By Greg Evans

So, here we stand. Just one game away from finding out who will win the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations a tournament which stampeded out of the blocks with a thrilling start, but has since turned into something of a pale imitation of itself with a few drab games starting to crop up as the stakes get higher.

Help me, I'm having nightmares. More, after the jump:

Cold as ice

I'm not even sure this match is as important as what's transpiring around the orbit of England's Once Brave (Twice-Removed) John Terry- henceforth known as EOBTRJT. Jack cooked up some brilliance on the matter, as always, which I recommend you all read at once.

It was a quiet deadline day for Liverpool in the transfer market with no major first team comings or goings. But they have played well to record a 3-0 win against Wolves at the Molineux.

All three goals came in the second half. Carroll opened the scoring with a prod at the far post in the 52nd minute.

It was a quiet deadline day for Liverpool in the transfer market with no major first team comings or goings. But they have played well to record a 3-0 win against Wolves at the Molineux.

All three goals came in the second half. Carroll opened the scoring with a prod at the far post in the 52nd minute.

Liverpool's big week culminates with Manchester United's trip to Anfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup tomorrow, two weeks ahead of their visit to Old Trafford in league. United had the more arduous task in the third round, traveling across town to the Etihad, where they scraped past City in a 3-2 win.

The Timbers Army in conjuction with fellow supporters in Seattle and Vancouver have agreed upon the rules for the 2012 Cascadia Cup, whereby all matches will count equally in the three team competition. Despite the imbalance within the 2012 MLS league schedule, the groups decided this would be the easiest way to ensure fairness while making the process to determine the winner as easy as possible

Ducky's Note: Die-hard Manc Prashanth speaks fan-to-fan to the Arsenal fans. We repeat, this is a post by a Manc. So, you know, #justsaying *runs and ducks behind door. Pun may or may not have been intended*.

No, I don't want to tell you that its okay to lose, or its okay to boo your manager when he makes a substitution (gamble) trying to win the game.

Henri Lansbury's last game for Arsenal this season was the 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford. He's been at Arsenal since he was 9-years-old but his worst ever day in football came at the hands of Manchester United earlier this season.

Two weeks after our demolition of Arsenal, Lansbury signed for West Ham on loan and was quick to grab their badge when he scored on his debut.

The most frustrating thing is that, after a disastrous start to the season, we had done the hard bit.

Written off by everyone, we somehow battled back up the table, all the way to the top four.

A team that seemed to have been cobbled together off the back of Steptoe and Son's wagon on the last day of the transfer window was starting to look like it could really do the business.

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?

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

Reaction to the release of the 2012 schedule:

The Goalkeeper notes that the Union is hosting New York and DC twice. "This strikes me as unfair from a competitive balance standpoint...As such, it would seem to me to make more sense to have each team host one team once and one team twice.

Alex Rodriguez isn't exactly known for playing fair. This is a guy who has admitted to using steroids to further his baseball career. And now the third baseman for the New York Yankees is stretching the rules once again.

According to reports, Alex Rodriguez flew to Germany to get a controversial treatment done in an attempt to heal injuries to his left shoulder and right knee.

Season's greetings Arse addicts. It's been an unusual kind of week with two away games yielding mixed results. Yet we've probably found more praise for our performance in defeat at Eastlands than we did for our somewhat serendipitous victory at Villa Park. Football is a funny old, blah, blah, blah etc.

With Euro 2012 seemingly drawing ever closer, it is still unclear whether or not the English FA have begun to consider who they would like to see replace current boss Fabio Capello whose contract expires at the end of the tournament next Summer. Whoever takes the job will have the task of getting England to the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

By Phil Gregory

A 1-0 defeat was certainly difficult to take from a valiant performance away at City. We went there with a multitude of defensive injuries but in fairness, a defensive unit that appeared fairly solid until changes were forced upon us. Indeed it is no coincidence that an injury to Djourou early in [.

I'm happy to announce that the Arseblog book 'So Paddy got up an Arsenal anthology' is now available to purchase online.

Please ensure you read all the information in this post before you make an order.

Please note: in the interests of fairness, due to the fact it's a limited edition book, there is a maximum order quantity of 3 books per person.

Arsene surprised and to an extent disappointed with the selection of Vermaelen and Santos in the starting eleven. In fairness though, the performance of the team showed it was a necessary evil because the manager's tactical blindspots created a vulnerable mishmash of talented but inexperienced players and seasoned professionals lacking match sharpness/form.

Arsene surprised and to an extent disappointed with the selection of Vermaelen and Santos in the starting eleven. In fairness though, the performance of the team showed it was a necessary evil because the manager's tactical blindspots created a vulnerable mishmash of talented but inexperienced players and seasoned professionals lacking match sharpness/form.

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has expressed his disappointment with the result at Fulham last night, and he also revealed his surprise at one of Kenny Dalglish's key personnel decisions.
Speaking on ESPN, Nicol - who won a bucketload of trophies as Liverpool player, including 4 league championship titles - noted:
"Disappointing is not the word; it's frustrating.

After the Man City game last week, I posted an article arguing (in the interests of fairness) that Lucas, Charlie Adam and Dirk Kuyt did their best to persuade the referee to send off Mario Balotelli. It was unsporting behaviour on a grand scale, and the photo evidence I provided backed this up.

With the increased globalization of the game, major tournaments are heading to new lands. Austria and Switzerland hosted Euro 2008, with next year's event heading to Poland and Ukraine. Last year South Africa staged the World Cup with Russia and Qatar on the horizon. While I'm all for spreading the game around the globe (aside for whatever shadiness helped Qatar land the 2022 World Cup), this trend presents a flaw with regards to tournament seeding.

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QPR Report Correspondent, Maudesfishnchips Q&A Offering a WBA Fan Perspective.

Morning all,

let's start with early team news ahead of tomorrow's trip to Wigan and nobody who played on Tuesday is added to the sicklist, but Tomas Rosicky remains out with a thigh knack while Abou Diaby will miss 10 days with 'a slight muscular problem'.

Obviously I don't think anybody is surprised by that but Diaby now seems to be caught in an infinite loop of injury.

Or Pele v Argentina. Or Diego v Argentina. Or Brazil v Argentina. Or maybe Pele's mind v reason. Or maybe Diego v holding his tongue.

There are a lot of wars being waged that aren't due to end before one of both of these gentlemen perishes.

Pele thumped the world with his (unbiased) thinking that Neymar is a far superior player to that Messi fellow.

Welcome back Real Football. We missed you.

Sometimes the international break helps. And on occasion it can disrupt a team's momentum. Many Gunners have only played 90 minutes during the fortnight and, arguably, at an intensity level fairly below the Premiership level. Ideally, this should help Arsenal as the players will not 'lack sharpness'.

Someone give him back his snood

You know what comes after November? December. What after December? January. Brilliant. You know what comes in January? In so many different walks of life, January usually means a new year and a new beginning. In football, it means the transfer window reopens once again.

Coughing and spluttering into my cornflakes this morning as I peruse the papers for snippets of news about God's Own. Reason for my sibilation? A certain Cesc Fabregas holding court with the Press boys on all things RVP after the England-Spain game.

But in fairness once you get past the shock-horror-RVP-must-quit-Gunners headlines, our former skipper seems to simply be being honest.

I have just been to the Surfing Seadog forum and came across this post from Retford United striker Carl Haslam scorer of their goal yesterday against us.I don't think Carl is happy at our view of the game, I personally think it is great when players from opposing teams get involved in this way.


Carl's post:
i havent come on here to argue or cause a fight but after reading some of ur posts i aint going 2 sit back and let you say the things u are.

Parkgate silenced the large Boro following and stunned their opponents with a goal inside the first minute of play, following a poor clearance by the Boro defence, Nathan Swindells was left with an easy opportunity and he took his chance well striking the ball home from near the edge of the penalty area.

By Chris Wright

There's only one thing that Carlos Tevez loves more than a spur-of-the-moment South American city break with the kids and that's breaching his Man City contract, so you can imagine just how giddy he was after succesfully managing to combined this two twin passions yesterday.

Former Liverpool defender Gary Gillespie has added his voice to the growing chorus of dissent over Liverpool's stuttering performance against Swansea at the weekend, and believes that the lack of fluency in midfield played a big part in the team's inability to take charge of the game.
Gillespie, who was analysing the game for LFC TV, described the result as a 'massive disappointment', but was quick to praise the performances put in my Swansea's players:
"Lucas Leiva found it very difficult today, as did Charlie Adam, because they got outnumbered in the middle of the park.

By Chris Wright

A pair of beautifully-taken goals from the Yaya Monster (the footwork before the second of the two is definitely worth another look) and a penalty both won and dispatched by Mario Balotelli saw Man City cruise to victory over a bare-bones Villarreal side that put in the worst performance by a Spanish club in Champions League history (© Martin O'Neill).

Bayern Munich's Croatian striker Ivica Olic has threatened to leave the club if his role as a super substitute does not change soon. Olic has made only 5 appearances for the champions this season totaling a meagre 72 minutes of play.

The 32 year old striker has had an injury plagued career the past 2 years which have resulted in him falling down the pecking order in the eyes of coach Jupp Heynckes.

Divers Need Not Apply

"In fairness" shrugged the pub-goer beside me, "he did graze him". True. Rio Ferdinand grazed the foot of Charlie Adam, thereby earning Steven Gerrard an opportunity, taken exceptionally well, to put Liverpool into a barely deserved lead. Somewhere in the last three sentences there is an appalling absence of reality; in what capacity can diving be fair?

After watching England play Montenegro last week, I was struck by a few things. Firstly the appearance of both Barry and Parker in the same team at this level is quite remarkable. Certainly both are good players in their own rights but, their lack of pace caused the English defence significant problems as the game progressed.

TGIF-thank Gooner it's Friday, returns after the International break, and with the amount of tension in the air that befits a real crisis at Arsenal. Crisis on the field through injuries, crisis in the stands with fans divided, and crisis in the Boardroom as the prospect of a Boardroom struggle becomes more possible than probable.

The two on the left got it way worse than the four on the right.
Not exactly a full house, I rushed over for the first pantomime session in hopes someone hit'em hard.
Someone did.
Pre-talkie time, I overheard Mr Anselmi discuss about how "the Champions League is the best" and he "doesn't get it" why attendance is poor.

This was just too difficult to pass up another golden quote by Arsene Wenger from yesterday's Arsenal presser. He has said many mind-boggling things in the past, but this actually takes the cake. You know, like the tiramisu of them all.

"Personally I do not complain.

Much will be depended on the duo today

Match day today. A trip is Ewood Park it is. Coming on the back of a recent mini-revival, it is absolutely vital that we continue our progression and improvement. Pat Rice will have to continue his unbeaten run at the helm another day as Arsene Wenger returns to the bench.

Much will be depended on the duo today

Match day today. A trip is Ewood Park it is. Coming on the back of a recent mini-revival, it is absolutely vital that we continue our progression and improvement. Pat Rice will have to continue his unbeaten run at the helm another day as Arsene Wenger returns to the bench.