Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

In what was a disappointing game somewhat dictated by the poor weather conditions, Stevenage came away with a well-earned point thanks to a late goal from substitute Darius Charles. Scunthorpe had taken the lead early in the second half when Garry Thompson latched onto a through ball from Mark Duffy and shot past Chris Day.

Major League Soccer will release the full schedule tomorrow at 1:00 PM CST but a couple of different outlets have combined to give us a picture of 10 of the 34 MLS Regular Season games. The bulk of this information comes from the Chicago Fire front office sending out a sneak peak E-mail this afternoon that included the 'Significant Six': six top games to amp up the excitement.

Aston Villa v Liverpool – as it happened

Liverpool scored from two early corners and strolled to victory against a poor, pretty much attack-free Aston Villa side Preamble: Aston Villa must carry particularly good memories for Liverpool fans. I'm not even a Liverpool fan, but I can remember half a dozen stonking moments between these two clubs.

Aston Villa v Liverpool minute-by-minute report

• Refresh this page for all the latest action • Ping your emails to simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk • Follow today's other live scores • Follow Simon on Twitter Preamble: Aston Villa must carry particularly good memories for Liverpool fans.

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- Two Year Flashback: Manager Jim Magilton Suspended.

MLS announced the dates for the 2012 home openers, including the dates for the Montreal Impact's home debut and the inaugural match at the Houston Dynamo's new stadium.

WEEK 1

• Saturday, March 10: Colorado Rapids, D.C. United, LA Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
• Sunday, March 11: Chivas USA, FC Dallas
• Monday, March 12: Portland Timbers

WEEK 2

• Saturday, March 17: Sporting Kansas City, Montreal Impact, Real Salt Lake
• Sunday, March 18: Philadelphia Union

WEEK 3

• Saturday, March 24: Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, New England Revolution, Toronto FC
• Sunday, March 25: New York Red Bulls

WEEK 10

• Saturday, May 12: Houston Dynamo (new stadium opener)

The matchups and the full schedule are expected to be released before the end of the year.

As I mentioned in the last hour I've been bowled over by the support I've got from tweetsport.co.uk
So it's a real treat to welcome Eilidh Donaldson of that parish as our final guest debater of the Scottish Football Blog blogathon.
Thanks again Eilidh - @tweetsportcouk
What a way to welcome Sunday's daylight.

From the Comets
The Comets once again faced an expansion team making their home debut. Once again, they relished playing the role of spoiler as they control play from the start and go home with a 13-4 win. Ryan Junge led the team with 5 points on two goals, Vahid Assadpour chipped in two of his own, Leo Gibson and newly signed Cristiano each had one as well.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice on his home debut as Tottenham hammered four past nine-man Liverpool to earn a morale-boosting first home win of the season.
Luka Modric opened the scoring with a blistering 20-yard strike before Charlie Adam picked up a second yellow card for a late foul on Scott Parker.

Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 Liverpool | Premier League match report

Liverpool have suffered in this corner of north London in recent times but never as badly as this. Their fifth consecutive White Hart Lane reverse saw them finish with nine players and a scoreline that might have been more embarrassing.

Tottenham Hotspur 4 Liverpool 0: match report

Emmanuel Adebayor scores twice on home debut as Spurs hammer four past nine-man Liverpool for first home win of season.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-09-18 15:44:23 from: The Telegraph

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

Adebayor 'delighted' with home debut

Former Arsenal striker scored twice in the 4-0 defeat of Liverpool

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-18 14:57:17 from: The Mirror

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

Photo: Paul Rudderow

As far as first starts go it was not what Zac MacMath would have wanted, but it was certainly not a contest he will forget anytime soon. The rookie goalkeeper will fondly remember the night the Union stormed back from 4-1 down in the second half to earn a gritty point.

Just thinking aloud. What chances Samir Nasri who broke a metacarpal bone in his hand while playing for France would have suffered a more serious ankle injury if he was at Arsenal. As it stands, he's good to go for City with a protective cast and should see his home debut against Wigan this weekend.

Soccer America reports on the early season large crowds in college soccer.
Clemson drew its largest regular-season crowd ever when 7,423 turned out Friday night at Historic Riggs Field to watch the Tigers beat South Carolina. The win snapped a four-game losing streak in their Palmetto State derby, one of the nation's top non-conference clashes held each year.

The competitive home debut of Andre Villas-Boas' Chelsea is here.

I stole this from somewhere. Thanks.

Join us from 12:30pm EDT for team news and the like.

A competitive home debut is at hand for our suave, animated (see below) leader. Chelsea host the Baggies at Stamford Bridge in Saturday's evening fixture.

Who: West Bromwich Albion
What: Premier League, Round 2
When: 20 August, 5:30pm local (12:30pm EST)
Where: Stamford Bridge (42,050)
How: Fox Soccer Channel (DirecTV 619, Dish 149)

Why: A point at the Britannia may have been half-acceptable not according to Villas-Boas, though but a similar result tomorrow will hardly be peachy.

Stewart Downing made his home debut at Anfield today in the 2-0 win over Valencia, watch his best bits of the game here!

read more

The fixture calendar has thrown Spurs and Everton together on the opening day of the new season and while we have generally had the best of this fixture in recent times, it always seems to throw up a classic.

Going back a few years, many will remember the last minute goals from Andy Turner in 1992/93 and then later on from Darren Caskey that won games that looked to be gone.

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park debuts tonight in KC. (Getty Images)

Last night things got off to an interesting start in Columbus as the Crew took down RSL 2-1 in a surprising result to some. The Crew came from behind to get the three points and moved up the standings in the Eastern Conference in the process.

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park debuts tonight in KC. (Getty Images)

Last night things got off to an interesting start in Columbus as the Crew took down RSL 2-1 in a surprising result to some. The Crew came from behind to get the three points and moved up the standings in the Eastern Conference in the process.

FC Tampa Bay made the long trek north to Edmonton for a Tuesday matchup with the expansion FC Edmonton club, but the shining Edmonton side ended the Florida club's three game unbeaten streak broken convincingly with a 4-0 win On Wednesday, the Puerto Rico Islanders hosted the NSC Minnesota Stars, with the two clubs splitting points after their 1-1 draw in Bayamon.

Masterclass

Our look back at the season that was continues with a focus on some of the good times. Key word being some.

Best match. This ain't best performance mind you. We're looking for the best game Chelsea were involved in all season win, lose or draw.

Article republished on businessofsoccer.com

As Philadelphia prepares for its sixth home match this weekend, the club can continue to anticipate setting records and steadily increasing its overall attendance throughout the remainder of its regular season. The average home attendance for 2011 has already surpassed that of the previous season with 18,044 supporters - less than five-hundred tickets short of a sold out crowd (anything over its maximum capacity of 18,500 at PPL Park).

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers will battle the Puerto Rico Islanders tonight Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium. The Islanders, the reigning Div 2 champions and also the reigning CFU Club Championship winners, are undefeated in the NASL so far this season winning 2 games away and another in their home debut.

The Forecast discusses Portland's stellar home debut before previewing the weekend fixtures.

The Portland Timbers will make their MLS home debut tonight at Jeld-Wen Field as the Timbers take on the Chicago Fire (11pm, ESPN2).

The Timbers are still looking for their first win of the season, and will look to do so against a Fire team that has gotten off to a decent start thanks the impressive play of forwards Diego Chaves and Gaston Puerari.

The Portland Timbers are preparing to make their historic MLS home debut on Thursday night at Jeld-Wen Field against the Chicago Fire on a night no Timbers fan will want to miss.

Don't have tickets for the big match? SBI and Golazo Energy Drink are teaming up to help some Portland-based SBI readers take in the historic night with the latest SBI Ticket Contest.

If you've been wondering when we'd have our next night-time edition of the SBI Live Q&A, tonight is that night.

If you can't make the day-time Q&As, then this is your chance to join us to discuss all things soccer. We'll have plenty to discuss, from today's big UEFA Champions League matches (on Fox Soccer Channel), to Wednesday's big Real Salt Lake-Colorado clash.

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- 45 Year Flashback: The Beginning Rodney Marsh's Home Debut for QPR.

Fresh off a resounding season opening win, a rejuvenated DC United heads to New England to take on a battered, but effective Revolution side making their home debut in Gillette Stadium. One thing is for certain in the way Ben ...

Celtic had a rather comfortable 3-0 home win over rivals Rangers in the SPL today with Gary Hooper grabbing a brace and Kris Commons making his home debut finishing the rout.

These games are usually tight and feisty but today it was rather a stroll for the Celts, the win puts them 8 points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL, however Rangers have two games less played than their rivals.

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Portland Timbers announced that the team has surpassed 11,000 season tickets sold for its inaugural Major League Soccer season in 2011. With today's announcement, fewer than 1,000 season tickets remain as the club plans to cap season ticket sales at 12,000 for its inaugural season.

Preston North End have clinched the signing of Fulham striker Eddie Johnson on loan. The American international has found playing time hard to come by at Craven Cottage, and his loan move to PNE represents a chance to prove himself in England.

"He has been renowned for goalscoring at many levels," PNE boss Phil Brown said of his new loanee.

Photos: Nicolae Stoian

In 2010, we embarked on a new journey. Our league debut was nationally televised. Our home opener drew nearly 35,000 fans. Then, while we waited for the opening of our new stadium we began an extended string of away games that demonstrated what can only be described as the season-long woeful state of our away form.

Dan Gosling could well make his home debut on Saturday against Tottenham. Dan Gosling in action for the Reserves recently Dan has looked very good since he's returned but it seems that Danny Guthrie will get the start as holding midfielder, so we expect to see Dan making his debut off the bench. Gosling [.

Manchester City have announced that they have signed Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg to a four and a half year deal and will wear the number 10 shirt. Dzeko is expected to make his City home debut against Wolves on January 15th.

In an interview on the Man City web site Dzeko said that he can't wait to start playing for City.