After a full week of news both on and off the pitch, Tottenham centre half Younes Kaboul identified the 3-1 win over Wigan as a return to form after some indifferent results of late.

Younes played a full part in the win and was unlucky not to open the scoring on two occasions before Gareth Bale and Luka Modric sealed the win.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted as his side's 2-0 win at home to Stoke was complimented by former United midfielder Darren Gibson's maiden goal in Everton's 1-0 win over league leaders Manchester City.

The result brings United level on top with the Citizens, leaving Fergie with no option but to praise the resolve of his injury-plagued side while also joking that the sequence of events surrounding Gibson's recent transfer to Goodison Park was planned out by him.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

Jack McInerney scored in the US U-23 team's 1–1 draw with the USMNT. McInerney, Amobi Okugo, and Freddy Adu started the first half. Zac MacMath and Sheanon Williams started the second half.

John Hackworth says of Tom Brandt, the Union's first pick in the Supplemental Draft, "We wanted to get a quality player in the back and we feel like we did that with Tom Brandt.

So, it's that time of the year again when the MLS superstars come back to the Europe. Last season there was talk of Thierry Henry and David Beckham returning to the Premier League but nothing came of it. As for this season, what a treat we have been given!

This blog was originally going to compare who would have the bigger impact between Robbie Keane and Henry during their two months back, but after Monday night's performance from the latter I don't think there's really much of an argument.

photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com

If at first you don't succeed, try again.

That is the approach Sochaux is taking in terms of Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu.

Having had a previous bid worth an estimated $774,400 turned down, Sochaux has launched a second bid for the U.

Getting close in securing Gary Cahill from Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea apparently will still continue their surge in the winter transfer market and capture at least another quality player.

This confirmation was revealed by the club's tactician, Andre Villas-Boas, who unfortunately still can't confirm, whose the other player they're trying to grab this January aside from Cahill.

Ireland international Simon Cox fired West Brom into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a hat-trick against Cardiff this afternoon.
Cox headed his first home from eight yards after a cross from Baggies captain Nicky Shorey. He doubled his tally in the 61st minute with a scorcher from 25 yards that gave Heaton no chance as it crossed the line after rattling off his post, and he sealed his hat-trick with an easy tap in from an Odemwingie pass.

A former trialist, a former Uruguay World Cup national team player and a Generation Adidas #1 pick headline the strongest positional set of Seattle Sounder FC. Sigi uses these men to be the playmakers on the outside, each in their own way. Two are used to chase long balls, only one is a traditional crosser and all tuck into take shots.

An interesting statement recently revealed by Milos Krasic's agent, Dejan Joksimovic, stating that the wantaway Juventus winger is being seriously monitored by Chelsea.

The agent also stated that his client most likely will leave his current club because he hasn't been featured in the plan of the Turin giant's new tactician, Antonio Conte.

Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has hailed his partnership with Daniel Agger, stating the Dane is easy to play alongside.
The Reds have conceded three goals in six games since the Slovakian stopper was paired with Agger during Jamie Carragher's absence.
Uruguayan Sebastian Coates is also vying to start for Liverpool and Skrtel believes competition for places is healthy.

Let's get right to it:

Back at it in Candyland...

• Everton welcomes Norwich City to it's Really Goodison

The Premiership world was shocked when Everton announced that American Landon Donovan will come on loan to the Land of Toffee starting January 4th.

Okay, not shocked actually at all except for the fact that Everton actually got a quality player to help them in a battle with Father Relegation, even if only for two months.

Landon Donovan has agreed to join Everton on a two-month loan from MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy.

The agreement, which was reached on Thursday following recent discussions between Everton, LA Galaxy and Major League Soccer, is pending paperwork that needs to be finalised.

Once that is completed, Donovan is set to join Everton over the Christmas period and would be eligible to face Bolton on January 4.

Bobby Boswell was one of the surprise names on the list today. (Getty Images)

The 2011 Re-Entry Draft has a few interesting names. The Vancouver Whitecaps will have the first pick and could snag a quality player in the first stage of the draft next week, or they could wait until the second stage when things are expected to get really crazy.

OK, I guess by now we have all let the news sink in that Dwayne De Rosario has been named the 2011 MLS MVP and not our very own Brad Davis. (I put that photo up there just to kind of soften the blow for everyone if you had not heard.)

Personally, while I would have given the award to Davis (Don't get me wrong.

Jay Heaps is only just starting out on his young coaching career with the New England Revolution, but he has plenty of supporters in his former coaches.
Sean Donahue writes of how Heaps' former coaches see his potential as a leader.
Brian Ainscough was right in his assessments about newly named New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps as a player in the past.

Brian Ainscough was right in his assessments about newly named New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps as a player in the past. Now fans of the Revs will be hoping the Northeastern Huskies men's soccer coach's good judgment continues in his beliefs about Heaps as a coach.

Jay Heaps left a pair of his former coaches believing he had a bright future in coaching.

Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury are a huge part of Sporting KC. (Getty Images)

Starting the year with a 10 game road trip and 11 of their first 12 games on the road expectations weren't high for Sporting Kansas City. The old Wizards turned into Sporting had a new look, name and stadium in 2011.

Jurgen Klinsmann continues to use his pipeline to Germany for talent with his latest roster selections for the United States games against France and Slovenia. No less than five players born in Germany are on the roster, including newcomer Alfredo Morales who received his first senior team call up.

"In the history of Manchester United, it is another day and we'll recover from this, there's no question about that"- Sir Alex

Few weeks ago it was us who laughed and flexed our muscle and I 8 myself for doing that, so as the old drunk man once said "what goes around, comes around" and yes it is true.

"Danny Murphy is a fantastic player and he was great for me last year but he is not getting any younger and his influence on the team is huge.

"He knows and everyone knows that at some time in the near future he will have to be replaced and to replace his input, that will have to be a quality player.

Influential Everton center back Phil Jagielka has praised teammate Leighton Baines, telling the club's official website that the left back has been the club's "best player" in recent years.

Despite a convincing defeat at the hands of Chelsea on Saturday, Baines will welcome the comments as Fabio Capello begins to contemplate his squad for next summer's European Championships.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish believes his club will benefit from the loan system after Jonjo Shelvey became the latest player to move away on a temporary basis.
Shelvey, 19, joined Championship side Blackpool last week and put in a sparkling display to help his temporary team to a 5-0 victory on his debut, and Dalglish believes the England youth player will benefit from playing regular football.

Yup, last week was a bad week.

The Portland Timbers squandered another lead against the San Jose Earthquakes, suddenly unable to keep possession and put any pressure at all on the Quakes' defense. They followed up the draw with a better quality performance on the weekend that ended in a bizarre and heartbreaking loss to the New York Red Bulls.

After a few days of explaining his stance to the media, Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has slammed their coverage of his tactics as pressure mounts on veteran stars Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba to fight for starting XI places.

Villas-Boas controversially substituted Lampard during the interval at Old Trafford last Sunday and although Chelsea were trailing 3-0 to Manchester United at that point, the 33-year old had been one of the better performers for the Blues.

Former EPL champions Chelsea make the trip to Spain to face Valencia in what could prove to be a make or break match for the London club. Things are not so rosy for Blues who have had a less than impressive start to the season.

With uncertainty surrounding the selection of Frank Lampard for the fixture and the fans displeasure with Coach Villas Boas selection criteria, a lot is a stake for the West London outfit.

Arsenal will go poof if Wenger were to leave

Guess who said this in 2009?

"It is not often that a boy of five or six is always living with adults in a little village. I learned about tactics and selection from the people talking about football in the pub - who plays on the left wing and who should be in the team.

Reports in Holland suggest the Liverpool are interested in Ajax central defender Jan Vertonghen. The club definitely needs a new centre-back, and judging by the following video, it looks like the Belgian is a quality player.Check out the brilliant piece of skill at 1:42 :-)Jaimie Kanwar<!

-Ben McCormick
One of the most common questions any US Soccer fan asks is who is going to replace Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey when they retire. They have held the attack together for the past few years and fast approaching is a time when the US will have to rely on someone other than "Deuce" or "'Cakes" for a goal when they need it.

Jason Le Blanc (@outsidemid) is a contributor at Two Hundred Percent, Tottenham blog Yankee Yiddos, Unprofessional Foul and Bundesliga Lounge. Le Blanc watched Joe Tait play multiple times during the defender's 2010 USL PDL Defender of the Year season, and while with the Dayton Dutch Lions.

It can be difficult at times becoming overly enthused over a new player signing, especially someone whom you have heard little about and seen in action even less, if at all.

THFC1882′s Stuart Watts brings you another guest writer. This time Ciaran Griggs gives his view on yesterdays match.

Finally We're Off

After two painful early season results against the unstoppable forces of Manchester (good and evil, I'll let you decide which is which), many a fan and journalist alike had billed our away fixture to Wolves as both the real start and also, laughingly in my view, a make-or-break game to signal our intentions for this Premier League season.

It was 50/50 in the end if Nicklas Bendtner would secure his loan move away from Arsenal to get regular opportunities in the Barclays Premier League. NB52 ended up heading North-East, to Sunderland. The club have made some decent signings this summer with John O'Shea, Wes Brown and playmaker Sebastian Larsson coming into Stadium Of Light.

Arsenal have officially confirmed the signing of Brazilian left-back Santos from Fenerbache today. The 28-year-old international is the first of a couple of signings the Gunners are making hours before the end of the transfer period. Speaking on Arsenal.com Wenger said: "Santos is a quality player, with the ability to both defend well and get [.

Arsenal have completed the signing of Brazilian defender Andre Santos from Fenerbahce

The 28-year-old international joins the Gunners from Super Lig champions Fenerbahce, for whom he has played since 2009. Santos supplanted Roberto Carlos as the team's first-choice left-back in his first season in Turkey and went on to make 52 league appearances, scoring 10 times.

It seems that Liverpool may be willing to sell star-player Raul Meireles.
The gifted Portuguese midfielder may be available for £11 million.
Chelsea have had an initial bid of £8 million plus Yossi Benayoun rejected by the reds as they do not wish to sell him to a Premier League rival.

Of course it's sad to see a quality player like Nasri leave, but considering we got £25million of Man City's dirty money for a player they could've had for free in a year's time, I think Arsenal could be laughing. That's if the money is re-invested, that is.

Money is basically no object for City, so presumably they won't mind too much paying that much for something of a one-season wonder who, as far as I can see, has no obvious place in their team.

After adding young prospects such as Oriol Romeu and Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea finally captured what could be considered as their first important signings this summer as the Blues set to make official Juan Mata's signing.

The ex-Valencia player, who were courted with several other top clubs this summer, revealed the reason he eventually chose to work with Andre Villas-Boas, stating that the Blues can offer him the chance to win titles more than the likes of Arsenal or Tottenham Hotspurs.

Former American soccer prodigy Freddy Adu is signing with the Philadelphia Union, according to Soccer by Ives.

Adu hasn't been in MLS since leaving Real Salt Lake in 2007 for Portuguese giants Benfica. The 22-year-old's soccer career has been stalled because of indifference from Benfica and a failure to impress while on loan with Monaco, Belenenses and Aris.

Niko Kranjcar has featured reasonably heavily in Tottenham's pre-season. While the player has been very quiet about his future in this transfer window, it remains to be seen whether Harry Redknapp's view of the Croatian has changed and it has emerged today that Sunderland are keen to take Niko on a season long loan.

Liverpool 3 Valerenga 3
Liverpool's pre-season form continued to stutter as they were held to a draw by Norwegian outfit Valerenga.
Liverpool fielded their Summer signings Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam along with returning Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger.

Another week of SPL fixtures with the sun still not set on July. An abbreviated card today and an abbreviated run through from me as babysitting duties call.
St Johnstone v RangersAfter the drama of this week's bout of Goodwillie hunting and the unfortunate reverse against Malmo Rangers get back to league business.