Ryan Babel has once again dismissed suggestions he wants to leave Liverpool FC in the summer while reiterating his desperation to regain a regular first-team role and safeguard a World Cup finals berth.
Despite the Anfield outfit's poor start to the season, Babel has made just two starts in the Premier League. Click to continue reading...

On Sunday Manchester United will walk into the Stamford Bridge pitch in unusual fashion. They will be the underdogs.

By all accounts, Chelsea simply look the stronger side. After trashing Bolton Wanderers 4-0 last weekend and earning a 2-2 Champions League draw against Atletico Madrid, Chelsea's in-form striker Didier Drogba will be looking to punish a Manchester United defense that will be without Rio Ferdinand.

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Defender Glen Johnson may be struggling to be fit for Liverpool's home clash with Birmingham on Monday but he is convinced he is part of a squad good enough to turn around recent disastrous form.
The England man is still a major doubt with a calf injury that kept him out of the midweek Champions League draw in Lyon, and he is not expected to be fit to face the midlanders. Click to continue reading...

The matches to watch after you realize that, if for just this weekend, the suspension of Chelsea's transfer ban is far less important than the match on Sunday. And that I told you so.

Saturday

Tottenham v Sunderland at White Hart Lane Jermain Defoe returns from suspension and Aaron Lennon might appear, although this will really be Darren Bent's show as he visits his former team.

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Sir Alex is reportedly considering replacing one world class keeper with another.

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Manchester United and Bayern Munich are both mulling moves for Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, according to reports in Italy.

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What language is this? The language of beautiful football
Despite his groin problem, Fernando Torres may feel a bit snubbed after Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti and midfielder Frank Lampard both claimed yesterday that Didier Drogba is the best striker in the world. Click to continue reading...

BeÅŸiktaÅŸ had their UEFA Champions League dreams look like a nightmare, at least in the first two games. Although they had played well against Manchester United, and were average against CSKA Moscow, they could not find ways to win, or even get a draw. The Black Eagles travelled up to Germany to take on defending champions of the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg. Click to continue reading...

There was a time when one would hear Liverpool and Chelsea in the same sentence, immediately projectile vomit and then proceed on with their merry day.

That doesn't seem to be the case nowadays, does it? Not after last season, anyway.

These two loveable clubs who so often have sucked the life out of the sport of football over the past few years now appear best mates I'd reckon they quite enjoy the odd cuddle up and romantic comedy on a Friday night.

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UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services.

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Spanish heavyweights Atletico Madrid are still seeking their first La Liga victory this season. In four games they've drawn two and lost two and they face the daunting task of traveling to Valencia's Mestalla Stadium on Saturday as they attempt to get it right at the fifth attempt.

Over the last couple of weeks my 'game of the week' style articles have focused heavily on English football, being English this is understandable but I will certainly be checking out La Liga action on Saturday night.

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EDIT: Steven Cohen has asked that we postpone the interview at least one week. We will still release a podcast tomorrow night talking Bundesliga, thoughts on the weekend's Premier League action, and a few other tidbits. It has been a busy three...
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OMG, what a day yesterday was. Did I miss something? Did we go back in time and wipe the last few decades of football thus making Eduardo the first player in history to go down a bit easily? Could there be any other reason why Sky Sports thought it appropriate to ask every English Chief Exec at the Champions League Draw about it?

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Spartak Moscow's Welliton (facing) and Alex will try to lead their club into first place this weekend against leaders Rubin Kazan.

In partnership with a new site, Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the first episode of RFN's podcast.

On Thursday, Russian teams were drawn into two of the more difficult UEFA Champions League groups.

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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has emerged as an unlikely ally to UEFA president Michel Platini's plan to crack down on football clubs playing in Europe who spend beyond their means despite their own previous financial outrageousness. Ahead of yesterday's Champions League draw in Monaco, Michel Platini named Abramovich and AC Milan's president Silvio Berlusconi as supporters [. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has emerged as an unlikely ally to UEFA president Michel Platini's plan to crack down on football clubs playing in Europe who spend beyond their means despite their own previous financial outrageousness. Ahead of yesterday's Champions League draw in Monaco, Michel Platini named Abramovich and AC Milan's president Silvio Berlusconi as supporters [. Click to continue reading...

Whilst avoiding German champions Wolfsburg would have been favourable, in terms of difficulty we managed to avoid some of the tougher teams in the Champions League draw.

Sir Alex Ferguson reckons we've got the toughest group of all English teams though because of the distance we have to travel.

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Setanta Ireland's Paul Dempsey stops by for the first of what will be regular appearances on the EPL Talk Podcast. Among the topics discussed are:

The open nature of this year's Premier League
Manchester City
Harry Redknapp and Spurs
Giovanni Trapitoni's amazing turnaround job at the Rep.

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Champions League draw Olympiakos, Standard Liege, AZ Alkmaar

I was going to header this morning's post with a suitably daft play on words such as Eduardo the Confessor or Much Edu About Nothing, but seeing as we've yet to hear a peep from our number nine and the issue of diving is not really trivial, I didn't.

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On the second episode of a new season of the Soccerlens Podcast, Stephen Darwin is joined by The Onion Bag and Some People Are On The Pitch duo Terry Duffelen and Chris Oakley to discuss an array of eye catching fixtures coming up this weekend and to summarise the draw for the Champions League group stages.

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via AP

Enfiiiiim, the Champions League draw has been made.... and holy Mother of Kun, it screams IRONY! Real have been grouped with Milan (and hence, the "What-is-Kaka-going-to-do-at-the-San-Siro" theories have started) while Barca will face Inter in a game where Ibracadabra and Eto'o go head to head in a mind-blowing game of Futbol Swap.

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Having secured qualification for the group stage of Champions League, we can now, yes, focus on Manchester United although I would like to first archive these two-days of Champions League football by sharing with you my thoughts on the game and the draw.

The dive, the dive, the dive

I can't believe UEFA will investigate Eduardo's dive, seriously.

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Let's a take a quick gander over the Champions League draw:
Group A: Bayern, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa. This is an interesting group as three clubs sort of "left behind" recently by European success find themselves grouped together. That said, any group that features Yoann Gourcouff, Franck Ribéry, Gianluigi Buffon, etc. Click to continue reading...

The Champions League draw always provides entertainment. Even though the random drawing and the whole ceremony is fairly boring, it's always interesting because it always seems to draw clubs together that are related in some way. Sometimes they'll gift a club with revenge against a club that knocked them out the year before, or other times provide a real group of death.

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In fall...

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich
Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL
Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen
Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan
Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea
Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard

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* Espanyol have named Ivan De La Pena (seen above with Nakamura!) as their new captain following the death of their beloved captain, Dani Jarque. The experienced midfielder has played for Barcelona, Lazio and Marseille.

*

The Dinho is muito feliz at Milan.

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Football bloggers are busy today. We have a wide array of topics on the plate, including last night's win of Arsenal over Celtic, bitter journalists, the Champions League draw, and the obsession with younger players in the football community. Take your pick!

Bird scorned
Ageing, battle scarred, chippy, inarticulate.

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If the post titled suggested of any draw rigging, any inside knowledge then don't let that fool you. I know nothing, this is purely my guess as to how the draw may pan out. Given the negative publicity Arsenal have received this season and Platini's dislike for English teams, I wouldn't be surprised if our boys got a draw like this for the group stage of the Champions League. Click to continue reading...

FC Barcelona as expected has been seeded at the top in the Champions league Draw pot. FC Barcelona is seeded top in the first pot which features Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchetser United, AC Milan, Arsenal, Sevilla and Bayern Munich. The second pot features Lyon, Inter, Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, FC Porto, AZ Alkmaar, Juventus and Rangers. Click to continue reading...

This year's edition of the UEFA Champions League should be a cracker! With the few quids Real Madrid have spent, the rest of the footballing world are curious to see whether or not Galacticos parte dos will work. Fans are also wondering whether or not country rival FC Barcelona's model will be enough to be [. Click to continue reading...

This year's edition of the UEFA Champions League should be a cracker! With the few quids Real Madrid have spent, the rest of the footballing world are curious to see whether or not Galacticos parte dos will work. Fans are also wondering whether or not country rival FC Barcelona's model will be enough to be [. Click to continue reading...

The Champions League draw was bit of anti-climax, wasn't it really? No Ronaldo Old Trafford reunion, no Jose Mourinho return and not even a tasty tie with Juventus or Rangers for our English clubs. Instead the so called ‘big four' can be relatively happy with their respective groups and as much as Michel Plantini wont like it, should find themselves safely through to the knockout stage.

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180 minutes away from the Group Stage!

Arsenal and Celtic have been drawn together in the Champions League play-off for a place in the group stage.
Celtic, who reached the play-offs with a dramatic 2-0 victory against Dinamo Moscow in Russia, will host the first leg at Parkhead on either 18/19 August.

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So the draw has just been done and Arsenal have been drawn with none other than Celtic f.c. After much hype from Sky sports all week along with BBC sport; arsenal can be drawn with celtic, Arsenal to be drawn with celtic, arsenal and celtic can possibly meet i find it sooo predictable and quite annoying that we have got celtic.

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In Nyon, Switzerland this morning the Champions League draw for the play off qualifying round has created some interesting combinations.

Draw in Full

Non Champions Path

Celtic v Arsenal

Anderlecht v Olympic Lyonnais,

Athletico Madrid v Panathinaikos

Sporting Lisbon v Fiorentina

Timisoara v Stuggart

Ties to be played 18/9 August and 25/26 August

There are thoughts that Arsenal's intentions in the transfer market was dependent upon this draw.

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In Nyon, Switzerland this morning the Champions League draw for the play off qualifying round has created some interesting combinations.

Draw in Full

Non Champions Path

Celtic v Arsenal

Olympic Lyonnais v Anderlecht

Panathinaikos v Athletico Madrid

Sporting Lisbon v Fiorentina

Timisoara v Stuggart

Ties to be played 18/9 August and 25/26 August

There are thoughts that Arsenal's intentions in the transfer market was dependent upon this draw.

Click to continue reading...