When Arsenal collapse in comical style, such as from 4-0 up to draw 4-4 with Newcastle last season, or conceding a goal seconds after equalising in the 3-2 defeat to Swansea, it feels fashionable to say "only Arsenal could have lost a game like that".

And there's something to it, to be fair, our defence has generally been the worst in the top four over the years, and we have a poor record in points lost from winning positions.

Photo: Random free speech/satire from the Internet

Philly native Dan Borislow continues to show he has absolutely no shame or class by pushing for his Florida club to play friendlies this season while the rest of WPS had to cancel their season because of legal battles with Borislow.

STAY HOME HONKY - Why John Terry should not be visiting Auschwitz
A BUSTED FLUSH - The collapse of the January Transfer Window
DESPITE HAVING THE "BEST ACCOUNTANTS IN THE COUNTRY"... - How long is Harry heading down for?
THE LITTLE THEO SAGA - Walcott chats shit
HAS-DEAN - Why Mike Dean should be banned from officiating
All this and more at our new website FOOTBALL IS FUCKED @
http://footballisfucked.

By Alan Duffy

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-3 Liverpool Premier League 31st January 2012

Liverpool boosted their top four chances with an impressive victory over Wolves at Molineux on Tuesday night, while Andy Carroll celebrated the first anniversary of his move to Merseyside with a much-needed goal.

Thank you to Arseblogger and his minions for posting this on Arseblog news today: a transcript of an interview that Ivan Gazidis gave with Fox Soccer Channel yesterday.
I watched the interview, and attempted to live-tweet it, because I found what Ivan said revealing. If I was going to sum-up his comments, I would use a term that Michael Lewis (of 'Moneyball' fame) recently employed in his book about the small group of people who correctly predicted the collapse of the Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) market in 2008: 'The Big Short'.

Michael Bradley was in the starting lineup for Chievo's game against Lazio on Sunday, however a late collapse after his 74th minute exit saw a narrow deficit turn into an embarrassing home loss.

By Joel Greenwaldt
@JoelGreenwaldt (On Twitter)
At this point of the MISL season, it's safe to say that barring an unprecedented collapse by one or both teams, the Milwaukee Wave and Baltimore Blast will win their respective divisions. While it's no surprise that either of these teams will likely be the top seed in their respective semifinal playoff match ups, the biggest shocker may be that the race for the top spot in each division has virtually been secured this early in the season.

We all know that football can be a cruel game but for us Victory fans this season is almost like torture, and I'm just about ready for it to end. I'm sick of our inability to retain a lead. I'm sick of seeing our defence collapse under pressure. I'm sick of our midfield constantly losing possession.

Speaking after Newcastle United's abject second half capitulation to Fulham in yesterday's game at Craven Cottage, our Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, looked for reasons for the collapse. "I can't really explain what happened to our back four," he said continuing: "It wasn't a case of us not trying second half, we just lacked mental discipline [.

Two nil down to City, most teams would have bitten the dust and collapse, but Spurs showed an undying belief to fight back. This isn't the Spurs team of years ago; this is Redknapp's team, full of hard running and ...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.epltalk.com to read the entire article

There's no doubt that Alan Pardew is ambitious. Alan Pardew would take England manager job But when the Newcastle first team squad travels to Tenerife today, Pardew and the other Newcastle coaches will have their work cut out to get the Newcastle team back together again, after their calamitous collapse yesterday afternoon at Craven [.

That second half this afternoon, when Newcastle conceded 4 goals in just 17 minutes, to go from dominating the game at 1-0 up, to being 4-1 down, reminded us of the first 26 minutes of the Arsenal game last February, when we also conceded four goals and didn't seem to be too interested.

Here's what Alan Pardew thought of the second half performance this afternoon at Craven Cottage. Here's Alan Pardew's interview with the BBC after the game and Alan says he was disappointed with the seocnd half collapse and how the team seemed to switch off in that second half. Tell us about it.

Liverpool say they expect to earn a staggering £300m through their new six-year deal with the US sportswear company Warrior Sports, and have denied accusations that underachievement on the pitch led to the collapse of their current kit deal with Adidas.
Warrior, owned by New Balance, will become the club's kit supplier from June having agreed a £25m-a-year deal to enter the football industry for the first time.

Watching the Tide Roll In.
By Shane Badger
Rochester fans were treated to a wonderful display of tension, speed and accuracy Monday night as the Milwaukee Wave showed their skills against the Rochester Lancers.
After a ten-six loss at their last matchup the Lancer squad was ready to even the odds as they broke out to score first.

There are no excuses, yesterday we were outplayed and outfought by a newly promoted side, as Swansea beat us 3-2 to seriously dent our hopes of making the top four.

The penalty decision was questionable, yes, but as has been the problem recently, we were not up for this game at all.

Theo Knows

A bit of a break before the Monday FA Cup third round tie against Leeds United. After a hectic last one week of football, it's a welcomed breather for the team. 7 out of 12 points from our last 4 games is not ideal but it isn't bad either. Could've been more had the team not collapse in the last part of the Fulham game.

It's my first article of the new year and despite witnessing our agonising collapse at Craven Cottage last night, the Arsenal have still managed to put a smile on my face.

Even with a defiant cold/hangover that refuses to go away, the club have been able to keep me in good spirits. More on that later I'll get the depressing stuff out of the way first.

"I wonder what Wenger will blame this time?" Those were the words of a clearly delighted Fulham fan to his mate on the bus to Clapham Junction after the late winner denied us at Craven Cottage last night.

After all,it struck me that, despite Djourou's sending off we were, to use a Wenger word, inefficient in front of goal in the first half and then went to sleep at the death when Zamora hit the winner.

Newcastle striker Demba Ba will not be replaced this is according to coach Alan Pardew. The Senegalese striker is set to join his national team for the month long Africa Cup Of Nations tournament that is scheduled to start on the 21st of this month.

Ba has been in scintillating form for the Magpies this season scoring 14 times in the league.

Measuring events in terms of a calendar year in football is a little silly. Almost everything that happens in club football is only important in terms of the August to May season. But so many things have happened to Arsenal in the last twelve months, I felt nostalgic.

A couple of points after yesterday's win:
* The game showed how far we've come since last season's post-Carling Cup final collapse. Those defeats hurt, and so did the start of this season, but we ultimately managed to clear out a lot of primadonnas and mediocre players from the squad.

We should win.

Aston Villa
League Position: 10th, 16P, 4W, 7D, 5L, 18GF, 21GA, -3GD, 19pts
Home Form: 8W, 3W, 2D, 3L, 10GF, 9GA, +1GD
Last Meeting: Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa (May, 2011)

Tomorrow we travel to Villa Park, the site of an Aston Villa team that has been mediocre in every sense of the word this season.

With the collapse of the Modibo Maiga signing last week, news today in the Newcastle Journal that the club may not sign a striker in January after all. Modibo Maiga deal fell through because of concerns about his knee The number one priority in January has shifted to bringing in a top class center-back.

It was a story that started almost a year and a half ago in a blaze of publicity which involved a major newspaper, allegations of corruption in another sport, a non-league football club and suicide. Now, with the half-way point in the following season fast approaching, it seems almost certain that the final chapter to play out in the life of Croydon Athletic Football Club will end in the collapse of a club which found itself thrust into the front page of newspapers around the world and, as the authorities pick over the carcass of this club over the next few weeks and months, a question well worth asking will be that of how nobody came to recognise the signs that there was something terribly, horribly wrong at this club earlier than it was.

The problem with football is that issues that would ordinarily go away of their own accord tend to get magnified and therefore linger. Martin Jol's Fulham side have attracted more off-field press than any other in memory, but on the pitch there are signs that things aren't all bad. Results have not been from the top drawer, but nor have they been terrible: we're well within the bounds of reasonableness.

The two teams of Manchester unceremoniously crashed out of the Champions League on Thursday and luckily for you Matt Pottinger has written a few brilliant words about it. Empires don't collapse overnight, they crumble over time. The Manchester clubs limping out of the Champions League group stages marks a footnote in footballing history.

Clucking bell. Again. Remember that "£8m" investment deal between Port Vale and American synthetic pitch manufacturers Blue Sky International (BS). You do? Well, apparently that puts you one-up on Hank Julicher who just happens to be BS's Chief Executive, so really ought to remember, if the deal ever existed in the first place.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0bPoxFEPRU

Last season Barcelona virtually guaranteed winning La Liga by overcoming Real Madrid at home and then securing a draw in Madrid. No doubt Barca was superior to Los Blancos last season but so far the champions have been inconsistent while Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates have been on a phenomenal run.

We really should win.

Squillaci cost us two points last season in this fixture with an own goal in the 81st minute.

There are are must-win games because a team needs points late in the season or to progress in a tournament, and then there are these kind of games (of which Fulham at home was one).

Women's Professional Soccer (upper case) and women's professional soccer (lower case) are both in trouble in the United States and scrambling for survival.

I have the perspective of being intimately involved in the creation and launch of WPS from 2007 through 2009 as founding President of WPS' Chicago Red Stars.

By: Brandon Arendt
It will be a battle of balanced teams when the Milwaukee Wave host the Missouri Comets at the US Cellular Arena, Friday night at 7PM. The Wave will be looking to remain the only unbeaten team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), While the Comets will attempt to lessen the gap between themselves and the Central Division leading Milwaukee Wave.

Admission: Tuesday came and went and passed me by entirely. For me, it's a rarety for me not to follow a game in some way. I go to most home games, and watch or listen to most of the others. Those matches I can't go to, see or hear I will follow via Twitter etc, as many of us do. But on Tuesday, as the match kicked off, I was out meeting football-agnostic friends (they do exist, it seems) in a pub with pleasant steak and kidney pies but no telly, and although I briefly toyed with the time-honoured gadget switch-off so I could play the match as live when I got in, I knew my resolve wouldn't last and sure enough, it didn't.

Lille star reveals Premier League "dream"

Collapse of contract talks leaves £10m-rated striker Sow eyeing move across the Channel

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-29 23:00:35 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Personal transfer fee Sone Aluko has revealed that he, his friends and family had to stump up £200,000 to complete his move to Rangers. The 22-year-old's transfer was on the verge of collapse when the champions refused to stump up the compensation being demanded by his former club Aberdeen. According to the Daily Record: Faced [.

Absolutely delighted to welcome blogging legend and French football's main man Andrew Gibney to the party this hour.
Indefatigable, Andrew can be found all over the internet including The Mirror's football blog and, nominated as one of the year's best new blog, French Football Weekly.
Follow him @AGibneyFtbl
Here's Andrew on relegation issues in France and England:
From years of following Scottish football you get drawn into a malaise of comfort-ability.

You could see the internet wariors racing for their keyboard once Singaore defender Nigel Vanu received a straight red after lashing out at an Indonesia player during their SEA Games encounter at the Bung Karno earlier this afternoon. 1- 0 against the hosts following poor performances against Malaysia and Cambodia, Vanu's red gave them a target for their opprobrium.

Club América had a disastrous first half of the Mexican season, finishing second-from-last in the Apertura tournament. It represents a total collapse for a side that finished consistently in Mexico's top six over the last two seasons. (However, América have not won a domestic title since the 2005 Clausura and have not advanced beyond the quarterfinals in three of the last four short tournaments.

West Brom
League Position: 13th, 3W, 2D, 5L, 9 GF, 13 GA, -4GD, 11 pts
Away Form: 2W, 1D, 2L, 6 GF, 8 GA, 7 pts
Last Meeting West Brom 2-2 Arsenal

We return to the Emirates tomorrow to welcome an old fiend, West Bromwich Alvion, now headed by Liverpool legend Roy Hodgson.

After taking all of two years to adapt to the physically and mentally demanding nature of the English top flight, Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny feels that he is now in the best form of his life.

Whether it is combating injuries or competing against some of the finest footballers of the world, the man who rapidly rose through the ranks in France is finally beginning to establish himself as a top Barclays Premier League defender.