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It’s a slow spurting day today and rooting amongst the scraps and picking over the bones of today’s sporting endeavours lead us to conclude that Monday may well indeed be the new sporting Friday.

So words of praise then for two sporting triumphs over the weekend. First up Joe Calzaghe – crazy name and crazy guy who came back from a first round flooring to squeak a narrow points decision against Bernhard Hopkins and disprove two of the oldest of sporting saws.

First that British boxers can ever go to the States and win without actually knocking the Yank out; secondly that seemingly cardinal rule: never bet against the black guy.

Our second award of the weekend goes to veteran Blackburn Rovers keeper Brad Friedel who single handedly kept the Premiership race alive and interesting by pulling off a string of world class saves against a rampant Man Utd.

At times it was Friedel versus United and as it’s been widely observed, pound for pound he probably represents the best transfer buy ever; coming on a free from Liverpool to Blackburn in 2000. Friedel has now notched up over 350 appearances for the Blue and Whites and remains a model of consistency and an ever-present safe pair of hands.

Hail to the Brad!

A close run thing...

So Monday signals a return to the salt mines and what laughingly passes for normal service around here is grudgingly resumed.

It may well be a misquotation but Sir Arthur Wellesley’s (or the Duke or Wellington to you squire) incisive post-match analysis of the great Anglo French encounter at Waterloo 1815, “It a was a damn close run thing”, could equally be applied to the climactic finish of our current footy season.

Everywhere you look there’s a damn rum cliché to be mined, with nothing certain and everything to play for and we have to say the footy is all the better for it. In the Premiership one of the big four has usually walked away with it by now, but with Arsenal heroically eliminating themselves for the second time in a week, Chelsea v Man Utd later this month is going to be truly colossal and surely the Premiership decider.

Down in the bowels of the Championship it’s even tighter than a proverbial gnat’s chuff, with anyone of the top seven in contention for a seat at the top table and a chance to wallow in the pots cash that enables. Even our own beloved Hornets might squeeze through if they can actually remember that games aren’t contractually obliged to end in a draw.

All in all the most exciting climax to a footy season in many a long year. We’re sure the Iron Duke would approve.

Gourmet Gunners

The Premiership, touted as the best league in the world and it probably just about is with its trademark pace, power and passion resulting in football of the most exciting and eminently watchable kind.

But equally, like connoisseurs of a particularly obscure branch of pornography, we occasionally like to sample a bit more of a cerebral incarnation of the beautiful game here on World of Spurt.

That’s why the prospect of a Champions League Tuesdays often rattles our collective chains during the workaday work-a-day, as we slowly measure out each and every individual second until we can escape the dull monotony we laughingly call gainful employment.

Okay so it’s broadcast on ITV, but there’s a price to pay for every iota of pleasure in our experience.

Still, last night’s AC Milan versus Arsenal game was truly one of the great European nights of recent memory. A fascinating duel between two outstanding teams, it was a joy to watch Fabregas et al, slowly, almost lovingly dissect Maldini and co. over the course of 90 minutes.

A truly cerebral encounter, it was a masterclass in tactical acumen, intricate passing and movement and the dark arts of defending , in short it had everything a Premiership game lacks and was all the better for it. A true connoisseurs experience, we could feel our footballing IQ slowly creep up with every pass.

It would be all too easy to write it up as the old order changeth with the young Gunners displacing a glorious but increasingly decrepit old guard

...so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

The blame game...

A new day brings a new something or other, and our first duty on this first spurt of the month is to send a message of brotherly solidarity to improbably vowelled Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelanen, who had a bit of a shocker during Saturday’s lunchtime Premiership outing.

Diverting an off-target Steven Gerrard into the back of his own net, via first hands, head then body, the ham-fisted, klutz normally cat-like Jussi copped a lot of flak for his mistake, which handed Liverpool the initiative and arguably helped them triumph in a tricky away fixture

As veteran keepers ourselves in our delinquent youth (which is thankfully not quite over yet, the fire still burns, it still burns we tell you!), we can eminently sympathise with young Jussi.

We can confirm that all anyone ever remembers is your high profile howlers trifling mistakes as a keeper, never the four or five times on average per game you save the team with your outstanding reflexes, clairvoyant positional sense and admirable personal courage.

Ahem, rant over, but Jussi you have our keeperly sympathies, we keepers truly are a breed apart.