As most people around the world, unwrapped their Christmas gifts and opened the boxes to see what is in store for them, there was a big box awaiting Manchester United at Old Trafford, the Theatre of...
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1. It was a great night for goals. There were some stunning efforts from Wayne Rooney, Adam Johnson, Demba Ba and Paul Scharner can all take a bow for starters. 2. Adam Johnson must have thought twice before firing in his long-range effort against Stoke though. He usually gets a rollicking from Manchester City boss [.

Manchester City scored three and stayed top of the table. Manchester United score five and remained in second position. Tottenham and Chelsea, in third and fourth position respectively, play each other on Thursday night. On the face of it, everything stayed the same. Manchester City first, Manchester United second, Tottenham third and Chelsea fourth.

By Alan Duffy

Fulham Manchester United Premier League 21st December 2011

Manchester United kept up the pressure on their City rivals with an impressive performance at Craven Cottage against an admittedly appalling Fulham side.

1. For whatever reason, Craven Cottage has been a difficult place for United to get a result in recent years. Tonight we more than made up for that, thrashing Fulham 5-0 without even looking like we were trying hard. This was the form of the start of the season again, blowing the opposition out of the water without even having to get out of second gear.

There are lots of things which are either rigged, not taken seriously or both in football. FIFA qualifies in general. So too does the electoral process in Bulgaria. (The footballing variety, obviously.)

The Bulgarian Player of the Year is something of a travshamockery, given that it's Berba's year after year, and justifiably so.

Full Name:Professional Football Club Svetkavitsa Targovishte

Bulgarian Name: Светкавица Търговище
City: Targovishte
Founded: 1922
Stadium: Stadion Dimitar Burkov (10,000)
Colors: Blue, White

Svetkavitsa (translation: Lightning Flash) had played an incredible 49 seasons in the Bulgarian second division (more than any other Bulgarian club) without promotion.

The return of the Carling Cup had plenty of entertainment to offer and although there will always be those who dismiss the value of English football's fourth-tier competition, there were several important lessons to be learned from what we saw this midweek.

Lesson 1: Hargeaves can come good: Roberto Mancini's signing of injury-plagued Owen Hargreaves brought the inevitable slew of crock jokes, especially in the wake of the infamous YouTube videos featuring the former Manchester United and Bayern Munich midfielder.

Presumably not the only trophy Vidic hopes to be holding in his mitts at the end of the season. Image: Getty Images/Daylife.

Well, we've resigned ourselves to the fact that our results posts are a year-round feature. We can only assume that this is because our coverage is so utterly fabulous that even the footballing authorities daren't miss a week and so cobble together random competitions to keep 'em coming.

Liverpool's nightmare 2010-11 season officially went into the books about two months ago and even though it left painful lasting memories, all of that is history nonetheless.
For now, the Red half of Merseyside is preparing to bounce back next year under their fearless leader, Kenny Dalglish. To his credit, Dalglish nearly turned the aforementioned nightmare into a Europa League spot, which further increases the optimism surrounding the coming season.

As with most summers there a whole range of transfer rumours, ranging from barmy (Tranmere's Dale Jennings to Bayern Munich....what? That actually happened?) to downright insane (Tevez to Corinthians – all this talk about running out of time to complete the deal is nonsense, there is no way they would have ever been able to afford him) and this got me thinking; just which rumour has the potential to develop into an outright summer box office hit, with all the twist and turns and last minute drama that any good blockbuster offers

There have of course been some crackers in the past– Robinho to Manchester City was amongst the most exciting transfer deadline buys back in 2008, while Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham and Rafael Van Der Vaart and Dimitar Berbatov in and out of Spurs respectively had all the elements to make fans forget the frankly nonsensical Twitter guesses and "rumoured to be", "apparently" and "linked to" articles in rags up and down the land for a moment as they basked in the drama the transfer window brings.

Liverpool's nightmare 2010-11 season officially went into the books about two months ago and even though it left painful lasting memories, all of that is history nonetheless.

For now, the Red half of Merseyside is preparing to bounce back next year under their fearless leader, Kenny Dalglish.

Two years ago, the fate of Manchester City changed when a big money group purchased the club. Fast forward to this upcoming season and all of the money that was spent in the transfer market has paid off as the club will be playing the in Champions League. The same might be happening in France with Paris Saint-Germain.

By Chris Wright

Straight in at number eleven...

11. Alex, CHELSEA vs Arsenal

Alex hit that sucker so goddamn hard that he ruptured his quad muscles...

10. Rafael van der Vaart, TOTTENHAM vs Aston Villa

Counter-attacking with finesse.

Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United 2011 Ewood Park- 14/5/11- 14th May 2011- Saturday. Final score:- Blackburn vs Manchester United 1-1 ( Brett Emerton/ Wayne Rooney penalty) Manchester United survive a scare before drawing 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers to lift the 2010/2011 Premier League crown and overtake Liverpool as England's most successful club.

Blackburn vs Man City 2011 Ewood Park, Blackburn- 25/4/11 Final score:- Blackburn vs Man City 0-1 ( Edin Dzeko) Edin Dzeko's first Premier League goal for Man City gives the Citizens a 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in this Monday night kickoff. Blackburn 0-1 Manchester City ( Edin Dzeko goal vs Blackburn) [.

1. Well done Luis Nani, our player of the season. That's an incredible 18 assists and 9 goals from 28 games. He's an irritating little so and so and I find myself shouting at him to get up on a weekly basis, but this guy is so talented and if we're lifting the title in May, it's largely down to his efforts.

LONDON, England Lionel Messi has pushed clear of Cristiano Ronaldo in the ESM Golden Shoe rankings after Barcelona's Argentina star scored a further goal at the weekend while his Portuguese rival from Real Madrid drew a blank. The Spanish league is the only one with three representatives in the top 11 Barcelona's David Villa [.

Didier Deschamps is banking on the feverish backing of the Stade Vélodrome crowd to give Marseille a valuable edge in the first leg of their tie against Manchester United, a club the coach describes as "an example to follow". The visitors have a number of injury problems for the trip to France but Sir Alex Ferguson is confident in their ability to cope as his team begin a testing run.

MANCHESTER, England - Wayne Rooney said it was the best goal he had ever scored, and Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson called it the greatest strike he had seen in 25 years at Old Trafford. The opposing goalkeeper did not even budge. Rooney put a troubled season behind him Saturday as his spectacular bicycle kick [.

LONDON, England Last August, at the start of the most eagerly-awaited Manchester season in years, the respective strengths of dominant United and big-spending City were personalised in the talents of one-time Old Trafford team-mates Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez. Since then both icons of their respective clubs have endured the turbulence of contract disputes [.

No doubts about which is the biggest game in the Premier League this weekend: Birmingham City vs. Stoke City, obviously. Just kidding. It's Manchester United versus Manchester City in the more relevant than ever Manchester derby. With United in first and City five points behind in third (and second placed Arsenal hosting Wolves) this game has a direct impact on the Premier League title race.

WOLVERHAMPTON, England Manchester United suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season in a shock 2-1 loss at bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers. In a top vs bottom clash that all but the most optimistic Wolves fan assumed would be a United walkover, two goals from George Elokobi although Kevin Doyle will try [.

MANCHESTER, England Wayne Rooney returned to scoring form with two goals in Manchester United's 3-1 Premier League win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Rooney bookended the first half with a goal after just 48 seconds and another in stoppage time. He came into the game with one goal from open play since last [.

Fernando Torres £50m (Last played well before the summer. Has 9 goals in 23 league games this season)
Andy Carroll £35m (11 goals in 20 games so far this season. During his last stint in the Premier League, he scored 3 goals in 14 games)
David Villa £34m (scored an average of 0.

Sir Alex Ferguson showed complete faith in his second string strikers by keeping substitutes Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov sitting on the bench even though Manchester United were trailing a brave...
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26.01.2011 - Muchos de los 70.000 habitantes de Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) se muestran algo más que preocupados: el club de la ciudad, el Pirin Blagoevgrad está a punto de ser expulsado de la primera división búlgara (descenso) por no pagar sus deudas y un grupo de hinchas propuso donar su sangre para recaudar fondos.

Craig Cathcart scored first for Blackpool and they went on to play a brilliant first half - totally dominating it.The second goal came in the 43rd minute - DJ Campbell headed in an Adam corner.
However the fat lady hadn't sung yet and Man Utd were back into the game latish in the second half when Berbatov and Javier Hernandez scored within two minutes of each other.

BLACKPOOL, England Manchester United moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League after staging a stunning late fightback to win 3-2 at Blackpool on Wednesday. Sir Alex Ferguson's side had gone 27 league matches without losing, a run stretching back to their 2-1 defeat against Chelsea in April last season.

Blackpool vs Manchester United Bloomfield Road, Blackpool- January 25, 2011 Final score:- Blackpool 2-3 Manchester United ( Cathcart,Campbell/ Berbatov*2, Hernandez) A brilliant second half comeback from Manchester United allows the Red Devils to beat Blackpool 3-2 at Bloomfield Road after trailing 2-0 at the lemon break.

Barcelona and AC Milan successfully protected their advantages this weekend while Manchester United extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to two points.

Spain
It is a case of as you were at the top of the Liga after Barcelona and Real Madrid both won.

An imperious display from Dimitar BerbatovThe Bulgarian is a goal machine. Dimitar Berbatov has scored another hat-trick, his third this season in the Premier League. It was another routine home-win for Manchester United, a 5-0 thumping of Birmingham City with all of Old Trafford revelling in Berbatov's predatorial grace.

MANCHESTER Dimitar Berbatov scored a hat trick as Manchester United dominated Birmingham, 5-0, in English Premier League action on Saturday. With the win, United stays at the top of the table, all alone after Manchester City's loss later in the day. Arsenal actually jumped into second, two points back of the leaders.

15.01.2011 - Dos de Yaya Toure y dos de Carlos Tévez para la victoria del Manchester City (4-3) sobre el Wolverhampton en uno de los adelantos de la fecha 23ª de la Premier League.
A los 49´, después de apilar a 4 rivales y a los 66´ de cabeza (era el 4-1) el Apache sumó dos goles más a su cuenta personal que lo ponen, junto al búlagro Dimitar Bervatov (Manchester United), al tope de la tabla de goleadores de la Liga (14 goles).

Though puzzled by the frequent visual proof that footballers actually buy their groceries themselves (rather than hiring imported servants and/or desperate peasants to do their manual labour), we love seeing footballers doing the groceries.

For example, here's Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov stocking up on H20 and other goodies at Sainsburys in Wilmslow two days ago.

LIVERPOOL, England — The Football Association will open an investigation after Liverpool winger Ryan Babel posted a digitally altered picture on Twitter of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt. Webb awarded a penalty against Liverpool and later sent off its captain Steven Gerrard as Man United won 1-0 in the third round of [.

MANCHESTER, England Manchester United ruined Kenny Dalglish's first game back in charge of Liverpool with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup. Manchester United ruined Kenny Dalglish's first game back in charge of Liverpool with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the third round of the [.

FA Cup 3rd Rd: Manchester United 1:0 Liverpool
What a difference a minute makes.
Anfield hero Kenny Dalglish, returning as Liverpool's manager after a decade's sabbatical, was an unexpected picture of sunny composure before kick-off against Manchester United today, relaxed and joking about his upcoming assault on Mount Everest.

This Ryan Giggs penalty vs Liverpool gave Manchester United the lead against their opponents in the third round FA Cup tie on January 9, 2011 The Giggs penalty came in somewhat controversial circumstances as Liverpool defender Daniel Agger seemed to make minimal contact with Dimitar Berbatov (see penalty video below), leading to several Reds fans [.