As you people know, I have been right behind AVB as our manager. I have said that it's a hard job trying to regenerate this team and build something new. We have heard the saying a team in transition alot this season but you need a base to build from and that base has to be a good team. As it proved today Chelsea are NOT a good team.

Alan Pardew thinks the not guilty verdict of Harry Redknapp will lift the Spurs side on Saturday against Newcastle in London. Alan Pardew doing great job on Tyneside Redknapp will likely be the next England boss following Fabio Capelalo's resignation last night, and of course Pardew has already been linked with the Tottenham job.

There's a story about David Bentley.

I kid, I kid. I'm all out of Bentley stories. I could tell you my epic about Arturo Lupoli, his secret agent dog and his layabout sidekick, but it's all a bit too similar to an episode of Scooby Doo and I need to give it some work.

So, what's going on in the world of Arsenal?

Not a surprise to hear that Sevilla have hired Jose Miguel Gonzalez, aka Michel, to become their next coach after the firing of Marcelino Garcia Toral on Monday.

Michel will automatically receive an extension to the contract should he guide the 11th-placed side to UEFA Champions League qualification.

For many, there has been a belief that in order to get the most out of Charlie Adam he must be played as part of a three-man midfield, alongside players who will be able to cover for his shortcomings and in doing so allow him to do what he does best—break down tough opponents and create scoring opportunities.

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Persisam v Persela 0-1 (Gustavo Lopez) 12,726PSAP v Gresik United 1-0 (Sayuti) 4,500PSMS v Persiba 4-1 (Alamsyah, Luis Pena, Osas Marvelous, Ostanika; Kenji Adichihara) 9,851
Choirul Huda had one of those games goalkeepers usually reserve for a trip to play the Arsenal.

I would hope that it wouldn't surprise any of our readership that I am not a Joey Barton fan. His mock-philosophical guff makes me feel like vomiting, and the assumption that his opinions have more validity than the rest of us just because he used to be violent and has now apparently reformed makes my [.

Match Report Video By the numbers

I think we can safely say this morning that's just what the doctor ordered.

Three points, a good performance, and a day which brought no controversy, animosity, angst or worry. For a moment it looked a bit shaky, when Pedersen equalised with Blackburn's first attempt on target, but instead of setting us back it sparked us back into life and withing a couple of minutes we were two goals to the good.

On Tuesday, the Manchester City official website claimed that they had already sold out the weekend's fixture against Fulham. This obviously came as a surprise, given that just 30,000 blues bothered to show up for their League Cup semi-final against Liverpool a few weeks ago, with tickets being sold for as little as a tenner on the day.

Asked directly what excites him most about his new opportunity to be the Coach of the Seattle Sounders U-23 side Darren Sawatzky gives two answers. The first isn't a surprise. As the Technical Director of the Sounders Academy his passing for player and personal develop is a strong fit in this new intermediary step between Academy and Pro.

Last fall IMS reported on the surprise demolition of the beer garden at the northwest corner of the National Sports Center Stadium in Blaine, Minn., home field for the Minnesota Stars. The beer garden had become a fixture at the stadium for Stars fans since it was built for the Thunder in the spring of [.

You have to fill a 25 man squad with somebody and given the three major loan departures and one permanent sale earlier this week, perhaps it's no surprise at some of the names being included by Spurs this week.

In addition to those departures, Tom Carroll and John Bostock also went out to Derby and Sheffield Wednesday respectively so are David Bentley, Bongani Khumalo and Simon Dawkins literally there to ‘make up the numbers?

Of course with a headline like this, I just had to post about it. The article in today's SUN heaps more pressure on AVB at Chelsea when would you believe it, we are playing United on Sunday!.
That's not like the press to put pressure on a Chelsea manager before a big game is it?.
The quote taken from the article from a "top source" states the following:

"Jose would go back to Chelsea.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 2, 2012) US Soccer Players -- The ballot for the National Soccer Hall of Fame's Class of 2012 was released earlier this week, with two of the nominees presenting themselves as obvious choices. Claudio Reyna and Tony Meola should have no problem getting the requisite number of votes to make them first ballot Hall of Famers.

The departure of Mohamed Zidan from Borussia Dortmund has opened the door of opportunity for U.S. Under-23 national team forward Terrence Boyd.

With Zidan having moved to Mainz during the transfer window, Boyd and fellow youngster Marvin Duksch have been summoned from their respective reserve teams by head coach Jurgen Klopp.

FC Barcelona took a good step towards proceeding to Copa Del Rey final with a 1-1 draw at Mestella. Considering how tough we have found recently in Valencia, this draw is as good as a win - especially because of the away goal. In the 27th minute Jonas put Valencia ahead, but Carles Puyol equalised for Barca in the 36th minute.

Tottenham yesterday saw both Roman Pavlyuchenko and Steven Pienaar leave White Hart Lane for Lokomotiv Moscow and Everton respectfully. Both moves do not come as a surprise, in fact if anything, they were both overdue.

After having been linked with a move away from Tottenham for quite some time, Pavyluchenko finally made the switch to Lokomotiv for a reported £8 million.

With the exception of January 2011, Spurs have often thrown up a surprise at the fag end of a transfer window but it's doubtful as to whether any Tottenham fans would have woken up this morning expecting Louis Saha to be wearing a Lilywhite shirt at the end of the day.

The chain of events seems to have sparked off by Rangers' acceptance of Everton's bid for Nikica Jelavic which left Saha, who was already struggling at Goodison, surplus to requirements.

Daniel Agger is feeling great after Liverpool's back-to-back Cup wins against Manchester opponents to knock City out of the Carling Cup and United out of the FA Cup but believes that there is plenty of improvement needed ahead.

Agger has always been a vocal critic of the Reds' struggles in recent years and thus, it comes as no surprise that despite scoring a brilliant headed goal to open the scoring in the 2-1 home victory over United, he is not satisfied.

Having already qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics by winning Friday's game versus Costa Rica, the USWNT's win over Canada in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament was the icing on the cake. The Canadian side came into tonight's match with a lot of confidence, but when it came time to perform, fell quite short.

First week's training has finally concluded. It was a good week and I hope you guys enjoyed our coverage of it. We really tried to get to as many trainings as possible and, I believe, we only missed one so we were able to cover most bases. Heading into next week we'll try something similar, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep up the same pace.

Kickettes, do you recall the veiled threat we (and many, many other members of the media) received from legal firm, Schillings, on behalf of their clients, the Gerrards, requesting privacy from the paps whilst out with their kids?

If not, read about it here.

Well recently, and as we rightly predicted, Lourdes made her grand entrance into the public world via the same pages that pay Alex for her brainless ramblings, which OK!

Later this morning Arsene will meet the press for his pre-Aston Villa press conference. And beyond the normal information we get from one of these gatherings, I have to say I'm really curious as to how it will go down.

It'll be the first time he's faced the media since Sunday's defeat to United and that reaction to his decision to take off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

DPM Teo Chee Hean (fifth from left at back row) graced the fixture draw in MBS (Picture credit: FAS)

I'm not mean to dampen the mood of everyone here, but I guess many of you out there must be disappointed by this time of the day when we are only made known of the opening round instead of the FULL fixture list of this season S.

By Chris Wright

While we're on the subject of Gary Neville, do the England rugby bods really want a man who had to be forcibly removed from a town hall after throwing a glitter-bomb at Republican US presidential candidate Rick Santorum during a flesh-presser in Florida the other day to be the man to lecture their troops on national pride and sporting morals?

U.S. Men's National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann didn't bring his A-squad to Panama City for Wednesday night's match. While that was no surprise to supporters of the U.S. side they still may have been wishing for a player or two to step up and put in an A-squad performance. What they saw instead were [.

U.S. Men's National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann didn't bring his A-squad to Panama City for Wednesday night's match. While that was no surprise to supporters of the U.S. side they still may have been wishing for a player or two to step up and put in an A-squad performance. What they saw instead were [.

Out of the blue this story came to light over the weekend. There are reports all over the place that Chelsea have made a bid that has been rejected, have been told that the player is not for sale at any price and that seems that.
In addition to all this, AVB has said at the weekend that "he is an interesting player" but wanted to sign players who are not cup-tied for European competition this season.

Apparently, the best player in the world debate is fat from over judging from the recent comments made by Argentine football legend Diego Maradona. The Al Wasl coach claims that old age is starting to affect Pele's Judgement.

Now, it is starting to get amusing watching these fromer greats tearing into each other verbally concerning the best player in the world so to end this debate once and for all (however impossible that may be), we are asking for your opinion.

Clint Dempsey has just put Fulham up 2-1 on Newcastle at the hour. Try to contain your surprise.UPDATE: Make it two for Deuce and a 3-1 Fulham lead after he buckets a slip pass from 15 on 65 minutes. If you're keeping score, that makes his: third against Newcastle this season, his ninth in the last 11 games overall, his eighth in league play this term and 13th across all competitions (matching

Clint Dempsey has just put Fulham up 2-1 on Newcastle at the hour. Try to contain your surprise.UPDATE: Make it two for Deuce and a 3-1 Fulham lead after he buckets a slip pass from 15 on 65 minutes. If you're keeping score, that makes his: third against Newcastle this season, his ninth in the last 11 games overall, his eighth in league play this term and 13th across all competitions (matching

Clint Dempsey has just put Fulham up 2-1 on Newcastle at the hour. Try to contain your surprise.- Greg Seltzer

By Alan Duffy

"Re-Tweet this son you're f****n' s**t"

Hell hath no fury than a spurned football manager, particularly if it's Neil Warnock. The ex-QPR boss, who tends to divide opinion (people either strongly dislike him or hate him), has hit out at the influence of critics and players on owner Tony Fernandes, claiming that his own reputation was "slowly poisoned" by outside forces with Twitter playing a key role in his downfall.

Morning all,

let's start with early team news ahead of Sunday's game against United and there's nothing good regarding Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard will miss the game, Arsene says he has 'no chance' of playing and the earliest we'll be seeing him is against Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

Clearly that's a big blow.

Alan Pardew is still challenging our mercurial midfielder Ben Arfa to increase both his work-rate and energy when he's playing for Newcastle. Ben Arfa he's trying to improve work-rate That has to be a general statement because the lad worked his socks off for Newcastle against QPR, and had a very good game last Sunday in Newcastle's fine 1-0 victory.

Interazionale sprung a big surprise on Sunday night to claim their biggest win of the season with a 1-0 victory in the Milan derby. Both teams entered the fixture in fine form (Milan were unbeaten in 12, Inter had won five in-a-row), but it was the Nerazzurri who prevailed after one of the season's great stifling performances.

Former Celtic hero Shunsuke Nakamura proved his set-piece talent has not diminished since leaving Celtic Park by performing this TV stunt in his native Japan. The 34-year-old, currently playing for Yokohama F Marinos, was tasked with firing a free-kick into a moving bus. The midfielder was positioned in a side-street and watched the bus approaching [.

Returning home after Christmas, I opened my mailbox to find a wonderful surprise awaiting me – a copy of 'So Paddy Got Up', the Arsenal anthology edited by Andrew Mangan of Arseblog.com. How my brother had managed to be one of the few people to snag a hard-copy, I don't know, but it was, to quote Arseblog's famous slogan, ‘fuckin excellent' to discover that he had.

It should come as no surprise but it's being reported that Liverpool will tour the USA this summer and play a match at Fenway Park which is the home of the Boston Red Socks.

New owners are looking to tap into the huge base of American sports fans which would be great for club support and reaching potential sponsors.

Marginally related a ball is involved, right?

Actually, it's a Nike spot. Or is made to seem a Nike spot, appearing as though it could be a Nike spot. So imagine my surprise when it didn't show up on any Nike channels.

Would the company itself ever be so bold?