On recent evidence, probably not. If you came thinking this was going to be another intense post after the previous one, I'm afraid it won't. Previewing a Sunderland match just doesn't have the same amount of appeal as say, previewing, I don't know a match against Newcastle. Whoops. Cross that out.

Click to continue reading...

Rio Ferdinand will not play for Manchester United again this year.

The England centre-back has been told he needs another six weeks of rest and physio work before his back will be strong enough for Premier League football.

Ferdinand, 31, had been playing with back problems since last season leading to a calf injury this term.

Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the thirteenth episode of RNF's podcast.

Russia was many's dark-horse in South Africa. One problem: getting there.

Slovenia completed their upset of Russia with a 1-0 win in Maribor, going through on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate.

Click to continue reading...

Leeds United, once tippy top dog of the First Division, has been relegated to the third division for the first time in it's storied history. Today, a once ravaged squad stands as tippy top dog again, having it's finances in order as well as their management, going undefeated in eight games, and taking an early lead in the poll race for a Championship promotion.

Click to continue reading...

Rumours of the potential transfer of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool to Barcelona during the winter transfer window are understood to be without any concrete foundation, according to Spanish publication Sport.
Speculation surrounding the Argentina captain has continued throughout the season after he was strongly linked with a summer move to Camp Nou and recent reports suggested that the players representatives had reached an agreement on the personal terms of a winter move. Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the fourteenth episode of RFN's podcast.

Russia has pulled ahead of Slovenia after leg one, but thanks to a late goal from the Slovenes, the favorites are in a precarious place ahead of Wendesday's second leg.

Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the thirteenth episode of RNF's podcast.

Two close losses to Germany in UEFA World Cup qualifying has the Russian national team in a two-legged playoff with Slovenia. Many see this as the most lopsided of the four UEFA qualifying playoffs, though Slovenia who allowed only four goal in ten qualifiers should give the Russians significant problems.

Click to continue reading...

In following with this week's pattern of posting hilarious pictures, photoshopped or no, we bring you this marvelous offering from the Sun. Luckily, the accompanying interview is not half bad. Thanks to reader Chelsea for the heads up.

Q: When Nicolas signed did you feel, Didier, you had to prove you were better?

Click to continue reading...

Longpier.com is teaming up with local fab food site Essex Gourmet to give you the chance to win tickets to a cracking event in London this December.
Essex Gourmet, your local guide to fabulous food and drink in Essex – tried and trusted - is giving away 3 pairs of wonderful ‘Taste of Christmas' tickets! Click to continue reading...

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...

Manchester United have signed a 5 year sponsorship deal with Pan-African telephone company Globacom. The partnership was unveiled yesterday at Old Trafford. The amount involved in the deal is not yet known. As part of this deal young players from Nigeria, Ghana and Benin will train at the Manchester United Football Academy. Click to continue reading...

We haven't done this for a while here are our best three picks for this week and the weeks ahead... Although we make no assurances they will be successful.

1. David Dunn

He's fat, he's round, he's only five point seven million pound... David Dunn. By a margin Blackburn's outstanding performer this season, Dunn has already notched four goals, and in only seven appearances.

Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the twelfth episode of RNF's podcast.

Russian football may have gotten off to a shaky start in the 2009-10 Champions League, but the last two weeks have seen a measure of redemption. On Tuesday, CSKA Moskva came within minutes of a historic win at Old Trafford, while Rubin continued to their improved form by taking a fourth point in two matches from Barcelona.

Click to continue reading...

Liverpool, the English soccer club which signed a record shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered earlier this year, has agreed another lucrative partnership.
The club will be backed by 188Bet, the online betting company which already has partnerships in place with Aston Villa, Chelsea, Bolton and Wigan. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal Highlights is pleased to announce a partnership with Voucher Alerts to bring you the best deals on buying official Arsenal merchandise online.

VoucherAlerts.co.uk

Voucher Alerts is the leading online UK discount code directory, providing voucher codes for over 2500 leading online stores including Amazon, HMV, Play.

Click to continue reading...

Soccerphile is pleased to announce a partnership with Voucher Alerts to bring you the best deals on buying official football merchandise online.
Voucher Alerts is the leading online UK discount code directory, providing voucher codes for over 2500 leading online stores including Amazon, HMV, Play. Click to continue reading...

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

Click to continue reading...

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...

African telephone company Globacom has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Man United. Young players from Nigeria, Benin and Ghana will be able to train with Man United's academy.
There will also be promotional packages for Man United fans in these countries- they will be able to watch Man United matches. Click to continue reading...

Perhaps trying to dampen some of the criticism aimed at him - particularly in the wake of Sunday's drawagainst Fulham, Mark Hughes has offered support for big money signing Joleon Lescott:

"You have to understand, though, that this is a new back four and the more games Joleon and Kolo [Touré] play together the better they will gel as a pair.

Click to continue reading...

Good news for the Premiership as Barclays have extended their global title sponsorship of the Premier League for a further three years.

The new £82.25m deal is a 25 percent increase on the previous three-year contract, will run from the 2010/11 season to the end of the 2012/13 season.

Click to continue reading...

Yesterday, I posted a list of eleven reasons why I believe Liverpool have struggled this season. Today, it's time to look to forward positively and come up with a way out of the current mess. Yes, things are bleak, but I do not think that the season is over. In fact, I actually think Liverpool can still put in a title challenge, but only if certain changes are made and previous mistakes are not repeated. Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the tenth episode of RNF's podcast.

The Russian Premier League made headlines this week when Rubin Kazan beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp. It was the first time since February 22 that a team had beaten the European champions on their pitch.

Click to continue reading...

Book your trip to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with our travel agency partners and get a discount! Click here for details.

Click to continue reading...

It is a big day for Barcaloco.com as we announce the formation of the Barcaloco Fan Club and our partnership with FC Barcelona Penya Los Angeles ("Penya-LA")!

The announcement will not affect the team information or other content that fans of Barcaloco have enjoyed since the site launched in early January of this year.

Click to continue reading...

Recently Man United striker Michael Owen (it is still odd writing that) has been left out of England squads by manager Fabio Capello. Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes that Owen does still have a chance of going to the World Cup next summer with England.
Owen may have been problems with fitness over the past few season's but he is a guaranteed goal scorer. Click to continue reading...

Ledley King is rumoured to be extremely likely to play at Portsmouth tomorrow after his prolonged absence from the starting XI. This is, obviously, great news - if I see Tom Huddlestone lining up at centre back one more time, I'll have a coronary.
But the other bit of defensive comeback news that we should all be throwing our proverbial hats in the air for is that Jonathan Woodgate has resumed full training again and is thought to be inching closer to a first start of the season. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's depressing defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge could have (and should have) been avoided, but as is so often the case, Rafa Benitez's decisions conspired to adversely affect Liverpool yet again.
The most galling thing about the defeat is that the game was definitely winnable. Click to continue reading...

Click to see full-size image.

Related posts:

1. Failed Innovations in Brand Extension #974: NASCAR Partnership

Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the ninth episode of RNF's podcast.

The ninth episode of Russian Football Now's Podcast is the second consecutive where hosts Chris Riordan and Richard Farley welcome a guest onto the show. EPL Talk's own Kartik Krishnaiyer, spends the show with us, giving his thoughts on

• the national team,
• Andrei Arshavin's ideal position (and his value relative to Cristiano Ronaldo),
• the future of Tottenham's Roman Pavlyuchenko,
• the Champions League prospects of Rubin and CSKA,
• this weekend's derby between Spartak Moscow and Lokomotiv, and
• the chances of Russia being awarded either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Click to continue reading...

Having sat here for a while, scratching only occasionally, I can now declare this Interlull officially a pain in the arse. I've had quite enough now and I demand it stops at once.

You would think with all the highly intelligent readers Arseblog has, and I'm including all three of them in this, that someone would have invented some kind of device to either provide entertainment during Interlulls or which would destroy countries therefore putting an end to international football once and for all.

Click to continue reading...

From guardian.co.uk:

Manchester City are considering a formal link with the French club AC Arles-Avignon, according to the Ligue 2 club's president. Jean-Marc Conrad claims he has met representatives from the Premier League club several times, with a view to agreeing a partnership, and that more talks are set for Thursday.

Click to continue reading...

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the eighth episode of RNF's podcast.

After months of build-up, the German national team's trip to Moscow lived up to the hype. Punching their ticket to the World Cup, Germany downed the upstart Russians 1-0, leaving hosts Chris Riordan and Richard Farley to explain where things went wrong for Guss Hiddink's men.

Click to continue reading...

For those of you wondering when you would see the rest of the September Q&A questions answered, here is the newest installment of Your Questions Answered.

This batch of questions is dominated by U.S. national team questions, with Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones among the subjects covered.

Click to continue reading...

For those of you wondering when you would see the rest of the September Q&A questions answered, here is the newest installment of Your Questions Answered.

This batch of questions is dominated by U.S. national team questions, with Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones among the subjects covered.

Click to continue reading...