Arsenal have two visits to Sunderland on consecutive Saturdays in different competitions and both have the potential to improve the season but could also make it far worse. The focus for now, obviously, has to be on the more immediate fixture that is the upcoming League meeting.

It would be an understatement to suggest that Martin O'Neill has turned the fortunes of the Black Cats around.

Liverpool can't continue their hot streak and end up with their eighth home draw of the campaign, failing to take advantage of a Spurs side that were lacking in both personnel and intent. With the success of the past few weeks creating a healthy dose of optimism this one's got to be chalked up as a disappointment, and worrying in that Liverpool yet again failed to capitalize in a match that mostly looked like theirs for the taking.

Soler Swag for days

After what can only be described as a highly disappointing season in 2011, the Red Bulls, and more importantly their front office, certainly had their work cut out for them. A roster filled with so much talent but woefully underachieved had to be revamped somehow. And it was Erik Soler's job to fit together the right pieces to assert New York as a top team once again.

The modern football fan has access to statistics that would have seemed unthinkable only five or six years ago. Sites such as the marvellous whoscored.com offer the casual fan a site from which they can drag figures to prove or disprove their assertions on their side. Are we missing a lot of chances?

Last night in Arizona, the US national team topped Venezuela in the first of two friendlies for the camp cupcake roster, 1-0 thanks to a late goal by Ricardo Clark. Sporting KC forward Teal Bunbury and midfielder Graham Zusi both started for the US, while forward, CJ Sapong came on as a second half sub, replacing Zusi.

The 2011 season grades forge ever onward! Corey, Matty, and I have looked at the four major areas of the team - goalkeeping, defense, midfield, forwards - and assigned our grades on a 4.0 scale.

Unfortunately for the New England Revolution, we don't curve based on the rest of the league.

Without further ado, here are our grades for the Revolution midfield, which was strong on paper but still performed below expectations.

Peter Nowak spoke to the press today, only hours after the Union announced Costa Rican left back Porfirio Lopez as the team's fifth offseason signing.

"Porfirio [Lopez] has a great capacity going back and forth and taking pride at defending, and that's a part we take a look at very closely," Nowak said.

THFC1882 presents Glen Bocking with a report of Tottenham Hotspurs visit to Stoke.

So.... The 'run' is over, that game away fans always refer to as being a tough game has ended in defeat, quite how Spurs lost though is another matter altogether.

For pretty much all of the 1st half and a decent chunk of the 2nd half it's fair to say Spurs were the better team, aside from 2 set piece goals, Spurs spent the 1st half pretty much camped in Stoke's half.

Way back on March 1, just a couple of weeks before the start of the regular season, the Portland Timbers coaxed Jack Jewsbury away from Sporting Kansas City. Days later he captained his new team to a 2-0 defeat of the Seattle Sounders and promptly ended the debate - among the coaching staff, at least - over who would end up wearing the armband for the Timbers in 2011.

On paper, Man U should have had this. On paper, Man U dominated shots, shots on goal, possession, and set pieces. Newcastle is thankful that things don't play out on paper. Demba Ba scores again, as Newcastle walks away with a point.Video: FoxSports
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Stoke City stats in Europe making direct football work - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

According to Castrol EDGE Performance analysis 34% of Stoke City's attempts on goal in the Europa League this season have been headers.

The English team have been put down for only posing a threat from set pieces and long balls, a view backed up by 14 of Stoke's 41 shots in this season's Europa League being headers.

Stoke City stats in Europe making direct football work - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

According to Castrol EDGE Performance analysis 34% of Stoke City's attempts on goal in the Europa League this season have been headers.

The English team have been put down for only posing a threat from set pieces and long balls, a view backed up by 14 of Stoke's 41 shots in this season's Europa League being headers.

By ADAM SERRANO

The Houston Dynamo may be without their MVP candidate, but the Los Angeles Galaxy are keenly aware that the Dynamo will still have another key weapon in their attack.

Dynamo captain Brian Ching has enjoyed a stellar season since battling back from injuries that limited him to just 20 regular season games.

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the United States National Team players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue contributed ratings for the USA's 3-2 victory over Slovenia.

Galaxy center back Omar Gonzalez, seen here challenging for the ball with New York's Luke Rodgers, is the 2011 MLS Defender of the Year (AP Photo).

Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez, who turned 23 Oct. 11 and stands 6-5, has become the youngest-ever winner of the MLS Defender of the Year award.

The criticism of Arsène for trying to force square pegs into round holes has frequently been levelled over recent seasons. Bendtner, Eboue and Arshavin in particular have all been deployed in areas that would not be their first choice let alone the Championship Managers among us. The reason for this has generally been a lack of depth in the squad exacerbated by the perennial injury problems that have depleted us so cruelly at vital times.

Quick Recap:

The Houston Dynamo takes care of business against a young Philladelphia Union team and win their last home game at Robertson Stadium 1-0.

First Half

Inexplicably Peter Nowak made multiple changes to the Union line-up, leaving off regular started Justin Mapp and FreddyAdu. The changes did not help the Union even though they were able to control the ball at times they were unable to get a shot that looked dangerous.

There is a mini-trend that Arsenal just have to curb. The Gunners have gone into the previous two international breaks on the back of defeats United and Spurs that have made the fortnight unbearable. It will be nice to have a positive feeling during the upcoming disruption. That means only a win will be the acceptable result at the Emirates against the Baggies.

By AVI CREDITOR

If there's a theme prevalent throughout the last round of the MLS postseason, it's that proficiency off of dead-ball situations has been vital to staying alive.

Out of the four remaining teams, only Real Salt Lake has yet to benefit from a set piece during its playoff run.

At some point today, SI.com editors will put the headlines, captions and final graphical flourishes on the lengthy MLS playoff preview I just put together. You may, at this very moment, find yourself trembling in anticipation. Not to worry – you are not alone.

Until that's posted, to keep you sated, here are 15 great things I learned (or knew and thoughtfully re-considered) while putting that bad boy together.

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Brian O'Connell contributed ratings for the New England Revolution's 2-2 draw with Toronto FC.

The New England Revolution scored goals on either side of halftime to overcome an early Toronto FC lead, but in fitting fashion gave up a late equalizer to finish the season with a 2-2 draw. The Revs (5-16-13, 28 points) finish last place in the Eastern Conference, five points behind eighth-placed Toronto (6-13-15, 33 points), for the first time since 1998 and fail to reach at least seven wins for the first time in club history.

Bottom of the league and calling for the managers head. Devastating depression is what springs to mind flicking through the posts on the Rovers forums. With protests planned before and after the game, some reckon it could get dicey around the stadium should Blackburn suffer a heavy defeat, with some predicting carnage on and off the pitch.

Lawrence Appleby has seen his share of football clubs. From scouting for Hereford United FC during their Welsh FA Cup winning year to serving as joint manager at Morepth with ex-Premier player Trev Benjamin, Appleby's career inside the world of football has been filled with adventure and wisdom.

Quick Recap:

The Portland Timbers came out with a sense of urgency they lacked on Friday and got the first goal. Portland was unable to hold the lead and gave up the equalizer. Portland ties 1-1 and now needs help to even have a chance to make the playoffs.

First Half:

Portland came out like they actually felt this game mattered as compared to Friday's game and the lack of energy Portland displayed.

Rooney v Suarez stats going into the Liverpool v United game - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

We compare two main striking threats for Manchester United and Liverpool, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez, and look at their stats for the start of the Premier League season.

ROONEY MAN UTD'S MAIN THREAT

Wayne Rooney has started the season in blistering from.

PERLAZA!

Fired up for this affair.

Been looking forward to it for awhile.

The Timber have a game in hand. A win tonight puts them neck-and-neck with Houston and a few others in the scratching-and-clawing of the MLS playoff cage match.

Chabala. Brad Davis's MVP campaign.

Sunderland Q&A: Transfers, Fans and Footballing Identity - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Earlier this month Roker Report (Sunderland blog) editor Simon Walsh asked us if we'd like to do a Q&A on Sunderland and here it is. We talk about Sunderland's transfer policy, footballing identity (or lack thereof) as well as whether Sunderland will be in a relegation battle this season.

I must say (and, to reiterate from last week, I feel like I haven't much to say anymore these days) that I believe this was one of the better games we've played-at least in quite a while. The midfield looked calm and collected, we held possession pretty much throughout, and in general we looked to have a lot of spark and finesse.

Charlie Adam | The story so far

AnfieldIndex Liverpool FC Stats | Liverpool FC Blog | Liverpool FC Forum Charlie Adam There was no doubt this summer that Liverpool wanted Charlie Adam. They had tried desperately throughout January to prise him from Karl Oyston's grasp at Blackpool, and had almost lost him to Spurs in the dying embers of the window.

1. Much like the Project 2010 Blog, Oguchi Onyewu will rise from the ashes today, getting a rare start. He won't quite look like his old self (see: Oguchi Onyewu, Confederations Cup 2009), but it will be promising. He'll get beat where he shouldn't on a couple of occasions, but he'll show some ability to recover, which he's been lacking for a while.

1. Much like the Project 2010 Blog, Oguchi Onyewu will rise from the ashes today, getting a rare start. He won't quite look like his old self (see: Oguchi Onyewu, Confederations Cup 2009), but it will be promising. He'll get beat where he shouldn't on a couple of occasions, but he'll show some ability to recover, which he's been lacking for a while.

1. Much like the Project 2010 Blog, Oguchi Onyewu will rise from the ashes today, getting a rare start. He won't quite look like his old self (see: Oguchi Onyewu, Confederations Cup 2009), but it will be promising. He'll get beat where he shouldn't on a couple of occasions, but he'll show some ability to recover, which he's been lacking for a while.

1. Much like the Project 2010 Blog, Oguchi Onyewu will rise from the ashes today, getting a rare start. He won't quite look like his old self (see: Oguchi Onyewu, Confederations Cup 2009), but it will be promising. He'll get beat where he shouldn't on a couple of occasions, but he'll show some ability to recover, which he's been lacking for a while.

Stick Football: Keeping Football Fans Busy At Work - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

FIFA 2012, PES 2012, and Football Manager 2012 are all sure to keep football fanatics occupied for the next several months, much to the chagrin of wives, girlfriends, parents, employers, and teachers around the world.

Previewing this match it is clear that the Chicago Fire are a different team than they were during the last meeting. Both teams certainly have injury concerns to key players, but the facet of the game that will be most effected is different. One can consider that there are four portions of any game, in ways these are what determined the old three band nomenclature of formations.

On September 24th D.C. United had an impressive showing against a somewhat second team squad of Real Salt Lake but the result was exactly what United needed - 3 points.
The Black and Red seemed poised to make a strong playoff push down the stretch of the 2011 MLS season however the ensuing road trip saw United lose to Eastern Conference and I-95 rivals Philadelphia Union and Columbus Crew just three days later failing to collect a single point.

Technical deficiencies. Unforced errors. Tactical incoherence. Predictably disappointing result.

In the preview I was talking about the need for three goals if Arsenal are to win this one and a general feeling that the result will not be positive. Unfortunately, it came true.

I thought Arsene picked a fairly strong line-up with Walcott and Gervinho on the wings.

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Brian O'Connell contributed ratings for the New England Revolution's 2-1 loss to Seattle on Saturday.

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

By ALAN LEDBETTER

Dwayne De Rosario has been on a hot streak that every fantasy MLS owner should riding. After a disappointing first half of the season, he has become the highest-scoring field player in MFLS and had one of the most impressive weeks of the season this past week.