Big Chance for Tottenham Tomorrow

Tomorrow's Carling Cup final at Wembley represents the first chance at meaningful silverware this year in England. The Community Shield, whose winner does get a trophy, is generally considered to be nothing more than a glorified preseason exhibition match. I think I can safely say that tomorrow's game will be anything but an exhibition, and it should be a great 90 minutes (perhaps more) of action.

Both Tottenham and Chelsea will be pushing to win this game, there's no doubt about it. Chelsea are the defending champions of the Carling Cup and will obviously want to repeat. I'm not sure how much I buy into the opinion that they have an obligation to play their best team, but manager Avram Grant likely wants to put his own stamp on the team and win his first trophy in charge of the West London club.

This game appears bigger for Tottenham though, and for good reason. The goal of the other 16 teams in the Premiership is to break the stranglehold of the "Big Four". The only way to do that is by winning these cup competitions and trying to sneak into the top four in the league like several clubs are seriously bidding to do this season.

Spurs have been a new and improved club with Juande Ramos, who replaced Martin Jol as manager in late October 2007, at the helm. The North London club is 14-8-5 in all competitions under Ramos and have undergone changes in the roster and in tactical preferences. Spurs are playing with more passion and confidence and seem hungrier to win than they had been during Jol's last few months in charge.

Tomorrow's game also represents a route into Europe for Spurs, who are unlikely to get back into the UEFA Cup through their league position this year. If they don't beat Chelsea, they'll have to win this year's UEFA Cup to earn their way back into Europe's second-tier club competition. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that winning one game is more likely than prevailing from 16 teams in a knockout tournanent.

I've got Spurs winning this game 3-2 in a victory not only for the club itself, but for every other Premiership team outside the "Big Four" as well. It's important to the competitive growth and progression of the league that someone besides Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester United win something. The fans who want to see the same four teams win year after year are in the minority. As a neutral fan, I obviously don't count myself in that group and will be rooting for Spurs tomorrow.

Satisfied With Kevin Keegan?

Kevin Keegan was hired for his second stint in charge of Newcastle on January 16. I wrote a post that day questioning that move by Magpies owner Mike Ashley, saying Keegan was nothing more than a blast from the past and that the way to move forward in the future was not by looking back to that past.

I took a lot of heat from Newcastle fans in the few days after that. The Toon Army was out in full force, telling me that Keegan was one of the best things to ever happen to their club and that he would turn their fortunes around after the Sam Allardyce debacle and be a success.

Well, the facts seem to prove otherwise, at least up to this point. I understand that it's a bit harsh to judge Keegan on a month's worth of results; he hasn't had a full transfer window to bring in his own players and was out of soccer completely for a couple of years before coming back to Tyneside. Still though, Newcastle are winless in the Premiership since Keegan has been at the helm and are just 1-2-4 in all competitions since the day he was named manager, with that win coming in a game in which Keegan wasn’t even in charge. They've dropped to 13th in the league and are only six points out of the relegation zone. They've been extremely uncompetitive and disappointing in multiple-goal losses to Arsenal, Manchester United, and Aston Villa.

I'm interested in hearing what you Newcastle fans think. Do you still believe Keegan is the guy to take you out of this rut of mediocrity? Do you want him out of there and Alan Shearer in to replace him? Do you, like me, still want to take a wait-and-see approach and see where Newcastle is at the January transfer window next season before passing judgement on Keegan?

Let me hear you.

Arsene Wenger Wants Lifetime Ban for Taylor

In the words of José Mourinho's puppet character on "I'm On Setanta Sports", shut up, Wenger.

For those of you who haven't seen the gruesome pictures or seen video, Arsenal front man Eduardo da Silva had his left leg nearly snapped at the ankle after a sliding challenge from Birmingham defender Martin Taylor. It took nearly ten minutes for trainers and medical staff to get da Silva off the field, and all reports indicate the Croatian has a badly broken leg. It didn't exactly take a genius to come to that conclusion as anyone who has seen what happened could diagnose the injury instantly.

It would be irresponsible at this point to speculate as to how long da Silva will be out, but Arsene Wenger has said that "His injury is very, very bad. More than the season is over."

The Frenchman also said "This guy (Taylor) should never play football again. What is he doing on the football pitch?"

"I've gone along with the idea for a long time that to stop Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal. I knew that was coming for a long time now."

Here's where I have a problem with Wenger. There is simply no way Taylor is going to get a lifetime ban, no way. There was no malice whatsoever in the challenge, no intent to injure like we've seen in the past with some of Roy Keane's attacks on opponents when he was still a player. On the match broadcast, play-by-play man Jon Champion even said he wasn't sure if Taylor should've been sent off.

Personally, I thought it was a red card and the automatic three-match ban that comes with it is deserved. Anything more than that would really be harsh on Taylor because the reality is that this was just a freak incident. It was a mis-timed, late tackle. I've seen numerous tackles similar to this one in the past that haven't even been red-carded. I think it's wrong for Wenger to call for a lifetime ban for Taylor simply based on the extent of the injury to da Silva.

It's not as if Taylor is a repeat offender and has a reputation for causing incidents like this. He showed remorse immediately after the challenge; as Birmingham boss Alex McLeish said, "Martin's distraught about the lad's injury. It's certainly not in Martin Taylor's make-up at all to commit a malicious tackle."

In the NHL, a player can be given a two-minute penalty for high-sticking if he gets his stick in an opponent's face and makes contact, but four minutes if that same incident draws blood. That's just ridiculous; you can't additionally penalize something because of a freak injury, or drawn blood in the case of hockey. It's not fair to overreact to how badly someone is hurt because of a challenge, I believe you have to look at the challenge itself in a vacuum and go from there. With that said, make no mistake. I'm not condoning what Taylor did today by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm also not condemning him for it either.

If I was Arsene Wenger, who has a well-deserved reputation for being a sore loser and a whiner, I would worry about my own team instead of Martin Taylor. Wenger's star young left back, Gaël Clichy, was directly at fault for giving up Birmingham's late equalizer through his lack of focus and poor judgment and decision-making. These two points dropped could end up being what loses the title for Arsenal, yet after the game, Wenger is talking about the opposition and not saying anything about his own team.

Taylor's fate isn't in Wenger's hands; he's just wasting his time by chipping in his own two cents about the situation. I don't want to hear this man in public anymore. He doesn’t say anything chastizing or harsh when his players, like Eboue and Flamini, go in recklessly on challenges like they’ve done in the past month or so, either nearly causing or actually causing serious injury, but when someone from another team does the same thing to a player on his team, he gets up in arms and has a fit. I’m sorry, I don’t have any time for that and it is embarrassing.

Shut up, Wenger!

Interesting Poll Question Results

This week's poll question asked you all which Premiership team left in the Champions League did you believe had the best chance to win the whole thing.

I put out this question before the Round of 16 first legs on Tuesday and Wednesday, and half of the eight votes received came before those games. Curiously enough, no one voted for Liverpool even though they beat Inter Milan 2-0 and are clearly in the best position to advance out of their fellow "Big Four" teams.

Four people chose Manchester United, who were also my picks to win this competition. I'm beginning to rethink that a little bit because if the Red Devils are ever forced to play without Cristiano Ronaldo and/or especially Wayne Rooney, they are extremely vulnerable to defeat.

Chelsea and Arsenal got two votes each and both of these teams, particularly Arsenal, are not locks to even make the quarterfinals.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I've put a new poll question out, so take a second and vote if you could.