REAL Madrid's Zinedine Zidane was voted the FIFA Player of the Year this week ? and it was the third time the French player has won the award. You really cannot argue with the choice of Zidane . . . but I personally would have voted for Arsenal's Thierry Henry. I thought Henry has had a fantastic couple of years but he came second to his fellow countryman with Brazil's Ronaldo coming third.

However Henry is still quite young so it would not surprise me to see him eventually win the award. Zidane is a fantastic player but I do not think he has been quite a good as he has been in the past. But congratulations to him. He is wonderful to watch as anyone who saw the Real Madrid against Deportivo game last weekend would tell you.

I also thought Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy would have been in the running considering the goals he has scored over the past year and a half. He came sixth in the voting. The reason why I like Henry more than van Nistelrooy is that Henry is more of a complete player while van Nistelrooy is a goal poacher ? but an exceptional one at that.

Well money can't buy you everything. Chelsea, who spent millions and millions of pounds over the summer buying top players, suffered two defeats inside of a week. Last weekend they had their first home defeat of the season when Bolton beat them 2-1 which saw Chelsea drop out of top place in the Premiership. And then this week they were defeated by Aston Villa in the quarterfinals of the League Cup where their manager experimented with the team a bit. Now this weekend Chelsea have a short walk to Fulham and don't forget Fulham easily beat Manchester United earlier this season. So Chelsea must get something from the game. I know they probably do not care as much for the League Cup as they do for the Premiership and Champions League but they have to bounce back.

On the other end of the scale, Aston Villa, whose fans have been protesting this season against their chairman, won a 3-2 encounter against lowly Wolves last weekend and are now in the semifinals of the League Cup after beating Chelsea in mid-week. And the player they can thank for both those victories is Juan Pablo Angel who scored two goals against Wolves and hit a cracker against Chelsea. Villa, who have a rich history in the game, now go to Blackburn this weekend.

Arsenal fielded a young team in their quarterfinal of the League Cup and came away 2-0 winners against West Brom. It is good to see the young players of Arsenal come up with the goods and it just shows that everyone at the club is on the same page as manager Arsene Wenger. Arsenal now face Middlesbrough in the semis of the League Cup after Middlesbrough beat Spurs on penalties. Bolton take on Villa in the other semifinal.

Arsenal, who beat Blackburn 1-0 last weekend in the league to go on top, face Bolton this weekend and although I believe they will come away with all three points, they will have to tread carefully since Bolton always come out fighting and are not afraid of anyone.

Speaking of Bolton, their manager Sam Allardyce is very unhappy that he could lose his star striker Jay Jay Okocha for five weeks due to the African Nations Cup next month. I understand Allardyce's anger. After all it is Bolton who are paying Okocha's wages. FIFA should try and sort everything out so that all countries play these competitions at the same time because Okocha will definitely be missed by Bolton.

Manchester United have now got Paul Scholes back after nearly two months of injury. And Scholes showed what he can do when he scored two goals last weekend against rivals Manchester City with Rudd van Nistelrooy getting the third in the 3-1 victory. I have always rated Scholes ? in fact I think he is one of the best, if not the best, English player. He is the kind of person who lets his football do the talking. And as time has gone on he gets better and better. He is so aware of what is going on the pitch and can do it all. It is a joy to watch him.

The hearing into Rio Ferdinand's missed drug test started yesterday and is expected to finish today or Saturday. I like Rio very much and got to know him when I would visit West Ham when the now Manchester United defender was there. He is a very nice guy ? he wouldn't say 'boo' to anyone. But he did miss the drug test so he will have to face the music. I just hope that if he is banned, it will not affect his playing time with England in Euro 2004. I honestly believe that he did forget the drug test but you still have to face the punishment. One thing I am certain of ? Rio doesn't do drugs. It has bothered me a bit that it has taken so long to get this case sorted out. It should have been done long ago ? in fact we shouldn't even be talking about it now. We will have to wait and see what happens today or tomorrow.