On arrival at Newcastle United Demba Ba was handed the number 19 shirt, leaving the number 9 shirt vacant. Does this indicate that there are plans to recruit another striker to fill it or is the shirt going to be retired for a while? The Newcastle United number 9 shirt is of course sacred. Leaving [.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reflected on his second season at Manchester United when he started to suffer from a lack of confidence.

"It's incredible how important confidence is," he said. "I had very low confidence, I thought too much in periods. They put me on the team with Roy Keane on every training for a month to toughen me up.

Swansea v Nottingham Forest 2011 Championship playoff second leg- 16/5/11- Monday Final score:- Swansea vs Nottingham Forest 3-1 ( Leon Britton, Stephen Dobbie, Darren Pratley/ Robert Earnshaw) Swansea City beat Nottm Forest 3-1 in the second leg of their playoff semifinal to book a spot in the finals at Wembley against either Cardiff or Reading.

Not much to report the past couple of days. At least nothing really THAT interesting.

We're linked with Sergio Ramos because he and CRon apparently don't get along. There was obviously only going to be one winner from that battle. The real question is whether or not Madrid will let him go or tell the 2 players to suck it up and coexist.

To make people think about how potentially frightening Chelsea FC will be in future years, I want to start by claiming that Fernando Torres, for me, joins the club as not only the second finest striker in world football but also the second best striker at Chelsea Football Club. Think about it.

I am never surprised by the lengths people go to spend their hard earned cash when it comes to football. In fact I too am guilty perhaps of spending a rupiah or two too much in my pursuit of the beautiful game.
But would I go and see a bunch of ex pros with their beer bellies huff, puff and sweat under the lights of an indoor arena in the oh so cynically exploitive EPL Legends?

Not being Irish, I don't really understand the whole "second team" malarky. When Robbie Keane signed for Liverpool, claiming they were his boyhood team, before signing for Celtic, and claiming the same, he was ridiculed on this blog. I, like many, didn't and don't understand how you can support two teams.

Poor, to be Franck He should have known better. He had his warning. Chris Waddle. Glenn Hoddle. Andy Cole (that one was ear-rapingly bad). Ian Wright. Paul Gascoigne. Everyone knows that footballers, as good as they are with their legs and feet, have a tendency to be dreadful at making music. It's something to do [.

LONDON, England Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti was looking forward to crossing swords with his Ipswich Town counterpart in Sunday's FA Cup third-round tie at Stamford Bridge before Roy Keane was sacked on Friday. The 39-year-old Keane, who had been at Ipswich since April 2009, left with the Championship (second division) club 19th in the [.

All-Time Premier League Top Scorers - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Who are the all-time top goalscorers in the Premier League? Which Premier League players have scored 100 goals or more? Who has scored the most goals in each Premier League season? And who is the top Premier League scorer this season?

5/19/2001.

That was the last time that Tottenham were able to experience the joys of victory against Manchester United. For what it's worth though, Spurs' 3-1 win at White Hart Lane on the final day of the 2000/01 season was all but a meaningless match for United, who finished the campaign ten points clear of Arsenal to capture a third straight Premier League title.

Fourth placed Tottenham host league leaders Manchester United at White Lane today hoping to derail United's title charge. The two sides have served some true thrillers in the past, most notably in September, 2001 when the Red Devils came from three goals down to win 5-3 at White Hart Lane.

Newcastle's Shola Ameobi seems to divide opinion, with some fans eager to get shot of him at the first opportunity and with others jumping to his defence. This article looks at both sides of the argument. I had an argument with my wife the other day. Having left our TomTom at home, it was one [...]

Rob Lee was at Newcastle when Kevin Keegan sold Andy Cole to Manchester United in 1995 and the Newcastle fans were furious but that ended out OK in the end. Rob Lee while at Newcastle Rob Lee, a great central midfielder for Newcastle United under both Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson, and [...]

After reviewing a few board games and one or two computer games related to football from the past I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the great football books. I've started with Merlin's Premier League '95 Sticker Album, and whilst lacking in words or a cohesive narrative I feel it has much to offer, even now fifteen years after it was first published.

January. Possibly the most disappointing month of the year. Christmas is over, you are back to work and still wondering what happened on New Years Eve and where you are going to find the money to pay for all the presents, booze and food you went through during the festive period. January 2011 turned started [.

Patrick Vieira was interviewed by SportingIntelligence.com and asked which players would make his best XI from all the years he's played in England.

Remarkably, Vieira's team, which he couldn't restrict to just eleven players, was filled with Manchester United players, some Arsenal players, and nobody from his current club, Manchester City.

On a cold November day in 2009, Jemain Defoe arrived at White Hart Lane for what was surely to be the personal height of his career so far, five Premier League goals in a single game. That day Wigan couldn't handle Defoe, losing 9-1, the Latics felt the full force of a player that on his day is as good as any other striker in the league.

Saturday's final between Manchester United and FC Barcelona has a number of storylines. For those in the CONCACAF region one storyline that sticks out is the inclusion and impact that Mexican sensation Chicharito can make on Saturday's championship.

While the Mexican's ascent into stardom will receive a boost from winning the finale Saturday he's not the first player from the CONCACAF region to play in the final.

The ginger haired maestro retires after spending 17 years as a Red Devil where he clocked 676 appearances and scored 150 goals. His career will continue as a coaching assistant He will join Utd's coaching staff.

Throughout his years Scholes proved to be an excellent goalscorer despite his shifting roles within the squad.

This must be the greatest football miss of all time. With the keeper clearly defeated and the ball crusing towards the goal line, everyone expected a goal. An unknown Brazilian striker having done all the hard work, conjured up the ultimate football miss shot when he attempt at blasting the ball into goal.

Andy Cole 53'. Barcelona 3-3 Manchester United, Champions League fifth round group phase 1998/99.

Great goals always stand the test of time. The initial feeling of awe and ecstasy they induce, not to mention the artistic brilliance that make them unique, mean that they can never be replicated.

As the Americans would say, Gameweek 1 is over. F*CK YEAH! Let's see who's feeling higher than Pete Doherty and those who are lower than a snake's belly.Going Up

Sergio Aguero & David Silva

I am sure I am not the only person who is going to be commenting on the spunktastic debut from Sergio Aguero but it was truly wonderful to watch.

On 19 April 1997, Sir Alex team traveled to Liverpool and a victory would give United the title on Merseyside before four weeks from the end. United were on top with 66 points with a game in hand...
Continue to the full story

At last this boring International break is coming to an end and we can look forward to some Arsenal Angst this weekend. Faced with another non-Arsenal news day I thought I'd have a look in the archives and see what this week had been about in times gone past. It turned out that this week 11th to 18th October is historically really very exciting.

An Ode to Ole - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, also known as the baby-faced assassin, is one of the ultimate legends in Manchester United folklore. He was snapped up from Molde in 1996, the club he now manages, for a bargain basement purchase of just £1.5 million.

England's chances at Euro 2012 have been given a boost after UEFA decided to suspended the third game of the striker's three match ban following his sending off against Montenegro in October.
It now means that the England striker can play in his country's final group stage game against Ukraine, though he will definitely miss the first two games against France and Sweden.

Venue: Carrow Road, Norwich. Date: Saturday 10th Dec, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Martin Atkinson. Pies: D.Smith. The Magpies of Newcastle United will be looking to pick themselves up after a tough trio of fixtures and recent injury woes as they visit the Canaries of Norwich City. Even though this is an away game, some may [.

The Uruguayan outrage at Luis Suarez's eight-game ban proves just how far they are behind England in eradicating racism.
Suarez is alleged to have called Patrice Evra a Negro during Liverpool's game against Manchester United on 15th October. He and his fellow countrymen claim that the term is not offensive when used in Uruguay.

By David Chalmers

If you'll excuse the pun and read on...

Over a number of years, football has played with systems and tried to define formations while the brains on the bench tell us that their players aren't confined to a sole set of instructions, but taking a look at the Premier League this season, it's looking increasingly more like target men are the focal point of most sides at this moment in time.