BlueLion.

On his comeback from injury, Michael Essien played the full 90 minutes of the reserve team's 4-3 defeat at Aston Villa, and even scored for the Blues. Ricardo Carvalho played 60 minutes.

He could well become a star, scored twice in a 3-3 draw for Inter at the weekend.

I think he'd fit in well, tbh. If Anelka can fit into our system, why not Karim?

Ahh yeah, good point.

Yup. One ticket per person... I hope that means one per member, and not one per person, ie. one per transaction.

Gonna be a very difficult game, in all honesty I can see this being a 1-0 to either side.

Carvalho's playing for the reserves so he won't take part till Cov at the earliest.

The Italians have a winter break, don't they? He hadn't played since before that break, so he's lacked match practice. He's had 10 minutes against Wigan and I expect him to play some part against Portsmouth and Cov. He just needs to regain match sharpness.

Fantastic read. Didier pours his heart out. Brilliant piece of writing.

Apparently there are some more tickets going on sale... I'm praying to God I get a couple

United's clean sweep Please, they've won the Charity Shield on penalties, the World Club Cup against teams I didn't know existed, and the Carling Cup on penalties. Whupty fricking doo.

I'm quite aware of that. Mourinho's always said he'd like to work with Deco again

Ahh, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

We'd changed shape long before Kalou came on.

The Boring Cup Final has lived up to its promise to be the most uneventful game of the season.

I'm going to agree to disagree with you.

Player-plus-cash deal for Zlatan, please

It's always touch and go against Wigan - only the 4-0 in 06/07 and the 2-0 last year have been convincing displays IMO.

Funny how Wigan had to wear our away socks because they brought white ones

Spot on, he did get the assist as you rightly say! @ Laylabelle - well, Rafa felt like returning the compliment

It would hurt me in the same way it hurts me to see the likes of Gudjohnsen wearing a Barcelona shirt, but we really have to move on.

I think you are wrong on a lot of fronts there. Belletti came on and went to the attacking midfield role vacated by Kalou, and the moment he is expected to go to right back they score. That isn't his fault, it isn't Hiddink's fault, that is clever Wigan play to exploit the position as the player won't have time to settle. I also recall Belletti starting the move which led to the winner. So it was an excellent move. Ballack was good. He didn't offer much going forward, but looking at his positioning, he played much depper than Lampard, almost as a second DM. He was solid but unspectacular, much like Mikel has been all season. Drogba was unlucky with his chances, he had two blocked brilliantly, a third saved and a fourth cleared off the line through excellent defensive play. Anelka only had two, and they were very difficult chances. A header under pressure which was less than a foot wide, and a snapshot from the edge of the area which was saved well. I thought the team played excellently and it was only brilliant defending which denied us the killer second goal.

I actually thought Ballack put in a very steady performance, he was very good defensively today - I noticed he has begun to play in a deeper role than Lampard, almost alongside Mikel. It works.

Well we kick off 15 minutes before Liverpool so it will put a lot of pressure on them if we get a result.

I actually though Ballack had a very good game. Click here for the match report.