Liverpool overcame Manchester City to reach the Carling Cup Final their first final at Wembley since the 1996 FA Cup Final and the club have already chosen what suit they will be wearing. The Reds last played at the home of English football in 1996 when they took on mortal enemies Manchester United in the [.

The real issue with Mario Balotelli isn't his 'swag', abrasive nature or arrogance for that matter. The real issue with Mario these days is that he's turning into the Lady Gaga of football. Of course, the issue of kicking Scott Parker in the head yesterday (in City's 3-2 defeat of Spurs) isn't something that should surprise you at all.

By Alan Duffy

In a definite case of 'do not try this at home', a bunch of Liverpool fans (you can tell they are Liverpool fans by their thick Scouse accents), driving home after last night's Carling Cup win against Manchester City, found themselves in the lane next to one Samir Nasri.

Manchester City's coach, Roberto Mancini, reveals that they might try to snatch an additional midfielder in the January transfer window, but it will only happen once they managed to offload some of their current unused players, including Carlos Tevez.

Mancini reveals that there are around three to four players that his club planned to offload this winter and the manager is very hopeful that everything would happen just as planned.

Subdued Song turned the game

We came, we fought and we came away with zero. Yet there's still much to admire about this Arsenal side. We did not get thrashed by the team supposedly to be champions elect. Neither were we outplayed and hung on by the skin of our teeth.

Arsene Wenger fielded the same line-up as the one that took to the field on our 125th anniversary celebrations.

Your number's not up Ex-Arsenal player Samir Nasri hardly set the world alight on his return to the Emirates Stadium with Manchester City last night, but he nearly played an even less significant role in the match when he attempted to get himself subbed in the first-half. A spot of numerical dyslexia blighted the Frenchman [.

Qualification for the knock-out phases of the NextGen series will have to wait after Villa's U19s failed to get a result in Norway, losing 3-2 to Rosenborg.

Derrick Williams cancelled out Ole Kristian Selnæs' 29th minute opener from a Samir Carruthers corner in the 39th minute. Daniel Johnson sent the visitors into the break 2-1 ahead just minutes later with a wicked shot from a tight angle.

WEEKEND WRAP

• In honour of the Valencian derby between Levante and Los Che this weekend, here's a plate of tapas specially conjured up by the chefs at the Orio Valencia Centro Restaurant for Futbolita when we were in the city!

By Chris Wright

Just the five? How disappointing.

Manchester City (or more accurately, their second string) made it 21 goals scored in their last five matches with a 5-2 rollocking of Wolves at Molineux last night easing into the Carling Cup quarters alongside Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Blackburn, Cardiff and Crystal Palace.

::: FistedAway welcomes a guest post from Elliott,
editor of the rather lovely Futfanatico :::

If the summer was bad for the Gunners, the start to the season was even worse. No Nasri. No Fabregas. Fine. But the loss to injury of Jack Wilshere was devastating, and Arsenal touched bottom in a humiliating loss to rivals Manchester United.

Grin and bear it The weekend's Serie A action featured some DIY dentistry from Novara. Goalkeeper Samir Ujkani found himself minus four teeth after a collision with team-mate Michel Morganella. Ujkani also broke his nose in the clash. In the video above, you can see one of the keeper's teeth cartwheeling through the air away [.

On Sunday October 16th's slate of early matches in Serie A, only one saw any goals, it was Bologna's 2-0 victory over Novara. Both of Bologna's goals came after Novara's keeper Samir Ujkani left the match in the 43rd minute thanks to the brutal collision shown in the video below. It appears that you can see one of Ujkani's teeth flying in the air after the collision.

Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny reckons we are still the pride of North London even though we lost to that lot on Sunday.

Szczesny told the Mirror: "You can't say the balance of power has shifted after just a couple of months. We've had a poor start to the season but you can't say they're in the ascendancy after just one game.

Arsene Wenger had his young Arsenal side flying towards a possible four trophies last season until it all came apart at the seams after losing the Carling Cup Final. The turmoil this caused led to Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Samir Cashri leaving the club which forced Wenger to bring in a host of new [.

<a href="http://www.arsenalinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/arsenalvswansea.png"><img src="http://www.arsenalinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/arsenalvswansea.png" alt="" title="arsenalvswansea" width="496" height="285" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3241" /></a> While the two Manchester clubs continue to thrash everything in their sights, Arsenal could only scrape a 1-0 win over Swansea courtesy of a bad mistake by their goalkeeper.

In honor of Fabian Johnson's and Joe Corona's call-ups to the U.S. and Mexico, we present to you ten other players with ties the Americans could have exploited to get them in the red, white and blue.
Welcome aboard, son.1. Pedro – Is probably not the same person as Pedro Rodriguez, 57, of Midland, Texas, but how is FIFA supposed to know that?

In honor of Fabian Johnson's and Joe Corona's call-ups to the U.S. and Mexico, we present to you ten other players with ties the Americans could have exploited to get them in the red, white and blue.
Welcome aboard, son.1. Pedro – Is probably not the same person as Pedro Rodriguez, 57, of Midland, Texas, but how is FIFA supposed to know that?

Manchester City, despite their riches, struggled last season for goals and lacked enough creativity. Mancini employed a cautious defensive approach utilising the leadership of Vincent Kompany last season. The splurge on Edin Dzeko in January was aimed at giving Man City a huge goal threat.

Nasri looked so happy when he was pictured outside Eastlands yesterday; there was a genuine smile from a man who has arrived at his pre-destined home!

In an interview with Manchester City website / tv, Nasri claimed that one of the reasons he moved was the passion of the City fans as opposed to the Arsenal fans.

Match Report: Arsenal withstand Italian heat to overcome Udinese is a post from: Just Football

Udinese 1-2 Arsenal
UEFA Champions League playoff round second leg
Arsenal go through 3-1 on aggregate

by Theo Fan

With the dust of Cesc Fabregas' recent exit still settling, Arsenal travelled to North Eastern Italy and the Stadio Friuli to take on Udinese Calcio in a crucial second leg of their Champions League qualifier.

This country's press hailed the decline of Manchester United in 2005. We had last won the league in 2003, won the FA Cup in 2004, but then finished 3rd and empty handed. Whilst the more optimistic amongst us claimed we were just in transition, with Sir Alex Ferguson rebuilding our next title winning team.

Liverpool recorded their first away win over Arsenal since 2000 to heap more misery on the Gunners - who saw Emmanuel Frimpong sent off and lost injured centre-back Laurent Koscielny in a 2-0 defeat at Emirates Stadium.
Samir Nasri impressed for the Gunners but the home side's luck was out after Aaron Ramsey's own goal and a last-minute strike from substitute Luis Suarez handed victory to the visitors.

Arsenal are a step closer to their 14th consecutive appearance in the Champions League group stage after a narrow first-leg play-off win against Udinese.

Theo Walcott's fourth-minute goal proved the difference in an open contest in which Udinese were unlucky not to score an away goal.

Arsenal begin their Champions League campaign on tonight against Udinese and despite missing suspended Robin van Persie, injured Jack Wilshire and Samir Nasri , the bookies still believe it will be a relatively easy victory for the Gunners.

Unibet, who are offering a no risk first bet promotion to arsenalinsider readers, make Arsene Wenger's side 1.

Depending on the Moroccan

Arsenal play again tonight, signs that football is well and truly back. While we are only really at the beginning of the season, games are coming thick and fast. Champions League is on the menu for tonight albeit the play-off for the group stage proper. Of course, we could've avoided this fixture had we not stumbled towards the tail end of last season.

Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner, Emmanuel Eboue and Samir Nasri, all players who left or all about to leave Arsenal during the summer transfer window. Speaking about a turbulent summer, manager Arsene Wenger explained that ...

By Andy Brumming

With the start of the new Premier League season imminent, we take a look at some of the comings and goings in the transfer window, and at which teams will be contesting for the title, as well as those contesting the relegation places.

ARSENAL:

In: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Carl Jenkinson, Gervinho.

All summer long almost every other transfer story was either about a big club trying to sign a player away or an unhappy player wanting to leave their club. From Tevez at Man City, the Fabregas and Nasri sagas at Arsenal, Luka Modric and Tottenham to the Joey Barton explosion at Newcastle, it seems that there are players that can be sold for a lot of money that just cannot seem to break away from their clubs.

It may seem surprising, but Newcastle have more than a decent chance of starting their Premier League season on Saturday with a win against Arsenal. Arsene Wenger - big troubles in pre-season The London club have had their own troubles in pre-season, and it now looks like their best two players, Cesc Fabregas and Samir [.

Jason Cowley, author of that memorable book about Arsenal and the end of the old First Division, 'The Last Game', has penned a pertinent take on the current dilemma for manager Arsene Wenger.

Starved of funds for reinforcements and with his best players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri wanting to leave, the Frenchman's dream of an Ajax on the Thames looks to have stalled perhaps for good.

Arsenal's disappointing 2-1 defeat to Benfica was not the only object of manager Arsene Wenger's concern this weekend as he was left sweating over the knocks that some of his key players took ahead of the season opener in less than a week.

Forward Robin van Persie, full-back Kieran Gibbs, and injury prone center-half Thomas Vermaelen have all reportedly joined Jack Wilshere in a race against time to be fully fit when the Gunners take the field against Newcastle United at St.

Cesc Fabregas is ready to give up more than £4m in bonuses to secure a move to Barcelona, says the Mail this morning. The paper reports that it is the latest twist in the protracted saga of the Arsenal captain's desire to return to the club he left at 16 amounts to an official transfer request.

Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has claimed that he has been trying to persuade Arsenal's Samir Nasri to join the club all summer.

At last we have played some football and wonder of wonders a new wind of optimism seems to be blowing through the blogs after the most excruciating month of self-flagellation I can remember in 60 odd years following the Arsenal. From learning to read the match reports of Desmond Hackett : he of the Brown Bowler hat: on the back page of my fathers Daily Express, to watching Nubile young ladies sensationalise each and every action on Sky Sports News.

It's been four months and seventeen days since I wrote my last post at BigFourZa (and if you thought I pulled that fact out of my ass, wait till you read the rest of this post). To put that into perspective, that's almost twenty eight months in dog years, or in a more footballing context, a time when Chelsea actually had hopes of winning the Premier League.

It's been four months and seventeen days since I wrote my last post at BigFourZa (and if you thought I pulled that fact out of my ass, wait till you read the rest of this post). To put that into perspective, that's almost twenty eight months in dog years, or in a more footballing context, a time when Chelsea actually had hopes of winning the Premier League.

Whilst it's still early in pre-season and players are still finding their feet, some patterns are emerging after two games.

Wenger's early acquisition Carl Jenkinson looks a good buy. He never put a foot wrong in either game. As the pre=season friendlies move up a level it will be interesting how he copes against Cologne and Benfica.

Manchester United could land Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder for £35m next 48 hours after agreeing personal terms £190k a week Transfer News MirrorFootball.co.uk.

Now here we go again with the over-hyping of the transfer market with claims from Mirror Football that Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder has agreed terms with Manchester United for a switch to the Premier league club.

Manchester United arrived in Boston today to kick of their almost three way U.S. tour and United boss Sir Alex Ferguson had some interesting things to day at the press conference today.

Sir Alex was asked a question about Paul Scholes and he started to answer about how much United will miss Scholes and how he rates him alongside Xavi and Iniesta as the best midfield players in the world.

As it was the case last season, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger confirmed that he will not let captain Cesc Fabregas and midfielder Samir Nasri go without fighting to keep them at the club. Speaking to Arsenal ...