All is quiet on the expansion front with no new team set to join the league in 2013. Nevertheless, there are a number of potential expansion candidates waiting in the wings. Last week, the Minnesota legislature voted in a stadium bill to keep the Vikings in Minnesota. The stadium project is expected to cost almost a billion dollars.

Ferguson's big United decision this summer - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester United's best performance in the 2011/2012 season was on Sunday, 28th August 2011, when they walloped an injury-ridden and pre-panic-buy Arsenal 8-2.

This standout performance wasn't a blip. In their first five competitive games of the season, United won all 5, including their best performance against Manchester City (although it was the Community Shield, people forget that United played City four times, not three times, and beat them twice) that was far more in United's advantage than the 3-2 scoreline suggested.

Another big day in the Premier League for us even though we are not part of the fixture list for today. Today sees Bolton taking on Sp*rs while in the other match, Chelsea plays Newcastle. 3 of those teams are still capable of catching up to us and prevent us from taking that 3rd spot. There's nothing we can do to influence the standings by the end of the day, just hoping that some measure of the current gap could be maintained.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has admitted that his side's two recent defeats against relegation-threatened QPR and Wigan Athletic are down to mental lapses that must be addressed in order to secure third place.

Last season, Manchester City shockingly leapfrogged the Gunners into third place after the last round of fixtures, leaving Wenger's men with no other choice but to begin this season early to qualify for the Champions League group stage.

Maddy's Note: Persiesque wrote this piece for setpiecegoal where he asked Mooninanfield and me a few pointed and mud-dredging questions. We agreed on mostly everything by the looks of it.

Liverpool and Arsenal have endured a very complex season. Arsenal have what Liverpool wanted at the start of the season: a place in next year's Champions League while Liverpool have (and could well add) to what Arsenal wanted: a trophy to end the drought.

Former Barcelona sporting director Txiki Begiristain has emerged as a leading contender to replace Damien Comolli at Liverpool.
The Anfield club's American owners sacked their director of football ahead of the FA Cup semi-final victory over Everton because they were unhappy that a big-spending approach had not resulted in any progress in the Premier League.

Wednesday's defeat at Wigan was an ill-timed blip and also made for unpleasant viewing, but while it added another twist to a Premier League title race that many mistakenly, because it's not over until the title is secure considered to be all over, Manchester United are still in full control of their destiny.

(With apologies for the now customary tardiness – who knew saving the world and getting the girl would leave so little time for the finer things in life?)

The implosion continues apace, which I suppose if nothing else provides a degree of comforting familiarity for us long-term lilywhite sufferers.

Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City

One-nil to the Arsenal, and as one goal wins go, that one was as sweet as it was deserved.

Sweet because we needed a win and we needed a performance after that baffling foot-off-the-pedal defeat at QPR. Wenger said it was a blip and that yesterday we'd see the real Arsenal back the one utterly reinvigorated since February and he was right.

Manchester City's title dreams are all but over after they suffered a slender 1-0 defeat to Arsenal yesterday to leave them 8 points behind local rivals Manchester United with 6 games left until the season ends.

A Mikel Arteta strike in the 87th minute earned Arsenal all the 3 points and saw them move back into 3rd place 2 points ahead of their London rivals Tottenham.

Even with City's dodgy away form in recent weeks this game was always going to be a test of Arsenal's abilities. Was the QPR result a blip or the beginning of yet another slump? On the back of that performance there can be no arguments. The macro-level stats in the following tweet make the case quite clearly.

Even with City's dodgy away form in recent weeks this game was always going to be a test of Arsenal's abilities. Was the QPR result a blip or the beginning of yet another slump? On the back of that performance there can be no arguments. The macro-level stats in the following tweet make the case quite clearly.

Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur, Saturday 7th April, Stadium of Light, 12.45pm kick off, SS2 &HD2

Tottenham travel up to Wearside for a Saturday lunch time game off the back of 2 very impressive performances against Bolton and Swansea. We looked back to the form we were displaying earlier in the season before we had our mini blip.

Morning all, today starts with a mild *boilk* but it's not my fault. It's all the fault of The Man from East Lower who has left his comfortable surrounds and is in Dublin instead and insisted that I drink beer with him.

"No," I said, "I am an abstemious man who rarely partakes of the demon drink, especially around this most holy of times.

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INTERVIEW WITH THE GREAT GORDON JAGO
- Q&A (Part 1 of 2): Exec.

Morning to you all, it's pretty quiet today with reaction/fallout from Saturday's 'shock' defeat to QPR still ongoing.

Arsene Wenger has called for a reaction, Robin van Persie too, saying:

Everyone is disappointed but towards the end of the week I am sure the spirit will be how it was.

Arsenal can deliver title to United with win against City - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

For months it looked like Manchester United would need, at the very least, three points at the Etihad to stand any chance of overtaking Manchester City in the title race. For months, United were being commended for being able to stay within touching distance despite injuries that had disrupted Ferguson's season plans and forced him to scrap all pre-season tactical preparation and build his team shape from scratch.

QPR 2-1 Arsenal

Like most Arsenal fans, I expect, I wasn't naïve enough to anticipate a serene run of victories that would enable us to sail through to the end of the season unhindered. I expected a blip, but I didn't really expect that blip yesterday. Maybe the players didn't, either, and therein lies the rub.

When times are hard in the Premier League, it is always nice to keep an eye on a promising future. Tottenham Hotspur's poor recent run of league form has sent some fans into a rather depressing slump. From an optimistic point of view, things could and should soon pick up.

The rejuvenated pairing of Arsenal and Chelsea – Spurs' fiercest London rivals – have recently enjoyed superb form respectively.

Liverpool welcome Wigan to Anfield for their second match against a relegation-threatened side in four days after their late collapse at QPR on Wednesday. The Latics can't quite nudge their way out of the drop with a win, but they can at least draw level on points with the side that condemned Liverpool to their fourth league defeat in five matches.

The phrase ‘one of those night's has appeared once again on the club website and it's been used a fair bit in connection with Tottenham's recent games. After the loss against Everton, Harry said that he couldn't understand it and against Stoke, we dominated possession once again.

Last season, Spurs were enjoying a great run up until the end of December and the reason for falling away was quite obvious.

Spurs make Redknapp mad On the way home from the game last night I was struggling to explain or come to terms with the blip slump we're having. I struggled, until I overheard a drunken mickey taking session between a group of lads about how one of them couldn't "get up for the occasion" or "completely raise his flagpole".

Chelsea remain in contention to progress in the Champions League by the skin of their teeth, but last night's 3-1 defeat to Napoli leaves English football staring down the barrel of not having a single representative in the quarter-finals. With Arsenal needing to climb a mountain against AC Milan, and Manchester United and Manchester City [.

It's probably a demonstration of how far we have come in such a short space of time that some United fans have been decidedly grumpy following the recent setback at Tottenham. That's understandable. However it's a very short-term view of a one match blip, in what has otherwise been a highly successful season so far, [.

Thank God, It's over, that definitely was the reaction of every Barca fan once they heard the final whistle. I don't remember that in recent history we coming out with such a reaction towards the end of any match. That was the way we performed in this match, may be that's how they performed.

Thank God, It's over, that definitely was the reaction of every Barca fan once they heard the final whistle. I don't remember that in recent history we coming out with such a reaction towards the end of any match. That was the way we performed in this match, may be that's how they performed.

Mirror: Fergie must buy big to keep Rooney happy

Why Barton can't moan too much over red card Festive thrills mean we should never have a winter break When Wayne Rooney looks lost and unhappy, you know there is something wrong at Old Trafford. Dropped for the home defeat by Blackburn, United's only remaining player with the X-Factor was a non-factor as they lost against at Newcastle.

By Chris Wright

After just pipping the first leg 1-0, Pep Guardiola covered his arse by naming an incredibly strong side in the return leg against Hospitalet at the Camp Nou last night and it payed off, with Barcelona crushing the third-tier outfit thanks to goals from Pedro, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and braces from three players aged just 20: Isaac Cuenca, Thiago Alcantara and substitute Cristian Tello.

Still everything to play for as La Liga heads into winter break

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.spanishfootball.info's David Cartlidge with his take on the week's big issues in Spain.

Mario Gomez (left) is the top scorer in the Bundesliga this season

FC Bayern München secured the tag of Herbstmeister (autumn champions) in Germany last night. Despite going down to ten men following Franck Ribéry's red card on the half hour mark, FC Bayern were seldom troubled by visiting 1.

MirrorFootball Podcast: Robbie Savage and David McDonnell join Steve Anglesey

Are Manchester United in crisis or is this just a blip? Hear from Robbie savge on why Fergie's side have become "wormanlike" and hear what happened in the aftermath of Nemanja Vidic's injury and the shock Champions League exit to Basel from our Manchester correspondent David McDonnell.

Premier League Preview: Arsenal and Chelsea fight to catch up with Tottenham and Manchester City - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With 15 points separating the top five teams in the English Premier League, the race for a top four place is well and truly on. If you bet on football, you'll know that Manchester City are still favourites for the league title but with a tough set of fixtures ahead of them, things can change very quickly.

By Chris Wright

Arsenal (or 'Arsenal B' to completely truthful) ended their Champions League group stage campaign with a bit of a whimper, going down 3-1 to Olympiakos in Greece. Rafik Djebbour, David Fuster and Francois Modesto all did the business for Olympiakos while Yossi Benayoun scored Arsenal's consolation on a night which was perfectly encapsulated by Vito Mannone's bollock-drop par excellence.

If drawing 1-1 at home to Fulham and losing in the Milk Cup with an understrength team can be described as a blip, then our blip was batted away with that assured win at Wigan.

Nice too that the goals were scored not by one man, but by four. Particularly pleasing too that Gervinho netted one: I think he's had a big effect on our attacking potency, even if he's not sunk as many goals as we might have liked – though three league goals in ten starts is hardly a drought, either.

Can Arsenal return to winning ways on the road? We have won away at last and once again should be playing in the red and white, so the portents are good. In fact, I have slaughtered, then disembowelled a rare, green resting frog and after studying it's grizzly entrails I am delighted to tell you that the augurs are well placed (the wife isn't too pleased about my using her best sabatier vegetable knife, but needs must).

Can Arsenal return to winning ways on the road? We have won away at last and once again should be playing in the red and white, so the portents are good. In fact, I have slaughtered, then disembowelled a rare, green resting frog and after studying it's grizzly entrails I am delighted to tell you that the augurs are well placed (the wife isn't too pleased about my using her best sabatier vegetable knife, but needs must).

During his time as Liverpool manager, Roy Evans's team had a creditable record against Chelsea, losing only 3 out of 10 games over a four year period. Evans was clearly delighted by his old club's recent victory over Chelsea, but a niggling issue that has affected Liverpool all season was there again in the Chelsea game, and Evans feels that Kenny Dalglish needs to address it as soon as possible.

Stoke City So when does a blip become a rut? And when does a slight worry become a deep-rooted concern? Stoke have now lost their last five domestic games, and these have included games that they would hope to have taken points from: QPR (h), Bolton (a), Newcastle (h, Liverpool (h) and Arsenal (a). They [.

Liverpool have been blessed with some amazing creative players over the years, and Luis Suarez is the latest in a long-line of 'edge of your seat' players to grace Anfield. Given Suarez's superb performances for the club, it probably seems churlish to highlight an area of possible improvement, but no player is 100% perfect, and in El Pistolero's case, his recent goal record in the Premier League is arguably a cause for minor concern.

In the wake of the Expansion Draft, the New England Revolution placed three players on waivers, making them available for selection in the subsequent Waiver Draft. Alan Koger, Otto Loewy, and Andrew Sousa were cut after making exactly zero league appearances in their rookie seasons. As it turns out, they weren't picked up in the Waiver Draft by anyone else; only Nizar Khalfan found a new home through that process, moving to to the Philadelphia Union.