By Brian Sears 14 December 2012 Arsenal fans continue to bemoan the woeful returns of the Arsene Wenger era: three titles (two as Doubles, one as Invincibles), four FA Cup wins, a Champions League runners-up slot, no finish outside the Premier League top four in Wenger’s time and 13 consecutive seasons in the Champions League. […]

By Brian Sears 14 December 2012 Chelsea will face Corinthians of Brazil on Sunday in the Club World Cup for a trophy that would nominally make them the finest club side on earth. Yet they do so against a backdrop of elimination from the 2012-13 Champions League and as their domestic form implodes. With every […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 13 December 2012 Barcelona have produced more footballers currently earning a living as first-team players across Europe’s elite ‘Big 5’ divisions than any other club in the world, Sportingintelligence can reveal. The Spanish giants have been responsible for the development of 38 players at top-flight […]

* The BBC’s annual Sports Personality of the Year award will be handed out on Sunday evening, and never in the 58-year history of the award has there been a stronger batch of contenders. The 12-person shortlist is packed with Olympians and Paralympians, many of whom have achieved historic feats in 2012, and there is […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 11 December 2012 Queens Park Rangers are odds-on to be relegated from the Premier League this season but it should be no surprise that they are struggling. They achieved far too little last season, considering the money they spent, and avoided relegation by a point. […]

* In the third instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks whether we are too quick to play judge and jury in some cases where famous people have been accused of abuse, and examines how, in others, society appears quite comfortable to apply 2012 […]

. 2 September 2013: LIVE Gareth Bale unveiling at Real Madrid   And find out by clicking on this LINK what Bale is REALLY worth       31 Jan 2013: Beckham’s unveiling press conference at PSG was LIVE here. LIVE PSG TV by PSG   Radio 5 Live (via studio camera) .

By Brian Sears 7 December 2012 Last week we pointed out that Chelsea went to Upton Park with the weight of historical results on their side.  In the six seasons 2005-2011 when West Ham were last in the Premier League, Chelsea won 10 and drew two of their 12 encounters. What a statistical surprise (or was it […]

By Brian Sears 7 December 2012 In the past five seasons in the Premier League, no club with fewer than 26 points at this stage of the season – 15 games – has risen to a top-four finish. On that statistical reckoning, only the two Manchester clubs, plus Chelsea, Tottenham and West Bromwich Albion are in […]

* In the second instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks whether readers actually care any more whether what they are reading is true. In a world of churnalism, SEO-dictated content and made-up nonsense that becomes ‘fact’ by dint of being re-Tweeted enough times, […]