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.

With just a day left in the transfer window, the normal last minute rush that has been so common in past years looks non existent with many clubs choosing to remain very quite in this January.

Carlos Tevez's big money transfer that we were all keenly looking forward to failed to materialise after City refused to back down on their €30 million buying price.

By Alan Duffy

Everton 1-1 Blackburn Rovers Premier League 21 January 2012

Steve Kean's Blackburn produced another impressive performance at Goodison on Saturday, securing a fully deserved point.

Both sides threathened early on, with Rovers' Scott Dann seeing his header come back off the woodwork.

By Alan Duffy

Queens Park Rangers 3-1 Wigan Athletic Premier League 21 January 2012

After seeing his side produce an impressive performance against Wigan at Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon, new QPR boss Mark Hughes surely wouldn't have cared what his players were Tweeting about.

By Joel Greenwaldt
Each week during the season I'll post an updated MISL Power Ranking which will be based off the cumulative results and current strength of each team. Here's my rankings heading into Week 10.
#1 Milwaukee Wave (8-1, 1st Place MISL Central Division)
Milwaukee dropped their first game of the season to the Baltimore Blast on Saturday afternoon by a score of 9-4.

By Alan Duffy

Fulham Manchester United Premier League 21st December 2011

Manchester United kept up the pressure on their City rivals with an impressive performance at Craven Cottage against an admittedly appalling Fulham side.

Sitting five points off the coveted Champions League places, Liverpool will look to gain maximum points in their upcoming fixtures. If they can stay close to fourth over the coming weeks, with the January transfer window looming and Dalglish being clear they have the option to buy or not and Steven Gerrard's return imminent; there will surely be the belief and potential within the club to be genuine contenders for fourth, right to the final whistle of the season.

By Alan Duffy

Manchester City 5-1 Norwich City Premier League 3rd December 2011

The league-leaders kept their 100% home record this season with a goalfest at the Etihad Stadium against Norwich. However, it took City over half-an-hour to break the deadlock, courtesy of a superb piece of skill by Sergio Aguero.

Alexis looks to continue form against Levante (Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images)

On Saturday FC Barcelona look to get back on track following their suprising loss to Getafe last weekend. Though they put up an impressive performance mid-week against Rayo Vallecano winning easily 4-0 it will be imporant to keep the momentum rolling going into a midweek Champions League match up against BATE Borisov followed by the monsterous clash against Real Madrid.

Liverpool first-team coach Steve Clarke has hailed the professionalism of Chelsea goalscoring hero Maxi Rodriguez.
The Argentine midfielder had made just one fleeting Premier League substitute appearance this season before being thrust into Kenny Dalglish's starting XI for Sunday's important clash at Stamford Bridge.

Steven Gerrard believes a move to Liverpool has provided Stewart Downing with the perfect stage on which to showcase his undoubted talent.
The Reds spent big in order to lure the winger away from Premier League rivals Aston Vila over the summer, with £20million invested in a player they hope will flourish on Merseyside.

Brittany Walder (Waukesha West) turned in another impressive performance, but it wasn't enough to extend UW-Oshkosh's season.

The senior goalkeeper made 10 saves as the Titans lost to No. 12 Washington-St. Louis 2-0 in a second-round match of the NCAA Division III women's soccer tournament Sunday night in St.

By Ed Bishop

Like parents sitting around a table looking at pictures of their young children Missouri Comets fans are looking at their team and saying, "Boy, what a difference a year makes." A year ago today ended the five plus years that indoor soccer fans in the Kansas City area had endured without an MISL franchise as the Comets were rechristened before a packed house at the Independence Events Center.

From the title, most people will think I'm going to big up our own Chu Young Park based on his impressive performance in the Carling Cup against Bolton on Tuesday, but actually, I want to take this opportunity to mention an unsung hero from the same game, Yossi Benayoun.

Man United have utilised Ji Sung Park as an attack based defender for the last few years now to great effect.

Sunday's 3-1 victory over QPR at White Hart Lane could kick start a bright future for Tottenham Hotspur. With the form and style of a top team, Spurs absolutely dominated the first 45 minutes and should have gone in at the break with at least double the two goals scored by Gareth Bale and Rafael Van der Vaart.

After Aaron Ramsey's impressive performance against Chelsea on Saturday, I thought it's worth to take a look at how the Welshman has progressed this season compared to last season's breakout player, Jack Wilshere. It's not a fair comparison, considering that Wilshere played almost the full season barring an injury out here and there.

LFCCTV: Carroll v West Brom

Andy Carroll netted to cap an impressive performance as Liverpool beat West Brom 2-0 on Saturday and LFC TV Online subscribers can now relive the best bits of the No.9′s display.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-10-30 10:40:38 from: Liverpool FC

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

After watching his two performances for Chelsea this season where he has started and played the full games, I think we have all realised that we have found an absolute gem in Oriol Romeu. Brave enough to leave Barcelona and come over here when he realised that life would be difficult with Mascherano and Busquets ahead of him, he has really made a big impression here in just two games.

It may not have lived up to Sir Alex Ferguson's billing as the greatest match-up in English football but Liverpool's draw at home to Manchester United was typically not without incident.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was denied a dream return to the starting line-up when his free-kick midway through the second half was cancelled out by substitute Javier Hernandez's late header.

• Vote for Xavi to win the GoldenFoot Award here - you've only got today to do it and he's up against Samuel Eto'o, Raul, Casillas and his own teammate, Puyol! Come ON chicas & tipooos, if there's anybody who deserves an individual award, it's the Midfield Maestro from 'outer space' (Thanks, boys of Bate Borisov!

Match Review: Brighton 1 Liverpool 2

Liverpool continued their Carling Cup campaign with a deserved win over Brighton in the third round last night. The encounter at the Amex Stadium was billed as a potential upset, given the home side's bright form since their return to the Championship, but goals from Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt ensured the Reds' progress, despite a late penalty from Ashley Barnes.

The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team hardly gave Drake a shot at winning Friday night.

The Badgers limited the Bulldogs to just four shots in 90 minutes, and sophomores Nick Janus, Joey Tennyson (Menomonee Falls) and Trevor Wheeler scored in a 3-1 victory at the Illinois-Chicago Classic.

Photo courtesy of UCLA media relations

By ADAM SERRANO

UCLA midfielder Kelyn Rowe knows a thing or two about trying to live up to high expections.

Rowe, who will have no shortage of professional options after his sophomore season with the Bruins, starred for the United States Under-20 national team during its failed attempt to qualify for the Under-20 World Cup, scoring three goals and one assist in leading the U.

Made my first trip to see a match at the Emirates today to watch Arsenal play Swansea. Luckily I saw Arsenal win 1-0. But it was far from an impressive performance by the Gunners.

Yes they won via an Arshavin goal, but Swansea really should have equalized late in aded time when Danny Graham shot over from the edge of the six yard box.

Made my first trip to see a match at the Emirates today to watch Arsenal play Swansea. Luckily I saw Arsenal win 1-0. But it was far from an impressive performance by the Gunners.

Yes they won via an Arshavin goal, but Swansea really should have equalized late in aded time when Danny Graham shot over from the edge of the six yard box.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan has had a big problem with "parasites" for the last six months, that's according to Black Cats' boss Steve Bruce. However, those of you hoping to see the Ghana striker on an edition of Celebrity Embarrassing Bodies (a series that really should exist) will be disappointed.

It has been a long road to international credibility for Stewart Downing but six years after making his debut for England he might just have found it.
Fabio Capello started with the Liverpool winger in Sofia on Friday night, promoting him ahead of the Manchester City pair of James Milner and Adam Johnson, and he could be here to stay.

Roberto Soldado struck twice in the final three minutes at the Mestalla to complete his hat-trick and give Valencia a dramatic 4-3 victory over Racing Santander in their Primera Division opener.

Soldado had put Los Che ahead in the first minute, but he put through his own net to level things up six minutes later and Lautaro Acosta added a second goal for Racing in the 14th minute.

Funny how you can look at the same thing in different ways. Last Thursday at the Cottage Clint Dempsey headed a third and there we were thinking 'that's nice' and dreaming ahead to where we might end up in the group stages. Then tonight the same two teams had it out in Ukraine and Fulham can thank their lucky stars that they didn't lose the tie.

U.S. MNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann will take charge of his second and third games for the USA next month.
U.S. Men's National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has named a squad of 24 players to prepare for the upcoming friendlies against Costa Rica and Belgium. The MNT Blog asked Klinsmann for a few thoughts on the roster and the team's upcoming games:
On Costa Rica:
"Playing Costa Rica is an exciting opportunity.

Eric Lichaj scored the game winner and Brad Guzan made two saves and held a clean sheet to lead Aston Villa to a 2-0 win over League Two side Hereford in Carling Cup action at Villa Park today. Lichaj's goal was the game winner and came in the 80th minute off a goal-mouth scramble. Guzan made two saves for Villa.

By DAVID MOSSE

No country has been more irritated by the emergence of Spain in recent years than Brazil, which always took for granted being the main attraction at every tournament and the great purveyor of The Beautiful Game. A quarterfinal clash at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup might not seem like much, but Brazilians hope Sunday's triumph over Spain in penalty kicks was a small step towards putting their universe back in order.

Photo by ToniCM_38

So far this summer, Juventus has spent money all over the pitch, already adding ten players to their books as of this writing. But despite spending somewhere in the range of 70 million euros on new transfer fees and making permanent loan deals from last season, the biggest buzz the Turin giants created this offseason comes from a free signing.

Germany edged Brazil 3-2 in the pick of the midweek international matches with Mario Gotze in particular weighing in with an impressive performance. The pair famously contested the 2002 World Cup which the South Americans won 2-0, and their latest showdown proved to be even more of a spectacle at the Mercedes-Benz-Arena in Stuttgart.

Columnist: Ram GurungNepalifootball.com
Nepal into the semisNepal U16 entered the semis by winning against Sri Lanka U16 side which opened the flood gate in the second half of the encounter. The defeated side will be playing the playoff against the Maldives after the semi finals of the tournament.

In their first league game after the Russian Premier League midseason break, Eugene Starikov and Tom Tomsk put on an impressive performance in an important road win over Kuban Krasnodar.

Liverpool Hit Six Past Malaysian XI

Liverpool finished their two game tour of Asia with an entertaining 6-3 victory over a Malaysian XI in Kuala Lumpur today. Two goals each from David N'Gog and Maxi Rodríguez, as well as Charlie Adam's first in a Liverpool shirt and one from Dirk Kuyt ensured that the large and vocal crowd were sent home happy.

By Dr. Raf Crowley By now, we all know the situation – win, and this team escapes the shadows of the '99 squad. Lose, and while this tournament will be deemed an "impressive" performance, especially compared with two consecutive semifinal exits, disappointment will reign supreme. In light of this, let's talk tactics from France and [.

By CALEB SONNELAND

The United States U-17 National Team was dumped out of the U-17 World Cup by a lethal German side that showed little mercy in dismissing the States with a 4-0 win.

Despite registering only one less effort at goal (15) than the Germans (16), the United States couldn't capitalize on its chances and fell behind 3-0 going into the half thanks to goals from Koray Guenter (20'), Mitchell Weiser (40'), and Samed Yesil (43').