Andy Gray

[i]It's been a long and eventful season - from Chelsea's early dominance to Manchester United's long unbeaten run and eventual record-breaking 19th league title - so I think it's time to reflect on some of the key protagonists and events. I've got no time for criticising those who have struggled so I've decided to roll exclusively with the good times. Here's my 2010-11 top five...[/i] [b]Best Player [/b]Carlos Tevez has been prolific and thrilling to watch in a team of new players. It can take a while for new signings to gel but Tevez has been the talisman as well as the binding glue for this emerging Manchester City team. He's scored goals and created chances for others and is only one of two strikers to find the net more than 20 times. The Argentine would be a huge loss if he leaves...

Aston Villa's current league position will come as a surprise to many. After all, they have consistently finished in the top six for the last few seasons and boast a number of established internationals. Darren Bent and Ashley Young both started for England against Wales in a big qualifier and Stewart Downing then started against Ghana. Look at the rest of the squad and you'll find plenty of other quality players who are automatic starters for their countries: Richard Dunne, Stiliyan Petrov, Michael Bradley and James Collins to name but a few. And that's without mentioning exciting young talent like Marc Albrighton and Fabian Delph. So how are they in this mess and who's to blame? Well, for starters, it's not Gerard Houllier, who arrived at the club with the season well under way....

I have to say I was really glad to see Fabio Capello bringing some new faces into the team. Scott Parker obviously isn't that new a face, he's been around for years, but has rarely started for England in important games and I'd like to see him get an extended run in the team. I've got nothing against Gareth Barry, who I think plays that holding role very well for Manchester City, but I just think the West Ham favourite gives you that little bit more energy and dynamism. As for Jack Wilshere, what is there to say that hasn't already been said? He has skill, composure, an outstanding range of passing and a fantastic football brain - everything you need to become one of the very best players on the planet. He's already been starting games for Arsenal all season and has now started a ...

It used to be the case that the England cricket captaincy was the subject of much debate in the papers, pubs and amongst commentators and analysts. The football captaincy was far more straightforward: someone was given the armband by the manager and in the unlikely event that the skipper was out of action, the vice-captain would step in. If that man was then out himself, the manager would select someone else on a one-off basis. That's how it used to be. We all know why John Terry was stripped of the captaincy last year but I'm not so sure that was the right decision to start with. What happened between him and Wayne Bridge was an off-field matter that had nothing to do with football and I wonder whether Fabio Capello didn't jump the gun. Maybe he should have waited till after England's...

The other day somebody asked me what I thought were the three things you needed to win the Champions League. "Xavi, Iniesta and Messi," I replied. Joking aside, Barcelona are of course the outstanding team in the competition this year, though their tie against Arsenal ended up being tighter than many would have thought. With 20 minutes to go, it was Arsenal who were going through, let's not forget, and Barca did benefit from a pretty harsh decision when Robin van Persie received his marching orders. But those are discussions for another day and Pep Guardiola's men played really well over the two legs and probably deserved to go through. It sounds like an obvious thing to say, given they're the 2.32 favourites to win the competition, but they really are the team to beat. You need...

Much has been made of Fernando Torres' so-called slow start at Chelsea but it must be remembered that he hasn't even played a full game for them yet. It's far too early to condemn him. The Spaniard did cut a forlorn figure against Fulham and I understand Chelsea fans who had expected him to hit the ground running. But it doesn't always work like that, especially for strikers. A front man needs to play his way into a side and they need to adapt their system to him. Torres had a poor World Cup, despite winning it with Spain, he struggled at the end of last season and hasn't been at his best this term. He has scored nine goals though, which works out at about one goal every two games, around nineteen a season. For £50 million, it's understandable that fans want a better return than...

The Home Nations Cup (Carling Nations Cup) is back and I'm very excited that this great competition has returned to the international football calendar. I was involved in it as a player back in the day and I always looked forward to the tournament. After all, there's bound to be some rivalry amongst the different teams and that makes for good, hard, competitive football matches. The big story of course is that the English FA have decided they don't want to be involved this time round and whereas I'm disappointed by that, I'm not the slightest bit surprised. For the FA, the World Cup and European Championships are seen as the competitions they are desperate to win and they obviously feel that being able to pick and choose who they play in international friendlies is a better option that...

What a week that was! Who could possibly have predicted that was going to happen in the manner in which it did? Yes, my friends, Fernando Torres has left Liverpool to join Chelsea. We'll probably never know exactly how it all happened but we can speculate that it went something like this... Having watched Torres look out of sorts and disillusioned for most of the season, Kenny Dalglish asked the striker if he wanted to leave the club. The answer clearly wasn't a resounding "yes" so the powers-that-be at Liverpool got together and decided that they were prepared to sell him if their asking price was matched and they were sure they could get a suitable replacement before the close of the transfer window. They inquired about Andy Carroll and when Newcastle and the player made...

Aston Villa's signing of Darren Bent was the big news last week after Gerard Houllier managed to prise away Sunderland's star asset for a fee in the region of £18 million. It has sparked the old debate of whether players become far more expensive in the transfer market just because they happen to be English. It does seem to be the case that homegrown players are worth a few bob more than foreign imports, especially if they're also established internationals, but there are two good reasons for that. The first is that with the recently introduced regulations concerning a minimum number of home-grown players, English lads become a more valuable commodity. The second is that I think most fans like to see high-profile nationals playing in their side. If you go and ask a Real Madrid...