Some players want to leave, Arsenal will be going places this summer, the English NT is filled with jerks... your usual cup of Arse here at the Offside

We start today's blog with a subject Arsenal fans are always delighted to hear about: player departures. Park Chu-Young has indicated that if keeps getting ignored for play action, he might leave in the summer.

What? ... No i'm not bloody offside! Meow...Liverpool fought hard on Monday night in an attempt to take three points from Tottenham Hotspur but with no goals from either side the highlight of the game ended up going to a little mischievous cat. The Reds played well but just couldn't find a goal as Spurs showed some staunch defending.

Stylish and Educational! 3nil's Onside/Offside Shirt.

Imagine a perfectly timed run from the far side. Ozil slips Benzema in, which is followed by a cool finish to the far post. But there's something wrong; the assistant referee has raised his flag and the goal doesn't stand.

Stylish and Educational! 3nil's Onside/Offside Shirt.

Imagine a perfectly timed run from the far side. Ozil slips Benzema in, which is followed by a cool finish to the far post. But there's something wrong; the assistant referee has raised his flag and the goal doesn't stand.

For many people the low point of this season was the 8-2 at Old Trafford. And I get that completely. It was embarrassing but, you know, it was a freak. A one off. Something that's never likely to happen again and entirely down to the fact that the manager took off the Coq. Without him we had no penetration, no balls and as a team we went flaccid without him to keep us stiff in the middle of the park.

Sigh.

First of all, the Arsenal Offside would like to place its thoughts to the victims from today's awful turn of events in Egypt. A truly disheartening experience. Some things are bigger than football, and this was definitely one of them.

Typical Arsenal. A few days after a great comeback victory, a victory that had the potential to help turn our season around and put us on the right track (granted, it was a poor Villa side), we draw against an insipid Bolton side that is currently languishing around the relegation zone.

It was a depleted Barcelona side that turned up in Valencia tonight, but it was also a team that does't give and they got a credible 1-1 draw in their Copa del Rey semi-final first-leg. Barca will be heavy favorites now to finish this tie off at the Camp Now.

Barca were given an early scare when Roberto Soldado raced onto a through ball, but Pinto came racing out of his goal to slide in and clear the danger, appearing to use his hand as he did so, only for play to be waved on.

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.

I'd love for Carroll to score in this one...Liverpool travel to my hometown of Wolverhampton on Tuesday night as they prepare to face Wolves in the Premier League. Liverpool are on a massive high after knocking both Manchester City and Manchester United out of the League and FA Cup, but can the Reds compose themselves in exactly the sort of fixture that has caused them to stumble in the league?

Another major component of the Revolution attack will not be returning this year, as Danish newspaper Jydske Vestkysten is reporting that Rajko Lekic has signed a six-month contract with Lyngby. Terms of the deal will reportedly be published on Monday.

Lekic is the second Revolution striker this month to take his services elsewhere.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations got underway this past weekend, and co-hosts Equatorial Guinea opened the tournament in dramatic fashion.

Former Real Madrid player Javier Balboa scored three minutes before the death to give Equatorial Guinea a 1-0 win over Libya.

AS Roma captain Francesco Totti cemented his name in the Serie A record books by becoming the leading goal scorer for a single club with 211 goals. The Roma Captain surpassed the great Swedish and AC Milan forward Gunner Nordhals 210 goals.
Luis Enrique's side ran rampant yesterday in a much needed romp.

The Africa Cup of Nations started on Saturday in west Africa. It's a competition that gives supporters in Europe of over-saturated leagues a chance to see some new and exciting talent. The opening match in Bata was between the hosts Equatorial Guinea in their first Africa Cup of Nations, and Libya who qualified for the tournament under a backdrop of civil war and unrest at home.

The storm is over, but the need to dig my car out meant I missed session one. If you want a report on that group you will have to go to the Seattle Times or The News Tribune as they were the only print media there today. Most notably was the arrival of Supplemental Draft pick Jason Banton. Banton was still on a London schedule so he did not participate fully.

It's always nice to know that people read your work, and when they do they take it to heart. Clearly, Pablo Hernández has a good understanding of English and reads The Offside, because just days after I called him rubbish and whatnot, he put on a blinder of a performance against Levante in the Copa del Rey.

"I never knew that music like that was possible!"

After watching the second half of yesterday's Clasico, I'm beginning to see Mourinho as Salieri to Guardiola's Mozart. When a team of Madrid's caliber gets schooled and forced into errant passes and frantic individual dribbles on offense and desperate tackles on defense, huffing shadow-chasing and hapless outreached hands pleading for offside calls that won't come, the opposition must be touched by the divine; the divine stringing of passes, la pelota always kept just a fleeting inch away from Madrid's lunging cleats, and importantly, the divine total defense, which at one point saw Özil attempting to dribble into the box only to be surrounded by seven (7!

It's been a strange week here on the Liverpool Offside there's not been a whole lot of actual news since Saturday's draw with Stoke, but there's been an influx of folks whose keyboards were custom-made by Nigel Tufnel and have a vendetta against either Kenny Dalglish, people talking sense, or chickens, and often times there's been a frightening combination of the three.

City now signing United players for oddjobs Those who felt that Owen Hargreaves would never be able to hold down a regular place in the Manchester City team can feel some what vindicated by the news that he's to be employed as a pitchside cameraman by the club. As if to reinforce his reputation for [.

I'm back (kind of)! For those who used to visit The Offside but haven't in a while, welcome back. For those who have never visited before, welcome. As Cesar mentioned in the previous post, it's sad that I closed down Loco4LosChe, but I'm very excited to be a part of The Offside team now, as I think it better suits me at this time in my life to write one to two articles a week instead of daily news updates.

It's all too easy to point the finger when a striker isn't finding the net but you can be sure that the newspapers won't shy away from targeting criticism towards a misfiring centre forward. Step forward the Guardian who are aiming a lot of flak in the direction of Emmanuel Adebayor.

The report suggests that the Togolese has simply ‘gone off the boil' and part of the story states,

‘Gradually, Adebayor's form has dipped – he has scored once in the past seven league matches – and even though he found the net against Wolves only to have the goal disallowed for a debatable offside, this was perhaps his most ineffective game of the season as he continually found himself in the wrong place and the wrong time.

FC Barcelona continued with their winning streak at home in La Liga with a very hard fought 4-2 victory against an inspired Real betis side. The match started very brightly for us going 2-0 up within 12 minute, then turned into a nightmare when Real Betis equalised early into second half.

The January transfer window is half way through, and, after the past two windows saw Liverpool one of the most active participants, it's been surprisingly quiet for a side lacking both midfield steel and finishing touch who before the season began set a return to Champions League action as the minimum requirement.

Like a phoenix rising in the night (or a bat rising above Mestalla), the Valencia Offside returns.

As many of you know, Kyle's Loco4LosChe is ending as of today. That's very sad news.

But the good news is that Kyle's going to write articles here, IF ANYONE FROM THE OFFSIDE ANSWERS OUR E-MAILS .

Why, top of the morning to you, and you, and you with the crooked nose as well. May a squadron of Twix bars find their way into your mouth by day's end, and may time go by as smoothly as Thierry's first touch. The day has gone by that smoothly in fact; exploding capacitors and leaking transformers having taken up so much of my time that this review is sinfully late (A word of caution- never put the positive pin of the capacitor into the negative pin of the battery, unless you want the electronic equivalent of the Vietnam War in your face)

The FA Cup game against Leeds can broadly be divided into two storylines playing out in parallel- a feel-good fairytale with returning Kings, and a tragicomedy about knights whose swords have been replaced by rubber ducks.

Match report Video and highlights -

It's rare that I sit here in the morning to write this blog and don't quite know where to begin. This is one of those mornings.

I guess there's only one place, isn't there? The 79th minute of Arsenal's FA Cup tie against Leeds. We've dominated the game, in terms of possession, in terms of shots on goal, in every department, yet the game is heading towards a dreary, goalless conclusion.

By Ref Reviewer 04

Ref Kevin Friend did the game between Sunderland and Manchester City. Did he have a good game?

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight

2

OTHER Sun? MC? C Advantage given, leads to a corner

1

1

7

OFFSIDE MC C Assumed correct

1

[.

It's a bit of an unexpected grab-bag today, with plenty of newsworthy tidbits but not a whole lot to really sink our teeth into, so we've got a few highlights to hit before getting to the video that might normally round out a lazy Sunday here on the Liverpool Offside:

* The third round is done, the fourth round is drawn, and because it simply had to happen it means that Liverpool will host Manchester United in the FA Cup on either January 28th or 29th.

In October of last year or sometime thereabouts, The Offside Rules implemented a pretty stunning redesign, which is perhaps best described as "Run of Play 2010 from Hell." And I mean that in the best way possible.

The site's tagline is now "America's premier soccer blog for the art-damaged.

A lovely little brouhaha is building in England about the half-a-million new commemorative fifty-pence pieces in circulation, with an explanation of offside on the backside of the queen's image. According to a story in this morning's Guardian, a well-known referee...

Since posting yesterday on the commemorative ("Offside") 50p coin from the Royal Mint (UK), I have had a few requests for more information. I had done a little searching, by no means exhaustive, after I read some news reports, and...

First of all, happy new year everyone. I hope your holidays were great.

New Year started, Im hoping to get some more posts up on the blog from now on. First, Ill start with what Ive seen so far during the first half of our match with Doxa Dramas.

1. Sialmas needs to learn how to finish!

Won on the lips Fan kiss a player right on the mouth by Anatolly7 Sunderland striker Ji Dong-Won got an unsolicited introduction to the passion of English football with a post-goal snog from a persistent fan. The South Korean starlet found himself on the receiving end of some love from a Black Cats supporter after [.

There's only one right way to ring in the new year....

Supporter-player/hero makeout session with Joe Everybody and Sunderland's Ji Dong-won. Or: it's not your grandfather's game.

Yes, he was offside. Yes, it's heart-wrenching for the oil-soaked fat cats in the house. But it was worth it, right?

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City Premier League 1st January 2012

After seeing Manchester United and Chelsea both lose, and Tottenham drop two points at the Liberty Stadium, the scene was set at the Stadium of Light for Manchester City's diamond-encrusted side to move ahead in the race for the title.

szólj hozzá: Sunderland v City 1:0 HIGHLIGH

Sunderland continued the theme of the underdogs upsetting the favourites this weekend as they stunned City at the Stadium of Light with as Ji Dong-won's last second goal. Clearly offside. But the Black Cats won't be complaining. And it was a lovely bit of skill by the South Korean as he slalomed around Joe Hart to caress the ball into an open goal.

By Ref Reviewer 03

For the game between Stoke and Tottenham we had ref Chris Foy coming out of his bed. How did he do this game?

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight 5 OTHER Shotton Bale NC Shove/Trip – not given 0 0 7 OFFSIDE Adebayor C Assumed correct 1 1 [...]

By Ref Reviewer 04

For the game Manchester City – Stoke City we had ref Dean in charge. Let us see what the final score was we could give him.

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight 2 OFFSIDE MC C 1 1 7 OTHER Walters Lescott C Push 1 1 9 OTHER [...]

In a rather poetic and cruel twist, Chelsea closed 2011 similar to how they started it, with a shit sandwich of a performance. Against the same club no less.

Should old acquaintance be forgot? Hell yes.

Midfield creativity

Let me first begin this final blog of 2011 (perhaps) with a few words from the heart, if I may.

After a week of vacation, I returned to my post here at the MLS Offside to find absolutely terrible news: MLS Rumors has closed. This website needed no introduction: MLS-Rumors.net was, bar none, the spiciest, edgiest, and, often, most accurate source for anything pertaining to Major League Soccer.

Andy Carroll gets a tackle in...It was a score draw at Anfield for Liverpool on Boxing Day after the Reds struggled to find a winner against Blackburn. The away side took the lead at the end of the second half but Liverpool found an equaliser via Maxi Rodriguez. Steve Kean must have been over the moon with his sides performance and will be very grateful of the sole point.