By Greg Evans

Ayew do you do guvnor?

After the entertaining, exciting, exuberant and down-right enthralling set of matches that the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations laid on for us in the group stages, surely it could only get better for the last 8?

In a thrilling 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge, both Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata put on a show, but the title could still end up on the blue side of Manchester if Yaya Toure can add some fluidity & ... Continue reading →

Didier Drogba could not be denied as he made up for a missed penalty by pouring in a brace. Ivory Coast added another through Yaya Toure as they send Equatorial Guinea, the co-hosts, out of the ACN. The Taranga Lions are through to the semi-finals.

Drogba will be missing today's huge showdown with Man Utd, and in his absence, Chelsea is hoping that misfiring Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge, take up the goalscoring slack.

The Ivory Coast beat Equatorial Guinea last night 3-0 and advanced to the semi-final of the African Cup of Nations. Drogba scores first goal for the Ivory Coast last night But Cheick Tiote was on the bench as two goals from Didier Drogba and one from Yaha Toure was enough to see the side through [...

Two goals from Didier Drogba and a fine free kick from Yaya Toure gave Ivory Coast a comfortable 3-0 win over Co-host Equatorial Guinea to send the Elephants through to the Semi final where they will face either Gabon or Mali.

In the day's earlier match Zambia beat 10 man Sudan with a scoreline to make it through to the semis for the first time since 1996.

Ivory Coast vs Equatorial Guinea Highlights 3-0 Video Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Goals Drogba Yaya Toure is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Ivory Coast vs Equatorial Guinea Highlights 3-0 Video Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Goals Drogba Yaya Toure is a post from Soccer Blogger.

Get In Bellers!...Liverpool booked their place in the League Cup final at Wembley on Wednesday night after beating Manchester City 3-2 on aggregate. It was a fantastic tie for the neutral as City took the lead twice at a boisterous Anfield but the home side were the better team over the two legs and Craig Bellamy's 73rd minute goal made sure the Reds would be fighting for some silverware next month.

The African Cup of Nations is underway, but does it feel like we are missing a few people? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The 2012 African Cup of Nations kicked off on Saturday, with co-hosts and debutants Equatorial Guinea getting a last-gasp, dramatic 1-0 win over Libya. The likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and Demba Ba are chomping at the bit to showcase the quality of football in the African continent, but this year's edition has a number of recognisable absentees.

By David Walker

The January transfer window is often a frenzied time with chairmen, managers and agents battling against the clock to secure new players. As a result, many players who move during this period often do so at over-inflated transfer fees and are hit-or-miss in terms of success.

As 50 Cent once said, 'get rich or die trying'.

And 'get rich' is exactly what one man did after he posed as Yaya Touré's football agent.

Last November, an unidentified conman supposedly approached a fine wine shop in Luxembourg, France, on behalf of his Manchester City star client.

First off, I accept that this is a pretty unfair comparison.

To rank any Arsenal team from any era against the most feted group of Gunners ever to have worn the sacred cannon is clearly destined to be a mismatch.

It's a bit like comparing Dan Brown with Charles Dickens, or Boyzone with the Beatles.

szólj hozzá: Figueora kezezése

Roberto Mancini is dead nuts on getting the oppositions players sent-off!
Two weeks ago Mancini was looking for Martin Skrtel to be dismissed after a clumsy tackle on Yaya Toure in City's 3-0 win over Liverpool in the League, he then wanted Glenn Johnson red carded for his two-footed tackle on Johnson in Liverpool's 1-0 win in the Carling Cup semi-final first leg at the Etihad and last night he wanted Wigan's Maynor Figueroa for a hand-ball on thew half way line and although they may all have warranted a red card, Mancini's attitude towards red card offences seem's hypocrytical to say the least.

... Akos Buzsaky. In our new feature celebrating the poetry of teamsheets, we take a trip to QPR and bring you this couplet: Jamie Mackie, Akos Buzsaky Why? Good question, and one that's applicable to swathes of OTP content. We counter it: why not? If you'd like to suggest some Rhyming Team-mates, drop us a [.

Manchester City finally ended their bad run and also kept their lead at the top of the premier league after picking up a pretty hard fought victory against Wigan Athletic on Monday.

Bosnian international striker, Edin Dzeko, ended his 11th matches goal drought to bring joy again for Man City's faithful after Roberto Mancini's side were disappointed in FA Cup and Carling Cup matches few days ago.

Captain Fantastic...Liverpool were victorious in the first leg of the Carling Cup Semi Final with Manchester City last night courtesy of a Steven Gerrard penalty. Manager Kenny Dalglish used tactics to his advantage as Liverpool began to park the bus in the second half. Man City could do nothing to get an effort past the Liverpool defence let alone past Pepe Reina who was left relatively jobless throughout the 90 minutes.

Manchester City 0
Liverpool 1 Steven Gerrard 13′ (pk)

A week after falling 3-0 to Manchester City in the league, a Liverpool side without two of their top players returned to face a City side missing three of their best for the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals.

Man City's Vincent Kompany has lost his appeal against a four match ban for his sending off against Man Utd on Sunday in the FA Cup.
The influential defender will now miss the Carling Cup game against Liverpool on Wednesday evening as well as two Premier League games and the 2nd leg at Anfield.

Manchester United ended their two game losing streak with a massive 3-2 win over Man City at the Etihad Stadium. Some quick thoughts on the game:

• Kompany tackle was worthy of a leg card. You cannot slide in with two feet off the ground anymore. Doesn't matter if he went through Nani or not.

Manchester City's coach, Roberto Mancini, reveals that they might try to snatch an additional midfielder in the January transfer window, but it will only happen once they managed to offload some of their current unused players, including Carlos Tevez.

Mancini reveals that there are around three to four players that his club planned to offload this winter and the manager is very hopeful that everything would happen just as planned.

La supersfida tra Manchester City e Liverpool si è è rivelata meno equilibrata di quanto si potesse pensare alla vigilia e si è trasformata in un monologo assoluto dei padroni di casa che hanno travolto gli avversari per 3 a 0 e ritrovato (in attesa di vedere cosa far lo United stasera a Newcastle) laContinua a leggere .

Liverpool Lose 3-0 At Etihad

Suarez begins his 8 match ban... Manchester City put three goals past Liverpool on Tuesday night despite the away side retaining a lot of possession. A goalkeeping mishap and a dubious penalty helped City on their way but despite this, Liverpool still couldn't find a goal to put the pressure on Mancini's side.

Suarez begins his 8 match ban...Manchester City put three goals past Liverpool on Tuesday night despite the away side retaining a lot of possession. A goalkeeping mishap and a dubious penalty helped City on their way but despite this, Liverpool still couldn't find a goal to put the pressure on Mancini's side.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish called on his team to be more clinical after they were defeated 3-0 by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The visitors enjoyed a large share of possession but again failed to make it count, which has been their Achilles heel for most of the season.
It was Liverpool's first game without Luis Suarez after the club decided against appealing his eight-game ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra.

Vincent Kompany hails 'massive win' against Liverpool as Manchester City open three-point gap over Manchester United

Goals from Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and James Milner sealed the win for City although the win was slightly marred by Gareth Barry's dismissal in the second half

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2012-01-03 23:07:00 from: Goal

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

3pm ET, live in the US on espn2.
Last four head-to-head:
1-1 (h) 10.27.11
3-0 Liverpool (h) 04.11.10
0-3 City (a) 08.23.09
0-0 (a) 02.21.10
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 3-1 Newcastle (a); 0-0 Wigan (a); 2-0 Villa (a)
City: 0-1 Sunderland (a); 0-0 West Brom (a); 3-0 Stoke (h)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Suarez 5; Bellamy 4; Adam, Carroll, Gerrard, Maxi, Skrtel 2; Henderson, Johnson 1
City: Agüero 13; Dzeko 10; Balotelli 8; Johnson, Silva 5; Kompany, Milner, Nasri, Y Toure 2; Barry, Kolarov, Richards, Savic 1
Referee: Mike Jones
Yes, again.

The 2012 African Cup Of Nations is set to begin on the 21st of January until the 12th of February, so we thought with not long to go it may be worthwhile figuring out which teams are going to be most affected by players departing for this competition.

Players Involved In The African Cup Of Nations

Starting with the teams at the top end of the Premier League, Biram Diouf of Senegal appears to be the only Manchester United player affected which isn't likely to affect the club much at all as he is probably their 6th choice striker.

It's easy to trot out cliches about yesterday's game - it was a great advert for the premier league, etc. - but the fact of the matter is that we lost. We may have lost heroically, and we can be proud of the performance, but we're still three further behind in terms of the race for Champions League spots.

The more and more I see Mikel Arteta play in an Arsenal shirt, the louder I laugh at the fact some people out there called him a 'panic-buy'.
When he signed for us I was over the moon.
I loved watching him play when he was at Everton, and I love him even more now he wears the shirt of Arsenal.

Pundits had been queuing up to say that Manchester City were at the top of a downward spiral. The suggestion was that after going out of the UEFA Champions League, courtesy of Napoli and Bayern Munich, and then losing to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the wheels were starting to come off the great Manchester City roller coaster of 2011.

In many ways this game was a microcosm of many recent Arsenal seasons. There was much to admire. There were a lot of exciting moments, the club matched the leading club toe-to-toe for large parts and it would be hard to pick one side over the other. The defenders worked hard, certainly considering the free-scoring nature of the opposition.

In many ways this game was a microcosm of many recent Arsenal seasons. There was much to admire. There were a lot of exciting moments, the club matched the leading club toe-to-toe for large parts and it would be hard to pick one side over the other. The defenders worked hard, certainly considering the free-scoring nature of the opposition.

Man City vs Arsenal 1-0 Highlights 2011 Video December 18 Goal David Silva is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Man City vs Arsenal 1-0 Highlights 2011 Video December 18 Goal David Silva is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Man City vs Arsenal 2011 ( Manchester City v Arsenal 2011 video below) Final score and result:- Man City vs Arsenal 1-0 ( David Silva) Etihad Stadium, Manchester- Sunday- December 18, [.

Why David Moyes might have already made THE deal of the January transfer window

No matter how many astute signings are made during next month's transfer window, I doubt any will be more effective than the loan deal Everton have just tied-up with Landon Donovan. But if Everton are to make genuine progress, David Moyes needs to be handed a big chunk of the £10million Mikel Arteta fee that sneaked into the bank on the final day of the last transfer window, to bring in the striker they desperately need.

With the African Cup of Nations set to begin in about a months time, many Premier League clubs are already starting to prepare for the departure of their players, however, one club Manchester City are delaying the departure of Ivorian duo Yaya Toure and his brother Kolo.

According to the club, they have been granted a special allowance to delay the Toure's departure so that they can take part in the the FA Cup fixture against United and the First leg tie of the League Cup against Liverpool.

Yaya Toure may face a three game ban after being seen kicking and then slapping Chelsea's Juan Mata during City's 2-1 defeat to Chelsea Monday night. Although the incident wasn't seen by the referee Toure may face trial by TV or will the FA turn a blind eye to the incident?

I would like to start by congratulating Manchester City FC for producing a resounding victory for football.

By losing to Chelsea last night in the match amusingly referred to by someone on Twitter as "El Cashico," they have helped demonstrate to the world just how amazing Arsenal's achievement in going a season unbeaten really was.

I would like to start by congratulating Manchester City FC for producing a resounding victory for football.

By losing to Chelsea last night in the match amusingly referred to by someone on Twitter as "El Cashico," they have helped demonstrate to the world just how amazing Arsenal's achievement in going a season unbeaten really was.

Ahead of the big match against Chelsea on Monday evening, Manchester City's tactician, Roberto Mancini, revealed that aside from focusing heavily in the upcoming difficult matches against the Blues and Arsenal, the Italian tactician is also set his sight on surviving the January fixtures.

Mancini revealed that, the early part of next year could be the most important month that will determine their title chance this season.

Pros
So, the first pro is fairly obvious - hilarity. It's always funny to watch United lose, especially in Europe where Fergie's ability to influence referees is less pronounced. The fact that they were served up one of the easiest CL groups I can remember makes it even funnier.

In English football history two teams have in the past gone unbeaten throughout a league season. The team in most recent memory is the Arsenal side of 2003/04.

That Arsenal side registered 26 wins and 12 draws for the campaign and played almost double the games the previous invincible side (Preston North End 1888/89) had played.