Soccer Advice Tips

Sam Allardyce has accused Arsene Wenger of having a short memory for taking a pop at robust Rovers, despite once fielding the Premier League's “dirtiest” side.

The Frenchman has a long history of verbal tussles with the Blackburn chief, going back to when his Arsenal ball players were regularly knocked out of their title-chasing stride by Allardyce's old Bolton bully boys.

Wenger has fanned the flames again ahead of today's early kick-off at Ewood Park, voicing fears the game could turn into a rugby match as Rovers’ giants pray on the north Londoners’ frailty at set-pieces.

Arsenal Football Club today made its third signing of the summer, as French international defender, Sebastien Squillaci joins the north London club from Sevilla, on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.

Part of the France 2010 World Cup squad, Squillaci (30) is a tall, strong and vastly experienced central defender who has made 36 appearances in the Champions League, Europe's premier club competition, as well as tallying 21 caps for his country.

Just a week into the new season and already the champions are looking ominously good.

Okay, so Chelsea have only played two teams surely ­destined for a fight for ­survival rather than a ­challenge at the top.

But the way Carlo ­Ancelotti's men have ­arrogantly dismissed West Brom and Wigan has been mightily impressive.

Twelve goals scored, none conceded and top of the table with six points – ­Chelsea are going to take some ­shifting.

If the six-goal blitz of the Baggies on the opening day was a one-sided stroll, this was Chelsea at their ­counter-attacking best.

Wigan had been jeered off by their own fans after being humiliated by relegation favourites Blackpool last week.

Liverpool new boy Brad Jones will never forget receiving the phone call from his former wife Julie that shattered his world.

When he switched on his phone after a pre-World Cup Australia team meeting in South Africa, Jones heard that their young son was being ­treated for cancer in France.

Australia's ­reserve keeper won the heart of a nation when he ­sacrificed his World Cup dream to rush to four-year-old Luca's bedside in a Marseille hospital. Jones, who ­completed a £2.5million move to ­Anfield from Middlesbrough last week, admits he wasn't ­prepared for the sight of his only child wrapped in tubes while undergoing ­life-saving chemotherapy.