Today I want to compare London’s top two clubs

Chelsea are now fourth in the league, below Aston Villa, still in the FA Cup and the Champions League, but finding it hard to open up defences and score goals.

Arsenal are fifth  in the league, five points behind Chelsea, still in the FA Cup and the Champions League , but finding it hard to open up defences and score goals.

Chelsea see that as a crisis that demands radical action.

So Abramovich has sacked Scolari and asked Guus Hiddink to manage them for three months while keeping his job with Russia.

Both teams are imploding as Aston Villa battle on, fighting for every ball in every match. Everton are scrapping, as always, and have the languid Jo on loan from Man City. Having scored two goals in his first game, will Jo score again before May? I doubt it. But watch this space.

Yesterday I said that the Chelsea players were playing to get Scolari the sack.

Today we know that Abramovich went to the training ground last Thursday and spoke to Drogba, Ballack and Cech. The owner then saw his team draw 0-0 at home against Hull and he probably thought, ” We’ll never beat Juventus playing like this. Claudio Ranieri, a manager I fired after one year, could stuff us and make me look bad. So I have to sack Scolari now.”

So he went back to Cobham on Monday, summoned Scolari, and paid off the 17 months that remain on his contract. Abramovich then phoned John Terry at the England camp in Spain and told him he had sacked the manager. JT was very surprised. The oligarch then phoned Frank Lampard, who was stunned.

Terry has enough on his plate, as he is England’s captain in Seville and they’re playing the best team in Europe in a friendly tonight. David Villa is a very hot striker.

From Terry’s point of view, the timing could not be worse, and the hacks know that well enough. But it’s a big story and it’s their job to ask Terry about it.

He said, “I’m just very shocked by what’s happened. Scolari had my support. Two or three other players will say exactly the same thing, I’m sure. Unfortunately we weren’t playing well and it falls on his head. Maybe people should look at some of us. We did underachieve. It’s unfortunate because the manager is a great man.”

So only four of the Chelsea team were behind the manager.  If I was managing Chelsea, and Drogba played as he did in most games this season, I would have sold him, or given him away, or sent him out on loan. Will Drogba now start turning in world-beating performances twice a week? No. His head has gone.

The departure of coach Steve Clarke had a big impact. Since Clarke joined West Ham, the Hammers have zoomed up the table to eighth, while Chelsea have slumped down to fourth.

This week’s events make one thing clear : Chelsea and Arsenal  are in different businesses.

Chelsea are in the trophy business and Arsenal are in the entertainment business.

Chelsea, like Man United, are in the business of winning trophies. That’s what they think football is all about : winning silverware. Try to win the league. Try to win the cups. If we do win the title, try to win it again next year.

With hindsight, we can all see that when Abramovich bought Chelsea from Ken Bates in 2003, and paid off the £90 million debt that Bates had accumulated, the Arsenal-Man United duopoly was shattered overnight.

So Wenger gave up trying to win the title and settled on a strategy of signing kids. He decided to play attractive football and finish in the Top Four and service the debt. A couple of years ago Wenger used one of my lines, maybe not knowing it was one of my lines, when he said, “If people are going to pay £50 to see a game of football, I want to give them £50 worth of football.”

When he had a great teams in 1998, 2002 and 2004, he gave us £50 worth of football. Arsenal were a stylish, dynamic team who could beat anybody. Now his team is not stylish or dynamic. It’s dull and stuttering. We see 0-0 draws and dopey players who send themselves off, and Wenger has to stand in front of TV cameras defending the indefensible. He doesn’t have a great team right now. He has, if you’re being generous, half a great team.

Gilberto says Arsenal’s older players will have to help the younger ones through the rest of the season.What older players?

What has just happened at Chelsea could never happen at Arsenal, or so we assume. Because Wenger has far more power than any manager at a comparable club. And Abramovich, Hiddink and Terry have taken him out of the headlines and given him time to prepare for Monday’s FA Cup replay against Cardiff. The FA Cup has never been more important to Arsenal than it is right now.

I’m hoping that Arshavin will score two goals in the FA Cup Final.

That will give me something to write about.

Should we really compare Arsenal to the Big Three right now?

Manchester United are reigning European Champions and have not had to build a new stadium.

Chelsea have a big sugar daddy who has hired a superb Brazilian manager.

Liverpool have five European Cups and world class match-winners in Torres, Keane and Gerrard.

And Arsenal have Fabregas and a promising young squad who have won nothing yet.

United, the world’s biggest club, showed their ambition when they paid £30 million for Dimitar Berbatov, who is an intelligent man as well as a clever, versatile footballer. It’s amazing and amusing to see how deferential he is to Cristiano Ronaldo. Berbatov passes to Cristiano whenever he can. Obviously, that makes sense, since if your team has an excplosive player who can dribble fast and score 42 goals in a season, you feed the ball to him.

Right now, Berbatov wants to fit in and be a good team player. When Ronaldo is sold next summer, he can step into the limelight. In September 2009, he’ll be thinking : Cristiano’s gone, I’m the man now.

Man United’s first goal at Blackburn came after a nicely calculated elbow by Vidic on keeper Jason Brown allowed Wes Brown to head in a corner. Their second goal was a wonderful whipped shot by Wayne Rooney which flew into the far side of the goal. Rooney’s on top form for Kazakhstan at Wembley on Saturday.

Liverpool play a methodical game with commendable energy and passion. Rafa gives them a tactical edge, although that can make them quite tedious to watch. But they are very serious this season, very intense. Their winning mentality shows clearly in every game, as when Manchester United led at Anfield but Liverpool won 2-1. Rafa’s warriors also came from behind to win at Middlesbrough, Man City and Marseilles.

In their match at Eastlands last Sunday, Liverpool fought back from 2-0 down after Argentinian Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for a crazy, dangerous tackle on Xabi Alonso. Torres nodded in a fine header,  Robinho missed a chance to make it 3-1 from SWP’s cross, and Liverpool won 3-2

I’ve heard that Rafa is working hard to keep the crowd onside. The best way to do that it to pick the same team and win league games – and he has been doing exactly that. He’s finally realised that if you rotate too much to save your stars for the end of the season, you won’t be there at the end of the season.

In Kuyt, Torres and Keane, he has three of the hardest-working strikers in football, players who are willing to defend from the front, as Ian Rush did for years. His teammates were not joking when they said the Welsh legend was Liverpool’s best defender.

So Liverpool are different this season. Riera is a proper left winger who knows his job is to provide width and crosses. He doesn’t come inside all the time like Babel, who wants to score and be a star.

Scolari’s Chelsea are above Liverpool on goal difference after producing a fiery performance to beat Aston Villa.

First half, Mikel, Lampard and Ballack dominated midfield and they had 60% of possession and 11 shots on goal to Villa’s O. Scolari has liberated them from the straitjacket that Mourinho imposed and in three months the Brazilian has got them playing in way that Avram Grant couldn’t in nine.

Their only problem areas were (1) Two headed back-passes by John Terry to Cech fell short, which must have worried the watching Fabio Capello and (2) Mikel has an ego. It helps if your anchorman has no ego, like Gilberto or Makelele. When Chelsea were 1-0 down at home to Man United, Mikel pushed forward a lot and that was the right thing to do. But I reckon he should patrol the zone in front  of the penalty area, win the ball, knock off short passes. Learn that job thoroughly. He’s not there to hit Hollywood passes and have shots, even in a more free-flowing team.

Hargreaves has no ego and Mascherano has no ego. Mascherano, like Tevez, knows why he is being paid all that money. Many English players are dim-witted comprehensive school yobbos who clearly don’t know why they are being paid so much dosh. But Tevez and Mascherano look as if they are constantly aware of what they should be doing to deserve all that money. And that’s good for Man United and Liverpool .

Chelsea are top with 17 points and now play attacking football with power, flair and momentum. Villa 2-0 were lucky it was 2-0 and not 6-0 and Martin  O’Neill admitted, “Chelsea were absolutely brilliant. Magnificent.” O’Neill also said, “I woke up thinking we would win. So I am a bit daft.”

OK, it’s only October and it’s only seven games into a long season and anything can happen in the next 31 games.  But if Chelsea go on playing entertaining football they’re in danger of becoming the Manchester United of London.

For me, last weekend was notable mainly for the determination of  Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in their games against Blackburn, Aston Villa and Man City. They are all organised, mature teams with  the guts to dominate a game and create chances and take them.

Liverpool have enjoyed their best start in 12 years, Chelsea are at last playing the exciting football that Abramovich wants to see, and Manchester United have a new Bulgarian wizard, the swiftest interchanging attackers, and a game in hand.

What about Arsenal? Well, they have a very quick and agile side who have already dropped 8 of 21 points.

A team that has lost to Fulham and Hull has a lot of improving to do. A team that took 94 minutes to score at Sunderland is one that has to look at itself, shape up quickly, and beat Everton, Fenerbahce and West Ham. Arsenal can and should win those three games. Fenerbahce, so vibrant a year ago in the Champions League, are not playing well this season. If a below-average Dynamo Kiev outfit can draw 0-0 in Istanbul, why can’t Arsenal win there?

In the 1-1 draw at Sunderland, Arsenal went back to playing the way they played before Arsene realised he needed the furious energy of the tempo-setting Mathieu Flamini, who made the game so fast that most opponents could not function against Arsenal. That’s what put them top of the Premier League for six months.

Arsenal played a style that other teams could not match, and most of the time they won the ball back quickly, moved it around slickly, and they could slow the game down when they were winning.

Yes, I know that Flamini is like Steve Williams, like Bergkamp, like Adams, McLintock, Brady, Vieira, Joe Baker- he doesn’t play for Arsenal any more. He’s gone. He’s history. And we must think about now and the future. But sometimes players have to leave before you realise how important they were. I didn’t like Arsenal’s performance at Sunderland because it was a  pre-Flamini performance.

The transition from Gilberto to Flamini, which began in July-August 2007, was something radical in the evolution of the team, and I explain how it happened, and why it had to be done, in Another developmental season, the last chapter of The Professor.