By Tim Stannard

1) Asprilla blames Ronaldo for James bad boy behavior

Conventional football wisdom says that Cristiano Ronaldo is generally a good influence on the training ground, dressing room and the pitch itself. The sport is full of plaudits from admiring onlookers applauding CR7’s work rate, effort, dedication and daily opportunities carved out to show off a bit on the internet.

But there is one voice in the wilderness who dares to doubt the Real Madrid man. And that is all round Colombian eccentric, Tino Asprilla, who claims that Ronaldo is a bad influence on a particular countryman having a tough time at the Santiago Bernabeu these days, James Rodriguez.

“His friendship with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid is damaging him,” claimed the former Parma and Newcastle striker. “He has the same gestures when they don’t give him the ball.”

Asprilla clearly feels that the Portuguese protester is the change agent in James apparently turning to the “No ‘I’ in team” dark side. “You can quarrel, but doing it because one of your teammates didn’t pass the ball is the ugliest thing you can do as a footballer. He’s picked up that habit from Cristiano Ronaldo, who does it every eight days.”

2) Zizou’s struggle to find fully fit footballers

Staying on a Bernabeu bent and looking ahead to Saturday’s epic Madrid encounter and Coach Zizou is trying to assemble something that resembles a team for the trip to the Vicente Calderon which doesn’t tend to go that well of late.

Lady Luck has seen to strike down a number of the players with injury. Alvaro Morata is out a month with a hamstring tear, and Karim Benzema is still feeling his way back to life after yet another injury knack but has reportedly been passed fit. Toni Kroos is very sidelined indeed, Casemiro is a huge doubt for the derby along with Pepe, and Sergio Ramos face races to be ready in time for the Big Day.

Matters look a little happier in the Atletico Madrid camp with Antoine Griezmann expected to play. And by happy coincidence, tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for an exclusive interview with the French wonder. And set the cuckoo clock for the derby itself on Saturday at 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT live on beIN SPORTS.

3) Wenger faces sworn enemy in Manchester

The plucky old Premier League is also doing its bit for big games this weekend, as well as Serie A and the Milan derby. The weekend’s first clash pits two dear beloved friends together, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger together, a couple of coaches who have a long-standing….frostiness over the years, although the Arsenal manager was keen to tone down the tension speaking on Thursday ahead of the game. "He will fight for his team and I will fight for mine and that is completely normal.”

Wenger also brought some bad news to the table by announcing that Barcelona target, Hector Bellerin, was out for the next month after suffering an injury during the recent North London derby against Tottenham.

4) England takes hard line on late-night England excursions

Killjoys. That’s the strong Sports Burst denunciation of England’s Football Association who have banned their players from night’s out whilst on international duty. And all because Wayne Rooney had quite the public time of it gate-crashing a wedding.

Rooney got the backing from the unusual source of Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, on Thursday who noted that “the legends drank like devils and smoked like crazy and were still good players.” Jose Mourinho now has the decision to make on whether to let Rooney play against Arsenal on Saturday to spite a few tabloid journalist types, or leave the forward on the bench because he’s a bit past it.

5) Canada’s finest in semi-final ATP fight

Tennis Time! The ATP World Finals continue in London with Novak Djokovic taking on David Goffin in the final match of the Serbian’s group. Djokovic has already qualified for the semis and was due to be playing Gael Monfils, but the Frenchman withdrew through injury. The second match sees Milos Raonic taking on Dominic Thiem in a straight shoot-out for the group’s second semifinal spot.