Adidas are launching the new Chelsea Third Kit less than two weeks in to the new Premier League on the 28th August. The bright yellow kit modeled by defender Ashley Cole incorporates ClimaCool to keep the athletes at their peak by keeping them dry and at a comfortable temperature. The new ForMotion technology uses 3D designs to make radical cuts so the garment follows the shape of the body for increased comfort and improved performance. For more information on Chelsea Kit click here

The hammers have agreed to terminate Freddie Ljungberg with immediate effect, this time last year he was heralded in a £3million move across London from Arsenal. However last season he managed just 25 appearances. The undisclosed terms of the deal have been announced as acceptable for both parties.

The 31 year old midfielder can now take time to reflect on where his footballing career will take him. There are rumours of possible moves to Olympiakos and Roma, but the Swede may elect to move to the MLS where his Calvin Klein modeling skills could help him join David Beckham on Bilboards across America.

After a poor finish in the Premier League Ramos has begun ringing the changes in the Spurs squad, moving on those not in his plans and those that do not want to be at the club.

Everyone in football knew that the majority of the transfers would not happen until the European Championships were over. However Ramos got in ahead of the game and made a bold move buying Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb, luckily the midfielder made it through the competition unscathed and may have inflated his price tag which was already a club record.

Ramos brought in two goalkeepers in Ranieri and the Brazilian Gomes who helped put the Spaniard’s side out of last seasons UEFA Cup. These arrivals signalled the end of Paul Robinson’s reign and he was offloaded to Blackburn Rovers. Ramos continued to reduce his wage bill buy getting rid of a number of players signed by Martin Jol. Sunderland manager Roy Keane was only too happy to avail of the services of players like Chimbonda, Tainio and Malbranque who had helped Spurs to two top five finishes in the last three seasons.

The biggest coup for Ramos though was the rapid and unexpected sale of the clubs biggest earner Robbie Keane. A player who in the euphoria of the Carling Cup celebrations said he would be happy to stay at the club for as long as he was wanted there. Just a few months on and the whiff of interest from Liverpool and he was ready to head up the M6 to Anfield. The irishman’s departure has made way for Darren Bent to come out of the shadows and stake a claim for a first team place. An opportunity he has grabbed with both hands scoring seven goals in two recent friendlies.

There have been a few more other high profile arrivals at White Hart Lane, Mexican youngster Giovani dos Santos moved from La Liga giants Barcelona for the benefit of his career on the advice of former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry.

John Bostock arrived amid controversy after a tribunal decided the fee to be paid to Crystal Palace should be just £700,000. A decision that angered disgruntled Palace chairman Simon Jordan, who has since vowed to leave football and find suitable new ownership for the Championship side.

The most recent arrival was that of David Bentley, who made it clear after the departure of Mark Hughes from Blackburn Rovers for the managers job at Manchester City, that his future lay elsewhere. Spurs won his services with a £15m bid that could rise to £17m depending on his success. The bitter pill for Spurs fans is that a large share of the £15m will be finding its way to Arsene Wenger’s transfer kitty, due to a clause in the players original sale from Arsenal to Rovers.

There will more than likely be more movement in and out of the Spurs dressing room with Dimitar Berbatov indicating that he would like to move to Manchester United, although Spurs would prefer him to stay or move to another league. Should he leave Spurs have been linked to a number or potential replacements including Andrei Arshavin who has allegedly agreed personal terms with the club.

Will Ramos be able to get all these new players to work well enough to improve on last years poor league position? Will he continue to have his midas touch for trophies? Given a full preseason will he be able to win yet another UEFA cup?

Manchester United inched closer to retaining their Premier League title as they cruised to a 3-0 win against a Liverpool side who had only ten men for half the game.

Reina Poor Performance

Wes Brown put the home side ahead on 34 minutes, when Reina failed to deal with a Wayne Rooney cross. The Spaniard only managed to punch the ball against the back of the advancing defender, which was to be the start of a bad day for the Liverpool keeper.

Bennett Steals The Show

Even with all of the talent on display and three goals in the match, the centre of attention was Referee Steve Bennett. After just eleven minutes he reached for his book and entered the name of Argentinean Javier Mascherano for unsporting conduct after a late challenge on Paul Scholes. Bennett created the talking point of the game just before half time, when he booked Fernando Torres for dissent after the Spaniard had been the victim of two suspect challenges. Having seen the injustice Mascherano approached Bennett and asked him ‘What’s happening?’ not foul language and was given a second yellow for his trouble. The scenes after Bennett issued the Red Card became farcical as the Argentine demonstrated his disbelief that he had been dismissed from the game for a simple question. Bennett’s heavy handedness came just a few days after Ashley Cole got away with a torrent of abuse at the 4-4 draw between Tottenham and Chelsea where Bennett was the fourth official. Bennett has a history of dishing out injustice to Mascherano, last season he let Jermain Defoe away with biting the Argentinean.

Ronaldo Ends Liverpool’s Hopes

Liverpool fought to get back in to the game but after 35 minutes in the second half United goalden boy Cristiano Ronaldo headed home a corner that Reina got nowhere near to put the game beyond the visitors. Just one minute later Ronaldo’s Portuguese compatriot Nani thundered home a shot from the edge of the area to put the home side three up.

Who Is The real Villain?

Mascherano will no doubt be villainised in the media as an example of what not to do for kids and pros alike. When the truth is it should be Bennett who is crucified in the press for ruining a crunch game for the billions of spectators around the world and for demonstrating the huge inconsistency of Premier League referees, who have been hounded and abused for years by players some of whom were not even given a talking to never mind a red card.

Dutch side Ajax have given Henk Ten Cate permission to contact Chelsea to discuss the possibility of him joining the coaching staff at Stamford bridge as Avram Grant’s number two. This could unsettle Steve Clarke, although Chelsea will do what they can to help keep some continuity at the club, which could involve him moving down the pecking order.

Ten Cate The Number One Number Two

Ten Cate has a successful history as a number two, before taking over Ajax he was No.2 at Barcelona where he helped the Spaniards to the league title in 2006.

Could Martin Jol Take Over At Ajax?

Despite a reasonable points haul during his tenure at Ajax, this season has been poor. With the Dutch heavy weights getting knocked out of the Champions League by Slavia Prague. The departure of ten Cate could pave a way for Martin Jol to leave Spurs with his head held high. With him walking in to the most prestigious job in Holland other than the International job.

Jermain Defoe was back in to the starting eleven replacing Robbie Keane, leaving Paul Robinson deputising as captain. Spurs began brightly, laying siege to the on the Middlesbrough goal. Boro were without new strikers Aliadiere and Mido and looked toothless in attack.

Brad Jones In Stoppable Form

Spurs were wasteful with gilt-edged opportunities in front of goal, Jenas and Defoe coming closest to breaking the dead lock. Schwarzer’s understudy Brad Jones demonstrated form that could have the Australian keeper looking over his shoulder.

Second Half Goals & Clean Sheet The Perfect Tonic For Confidence At Spurs

The Tottenham defence still looked suspect from set pieces but they managed to hold up and keep a confidence boosting clean sheet. Gareth Bale broke the deadlock in a controversial move Aaron Lennon appeared to be in an offside position but was deemed not to be by the referee, paving the way for Bale to run round Jones before putting the ball in the goal. Crowd favourite Tom Huddlestone added the second ensuring Spurs name was entered into the hat for the draw. Huddlestone headed the ball past Jones after Lennon carved out an opportunity to cross having beaten Rochemback on the right flank.

For the second year in a row Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United have been put out of the Carling Cup in their first round by lower league opposition. No doubt there will be headlines calling for his head and he will join Jose Mourinho on the English football scrapheap as he has failed to make progress on last seasons performance. In fact United have got 100% worse losing by two goals this year.

Last year a Freddy Eastwood’s free-kick created the upset of the season as Southend won one-nil at Roots hall. This years upset was at the theatre of dreams, and this years hero was Michael Misfud. He scored the first just after half an hour when he slid home Michael Doyle’s low cross. Misfud nearly doubled his tally this time the supply came from Simpson.

Misfud managed to double his and Coventry’s tally when he ended a counter attack with a fierce shot that Kuszczak was unable to stop. Sending almost 12000 Sky Blue fans in to an ecstacy they haven’t felt since Gary Mabbutt’s own goal gifted them victory in the F.A. Cup twenty years ago.

Coventry and Mifsud had opportunities to increase their lead, but the fans and Dowie appeared to be content with their two goal triumph over the Premier League champions.

Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed every England fans worst fear. England striker Michael Owen needs surgery to repair his most recent injury; which will see him miss the next two Euro 2008 qualifying games against Russia and Estonia.

It had been feared that Owen needed to go under the knife for a hernia injury but he was given a clean bill of health on that front only to discover that he may have to have surgery on his latest injury; a tear on his Abductor muscle.

Allardyce believes that Owen will be out at least until the Magpies play Spurs in October. The first Premier League fixture after the Euro 2008 qualifiers that is if the player does not need surgery or that date would be dragged out even longer.

Out of favour Wanderers midfielder Ivan Campo returned to the Reebok stadium on Sunday to rescue a point against a struggling Spurs side. A point that appears to have kept manager Sammy Lee in his job for a while longer.

Bolton need all the help they can if like Tottenham they are to turn their season around, however Campo was omitted from the UEFA Cup squad after he asked to speak to other clubs following Sam Allardyce’s departure to Newcastle United.

Campo Scored The Equaliser Against Spurs

Campo (33) played his first league game of the season against Spurs and demonstrated his value to the Lancashire club contributing with the equaliser. He will not be able to make the same contribution in Europe until after the group stage and the January transfer window is over. By which stage Wanderers could have been dumped out of the competition and Campo could be playing his football in another country with another team. There a number of clubs interested in the Champions League winner although he could opt for a payday in the retirement league in Qatar.

Lee: ‘UEFA Cup Squads Set In Stone’

Lee was bold when speaking to the Bolton News saying ‘it would have been remiss of me to have included him in the UEFA Cup squad when he could have gone elsewhere at a moments notice’ He continued ‘UEFA squads are set in stone once they are named and to have taken up one of the places with a player who might not have been here, would not have been in the club’s best interests’. That may be true but would it have been best to have named the Spaniard in the squad so he can be used to get in to the lucrative group stage, rather than not name him and risk getting dumped out of the competition.

Spurs look certain to make the UEFA Cup group stage, as they take a five goal lead in to the away leg in Cyprus. Manager Martin Jol will want this victory I the first European fixture will help to kick start this season in the same manner as it did last year.

Kaboul Opens Spurs European Account

The home side opened their European account after just five minutes a well worked set piece. Tom Huddlestone’s corner kick and Pascal Chimbonda’s dummy run allowed Kaboul to score with his head from six yards.

Three Goals In As Many Minutes

The Cypriots fought hard through the first half and kept Spurs at bay, it seemed that if they got a lucky break they could continue Spurs frustrating start to the season, the referee denying Darren Bent a stonewall penalty. However the worry was dispelled when Spurs took advantage of another set play, this time it was Keane who put the corner in the box Chimbonda knocked the ball down for Dawson to stab the ball in to the back of the net.

Two minutes later it was the turn of the strikers to get on the score sheet, Assou-Ekotto squared the ball to Keane who flicked the ball into the air with his right foot and volleyed home with his left; the shot was scuffed but it rolled past the Famagusta keeper.

A minute later Darren Bent scored his first UEFA Cup goal for six years, when he scored for Ipswich as a 17 year-old. The £16m striker proved his worth by being quick enough to take advantage of a defensive error. He latched on to a misguided back pass, holding off a defenders challenge long enough to steer the ball into the empty goal from the tightest of angles.

Defoe Demonstrates His Worth To Tottenham

Jermaine Defoe replaced Robbie Keane just after the hour mark, with his first touch of the game he played a delightful chip from twenty five yards over the goalie in to the waiting goal. He scored a second and Spurs sixth on the night when he created a little space and drove the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal from the edge of the box.

Defensive Confusion Costs Spurs A Clean Sheet

The visitors did manage to get a valuable away goal, although it was scant consolation. Tottenham introduced Welsh defender Gareth Bale for his first European appearance when the visitors were waiting to take a throw in. The speed of their play caught the Tottenham defence off guard. In the ensuing mix up Zlogar managed to toe-poke the ball through a gap in the defence. Radek Cerny who had little to do while deputizing for Paul Robinson, managed to get a hand to the shot but failed to stop it crossing the line.