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.

Rodgers should stop moaning and get on with it

I see Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers is moaning about the Premier League schedule over the festive period. They play - as do all the Premier League clubs - four games in 12 days or so.

I find this all this rather incomprehensible. No club in England or Scotland has played fewer games than Swansea City have so far this season - 17. In contrast, Fulham have played 31, including their assault on the Europa League, but I haven't heard Martin Jol complaining. (If he has, he might have some justification.)

Swansea City got themselves dumped out of the League Cup at the first attempt - beaten 3-1 at Shrewsbury Town - and one wonders what effort they'll make to get past Barnsley in the FA Cup third round in January.

I'm sure the Swansea City board will welcome the games over the festive period as they are always well attended and bring in commensurate revenue

Swansea City could end up playing a mere 40 games in the whole season. One wonders what the objective is: to play football or not to play football?

Fulham undone by last-gasp header

Fulham were undone by a sucker punch last night as they were knocked out of the Europa League by an injury-time header by Odense BK of Denmark.

Fulham were seemignly curising into the last 32 at half-time with a 2-0 lead, and needed to win to remain above Wisla Karkow in the group. But two second-half goals put paid to Fulham's Europa League ambitions. So ends a 14-game run in the competition which started way back on 30 June - nearly six months ago!

Despite a 3-1 defeat in Turkey, Stoke City qualified for the knock-out stages last night, but they could be the only British team to make it through the Europa League groups.

All of Celtic, Tottenham Hotspur and Birmingham City are starting this evening's round of matches in third place and all look unlikely to qualify.

But will they be sad or happy?

Celtic will be left to push for the SPL title. Tottenham will be left to push for (ahem) a European place, although they will hope to qualify for the Champions League; and Birmingham will be left to catch up their league games and settle down to plotting a way out of the Championship.

It makes you wonder why they bother to qualify in the first place.

Manchester City and Manchester United, take note.

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.

Grassroots Football the Debate Goes On

I have made this post on behalf of a contributor who wished to remain anonymous.

I listened with interest this morning to the Radio 5 Live debate regarding Grass Roots football. As usual a large proportion of the callers cited the example (or lack of it) given by professional players each week on Match of the Day etc. They are of course an easy target and a point Trevor Brooking, once great player and an ideal role model, defended to the point of saying to one caller that he was wrong that the top level has to be sorted before the Grass Roots. Trevor’s view is that the club level, coaches and parents, the Grass Roots has to take the lead.

We’ve been told for years that we have to get things right at the bottom with the youngest of players, but as with all arguments there are two sides. My own view, without sitting on the fence, is that both are right. But, as important as it is to get it right when players are young, it is ludicrous to think that you can try to attempt to educate young boys and girls about respect and to play the game in the correct manner and spirit if the same isn’t done in the professional game at the same time. So, Trevor and 5 Live callers you’re both wrong ... and right!

For example, it is interesting that a young player sanctioned for violence on the pitch, i.e. punching an opponent in a youth game is likely to be banned for months at a time, perhaps longer (quite rightly), but the same offence in the Premier League can only carry a maximum three-game ban – crazy! Or that a young player swearing at a referee will be sent off and banned for a long period of time, but a professional player is unlikely to even be booked. Double standards that, I’m afraid, “the professional game” simply ignore and which, even more simply, just isn’t good enough.

The other usual argument that arises in these debates is comparing football with rugby and people generally put this down to a “class thing”: football is a working-class game etc, etc – rubbish! It’s about education and being set the right example. I feel insulted that as a middle-class person of means I can be ostracised from being able to enjoy playing or watching football because I have been deemed to have taken the game away from the masses. In the same manner I am sure the vast majority of decent working-class people feel insulted about being derided as unable to be respectful towards referees and are the parents who watch their child’s match shouting abuse and swearing, etc. This isn’t about class – it’s about society and basic manners.

Both ends of the spectrum have to be tackled and better examples set. This includes the PFA who continually defend players from the sometimes indefensible. Players not being allowed to be fined more than two weeks wages, or insisting some players are given another chance after they’ve punched someone on the pitch or in a nightclub for the umpteenth time and already had three or four previous chances.

The Football Association, County Associations and local Leagues have a long way to go too. Small sided football on smaller pitches is a fantastic idea and the new plans for 5v5 and 9v9 should be implemented straight away. However, County Associations and Leagues don’t promote this themselves.

Last season my under-11 side, playing 11-a-side football for the first season, played a cup semi-final on a neutral ground organised by the League on a full size pitch measuring 110m x 85m with full size goals. This is nearly the maximum allowable size for a football pitch – what a stupid thing to do, and subsequently an appalling game of un-enjoyable football was the result. At my own club we’re lucky to have a youth size pitch of 80m x 45m with youth size goals and yet the League itself insisted on organising matches on pitches that are inappropriate; it’s farcical and shouldn’t be allowed. It’s even more ludicrous when you consider both teams were happy to play the game on our club’s pitch but the League would not allow it!

It’s also interesting to note that now in our second season of 11-a-side football my young team has only played on a youth sized pitch with youth sized goals, that we are fortunate to have, away from home twice.  

The plan for the development of smaller sided teams playing on smaller pitches is great but the FA is going to have to support clubs and councils financially to provide the equipment. A set of 9v9 size goalposts cost approximately £400 a pair and even more for those with wheels that can be easily moved when not in use. Multiply that across hundreds of local leagues and thousands of teams because not all clubs will have the money available and in the current financial climate I suspect local councils will be prioritising their funds elsewhere.

The Respect campaign and Charter Standard Programme also need work. The Charter Standard programme is very good but essentially you get this status by filling out forms. The local FA then monitor that you have the right number of qualified coaches and proper documentation about codes of conduct etc, but they don’t look at the actual behaviour of the clubs, players, coaches and parents.

We play against a Charter Standard Club that frankly shouldn’t be allowed on a football pitch. Players as young as 10 are abusive to referees and the parents are truly unbelievable. I’m no shrinking violet when it comes to swearing but I never do it at football. I’ve even seen a parent from this club walk onto the pitch and confront a 15-year-old referee whilst an under-11 game was in progress and the teams coach was egging him on and hurling four letter abuse at our parents and coach who were trying to calm the situation!  Yet this club proudly boasts its Charter Standard status on their website.

I’ve heard, albeit anecdotally, that these incidents aren’t isolated for this club but other clubs who have complained officially to the League in the past have see nothing happen and now consider that there is no point in bothering to say anything because the League and local FA simply haven’t done anything. Why isn’t the behaviour of a clubs, players, officials and parents the key monitor for continuing to be called a Charter Standard Club?

It’s a damning indictment of the game as a whole such that I felt I had to write this article anonymously because of the concern I have that my own team and club will be vilified by the local FA and the local League by saying things about their organisation and the lack of action taken against clubs whose behaviour and Charter Standard status goes unpunished, even though I haven’t mentioned any by name. I’m sure this view is shared across the country.

All in all the FA have some great ideas for the development of the game at Grass Roots level but both ends of the spectrum have to be tackled at the same time, and professional players, coaches, managers, administrators, pundits, commentators, administrators and the PFA have to recognise that something has to change at their level as well and not continue to use the excuse that they are “professional” and exempt because of it.

Succinctly, a dive to get a penalty is cheating. It’s not “professional” nor is it “being clever”; both quotes are an ex-player-turned-pundit’s worst statements, but they are heard most weekends on Match of the Day when analysing a match and the eradication of that type of attitude alone would mark a major step forward for the game we love, all the way down to the Grass Roots.

Anon: Football fan, and youth coach.

Gary Speed's untimely death leaves us numb

The news of Gary Speed's death on Sunday was devastating.

As a Leeds United fan, I have extremely fond memories of Gary Speed and his contribution to the winning of the last Division One Championship before the Premier League in 1992.

Speed was one of those unassuming players who plied his trade with craft and application while always remaining calm and respectful of his opponents. Therein must lie some of the reasons for his career's longevity.

I remember Speed as one of the talented midfield also consisting of Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan and David Batty. Speed was a player with poise and elegance and a knack for scoring headed goals that you really didn't expect him to manage.

Amazingly, Speed played until late 2008, with Sheffield United, in his fortieth year. It was a magnificent career of 677 games and 103 goals.

His recent role as Wales manager looked to be turning into a success with four wins in the last five games. We'll never know where Gary Speed might have taken Wales.

The high regard in which Gary Speed was held has been demonstrated by the reaction of neutral fans in the games since his death. Watch out for reactions at Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United when their first home games come around.

We are left with a numbing death of a marvellous player, and the sad mystery of why he chose to take his own life when things were apparently going so well for him.

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.

Pity Northampton Town, but what about Gala Fairydean?

I'm sure Manchester United fans suffered when they lost 1-6 at home to Manchester City. I'm sure Chelsea fans suffered when they lost 3-5 at home to Arsenal, as well as yesterday when they lost 1-2 at home to Liverpool.

But Manchester United and Chelsea fans have far more good days than they do bad. Manchester United, for instance, haven't conceded a goal in five games since that disastrous defeat.

Get over it, big boys.

Consider poor Northampton Town fans. There were 5,039 in attendance at Sixfields on Saturday (not all home fans, of course) for the visit of Shrewsbury Town - not long back in the Football League, but in a play-off position in League One. "The Cobblers" are at the wrong end of the table, but the fans couldn't have expected the events of Saturday afternoon.

Northampton Town were 3-0 down at half-time; already a bad day. Four minutes into the second half, however, Ben Tozer pulled a goal back to give the home fans some hope. And it remained at 1-3 until the 82nd minute when Marvin Morgan made it 1-4. No doubt this was a cue for many home fans to exit, but they would have missed Ade Akinfenwa pulling another back to make it 2-4 three minutes later. A bad result, but not a disaster.

However, the next few minutes would make it a disaster. Shrewsbury Town helped themselves to three more goals in the dying minutes to make a final scoreline of Northampton Town 2, Shrewsbury Town 7. It's the kind of result you avoid buying a paper for.

A terrible day for Northampton Town's suffering fans as the team remained 20th in the table. Not bottom then! No, poor Pymouth Argyle are seven points behind Northampton.

There's always somebody worse off than your team.

What about the poor Gala Fairydean fan(s) whose team lost 11-0 to Airdrie United in the Scottish Cup on Saturday?

Unimpressive England shake the monkey off their back

England completed back-to-back1-0 victories with their win over Sweden last night.

The result against Sweden was, for once in a friendly, more important than the performance, as it shook the monkey from its back in the form of failure to beat Sweden in 12 attempts in 43 years.

However, it was another typical England performance - despite numerous personnel changes from the Spain game. A reasonable first half was rewarded half-way through with a deflected Gareth Barry header to give them the lead, but the second half was pedestrian and England failed to capitalise on their first-half performance, thereby always keeping Sweden in the game and with a chance of equalising.

It has happened so many times before, but on this occasion England held on to win.

Complaints from the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Vicente Del Bosque about England's performance and style of play ("defensive", "physical") against Spain rather smack of sour grapes. England know they are not as good as Spain, and to try to match them at their own game would be footballing suicide. There are many ways to play football - that's what makes it so fascinating - and although we can all admire and aspire to Spain's style of play, it would takes years to get anywhere close.

Having said that, as Gus Poyet says (BBC) something must be done about the lack of technical ability in England. Talk gets us nowhere; it's time for action.

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

Noisy neighbours City begin to roar

It would be hard to be writing a football blog this week and not talk about Manchester City's thrashing of Manchester United 6-1.

The fact that three of the City goals were scored in the last minute of the game and added time, and that five of the City goals were score after Jonny Evans's sending off cannot disguise the fact that City outplayed United and always looked the more likely to score.

Yes, of course, the Evans sending off and the late goals distorted the scoreline, but after so many years of playing second fiddle to United's dominance, City fans won't worry about that.

With players like Sergio Aguero, David Silva (magnificent), and even Mario Balotelli firing on more cylinders than City have had in the last forty years combined, there can be little doubt that the Blue half of Manchester is set for something big. The huge money spending is finally paying off.

Good news for England too: James Milner and Micah Richards were tremendous, and were ably supported by Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott and Gareth Barry.

The noise from the neighbours is become a deafening roar.

Abandoning relegation would be insanity

I have never heard anything so stupid as the apparent proposal to abandon relegation from the Premier League.

And that's saying something when we've had proposals for a "39th game abroad", mid-winter breaks (a pet hate of mine) and Celtic and Rangers to play in the English League.

I'm not sure who's proposing such nonsense, but, at a stroke, it would render about 75% of the games in the Premier League as irrelevant. The top few would still battle for the title and places in the Europa League they later decide they'd rather not have, and the remaining dozen or so clubs would have nothing to play for in the league - ever!

And guess what? No one would want to watch: at the ground, in the pubs, on TV, or even in deepest Malaysia. It's not a recipe for sanctuary for the clubs who might fear relegation; it's a recipe for disaster.

If this is some crazy notion based on the US model of the NFL, then what should we expect next? Overtime to ensure there are no draw? 117 players on each side, 106 of whom would be on the bench (what would Carlos Tevez think of that?)? Full body armour? Renaming football to soccer?

Come on. If our American friends Stateside were so good at inventing sports, some of them might just get played outside of their own back yard, and not have "world champions" from ONE country. Football (yes, NOT soccer) CAN learn a lot from other sports (like replays in cricket, and on-pitch injury treatment in rugby, to name but two), but it should ignore nonsensical proposals from apparent foreign owners who should remember why they bought into our game in the first place.

And why should the current members of the Premier League suddenly decide to ring-fence themselves? Would it be because some of them know they're not really part of the elite? Here's a list of the real top 20 clubs, based on league positions since the war:

1 Manchester United

2 Arsenal
3 Liverpool
4 Tottenham Hotspur
5 Everton
6 Chelsea
7 Aston Villa
8 Manchester City
9 Newcastle United
10 West Ham United
11 Leeds United
12 West Bromwich Albion
13 Wolverhampton Wand.
14 Nottingham Forest
15 Sunderland
16 Leicester City
17 Middlesbrough
18 Blackburn Rovers
19 Birmingham City
20 Southampton

The other current Premier League members are placed as follows:
23 Stoke City
26 Bolton Wanderers
31 Norwich City
32 Fulham
33 QPR
53 Swansea City
80 Wigan Athletic

You know what motivates proposals like this? Greed, fear, cowardice.

Give Rooney a year off from international football

So there it is: Wayne Rooney got the three-game international ban.

So, as I said in this blog on Monday: don't take him to Euro2012.

Rooney will miss the whole of the group stages. The last time England played more than four games in the Euros was at home in 1996, so is it worth taking Rooney for one game in the hope that he can squeeze us through to another?

For those first three games England will have to play a Rooney-free style; a style that they will have developed over the course of friendlies between now and June 2012. If England qualify for the quarter-final, is it realistic to suddenly change back to a Rooney-centric style of play?

I'm afraid it's best to write off Rooney from international football until the start of the 2012-13 season and the next set of World Cup qualifiers.

Sir Alex Ferguson must be delighted!

Euro2012 qualifiers

The qualifiers for  Euro2012 in Poland and Ukraine are shaping up.

The 12 countries who have already qualified are:

Poland

Ukraine

Germany

Russia

Italy

France

Netherlands

Greece

England

Denmark

Spain

Sweden

There are 8 countries who have qualified for the two-legged play-offs in November. If they are seeded by the FIFA rankings, then they will come out like this:

• Portugal (5th)
• Croatia (9th)
• Bosnia-Herzegovina (22nd)
• Montenegro (26th)
• Turkey (27th)
• Republic of Ireland (29th)
• Czech Republic (40th)
• Estonia (58th)

Thus, the top four would be seeded, and drawn randonly against the bottom four.

The draw takes place tomorrow (Thursday 13 October).

How do you solve a problem like Wayne Rooney?

"How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Wayne Rooney?
A flibbertigibbet, a will-o'-the-wisp, a clown."
[With thanks - and apologies - to Rodgers and Hammerstein, from The Sound of Music.]

Sent off for England on Friday, Rooney will now miss at least one - possibly two, and maybe even three - games at the start of Euro 2012.

If UEFA decide he should be banned for three games, solving the Rooney problem will be easy - don't take him at all. Let's face it, England only rarely progress even one game beyond the groups at the Euros, so it would be a waste of a squad place to pick Rooney in the hope that we get beyond the group.

At least, following this latest pathetic show of petulance, we've been spared the same old line that we've been bored with for the last eight years: "You've got to remember he's still young." At last the pundits have realised he's not - at 25 - particularly young any more, particularly with younger - yet more mature - colleagues around him; for example, Phil Jones.

Gary Neville says we should stop trying to solve the Rooney problem per se, and solve the wider England problem - which is that we're not very good, and as a result Rooney gets frustrated, leading to such actions. I think he's got a point. We're often too reliant on one person - or at least believe we are - and how many times has that player missed out on the big tournaments? Think Keegan, Brooking, Robson, Gascoigne, Owen, Beckham, Rooney, metatarsals, etc.

The team should be built to play good football, based on a system, not a player. Let Rooney be a cog in a well-oiled wheel, not the oil without which the wheel simply can't turn.

City and United struggle in Europe

Manchester City and Manchester United may be leading the domestic charge, but both are struggling to find their feet in the European Champions League.

City, for all their extravagant spending, have only a single point from two games, and United are not much better off, with two points. Both sit third in their group.

City had a rough night, losing 2-0 to a resurgent Bayern Munich and with some controversy as Carlos Tevez appeared to refuse to go on as substitute (he has since claimed: "There was some confusion on the bench and I believe my position may have been misunderstood"). City now need two good results against bottom-placed Villareal to stand any chance of progressing.

United were stunned last night as Basel came from two goals behind to lead Manchester United at Old Trafford. Ashley Young scored an injury-time equaliser to save United from an embarrassing (not to say damaging) home defeat. With both Benfica and Basel two points ahead of Manchester United, the Reds need to gain two wins against Romanian club SC Otelul Galati to keep their hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages alive.

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!

Aguero could be Manchester City's real star

Have Manchester City finally got themselves a real star?

Last night Sergio Aguero (mysteriously wearing "Kun Aguero" on his back) came on as substitute with the score at 1-0 against Swansea City, and he proceeded to score two (the second one a beauty) and make another as the Blues an out 4-0 winners in the end.

Indeed, Aguero helped make the scoreline a bit harsh on Swansea who for much of the first half were the equal of the rich Mancunians, at least in terms of possession. In the end statistics such as the shot count were overwhelmingly in the home side's favour.

Edin Dzeko scored City's opener after the impressive Vorm in Swansea's goal couldn't hold a shot from Yaya Toure, and David Silva (who also had a good night) go the other goal after good work by Aguero.

But the real story of the night was the Argentinian Aguero. He looked keen, quick, robust and undoubtedly had an eye for goal.

Could City finally have the man who could make the difference?