The Ivory Coast won their first match of the 2012 African Cup of Nations today, a 1-0 defeat of Sudan with Didier Drogba scoring the lone goal.

Curious as to their current FIFA ranking and who else might likely put up a fight against the Elephants, I looked it up. Learning that they rank 18th internationally didn't surprise, but the fact that only 5 other African countries make up the top 50 did.

The Ivory Coast won their first match of the 2012 African Cup of Nations today, a 1-0 defeat of Sudan with Didier Drogba scoring the lone goal.

Curious as to their current FIFA ranking and who else might likely put up a fight against the Elephants, I looked it up. Learning that they rank 18th internationally didn't surprise, but the fact that only 5 other African countries make up the top 50 did.

As the curtains draw open for the AFCON tournament, attention will definitely be on a number of players who are set to retire once a winner is revealed on February 12th.

For many it will mark an end to the golden generation of some of the continent's truly brightest talents but also the beginning for a new breed of stars who will look to carry on from where their predecessors left.

The stage is set for the 28th edition of the African Cup Of Nations that begins tomorrow in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon with two Group A fixtures between the hosts Equatorial Guinea and Libya in the early kick off and the eagerly awaited Senegal v Zambia clash in the late kick off.

The African Nations Cup kicks off this weekend, which provides a handy opportunity for under performing league players to show what they're about! Unfortunately, perennial favourites Egypt failed to qualify for this alongside Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Liverpool will take a 1-0 advantage back to Anfield after defeating Manchester City in their Carling Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
A first-half penalty from Steven Gerrard was all that separated the sides at the Etihad Stadium after City defender Stefan Savic clumsily felled a charging Daniel Agger in the box.

With Liverpool given a boost following the refusal of the FA hearing committee to reduce or resind Vincent Kompany's four game ban, plus the the lose of Yaya & kolo Toure's participation at The African Nation's Cup. Kenny Dalglish's team have a great opportunity to progress to the Carling Cup final.
We still have to be at our best to beat these guys as the likes of Nasri and Balotteli lie waiting in the wings.

Roberto, ditch Sheikh Mansour for Mitt Romney. He's got cash to give away.

The Italian is complaining that he's down to two central midfielders and one striker. James Milner and Nigel De Jong will start in the middle and Sergio Aguero patrols up front.

The Ivory Coast has refused his demand to release Yaya and Kolo Toure till after the Man Utd FA Cup showdown for their ACN campaign.

Big blow for manchester City ahead of this weekend's FA Cup tie with Manchester United after Ivory Coast coach Francois Zahoui rejected their request to play Yaya and Kolo Toure in Sunday's Manchester derby.

"Clubs know the rules," Zahoui told BBC Africa. "I'm expecting them [the Toures] for the Fifa deadline.

Roberto Mancini met with the media today ahead of this weekend's FA Cup derby with Manchester United. During the press conference, Mancini spoke about this weekend's match, and that he has asked the Ivory Coast manager to allow him to play Yaya and Kolo Toure against United in Sunday before reporting for Africa Cup of Nations duty.

Liverpool legend Steven Nicol has expressed his disappointment over Liverpool's ineffective performance against Manchester City last night.Kenny Dalglish's 'tactical' approach of hoofing balls up to lone Striker Andy Carroll was never going to be successful, especially when he was up against quality defenders like Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure.

In form Tottenham Hotspurs striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, who arrived in a loan deal from Manchester City apparently believes that his team might find a patch to catch up with City this January, mainly because of the African Nations Cup.

Adebayor is confident that the departure of Yaya Toure along with Kolo Toure to defend their respective country, Ivory Coast, in the upcoming competition set to be held at Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

The African Cup of Nations is just a couple of weeks away and Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor is already predicting a tough title challenge for Manchester City.

The Citizens are set to lose their most influential player of the season so far-Yaya Toure. Yaya who was also named as the African player of the Year 2011 has been in scintillating form for City helping them to a first place finish in the league for the first time in 82 years since Christmas 1929.

It's the greedy bastards vs. the cash-strapped, plucky underdogs!... except it really isn't, since Arsenal are a multi-million dollar organization.
Whatever, City still sucks.

Manchester City
League Form: 1st, 12-2-1 (yay!), 49 GF, 15 GA, +34 GD, 38pts
Home Form: 10P, 10W, 24 GF, 4 GA, +20GD
Last Meeting: Arsenal 0-1 Manchester City (November 29)

Ah.

Cool T? Surely not

Arsenal failed to qualify for the semi finals of the Carling Cup after a 1-0 defeat at home to the moneybags of the Premier League. $amir Na$ri was jeered and booed throughout. Just after 5 minutes before the whole stadium was standing because "stand up if you hate Na$ri" was the song doing the rounds.

I'm proud of the team today.

An Arsenal side composed mostly of our youth players and our second string benchwarmers did much better than anybody expected, outplaying a "reserve" Man City side that still had the likes of Nasri, Dzeko, Aguero, Johnson, and De Jong on the pitch and which likely cost more to assemble than 15 first XI's in the EPL.

The pre-match hype was all about squad rotation. Who of those gracing the benches of these deep squads was going to make their rare first team appearance tonight? For Manchester City, players like Nigel de Jong, Kolo Toure, and Adam Johnson were looking for a rare place in the side. For Arsenal, the troop of [.

Chasing after his former self, not the opponent

Carling Cup returns to the menu as the victors of tonight's game will seal their path into the semi final of this competition. It won't be so easy to win this year's competitions, well, compared to our run last season. Apart from Manchester City, there's still Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool still in this competition.

This is a tough one to call. Arsenal are very strong at home in the Carling Cup the last eight games ending in wins with a cumulative score of 23-3. On the other hand, City are probably the only club that can put out a second-string side that would not look far out of place in the Premiership.

For the visitors, Dzeko, Adam Johnson, Nigel De Jong, Kolo Toure, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Savic, and even Hargreaves might get a start.

Our very own JULES WHEELER was given a first-look, guided tour of the Arsenal's new state-of-the-art medical centre. Read her exclusive insight into just how manager Arsene Wenger has shaped the institution as he bids to gain insight into managing our players' fitness and how to better cope with the injuries that have blighted us in recent seasons.

Champions League action resumes tomorrow with some very interesting fixtures. Real Madrid host Lyon at the Bernabeu while Napoli travel to Munich to face in form Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.

However, the match that could prove decisive in Group A will be between EPL leaders Manchester City and Spanish side Villarreal.

Today all Gooners must do their duty. They must recall the greatness of the past and temporarily cast aside the divisions that recently have weakened the Arsenal Faith. If you feel that you can't then let me try to get you to understand why you support this club. What ever your age, I want you to recall the Arsenal Legends for whom a day like this was the day to sweat blood for the cause.

It will be raining stars at the Allianz Arena this evening as the visiting Manchester City have unleashed a strong starting XI against the powerful Bundesliga leaders, FC Bayern Munchen.

The back line of the Bavarian side includes former City defender Jerome Boateng while the front line of the Premier League's joint leaders includes Edin Dzeko, who rose to prominence with his sublime performances as a Wolfsburg player.

I take you back to the 94/95 season. Arsenal finished 12th in the Premier League. 6 points fewer, and they would have been relegated. It was a season riddled with scandal, with George Graham being sacked for accepting bribes and Paul Merson famously breaking down and admitting his cocaine and alcohol addiction.

Arsenal has long been associated with impregnable defences. Superb organization and fantastic man marking defenders were the hallmarks of many an Arsenal triumph over the years. To watch Arsene's defenders during the last two seasons have proven to be quite painful. Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn must all be wondering how it has gone so wrong.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Jon Super.

A wise Kickette once said, 'regard your team's gain as your gain, and your player's pain as your chance to feel him up (or down, depending on what options are available)'.

Based on the Manchester City physio's stupendous miracle work below Kolo Toure's belt, we're researching ways to offer a paid Kickette apprenticeship on his medical staff.

The next step for Financial Fair Play - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

It is fact that the gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in European football grows evermore larger. Last season in the English Premier League proved this adroitly when Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure reportedly earned more per week than the entire Blackpool squad.

In surprisingly quick fashion, Arsenal have signed Gervais Yao Kouassi. Instead of the customary Five month wait for Arsenal.com to announce the signing we all knew about, the have only had to wait one month. The signing has been done at a rumored 10.8million. We should all commend the publishers at Arsenal.

Since the arrival of their bottomless pit of money, Manchester City have spent vast sums of money to build a side capable of taking on Europe's best. Extortionate wages have been offered to some of the world's best players, and even those average players who have joined City have enjoyed lucrative pay rises.

So, the first 'big' Arsenal transfer deal of the summer took place yesterday and to nobody's surprise it was a player leaving, rather than one coming in.

Gael Clichy was sold to Manchester City for a fee believed to be around £7m. Not bad for a player in the final year of his contract and while many will paint the picture as Clichy being the first of a number of 'want-away' stars to depart, the truth is Arsenal were willing sellers.

Arsenal full-back Gael Clichy has moved to Premier League rivals Manchester City for a reported £7m. Clichy was entering the final year of his contract at the Emirates and refused to sign a new deal, meaning that Arsenal had to sell him thus summer or see him walk for free next year.

Clichy is Man City's first signing of the summer and said on the club's web site:

"I'm really happy to be joining such a great club.

Belly's not gonna get you Kolo Toure suffers from a "psychological obsession with his belly", according to an FA report on his failed drugs test. The Manchester City defender is currently serving a six-month ban after testing positive for a prohibited substance found in weight-loss water tablets. The FA report reads: "The context is that [.

The FIFA corruption investigation has reached its most prominent target.

President Sepp Blatter is now under investigation by FIFA for reportedly looking the other way at alleged bribes paid to Caribbean voters and not reporting the indiscretion despite knowing about it.

Manchester City defender Kolo Toure has been suspended from all football activity for six months. He will be able to join his first team squad members on September 2, 2011. The FA Regulatory Commission made the ruling today against Toure. The...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.

Kolo Toure made a terrible decision by taking a banned substance, and regardless as to whether it was intentional or not, he needs to be more responsible about what he puts into his own body.
Robbie Savage writes about how he feels that players need to be more paranoid about what they put into their own bodies.

The very important Swiss

This is the final stretch now. Only 13 more league games to go before the end of the campaign. There are no room for errors any more. We have already lost and drawn 5 games each. That is 25 points down the drain. The gap between us and Manchester United is now 4 points and United still have to come to the Grove.

Manchester City set their foot in the top of the premier league for at least one day after the Eastlands side escaped a thrilling match at home against Wolves in a game that marked the debut of City's new striker, Edin Dzeko.

Although the night was set to see Dzeko's first impression, it was Carlos Tevez that once again become the star for the Citizen after the Argentinian striker strike two goals on the night that helped the team took a 4-1 lead midway in the second half before the away team put up a fight by adding two goals in the last ten minutes.

I suppose the bizarre part of this story is the fact that a large haul of cannabis was found stuffed inside a painting of a famous footballer. That's large enough to make front page, headline news for its oddity and on a day where Adrian Mutu is making headlines for abandoning ship, no less (fancy that).

Roberto Mancini is in the firing line after once again sending his team out to play gilded opponents with one rather than three points the main aim.
Just like they did in the November home fixture against Manchester United, City opted to park the most expensive bus in world football in front of their goal and invite fellow title challengers to break them down.

Liverpool has made an enquiry to sign Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor.
After falling out of favour at Eastlands, and getting involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Kolo Toure, it is understood that Adebayor will be allowed to leave club, and Liverpool have expressed an interest in him, according to Sky Sports.