If there is one team that is secretly thriving in a summer of high-profile transfers, it is Birmingham City. As mentioned by my fellow Premiership Talk writer, Brian Lofrumento, the newly promoted outfit is reportedly pursuing former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera, which is in addition to a handful of other acquisitions made recently.

Paris-Saint Germain centre half Mamadou Sakho has been touted to join Arsenal in a move which could see Mikael Silvestre move the other way. The 19-year-old, whose contract runs out in 2010, shot to prominence in 2007 when he captained his country at FIFA's Under-17 World Cup and further added to his impressive CV [.

Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Carlos Tevez, and Emmanuel Adebayor! Such is the caliber of each of these players that their involvement in this summer's transfer market has left no spotlight for the lesser-known talent. Such is the nature of the market right now that none of the European giants can be bothered with a move for the hidden gems.

This summer football fans in America got a glimpse of some of the world's top talents and teams during the World Football Challenge. Chelsea, Club America, AC Milan, and Inter Milan all arrived in America to massive crowds, high expectations, and lots of fun for everyone. With Premiership Talk based in Boston, we witnessed first hand how the Italian giants consumed everyone in and around the Boston area for a weekend.

With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in terms of debating the winner, right?

Arsene Wenger has his sights set on Sunderland captain Lorik Cana as he aims to bring some bite to Arsenal's lightweight midfield. Reports from the Sunderland Echo suggest that Arsenal will do their best to sign the Albanian midfielder when the transfer window opens.

Cana is a new signing at the Stadium of Light having joined the Black Cats over the summer.

You'd have thought that rather than simple knee ligament damage, William Gallas was recovering from tongue surgery; such has been the defeaning silence from the ex-Arsenal skipper. Gallas was too easy a target for hostile Arsenal fans at the end of the 07/08 season and the start of the 08/09 season.

Michael Owen's transfer to Manchester United may not be the shock of the summer. Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is hitting the streets to find a new midfielder, and all rumors point to Joey Barton, Barry Ferguson, and... Patrick Vieira.

The former Arsenal captain has fallen hard and far from his days as a Premier League winner, and with his place in the Inter Milan squad all but gone, Vieira could be on the move this summer.

With the new season under a week away, we once again await what impact new signings and emerging youngsters will have on their respective teams. There has been an increased emphasis on value for money this summer and this has led to a number of clubs searching for lesser known players that can add quality to a club while other clubs try to groom youngsters to improve their sides.

Some moments are never meant to be forgotten. The entire world of football witnessed one such shocking moment a little less than two years ago in London. On a rainy evening at Wembley, hosts England were expected to advance to the finals of Euro 2008 with just a draw needed against visiting Croatia.

Rewind back to 2003 and you'll see that Jonathan Woodgate had everything. From critical acclaim to a huge fan following, he had all the essentials required to go down in the Newcastle folklore as one of the very best defenders of all time. However, the only obstacle that could stop him injuries came into play very early into his career at St.

Ireland international defender John O'Shea will celebrate his 10th year as a senior player at Old Trafford this week when Manchester United host Bolton. O'Shea made his United debut in October 1999...
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They call him Mr. Chelsea, and Blues skipper John Terry certainly lived up to that billing when he recently decided to take control of the financial aspect of the women's football team at Stamford Bridge. The economy certainly hit the Chelsea ladies very hard as a significant portion of their funding from previous years was slashed this season.

pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/zP8Lk76-fQ2gp6kO8J54AOBHvl4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/zP8Lk76-fQ2gp6kO8J54AOBHvl4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pArsenal will face-off at home to Manchester City this week as the Premier League resumes following the international break.

It was time for the European games, and Liverpool had a mountain to climb as they took to the pitch at Stamford Bridge, without the presence of their inspirational captain Steven Gerrard, who was out through injury. To even the playing field, the Blues were missing John Terry due to suspension.

After a slightly slow start, the Reds got their act together and hammered in two before halftime, due to an intelligent free kick by Aurelio and a penalty by Xabi Alonso.

Watching our collapse against Manchester United set me to thinking about what changes we need to make at Arsenal. Right now we just aren't good enough to win a trophy. We need to offload some players and we need to start looking at other players who could come in and address our shortcomings.

Those who saw last night's World Football Challenge clash between Internazionale and Chelsea must have noticed a solid performance from a rapidly emerging star wearing the blue shirt. Branislav Ivanovic, who played fullback for 65 minutes of Chelsea's dominant 2-0 victory over the reigning Italian champions seemed to be the player who was more eager than anyone else to cement his reputation during the high-profile friendly at the Rose Bowl.

Compilation Fridays are back, this time with Sunderland's new captain. He may not be the most accurate from distance, but he's a monster when it comes to tackling/stomping on people.

This summer may have seemed a bit boring as far as transfers go, but things are finally heating up. Manchester City and Real Madrid were the overwhelming big spenders during the blistering hot summer months, but with only a few days remaining the "smaller" clubs are working hard to fill out their squads for the fall and winter.

With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's winners and losers.

Winners Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain Defoe.

While Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas has clearly enjoyed his Spain side cruise to the World Cup 2010 finals with a perfect record (and no goals conceded at home), he has spoken to Arsenal.com to offer some backing to a couple of his teammates who won't be appearing in the showpiece event next summer.

Welcome to Gooner Talk's highlights feature, ‘Rewind'. Rewind will provide you with post-match highlights to every single Arsenal first team game giving you the opportunity to watch the goals you've missed, or want to see again. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the mighty Arsenal on your computer screen.

Watching our collapse against Manchester United set me to thinking about what changes we need to make at Arsenal. Right now we just aren't good enough to win a trophy. We need to offload some players and we need to start looking at other players who could come in and address our shortcomings.

John Terry has pledged his future to Chelsea after the much publicised pursuit of the England and Chelsea skipper by Mark Hughes at Manchester City.

With the bottomless pit of money on offer at Eastlands, it would not have been a surprise if he had got his man.

Terry though has reaffirmed his commitment to the Blues after many thought he might be persuaded to make the move to City.

Another week of Premiership action is now in the books, and Thursday means one thing: it's time for the Thursday Throwdown from A to Z. Here we go...

A is for Anelka. Chelsea fans should be counting their lucky stars that both Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are in spectacular form.

Beyond the nation's borders, Italian football has certainly faded into the background in recent years. A devastating match-fixing scandal in 2006 bitterly overshadowed the country's World Cup triumph that year while the domestic league has clearly become a one-horse race ever since. Reigning champions Inter Milan have shown no signs of a slip up in the Serie A for the last three seasons and that trend continued with their strong start to the current season as well.

When Steve Morison left Broadhall Way in the summer for Millwall and League 1, many believed Stevenage would struggle to deal with the loss of their prolific striker. Some would argue that Boro still haven't really replaced him, but the table suggests that Boro are doing just fine without him.

The Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen was extremely impressed with the contribution of Cesc Fabregas in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Aston Villa yesterday, but he believes that the team can win without him when he is out injured for at least the next three games. "He is the best midfielder I have played alongside," said the [.