Italia es el rey, cuando menos en el arco, donde Gianluigi Buffon ha sido clasificado como el mejor guardavallas del siglo XXI por la Federación Internacional de Historia y Estadística del Futbol. Buffon se impuso sólo por dos unidades al español Iker Casillas (197), siendo el rubro decisivo el lugar que ocuparon en el "top 20″ de las votaciones en el 2012.

A genuinely poor performance it was not. It was, however, a rather terrible result.

A myriad of culpable parties

Chelsea again surrender a lead despite being in a position to record a comfortable win. First Wigan, and now Fulham. What the hell. More bemusing, the fact that this latest setback arrived just days after we put in an excellent shift at White Hart Lane in a game we easily could have won.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Manchester City are back on track with as a 1-0 victory over Arsenal put the noisy neighbors back atop the English Premier League. Mario Balotelli and David Silva combined for the only goal of the contest and snapped Arsenal's eight-game unbeaten run in league play.

By Alan Duffy

Wigan Athletic 1-1 Chelsea Premier League 17th December 2011

After excellent wins against Valencia in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League, Chelsea were brought back down to earth with a bump at the DW Stadium against a Wigan side who fully deserved a share of the points.

Chelsea have pretty much assured football fans that they have finally picked up their form again, after hitting a slight drop in several matches ago, by successfully ending Manchester City's unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge.

Substitute veteran, Franck Lampard, acted as the protagonist for the Blues after scoring the winning goal, which arrived from the penalty spot in the second half, providing all imprtant three points that would obviously get Andre Villas-Boas team's back in the title challenge.

No photos. No insightful commentary. Just a damn poll.

What I will say is that, after attempting to keep my cool over the past month, I'm now on suicide watch. This is a crisis, both of confidence and performance. I cannot wait to see what Andre Villas-Boas has to say after today's turgid performance.

Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool: Johnson's late strike sinks Blues

In a game where ex-Reds Fernando Torres and Raul Meireles were tipped to cause their former club problems, it was ex-Chelsea defender Glenn Johnson who proved to be the match-winner as his late goal gave Liverpool maximum points.

It's easy enough to look at Arsenal's recent away form and state that a victory against Norwich City is near enough inevitable. At Stamford Bridge Arsenal defeated Chelsea 5-3 in a roller coaster of a match. Prior to that they had defeated Marseille in the Champions League in France at the Stade Velodrome.

Chelsea are eying to bounce back after the horror home defeat against Arsenal in their last last league matches by picking up a good result against Liverpool this weekend.

In order to confirm the three points, the Blues' goalie, Peter Cech, is also hoping that he would be able to keep a clean sheet against the Reds, as not conceding a goal has been a pretty rare occasion for the blues in the league this season.

Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend | Ian McCourt, Evan Fanning and Sachin Nakrani

Stewart Downing is not living up to the price tag, Petr Cech struggles, defences go awol and the curious BBC commentator Downing is failing to deliver Plenty of criticism has been heaped on the Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, for spending £35m on Andy Carroll and in many respects that criticism has been justified.

Failing to score an open net in Chelsea's last match against Manchester United, grows again people's doubt on Fernando Torres' ability to regain his old form considering that the miss chance could always dropped the striker's confidence once again.

However, that theory is being disagreed by the Blues' main goalie, Peter Cech, who urged people to refer their judgment more on the performance that Torred did against United instead of the bad finishing he made.

Chelsea successfully grabbed their second victory in the league after beating their visitor, Norwich United 3-1, in a pretty intriguing match that saw Didier Drogba stretchered off the pitch, Norwich got a man sent off and the Blues' new player, Juan Mata, making his mark with a goal.

Aside from the ex-Valencia star, who came in as a substitute in the second half, the home team got their goals from Jose Bosingwa and Frank Lampard, while Grant Holt picked up the visitor's only goal.

Trouble arrives for Chelsea ahead of their second league game this weekend against West Brom after reports from the Blues' camp confirmed that goalkeeper, Peter Cech, picked up an injury during training and is likely to be absent for three-four weeks.

The bad news was revealed by the London club's manager, Andre Villas-Boas to the press stating that the Czech international player suffered a ligament injury because he fell awkwardly in the end of Wednesday's training.

Barcelona stars Gerard Pique and Xavi aren't hiding their feelings when it comes to Real Madrid and its coach Jose Mourinho.

In the aftermath of Wednesday's SuperCopa second leg, Mourinho took a lot of heat from Barcelona players for his tactics and actions during a melee following a harsh challenge by Madrid fullback Marcelo.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Chelsea's dream of being the first London club to win the Champions League will have to wait another year as Manchester United held serve at Old Trafford with a 2-1 victory to advance to the Champions League semifinals 3-1 on aggregate.

It's the fourth time United has reached the semifinals in the past five seasons, winning it all in 2008.

Por Halftown
Edwin Van der Sar ha decidido cerrar la tienda a los 40 años. Sólo Seedorf le ha sobrevivido de aquel Ajax campeón de Europa en el 95. Como Ferguson pasa varios pueblos del mediocre polaco Tomasz Kuszczak, antes de navidades el United se dejó algo más de 3 kilos en el fichaje del danés Anders Lindegaard, que a sus 26 años se gana la vida parando balones para el Aalesunds FK noruego.

After literally surrendering their premier league crown and only concentrated in getting into the Champions League zone for the season, Chelsea, are forced to give up another trophy as they were defeated in the FA Cup replay game against Everton.

After drawing the initial game 1-1 at Goodison park, the Blues failed to take the home advantage and continue their current lack of sharpness up front as the 90 minutes game ended in a goalless draw.

On Monday night American Clint Dempsey had his game deciding penalty saved by Peter Cech to keep the contest scoreless in London.

Clint Dempsey almost added another game-winning goal to his Fulham highlight reel. Almost.

After drawing a stoppage-time penalty on Chelsea's new centerback David Luiz, Dempsey stepped to the spot and had his shot saved by Peter Cech, which preserved a 0-0 draw.

Dempsey had a chance to score off the rebound, after getting himself into position to attempt a bicycle kick, but his shot went well high and wide of the target.