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?

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

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.

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 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.

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.

Wenger had it right as Arsenal rise continues

The top four - Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle United - all won by the odd goal on Saturday. Good enough for three points, of course.

But the biggest winners on Saturday were Arsenal, who beat West Brom 3-0. Now the crisis-hit Arsenal of some weeks ago sit in 7th place, on the same points as Liverpool and Tottenham, and only three behind Chelsea.

Now it's all about Robin van Persie is single-handedly lifting them up the table. He scored one and made two on Saturday.

As usual, there is little or no perspective and it's all by the media. It's all doom and gloom or the best thing ever.

When Arsenal were struggling they had just lost two key players (Fabregas and Nasri) and had injuries too. Now they are doing well, they have centre-backs back in the team, Song back in midfield and, yes, van Persie back up front.

Arsene Wenger (quite ridiculously touted for the sack by some) was right all along, and Arsenal will be in among the challenge for honours when it matters.

Arsenal and Chelsea edge nearer qualification

Although London's two Champions League entrants only managed draws in this week's group matches, they both sit in a good position in their respective groups.

Arsenal might have expected to win their home game with Marseille, but a 0-0 draw kept them above the French team, and four and five points clear of Borussia Dortmund and Olympiakos respectively. Another win will see the Gunners through to the knock-out stage, though they will, of course, hope to win the group.

Chelsea's 1-1 draw in Genk was treated like a home victory for the Belgian team, whose home supporters' roar at the final whistle will be hard to match anywhere throughout the whole competition. The goal by Jelle Vossen was Genk's first Champions League goal in their four matches. Given the ease of Chelsea's 5-0 home win over Genk only two weeks ago, this was indeed a momentous draw for the Belgian club.

Meanwhile Chelsea's woes continue. Following their 1-0 loss at QPR and 5-3 loss at home to Arsenal (with a 2-1 carling Cup win at Everton sandwiched in between), this draw was hardly the boost they needed. But they do have some relatively easy league games coming up. As with Arsenal, another win will see them qualify.

Work still to be done.

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

City and United take to the European stage

Both Chelsea and Arsenal got off to satisfactory starts in the Champions league groups last night.

Chelsea eased to a 2-0 home win over Bayer Leverkusen, courtesy of goals from David Luiz and Juan Mata - both made by Fernando Torres.

Arsenal were frustrated by a late equaliser by their hosts Borussia Dortmund, but Arsene Wenger will at least be pleased that they didn't fall to the sucker punch of an even later winner. The team - in re-development - showed some signs of resilience and an away draw at this stage is a good start.

Tonight it's the turn of England's Manchester giants - United and City - who have both started the league season at a sprint.

Manchester City will revel in their bow in the Champions League, with the visit of Napoli and an expectant crowd. Stand by for some "Poznans" when (rather than if) City score.

As for United, 18 goals in their first four league games, have raised expectations to unsustainable heights - surely? A trip to Benfica this evening may serve to demonstrate how much they have progressed since their humbling by Barcelona in last season's final in May.

It should be an exciting night!

Modric, Fabregas: who's going to win and lose?

As the transfer mayhem continues throughout this miserable British summer, Tottenham Hotspur are holding out for more than £27m for Luka Modric; Arsenal have rejected a bid of £27m from Barcelona for Cesc Fabregas.

If those players eventually move - Modric to Chelsea, Fabregas to Barcelona - who will be the big winners and losers in the deals?

Tottenham: loser or winner by selling Modric for, let's say, £30m?
Chelsea: loser or winner by buying Modric for that price?
Arsenal: loser or winner by selling Fabregas to Barcelona for, let's say £35m?
Barcelona: loser or winner by buying Fabregas for that price?

I'd say:
Tottenham: winner, by getting so much for a player who didn't play that much last season.
Chelsea: probably a winner, given the lack of inspiration in their midfield for much of last season.
Arsenal: loser; they need top players; they need players.
Barcelona: Fabregas to improve their team? Really? Not now, but maybe in the future. Just about a winner.

So, I'd say:
Biggest loser: Arsenal.
Biggest winner: Tottenham.

But the game's all about opinions, isn't it?

Premier League sees off Championship in the FA Cup

The four Premier League clubs duly dispatched the four Championship opponents in the FA Cup replays this week.

Only Doncaster Rovers took a severe beating - 0-5 at Wolves - and Cardiff City ran their opponents closest, beaten by Stoke City only after extra time.

However, both Leicester City and Leeds United had their moments against more illustrious opponents in Manchester City and Arsenal respectively.

On Tuesday Leicester City levelled at 1-1, then brought the game back to 2-3 to put the wind up the big-spen ders from Manchester.

On Wednesday, Arsenal brough out most of their big guns to ensure that could see off Leeds United for whom a superb 25-yard strike by Bradley Johnson had briefly given them hope at 1-2. Ultimately, though, the classy act that is Arsenal proved too much for the gutsy Elland Roaders. A 38,232 crowd brought back memories of the good old days to the Yorkshire club, who are in with a shout of promotion back to the top league.

Onward they go, then the Premier clubs:

Wolves and Stoke face each other in the fourth round.
Arsenal host another Yorkshire club in Huddersfield Town.
Manchester City face the conqerors of Sunderland, Notts County, in a potential banana-skin tie.

Big Three fail to impress

Manchester United's 1-0 win against Arsenal put them two points clear of the Gunners with a game in hand. Manchester City are third and, incredibly, after the superb start they had, Chelsea are fourth, three points behind United having now played a game more.

It's Chelsea versus Manchester United on Sunday. Is it too early to say that Chelsea must win to stay in the title race? Well, yes it is, but it certainly doesn't hide the fact that this is a big game for the Blues.

Having failed to beat Tottenham last Sunday - courtesy of a failed penalty by Didier Drogba in the last minute - the pressure piles up on Chelsea.

And then on 27 December, Chelsea travel to Arsenal. It really is a season-defining few games.

Despite United's 1-0 win on Sunday and the fact that they are still unbeaten, there linger some doubts that they are the Real McCoy. Yet Arsenal again failed to deliver when it mattered.

It seems to me that the Big Three (sorry - farewell Liverpool) are not as good as they were. Yet they are still in three of the top four positions.

Is the overall quality slipping?

All four English teams qualify in Champions League

All four English clubs made it through the group stages of the Champions League.

Manchester United's draw on Tuesday with Valencia wasn't not particularly relevant, except that it ensured that they won the group. It was a shame that the concession of a goal spoilt their blemish-free goals against column for the previous five games, but Sir Alex Ferguson won't worry too much about that.

Chelsea had already qualified prior to last night's 1-0 defeat at Marseille, but Chelsea's problems are longer term than worrying about an otherwise 'dead rubber' - the Blues want to get back to winning ways in any competition in any way.

Tottenham Hotspur are Chelsea' next league opponents on Sunday, and they won their Champions League group by drawing 3-3 at FC Twente on Tuesday - the first new team to win a CL group. Going forward, boss Harry Redknapp's concern might be that Spurs conceded 11 goals in the six group games - with much tougher opponents likely to be waiting.

Arsenal made it through by beating Partizan Belgrade 3-1 at the Emirates last night. The Gunners' startling start to the campaign (three straight wins) was threatened by derailment with the two defeats that followed, but they secured second place behind Shakhtar Donetsk with the win.

The draw will be interesting on 17 December.

Manchester United could get Inter Milan, Lyon, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan.
Chelsea could get Inter Milan, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, AC Milan.
Tottenham could get Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan.
Arsenal could get Shalke 04, Barceloan, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid.

Big clubs beat the weather

So, after the World Cup bidding fiasco, it was back to the parochial limits of the Premier and Football Leagues. Except that they're not so parochial, with such wide foreign influences, and we weren't quite back as much of the Football League programme was called off because of the adverse weather.

Congratulations to all those clubs who did get their games on - all the Premier League games except at Blackpool, and seven of the 12 Championship games, together with games at Swindon Town, Northampton Town and Oxford United (not too far apart geographically, which tells a tale). Given that the higher in the league a club is, the more likely the game was to be on, it does seem that money can even beat the weather!

Chelsea's stumbling continued as Everton fought back to equalise with a late goal, and even pressed for a winner. Arsenal took advantage with a 2-1 home win against Fulham - getting over some of their recent poor home form. Manchester City have not yet been particularly convincing, but their 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers puts them only three points behind the leaders, after Chelsea have surrendered their early season advantage.

The Championship is tight, except that unbeaten QPR are four points clear, despite not playing at the weekend. Second-placed Cardiff City secured a late-late draw against bottom club Preston, whose draw must have felt like a defeat, after being denied so late. Swansea City saw off the challenge of Ipswich Town, but were greatly helped by referee Andy D'Urso's refusal to award them what appeared to be a clear penalty at 1-2; and Swansea broke away and scored a third straight away (a magnificent effort by Craig Beattie). Ipswich boss (who does have previous with Mr D'Urso) refused to blame the referee.

From Norwich City in fourth to Sheffield United in 20th, there are only 11 points separating the teams, so there is still all to play for in a division notorious for late runs both up and down the table!

Title contenders: is the balance of power shifting?

Chelsea lost - again.
Arsenal lost at home - again.
Manchester United gained ground on Chelsea with a 2-0 win against Wigan Athletic, but were unconvincing, and have drawn half their league games this season.

Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur in places 4th to 7th, all won.

Is the balance of power beginning to change?

The fact is that the top three remain as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. The chasers have yet to break in among them. Even Liverpool, who had a terrible start, are only three points behind Tottenham, who boss Harry Redknapp claims are in title contention. Fulham boss and ex-City boss Mark Hughes saw his team whipped 4-1 by the Mancunian Blues and declared them to be contenders.

The problem is that, despite the reduced consistency of the regular challengers, the chasing pack are even more inconsistent. Unless they can improve that, then the big three (as they are now) will gradually pull away and be the three in the tussle for the title come the business end of the season.

Chelsea astound. They have now lost three games in of the last four, scoring only one goal in the four games, have sacked Ray Wilkins as coach, and seem to have a thin squad after injuries have struck. One apparent piece of good news on Saturday was the return of Alex, but they lost all the same.

Has Roman Abramovich interfered once too often?

Top four in Saturday action

This can't have happened for a long time: the top four in the Premier League are all playing on a Saturday - although, admittedly third-placed Manchester United do kick-off at 5.30.

Leaders Chelsea visit Blackbrun Rovers, whose style has been criticised this season (indeed, in previous seasons too). Chelsea, however, are rarely put out of their stride by rugged opposition, having been shown to be the tallest and heaviest squad in the League. Once again, it's hard to see anything but a win for the Londoners.

In second place are Arsenal who host West Ham United. The Hammers have shown signs of picking up recently, but still prop up the table. Arsenal, also, have shown a recent improvement, so given the 18 places between the teams, it seems that an Arsenal victory is the most likely result.

As mentioned, Manchester United kick-off at 5.30, with Spurs as the visitors. United have drawn five of their nine league games so far this season, and are certainly not at their best. They look uncomfortable. The Rooney nonsense won't have helped, but he won't be playing. Spurs are inconsistent, but one can see them raising their game and giving United more frustrations in a draw.

Fourth-placed Manchester City are not yet the real deal, depsite big spending. They visit another of the robust teams in Wolverhampton Wanderers, who only have West Ham below them in the table. This is the kind of game that City must win if they have any aspirations for the title, and I think they will triumph on Saturday.

English clubs in European clean sweep

It was a clean sweep for the English clubs in the Champions League this week. All four of them won their games.

Perhaps the most impressive result was Manchester United's 1-0 win at Spanish league leaders Valencia. It wipes out the memory of the 0-0 home draw with Rangers, and puts United at the top of group C, with Rangers in second after their 1-0 win over Bursaspor last night.

Arsenal also had a good away win, 3-1 at Partizan Belgrade, and after their 6-0 thrashing of Braga in the opening game, they are in a good position with 6 points, although Shakhtar Donetsk also have 6 points, having beaten Partizan 1-0 and braga 3-0. Arsenal and Shakhatr meet next.

Chelsea were not a their best on Tuesday night against Marseille, but still won 2-0 and were never really troubled. They are top of group F, but Spartak Moscow also have 6 points and the pair are looking good to qualify. All this for Chelsea without the suspended Didier Drogba. They're going to be a real threat for the trophy this time round.

Finally, Champions League newcomers Tottenham Hotspur put Twente Enschede to the sword last night, winning 4-1, following on from their 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen in the first match. There now come two tough matches against Rafa Benitez's Inter Milan who beat Bremen 4-0 last night, having only draw 2-2 with Twente in their first game.

There are some interesting games ahead.