Arsenal head into Sunday's FA Cup fourth round clash with Aston Villa on the back of three consecutive league defeats, but they have still been deemed the favourites by many European bookmakers to emerge victorious.

Arsenal and Villa last played an FA Cup match nearly 29 years ago at the good old Highbury, where the Gunners progressed courtesy of a 2-0 win.

For Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard, the 2003 Confederations Cup in France was more than just another round of games for the U.S. It was the first major tournament overseas for both of them and led to huge opportunities in their careers. Since the U.S. Men's National Team is back in France, ussoccer.

Today's Reserve Game has so many different storylines. There's O'Brian White's probable return to the lineup. There's the attempt by Seattle to remain perfect in this lower level competition, as they are currently 7-0-0 with a +8 Goal Differential. Is the game open to the public or not? Which seems like it should have a simple answer, but there were conflicting reports yesterday, and the Vancouver Whitecaps statement on the subject provides little clarity.

French club Lille OSC is considering a late move for Liverpool winger Milan Jovanovic, according to the Daily Star.
The Serbia international's transfer to Anderlecht has stalled, as the Belgian side is unwilling to match Jovanovic's colossal wages at Anfield - a staggering £100,000 per week if the Guardian is to be believed - though both parties claim they still hope the switch will go through.

Liverpool 4: Poulsen 19′, N'Gog 22′, Coady 72′, Carroll 85′
Guangdong 3: Steer 46′, Lin 90′, Hongbo 92′

And so a new season begins. Or at least the road to it does. Certainly without the extended break forced by the European Championships and World Cup in recent years it doesn't feel like as much of a wait as in the past, when half the players would have just now been starting into their short summer breaks following international commitments.

Liverpool to offload Paul Konchesky and Milan Jovanovic

• Left-back will be allowed to join Leicester City for £1.5m • Olympiakos, Anderlecht and Lille interested in Serb Liverpool hope to start clearing their deadwood this week with Paul Konchesky considering a move to Leicester City and Lille keen on signing Milan Jovanovic.

All press is good press, right?

Not in the case of the drubbing the USMNT received from Spain on Saturday night. After the US B-squad was run off the field by Spain in a contest that was about as one-sided as possible, Tuesday's Gold Cup match versus Canada was the convenient excuse for the team's performance.

Swansea's Sinclair deserving of England call? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Anointing a youngster "future England regular" is an exercise both in optimism and presumption. There have been several recent nominees for the position future England star from Jermaine Defoe, through Jack Wilshere, Andy Carroll and even Adam Johnson.

During the league season, Liverpool's senior squad members traipsing off to their respective national sides is just a notch below a Joe Cole wind sprint on things I enjoy watching. There's the worry about injury, the predictably suffocating nationalism from Martin Samuel, and, more than anything, a few weeks without football for Liverpool.

When you train for an event or for a full season or whatever, you'd like the curve to look something like this: Start slowly with a lightweight foe, graduated to mid-level competition and then ramp up to the high-quality stuff.

Well, the U.S. national team's big summer looks like an inverted curve.

NEW YORK, NY Consistent with US Club Soccer's goal of providing a vehicle through which clubs can offer life-long soccer to their members, the organization has announced the formation of the National Adult Leagues U-20 Division. US Club Soccer's National Adult Leagues is a program comprised of high-quality, competitive and low-cost local leagues for [.

Singapore, 27 January 2011 – In what can only be described as a major development in Singapore football, regional retailing giant Courts announced today that it has signed on to become the official title sponsor of Young Lions Football Club, a team currently featuring in the S.League. With immediate effect, the team will be known as the Courts Young Lions.

(The content of this entry are provided by SPRG and Fulford PR, the PR agencies for Courts[Singapore] and Vanda Sports Group respectively)
(P.S: The copyrights of the images depicted in this blog entry belong to Vanda Sports Group.)
(Pictured above) Members of the Courts Young Lions with their new jersey.