Maybe it was the World Cup Draw bounce or a nice lift from the previous weekend's Manchester United game, but the Nielsen Ratings for last weekend's match between Portsmouth and Burnley, far from being two popular teams in America, achieved the sixth highest rating of the 2009-2010 Premier League season thus far.

Let's be honest. It was the game that almost no one wanted to watch but for those of you who did watch it because there was nothing else on or because you love football no matter who is playing, the Stoke City against Wigan Athletic match was a surprising delight.

Because both teams are not big draws, the Nielsen Ratings on ESPN2 for the game weren't too impressive (the broadcast of the game garnered a 0.

There were several Americans playing in the top European leagues on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 including the English Premier League and Scottish Premier League. In Scotland, DaMarcus Beasley made the most out of his playing time for Rangers with while Brad Friedel earned another clean sheet with Aston Villa.

While Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, and French Ligue 1 all have a winter break, the English Premier League continues with no break and several matches on Saturday, December 26, 2009. Several of the top teams are in action including Chelsea traveling to Birmingham, Fulham hosting Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers.

If you've watched a lot of Premier League football on television this season, you've seen plenty of matches involving Burnley and Portsmouth in addition to the Big Four and other teams. Surprisingly, the games involving Burnley and Portsmouth have done quite well in the TV ratings game as we again see from last weekend's match between Portsmouth and Liverpool, which was shown on ESPN2.

4 weeks ago, Arsenal's title challenge was over. The home defeat to Chelsea had seen everyone and their dog line up to kick Arsene Wenger's team. While they were still licking their wounds, Manchester City snatched a win against the usual collection of youngsters, sprinkled with experience in the League Cup.

It's that time of the week again, tomorrow the mighty Wanderers will be traveling southward to take on Wolves. This will be the 112th time the two clubs have faced each other, the first time being in 1888 in the first season of the league. Yes my friends, this is a clash steeped in history. To find out exactly how many times each team has won, lost, and drawn go to the BBC.

Liverpool will be hoping to take another step on the road to recovery this weekend when they tackle Blackburn Rovers, who showed in midweek that they are more than capable of running with the Premier League's big boys.
Rovers booked their place in the League Cup semi-finals on Wednesday with a shock win over table-toppers Chelsea.

by FRANCO PANIZO

Six points is all that seperates second place from twelfth in Ligue 1, and for Carlos Bocanegra and Stade Rennes, this weekend provides an opportunity to leapfrog a few teams.

After a winless November, eleventh place Stade Rennes will look to claim victory when it battles Lorient in the quest to climb up the standings, and into a position for next season's European soccer.

Yet another loss. We now sit in 19th place, having taken just 1 point from our last 5 games. ONE point. I can't even communicate how disappointed I am with our team right now. Losing to Spartak London is one thing, they spend probably 5 times what we do, but losing horribly to a newly promoted team?

Liverpool's mouth-watering encounter with Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday is the pick of this weekend's Premier League fixtures. Elsewhere, Aston Villa make the trip to champions Manchester United. Chelsea are aiming to bounce back against Everton, Tottenham Hotspur tackle Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester City head to North West neighbours Bolton Wanderers while bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth meet Sunderland.

I've lowered my standard to the point where I celebrate a single point against a non-Big Four team, such is the life of a Bolton fan. Annnnyway many apologies for not getting the chance to write a match report, I participated in a "Family Day" yesterday (yes, it was exactly as fun as it sounds), so didn't get the chance.

EPL on ESPN2: Wigan Athletic - Bolton Wanderers at 3pm. All Times Eastern

Blogger One-One-Eight is a huge Germany supporter, so it makes me happy when we can dig through the archives to find some embarrassing Oliver Kahn related clips.
All in good holiday spirit of course, this one comes from former Bolton Wanderers star Jay-Jay Okocha in the 1993 season - and it's really a brilliant piece of skill by the sublime Nigerian for Eintracht Frankfurt.

The late match on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 in the English Premier League was Bolton Wanderers against Hull City. Both teams are in the relegation zone heading into the match and in need of points. Bolton are not in as dire of need as they have a few matches in hand on most clubs heading into the match while Hull do not have that luxury.

When soccer purists criticize the Premier League, they often mention Bolton Wanderers and Hull City as two teams that send them into a comatose state. They conjure up images of a nil-nil draw with the ball played in the air more than on the muddy pitch. They imagine unskillful players playing drab, gray football.

Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Mr. Blobby & Gary Megson. Who is the odd one out? At first glance you'd probably say Mr. Blobby, but the answer is in fact, Gary Megson, the other three have a personality.

Megson, 50, has been on the managerial death row since he first took over as Bolton Boss in October 2007.

by FRANCO PANIZO

Brad Friedel may not have pulled out a victory over Liverpool, but his performance in the midweek match was just his latest impressive showing.

Friedel looked poised for a cleansheet after shutting out Steven Gerrard and company for 90 minutes, before Fernando Torres scored a last-gasp winner in stoppage time.

Many soccer fans in the United States have posted here and on other sites that Nielsen Ratings for Premier League games shown on ESPN2 have flatlined. Based on the latest numbers from ESPN2, that is simply not true.

The reality is that the teams that were featured in the games shown by ESPN2 over the past two months had "flatlined" in that they featured teams that for the most part are not appealing to the mass of soccer fans in the States.

Hello again, as promised (and by promised I mean suggested) here is a news round up for this week. Nothing much concrete really happened, but there you are.

First of all two of our boys have been getting involved in the community. Tamir Cohen and Gretar Steinsson participated in the local Premier League 4 Sport launch.

The English Premier League is nearing the half-way mark with Chelsea maintaining a five point lead over Manchester United. With Arsenal losing to Chelsea they are now 11 points back but do have one game in hand. Liverpool is 13 points back back and Tottenham is 10 points back in third place. It looks like Chelsea and Man U will be fighting for the title with the last two UEFA Champions League spots up for grabs.

by FRANCO PANIZO

Six points is all that seperates second place from twelfth in Ligue 1, and for Carlos Bocanegra and Stade Rennes, this weekend provides an opportunity to leapfrog a few teams.

After a winless November, eleventh place Stade Rennes will look to claim victory when it battles Lorient in the quest to climb up the standings, and into a position for next season's European soccer.

The English Premier League continues on Saturday, December 5, 2009 with several matches including Wolverhampton Wanderers v Bolton Wanderers. The match will be covered live on our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the link below.

Wolves v Bolton

Birmingham

All Birmingham wants for X-mas is for things to continue going they way they have been recently. The new boys are quietly playing some of the best top level football in the last few months not losing a match since October 17th to Arsenal. The six game unbeaten streak is among the most impressive streaks currently running in the Premier League.

The English Premier League continues this weekend as Chelsea's lead is now down to just 2 points over second place Manchester United. The race for the Champions League spot remains very close as only 6 points separates third through eighth place. In the relegation battle, Portsmouth remains at the bottom along with Bolton and Wolverhampton.

Hello again! I'm a mere 2 tests and 5 and a half hours away from the end of my week from hell (we're talking 3-different-physics-tests hell)! I have just been a bag of stress this week, and my brain is basically fried, so excuse me if this post isn't very coherent. Anyway what better way to end a week of complete and utter stress than to speak of the fortunes of the mighty Bolton Wanderers?

Bare with me a few more hours while I try to figure out our new blogging system.

In the meantime, here are this week's matches so you can make your picks. (And midweek too if you want to work ahead)

Mine are coming soon.

Saturday, December 12, 2009
Dec 12 07:45 ET Stoke City v Wigan Athletic
Dec 12 10:00 ET Birmingham v West Ham United
Dec 12 10:00 ET Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City
Dec 12 10:00 ET Burnley v Fulham
Dec 12 10:00 ET Chelsea v Everton
Dec 12 10:00 ET Hull City v Blackburn Rovers
Dec 12 10:00 ET Sunderland v Portsmouth
Dec 12 10:00 ET Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Dec 12 12:30 ET Manchester United v Aston Villa
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Dec 13 11:00 ET Liverpool v Arsenal
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Dec 15 14:45 ET Sunderland v Aston Villa
Dec 15 15:00 ET Birmingham v Blackburn Rovers
Dec 15 15:00 ET Bolton Wanderers v West Ham United
Dec 15 15:00 ET Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Dec 16 14:45 ET Burnley v Arsenal
Dec 16 14:45 ET Chelsea v Portsmouth
Dec 16 15:00 ET Liverpool v Wigan Athletic
Dec 16 15:00 ET Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

Jens Lehamnn here in the Euro 2008 finals against Fernando Torres... not peeing.

Each week I try to come up with a witty or personal theme to open my weekly picks.

This time I had no chance after reading about former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and the latest "act" he pulled off on the pitch.

For a full listing click the link to the right, but here's my picks for the best games of the weekend:

Saturday
4:30 a.m. ESPN2 Stoke City-Wigan Athletic
7 a.m. Fox Soccer Channel Bolton Wanderers-Manchester City
9:30 a.m. FSC Manchester United-Aston Villa
11 a.

Things are still way behind here during my final full weekend in Buenos Aires, so let's just get straight to the matches.

Perhaps the big news as far as club matches this week is that there should be a few more champions crowned here in the Western Hemisphere this week. With a victory on Sunday over Boca Juniors, Banfield can clinch a rare Argentine championship.

Ten man City grabbed a late equalizer through Carlos Tevez in this hugely enthralling Premier League fixture.

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1-0 Klasnic

1-1 Tevez

2-1 Cahill

2-2 Richards

3-2 Klasnic

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Referees never have an easy job, but they don't make their life any easier when they make costly mistakes in heated Premier League games. A perfect example of this was in Saturday's game between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City when Craig Bellamy was making a run down the left wing.

One of two Premier League games to end in a 3-3, along with the game between Chelsea and Everton. Like that game, this one was also 2-2 at half time. Craig Bellamy was sent off by referee Mark Clattenburg, while Ivan Klasnic and Carlos Tevez scored two apiece for their respective sides. Final score :- Bolton [.

There have been very few if any boring Premier League weekends so far this season, and this Saturday was another example of why this is one of the most entertaining leagues in the world. Here are my observations from the Saturday games I've watched thus far:

Stoke City v Wigan Athletic

• When ESPN2 looked at the fixture list and saw Stoke City versus Wigan Athletic on a Saturday morning in December, they probably weren't too excited just like many of you, the readers.

12.12.2009 - Premier League
Bolton 3-3 Manchester City

The English Premier League has several midweek matches including Bolton Wanderers v West Ham United on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. The match will be covered live on our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the link below.

Bolton v West Ham

Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur all failed to win after Everton, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers and Wolverhampton Wanderers all claimed memorable results respectively, whilst Birmingham City's impressive form continued as they made it four straight top-flight triumphs.

I have two loves outside of family and friends football and music.

In fact, you'll most likely to find me watching football or listening to my iPod if you spot me somewhere. Sometimes even doing both.

I grew up listening to music that was called 'new wave' at the time (Depeche Mode, the Cure, the Smiths, XTC) and is now the music we play at the radio station I spin records (well, play digital versions of) on the weekends.

Who's playing in the African Cup of Nations this January from the English Premier League? Here's the full list of Premier League players headed to Angola 2010:

Team by team list:

Arsenal: Alex Song, Emmanuel Eboue
Aston Villa: Moustapha Salifou
Birmingham City: None
Blackburn Rovers: None
Bolton Wanderers: Danny Shittu
Burnley: Andre Bikey
Chelsea: Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel
Everton: Joseph Yobo, Ayegbeni Yakubu
Fulham: John Pantsil, Dickson Etuhu
Hull City: Kamel Ghilas, Daniel Cousin, Seyi Olofinjana
Liverpool: None
Manchester City: Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kelvin Etuhu
Manchester United: None
Portsmouth: Kevin-Prince Boateng, Nadir Belhadj, Hassan Yebda, John Utaka, Nwankwo Kanu, Aruna Dindane
Stoke City: Mamady Sidibe
Sunderland: John Mensah
Tottenham: Sebastien Bassong, Benoit Assou-Ekotto
West Ham: None
Wigan: Richard Kingson
Wolves: George Elokobi

By numbers:

Six: Portsmouth
Four: Chelsea
Three: Man City, Hull City
Two: Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Fulham
One: Aston Villa, Sunderland, Stoke, Bolton, Burnley, Wigan, Wolves
None: Man Utd, Liverpool, West Ham, Birmingham, Blackburn

"Premier League stars going to Angola 2010" was originally published at Soccerlens.

by FRANCO PANIZO

It appears a little bit of time on the bench has done DaMarcus Beasley a world of good.

Beasley followed up his impressive weekend performance by starting in his third consecutive game for Rangers vs. Dundee United on Tuesday. The midfielder once again had a stellar outing, scoring the game-winner, and adding an assist in Rangers' 3-0 triumph.