The post for most readers is at best fashionably late, but as we await the thaw of the permafrost in England, and as such await the re-arranged Carling Cup Semifinals, featuring American goalkeeper Brad Guzan against Blackburn Rovers, a side so... Read more

Or should we say his lack of comment? His economy of phrasing ought to get tongues wagging.

When quizzed about speculation regarding Vidic leaving OT, he said, "I can't clarify it at all." Journalists pressed further and asked if he was going to play at United this season and he replied, "I believe so.

Posted by Tim Patterson

In the second round of the English Carling Cup, Deuce got the 6th and final goal for Fulham against Port Vale. Represent American soccer well over there Clint!

Posted by Tim Patterson

In the second round of the English Carling Cup, Deuce got the 6th and final goal for Fulham against Port Vale. Represent American soccer well over there Clint!

The rankings at this time of the season don't mean a whole lot and the strange look of this week's rankings sort of explain why. Although many of our old favorites are at are near the top (Chelsea and Inter Milan are topping the rankings), but there are many missing early in the season and many others are ranked lower than that to which they are accustomed.

Will Rafa really listen to offers for a very promising Anfield starlet?

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Skysports.com understands Liverpool starlet Damien Plessis could be set for a move away from Anfield before the close of the transfer window.

Manchester City's Carlos Tevez has branded Manchester United's Gary Neville a "boot-licker" and a "moron" in explaining his goal celebration in Tuesday's Carling Cup semi-final Former Manchester United striker Tevez gestured and cupped his ears towards the United bench after scoring twice in Manchester City's 2-1 derby win.

On March 1, Fox Soccer Plus will launch on select TV providers across the United States. According to several EPL Talk readers, it looks like FSC+ will be launching first on DirecTV and FIOS. EPL Talk believes that the monthly fee for Fox Soccer Plus will be $14.99 although we're awaiting confirmation from Fox.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Landon Donovan is loving life at Everton, so much so that he has every intention of returning to the Liverpool club at some point if and when he leaves to return to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The U.S. national team star is enjoying a dream run with the Toffees, and spoke recently of his intention to come back to Goodison Park some time during his career.

United States coach Bob Bradley was interviewed this weekend on BBC's Sportsweek radio program where he reconfirmed that he is still interested in the vacant Aston Villa manager position. No new news there except for the respect he has for the way that Aston Villa is managing the recruitment process in light of Kevin MacDonald temporarily taking charge of the team.

The Wembley stadium surface, which has been widely criticised, has claimed another victim.

Sir Alex Ferguson has today confirmed that Michael Owen will be out for the rest of the season.

Following last season's FA Cup semi-finals, Arsene Wenger, David Moyes and Sir Alex Ferguson all criticised the playing surface.

Just a bit too easy. Talk about a night and day difference in the experiences of the English teams in their Champions League exploits between Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday the going was tough for different reasons. ManYoo was arrogant/overconfident in selecting what looked to be a Carling Cup roster and they paid for it with an ugly nil-nil draw.

Arsenal are building up some momentum. A hard fought win against Birmingham was followed by an emphatic one against Shakhtar. Subsequently, a massive win over City has put us in the second spot in the League and the vibes that were highly negative at the time of the last international break just after the defeat against Chelsea, are certainly quite positive.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has vowed to abandon his policy of blooding members of his ever-burgeoning creche during the early rounds of the Carling Cup, in lieu of making a concerted effort to actually win something this time out thus ending the club's five-year spell of ultimately pointless dry-humping.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has vowed to abandon his policy of blooding members of his ever-burgeoning creche during the early rounds of the Carling Cup, in lieu of making a concerted effort to actually win something this time out thus ending the club's five-year spell of ultimately pointless dry-humping.

Tevez playing for Manchester City gets both goals to beat Man Utd 2-1 in the first leg of the League (Carling) Cup. The first resulting from a potentially dubious penalty, these things should even themselves out over the season, but are unlikely to in the case of Man Utd .

To add to the spice of the fixture the FA are going to investigate Gary Neville's one finger salute to Tevez.

For months now Sir Alex Ferguson has been happy to tell anyone who cares to listen that he can spend the £80million from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo but has decided against it because of highly...
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Morning to you all, a fair bit to get through, most of which comes from yesterday's AGM.

It seems to have been a fairly pleasant meeting with lots of feel-good stuff being said. Which is what you'd expect really, the club is well run from a financial point of view, we've gone into it on the back of two good results and we're sitting third in the table with a big game coming up on Sunday.

American in Action starts with Jozy Altidore's first goal for Hull City vs Southend in the Carling Cup match from August 2009. Its the second goal in the highlights.

The Game I am a personal fan of the kids who play in the Carling Cup, but sometimes you have to admit that some of them still lack in experience and the substitutions made by Arsene ...

As per the new regulations all the clubs have now announced their 25 player squads along with a long list of U-21 players who've been registered so that they are eligible to play in the Premier League just in case. You can see complete details of the squad lists and junior players of all the 20 clubs on the official site.

Our second draw in 4 days. Yet another match in which we were expected to win, although we knew it would be a challenge from the moment the team sheet was released. Upon the completion of the game, the most common reaction to the starting 11 was how much it resembled a Carling Cup side and not one that was challenging for the biggest prize in Europe.

Funny thing, sometimes I really have to think a little bit about what I want to write at the beginning of what usually turns into a really long column and sometimes the events of the week just sort of speak to me. With the remarkable events of the last two days in the Carling Cup, this one just sort of wrote itself as I watched yesterday's events unfold via textcast (here in the States we're

Ever since Chamakh signed for Arsenal there has been a question, how will the Moroccan play with Van Persie in the same team. Arsene has in the past mentioned that he will look at various options including a change in formation, something that many fans have been demanding.

Intriguingly enough, we saw Van Persie in a deeper role against Wigan in the Carling Cup.

Manchester City beat United 2-1 in the first-leg of a Carling Cup semifinal.
Carlos Tevez provided both goals for the boys in baby blue against his former team, which provided some nice drama, especially with ex-mate Gary Neville.
Pictures of which, captured here.

By FRANCO PANIZO

It has been hard for Carlos Bocanegra to see the field for Stade Rennes over the past two months, but the U.S. national team captain took another positive step towards reclaiming his left back spot this weekend.

Bocanegra started Rennes' round of 32 Coupe de France game against Saumar, and helped Rennes post a 4-0 victory over the fifth-division club.

Bellamy is pelted with what seemed like coins and bottles before taking a corner, the corner is eventually taken and Man Utd break away to score. Does the TV commentary even hint at the possibility of player intimidation. No. Cheat to win the Carling Cup semi final? Yes.

Note: written in real time before the final result was known.

The most anticipated meeting of the weekend isn't Aston Villa-Manchester United in the Carling Cup, or Sporting Lisbon vs. FC Porto, or even Bayern Munich vs. Hamburg.

It's John Terry vs. Wayne Bridge.

The two men involved in one of the sports most controversial scandals in recent memory are expected to be on the field against each other today when Terry's Chelsea faces Bridge's Manchester City in a match with plenty of its own drama.

So here we go again, Real Madrid cannot seem to get enough players away from Old Trafford. Just in the last few years alone Real has head hunted David Beckham in 2003, Ruud van Nistelrooy (2006),...
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Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia [Appearance : 34 (PL-29; CL-7)] Lukasz Fabianski [Appearance : 10 (PL-4; CL-2; FA-2; LC-2] Vito Mannone [Appearance : 8 (PL-5; CL-3)] Wojciech Szczescny [Appearance : 1 (LC-1)] Perhaps the weakest of all departments in the current Arsenal squad. Almunia and Fabianski are both considered senior custodian but neither enchanced their reputation with [.

Around the country this morning, people watched and waited for the United States to break through against Algeria and then finally it happened and the country went crazy, for a minute there it seemed like this was England, Spain or Italy with all of the love for the beuatiful game. The win sends the Red White and Blue through to the Round of 16.

Around the country this morning, people watched and waited for the United States to break through against Algeria and then finally it happened and the country went crazy, for a minute there it seemed like this was England, Spain or Italy with all of the love for the beuatiful game. The win sends the Red White and Blue through to the Round of 16.

I was waiting for the announcement of the Koscielny signing before writing this piece. But given our recent trend I'm not sure how long this is going to take so it's better to discuss this topic with the assumption that we will be signing Koscielny.

Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre and Senderos are all on their way out.

Our Chairman, Daniel Levy has done it again! This time, our shrewd boffin has got Software giant, Autonomy, to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur over two seasons. Apparently, the guys over at Autonomy have agreed to pay £10 million per season (£20 million over the duration of the sponsorship deal).

Clint Dempsey scored his first goal of the new season, netting in Fulham's 6-0 victory against fourth division Port Vale in the second round of the Carling Cup on Wednesday.

Having come off the bench at halftime, Dempsey capped the scoring for Fulham with a right footed shot from approximately 25 yards out in the 70th minute.

Leeds boss, Simon Grayson, has revealed that ahead of his team's clash against Liverpool last season, Rafael Benitez paid him a visit, but there was only one thing he wanted to talk about.

"I think all managers have huge respect for each other but you're not going to all get along with each other," said Grayson.

This is the first of two consecutive weeks in which we expect the rankings to go through some massive changes. Don't be scared, it happens every year. After the completion of five match days in each league, the previous season's numbers are dropped from the calculations. Recall, last week, we saw the changes happen in Ligue Un.

Before the game I was quite anxious. In the last two seasons we've seen young teams struggle in this competition away from home against top 6 Premier League sides. Thankfully, Arsene had learnt his lesson and he put out a really strong starting eleven. And once I saw the Tiny Totts' starting line-up all the anxiety was turned into anticipation of a big win.

I'm not sure I can do as good a job of analyzing this game as Tony did over at Untold . Still I'd like to give it a shot. It gives me another chance to dwell on a fantastic win. It's difficult to analyze this without the kind of stats that we get for the Premiership or Champions League games. I'll just share my observations from the game.

IF and that is a big if, media reports are correct and Carlos Vela is not even in the provisional squad for tomorrow nights Carling Cup tie against Newcastle then big questions must start being asked over his Arsenal future.

Vela was not in the squad for the game against Shakhtar Donetsk and was again frozen out against Man City at the weekend, he played for the reserves instead of the Donetsk tie but after playing against Spurs in the last round of the Carling Cup it was expected that he would resume that role tomorrow.