Arsenal back-up goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has expressed controversial views opposing the introduction of goal-line technology in football, insisting that officiating errors are part of the game.

A number of high-profile errors in recent years have prompted the International Football Association Board to hold a decisive meeting regarding the issue on July 2.

Some players want to leave, Arsenal will be going places this summer, the English NT is filled with jerks... your usual cup of Arse here at the Offside

We start today's blog with a subject Arsenal fans are always delighted to hear about: player departures. Park Chu-Young has indicated that if keeps getting ignored for play action, he might leave in the summer.

Morelia - Santos Laguna 9pm - Fox Deportes Herculez Gomez and Santos Laguna are top of the Clausura table after five games, with Morelia in 9th. Gomez has been coming off the bench for Santos, subbing on in the 76th last week in a win over UNAM Pumas, not playing in the 3-1 win over Tijuana the week before that, and subbing on in the 73rd in a 1-0 win over Jaguares on January 21st.

Bored? Tired? Pissed off because the DP you bought blew out his knee before playing a single game, limiting himself to the bench for 6-12 months?

Well, I can't preform invasive surgery on Jose Adolfo Valencia, but I sure can give you a wonderful way to waste your time until March. Meet rated90.

Tottenham fans would have tuned in to last weekend's London derby at Upton Park in the hope of witnessing two things –

1. A defeat for the home side
2. A solid performance from Harry Kane

Sadly we got neither with Harry starting the game on the subs' bench along with Ryan Mason but both players got a full 90 minutes under their belt as Millwall saw off the challenge of Southampton in last night's FA Cup replay.

FC Barcelona booked their place in the Copa Del Rey final with a 2-0 victory against Valencia at Camp Nou. Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi gave Barca a bit of nervous victory. Now the final will be against Atletic Bilbao, between the two most successful teams in the Copa Del Rey history.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Even though TSG 1899 Hoffenheim was unceremoniously dumped out of the DFB Pokal quarterfinals by second-tier Greuther Furth on Wednesday, the match carried significance for one American.

U.S. Under-23 winger Joe Gyau, made his first-team debut for Hoffenheim, entering as an 80th-minute substitute for U.

Well hello there.

I see you've caught me in your office, bearing the gift of my presence and my musky, Vin Diesel-like scent. ... Who am I? Judging by my decidedly unsexy lack of playing time, I thought you might have forgotten. I am Dimitar. Dimitar Berbatov. Or, as all the Berba-babes call me: "What Are You Doing Under My Sink?

With Glen Johnson ahead of him in the Anfield pecking order, Martin Kelly has been warming the bench more often than not this season, which is a shame because he rarely lets Liverpool down when he plays. As a result of Jose Enrique's injury, Kelly got his chance against Spurs last night, and he was arguably one of the best players on the pitch.

Photo by John Todd/ISIphotos.com

United States fullback Eric Lichaj has completed his return from a hip injury that kept him out of action for the better part of the last five months, making the bench for Aston Villa's first team in its last two matches. Despite Lichaj being a candidate to go on loan upon his return, Aston Villa appears to be remain committed to seeing what he can do for the club, even if that means moving him to a new spot on the field.

You could be looking at the Annual Congregation of Munich's Santa Clauses, except this photo would've been only complete if Mario Gomez joined the bench instead of looking down at them! During Bayern's 1-1 draw against Hamburg over the weekend, there was a lot of frustration and anger from all corners of the club.

Luis Suarez made his return from his eight-match suspension but their was no fairy tale ending as Liverpool and Spurs played to a goalless draw at Anfield.

While Kenny Dalglish's side remain unbeaten at home this season, they have nevertheless struggled for goals at Anfield, scoring just 14 in 11 matches, and again, despite a lot of possession they were unable to unpick a superbly-disciplined Spurs defence.

Daneil Cyrus is not in camp with Sporting KC due to "personal reasons" and it doesn't look like he'll be joining the team soon. Word out of Trinidad (h/t The Daily Wiz) is that Cyrus will be joining the Trinidad and Tobago U-23 for a camp. The camp will be capped off by two friendlies again the full national team of Guyana.

As I predicted earlier today, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has left Luis Suarez on the bench for tonight's game with Spurs at Anfield. Jose Enrique is injured, which probably means Glen Johnson will play at left-back.Full Team: Reina; Kelly, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Spearing, Adam, Gerrard, Kuyt, Bellamy, Carroll.

Atalanta Guglielmo Stendardo joined Atalanta on loan from Lazio until the end of the season. The 30-year-old defender has spent most of past two seasons on the bench at the Rome club, and will be delighted to get the chance to feature for the first team in Bergamo. (+ve) Another experienced arrival is midfielder Alessandro Carrozza from Serie B outfit Varese.

Kickoff from Anfield at 8:00PM GMT/3:00PM EST

Ways to Watch:

Match live on Sky Sports 1 in the UK and ESPN2/ESPN3 in the US.

Wiziwig.eu
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StopStream.tv
ATDHEnet.tv
FromSport.com
FirstRowSports.eu
CoolSport.tv

Liverpool:

Team sheet when it's released

Bench:

Spurs:

Team sheet when it's released

Bench:

Ryan wrote yesterday about the formation likely to be the most common in 2012, based on John Spencer's almost exclusive use of the 4-4-2 in 2011. It's true, Spencer likes the direct approach to the attack, a strategy that uses lots of speed and doesn't require much in the way of possession.

But part of me wonders if Spencer felt limited in choosing his formation because of a lack of depth on the bench.

Demba Ba returns to the starting line up this afternoon for Newcastle United against Aston Villa at St. James' Park. As expected Shola Ameobi makes way for the Senegal striker and his team-mate Papiss Cisse in on the bench. Ba will partner Leon Best up front, and this looks like a decent team for Newcastle today.

The Ivory Coast beat Equatorial Guinea last night 3-0 and advanced to the semi-final of the African Cup of Nations. Drogba scores first goal for the Ivory Coast last night But Cheick Tiote was on the bench as two goals from Didier Drogba and one from Yaha Toure was enough to see the side through [...

Looks like Mr. Backe has some decisions to make come opening day in Dallas. With a surplus of forwards and central midfielders, it'll be interesting to see what formation and personnel makeup the starting XI. With so many options and possible configurations at his disposal, how will Backe manage his depth?

Last night Fernando Torres appeared on Chelsea TV's "Friday Night Live" programme where he answered questions from the fans. Chelsea have kindly uploaded some of the interview to their official channel on YouTube which I will feature for you here.
Torres was asked about how we is settling in at Chelsea and his relation ship with the fans below:
In the full interview featured on the official website, Torres said:

'Since I joined Chelsea it has been amazing.

Carlos Tevez has once again refused to enter a match after starting on the substitute's bench, this time during Martin Palermo's testimonial in Buenos Aires. Tevez, who has been frozen out at Manchester City since pulling a similar protest during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich in September sparked outrage from both teams taking part in the tribute to Palermo, a friend and former international teammate.

By Chris Wright

Je suis bostin' for a slash

It's pretty damn parky over in France at the moment, with freezing temperatures (we're talking -13ºC in places) threatening to disrupt the weekend's football fixtures not that Saint-Etienne 'keeper Jeremie Janot is remotely fussed, for Monsieur Janot has devised a fool-proof method to beat the cold snap as a game ticks over into it's latter stages.

Fresh off a transfer from the struggling Bolton Wanderers, defender Gary Cahill is reportedly already unhappy at Stamford Bridge. Cahill found himself on the bench for Chelsea's recent match against Swansea City, as he was hoping to fill in for the injured John Terry.

Goal.com is reporting that an inside source close to the Chelsea training camp noted that Cahill looked as if "his head has gone," but noted that Cahill has not filed any official complaint with manager Andre Villas-Boas.

It's difficult to know where to start this week's column. On the face of it, a compelling comeback from two goals down to keep our FA Cup hopes alive, followed by a point and a clean sheet away from home should constitute a reasonably good week. Yet it doesn't feel like that at all. For a start, we've put ourselves in a position now where, effectively, any draw represents two points dropped.

After a full week of news both on and off the pitch, Tottenham centre half Younes Kaboul identified the 3-1 win over Wigan as a return to form after some indifferent results of late.

Younes played a full part in the win and was unlucky not to open the scoring on two occasions before Gareth Bale and Luka Modric sealed the win.

Bolton 0 Arsenal 0
(Premiership)

Last night's clash at the Reebok was a classic example of a football match not being an isolated occasion, and not judged as such, but rather an act in a bigger play, with interpretations not purely taken from the ninety minutes of action, but from the wider context of both clubs.

The protracted transfer of Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Nelsen has now been officially confirmed by the club after his previous employers rubber stamped the termination of his contract.

While the club were announcing the deal on the official website, Spurs assistant Kevin Bond revealed that Nelsen was fit and available for Monday night's game at Liverpool.

Perhaps the Premier League might like to take a swift glance at the televised match between Wigan and Spurs on January 11th 2009.
With the score at 0-0 shortly after half-time, Heurelho Gomes strained his hamstring taking a goalkick and made it quite clear that his movement was severely restricted and that he wished to be substituted.

So another transfer window comes to a close. This unlike many others was surprisingly quiet, mainly due to clubs now having to take into account UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. Another reason for the quiet was our gaffer's appearances in court seriously restricting his ability to go on Sky Sports News every five minutes and tell the world which 'top top players' he was looking at.

By Chris Wright

'Twas a bit of a slow one yesterday as anyone who spent 11-and-a-bit hours 'glued' to the live feed will tell you, with the total spending across the English leagues failing to surpass the £50 million that Chelsea spaffed on Fernando Torres this time last year let alone the ludicrous £225 million that was spent in total in January of 2011.

Pitchside Report " Ella Masar: No More Silence

This report from a player who went from starter to bench fodder after standing up to the owner of magicJack is a must read if care even a tiny bit about women's soccer. WPS is not blameless, they invited that owner into their nest, but the reasons they want him out come clearer every day.

JOSH. Fortunately, he won't be playing against us. Nevertheless, this is going to be hella difficult.

Team news and the like from 2:30pm EST.

Team sheets
Swansea City
Vorm, Rangel, Caulker, Williams, Taylor, Britton, Allen, Sigurdsson, Dyer, Sinclair, Graham.

Kenny Dalglish has made five changes for the game against Wolves tonight.FULL TEAM: Reina, Enrique, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Spearing, Adam, Kuyt, Henderson, Bellamy, CarrollSUBS: Doni, Carra, Coates, Kelly Aurelio, Shelvey, DowningIt looks like Steven Gerrard has been rested for this game, which is understandable after the heavy fixture list recently.

Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs is getting closer and closer to being ready to return to action. After breaking his hand on January 2nd against the Minnesota Timberwolves, doctors told Ginobili that he'd need about six weeks to recover.

However, Ginobili appears to be a bit ahead of schedule.

Kickoff from Molinuex Stadium at 7:45PM GMT/2:45PM EST

Ways to Watch:

Match live on Fox Soccer Plus in the US and FoxSoccer.tv for subscribers.

Wiziwig.eu
MyP2P.bz
StopStream.tv
ATDHEnet.tv
FromSport.com
FirstRowSports.eu
KiwiSportz.

As Chelsea fans and especially in recent seasons, we are always interested in seeing some of our promising youngsters come through into the first team squad. The likes of Betrand, McEachran, Van Aanholt and Bruma have featured last season but we haven't really seen much of the youngsters this term.

Tonight Chelsea travel to the Liberty Stadium to take on the impressive Swansea side under Brendan Rogers. We all saw how well they played when they beat Arsenal the other week and once again for Chelsea, this is no easy game.
Imagine a Chelsea side without three of the four players that have been part of the core of our side for the last five or six years.

Coming into the season, the Portland Trail Blazers were viewed as a potential sleeper in the race to win the championship of the Western Conference. The Utah Jazz, on the other hand, supposedly didn't have a chance to make the playoffs. Things done changed.

On Monday, the Jazz beat the Blazers 93-89 and now have a one-game lead over Portland in the West.

With the NBA schedule in fult tilt since Christmas, the season has never seemed this action-packed. The reason is because the games are coming closer together and delivered faster to consumers.
There is more back-to-back scheduling for teams than other years, meaning they play two nights in a row and some back-to-back-to-back, meaning they play three nights in a row at times throughout the season, as well.