A difficult one to call, this. Wigan are an unpredictable bunch. Since arriving at the DW in June- with the gait of a man still owning two good hips- Roberto Martinez has laboured somewhat in coaxing momentum into a side who, twelve months ago, were brimming with the stuff.

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So how are you all after the international break? Miss watching our team lose and play horribly? Yeah me too. Luckily however this weekend we're playing some neighbors who are in much the same habit, managed by dear old Big Sam (maybe that was too many adjectives for one guy?). Blackburn are on a run of ten straight losses in away games, however they haven't lost at the Reebok

since 2001 (though really statistics like that don't mean that much).

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Ireland go into their World Cup play-off second-leg with France at full strength with no injuries to report.
It is do-or-die for Giovanni Trapattoni's men as they prepare to fly to Paris on Tuesday trailing 1-0 from the first-leg at Croke Park.
Ireland performed admirably on Saturday but still fell to a deflected 72nd minute Nicolas Anelka strike, handing the French the initiative ahead of the return match on Wednesday. Click to continue reading...

It is hard to see England overcome Brazil even if they were at full strength with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, and Glen Johnson given how the Brazilians moved with ease around the pitch. Meanwhile, the English attack was barely able to make a dent.

Fabio Capello probably knows by now that Brazil is the team to beat.

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Why didn't Alberto Aquilani play any part of the Lyon game? Can someone please explain to me the logic behind keeping him on the bench for the full 90 minutes because I just don't get it.
Aquilani was on the bench against Lyon therefore he must be fit. He was even warming up at one stage. Click to continue reading...

Well Mark Schwarzer made our luck, even saving the 14th minute penalty to be beaten on the rebound. Bad luck to Rhys Williams being forced into a foul to give the penalty. But otherwise Oman botched 4 or so goals - just played too fast for their skill level. Criag Moore was lucky not to have given away a second half hand ball penalty. Click to continue reading...

If only those scarves were bandages
Fresh news out of Anfield is reporting that Albert Riera and the Israeli Landon Donovan (Yossi Benayoun) are going to be out for a month with muscle injuries.
It's been a rough season for the Merseyside Reds, with most of their stars having sat out for at least a few games. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger has revealed that he will stick with the youngsters for next month's crunch Carling Cup clash at Manchester City. The Frenchman has no qualms about the challenge his Gunners' will face at Eastlands, with Mark Hughes' already saying that he'll put out a full strength side for the match on December 2nd. Click to continue reading...

This weekend plays host to arguably the match of the Premier League season when Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea take on reigning champions Manchester United in what could be reasonably termed, a championship "six-pointer".

To honour this occasion, we look back over some of the finest games between these two giants of English football:

You can catch the Soccerlens preview for the Chelsea Manchester United game and our predictions in this week's podcast.

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While Maradona is busy making a shamockery of the Argentinean national side, the man who typically lurks behind Diego & Pele whether prudent or not in the discussion for the world's greatest ever player has returned to football. Johan Cruijff, arguably the greatest ever player/coach combination in football history, has returned to the bench Catalonia and don't you call it Spain.

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Normally the points in this fixture are rather an irrelevance, but this time there is more at stake than just bragging rights. The sides go into the game separated only by goal difference, and the three points up for grabs could prove crucial come May. Ultimately, league position is the gauge, and this season for a change we have a realistic chance of finishing above l'Arse.

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� �

Photo by ISIphotos.com

With apologies to the LA SuperClasico series, there is perhaps no MLS playoff series this year more intriguing and more tough to call than the Houston Dynamo-Seattle Sounders series.

The two-time MLS Cup champion Dynamo take on the expansion Sounders in a young rivalry that showed plenty of promise during the season.

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� �

Photo by ISIphotos.com

With apologies to the LA SuperClasico series, there is perhaps no MLS playoff series this year more intriguing and more tough to call than the Houston Dynamo-Seattle Sounders series.

The two-time MLS Cup champion Dynamo take on the expansion Sounders in a young rivalry that showed plenty of promise during the season.

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Talk about doing it tough! At half-time, a near full strength Manchester City were a shaky 2-1 up against Championship team Scunthorpe, who actually looked quite impressive on the break. What happened in the second half doesn't really matter at this point cause it doesn't help drill home my point . Click to continue reading...

Talk about doing it tough! At half-time, a near full strength Manchester City were a shaky 2-1 up against Championship team Scunthorpe, who actually looked quite impressive on the break. What happened in the second half doesn't really matter at this point cause it doesn't help drill home my point . Click to continue reading...

The draw for the quarter-final stage of the Carling Cup will take place this Saturday, and it is an all-Premier League affair and after progressing last night we will face one of the following sides:
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Blackburn
Chelsea
Manchester United
Portsmouth
Tottenham
For all the bad press the competition has received in recent seasons, it is perhaps telling that so many of the 'bigger' sides remain at this stage - even with less than full-strength sides being fielded. Click to continue reading...

My normal pre-match bravado wasn't at full strength after the four-game losing streak (Liverpool's worst run since the Spring of 1987) and going into the fixture against Manchester United Sunday I was a sleepless bag of frenetic nerves.

We tend to play our best against the strongest opposition (I thought our outing against Chelsea was one of our best performances of the season except for of course the two moments that led to their two goals) and Fernando Torres was on the starting team sheet.

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Real Madrid's new 'Galactico' era has not started out the season� quite as expected, and� the struggles continued after� losing in humiliating fashion on Tuesday.

Real Madrid� lost to third division club Alcorcon, 4-0, in a Copa del Rey match. Alcorcon, which has 400 times less the payroll than� los merengues,� humbled a less-than-full-strength Real Madrid, but it still defeated a team which started players like Raul,� Guti and galactico Karim Benzema.

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Seems like there should be a bit of a grace period after Sunday's 2-0 victory over United, but I suppose that's the beautiful, and sometimes maddening, part of football. Fernando Torres admitted what we already knew about his fitness, Glen Johnson was likely less than 100%, and the side in general could use time to soak in the most important victory of the young season.

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With J Hutcherson -- Credit DC United with the smart move. Facing an unlikely road to a win in the CONCACAF Champions League, they opted against taking a full-strength team to play Toluca. For those of you pointing at the Group B standings where DC is currently second on goal differential over third-place Marathon, is this even a question of priorities? Click to continue reading...

Willard Tigers 2 (PKs)
Rogersville Wildcats 1
Rogersville goal by Brook Frasier, assisted by Brenden Williams

Central Bulldogs 3
Marshfield Blue Jays 0
The Bulldogs continue to surprise folks, this time the Jays.

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But at least it's good business for the club shop, eh?

Obviously the inflatable entertainment will be a talking point for years to come, but it's hard to say that Liverpool deserved much more than they got. In fact, I completely agree with Steve Bruce's assessment:

"I thought we deserved it, I hope that's not just going to be the headline.

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Brazil's Under-20 team take on Ghana in the World Cup final in Cairo on Friday.

Rogério Lourenço's side are unbeaten in the tournament and will be at full-strength. Giuliano, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Alex Teixeira and Alan Kardec have impressed for Brazil and the presence of these four makes the South Americans favourites to take the trophy.

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What amazes me about today's game is that Pim Verbeek sent out a near full strength Aussie team... and they struggled... againt Oman... again! And whilst Verbeek continues to persist with his conservative approach to games and a one striker formation, he should be thanking his lucky starts that Timmy . Click to continue reading...

Ukraine 1-0 England
Saturday 10 October 2009,
Dnipro Arena, Ukraine
Kick-Off: 17:15 BST

England were reduced to 10 men early in the first half thanks to Rob Green being sent off and although Shevchenko missed the resulting penalty, Ukraine scored soon afterwards and England never really got back into the game.

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They Think It's All Over... is hoping to see a full strength England side take to the field against Ukraine and Belarus. Click to continue reading...

The bitter pill of defeat is always a tough one to swallow - and that's usually before you add two humiliating defeats to Fiorentina and Chelsea in the same bloody week.

I'm not quite sure if the international break will be the perfect elixir for what's been ailing us, or if the time off will only allow the players to think about how dreadful they were last week.

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The bitter pill of defeat is always a tough one to swallow - and that's usually before you add two humiliating defeats to Fiorentina and Chelsea in the same bloody week.

I'm not quite sure if the international break will be the perfect elixir for what's been ailing us, or if the time off will only allow the players to think about how dreadful they were last week.

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Clint Dempsey can expect to start for a full-strength Fulham team when Basel come for a visit while Tim Howard looks to notch a fifth straight shut-out on Everton's trip to Belarus. Click to continue reading...

CSKA Moscow vs Besiktas

Turkish side Besiktas are making the always difficult trip to Russia to face Moscow. They come off a 1-0 loss to Manchester United and will be keen to get a point in Russia.

To do so they will have to find the back of the net, something they have had problems doing.

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Watching video highlights of new signing Alberto Aquilani during his time at AS Roma, it's easy to get excited about him finally getting the chance to step foot on the pitch. The biggest signings of the summer next to Glen Johnson has been held out of training with the first team as he recovers from ankle surgery that should hopefully (fingers crossed) allow him to come back at 100-percent when Rafa finally gives him the ok.

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Watching video highlights of new signing Alberto Aquilani during his time at AS Roma, it's easy to get excited about him finally getting the chance to step foot on the pitch. The biggest signings of the summer next to Glen Johnson has been held out of training with the first team as he recovers from ankle surgery that should hopefully (fingers crossed) allow him to come back at 100-percent when Rafa finally gives him the ok.

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Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott is back with the rest of the squad. After facing months on the sidelines due to a back injury, the youngster may feature in this weekend's game away at Fulham.

Speaking of the injury, the former Southampton player said:

I've trained all week, hopefully I will play some part at the weekend and then we will go from there," he highlighted.

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Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott is back with the rest of the squad. After facing months on the sidelines due to a back injury, the youngster may feature in this weekend's game away at Fulham.

Speaking of the injury, the former Southampton player said:

I've trained all week, hopefully I will play some part at the weekend and then we will go from there," he highlighted.

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Hodgson, though, was not discouraged. "It was a marvellous performance," he said. "I couldn't have asked for more from them, they played absolutely superbly. I have a pretty good idea now of which players I can trust."

Normally we wouldn't mind going out of the Coca-Cola cup, but for the first time in a long time Fulham are able to rest the first team without punting the game, and it has been refreshing to see the likes of Baird and Smalling show what they're made of.

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