Aston Villa are in a great run of defensive form at the moment, having kept 5 clean sheets in the last 6 games. One of the main beneficiaries of this has been Cuellar, who has played practically every minute of every game. He also popped up with a header goal to help Villa draw with Manchester United this week.

This morning comes the news that the FA is to bring a series of charges against Aaron Ramsey who now faces a three game ban, applicable from when he is declared fit enough to resume first team action.

Sources within the FA say that he is to be charged under the following sections of the FA Code:

Section 26.

Gameweek 22 sees a double gameweek for Manchester United and Hull as their match was moved due to Cup commitments. That means this weeks fixtures are, on paper, a dream for Manchester United: home to both Burnley and Hull.
Whilst on first glance it may appear to be worth loading up on Man Utd players, be wary of getting caught short for the following gameweek.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Kenny Cooper's quest to help Plymouth Argyle avoid relegation has begun, and Cooper's next match could prove pivotal at achieving that goal.

Cooper will look to build on his 32-minute Plymouth Argyle debut, as the club takes on fellow relegation-threatened Reading.

This weekend will be a turning point for the English Premier League in the United States. For the first time in history, all ten Premier League matches will be available live to U.S. viewers.

Typically soccer fans in the United States have been able to see as many as eight live games out of the ten matches each weekend.

Big TV weeks for Manchester City in the EPL and Kansas City in the MLS. First, ManCity has it all to play for as they push for the 4th UEFA Champions League position and take on their top two contenders - Aston Villa on Saturday and Tottenham on Wednesday. In the MLS, Kansas City has gotten off to a great start and looking to prove they are a true contender this year.

By now we've all all read and heard about the decision that Houston Dynamo attacking midfielder Stuart Holden has to make: Should he sign a new contract with the MLS and stay in Houston on a much better one then he has had the last few seasons, or taking the next step to get to the promised land of where the world's best compete on a weekly basis?

For the past several years in the United States, the majority of soccer fans who were watching Premier League matches saw — for the most part — the same games. The vast majority of us watched the Saturday 10am ET game on Fox Soccer Channel, as well as the 12:30pm ET one and the match of the week on Sunday at 11am ET.

Adidas have today unveiled a new home soccer jersey for the Spanish national football team. This is the first soccer jersey release from the Adidas stable for Spain after La Roja's victorious World Cup 2010 campaign. As you would expect from Spain, the jersey is predominantly red, but Adidas have introduced new blue stripes into the jersey.

Common perception has it that the Champions League knockout stages represent the highest standards anywhere to be found in the game. The crème de la crème of world football. Where the best players, meanest defenders and most skilful attackers ply their trade and where the margin for error is at it's thinnest.

Birmingham were horrible in their tackling and Howard Webb's refereeing was nothing short of woeful. Still it was quite expected and we should have overcome these challenges but it was not to be.

I'm concerned mainly because we have been struggling with our football. Apart from the home win over Porto we haven't got our game going in most of the recent matches.

photo credit: O. Taillon Photography

Wayne Rooney is heating up. In fact Wayne Rooney is on fire.

With many of the elite Premier League strikers out over the last month (including Drogba, Torres, Adebayor, & Van Persie) there is not much doubt that Wayne Rooney has pulled away from the rest of the pack as the best player in the league so far this year.

This week, rather than writing about the past week's matches and the next week's matchups, because those will be discussed at length in the rankings below, I'd write a little about the rankings this week. It probably will be necessary to mention this for the next several weeks, though I don't plan on doing so, but it is important to keep in mind: the Champions League results will NOT be reflected in the rankings until the end of the knockout round.

MLS on TeleFutura: Colorado - Chicago at 4pm. Fox Soccer Channel has Seattle - New York at 10:30pm. EPL on ESPN2: Manchester United - Chelsea at 7:30am. On FSC: Sunderland - Spurs at 10am, Burnley - Manchester City at 12:30pm, Stoke - Hull City at 5pm. On Fox Soccer Plus: Arsenal - Wolverhampton at 10am, Bolton - Aston Villa at 6:30pm, and Portsmouth - Blackburn at 8:30pm.

Before Holden ships off to go on trial at Burnley, he woke up early to be on Good Morning America.

What does one write about on a day where this is the lead Guardian headline: Owen Coyle finalising switch to Bolton from Burnley?
I don't know. I think I'm hitting my first real football slump. Other followers seem to have a genetic predisposition to go apoplectic over running various DEFCON scenarios on an MLS lockout, but recently I haven't been feeling it.

By Chris Wright

Here's the hottest transfer gossip to dribble off presses this morning...

Gerrard catches up on a little light Reading

Rumour No. 1: One of those 'sources close to/someone in our office reckons' stories has surfaced this morning as, according to The Daily Star, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has one eye on the exit door at Anfield.

Former Chelsea stud Eidur Gudjohnsen has joined Tottenham
We predicted an Arsenal - Aston Villa draw, as well as a 2-goal Everton win on Monday, (pats self on back) but now we are back to our regularly scheduled weekend gameweeks, so let's get to it:
I. Manchester United @ Arsenal: Sol Campbell is old, and much slower, and will face off against a Wayne Rooney in the form of his life on Sunday.

I guess most of us were worried about losing Song to the Africa Cup of Nations. Now that he is back and I am assuming he will play against United, it is worthwhile taking a look at just how badly did we miss the Cameroon hard-man.

Song left for Angola after helping us win the Cup tie at West Ham.

Arsenal host Manchester United on Sunday in the weekend's big clash. Also on Sunday Pompey go to Manchester City. On Saturday, Burnley host Chelsea, Wigan welcome Everton, West Ham welcome Blackburn, Bolton go to Liverpool, Hull host Wolves, Fulham host Villa and Spurs go up to Birmingham.
Preview I
Preview II
Lawro's Predictions
Not participating on Sunday.

It has been revealed today that a steward at Old Trafford has been sacked for returning an anti-Glazer banner to United fans protesting about the state of our club.

Granville Boden, who has worked as a steward at United for 19 years, was sacked after he tried to return a banner which was confiscated by stewards during the league game against Burnley.

It's been almost a week since we won at Stoke, moved closer to the top and witnessed the horrible injury suffered by Aaron Ramsey. Sometimes you just have to move on and with Burnley and ...

The new Burnley home kit for the 2010-11 season was unveiled today morning at 8am. This new Burnley strip has been designed by Puma to replicate the first claret and blue strip worn by the club 100 years ago. Fun 88 are the sponsors of the new Burnley shirt. Here is the photo of the new [...] Related posts:

1. New Burnley 2009-10 home shirt Click for the Burnley FC 2010-11 season home kit.

MLS on TeleFutura: Chivas USA - Red Bulls at 4pm. On Fox Soccer Channel: Philadelphia - DC United at 6pm EPL on Fox Soccer Plus: West Ham United - Sunderland at 10am. On FSC: Hull - Burnley at 10am. FA Cup semifinal on FSC: Aston Villa - Chelsea at 12pm. Serie A on Fox Soccer Plus: Napoli - Parma at 12pm.

With J Hutcherson -- Jozy Altidore's Hull City is in trouble. They're a club more than capable of pulling off the shock upset and in dire need of one. In between those surprise wins against Manchester City and Fulham, they lost five games. Since beating Fulham on Mach 27th, they've lost two more. That leaves them 19th in the 20-team Premier League, even on points with 18th-place Burnley and four points from safety.

As the summer approaches we will start looking at some younger players who may be Newcastle targets. Here are three young full backs who could be interesting Newcastle. Daniel Fox - Burnley 23 Daniel Fox is a 6′1″ left back who is currently at Burnley, having moved there in January from Celtic, whom he joined last summer from Coventry [.

Reina
Johnson Carragher Ayala Agger
Gerrard Mascherano
Maxi Aquilani Babel
Kuyt
Goals:
Gerrard 52' 59'
Maxi 74'
Babel 90+4'
Liverpool made hard work of it for far too long, but it ends 4-0, just like in the reverse fixture. Are we sure there's no way for Burnley to avoid relegation?

Vincono le grandi. Titolo ancora in ballo, in inghilterra, ma i londinesi hanno esorcizzato l'ultimo grande pericolo e viaggiano con grande entusiasmo verso la vittoria della Premier League.
Infatti, il Chelsea espugna Anfield Road, tana del Liverpool (che paga le fatiche dell'Europa League e ha un Benitez ormai in partenza, destinazione Juventus) grazie ai "soliti noti", Drogba e Lampard, e rende vana la vittoria, di misura, del Manchester United che doma i "black cats" con la rete di Nani e torna da Sunderland con ancora qualche flebile speranza in tasca (almeno per la matematica).

Join Premiership Talk's Zain Alvi as he provides LIVE coverage of all 10 Premier League fixtures from Matchday 38. The title will be on the line as Chelsea hosts Wigan needing only a point to claim glory. Defending champions Manchester United, on the other hand, will welcome Stoke City to Old Trafford in a game where they must win to realistically retain their chances of retaining the crown.

I consider myself a die-hard football fan, yet I'm not sure if I want to take time out for this Champions League final. In my book it's the most important game on the planet and at the moment I don't feel any excitement or have any hopes that it will be a spectacle.

If you've been reading this blog on a regular basis you know my opinion about the Dark Lord and his tactics.

White Hart Lane boss considers move for Fiorentina keeper.

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Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has reportedly expressed an interest in Fiorentina keeper Sebastien Frey and is ready to make a move for the £6m rated goalie as he looks to keep in form Brazilian Heurelho Gomes on his toes.

As explored by Scarf on these pages recently and ad nauseam on every other website in Christendom, Portsmouth Football Club isn't perhaps the most watertight prospective new employer one can think of amid the teeth of global crisis. So, having enjoyed a period of middle eastern exoticism under Avram Grant, it's the watery gruel of the Championship from now on for Pompey; their choice of manager

SINGAPORE, 16 July 2010: S.League newcomers Beijing Guoan Talent will play host to the Malaysian Under -23 team for a friendly match at the Yishun stadium on Tuesday, 20 July, 7.45pm.

Match: Beijing Guoan Talent FC vs.

A few more players were added to Santa's naughty list in Week 4 and are set to miss out on featuring for their sides this week's fixtures. Others are finally back after serving bans from Week 1, while one player is back on the bad list for a second time after just a few weeks. Here's who will not be playing this week:

Joe Cole (AM) is back in action!

Last week, Arsene Wenger yet again accused another team of intentionally going after his players in an attempt to take them out of the game. This time Sam Allardyce and Blackburn Rovers were his foil (at other points Stoke have been one of his targets, too). As I read them, Wenger's comments had the feel of "bad teams aren't good enough to compete with us, so they will just foul us to keep up.

I can admit when I have been overly optimistic and wrong, and I was both of those things in last night's column about Stuart Holden. Stuart Holden was indeed on ABC's Good Morning America this morning, unfortunately, his appearance had nothing to do about his future in MLS. Instead, Holden appeared in one of those little bumpers between commercials and news to quickly discuss the upcoming World Cup finals in South Africa and to support GMA's coat drive.

Hi all! Happy New Year etc etc.
dN
Just 2 things to report, and they are both interesting items:
Stuart Holden has accepted a deal for a tryout at Burnley in England. Curious that he could not just get a straight out deal even on a free transfer. Fox Houston talks to Dynamo COO Chris Canetti who confirms it.

Could it be the last time we see Stuart Holden on US soil for a while? Below is his New Year's Day interview on Good Morning America. Not much to see in this interview as far as his upcoming trial with Burnley goes.

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Piers Morgan is running a poll for the Best British Player of 2009. Burnley's Graham Alexander and City's Craig Bellamy are racing out in the lead.

Let's really piss him off by getting Ryan Giggs to win his poll.

VOTE FOR RYAN GIGGS

"VOTE for Ryan Giggs on Piers Morgan's Poll" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia.

The second of our four half-term report cards (check out the first part here) for the 09/10 Premier League season features Burnley, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham and Hull City:

BURNLEY (14th, 20 points from 20 games)

It's a breeze to sum up the Clarets' season so far: excellent at Fortress Turf Moor, lamentable away from Fortress Turf Moor; Burnley have failed to win any of their ten games on the road, with just one draw and nine defeats.