Behind the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa in the league and as things stand not even qualifying for the Europa League through their league position, Liverpool are in a bit of mess.

But does that make it OK for Stevie G to dive?

via Republik Of Mancunia.

Aston Villa

All Aston Villa wants for X-mas is for things to continue going they way they have recently. Aston Villa is currently enjoying a four game win streak along with a seven game unbeaten streak. They are playing the best December football of any Premier League team and they still haven't given up a December goal yet this season.

Liverpool are considering bringing in Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill to replace Rafael Benitez at the forefront of the team's affairs, according to The Guardian.
The former Valencia boss has come under intense pressure following a dreary start to the season, which has seen the Reds flushed from the Champions League at the group stage.

Maybe it was the World Cup Draw bounce or a nice lift from the previous weekend's Manchester United game, but the Nielsen Ratings for last weekend's match between Portsmouth and Burnley, far from being two popular teams in America, achieved the sixth highest rating of the 2009-2010 Premier League season thus far.

You might call the week that was Separation Week in European soccer. The Champions League group stage completed play and with it the chances of certain clubs finishing in the top 10 by season's end (you know who you are, Juventus). Other teams are resurgent, having rescued their seasons from the brink (Bayern Munich).

It was a busy weekend in the English Premier League with several Americans in action including Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Brad Friedel (Aston Villa), Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Tim Howard (Everton), and Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton). It was not a particularly successful weekend as neither of these teams won.

Let's be honest. It was the game that almost no one wanted to watch but for those of you who did watch it because there was nothing else on or because you love football no matter who is playing, the Stoke City against Wigan Athletic match was a surprising delight.

Because both teams are not big draws, the Nielsen Ratings on ESPN2 for the game weren't too impressive (the broadcast of the game garnered a 0.

Redknapp will only accept good offers for Spurs pair.

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Harry Redknapp insists Spurs have no plans to let David Bentley and Roman Pavlyuchenko leave for knock-down prices when the transfer window reopens.

After their large spending spree in the last few transfer windows, many have expected Manchester City to challenge for a top four finish in the English Premier League. Currently, the club is in the top half of the Premiership table but the questions remains if where will they finish? It's hard to say at this point but here's a look at the season so far and a prediction of if they will earn a UEFA Champions League spot for next season.

PlainSoccer.com Premier League Leaderboard: Week 15
Player Club Goals Assists Combined 1.Fabregas, Cesc Arsenal 6 10 16 -.Drogba, Didier Chelsea 11 5 16 2.Persie, Robin van Arsenal 7 7 14 3.Defoe, Jermaine Tottenham 12 1 13 4.

Has it really been 15 gameweeks already...Yes it has, and the Fantasy Premier League has already shown many tops and flops... Let's see who have been playing a great first half of the season.
TOPS
The number one goalkeeper is Stoke City's Sorensen with 71 points. Goalkeeper has been on fire the last three matches, and has saved 2 penalties and kept 2 clean sheets.

Wazza booked for phantom foul Manchester United lost to Aston Villa on Saturday, but they weren't going to go down without a fight. Actually, scrap that: some of them were going down without so much as a trace of contact. Step forward, Jimmy Rooney. Surely not. A Wayne Rooney dive? Video spotted on 101GG [.

Sir Alex considers tempting move for arch rival defender.

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When last we saw him. Home to Hull City this weekend, he suddenly becomes a very interesting pick at 8.64. Here's his day according to the BBC. 45:00+0:05 Stewart Downing sends in a cross, Richard Hughes manages to make a clearance. 73:41 GOAL - Stewart Downing: Portsmouth 1 - 3 Aston Villa Stewart Downing finds the back of the net with a headed goal from close range.

While having a drink at a local coffee shop Wednesday evening with Kartik Krishnaiyer, the topic of Graeme Souness came up and what an abysmal football manager he was especially at Newcastle. It got me thinking, though, that just as footballers retire from playing, football managers should be put out to pasture too when they're obviously inept or past their prime.

"Fourth place is the priority, it always is at this club. For financial reasons and because all the top players want to play in the Champions League."
If those words had been said by Spurs skipper Robbie Keane, Aston Villa counterpart Stiliyan Petrov, even Manchester City captain Kolo Toure, they would have been more than acceptable.

Tomorrow evening Man United take on Aston Villa at Old Trafford in the late kick off. Four key players will return for Man United but there are still injury problems in defence. Wayne Rooney and...
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PlainSoccer.com Premier League Leaderboard: Week 16
Player Club Goals Assists Combined 1.Drogba, Didier Chelsea 13 5 18 2.Fabregas, Cesc Arsenal 6 10 16 3.Persie, Robin van Arsenal 7 7 14 4.Defoe, Jermaine Tottenham 12 1 13 -.

FIFA Club World Cup semifinal on Fox Soccer Channel at 11am. FSC also has has Sunderland - Aston Villa at 2:45pm. Same time for Manchester United - Wolves on Setanta and Bolton - West Ham United on Setanta Xtra (regular Setanta at 5pm). All Times Eastern

FIFA Club World Cup on Fox Soccer Channel: third-place at 7pm and final at 9pm. EPL on ESPN2: Portsmouth - Liverpool at 7:30am. On Setanta: Fulham - Manchester United at 9:30am, Blackburn - Spurs on Xtra at 5pm (10am on Xtra). On FSC: Manchester City - sunderland at 10am, Arsenal - Hull at 12:30pm, and Aston Villa - Stoke at 5pm.

Christmas is coming, and there is something in the air in the Premier League. A decade that has been remorselessly dominated by four clubs and four clubs alone is ending with at least three of those four clubs showing signs of wear and tear. Normal service may well be resumed in the new year, but for now the rest of the Premier League has scented blood and is going in for the kill.

photo credit: wonker

With Chelsea "accepting" a draw with Fulham and ManU getting blasted by West Ham I have 3 questions to ask (and yes, this goes back to the "picking the wrong team to crumble thing".)

1. What does it say about the 2 best teams in the Premier League that they took a draw to a team that is pretty close to being relegated and losing (badly) to a team that will most likely be relegated?

If you've watched a lot of Premier League football on television this season, you've seen plenty of matches involving Burnley and Portsmouth in addition to the Big Four and other teams. Surprisingly, the games involving Burnley and Portsmouth have done quite well in the TV ratings game as we again see from last weekend's match between Portsmouth and Liverpool, which was shown on ESPN2.

The English Premier League has two matches on Sunday, December 27, 2009 including Arsenal v Aston Villa. The match will be covered live in our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the link below.

Arsenal v Aston Villa 13:30 GMT

English Premier League Arsenal vs Aston Villa: Live Stream here Arsenal - Aston Villa : Highlights here Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today

(Summary is not available.)

Howdy, another day of rest for us after many others played yesterday. Wins for Sp*rs and Mancini City keep things relatively tight at the top, tonight's game between Liverpool and Aston Villa is a very interesting one indeed.

From our point of view there's no team news as yet. One thing is certain though, there'll be no Cesc Fabregas.

‘It's a mad league' said Wayne Rooney after his side's hard-fought 3-1 victory of Hull at the KC stadium, ‘There are a lot of teams dropping points and it's really close.'The EPL has garnered an unpredictability in the 2009/10 season that seems to allude to the halcyon days of football when money was not the sine que non of its existence.

There were two matches in the English Premier League on Tuesday December 29, 2009 including Liverpool traveling to Aston Villa. Both teams are aiming for a top four finish and a spot in the UEFA Champions League for next season. Liverpool have struggled early but are still within reach of maintaining a top four finish this season.

A goal in the 93rd minute of the match by Fernando Torres gave Liverpool the boost they desperately needed as they won against Aston Villa 0-1 at Villa Park. The dramatic victory gave the Reds a reprieve from the bad string of performances and results that they have been seeing so far in the Premier [.

Steven Gerrard has admitted Liverpool must focus on finishing in the top four rather than trying to win the Premier League.
The Reds have made a dismal start to the season, dropping more points than would have been expected of them and crashing out of the UEFA Champions League as well.

It has been a pretty disastrous three months for Liverpool in league so far, but on a game-by-game basis, how do this season's result compare to last season's?
Below is a side-by side comparison of all results from this season and last season:
NCF = No Corresponding Fixture

This Season

Last Season

Points +/1

Tottenham v LFC

L 2-1

L 2 -1

0

LFC v Stoke City

W 4-0

D 0-0

+ 2

LFC v Aston Villa

L 1-3

W 5-0

-3

Bolton v LFC

W 2-3

W 2 – 0

0

LFC v Burnley

W 4-0

NCF

-

West Ham v LFC

W 2-3

W 3–0

0

LFC v Hull City

W 6-1

D 2–2

+2

Chelsea v LFC

L 2-0

W 1–0

-3

Sunderland v LFC

L 1-0

W 0–1

-3

LFC v Man United

W 2-0

W 2-1

0

Fulham v LFC

L 3-1

W 1-0

-3

LFC v Birmingham

D 2-2

NCF

-

LFC v Man City

D 2-2

D 1-1

-

ANALYSIS

This season

Last season

Won

5

7

Lost

5

1

Draw

1

3

Goals Scored

23

20

Goals conceded

19

5

Points gained (total: W+D)

16

24

Points dropped (D+L)

17

9

Overall point differential

-8 ( i.

Aston Villa eased past relegation threatened Portsmouth to reach the Carling Cup Semi Finals.

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Portsmouth v Aston Villa
by gonzobot110

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UPDATE: According to the Birmingham Mail, Aston Villa have denied the rumor that they are interested in Real Zaragoza winger Jermaine Pennant. A statement was made saying,

"The club have moved to deny newspaper claims they are set to move for Jermaine Pennant.

(highlights di Arsenal-Stoke City)
Sabato 5 Dicembre
Manchester City2 - 1Chelsea
Wigan Athletic2 - 3Birmingham
West Ham0 - 4Manchester United
Blackburn0 - 0Liverpool
Aston Villa3 - 0Hull City
Arsenal2 - 0Stoke City
Wolverhampton2 - 1Bolton
Portsmouth2 - 0Burnley
Domenica 6 Dicembre
Everton2 - 2Tottenham
Fulham1 - 0Sunderland
Classifica (prime posizioni: Chelsea 36, Manchester United 34, Arsenal 28, Tottenham 27, Aston Villa 26, Manchester City 25, Liverpool 24.

A "supersub" is usually a player that comes off the bench to impact a game. Think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the late '90s. But Aston Villa's Steve Sidwell redefined the term on Saturday, when he influenced the game against Hull without leaving the warmth of his tracksuit . In the 29th minute, Hull keeper Matt Duke [.

We took a few weeks off, but the SBI European Club Top 25 is back.

You would think there would be a major shake-up in the rankings after taking a month off, but the reality is there were few dramatic shifts. Eight of the teams in the last Top 10 remain, with Arsenal seeing the biggest fall over the course of the past four weeks.

According to Kent Hedlundh at Sky Sports News, the agent of Aston Villa striker John Carew admitted that his client is not leaving in January, but maybe the summer. Per A Flod told Dagbladet,

"Something will happen during the summer of 2010, either an extension or a transfer .

Man United only have Patrice Evra as their only fit defender. Nemanja Vidic is expected to have recovered from flu for Saturday's game against Aston Villa. John O'Shea and Jonny Evans are out until...
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Wolfsburg 1-3 Manchester United

It was vintage Michael Owen, a magical hat-trick in which the striker had scored with his had, his left foot and his right foot. Fabio Capello is probably sitting in his living room right now scratching his head, probably telling himself that this never happened.