Spoiler

The return of the Champions League is less than a week away!

Forget the flowers, spend February 14 with Graeme Souness and co

February 14. An expensive seat at a posh venue, painstakingly but thoughtfully prepared montages and a bit of spine-chilling orchestra music to accompany the dulcet tweet of Howard Webb’s whistle. It can only mean one thing: the return of the Champions League.

That’s right, the scrap for that cup with the Gary Lineker-esque ears resumes [...]

Mario Balotelli follows up curry with tidy goal against Chelsea

Remember, remember...

The Spoiler’s forced hiatus over the past few months has been extremely difficult for everyone at Spoiler Towers.

The tea boy has been inconsolable without the cheery whistle of the kettle to keep his spirits up, the cleaner has been bereft of cheesestring wrappers to toss gaily into a bin, while the work experience kid [...]

Video: Yossi Benayoun’s moment of pre-season magic

Playmaker seizes chance to impress Andre Villas-Boas in friendly

As much as The Spoiler agrees that the grandeur of the occasion features prominently in whatever clever formula determines how [...]

How hard will Michael Essien’s absence hit Chelsea’s title bid?

A chart showing Chelsea’s Premier League points per game average with and without Michael Essien in each of his six seasons there…

First-hand experience of cruciate ligament injuries ensures that Spoiler sympathies [...]

Zoltan Gera and West Brom to gamble on reproducing magic

West Brom admit plans for reunion with Hungarian playmaker

After weeks of tabloid tittle-tattle, West Brom have confirmed that they are in talks with former star Zoltan Gera about a Hawthorns comeback following the conclusion of his four-year affair with Fulham, but remarriages in football don’t always [...]

Petr Cech is right to champion Chelsea squad’s experience

A chart showing the average age of the last dozen title winners

Petr Cech hasn’t dominated the press over the last few days as much as Chelsea team-mate Ashley Cole, who can currently [...]

Sammy Lee leaves Liverpool and Villas-Boas does some nice talking…

Any excuse…

Former Arsenal director Lady Bracewell-Smith isn’t happy with the current Gunners board and reckons they should all be sacked because they are ineffective (Ivan Gazidis, Peter Hill-Wood, Ken Friar) and because some of them appear to have escaped from a P.G. Wodehouse story (Sir Chips Keswick and [...]

What should Andre Villas-Boas do now he’s Chelsea boss?

Time to be less loveable?

Really, this question should be extremely simple to answer. He should gradually shape the team by bringing his own players in, gradually stamp his footballing identity on the team and Chelsea should gradually become the European-conquering side they’ve threatened to be for the past [...]