Espanyol put paid to Real Madrid's run of six consecutive victories in September and steals a point from the Bernabéu. The Barcelona club won the battle in midfield and frustrated most Real Madrid attacks with solid defensive work.

For their part, the Real Madrid back four did not have their best night. Click to continue reading...

Real Madrid beat UEFA Cup and Supercup holders Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1 to win their first away game in Europe in two years. It was also their second successive win in Russia after beating Lokomotiv Moscow in 2003. The game was played at breakneck pace, especially in the first half, resulting in a very open attacking encounter with a large number of chances from both sides. Click to continue reading...

Under the heated spotlight of the Premier League it's difficult to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. It takes the stubborn resolve, perhaps even the arrogance, of a manager sure of his principals with unbreakable trust in his players.

Arsene Wenger spent little this summer, and has never had the financial power of Chelsea or Manchester United, yet is charged with the task of competing with such clubs for domestic and European honours every season. Click to continue reading...

1 - 0 L.Diarra 39'



2 - 0 J.Defoe 60'



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Speculation grows about the future of this Portsmouth star - and one source suggests a move could well be made in the summer. Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager! Lassana Diarra is a major summer target for Tottenham Hotspur. The France international has established himself as one of the top . Click to continue reading...

France coach Raymond Domenech has handed Arsenal left back Gael Clichy his first senior start in les Bleus' World Cup Qualifier against Serbia this evening. The 23-year-old was on the bench for Austria's 3-1 mauling of Domenech's men last Wednesday, but after Man United fullback Patrice Evra's abysmall peformance, Clichy finally gets his well deserved start. Click to continue reading...

France turned in a woeful performance to open their World Cup qualifying campaign, one they will want to forget. Austria opened the scoring with two very similar free kicks, with France looking like they didn't know what they were doing.

It was a collective failure to defend set pieces, but Mexes, on the first goal was horribly exposed. Click to continue reading...

L'équipe has the probable first 11 for France's opening world cup qualifier on Saturday :

Mandanda
Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra
Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Nasri
Benzema, Henry

In North America, Setanta will be showing both of France's upcoming world cup qualifiers on same-day tape delay:

Setanta broadcast at 4:00 p. Click to continue reading...

Most Chelsea fans, including myself, has been quick to label Manchester City's newest darling, Robinho, greedy. Or heartless. Or a greedy, heartless mercenary.

After allowing the blow of losing out on the Brazilian to City no less to expunge from my memory, I'm now beginning to believe the real enemy in this whole ordeal is, of course, Real Madrid.

Click to continue reading...

If Arsene Wenger is responding to the request from Wicked Deflection to bring back Arsenal Legend Patrick Vieira, he's doing it in his typically clandestine style.

With three days to go until the transfer window closes at midnight on Monday, September 1st, Arsenal supporters are stepping up their concern about lack of depth in central midfield. Click to continue reading...

No wonder why Fenerbahce did not look good in the Super League opening match!..

They had the CL in their minds!..

While Galatasaray lost out on the Europe's biggest tournamnet Fenerbahce surpases Last season Turkcell super league Champions to reach the CL.

That is bad news for Galatasaray fans but,it is good news for Fenerbahce fans, becasue, their team will be in the Champions League This season again. Click to continue reading...

Tonight it emerges that Phil Senderos could be off, on loan, to AC Milan.

My first thought? Bad timing, really.

Phil Senderos has blown hot and cold for some time and it's pretty clear that the way things are right now, he's not first choice at Arsenal. He had an average season last year and with Djourou seemingly ahead in the pecking order, something had to give.

Click to continue reading...

First thing. I'm thrilled by the win, and thrilled that we scored three goals, and thrilled that the Govou who showed up today was Visible Sidney, as opposed to his more-frequently-present evil twin, Invisible Sidney. And Sagna looks promising, especially offensively, and he and Benzema could be golden together when it comes to scoring.

Click to continue reading...

From l'Equipe. No huge surprises for starters, but it's good to see Mexès starting. And I'm interested to see what Sagna can do, too.

Malouda and Govou feel like a weak attacking midfield. Are either Toulalan or L. Diarra going to help them out, do you think?

Le onze de départ : Mandanda - Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra - Govou, Toulalan, L.

Click to continue reading...

Well, Samir, didn't last long.

He was on The List for less than twenty-four hours. Now he's off again due to a "slight thigh problem."

Gotta hate those slight thigh problems.

The final squad is only nineteen. Does this mean that there will be only one player who doesn't make the bench?

Click to continue reading...

Manchester United retained the FA Community Shield after being taken to a penalty shoot-out for the second year running as Portsmouth tarnished their gallant performance in the 90 minutes by failing dismally from the spot. Lassana Diarra and Glen Johnson both ballooned their efforts over the bar with substitute Arnold Mvuemba seeing his effort blocked by [. Click to continue reading...

Holy players out of position, Batman! Diop on the wing?!?! ManU in a 4-2-4 (4-6 in defence) with Scholes in a holding role?!?! It all made for a very uninspiring match. ManU outnumbered Pompey in the midfield and had good possession, but very little to show for it. A few good runs from deep from Tevez, Giggs, and (surprise! Click to continue reading...

So Lassana Diarra is the next leader of France and is a favorite of Raymond Domenech, yet he couldn't get into a game for France during Euro 2008. I have a lot of respect for Lillian Thuram, he was one of the best defenders that I've seen play the game. I also rate Diarra very highly, but something doesn't quite make sense here. Click to continue reading...

After a week of intensive training in Irdning, Real Madrid had their first (semi)competitive match of the preseason against Austrian opponents. LASK Linz currently leads the Austrian first division with three wins out of four, and are therefore significantly more match fit than the Spanish side. The game, which ended 3-2 to Real (with goals from Baptista, Raúl and Saviola) revealed little about what we may expect this season, but a few clues could be gleaned here and there. Click to continue reading...

Whilst the players have been going through their paces in Austria, Arsene Wegner has been going through his book of possible midfielders to bring to the club.  Having seen the paucity of players available to him, the Arsenal manager must be regretting allowing Lassana Diarra to leave in January. Wenger would like to bring someone in [. Click to continue reading...

So what does that make Pompey? However, before you assume that these words came from the not insubstantial mouth of Lassana Diarra, they were actually uttered by one of his team-mates, who appears to be on the verge of signing for Inter. Sulley Muntari arrived in England as a relatively unknown ... Click to continue reading...

Invisible Wall, thats what all Arsenal fans better know Gilberto Silva by , as he truly has been one over the years for Arsenal.Reports emerging from Greece suggest that Gilberto has signed for the Greek outfit of Panathinaikos for £1 million on a 3 year contract. Click to continue reading...

If statistics are an indication, Ashley Young, who finished the 2007-2008 league season with 8 goals and 17 assists, numbers on par with Cesc's 7 goals and 19 assists, should be the Aston Villa player Arsenal should try to acquire, rather than Gareth Barry. Then, of course, there's Gabriel Agbonlahor, the forward who looked really dangerous when Arsenal played Aston Villa last season. Click to continue reading...

A long time since my last post, and not much has actually occurred.

Let's summarise events:

* Adebayor hasn't moved anywhere, despite skulking round the Nou Camp/ San Siro for the last month wearing a 'please, please, please buy me, i'm easy' shirt on. He definitely wants to leave, let's get that clear. Click to continue reading...

Former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Lassana Diarra sounds like a guy who will be staying at Portsmouth and not moving on to Tottenham. Aston Villa are claiming that they've rejected the latest offer from Liverpool for their midfielder Gareth Barry.... Click to continue reading...

Lassana Diarra is not moving to Tottenham. The Portsmouth midfielder, who had stints at Arsenal and Chelsea, is insisting that he's not leaving Fratton Park. Where will I play next season? Why such a question? I am under contract at... Click to continue reading...

Even Harry Redknapp admitted that it might be a leetle bit tricky to keep hold of Lassana Diarra next season. After all, the Portsmouth midfielder made it clear upon arriving at Fratton Park that the move from Arsenal represented an opportunity for him to play first-team football and put himself in the shop window ahead [. Click to continue reading...

Harry Redknapp has done brilliantly in the transfer market over the past few seasons. Landing the likes of James, Campbell, Defoe and Diarra have been a coup and it looks like another belter of a player could be arriving at Fratton Park. Sky Sports reports that the Portsmouth boss is very sweet on Shaun Wright-Phillips, Chelsea's [. Click to continue reading...

Hleb, Flamini, Diarra and possibly Adebayor off to pastures new? Why do Arsenal's best players want to leave? Here are a few reasons why... 1. A rigid wage structure Rightly or wrongly, Arsenal has a wage structure that it's not... Click to continue reading...

We need a striker. Period. Someone who puts the exclamation point to all the artful text that we scribe on the field. Waiting for Godot is exquisite but we need some culmination. Get Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

We lost Mathieu Flamini who I thought Wenger should have done his utmost to retain.

Click to continue reading...

With Liverpool players expected back in training on July 7, manager Rafa Benitez will continue to put things in place for the coming season. This week, a number of deals could well be sorted. The Guardian reports on Monday that Xabi Alonso and John Arne Riise will finalise moves to Italy. Roma is the likely destination [. Click to continue reading...

Lassana Diarra is not for sale. That is the message Pompey are sending out on the former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder. Tottenham have been linked with an interest in the French international but Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie said that...

Click to continue reading...

France kick off their Euro 2008 campaign against Adrian Mutu's Romania on Monday, June 9, 2008 in Zurich. Mutu, in form for his country during Euro 2008 qualifiers, is a goal-scoring threat, but France's defense should keep a clean sheet.

Wicked Deflection hereby reveals it's predicted first 11 for France against Romania. Click to continue reading...

  The Mexican winger Giovani Dos Santos has completed his £5million move to White Hart Lane from Barcelona this afternoon. Dos Santos has signed a 5 year contract and joins up with his team mates for pre-season training on July 7th. It was a signing we discussed last weekend here on EPLTalk.com. Spurs had been in the running [. Click to continue reading...

Many people were surprised when Lassana Diarra's frustration got the better of him in January, causing the midfielder to leave Arsenal and sign for Portsmouth where he was almost certainly guaranteed first-team football. Despite the best efforts of Harry Redknapp to massage the Frenchman's ego at every available turn, it appears as though the player [. Click to continue reading...