The Malaysian Insider

Steven Gerrard arrested, then charged with assault. It could mean a jail term for the England star if his lawyers can’t convince the judge that he was not involved in the incident for which he is charged.

Hull City were in shock when the referee awarded them a penalty kick against Aston Villa, in their last game of the year, only to revoke his decision after the assistant referee, with finger on his earpiece as if listening to someone (possibly the fourth official watching a TV screen), tells the ref that the ball had hit the bar and not the Aston Villa player’s hand as the ref had first thought.

JAN 1 — The short and busy Christmas league schedule has just finished and it looks like a few managers who only recently took on the top job in their club may be under some pressure to look into the transfer market in January.

Tony Adams (Portsmouth), Joe Kinnear (Newcastle United) and Harry Redknapp (Tottenham Hotspur) must all be feeling a bit more heat from their respective fans after gaining zero or just one out of the six points up for grabs.

With top-flight survival so essential, considering all the riches that come with it, all of these managers will have to deliver the goods to get their sides well clear of the relegation zone in the second half of the season. But they knew what they were getting into the moment the signed on the dotted line.

DEC 16 — When Gianfranco Zola was voted the greatest-ever Chelsea player by their supporters a few years back, never in their wildest dreams would any of these supporters have imagined that Zola will next make an official comeback to Stamford Bridge as the manager of a London rival.

Any bookie would have given odds of thousands-to-one for such a turn of events. But life does tend to throw its occasional surprise and this was certainly one of them.

Zola brought West Ham United across town for this encounter, which was also to prove a test of Chelsea’s resolve after a hard-fought victory against lowly-European opponents, FC Cluj from Romania, in the Champions League last Tuesday.

DEC 10 - I had predicted it two months ago and now it has come true.

Juande Ramos is a genius. He played his cards just right and got the ultimate win-win solution this new season in European league football.

First, he drives Tottenham Hotspur to self-destruction.

DEC 6 — Another week, another manager loses his job in England. Or did Roy Keane actually walk out on Sunderland?

It has now been confirmed that he turned his back on the very people who were looking to him for leadership. He certainly has taken the easy way out and even sunk lower by only sending a text message to inform the club.

The Black Cats, as Sunderland are popularly called, are in trouble after losing five out of the last six matches and this is when the players need him most, but his weakness as a man comes to the fore again.

After all, this is the same man who walked out on his country after going to Japan for the 2002 World Cup.