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Some cracking goals in the Champions League on match day 4. Ryan Babel's late long range effort against Lyon looked to have locked up three points for Liverpool against Lyon but it was not to be.

A late equalizer from Marius Onofras of Unirea Urziceni against Rangers kept his team in the poll position to move on – postage stamp corner stuff. Ronaldinho  showed how to take an unsaveable penalty when he equalized for Milan against Real Madrid.

As far as the Bolton defense was concerned John Carew was unplayable on Saturday. Aston Villa thrashed Bolton 5-1 and the Norwegian striker contributed a goal, two assists and was fouled for a penalty that eventually led to a goal.

Shoot out of the weekend must have been Lyon against Marseille at the Stade Gerland. Ten

On Sunday January 11th of this year Chelsea traveled to play Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Premier League. By early evening Chelsea had been taken apart in a manner not seen for many a season.

The final score may have been 3-0 to United but the score line flattered Chelsea so resounding was the home team’s performance.

It was to be a game that marked the beginning of the end for Chelsea boss Luis Felipe Scolari. Chelsea struggled to beat Stoke the week after – needing two late goals from Belletti and Lampard – before another less than impressive display in dispatching relegation bound Middlesbrough.

A 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield made a parting of the ways close to inevitable while a scoreless draw at home to struggling Hull City sealed the Brazilian’s

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Liverpool’s opening goal against Manchester United was wonderfully constructed and decisively executed. The move went from box to box and included five players. But the key moment may have been when Kuyt had a late change of mind and instead of sending a difficult through ball to Torres he played it square to Benayoun – albeit while stumbling to stay upright. Benayoun had a far better angle and was able to play in Torres who timed and directed his run quite beautifully.

Not many teams go to the Nou Camp and escape with a point let alone three. Although they were badly outshot Rubin Kazan made their two shots from Aleksandr Ryazantsev and Gökdeniz Karadeniz count as they beat Barcelona 2-1 and turned Group F in Champions League upside down.  

Can

Crisis is such a relative term – particularly in soccer. How else can you explain Burnley, with 12 points sitting in 9th position and a goal difference of –10, being regarded as a success while Liverpool are two positions and three points better off and enjoy a goal difference of 9 but are currently the crisis club of the Premier League?

Much of it comes down to the old adage about under promising and over delivering. Burnley supporters have seen their side return to the top flight after a trek through the Football League wilderness that lasted just short of a record set back in biblical times. For Burnley this season, survival equates to success.

However, for Liverpool supporters and many media pundits this was going to be the year that Liverpool won the Premier League for

Serie A has two excellent matches scheduled for Saturday.

Juventus v Fiorentina

These two sides have almost identical records with goal difference all that separates them – Juventus has a + 5 to Fiorentina’s +3.  However, Juventus and Fiorentina approach this game from very different directions.

Ciro Ferrara is facing his first mini-crisis since taking over from Claudio Ranieri at the tail end of last season. Two draws and a loss in the league combined with two draws in Champions League have tarnished a start that had brought four fairly convincing wins while conceding only one goal.

Conversely, Fiorentina have picked up momentum since losing away to Lyon in the Champions League and being badly beaten 3-1 by Roma a month ago. Within ten days of the second loss Fiorentina

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Some may focus on a sub-par performance from Manchester United but nonetheless Sunderland played some very good soccer on Saturday at Old Trafford. They moved the ball nicely with an impressive midfield of Malbranque (my man-of the-match), Cana, Cattermole and Reid doing the spade work. With Bent and Jones meshing nicely up front this Sunderland should have no trouble finishing in the top half of the Premier League this season.

Didier Drogba was the difference once again for Chelsea. His delivery from the left to Nicolas Anelka for the opener against Liverpool was exquisite. Two weeks he did the same from the right side to set up Ashley Cole.

Palermo inflicted a first Serie A loss on Juventus by a score of 2-0 and it could have been a lot worse. The Sicilian club entered

Two teams that should know each other inside out go at it again this weekend. Liverpool and Chelsea have faced each other twenty-four times in the last five years and they have in the process built a rivalry that just didn’t exist during the first ninety-six years of competition.

With Chelsea emerging as an English powerhouse in the middle of this decade an uptick in games against the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United would have been expected.  

But the sheer scope of the rash of Chelsea – Liverpool meetings dwarfs the others by a considerable margin. Over the same period Chelsea has played Arsenal 13 times and Manchester United 15 times so it is difficult to put the greater frequency down to anything else except the luck of the draw.  

Over the five