France defeat caps a year to forget for Fabio

AT the start of the year Fabio Capello’s England were just 11-2 joint-second favourites with the mighty Brazil to win the World Cup.

RELATED LINKS Free bet Bet In-Play now  But the final match of 2010 ended amid a chorus of boos as England slipped to a 2-1 defeat to France in a Wembley friendly to crank up the pressure on the manager.

Hills go 10-1 from 33-1 that the Italian is gone by the end of the year, while they have cut their odds about an Englishman taking over the role from 4-9 to 4-11.

The good news for Capello is that friendly form seems to count for little – at least as far as bookmakers are concerned. Among the surprise results on Wednesday, European champions and World Cup winners Spain were beaten 4-0 by Portugal but they remain unmoved at the top of the market at 4-1, while the Portuguese are also unchanged at 14-1.

On Thursday Fifa suspendedthe two executive committee members from voting for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts after completing a corruption investigation.

Nigeria’s Amos Adamu was banned from all football activity for three years, while Reynald Temarii of Tahiti was suspended for one year. Russia are 10-11 favourites to win the 2018 bid, while England are 7-4.

Steven Gerrard has been ruled out forup to four weeks with the hamstring injury he picked up in England’s dismal 2-1 defeat to France on Wednesday.

Liverpool’s influentialskipper limped off in the 85th minute at Wembley and the Merseyside club yesterday confirmed the midfielder has sustained a grade two tear.

Gerrard will definitely miss Saturday's Premier League clash with bottom-of-the-table West Ham, while his participation in upcoming games against Tottenham, Steaua Bucharest, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Utrecht is also highly doubtful.

There was better news for beleaguered Reds boss Roy Hodgson, however, as Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson were all declared fit for the clash with the Hammers.

The London club have been trimmed to 13-2 to pick up theirfirst win at Anfield in 40 attempts, while Liverpool have drifted to 4-7 to get back on track after their disappointing 2-0 reversal at Stoke last week.

That result piled the pressure back on Kop boss Hodgson, and he is 13-2 to be the next manager to leave his post.

His opposite number, Avram Grant, is above him in the betting at 9-4 and both bosses will be desperate for a positive result.

England’s defeat against France coupled with the Gerrard injury provoked a wave of anger towards Fabio Capello and the FA yesterday, but the English game’s ruling body moved quickly to quell the bad feeling by announcing they had approved plans to begin work on their long-awaited national football centre at Burton-upon-Trent.

Building work on the £105m centre will begin in January, and is hoped to be completed by the summer of2012.

The pick of the weekend’s Premier League action is Saturday lunchtime’s north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham at the Emirates.

Arsenal are 4-6 favourites for the match and they welcome back French centre-back Laurent Koscielny from a two-matchban.

The Gunners do have doubts over midfielders Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky.

Spurs will monitor Aaron Lennon’s troublesome hamstring, but they could have Jermain Defoe on the bench after the striker returned to training following an ankle injury.

Harry Redknapp’s side are 9-2 shots to record only their second league success over their arch rivals in 22 meetings.

Aston Villa confirmed they have signed Robert Pires on a deal until the end of the season on Thursday.

The former Arsenal star and French World Cup winner had been training with the Gunners, but Villa boss Gerard Houllier snapped up the 37-year-old veteran as cover for injured midfielders Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Stilian Petrov.

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