Arsenal lost the match today, but they didn't look too bad.
They lined up something like this:
Rosicky Eduardo Nasri
Ramsey Song Fabregas
Traore Vermaelen Gallas Sagna
Almunia
I love the look of the side with Rosicky in there. I'm a fan of those starting players, as well as the three subs Carlos Vela, Andre Arshavin, and Theo Walcott. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United hosts Everton Saturday, November 21, 2009 as they look to keep pace with league leaders Chelsea. Everton are looking to move up the table as they struggled early and are in 12th place with 15 points. It will be a tough test for Everton to get a result at Old Trafford where Manchester United have not lost (5-1-0) and have conceded only 7 goals.

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When Barry Moat's Newcastle United takeover bid failed, a lot of supporters feared that without money to invest in players, we'd struggle to add to our already depleted squad. The current Newcastle squad is probably just good enough to get out of the Championship, but without further investment, it's looking bleak for our future Premier League survival.

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Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted his surprise at Liverpool's Premier League struggles this season.
Rafa Benitez's men were expected to mount a serious title challenge this term but are already badly off the pace after losing five of their opening 12 games.
The Anfield outfit is already 11 points adrift of Ancelotti's league leaders, who have a five-point cushion over Arsenal and Manchester United following their 1-0 victory against the champions before the international break. Click to continue reading...

On an unrelated note, I was browsing uefa.com in hopes of finding some love "Greek-loving" publications when my an video on the side panel caught my eye... "How to deal with pace" Lars Lagerback on stopping the threat of quick strikers like Thierry Henry. Suggestion: Cut his hands off. Click to continue reading...

Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has recently been handed a two-game touchline ban but he will be allowed to be in the dugout this Saturday. The Football Association (FA) has said that the ban does not start until 14 days after the disciplinary hearing, which was last week.
This means that Sir Alex will not be in the dugout for a Premier League game against Portsmouth and the Carling Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says Samir Nasri will not replace Alex Song in a defensive midfield role in the New Year.
Song will be lost to the Gunners due to Cameroon's African Nations Cup campaign.
But on Nasri, Wenger told arsenal.com: "No, [he is not a replacement].
"I do not say that he could not, Samir is very tactically astute, but he is attracted forwards. Click to continue reading...

Phil Bardsley admits Sunderland need to be at their best when they host Arsenal on Saturday.
The Gunners have been in fearsome form in front of goal this season and will be keen to continue that trend at the Stadium of Light.
Bardsley, who will form part of a back four directly in the firing line, admits as much, but the combative full-back feels Steve Bruce's side are capable of springing an upset. Click to continue reading...

Didier Drogba has had a ridiculous start to the year. Not only has his squad, Chelsea, met their high preseason expectations and remained the top squad despite some tough challenges, but the forward has done a great job shaking off the rust from last year's injury plagued season and has performed up to the peak of his abilities.

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So the club yesterday confirmed Robin van Persie's injury and the prognosis that he'd be out for around 6 weeks. Now that it's official we can all run around and panic, throwing our hands up in the air like sometimes we feel like doing. I know, I know.

What did emerge yesterday is that Robin is set to try a revolutionary new treatment, apparently with the blessing of the club, whereby he'll travel to Serbia to have his ankle massaged with placenta fluid.

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Successful goals typically come from shots that have both pace and accuracy. How players approach the ball when taking a shot can affect both of these parameters. Rushing a kick can result in a shot that is both slow and less accurate. Slowing the approach can improve accuracy but reduce shot velocity. Click to continue reading...

Now this will bring tears to your eyes. Watch as unintentionally the attacking player swings full force to make contact with the football only to find that the ball has in fact long gone and has been replaced by an entirely different set of objects. The pace and power with which the striker kicks the poor defender is such that the person doing the kicking is in agony also but not surely in the same league of discomfort as the recently created eunuch!

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I read the Sun's article on Huntelaar rejecting a move to Spurs and thought; 'hold on a second, who said we wanted you?'
Fair enough, Harry was interested in the summer, but that all changed when Crouch was signed. Milan took the punt on him, spending €15 million (£13 million or so). Oh how they wish they hadn't. Click to continue reading...

It was a tough October for the stars of Manchester City. The squad that started out the year with one of the hottest starts of any Premier League squad has slowed down their goal scoring pace over the last four matches and achieved four straight draws. In only one of the matches did the Blues even reach double digit goals, but at least it was against one of the tougher defenses this season in Burnley.

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I came across Brian Reade's article in the Mirror and couldn't help but ask why he wrote such a Pro-Pavlyuchenko piece?
It's as though Roman has made a new friend in Reade, or there's some other fascination not worth thinking about. Either way, Reade did make some valid points about our Russian striker. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA was a surprise early on in 2009, but they faded quickly in the summer months. (Getty Images)

It seems like every season or so we get one club that comes out hot to start the season then to only fade in the summer. In 2009 it was Chivas USA who was just that club as they went 7-2-3 to start the first couple months of the season.

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Valencia netted a 3-1 victory over Zaragoza on Sunday in what could be called a watershed match for the club led by David Villa. Valencia now sits at 21 points and is a mere 5 behind 1st place Barca. Now that the Top 4 teams are within 5 points of one another we can really see a race developing at the top of the Table for the Premier Division.

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Frank Lampard today hailed Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba as the best in the world!. Lampard said: "Nico has been fantastic all season. Along with Didier they are a great partnership," Lampard said. "He (Anelka) has tremendous pace and balance, particularly when he runs at defenders. "He is so cool, so we have two players who for me are the best at what they do in the world. Click to continue reading...

So we comfortably dispatched of Wolves in the end, the first 20 minutes or so were a little nervy but Diaby picked up a calf strain bringing Alex Song into the fray, we never looked back as minutes later one of two slightly fortuitous goals was scored.

The final two goals were class though, the first involved a lung busting run from Cesc Fabregas to get on the end of a move, his finish was coolness personified.

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AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Los Angeles Galaxy's David Beckham, stating that the Englishman's arrival will be a welcome boost for the Rossoneri.

Beckham is set to enjoy his second loan spell at the Italian club following a successful spell there last season, and the temporary move means that  Beckham will have a chance to impress Fabio Capello even more ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

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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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Ahead of today's game I had several concerns about how we were going to get on. I was worried that we were going to get outpassed in midfield. I worried that Didier Drogba would have too much for our third and fourth choice central defenders. I was worried after the less than passionate display against Liverpool that our players would struggle again to get themselves up for a big game.

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Rangers kept pace with eternal rival Celtic, as forward Kris Boyd led the way at Ibrox Stadium. Click to continue reading...

With such blistering pace at just 4.5M, I'd have a silly grin on my face too
Our Funny Feeling Friday this week is Arsenal's left back Kieran Gibbs. With starting left back Gael Clichy out for a month or more with a stress fracture in his lower back, Gibbs should take over the starting spot and comes with the price tag (4. Click to continue reading...

Tonight Rafa Benitez is on the managerial tightrope when his side faces Lyon in the Champions League. Liverpool have to win, if Fiorentina and Lyon win then Liverpool can say goodbye to major silverware this season and Benitez can probably say goodbye to his job.

Benitez's side is decimated by injuries and an awful lot of responsibility is on the shoulders of Fernando Torres tonight if he plays.

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Frank Lampard today hailed Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba as the best in the world!. Lampard said: "Nico has been fantastic all season. Along with Didier they are a great partnership," Lampard said. "He (Anelka) has tremendous pace and balance, particularly when he runs at defenders. "He is so cool, so we have two players who for me are the best at what they do in the world" Nico gives

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Given - Match saving performance. Three superb saves and the penalty stop to 'win' the point. 8.5
Zabaleta - A strong performance, not a step out of place. Put more distance between him and Richards. 7
Kompany - Cool, calm and assured. Forged a nice partnership with Lescott in dealing with the lively front pair. Click to continue reading...

Clay Goodson capped off his 2009 Eliteserien with a goal helping pace fellow American Hunter Freeman and Start over compatriot Troy Perkins and Valerenga while Jay Needham and Alta split the points with Nybergsund. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA 1 Galaxy 2

Looks like we have the most entertaining game of the playoffs so far on display here this afternoon in Carson.

The upper deck has filled in nicely, too, which means a good walk-up (must be the quality of those previews this morning).

This game has threatened to spiral out of control a couple of times, with the fast pace contributing to errors in the middle of the park.

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By 1970's GoonerGranted Spurs were missing pace up front with the absence of Lennon and Defoe but I still think that we would have still run out easy winners in the end. They were facing two major problems. One was their inability to gain control of the midfield areas with Huddlestone, Palacios and Jenas unable to counter Song, Diaby and Fabregas. Click to continue reading...

There is one lone English Premier League match on Sunday, November 1, 2009 as Manchester City travels to face Birmingham City. Live coverage of the match can be found on our other site, Free Live Sports TV. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:00 EST, 16:00 GMT. Will Man City continue their strong start and keep within pace of Chelsea and Man United?

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By the time the final whistle blew today I was wondering when United were going to get started. That's the measure of Champions isn't it, being able to win when still in first gear? Well that's all fine and well but with Chelsea and Arsenal building up their goal differences each week, we could do with battering the teams we totally outplay.

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Real Madrid takes on Getafe looking to keep pace with FC Barcelona in the La Liga on Saturday, October 31, 2009. Were they able to win or did Getafe score an upset? Here's a recap along with video highlights of the match.

Real Madrid defeat Getafe 2-0 Video Highlights

Real Madrid did not start out strong as the match was scoreless through 15 minutes.

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dig, dig, dig.

Good afternoon everybody! I thought it would be a good opportunity to do another live match report as this is naturally such an important match. The big news to start off with is that we're playing in a 4-3-3 again with an attacking trident of Bentley, Crouch and Keano.

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This week's QOTW is a very controversial quote by Sir Alex Ferguson, head honcho at Manchester United. After a 2-2 draw Sir Alex Ferguson commented on the fitness levels of the referee Alan Wiley, here is his quote so you can see what the scottish boss said about Alan Wiley.

"He just wasn't fit enough for a game of that standard," Ferguson said.

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