For all the crisis talk, it hasn't been a bad fortnight for Arsenal. At half time against Villa, we were staring down the barrel of a fourth successive defeat, and an early exit from a competition that was beginning to open up thanks to some high profile ties that we had managed to avoid. Since then, we have seen actual mental strength (as opposed to the professed type that leaves us scratching our heads in disbelief) in that comeback win, a match against Bolton which, while frustrating from a result point of view, was a sharp improvement in performance on those that had come before, and a thumping seven goal win over a Blackburn side that inflicted perhaps our most painful defeat of the season back in September (yes, I count that 4-3 loss as worse than the United hammering).

Outside of Harry's court case, the issues surrounding John Terry and the England captaincy have been firmly in the media spotlight this week and while the attention is currently on manager Fabio Capello, two of Tottenham's England internationals could be set to profit from the affair.

Scott Parker emerged last season to command a regular place in the England side and since his move to White Hart Lane, our outstanding midfielder must surely be one of the first names on Capello's team sheet.

Liverpool's top four hopes are delicately balanced at the moment. The club is only four points behind Chelsea, and with 42 points still to play for, fourth place is still very much in the club's hands. However, Kenny Dalglish's team has struggled for consistency this season, and has regularly failed to capitalise on the inconsistency of Chelsea and Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger saw his team destroy Blackburn 7-1 yesterday but he would be more than happy to just take the three points every week whatever the result. The Arsenal boss feels that the four-game winless run didn't reflect the quality of play from the team, and he now wants them to go on another winning [.

Football's a simple game. If you score more or concede less than the other side, you win the match. So I thought it would be worth taking a look at which teams have been doing better than their opponents. The simplest way of doing just that is to calculate differentials for the stuff that matters most - goals - and the stuff without which - shots - the stuff that matters most usually doesn't happen.

Here we are on the verge of our 4th round FA Cup tie with Aston Villa, and yet I find myself still thinking about the substitution of Oxlade-Chamberlin in last weeks 2-1 loss to Manchester United.

With the way Wenger was talking it makes me wonder if he is getting his apologies, or should I say his press conference story ready should we lose today against Alex Mc Leish's Aston Villa.

The flabby bull has finally, if only by the smallest of margins, been squeezed from the summit of Serie B. After a run of 114 days as league leaders, Torino's second 1-1 draw with Cittadella was enough to see Sassuolo claim top spot on goal-difference and il Toro pushed back into the pack. It's taken brilliant consistency from the Neroverde and Verona and another blast of victories from Pescara.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has made it clear that he wants to follow up his impressive Premier League debut against Manchester United by starting regularly for the Gunners.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was preferred to the likes of Andrei Arshavin and Yossi Benayoun as he was surprisingly named a started for the visit of the defending champions.

Isn't it funny that although we were dire on Saturday and dropped two points away to Norwich, We gained a point on Spurs as they lost at Manchester City. Forget the league title, that's gone and has been for a while now, but it's important that Chelsea finish 3rd as a minimum this season. I think we'd all take that now with a decent run in the FA Cup and Champions League.

Real Madrid 4 Athletic Bilbao 1

Welcome to La Liga Lunes! As you may know, Mourinho's formidable Los Blancos defeated Bilbao 4-1 last night, despite Llorente's opening goal in the 13th minute. Unfortunately, the Portuguese was also at the receiving end of jeers from the Madridista crowd, who were allegedly annoyed that he wasn't able to pin down Barcelona earlier in the week.

It was, in short, a poor afternoon. Let's just say our trip to Spain couldn't have come at a better time. More, after the jump:

Begging for Mercy

I'm a hazy mess. Well, not a mess per se. But, disappointed by what was without a doubt a toothless display of our ineffective style that sums up our season.

Chelsea once again failed to maintain any consistency in their performance as they only managed a draw against Norwich City, despite controlling the match and created more chances especially in the second half but their inability to finish off their chances cost them two points.

The club's ineffectiveness in front of goal once again being noted by the Blues' manager, Andre Villas-Boas, as the cause of their current inability to stay close with the top three teams in the league.

Happy Wednesday to you. Several things on the docket today. The first thing that caught my eye was this week was Vancouver's acquiring of Etienne Barbara's rights. Barbara was a fantastic player for much of the 2011 NASL season. His 20 goals and many assists earned him Golden Boot honors for North America's second tier.

Manchester city headed 3 points clear as they recorded a win over Wigan although the match certainly won't go down as one of the greatest City performances of all time. I got a rather uneasy feeling just before kick-off and it proved to be quite a nervy game all round as, I think it's fair to say, City scrapped away to get a 1-0 victory in a half empty DW Stadium.

It has been a difficult week for those running Lewes Football Club. The arrival of former manager Steve King back at The Dripping Pan raised an eyebrow or two when he returned to the club during the summer, but the owners of the club have rightly remained tight-lipped over what King may or may not have been up to and, although there are any number of theories floating around this ground as to why he should have found himself at home this afternoon, no official announcement has been made and Simon Wormull takes his place in the home dug-out today.

In the early 19th century, when soccer rules were primitive and lacked consistency, some clubs would leave strikers deep, beyond the last defender, attempting to send enormous through-balls. If properly... Read more »

I appealed because I obviously completely disagreed with the interpretation of the officials on the day but that happens in football and we move on. I wonder though if we are now going to see an unprecedented wave of red cards on match days because we sanction "if's" and "maybe's"? Are we going to look back at video evidence for every single challenge that goes unnoticed by the officials, look at different scenarios and potential outcomes of what could have been considered a good tackle and then sanction it?

Benoît Pierre David Assou-Ekotto, or Mr Consistency to a growing number of Spurs fans always scores well in our polls but did his performance last night finally secure our man of the match award?
BAE's most telling influences on the game came in attack with the raking diagonal ball that set up Aaron Lennon and the pile-driving second half strike that doubled his tally in a Spurs shirt.

Tomorrow sees the return of the Premier Academy League as United take on Bolton at Carrington in an 11am kickoff. These sides met in early November in what proved to be a enjoyable game between two teams so far struggling for consistency this season. The match ended in a 2-1 win for United with goals [.

Tottenham Hotspurs ability to stay close with the two Manchester teams, especially with the Lilywhites' latest victory over West Bromwhich Albiom, which continue to lift Spurs confidence in challenging for the title.

The London club's winning goal scorer against West Brom, Jermaine Defoe, revealed that his team will continue to provide pressure towards Man City along with Man United, who are currently ahead of Harry Redknapp teams in the table.

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.

In the spirit of full transparency, and wasting no time since the balloting was announced, I am jumping in with both feet and giving you my picks for Dynamo Theory's 2011 Creamsicle Awards. Hopefully, we can finish the year and start the next with a healthy discussion and debate on reviewing what was, for me, the most fun Houston Dynamo season that didn't have a trophy-winning celebration at the end of it.

"My mates tease me calling me the White Cafu!" Perhaps Laurent Koscielny has not shown the incredible consistency that Cafu had, but he has had performances that even the Brazilian legend would have been proud of. More impressively, his switch to right-back has only provided further defensive stability for the Gunners.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

The "2011 in Review" articles for the Philadelphia Union are now up on the MLS website. One provides decent insight, the other, not so much. In the Q & A cobbled together from the last press conference of the season, in addition to relating that Freddy Adu was at "60 percent" for much of the end of the season due to a back injury and the need for defensive additions and competition within the various positions on the field, Peter Nowak discusses the mindset the team needs to win a championship:

"I told you guys at the press conferences we've had all year long that we believe in what we're building, we believe what is the culture around the team.

Ever since the departure of Fabregas and the long-term injury to Wilshire, I have been trying to figure out how the ‘New Arsenal' will play this season. For quite a while I was convinced Arsène wanted to continue with his 4-2-3-1 formation of the previous seasons, and as such, he was trying to get Ramsey to play in the Fabregas position/role, with Song in the more traditional DM role and Arteta in the box-to-box ‘Wilshere' role which is effectively a second DM (most of the times).

Ever since the departure of Fabregas and the long-term injury to Wilshire, I have been trying to figure out how the ‘New Arsenal' will play this season. For quite a while I was convinced Arsène wanted to continue with his 4-2-3-1 formation of the previous seasons, and as such, he was trying to get Ramsey to play in the Fabregas position/role, with Song in the more traditional DM role and Arteta in the box-to-box ‘Wilshere' role which is effectively a second DM (most of the times).

Featured image: Earl Gardner

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player. Over the next several weeks PSP continues with a review of the 2011 season.

Some players get passed over because teams don't think they have the size or the speed to make it at the next level.

Just a random thought here as this only came to my mind while I was working just now.
As you guys may have noticed of late there's not update on this blog.
One reason is that now it's "off-season" and I thought it's a time to recharge, while also reflect and re-evaluate the direction this blog is heading to.

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has ruled out signing Chelsea's Brazilian defender Alex despite recent rumours that the club was in the market looking for a defender.

Alex who is set to leave Chelsea in the winter transfer window has struggled for regular play under coach Andres Villa-Boas and even if it were true , a move to Arsenal would probably see him continue to warm the bench and evntually leave due to Wenger's harsh policy on age.

By its 17th year this really should have happened already. (If you didn't pick up on it... that was our "ball-dropping joke).
Major League Soccer released their new match ball for the 2012 season and despite it kinda looking like it's wearing a thong, we think it's pretty cool.
Sporting the league's colors and minimalist design the MLS ball is a close cousin to the new Tango 12 ball for this summer's European Championship.

Kenny Dalglish wants to see greater consistency from match officials after Jay Spearing's red card cost Liverpool in a 1-0 defeat at Fulham.
The Reds midfielder was dismissed after 72 minutes of a keenly-fought encounter at Craven Cottage.
Spearing dived in on Moussa Dembele, catching the Cottagers forward after first winning the ball.

The Vancouver Whitecaps added a veteran fullback with loads of World Cup experience to his name by signing South Korean defender Lee Young-Pyo.

According to reports, the 34-year-old Lee is joining the club on a one-year deal with an option for one more. It remains to be seen on which side of the field Lee will play for first-year manager Martin Rennie, with left backs Jordan Harvey and Alain Rochat already in the fold.

Dalglish queries Spearing red

Kenny Dalglish wants to see greater consistency from match officials after Jay Spearing's red card cost Liverpool in a 1-0 defeat.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-12-05 22:54:49 from: Sky Sports

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

I think that was the best Arsenal have played this season. Wigan got some joy in the opening 10-15 minutes but it was one-way traffic after that. The hosts also showed more of a fight in the second half but Arsenal were just too strong in all areas. I don't want to do a event by event analysis of such a game but want to use Wenger's post game interview as the foundation for this piece as the Boss' summary was sublimely succinct and accurate.

The Minnesota Stars released a statement earlier today stating that the team is exercising contract options on 18 players this season. Last year the Stars returned 16 players and many credited the consistency of returning players as one of the reasons for the teams success. Lagos spoke to IMS this afternoon and explained why some [.

(Photo: Michael Long)

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of "Raves" about our favorite Philadelphia players. They need not be the team's best players, but they're guys and gals we like. Over the next two weeks, we continue the series again with some of the PSP writers' and contributors' favorite players of 2011.

File him under journeyman if you will; Paul Thirlwell's career hasn't exactly hit stellar heights anywhere. Decent spells at his hometown club Sunderland, Sheffield United and Derby were flecked by seemingly the only consistency of his career – injury. Ask any fan of his current club Carlisle to define Thirlwell in a single word and the wags will chorus on cue – ‘injured'.

File him under journeyman if you will; Paul Thirlwell's career hasn't exactly hit stellar heights anywhere. Decent spells at his hometown club Sunderland, Sheffield United and Derby were flecked by seemingly the only consistency of his career – injury. Ask any fan of his current club Carlisle to define Thirlwell in a single word and the wags will chorus on cue – ‘injured'.

After Roberto Mancini made it clear that Argentine striker Carlos Tevez would never play for City as long as he was still the coach, the 27 year old has surprisingly emerged as a key transfer target for Italian giants AC Milan.

Tevez however, will not be sold cheap and if the unconfirmed rumours doing the rounds are to be believed, then Milan will have to part with £25 million to bring the striker to the San Siro.

After we suggested that William Gallas would walk straight back into the side for Monday night's game against Aston Villa, it was obvious, following Younes Kaboul's performance in the match that the younger French defender has become one of the first names on Harry Redknapp's team sheet.

Harry himself hailed Kaboul after the match,

"Younes Kaboul's heading was incredible, he dominated," said Harry, before going on to claim that the centre half is finally beginning to realise his potential.