Manchester City and Arsenal head for the exit

Two of England's Champions League hopefuls have been ruthlessly exposed by the best in Europe in the last couple of days.

The pattern of both games was remarkably similar, with both Manchester City and Arsenal having a player sent off and losing their games 2-0.

Those who claim that Barcelona have a weaker team than for several years may be right, but it was still far too good for the team some claim is the best in England, Manchester City. Barcelona dominated possession (68%-32%) and goals from Messi and Dani Alves in the last minute surely made the tie secure for the Catalans. City's usual attacking flair was never allowed to come to the fore and they looked impotent in the face of Barcelona's superiority.

On to Wednesday night and the pattern was pretty well repeated as Bayern Munich weathered an early storm from Arsenal. Mesut Ozil unforgivably missed a penalty, as did David Alaba of Bayern, but the latter award also resulted in the dismissal of Arsenal goalkeeper Wojchiech Szczesny, which effectively ended the match as a contest. Bayern eventually scored two goals and possession of 79%. They might have had more goals, but the tie is surely over (even with the memory of Arsenal's 2-0 win in Munich last year).

So, two of England's finest are on their way out of the competition. Maybe they're paying the price for not winning their groups.

Chelsea must be favourites

The last couple of weeks have seen a bit of shuffling at the top of the Barclays Premier League, with Chelsea's card popping up at the top of the pack.

We can ignore all Jose Mourinho's nonsense about Chelsea being a "little horse". They are a big club backed by Abramovich's billions and no silly words from Mourinho can disguise that. Chelsea's performance to beat Manchester City at the beginning of last week was excellent and some recent displays by Eden Hazard show him to be a world-class player (and I never use that term lightly).

I make Chelsea favourites for the title.

Manchester City have shown vulnerability recently, with the defeat to Chelsea and a tame 0-0 draw at Norwich City, and, despite some obviously exciting wins, to me they don't seem to have the team resilience that Chelsea possess.

Arsenal have faltered - as I think most people expected them to do - and they are not yet strong enough to win the title. But I wish Arsene Wenger well - he's still one of the best managers there is.

Liverpool remain an outside bet. They are only four points behind leaders Chelsea, and in Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge they have genuine goalscorers. But I don't see them as quite the finished article yet.

As for the rest - Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Manchester United - they will fight to get into the top four, but I don't think any of them will make it. They may not be keen to land up in the Europa League. So, how do you fight for fourth, but ensure you don't finish fifth?

City can be stopped; exciting games ahead

Manchester City had another big win last night, 5-1 against Tottenham. Are they unstoppable?

Well, no, I don't think so. While they have been scoring for fun (68 goals in 23 league games so far), they do show occasional vulnerability in defence. Whereas teams like Spurs (sorry Spurs fans) are not good enough to hold them at bay, they very top teams (e.g. Chelsea and City's next Champions League opponents Barcelona) are capable of stopping City.

Ironically Chelsea failed to beat West Ham United last night, despite having a record-equalling (while failing to score) count of 39 shots. Jose Mourinho has accused West Ham of playing football from the 19th Century. Well, he's not afraid to vary his playing style, and although he wasn't in charge at the time, didn't Chelsea win the Champions League a couple of years ago by basically trying to stop Bayern Munich from playing?

West Ham boss, Sam Allardyce, was (quite rightly) unrepentant. He said: "He can't take it, can he? He can't take it because we've outwitted him - he just can't cope.

"He can tell me all he wants, I don't care.

"I love to see Chelsea players moaning at the referee, trying to intimidate him, Jose jumping up and down saying we play rubbish football.

"It's brilliant when you get a result against him. Hard luck, Jose."

There are many ways to play this great game of ours, Jose. Deal with it.

So on to the match on Monday night: Manchester City v Chelsea. This will go a long way to indicating whether City really are destined for the League title this year.

Then barely two weeks later the same two teams meet in the FA Cup 5th round. Mouth-watering.

City ride high, but Sam's days are numbered

The problem for West Ham United last night was that Manchester City were just too good.

And Manchester City have been 'just too good' on several occasions this season - mostly at home of course. Here are the games in which they have scored four or more at home this season:

19 Aug: 4-0 v Newcastle United
22 Sep: 4-1 v Manchester United
24 Sep: 5-0 v Wigan Athletic (League Cup)
2 Nov:  7-0 v Norwich City
5 Nov:  5-2 v CSKA Moscow (Champions League)
24 Nov: 6-0 v Tottenham Hotspur
27 Nov: 4-2 v Viktoria Plzen (Champions League)
14 Dec: 6-3 v Arsenal
8 Jan:    6-0 v West Ham United (League Cup)

That's pretty impressive. Most fans would take that in a season! But you can't doubt that there's more to come. Backed by their multi-millions, Manchester City should win the Premier League, and could well add the League Cup to that. The FA Cup remains unpredictable, as ever. As for the Champions League, the next round against Barcelona will, to put it mildly, be fascinating.

As we have seen, West Ham United went the same way as many other teams at the Etihad this season. Sam Allardyce's real problem was the embarrassing 5-0 defeat in the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest on Sunday. By saving his top players for last night's League Cup tie, he sacrificed West Ham's place in the FA Cup, but the hiding was not on the agenda.

Sorry Sam, but unless the Hammers' league form takes a swift turn for the better, then your days are numbered.

Does a club have to sell its soul to compete?

When Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea and transformed them into League winners and eventually into European champions with his billions, football in this country was changed forever.

It meant that a club had to have similar billions to compete.

Manchester City, for example, have received that their billions and they won the League and look set to add silverware to their tally again this season.

Now, we all wish for a billionaire sugar daddy to come to our club. Or do we?

As my club, Leeds United, looks at possible investment from Red Bull, I wonder whether we'd be selling our soul.

Examples at Cardiff City and Hull City make you wonder whether life really is greener with all the money.

Fans at Hull City don't want a name change to Hull Tigers, but they like the investment. Fans at Cardiff City hate the colour change from blue to red, weren't happy that Malky Mackay was sacked, and must fear what might happen next, but they must know that they need Mr Tan's money to keep them in the Premier League.

Leeds United fans would not accept a change of club colours to the red of Red Bull, I know for sure. As for a name change to Red Bull Leeds (like Red Bull Salzberg), no thanks - I'd rather stay in the Championship.

But you need billions to compete.

Chelsea fans have been unhappy with Abramovich's eccentric sackings and appointments at various times, but they're never going to call for him to go, are they?

They sold their soul and the rest of us might have to do the same.

Champions League draw favours English group winners

The importance of winning your Champions League group was demonstrated to the English teams left in the competition by yesterday's draw.

Manchester City and Arsenal (who both failed to win their group) drew Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively, while Chelsea and Manchester United drew Galatasaray and Olympiakos respectively.

According to the Football Ranking System, Manchester City are 2nd, Barcelona 3rd, Bayern Munich 4th and Arsenal 5th. They would have all liked to have avoided each other!

Of course, winning the group has still given Barcelona and Bayern tough ties, and they are mouth-watering prospects when the competition resumes in February.

Other leading lights include Atletico Madrid (top of the Football Ranking System), drawn to play struggling AC Milan (52), and Real Madrid (6), drawn to play Schalke 04 (30).

The complete draw is:
Manchester City v Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen v Paris St-Germain
Arsenal v Bayern Munich
AC Milan v Atletico Madrid
Olympiakos v Manchester United
Zenit St Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund
Galatasaray v Chelsea
Schalke v Real Madrid

Manchester City need to travel better to challenge for the title

Manchester City destroyed Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, 6-0. Before the game Tottenham had only conceded six goals in 11 games, but they were on the back put from the first minute as a poor clearance from Hugo Lloris led to Jesus Navas opening the scoring after only 13 seconds.

But the real enigma is Manchester City.

Their home record is 6 wins, no draw, no defeats, scored 26, conceded 2.
Away record: 1 win, 1 draw, 4 defeats, scored 8, conceded 10.

I don't understand how a team costing so many millions, with players from all around the world, find it difficult to travel away from the the Etihad stadium and get points!

(As a side point, no English players started the game for City, though a couple (Lescott and Milner) did get token substitute appearances when the game was well and truly over.

City's league home/away form is not quite reflected in League Cup and European games where their record is:

Home: Won 2, drawn none, lost 1, scored 11, conceded 5.
Away: Won 3, draw none, lost none, scored 7, conceded 1.

Their league defeats have come at Cardiff City, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland - at least three of which take a bit of explaining.

Currently fourth and six points behind leaders Arsenal, Manchester City will need to tidy up their away form if they're to make a sustained challenge for the Premier League title.

A good week for English (and Welsh!) clubs in Europe

It's been a pretty good week for English clubs in Europe.

Manchester City secured qualification with a 5-2 win over CSKA Moscow, but they will probably go through as runners-up to Bayern Munich so the second round draw will need to be kind to them.

Arsenal had a fantastic 1-0 win at Borussia Dortmund, a win that will go a long way to putting them through to the knock-out stages out of a group with three good teams (add Napoli to these two). Aaron Ramsey's excellent scoring record for the season continued with his winning header.

Chelsea have recovered superbly after their shock defeat in the first group match against FC Basel. Their latest win, 3-0 against Shalke '04, pushed them to the brink of qualification.

Manchester United's rather dull 0-0 draw put them top of their group with eight points and another win will see them through. Steady, if unspectacular, progress.

In the Europa Cup, Tottenham Hotspur ensured that they will progress to the second round with a 2-1 win over Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova. Six wins out of six (including two qualification games) - often with understrength teams - is evidence of a fine European campaign to date.

Wigan Athletic's loss at Rubin Kazan (Russia) leaves them with five points in second place, but work still to do in their final two group games.

Wales's Swansea City got a 1-1 draw at Kuban Krasnodar and they have eight points to date. Second behind Valencia in their group, another two points will certainly see them through (and one, or even none, might be enough!).

All round, an excellent week for teams from the English League in Europe.

Not the start Moyes would have wanted

Manchester City stunned Manchester United yesterday afternoon with a 4-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium. The games won (and lost) in five minutes either side of half-time, those goals being scored by Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri.

Apart from that Manchester United must have felt they had reasonable control of the game. But what use is having greater passing success (86.2% to 80.5% in United's favour) or territorial advantage (56.3 % to 43.7% in United's favour) if you're one, two, three, four goals down? None at all.

Wayne Rooney scored a sublime free-kick after 87 minutes, but it was merely a consolation.

It cannot be the start that new manager David Moyes had envisaged. He did bemoan the fixture list when it was published and he won't have changed his mind now. Chelsea (home, 0-0), Liverpool (away, 0-1) and Manchester City have been three extremely tough opponents in the first five league games - too tough for the current Manchester United team.

What must David Moyes do?

He was unlucky yesterday with the late withdrawal of Robin Van Persie, but it was the inability to stop City's rampaging attacks that let him down yesterday. Fellaini must settle in quickly and the wide men (yesterday it was Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia) need to ensure that the full backs have better protection. He also needs more attacking thrust through the centre of midfield.

There are options, and no need for Moyes to panic yet.

Liverpool play on to score as Dzeko lies on the ground - YES! PLAY ON!

I have nothing against Manchester City. In fact, I quite admire the way they have become challengers and winners of the Premier League title.

However, I was quite delighted when Daniel Sturridge scored a goal against City for Liverpool yesterday. The circumstances were that a challenge on Edin Dzeko on the halfway line left the City striker on the ground - and he decided to stay there. The Manchester City fans - not their players, I must emphasise - howled for Liverpool to kick the ball out of play, but they didn't and went on to put the ball out of play in the best possible way - into City's net. (Sturridge, in deference, presumably to his old club, City, did not celebrate.)

AT LAST, someone has scored while a player lies on the ground. There is NO RULE that commands a team to put the ball out of play when a player is lying on the ground. The REFEREE can stop the game if he perceives an injury to be serious. This, quite obviously, was not serious, and I don't believe Dzeko received any treatment after the goal was scored.

HOORAY! Let's stop this nonsense of kicking the ball out of play for players lying on  the ground, and get on with the game.

Pointless rules in place as technology is ignored

So, what happened to the rule about sock tape having to be the same colour as socks?

Preyed on by some referees in park football, forcing poor park footballers to remove tape keeping their shin pads in place in the early weeks of this season, it is apparently a rule which top referees such as Mike Dean now feel is unnecessary to enforce.

On Sunday afternoon, it was quite clear that at least Gareth Barry and David Silva of Manchester City had white tape (or at least a very strange whiter shade of blue) on their sky blue socks in their game against Arsenal. James Milner had a much darker blue tape.

But who cares? The rule is quite unnecessary. What is it for? In the same game, Arsenal's white socks had a thin blue and a thin red hoop around the middle.

Is the rule to differentiate the players of one team from another in some way?

The same question applies to the 'same colour undershorts' rule? What's it for - especially at park football level?

If it's to differentiate the players, then let's start with the shorts themselves. In the same Arsenal v Manchester City game on Sunday, both sets of players wore white shorts!

Fifa is quick to implement such pointless rules. In the meantime, as they filibuster about goal-line technology, goals continue to be allowed or disallowed incorrectly.

Get your priorities right, Fifa.

Manchester United head the October rankings

On the rankings in the Football Ranking System Manchester United remained on top in October, followed by Chelsea and Manchester City.

Celtic are the highest Scottish team, falling one place to eighth. Dundee United are next Scottish team in 31st.

Rangers continue to fall and have slipped from 33rd to 56th. A good cup run might see them regain a few places.

Leading the Championship teams are Middlesbrough who rose 15 places to 15th.

Truro City are in last (202nd) place for the second month in a row.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:
Nottingham Forest, up from 38 to 27.
Blackpool, down from 18 to 28.
Hull City, up from 43 to 30.
Aberdeen, up from 44 to 34.
Crystal Palace, up from 50 to 37.
Oldham Athletic, up from 88 to 77.
Wycombe Wanderers, down from 96 to 106.
Forfar Athletic, down from 106 to 118.
Hereford United, downfrom 126 to 137.

Manchester United top the rankings for September

On the rankings in the Football Ranking System Manchester United have regained top spot from Manchester City, who have slipped to fifth with indifferent form of late. Chelsea have jumped from fourth to second, only held back by draws with QPR and Juventus. Everton have kept up their early season form and are in third position.

Inevitably, Celtic head the Scottish challenge, falling one place to seventh. Hearts are next for the Scots in 27th.

Rangers continue to fall and have slipped from 19th to 33rd. from 8th to 19th.

Aston Villa have staged something of a recovery, rising from 29th to 19th and Championship risers Cardiff City jumped from 37th to 23rd.

Biggest fallers were Coventry City, who plummeted from 53rd to 72nd.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:
Leicester City, up from 34 to 24.
Dundee United, down from 18 to 32.
Brighton & Hove Albion, up from 47 to 31.
Kilmarnock, up from 46 to 35.
Wolverhamption Wanderers, up from 49 to 36.
Sheffield Wednesday, down from 31 to 47.
Ipswich Town, down from 40 to 55.
Portsmouth, down from 57 to 70.
Crawley Town, up from 84 to 74.
Morton, up from 91 to 80.
Leyton Orient, up from 92 to 82.
Hamilton Academical, down from 76 to 87.
Port Vale, up from 102 to 92.
Southend United, up from 105 to 95.
Wycombe Wanderers, down from 85 to 96.
Hartlepool United, down from 87 to 98.
Burton Albion, up from 113 to 99.
Aldershot Town, down from 96 to 108.
Oxford United, down from 99 to 113.
Dartford, up from 169 to 157.
Chester, up from 173 to 159.
Oxford City up from 179 to 168.

Early season shapes the football rankings

From the Football Ranking System we see that Manchester City have just about retained top spot from the very in-form early season pace-setters Chelsea. Indeed, a Chelsea win in the UEFA Super Cup tonight might see them take over on top.

The other early season form team Everton have risen from 6th to 4th.

It will be fascinating to see how far Rangers fall now that they are in Scottish League Division Three. Among such lowly opposition they will not score so many points unless they thrash everyone of them, and they're not doing that yet. In August Rangers have fallen  from 8th to 19th.

Conversely, Swansea City have gone the other way, rising from 18th to 9th, and Wigan Athletic have gone from 14th to 7th.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:

• Sheffield Wednesday, up from 55 to 21.
• Leeds United, up from 49 to 36.
• Motherwell, down from 28 to 38.
• Yeovil Town, up from 80 to 69.
• Swindon Town, up from 87 to 71.
• Dundee, down from 62 to 73.
• Preston North End, up from 85 to 74.
• Crawley Town, up from 98 to 84.
• Chesterfield, down from 76 to 86.
• Bradford City, up from 107 to 97.
• Ayr United, down from 88 to 100.
• Southend United, down from 95 to 105.
• Dumbarton, down from 106 to 117.
• Brackley, new in at 157.
• Bradford Park Avenue, new in at 161.
• Woking, up from 177 to 166.
• Dartford, up from 178 to 168.
• Chester, new in at 173.
• Altrincham, down from 165 to 176.
• Oxford City, new in at 179.
• Billericay Town, new in at 184.
• Corby Town, down from 174 to 186.
• AFC Hornhcurch, new in at 190.
• Bromley, down from 189 to 199.

Manchester clubs trump the north London cards

So Manchester gained the whip-hand over north London on Sunday as City beat Spurs 3-2 and United beat Arsenal 2-1.

Manchester City only just squeezed over the line against Tottenham with a last-gasp penalty taken by a player who might not have been on the pitch on another day, as Mario Balotelli supposed "stamp" went unpunished, but might have resulted in a sending-off on another occasion. My opinion is the same as Lee Dixon's on Match of the Day: there was enough doubt about the action to merit no action. Indeed, it may be that Howard Webb didn't even see it as his head was partly turned away when Balotelli's foot came down.

Perhaps, however, Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp should use his words to Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe for failing to convert a glorious chance seconds before Balotelli's telling spot kick. It's all about points of view, isn't it?

And so it was in the Arsenal v. Manchester United game as Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was roundly criticised and booed for substituting the threatening Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrey Arshavin as minutes ran out at the Emirates. The fact that Arshavin was ineffectual in preventing United's winner would not help Wenger's case. But he must have had his reasons. He said: "Arshavin is captain of the Russian national team. You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who is captain of his country and they are querying the substitution?"

Although no manager - including Wenger - can be right 100% of the time, I am staggered that Arsenal fans can doubt the man (trophyless for six years or not). Look around, you Gooners. If you sacked Wenger, who would be your ideal managerial candidate?

Third round weekend delivers as expected

It proved to be an interesting FA Cup third round weekend (as it so often is), from Paolo Di Canio's Swindon Town knocking out Premier League Wigan Athletic to Thierry Henry making a dream comeback for Arsenal, scoring the winner against Leeds United.

The Manchester derby didn't disappoint as we had the return of Paul Scholes, a dubious sending-off of Vincent Kompany as United roared into a 3-0 lead, and a stirring effort to peg United back from City - yet the half-time pundits on both ITV and Sky would have had City "accept and settle for the 3-0 defeat so that it wouldn't get any worse"! A pathetic assessment, and one that would no doubt have had any City fans growling with anger.

Crawley Town pulled off a giant-killing, by dumping Bristol City out of the cup, and Macclesfield Town (2-2 with Bolton Wanderers) and MK Dons (1-1 with QPR) came close and get a second chance.

As for Henry - fair play to him, and will be interesting to see if he can deliver in the Premier League, but from a Leeds United's fan's perspective, the overwhelmingly biased coverage by ESPN on Monday night was little short of disgraceful.

Can Spurs really challenge City and United for the title?

Tottenham Hotspur brushed aside Norwich City last night to go seven points behind the two Manchester clubs with a game in hand.

Are Spurs a real threat for the Premier League title?

After losing their first two games (to United and City) they have only lost once since - to Stoke City - and they were desperately unlucky to lose that one. So it's been 12 wins in 15 games since those two opening defeats.

Spurs have been knocked out of the Europa Cup while both City and United have fallen into it since being knocked out of the Champions League. That could be a blessing for Spurs, but there is no question of United or City treating it as anything like a priority.

In the League Cup Manchester City play Liverpool in the two-legged semi-final. United and Spurs have already been knocked out.

In the FA Cup one of Manchester United or Manchester City will definitely get knocked out and one will definitely progress - as they are drawn against each other. Tottenham have the 'luxury' of a home draw against League Two Cheltenham Town, so they should progress.

It boils down to Manchester City having a lot of games; United with the League and FA Cup (at least as far as beating City is concerned) as priorities, and Tottenham with the League and the FA Cup as far as it takes them.

Tottenham undoubtedly have a multi-talented midfield, with Scott Parker, Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart, being supported superbly by Gareth Bale on one side and Aaron Lennon on the other. The defence looks fairly strong and is backed by 40+ Brad Friedel showing no signs of a dip in form.

Maybe it is only up front where Spurs lack the fire-power to match the best. They average 2 goals a game; United average 2.61 and City average 2.94.

But with City possibly distracted by other tournaments, it may depend on United and Tottenham's progress in the FA Cup as to which will challenge City the most.

I don't think Tottenham are quite ready yet, but they're close.

Manchester has the Europa League to look forward to

I'm sure a few weeks ago, Manchester was preparing to laugh at London as, at various times both Arsenal and Chelsea appeared unlikely to progress out of the Champions League groups.

Well, the luagh was transferred to London last night as both Manchester clubs failed to progress, while both Chelsea and Arsenal had already won their groups the previous evening.

Oh, woe is Manchester!

City's damage had alrady been done in previous matches - not only losing to both Napoli and Bayern Munich away, but also only drawing with Napoli at home.

United had faltered in earlier matches two - having beaten only Otelul Galati in this group - but even so, a draw in Basel last night would have seen them through. They lost 2-1. The loss of so many strikers to injury is taking its toll, even on a squad as big as Manchester United's.

So, they're both left to concentrate on domestic competition - oh, and the Europa Leagu, of course.

Odds against Manchester City progressing in Champions League

Despite all their millions it looks as though Manchester City are going to be knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage.

Only a win against Bayern Munich will do for City and even then they have to rely on Napoli drawing or losing against Villareal in Spain. So far in this season's competition Villareal have yet to register a single point.

It's not looking good for Manchester City. Maybe they should make plans for the Europa Cup instead.

Yet in the Premier League they have been dominant thus far, winning 11 of 12 games and scoring 42 goals while conceding only 11.

Suddenly, Sunday's televised game for City away at Liverpool (conquerors of Chelsea last week) seems to take on huge significance. Liverpool's home record of two wins and four draws is not too impressive, but City's attacking prowess might allow Liverpool to take more of an "away game" approach.

A defeat certainly won't spell crisis for Manchester City, but will further dent confidence before the visit of Bayern Munich on 7 December.

It's fun to make predictions

It's fun to make some scoreline predictions from time to time, so let's have a look at this weekend's Premier League clashes.

Everton face Manchester United in the noon kick-off on Saturday. Manchester United "bounced back" from their 1-6 loss at home to Manchester City during midweek by beating Aldershot Town 3-0 in the Carling Cup, but it's necessarily in quotes because, in all fairness to Aldershot, they weren't top class opponents, in addition to which, Sir Alex Ferguson changed his whole starting eleven anyway. Everton can be stubborn and drew with Chelsea over 90 minutes in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.
Prediction: Everton 1-1 Manchester United

Chelsea play Arsenal in the Saturday lunchtime televised game. Chelsea are progressing well, if unexcitingly (last week's oddity at QPR an exception), and Arsenal have now won seven out of their last eight games. Hence, the Gunners are not making the news any more. Where's the fun in them winning? I think the Blues will prove too strong, however.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal

A bit of a nightmare for Wolves, who, having been dumped out of the Carling Cup on Wednesday by Manchester City 5-2, now face them again in the league. Without a win in six league games for Wolves, City are not the ideal opponents. City are in seemingly imperious form.
Prediction: Manchester City 3-0 Wolves

Here are the rest:
Norwich City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Sunderland 1-1 Aston Villa
Swansea City 1-0 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-0 Fulham
West Brom 1-2 Liverpool