( From premierleague.com ) Chelsea were forced to settle for a point against battling Blackburn Rovers at Stamford Bridge.

But Blackburn's point was overshadowed by a serious head injury to defender Christopher Samba.

The opening 15 minutes failed to produce a clear-cut opening although Blackburn 'keeper Brad Friedel was called on to hold a tame header from Chelsea skipper John Terry.

Blackburn, one of the teams identified by Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, as adding strength to the Barclays Premier League, proved they were worthy of his praise with some clever attacking play.

However, Rovers were thwarted on numerous occasions by the last-ditch efforts of Terry and Ashley Cole as the goalscoring threat from Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz threatened to puncture the home defence.

Juliano Belletti's perfectly flighted cross was headed over the bar by the unmarked Andriy Shevchenko - making his first start of the season in Mourinho's side.

In the 27th minute Chelsea were prevented from taking the lead by a superb acrobatic save from Friedel. Joe Cole's mazy run ended with his attempted pass to Salomon Kalou falling at the feet of Michael Essien on the edge of the penalty area. The Ghanaian midfielder sent a powerful half-volley towards the top corner only to see the American 'keeper fly to his left to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Two minutes later the foraging Belletti burst into the penalty area and sent a right foot shot into the arms of Friedel as Chelsea increased the pace of their game.

Shevchenko's touch let him down when Essien put him through on goal moments later. The Ukrainian failed to control the pass adequately enough and that allowed Friedel to gain the advantage he needed as Shevchenko failed to lift the ball over his advancing frame.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was the next Chelsea player to try his luck but he too failed to find the target with a 20-yard low drive. Joe Cole was unlucky with a curling shot in the 35th minute but Friedel had already spotted the danger and moved swiftly to clutch the ball to his chest.

Morten Gamst Pedersen wasted a good chance for Blackburn three minutes before the break when he fired into the side netting at the far post.

Mourinho made a double substitution in the 54th minute - Florent Malouda replacing Wright-Phillips and Mikel John Obi taking over from Steve Sidwell. The change almost brought instant results when Belletti's cross was turned in by Kalou but was ruled out for offside.

Savage forced Cech into a fine one-handed save in the 76th minute but moments later Kalou sent a shot inches wide of the target at the opposite end.

Then six minutes from time a Shevchenko header from a cross by Malouda was brilliantly saved by Friedel. However, the Ukrainian striker's boot met the head of Samba as he tried to control the rebound and the Rovers player was stretchered off with a serious injury.

Shevchenko's effort was to be Chelsea's last real effort of the match as stubborn Rovers held on for a point.

( From: rovers.premiumtv.co.uk ) MARK Hughes was delighted to have claimed another point on their travels to continue their unbeaten start to the season.

Rovers had to defend for long periods, but were good value for the point at the final whistle after an excellent defensive performance.

"We are on a good run and I think the spirit that we showed today was evident for everybody to see," said Hughes after the game.

"Because we've got that spirit coursing right through the squad at the moment, when you come to places like Chelsea that spirit can get you through.

"Certainly when they were throwing things into the box towards the latter stages of the game you have to be strong both physically and mentally and I thought we were.

"We stood up to the challenge and I thought we were excellent."

That determination to defend was typified by Christopher Samba, the Congo international had to be stretchered off the field of play after receiving an accidental kick to the head with five minutes remaining.

"All of my team were prepared to put their bodies on the line today and as a consequence we've got some reward for it," added Hughes.

"You don't like seeing your players having to leave the field on a stretcher so there's real concern at the moment."

At the time of writing Samba is at Charing Cross Hospital waiting on the results of a scan, he was initially stretchered off unconscious, but is now up and talking and if all goes well he'll be able to travel back to the North West with the rest of his team mates.

( From: sportsillustrated.cnn.com ) They are feared throughout South America for their fighting spirit, their teamwork and their aerial prowess. So it seems remarkable that, although the Paraguayan national team has made it to the last three World Cups, its players have been so slow to make an impact in the English Premier League.

Paraguayans would appear to have the virtues to fit in well to the notoriously rugged style of the English game. But until this season, there was only one not very encouraging story to tell.

At the turn of the decade, Newcastle United picked up midfielder Diego Gavilán from Cerro Porteño, Paraguay's most popular club. Perhaps it came too soon.

Perhaps is was too big of a step for a young man a long way from home, but Gavilán was hardly given a game. He has accumulated more than 40 appearances for his national team and carved out a solid career in South American club soccer.

But Gavilán the pioneer wasn't able to leave his mark on English soccer, heading back to Latin American just two years later (he's currently with Grêmio in Brazil, runner-up in this year's Copa Libertadores).

Now, though, one of his compatriots is making a huge impression in the world's richest league. Blackburn Rovers' acquisition of striker Roque Santa Cruz from Bayern Munich is being seen as the bargain of the offseason. The 6-foot-3 striker has scored goals, set them up, linked the play and already become a cult figure in the Lancashire town, some 35 miles outside Manchester.

Nine years ago when he burst onto the scene as a rangy, precociously talented teenager, Santa Cruz seemed destined for even bigger stages than that offered by a provincial club in England.

In 1998, at the age of 16, Santa Cruz scored a hat trick for his club Olimpia in a Copa Mercosur match against Vélez Sarsfield of Argentina -- with legendary Paraguayan José Luis Chilavert in goal. Scouts instantly started to take notice. It was a triumph that showcased his heading ability -- but he had so much more to offer.

Perhaps his most surprising asset was his devastating turn of pace. In the '99 South American Under-20 Championships, a Brazilian center back calmly tried to bring the ball out of defense in the first minute of the match. From nowhere, Santa Cruz swooped in to nip the ball off his toe and raced away to score.

He seemed to have the complete package -- height and pace, the capacity to strike the ball with power and subtlety off either foot and the intelligence to combine well with his strike partner. At the senior level, Paraguay had shown its customary resilience but was struggling for goals. So Roque Santa Cruz appeared like a gift from heaven.

He was sent straight in to senior international soccer, and in July 1999, when Paraguay staged its first ever Copa América, the 17-year-old was leading their attack like a veteran. "Babygol," he was nicknamed. Once the competition had ended (Paraguay, unbeaten, lost on penalties to Uruguay in the quarterfinals), Santa Cruz went off across the Atlantic to join Bayern Munich.

The German giants congratulated themselves on pulling off a coup. They truly believed they had signed a player who would shortly become one of the superstars of the global game.

Eight years later, Santa Cruz's start with Blackburn would indicate that his future is as bright as ever. Bayern, though, would argue that it saw all too little from Santa Cruz. It had been hoping that the Paraguayan would develop into the type of player who might even score 38 goals a season, rather than the eight years it took him to reach that total in German soccer.

The principal problem, of course, was injuries. The beanpole frame of Santa Cruz has broken down time and time again. Significantly, in all the interviews he has given to the English press, he has been stressing his hope to remain healthy for the entire season. Perhaps, though, that was not the entire story. Maybe he also got lost in the giant squad of one of Europe's leading clubs.

Soccer brings out the warrior side of the Paraguayans. Off the field, though, they can often be shy, tranquil individuals. It could just be that Santa Cruz reacts better to playing for a smaller, provincial club where he is made to feel important.

Santa Cruz, who just turned 26, should now be entering the peak years of his playing career. If Blackburn can keep him fit and handle him right, it should have plenty to celebrate -- and Paraguay should finally figure on the map -- as far as English soccer is concerned.

(From: skysports.com) Roque Santa Cruz has admitted a host of Premier League clubs were interested in securing his signature before he eventually elected to sign for Blackburn.

And the Paraguay international revealed that it was the vision of Mark Hughes which persuaded him that his future lay at Ewood Park.

The £3.5million signing is already proving to be one of the best buys of the summer with three goals to his name from Rovers' opening five fixtures.

Santa Cruz joined Rovers from Bayern Munich after eight years with the Bundesliga outfit, where he became something of a cult hero.

He told The Independent: "I had four or five clubs who were interested in me. I talked to some people, managers, and Mark Hughes made the difference.

"He told me his ideas. It was a simple decision after that. He said I would get the opportunity to play. And to learn.

"He said this team is competitive, but that I will only help to make it more competitive. I had a good feeling. I feel fit and strong. I feel like I can do everything now."

Santa Cruz took just three minutes to open his account for the club, scoring in the 2-1 victory over Middlesbrough on the opening day of the season after coming off the bench.

Pressure

And the striker admits that early goal helped ease the pressure on his shoulders as he settles into his new life in the north west.

He added: "To score in my first game. With a few minutes is indescribable.

"The longer you take to get your first goal, the more the pressure. I skipped that pressure.

"I don't feel like I've only been here two or three weeks but ages. I feel comfortable, and that is also because of the spirit in the dressing room. They're nice guys."

(From: goal.com) At midnight on Friday, 31st August, the transfer window slammed shut on a period of intense transfer activity by English Premier League clubs. The summer saw the market inflated in both volume and value terms by the significant injection of funds available to clubs from the latest TV deals, and by the arrival in some Premiership boardrooms of fabulously wealthy individuals or consortia willing and able to spend heavily on new players.

These trends produced one or two slight ironies. For example Chelsea, the club who, in the three previous summers since Roman Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge had pioneered lavish outlays in the transfer market, were relatively prudent this summer. Having spent some £30 million on Andriy Shevchenko alone last August, the Blues laid out little more than half that amount this time on eight players, most of them arriving on free transfers. The sale of Arjen Robben to Real Madrid for £24.5 million meant Chelsea even turned a profit as net sellers in this transfer window.

Another irony was that, in the context of growing concern about financial polarisation within English football, the influx of TV revenues helped to democratise the transfer market.  An indicator of this was the fact that in the summer 2006 transfer window, only three Premier League clubs spent more than £20 million on new players. In the summer 2007 window, the number of clubs shelling out more than £20 million had increased to 12. It is no longer just the Big Four who are the Big Spenders.

True, Manchester United and Liverpool led the way with the biggest outlays per club - at or near a staggering £50 million in each case. But Tottenham, Manchester City, West Ham United and Sunderland all spent in excess of £30 million each, while the likes of Portsmouth, Newcastle United, Fulham and Arsenal were all comfortably over the £20 million mark.

It is no coincidence that many of those clubs have acquired wealthy new owners fairly recently, which is perhaps just as well because transfer fees tell only part of the story. Players' salaries complete the tale, at levels guaranteed to make club accountants wince if not weep.

With so much money now flushing through the twice-yearly transfer market, Premiership club managers are able to back their judgement with hard cash like never before. But it is a double-edged sword. They can no longer cite lack of funds to bring in quality when results go pear-shaped. And their expensive purchases must deliver immediately to vindicate the manager's decisions.

Martin Jol at Tottenham is already experiencing how uncomfortable this new accountability can be. After achieving two consecutive fifth-placed finishes, Spurs have been widely tipped to displace Arsenal in the Big Four. The chances of that happening were deemed to have increased when Jol bought Gareth Bale then Darren Bent while Arsenal were selling Thierry Henry. The fact that Bent cost Spurs half a million more than Barcelona had to pay for Henry, arguably Europe's best striker between 2002 and 2006, was indicative of both the premium placed on youth and the inflated prices English clubs charge each other. Patriots may fret that Premiership clubs are too eager to shop abroad, but it is more cost-effective in terms of what you can get per million pounds.

Whether or not it is the 'best' league in the world (what criteria should be used to judge?) the Premier League is certainly the place to which world-class stars are increasingly attracted. Liverpool succeeded in luring Fernando Torres to Anfield in one of the summer's biggest deals. Some critics questioned whether the Atletico Madrid striker was worth a £21.5 million gamble, saying he was not a 20-goals-a-season man. Torres has answered those critics to date with confidence-boosting early goals and some intelligent link-up play. He looks the business, and Rafael Benitez also looks to have invested wisely in Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun. The signs are promising with regard to Lucas Leiva and Sebastian Leto, while Andriy Voronin, who arrived on a free, has also settled in quickly.    

Winning the Premier League title has become Liverpool's quest for the holy grail, and with their stronger and better balanced squad they have started the season impressively, suggesting both by results and performances that this will be their most serious challenge since they were last crowned English champions in 1990.  Benitez also wanted Gabriel Heinze on board, but was thwarted in that ambition by Manchester United's refusal to let the Argentine defender move to Anfield. If that drawn-out affair was small-minded pandering to the Old Trafford gallery, United were certainly thinking big when it came to their own acquisitions.

They stole a march on all their rivals by tying up the transfers of Nani and Anderson from Portugal very early in the close season. Nani, from Sporting Lisbon, and the Brazilian Anderson from Porto are two exciting young talents whose performances in the Portuguese League were regularly electrifying. They are seen as they long-term replacements for the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, and if they have the same sort of impact in England as Cristiano Ronaldo has had, United fans are on a promise of good things to come.  By the time they arrived, the deal to take Owen Hargreaves to Old Trafford had long been agreed.  He should offer United solid ball-winning and accurate distribution skills from the key holding midfield role. 

There are one or two lengthy transfer sagas every summer, and this time it was United's other main signing, Carlos Tevez, whose messy and complex move from West Ham via MSI to Manchester United seemed to crawl its weary way across the back pages throughout most of what passed for summer in England. The details have been well documented but suffice to say that United, despite their rocky start to the season, have got another class act in their ranks - as all West Ham fans know.

Another class act involved in a drawn-out sago was Henry, whose Emirates exit was seen by many as the straw that would break Arsenal's back. But Arsene Wenger is too astute to allow that to happen, and away from the spotlight he made a couple of low-profile purchases that could yet enhance his reputation for seeing and developing the potential in uncut gems. Eduardo Da Silva and Bacary Sagna are already playing the Wenger way.

Among the most active buyers this summer were Sven-Goran Eriksson, Alan Curbishley, Roy Keane, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce and Lawrie Sanchez.  Eriksson's business for Manchester City was conducted in a bewildering blur as soon as the prolonged saga of his appointment was finalised. The Swede quickly reminded us he was a successful and well-connected club manager before his liaison with the FA, and his cosmopolitan spending spree quickly had the likes of Elano, Vedran Corluka, Valeri Bojinov, Javier Garrido, Geovanni, Rolando Bianchi, Gelson Fernandes and Martin Petrov donning the sky blue shirt in a flurry of photo-opportunities. It all created a frisson of excitement around Eastlands, and the sense of a new dawn was further lifted as City racked up three wins out of three. The mood was dampened, however, when Bojinov suffered a serious knee ligament injury.

Even more blighted in that respect are West Ham. Curbishley saw Lucas Neill and Matthew Upson crocked immediately after joining the Hammers in January, and history repeated itself when summer signings Julien Faubert and Kieron Dyer sustained horrendous injuries before they'd got used to the journey to work. Curbishley clearly relishes a man-management challenge, bringing Dyer and Craig Bellamy into a squad that already boasts Lee Bowyer. The colony of ex-Newcastle men at Upton Park was further augmented by the arrivals of Scott Parker and Nolberto Solano.

Newcastle themselves took a bit of a gamble. Among the Fayes, Beyes and Jose Enriques, Allardyce brought in the mean and the moody in Joey Barton and Mark Viduka, but leavened the mix with the grit of Alan Smith and versatility of Geremi as the new Toon go in search of silver.

Two ex-team-mates in charge of newly-promoted sides, Keane and Bruce set about major squad overhauls for the stiffer challenge of the Premier League. Bruce may have opted for quantity ahead of quality (Olivier Kapo and Garry O'Connor excepted) at Birmingham, but he did provide the summer's most refreshing transfer moment when he sent Hassan Ghaly and his puerile pretensions packing back to Tottenham.

Keane bought a superb goalkeeper in Craig Gordon for big money, but the likes  of Kenwyne Jones, Danny Higginbotham, Kieran Richardson, Michael Chopra,  Greg Halford and Dickson Etuhu will need to work hard to banish doubts about their Premiership quality. They should all be hungry enough for Sunderland, though.

The Northern Ireland team are mostly alive and well and living in West London following Lawrie Sanchez's summer recruitment drive for Fulham. Sanchez persuaded Mohamed Al Fayed to spend more liberally than he was prepared to for Chris Coleman, and now Sanchez must deliver.

Harry Redknapp was typically busy for Portsmouth, with John Utaka, Sulley Muntari and Sylvain Distin the pick of his purchases. Papa Bouba Diop, Glen Johnson and David Nugent may take a little longer to impress.  Gareth Southgate was less active at Middlesbrough but will hope that Mido continues as he’s begun and that Tuncay Sanli proves a hit in England.

Among the summer's other big deals, Mark Hughes looks to have snared a quality bargain for Blackburn with Roque Santa Cruz, and Everton will be improved by the addition of record signing Yakubu, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka.  Chris Hutchings at Wigan is keen to prove he's his own man with a rash of squad additions, among which Jason Koumas and  Antoine Sibierski could reap particular dividends.

There was an interesting mix of new arrivals at Villa Park including Moustapha Salifou, Curtis Davies, Nigel Reo-Coker, Marlon Harewood, Zat Knight and Scott Carson. Knight and Reo-Coker shone in Aston Villa's early defeat of Chelsea, who look to have strengthened solidly if not as spectacularly as usual with Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda the early eye-catchers.  

Kenny Miller, Claude Davies and Rob Earnshaw are three reasonable purchases, but whether they and the other signings by Billy Davies will give Derby the buoyancy to float rather than sink remains to be seen.

Worryingly for their fans, neither Bolton nor Reading were active at the quality end of the market, and the early season table suggests that could have been an error.

Now the rumour mill has shut down for four months, and the managers must go with what they have. Who will prove to be the shrewdest  acquisitions of the summer? Here's a possible top XI, by position: