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Five CL Final Questions For Chelsea...
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The Manchester United Attack
Going two games without scoring is not exactly a crisis of epic proportions, but the two blanks against Aston Villa and Villarreal represent the first time United have failed to find the net in consecutive games since May 2007. And that was when the league was won and the imperative gone.
Arsenal
In some ways it's really not that big a weekend for Arsenal. With five defeats already their title challenge is over (whatever Cesc Fabregas says), whether they beat Chelsea on Sunday or not.
The perverse inconsistency of Arsenal means they actually might have a better chance of winning at Stamford Bridge than they did at the Britannia Stadium a few weeks ago, or Eastlands last weekend. The defeat of Manchester United was sandwiched between losses to Stoke and Aston Villa, and in both games they were outplayed, if in different ways.
Arsenal this season are making a mockery of the (until now strong) theory that the Top Four mini-league is all important, that whoever comes out on top of that division within a division will take the title. However, that also relies on that particular team not dropping more than a third of their available points to teams that, Villa aside, will finish nowhere near the top of the league this season.
At the current rate of accumulation, Arsenal will finish the season on 62 points, a tally that was only good enough for sixth place last season, fifth the year before and seventh the year before that. At the moment Arsenal's primary concern is holding on to fourth spot.
William Gallas
Mo Johnston achieved the rare feat of getting both sides of the Old Firm to hate him when he signed for Rangers in 1989.
While Gallas won't quite inspire that amount of hate from Arsenal and Chelsea fans, he's hardly going to be the most popular man at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
It's a good job he never crumbles under pressure then...
Paul Ince
With no win and just three points gained since Blackburn took advantage of a Newcastle side at the height of their shambles in September, serious questions are being asked about Ince's qualification for a top-level job.
A fine manager he might be one day, and a respected figure in the game he is now, but the wisdom of appointing a man who was possibly not ready for the job is looking shakier by the day.
If Ince does fail then it may lead to a reappraisal in the way Premier League managers are chosen. The early signs are that a slightly erratic Tony Adams may not be a success at Portsmouth, while improvement at Middlesbrough is so gradual that even Gareth Southgate, the best of the new bunch and expected to one day achieve big things, may not be regarded as enough in an impatient age.
Whether his dismissal is fair, or the prospects of young managers, will not concern Blackburn chairman John Williams if his club remain in the position they're in. Only West Brom are keeping them off the bottom of the table, and with the Baggies looking pretty certain for relegation, things have to improve quickly for Rovers.
They might have a glimmer of a chance as well. They visit Portsmouth this weekend, whose form has been far from predictable since Harry Redknapp's departure. Only one win (at Sunderland) for Adams, and they come into the game after two draws with Hull and West Ham, the only side with comparably rancid form to Blackburn's.
For the club and Ince's sake a win at Fratton Park looks to be nigh-on essential for the preservation of both - their next two games are against Manchester United and Liverpool.
Sunderland
As this column pointed out a couple of weeks ago, Sunderland's poor away record would be forgiveable if the Stadium of Light was a fortress, but it's far from that at the moment.
In fact, going against all previous form and logic, Roy Keane's men won their last away trip and have lost their last two home games.
The nature of the 2008/9 Premier League means that winning half your home matches (as Sunderland did last term) will be more than enough to keep you up. At the moment they have just two wins from seven games at the Stadium of Light, so desperately need to pick up some points, and have to start on Saturday when Bolton come a-callin'.
Howard Webb
A sensible move putting the safest pair of refereeing hands in the game in charge of Sunday's Manchester derby.
He'll need to be on his game too. Alex Ferguson has been chirping for most of the week about how Cristiano Ronaldo isn't getting enough protection from referees and the big mean bullies who kick him. Those chirps got even louder after an admittedly horrible 'tackle' on Ronaldo by Villarreal's Joan Capdevila, and we can expect more of the same before Sunday's encounter.
He must not - and going on Webb's record he probably won't - be influenced by Ferguson's urgings. Whether the United manager has a point or not is irrelevant at the moment. Official policy cannot be dictated by managers, however powerful and angry they are.
Jeff Stelling
Boro v Newcastle aside (although there will have to be a lot of 'local pride' going around to make even that one watchable), good luck trying to get excited about Saturday's Premier League programme.
We're sure he'll manage though.
Nick Miller
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