By Shaun Orange

Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, has been lambasted by his cross-town rival and former prodigy Mark Hughes, who has taken issue with the Scotsman contemptuously laughing them off as being nowhere near as good or as strong as City might like to think they are.

Since the Abu Dhabi Investment Company bought the club on transfer deadline day in the summer, and in the process pulled off a major coup when they signed Robinho from under the noses of Chelsea, there has been an air of expectancy that enveloped the City of Manchester Stadium.

So when Ferguson, and indeed a couple of his senior players scornfully dismissed City’s chances of superseding Old Trafford as the kingpins of the northwest, Hughes hit back. And hit back he did in no uncertain terms. The former Manchester United star striker; affectionately referred to as ‘Sparky” from his days with the Red Devils, labelled Ferguson a “sore loser”.

The City boss said Ferguson, because he didn't lose often, did not know how to handle the situation, and thus his “poor temperament”.

There is definitely substance in Hughes’ assertion. Ferguson’s tirades with match officials and way-out-of-line outburst in the Press after they lose have been well documented.

But if there was one thing that Ferguson might have got right in his supposed assessment of City it is that City, with all their newly found wealth, have yet to prove themselves. And, as we all know, to do that one has to get trophies -- something City are still to show us.

Further still, Ferguson was also criticized by his Arsenal counterpart and longtime rival, Arsene Wenger.

The Gunners coach weighed into Ferguson for his comments on City beating Arsenal last weekend, at a time when the Gunners’ camp was in “disarray”. Wenger shot back by suggesting that his team was not in disarray despite the recent upheavals at the Emirates Stadium.

The Frenchman gave City credit for their 3-0 triumph over his side and noted that Hughes’ team is “a good side and that maybe the Old Trafford squad will see that” when they clash in the Manchester derby on Sunday.

Ferguson has a long history of trying to upset their position ahead of crucial fixtures by making these kinds of statements to the Press; but this time those whom he endeavoured to rattle with his mind games took him to task.

The Manchester derby has shaped up a prospective explosive encounter with much riding on the outcome for both sides.

United are eight points behind league leaders Chelsea and Liverpool (with a game in hand), and after comprehensive defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal, they can ill-afford to drop more points at the City of Manchester Stadium. And surely this is what triggered Ferguson to try and pull off one of his many unsportsmanlike stunts.

And while Manchester United will be bent on claiming all three points to stay in touch with the Premiership leaders, so too will Arsenal be hoping they can overcome Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Emirates side are fifth in the standings and a distance 10 points off the pace, having played the same number of games as the pace-setters.

All in all, both matches should be quite reverting, and as I mentioned in an earlier blog, I reckon both will finish as draws.

By Shaun Orange

Joe Kinnear has been appointed coach of Newcastle United until the end of the season; effectively an extension of his contract with the club where he has served as interim boss since late September and after Kevin Keegan unceremoniously left St James' Park.

The Tyneside outfit has been put up for sale by owner Mike Ashley after protest by the Toon Army, who sided with Keegan.

But for all their problems, most of them brought upon themselves by the mannerism in which both sides have dealt with the unsettledness, the assurance that Kinnear will see out the remainder of the season is possibly the best thing that has happened at St James' Park following the departure of Sam Allardyce in January.

Keegan might have been a popular character with the fans, and they might reason to look up to him, given his time with the Magpies as a player (when he was hero-worshipped), but he did not deliver anything – and that is a fact.

He promised much as the supposed “Messiah” on Tyneside, but he fell dramatically short of holding up his end of the bargain. He certainly came close to winning the championship title in 1996 when they finished second. However, this game where only the champion counts, he was a nobody as a manager for Newcastle.

Kinnear, of course, will not win the Premier League crown for the Magpies this term, and there is no guarantee that he will be there at the start of next season. If anything, Kinnear is more than likely to give way to a “more celebrated” coach next summer.

And that in itself is what really hurts Newcastle. There is just too much leeway given to what the fans have to say. Indeed, they pay their hard-earned dollars to come through the turnstiles, but then so do the supporters of all the other 19 clubs in the Premiership, yet none have more clout (to the detriment of the club).

Ashley has been vilified, yet it is his millions who were pumped into the club. So one has to ask, how does he feel. Well, of course, we now know; he just wants out, and if he makes a quick buck in the process, then good on him.

I also hope that Kinnear does well and shows just what he is capable of. In my view, he is as good as most of the coaches in the Premier League, although not as a good as the top tier.

But Newcastle, with all their support, and the sheer size of the club (among the five best supported in England) do deserve much better than languishing third from the bottom of the Premiership standings.

With the announcement that he will be in charge until the end of the season, I am sure it will bring about more stability within the squad and hopefully, better results – and thus a climb out of the relegation zone.

It is embarrassing on the part of the club, to see such a formidable player in the game grappling with survival, as opposed to fighting for silverware – something Newcastle should have gotten used to (if not for their fans).

By Shaun Orange

There are two fixtures this weekend that have the potential to be explosive encounters –City welcoming United in the Manchester derby, and league leaders Chelsea entertaining Arsenal.

And while both matches also look like they could well finish in stalemates, there is no shortage of spice in the build up to either.

England striker Wayne Rooney has stoked the fire ahead of their visit to the City of Manchester Stadium by rubbishing suggestions that their hosts could soon become a bigger entity than the Old Trafford outfit, even with all the financial backing of their new owners from the Gulf.

With due respect, City have not really illuminated the Premiership since the buyout at the start of the season, and even with the inclusion of Brazilian ace Robinho, they have often looked a mediocre side.

However, having said that, they did win their last two games - Arsenal in the league last weekend and Schalk in the UEFA Cup in midweek, in some style. And it is against this background that the Citizens go into the clash looking to pull off a third straight derby victory, having done the double over the old enemy last season.

It is often said that in derbies the form book counts for zero and that recent past form is thrown out of the window. Well, the home team will be hoping that this does not apply on Sunday, as they endeavour to continue with their fine mini-run.

That they can do it is not the issue; they can. But Manchester United will be dead keen posting a victory themselves, given that they trail Chelsea and Liverpool by eight (with a game in hand).

And Rooney’s admission that they “cannot afford not to win” is pertinent to how far they might fall behind the leaders if the Red Devils lose and the top two win.

Unlike Rooney’s brushing aside of City, Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack is wary of their opposition, noting that Arsenal, “Because they have problems in the team, they are dangerous” and the Blues “have to be aware especially after Wednesday's (Champions League) game” in which the Stamford Bridge side were held by Bordeaux.

The Gunners bounced back nicely from all the turmoil at the Emirates Stadium with a narrowed but deserved 1-0 triumph over Dynamo Kiev in Europe on Tuesday.

Those two Champions League results left Chelsea yet to qualify for the last 16 and Arsenal comfortably in the draw for the knockout stages.

But if there was one thing going for the Blues, then it is that their lackluster European form is in complete contrast of their Premiership displays, which have been solid, competent performances.

Their goal aggregate of plus-28 is 13 better than Manchester United’s, which the next best. And the 32 goals scored shade the 25 of the Reds Devils and Arsenal.

Nicolas Anelka has been in fine fettle for Chelsea and is the leading scorer with 12 goals thus far this season. Given a little leeway at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, and he could add to that tally, at the expense of their bitter London rivals.

Still, my thinking is that both the Manchester derby and the Stamford Bridge game will end in draws.

By Shaun Orange

Cesc Fabregas has been made the new skipper of Arsenal and his appointed to lead the Gunners may yet turn out to be another master stroke by Frenchman Arsene Wenger.

The London club have been in turmoil over the past fortnight or so, with both results on the pitch not going their way and a huge upheaval in the dressing room raising much alarm about the state of the squad as a whole.

Things came to a head last week when then captain William Gallas told a French paper of a fist fight between players in the change room and a certain player causing untold unsettledness.

While Gallas was telling the truth, his revelations went against the unwritten law of keeping what goes on in the dressing room in the dressing room.

Wenger’s immediate response was to strip his French compatriot of the captain’s armband and leave him out of the side that lost 3-0 to Manchester City.

Now Wenger has elevated Fabregas to lead the team and accepted Gallas’ apology, which is expected to earn him a recall to the team; supposedly against Dynamo Kiev in the European Champions League.

If reading into Wenger’s reaction to the whole saga is remotely accurate, then we could indeed see Arsenal take the corner and go on to become a force to reckon with in the English game, and Europe too.

At 21 years of age, Fabregas is considered really young to captain such a big team, one of the biggest in world football. But Wenger will have made the skipper with a view to the Spaniard establishing himself as among Europe’s best midfielders. There is no doubting that Fabregas has immense talent, and already he shown, even at this young age, that he does possess good leadership qualities.

Wenger, we must understand, will know well enough that he will also have to help guide the lad in his new found responsibility and take it from there.

Not often has Wenger trust in players been misplaced. And with having brought Fabregas in from Barcelona as a teenager and then nurtured him to what he is today, a regular in Spain’s national squad, the Arsenal boss will know more than anybody else just how far the new captain can go.

My thinking is that he can go all the way and indeed become a household name in world football.

But a lot of that will depend on just how far Wenger will want to strengthen his team by way of bringing in new recruits; and to this end, I would imagine, experience could be the key.

That Wenger has a great knack for seeking out raw young talent and then moulding them into capable stars, is not the question. They have fallen quite far behind Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in terms consistency this season, and a couple of tried and trusted players would be more than ideal.

Players of this stature would also surely help Fabregas get on with his new job. I believe he will make a good captain, but will no doubt need some time.

By Shaun Orange

Liverpool are neck-and-neck with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League standings yet there is a growing number of those who feel that they will wilt away long before the end of the season.

Manchester United are eight points behind the leading two teams who are locked on 33 points apiece after 13 games, and Old Trafford boss Alex Ferguson reckons they will be in the thick of things at the end.

In the latest shrugging off of Liverpool’s chances of winning the prized league crown for the first time since 1990, Chelsea’s German midfielder Michael Ballack said that the race was really between them and Manchester United.

Of course, Ballack could well be right, and given the Merseysiders previous campaign, where they showed good form early on only to faltered in the second half of the season, his view point does appear to have some credit.

But Liverpool have a different team this season, exhibiting great character in the face of defeat. On one fewer than five occasions they come back from a goal or two down to win.

And when they have performed well from the start and got their game flowing, Rafael Benitez’s squad has looked impressive.

But he will be the first to tell you that impressive does not win league titles, and that consistency to the end of the season does it.

Last week Anfield captain Steven Gerrard went on record as saying that his teammates should not be misled to believing that they had the crown in the bag, but instead should continue with their best start to a Premiership season yet.

He called on his side to show resilience in their bid to see their opposition in pursuit of the championship title. And Gerrard is right. Should Benitez and his squad take their eye off the ball for just a second they will be left for dead by Chelsea, and Manchester United.

Ferguson’s take that the eight-point deficit can be overhauled is indeed a realistic one. He pointed out that they needed to get the gap between them and the leaders down to two or three points by New Year’s Day to be in with “a great chance”.

Manchester United travel to Japan in January for the 2008 Club World Cup and when they return, they will have fallen another two games behind in the schedule. Thus, the less catching up they have to do then, the better for them.

With Arsenal all but out of the championship race – even at this stage of the season, Liverpool do look like the only other challengers for the title, besides Chelsea and Manchester United.

But Ballack’s view that they too are out of it now, is a little bit rash, I would say.

However, then again, you never know in this game. The Reds may well go through one of those terrible runs and fall off the pace dramatically and completely. The Kop will obviously hope not.

By Shaun Orange

There is a very good chance that Cristiano Ronaldo will be named the World Footballer of the Year next month. Judged on the performances of last season, he excelled in helping Manchester United win both the English Premier League title and the European Champions League trophy.

And despite what many of his detractors might have to say about it, he remains one of the best players in the game right now. Whether or not he is indeed the best, is a matter of opinion one could say.

But for all his talents with the ball at his feet or frightening defences with his speed and aerial bombardments, Ronaldo does have several key issues of his game to brush up on if he is to make the grade as one of the all-time greats.

At the moment he is not, although he has made considerable progress over the last couple of years on his way there.

His diving in the penalty area has been well documented, and rightly so. And while we have to cede that there are not more than a handful of first-class strikers who do not fall over unnecessarily in the penalty area, the Portuguese winger’s antics have been a little over the top when he goes in search of a cheap penalty – not that his Old Trafford manager Alex Ferguson minds.

We have not seen him over do things in this area of his game thus far this season, but he should be reminded that there are those who are watching his every move and if he does topple over with but only the wind blowing he will be called to order for it.

Notwithstanding this, Portugal’s international friendly in Brazil on Wednesday was tainted with charges directed at Ronaldo, in which he was accused of trying to break Thiago Silva’s leg and elbowing Marcelo.

That the claims were backed up by images merely serves to underscore how important it is for Ronaldo to keep his temper in check. Portugal struggled badly in their 6-2 defeat in Brasilia and not surprisingly Ronaldo suffered the most. And just as Silva pointed out afterwards, Ronaldo’s failure to stamp his mark on the match was what led to his madness.

But the great players do not react in this fashion. What they do is they find a method and a means of getting past their opposition to make an impact on the game, and that is what Ronaldo failed to do. And to add insult to injury, he went about attempting to wound Silva and Marcelo.

My thinking on this matter is that these are the kind of things that differentiate the good players from great players. And at the moment, I reckon Ronaldo is good, but certainly not yet great. He still has some way to go to pass the mark – and performances like those in the Brazil game do not help in the least.

By Shaun Orange

It would appear that William Gallas has indeed paid the price for his outspokenness about the internal affairs at the Emirates Stadium.

It has been reported that he was stripped of the captaincy of the Gunners by Arsene Wenger, who has taken issue with his French compatriot’s attack on his teammates for, in his words, not being up to the job of winning the Premier League title.

But even then, this might not be the end of the Gallas outburst. He may well be on his way out of the Emirates, come the January transfer window.

Gallas is due to miss their game at Manchester City on Saturday, following Wenger’s decision to omit the defender from his squad. This action, coming as it does after a tumultuous week the London club, in which they also revealed that England striker Theo Walcott has been ruled out for anything up to three months with a shoulder injury that required surgery.

It was suggested on this blog a couple of weeks or so ago, that Arsenal are a deeply troubled club. And Gallas’ revelations that there was a fist fight in the dressing room, reportedly between Walcott and Robin van Persie, and that one particular player is causing untold unsettledness within their ranks, merely confirms it.

In the midst of all this turmoil, one would be inclined to give Wenger the benefit of the doubt and afford him some sympathy. But I think he does not deserve it in this case.

The French coach is the one person at Arsenal who should take sole responsibility for the mess they are in, and his often deflecting the attention from his players, is perhaps the real cause of it all.

As good a coach as he is, Wenger is unlikely to come through this lot without losing face and conceding so much ground on Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, that it might take two or three seasons, or maybe even more, for them to get their act together and pose a serious challenge for the league championship crown.

They are fourth in the standings at the moment, tied on points with Aston Villa, but I cannot see them, not lose more ground on their three main rivals.

In fact, I reckon that Villa are in a good position to unseat Arsenal as one of the top four clubs in England, which comes with the bounty of automatically qualifying for entry into the lucrative European Champions League next season.

This take might seem a little harsh on the Gunners, and some of their faithful supporters might even ridicule the notion that they could be hard-pressed to stay among the top-four in the Premiership.

Well, that might be as it is, but this squad of Wenger’s is light years away from his Invincibles of 2003/04. And the last thing the Emirates lot will want to do is live on past glories. The reality of the matter at Arsenal is that they are in a total shambles with no leadership on the pitch and off it their manager has had his own authority exposed as being awfully weak.

Sanctioning Gallas for “telling it as it is” might go some way to help bringing about order in the dressing room, but that alone will not heal their problems. These are much greater than that and how Wenger handles the situation from hereon and how they perform in the league, is what will tell us how he is coping with the crisis.

My guess is it will get worse before it gets better.

By Shaun Orange

The English Premier League is undoubtedly the most exciting and also the most lucrative in the world. It receives the greatest media attention of all, and thus, is the most high-profile of all in football.

But over the past few weeks the English game has been beset by some bad publicity borne of neither the scourge of hooliganism nor the players who often find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Instead, a few managers of these multi-million dollar business organisations, or in the case of Manchester – a multi-billion dollar entity, are the culprits who have gone out of their way to bring the game into disrepute and taint their very own standing.

Most recently, Sunderland manager Roy Keane denied a charge of improper conduct brought against him by the English Football Association (FA). His remonstrating against referee Martin Atkinson in his team’s 5-0 thrashing at the hands of league leaders Chelsea is the basis of the charge.

And while he might have denied any wrong-doing or indeed, be found not guilty of wrong-doing, the fact that he has been charged is just not good enough for a Premier League club.

However, a more telling situation is that of Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United; the club who claim to be the biggest and richest club in the world. He was found guilty of improper conduct and slapped with a two-match touchline ban and fined £10,000.

Of course, the ban will not matter much, given that he will still be allowed into the stadium and can watch the games from the directors’ box. The fine is minuscule when compared to what he earns, somewhere in the region of £4 million a year.

And therein lies the problem with the managers – not all of them, but certainly a few who persistently cross the line and by all accounts and purposes, get away with it. This latest brush with the authorities is not Ferguson’s first. Indeed, there have been many such instances down the years, and only recently served a similar penalty for breaching the code of conduct.

Of course, in mitigation he and his supporters will argue that in fact the referee was “wrong” and that he “did nothing untoward” apart from just complain. Well, this is most unbecoming of the Old Trafford boss, and all those managers who act like him. This is not the way it should be, nor should it be allowed to continue.

The FA have got to do something about it and act without fear or favour. They should have come down hard on Ferguson, taught him a lesson that the others would have learnt from.

And instead, what do we have? Even more chaos.

David Moyes, Everton’s manager who some pundits say has the traits of the Manchester United boss – in terms of training and getting his team to play (and add to that a real poor temperament), was just this week fined £5,000 for his improper conduct towards a referee that got him expelled from the pitch.

Now it has been reported that he could face further sanctioning following remarks attributed to him. Moyes was said to have labelled the FA authorities as “a law unto themselves”. This is most despicable (if indeed it is the case).

I must ask, how do these managers think the young children in societies will grow up? Looking up to them as heroes and then seeing them badger referees week in and week out. Obviously it will be perceived by the children as being the right thing to do, when in actual fact it is not.

Managers like Ferguson, Moyes, Keane and the others not mentioned here, should take more responsibility in their actions and help make football a better sport, rather than continue to drag it through the mud.

By Shaun Orange

Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, has endured a series of protests from the club’s supporters. So much so that he has resolved to sell the Magpies.

And now the beleaguered proprietor has come in for a tongue lashing from yet another source; this time the owner of fellow Premiership rivals Wigan Athletic. Without mincing a word, Dave Whelan accused Ashley of being “greedy” when trying to sell the Tyneside club. And his outburst comes in the wake of reports that Ashley, a life-long supporter of the Magpies, is waiting on someone to take over at St. James’ Park to the tune of £250 million.

The “greed” issue comes into the equation on the back of Ashley having bought Newcastle for a reported £134 million from John Hall a little less than 18 months ago.

Ashley has tasked Investment bank Seymour Pierce with finding a buyer for his club, but as yet nothing firm has been concluded. The bankers have indicated that there are “two serious contenders” though.

To this, Whelan reported that if Ashley will “sell it for the right money; he will sell it next week".

But Ashley appears to be a patient man, biding his time.

Things have not been good at St James’ Park for some time now. And following the ousting of Sam Allardyce in January, the subsequent appointment of Kevin Keegan and then his own abrupt departure a couple of months ago, Newcastle have been dogged by bad publicity and poor results.

Joe Kinnear, brought in as a stop-gap measure after Keegan quit in a huff, has turned their fortunes around somewhat, but not good enough to really excite the passionate legend of fans from Tyneside.

The matter of Michael Owen’s tenure at St James’ Park continues to make the rounds. The sorting out of that would go a long way to normalizing things in the dressing room.

Owen was left out of Fabio Capello’s England team that takes on Germany in Berlin on Wednesday. And some have suggested that if he moves to a bigger and more successful club, he would stand a better chance of working his way back into the England set-up.

And as debatable as this is, it may well be Owen’s only route back into the international arena.

A sizeable chunk of cash to bring in a few more players of substance might also help do the trick. But with the club up for sale, no one is sure where this will all end.

Perhaps, a better picture will emerge if the club is indeed sold and the new owners come in with a clear-cut plan of how they intend to take Newcastle United forward.

Whelan’s ranting about Ashley being too “greedy” is maybe nothing more than just a bit of jealousy. After all, why should he be poking his nose into the affairs of a rival club? I don’t believe anyone has heard Ashley, loathed as he is by the Newcastle fans, shooting his mouth off about Wigan.

Maybe Whelan should just mind his own business at the JJB.

By Shaun Orange

Certain sections of the British media appear to be stoking the fire under Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez by suggesting that the Spaniard will have been greatly upset by the directive from the England management to have Steven Gerrard report to camp despite his “injury”.

Of course, those who have taken the liberty to foretell that the Merseyside chief will be dismayed might well be right. But the fact of the matter remains that Fabio Capello, the England manager and the soul who has forced Gerrard to consult with the Football Association medical team on the matter, is within his rights.

And as much Benitez, or any other club manager, might disagree with Capello’s approach to the issue, there is nothing they can do to change it, apart from maybe going crying to the certain sections of the media to make a big fuss about it.

In my opinion, Capello is merely doing the right thing – getting the injured player to see the England medical staff. And there is nothing sinister about this – not if Gerrard is indeed injured as his club have indicated.

There has been a growing number of managers who have echoed the moaning of Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson and his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger, who have for long looked scornfully upon friendly internationals.

The latest to join the chorus is Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill who rendered the clash against Germany in Berlin on Wednesday as “meaningless”. It looks like that if you are a manager of a Premiership club, but if you are a manager of the England team it certainly looks different. And in this case, Capello must be given the support he deserves.

Should he fail in his task of getting England to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa, the media will lead the charge to get him sacked – just as they did when Steve McClaren failed to make the grade for the 2008 European Championships.

The list of those managers who fell by the wayside just because of the pressures stirred up by the media is a long one. But as Capello showed in his 100 percent start to the qualifying campaign, he does not let the media hype get to him (like some of his predecessors). He just gets on with his job, and as things are right now, he is doing a fabulously good job.

When one considers that Gerrard has been joined on the sidelines by Emile Heskey, Wes Brown, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole – all ruled out of the Germany friendly through injury, one can only feel for Capello.

Should he lose this fixture; make sure the media will hound him, trying all they can to drive him out of the England set-up – they do that to all the England managers these days. And it is hard to understand why they would want to see their own national football team lose; it really confounds rationale thinking.

Nonetheless, Gerrard will report for camp as prescribed by Capello, and he will know that if he does not then he faces omission from the squad. The Italian coach is definitely one of the best managers England have had since Alf Ramsey won the World Cup 42 years ago, and that is regardless whether certain sections of the media agree or not.

By Shaun Orange

Just a week after seeing off Manchester United with a polished performance, one good enough to prompt some heated debate again about their chances of winning the league title, Arsenal were rolled over by Aston Villa; and deservedly so.

Had the Gunners performed even half as good as they did against the English champions, Arsene Wenger might well have applauded his lads even if they lost. Instead he moaned that “the performance was not good”. He added that “top-level performances are about consistency and at the moment they are not consistent enough”.

Wenger, who is highly respected by many in the game, particularly for his shrewd developmental programmes of turning young, raw players into household names, was understandably disappointed with their 2-0 defeat by Martin O’Neill’s team at the Emirates Stadium. This was Arsenal’s first two-goal league loss at the Emirates and it maybe could not have been more ill-timed.

The Gunners were bouyed coming into the game – on a super-high, having beaten the Red Devils the previous weekend and then followed that up with a superlative showing when their “young guns” second string beat Wigan Athletic 3-0 in the last 16 of the League Cup last Wednesday.

Crashing to Villa, no doubt, hurt Wenger and their chances of winning the championship crown, but the loss was not against a side that they were expected to just walk past. Not in the least, Villa have shown great character themselves this season, and the victory lifted them to equal on points with the London team - fifth in the standings and separated only on goal difference.

O’Neill has set his sights on finishing the season with a place in Europe – the Uefa Cup, to be a bit more precise. But such has been the quality of their game this term that a top-four spot, which comes with a guarantee of European Champions League football, cannot be ruled out. Just the other day Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson rightly pointed out that if there was one team in the Premiership who could break the stranglehold of the top-four (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) then it must be Villa.

The Old Trafford chief was spot-on. Villa have shown more than enough guile to pose a serious threat to the weakest of the top-four; in this case – Arsenal. And while the season is a long drawn-out affair, it does look like Arsenal will struggle the most of the four top clubs.

Liverpool, enjoying their best start to a Premier League season yet, are tied on points at the top of the table with favourites Chelsea, while Manchester United quite efficiently moved into third after the Gunners’ defeat to Villa.

But despite this, Arsenal can draw heart from the fact that the end of the season is indeed a long way off and the crunch time – normally around Easter, is still to come. And when you add to that their sharp, “A” game, they can trouble anyone in the league; as Manchester United found at their expense last week.

However, the crucial thing for Arsenal now is to be more consistent, just like Wenger said. They cannot afford to lose many more from now on. And even then, they will have to keep an eye on Villa.

By Shaun Orange

A moment of madness on the part of Chelsea striker Didier Drogba looks set to land the Ivorian ace a ban.

The Football Association (FA) have brought a charge of violent conduct against the Stamford Bridge forward following an incident involving throwing a coin back into the crowd during their League Cup fourth round loss to Burnley.

The coin was initially thrown on the field of play after Drogba scored. And now the FA look set to punish the Ivory Coast international for his conduct.

Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballer’s Association (PFA) chief clearly outlined the situation when he said: “He (Drogba) has done something that's against the rules required of players, and a similar situation resulted in a three-match ban for (Liverpool’s) Jamie Carragher.”

Given this scenario, Drogba indeed faces nothing short of a three-match suspension. It is also unlikely that any action will be brought against the player by the police, who in the case of Carragher interviewed the Merseyside star, but then left it at that.

For Drogba, whose goal against Burnley was his first of the season, this incident will come as a heavy body blow. He has only just returned from a lengthy injury layoff.

However, the striker must be man enough to face up to the music, because there was no reason for him to react in the manner in which he did. We fully understand his frustrations, brought partly by his absence through injury and the fact that Chelsea were struggling against a team whom they were expected to thrash.

And at the time of the coin-throwing incident, the Blues were still in the game; as Burnley only went on to knock the fancied side out in a penalty shootout.

England international Frank Lampard, Drogba’s teammate at Chelsea, and former Stamford Bridge favourite, Gianfranco Zola – now coach at West Ham, have come out in support of the striker who has since publicly apologized for his behaviour.

Speaking to Metro, Lampard said that “there are two sides to it”. He added that Drogba had to “take responsibility as an individual” and hope that he does not get banned.

“But if Didier gets banned, are fans going to do this more to provoke people? Who knows? I take quite a lot of corners and it's not unusual to get things thrown at you and lots of abuse, too, and I think it's got to a stage now where it's got to stop,” said Lampard.

Indeed, this matter is unlikely to just go away, even if Drogba is banned. And like Lampard suggested, the FA, who will almost surely suspend the player, will also have to deal with this growing menace.

But just how they do it is another matter altogether. It will be much complicated than issuing Drogba with a three-match ban; much more difficult than that.

By Shaun Orange

The League Cup, as it sometimes does in these stages of the domestic cup competition, threw up a couple of quite unlikely results as the top two clubs in the Premiership were sent crashing.

Liverpool were humbled by Tottenham and then a few minutes later Chelsea were also left for dead, beaten in a penalty shootout.

Chelsea’s result, on face value, looks the more surprising. They were eliminated by League Championship side Burnley, a team that lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend and were given no chance at Stamford Bridge.

Worst still for the mightily rich London club, they were at full strength, barring the injuries that have not played in recent weeks.

After the teams were deadlocked 1-1 in regulation and extra-time, Burnley pulled the rabbit out of the hat with a 5-4 penalty shootout win.

Liverpool's 4-2 thrashing came at the hands of Spurs and maintain Tottenham’s outstanding start to the reign of Harry Redknapp.

Having consigned the Reds to their first and only league defeat of the season two weeks ago, Redknapp chalked up his fifth win in six games since he took over from Juande Ramos on October 25. The other game was a draw.

Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, used a largely second string team in this fixture. And as the Merseysiders are not too disappointed, just as Chelsea will be, they are probably looking at their exit as a blessing, given their focus on trying to win the Premier League title, with one eye on the European Champions League trophy.

The League Cup, it must be said, has often been viewed a distraction to the “Big Four” whose main targets are the Premiership title and the European Cup.

Notwithstanding this, Chelsea and Liverpool will be hurting inside. No team likes to get knocked out of a cup competition, more so when your opposition is from a lower league or a side that beat you a fortnight ago.

For the winners, it was good reward, and hopefully a sign that there is still much more to come.

By Shaun Orange

The rest of the world might be in a tight spot, given the global financial crunch, but Cristiano Ronaldo and his agent apparently are not about to bite the bullet. And instead, they are pursuing means to further enhance the Portuguese star’s remuneration package at Old Trafford.

According to the British tabloid The Daily Mirror, the 23-year-old is seeking an improved weekly pay packet of £170,000, up from the £125,000 he is receiving at the moment.

And the paper reports that this comes against the background of Real Madrid’s strenuous, but unsuccessful, efforts to sign the player in the summer. In return for this supposed “loyalty” the player and his manager - Jorge Mendes, are now seeking payback, and to be precise - £170,000 a week.

Under ordinary circumstances one would have to say that this lad is just a “greedy cat” and that all he wants is to milk Manchester United while the iron is still hot.

But can we blame him? I think not. I think that the selfish one in this whole thing is Alex Ferguson, the manager. And it is not he, but rather the club who will be left to fork out the dollars.

Ferguson went out of his way to keep Ronaldo at Old Trafford in the summer. And this came after Real Madrid tried real hard to lure the star winger to the Bernabeu Stadium in Spain’s capital, and the player himself hinting that he would like to turn out for Europe’s most successful football team.

Well hopefully Ferguson, and indeed the hierarchy at Old Trafford, has learnt a valuable lesson from this. You cannot cut off your nose to spite your face and still expect to look good; it just does not work.

Thus, these latest developments look like going one of two ways.

Manchester United will eventually yield and pay the boy these mega bucks in a negotiated contract that will go beyond the one he has now, which is due to expire in 2012.

Of course, in 2010 he would be entitled to move on without much ado if he so wished, given the Webster ruling that allows for this if the player is under 28 years of age and has three years or less to go on his contract.

But this would almost certainly bring with it a few, if not more, murmurings from the other players in the dressing room, particularly the older lads. And we all know that such issues can have adverse effects on the overall commitment and results of the team; and also that they do not go away easily.

Yes, Ferguson has a history of getting rid of the so-called trouble-makers. But this time it might well be different. Further still, it would also set a precedent, which one has to believe, is not something that he (the manager) would like to be lumped with.

The other reality Manchester United, and Ferguson in particular, would have to live with, is that if Ronaldo does not get what he wants – in this £170,000 a week, he is very likely to be playing for Real Madrid next season.

This in itself would be a heavy body blow for Ferguson personally, and that is why I think that the Portuguese winger will ultimately get the dough.

By Shaun Orange

Mark Hughes is a marked man. The Welshman saw his Manchester City team crash to a disappointing home defeat at the hands of rejuvenated Tottenham on Sunday, to make it three losses in a row.

And just hours earlier, the former Red Devils star was given a “vote of confidence” by the club’s chairman, something akin to the reading of your last rites in soccer.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak said they were “calm, under control and that the board of directors had the highest regard for Mark”. Well, if these were different circumstances, one might be inclined to believe that the hierarchy at the City of Manchester Stadium was totally behind Hughes.

Unfortunately, too often in football, we have seen similar public declarations being followed by the swift removal of the manager. Hughes, with all his experience in the game, both as a player and a manager, must surely know that unless he can turn things around immediately and get Manchester City on the winning trail with some finesse, he faces the chop.

Three Premier League defeats in a row, against Middlesbrough (2-0), Bolton Wanderers (2-0) and Tottenham (2-1) are what really have turned things upside down for Hughes who was brought in to take over from Sven-Goran Eriksson in the summer.

Their exit from the League Cup last month, at the hands of Brighton on penalties (5-3, following a 3-3 draw) has only served to build up the pressure on Hughes.

In the Uefa Cup, Manchester City are not doing too badly, still in it with the possibility of making the last 16 from the group stages.

But the league is the most important thing to English clubs and with the way the Citizens have performed of late – Robinho included, Hughes faces an uphill task of holding on to his job, unless they can get the right results at Hull City on Saturday and their game against Arsenal the following weekend.

But it won’t be easy and that is why I fear for Hughes’ plight at the Manchester club, which is reportedly lining up a series of big-name buys in the January transfer window.

Robinho’s arrival in Manchester on the last day of the summer transfer window signaled the intentions of the new owners from Abu Dhabi, who themselves only bought the club days earlier. They coughed up something in the region of £400 million, and abruptly went about speaking of bringing players like Kaka, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas to the City of Manchester Stadium.

There are some who believe – right or wrong – that Hughes is not the right candidate to lead such a powerfully-driven club, mainly because he does not have enough managerial experience at the highest level of the game.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how things develop at Manchester City. I would say that unless “Sparky” can win against Hull and the Gunners, he will be given the boot, and a hard one at that.

By Shaun Orange

Arsenal were not given much chance of winning against champions Manchester United on Saturday despite playing at their Emirates Stadium. And there was good reason for this. The Gunners were a pale shadow of the team they use to be when they won the Premiership.

This, mixed with a handful of defeats, including losses to Fulham and Hull, fueled the thinking that Arsenal were about to implode.

But then they pulled off a remarkable victory over Alex Ferguson’s side that was not deserved, but accomplished with some aplomb. Playing before a crowd of more than 60,000, most of them adoring Gunners’ supporters, French youngster Nasri sent the Red Devils reeling with a brace – the second, open of the goals of the season thus far.

As indicated in an earlier blog here, it was suggested that Arsenal were a team deeply troubled. They might remain so, but there was little evidence of it in them seeing off Manchester United, taking the game to the visitors, and they might even have a third from the 12-yard spot-kick had the referee awarded a penalty for Samir Nasri being pulled down by Vidic.

Still, Wenger was delighted and that he made special mention of them having to “stay with the top (teams) and show determination, spirit and mental attitude”, underscores just how important a win it was.

Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal inspirational midfielder, while speaking to Sky Sports said that they had been “frustrated in recent weeks” with the results and then added that “this victory was the best we have had this season”.

Indeed, that is the case. Arsenal, for all their ‘carpet soccer” have not performed better this season than they did when they embarrassed Manchester United.

Ferguson, for his part, has been complaining too much recently and maybe this has taken its toll on his highly-paid stars.

Conceding that the defeat was a “big blow, he said that they “needed to win the game and then shrugged it off by adding that they “must keep going for it".

One has got to question Ferguson’s recent outbursts and whether or not they are having an adverse effect on the squad.

Of course, he will not readily admit if he ever does so in the first place, Ferguson was indeed dealt heavy body blow; maybe one that leave Manchester United on the floor for the rest of the season.

No doubt the Red Devils will say that they will bounce back. This would seem the more obvious thing, but these days one can just not tell how it will pan, particularly so after Arsenal were written off, only to floor Manchester United.

Alex Ferguson is in the dock again. Not surprisingly so, but rather rightly so. The Manchester United boss has had a charge of improper conduct brought against him by the English Football Association (FA).

The matter arises from Ferguson's angry protest against referee Mike Dean at the end of their 4-3 Premiership win over Hull City last weekend. Given that the Scotsman's team came within a goal of having a point taken off them by a side that is nowhere near them in financial terms, it did not surprise many of us who know what a bully the Manchester United manager is.

Indeed, Man United were hanging on in the end, holding out for a victory that looked comfortable when they led 4-1, but not after Hull staged a brilliant fightback, only to fall short of pulling it off altogether.

Nonetheless, Ferguson's behaviour, his storming to Dean after the final whistle and the confrontation that ensued, is just not acceptable in this game. His antics have been going on for too long and now it's time that the FA stood their ground and dealt with him in the manner that he deserves to be dealt with. The FA must come down hard on the Old Trafford boss, because if they do not, then we will continue to wonder how they expect the players to “respect the match officials”.

Ferguson has been given until November 19 to appeal the matter, which is fair. But whatever the FA do, they cannot be seen to be letting the man off the hook again. He is fortunate enough to have Wayne Rooney not sent off in the Hull game after the England striker went back to his old ways and lost his cool in sheer frustration.

And Ferguson, it has to be mentioned, has a long history of intimidating match officials and opposition alike; and too often in the past the FA have let him get away with it. It is time it stopped. And it is time he was taught a good lesson, after all he is no different from any of the other 19 manager's in the Premier League when it comes to discipline. If anything, with all Manchester United's financial clout, he should be setting a good example for the others to follow.

Instead, what does he do? He goes off the wrong end because an unlikely opponent just played fair football and came agonisingly close to embarrassing them at Old Trafford.

Least we forget that Mr. Ferguson served a two-match ban and was fined £5,000 for poking his finger at referee Mark Clattenburg after his team were beaten by Bolton Wanderers not so long ago.

The FA must give Ferguson a chance to present his case, but then must also come down hard on him - based on what the findings of the investigation into the charge are of course. But what we saw was not good, and should not be accepted.

By Shaun Orange

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, came in for a thorough telling-off, and that from an unlikely source. The Frenchman was told in no uncertain terms that he speaks with a forked tongue and was even handed a lesson in history - reminded of a quote from the great emancipator Abraham Lincoln.

Tony Pulis, the Stoke boss, took exception to Wenger’s claims that his Potters set out to “deliberately injure” the Gunners and cited what he termed were two examples.

He said that ace striker Emmanuel Adebayor and England winger Theo Walcott were injured deliberately by Ryan Shawcross and Rory Delap, respectively. He added that the same applied to Bacary Sagna.

But Pulis, in his first such incident since the Potters came up to the Premier League at the beginning of the season, emphatically fired back at the Arsenal chief’s outburst.

On Stoke’s website, Pulis charged that Wenger said one thing immediately after the game and then went back to London only to change his tune, making accusations that they were deliberately out to hurt the Arsenal players.

Pulis said that Wenger had “commended” his team’s organisation in the game in which they upset the Emirates side 2-1. The Stoke boss added that Wenger had applauded their “commitment and confessed that on the day Stoke City thoroughly deserved to win the game. And then in London 48 hours later and 150 miles away from Stoke-on-Trent, Mr Wenger changed tack and has tried to rewrite history”.

The Potters chief ridiculed Wenger’s “change of heart” and said that it made him smile “along with I'm sure 27,000 supporters at the game, millions of TV viewers and the massed press who interviewed him after the game".

This is a bitter blow for Wenger who is grappling to save the Gunners’ season. But perhaps the heaviest blow of all came when Pulis said: “I would like to remind him (Wenger) of Abraham Lincoln's great quotation: 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time'."

There is general feeling outside the top-four, or maybe even within, that Wenger and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson – because of all their success over the last decade and a little more, believe that they are above everyone one else in the league and that their views and judgments are cast in stone.

Well, this is not the case. Wenger, and indeed Ferguson, have a responsibility to the game just as all the other managers do and they have to toe the line as such. It is grossly improper for Wenger to again start ranting and raving just because his team lost (and these days a lot more frequently than he is used to).

To further the point, following Arsenal’s draw with Fenerbache in the European Champions League clash on Wednesday, Wenger sought to blame the referee for them “not winning” the game. This is outrageous and must be brought to an end swiftly – if only to save face for Mr. Wenger, and those like him.

By Shaun Orange

There’s an assumption in soccer that those teams who every now and again get a slice of luck often get to go on to really do well, particularly so in cup completions. Liverpool, who have enjoyed good form in the European Champions League in recent seasons, which included their unlikely success in May 2005, could be used as a good example of this.

But none of the top clubs would argue with this notion, least of Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United, in the English Premier League.

The Anfield side, maybe notwithstanding that they won’t go on to win the European Cup this season, did get a large slice of luck on Tuesday; when staring defeat in the face, they salvaged a draw they hardly deserve.

Steven Gerrard, their captain, again came to the rescue when he was supposedly felled in the box and a penalty awarded, which he took himself and scored.

However, that spot-kick, given after Mariano Pernia was adjudged to have fouled the Reds skipper in an aerial tussle, was a generous handout and if the truth were told, it should not have been awarded in the first place.

However, these things do happen in football, and the clubs who joyously benefit from them, and those who are left distraught by them, just have to lump it and move on to the next game.

Gerrard himself told ITV1 that he had doubts that it was in fact a penalty. But like so many players and officials before him, he just shrugged it off and said that their attention was now turned to their weekend Premiership clash with West Bromwich Albion on Merseyside on Saturday.

This might be as it is, but one has got to feel for Atletico Madrid, who drew with Liverpool in the return Group D match two weeks ago and are tied at the top of the standings on seven points after four games.

Gerrard should never have been awarded the penalty. And while looks like both of these teams should qualify from the group, the Spanish outfit have every reason to feel aggrieved. Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez said that he thought they were a point at home, but is nowhere near how this game should have ended.

This apart though, the Merseysiders did well enough to stay in the hunt to progress to the next stage.

With only one loss so far this season – at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League last Saturday, Liverpool have been good value for money. The question now is, will be they good enough to see of Bolton Wanderers this weekend, without having to rely on Lady Luck.

By Shaun Orange

Arsenal are facing difficult times, and unless they get their act together in a great hurry, they could find themselves in the doldrums real soon.

The defeat at the hands of Stoke over the weekend underscored the problems that Arsene Wenger is facing, and they are by no means issues that can be papered over with the usual rhetoric. There are some serious matters that are troubling the Gunners and on the face of it, they do not look like they will go away all too soon.

Indeed, in the wake of the Stoke upset, Wenger suggested that his team was a tired one and that he feared his charges could be “suffering from burnout”. Given Wenger’s strict adherence to a scientific approach to training and diet, the Frenchman should know better than most if this is the case.

And with the way the Gunners have performed thus far this season; in spurts of gracious flair, only to be matched by a series of wayward displays, tiredness does appear the most likely cause of their erratic showings. Of course, there are other aspects that will come into the equation here, and not least of those pertaining to injury and fitness, and discipline and internal squabbling.

Like all teams, Arsenal have to deal with injuries to key players during the course of the season, and how they react to these is a measure of how successful, or a lack of it, you are. In their case, the London team have not performed admirably and instead have looked desperately shy of players who can pick up the baton and take the team forward when the chips are down.

 The notion that Wenger’s squad is too young to challenge for the Premiership title is one that has been around ever since the splitting up of his Invincibles of 2003/04. And there is no denying that with the departure of the likes of Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, they have anxiously lacked senior players who can hold the side together in trying times.

Those times are upon them now and with no one in there to do the job, they are being savagely exposed as a team without backbone.

The sending off in the game against Stoke of Robin van Persie, one Wenger’s blue-eyed boys, rammed this point home. Van Persie is largely viewed by Wenger as one of his mainstay players, crucial to the success of the team, and when he loses his cool like he did at the Britannia Stadium, it merely confirms the submission that they are likely to struggle for some time to come.

Their European Champions League fixture with Turkey’s Fenerbache on Wednesday night will be followed on Saturday by one of their toughest Premier League matches of the season - a home game against the champions, Manchester United.

A couple of decent results in these games will lift the pressure on Wenger’s team, and while it will not entirely eliminate their problems, it would certainly be welcome. But even then, I am not going to hold my breath because I reckon they will draw with Fenerbache at most, and then get rolled over by a Manchester United outfit that is beginning to find its form.