L'équipe has the probable first 11 for France's opening world cup qualifier on Saturday :

Mandanda
Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra
Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Nasri
Benzema, Henry

In North America, Setanta will be showing both of France's upcoming world cup qualifiers on same-day tape delay:

Setanta broadcast at 4:00 p. Click to continue reading...

The Telegraph is on top of the Manchester City takeover story, and their new majority shareholder Dr. Sulaiman Al-Fahim from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The Telegraph reports that Al-Fahim's father was the first president and principal architect of the United Arab Emirates, and that Al-Fahim himself, still a young man at 31, is a high roller in the UAE:

-He's a member of Abu Dhabi United Group which is part of the world's second largest instituitonal investor, behind the Bank of Japan - They have deep, deep pockets from oil revenue. Click to continue reading...

As a football supporter, I find that a good blog is a great addition to media websites. First, it's nice to have more voices available, but more than that, a well-written blog provides better coverage than most media outlets.

As the new Arsenal season is under way, I've been looking for some more Arsenal blogs to follow - I need my fix. Click to continue reading...

Underperforming Liverpool were lucky to escape the second city with a point on Sunday.  Gerrard is out recovering from surgery, likely back in a week or more.  Torres pulled up with a hamstring injury in the first third of the match.  Rafa crowded the midfield, neutralized the service to Carew and Agbonlahor, allowing the Reds to escape with a point. Click to continue reading...

Phrases like "taking candy from a baby" come to mind when Clichy repeatedly takes the ball away from a hapless opponent and darts upfield. He took a swerving shot on target today. If he starts adding goals to his game, we'll have to break out the 10s (9).

Nasri - Settling in nicely. Click to continue reading...

Jack Wilshere, eat your heart out.
Click to continue reading...

(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

If Arsene Wenger is responding to the request from Wicked Deflection to bring back Arsenal Legend Patrick Vieira, he's doing it in his typically clandestine style.

With three days to go until the transfer window closes at midnight on Monday, September 1st, Arsenal supporters are stepping up their concern about lack of depth in central midfield. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal are through to the Champions League Group Stage where they'll have home and away matches against Porto, Fenerbahce, and Dynamo Kiev.

They made it into today's Champions League group stage draw by defeating FC Twente 6-0 on aggregated in the 3rd qualifying round. Goals from the second leg, a 4-0 home victory for Arsenal, are embedded below. Click to continue reading...

Every time young Nick got the ball, he had to look down towards his new feet and told them what he wanted them to do. Sometimes he succeeded but most times they just did what they damned well pleased. Nick was very proud that by the end of the match, they started to listen to him and his right foot actually scored a goal after Nick told it to do just that. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal won the first leg away from home 2-0.

Tragedy could strike in several forms:

Arsenal 0, Twente 2

If Twente are ahead 2-0 after 90 minutes, the match will have 2 additional 15-minute periods, giving Twente more time to get the better aggregate score, or to put us to the sword on penalties if it stays 2-0. Click to continue reading...

Wicked Deflection claims to have found the answer to all (or at least most) of Arsenal's problems: the return of Patrick Vieira.

The chance to return would be a no-brainer for Pat as he's part of the Inter squad now led by the reprehensible Jose Mourinho.

There's no question that a healthy Patrick Vieira would be just what the doctor ordered for the Arsenal midfield. Click to continue reading...

According to this Wikipedia entry, Fox Sports World, now Fox Soccer Channel (FSC), launched in late 1997. This was the beginning, as far as I know, of the current availability of decent Football programming in the US. I got the channel about 2 years after its launch, and from that time, it's had great coverage of England's Premier League - Arsenal and Manchester United in particular. Click to continue reading...

"When are you going to bring in a new midfielder?";

"Why is there no contingency plan for the spate of injuries?";

"What are you playing at?"; and

"Wtf?"

These are some of the questions Arsenal supporters are posing to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

His answers have included:

Buying is not always the solution. Click to continue reading...

It's a big disappointment. But Fulham deserve full credit for this win. They had a plan and executed it perfectly: neutralize the Arsenal's weak central midfield and clamp down on the left flank.

Arsenal's team on the pitch were not fluid; their passes astray, their runs sluggish; they were often a step late to the ball. Click to continue reading...