The biggest transfer of the summer is unfolding right before our eyes as Chelsea (amongst other Premier League teams) swoop in like vultures around Tottenham's creative central midfield dynamo Luka Modric. Will the Blues land their man or will Modric ... Continue reading →

Today's article takes us back to that fantastic season of 08/09 and back to that old gem of a phrase "Liverpool are just a two man team." Written by Michael Owen who you can follow on Twitter @mfowen91. He also runs a top #LFC blog called The Anfield Opinion which you can visit here. If you believed the media at the time, Liverpool's side of 2008/09 was a "two man team" to quote a seemingly

The Philadelphia Union's Guatemalan international striker Carlos Ruiz has a base salary of $306,670, according to a report put out by ESPN.

The ESPN report lists the "best-paid athletes from 182 countries." Each monetary value listed is devoid of any other types of compensation other than the base salary.

Quote from The Official Wycombe Wanderers website:

World-Cup winning striker Fernando Torres was on the scoresheet as Chelsea recorded a 3-0 victory over the Wanderers in a practice match at Cobham on Tuesday afternoon.
Yossi Benayoun danced through the visiting defence to open the scoring in the early stages and Nikki Bull produced a fine stop to deny Didier Drogba, while Scott Rendell missed Wycombe's best chance of the half from a tight angle.

After only playing in one Arsenal game so far – against Shrewsbury – Wenger has finally chosen to play Chu-Young Park in tonight's Bolton match, hopefully giving the South Korean the chance he needs to prove himself a worthy deputy to Robin Van Persie. However, it isn't just him who has been overlooked thus far [.

Arsenal loanee Yossi Benayoun has angered Chelsea fans after celebrating the Gunners' emphatic victory over his parent club via Twitter. Seemingly insensible towards the Blues and their fans, he tweeted "What a great win today!!! Well done guys!" This would be seen as fairly unwise act if aimed at a former club, but the fact [.

Arsenal loanee Yossi Benayoun has angered Chelsea fans after celebrating the Gunners' emphatic victory over his parent club via Twitter. Seemingly insensible towards the Blues and their fans, he tweeted "What a great win today!!! Well done guys!" This would be seen as fairly unwise act if aimed at a former club, but the fact [.

Arsene Wenger was more relieved than over-the-moon after Arsenal's late winner against Aston Villa yesterday. Wenger admitted that he knew it would be a diificult game at Villa Park as it always has been historically. He said: "You go to City and then to Villa and I have to give fantastic credit to my players, [.

It's time

Teams
Chelsea
Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Zhirkov, Drogba, Torres. Subs: Turnbull, Benayoun, Mikel, Malouda, Ferreira, Kalou, Anelka.

Manchester United
Van der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Park, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia, Rooney, Hernandez.

After posting about the "word of mouth" rumour that Didier Drogba would be included in a possible deal for Luka Modric, it now appears this morning the latest rumour concerning the deal would involve Yossi Benayoun and Salomon Kalou plus £27m.
I have to say, Benayoun isn't a player that can force his way into the squad making regular starts.

Ok, before getting into the match analysis I just want to congratulate Blackburn Rovers and Steve Kean. They worked hard, took whatever came their way, and fully deserve to move up from the bottom of the table.

Now let's get on with Arsenal. What does one say after a performance like that?

After surviving the shock of falling a goal behind to their League Two opponents, struggling Arsenalcame back to beat Shrewsbury Town 3-1 and comfortably progress into the fourth round of the Carling Cup at the Emirates Stadium.

The visitors stunned the Emirates crowd after 16 minutes when James Collins's bullet header beat Lukasz Fabianski, and a major upset looked to be possible.

Arsenal vs Shrewsbury 3-1 Goals Carling Cup Highlights Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Arsenal vs Shrewsbury 3-1 Goals Carling Cup Highlights Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Arsenal vs Shrewsbury 2011 Score and result:- Arsenal vs Shrewsbury 3-1 ( Gibbs, Oxlade Chamberlain, Benayoun/ Collins) Carling Cup- Emirates Stadium, 20 September, 2011 Arsenal recover from a shaky start to beat Shrewsbury 3-1 [.

It's been just over a day since I posted the match report for the Stoke game. It creates an uncomfortable feeling that this game is coming too soon after the previous one. Is it the same for most of the clubs? Somehow I doubt it.

This proximity of fixtures will make Wenger's job tougher. Given the injuries, especially in defence, Le Boss would probably have appreciated a chance to use one or two regulars in a game like this.

I was speaking to an old friend recently, who is also a fan of the Arsenal, and he was pleading the case for us to sign Gary Cahill in the January window. An idea which he seems to share with many of his fellow Gooners (or so it seems looking at blog world!), and this got me thinking about the current squad and the strengthening options open to Arsène come January 1st.

Written by Total Arsenal

Arsenal 0 – 1 Manchester City: Match Review

During the day there was a lot of discussion whether we should take this game seriously or not.

A shaky performance, but we won. So, Yay?

An early pelanty goal from Robin van Persie, taking his tally to 34 goals in the calendar year, and a late goal from Yossi Benayoun (from a header, no less) secured a nervous, underperforming, but ultimately crucial midweek win at Villa Park today.

Here we go. A disappointing week for many fantasy managers as the leading candidates in the Boxing Day fixtures failed to produce. Manchester United win 5-0 but neither Wayne Rooney nor Nani registered a single goal or assist. That's ridiculous. ... Continue reading →

Better late than never, eh?

The Sypnosis

"I'm a fan of Chelsea. Chelsea are the only team that can play. Chelsea players have by far the most impressive reproductive organs. Stamford Bridge is my church. The men who play there are my Gods.

It's a weekend of international friendlies and Euro 2012 qualifiers. Israel are without Yossi Benayoun in their quest for Euro 2012 qualification but they are being led by new star Lior Rafaelov who, in my opinion, is a spitting ... Continue reading →

11am ET, live in the US on FSC
Last four head-to-head:
2-0 Liverpool (h) 11.07.10
0-2 Chelsea (h) 05.02.10

0-2 Chelsea (a) 10.04.09

4-4 (a; CL) 04.14.09
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 2-0 Stoke (h); 1-0 Fulham (h); 3-0 Wolves (a)
Chelsea: 4-2 Sunderland (a); 1-1 Everton (a); 4-0 Bolton (a)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Gerrard, Kuyt 4; Maxi, Meireles 3; Kyrgiakos, Ngog 2; Cole, Johnson, Skrtel, Suarez 1
Chelsea: Drogba, Malouda 9; Kalou 7; Anelka 6; Essien, Ivanovic, Lampard 3; Terry 2; Alex, Benayoun, Ramires 1
Referee: Andre Marriner
Guess at a line-up:
Reina
Kelly Carragher Agger Johnson
Gerrard Lucas
Maxi Meireles Suarez
Kuyt
I highly doubt Liverpool will stay with same formation deployed against Stoke, whether 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2.

Yossi Benayoun has taken another step in his recovery from the serious injury that had forced him to miss 6 months of our season. Benayoun came on as a second half substitute for Israel and played the last 20 minutes without any problems.
As you can imagine, Benayoun was pleased with a return to action and said:

I was just so happy when the coach told me I could get back on the pitch after so long out.

Yossi Benayoun has taken another step in his recovery from the serious injury that had forced him to miss 6 months of our season. Benayoun came on as a second half substitute for Israel and played the last 20 minutes without any problems.
As you can imagine, Benayoun was pleased with a return to action and said:

I was just so happy when the coach told me I could get back on the pitch after so long out.

I think all of us have been left tonight with the same feeling about the game today. The feeling we have is that it's typical of our season. We made a great start, suffered a dodgy patch through the middle of the game, got ourselves together and back in the running towards the end but let it slip in the final moments!

....according to the Press over the last couple of days!.
Now we all know alot of these stories are just pure speculation and I can safely say Chelsea will not sign all of them! So I just wonder who you think we would realistically get this summer and how would they blend in at Chelsea?

We have all seen the rumours, we have all seen the speculation so it's about time that I put down here on record (as pre season starts today) the players I believe need to impress AVB this week or for the next 10 days. These are the players I believe may struggle to become part of AVB's plans.
Nico Anelka.

I know most of you have either seen it for yourselves or heard about it but I just had to put it on here even though it's late.
I know it's just Wycombe, but it doesn't matter who is playing who when someone does something like this in a game.
Take a look for yourselves:
It's a fantastic finish and as someone said today "Who needs Modric!

Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is lining up a bid for Raul Meireles as an alternative to Tottenham's Luka Modric.
The Stamford Bridge club is considering making a third offer for the Croatian playmaker, after bids of £22 million and £27 million were turned down earlier in the summer.
Villas-Boas, who knows Meireles from his time at Porto, has not ruled out bringing both players to Chelsea as he regards the Portuguese international as a perfect foil for Modric's creativity.

It usually doesn't do to scrutinise my pre-season predictions too closely.... and barely two weeks into the season, I'm already wondering whether Yossi Benayoun really is going to be the fulcrum at Chelsea..... but I did say this about Arsenal:
"I can't see him being sacked, but what are the odds on Wenger walking out at some point this year?

Arsenal's defence at full stretch

Three points in the bag. Move up to 11th in the league (still early days to consider any significance of the table). No injuries suffered during the game. No red card accrued during the 90 minutes. Andrey Arshavin opened his accounts for the season and another clean sheet kept by Wojciech Szczesny (not that it was his effort alone, those in front of him helped of course).

Gameweek 5 is nearly here. And it's Friday. You know what that means: Funny Feeling Friday. We take a look at an "unpopular" (by fantasy ownership terms) or out of form Premier League footballer that should break out in the ... Continue reading →

It'd be hard to find many teams that have had a more difficult start to the season than the Gunners. But few will argue that the next club to host Arsenal isn't facing desperate times.

As a Gooner one can sympathize with another club that is looking to do things the right way. The new owners don't seem to be very popular amongst the Ewood Park faithful but won my approval when they sacked Fat Sam.

When it was first announced, not many would have thought an Arsenal V Shrewsbury tie in the third round of the Carling Cup will take on such significance. I shudder at the thought of elimination but given the recent form, and with the team finding new ways of gifting goals, it's not too hard to imagine.

Wenger says the two games against Marseille will be vital for Arsenal's qualification hopes and fans who don't want a repeat of last season's second round draw know results in these two fixtures will go a long way in deciding the group topper.

Nevertheless, I have a feeling Arsene will rotate some of his players and I support that wholeheartedly.

Last night saw Bolton put out of the Carling Cup by an Arsenal team containing a mixture of new young players with the added bonus of the experienced Arshavin, Benayoun and the return of the Verminator. Many supporters had come to see if Ox, Park and Young could live up to their hype and whether they were ready for the first team.

I remember talking about the Carling Cup carnival one year ago after a 4-0 victory against Newcastle, a match in which we were ruthlessly efficient in the second half after being handed a lucky lead in the first; a Bendtner curler and two Walcott one-on-ones giving the scoreline much gloss and splendour as we lovingly clutched the CCQF Cup to our bosom and went through to the last eight.

I find these words from our esteemed manager very interesting in the context of the Youth V Experience argument that has raged like a wildfire throughout goonerland over the past 5 years.

Wenger gave us this quote today, speaking to Arsenal Player, when asked about the difference the 5 new players signed in the dying days of the last transfer window had made to the team.

Four games in the next 13 days should give Arsenal sufficient opportunity to bounce back from the recent disheartening defeat against the League leaders. Given the state of injuries in defence though, Arsene will have to take things game by game. There isn't much room left for tinkering, particularly at the back.

Now that we're at the halfway mark, it becomes the duty of Arsenal bloggers to write about how things have gone up to this point in the season, and how things are likely headed in the future. Since opinions are probably even more diverse than ever this year, I thought it would be fun to write two completely different midseason reviews.

Honestly, despite my reputation as the Negative Nancy blogger, I thought we'd snatch a winner all the way up to the final whistle. Not only did we control possession, chances, corner kicks, free kicks, etc, but we also played the final 20-ish minutes (including added time) with a man advantage.