Spurs Spank Chelsea, Gerrard to Leave Liverpool, More on Zelalem, FA Cup Previews, La Liga Returns, Andy Carroll's House

Happy New Year and Happy Friday!

There's nothing like a New Year's Day of footie to get things rolling around SSN Headquarters. The Big Result from yesterday was this: Tottenham 5 - 3 Chelsea. Elsewhere, Lamps lifted City to victory over Sunderland, United and Stoke drew, Southampton and Szczęsny defeated Arsenal, Liverpool and Leicester drew, and Everton lost again. Let's examine...

Premier League Highlights

Premier League Review

Peter Berlin's New Year's Day Review

Tottenham 5 - 3 Chelsea: Dominic Fifield at White Hart Lane

Tottenham 5 - 3 Chelsea: Barney Ronay at White Hart Lane

Stoke City 1 - 1 Manchester United: Stuart James at the Britannia Stadium

Manchester City 3 - 2 Sunderland: Five Talking Points

Southampton 2 - 0 Arsenal: David Hytner at St. Mary's

Garth Crooks's Team of the Week

League Table

As noted in the subject line, Stevie G has decided it's time to leave the club he's been with since 1934 so he can spend more time listening to Phil Collins. The Liverpool icon will depart at the end of the season. Daniel Taylor thinks it's the right move. As do we. Here are his Five Best Moments as Liverpool player. The "United Piledriver" sticks out for the Editor because he saw the shot on a big screen in a pub in Highbury. An odd memory...

It was reported earlier in the week that Gedion Zelalem is an American citizen and will likely join the U.S. Men's National Team. Let's take a closer look at this lad with Nick Ames, shall we?

No surprise here: Andy Carroll has no taste.

Nice use of LinkedIn...

It was also reported earlier in the week that Fernando Torres is returning to Atlético Madrid. Top scribe Richard Williams looks at Torres' "strange journey from storm-force striker to bargaining chip." Meanwhile, Top scribe Sid Lowe says that getting Torres back together with his old captain Diego Simeone could result in something special.

Sticking with La Liga, here's a Preview for the weekend. Their winter break is over!

The Mill. Plus One. Plus Plus One.

It's FA Cup time as the Third Round gets underway tomorrow. Here are Ten Things to Look Out For. And a Preview. And...another Preview.

Grant Wahl says City keeping Lampard from NYC ain't right. Agreed.

And finally, Ronaldhino won New Year's Eve.

Onward!!

-SSN

nbcsoccer.com

Gedion Zelalem is an American, Liverpool Swamp Swansea, The Mill Returns, Pardew Back to Palace, Torres Back to Atlético Madrid, West Brom Sack Irvine

Danny Rose gets in the spirit...

Right! We gave all the SSN Staff plenty of days off for Christmas, including those who do not celebrate the holiday. It didn't seem fair to exclude them, frankly. Anyway, we're back (at least for a day or so) to get caught up on things. Last night, Liverpool cruised past Swansea thanks to Adam Lallallalanna's two goals, one of which was assisted nicely by Lukasz Fabianski. Poor Pole. Andy Hunter was at Anfield and filed this report. Richard Jolly was also present and left with Three Points.

Alan Pardew has left Newcastle, but not in the manner most expected a few months ago. He's about to take the job at Palace now that Neil Warnock is no longer the gaffer at Selhurst Park. Pardew played at Palace from 1987-1991. So who's next in line to hang with Mike Ashley at St. James', then? Not a terribly enticing post, is it? No. It's not. Meanwhile, West Brom have sacked Alan Irvine after just seven months, and Tony Pubis and Tim Sherwood are on the shortlist to take over at The Hawthorns.

Another guy who's going back to his old club is Fernando Torres. He's is going back to Atlético Madrid. Will it re-start his career? There's nowhere to go but up, sadly. Spanish expert Sid Lowe thinks it might actually head that way for El Niño. We sure hope so. 

Southampton fans get in the spirit...

We've reached the midpoint of the Premier League campaign. Thanks to Phil McNulty as he offers his team-by-team analysis on how it's all gone thus far. And to Ian Darke, as well.

Also looking back is Jonathan Wilson. He's got some tactical reviews. First: Three at the back is back in fashion. Second: Tiki-taka’s exile and counter-counters.

Where Are They Now? Stars of the 2014 World Cup and how they are doing with their clubs. It's all very interesting...

Regular readers of the blog will know that Uli Hesse is in Germany. Uli claims that there are issues looming for Germany's footballing landscape. Sounds ominous!

There's no avoiding it, folks. The Transfer Window opens once again in a few days. With said window ajar, the flood of rumors will cascade unabated. Here we go:

The Mill. Plus One. Plus Plus One. Plus Plus Plus One.

Ronaldo gets in the spirit...

One team having an unusually tough time of it lately is Everton. Nick Miller takes a closer look at the problems at Goodison Park. 

Good news for the Yanks. Gedion Zelalem is now an American citizen. This dude has potential, people!

We're going to cut it off there. We'll see who makes it into SSN Headquarters tomorrow. 

Onward!!

-SSN

nbcsoccer.com