So it is Manchester City who proudly sits at the top of the Premier League table going into Christmas this year.

Of course, manager Roberto Mancini is refusing to get carried away by all that, but it is true that it is his side who now hold the advantage going into the tough second part of the season.

The young one putting one over the old figure

The last of the Carling Cup quarterfinal fixtures were completed yesterday and surprisingly, Crystal Palace advanced to the next stage. Which leaves Manchester City, Liverpool and Cardiff as the other teams capable of winning this competition. The draw sees the Premier League sides face off against each other and whoever comes out victorious from that clash will probably win this cup.

Galaxy 3 Real Salt Lake 1

Best in the West: The Galaxy celebrate their Western Conference championship Sunday at Home Depot Center (Photos by Staff Photographer Sean Hiller).

Supporters' Shield? Check. MLS Cup place secured? Check. Now just one more challenge awaits for the Galaxy.

Now this is interesting. According to SoccerAmerica -remember SoccerAmerica?-- the current iteration of the New York Cosmos front office is getting blowed up. Paul Gardner's latest, quasi-bizarrely written treatise for the old-school footie mag throws forth a tale of upheaval around the MLS expansion pretenders and leaves you with more questions than answers.

1) They're baaaaaack! And probably better than ever. The Champions have had a sluggish start to the season, but the biggest shock was not the high profile losses against Napoli and Juventus themselves, but the manner in which they were utterly outplayed by both pretenders and looked completely toothless.

Tomorrow evening, it's Valencia-Barcelona at the Mestalla, one of the classicos of Spanish football.

While not the biggest match on our schedule, it's an important one nonetheless.

It's only the 4th game of the early season schedule, but it will tell us a lot about where we stand in the league.

Now probably wasn't the best time for Modric to enter into a bicep competition with member of the Park LaneOh my, when we're good, we're good. Four goals to the Hotspur, none to the Liverpool pretenders and, for ninety minutes on a Sunday afternoon, all felt right within the world. How long that feeling is sustained for is now anyone's guess.

For many Arsenal fans, Saturday brings a mixture of optimism and caution. Following the defeat at Old Trafford, the future direction of the club has been questioned and debated in the press and in the pubs alike. The collective voice suggests that Arsenal can no longer compete at the top level for player transfers and wages.

So, the unmistakeable chimes of Big Ben bring the craziest few months an Arsenal fan has ever had to endure to a close. We have lost our club captain, we have lost last seasons best player, and we have been humiliated 8-2 by Man United, yet, with that big bell still ringing in my ear (insert your own joke!

There are two big races that will be decided next year: Premiership Champions and the 2012 Presidential election. Though very different contests, each is important to people on either side of the Atlantic and the runners and riders in them are not too dissimilar either.

The Reigning Champions Manchester United/Barack Obama

The ones to beat the Championship Belt is fastened around their waists.

By Neil Blackmon

Will United add another to the case this year?

Part I Part II Part III

Toe met stiching this past weekend in the Barclay's Premier League, and we've now seen an opening weekend lacking quality, or at the very least, entertaining football and devoid of a home side claiming full points.

Seattle and RSL could be battling it out for a Supporter's Shield this season. (Getty Images)

Aside from a handfull of teams, we are at the halfway point in the Major League Soccer season. Most teams have played 17 games or more at this point so we should have a very solid understanding as to who is contending and who is just flat out pretending.

Today United won a staggering 19th title. It was Alex Ferguson's 12th Premier League title, a fete that will never me matched again, as long as I live anyway. The question I am posing is; Who can stop United?

In the same afternoon the blue pretenders from across the road won their first trophy in 35 years and Mancini was quoted after the game in saying,

'This is just the beginning'

Maybe it was the euphoria of the occasion that clouded his judgement and made him have this random (or calculated) outburst but is it really the beginning?

Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi sit atop football's Everest as the world's two supreme players. Some observers have tentatively suggested others are equally deserving of breathing such rarefied air. Messi's team mates at Barcelona, Xavi and Iniestia, are certainly frequently mentioned in such regard.

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has put a positive spin on losing his spot at right-back to Martin Kelly, insisting the competition for places is a positive sign for the club.
The 20-year-old Kelly has started every match on the right side of defence since Kenny Dalglish took charge just over a month ago, which has meant Johnson has had to fit in on the left.

I guess now we have moved past winter and entered the Cliché season. So every game will be like a Cup Final. Home games are a must win. No team can be underestimated, certainly not Wolves who've just beaten The Pretenders. So on and so forth, I could probably write a thousand words just with clichés; but don't worry, a headache and a modicum of common sense will prevent me from doing that.

I'll admit, I'm something of a sucker when it comes to transfer rumors. I get swayed rather easily with even the faintest of suggestions that we might get this young-buck-on-the-rise or that disgruntled-superstar-with-bundles-of-talent. With the way the media juggernaut churns out these stories, it's a bit hard to keep track of what's fact versus fiction.

"Tomorrow their challenge could not be more basic. Bale has to reclaim belief in the suspicion that at his best he is beyond restraint, that he is indeed the most exciting, free-spirited and inherently intelligent young footballer in the world. Van der Vaart has to show again the ability to read a game more shrewdly than anyone around him.

The Arsenal fans and players who berated Roberto Mancini and his Manchester City side for parking the bus last night were actually underestimating their own side and showing City too much respect. Did they think a side who have never finished in the top four of the Premier League, who were beaten 3-0 at home by Arsenal earlier this season, would come to the Emirates expecting to win?