An ode to Mario Balotelli: his notorious on and off-field antics (to date) - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli is without doubt one of the most interesting, but controversial players in the current game. Flashes of brilliance for the Etihad Stadium outfit, Inter and Italy testify to the 21-year-old's ability, but scandal and strange off-field behaviour have never been too far away in the attacker's short career to date.

An Ode to Ole - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, also known as the baby-faced assassin, is one of the ultimate legends in Manchester United folklore. He was snapped up from Molde in 1996, the club he now manages, for a bargain basement purchase of just £1.5 million.

Wigan Woes Continue in '6-Pointer' Clash - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Halloween may have come and gone, but Wigan Athletic's form remains scary. After the Latics' 3-1 away loss to fellow strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers, the losing streak has stretched to eight Premier League games.

QPR 2-3 Manchester City: The Thriller in Hammersmith - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester City continued their illustrious and table topping start to the English Premier League season with a 3-2 away win at Loftus Road against newly promoted Queens Park Rangers.

In truth, the scoreline flattered the travelling Manchester club as QPR fought tooth and nail with City and nearly upset a top four side for their second consecutive home match when they defeated Chelsea.

Football fashion - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Fashion matters more to football than the average supporter might care to acknowledge. Most spectators aren't overly concerned about their personal aesthetic at 3pm on a Saturday. In fact, for that matter, many neglect to engage in even the most rudimentary of personal grooming practices full stop.

Transfer Rumors: One Final Chelsea Bid For Modric? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With Luka Modric not taking part tonight in Tottenham's Europa League playoff tie against Hearts, speculation of a big-money move to Chelsea is still alive and kicking. But will it come to fruition, or will Tottenham be able to keep Modric in North London?

The finale of Manchester United's tour of the U.S. kicks off in a few short minutes, and while it goes down as only a preseason friendly, it's not a stretch to say that tonight's clash against Barcelona will serve as a good barometer for where United are heading into the new season. Here's where you [.

FC Porto 2011/12 Kits - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Hulk, Joao Moutinho, Rolando, James Rodríguez and Helton helped their club reveal their 2011/2012 kits at The Yeatman Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

The Nike manufactured kits are all made from recycled plastic bottles.

RedRants wants to know your opinion on the possible introduction of a 'Like / Dislike' function in the comments boxes. Thanks. View This Pollsurvey software Please refrain from making comments bcause the post will be deleted in about 24hrs. "Vote: Like or Dislike" was originally published at Red Rants - Manchester United Blog.

Hello everyone, I'm Rimmerstweets and I'm the bringer of great news! RedRants is undergoing a makeover. You will start to see a few changes over the next few days and weeks. We have new writers, new areas and hopefully the return of the much loved Emoticons for your comments.

It was reaffirmed that Canberra's possible inclusion in the Hyundai A-League was postponed for the forseeable future. The idea of a separate, stand-alone Canberra team in the National Youth League was canvassed, but economic factors were identified as a major impediment at this stage

http://www.

GOLD CUP: Mexico outclass US - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Saturday night LA was draped in green as Mexico dominated the US 4-2 to claim the Gold Cup finale. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead early the US looked to have a magic touch. But Mexico, sensing weakness on the Yanks left side, unleashed their dangerous set of attackers and made the US pay scoring four unanswered on their way to the Cup and a spot in the 2013 Confederations Cup tournament.

GOLD CUP: Anticipated finale materializes as US and Mexico hold serve - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

OK CONCACAF and Gold Cup coordinators you can exhale. It looked rocky at times but all your worry was for nothing. The dream final is set for Saturday and after Wednesday's matches the US and Mexico look to be a more of an even talent level than anyone would have predicted a week ago.

GOLD CUP: Notes on the Semifinal - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With the Gold Cup semifinals taking place in Houston I got the chance to get some notes from the teams during their press and training day Tuesday. The general consensus was that the teams all respect each other and feel the competition level is the highest it's been in the tournament for quite some time.

GOLD CUP: Panama king in penalties in win over El Salvador - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

For the second time this weekend a Gold Cup quarterfinal was decided in penalty kicks. This time it was Panama who came out on top 5-3 after they played El Salvador to a 120 minute 1-1 draw.

The match had everything you could ask for in a match; theatrics, late goals, physicality, red cards and then the suspense at the end.

GOLD CUP: Mexico & Honduras advance in tight contests - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

We now know one of Wednesday's semi-final match ups. After two hotly contested matches Mexico and Honduras survived the first round of the Gold Cup knockout stages and will meet Wednesday in Houston for a spot in the finale.

GOLD CUP: Canada fall at the death and USA overcomes finishing woes to advance - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

There're tough losses and then there's what happened to Canada Tuesday night. Literally a fraction away from securing a spot in the knockout stages Panama pulled off a sobering goal to eliminate the Maple Leafs from the Gold Cup in the early game Tuesday night.

Manchester United annually compete in the Premier section of the Milk Cup over in Northern Ireland during the summer. This pre-season's visit will see The Reds pitted against Zamora FC of Venezuela, Co. Tyrone and Hartlepool United.

If you don't know the history of this competition, this was taken from their official website (http://www.

GOLD CUP: Defensive gaffs cost USA & Canada bounces back with win - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Its games like this that make you wonder about the U.S. soccer team. With a group C win in their grasp the Yanks dropped a shameful 2-1 result to Panama, putting the team in jeopardy of having a much tougher road to the finals.

GOLD CUP: Jamaica book passage to Quarterfinals while Honduras routs Grenada - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

A night after Mexico clinched their spot in the knockout stage Jamaica parlayed a Friday night victory into a spot joining El Tri in the quarterfinals.

Jamaica overcame Guatemala's physical and disruptive style and took advantage of being up a man to dispatch the Central American nation 2-0 in the night's opening match.

ARSEBLOG MISSIVE START

I am very happy to announce the launch of Arseblog News a dedicated, interactive Arsenal news site.

The site will constantly updated, featuring all the latest breaking news and information plus stories exclusively sourced and produced for Arseblog News itself.

As well as being optimised for mobile browsers, Arseblog apps are available to download for iPhone and Android phones. Details of which can be found below.

Features: Blog reader, downloads and stores the last 20 blog posts in the app, available for offline reading.

So today is April Fool's and people all over the Internet are writing fake stories hoping to try and trick all those who forgot that today's day.
Given the rather foolish nature of the Free Beer Movement in general there seems little point in trying to hoodwink you all. Frankly April Fool's Day kinda feels like a day where the un-funny try their damnedest to be funny.

Fernando Torres has finally put pen to paper at Chelsea Football Club for a British transfer record fee of £50million.

Torres who arrives from Liverpool, has put pen to paper on a lucrative five and half year contract and will be available for Sunday's game, amazingly, against his former club.

The sanctimonious 'sexist' witch hunt that is currently permeating the glossy facade English football coverage is showing no signs of abating today, with fresh clips of otherwise-vidicated Sky Sports anchor Richard Keys hee-hawing about colleague Jamie Redknapp's sexual conquests now doing the rounds and, such is my remit here on Soccerlens, I'm afraid that I'm duty-bound to tell you poor, over-saturated sods all about it.

Morning all. Throughout January Soccerlens is going to be bringing you a daily round-up of the morning's various goings-on. Be it juicy morsels of spurious transfer gossip or real, actual bona fide news, rest assured, we'll have it covered.

Here's this morning's batch.

Drog days are over.