SIX POINTS from two Champions League games takes a lot of pressure off Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern,
Manchester United, Valencia and Lyon.
Any of those six could win the Champions League final.
Recent games have proved that Gallas and Rosicky are mature gladiators who have added a lot to the Arsenal project.When Gallas burst forward beating two Porto players, he passed to Henry, who set up Hleb for a shot that made it 2-0 and the contest was over in 55 minutes.
Gallas is a canny attacker as well as a supreme defender.He does not waste many passes.
Once, when Rosicky chases a lost cause he surprised the crowd by reaching the ball and winning a corner.Later on the Czech was very unlucky to be booked, as he got the ball.
Gallas and Rosicky have added so much : experience, belief, know-how, tenacity, goals – all the things you need to win football matches.
Arsenal can beat Charlton without Gallas, who has a hamstring strain, but could they beat CSKA Moscow without him?
CHELSEA’S 3-1 win in Sofia was notable for a hat-trick by Drogba.
He is better in a 4-4-2 and he has been lifted by the arrival of the great Shevchenko. He is competing with Shevchenko as well as partnering him.
Drogba is reaching down into his guts and pulling out performance after performance.He whacked in a rebound off the keeper for 1-0, chested a long ball and fired in a shot that dribbled in off the keeper, then tickled a Lampard drive flukily over the line from close range.
Drogba now is a bit like Les Ferdinand when he went to Newcastle to join local hero Alan Shearer.Les is a lovely guy, a laidback character, but when he was fired up he could be awesome. Les played with Shearer but tried to score more goals than him. That’s what motivated him. If he scored, he was ecstatic.If Shearer scored, he wanted to. They scored a lot of goals, and many great goals, but won nothing
It’s different, of course, but it’s similar. Les joined a legend, Drogba has been inspired by the arrival of a legend. Drogba has raised his game to show Shevchenko what an Ivory Coast boy can do.
LIVERPOOL led 3-0 against Galtasaray, who then pulled back to 3-2.Peter Crouch scored with two volleys and Luis Garcia made it 3-0.
Last season I predicted that Crouch would be a tremendous player for Liverpool, which didn’t go down well with some readers.This season Crouch has scored in every game he has started for Liverpool and England, except the drubbing at Everton, when the whole team was inept. I can never remember Liverpool losing 3-0 to Everton in any competition.
BAYERN MUNICH had a fantastic 2-0 win at Inter in the San Siro, where Ibrahimovic and Grosso sent themselves off. Grosso should be banned from the Champions League for the rest of the season for that elbow.
VALENCIA striker David Villa is direct, busy, reliable, a very good player, the Andy Johnson of the Primera Liga. He scored against Roma and they won 2-1.I figured if Valencia were good enough to draw 1-1 at Barcelona on Sunday they were good enough to beat Roma. Villa set up Angulo for the first, Totti equalised from a penalty, then Villa drilled in the winner from the D, right foot shot into the bottom corner, very efficient, very professional.
So David Villa scored in consecutive games against Barcelona and Roma, very different goals.He is now one of the world’s top strikers.
BARCELONA, playing in all-oranje kit, did not fare so well.
Puyol stabbed stretched to reach a Werder Bremen cross and stabbed it past his keeper Victor Valdez. But sub Lionel Messi played a sweet one-two with Deco to level it in 89 minutes The return pass from Deco was sublime, giving the defenders no chance, the ball almost dead when Messi reached it to score easily with his left foot.A quality goal and badly needed.
Everybody wants to beat Barca this season, more than ever. And Samuel Eto’o is out for eight weeks with a knee ligament injury.
THE SKY COVERAGE is good on Wednesday nights.
Clare Tomlinson gives you the essentials expertly and Richard Keys is a trained journalist, unlike many presenters.
Decades ago Clive James said he was the only TV critic to regard snooker presenter David Vine as a reason to switch a TV set on.
I’m a bit like that with Richard Keys. I like him a lot and I don’t say that about many TV presenters. I only like Keys, James Richardson and Andrew Marr.
Keys has three ex-managers analysing the games on Wednesdays : Graeme Souness, Ruud Gullit and Ray Wilkins. They are always sharper, more informative than dopey,cliche-spouting ex-players.
Souness said the way Galatasaray came back at 3-0, scoring twice, proves that Rafa Benitez must keep Alonso-Sissoko as his midfield pair.With Gerrard there, and Sissoko on the bench, two goals were conceded.
Gullit slaughtered Arjen Robben for selfish play. He said, “Great players don’t care who scores, they just want to win.Robben needs to get rid of selfishness, diving. If he does, he’s a great player.”
Wilkins, who played for AC Milan, could not defend the Inter performance but said Italian fullbacks work very hard to prevent crosses coming in. That’s something we should copy , he reckoned.
Gullit said Inter have many stars but no team.
Souness said Inter have been like that for years.
Decades, actually, Graeme.