The English Premiership

[Beppe]

the Premier League is fantastic, very entertaining and at a much higher level than Serie A these days, as sad as it is. You guys can laugh all you want, but the Premier League is very strong.
BTW dont get me wrong, I also love Serie A, and I really hope serie A will become as good again as in the 90's and in the beginning of 2000's , but Serie A is really going down at the moment, its only the 4th strongest league now (after England, spain, germany).

And to answer the question on the english youngsters:
Joe Hart
Phil Jones
Steven Caulker
Kyle Walker
Jack Wilshere
Raheem Sterling
Tom Cleverley
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Danny Welbeck

All high quality english youngsters.

[xudong]

That Demba Ba scored a brace in his debut for Chelsea. Seems like a great investment of 7.5M euro.

Lampard was amazing too. Wondering why Abramovic wouldn't want to renew his contract (yet).

[xudong]

Stoke City 0-4 Chelsea

Jonathan Walters scored two own goals and missed a penalty.



His wikipedia page:

[xudong]

Chelsea's Hazard kicking Swansea's ball "boy"

Hazard Sees Red But Ball Boy Was No Angel

Eden Hazard's tussle with a ball boy was like something you see at a local park, but the youngster wasn't entirely innocent.

That was the immediate response on Twitter, moments after Eden Hazard's highly unusual sending off in Wednesday night’s Capital One Cup semi-final defeat by Swansea City.

It was the sort of childish squabble you might see in the local park.

The teenage ball boy deliberately wasted time by smothering and rolling on the ball when it came in his direction, and Hazard, frustrated in his efforts to get the ball back into play, appeared to give the youngster a not-so-gentle dig in the ribs for his troubles.

It was an out-of-the-ordinary exchange, and one that was correctly handled by referee Chris Foy.

Players, on the field and off it (in this case), come under the official's jurisdiction at all times and Hazard was rightly shown a red card for violent conduct.

The ball boy was no angel, but that's not the point.

While he will no doubt enjoy cult hero status among his peers, Hazard, a highly paid Belgian international could have landed himself in serious trouble.

On Wednesday night, South Wales Police immediately stated that they "take such matters seriously" and would investigate.

But according to a Swansea City spokesman the matter will go no further after the pair apologised to each other following a post-match dressing room meeting. Hazard will be relieved.

The row brought back memories of Eric Cantona's flying Kung-fu-style attack on a fan during a Manchester United match at Crystal Palace in the 90’s.

The Hazard controversy is the second involving a ball boy in the past three months.

In October, Oldham player Lee Croft was questioned by South Yorkshire Police after being accused of racially abusing a ball boy following a similar episode in a match against Sheffield United.

The police declined to take the matter further on that occasion after the player apologised to the ball boy for swearing.

Hazard's red card is likely to stand, despite its bizarre circumstances. Players need to understand they are answerable to the referee at all times, and are not immune from the law of the land.

http://news.sky.com/story/1042111/hazard...s-no-angel

My 2 cents: Hazard may deserve the red for losing his cool, but that ball boy (who is 17 by the way and not exactly a boy) should be banned for life.

[Nalx]

Agree with you. I watched the game and I must say the stunt that ball "boy" pulled was disgusting. Hazard will receive a harsher treatment because of his status as a highly paid pro footballer and rightly so but if I were a Swansea fan I would be ashamed of what that ball douchebag did. Swansea were gonna qualified comfortably anyway with a two away goal + clean sheet and Chelsea were sterile throughout the match.

[ACMILAN1983]

Can't say Hazard was right with what he did, but the douchebag ball boy (who isn't much younger than Hazard) deserves a lifetime ban from being pitchside during matches. Probably won't happen, especially as I understand he's a Swansea director's son.

[Beppe]

but hazard did nothing, he only took the ball the boy shouldve given him.
Hopefully Hazard wont get a ban, his red card already was too much.

[reza]

He would have gotten a red if an opposing player had held on to the ball and he kicked him in the same way. Kicking a ball boy - no matter his age, status or attitude - is NOT something less. Minimum is red card.

[ACMILAN1983]

but hazard did nothing, he only took the ball the boy shouldve given him.
Hopefully Hazard wont get a ban, his red card already was too much.

What he did wasn't right, it was an act of violent conduct even if his sole intention was to try and kick the ball out from under the ball boy.

I sympathize with Hazard as the other guy is just an idiot he deserved nothing less than what he got, but kicking out like that was unnecessary and potentially harmful.

My only problem is Hazard's getting all the negative press and punishment here, while the ball boy is barely mentioned, despite even boasting about his time wasting on twitter.

[Beppe]

Wow, I can not believe you guys. Getting the ball back like that is not dangerous come on, he tipped the ball from under that ball boy and got it back. how on earth is that dangerous? Nothing, absolutely nothing happened. Only becouse that ball boy's act he was being hit it looks bad for some people, I cant believe you believe that ball boy he was being hit. He even put it on twitter before the game he would do 'something' for time wasting. And yes he got his minutes of fame.