Football is a funny game - this is the sport where anything, and I mean anything, can happen completely out of the blue. For example, no one ever imagined that Brazilian star Ronaldinho, who was literally unstoppable not too long ago, would suddenly become as anonymous as he is nowadays.

While the summer months toil away and the transfer rumors get even more boring (or exciting if you're a Football Manager fan), football fans around the world start to get excited for their club's upcoming season. Will your club succeed? Will they fail? Will your star player remain healthy? Who will Joey Barton hit next?

One of the most talked about incidents towards the end of the controversial Chelsea-Barcelona semifinal in the midweek was the reaction of Chelsea's German midfielder Michael Ballack as he protested against one of the many refereeing blunders made that night. Ballack raced towards the official and came within inches of getting physical with the infamous Norwegian.

Manchester United may have hit the headlines for all the right reasons today, and Cristiano Ronaldo's freekick certainly impressed the United faithful. What was far less impressive was the manner in which Cristiano Ronaldo left the sacred Old Trafford pitch in the 60th minute.

With the game all wrapped up and a midweek fixture against Wigan forthcoming, Sir Alex Ferguson elected to rest his most prized asset.

If you ask me this guy isn't quite the full ticket, if you know what I mean.  Plus if he hasn't been beaten up yet, it can only be a matter of time!  If you do happen to be in Paris, just keep a look out for some loon with a football.  That goes double [...]

Another Premier League weekend is now in the books, and with some key match ups and exciting derbies now past us, here are the things that we learned from this weekend of Premiership action.

10Boring as Hull. Anyone who watched the Hull City v Portsmouth match on Saturday will know exactly what I mean.

Football FanCast columnist Mike Harvey feels that technology in football is not the answer.

Officiating in football is headline news these days. The past few weeks left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. FIFA is at a crossroads and how they choose to handle this problem will affect the game for years.

Does anyone else get the feeling that things have been going too well for too long? The English Premier League has gone from European underachievers to world dominators in only a few years. Foreign investment and an influx of the world's best talent has made the Premiership the undisputed champion of Europe and of the world.

Another week is past, and you know what that means: yet another A to Z breakdown of this week in Premier League action. Here we go...

A is for Abou Diaby. The underrated Arsenal midfielder grabbed a brace on Saturday as he led Arsenal to yet another early season romp.

Arsene Wenger's rapidly increasing dependence on youngsters within his squad reached new heights this midweek when he chose to start off the Champions League group stages with rookie Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone between the sticks.

Edin Dzeko is back with a bang! The Bosnia international striker, who spent most of the summer pushing for a dream move to AC Milan, has finally underlined his commitment to Wolfsburg with an outstanding decisive brace away to Schalke 04.

Damian slightly closed the gap on Damon after last week's games and he will be hoping to earn some more points in this week's predictions race. The English FA Cup, Serie A and some midweek Premier League action all feature on this week's show. DB DF RES Derby Co. - Nottm Forest 1-1 Man Utd - Tottenham 4-1 Liverpool - Everton 1-0 Cardiff City - [.

After a few weeks off due to some holidays, the Premiership Talk Podcast is back at last. A bit different from ordinary podcasts, this episode sees Brian Lofrumento joined by a new co-host (no word on Taylor Fisher's whereabouts, but he was last spotted somewhere in Brazil). Who is it? You'll have to find out!

It's always this way, isn't it? You wait forever for one bus and then four or five come along at once. After a fairly drab season by Premier League standards, it's all gone frigging loopy as the fight for European and domestic dominance reaches its final stretch. A month ago we (well mainly I, but I'm sure you, too) were bemoaning the lack of really exciting games from the 08-09 Premier League season.

Manchester United took another step towards the title against Manchester City on Sunday, and Chelsea squared off against a wounded Arsenal side at the Emirates. Here are the winners and losers from today's action

Winners Carlos Tevez

Manchester United fans woke up this morning to the news that Carlos Tevez is bidding farewell to United, to Manchester, and to England.

Download the latest podcast - The Copa Libertadores

It's the 50th anniversary of the biggest football competition south of the equator. and languagcester takes a look at the Copa Libertadores and makes a bold prediction.

• Download the latest free worksheets and transcripts here.

• Check out this week's predictions.

Tuesday May 26th

11am – After failing in my quest to get a good night's rest the night before, I spent the morning zombified thanks mainly to the hypnotic waffling of Paddy Crerand on MUTV. After a wash and an egg (though maybe not in that order) I got in the cab and headed for Heathrow Terminal 5.

A capacity crowd of more than 78,000 was in attendance at the CONCACAF Gold Cup final on Sunday. At the full time whistle, Giants Stadium appeared to be a sight of gross injustice more than anything else. After resiliently fighting with their third-string side for the entire tournament, the Americans finally fell to their bitter regional rivals, Mexico, albeit very harshly.

Just because Premier League action is here doesn't mean that we're free of transfer rumors just yet. All summer long the speculation has surrounded Real Madrid, and Los Blancos haven't closed their books for the summer yet. Two of their Dutch stars are still looking for new places to ply their trade, and in Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart there are still two bargains of the summer waiting to be snatched.

PFA chief Gordon Taylor has urged football fans, pundits, and the FA to put a stop to the lynch mob mentality that is surrounding Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor. The targetman stirred up controversy over the weekend by first stamping on Robin van Persie's face before scoring a goal and sprinting the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the angry Gunners fans.

The first defeat of the season is always the most tricky one to deal with. Perhaps that explains why some feel that the earlier it comes, the better. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, a determined young Arsenal squad made a typically flying start to the campaign.

Many of the European leagues are taking breaks over the Christmas and New year period, but there's enough action in other leagues and competitions around the world to keep football fans interested. This week features the FA Cup third round, La Liga and the Emperor's Cup in Japan - the Asian nations equivalent to the [.

This week, the Champions league quarter final first legs were played and languagecaster takes a look at what happened.

In addition we:

• Review the football news in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Introduce a new football expression in English for Football
• And continue the predictions battle in the Predictions competition

For learners of English check out our new Football Language Resources page with:

• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

Transcript

Damian: Only a month ago many here in England were tipping Manchester United to win an unprecedented quintuple - five trophies in one season - but in recent weeks the Red Devils have started to wobble.

What is it with all of these stupid confusing names when it comes to different league names and tournaments? I'm talking about some of Europe's domestic leagues and two UEFA club competitions. Why do they have to have these fancy names like Premiership and Europa League? They should just stick with a name that is simple and that tells you what the competition is.

Those who saw last night's World Football Challenge clash between Internazionale and Chelsea must have noticed a solid performance from a rapidly emerging star wearing the blue shirt. Branislav Ivanovic, who played fullback for 65 minutes of Chelsea's dominant 2-0 victory over the reigning Italian champions seemed to be the player who was more eager than anyone else to cement his reputation during the high-profile friendly at the Rose Bowl.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when it comes to sports, I'm a numbers guy. I love statistics! It could be as simple as how many points Manchester United is away from winning their fourth Premier League title in a row (that number should be three points lower after Wednesday, but Burnley really messed with that stat) or as complex as what Everton's home record is when Yakubu scores with his right foot opposed to his left.

Serie A Talk Podcast

Dov Schiavone and David Stansfield review the weekends action as Serie A Champions, Inter took on Serie B Champions Bari, whilst also casting their gaze to the Stadio Franchi as AC Milan were victorious over Siena.

As the Milan Derby is upon us, they preview the Derby della Madonnina.

This summer may have seemed a bit boring as far as transfers go, but things are finally heating up. Manchester City and Real Madrid were the overwhelming big spenders during the blistering hot summer months, but with only a few days remaining the "smaller" clubs are working hard to fill out their squads for the fall and winter.

Jose Mourinho has continued his special ways as he announced his Inter Milan starting eleven an entire day before his side's crucial Champions League fixture against Barcelona. The former Chelsea manager was never afraid to pull this stunt during his time in the Premier League, and his latest display raises the question: is the special one arrogant or intelligent?

With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's winners and losers.

Winners Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain Defoe.

Cup action with the FA Cup fifth round ties in England, the second week of games in Argentina, an interesting clash in the German Bundesliga, and games from Spain, Italy and the Premier League all feature as the football clubs get back into action after the world cup qualifiers and friendlies of mid-week.

Much has already been said of Manchester United's thrilling comeback against Tottenham this past weekend, but more important than the result I witnessed something great happening at United. For the first time this season, United fans got the chance to see Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo all on the pitch at the same time and all firing on all cylinders.

There are only five games to play in the Premier League and no doubt there will be more twists and turns at this exciting stage of the season and so on this week's show we take a look at the Premier League title race.

In addition we:

• Review the football news in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Introduce a new football expression in English for Football
• And continue the predictions battle in the Predictions competition

For learners of English check out our new Football Language Resources page with:

• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

Transcript
With only five games remaining in the English Premier League, tension is high as three clubs are still in with a shout of winning the title.

Another week of Premiership action is now in the books, and Thursday means one thing: it's time for the Thursday Throwdown from A to Z. Here we go...

A is for Anelka. Chelsea fans should be counting their lucky stars that both Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are in spectacular form.

For Premier League fans around the world, the last couple of weeks have been almost too painful to endure as something very important seems to have disappeared out of our lives. But with yet another international period finally in the books, we can once again look forward to the return of our most beloved brand of football this weekend.

When the Carling Cup Round 3 draw was first made, it was very difficult to imagine West Bromwich Albion providing much of a competition to Arsenal at The Emirates. Granted, Arsene Wenger uses the competition to provide some first-team action to his reserves, but even those teenagers usually prove to be a handful for the opponents.

Daniel Agger is generally known to Barclays Premier League fans as a technically gifted Danish defender whose progress has often been halted by injuries. Similarly, Alberto Aquilani is usually perceived by English fans as an immensely creative Italian midfielder who has often been deceived by his proneness to injuries.