You gotta love family holiday snaps. Whether you're caught cross-eyed, looking green after a boat ride or coming off a waterslide with your bikini bottoms around your ankles, they're never good, are they?

Thank goodness we have the Arshavins. As we know, Arsenal's Andrey Arshavin isn't shy about taking part in entertaining photo shoots.

It's finally happened, Kickettes. We thought Nicky B's jeans-around-ankles walk of creamy thigh-baring shame would be the most scandalous thing to happen to Arsenal, but Carlos Vela's recent escapades with certain ladies of the call girl persuasion has surpassed that key dramatic moment.

The latest news is that one of our fave junior Sexicans has been banned from the Mexican national team for 6 months (Vela, along with 11 other members of the Mexico team), due to participating in an ill-advised, prostitutes-on-premises party.

... Here ya go club legend Ben Olsen ... here is what you have always been waiting for. Here is your chance to run a big-time Major League Soccer club with lots of tradition and shiny trophies and big banners and ... 3 wins.
Come on down, Ben Olsen!! You've won an MLS head coaching gig!

A few years back Leandro Grimi was snapped up by Milan and promptly declared that he "will become the new Maldini". Not smart. To be fair, the rest of the quote makes it seem more hopeful than declaration, but allowing papers to excerpt "I will become the new Maldini" was never going to end well.

I have come to the conclusion that Stan Collymore is sexually attracted to Arsenal Football Club.
He continually digs Arsenal out and I can't think of any reason why he does it except that he fancies us.
Its a little bit like when you are a kid and you fancy the girl next door. Only every-time you see her you get embarrassed, so you act like a cunt, be really really mean and try to make her cry.

"I know Drogba is a world-class player, but he could play world-class volleyball on that evidence."
Bolton boss Owen Coyle gives a verbal volley to Didier Drogba, after the Chelsea striker's handball went unpunished.

Then there's the second one, when John Terry handles it.

So Theo is going to be out a bit longer than expected, the club are saying between 4 and 6 weeks, really bad luck for the lad given his great start to the season. It's always a bit of a guessing game with ankles, he could be back in less than the 4 weeks, the estimate is just that, an estimate and can sometimes be a bit off.

I hate watching games on internet streams. One, my internet connection isn't good enough and two invariably the streams aren't either. So last night was like 90 minutes of that good old competition ‘What Happened Next?' Rosicky with the ball, shrugs off a defender, lines up a shot freeze frame.

If John Terry is doing the lotto then he might like to avoid the number 12.

Not because he might lose, but judging by the luck he's had with that number in the past week, he'd probably end up being done for fraud.

You see last Friday, twelve minutes was all it took for the gaffer to get all disciplinarian-like with Captain Chav and strip him of his captaincy – his English one that is.

A sad and familiar pattern seems to have taken hold on all things Arsenal related. I'm not talking about Arsene Wenger and his moaning, myopia and lack of magnanimity in defeat. These are of course wonderful traits, and where would any of us be without them?

No, I'm talking about Arsenal's David vs.

I think everyone would agree Indonesian is pretty physical. Two footed challenges are so common refs flash yellow when a player jumps in with one leg. Whacks on the ankles, elbows in the throat, taking out from the waist are par for the course.
Given its physical nature why aren't there more long term injuries?

Although soccer can help you keep active and fit, the number of soccer related injuries have been steadily growing over time, along with the overall popularity of the sport in North America. That said, all players should keep injury prevention as a high priority. Many injuries can be avoided with just a few precautions.

Tottenham have earned the right to play in the Champions League today. The win came by way of Peter Crouch's powerful header in the 82'. The first half looked bleak for the Spurs. Gomez seemed fit though and played phenomenally well. His groin doesn't look to be a problem but for those of you playing fantasy I would keep tabs on his status.

Argentina is in group B where I have already covered Nigeria, Greece and South Korea. Twice World Champions in 1978 and 1986 and 2 time finalist in 1930 and 1990, Argentina is almost always amongst the top contenders to win any World Cup.

The albicelestes have a unique style amongst South American teams known as toque.

Alberto Undiano: "I think I will give out eight more"

Unbeaten since the 1986 World Cup in group stages. A streak of 16 unbeaten games that ensured German passage into the later stages comes to an end.

The talking point: Alberto Undiano. In his zeal to micromanage the game, he goes out of control with the yellow cards.

There is a common misconception that seems to prevail within footballing circles that FIFA are a dribbly-chinned, stubbornly atavistic outfit concerned only with trifling over the insignificant minutiae of the game, rather than addressing the monolithically obvious issues that should be taking precedent, in order to protect the integrity of the sport as a professional entity.

Fantastic performance. By far Spains most complete at the World Cup so far. Portugal set out to stem Spains passing in midfield, flood the centre of the park, and break out on the counter in the sort of devastating fashion that saw them flash seven past North Korea.

By Juan Ruiz - Advantageously, with a blown call on a hard foul to our British defender by the fine officiating crew that showed up on Sat (6/26) night; The Aztexs' Edward Johnson took the opportunity and fired a shot past a diving Patterson and opened the scoring for the game.
Of course, after the scoring had been rendered official, the ref nonchalantly pranced over to our downed Defender to see what had happened to him.

Amazingly, English referee Howard Webb did the impossible. By constantly puffing on his whistle throughout Sunday's World Cup final, he managed to create a more shrill sound than the omnipresent vuvuzelas.

Sadly however, Webb's timing, well, sucks.

Yes the Dutch were dirty, just ask Johan Cruyff, but Webb's need to interject himself over and over did as much to take away from the spectacle of Spain's 1-0 extra-time win over the Netherlands.

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WRITING as a Tottenham fan who damn near shat himself last night: We waited almost 50 years for this? Still, I know events at the Stade de Suisse provided much comedy value, for Arsenal fans in particular. You're welcome. We aim to please.

As Spurs were 3-0 down within 30 minutes and facing a nightmare scenario, to escape from the evil Wankdorf Stadium with a couple of away goals tucked into a fat brown envelope, in the Redknapp fashion was a huge relief.

I am very surprised we have not heard more on how his scans/x-rays etc have gone.

As I am sure most of you have seen already via all the pics and vids up on other gooner blogs, surrounding the diabolical challenge by the northern monkey from Bolton, it aint pretty.

If the news from AW during the champs league press conference tommorw afternoon is out for 4-6 weeks, it won't surprise me.

It's finally happened, Kickettes. We thought Nicky B's jeans-around-ankles walk of creamy thigh-baring shame would be the most scandalous thing to happen to Arsenal, but Carlos Vela's recent escapades with certain ladies of the call girl persuasion has surpassed that key dramatic moment.

The latest news is that one of our fave junior Sexicans has been banned from the Mexican national team for 6 months (Vela, along with 11 other members of the Mexico team), due to participating in an ill-advised, prostitutes-on-premises party.

What's been going on in Butt's Brain over the past few days from the footie web... Not a good week for ankles and legs in the Premier League [Deadspin] Rafa Honigstein with the line of the week [Unprofessional Foul] Roy ... Continue reading →

Morning all.

We're right into the thick of the Interlull now but due to injuries Arsene has a bigger than normal squad of players to work with. Cesc Fabregas is more or less fit now, he claims he didn't play against Chelsea in case he had a setback and although the result was poor you have to think that was the right decision.

Now that is how to throw a birthday party.

I watched this one on my laptop in bed feeling torpid, working on the composition of a post spitting derision on the club's 13th year just to give a sense of my state of mind at kickoff. I was expecting lung-bursting runs to nowhere, lots of gesticulating at officials, and a suspects' lineup of Fire defenders making the consternation gas-face.

Rooney ought to have found the Montenegro defence easier to penetrate than those of Chelsea, Inter Milan and Barcelona, despite the blanket nature of it.
That he failed again to leave a substantial mark on a game of football, as opposed to the ankles of Elsad Zverotic, for which he was booked, is a consequence of two things; a dearth of talent and the blunt thinking of Capello.

::: FistedAway today welcomes a guest post from Elliott, editor of the rather lovely Futfanatico :::

Contemporary society demonizes and isolates its sinners. Rehabilitation? Ha. Treatment? Never. Empathy? Only in small doses. And the case of Nigel de Jong is no different. While Nigel has had a few run-ins with the ankles of opposing players, the cascade of harsh proclamation has deafened an important voice in the matter Nigel himself.

FC Barcelona & Spanish Football Team midfielder XAVI HERNANDEZ has come out publicly to squash recent rumours that he was considering leaving the National Team due to his troubled ankles & the need to reduce his current games rate. Xavi Hernandez Translated: "I wish to play the Poland & Ukraine Euro 2012 & if possible the World Cup 2014 in Brazil".

I often wonder as I trudge of the pitch after playing football – having fallen out with friends over decisions, knee's bleeding from sliding across synthetic grass, yet still smiling because of a meaningless win and all this for just under £40 – do the professionals really love the game more than me?

::: FistedAway today welcomes a guest post from Elliott, editor of the rather lovely Futfanatico :::

Not since the Frankenstein-themed tale of Michael Owen Hargreaves has such a sad injury story buzzed to our attention. But during this last World Cup, we noticed two very odd occurrences.

I had hoped to take in a few more Young Lions games this past season but it was not to be. For some reason there weren't that many games scheduled for Saturdays.
Despite a poor performance in the recent Asian Games I was still looking forward to seeing the Young Lions take on Etoile last weekend in the Singapore Cup even though they put out a weakened team.

The Futfanatico globe-trotting and guespostery continues. After a spell on the lovely island of Ireland, we hopped on over to our favorite London-based blogger, the Dunmore who has done-more than you can shake a stick at. Nick.

Of course, the "fisted" in the title of the blog caught our attention.

In terms of his mouth and self-confidence, Mario Balotelli may be the pound-for-pound best in the world, with even Cristiano Ronaldo looking the beacon of humility in comparison.

And then they gave Mario Balotelli an award the Golden Boy Award, designed for the most talented player under-21, as decided by European journalists.

A brief review of last nights game between a Spurs XI team and Ipswich. While it wasn't quite Benfica v Spurs that was also on last night which I'll presume most people caught on TV (great goal by Bale), it did as always give our youngsters another run out and the King played 45 minutes.