Sporting KC has done well so far this offseason. (Getty Images)

Well, it is mid-December. The Christmas trees are up and the snow is falling in some places around the country. The Re-Entry Drafts have come and gone for the 19 MLS clubs. Teams are constantly making moves this offseason at times more moves than it seems like ever before.

Liverpool at home for FA Cup 3rd Round

LIVERPOOL will begin their 2012 FA Cup campaign with a home match against either Southend United and Oldham Athletic. League Two Southend drew 1-1 at home to Oldham Athletic yesterday, matching their club-record 17 match unbeaten run, and now face a trip to League One Oldham's Boundary Park for the 2nd round replay.

Chelsea took another massive step forward in my eyes last night and received the added bonus with news that Genk had held Bayer to a draw - meaning we topped our group and avoided a nightmare draw in the next round!.
We had wondered if we could build on the Newcastle performance and result, wondered if we could step up on the biggest night of our season so far to ensure that we qualified for the next stages of the Champions League and wondered if by leaving Frank Lampard on the bench - AVB had made a big mistake.

Chelsea winger Juan Mata is convinced that his side can ride the momentum of two huge wins to become the first team that beats Manchester City in the Barclays Premier League this season.

Mata and his teammates won their Champions League group against all odds with a resounding 3-0 win over Valencia last night at Stamford Bridge, which is also the venue where they will host City on Monday.

The Club World Cup kicks off in Tokyo, there is El Clásico in La Liga and some big games in England, France and Italy on this week's languagecaster predictions.

On this week's predictions we feature the final of the Club World Cup, some big games from Italy, Spain and a top of the table clash from London.

Real Madrid will go into the Spanish winter break with a three-point advantage over Barcelona after a 6-2 win at Sevilla.

With Barça away in Japan playing in the FIFA Club World Cup duty, José Mourinho's side took full advantage and went in front through Cristiano Ronaldo. José Callejón doubled the lead on 37 minutes, with Ronaldo's spectacular strike making it 3-0.

Real Madrid will go into the Spanish winter break with a three-point advantage over Barcelona after a 6-2 win at Sevilla.

With Barça away in Japan playing in the FIFA Club World Cup duty, José Mourinho's side took full advantage and went in front through Cristiano Ronaldo. José Callejón doubled the lead on 37 minutes, with Ronaldo's spectacular strike making it 3-0.

People frequenting this small online settlement will be well-aware that I get jittery as fuck when big games come along. Arsenal have proved themselves to be flaccid and impotent on many occasions in the past; slipping, sliding, making elementary mistakes and prompting the inception of cringe-worthy wordplay jokes, perennially fuelling my jitters in the process.

It's a fact that I think will divide opinion amongst Chelsea fans, Spurs fans and even football neutrals right now. Chelsea had a hoodoo over Spurs for years and called their patch "three point lane" but you have to admit we can't call it that anymore can we.
Spurs (no matter what your bias is) have done great under Harry Redknapp considering that some of them didn't want him!

It's a simple question isn't it. The reality is that we need our best side out tonight to win this one. We could say a week or so ago that we knew what our best side was based on current form but it's amazing what one poor performance does!
I asked a couple of questions to you all yesterday about the game.

Tottenham Hotspurs' bid in acquiring points in the hectic Premier League during this Holiday period gets a massive boost after the latest report confirmed that one of their most important players, Rafael Van der Vaart, is fit enough to play.

Van der Vaart picked up an injury during Spurs latest match against Chelsea and there were fears that he might be out for quite a while but medical checked up revealed a positive outcome instead.

I have said it's no surprise that we drew 1-1 in this one really based on our performances of late. We pick ourselves up for the big games like Newcastle, City and Spurs in the league but for some reason our performances suffer against the likes of Wigan and now Fulham!. In saying that I mean no disrespect to both those sides and to Fulham especially as I don't think Fulham fans thought they would come away with anything after being stuffed 5-0 at home to United.

On this week's predictions we feature some of the big games from the Premier League's New Year fixtures.

It wasn't all bad in the early going for Liverpool. The club was comfortably in the top ten in spite of the various struggles and unanswered questions, and there was a win in the derby over Everton despite Dirk Kuyt's first ever penalty miss for Liverpool to boost spirits. It might not have been the start fans had been hoping for after the way the previous season had ended, but it also wasn't the end of the world.

Let's face it - we all love SZCZ. Since Jens was dropped in 2007 (in my opinion ill-advisedly) we've had to put up with some of the less convincing goalkeepers in Arsenal's history, namely Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone.