Reverse psychology or is Gary Megson just stating how he sees it? Bolton managed to clamber above Birmingham in the Premier League last weekend, yet the Wanderers gaffer is making the Blues favourites to stay up at the expense of his team or Reading.

According to ITV, Megson thinks that City having two home matches left gives them a far greater chance of accruing the points required for survival, whereas his Bolton team still face trips to Tottenham and Chelsea.

“When you look at the games Fulham, Birmingham, ourselves and Reading have got I think you would probably look and say that Birmingham are favourites in this relegation battle to stay up because of the fact that they have got two home games,” Megson said.

“I know they got a poor result against Villa last week but I think one of the things they’ve got is a huge partisan crowd.

“I know very well from being in that part of the world and I don’t think it’s any coincidence the amount of penalties and free-kicks they seem to get at that place that have enabled them to pick up results.

“So I would say that Birmingham are probably favourites to get out of this because of the two home games.”

Alex McLeish’s men face an understrength Liverpool team on Saturday, while they’ll be playing a Blackburn team on the last game of the season with nothing but pride to play for. Meanwhile, Reading have a tricky trip to Wigan on Saturday, while they also have to host Tottenham and visit Derby.

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The ice-cream loving winger was caught allegedly slying off for talks with Inter earlier this year, just before the Arsenal were due to play Milan in the Champions League. Although captain William Gallas has called on the likes of Hleb, Fabregas and Flamini to commit to the club for next season, it’s clear that the Belarussian is going to have other offers on the table after a fantastic season for the Gunners.

Sky Sports report that Hleb is banned for the next three matches after losing his rag with Reading captain Graeme Murty last weekend and striking the defender, much to the chagrin of the Royals. Will the player now start plotting his Emirates exit?

Referee Peter Walton did not include the incident in his initial match report as he did not see it, but having video evidence he admitted he would have red-carded the Arsenal midfielder.

As such the FA charged Hleb – and he has now admitted the charge rather than appealing.

Hleb’s season is now over as he misses Arsenal’s three remaining matches against Derby, Everton and Sunderland.

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Yes you saw the game, and now it’s your turn to say it as you saw it! Who had a ‘mare’ and who was on the money? You decided with our lovely cut and paste thingy!

See below the line-ups, then simply give your personal rating for each player and cut and paste the whole thing into the comments box. Then see how your fellow fans scored the game.

Arsenal
Lehmann
Toure
(Eboue)
Gallas
Song Billong
Clichy
Walcott
Fabregas
Silva
Hleb
(Denilson)
Van Persie
Adebayor
(Bendtner)

Reading
Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
(Duberry)
Ingimarsson
Bikey
Rosenior
Kebe
(Matejovsky)
Cisse
Harper
(Fae)
Convey
Kitson

The heat is on at the bottom of the Premier League after a Bolton win meant it’s a three-horse race to the Championship that nobody wants to win. Although Reading put up a deent second-half performance away at Arsenal on Saturday, it wasn’t enough to stop them losing 2-0 and manager Steve Coppell appears to be feeling the pressure.

Sky Sports report that Coppell is unhappy that Alexander Hleb got away with slapping Graeme Murty during the match, when a red card should apparently have been brandished instead. His captain was knocked to the floor as a result, with the officials taking a leaf out of the Arsenal manager’s book and ‘not seeing anything’.

Coppell said: “Hleb slapped him across the neck and it is clearly visible on the video. It is there to see.

“I don’t know how the procedure is at the Football Association. It seems some mystery man phones in and says ‘have a look at the tape’.

“The whole process is unexplainable and arbitrary. Maybe someone in their front room somewhere will do something about it.”

It’s getting tight at the foot of the Premier League table, with just one point seperating Birmingham from Bolton and Reading. It appeared that the Royals had hauled themselves clear a few weeks ago, but last week’s defeat at home to Fulham means the prospect of returning to the Championship is a very real one.

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Then you’ve come to the right place. Or at least you’ll be there in just a click of a mouse. Our friends at New African Soccer magazine are relaunching next month with a special promotion, which includes the giving away of ipods, a five-a-side goal and numerous football shirts signed by some top notch Premier League footballers.

If you’re a Chelsea fan, there’s a Drogba, Kalou and Essien shirts available, while there’s also Arsenal shirts from Toure, Adebayor and the wild card that is Emmanuel Eboue. Portsmouth fans will also be interested in getting their hands on shirts signed by Kanu (maybe Gooners as well for this one), Utaka, Muntari and Diop. Finally, Royals fans can snap up a shirt signed by Ibrahim Sonko.

If you’ve never head of them, New African Soccer magazine is the only English language magazine devoted to the African game and provides a forum for serious, informed and honest journalism about all aspects of the game in Africa. The next three issues of NAS will be available free as online PDFs so get involved and land yourselves one of the prizes on offer.

Here at COS, we’re going for the Drogba shirt before he buggers off to Italy!

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To say that the last two campaigns haven’t been kind to Petr Cech on the injury front is something of an understatement. There was the coming together with Reading’s Stephen Hunt last season, which threatened to end the Czech’s life, let alone his footballing career. Thankfully he made a full recovery from his fractured skull, although he still has to wear protective headgear when playing matches.

If this wasn’t bad enough, The Guardian have reported that the Chelsea keeper has had to have 50 stitches to mend his face after a training ground clash with Tal Ben Haim. It seems once again that the stopper has been too brave for his own good, incurring some pretty nasty lacerations to his lip and chin. This follows problems with his calf, hip, thigh and ankle which have kept him out for large chunks of the season.

“Petr has been a bit unlucky this season,” said a characteristically deadpan Grant. “He was great in training but sometimes it happens. It was a tackle between two players and I think he will be out for two weeks.”

As Homer Simpson once sang, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all” and the same can be said for poor Petr Cech. Let’s hope one of the more likeable players in the Chelsea squad (and let’s face it, there aren’t that many) makes a full recovery and plays a part in the Blues’ finishing runner-up in the Premier League and being knocked out of the Champions League semi-final with Arsenal.

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Hot on the heels of their romp at White Hart Lane, Kevin Keegan’s side managed to storm away with a 3-0 win over Reading, in which all three of his star strikers, Owen, Viduka, and Martin’s basked, like three very chuffed performing seals, in the glory of a goal apiece. Keegan though, is haunted by the fact that his Newcastle side could still be officially the work Toon team in Premier League history – Keegan said:

“The main focus still is to finish as high in the league as we can.

“I don’t want to be manager of this club and finish with less than 43 points, which is the lowest total they have ever got.

“My personal ambition is not to be remembered as the manager who got the lowest points.”

Newcastle are currently on 38 points, and their lowest season total was 43 points — a record currently held by Glenn Roeder – only 6 point needed to beat that Kev!

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Reading have been suffering a tormenting season in the Premiership and are yet to assure themselves of not dowing down the gutter into the Championship at the end of the season.

Their best player this season has been Nicky Shorey and even then he was out of sorts in the early weeks of the season. But the England international says that he is now focused on Reading and admits that it was the mounting speculation on his future at the Royals that adversely affected his performance.

Shorey says:

It probably affected me through the early stages of the season until we come to the decision to put it on hold until the summer.

Ever since I’ve done that I’ve had an upturn in my performances.

I think that’s helped me to put it to one side. It has helped me personally and the team as well, so it’s good.

The Reading fans pray that Shorey lifts the Royals out of the relegation war zone.

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I thought it would be interesting to try to make an eleven out of players that cost nothing! Either they came through the ranks to make it into the big time or were wise investments that cost less than a peanut!

Brad Friedel (Blackburn) – Commonly cited as one of the best keepers in the Premier League. Cost nothing and regularly saves the day for Mark Hughes’s side.

Micah Richards (Man City) – What a player, decided to opt for him in full back mode, although he is as effective at centre back

Nicky Shorey (Reading) – I am cheating a little with this one as the talented left back did in fact cost £25k when he was snapped up from Leyton Orient, but that’s practically nothing!

John Terry (Chelsea) – One club man (minus a loan spell at Forest) who has served Chelsea with aplomb almost a decade now.

Jamie Carragher (Liverpool) – derided by many outside Merseyside, at Anfield he is revered for his workmanlike attitude and his ability to deal with situations in a no nonsense manner which is what you should expect from a defender.

Adel Taarabt (Spurs) – I know he is receiving far more attention than is healthy for the young lad, but he looks like he could be one hell of a prospect!

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) – Stevie G, what can I say that has not been said? Nothing I guess!

Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) – Wenger’s finest hour, raiding Barcelona for the midfielder who even at age 20 can legitimately be considered a legend in the making!

Ryan Giggs (Man United) – Has now been at Old Trafford over 20 years and is still capable of doing the business in 2008.

Freddie Sears (West Ham) – Could be the next Tony Cottee or Marco Boogers, too early to say, but that’s fine as he cost nish!

Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) – Villa will have their work cut out keeping hold of their 21 year old star. Sure to be an England man for the near future

So those, for what it’s worth, are my choices. Who would you pick, i know your just dying to tell me! Let me have it!

Arsene Wenger, clearly buoyed by his playground superstars and their bravura performance against the doddering duffers at the San Siro – is plumbing even further to find young starlets he can mould. Arsene is scouring the world like a crazed Hollywood agent, the latest young sprite to show the requisite talent is 12 (yes, t-w-e-l-v-e) year-old Ryan Gates, who has hit the back of the net 95 times for Havant and Waterlooville Under-12s this season.
It looks like Arsene will blaze in with the glitz and glamour of the bright lights and the big city and bag wide eyed Ryan from under the noses of fellow admirers Portsmouth, Reading and Southampton.

Elsewhere in slightly less mind-blowing Gooner transfer news:

Arsenal and Man Utd were both having a hearty sniff around top transfer totty, Lyon striker Karim Benzema but he has stuck two fingers up at them and will sign a new contract with the French club. (The Sun)

Juventus are glancing coquettishly at Arsenal left-back Gael Clichy, and may ask him for a dance. (Daily Mail)

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has followed on from where Arsene’s knee jerk reaction to Taylor’s tackle left off by claiming that players found guilty of reckless horror tackles should be banned for life. (The Times)

And last but not least…Arsene has shrugged off claims from Arsenal old-boy David Bentley that little Theo Walcott will have to leave the Emirates in order to progress as a player. (Various)

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Reading decided to offload striker Leroy Lita to Charlton Athletic on loan for a month and for all those who might still be bemused as to why and how this move came to fruition, here is the reason from Reading manager Steve Coppell’s own mouth:

Leroy has been very, very frustrated.

He’s started a number of games this season and not scored many goals. He’s been frustrated recently when I’ve selected a front two who haven’t scored, carried on choosing them and he’s not got a sniff.

Just by chance, this week I was speaking to Alan Pardew and Leroy’s name was mentioned. It just seemed to me to be almost a logical thing.

There’s an element of risk, I know that. If we get an injury at the weekend, we’d be left a striker short and the risk I’ve taken would have been unnecessary.

But Leroy being here and frustrated isn’t helping him, or us. Now he’s got a chance to go there, fight for his place and hopefully play.

We have four strikers, he wouldn’t have started Saturday, so it seemed the right thing to do.

Last season, Lita was one of the best players for Reading but this season he has failed to capture his old form and is supposedly not wanted by Coppell anymore. Lita has started just 7 Premier League games this season and let’s hope that his stint at The Valley does him some good.

You often hear players returning from international duty with a broken leg, torn ankle ligaments, a wrist problem, hamstring woes….. Hell, you even have players not return from international duty at all or returning late. But how many times do you get to hear a report stating that a player came back from an international competition with malaria?

Well, you have heard that now. Reading’s Ivory Coast international Emerse Fae has been discovered to have returned from the African Cup of Nations in Ghana with malaria. The club’s physio Jon Fearn says:

It appears that Emerse picked up malaria when he was in Ghana for the Africa Cup of Nations and it lay dormant for a couple of weeks before coming out over the weekend.

He received prompt treatment and is now under medication. He’s recovering well at home and shouldn’t be out for too long.

Fae though will be available soon and that’s the good news for Reading manager Steve Coppell who is desperate to have all his soldiers available as the race to finish above the bottom three in the Premiership intensifies.

Middlesbrough are now just 4 points above the relegation zone after falling 1-0 to Reading at the Riverside Stadium in the English Premier League on Saturday. This was a relegation 6-pointer with Reading also threatened with relegation woes.

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate though rues his side’s inability to hold on until the end of the match. James Harper scored a last-gasp winner against them and Southgate is frustrated at this.

He says:

We were finishing the game quite strongly and looked more of a threat than they did in the last 15-20 minutes.

But I thought we went chasing at a time when perhaps we just needed to see it through.

We had a spell of pressure but once they were in our half we needed to get people behind the ball instead of going and selling ourselves.

It’s a real disappointment at the end because we’ve had a good run and to concede so late and give it away at home is hard for us.

Credit to Reading, they’ve been on a horrendous run and you knew that had to end some time.

It looked like they’d get a point, which I’m sure they’d have been satisfied with, but we didn’t do our job in the last minute of the game and it’s cost us a point.

But that’s just how Middlesbrough’s season has been and the Riverside club are still not safe yet from the drop.

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Reading accomplished a vital 1-0 win over Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium in the English Premier League on Saturdayand although the Royals remain third from bottom in the table, they have gathered some much needed morale and form with these 3 points.

Reading manager Steve Coppell, who was sounding pretty much downbeat ahead of the relegation 6-pointer, is now optimistic again after bagging all 3 points away from home. Coppell says:

When you’ve gone so long without winning, when you eventually do, the feeling is just a huge sigh of relief.

Middlesbrough played 120 minutes in midweek, and if that was going to be a factor in the game, it was going to be in the last 10-15 minutes, and that proved to be the case.

From my point of view, my players stuck in there all the time. It’d be easy after the run we’ve had to be soft-centred but we were hard today, we kept going, and we just got a break at the death.

Reading are third from bottom only on goal difference but their first away win in the league this season should certainly motivate them. Indeed some would even suggest that Reading are just too good to go down.

After suffering 8 successive defeats in the English Premier League, Reading are battling relegation and are one of the most likely sides to drop down into the Championship at the end of the season. Although they have a capable enough manager in Steve Coppell, the harsh naked truth is that the team is simply not performing as it did last season.

And this is a worrying factor for Coppell who has admitted that the Royals could lose their Premiership status at the end of the season should results not improve dramatically. He says:

I’m in sh***y waters! It is a lot smellier than muddy waters – and it is clingy.Something has got to change. The difference between our reserve team and our first team is not a lot. There is not a great deal of daylight between 20-odd players in this squad. I’ve been waiting for a victory so that the first-team players can distance themselves to give them some authority – but that has not come. I’m at liberty to change all 11 if I feel the need.There have been calls for Leroy Lita to be recalled to The Royals’ starting line-up, however, Coppell has stated the striker has had chances and not taken them. Leroy has had chances this year, but he hasn’t scored either.I’ve had a lot of conversations with players who believe they should be playing and this will be an opportunity for them. I erase personalities from situations like this. I look at past performances and use my gut feeling.

Last season Reading were the surprise package and much was expected this time around. Too bad that they have lost much of their momentum and weight since the summer. Can they avoid the drop to the second tier of English football this time? Let’s wait and watch.

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