The German Bundesliga this Saturday saw the table open up amongst the top four after Borussia Mochengladbach thrashed Schalke 3-0 at Borussia-Park Saturday to keep them in the running for the title while giving a huge dent to Schalke's title hopes.

Leaders Dortmund were 1-0 winners over Leverkusen to maintain their 2 point lead over Bayern Munich who were also winners after they beat Kaiserslauten 2-0 at the Allianz Arena.

I'd hate to be Anrei Arshavin right now. Not even his own players have confidence in him. But then again, with consistent lackluster performances, you really can't blame both the players and the fans for wanting him out of the club.

Arsenal's latest defeat revealed a side of the players that not most people knew about.

It's official Chelsea have completed the signing of Bolton Wanderers defender Gary Cahill. Cahill was repotedly bought for a fee believed to be in the region of £7 million and is set to be presented at Stamford Bridge sometime this week.

It is still not clear whether Chelsea gave into Cahill's obscene demands of a £100,000 weekly wage in addition to a £4 million signing on fee as the fine details of the deal are yet to be revealed, however, what is certain is that Cahill is happy with the deal.

It was a dream re-union for Manchester United as old boy Paul Scholes scored the opener for United in their 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers. However it's not one happy camp at Old Trafford as Sir Alex Ferguson has given a warning to under performing striker Wayne Rooney who missed a penalty.

Rooney has in the recent few weeks struggled to consistently perform and this has led to rumours that the striker could leave United.

Mirror: Every day at Everton shows why Moyes is such a remarkable boss

The day David Moyes looks for a new challenge away from Goodison Park is the day Everton should be worried. Until then, Moyes will carry on working miracles with a few slip-ups along the way. And he is performing miracles.

By Alan Duffy

Swansea City 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur Premier League 31st December 2011

Swansea City battled from a goal down to secure a vital and deserved point against Tottenham at the Liberty Stadium.

Rafael van der Vaart had put the high-flying visitors ahead just before half-time, converting a deflected cross from Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Bayern Munich are Autumn Champions. Barring a highly unlikely flurry of goals for and against the right teams. More than the virtual trophy, Bayern will cherish the three-point gap, they opened up at the top of the table, taking maximum advantage of the slip ups of both Borussias.

Martin Skrtel is a star performer in Liverpool's defence at the moment, and he's kept defensive stalwart Jamie Carragher out of the team with his solid, assured performances. However, according to Liverpool legend John Aldridge, Skrtel's form has been a concern in the past, and he has a theory about why the Slovakian is currently playing so well.

Martin Skrtel is a star performer in Liverpool's defence at the moment, and he's kept defensive stalwart Jamie Carragher out of the team with his solid, assured performances. However, according to Liverpool legend John Aldridge, Skrtel's form has been a concern in the past, and he has a theory about why the Slovakian is currently playing so well.

Kashiwa Reysol secured the J-League title and a place in the FIFA Club World Cup as the host nation's representatives following a climatic finish to the season in Japan this weekend. The title triumph was all the more remarkable given that the team had only won promotion from the Japanese second division last season.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to rumble? After 34 weeks of ups, down, shots, goals, and more Adrian Healey than most can handle, we have finally arrived at the promised land of American soccer: the 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs.

This year will, as I'm sure you know, be different from those past.

Rubin Kazan is the next match up in the Europa league. With a feisty affair not really being on the cards. Both teams are favourites to qualify from the group, are likely to be happy with a draw and field weakened teams with the players not wanting to risk injury. Us with our youngsters, defensive holes, and Redknapp concentrating more on the league.

Tomorrow night at Stamford Bridge, AVB has to make some decisions on who his Chelsea team will be with a massive game coming up against QPR away on Sunday.
He has reiterated just how important this game is to the group with three points a must as Valencia and Bayer Leverkusen facing each other.

Luis Silva

Santa Barbara, CA In a big time game for the famous RPI points, the Gauchos came from behind to hand the Akron Zips their first loss of the season on national television. It was a huge game for UCSB who was coming off consecutive conference losses. This morale booster needs to carry over to conference play resuming this week.

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has sent out an encouraging message to all of their hopeful opponents that the reigning European Champions are not invincible.

The Catalans have won the Spanish La Liga for three consecutive years and although their recent 8-0 dismantling of Osasuna as well as yesterday's 5-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid suggests continued dominance, Guardiola has pointed out to the club's vulnerabilities as well.

Day before game practices tend to have very limited access to players. The team also does not let the media watch but the last 15 minutes or so. Although if you are a legendary player or coach from the original NASL you get to watch. This all makes sense. The number one focus of any team should be winning games.

For those looking in on England's progress over the past decade, it is clear that both supporters and media oscillate wildly from boundless optimism to the depths of despair.
The Three Lions are either World-beaters or a bunch of over-paid prima donnas not worthy of the shirt – you would be led to believe anyway.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

1.

By Gareth McKnight

England continue their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign this week with fixtures against Bulgaria and Wales promising to give the fans a better idea of the nation's chances of competing in Poland and Ukraine next year. With Fabio Capello's men locked at the top of Group G on 11 points with Montenegro and an away day in Podgorica still to come, the Three Lions can ill-afford many more slip-ups.

...and the following group stage draw.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is a decent striker. Quite a bit more than decent, but following his disappointing first season at Schalke (13 goals in 35 matches in all competitions), we'll only slowly roll out the superlatives. Anyway, he has now scored 12 in 6 and made sure Schalke's Europa League season wasn't disappointingly cut short.

Djibril Cisse's two goals against AEK secured Panathinaikos the second Champions League spot

Panathinaikos have won the end of season play-offs, which determine who will be the second team to represent Greece in next season's UEFA Champions League, having defeated AEK Athens by two goals to nil in tonight's match.

The dark cloud that is international football has thankfully disappeared as we look forward to the commencement of domestic and European action. United are set to take on the Hammers in East London and there can be no slip-ups with Arsenal and Chelsea in close pursuit of the league leaders.With United set to take on Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday in the first leg of the quarter

Interesting.

Mixed feelings towards Wolves. On the one hand, they were a disgrace at the Cottage earlier in the season. On other they've been quite good fun this season, the Premiership's banana-skin surprise, capable of causing slip-ups when least expected.

Also, their 1950s sides were seriously good.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp
At the start of the season, Harry Redknapp told Tottenham fans that despite the obvious potential for distraction which comes with participating in the Champions League, his mission brief was simple: to finish in the top four and to continue the club's development from mid-table also-rans to genuine title contenders.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp
At the start of the season, Harry Redknapp told Tottenham fans that despite the obvious potential for distraction which comes with participating in the Champions League, his mission brief was simple: to finish in the top four and to continue the club's development from mid-table also-rans to genuine title contenders.

Bangor City lead the Welsh Premier League at the moment

The Welsh Premier League has completed its first stage of the season with all of the twelve teams completing 22 rounds of matches. The league will now be split into two halves with the top six fighting it out for the championship and European places whilst the bottom six hope to avoid the pain of relegation.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists his side can take heart from their first defeat of the season, and are still in pole position to with their 19th league title.

The current league leaders came undone for the first time this season against a spirited Wolves side fighting for their Premier League future.

PARIS, France — Fifth division amateurs Chambery continued their dream French Cup run on Wednesday, a 2-1 victory over Sochaux seeing them progress into the quarter-finals. Sochaux became Chambery's third first division scalp after they had previously knocked out Monaco and Brest. It is the first time a club as lowly as the Savoyards has [.

Liverpool start to put it all together in the win over Wolves.

Well that was a bit more like it, wasn't it?

In the days leading up to the match I was, admittedly, a bit nervous about how things would play out today. Things had been trending positively for Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, but, as I mentioned in the match preview yesterday, the need for points was starting to trump the need to wash the bad taste out of our mouths after six months of lowered expectations and disappointment.

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Victory Through Harmony By Phil Gregory In a recent match preview I talked about how some of our recent results in the cups were slip-ups, but we had the opportunity to rectify them. This game against Leeds is the first such opportunity, and it's crucial we [.

Kilmarnock v HeartsTwo of this season's SPL's success stories go head to head. Big game for Hearts this as they look to pick themselves up from their Scottish Cup disappointment before a potentially season defining double header against the Old Firm.
Jim Jefferies' anger at the defeat to St Johnstone must have been partly fuelled by his frustration that this could be a team on the verge of achieving something special.