Some good news for Madrid fans as arch rivals Barcelona slumped to a 3-2 loss Osasuna yesterday forcing Barca coach Pep Guardiola to admit that his side is now at the mercy of Madrid and only a slip up from the capital club would give his team a lifeline.

Madrid could go 10 points clear at the top of the table should they win at home to Levante today an opportunity i am sure Mourinho would not want to miss.

Big blow for AC Milan's title hopes as striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been suspended for three matches for his red card against Napoli, meaning he will miss the top-of-the-table clash with Serie A leaders Juventus.

Ibra was sent off midway through the second half of Sunday's 0-0 draw with Napoli at the San Siro after he slapped opponent Salvatore Aronica in an off-the-ball incident.

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.

Robin van Persie's on an English Premier League record-setting pace this season as his hat trick against a woeful Blackburn team on Feb. 4 upped his league total to 22 goals in 24 games. He's already eclipsed last year's Golden Boot scoring record of 20 which was shared by Manchester City's Carlos Tevez and Dmitar Berbatov of Manchester United and his own mark of 18 EPL goals.

Clint Dempsey did it again.

Dempsey scored another goal for Fulham, tallying the opener in the Cottagers' 1-1 draw with West Brom on Wednesday. Costa Rican international Bryan Ruiz slipped Dempsey a pass inside the area, and the American turned and finished with a right-footed strike in the 69th minute to add to his current run of form.

Despite spending over 100m on attacking players over the last year, Liverpool football club have scored less league goals than relegation fodder like Bolton and Blackburn. Clearly, the club needs a new striker, and Anfield legend Steve Nicol believes that Fulham striker Clint Dempsey could do a great job for Liverpool.

Clint, to coin the phrase from former SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick, is 'en fuego'. Dempsey dumped in three second half goals as Fulham raced to a 5-2 victory against Newcastle this afternoon.
Deuce becomes the first American to score a hat trick in the Premier League - did we mention he scored three against Charlton in an FA Cup match two weeks ago?

African All-Stars: 7 Players to watch at Africa Cup of Nations 2012 is a post from: Just Football

"I think it is a responsibility for every proper club in Europe to go to the Africa Cup of Nations to see what the market brings and what hidden talents are running around in Africa," Hoffenheim scout Lutz Pfannenstiel told the BBC on the eve of the African Cup of Nations 2012.

When you think back to Andy Carroll shockingly leaving Newcastle last January 31st - Newcastle have made some significant progress. Alan Pardew great progress in last last 12 months Andy hasn't done too well at Liverpool in his first year there, but when he left Newcastle he had 11 league goals and looked to be the new face of the England team.

Yesterday's rumors about KC announcing the signing of Jacob Peterson turned from rumor to fact today as Sporting KC announced the signing of the 6 year MLS veteran. Peterson had been without a team since he was allowed to entry the re-entry draft by the San Jose Earthquakes. Peterson becomes the third player with a fairly long MLS career to join Kansas City this offseason, joining Bobby Convey and Pablo Nagamura.

Big money signings Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll have collectively scored only 3 league goals so far this season. Whatever way you slice it, that's not good enough, and Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes that Kenny Dalglish must try and solve the problem asap by doing some business in the January transfer market.

Lille forward Moussa Sow has spoken of his admiration for Liverpool, amidst rumours that the 25-year-old is thinking of leaving the French champions during the January transfer window.
Sow was the top scorer in Ligue 1 last season with 25 league goals as he helped his side win the title but in recent weeks reports have suggested that he may look to leave and now the Senegal international has spoken in glowing terms about Liverpool.

Lille's determination to sign Joe Cole on a permanent deal could see coveted striker Moussa Sow head in the opposite direction.
Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish has made no secret of his desire to strengthen his attack following a meagre return of 24 goals in 20 Barclays Premier League games this season.

by Adam Bate

Jordan Rhodes has certainly got the Premier League's attention. As many as eight top flight clubs were represented at Huddersfield Town's game against Wycombe Wanderers last week. And they are likely to have been impressed – the striker bagged five goals in a remarkable display.

Mail: Andy Carroll: Newcastle ready bid for Liverpool striker

Newcastle are ready to offer Liverpool flop Andy Carroll a sensational exit from his Anfield nightmare by tabling a bid for their former striker. Carroll has scored four league goals for Reds.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2012-01-11 00:04:25 from: The Mail

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

Mirror: Bundesliga blog: Could Podolski and Goetze move to the Premier League?

Welcome to our German football blog, courtesy of BundesligaFussball's Ross Dunbar *** Over a week into the January transfer window and it is no surprise to see a host of clubs in the English Premier League eyeing up some of Germany's top talents.

Sixty league goals in 105 league matches for Huddersfield Town would suggest a definitive yes, but hat-tricks against the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Preston and Exeter can't be compared to the opposition faced in England's top division. Being an...
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Wigan forward Victor Moses is being linked with a possible move away from the DW Stadium after the player's agent revealed that he is yet to sign a new contract.
The former Crystal Palace player initially struggled to make the step up to the Premier League but this season has rediscovered his best form and has been one of Wigan's best players.

By Alan Duffy

Another day, another police identity parade

On loan from Arsenal, where he struggled to live up to the (self-inflated) hype surrounding his ability, Nicklas Bendtner has been nothing more than average for Sunderland so far this season.

By Chris Wright

"Ba! Huh! What did he sign for? Absolutely nuthin'! Sing it again y'all!"

16 goals in his last 16 Premier League appearances, 15 league goals in total this season (over half of Newcastle's cumulative haul), something like 24 in 28 since his move to England.

So, how's that crossing toward Carroll thing going?
Through the first 17 league games, Liverpool averaged just under 19 crosses per match. In the three since, Liverpool are averaging exactly 35 crosses per match, with 43 against Blackburn, 26 against Newcastle, and 36 against City.

Ever since Pep said this: "Because of the injury of Villa we're thinking about promoting Soriano. Problem is he then can't go back to the B-team" in his press conference today, I've been getting q lot of questions about Soriano and his possible promotion. I'm going to address hopefully everything here, adapted from the transfer piece I wrote last summer.

Arsenal are set to offer their former striker Thierry Henry a 2 month loan deal this January after the 34 year old impressed Arsene Wenger during his recent training spell with the club.

Henry is regarded as the club's best striker having scored an impressive 226 goals for Arsenal in a span of 8 years making him the club's all time leading top scorer.

Kenny Dalglish warns against too great expectations of Steven Gerrard

• Midfielder is back after illness and injury • Andy Carroll set to play against former club Kenny Dalglish has warned against expecting too much, too soon from Steven Gerrard, who is back fit again and available to face Newcastle United for Liverpool at Anfield on Friday night.

With just a point separating the two sides, Liverpool take on Newcastle United at Anfield on Friday, knowing the importance of a win.
After six games without victory, Newcastle beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at the Reebok Stadium on Monday.
Alan Pardew's men had only taken two points from their previous six games, before Hatem Ben Arfa and Demba Ba scored in the second half to topple Bolton and get within a point of sixth-placed Liverpool on the English Premier League table.

Since it'd been a few days without a post I figured I'd give you a second post today as well on stats. This time it's all competition goal scorers for Sporting KC in their history. First here are some previous years for you.
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
On the list this year we add two new players to the list this season, other than that we see no movement on the list this year.

More stats to update for you. This time it's the leading scorers in MLS play now through the 2011 season. First here are links back to the previous years.
1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010
One new player joins the list this year, and another continues to shoot up the list.

Robin van Persie is the son of a sculptor and a painter and his inherited creative genius shines through on the football pitch. Beginning his career at Excelsior Rotterdam, he moved on to Feyenoord and earned caps for the Dutch u19 and u21 teams.

Robin always dreamed of playing for his hometown club and then moving on to Arsenal or a small club in Catalonia to further his career.

Demba Ba has been a revelation for Newcastle this season. Demba Ba - in action on Wednesday night Demba Ba has a good 13 league goals for Newcastle this season and he has scored 10 goals more than any other Newcastle player. The Senegal striker is also join second in the Premier League scoring charts and this is that the goals chart looks like in the Premier League right now: Van Persie Arsenal 16 Ba [.

One more new stat before I start doing some updating on some of the stats I already had been tracking. Today it's a look at landmark goals for KC. I'm tracking league goals, competitive goals, both home and away. I'm also tracking US Open Cup, playoff, and international goals, but those 3 won't be listed here simply due to lack of many landmark goal numbers.

A shaky performance, but we won. So, Yay?

An early pelanty goal from Robin van Persie, taking his tally to 34 goals in the calendar year, and a late goal from Yossi Benayoun (from a header, no less) secured a nervous, underperforming, but ultimately crucial midweek win at Villa Park today.

As Torres and Carroll flop, how Demba Ba continues to shine

Just over a year ago, £85million changed hands between Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle. Rarely, even by Premier League standards, has so much been spent on so little. Going into this weekend's fixtures, Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres had mustered just 11 league goals between them in 2011.

Bayern Munich vs Koln 3-0 Highlights Video 2011 Goals Gomez Alaba Kroos Ribery Red Card is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Bayern Munich vs Koln 3-0 Highlights Video 2011 Goals Gomez Alaba Kroos Ribery Red Card is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Bayern Munich vs Koln 2011 ( FC Bayern Koln video below) Final score and result:- Bayern vs Koln 3-0 ( Mario Gomez, David Alaba, Toni Kroos) Allianz Arena, Munich- [.

By Geoff Reid

Saturday
Blackburn Rovers vs West Brom from Ewood Park, Blackburn
Last weekend ended up being a real kick in the teeth for Blackburn and manager Steve Kean, who were winning 1-0 away at Sunderland up until the 84th minute when they conceded two late goals losing 2-1 in Martin O'Neill's debut at the Stadium of Light.

PAOK vs Rubin Kazan 1-1 Highlights Video 2011 Europa League Vierinha Haedo Valdez is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

PAOK vs Rubin Kazan 1-1 Highlights Video 2011 Europa League Vierinha Haedo Valdez is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter PAOK vs Rubin Kazan 2011 ( PAOK Rubin 2011 video below) Final score and result:- PAOK vs Rubin Kazan 1-1 ( Vierinha/ Haedo Valdez) Stadio Toumbas- 15 December, 2011- Thursday- Europa [.

Anderlecht vs Lokomotiv Moscow 5-3 Highlights 2011 Europa League Video Goals Kljestan Sychev Wasilewski is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Anderlecht vs Lokomotiv Moscow 5-3 Highlights 2011 Europa League Video Goals Kljestan Sychev Wasilewski is a post from Soccer Blogger.

What are the odds Fernando Torres re-signs for Liverpool? Derek McGovern's Bets of the Day

There's a rumour that Fernando Torres could be leaving Chelsea in the January transfer window. It's not known if a fee will be involved. The Spaniard has scored three league goals in 25 games in a blue shirt – a poor return even by Everton standards.

Borussia Dortmund and Polish striker Robert Lewandowski is back in the frame again with Liverpool his most likely destination. Liverpool have been linked with many strikers with the transfer period looming on the horizon as Dalglish looks to conquer his attacking headaches.
Liverpool haven't been clinical enough in front of goal this campaign notching up 18 goals in 15 Premier League games.

For fans of American Sports, even at the college level, there is usually only one prize.

The players and teams in the major leagues may win their division and their conference but it means nothing if they don't win the ultimate prize and lift the Championship trophy. In England the phrase 'We can concentrate on the league' is a very familiar one and can be used in one of two ways.