The Best…..

Emmanuel Adebayor garnered the headlines but for me Craig Bellamy was the main reason Manchester City beat Arsenal on Saturday. He worked tirelessly on the left hand side – one moment charging forward, the next making sure that Wayne Bridge had support. I didn’t hurt that he scored what also turned out to be the winning goal.

Sunday night’s marquee game in Serie A lived up to billing with Genoa and Napoli going at it. The game swung one way and then another as Genoa recovered from a goal down and a man down to beat Napoli 4-1.

The game became ten-on-ten when Napoli’s Campagnaro gave away a penalty and was sent off in first half added time. The goal of the game – perhaps of the weekend – came from Genoa’s Mesto who picked up a clearance wide on the left before cutting inside and hitting a rocket passed Napoli keeper Morgan De Sanctis. (Any young player looking at how to stay onside on a counter attack should take a look at Genoa’s third scored by Hernan Crespo.)

Manchester United had to come from a goal down and played the last thirty minutes with only ten men but still beat Spurs 3-1. Wayne Rooney’s capper was an absolute peach of a goal – wonderful control, strength and a couple of nutmegs to boot.

It looks as Bayern Munich has cast off early season problems just in time for the start of the Champions League group stage.  They opened the season with a couple of draws and a loss but in their last two Bundesliga matches they have beaten Champions Wolfsburg 3-0 and then thrashed Borussia Dortmund 5-1 after giving up the first goal.

Yossi Benayoun did not get the widespread credit – or often playing time – that his performances for Liverpool deserved last season. He showed Saturday that he is picking up where he left off. He was involved in all four goals in a 4-0 win over Burnley with a hat trick and a helper.

Honorable mentions

Inter battered Parma for more than seventy minutes before Samuel Eto’o opened the scoring with an exquisite piece of finishing from just outside the penalty area. It took Eto’o one touch to set it up and another to curl the ball into the far corner and in just below the crossbar.

Franck Ribery’s free kick and Thomas Müller’s second goal were the pick of Bayern Munich’s five goals.


Best forgotten…..

With ninety minutes on the clock of their World Cup Asia play off Saudi Arabia was on their way out of the World Cup on the away goals rule to Bahrain.  Sixty seconds later the scenario had turned upside down as the Saudi’s took a 2-1 lead.

Almost immediately Bahrain earned a corner and substitute Ismail Abdullatif climbed above the Saudi defenders to send a header in at the back post – just where a defender should have been stationed - a costly mistake indeed.  Bahrain now faces New Zealand in another play off and the winner of this one goes to South Africa next summer. 

Arsenal left back Gael Clichy had a nightmare second half against Manchester City. A triple combination of a mistimed tackle and two ill-advised forays up field contributed City’s three goals in the last 16 minutes of the game.

Scotland will not be in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup Finals. That means that another generation will suffer the same fate as mine – not being able to enjoy a Scottish appearance at the Finals during their formative years. After a disastrous performance in 1958 it took sixteen years before the opportunity arose again.

Manager George Burley’s fate will likely be decided this week and although he is receiving some support it is highly unlikely that he will survive. The fans are not behind the manager and that ultimately makes his position untenable. Firing Burley is one thing but who will replace him? Gordon Strachan is the bookies favourite but there is no guarantee that WGS wants the job.

After the Berti Vogts fiasco naming another foreign coach would be a gutsy move but Burley’s successor may already be coaching in Scotland. Heart of Midlothian boss Csaba László was voted Scotland's manager of the year by the football writers last season and the Hungarian might be a good dark horse bet.

The LA Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts went into the match against FC Dallas having not conceded a goal in three games and having only had to make six saves. Ninety minutes later he had conceded six goals in a 6-3 defeat but it was more a case of the LAG defence abandoning him than the other way around. 


Stat facts…..

After beating Scotland on Wednesday, the Netherlands became the first side in 28 years to complete a World Cup qualifying campaign with a 100% record. Spain and England are only two games away from matching the Dutch performance.

Frank Lampard's penalty kick against Croatia on Wednesday was his fifth success from the spot and he is now only one behind Alan Shearer and Ron Flowers who jointly hold the record of six.

Alan Shearer needs no introduction but Ron Flowers probably does for most readers. Flowers was a half back who played his club football for Wolves and held down the England position for many years  before losing his place to Jackie Charlton just before the 1966 World Cup Finals. Flowers was on call for the final against West Germany when Jackie Charlton came down with a cold during the lead up. Ultimaltely Charlton declared himself fit and played.

How many men who managed at the 2006 World Cup Finals will return in 2010? At the moment we have four who still have a chance of back-to-back appearances.

Guus Hiddink was in charge of Australia three years ago and looks set to at least take Russia into the play offs; Marcello Lippi won the Cup last time before taking what turned out to be a two year sabbatical and is now plotting Italy’s title defence; Lars Lagerback has remained continuously in charge of Sweden since 2006 but his country’s hopes are hanging by a thread; the fourth is France’s Raymond Domenech who remains in a job no matter how hard he tries to get fired.
 
Bordeaux’s 1-0 home win over Grenoble means they are now unbeaten in their last 36 Ligue Une home games.

Barcelona’s 2-0 win against Getafe was the first time that the Catalan club had scored more than a single league goal against Getafe in their last seven meetings.

Since taking over Dundee United Craig Levein has seen his side line up against Celtic 12 times but he has yet to see them win – 4 defeats and 8 draws with the latest split coming on Saturday. But this pales into insignificance when you consider that United has not beaten Celtic in over ten years – in all 38 games without a win.

What was said….

A look back at how England performed in previous WCQ and ultimately at the WCFs.

And what won’t happen to England between now and the World Cup Finals by Harry Pearson.

Barney Ronay writes for the Guardian and WSC and has just had a book called “The Manager: The Absurd Ascent of The Most Important Man in Football” published. Ronay discusses the book with EPLTalk.

Reading between the lines it seems that Jason de Vos may be drinking but isn’t swallowing TFC’s kool-aid.

The Ukraine government is struggling to deal with the cost of hosting the 2012 European Championships.

Former Liverpool defender Avi Cohen whose son Tamir now plays for Bolton discusses his time at Anfield.

Extra officials are ready to make their debuts on Thursday in the Europa League.

As Genoa keeper Marco Amelia laid on the ground after a collision, the commentator described him as being “a little unconscious.”

An interesting article on former Chicago Fire striker Damani Ralph who moved to Rubin Kazan in 2005.


Coming up this week…..

Here are this week’s Champions League and Europa League fixtures.

Feel free to post your game predictions for Tuesday and Wednesday’s Champions League games on the blog and keep count throughout the tournament.

There are also CONCACAF Champions League matches on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.