14: Daniel Agger vs Chelsea

The goal that brought balance back to the two way tie in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League semi finals. The two great European rivals in recent years, Liverpool and Chelsea met once again and despite Joe Cole's goal in the first leg, the Reds went into the game with much belief and the goal came very timely.

As a young defender, you've got to admire his technique in which he picks his spot and fire it past 2 defenders plus Petr Cech. A well worked goal straight out from Melwood.

The Most Expensive Team?

Reading the title, I bet you'd go 'Oh bugger! it's Chelsea, isn't it?'

The answer is nope!

Perhaps after signing Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves, it's ManYoo?

Still no!

Instead, the most expensive team in the Premiership is ManYoo's most bitter rival, Manchester City! You must be stumped by now as to how a team that scored a pathetic and meagre 10 goals at home all season is the most expensive team in the Premiership.

Here's why.

Despite having one of the cheapest season tickets amongst the league teams, which is calculated at around £385 - £550, the fans are said to have spent on the least 'value-for-money' deals out there because to pay that amount to score just 10 league goals at the City of Manchester Stadium means that the amount of money paid per goal is so high that it's one of the worst deals out there.

According to the report from Fool.co.uk, the fans that got their season ticket forked out £46.75 per goal. Whereas their great rivals, ManYoo, got a double treat as their fans only paid £14.12 per goal and it puts them 18th on the 'Worth it or not table'.

Surprise comes from Ewood Park as they managed to score 31 goals at home last season and with a relatively low price for their season tickets, the fans were calculated to pay £11.25 per goal.

Column one is the season ticket prices, then the goals scored at home and then followed by the 'cost per goal'

Man City £385 - £550 10 £46.75
Arsenal £885 - £1825 43 £31.50
West Ham £595 - £850 24 £30.10
Fulham £299 - £749 18 £29.11
Tottenham £579 - £1150 34 £25.42
Chelsea £650 - £1150 37 £24.32
Portsmouth £585 - £745 28 £23.75
Watford £349 - £449 19 £21.00
Newcastle £365 - £596 23 £20.89
Aston Villa £330 - £500 20 £20.75
Charlton £315 - £475 19 £20.07
Reading £545 - £595 29 £19.65
Bolton £459 - £498 26 £18.42
Sheffield United £419 - £499 24 £18.01
Liverpool £650 - £700 39 £17.30
Middlesbrough £410 - £580 31 £15.96
Everton £427 - £516 33 £14.28
Man Utd £475 - £836 46 £14.25
Wigan £250 18 £13.88
Blackburn £299 - £399 31 £11.25

15: John Arne Riise vs Spurs

No, this is not against the NBA Champions, Spurs.

Another one of the classic strikes under the belt of the Norweigian 'hammerhead'. He has scored so many of those that we really aren't surprised that he did that against the number one goalkeeper of England.

Not his personal best but still pretty damn good. John Arne Riise...HOOO!

Gunners Outraged

We have transfer speculations on Thierry Henry for the past 4 seasons and every summer, he's linked to Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan. Then recently he's being linked with Liverpool (yes, hear me right).

But what really will get on the tats of Arsenal fan would be the news that links him with Spurs...

16: Xabi Alonso vs Newcastle

Back to the top 25 goals of the 2006/07 season!



The only reason why the goal isn't higher up the chart is because the goalkeeper then, Steve Harper, fumbled and was doing push-ups during the goal. But what technique from the Spanish playmaker. Anyone who plays football knows how difficult it is to actually hit the target, without even mentioning from the halfway line!

Although the goalkeeper's mistake is deemed the reason why Alonso scored, take nothing away from him. He hit the target from so far out and how many times have we seen players scoring and celebrating with the goalkeepers first!

It's probably because he scored it too far away from the front line.

Fixture List For 2007/08

Probably a bit late but I think it's important for fans and writers to analyse the fixture list. We've seen how important a good fixture list is to a club like how Man United got a pretty decent first 4 to 5 games and once they got their momentum on, they started to steamroll over teams.

So instead of doing a research on only Liverpool, I'll widen the scope and look at all the big 4 clubs.


Arsenal

vs Fulham (H)

vs Blackburn (A)

vs Man City (H)

vs Portsmouth (H)

vs Tottenham (A)

It's a pretty decent run in starting with Fulham, whom we all know, looked the most likely to be the whipping boys in the Premiership 'old boys' group. But there are also tricky trips to Ewood Park as well as an early visit to rivals, Spurs' White Hart Lane. Portsmouth might also pose a threat although Arsenal might feel happy enough to start off with a home game.


Chelsea

vs Birmingham (H)

vs Reading (A)

vs Liverpool (A)

vs Portsmouth (H)

vs Aston Villa (A)

On paper, looked a little easier than Arsenal's with them welcoming Premiership new boys, Birmingham, to Stamford Bridge in the openning game. Although the game against Liverpool is a little too early for anyone's liking, it's still finely poised and if the Blues can overcome the Reds early on, it might give them the extra boost they need for the title race.


LIVERPOOL

vs Aston Villa (A)

vs Chelsea (H)

vs Sunderland (A)

vs Derby (H)

vs Portsmouth (H)

It's always not the best to start off the season away from home especially Liverpool's tendency to be so absolutely tosh away from home. But it's always a good thing to play the 2 new teams early on although I'm not suggesting they will be all easy 3 points.

The Chelsea game early on is a good test for the team as both teams will be fresh and eager and it'll probably be a test of the quality of the squad.

And I notice what a horrid fixture Portsmouth has at the beginning of the season....


ManYoo

vs Reading (H)

vs Portsmouth (A)

vs Man City (A)

vs Tottenham (H)

vs Sunderland (H)

Probably quite an easy run in but like the other clubs, they play their major rival quite early on in the season. The meeting with Man City should be an interesting one while having Spurs and Portsmouth could potentially be banana skins for the defending champions.

I've done the early season run in for the big 4 clubs and looking at the entire fixtures list of our beloved Liverpool FC, here are some important matches to be noted. One day before my birthday, it'll be Liverpool vs Everton, the Merseyside derby. The match is also smacked right in between a visit from Spurs and also a trip down south to face Arsenal.

Then on 15th December, we'll welcome the Red Devils to Anfield.

In early February, the Reds will face off with Chelsea in the reverse fixture and the Blues will be facing Portsmouth prior to the visit and then to White Hart Lane after that. It'll prove to be quite a tough 3 weeks for Chelsea.

And then from late March to early April will be Liverpool's toughest stretch by far with firstly a visit to Old Trafford, then entertaining bitter rivals, Everton and then off to the Emirates to play Arsenal.

But what I'm doing is only speculating and we know that talking football on paper never really works. Whatever happens, we will hope that Liverpool do their best to get maximum points from the first few games and it'll probably enable the team to go an extra mile later in the season.

Back To Business

Alright, I hear the loud cheer here. I'm finally back from the holidays, physically, spiritually and mentally recharged and ready to get on with the formalities of life again.

It's encouraging to see you people still chatting on the tagboard and my apologies for not replying because there's too many and I don't know where to start with! But anyway I'll try to do it from tomorrow onwards and keep in contact with you guys.

So apparently I haven't missed out much since Liverpool STILL haven't sign up any players yet and there isn't anything major other than the fixtures list which looked pretty decent with Aston Villa first. But being a poor away team, perhaps it's time we make things right from the start of the season while playing Chelsea at Anfield early on might be a good thing.

And time for everyone to congregate here again. =)

Drogballs Taking A Break

Alright, so I'm off to Port Dickson, Malaysia from tomorrow (Monday) to 15th (Friday). Anyway you guys can still go on and have your regular chat over at the tagboard.

Enjoy the summer, guys :)

A Year Ago, Today

Maybe only sentimental people like me would remember such a date but it's okay if you don't.

One year ago, on this very day, the hugely anticipated FIFA World Cup was officially opened and the curtain raiser match, which was host nation, Germany, played minnows, Costa Rica. It was a rather unconvincing performance from the Germans but little did they know how far they went.

Don't you miss those days? Just sitting around watching football all night long. Yes, the matches usually starts off at around 9pm over here and it's never-ending football till around 5am in the morning.

There are many forgettable matches here and there but compared to the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea, it was fractionally better with more drama, less controversies.

Don't you miss those days? It would be a pleasure to hear from you about the 'World Cup days'. Did you follow it closely 24/7 like I do or did you actually had a change to watch it live at the stadium? I would love to hear the experiences people had and also reminisce on the good times!

I'll leave you with some great goals from that very World Cup. Enjoy!

Best Goals Fifa World Cup 2006
Uploaded by Knox_Arabic

17: Steven Gerrard vs Man City

The goal that personifies Gerrard the most. Dirk Kuyt's tireless harrying of defenders caused the City defence to surrender possession and Steven Gerrard, as always, breaking in front his central midfield position and the marksmen from outside the box was on target once again.

It was the only goal in the game, which speaks about the importance of this goal.