Mark Lilley

Shane Long went on air after West Brom’s victory this week to say “I didn't receive any apology over the [Alan Hutton] tackle.” To me this is disgraceful. Shane Long has been out for a month. And after that particular tackle from Hutton, surely he deserved an apology. The Hutton tackle was an outrage. It […]

If one thing has become painfully obvious in the last month or two, it is that David Luiz is not a centre back. In Chelsea’s recent games they have conceded goals like they haven’t done in a long, long time. The most obvious example of this was the 5-3 loss to Arsenal after which Jamie […]

About two weeks ago Roy Hodgson said that West Bromwich Albion's deal for Shane Long was "potentially the bargain of the season." Shane Long moved from Reading in the Championship to the Baggies for a fee of £4.5 million (potentially rising to £6.5million). Although this may be a small sum for many of the top […]

It is perhaps a slightly bizarre point to make; that in victory, Arsenal proved just how good Barcelona really are. However, study last night's encounter in a little more detail and the reason behind the statement becomes a little bit clearer. Aside from Arsenal's blistering starts to each half, playing at what proved to be […]

Dortmund’s form this season has been exceptional. In the early autumn, many people thought that perhaps they would start to fade away by now, but they’ve in fact managed to do the complete opposite. Incredibly, they now find themselves 11 points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen in second, and rather comically, 17 points ahead of the […]

Tonight’s game promised to give one of the closest indications so far of who could become European champions this year, but in truth, nobody could’ve predicted what followed. Barcelona dissected their rivals with precise, incisive play that arguably would have torn absolutely any team in the world apart. In doing so, they confirmed their status […]

Under Jose Mourinho, Inter gradually developed an aura of invincibility, and their defence – generally made up of Maicon, Lucio, Samuel and Chivu (or Zanetti) – had become the envy of the rest of Europe. The Nerazzurri had finally brought back the success of generations gone by, and despite one or two question markimgs over […]

It's been a perculiar, unpredictable season for Milan as the side have endured great levels of torment from humiliating defeats to the likes of Inter and Manchester United, and they have found themselves looking desperately blunt on other occasions, often with dramatic late goals saving them from further embarrassment. Huntelaar's late double act at Catania […]

Franco Baresi is one of the first names to come to anybody’s mind when you mention the Libero (or sweeper) position, simply because he was the on-field general and symbol of Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan side in the late 1980s; a side that arguably boasted one of the greatest defences of all time. Bearing in […]