In the first part of our FM scouting series, we looked at United's new DP forward Hamdi Salihi. Now it's time to turn our attention to central defender Emiliano Dudar...

click to enlarge

What jumps out immediately is Dudar's marking ability and aerial power, the later of which, given his size, was to be expected.

Down to 7th in the Premier League

We've fired a blank against the worst defence in the league.

And our great hope Wilshire is injured again.

Is this the lowest we have been as Arsenal fans in the last 7 years?

No, is the answer. The lowest was 6 months ago when we had just lost arguably our 2 best players in their prime, had been stuffed 8-2 at Old Trafford, and we're struggling to stay in the Champions League.

Down to 7th in the Premier League

We've fired a blank against the worst defence in the league.

And our great hope Wilshire is injured again.

Is this the lowest we have been as Arsenal fans in the last 7 years?

No, is the answer. The lowest was 6 months ago when we had just lost arguably our 2 best players in their prime, had been stuffed 8-2 at Old Trafford, and we're struggling to stay in the Champions League.

By Chris Wright

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Remember on Sunday afternoon? Against Manchester United? When Robin van Persie mouthed the words 'oh no' as Arsenal's most enterprising attacking threat was substituted off for Andrey Arshavin? Apparently that was a thing.

After the depressing defeat to relegation-threatened Bolton, Liverpool fans are feeling pretty disillusion at the moment, and with a run of important season-defining games coming up, things clearly need to improve sooner rather than later. Some fans have even turned on Kenny Dalglish, but former Liverpool striker David Johnson has called for fans to keep the faith in the manager.

No Shaq attack for Gunners Robin Van Persie's son has snubbed a move to Arsenal in favour of his local junior football team. Arsenal fans might be more concerned about keeping Van Persie Senior on their books, but the Gunners had invited five-year-old Shaqueel Van Persie to join their youth ranks. OTP isn't sure what [.

Morning all, the dust has begun to settle a bit after Sunday's game against Swansea. We now have a week to take stock, regroup and prepare ourselves for the game against United on Sunday.

A lot has been said about the litany of injuries we've suffered, meaning players are being played out of position which affects our normal game and so on.

Liverpool have reportedly snubbed Aston Villa's bid to sign striker Andy Carroll with Darren Bent offered in exchange.
Reports in the Sunday Express claim Villa chief Alex McLeish has approached his Reds counterpart Kenny Dalglish with a plan which would see reported Anfield target, Bent, make the move to Merseyside with Carroll going to Villa Park.

Kenny Cooper is moving east to New York. (Getty Images)

The draft day is here and the trades are starting to come in. This one, thanks to Fox Soccer, says that the Portland Timbers and the New York Red Bulls have struck a deal.

New York will acquire Portland Timbers forward Kenny Cooper.

Goal: Deal or no deal? Should Liverpool sell Andy Carroll back to Newcastle for £15m this month?

The Englishman has failed to live up to his billing at Anfield thus far. Should the Reds send the striker back to the North East or keep the faith?

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2012-01-11 09:16:00 from: Goal

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

Thierry Henry has all but completed his two-month loan move back to Arsenal after photos of the French striker wearing the new Arsenal shirt were released. The Gunners legend will spend two-months on loan with his former club and is even expected to feature in Arsenal's FA Cup third-round tie with Leeds United at the [.

It's headlines like this we wake up to this morning with The Sun claiming from their so called "Chelsea source" that there is player unrest and AVB has lost the dressing room.
The basis of this information has come about because apparently Nico Anelka was banned from the club's Xmas do by AVB so the players organised a separate one and didn't tell AVB for Anelka.

The good thing about the festive period is that any disappointments can be quickly offset. Today we face QPR having dropped a couple of points against Wolves and it's crucial we take all three today.

In terms of the team news I was expecting some changes today, the most obvious of which was a rest for Robin van Persie.

Liverpool ended 2010-11 in fantastic form, perhaps even convincing those most hopeful that with a tweak here and a winger there a legitimate run at the title wasn't entirely beyond the realm of possibility. With summer signalling that Damien Comolli and Kenny Dalglish were more interested in rebuilding than refining, though, that hope faced up to growing fears about all the that could go wrong with a largely new starting eleven as the season began.

On the pitch, Kettering Town have picked up a little of late. Two consecutive draws have lifted them just out of the relegation places in the Blue Square Bet Premier and, even though the club's transfer embargo remains in place, they even managed a full substitutes bench their match against on Tuesday night.

It's been a quite few weeks when it comes to player rumors, really since Omar Bravo left for Cruz Azul there have been few rumors regarding Sporting KC. As James said in his post regarding this rumor, it's been campfire talk for a short little while, and it does seem to make sense. Michael Thomas is currently playing with Ljungskile SK in Sweden.

Newcastle played well on Saturday and were simply unlucky not to get that one goal that would have given our boys all 3 points. Alan Pardew - hoping to repay faith of 52,000 fans With Coloccini and Cheick Tiote back in the side, it looked so much different and so much better than the side that went down 4-2 at Norwich City in the last game, when [.

Osvaldo Alonso recently suggested some Premiership teams might be interested in acquiring his services. Unsurprisingly, being as he is a professional soccer player, he is open to this possibility. None of this should really come as news.

The question is: How much concern should this cause us as Seattle Sounders fans, who clearly want our team to have as many highly talented players as is possible?

I'm actually going to two regional tournaments (officially playoffs) this year; I did last year but didn't write anything because it would have entailed "I kept track of score" and "I wrote down penalties on a small whiteboard" and repeated several times. Chances are I'll be skipping writing about the upcoming playoff/regional because I'm an alternate, and as such won't be doing a lot, except watching a buttload of games during the weekend.

Jay Spearing vows to repay faith of Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish

Liverpool midfielder Jay Spearing admits he has to prove his value to the team in order to persuade manager Kenny Dalglish he does not need to bring in reinforcements.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-13 11:43:00 from: The Mail

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

'Keep the faith, lads'

Steve Clarke insists Liverpool are heading in the right direction and will not be knocked off course by the controversy which surrounded defeat at Fulham on Monday night.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-12-10 10:38:07 from: Liverpool FC

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

Last Tuesday night I sat through a freezing cold 4:0 defeat at Burnley and it was gutting.
I spent the whole drive home in deep thought, trying to make sense of what is going wrong with my beloved Ipswich. I came to the conclusion that the most significant contributing factor to the 6 straight defeats was a lack of confidence.

Ahead of Wednesday night's League Cup game against Crystal Palace, Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that we will be playing a young side like usual.

Palace are currently 10th in the Championship and managed to beat Southampton, who are top of the table, in the competition last month.

Ferguson is putting his faith in youth though and singles out Paul Pogba as a player who might start.

Juan Mata was the star of the show on Saturday against Wolves. Having a hand in our first and second goals and scoring our third, Mata was instrumental in a fantastic first half performance.
As you can imagine, after the game, Mata was asked about our previous run of results and the effects it had on the players.

Liverpool goalkeepr Pepe Reina believes club are on the right road to fulfilling their Europe dream

Frustrated goalkeeper has faith in the squad as they maintain the pressure in Premier League

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-11-26 19:01:04 from: The Telegraph

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

Why Abramovich must keep faith with AVB

Andre Villas-Boas can't win. I'm not talking about three shattering defeats to Arsenal, Liverpool and now Bayer Leverkusen but the Catch-22 situation he finds himself in at Chelsea. Roman Abramovich brought him on a mission in to transition out some of the old guard and to play exciting football.

Diaby has to be in the shadows, for now

I'm sure by now you've all heard or rather, read the interview that Arsene Wenger did on L'Equipe. Or if you can't read French like I am as well, then thank god there's Arseblognews who has come out with the translated interview without looking for a headline.

Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard has suggested that the club's handling of Andy Carroll in his first 6 months at Anfield may have had a negative impact on the player, and may partly explain why the former Newcastle man has struggled for consistency this season.
Gerrard, who is recovering from injury himself at the moment, observed:
"For me, Andy arrived with an injury and probably wanted to play very early on because he'd signed in such a fashion.

By JOSE M. ROMERO

Practice had a calm, almost stoic feel to it for the Houston Dynamo Friday on the fields near the main Home Depot Center stadium.

So said forward Carlos Costly, who added that he's anxious for Sunday when the Dynamo face the L.A. Galaxy for the MLS Cup.

Just when it looks like bad times are already flew passed Fernando Torres' Chelsea experience, another tough times arrives again for the Spain international as he loses his goal scoring touch again in the league right after returning from suspension.

Acknowledging at the potential return of another difficult run, Torres promised the Blues' fans that he will keep on working hard in trying to get his performance back as he wants to repay the supporters' faith in him.

Everton have confirmed club record signing in 2008 Marouane Fellaini has signed a new 5 year deal at Goodion Park with his current deal set to run out in 2013. The Belgian International moved from Standard Liege for £15m in 2008, and unlike many current player's has showed gratitude in signing for the club which has made him the player he is today.

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was yesterday charged by the FA over his alleged spat with Man United's Patrice Evra, but during his press conference a couple of minutes ago, Kenny Dalglish point-blank refused to make on comment on the issue.
When asked for his views, Dalglish shut down the Journalist straight away:
"The [club] statement says everything.

It's difficult to have any faith in the RFU at the moment...they've been abominable over the last year and today Martin Johnson has quit as England manager deepening the crisis.
Basically as far as I can see if no-one had been there to photograph the England players in that Queenstown bar he'd still been in a job.

In further efforts to kill time before the MLS Final this Sunday, I'll now be doing a general round up of stuff going on with the league, and with American soccer as a whole. There's actually been a fair amount of stuff going on.

US FRIENDLIES: In the past week, the US met with France and Slovenia, coming out of the two matches with a win and a loss.

Harry Redknapp is the quintessential English manager. Working class roots, played football since he was a kid, steeped in the game, worked his way up in management from the lower leagues. Close to his players, he preaches the virtues of hard work and character. He has prospered in the modern era but his teams would look familiar to fans from any era of English football big men at the back, tough tackling midfielders and wingers with another big bloke up front.

Anthony Clavane's Big Match Verdict: Young Lions repay Capello's faith to prove the future's bright

Giving England's rookies a run-out against Spain could have either ended up a brave experiment – or an act of supreme folly. In the end, Fabio Capello's gamble paid off.

Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez is becoming one of the fans favorite at Manchester United especially with his habit in scoring important goals for the Red Devils since arriving at Old Trafford this season.

With his current bright future, no one wouldn't thought that the 23-years-old Mexican actually almost ended his footballing career back when he was still playing in his country's league around three years ago.

Fabio Aurelio is on a mission to force his way back into Kenny Dalglish's plans.
The Brazilian left-back hasn't featured for Liverpool so far this season due to his injury problems and the excellent form of new recruit Jose Enrique.
Aurelio, who has only made the Reds' matchday squad on one occasion, was an unused substitute for last month's Carling Cup tie at Stoke City.

Why Spain game marks Capello's transformation from arch pragmatist into wild risk taker

Fabio Capello is not an obvious risk-taker, not the sort you would associate with taking a punt. A pragmatist, yes. A disciplinarian, certainly. A man who thinks he is always right, undoubtedly.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!