There are a number of indications from the Arsenal camp that there won't be any major signings arriving at the Emirates Stadium for the remainder of the winder transfer window.

For starters, manager Arsene Wenger has made it clear that the return of Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs to full training diminishes the need to seek a new full-back.

The buzz is Didier Drogba will be joining his Chelsea compatriot Nicholas Anelka in the Chinese Super League this summer for a whopping £270,000 a week. That kind of money for three years will amount to a nice retirement nest egg. Drogba has become an after thought with Roman Abramovich rooting for Fernando Torres to succeed so he can justify spending an £50m giveaway, the largest in sporting history.

Thomas Broich's importance to Brisbane Roar was always fairly clear but the club's recent losing streak has more than highlighted just how urgently they need the German back fit. Broich's absence from the team has coincided with a run of defeats – as predicted by numerous soccer betting tips that has the potential to undo all the hard work the club did on their way to a record 36-match unbeaten run.

By Joel GreenwaldtBaltimore Blast (5-3) vs. Missouri Comets (7-3)
Game Time: 12/16/2011 7:35PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
What needs to go right for the Blast:

• Play a full 60 minutes at home: In their two losses last weekend to the Missouri Comets and Syracuse Silver Knights respectively, the Baltimore Blast seemed to lack the focus to finish off their opponents.

Jermaine Jones and Schalke will try to put a stop to hated rivals Dortmund's tear through the league while Edson Buddle and Ingolstadt will look to break their long losing streak in Cottbus.

Firing Line: Not so gr-eight Fans spitting feathers as Martinez's losing streak goes on

Each week we bring you our latest chart of the managers under pressure, and those on Easy Street. Here's Sportsmail's sack-race rankings otherwise known as the Firing Line.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-11-11 00:03:17 from: The Mail

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

Wigan Woes Continue in '6-Pointer' Clash - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Halloween may have come and gone, but Wigan Athletic's form remains scary. After the Latics' 3-1 away loss to fellow strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers, the losing streak has stretched to eight Premier League games.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

For the second consecutive year, the Carolina Railhawks scored four goals in the return leg against the NSC Minnesota Stars. Only this time, it wasn't enough.

Minnesota advanced to the NASL championship series on penalty kicks despite losing a wild 4-3 game in Cary on Saturday.

Italian giants Inter Milan are going through a dry spell in the Serie A that has seen them pick up only 3 points from their last 5 league games. In fact, things are so bad for the Nerazzurri that yesterday's loss has left them only 1 point above the bottom 3.

This latest loss will only put more pressure to coach Claudio Ranieri who is looking to make a positive come back to coaching in the league after less than perfect stint with AS Roma .

Italian giants Inter Milan are going through a dry spell in the Serie A that has seen them pick up only 3 points from their last 5 league games. In fact, things are so bad for the Nerazzurri that yesterday's loss has left them only 1 point above the bottom 3.

This latest loss will only put more pressure to coach Claudio Ranieri who is looking to make a positive come back to coaching in the league after less than perfect stint with AS Roma .

Yesterday, Vancouver extended Real Salt Lake's losing streak to four games with a 3-0 win at BC Place. However, the talk of the match were two penalties called on RSL, one of which led to a red card for Collen ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

By ALAN LEDBETTER

This week in MLS, which was originally intended to be an international calendar break, was created due to games that were rescheduled throughout the year. There are three games this week, and with only three weeks left in the MFLS schedule, it is important that you don't lose ground due to players not playing.

So Wednesday's game didn't go exactly as planned. Unfortunately, despite earning the three points at home like the Timbers were supposed to, they abrely hung on to the single point against a struggling San Jose Earthquakes side. And this AFTER both Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA did the Portland Timbers a huge favor by beating/drawing their respective Eastern Conference sides.

Liverpool 2 Wolves 1: Luis Suarez strikes to end losing streak for Kenny Dalglish's men

Liverpool bounced back from their heavy defeat at the hands of Tottenham by claiming a narrow victory against Wolves at Anfield.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-09-24 15:51:19 from: The Mail

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

Former Arsenal captain Lee Dixon is backing his old side to come good against Blackburn Rovers this weekend. The defender turned pundit believes that the Gunners have turned a corner since their 8-2 thrashing at the hands of Manchester United three weeks ago.

"Our rehabilitation continued in midweek with a Champions League point at Borussia Dortmund.

The Philly Soccer Page " Preview: Union v Revolution

At 4-11-11, the New England Revolution hold the worst record in the east. And they hold the ignominious honor of being the team the Union most thoroughly thrashed this season.

The Philly Soccer Page " Things that make you go "Shhhh"

Freddy Adu said all the right things.

Steve Cherundolo and Hannover will try to keep their momentum alive against visiting Mainz while Timothy Chandler and Nurnberg can break their losing streak with a win against Bavarian rivals Augsburg.

Two teams that started the season as title contenders met at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night sorely needing victories, but only Real Salt Lake came away with the result they were looking for.

The New York Red Bulls continued their struggling ways, dropping a 3-0 result to a motivated RSL side.

In Chicago on Wednesday night, it was another ugly showing by the Union.

In 90 minutes of play, the Union managed one shot on goal. Fortunately, Veljko Paunovic made no mistake with the shot. Recording three shots on goal in six appearances, he has now scored two goals.

With a little time away from the emotions of the match, it is perhaps easier to accept that a point on the road is a good thing (even if three points are what should be expected when the Union plays one of its games in hand against a last place team).

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

No time was wasted spinning Wednesday night's dismal performance from the Union against last place Chicago with this tweet going out moments after the end of the game: "With the 1-1 draw, the Union extend their road unbeaten streak to four matches and avoid their first losing streak of the season.

Entering the match, the two sides came in limping. Vancouver were on a four match losing streak and San Jose had gone winless in six.San Jose's Strategy Frank Yallop started with a 4-2-3-1 formation, using Wondolowski on the left side instead of as a strike partner for Lenhart. Lenhart's job was to hold up the ball and he took quite a pummeling doing so.

The Portland Timbers faced their Cascadia rivals, the Seattle Sounders, on July 10 hoping to break their losing streak and send the Sounders faithful hope disappointed. After taking a 2 to 1 lead late in the second half, however, the Timbers defense failed to hold the lead, and the Sounders scored two goals late to pull out a 3 to 2 victory in front of a packed JELD-WEN Field.

A tie on the road against the best team in the league should feel satisfactory. But facing a third-string goalkeeper, drawing a penalty and generally outplaying the Los Angeles Galaxy for much of the match, the Seattle Sounders 0-0 tie does not feel as satisfying as it probably should.

The big reason for that is probably Fredy Montero's failed penalty.

The New England Revolution managed to break their losing streak but were unable to find a victory against Toronto FC tonight as the two sides battled to a scoreless draw. There were chances on both sides but the game was truly characterized by haphazard play and poor decision-making in the final third.

Hannah Peterson's second half goal was enough to keep the Colorado Rush close to the Pali Blues on Saturday, but it wasn't enough to close the gap on the visitors from California.

Defender Elizabeth Eddy and midfielder Mariah Nogueira gave the Blues a two-goal first half cushion. While Colorado staged a comeback in the second half, generating four corners and two shots on goal during the second 45 minutes, the Rush was unable to close on the Blues.

Well, it's official, the Portland Timbers are now on a losing streak. The longest they've had yet this season, in fact. While Saturday's game was a better, stronger, and more coordinated effort than games prior it simply wasn't enough to keep the team from losing it's third straight game in a row.

Two and a half months ago, the Portland Timbers kicked off their inaugural MLS season with a defeat. Not just any defeat, mind you, with a harrowing 3-1 loss where the opposing team dominated almost every aspect of the pitch. That team was tonight's foe, the Colorado Rapids.

It was a harrowing experience for those of us who thought that the pre-season would be indicative of the regular season.

Daniel Stevens and Kemi Kings broke free from their losing streak with a win over Espoo while Jeremy Vuolo and AC Oulu were held to a draw against visiting HIFK.

It's been a long 2 and a half months, but it's finally coming to an end tomorrow when KC ends their 10 game road trip in Toronto. KC ended their long losing streak last week in Colorado with a 1-1 draw against the defending champs. Toronto comes into this game on the backs of a humiliating 6-2 loss to Philadelphia at home.

So my original prediction of the team needing 10 points on this road trip can now no longer happen. But at least KC ended their long term losing streak in league play as they came from behind to draw with the Colorado Rapids, 1-1 out in Colorado. KC came out strong from the start and put good pressure on the Rapids.

Colorado Rapids draw their fifth game in a row with a 1-1 draw with Sporting Kansas who themselves stopped a 5 ame losing streak.

There are only 2 games left on the seemingly never ending road trip for Kansas City. They head to the Rockies this weekend to take on the MLS Champion, Colorado Rapids. The team should have their spirits lifted after the 5-0 win over New England on the midweek, and should have some confidence heading into the game.

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So that was how the season ended for Real Madrid. Sadly, it's another bridesmaid finish for us with the eternal rival taking all the plaudits and the bigger one, among the 2 domestic titles that were up for grabs at the start of the season. Nevermind that the Copa Del Rey trophy pre-Sergio Ramos looks far more elegant to the gangly and grotesque-looking La Liga trophy (complete with studs) – winning La Liga is still the ultimate proof that Barcelona this season were the better team.

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So that was how the season ended for Real Madrid. Sadly, it's another bridesmaid finish for us with the eternal rival taking all the plaudits and the bigger one, among the 2 domestic titles that were up for grabs at the start of the season. Nevermind that the Copa Del Rey trophy pre-Sergio Ramos looks far more elegant to the gangly and grotesque-looking La Liga trophy (complete with studs) – winning La Liga is still the ultimate proof that Barcelona this season were the better team.

.
So that was how the season ended for Real Madrid. Sadly, it's another bridesmaid finish for us with the eternal rival taking all the plaudits and the bigger one, among the 2 domestic titles that were up for grabs at the start of the season. Nevermind that the Copa Del Rey trophy pre-Sergio Ramos looks far more elegant to the gangly and grotesque-looking La Liga trophy (complete with studs) – winning La Liga is still the ultimate proof that Barcelona this season were the better team.

Yes I'm using a Wizards of Oz reference for this weekend's Sporting KC vs Seattle Sounders game. KC is winless in 6 now after last weekend's 4-1 loss to LA. Seattle comes in on a losing streak of their own, as they are winless in 3, the last 2 being draws in Columbus and home vs Portland. The Sounders have plenty of injury issues to deal with as two of their top attackers this season, Steve Zakuani and O'Brien White are out with injury currently.

Sporting KC's losing streak reached 4 games Saturday night after a 4-1 loss against the Galaxy in Los Angeles.

Things appeared to be going KC's way early after an own goal by the Galaxy in the 39th minute put Sporting up 1-0. The tide turned quickly, however, as Landon Donovan scored a minute before and a minute after halftime to put LA up for good.

by: Rick Allen
Quarter Volley
May 5, 2010
D.C. United took to the field at RFK Stadium last night looking to erase the memories of April, which saw the team win just one of its seven matches in all competitions, including a three-match overall losing streak to conclude the month.

In preperation for tonights home match agianst the Seattle Sounders FC, check out this Q&A with MLS leading scorer, Charlie Davies.
Though it is still early in the MLS season (7 weeks in) United Head Coach Ben Olsen will be looking to mix up spots in tonights lineup in an attempt to stop the current losing streak and hopefully slow down the rate at which United have been surrendering goals.

Fire forward Diego Chaves -- Getty ImagesBRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- With the pressure mounting on the Chicago Fire to produce a positive result following three straight defeats, the home side held a late lead but could not hang on en route to a 1-1 draw against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday in front of 12,473 at Toyota Park.