Andre Villas-Boas admits that being leapfrogged for the fourth place by London rivals Arsenal on Saturday left a bitter taste, particularly since his Chelsea side had played out what he refers to as the club's worst match of the season.

Ahead of the Blues' 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, under-pressure Villas-Boas had acknowledged that his men are in the midst of a disappointing Premier League season and need significant improvement.

Anzhi Makhachkala, the Russian club with an abundance of wealth behind them, are reportedly close to signing Fabio Capello as manager. The club, owned by Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, has made no attempts to hide its wealth and in recent times has made moves for every notable high profile player available for transfer.

Spanish Primera Division (La Liga) Recap 11 February 2012 - The 90th Minute Soccer Blog

Below is a recap of all the La Liga matches on February 11, 2012.

Racing Santander 0-0 Atletico Madrid

Racing moves out of the relegation zone Atletico Madrid are up to 6th place. It was a physical match with four yellow cards given to each side.

STARTERS
Both Charlie Davies and Tim Ream were named to their respective team's game day 18 player roster for this weekend.
dN
Today was the 2nd preseason game of the year for Vancouver and guess what: "20'- old friend Atiba Harris gets first caution for hard tackle on sideline against Bengelloun".

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Liverpool must be getting tired of Manchester.

Kenny Dalglish and Co. face off against a Manchester side for the seventh time this season when United and Liverpool clash in a match full of significance. Manchester United are trying to survive a brutal run of fixtures and keep pace with their cross-town rivals.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By DAVE MARTINEZ

There will be no hero's send-off for Thierry Henry.

After Henry scored the final goal in a 7-1 Arsenal victory over Blackburn last weekend, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger eluded to the possibility of extending Henry's loan up to the London derby against Tottenham on Feb.

Harry Redknapp was found innocent of tax evasion on Wednesday afternoon in London. The court hearing did not merely determine whether Harry Redknapp was going to find himself imprisoned, or at the very least fined and reprimanded, for tax evasion but, perhaps just as importantly, whether Harry Redknapp was still on course for the top job in English football.

I've got to admit, feeling like a loser has become a part of my identity, low self-confidence hard-wired into my DNA by virtue of too many years of hardship. On Saturday morning, as Arsenal destroyed Blackburn 7-1, I got to feel like a winner again. And it felt good. Really good.

In terms of pure bliss, I don't know that I've sincerely enjoyed any weekend of sports more than the past one.

Lifelong City fan Celia Hodkin has been given an almighty birthday present from the folks in the Blue half of Manchester... Celia, set to turn 88, has been given the opportunity to lead out the team she has supported since the age of 9 vs Fulham this weekend. Her daughter wrote to the men in charge about [.

Not too long ago, Chelsea and Manchester United were fighting each other for league titles and UEFA Champions League superiority. Now, the Blues are just hoping to chip away at a 12-point table deficit that keeps mounting by the week.

The two English giants battle Sunday at Stamford Bridge in a nationally televised game on the Fox network, with United looking to maintain its place atop the league while dealing perhaps the final blow to Chelsea's faint title hopes and forcing the club into a fight for a place in Europe next season.

The Tevez-Pato "will he? won't he" questions ricocheted every which way this January as the musical chairs transfers song played at AC Milan, but at the end everyone retook their own chairs. Boring. Perhaps they were dating Berlusconi's daughter, or were on £200,000 a week slave wages that no one else could match, but whatever the reason, that anti-climax will be followed up by a busy February and early March.

This is veeeeeery interesting:

This paper evaluates the extent to which the performance of English Premier League football club managers can be attributed to skill or luck when measured separately from the characteristics of the team. We first use a specification that models managerial skill as a fixed effect and we examine the relationship between the number of points earned in league matches and the club's wage bill, transfer spending, and the extent to which they were hit by absent players through injuries, suspensions or unavailability.

Newcastle United are up to fifth in the Premier League after they beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0, while Arsenal's poor run of form continues as they were held 0-0 at Bolton.

Newcastle took a 12th-minute lead when Blackburn's Scott Dann deflected a 25-yard shot from Ryan Taylor past stranded Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

Newcastle United are up to fifth in the Premier League after they beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0, while Arsenal's poor run of form continues as they were held 0-0 at Bolton.

Newcastle are now just three points behind Chelsea and a UEFA Champions League place as the Magpies leapfrog both Liverpool and Arsenal with the win.

Former New England Revolution star Clint Dempsey could be changing teams before England's January transfer window comes to a close at 6PM ET on Tuesday. The current Fulham FC midfielder has been lighting it up in the Barclays Premier League with 15 goals through all competitions and could see a dream move to one of the top clubs in the league before Tuesday's deadline.

Manchester United are entering a crucial stage in their title defense and with Europa League commitments set to commence in a few weeks, Sir Alex Ferguson is counting on the return of energetic midfielder Tom Cleverley.

Although Sir Alex will also have Ashley Young and Anderson return to training this week, he is particularly excited about seeing Cleverley back in a fortnight's time.

The Seattle Sounders have played in three U.S. Open Cup title games and three MLS Cup playoff series, but the match against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League on March 7 may be the biggest match in franchise history. Not to be too much of a shill, but if you're enough of a fan of this team to be reading this blog, you probably should plan on being at Century Link Field that day.

Sir Alex Ferguson does not concede that Liverpool were deserved winners in their 2-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday and the Scot believes that the league champions should still be in the FA Cup based on the performance at Anfield.

United fought back from a goal down as Ji-Sung Park equalized Daniel Agger's headed opening goal at Merseyside but it was all in vain for the visitors as Dirk Kuyt scored late to ensure progress for the hosts.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

All American eyes Friday are on Goodison Park, where Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey do battle in Everton and Fulham's FA Cup match, but there's another game in Europe that is of importance to Americans abroad as well.

Timmy Chandler's FC Nurnberg and Steve Cherundolo's Hannover 96 are slated to go up against one another in a Bundesliga match that should be featuring the present and future of U.

Arsenal legend Alan Smith has criticised current manager Arsene Wenger's recruitment policy, which he believes could cost the Gunners a UEFA Champions League spot at the end of the season. The retired striker, who has now turned to commentating, also believes that Wenger should have pursued central defender Gary Cahill more aggressively before he was signed by their London rivals Chelsea earlier this month.

So far the 2011-12 season's FA Cup campaign has been a high quality tournament. Just 32 teams remain in the competition and are all fighting the claim their spot in the Fifth Round of the cup. In this article I shall be talking about the up-and-coming matchup between Premiership side Queens Park Rangers and their league compatriots Chelsea.

On the eve of one of the more important matches of the season for Real Madrid, manager Jose Mourinho is making headlines again for all the wrong reasons.

According to reports out of Spain, Mourinho is letting it be known that he wants out of Madrid at the end of this season, which would be two years into his four-year contract with the club.

FC Barcelona would be looking to finish off the good job done at the Santiago Bernebeu last Wednesday when they meet Real Madrid at the Fotress Camp Nou. In the league Camp Nou has been an un-penetrable fotress till Betis broke it a week before. This season Barca has scored 67 goals at Camp Nou and conceded just 6(2 in Super Copa, 2 in La Liga and 2 in Champions League).

Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam insists the club remain in the hunt for a UEFA Champions League spot despite dropping down to seventh in the Premier League.
The Reds were held to yet another home draw against Stoke last weekend, their seventh at Anfield so far this season.
Those dropped points mean the club have fallen out of the European places and are five points adrift of Chelsea in the final Champions League position.

Se está disputando la O-League, el máximo torneo de clubes de Oceanía. Se trata del nuevo formato que en 2007 adoptó la antigua Copa de Campeones de Oceanía, imitando a la Champions League europea.
En esta edición 2011/12 participan ocho equipos de siete paíes, lo que demuestra un constante crecimiento.

Manchester City and Tottenham are ready to lock horns at the Etihad Stadium in a potential Premier League title-defining clash which promises to be dynamite. For the past two season's, Manchester City and Tottenham clashes have been purely to decide the squabble for that much-coveted fourth UEFA Champions League spot.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Sunday will mark a significant milestone in the progession of soccer in America.

When Fox airs the Arsenal-Manchester United match at 11 a.m., it will be the first live Premier League broadcast in the United States on network television.

It appears likely that Didier Drogba is set to move to Shanghai Shenua. It is not quite clear whether the move is scheduled to take place during the January transfer window or in the summer of 2012 but it has become quite clear that Didier Drogba is set to move away from Stamford Bridge and Chelsea.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric firmly believes that his side can win away to league leaders Manchester City this Sunday despite the hosts having a perfect record at the Eastlands this season.

Modric, who endured a shaky start to the campaign due to being distracted by a potential move to Chelsea, has rediscovered his form of late and after scoring in the Spurs' 1-1 draw against Wolves, he is approaching the clash with City with a strong mindset.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 19, 2012) US Soccer Players -- It's easy enough to pick on Major League Soccer and the CONCACAF Champions League. Not only are their flaws obvious, in most cases they can't fall back on obvious success. Not so for Europe, where the UEFA Champions League can overlook its faults while generating massive amounts of money for all involved, especially for those teams advancing to the knockout stage.

Real Madrid hard-nut Pepe was caught stamping on the hand of Lionel Messi during Real Madrid's 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey Quarter-Final 1st leg. The notoriously tough-tackling Brazilian, who has a disciplinary rap sheet longer than Mike Tyson, took advantage of a foul on the current World Player of The Year [.

Jose Mourinho, the coach of Real Madrid, performed an interesting psychological ploy after El Clasico. The manager said that the responsibility for the result rests solely with him, stating that "victory has many father but defeat has only one, me". It was an obvious case of reverse psychology, acknowledging the defeat was his but still attempting to get the Real Madrid fans on side before they turn against him.

Here we go again.

The world's top rivalry takes center stage when Real Madrid hosts Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals (4 p.m., GOLTV/ESPN3.com), the first of two meetings in a week's time that will determine which club advances to the semifinals.

Wallowing in the glory of Henry's movie-moment comeback was not meant to last all week, but for me it has. The YouTube video I breathlessly uploaded at about midnight on Monday has now had about 37,000 hits (and Analytics tell me 90.6% of those who watched it were male, with 9.7% female how do they know this I wonder – though my brother did confidently predict that he had watched it "about 28,000 times" so maybe there's some truth in that).

Avram Grant takes over at Serbian champions Partizan

Avram Grant has taken many pundits by surprise by joining Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade as coach from today.

With fifteen games played so far this season in the Jelen SuperLiga, Partizan have a ten point lead over arch rivals Crvena Zvezda and already look set to continue their recent dominance by winning a fifth consecutive title.

Reigning Spanish La Liga, UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Club Cup champions FC Barcelona have received their FIFA World Champions 2011 badge. It will appear on Barca's match shirts...

Homare Sawa and Lionel Messi won the Women's and Men's Player of the Year awards last night

FIFA's annual awards ceremony took place in Zurich last night and there weren't too many surprises as to who would come top of the main awards of the evening.

It was obvious to all of the world and his dog that Lionel Messi would come to win the Player of the Year award in 2011 following yet another truly successful twelve months with his club FC Barcelona.

2011 was a pretty incredible years in a lot of ways. Here are a few of my impressions:
dN
My beloved Minnesota Stars won the re-inaugural NASL championship! I know most of you don't follow the 2nd division of soccer in North America, but it was a great year for many of the teams. The play on the field was arguably the best ever, and when your team goes on one hell of run and eventually wins it all, there is nothing better!

Paul Scholes made a surprise return to the Manchester United line up on Sunday. The player had made his last appearance as a professional player for Manchester United in the Champions League final loss of 2011 against Barcelona, where he featured as a late substitute.

The fiery midfielder, renowned for his passing, technical ability and clinical finishing, had retired at the end of the previous season citing his lack of ability to make an impact in the bigger matches and his deteriorating fitness as the main reasons.

Inter Milan moved up to fifth place in Serie A and within 3 points of a UEFA Champions League place after a superb 5-0 win over Parma at the San Siro with Diego Milito in particular standing out. The Argentine scored twice with further goals by Thiago Motta, Giampaolo Pazzini and Marco Faraoni sealing a [.