pinstriped

Today's Mundo Deportivo cover. It's been consistently mentioned in the Barca-oriented Spanish press for a bit now. Don't know how valid it is, could be, like you said, because of the CL tie.

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you can see the bbc coverage here, the original video used up its bandwith, i think. credit to motson, 'and we shouldn't ignore it' indeed.

no problem, really powerful stuff. complete respect for everyone involved in making this happen.

here.

He got injured trying to reach a too-short pass from Gonzalez.

He didn't play at all in the loss against Sweden but played the full second half in the friendly win over Argentina.

He was pretty good for Spain in the World Cup on corners (scored a header, had one cleared off the line I think?). Although that might also be because he's taller than 2/3 of their team, but still. It was interesting to see Aragones put him in the box for corners/set pieces, I can't remember seeing him in there much during our games - he's taking the corners or waiting outside the box for loose balls, usually.

Here's the mosaic.

According to OPTA stats, yes - these were the top five tacklers and top five passers in the Premiership last season. Tacklers Team Tackles Success rate McCann Aston Villa 177 67% Xabi Alonso Liverpool 167 75% Savage Blackburn 167 68% Kishishev Charlton 166 73% Young Charlton 164 70% Passers Team Passes Accuracy Lampard Chelsea 2015 81% Fabregas Arsenal 1957 83% Carrick Tottenham 1938 80% Gilberto Arsenal 1820 84% Xabi Alonso Liverpool 1820 82%

Antonio Lopez?

I don't think we need to worry about Xabi wanting to leave - Real always stirs up transfer talk. Looking at their forums and what Marca says, you'd think that they were going to sign Xabi, Fabregas, Ibrahimovic, Podolski, Diarra, etc. etc. Xabi basically says here that he knows how Real Madrid works with the transfer rumors and that he's happy in England and wants to see out the three years remaining on his contract.

Congrats Pepe! Xabi, Morientes, and Zenden were in attendance, apparently.