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Not too much sympathy should be afforded Blackburn for their two missed penalties in the 1-0 home defeat by Everton, Junior Hoilett and Mauro Formica the guilty parties. Failing to score from 12 yards is hardly ever unfortunate. John Terry hitting the post in Moscow in 2008 was not unlucky. No one else slipped. It was just poor technique. The same applies to Brazil in their Copa América quarter-final against Paraguay last month.

In the 2008-09 season Ireland was named Manchester City's player of the year and awarded a five-year contract on the back of his midfield exploits where he was the creative fulcrum for Mark Hughes's side. But things have not gone so well for the Irishman since. When the millions rolled in at City, he rolled out to Villa. There he was criticised by Houllier last season - "Ireland needs to work harder . We know he is a good player but I don't want to have a situation where you say 'he is a good player, but . '" - before spending the second half of the season enduring a difficult loan period at Newcastle.