Barrie's View

Amid continuous speculation that Josep Guardiola could make a move to Chelsea this season, following rumours that current manager Carlo Ancelotti may be on the way out, here’s 5 reasons why Roman Abramovich won’t be hiring Pep any time soon.

1. He is currently at the best team in the world

If last night’s 5-0 victory in El Clasico is anything to go by, Barcelona are the best team in the world right now. Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona are the best team in the world. Given that the defending Champions League holdings have somewhat faded out since Jose Mourinho left, and it was Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid that were on the end of that thumping, why would Guardiola want to leave the best team in the world?

Last night’s 5-0 defeat was the biggest Jose Mourinho has experienced in football management.

2. He is Barcelona through and through

Although he hasn’t yet renewed a contract that is due to expire next summer (still plenty of time to do so), Josep Guardiola has spent the best part of 20 years at Barcelona, starting aged 13 as a youth, and grew up a short distance from Camp Nou. Having been a regular in their first team for a decade, he left when aged 30. Never gifted with pace, he turned down moves to the Premier League sides including Chelsea and Manchester United at the start of this millennium when the Premier League was being to multiply in popularity. He went to Brescia in Serie A, a slower paced league and arguably the best league in the world at the time, before a short stint at Roma followed by a move to Doha where a lot of mega stars have gone at the end of their career to big up a nice pay cheque.

Josep Guardiola was sent off a club record 13 times for Barcelona. So much for being calm on the sideline.

3. Chelsea’s money won’t talk

A decade as a player at Barcelona, a spell in Italy when it was thriving, a nice end of career paycheck in Qatar and now in his third season as manager of Barcelona. Josep Guardiola has earned himself a wealth over the years. There’s no reason for him to jump ship for the sake of money. Of course money talks, but if you keep in mind the two previous reasons with them, there’s no reason for Guardiola to jump ship.

Josep Guardiola studied law for a year before taking up football professionally.

4. He didn’t buy success at Barcelona – he developed it/their youths

Yes, Barcelona’s team was worth an estimated £75,000,000 last night (compared to Real Madrid’s estimated £240,000,000). David Villa alone cost nearly half of that, but the majority of their squad consists of players developed through their youth system. Gerard Pique is classed as a Guardiola signing and part of that lump sum, but even he graduated through the Barcelona youth system before being prized away by Manchester United. Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol are all successful graduates. Chelsea don’t have a similar successful youth system, but rather look to bring in highly-rated players and mould them into a team.

Upon becoming manager of Barcelona, Josep Guardiola sold Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Deco and Gianluca Zambrotta, freeing up room for youngsters like future World Cup winners Sergio Busquets and Pedro to break through.

5. Barcelona are more special than Chelsea

Playing at a stadium that holds over 90,000 spectators, with the highest average attendance of all European football teams, Camp Nou consists predominantly of passionate Barcelona fans, plus a few tourists and away supports alike when the team are in action. Proud of their Catalan heritage, FC Barcelona players and fans alike wear their shirts proudly. What’s more, the fans own the club. Barcelona have 20 league titles and 3 European Cup/Champions League trophies to their name. In London, the defending Premier League champions have a stadium half the size of Barcelona and Stamford Bridge does not rank amongst the best atmospheres in England. A mixture of Chelsea fans, not necessarily born or brought up, or even currently living local to the team make up the majority of the crowd. They have an owner who’s building a reputation for falling out with his staff and getting through managers. Their trophy cabinet doesn’t compete with the elite of England, let-alone Barcelona’s.  Why would Josep Guardiola throw all this away at Barcelona to join Chelsea?

It a game which myself and many predicted would be a stroll for Chelsea, given MSK Zilina’s record in this seasons Champions League and what they have showed us in their previous 4 games, Chelsea were made to fight for their victory in this evening’s Champions League.

Having qualified after 4 games, it could easily be said this was a dead rubber for Chelsea. A rest for the first team was no doubt always in order, but a performance and result in this one was important, given Chelsea’s dip in form domestically of late.

After a poor start from both teams, it was the Slovakian visitors who opened the scoring on 19 minutes when Babatounde Bello was involved in a nice move that he coolly finished off, beyond Ross Turnbull in the Chelsea goal.

In the first half hour when Chelsea were playing poorly, Ross Turnbull didn’t appear to be filling his defence with any confidence, but there was little he could do about the goal.

That Chelsea defence consisted of Paulo Ferreira, Jeffrey Bruma, Branislav Ivanovic and Patrick van Aanholt. How much the two youngsters gained alongside the two experienced defenders was questionable from the action on the screen, although in truth we got to see little of them after the first 30 minutes. van Aanholt certainly looks to have been watching Ashley Cole play at left back with the amount of attacks he got involved with, even striking the post himself late in the second half.

After a shaky start, Josh McEachran looked confident on the ball and played a number of simple passes. This kind of performance won’t see him turn into the next Frank Lampard as he showed a lack of creativity in the final third. However, his composure at such a young age is a gift and his career is only on the way up.

At half time, Chelsea were 1-0 down and five competitive halves of football without a single goal since dismissing Ray Wilkins. Coincidence?

They were unfortunate on Saturday not to score against Birmingham City. A little unfortunate not to have equalised before half time as they had the ball in the Zilina penalty box on a number of occasions towards the end of the first half when they built in confidence after Zilina sat on their lead.

At that stage, it appeared to only be a matter of time before Chelsea equalised and eventually go on to win the game. With odds of above evens at half time, I happily backed the English champions to win a club record 5 opening Champions League group game matches.

Salomon Kalou came on for the disappointing Gael Kakuta after 45 minutes and looked threatening. Daniel Sturridge was Chelsea’s most lively player in the first half and continued that throughout the second, before being substituted for Nicolas Anelka late on. The experienced Florent Malouda was happy to lead by example. All positives for this Chelsea team, but can they pick up 3 points at Newcastle on Sunday?

It was Daniel Sturridge who equalised for Chelsea early in the second half, showing his strikers instinct by gambling on a cross that could have been cut out, before neatly finishing at the far stick. His final product has come into question, but with a longer run in the first team he can come good. He was lively and showed unselfishness in the second half by trying to play in Didier Drogba several times in the second half when he could so easily have taken a shot on himself. That may have been the rest of a Drogba stare in the first half when Sturridge did selfishly take on a shot instead of passing to Chelsea’s hitman!

After Anelka’s introduction, it was his chip into the area that Drogba knocked down for Malouda to slide home a late winner. The three experienced attacking players combined well as Chelsea came away with a deserved victory.

That was two games in a row I have won bets above evens on Chelsea, following their loss at Birmingham on Saturday. A rarity.

With that defeat saw Chelsea’s odds climb up to 5/4. A tougher test of how big a part tonight’s result changes this season will come on Sunday when they travel to a Newcastle side who have thrashed Sunderland and beat Arsenal in recent games (as well as being thrashed by Bolton last weekend).

Yesterday’s Premier League action got off to a flying start when Tottenham Hotspur turned around a 2-0 deficit at rivals Arsenal to pull off a spectacular 3-2 victory.

After a less than productive first half from Rafael van der Vaart, the Dutch ace setup two goals either side of scoring a penalty, which saw Tottenham end a 68 game streak without an away victory against a traditional big 4 side.

After a disappointing weekend last time out, everything went to plan from 3pm on Saturday. Having watched Chelsea last week in their surprise defeat to Sunderland, they gave me no reason to see why I should be backing them at Birmingham.

Birmingham City have a solid, organised defence, and while Chelsea tested Ben Foster’s goal on a number of occasions, the home side didn’t look like losing after Lee Bowyer had given them the lead with their only shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.  Chelsea came into this game with a number of injuries and problems in general.

Didier Drogba has still failed to register an away goal this season, while he, Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda have struggled to find the net at all recently. It’s two games, two defeats and zero goals for Chelsea since they got rid of Ray Wilkins. Yes, they have a number of injury problems, but this recent run of form says to be there may be other problems inside the club that we’re not hearing about.

Chelsea can and will get back to scoring and winning ways on Tuesday night when they host MSK Zilina in a dead rubber of a Champions League game. Whatever team Carlo Ancelotti puts out, they need a result and a performance to boost their confidence and put them in some kind of form before they travel to Newcastle next Sunday.

While Arsenal failed to capitalise on Chelsea’s defeat, Manchester United took advantage and are now joint-top with the defending champions following their 2-0 victory over 9-man Wigan. The result was hardly impressive given that Wigan played the last half hour with 9 men, following Antolin Alcaraz’s sending off for two yellow cards, and Hugo Rodallega’s straight red for a two-footed lunge. Prior to that, and at 0-0 Wigan created chances of their own. Patrice Evra and Javier Hernandez scored the goals that consolidated my tip and bet. Wayne Rooney made his first appearance since signing his big contract, but failed to make an impact.

My final tip for yesterday’s action was to lay West Brom at home to Stoke City. Tony Pulis’ side ended up with a comfortable 3-0 victory, scoring all goals in the second half as his side often do. It started with a controversial penalty, before Jon Walters added two more (one from the spot himself). Stoke have won all three Premier League meetings with West Brom, to nil.

A mention for Bolton Wanderers too, who at 11/10 I felt was just too short to tip and bet on for their home game with Newcastle. They ran out convincing 5-1 winners, moving up to 4th in the Premier League. Owen Coyle is showing the rest of the managers in the league that pretty football can get you results. Kevin Davies scored two penalties, while Johan Elmander scored his first goals at the Reebok this season. Fabricio Coloccini was sent off for elbowing the Swede, having had a shocker of a game at the back previously. Elmander backed up my claims that Newcastle cannot defend against sides that run at them in this one, albeit three of Bolton’s goals came from set pieces.

Expecting Manchester United to step up their game in yesterday’s early Premier League kickoff, they were second best for much of the game at Aston Villa.

Aston Villa, who’ve started slow under Gerard Houllier were the better side in what was a poor opening 70 minutes to the game. A foul by Wes Brown in his own penalty area brought the game into life, when Ashley Young converted the penalty. Aston Villa looked to have the points in the bag when Marc Albrighton finished off a great counter attack to double their lead.

The mistake Aston Villa made after that was to sit on their 2 goal lead. The pressure took its toll, firstly with a great strike from Federico Macheda, and then Nemanja Vidic rescued a point with a late diving header, converting a Nani cross who was put under pressure by a striker, Nathan Delfouneso. Forunately I laid Aston Villa at 2-1, although had backed Manchester United before kickoff against a Villa side with several inexperienced players in the starting lineup.

In the 3 o’clock Saturday kickoffs, I was expecting a Manchester City victory to nil over Birmingham City at Eastlands. Once again, they played with one striker; Carlos Tevez who has now gone 4 games without a goal in the league. Manchester City haven’t scored at home in their last 3 league games either. Perhaps Roberto Mancini may consider dropping his three defensive midfielder strategy and put in an extra striker?

A few cheeky lays of West Ham, Wolves and Newcastle gave me some credit on Saturday, as did laying Liverpool in the evening kickoff.

Then came today’s final game of the Premier League weekend. Chelsea at home to Sunderland. Chelsea who had scored 39 consecutive league goals at Stamford Bridge since they last conceded at home. Sunderland had lost their last 11 meetings with Chelsea including a 7-2 thrashing here last season. Darrent Bent is out injured, so only Asamoah Gyan had scored for Sunderland this season before kickoff. A win to nil looked like a sensible bet right?

John Terry’s absence was clearly a big loss for Chelsea, whom had a makeshift central defence consisting of Branislav Ivanovic and Paulo Ferreira. Essentially, their defence was four full backs. Credit to Sunderland, who came to Stamford Bridge with 2 strikers despite the absence of Darren Bent. Both Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck played very well today, causing Chelsea no ends of problems, mainly on the counter attack. Both players got their names on the scoresheet too in the second half, after Nedum Onuoha’s solo run had given Sunderland the lead before half time.

Prior to falling behind, Petr Cech had made a number of good saves to keep the score goalless. Chelsea rarely threatened the Sunderland goal. Boudewijn Zenden was another standout player for Sunderland in this game – playing both well in defence and attack on the left wing.

Following Arsenal’s 2-1 victory at Everton today, they have cut Chelsea’s lead to 2 points at the top of the Premier League. Manchester United can now be content with their point at Aston Villa, the same total that Chelsea got in that fixture. The 11 times Premier League winners are now 3 points behind Chelsea. Arsenal, the biggest winners this week. Manchester City should consider themselves the biggest losers of the chasing pack as they only cut Chelsea’s deficit to 6 points. Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspu3 all 3 points short of 4th place City.

I’ll put the remainder of my gambling money into the NFL this weekend before hoping to get back to winning ways in the Premier League after the international games midweek.

“I think I’m a special one” were the words from Jose Mourinho during his first Chelsea press conference after the Champions League-winning manager took charge at Stamford Bridge on June 2nd 2004.

Arrogance? Whatever you think of Jose Mourinho, his record speaks for itself. Arsenal were coming off their unbeaten season, finishing 11 points clear of Claudio Ranieri’s second-place Chelsea.

Jose Mourinho’s first task was to strengthen Chelsea’s defence, and did so with the capturing of Petr Cech, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho. All three whom played well under Mourinho in his two seasons at Stamford Bridge and have all been suspect since. Mourinho also made two significant attacking signings in Didier Drogba and Arjen Robben as the former Porto manager constructed the most expensive squad in Premier League history (Roman Abramovich had bought Chelsea a year before and the club had spent well over £100,000,000 in their unsuccessful season prior to Mourinho). Mourinho did clear out a lot of waste from the Chelsea squad; Juan Sebastian Veron, Jesper Gronkjær and Carlton Cole to name just a few.

Impressive Record

In his first season, Chelsea recorded a record 95 points, losing just one game (to Manchester City) and conceding just 15 goals in their 38 league games. They scored 72 goals; 15 less than second-place Arsenal.

His side were arguably unfortunate in their Champions League campaign. Having eliminated Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the previous rounds, they were knocked out at the semi final stage to Chelsea and that Luis Garcia goal. This was the same stage Chelsea had reached the previous season, eliminated by Monaco after throwing away a 2-0 lead at Stamford Bridge.

Patrick Kluivert scored the only goal of the game in February 2005 as Newcastle eliminated Jose Mourinho’s nine man side from the FA Cup at the fifth round, despite one acrobatic save from Glen Johnson playing in goal at the end of that game following Carlo Cudicini’s red card. Mourinho’s side did win the League Cup at the Millennium Stadium a week later, with help from a Steven Gerrard own goal in normal time; Mateja Kezman scoring the winner.

Jose Mourinho had lifted two trophies in his first season at Stamford Bridge; most significantly Chelsea’s first Premier League title, and their first top flight title in 50 years. He was entertaining in front of the camera, both on and off the pitch. He matched, if not out-fought Sir Alex Ferguson in the pre-match mind games and he had bought a new winning formula to English football.

Winning Tactics

While previous winning tactics included Manchester United’s attacking flair of Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, Andrei Kanchelskis, the goalscoring talents of Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and goals from midfielders such as Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo over the years. Blackburn won the league goals from S&S; Alan Shear and Chris Sutton. And Arsenal had won the league three times under Arsene Wenger playing the attractive ball on the floor, pacey and danger counter-attack football. One thing they all had in common? They liked to attack. That’s where Jose Mourinho’s team changed the rules.

Mourinho Left His Mark

Jose Mourinho left his mark in the Premier League, not just with the dominance Chelsea now had in the Premier League, not with all the records and trophies they now had, but in a way that has seen Premier League managers change their style in the six years since Mourinho joined.

A Break from Tradition

The traditional 4-4-2 that had been the English way for centuries has started to disappear over the years. Didier Drogba was Jose Mourinho’s lone striker in a system that saw him capable of holding up the ball to bring midifelders into play, and score goals. Now the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Liverpool are regularly playing 1 striker, even at home!

Defence First

Claude Makelele would sit in front of his back four, while the rest of the midfield helped defend before hitting teams on the counter attack. A season later, Michael Essien would play thuggishly alongside him. Chelsea conceded just 22 goals as they reached 91 points in 2005/06; Jose Mourinho winning two Premier League titles in two attempts. His sides Champions League campaign would end in dubious circumstances again, with Asier Del Horno sent off in a 2-1 home defeat by Barcelona. Barcelona only ever beat Jose Mourinho’s side when they were reduced to 10 men in both seasons knockout matches. That was true also in last seasons semi final second leg victory versus his Inter Milan side.

Mourinho wasn’t the first to play this way. Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers finished sixth that season with the hoof ball style. From that season, the Premier League has been losing its reputation as the most exciting league in the world, at least amongst its hardcore support; those that were there from the beginning.

Most Exciting League in the World? Otto Rehhagel’s Greece won Euro 2004 with an all-out-defence strategy. And let’s not forget the Italians have been playing this way for years. But the English sides?

At the start of this millennium, the Premier League was winning over fans worldwide for being the most exciting league in the world. We had exciting matches week in week out, up and down the league. The best players from all over the world, or at least Europe wanted to come here. We had Paulo Wanchope and Derby County going to Old Trafford, alongside Dean Sturridge and Ashley Ward, winning 3-2. We had Nottingham Forest not being scared to lineup with two strikers at home to Manchester United in 1999, despite being thrashed 8-1. In 2000/01, all three promoted sides scored 40+ goals (Ipswich Town 57, Charlton Athletic 50, Manchester City 42). Stoke City have yet to reach 40 in a single season.

4-4 No More; It’s 0-0 Now

Two seasons ago, we saw the most 0-0 draws in a single season of the Premier League. Are we ever going to see matches like Bradford City 4-4 Derby County in the Premier League again? West Bromwich Albion and Blackpool are doing their best to prove that teams playing attractive football can still pick up results in one of the toughest leagues in the world. And credit to them; West Brom have won 3-2 at Arsenal and Blackpool 2-1 at Liverpool already this season. West Ham’s 10 men behind the ball approach to their game at the Emirates saw them come away with a 1-0 loss. Where was the harm in West Ham going for it that day?

English Champions League Record

Interestingly, before Jose Mourinho arrived in England, club sides in this country had reached just 1 final of the Champions League in its first 12 years (who could forget Manchester United in 1999?). Since Jose Mourinho’s arrival, England have had 6 representatives in the 6 finals since. Coincidence? The Italian league weakening? Or his tactical success rubbing off on the shoulders of Liverpool and Manchester United who have made it twice each?

Success Breeds Success

Where Jose Mourinho was successful, the likes of Liverpool, Sunderland and Birmingham City regularly play with two defensive minded midfielders. Stoke City never have more than 50% possession in Premier League games, using their strategy of punting the ball up field, winning a set piece (as little as a thrown in) in order to score goals. Stoke City have been the master of the set piece, even during the season they were promoted to the Premier League. Why change a winning strategy I guess?

Final Word on Mourinho

His record speaks for itself. He has won the league (Portugal, England, Italy) in each of the last 6 full seasons he has completed. He has two Champions League winning medals in that time and hasn’t lost a home match since February 2002. He has been playing the “World Cup formation” as was popular with the media back in the summer since his Porto days (and for all I know and presume, with Benfica and Uniao Leiria before) and winning the Champions League with the negative strategy he employed then.

Thanks to Alan at Football Talk for the inspiration and input in this article.

Have Your Say

Did Jose Mourinho leave a positive or negative effect on the Premier League?  Do we enjoy the negative approaches the majority of Premier League sides take into matches, both home and away over the past few seasons in the Premier League?  Or do you want to go back to the late 90′s and early millennium when we saw attacking battles and a lone striker was unheard of?

These two sides have built a rivalry between themselves in recent years, when Rafael Benitez was in charge at Liverpool.

Rafael Benitez started out with 1-0 losses in both Premier League meetings with Chelsea in his first season before losing to the Blues in the Carling Cup final. But fixture 5 against Jose Mourinho’s side was his biggest success over Chelsea’s, with Luis Garcia’s “goal” that sent Liverpool into the Champions League final, a trophy that his side would go on to lift, and one that Chelsea have failed to win a further five times since.

Meeting twice in the Premier League each season, they would face each in four more season’s of Champions League action. The first, two scoreless draws in the group stage of the 2006 competition, and then again in 2007 where Liverpool would go on to win the semi final showdown on penalties before losing to AC Milan in the final. Since then, the momentum has shifted. Chelsea eliminated Liverpool 4-3 on aggregate in 2008 en route to their final and 7-5 in 2009. Chelsea won both Premier League meetings between these two sides 2-0 last season, the second at Anfield in the penultimate game of the season that essentially won them the Premier League title in Carlo Ancelotti’s first season.

The Managers

Carlo Ancelotti is building up some resume in English football. In 48 league matches, his side have won 35 of them, drawing on 6 occasions and losing just 7 times; 3 of those to Manchester City. He has a 2-0-0 head-to-head record against Liverpool without conceding a goal. His Chelsea side this season look relatively assured at the back this season, and more so than they did last season when they conceded 32 goals. They have allowed just 3 goals so far this season, although it is worth noting they have all been on their travels. Some games, they’re like a machine going forward. Chelsea are the team to beat domestically this season.

Roy Hodgson’s early record at Liverpool in the Premier League has seen him win 3, draw 3 and lose 4. This includes a 3-0 thumping at Manchester City and a 2-1 home loss to Luke Varney and Blackpool. They come into this match on a winning streak, having beat Blackburn and Bolton by the single goal in back-to-back games. They also notched up a 3-1 win over Napoli in the Europa League on Thursday to get the Kop singing again. Roy Hodgson’s Fulham lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea last season, and 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Whether it’s Carlo versus Liverpool or Carlo versus Roy, the Italian comes into this match with the advantage.

Jose Reina vs Petr Cech

Side-by-side with Edwin van der Sar, Liverpool arguably have the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. The best in terms of consistency (ignore his error to hand Arsenal a point in their opening game), shot stopping and far and head in distribution. Jose Reina gets in a spot of bother at set pieces, but which goalkeepers don’t?

In the last few games, Petr Cech appears to be getting back to his best. The Czech has made some fantastic saves, during a many hour spell that he had kept the ball out of his net at Stamford Bridge before a Spartak Moscow consolation goal on Wednesday. He is certainly vulnerable at set pieces, but since the departure of Ricardo Carvalho, Chelsea have improved in this area. Helped with the likes of Didier Drogba, Alex and John Terry back there defending!

Man for man, Liverpool have the edge in this battle.

Fernando Torres vs John Terry

The Spaniard wasn’t risked for Thursday’s night’s clash with Napoli, a good decision from Roy Hodgson with Fernando Torres’ fitness problems over the last two seasons. Still a yard short of pace in my eyes, Torres’ touch isn’t what it was in his first season at Anfield. Clearly a lack of match fitness is affecting his game, so how much pressure will that add to his shoulders as the lone striker on Sunday. With John Terry and Alex keeping close guard on the World Cup winner, I wouldn’t expect him to have much free space or heading opportunities. If he is to score, you would have to look for it come from a counter attack or rebound. Dare I say he can produce a moment of inspiration once more?

Liverpool may struggle to supply Torres much in this match. I predict Chelsea’s defence to get the better of him here.

Didier Drogba vs Jamie Carragher

With the return of Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher can be moved back into the centre of defence. He and Martin Skrtel have the task of dealing with Didier Drogba. Skrtel may have some success in the air against the Ivorian. Carragher won’t have any. Drogba is a powerhouse, so Liverpool’s defence needs to prevent him running at them. Stay tight, get a foot in early and foul if necessary. Otherwise Drogba will beat you.

The advantage is with Didier Drogba and Chelsea in this matchup.

Steven Gerrard vs Michael Essien

The return of Michael Essien has really helped Chelsea this season following his long lay off. The Ghanaian missed out on his country’s successful World Cup campaign but has looked fresh in midfield. Even scoring twice against West Ham. He’s a rock in front of the Chelsea back four, breaking up opposition attacks. Great in possession too, he enjoys to shoot from long range. Will be given one of his toughest tests of the season should Steven Gerrard play off Fernando Torres in this match. Essien will need his concentration levels to be at their max to stay with the movement on Gerrard. And when Chelsea are on the attack, Gerrard should be able to help deal with the likes of Malouda or even Drogba while Essien stays outside the penalty area.

Face-to-face, the edge is with Liverpool in this battle.

Florent Malouda vs Glen Johnson

Glen Johnson returned on Thursday night to play his first game since England’s goalless draw with Montenegro on Thursday. He was guilty of giving the ball away on several occasions, but did win the penalty that gave Liverpool a late lead, doing what he does well and running into defenders. Going forward he has to deal with the pacey Florent Malouda and then Ashley Cole. Defending, he is outnumbered again. And Johnson’s defensive skills are questionable at the best of times. He’s going to have to play out of his skin to prevent both Florent Malouda and Ashley Cole having and creating chances in this match. I don’t like the former Chelsea players’ odds given the goals scored by Malouda this season and the attacking prowess Cole has shown.

This battle favours Chelsea.

Nicolas Anelka vs Paul Konchesky

On the other flank sees Nicolas Anelka come up against Paul Konchesky. The former Fulham player reunited with Roy Hodgson again this season has struggled in his early days at Anfield. He looked like a fish out of water when facing Nani at Old Trafford before Hodgson bailed him out in the final 10 minutes. Can be scared to make a challenge in the penalty area, which leads me to believe Anelka will enjoy great success down the right flank on Sunday. He’ll enjoy running at Konchesky with the hopes of getting by him to create a goalscoring opportunity for himself or a team mate, or draw a foul from the left back who picked up his first yellow card in the league last weekend. Anelka, in good form over the past week should head into this match up confident of adding to his goal tally.

This match up heavily favours Chelsea.

Tactics

I expect Chelsea to remain the same as they have done this season. The main battle will come in the centre of pitch, where I’ve only mentioned Michael Essien and Steven Gerrard so far. Chelsea have Ramires and John Obi Mikel too. Ramires is starting to come good; capable of playing a great pass and dives in a bit. I’m still not an admirer of Mikel, but he does keep things simple. On the other side, Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles have yet to come good for Liverpool. Joe Cole is a doubt for the game. Maxi Rodriguez scored the winner last weekend, while Ryan Babel isn’t getting a look in under Roy Hodgson.

I expect Liverpool to remain with Fernando Torres up front a loan from the start as Roy Hodgson plays a defensive side. He cannot be blamed with the difference in talent between the two sides. However, if he wants his side to score, Steven Gerrard needs to play behind Torres or at least more attacking than the holding role. Between Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher and Paul Konchesky I cannot see all three of them having a perfect game and keeping Chelsea at bay.

Chelsea have the fire power in this match up, and should they not get careless or make mistakes at the back, another win to nil should be on the cards for them. Roy Hodgson will make them wait patiently, but ultimately I expect them to break the deadlock with the favourable matches they have going forward. Man for man, Chelsea are better than Liverpool. And as a team they have been playing together both longer and more successfully. Chelsea at 11/10 are good value for the 3 points on Sunday.

Brazil are the most represented nation in the group stage of this seasons Champions League, with 78 registered to the 32 club sides. 25 different teams have at least 1 Brazilian in their team, with only Ajax, Auxerre, Basel, Bayern Munich, Rangers, Valencia and Zilina the only sides without one. Portuguese side Sporting Braga have the most Brazilians in their squad with 13.

Second on the list is France, whom have 65 different French players registered for the 32 sides in the group stages of the Champions League; that’s an average of 2 per team. Auxerre, Lyon and Marseille are the 3 French club sides in this seasons Champions League, all with at least 9 homeland players registered in their squads. Arsenal possess the most French players outside of their own country, with 6. Arsenal are the only club side without a single player registered on their A list from their homeland*.

England rank just 9th in the list of nationals in this seasons Champions League, despite having 4 club sides in the group stage. No other domestic league has as many club sides in the competition. Champions League debutants, Tottenham Hotspur have the highest percentage of English players in their squad, with 36%. Manchester United have 8 English players registered and Chelsea 6. James Beattie of Glasgow Rangers is the only English player in the Champions League playing outside of his home nation, playing for Rangers in Scotland. Hapoel Tel-Aviv have the highest proportion of homeland players (80%).

78 different nationalities are represented in this seasons Champions League, with the majority from UEFA nations (72.55%). There are 134 CONMEBOL players with 41 Argentinians on display, 54 CAF, 9 CONCACAF and 5 AFC.

Korea DPR and New Zealand are the only two 2010 World Cup qualifiers who have 0 players registered to a Champions League team this season.

Here is a full list of nations and the number of players registered in the 2010/11 Champions League:

*Arsenal’s English players, like many teams youngsters are listed on their B list. UEFA’s official regulations for B list registration:

17.15 Each club is entitled to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season. The list must be submitted by no later than 24.00 CET on the day before the match in question.

17.16 A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1987 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.