone can find the exciting and promising footballer within, then I'm sure the Irish manager is the man to do it.
The winger has failed to impress in his loan spells at Portsmouth and Fulham, but he hasn't become a bad player overnight. I hope he rediscovers his form at Villa and goes on to have the type of career we all thought he would when he made his debut at the age of 16.
Available for pre-order is the new away kit for Aston Villa in 2007-08.
The white strip with faint blue stripes features a V-neck design along with the new modernised crest of Aston Villa (AVFC). Rounding off the kit are blue shorts and white socks.
The goalkeeper's kit is in two-tone yellow with thick vertical stripes.
Aston Villa has unveiled their new home kit for the upcoming season which starts next week.
In with a new layered round neckline and crest and out with the collar best sums up the new kit. The kit is manufactured by sportswear giants Nike and the main sponsor (32red.com) remains.
Man Utd 4 - 1 Bolton
Chelsea 3 - 0 Sheff Utd
Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Man City
Reading 0 - 0 Portsmouth
Tottenham 3 - 1 Watford
Wigan 0 - 0 Fulham
Blackburn 1 - 2 West Ham
Sun, Mar 18:
Charlton 2 - 0 Newcastle
Aston Villa 0 - 0 Liverpool
Everton 1 - 0 Arsenal
SUMMARY:
Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung and Wayne Rooney both scored a brace in their team's 4-1 victory over Bolton at Old Trafford.
However, the chief tormentor for Bolton was none other than in-form Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo who played a part in three of the four goals, including a stunning 80 yard run from the edge of his own box to setup Wayne Rooney for a chipped goal.
A serious-looking ankle injury to skipper Gary Neville in the 10th minute was the only sour-note of a dominant Red Devils performance and with six senior players already on the treatment table, the latest injury blow will truly test the depth of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad.
Chelsea are still in hot pursuit of the league leaders with a comfortable 3-0 demolition job on struggling Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Andriy Shevchenko, Salomon Kalou and substitute Michael Ballack were more than enough to settle a game in which the home side were rarely in trouble.
Arsenal and Liverpool, however, were unable to keep up with the top two sides with a loss and draw respectively.
The Gunners lost to an injury time winner from Everton's Andy Johnson which came from Mikel Arteta's corner. Arsenal chose the worst time to lose concentration and failed to clear the ball allowing the striker to drill home with a left-foot shot.
Meanwhile, Liverpool dominated possession at Villa Park but was unable to find a way past a resilient Aston Villa defence, reinforcing the need for a world-class striker in the off-season.
The man known as "God" to Liverpool fans, Robbie Fowler, replaced Gerrard with six minutes left and almost won the game for Liverpool when his header was turned around the post by Sorensen.
Oh what might have been had Fowler been brought on earlier when it was clear that a goal-poacher of his quality would not go amiss.
Reigning premiers Chelsea narrowed the gap at the top to just six points with a hard fought win over Manchester City over-night.
The Chelsea of late have been slow starters and this was no different despite taking the lead in the 28th minute. England defender Micah Richards fouled Salomon Kalou inside the box and up stepped Frank Lampard to dispatch the penalty and only goal of the game.
While Chelsea are six points from the top of the ladder, Manchester City will be looking over their shoulders as this defeat puts them within six points of the relegation zone.
Arsenal finally gave boss Arsene Wenger something to smile about with a win against Aston Villa.
The Gunners have suffered heartbreak over the past few weeks with their treble exits from cup competitions but Vassiriki Diaby's strike in the 10th minute gave the young side precious three points which saw them leap-frog Liverpool into third place.
Arsenal were without four players through suspension plus the injured captain Thierry Henry but they still managed to maintain a nine-year unbeaten run against Villa which encompasses 17 games.
Liverpool 0 - 1 Man Utd
Arsenal 2 - 1 Reading
Fulham 1 - 1 Aston Villa
Man City 0 - 1 Wigan
Newcastle 0 - 0 Middlesbrough
Sheff Utd 1 - 1 Everton
Watford 2 - 2 Charlton
Portsmouth 0 - 2 Chelsea
Sun, March 4:
Bolton 1 - 2 Blackburn
West Ham 3 - 4 Tottenham
SUMMARY:
Liverpool's unbeaten home run was ended in dramatic fashion when Manchester United defender John O'Shea's shot from a loose ball ended in the back of the net in the dying seconds.
Manchester United visited Anfield knowing that a win would give them a hand on the prized Premiership trophy but Liverpool had other ideas and dominated the game throughout the match.
However, in the dying seconds, the Red Devils pulled off an amazing "smash and grab" when O'Shea scored after a Ronaldo free-kick had rebounded off Liverpool keeperJose Reina.
Sir Alex Ferguson claimed Manchester United were lucky to beat Liverpool - and admitted the referee was right to send off Paul Scholes, who flung a stray arm at Xabi Alonso, for violent conduct.
Manchester United now has a nine-point lead in the Premiership race with just nine games remaining and the win at Anfield may have just sealed it for the Red Devils.
Chelsea remains within sight of the leaders with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park courtesy of Didier Drogba's 29th goal of the season and Salomon Kalou's 82nd minute goal.
Arsenal bounced back from their recent disappoint to beat Reading at home to move within a point of third place Liverpool.
Elsewhere, West Ham's relegation battle looks doomed after throwing away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-4 to Tottenham. The Hammer's defensive frailities were cruelly exposed when Tottenham scored twice in as many minutes to down the fellow Londoners.
Reading 2 - 0 Aston Villa
Chelsea 3 - 0 Middlesbrough
Everton 1 - 0 Blackburn
Man Utd 2 - 0 Charlton
Newcastle 2 - 1 Liverpool
Sheff Utd 2 - 1 Tottenham
West Ham 0 - 1 Watford
Portsmouth 2 - 1 Man City
Sun, Feb 11:
Bolton 2 - 1 Fulham
Arsenal 2 - 1 Wigan
SUMMARY:
The results from the Premier League this weekend was "same old, same old" with Manchester United and Chelsea achieving 2-0 and 3-0 wins respectively.
The Red Devil's 6-point cushion remained intact despite never hitting top form after goals from midfielders Ji-Sung Park and Darren Fletcher secured a 2-0 victory.
Didier Drogba's brace helped Chelsea on their way to a 3-0 victory against Aussie Mark Viduka's Middlesbrough with the Aussie guilty of missing a sitter after superbly pulling away from his marker, England captain John Terry, no less.
Rather than celebrating their first win under new American owners, Liverpool came unstuck against Newcastle at St James' Park having taken the lead through ex-Newcastle player Craig Bellamy (who was roundly booed, as one would expect) before the Toon brigade fought back to snatch a 2-1 home victory.
On Sunday, Arsenal came from behind to earn a hard fought victory over Wigan to keep their unbeaten home record intact.
Wigan stole the lead in the first half with a screamer from Denny Landzaat and it took until the 81st minute for the Gunners to equalise through a fortuitous own goal.
Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky then scored the winner for Arsenal with a header in the dying minutes of the game to seal the three points for the home side.
Liverpool 0 - 0 Everton
Aston Villa 1 - 0 West Ham
Blackburn 2 - 1 Sheff Utd
Charlton 0 - 1 Chelsea
Fulham 2 - 1 Newcastle
Man City 0 - 2 Reading
Watford 0 - 1 Bolton
Wigan 1 - 0 Portsmouth
Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Arsenal
Sun, Feb 4:
Tottenham 0 - 4 Man Utd
SUMMARY:
The 205th Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton finished goal-less with the blue half of Merseyside celebrating the feat of taking four points off fierce rivals Liverpool in a single season.
The build-up to the big game was all about the Mighty Reds avenging the 0-3 loss to Everton earlier in the season with manager Rafa Benitez signalling his intent by fielding a three-pronged attack of Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy.
However, a determined Everton outfit defended admirably to earn a point at the fortress that is Anfield with the Reds unable to breach the stubborn defence marshalled by Alan Stubbs.
Ten-men Arsenal fought hard to earn a draw with Middlesborough on Teeside and hard to rely on talismanic captain Thierry Henry to equalise in the 77th minute.
Australia captain Mark Viduka was on fine form and gave nightmares to Arsenal defender Kolo Toure all afternoon and was unlucky not to make the score-sheet.
Elsewhere on Saturday were wins for Aston Villa, Blackburn, Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, Bolton and Wigan.
On Sunday, league leaders Manchester United regained their six-point cushion on second placed Chelsea with a 4-0 win over Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
On-form Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with a controversial penalty at half-time when he appeared to dive in the box when challenged by Spurs defenders Steed Malbranque and Lee Young-Pyo.
I would've liked to give Ronaldo the benefit of the doubt, but given his reputation as a diver and the minimal amount of contact in the challenge, I would have to say that Spurs were hard done by.
Watch the video and see for yourself.
In the second half, it was all United with defender Nemanja Vidic, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs all getting on the score-sheet.
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