A curious one, this. Back in the days of yore, when Luka Modric limped off against Birmingham, I don't think anyone foresaw things panning out quite this way. Robbie Keane undroppable, wingers treated like lepers, long-ball upon long-ball. We're muddling through, but the sooner both the Croatian genius and Lennon return, the better.

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.

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?

Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become the latest Barcelona star to egotistically pronounce the treble winning club's's dominance over their global rivals. Following Sweden's bitter loss to Denmark this weekend, where the spotlight was stolen away from him thanks to Nicklas Bendtner's scintillating performance for the Danes, Ibrahimovic has taken his frustrations out on former club Inter Milan.

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.

Patience is a virtue, and for two of the Premier League's best players, that patience has finally paid off. The crazy thing about it all? These two players are on the same team! And the lucky team is Sunderland.

It was just last season that Sunderland were in the heat of the relegation battle.

With the first quarter of football almost over in most leagues around Europe, now is a good time to measure the current progress of some of the giant clubs on the continent. Actually, analyzing the success or failure of clubs in general won't be nearly as exciting as identifying a more specific object of analysis.

Barcelona may be the treble winners last season. In addition, they may also be the side with arguably the most potent attack in Europe, comprising of the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, Bojan Krkic, and FIFA World Player of the Year hopeful Lionel Messi. On top of that, they also possess one of the most powerful midfield combinations in the continent in the form of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.

Given the title of this article, I could be about to tell you about how the strike duo of Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones will be leading Sunderland to new heights in the Premier League this season, but we will save that for a later date. I'd rather make a bold statement and talk about the bottom of the table at the moment.

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

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.

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.

Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy returned after a long spell on the sidelines to provide an assist and score another in his side's emphatic 5-0 victory over La Liga minnows Xerez. While the focus of the game initially remained on another former Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo who scored twice to make it six goals in his four appearances it was his Dutch teammate who eventually created most of the headlines.

After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.

After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.

There is absolutely no doubt that Fulham's gritty displays of late are deserving of their newfound reputation as the people's club in the Premier League. The masses can relate to their mid-sized squad and down-to-earth players while tourists from all over the world simply cannot resist the amazing atmosphere at the conveniently located Craven Cottage.

With the commencement of the UEFA Champions League group stages this midweek, an important piece of news was relegated to the back of most reporting outlets. Perhaps another reason behind the lack of coverage for the story in question was the refusal, on part of most football lovers, to recollect any part of the uninspiring internationals break.

Jose Mourinho has continued his special ways as he announced his Inter Milan starting eleven an entire day before his side's crucial Champions League fixture against Barcelona. The former Chelsea manager was never afraid to pull this stunt during his time in the Premier League, and his latest display raises the question: is the special one arrogant or intelligent?

Arsenal striker Eduardo, who has recently been a frequent victim of jeering from rival fans around the nation, has finally been vindicated over a diving accusation that marred his reputation of a sincere and hardworking striker. The Croatia international, who was banned for an attempt to deceive the officials by going down without any contact during Arsenal's Champions League clash against Celtic last month, was exempted from blame on the grounds of a lack of clear evidence.

While Emmanuel Adebayor's infamous lack of sportsmanship this past weekend has overshadowed Manchester City's emphatic 4-2 victory over his former club Arsenal, it is impossible to overlook the strong impact he has made at the Eastlands already.

This weekend's headlines were stolen by Emmauel Adebayor even before a ball was kicked. Saturday morning, Adebayor finally lashed out at his former club Arsenal, moments before the Gunners kicked-off a challenging visit to the Eastlands.

For Premier League fans around the world, the last couple of weeks have been almost too painful to endure as something very important seems to have disappeared out of our lives. But with yet another international period finally in the books, we can once again look forward to the return of our most beloved brand of football this weekend.

Seldom has a talented football nation witnessed the kind of humiliation that the Czech Republic has suffered in the entire last year. In a World Cup qualification campaign where they were placed in perhaps the most competitive of groups alongside Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and Northern Ireland, perfection was almost always essential for the Czechs.

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.

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...

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

If you are Paul Hart - by far the bookies' favorite to become the first sacked manager in the Premier League this season - you would need a miracle to save Portsmouth from relegation at this point. Four games into the new season, Pompey are yet to scrap up a single point, which is a clear indicator of how the team roster was in desperate need of major bolstering on the final day of transfers.

Officiating in modern day football has already received its fair share of flak. Of course, whenever a certain team is at the receiving end of harsh refereeing decisions, its passionate fans jump at the opportunity to hit back at the match officials with great force. In this article, however, I will not go ahead with the oft-repeated idea of accusing the referees of lacking the ability to call big games without the heavily proposed use of technology.

European champions Barcelona ended their dominant pre-season with a frustrating 1-0 defeat at the hands of a defiant Manchester City side in front of around 90,000 fans at Catalonia's huge Camp Nou Stadium. While I will stay consistent with one of my previous articles by conceding that pre-season results carry little materiality, tonight's game should go a long way in demonstrating just how foolish it is to write off Mark Hughes' flamboyant, new-look Sky Blues.

As Chelsea strolled out of Sunderland on Tuesday night, most of Sunderland's players headed home with their heads down and their tails between their legs. One man, though, is enjoying a phenomenal start to life at a new club. That man is none other than Darren Bent.

In the first half Darren Bent gave the Black Cats a 1-0 lead over Chelsea.

Stability. Composure. Quality. These are just a few adjectives that England's defense certainly doesn't deserve based on the Three Lions' 2-2 draw against Holland in their most recent international fixture. However, only the aforementioned adjectives can do justice to one defender that England's system failed to recognize.

The pre-season is in full flow and the build up to the new season is getting more exciting by the day. Therefore, let's take pre-season preparation as a variable to preview this upcoming season in football rather than discussing the oft-repeated, boring variable known as the transfer market.

A capacity crowd of more than 78,000 was in attendance at the CONCACAF Gold Cup final on Sunday. At the full time whistle, Giants Stadium appeared to be a sight of gross injustice more than anything else. After resiliently fighting with their third-string side for the entire tournament, the Americans finally fell to their bitter regional rivals, Mexico, albeit very harshly.

There have been many occasions in recent years where the genius of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been brought into question. After all, the trophy cabinet has been empty for four years and everyone, from skipper Cesc Fabregas to that little child in the upper tier at the Emirates, is becoming increasingly restless with the club's underachievements.

On the 20th of June 2006 in Cologne, Germany, I was sat high behind the goal in the RheinEnergieStadion (then called simply 'The FIFA World Cup Stadium') when in the fourth minute, a figure crumpled to the ground. It was hard to see who it was from my unique vantage point, but the man sitting to my left immediately turned round and said 'any money it's Owen'.

Despite a composed 1-0 win for the LA Galaxy at home to the New England Revolution this weekend, soccer fans around the world (or at least in the US) are still in shock over the rift between two Galaxy stars who missed this weekend's game. While superstar David Beckham is yet to return to the Galaxy this season, his estranged teammate Landon Donovan was rested following a busy period representing his country.

Cinderella stories happen everyday, everywhere in this world. In particular, when it comes to the world of football, we have seen quite a few of them. After all, who would have thought that Senegal would knock France out of the World Cup in 2002? Or who would have picked Greece to win it all in the European Cup of 2004?