The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

By Ian McCullough

The Christmas period is usually the benchmark to work out who is going to be in the title shake-up at the end of the season and who is going down. In the Premiership the Abramovich millions look to have secured another title already for Chelsea.

While Manchester United lurch from one crisis to another on and off the field and Arsenal endure a year of consolidation that only a man as highly-revered and well-respected as Arsene Wenger can get away with the Blues’ biggest challenge seems to be coming from Liverpool.

Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho’s sides produced another classic encounter last week in the Champions League which saw no goals scored, little quality in terms of passing and possession and with only a horror tackle from Michael Essien enough to get people excited.

We shouldn’t be surprised though for that is what has happened in nearly every game played between these two teams over the last 14 months. Some are claiming that it could be the start of an era of two new teams battling it out for the Premiership crown with Arsenal and United being cast as the has-beens to these new kids on the block. Let’s hope not.

The fact is, Jose Mourinho is more entertaining than his team. Yes they are a good side but they were beautifully described in one recent article as being to football what Coldplay are to music; you know they are good but you can’t get excited by them.

The same can be said of Liverpool. They have a superb manager in Rafa Benitez who can only be admired after the Reds’ Champions League triumph and transforming Jamie Carragher into something resembling a top-class central defender.

However, effective as it may be it isn’t good to watch and at the end of the day that is what football is all about. Liverpool and Chelsea are being cast as two clubs who don’t like each other and just like Manchester United and Arsenal sparks will fly and it will be compulsive viewing. Well this will not happen.

The memories of a decade of brilliant entertainment from the Gunners and the Red Devils were what gave the Premiership its self-appointed tag as the best league in the world.

The quicker it returns to the way it was the better. Both sides are too big and have too much talent in their ranks to be out of the race for the Premiership for long — let’s hope so for entertainment’s sake.

It was a quiet weekend for Irishmen in front of goal with no-one finding the net in the Premiership, the Championship, League Two or in Scotland.

However, in League One Doncaster’s Paul Heffernan continued his fine recent form to grab his 10th of the season. The big Dubliner hit his side’s third in a 3-2 win over MK Dons.

Under-21 international Kevin O’Connor found the net for the fifth time to save Brentford from defeat to Chesterfield in the 1-1 draw at Griffin Park.

Sean Foley has been tipped by many to make the grade at Aston Villa and the young Dublin-born midfielder has been impressing on the south coast at Bournemouth. He hit the target for the second time in four games for the Cherries but it was not enough as they slumped to a 2-1 reverse at Hartlepool.

Ian McCullough’s Team of the Week