This might be a touch simplistic and naive, but...

Shouldn't DVDs on 'how to tackle' be handed out to the youth teams of Premiership clubs, rather than the guys getting six figures a week to go in at some poor man's ankles?

But the higher ups at the FA in England have deemed it a necessary act.

With increasing confusion in the Premier League over which tackles should or should not be punished, an attempt to teach players what is acceptable is being made in home video form. "How to tackle" DVDs will be sent to clubs next week because if there's one thing professional footballers will pay attention to, it's instructional videos.

Three goals in seven second half minutes that's all it took for Arsenal to win a game in which they were otherwise unimpressive. While the comeback was miraculous and the result crucial, many problems still remain.

As has been the case for the last month or so, Arsenal started at a pedestrian pace.

So we're back to yet another Cup game. Not the Coupe de la Ligue, that was last week. Not the Coupe de France either, that was the week before. No, wait, that's the Coupe de France again, but the next round. I'm getting confused... The good thing is that Lisandro isn't. He repeated this week that he WANTS to get a trophy with OL this year, and a French Cup, whichever it is, is a good and (normally) not too difficult way to get one.

Almost two years ago, Paraguayan forward Salvador Cabañas was months away from being a starting striker in the World Cup until he was left in a fight for his life after being the victim of a shooting at a Mexican bar.

Now he's on the verge of a stunning comeback to professional soccer.

Night in Kansas City. A heavy rain falls. A limousine with darkened windows and an MLS sticker on the bumper pulls up to a corner in a remote, destitute section of the city. Fake Sigi steps out of the shadows in a trench coat and hat pulled low. The window in the back seat goes down.

"Kill him.

Ok then,

after a dull weekend of FA Cup action it's our turn tonight and we face Leeds at home. Last season this game was saved late on by a Cesc penalty. It was a pretty dour performance from us on the day and hopefully there'll be no repeat of that.

The manager has already said he's going to pick a strong side and while there's certainly going to be a measure of rotation, I don't know how much he can really do at the back.

With the news coming yesterday afternoon from Jesus Ortiz on the Chronicle that Brian Ching will not retire and will report to Montreal Impact camp when it opens, the ant bed that is Dynamo fandom was again stirred with a stick. Reaction varied from renewed anger towards Jesse Marsch to clever theories about when Ching will have to have season ending surgery that sticks the Impact with his large salary for the season.

Is Mehmet worse than Vitaslav?
Arguably they are about the same - although Mem hasn't had a lot of time to work his magic, I'd argue his appointment from Feb should have shown us some better football, better structure than what we've seen.
Should he be sacked?
Who knows but the Board gave him his chance, also Francis Awaritefe.

What can we expect in 2012 in terms of the business side of football? It's an almost unanswerable question because no one knows for sure what is going to happen to the world's main football economies, those of Europe. Asian countries are, of course, big and growing customers for televised games and the prospects there look reasonably good.

Once more into the breach and our first game of 2012 sees us travel to Fulham.

Coming so soon after the exertions against QPR changes would seem to be inevitable, but I wonder. At the back we have to find a solution to the left back issue after Thomas Vermaelen's calf strain. Many would suggest Ignasi Miquel but given how well he did coming on against QPR I wouldn't be surprised to see Francis Coquelin start there.

Robin Van Persie is to given one more chance to break Alan Shearers record of goals scored in a single calendar year today when Arsenal face QPR at the Emirates. Under normal circumstances I am sure that Arsene Wenger wouldn't risk playing his (previously) injury-prone captain so soon after the Wolves game, but the Frenchman [.

This right here is a shocker. Eh, not really.

The club today confirmed that it had agreed a fee with Bolton for Gary Cahill. It's not a done deal yet, though, with personal terms still far off between the two parties.

Moving in

Andre Villas-Boas spoke of Cahill at his pre-match presser for Aston Villa.

Over the past years, the SSO has posted several articles about neuromuscular training programs designed to reduce the risk of injury. We have been especially concerned about preventing non-contact injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in female players. An ACL tear can be personally devastating to the athlete and result in significant financial costs.

Why Liverpool must draw clean line under Suarez row or risk soiling the club's name

Around now it's customary to hand out jokey awards based on events in the past footballing year. But after such a year, and particularly such an ending, jokes are out. For weeks the game has struggled to come to terms with Gary Speed hanging himself.

This isn't the big name signing that Seattle Sounders fans have been hoping for, but it sure looks like they are close to signing Trinidad & Tobago teenager Cordell Cato, a forward/midfielder who has played for his country's U-20 team. The Trinidad Express says the deal is basically done, but Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer was more cautious when asked for comment.

The visit of the sky blues of Abu Dhabi to The Home of Football and the subsequent infiltration of this very blog the day after got me thinking....

It is often stated that the top clubs are set to align themselves with various sponsors (whether related or otherwise) to ensure that they do not get caught by the FFP regulations.

The visit of the sky blues of Abu Dhabi to The Home of Football and the subsequent infiltration of this very blog the day after got me thinking....

It is often stated that the top clubs are set to align themselves with various sponsors (whether related or otherwise) to ensure that they do not get caught by the FFP regulations.

Barcelona's Gerard Pique will be eligible to face Real Madrid next week after escaping further punishment for the caution he received against Rayo Vallecano.

Pique was booked for time-wasting in the 83rd minute of Barca's 4-0 win on Tuesday, his fifth caution of the season with the one-match ban ruling him out of this weekend's meeting with Levante.

The visit of the sky blues of Abu Dhabi to The Home of Football and the subsequent infiltration of this very blog the day after got me thinking....

It is often stated that the top clubs are set to align themselves with various sponsors (whether related or otherwise) to ensure that they do not get caught by the FFP regulations.

Chelsea's poor form came back to haunt them once again as they crashed out of the Carling Cup thanks to a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. In risk of breaking all forms of ‘copyright laws', In The Stands brings forth highlights of the game which could well turn out to be one of [...] Related posts:

1. VIDEO: Angry Chelsea Fan Demands Abramovich Sacks Andre Villas-Boas!

Arsene Wenger is facing a second match on Tuesday against Man City just three days after the 1-1 draw with Fulham. After that match the Arsenal boss admitted that tiredness and fatigue was affecting some of his stars, including Van Persie, but now he has declared that he will have to take a gamble on [.

Newcastle defender Danny Simpson has been told to sign his new five year contract by Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, or risk being sold as early as in the January transfer window. Danny Simpson challenges Balotelli last Saturday The Salford-born 24 year-old defender will return to his first club this afternoon, when he should be lining up [.

Houston Dynamo striker Brian Ching has had a storied MLS career and is one of the more intriguing names available in this afternoon's MLS Expansion Draft. If the Montreal Impact select him, though, it could create quite the situation.

The 33-year-old Ching told the Houston Chronicle that he'd retire if picked by Montreal, stating his wish to remain in Houston with the franchise he's played for since 2003 and play in the new stadium that is set to open next season.

At the risk of sounding a terribly stuck-up know-it-all it is rare I come across something in football where the statistics genuinely shock me. However, I read an article a few days ago that shed some light on an issue we all know is there but somehow we tend to look over.

Spanish football is beautiful.

Already two trades have become known. Ryan Smith goes to Chivas USA for 1st and 3rd Round Supplemental draft picks. That's picks 43 and 81 overall. so we're talking no-risk, flyer types in a draft that constantly adds more picks. Also, it came out today that the Portland Timbers loan of Ryan Pore also included an international slot and a promise from the Montreal Impact that they wouldn't take a player who ended the year on Portland's active roster.

Arsenal and Liverpool are amongst the teams ready to try and sign Eric Abidal, according to the Mirror.
The agent of the French left-back has claimed that it is more and more likely Abidal could leave the Nou Camp with his contract out at the end of the season.
Both Arsenal and Liverpool invested in new full-backs over the summer in the form of Andre Santos and Jose Enrique but appear to be keen on adding Abidal.

Kenny Dalglish recently criticised the Football League for the 'disgraceful' scheduling of Liverpool's Carling Cup game against Chelsea, and this week, Dalglish has taken another (well-deserved) swipe at the football authorities, arguing that the Premier League is ignoring vital rest-periods required by players after international breaks.

Super-rich Real Madrid usually wreak havoc in the transfer periods with their ability to acquire almost any footballer they have their eye on, and Arsenal are just at risk of losing star players to them as any other team. The Spaniards have been linked with Robin Van Persie, Andrey Arshavin and even Cesc Fabregas in [.

Arsenal and Liverpool will be keeping a close eye on Hugo Rodallega's situation at Wigan with the centre-forward stalling on a new contract.
The Colombian international was linked with moves to both Arsenal and Liverpool over the summer, but no official offer was made.
Despite failing to land a move to a bigger club during the off-season, Rodallega remains on both sides' radars along with Everton and Juventus.

Capello taking a Ledley risk by playing Jones in midfield

There always seems to be a late starter before every major tournament. Theo Walcott, Paul Gascoigne, David Platt, Aaron Lennon, Owen Hargreaves and even Gary Lineker staked their claims late on before previous tournaments.

Liverpool, Arsenal and a host of Turkish clubs could be set to battle for the signature of winger Hamit Altintop after reports in Spain claimed Real Madrid are ready to off-load him in a knockdown fee in January.
Real boss Jose Mourinho signed the 28-year-old on a free transfer after his Bayern Munich contract expired and it was thought at the time to be a smart, low-risk move.

Fulham's Moussa Dembele often flatters to deceive and while he gets rave reviews in some sections of the press, the record throughout his career isn't great.

However, speaking after the London derby on Sunday, former Spurs boss Martin Jol claimed that the 24 year old Belgian could go on to emulate the feats of a current White Hart Lane favourite.

OK so by now many of you are sick and tired of my negative post match rants and so rather than risk infuriating you some more, let me change things a bit and inject some sarcastic humor to the proceedings. Instead of a review of the match vs Otelul, let me expose my thoughts through [...]

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"Making the Arsenal" – the book of Arsenal's decline and rebirth Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal

Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 10: Arsenal injuries fall (a little bit)

By Dale Higginbottom

At the strong risk of jinxing it again ahead of a Champions League group game, I have gone with the [.

The nightmare scenario this offseason for the New York Yankees was losing CC Sabathia in free agency. On Tuesday, the Yankees made sure that didn't happen when they gave Sabathia a $122 million deal over five seasons.

Last year, CC Sabathia held together the Yankees starting rotation. He was a Cy Young Award candidate for the entire season and finished with a 19-8 record and a 3.

Kolo Touré's move to Manchester City in 2009 led to him being labelled as a money-grabber and as a player who failed to repay Wenger's trust in him since his arrival at the club in 2002, and it now seems that the risk he took didn't pay off. As well as finding himself second choice [...]

Robin Van Persie is one of the most in-form strikers in the world right now, and his hat-trick against Chelsea at the weekend will only have emphasised the fact to the watching millions, and his reputation will be even more enhanced. There will be many top managers looking on and thinking that it is possible [.

I was just catching up on the news from the last few days and I came across Tottenham's Benoît Assou-Ekotto issuing a plea for his club to do whatever it takes to hang on to their top stars and bringing in new ones... or risk becoming another Aston Villa.

Ouch!
The way things stand at the moment, it's not hard to at least partially agree with him and his message will definitely resonate with a fair number of Villa fans disgruntled by the recent austerity measures.

In Part I of this series, I made my way though the first third of United's roster, tagging and releasing, identifying those to PROTECT, those to EXPOSE, those on the BUBBLE, and those N/As the FO didn't have to make a call on. Moving on to the second third of the roster.