Fewer coaching casualties in top flight

Before the start of season 2008-09, Manchester City sacked former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and named Mark Hughes, formerly of Blackburn Rovers, as his successor.

A few days before Christmas last year, the wealthy sheiks at the City boardroom decided that Hughes's time was up as results had fallen below expectations. Italian Roberto Mancini was appointed manager of Man. City.

The number of changes in the Premier League this season is three down on the previous term.

The changes occurred at Bolton − Gary Megson (still vacant); Manchester City − Roberto Mancini for Mark Hughes; Portsmouth − Avram Grant for Paul Hart; Wigan Athletic − Roberto Martinez for Steve Bruce (the latter moved to Sunderland); Chelsea − Carlo Ancelotti for Guus Hiddink (the Dutch coach was still contracted to the Russian FA); Sunderland − Steve Bruce for Ricky Sbragia.

Other soccer items of interest for December:

• The League Cup semi-final line-up features all Premier League clubs − Aston Villa, Blackburn, Manchester City and Manchester United.

• Premier League clubs have forked out a total of £70.6 million to agents from October 2008 up to September last year.

• Everton topple AEK Athens 1-0 away to reach the knock-out stage of the Europa League competition.

Other results: Celtic-Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0, Fulham-CSKA Sofia 1-0.

• In the World Cup final draws, Fabio Capello's England will face the United States, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C.

• Chelsea's Carlo Ancelotti is named manager of the month. The players' accolade goes to Jimmy Bullard, of Hull.

• Michael Owen nets a hat-trick in Manchester United's 3-1 win over Wolfsburg in the final game of the group phase of the Champions League. United, Arsenal (lost 0-1 away in Olympiakos) and Chelsea (drew 2-2 at home with APOEL Nicosia) finish on top of their respective groups.

Liverpool (lost at home to Fiorentina 1-2) finish in third place and drop to the Europa League. Rangers (lost 0-1 in Sevilla) saw their European season end in turmoil after finishing bottom of their group.

Liverpool's tally of seven points from six group matches is their worst ever in the Champions League.

• In the Championship, manager Mark Cooper replaces the sacked Darren Ferguson at Peterborough.

Ashton retires

• West Ham forward Dean Ashton announces his retirement at the age of 26 after failing to recover from a long-term ankle injury.

• Paul Mariner, ex-England international, is named Plymouth boss after Paul Sturrock quit the club.

• Manchester United's Ryan Giggs is named BBC Sport Personality of the Year.

• Fulham join Everton in the knock-out phase of the Europa League after a 1-0 win away to BATE Borisov, of Belarus.

Other results: Basle-Fulham 2-3, Rapid Vienna-Celtic 3-3.

• QPR, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday axe managers Jim Magilton (appoint Paul Hart), Brendan Rodgers (caretaker Brian McDermott) and Brian Laws (caretaker Sean McAuley), respectively.

• The behaviour of English fans has improved at home and abroad. In England last season the number of arrests was five per cent down on the previous year, a report said.

• Dundee United boss Craig Levein agrees a two-and-a-half year deal with the Scottish FA to manage the national side.

• Motherwell sack manager Jim Gannon. Craig Brown takes over on a temporary basis.

• Preston North End fire boss Alan Irvine.

• After almost five months without a hat-trick scorer in the Scottish Premier, two trebles are netted in four days − MacDonald for St Johnston and Boyd (scored five) for Rangers.

Leading marksmen

Premier League
14 − Drogba (Chelsea), Rooney (Man. United), Defoe (Tottenham)
13 − Bent (Sunderland)
12 − Torres (Liverpool)
10 − Saha (Everton)

The Championship
13 − Whittingham (Cardiff)
11 − Ambrose (Crystal Palace), Chopra (Cardiff), Fryatt (Leicester)
10 − Maynard (Bristol City), Nolan (Newcastle), Sharp (Doncaster), Henderson (Sheffield United)

Scottish Premier
19 − Boyd (Rangers)
12 − Miller (Rangers)
09 − McDonald, Samaras (Celtic)