With Glen Johnson ahead of him in the Anfield pecking order, Martin Kelly has been warming the bench more often than not this season, which is a shame because he rarely lets Liverpool down when he plays. As a result of Jose Enrique's injury, Kelly got his chance against Spurs last night, and he was arguably one of the best players on the pitch.

So Newcastle's new signing Papiss Demba Cisse and fellow Senegalese team mate Demba Ba netted goals for the Magpies in their 2-1 home win over Aston Villa yesterday. However, whats funny is that the same two players could not do the same for Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations.

And this is interesting because African players have a tendency to perform well for their clubs, but when it comes to their national sides, it is a different story.

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.

I think it's so ironic how a team that is famous for giving nothing away at home gets upset when decisions don't go their way in away games. When a nailed on pen isn't given to their opponents. Yet when the same happens to them in an away game they spit the dummy. The word shame doesn't seem to exist.

Two goals from Fernando Llorente has given Athletic Bilbao a 2-1 first-leg advantage in their Copa del Rey semi-final against giant-killers Mirandes, and seriously dented the Cinderella dreams of the third division team.

Llorente scored twice in the first half to seemingly put Athletic firmly in control of this tie.

Time for a rest?

Midweek Premier League match. Haven't had that in a while. Tonight, Arsenal travel to Bolton looking to capitalise on the yesterday's results. I say results when it's actually only a single result. That of Chelsea's draw away to Swansea. Effectively, they've gained a point over us, both by the result and the fact that we lost ours when we went to Liberty Stadium.

It's a real shame that Yohan Cabaye has been hit with a violent conduct charge. Yohan Cabaye after scoring against Manchester United And it's a very high likelihood that he will miss the next three games, but we should know by 6:00 pm tonight. That's when he and Newcastle have to decide whether they [.

Allen Iverson was known for scoring a lot of points on the basketball court and for wearing a lot of bling during his time away from the game. Today, he no longer plays basketball professionally and his bling has him in trouble.

A judge in Georgia has decided to allow a jeweler to take money straight out of Iverson's bank account at Wells Fargo.

The new tournament in India had its auction today. A quick refresher for those who allow quirky short-term tournament formats to slip from the back of their minds (shame): five teams, each team bids for a leading "icon", along with two foreigners and a manager, with a wage budget of $2.5m. (How much is being ballparked for the icons 30-40%?

It is looking more and more likely that Real Madrid will walk away with the La Liga title this season. A 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza at the Santiago Bernabeu yesterday coupled with Barcelona's barren draw with relegation threatened Villarreal pushed them 7 points clear at the top of the table.

By Chris Wright

Massive thanks to Pies' fan Nick Sincere for bringing this photo to our attention Jose Mourinho lurking menacingly in the shadows of the underground car-park at the Camp Nou with the express intent of having 'a little chat' with referee Fernando Teixeira after his questionable performance during Wednesday night's El Clasico farrago.

Remember Yuri Zhirkov? The man with a big reputation as one of the upcoming stars of European football joined Chelsea for a fee of around £18m in 2009 and being honest, did little really to cement his place in the team or force his way in. I think we could realistically, count on one hand the amount of games he played well in for Chelsea.

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.

Have you ever seen anything like it?

One of the worst first half performances in memory. Newcastle were very impressive, well drilled, pressurising perfectly, timing their confrontations and ganging up on our players relentlessly. We couldn't keep the ball. They could, spraying it around and running us ragged.

It looks more and more likely with each passing day that Andrey Arshavin will pack up his boots and leave London during the summer, likely back to Russia with Zenit St Petersburg, where he's still considered a hero. In fact, it seems all of Russia regards Arshavin as some kind of football genius since he was named that nation's athlete of the year again for the fourth time running and is still the captain of his country's team.

Saturday morning. South London is grey and gloomy.

It's always exciting to have a game after a bit of a break. Back into your regular seats to see the Whites playing against an intriguing looking Newcastle side.

In a way it's a shame that Tiote and Ba will be absent always nice to see the opposition's best players close up.

It's always nice to know that people read your work, and when they do they take it to heart. Clearly, Pablo Hernández has a good understanding of English and reads The Offside, because just days after I called him rubbish and whatnot, he put on a blinder of a performance against Levante in the Copa del Rey.

This must be the millionth time I've said this, but I can't say it enough, because this team keeps on giving me reason to. I am so fucking proud of them. I love them so fucking much. This team is just something else. Such pride, such heart, it's unmatchable. After the last Clasico, where we beat them 3-1, I was talking to a fellow Culita about how Barca play these games and win them with their hearts.

This must be the millionth time I've said this, but I can't say it enough, because this team keeps on giving me reason to. I am so fucking proud of them. I love them so fucking much. This team is just something else. Such pride, such heart, it's unmatchable. After the last Clasico, where we beat them 3-1, I was talking to a fellow Culita about how Barca play these games and win them with their hearts.

Andrea Barzagli believes Juventus were unlucky not to claim all three points against Cagliari on Sunday. Mirko Vucinic's opener was cancelled out by Andrea Cossu's strike early in the second half, but, after peppering the Cagliari goal, Juve could not find a winner. "It's a shame not to have won. We created many opportunities without being able to make the most of them," said the central.

Howard...gratefully claims it... Distribution...Brilliant...Are things on here for the USA?... Can they do it?...

Who among us can listen to those words of Ian Darke and not get goosebumps? Well, that is some ice water indeed flowing through your veins if that does not describe you.

Goal: Mock the Weekend: Paul Scholes returning & Wayne Rooney's badge-kissing sums up the madness of Manchester United

The veteran's return was just one bizarre and brilliant moment of a mad derby game, during which his controversial team-mate locked lips around the club's badge without shame

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2012-01-09 08:40:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Man City's Vincent Kompany is out of the Carling Cup Semi-Final with Liverpool this week.
The impressive defender was harshly sent-off in the FA Cup game v Man Utd yesterday.
Doesn't matter, we will take it.
We couldn't get past him the other week when we lost 3-0 to the Sky-blues, he stopped everything we threw at Man City.

Apparently refereeing is getting better year on year, according to Mike Riley that is, and that's how he started off his interview with the BBC's Mark Chapman last night on Radio 5 Live. It's just a shame that no one outside the PGMO gets to see any data that would back these confident claims up. According to Prozone assistant referees allegedly got 99% of their decisions correct last season,

The second half of this player review now, looking at our players who were decent, but not great this season so far, for several reason. We also look at our younger players who made their debuts this term.

Santos' 2nd most meaningful contribution this season (after his goal at Chelsea, of course.

First of all, happy new year everyone. I hope your holidays were great.

New Year started, Im hoping to get some more posts up on the blog from now on. First, Ill start with what Ive seen so far during the first half of our match with Doxa Dramas.

1. Sialmas needs to learn how to finish!

After months of speculation, questions and premature reports, it appears that the final twist in the David Beckham offseason saga has the player staying right where he is.

According to multiple reports from France and England, Beckham is not going to be signing with Paris-St. Germain after all, and a return to the Los Angeles Galaxy seems imminent.

If we are to believe the lovely Mayans, the bearers of good news, then, sometime in 2012, the year we've just entered of course, the beautiful human race – and also Luis Suarez – will be wiped out by some sort of terrible catastrophe. Oh well. Thankfully however, there are a bunch of cool, slick wordsmiths who are considerably more optimistic than the Mayans and see this year as one, not of doom and gloom, but of happiness – in particular, for Manchester United.

If we are to believe the lovely Mayans, the bearers of good news, then, sometime in 2012, the year we've just entered of course, the beautiful human race – and also Luis Suarez – will be wiped out by some sort of terrible catastrophe. Oh well. Thankfully however, there are a bunch of cool, slick wordsmiths who are considerably more optimistic than the Mayans and see this year as one, not of doom and gloom, but of happiness – in particular, for Manchester United.

News has broken this morning as the now the transfer window is open, that Alex will speak to QPR about a possible move to Loftus Road as early as today.
Some people have questioned with all our injury problems lately, as to why Alex has been frozen out and not called back into the squad but you have to give credit to AVB for sticking to his guns.

We had a number of dramas in sports this year but none has affected us Dutchies more than the tremendous Greek Tragi-comedy being played out in Amsterdam. One of the most classic and normally classy football clubs has lowered itself so terribly one can only look on in shame or [read more]

Alex Rodriguez isn't exactly known for playing fair. This is a guy who has admitted to using steroids to further his baseball career. And now the third baseman for the New York Yankees is stretching the rules once again.

According to reports, Alex Rodriguez flew to Germany to get a controversial treatment done in an attempt to heal injuries to his left shoulder and right knee.

Back in November, Major League Soccer revealed they are shifting back to an unbalanced schedule for the 2012 season after using a balanced one for the past couple of years. Eastern Conference clubs will play seven of their conference opponents three times each (21 total games) and the remaining two conference opponents twice each (4 games).

Every so often comes a video which you have to sit and watch and it's a shame that the following video crams in Lionel Messi's goals of the 2011-12 season so far in such a short space of time. Nevertheless I thought it a good choice to include on here as it will no doubt prove popular with many people to see the world's greatest footballer doing what he does best.

Another player that Chelsea fans are confused about at the moment is Josh McEachran. Having asked to go out on loan back in the summer and being told "No" by AVB and that he is in his plans for the season, we are reading reports yet again this morning of a loan deal on the cards in January.

Here is the the Liverpool line-up for today's game against Aston Villa. You heard it here first!Reina, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Enrique, Downing, Adam, Henderson, Shelvey, Bellamy SuarezIt will be interesting to see where Shelvey lines up; he'll probably be shunted out to the right to accommodate Henderson in the centre.

Malaysian football may be riding high regionally with the national team joint holders of the SEA Games and the ASEAN Cup but things ain't so hot domestically. Teams with little in the way of a support base or culture like KL PLUS, MyTeam and Kuala Muda have fallen by the wayside in recent years and now problems are circulating around Kuala Lumpur.

After 45 minutes it seemed that an unlikely conclusion was in prospect for our latest venture into the Europa League. With Spurs leading and 10 man Rubin Kazan losing to Paok, it looked as though we may turn over the three point and five goal deficit.

A 1-1 score line in Salonika eventually made anything we did irrelevant but our 4-0 win included debut strikes for Steven Pienaar and Harry Kane and a second goal in a Spurs shirt for Andros Townsend.

Former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb will be without a team at the end of the year after his current club Wolfsburg revealed that they will not be renewing his contract when it ends later on this month.

Hleb who struggled to assert himself in the Barcelona line up was eventually loaned out to Bundesliga club Wolfsburg in August on a short term switch that was meant to improve his fitness and form after an injury prone post Arsenal career.

When I first read Ian Joy's tale I was struck with just how personal Joy allowed himself to be. He told his story of depression with no shame and truly opened himself up to what he went through. His candid approach led me to reach out to him.
Initially, I had absolutely no intentions of interviewing him.