Arsenal have two visits to Sunderland on consecutive Saturdays in different competitions and both have the potential to improve the season but could also make it far worse. The focus for now, obviously, has to be on the more immediate fixture that is the upcoming League meeting.

It would be an understatement to suggest that Martin O'Neill has turned the fortunes of the Black Cats around.

Readers should know already that the WPS suspended the league for this upcoming season. (Some reports on the decision: Sports Illustrated/Associated Press; All White Kit; The Guardian.)
To say that the league has struggled would be an understatement. It's been plagued by the usual headaches of a nascent sports league - mismanagement, outsized ambition, financial troubles, finicky owners, fickle fans, crap media.

Instead of a preview, I thought I'd look at some classic Arsenal matches against this week's opponents. And when those opponents are Man Utd, there's a lot of games to choose from. So, rather than one game, I thought I'd look at a whole season: 2004-2005. That year, we played United in three games that can genuinely be described as epic (we also opened the season by beating them in the Charity Shield).

It's been a strange week here on the Liverpool Offside there's not been a whole lot of actual news since Saturday's draw with Stoke, but there's been an influx of folks whose keyboards were custom-made by Nigel Tufnel and have a vendetta against either Kenny Dalglish, people talking sense, or chickens, and often times there's been a frightening combination of the three.

AC Milan have officially ended their pursuit of Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez after their bid worth more than €20 million was turned down by the club yesterday.

Milan vice president Adriano Galliani confirmed that talks had broken down saying that City were holding out for €35 million which for Milan is too pricey.

AC Milan have officially ended their pursuit of Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez after their bid worth more than €20 million was turned down by the club yesterday.

Milan vice president Adriano Galliani confirmed that talks had broken down saying that City were holding out for €35 million which for Milan is too pricey.

Anfield Rd: Give Kevin Williams his inquest

KEVIN WILLIAMS died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and his mother Ann is still trying to get justice for her son. The official ruling was that all the victims were dead or brain dead by 3.15pm due to "traumatic asphyxia" a- but Ann has evidence that Kevin was still alive at 4pm, that he was seen breathing and with a pulse and that he even cried out to a woman police officer for his mum after the 3.

As we know the transfer window is open and that means its silly season time again.
Arsenal will be linked with every Tom, Dick and Harry from the Tombs of the Nobles to Outer 'order' Mongolia.
Some of the rumours will make you laugh, others you can take more seriously.
Lukas Podolski is a player that Arsene Wenger is supposedly looking at.

Theo Knows

A bit of a break before the Monday FA Cup third round tie against Leeds United. After a hectic last one week of football, it's a welcomed breather for the team. 7 out of 12 points from our last 4 games is not ideal but it isn't bad either. Could've been more had the team not collapse in the last part of the Fulham game.

Date: Tuesday Nov 01 2011
Ground: City Ground
Comp: West Midland Regional Division (step six)
Match: Darlaston Town 0 Cradley Town 8 HT: 0-4

ATT: 45 (headcount)
Additional: Entrance £4.00, Programme £1.00

City Ground in pictures
Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 8, Structures/Terracing 7, Hospitality 7, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger stadiums 7
Total 29

By a coincidence, just days before going to the City Ground of Darlaston Town, Neil Chambers emailed me.

Date: Tuesday Nov 01 2011
Ground: City Ground
Comp: West Midland Regional Division (step six)
Match: Darlaston Town 0 Cradley Town 8 HT: 0-4

ATT: 45 (headcount)
Additional: Entrance £4.00, Programme £1.00

City Ground in pictures
Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 8, Structures/Terracing 7, Hospitality 7, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger stadiums 7
Total 29

By a coincidence, just days before going to the City Ground of Darlaston Town, Neil Chambers emailed me.

Luis Suarez has been at Anfield for almost a year now, and it's an understatement to say that the Uruguayan is idolised by Liverpool fans. A year is (arguably) enough time to assess a player's true impact on a club, so how does Suarez compare to other Liverpool strikers of the past? In the first comparison of this new series, I'll compare Suarez's first-year impact at Liverpool with former

Five things we learned from the Boxing Day football | Jonathan Wilson

Dimitar Berbatov has still got it but Ashley Cole appears to be losing it and Andy Carroll is just unlucky Berbatov's still got it One of the sadnesses of modern football and the prevalence of large squads is the talent that does not get to play.

Newcastle didn't look solid last night in defense, and that may be an understatement. An unhappy Alan Pardew after the game last night West Brom don't usually do very well and don't usually win on Tyneside, and in fact last night was the first win for them at Newcastle since way back in 1977, when I was only just past being middle-aged.

Thirty-eight days.

That's how much time general manager Michael Burns and first year head coach Jay Heaps have left to assemble a new and improved squad before the preseason kicks off on Jan. 16.

Following its worst season on record, it would be an understatement to say that Burns and Heaps have their work cut out for them.

Saying that Manchester United haven't had the best of weeks is an understatement, they've been knocked out of the Champions
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Saying that Manchester United haven't had the best of weeks is an understatement, they've been knocked out of the Champions
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

It's an understatement to suggest that Andy Carroll has strugged at Liverpool. In his last sixteen appearances, the former Newcastle striker has scored only two goals, and he's clearly having problems adapting to Liverpool's style of play. However, Anfield legend Steve Nicol believes that there is another reason for Carroll's underwhelming performances.

We called out Stevie Johnson for making fun of Plaxico Burress shooting himself in his thigh. On Monday, Stevie Johnson apologized for his touchdown celebration. You can see the Stevie Johnson celebration video here.

Plaxico Burress said he got a call and a text message from Stevie Johnson after the game.

Happy Thanksgiving to you from all of us at Chelsea Offside. As has become tradition around these parts, we have foregone helpings of thinly sliced turkey in favor of a cooked Guus.

Awkward

We hope that each of you manages to enjoy the holiday festivities with family, friends or otherwise on this day of many thanks.

Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie was the hero (yet again) as his brace gave the Gunners a crucial 2-1 win at Norwich their fifth successive Premier League win. To say that the prolific Dutchman is in a rich vein of form would be an understatement of biblical proportions. 13 league goals in 12 matches, [.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Flanked by the men who hired him, newly-appointed head coach Jay Heaps spoke confidently about the immediate changes that need to take place in order to return the Revolution back to respectability.

"Fundamentally, a few things have to change right off the bat," said Heaps as President Brian Bilello and General Manager Michael Burns looked on.

Last Friday we witnessed the US National Team in a tepid display against France. If you missed it, count yourself lucky as it was rough to watch. Tomorrow the team will have a chance at redemption against Slovenia. We're likely to see much of the same though. Jurgen Klinsmann hasn't done much to reassure fans of anything in the past months string of friendlies.

To say there's been some opposition to Mike Ashley's rehash of his previously botched plan to sell the St James' Park naming rights would be an understatement. However as more details have emerged it's become ever more obvious that this 2.0 version is scarcely better than the previous one, and it seems more than likely [.

By Alan Duffy

Surely Manchester City's Micah Richards deserved his place in the latest England squad? The defender has been in superb form for the Citizens, already chalking up five assists in City's almost flawless league campaign so far.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It would be a skyscraper-sized understatement to say that the Revolution fell short of expectations in 2011.

Between the five wins (franchise low), the 58 goals allowed (second worst in MLS), the negative-20 goal differential (the second worst in MLS), a nine-game winless streak (tied a franchise high), and.

This evening, at the Houses of Parliament, we saw a revelation. After twenty-two and a half long years, the Members of Parliament present decided unanimously and without the need for a vote that the government should release all of its documents relating to the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, bringing, at long last, a chink of light to the ongoing battle of the families of those that died that day after years of struggle.

This game oh man this game. This one beat me. Right now I'm just glad there are only two games left to go over. Join me after the break as we go over this game. Not a whole lot of good things to talk about here so I'm going to make this quick.

After the game there was a lot of talk about how the team wasn't "trying" or lacked effort.

It's an understatement to suggest that Ryan Babel never quite realised his undoubted potential at Liverpool. For a variety of reasons - many of which were not his fault - the Dutchman's career never really took off. Babel now plys his trade in the Bundesliga with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, but as he revealed in a recent interview, Liverpool FC is still very special to him.

After winning two World Series championship with the Boston Red Sox, you'd think Terry Francona would get a free pass for a decade or two. However, that is apparently not the case. Multiple online reports say that Terry Francona was fired as the manager of the Red Sox on Friday.

Terry Francona led the Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

Image via Jack Wilshere's Twitter account.

Ovary explosion is an understatement, Kickettes. This new bundle of Arsenal Adorkableness is causing an extreme ovaryaction in our esteemed domicile at the mo.

Jack Wilshere's (ex?) girlfriend Lauren Neal, gave birth to a baby boy Archie Jack Wilshere today at 15:06 GMT.

Sebastien Squillaci is a player that Gooners love to hate. To say he has not had the best of times since he arrived at Arsenal is an understatement, and many supporters were glad when he was dropped from the side with Arsene Wenger claiming he was injured. But was he really injured, or has he [...]

Hi all.
Welcome to ze blog. In most parts of the world it would just be an ordinary, boring, if not tedious, Monday morning.
But with the boys in blue and yellow getting deconstructed (you could happily substitute that with either smashed, mauled, clawed or demolished) on Saturday, there's this concept of Mad Monday to contend with.

Chivas USA 3 Toronto 0

I came to this game to write Chivas USA's season obituary; I may have seen the start of an unlikely resurrection.

"I feel like I haven't smiled in a long time," said a beaming Chivas USA Coach Robin Fraser in the locker room afterward.

Staff Writer Elliott Teaford took a break from the Lakers beat and has the game story.

To say Charlie Adams wanted to get tossed out of this game was an understatement. Two yellows in the first 30 minutes saw 'pool go down a man and then another sending off for Liverpool in Skrtel saw Spurs crank up the screws. Modric scored early and then it was all cruise control as Spurs go on to win 4-0 with a brace from Adebayor.

Video highlights and reaction

When Arsene Wenger spoke about the need to add consistency to our game, like most of you I thought about a sequence of results and performances which would win points for the football club. I'm pretty sure that he did too, looking to add to the midweek draw and the win against Swansea last weekend.

Video highlights and reaction

When Arsene Wenger spoke about the need to add consistency to our game, like most of you I thought about a sequence of results and performances which would win points for the football club. I'm pretty sure that he did too, looking to add to the midweek draw and the win against Swansea last weekend.

Billy Brown is the new assistant manager at Hibs.
It's going to feel odd typing that for some time to come. Rumours had been swirling all week but it still came as a bit of a shock when the announcement was made.
That shouldn't really be the reaction.
Everything you've heard about Hibs v Aberdeen last Sunday is probably an understatement.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish says he will consult the club's owners over how to deal with what he perceives to be poor refereeing so far this season.
The Reds boss was unhappy with a number of decisions during his side's 1-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday.
And afterwards he said: "The first four games have had contentious decisions in them and every one has gone against us.

Time: 7:30pm ET

Location: PPL Park, Chester, PA

TV: Comcast Network

To say Portland has been a mercurial team would be an understatement.

This is a team that can give up a two goal lead at home against Toronto, follow it up with a 3-0 thrashing of LA, then go to lowly San Jose and eke out a 1-1 draw.