10 September 2008 - Theo Is The Future And The Future Is Now

On 10 September 2008, Theo Walcott scored his first hat-trick. And it just happened to make him the youngest player ever to do so for England.

Only 19 years old at the time, Walcott had risen to prominence at Southampton (2004-06) before moving to Arsenal in January 2006. After only a half season in London, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson surprised everyone by including Walcott in his squad for the 2006 World Cup. The winger made his first start for the senior England team in a May 2006 friendly against Hungary, becoming the youngest debutant in the national team's history.

After falling out of favor with Eriksson's replacement, Steve McClaren, Walcott returned to the national team set-up under McClaren's successor, Fabio Capelli, and got his first competitive England start on 6 September 2008 in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra. He failed to score in that match, but got his chance four days later in a qualifier against Croatia.

Playing before a crowd of 35,000 at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Walcott scored his first senior England goal in the 26th minute, as an attempted clearance by Croatia deflected off one of their own players. It landed at Walcott's feet on the right wing and he fired it across the keeper into the far bottom corner. The second goal was a nearly identical shot, delivered in the 59th minute.

The best goal of the three was the final one. In the 82nd minute, with England winning 1-3, forward Wayne Rooney sent a perfectly-placed pass to Walcott, who was sprinting down the right side. He outpaced his marker, took a couple of touches to move the ball across the box to the left, and slipped it under the keeper into the right corner. He was 19 years and 178 days old at the time, making him not only the youngest player to score a hat-trick for England, but the youngest to score for them in a World Cup qualifier. 

Almost two years later, he got his first club hat-trick, scoring three in Arsenal's 6-0 win over Blackpool on 22 August 2010.

27 July 2007 - Clearly, I Am In The Wrong Business

On 27 July 2007, Chelsea captain John Terry became the highest-paid player in Premier League history. For a while, anyway.

The Blues had just completed a three-year run in which they won the league twice (2005, 2006), then finished as runners-up to Manchester United (2007). They also won the FA Cup and the League Cup in 2007. Terry, who was also the England captain at the time, had two years remaining on his existing contract that paid him a reported £67,000 per week, well behind teammates Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, who were both earning close to £120,000.

Terry's contract negotiations dragged out over a couple of months, but the defender maintained throughout that he had no intention of leaving the club. In July, Chelsea rewarded his loyalty with a new five-year deal that paid him close to £135,000 per week to surpass the record previously held by Ballack and Shevchenko. But Terry's status as the league's best-paid player did not last long. In August 2008, Chelsea signed midfielder Frank Lampard to a new deal worth £140,000 per week (which triggered an increase in Terry's pay to the same level). 


Currently, Wayne Rooney is the Premier League's highest player with a deal worth a reported £260,000 per week.

10 April 2007 - The Red Devils Roll A Lucky Seven

On 10 April 2007, Manchester United staged a dramatic Champions League quarterfinal turnaround, overcoming a 2-1 first leg deficit by beating Roma 7-1 in the second leg and advancing 8-3 on aggregate.

The Italians entered the match at Old Trafford brimming with confidence. They had dominated United for most of the first leg at the Stadio Olimpico in a match that ended 2-1, but could have been much worse for the English side, who also saw midfielder Paul Scholes sent off in the first half of that match after receiving two yellow cards.

United, however, quickly dispelled any notions that they were going to roll over in the second leg, as midfielder Michael Carrick and forwards Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney scored three early first-half goals in quick succession (Carrick 12', Smith 17', Rooney 19'). Stunned, Roma pushed forward in attack, only to leave their defense exposed. Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of the space, scoring goals on either side of the break (44', 49') to push the lead to 5-0.

Carrick completed his brace with a 60th-minute rocket to make it 6-0 before Roma finally drew blood with a 69th-minute shot from Daniele de Rossi. Roma's humiliation was complete in the 81st minute, as United back Patrice Evra knocked a low shot past keeper Doni to complete the final scoreline of 7-1.

The win set up a semifinal match-up against AC Milan, who beat United 3-5 on aggregate on their way to winning their seventh European Cup/Champions League title.

21 January 2007 - A Celebration Coach Might Not Be A Bad Idea

On 21 January 2007, Arsenal staged a dramatic comeback win against Manchester United at the Emirates, but the Gunners paid a steep price for the three points (and in ridiculous fashion).

United entered the match at the top of table, 15 points clear of fourth-place Arsenal, and were looking to avenge their 0-1 loss to the Gunners from September. United had their chances in the first half, but were repeatedly denied by Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann. They took a deserved lead in the second half, however, when forward Wayne Rooney scored with an unmarked header in the 59th minute.

The Gunners continued to attack and received an 83rd-minute equalizer from striker Robin van Persie, who had come on in the 67th minute. Ten minutes later, with United visibly tired and frustrated, Thierry Henry headed in the game winner.

Arsenal's joy at the win was dampened when it was later revealed that van Persie broke a bone in his foot while celebrating his goal. The season-ending injury was a crushing blow, as the Dutchman was the Gunners' leading scorer at the time. Arsenal won only 8 of their next 23 matches in all competitions and finished the season without any silverware.

28 September 2004 - The Kid Knows How To Make An Entrance

On 28 September 2004, English striker Wayne Rooney made his debut for Manchester United in a 6-2 win against Fenerbahçe at Old Trafford. The 18-year old put in an impressive performance, contributing three goals and an assist.

United signed Rooney from Everton the previous month for a fee of £25.6 million, a deal that, at the time, made him the most expensive teenage signing in British history. He had been a professional for only two years, but had shown world-class quality playing for England in the 2004 UEFA European Championship, scoring braces against Switzerland and Croatia before suffering a foot injury against Portugal that forced him to exit the tournament.

In his Old Trafford debut, United were already up 1-0 with a goal from Ryan Giggs when Rooney found the net from the edge of the penalty area in the 17th minute. He scored his second--from about 20 yards out--eleven minutes later, with an assist from Giggs. The Turkish visitors pulled one back in the 47th minute, but Rooney delivered again with a curling free kick in the 54th minute. Finally, with United up 5-2 in the 80th minute, Rooney played a pass to United striker David Bellion, who scored the match's final goal.

The hat-trick was Rooney's first as a professional player.

5 August 2007 - Welcome Home, Community Shield

On 5 August 2007, Manchester United won the first Community Shield played at the new Wembley, beating Chelsea on penalties, 1-1 (3-0).

Dating back to 1908, the competition pits the previous season's league winner against the FA Cup holder, which, in 2007, were United and Chelsea, respectively. The same two teams met in the last edition of the contest to be played at the old Wembley in 2000, when it was named the Charity Shield, with Chelsea winning 2-0. Since then, Cardiff's Millenium Stadium hosted the event while the new Wembley was under construction.

For the 2007 match, United went ahead with a 35th-minute goal from Ryan Giggs, but Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda equalized right before the break. The score remained level at 1-1 through 90 minutes and stoppage time, forcing a decision by penalty kicks (there was no provision for extra time).

Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar shined in the shootout, denying Chelsea's first three attempts, while United scored their first two. That brought up striker Wayne Rooney for the winning shot, which he fired past keeper Petr Cech, who guessed correctly, but could not reach the ball in time.

It was United's twelfth outright Charity/Community Shield, with another four shared. They have since won it another three times, most recently in 2011, for a record of 19.

19 June 2012 - The Controversy That Never Ends

On 19 June 2012, England beat Ukraine in their last group stage match of the Euros, but not without a little goal-line controversy.

They started the day separated by a single point in the Group D table. England were on top with four points, while France and Ukraine were behind them on three points each and Sweden were at the bottom with no points at all. As the top two teams advanced, everybody was still in the mix.

Playing at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, Ukraine had the support of a partisan home crowd, but England quieted them somewhat after Wayne Rooney's 48th-minute header gave the Three Lions a 1-0 lead. Their voice returned in force in the 62nd minute, however, when the referee refused to award a goal for Marko Dević. The striker's high arcing shot was cleared by a scrambling John Terry, but replays showed that the ball crossed the line before Terry got to it. The match ended 1-0.

Afterward, Ukraine manager Oleg Blokhin was so angry that he invited one reporter to step outside for what he called "a man conversation." Dević expressed disappointment with the non-goal, suggesting a 1-1 draw with more than 25 minutes to go could have drastically altered the outcome. As it stood, however, England and France advanced, though both were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

In addition to eliminating Ukraine, the loss to England was also the last international match for their captain, Andriy Shevchenko.

10 September 2008 - Theo Is The Future And The Future Is Now

On 10 September 2008, Theo Walcott scored his first hat-trick. And it just happened to make him the youngest player ever to do so for England.

Only 19 years old at the time, Walcott had risen to prominence at Southampton (2004-06) before moving to Arsenal in January 2006. After only a half season in London, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson surprised everyone by including Walcott in his squad for the 2006 World Cup. The winger made his first start for the senior England team in a May 2006 friendly against Hungary, becoming the youngest debutant in the national team's history.

After falling out of favor with Eriksson's replacement, Steve McClaren, Walcott returned to the national team set-up under McClaren's successor, Fabio Capelli, and got his first competitive England start on 6 September 2008 in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra. He failed to score in that match, but got his chance four days later in a qualifier against Croatia.

Playing before a crowd of 35,000 at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Walcott scored his first senior England goal in the 26th minute, as an attempted clearance by Croatia deflected off one of their own players. It landed at Walcott's feet on the right wing and he fired it across the keeper into the far bottom corner. The second goal was a nearly identical shot, delivered in the 59th minute.

The best goal of the three was the final one. In the 82nd minute, with England winning 1-3, forward Wayne Rooney sent a perfectly-placed pass to Walcott, who was sprinting down the right side. He outpaced his marker, took a couple of touches to move the ball across the box to the left, and slipped it under the keeper into the right corner. He was 19 years and 178 days old at the time, making him not only the youngest player to score a hat-trick for England, but the youngest to score for them in a World Cup qualifier. They remain his only three goals, however, in 18 total appearances for England.

Almost two years later, he got his first club hat-trick, scoring three in Arsenal's 6-0 win over Blackpool on 22 August 2010.

27 July 2007 - Clearly, I Am In The Wrong Business

On 27 July 2007, Chelsea captain John Terry became the highest-paid player in Premier League history. For a while, anyway.

The Blues had just completed a three-year run in which they won the league twice (2005, 2006), then finished as runners-up to Manchester United (2007). They also won the FA Cup and the League Cup in 2007. Terry, who was also the England captain at the time, had two years remaining on his existing contract that paid him a reported £67,000 per week, well behind teammates Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, who were both earning close to £120,000.

Terry's contract negotiations dragged out over a couple of months, but the defender maintained throughout that he had no intention of leaving the club. In July, Chelsea rewarded his loyalty with a new five-year deal that paid him close to £135,000 per week to surpass the record previously held by Ballack and Shevchenko. But Terry's status as the league's best-paid player did not last long. In August 2008, Chelsea signed midfielder Frank Lampard to a new deal worth £140,000 per week (which triggered an increase in Terry's pay to the same level). Even then, they both were well behind AC Milan midfielder Kaká and Inter striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, both of earned close to £166,000 per week.

In 2010, Manchester United smashed the Premier League record by signing Wayne Rooney to a 5-year deal worth a reported £250,000 per week.

10 April 2007 - The Red Devils Roll A Lucky Seven

On 10 April 2007, Manchester United staged a dramatic Champions League quarterfinal turnaround, overcoming a 2-1 first leg deficit by beating Roma 7-1 in the second leg and advancing 8-3 on aggregate.

The Italians entered the match at Old Trafford brimming with confidence. They had dominated United for most of the first leg at the Stadio Olimpico in a match that ended 2-1, but could have been much worse for the English side, who also saw midfielder Paul Scholes sent off in the first half of that match after receiving two yellow cards.

United, however, quickly dispelled any notions that they were going to roll over in the second leg, as midfielder Michael Carrick and forwards Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney scored three early first-half goals in quick succession (Carrick 12', Smith 17', Rooney 19'). Stunned, Roma pushed forward in attack, only to leave their defense exposed. Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of the space, scoring goals on either side of the break (44', 49') to push the lead to 5-0.

Carrick completed his brace with a 60th-minute rocket to make it 6-0 before Roma finally drew blood with a 69th-minute shot from Daniele de Rossi. Roma's humiliation was complete in the 81st minute, as United back Patrice Evra knocked a low shot past keeper Doni to complete the final scoreline of 7-1.

The win set up a semifinal match-up against AC Milan, who beat United 3-5 on aggregate on their way to winning their seventh European Cup/Champions League title.

21 January 2007 - A Celebration Coach Might Not Be A Bad Idea

On 21 January 2007, Arsenal staged a dramatic comeback win against Manchester United at the Emirates, but the Gunners paid a steep price for the three points (and in ridiculous fashion).

United entered the match at the top of table, 15 points clear of fourth-place Arsenal, and were looking to avenge their 0-1 loss to the Gunners from September. United had their chances in the first half, but were repeatedly denied by Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann. They took a deserved lead in the second half, however, when forward Wayne Rooney scored with an unmarked header in the 59th minute.

The Gunners continued to attack and received an 83rd-minute equalizer from striker Robin van Persie, who had come on in the 67th minute. Ten minutes later, with United visibly tired and frustrated, Thierry Henry headed in the gamewinner.

Arsenal's joy at the win was dampened when it was later revealed that van Persie broke a bone in his foot while celebrating his goal. The season-ending injury was a crushing blow, as the Dutchman was the Gunners' leading scorer at the time. Arsenal won only 8 of their next 23 matches in all competitions and finished the season without any silverware.

28 September 2004 - The Kid Knows How To Make An Entrance

On 28 September 2004, English striker Wayne Rooney made his debut for Manchester United in a 6-2 win against Fenerbahçe at Old Trafford. The 18-year old put in an impressive performance, contributing three goals and an assist.

United signed Rooney from Everton the previous month for a fee of £25.6 million, a deal that, at the time, made him the most expensive teenage signing in British history. He had been a professional for only two years, but had shown world-class quality playing for England in the 2004 UEFA European Championship, scoring braces against Switzerland and Croatia before suffering a foot injury against Portugal that forced him to exit the tournament.

In his Old Trafford debut, United were already up 1-0 with a goal from Ryan Giggs when Rooney found the net from the edge of the penalty area in the 17th minute. He scored his second--from about 20 yards out--eleven minutes later, with an assist from Giggs. The Turkish visitors pulled one back in the 47th minute, but Rooney delivered again with a curling free kick in the 54th minute. Finally, with United up 5-2 in the 80th minute, Rooney played a pass to United striker David Bellion, who scored the match's final goal.

The hat-trick was Rooney's first as a professional player.