Africa
Arguably the headline match of the day was the special play-off match between Algeria and Egypt to decide the final World Cup qualifier from Africa.
Both teams had finished with identical records in Group 3 of the final qualifying round which led to this hastily-arranged one-off match in Sudan to decide the winner. Click to continue reading...

"I offered to shave off my beard and put on some make-up and then I'd have looked like my missus!"
Derby County's Robbie Savage after turning up at the airport with his wife's passport for a friendly in the Netherlands.

"I was joking on the sidelines saying 'You Americans have been dying to get it to four quarters and you finally got it! Click to continue reading...

It's a bit early to be making broad statements about the title challengers, but broad statements promote debate, and I'm all about the debating. This season will be a 2 horse race between Chelsea and Arsenal for the premier league.

Man Utd simply lack any flair what so ever, Liverpool sadly have blown it by not having enough players who can play football, and Manchester City don't seem to have the right manager just yet.

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I wrote previouslythat he had been protective of the defence in recent times, but Mark Hughes went on the offensive today with MOTD - and particularly Alan Hansen - in his sights:

"Pundits on Match of the Day or whatever just have an opportunity to nail individuals in the public domain," said the Manchester City boss.

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After another thumping win, in which we scored four times and went second, it's been interesting to read some of the reaction in the press.

There's no doubt that some of the sceptics have started to take note. We're now thirteen matches unbeaten, and in those 13 games have scored 37 goals. There's even talk that we might break the 100-goal barrier, though surely that's a) absurdly premature and b) asking for a tumble.

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West Ham 1-2 Everton (08:11:09)
- click on photos to enlarge image -
I best declare my hand early doors. This won't be the most informed article you'll ever read on a Premiership match. Since Sky Sports invented football in 1992, I've only been to two matches in the best league in the world*. Click to continue reading...

Another day, another Chelsea controversy. Hot on the heels of the ‘noise' surrounding Newcastle's decision to sell naming rights to St. James' Park, new Chelsea Chief Executive Ron Gourlay announced that Chelsea are considering something similar at Stamford Bridge.
And what outrage it has caused among many Chelsea fans.

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Another day, another Chelsea controversy. Hot on the heels of the ‘noise' surrounding Newcastle's decision to sell naming rights to St. James' Park, new Chelsea Chief Executive Ron Gourlay announced that Chelsea are considering something similar at Stamford Bridge.
And what outrage it has caused among many Chelsea fans.

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Wayne Rooney contributed what looked like a good all round performance for Man Utd vs Blackburn on Saturday, featuring some nice link play and a sweet sweet goal which he swept home to make it 2-0 (around 4:10 in the above video).

I saw about 15 minutes of the game live, and there was also a magic little inside-of-the-foot-with-back-to-goal pass that somehow didn't make the Match of the Day cut.

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by TRAVIS CLARK

There was end-to-end action pretty much everywhere you looked on Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League. A couple of high profile matches delivered the goods, with late equalizers in Madrid and Manchester scuttling a Chelsea comeback against Atletico and a CSKA upset of United.

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by TRAVIS CLARK

There was end-to-end action pretty much everywhere you looked on Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League. A couple of high profile matches delivered the goods, with late equalizers in Madrid and Manchester scuttling a Chelsea comeback against Atletico and a CSKA upset of United.

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2 games were played today in the 2009 MIAC Women's Soccer Playoff.

The 16-0-2 Concordia Cobbers who were rated #7 in the nation were upset this afternoon by the Carlton Knights (9-5-5) at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN.

This was the third time in four seasons, the Knights locked up with Concordia College in the MIAC Playoffs and just like in 2006, the score was tied 1-1 sending the contest into a shootout.

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2 games were played today in the 2009 MIAC Women's Soccer Playoff.

The 16-0-2 Concordia Cobbers who were rated #7 in the nation were upset this afternoon by the Carlton Knights (9-5-5) at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN.

This was the third time in four seasons, the Knights locked up with Concordia College in the MIAC Playoffs and just like in 2006, the score was tied 1-1 sending the contest into a shootout.

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Arsenal have won nine and drawn two of their last 11 games in all competitions.
Arsenal have scored 32 goals in their 10 Premier League games this season.
Arsenal beat north London rivals Spurs 3-0 at the weekend - and manager Arsene Wenger claimed: "We should have scored more. Click to continue reading...

The football just keeps coming with Champions League action tomorrow night. There'll be a press conference and team news today so we can preview the game properly tomorrow.

A win would assure qualification for the knock-out stage of the competition so there'll be no rest for the main men. Robin van Persie will lead the line again and after two goals against Sp*rs the manager seems to think 25 goals for the season is an achievable target for him.

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Watching Match of the Day this weekend – something I don't normally do these days – it was great not only to watch Chelsea coast to a four nil away win over Bolton but also to see Alans Shearer and Hansen giving Drogba the praise he deserves for recent good form.
I was therefore pretty surprised when, after being asked by host Gary Lineker who was the best striker in the league, Hansen said Torres and Shearer said Rooney.

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Watching Match of the Day this weekend – something I don't normally do these days – it was great not only to watch Chelsea coast to a four nil away win over Bolton but also to see Alans Shearer and Hansen giving Drogba the praise he deserves for recent good form.
I was therefore pretty surprised when, after being asked by host Gary Lineker who was the best striker in the league, Hansen said Torres and Shearer said Rooney.

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Paul Armstrong the editor of the iconic BBC production, Match of the Day joins us to answer everything you want to know about the show.

Topics discussed include the theme music from the program, the running order of highlights, why certain matches have more highlights, why some weeks have midweek MOTD and others do not, what MOTD2 is, and much, much more.

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Last night's Match of the Day was great fun, for obvious reasons.  But as the games wore on, I couldn't help feel sorry for Hull City.  Here we saw them lose 2-0 at Burnley, and fall victim to some fairly ordinary refereeing.  When you're struggling these things seem to happen, and Phil Brown is now under a lot of pressure (as if he wasn't before).

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It is strange that Arsenal Champions League matches always play second fiddle to those of Chelsea/Manu/Liverpool when it comes to getting on tv, especially given how few supporters Chelsea have. It is strange how rarely an Arsenal game is featured early on in Match of the Day, invariably tedious games involving Manu/Chelsea and Liverpool feature earlier on. Click to continue reading...

For the past three days, we've been giving away a copy of FIFA 10 the new video game from EA. In the next few days to next couple of weeks, we'll be giving away a copy of the game on random days as well as football books.

Yesterday's winner of FIFA 10 was JD Thomas.

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Oh come on, are you saying I can't join in the ‘hilarious' beach-ball related antics after Darren Bent's winner on Saturday?
There are simply too many to mention as Liverpool's odds of winning the Premier League were further deflated (you see – I told you there was more) by a red beach ball thrown onto the pitch by, ironically, a Liverpool fan.

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Sunday action in the Turkcell Super League contained a champions' derby between Galatasaray against Trabzonspor. It would also feature a potential extension to the best start in league history, as Fenerbahçe would look to make it nine wins in a row. With the Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray derby coming up next Sunday, both teams looked to gain momentum for not only for their showdown, and also for their Europa League game this coming Thursday. Click to continue reading...

An unpredictable season took another twist this weekend as two challengers lost and another could only draw as the season really starts to take shape.

I suppose we should be thankful for the Liverpool fan who threw the inflatable ball onto the pitch for ensuring they lost at Sunderland, but from what I saw on Match of the Day on Saturday night they really don't look that threatening without Gerrard and Torres in the side.

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Following Darren Bent's goal against Liverpool set up by this beach ball there is one Liverpool fan who will want the whole episode to go away. The BBC did the decent thing and blurred out the lads face on Match Of The Day... enter The Sun.

Unlucky for this young Liverpool fan The Sun have released a picture of his face asking for his name and no doubt he will be named, shamed and later forced to leave Merseyside and support a new team.

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We're just back from spending the weekend with my Dad in the countryside.  Funny, spending some time away from the city, messageboards, newspapers... football loses some of its importance.   It still is important, but so are trees and seasons and all that sort of thing you never get to think about in the city.

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AC Milan is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, but this season, things aren't going quite so well.

The Rossoneri sit in 12th place in Serie A and will take on fellow strugglers AS Roma in one of today's marquee match-ups.

With Oguchi Onyewu sidelined for up to three to four months, and with Milan now asking that U.

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AC Milan is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, but this season, things aren't going quite so well.

The Rossoneri sit in 12th place in Serie A and will take on fellow strugglers AS Roma in one of today's marquee match-ups.

With Oguchi Onyewu sidelined for up to three to four months, and with Milan now asking that U.

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Yesterday I went to the London FA Female Football Forum at White Hart Lane. It was a great opportunity to hear more about the progression of the Women's game and to meet the others who had gone to the event. I admit feeling a little bit of pressure as they said they all want to [...] Click to continue reading...

Apologies for the predictable headline. But Mr. Ferdinand's moment of Sunday league defending madness, which led to Robert Green's sending off and should have led to Ukraine's first goal (poor Shevchenko put the pen wide) seems to have more or less cost us this game.

As I say seems to, because I didn't watch.

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Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all missed their penalties in the last World Cup quarter finals against Portugal. Owen Hargreaves was the only man to find the back of the net.

The game had finished 0-0 after extra time, with Wayne Rooney getting sent off for an incident involving Ricardo Carvalho.

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There is nothing bright about Mark!

Now I am sure he is a smashing chap and all of that but can someone tell me the point of Mark Bright? How he keeps a job on the BBC (the nation's premier TV network) is beyond me. Is it just me that notices that most things he says are incorrect?

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My apologies, but we've experienced issues with the RSS feeds to EPL Talk (and our sister sites) over the past week, so if you're reading this in your RSS reader and you're wondering why it's been a while since we've posted, the reality shock is that we've been publishing tons of exciting stories over the past week.

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I really don't like games on a Sunday, its a pointless exercise because you just end up moping around all of Saturday wanting a fix of Arsenal, and you have to sit through those muppets in the Match of the Day studio (Lee Dixon exempt) getting their tongues stuck in United's ring.

There has been a little bit of talk about who will succeed Wenger over these past few days with names like Thierry Henry being floated around, for me there is only one man, Steve Bould.

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The matches to watch after you realize that calling him "Leonardo No Win" is almost too true and too mean to be funny...almost.

Saturday

Manchester United v Sunderland at Old Trafford United eked out a midweek Champions League win over Wolfsburg and Sunderland have shown they can be dangerous.

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