Taken by me at M&T Bank Stadium. Jealous?

Alright people. Back from what felt like the longest international break in....well, ever, Chelsea will take on Wolves at the Bridge tomorrow, and will do so with what would have to be called a diminished lineup.

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Rafael Benitez acknowledges that Liverpool's clash with Manchester City on Saturday is 'make or break' to their hopes of ensuring Champions League football next season.
The stakes are very high for boss Benitez, who has sent four players - Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio - to Belgrade this week for unorthodox placenta cell treatment on their injuries. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool were handed a massive boost when four players made a rapid return from injury to be available for tomorrow's game against Man City.
Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurielio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera were all sent to a physiotherapist, Marin Kovacevic, in Belgrade.
There they were given an unusual and highly unorthodox treatment of a cream made from Horse placenta combined with wave-treatment. Click to continue reading...

Alright well I promised it so here it is: Manchester United vs Everton preview (fancy pictures included):

This match marks the return of the EPL after one hell of an international break. We saw Russia fail to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, and Ireland being cheated defeated out of a birth.

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Goal video highlights from the Slovenia vs Russia Second Leg World Cup Playoff Tie at Stadion Ljudski vrtin Maribor. The first leg in Moscow ended 2-1 in favour of the Russians. Final full time score :- Slovenia 1-0 Russia ( Zlatko Dedic 44′) The game ends 2-2 on aggregate, but Slovenia qualify for the 2010 World Cup [. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to Selecao Bootcamp, Uma Tradição Futbolita! Everyone gather yourselves because it's that time of the year so ya'll better get excited. Anyway, our manos have landed in Qatar, more specifically, the Four Seasons Hotel where they're putting up during their stay in Doha.

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If you had asked me six months ago who was England's best centre back I would have undoubtedly said Rio Ferdinand. However posed with the same question now I would be a little less sure. I think that the talk that he's "over the hill" is overly dramatic, but Ferdinand's form this season has definitely been more than questionable.

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Manchester United have submitted a claim of mistaken identity to the Football Association after Fabio da Silva was booked by referee Chris Foy against Barnsley in the Carling Cup.

Instead the offender for a challenge on Jamal Campbell-Ryce was his twin brother Rafael.

The only way the twins can be separated around training is because Fabio wears a wedding ring, it begs the question why they don't swap shirts to avoid suspensions, or a free substitution maybe?

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This is Fabio

At least that's what Manchester United is saying.

Sir Alex Ferguson played both twin Brazilian brothers, Rafael & Fabio Silva, in their Carling Cup match against Barnsley. En route to winning, Rafael fouled Jamal Campbell-Ryce and earned himself a yellow card; however Referee Chris Foy put brother Fabio in the book.

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It has emerged that referee Chris Foy booked the wrong da Silva win during Man United's 2-0 win over Barnsley. Fabio played in central defence and Rafael was playing in midfield.
Foy booked Fabio for a challenge on Barnsley's Jamal Campbell-Ryce, but it was Rafael who fouled the player. Click to continue reading...

• We know of many mujeres who'd like to be seated in that car with Gangsta Gattuso! He's the Sexiest man in Italy, don't ever forget that. Anyway, the entire Milan squad (yes, including Dida how dare you accuse tio of being ineffective!

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A case of mistaken identity Sir Alex Ferguson has previously joked about swapping the shirts of the Da Silva twins, Fabio and Rafael, in order to trick officials. But his plans to confuse the identities of the Brazilian youngsters were pre-empted by referee Chris Foy, who booked the wrong twin during the Carling Cup tie at [. Click to continue reading...

You may be wondering why the name at the top is neither Daryl nor Rob. I'll introduce myself, I'm Matilda, I also write for Bolton Offside. Both Rob and Daryl will still be writing here, I'm just a little addendum.

Milan chief executive, Adriano Galliani, has come out with the wonderfully self contradictory statement:

"It's practically certain at 100 per cent, the only thing missing is the signatures, but the agreement is complete.

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By now, it must be obvious.

The best player in the Premiership on this day was Yossi Benayoun. No words can describe the moment of genius that possessed him to split the Man Utd defense, in so comprehensive a fashion as that pass that isolated Fernando Torres, a move which had Rio Ferdinand grab him futilely.

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Manchester United secured three points in Moscow without the services of our four best performing players this season: Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra and Darren Fletcher.

Ahead of our trip to Anfield on Sunday, half of these players will be available, but who do you think we need the most?

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Gary Neville is happy with our performance yesterday against CSKA Moscow but is already looking forward to Anfield.

"I think we were a constant threat," said Neville. "In the first half Fabio and Nani down the left were very difficult to play for them. And then in the second half Antonio started to get a lot of the ball and we were a constant threat behind them on the wings, and I think we had the better chances and most of the play as well.

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Without setting the world alight, Manchester United proved again how far we have come in Europe over the past few years. Of course, you could argue the two appearances in the last two European Cup finals already have shown that, but it's results like the one last night in Moscow that do it for me.

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You would think having identical twins playing mirrored positions of right back and left back was fairly unique, as is the case with our Brazilians Rafael and Fabio da Silva. CSKA Moscow are giving us a run for our money though with their identical full back twins, Aleksei and Vasili Berezutski.

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You don't have to go far in the football world to find someone, somewhere in trouble for bad behaviour or breaking the rules.
Just down the road in fact to Cheltenham FC, where Martin Allen has once again managed to get himself into trouble.
I wonder if they got a reference from MM before taking him on? Click to continue reading...

El viernes 16 de Octubre, en el predio de Galván ubicado en el barrio porteño de Saavedra, hemos realizado dos partidos amistosos contra el conjunto selectivo dirigido por Mario Lurje.

Se disputaron dos tiempos de 45′. Presentamos la siguiente alineación:

El selectivo de Platense, dispuso de la siguiente formación: Angelotti; Barreiro, Cuesta, Federico, Federico López; Choque, Iturrieta, Fabio De Francesco; Santiago Frean; Ojeda y Narváez.

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'Don' Fabio has given United's and England's center back, Rio Ferdinand, another chance to redeem himself and prove the critics wrong after a nightmare game he had in Ukraine last Saturday, as England face Belarus today with a much re-shuffled squad, where the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, A.Cole etc will be absent, and the likes [. Click to continue reading...

Aaaaand our hermanos have made it into the finals of the U-20 World Cup! Forget Jesus Luz, the only name you should be screaming today is Alan Kardec! He scored winner against Costa Rica to earn Brazil a spot in the finals against Ghana on Friday.

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Last night Man United winger Gabriel Obertan and defender Rafael da Silva finally recovered from injuries and played for United's reserves. Obertan made his debut for United and it his Old Trafford career got off to a great start after United won 3-0.
Rafael has been out with a shoulder injury for what seems like ages but both players got through last nights match unscathed. Click to continue reading...

Will a rocket up his arse help matters? We are not convinced that even Don Fabio's disciplinary measures will have any impacy. Rio barely seems to have noticed.

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Sogna di tornare in Italia. Sogna di riabbracciare la Serie A. Sogna, soprattutto, di ripagarsi dalle delusioni che sta vivendo in Germania col Bayern e di poter provare a riconquistare la Nazionale di Marcello Lippi: "E' un periodo un po' così al Bayern, vediamo in questi mesi cosa fare. Un mio ritorno in Italia? Click to continue reading...

Ritchie de Laet has been handed a new contract by Alex Ferguson as the 20 year old defender nears his first team break through.

De Laet only signed for United in January and has so far made two first team appearances; a Premiership win over Hull last season and a substitute appearance in the Carling Cup this season when he was brought on after just 30 minutes following Fabio's red card against Wolves.

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Liverpool FC manager Rafa Benitez has expressed his disappointment over the Champions League displays of his top two stars, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
The partnership had been given the big build-up ahead of Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Fiorentina in Group E.
But both were well marshalled by an organised Fiorentina side, in which defenders Alessandro Gamberini and Dario Dainelli had outstanding games, along with former Juventus midfielder Cristiano Zanetti. Click to continue reading...

It's always a good sign seeing a young English striker score a goal like that. A piece of magic was needed as the game looked as if it could go into extra time as Wolves had fought hard throughout the game.

Danny Welbeck has huge potential. Terrific one-two, terrific finish. It was obvious that Man Utd were going to field a weaker side from the Carling Cup and didn't play too badly however there is room for improvement with some of these fringe players.

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"VIDEO: Fabio's Red Card" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea will line up in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation as follows: 40 Hilario 19 Paulo Ferreira 2 Branislav Ivanovic 41 Sam Hutchinson 18 Yury Zhirkov 12 John Mikel Obi 35 Juliano Belletti 15 Florent Malouda 10 Joe Cole (c) 45 Fabio Borini 21 Salomon Kalou Substitutes: 22 Ross Turnbull, 41 Jeffrey Bruma, 26 John Terry, 3 Ashley Cole, 24 Nemanja Matic, 5 Michael Essien, 8 Frank Lampard. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea will line up in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation as follows: 40 Hilario 19 Paulo Ferreira 2 Branislav Ivanovic 41 Sam Hutchinson 18 Yury Zhirkov 12 John Mikel Obi 35 Juliano Belletti 15 Florent Malouda 10 Joe Cole (c) 45 Fabio Borini 21 Salomon Kalou Substitutes: 22 Ross Turnbull, 41 Jeffrey Bruma, 26 John Terry, 3 Ashley Cole, 24 Nemanja Matic, 5 Michael Essien, 8 Frank Lampard. Click to continue reading...

This is mainly just a test post as we look to implement a new prediction league. As we tinker, he is what I think Ferguson will chose as tonight's line-up in the League cup clash with Wolves.

Tomasz Kuszczak
Gary Neville
Jonny Evans
Wes Brown
Fabio da Silva
Ji-sung Park
Michael Carrick
Darron Gibson
Luis Nani
Michael Owen
Federico Macheda Click to continue reading...

Fantastic display on the weekend at home to Tottenham sans the Drogba scare, of course.

Now that we know the terrifying Ivorian is going to be just fine, we can get on with the business at hand. Namely this Carling Cup third-round tie at Stamford Bridge against Championship side Queens Park Rangers.

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Los rivales del Arse en los Promedios:
DOCE DE DOCECHACARITA 0 X 1 ROSARIO CENTRAL (Emilio Zelaya)
LECCIÓN DE HUMILDADATLÉTICO TUCUMÁN 2 X 0 BOCA JUNIORS(Juan Pablo Pereyra, Fabio Escobar)
TRATADO DE PAZ Y AMISTADRACING 1 X 1 GIMNASIA LP(Rubén Maldonado e/c ; Sebastián Romero)
EL REY SOY YOESTUDIANTES 2 X 1 INDEPENDIENTE(Mauro Boselli, Juan Manuel Díaz ; Darío Gandín)
HAY PICAGODOY CRUZ 1 X 1 HURACÁN(Matías Jara ; Leandro Díaz)
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LOS OTROS RESULTADOS DE LA CUARTA FECHA:
NEWELL'S OLD BOYS 0 X 1 ARGENTINOS JUNIORS VÉLEZ SARSFIELD 0 X 0 SAN LORENZOLANÚS 1 X 2 BANFIELDRIVER PLATE 0 X 0 COLÓN
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LEE ADEMÁS:LA PELOTA NO DOBLA: DESDE ARRIBA, LOS PIBES DE CENTRALLÍNEA DE 5: BANFIELD DUEÑO DEL SURLINEA DE 5: EL MOMENTO DE ZELAYATM - DESDE LA SAN MARTÍN: CUANDO SOLO SIRVE GANARTM - SEBA: POR PELOTUDOSTM - URBANO: QUE QUERÉS QUE TE DIGABLOG VÉLEZ: CON LAS GANASLA BANDA DEL VIADUCTO - TYC SPORTS: A NO ENGAÑARSEFÚTBOL RUSO: MÁS DE LO MISMOTRISTELME 2. Click to continue reading...

Fabio da Silva is no longer a member of the San Jose Earthquakes. The Brazilian defender was on the Quakes' books less than a month, appearing in two exhibition games. He originally signed with San Jose on August 18th after spending 2009 with Brazil's Rio Branca. da Silva was part of Red Star Belgrade's Serbian Cup winning squad in 2007. Click to continue reading...