Inter's Turn For Racism, Nigeria Top In Africa, League Titles Decided in England, Spain, Germany, Monday Night Football

Off we go with a new week and we always enjoy doing so with The Fifth Official. He/she is a complete prick but therein lies the fun.

Off to Italy now where Inter Milan fans joined the fun yesterday by singing racially abusive songs directed at Mario Balotelli. And he wasn't even there. Inter were playing Chievo but since their former striker has returned to his homeland to ply his trade, some of the Nerazzurri decided it was time to have a go. Fuck. You.

In nicer news, Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations on Sunday thanks to this goal from Sunday:



Jonathan Wilson reviews all the action from the final in South Africa in this report. He also takes a look at Nigeria's coach and offers us his Team of the Tournament.

Title races. Well, we basically have to go to Serie A to find one that's still in the balance. Manchester United most likely wrapped up the race in the EPL with their win over Everton yesterday. Actually, it wasn't so much their win, but Manchester City's pathetic showing against Southampton on Saturday. The Blues were simply dreadful. The icing on the cake of a horrific performance was Gareth Barry's calm and composed finish. Past his own keeper. Yikes! United won't let this one slip. Certainly not two years in a row. That's done. Phil McNulty is sure of it.

Meanwhile, in Spain, Barcelona's 6-1 smashing of Getafe coupled with Atlético Madrid's loss to Rayo Vallecano means the gap is now 12 in La Liga. (Meanwhile, Real Madrid slammed Sevilla). That's done.

And up in Germany, Borussia Dortmund were hammered at home by Hamburg (1-4) while Bayern Munich swatted Schalke away (4-0) to increase the gap at the top to 14 points. That's done.

In Italy, Juventus beat Fiorentina (2-0) and Napoli could only draw at Lazio (1-1) so that gap is now five. Not insurmountable, be any means.

It's all about the races for European spots, now!

Back to England. Here are some goodies:

10 Talking Points

Tottenham 2 - 1 Newcastle

Kevin Palmer at White Hart Lane

Manchester United 2 - 0 Everton

Andy Hunter at Old Trafford

Sunderland 0 - 1 Arsenal

Luke Edwards at the Stadium of Light

There's more action in the EPL tonight as Liverpool host West Brom. Here's your preview.

And let's terminate today's talk with some Monday musings from Marcotti...

Onward!!

-SSN