The lighter side of pitch invasions (Video)

As evidenced during Sunday's Manchester derby, when fans decided to go onto the pitch it is generally a very bad idea.

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Wenger shifts attitude for Arsenal's future

With Roy Hodgson bemoaning the lack of English players available to him as he attempts to, where so many others have failed before him, turn England into a major force on the international stage, assistance is coming in the most unlikeliest of forms, Arsenal and their connoisseur of foreign talent, coach Arsene Wenger. 

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Nothing wrong with embracing the bench

A goal down with the clock ticking at the Hawthornes earlier in the season, Roberto Mancini turned to his substitute striker Edin Dzeko and handed to him the responsibility of dragging his side out of the mire

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The Crawley Town rise continues

Few football clubs divide opinion as much as Crawley Town, the Sussex team bankrolled into the Football League where their ascent rolls on with hasten speed; following a storming 105-point promotion from the Blue Square Premier League and a third place promotion in their debut year in League Two, the Red Devils, replicating the successful trend of the Premier League behemoth that carry the same nickname, have continued in a similar vein in League One, sitting promisingly in second after fifteen games.

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Price tags mean nothing to Allardyce the pragmatist

Such is the interest in the fortunes of Andy Carroll since Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish made the misguided decision to splash £35 million on the striker 20 months ago, Sam Allardyce, now his manager at West Ham, is now tasked with having to field questions on his aversion to scoring which, in comparison to his hefty price-tag, attracted a lot of derision to Merseyside during his spell at Anfield.

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Charles Green exposes the single-mindedness of the elite.

After a universal mini-break in domestic competition for want of World Cup qualifying, this coming weekend sees a return to the spotlight for the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A et al as the majority of Europe goes back to the day job. The English Premier League also gets back to business and Aston Villa, one of its ever-present clubs since its 1992 inception, will travel to Fulham.

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Simeone’s Atletico provide the side-track to the Clasico

As with every passing week over in Spain, the Jose Mourinho soap opera seems to dominate the landscape as his battle for squad politics with defender Sergio Ramos rolling over into the build-up to the always contentious Clasico at the Nou Camp this Sunday evening.

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Hodgson left to deal with the difficult basics of a very complicated case

On Sunday, football again utilised its power to be a relentless provider of headlines; if the highly emotive game between Liverpool and Manchester United or the enthralling battle between Manchester City and Arsenal were not enough to stew over in the evening down-time before most reverted to the weekly grind, John Terry, as if he couldn’t bear to be marginalised by the day’s events, threw his own name into the desperate competition for space of Monday’s back-pages with a decision to retire from international football.

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Paladini could spell more trouble for Birmingham

After transfer embargos, numerous delays in the publication of club finances, the President being arrested for money laundering, Birmingham City would be forgiven for the avoidance of the constant of the field unsettlement the club has persisted to attract in recent years. However, with Peter Pannu, the acting chairman at St Andrews whilst president Carson Yeung remains incarcerated in the far east ahead of a November hearing for financially-related crimes, looking for outside investment, the Blues' soap opera mybe about to take another twist in its far-fetched plot-lines.

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Welsh work undone by Coleman (Video)

You could evoke the memory of Gary Speed on 6 different occasions in Nova Sad on Tuesday night as on a night where all home nations saw a stalling reversion back to the reality at hand in qualifying for Brazil in two year's time, it was Wales' result in Group A that stood out as the most startlingly significant for the observer, whilst those connected with the post-Gary Speed era begin to murmur the prospect of a change in manager in haste.

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Steve Evans can't shake his "bad man" tag (Video)

As football's ugly side, in this case the pathetic brawl between Crawley and Bradford at Valley Parade back in March, still has ratifications for those who were involved, it is Rotherham manager Steve Evans who has again been hit with punishment to plunge his reputation further into the low embers of footballing disrespect.

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Thrashings expose UEFA's EURO folly

England begin the true journey to Brazil 2014 at Wembley tonight against Oleg Blokhin's Ukraine side not too dissimilar to the opposition faced in Donetsk in the third match of Group D in Euro 2012. That match, shaded by Wayne Rooney's goal against a host-dominated run of play in which 16 shots peppered the England goal and also forced a contentiously disallowed goal, shoud be a more reliable barometer into the standard of England should face tonight, a marked step up in quality from the demolition of Moldova last Friday.

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Di Canio blocks his own route to the top (Video)

It should be of no surprise that Swindon Town's hot-headed manager Paolo Di Canio has been in the headlines this week, the Italian courting controversy and talking-point like no other in the usually humdrum world of League One.

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Barnet look set to go down sensible route.

For a club that has been through eight managers in the four years since 2008, League Two's Barnet would not be the most obvious club to use as an example of sensible stewardship and a settled hierarchy, though it looks like chairman Anthony Kleanthous maybe on the way to bringing a calm assurance to the seemingly forever troubled Barnet.

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How Abou Diaby has tightened Arsenal up (Video)

Prospects at Arsenal didn’t look too rosy in the run-up to the new season after the Gunners lost two of their most important players, Robin Van Persie and his 37 goals of last year headed to Manchester United, whilst Alex Song’s midfield creativity headed to Barcelona.

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