By Alan Duffy

Fulham 2-1 Stoke City Premier League 11th February 2012

New-boy Pavel Pogrebnyak opened his account for the Cottagers on Saturday against a Stoke City side who are now desperately in need of a win.

Newcastle were treated to a five star performance from Spurs as we despatched five goals without reply. The first came after some quick passing between Bale and Ade, the latter sending a cross along the six yard box, Benny unmarked on the far side, steamed in and blasted the ball into the net. 1-0
The second goal came after Krancjar controlled the ball with a neat touch and sent Ade down the wing.

Nothing was seen of Ben Arfa yesterday, even though Newcastle were hammered 5-0 by Tottenham. Ben Arfa future at Newcastle looks a little murky right now And Alan Pardew played all his substitutes, but Ben Arfa was not one of them, as he gave Shane Ferguson, Dan Gosling and Peter Lovenkrands run-outs in the second half.

Some good news for Madrid fans as arch rivals Barcelona slumped to a 3-2 loss Osasuna yesterday forcing Barca coach Pep Guardiola to admit that his side is now at the mercy of Madrid and only a slip up from the capital club would give his team a lifeline.

Madrid could go 10 points clear at the top of the table should they win at home to Levante today an opportunity i am sure Mourinho would not want to miss.

Spanish Primera Division (La Liga) Recap 11 February 2012 - The 90th Minute Soccer Blog

Below is a recap of all the La Liga matches on February 11, 2012.

Racing Santander 0-0 Atletico Madrid

Racing moves out of the relegation zone Atletico Madrid are up to 6th place. It was a physical match with four yellow cards given to each side.

At half-time in this game, I have to admit that I was struggling to think about what I would write in my post-match report. However, and thankfully, the game came alive in the second-half, and will probably live long in the memory of Arsenal fans for years to come. My thoughts as follows:
* As I said, it didn't look like it was shaping up to be a classic in the first-half.

Wayne Rooney scored twice as Manchester United saw off Liverpool in a fiery encounter at Old Trafford. The Liverpool born striker grabbed a brace early in the second half, to secure United fourth consecutive home win in the league against their bitter rivals from the East Lancs Road. Much had been said before the game [.

With the second half of the season well underway from Mexico to Europe, there's a few particular things to look forward to until it comes to a close.

By DAVID GUBALA

The Chicago Fire departed for Ventura, Calif., on Wednesday with a long-missed face settling back with the team for the first time since the end of the regular season.

After having quite the busy offseason, goalkeeper Sean Johnson finally regrouped with the Fire for their second phase of preseason.

Following on from my post that caused a stir (10,000 views alone) last week about Fernando Torres (Check it out if you haven't already here), here is a breakdown of his performance against Manchester United.
Have a watch and give your view on how you think he did. If only he hit that ball first time after heading it into his path inside the box in the second half!

Liverpool travel to Manchester and Old Trafford to face United for the second time in two weeks in a match that, depending on your resting heart rate, is either mildly exciting or something that's possibly life threatening. There's as much to cover off the pitch as there is on, but for everyone's sanity we'll try to just do the football.

It was a Papuan derby in South Jakarta. Persiram Raja Ampat don't have a stadium that meets ISL standards so they have become a bit nomadic this season; this was their third home game at Lebak Bulus while they have also used Surajaya Stadium in Lamongan.

At the weekend the ‘hosts' earned their first win of the season, defeating Deltras 3-1, a result that had Deltras coach Jorg Steinbrunner fuming over what he saw as poor refereeing decisions that cost him the match while Persidafon, up in Palembang, were trounced 5-0 by Sriwijaya.

The Dynamo continued their undefeated preseason (for what that's worse) with a 2-0 victory over the Montreal Impact. This was the first MLS competition Houston has faced this preseason and it's fitting it was against Brian Ching and Le Impact. Colin Clark and Cam Weaver both scored for the Dynamo.

Persija finally recorded a victory against their nemesis but not for the first time a game between the two teams was marred by crowd trouble.
In 2007 during a Copa Indonesia semi final Persipura fans invaded the pitch through a single gate that was left open, ostensibly to escape from a tiny number of Persija fans who were attacking them.

Being slightly fearful of numbers, I'm not sure how the old recipe for success of 'win at home and draw away' stands up in modern times, now we have this new-fangled three points for a win, but right now it will do for me. As against Man City, against the Pool we stood up to the considerable pressure exerted by our rivals near the top of the league, emerging with great credit and in this case a point too.

There's no doubt that after his performance and goal against Aston Villa in his debut on Sunday afternoon that Papiss Cisse is currently the Toast of the Toon. The new Newcastle hero thanks fans after Sunday's win Newcastle have now won four of their last five league games, and the only real let-down was that second half at Craven Cottage.

Liverpool will no doubt be dissapointed with the result given that they dominated the majority of the game, Spurs fans however, myself included, will no doubt be happy with a well battled away point.
Liverpool pressured us all over the pitch and hemmed us in forcing top backs to the wall defending throughout, mixed in with a helping of luck.

While it wasn't exactly backs to the wall for 90 minutes as some media reports are suggesting, Tottenham had to show a great deal of resilience to come away with a draw from yesterday's encounter at Anfield.

After the game, Assistant Manager Kevin Bond hailed a ‘different type of performance' as Spurs took a valuable point from the match.

Big blow for AC Milan's title hopes as striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been suspended for three matches for his red card against Napoli, meaning he will miss the top-of-the-table clash with Serie A leaders Juventus.

Ibra was sent off midway through the second half of Sunday's 0-0 draw with Napoli at the San Siro after he slapped opponent Salvatore Aronica in an off-the-ball incident.

The big freeze produced one big winner. Germany's winter so far: a mild December was followed by a warm January was followed by a frigging cold February. It's probably some strange global warming phenomenon again, or 2012, or... It meant that matchday 20 took place under arctic circumstances.

Gary Cahill made his long awaited debut for Chelsea against United last Sunday and I thought he did well and looked calm and composed. OK there is an argument that he was part of a defence that conceded three goals but two of them were penalties and you he is in no way at fault for the Hernandez header.

SPANISH FOOTBALL action tonight with the conclusion of Round 22 of LA LIGA with the Monday Night match between GRANADA & MALAGA FC. Granada - Malaga GRANADA managed to lift a couple of gears in the second half to take this game 2 - 1 against a very inconsistent MALAGA FC. The Malaga defender Demichelis - again - received a red card to leave his side at a disadvantage in the 83rd min mark.

Crazy stat alert: we out-passed Manchester City on Saturday.

No, I'm not grasping at straws. And yes, one can easily nuance that point away (weather stunk so the passes were short and 'easy', we were chasing the game, City was more than willing to play 10 men behind the ball), but still, the stat remains: we out-passed City, the team that almost attempted 1000 passes in a game.

Mali made it to the semifinal of the Africa Cup of Nations after defeating the co-hosts Gabon on penalty kicks. Gabon played a good match with massive home support that included Gabon's long-time president Omar Bongo. It was an intense match where Gabon took the lead early in the second half by Eric Mouloungui.

Clint Dempsey and Fulham had no luck against Manchester City at a snowy Emirates Stadium, falling 3-0. City were up from the penalty spot within ten minutes, making it 2-0 from an own-goal. It was 3-0 in the 72nd, with Joe Hart picking up the shutout. "In the second half I think we had more possession," Fulham manager Martin Jol said.

1. It's a strange one to take, I think if you had asked me before hand I would have said that it was important Chelsea didn't lose the game. Saying that, to play well for the first ten minutes of the second half and find ourselves 3-0 up was a bonus!. To throw it all away is tough to take.
2.

Have to say the game this afternoon between Ireland and Wales was an absolute classic. It was a joy to watch two brilliant teams go all out for the win
For the record I thought Wales deserved it but the brilliance of the win was tainted somewhat by a really nasty spear-tackle in the second half.

Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn Rovers

It may sound a tad melodramatic, but I've not enjoyed watching Arsenal as much this season as I should have done. All the peripheral stuff has been as fun as ever the Saturday morning anticipation, hopping on the tube, having a pint before the game and chinwagging with the usual motley crew.

SPANISH FOOTBALL continued today/tonight with Round 22 with four games scheduled of the SPANISH LEAGUE. Here are the final results & the scorers. Carmelo scores for Sporting REAL SPORTING DE GIJON had a new Coach & managed to draw 1 - 1 against OSASUNA. The locals started well & scored in the 31 st min, but then missed various occasions in the second half that made the team pay later when

Sporting KC got their first preseason game under their belts today when they took on the San Jose Earthquakes today down in Arizona. The two teams started the game with what would likely be considered their first team lineup. Both teams got things started quickly in the game. The Quakes grabbed the lead inside the first 5 minutes, as Chris Wondolowski finished off a cross from Marvin Chavez.

I imagine there will be people angry about this but City have won every single home game this year, right? So quite what we were supposed to do about that I'm not sure. People talk about our record at Eastlands but that was before City became CITY and, well, honestly...

The shame was that the game was over before it had begun, Adam Johnson managing to fall over Chris Baird in the area to win a dodgy penalty to make it 1-0, then Baird put through his own goal to make it two before we'd even started to play.

Meet one of football's unsung heroes - the workers who cleaned the pitch at half-time during Inter Milan vs Palermo on Wednesday. Diego Milito scored a hat-trick in the second half, so their efforts must have paid off! / via Daylife

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Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew has praised his side for their recent form, and is confident about their chances in the coming weeks. The impressive Magpies have been boosted by the return of Senegal striker Demba Ba, and is thrilled with his side's performance during the African Cup of Nations.

We'd hazard a guess that some Newcastle fans are having second thoughts about James Perch. James Perch in action against Tottenham earlier this season In the last two games James has been one of Newcastle's best players, and he literally changed the game in the second half on Wednesday night at Blackburn Rovers, when he allowed Newcastle to get a grip in central [.

Blackburn

Position 18th, 4-6-13 (18 points, -14 goal differential)

Away Record: 1-6-4, -6 goal differential

Recent Form: WLWDL

Last Meeting: Blackburn 4 Arsenal 3 (September 17, 2011)

Back in league action tomorrow as we square off against mighty Blackburn (hey, lately, any team playing against us looks pretty mighty).

Rich made a comment in my previous post that got me thinking, "just how hard was our first half?"

Well, unfortunately, soccer is a bit behind on the sabermetrics such as SOS and RPI and Power Rankings or other crazy mathematic formulas/systems that determine, well, everything.

What we can figure out is our points haul from one half of the season to the other.

Given that Sam Allardyce supposedly had the hex over us while he was in charge at Bolton, it was interesting to find out that we've actually won 9 out of our last ten games against Bolton in the league. Until today, our last failure to beat Bolton was the rather galling 2-1 defeat last year, when Nasri choked, and we failed to defend our set-pieces.

I do have a soft sport for Thai Port but as they go into their third final appearance in three years next week against Buriram PEA they don't look to have much of a squad left for next season.
The exodus started during the mid season break when their coach Sasom Pobprasert moved to First Division side Buriram, taking three players with him including Sompong Soleb.

Perhaps the Premier League might like to take a swift glance at the televised match between Wigan and Spurs on January 11th 2009.
With the score at 0-0 shortly after half-time, Heurelho Gomes strained his hamstring taking a goalkick and made it quite clear that his movement was severely restricted and that he wished to be substituted.

According to Gaizka Mendieta , there is a big possibility that Barca coach Pep Guardiola could soon be on his way out of the record breaking club. A lot of uncertainty has arisen over Guardiola's future following his shocking denial on Tuesday that he was close to signing a new contract.

It doesn't make any sense why Pep would want to leave Barcelona.