If you really love football, you would have enjoyed the drama at both Eastlands and Whitehart Lane. Not only did
i enjoy myself, i also made some cash. Not from the Man City v Man United game, but from the Tottenham v Chelsea
game.
I went to see my cousin, who is such an arrogant supporter of Chelsea at his home. After watching the Manchester
derby, i asked him to drop me at my place, but he insisted that i watch the Chelsea game.I don’t like watching
them. To me, they play a very arrogant style of football.
After much argument and persuasion, i decided to watch the match. Earlier in the day, i told him that Chelsea will
lose the match, and all he told me was that since they had beaten Man Utd at Old Trafford, they will crush any team
for the remainder of the season.
We were still arguing when his wife, who is also a Chelsea fan brought the idea of settling the issue with a bet.
I normally don’t bet, and told them so, but they thought i was shying away because i knew that Chelsea were going
to beat Spurs. I was so sure the Blues will be beaten, so i agreed to the bet. The amount was $500 and Spurs
promptly and soundly beat Chelsea, and i made $500.
For me, the money was never the issue. I am convinced that Chelsea will not win the league this season. They still
have another tough match at Liverpool to negotiate. Enough with Chelsea and their loss.
United’s match at Eastlands was just another league match. No spark, no thrills, no flair, but a precious 3 points
which means that as i make this posting, we are only a single point behind Chelsea, very soothing. The last thing
i want for my darling club is a season in which we did not win the Champions League, and then lose the league crown
to a team like Chelsea.
Rooney was so anonymous it seemed like he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. His touch on the ball was so
uncharacteristic, and the chances had that he normally would score just went as if it never even came, still
feeling the ankle obviously.
For Scholes, he was superb throughout, and the goal was just characteristic of his never say never attitude.
Not a great derby, no match by any stretch of the imagination, but a great day at the office.

Don’t get me wrong, Chelsea play fine attractive football these days, but they still do not have the European winning mentality that clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona and others have that constantly give them the edge in the Champions League. You don’t play the UCL like you are playing the likes of Wigan, Portsmouth and other lesser likes in the English Premier League.

I always feel pity for Chelsea and its teeming fans, particularly in my country Nigeria. Premiership clubs are loved here, and followed in the millions. When Samuel Eto’o scored in the 79th minute, i knew it was curtains for the Blues in this season’s UCL. And how about Drogba’s red card in the 86th minute. Once again he disgraces himself.

For Eto’o, he has proved that he is still the best footballer in Africa, regardless of the sham that is the African footballer of the year award that was given to Drogba. We all know that last season, Samuel Eto’o did exceptionally well with Barcelona, winning every trophy in world football, and also qualifying the Cameroun  national team to the world cup in South Africa.

For last season, Drogba did not merit the award more than Eto’o, and it has shown today. Justice has been served.

A Darren Bent short hit a red beach ball that had Reyna fooled into diving to save the beach ball,instead of the deflected ball that ricocheted into the net for the only goal of the match.

This incident raises a lot of questions concerning referees and the decisions they sometimes allow to stand. In my opinion, the goal should never have been allowed to stand. Its so unfair.

A fourth defeat of the league season will only add to the question marks over Liverpool’s title credentials after they were outplayed without injured midfielder Steven Gerrard and striker Fernando Torres.

Ahead of a week in which they face a crucial Uefa Champions League tie against Lyon and host Manchester United, they only added weight to critics who label them a two-man team.

Liverpool were lethargic and looked at unease with a 5-4-1 formation manager Rafael Benitez had opted for as he tried to cope with injuries and tiredness after the recent internationals.

Benitez was probably hoping that full-backs Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio, as well as wingers Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun, would have more of an impact going forward.

But Sunderland, with a near-capacity 47,000 crowd behind them, did not let Liverpool settle and aggressively took control of the game before being rewarded with the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances.

Bent’s shot went in off a beach ball and, to compound Liverpool’s misery, it was one punched on to the pitch by one of their own fans. A clear case of one causing one’s own downfall you might say..

Oh! for the records, Chelsea were beaten by Aston Villa, while Manchester United and Arsenal both won at home respectively.

From Russia with pain, Inter Milan just managed to salvage a point from Rubin Kazan who were on their neck from start to finish in that match. So after losing to Sampdoria in the Serie A in the weekend, they nearly lost to one of the so-called minows to the Champions League.Oh! Inter also finished with a man less with Mario Barotelli sent off.

Spare a thought for Liverpool, i just wander if their European fuel is drying up. Remember how they treat everybody in the C. League? well they could not do that to Fiorentina as the Italians beat them by 2-0.

The above aside, it was business as usual for Barcelona who beat Dynamo Kyiv by 2-0, Arsenal who beat Olypiakos by 2-0, Lyon who thumped Debrecen 4-0 away, and Sevilla who also put 4 pass Rangers in Scotland. AZ Alkmaar drew 1-1 with Standard Liege, and Stuttgart who were forced to 1-1 by home team Unirea Urziceni.

So, if were excited by today’s matches, why not wait for the real deal tomorrow, when all the big boys take to the pitch.

Check out the fixtures for tomorrow:

Apoel Nicosia v Chelsea, Gp D, 19:45

Today sees Chelsea take on QPR, while Manchester United tackle Wolves. It is this Man Utd match that gives me sleepless nights. Its not a premier league match, but equally very important as winning it brings some cash and of course the trophy swells your trophy cabinet.

Am scared because Man Utd have a habit of losing at this stage of  the competition, though this one will be different. Read below for some history.

MATCH PREVIEW

Manchester United have reason to be wary as they begin their defence of the Carling Cup. Despite winning the competition for the third time last season they have proved vulnerable in the third round, losing at this stage in ten of the last 25 years. Not that United will be lacking in belief, whatever side they select. Their stoppage-time victory over cross-city rivals Manchester City on Sunday was their fifth in a row. Wolves have only progressed beyond this round once in the last 12 years, despite not having faced a Premier League side since losing 5-1 at Arsenal six years ago. Wolves also have a dreadful record at Old Trafford, and only reached this round with a penalty shootout win at home to Swindon. However, Saturday’s victory over Fulham ended a three-match winless streak and saw the return of key players Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. MATCH FACTS Head-to-head • This is the first League Cup meeting of these two clubs. Manchester United won their most recent clash by 3-0 in the FA Cup fourth round in January 2006. • Wolves last won – and scored – at Old Trafford in a top-flight game in February 1980. Manchester United • United have won their last five games in all competitions, and hold a 100% winning record in three matches at Old Trafford this season. • They have not been knocked out by a Premier League club since Chelsea won their semi-final tie in 2005. • Ryan Giggs is still looking for his 150th Manchester United goal, John O’Shea could make his 350th appearance for the club and Darron Gibson could face the club with whom he was on loan for most of 2007/08. Wolves • Wolves won the League Cup in 1974 and 1980 but since playing in the quarter-finals in 1996 they have only reached the fourth round once (2003/04). • It is 14 years since Wolves last eliminated a Premier League club; Coventry in the fourth round in November 1995. • Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and David Jones were both Manchester United trainees. United For Life Well, after all of our fears, United will beat Wolves today.

Personally, i believe this season’s competition is going to be very exciting for some reasons. For instance, Christiano Ronaldo has left Manchester United, and a couple of very new and small clubs have made it to the group stage of this season’s affair.

How about the fact that champions Barcelona are drawn in the same group with Inter Milan. Remember Barcelona telling Samuel Eto’o they don’t want him again, and offloaded him to Inter Milan with Zlatan Ibrahimovic moving the opposite direction? they play tomorrow, how will that turn out.

How about Christiano Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive player moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid, how will he perform in his first champions league match for Madrid? very exciting indeed.

Here below are  tomorrow’s matches.

Besiktas v Man Utd

Chelsea v Porto

FC Zurich v Real Madrid

Juventus v Bordeaux

Marseille v AC Milan

Wolfsburg v CSKA Moskow

Atletico Madrid v Apoel Nicosia

Have fun guys.

Adebayo scored the third goal of their 4-2 rout of a harpless Arsenal. And i would say that Man City also played very well in the second half after a rather lack-luster first half.

I had earlier said that the traditional top four in the English Premier League were under a real threat from City, and they have started looking like the team that spent well in the transfer market.

Okay, so they have beaten Arsenal, let’s wait and see how they cope when they play Champions Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool during the season. They are really getting their money’s worth.

Just to remind you guys that Chelsea also won today to maintain their 100% start to the season, Malouda scoring deep in injury time to give the Blues all three points at Stoke who played valiantly.

Win also for Liverpool 4-0 at home to Burnely with Benayoun scoring a hat-trick.

What a season this is turning into, and we are hardly into it.

But Chelsea could get a reprieve if they delay lodging any appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Cas has indicated that if Chelsea take the full 21 days to appeal, their ban may be frozen while a decision is made.

“It depends on the filing date of the appeal,” Cas secretary general Matthieu Reeb told BBC Sport.

“If we have an appeal within the next week, it seems realistic we will have a hearing in November and a decision in December.

“If it goes a little longer, we’d have to wait until next year but then we’d have a problem with the January transfer period.

“So there is a possibility of Chelsea requesting a stay of the Fifa decision so it is frozen until the final decision of Cas is rendered.

“This means the enforcement of the Fifa decision would not be immediate. It could be postponed and then if the sanction was finally confirmed by CAS, the suspension would be postponed to the next transfer window.”

As it stands, Chelsea are barred from registering any new players, nationally, or internationally, during the January or summer 2010 transfer windows.

The Blues have already confirmed that they will launch the “strongest possible appeal” and they have 21 days to do so from when they receive Fifa’s full decision.

The Cas decision can be appealed only before the Swiss Supreme Court.

Manchester United could also face an investigation after it emerged that another French club, Le Havre, are going to ask Fifa to look into Paul Pogba’s move to Old Trafford last month.

Fifa say they are yet to receive any complaint over the transfer of the 16-year-old midfielder.

United told BBC Sport last month that Le Havre’s accusations that they had stolen the French youngster were “complete nonsense”.

A French football agent, who wishes to remain anonymous for professional reasons, told BBC Sport: “If Lens or Le Havre were legally able to sign the two players to contracts they would definitely have done it already.

“But French law prevents players from signing contracts if they under 16 and haven’t achieved the requisite level at school.

“The clubs can make agreements with these players that say they will give them a contract when they have attained the right educational qualification of turned 16.

“It is a pre-contract. It is called an ‘accord de norm sollicitation’ in French. It is a written agreement between club and player.

“That is what Kakuta and Pogba had. Fifa is clearly now saying these accords are as good as contracts, while Chelsea and Manchester United are saying they are not.”

Fifa punished Switzerland’s FC Sion for a similar offence to Chelsea’s in April and the club was told it could not sign players until the 2010 off-season.

Sion have appealed to Cas, which has frozen the sanctions while it considers the case, allowing the club to trade before the current season began. A ruling is expected later this year.

Italian club Roma were banned from signing players for two transfer windows in 2004, over their move for Auxerre’s Philippe Mexes, after they appealed to CAS and their suspension was reduced to one window.

The arbitration panel will be made up by one judge selected by Chelsea, one by Lens and the chairman will be CAS.

The punishment was meted out by world governing body Fifa after the club was found guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

A Fifa statement said the Blues would not be able to register new players in the next two transfer windows.

Chelsea insist they will “mount the strongest appeal possible” and say the sanctions are “totally disproportionate to the alleged offence”.

A statement from the Premier League club, who will make their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), added: “We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision.”

Fifa’s dispute resolution chamber (DRC) ruled French winger Kakuta, now 18, must also pay compensation of 780,000 euros (£682,000), for which Chelsea are “jointly and severally liable”.

Lens lodged a complaint with world football’s governing body after Chelsea signed the winger two years ago.

Now the DRC has ruled Kakuta breached his contract with Lens and that Chelsea induced him to do so.

Fifa’s statement continued: “The French club had lodged a claim with Fifa seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club for breach of contract and inducement to breach of contract.

“The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such breach.”

Chelsea must pay additional “training compensation” of 130,000 euros (£114,000) to Lens, while the player has been banned from playing in official matches for four months.

Kakuta ended 2007/8, his first season with Chelsea, as the youth team’s top scorer and was voted the academy’s player of the year.

He played five times for the youth team and twice for the reserves in his second season before it was brought to an abrupt end in February when he suffered a double fracture of his ankle.

The Lille-born youngster has never played for Chelsea’s first team, although he is back to full fitness and has been featuring in the reserves this season.

Fifa’s decision to ban Chelsea means they will not be able to sign players in the January and summer 2010 transfer windows.

Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin thinks that could mean problems for Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti.

“He’s got a number of worries going ahead,” said Nevin, who played for Chelsea between 1983 and 1988.

“He’s going to lose a number of players to the African Cup of Nations around January-February time.

“Then there is the World Cup coming up. After a World Cup, your players are tired, and many of the Chelsea players will be involved. They’ll need to replenish their squad and, if they fail with this appeal, they won’t be able to.”

Lens president Gervais Martel said he felt the judgement was fair and would send out a warning message to larger clubs like Chelsea who break the rules.

“We expected this kind of decision. The player was under contract with us and they came and stole him away from us,” he said.

“Chelsea didn’t follow the rules. They contacted the player when he wasn’t even 16 and while he had been contracted to our training group from the age of eight.

“The financial sanction isn’t over the top given the nature of the infringement, but it’s really quite significant when it comes to not being able to recruit players.

“It’s an important message given that protecting up and coming youth players who are contracted to clubs is an issue being followed closely by Uefa president Michel Platini.”

Fifa punished Switzerland’s FC Sion for a similar offence in April and the club was told it could not sign players until the 2010 off-season.

This was punishment for luring Egypt goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in 2008 before his deal with Al-Ahly had expired.

Like Kakuta, El Hadary received a four-month ban from playing.

Sion have appealed to Cas, which has frozen the sanctions while it considers the case, allowing the club to trade before the current season began. A ruling is expected later this year.

Meanwhile Uefa, European football’s governing body, is keen to introduce a rule preventing the international transfer of players under the age of 18 after member associations, clubs, leagues and players agreed to the principle.

Speaking in March, Uefa president Platini: “The question of minors is above all a moral and ethical issue. We have a duty to take concrete steps to protect young players and training clubs.”