Images: facebook, headbandsandheartbreak.

We've got to say, while canvassing your opinions as to the hotness quotient of various players is an endless source of fun and amusement for us, too much of a good thing is bad for you. We actually ate so much confectionery yesterday that one of us is dipping in and out of a sugar coma as we write, so you can be sure we've tested the theory thoroughly.

Arsenal striker Andrei Arshavin yesterday revealed that the lack of regular playing time was a major factor that influenced his decision to leave the club. Having made only a handful of appearances for the Gunners this season (most of them from the bench), Arshavin said that he was happy with his return to his old club.

Cute Ryo. Adorkable through and through. Isn't he? Image: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images.

You're already familiar with the "sculpted by angels" loveliness that is (on-loan from Arsenal) midfielder Ryo Miyachi. According to you lot, he's variously "beautiful", "handsome", "so pretty he could be a girl" and "looks like he's made of wax".

Barcelona came back from conceding a 9th minute goal to beat Valencia 5-1 on Sunday. Lionel Messi scored four of those goals just because he can, but with Barca up 3-1 in the 77th what seemed like a routine substitution of Thiago for Cesc Fabregas got a little frisky. Fabregas gave Pep Guardiola a hug as he made his way to the bench, but after the two exchange a few calm words, Guardiola shoved Cesc by the back of the neck.

If you have been wondering why Jozy Altidore has been relegated to the bench for AZ Alkmaar, it looks you now have an answer.

According to a report from the Netherlands, AZ manager Gertjan Verbeek has preferred to start Charlison Benschop over Altidore in recent weeks due to Altidore's lack of progress.

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.

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?

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.

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.

There was a point yesterday – just before Sunderland scored their freak goal – when I was thinking: we need to change this game from the bench, but who can we bring on? We have no quality on the bench!

Silly me.

All it took was one Ramsey pot shot, one sublime cross from Arshavin and one trademark Henry finish to prove that Arsène Wenger still knows what he's doing.

By Benjamin Leinwand and Chris Anderson
When it comes to pay, not all positions are created equal. In fact, we have long known that strikers command a premium for their services. So it should come as no surprise that Major League Soccer is no exception. In 2011, average earnings were distinctly tilted toward the offensive side of the pitch.

Two of Europe's most storied clubs continue their quests for continental glory, when AC Milan hosts Arsenal in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout tie (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel).

The highly anticipated match not only pits two of the world's top strikers, Robin van Persie and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, against each other, but it also marks Thierry Henry's final game while on loan with the Gunners.

Getting bleaker

When Chelsea went into half time in their match against Birmingham trailing by a solitary goal, the Chelsea fans went into frenzy. They were booing and offered their team no support whatsoever. It got worse, they were singing Mourinho songs. At the Stadium of Light, the travelling Arsenal fans were facing the same situation but resorted to none of those sorts.

Arsenal announced today that they have chosen to loan out Andrey Arshavin back to his former club Zenit St Petersburg for the rest of the season.

A marquee signing when he joined in January 2009, the captain of the Russian international team proved an instant success, lifting the team to a 4th place finish almost single-handedly.

This afternoon, for most of us Chelsea brethren, was a nice change of pace from the usual depression-filled days of the past couple of months.

It should have been an evening to savor for players, staff and supporters following the recent string of poor result after poor result, but it seems as though more speculation is bound to engulf Chelsea instead after Frank Lampard opted to talk up internal (and personal) strife rather than focus on the positives of today's display.

Tottenham's Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart has hit the headlines for two reasons today in the wake of Spurs' 5-2 defeat at the Emirates on Sunday. Firstly, Rafa ruled his club out of the title race and at the same time, it was announced that he will miss Holland's friendly international with England this week due to an ankle injury.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 [...

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.

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
MyP2P.bz
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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.