F365 Opinion

Winners

Liverpool
Unbeaten in their first seven matches of the season despite Tuesday witnessing the first first-half goal scored by a Liverpool player this season and the first time they have led a match before the 77th minute.


Chelsea
Unbeaten in 70 consecutive matches at Stamford Bridge.


Florent Malouda
The irony of Robinho joining Manchester City in the same week as Shaun-Wright Phillips is that it was in the expectation of Robinho moving to Stamford Bridge that Luiz Scolari deemed the currently-former England winger surplus to requirements. From the surprise, Malouda has sprung to prominence and, by accident rather than design, become an integral member of the first team.


Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard
They make it look so easy when they're not playing for England. Which, of course, merely adds to the frustration. The better they do at club level, the worse the sense of under-achievement at international level.

Even as he basks in the afterglow of Zagreb, Fabio Capello must still be pondering the same questions his predecessors could not answer: Why do Lampard and Gerrard find international football so difficult? Can they play together? If not, which one goes and which one stays? There are plenty of answers but a definitive solution remains elusive.

Gerrard remains adamant that his own struggles are a consequence of being played out of position, complaining in a recent interview, "I've played in my favourite position for England five times in 68 games." That figure is debatable; but the overriding impression from the interview was Gerrard's preoccupation with his positional play. "I find it difficult to play how I want to in the other positions. My game suffers when my position is changed. I'm a central midfielder and in the big games I want to play in the middle and show that I'm one of the very best in that position."

Yet against Marseilles, Gerrard won the game not as a central midfielder, but as part of an attacking triumvirate behind Fernando Torres and in front of Lucas Leiva and Javier Mascherano. If Rafa Benitez does not consider Gerrard to be at his most effective as a central midfielder then how and why should Capello? Nor, it seems, does Capello require much persuading in reaching the same conclusion as Benitez having played Gerrard as an inside-left against the Czech Republic in last month's friendly.

Some players would take pride and pleasure in their versatility, their capacity to be so many things to so many managers. The trouble for Capello and Benitez is that Gerrard does not.

"I've paid the price for being able to do a decent job in other positions," he continued to lament. "Other players don't get shunted around because they can't do it. I can't go and play on the right or the left and become Kaka or Robinho, I just go out there, give 100% and do a steady job. I'll work hard, do my bit defensively and help the team. That's why managers do it to me, but it is affecting me. I can operate in a deeper role - I did it for England against Brazil at Wembley and got man of the match - but it's not something I really enjoy."

It is surely a measure of how vexed Gerrard has become with the issue that he can still claim to have been negatively "affected" by his versatility in the same breath as reminding his sympathetic inquisitor that it produced a best-player-on-the-pitch performance against Brazil.

Perhaps we've all missed the point in the interminable Gerrard debate. Perhaps he's missed it too. Perhaps the solution is that he is finally made to realise that he has so much ability that it doesn't matter where he plays and that, regardless of his position, he can still be the best player on the pitch. Because, right now, it's the position of his head that seems to be the problem.


Darren Fletcher
The Scot has probably played his way into the United team for Stamford Bridge.


William Gallas
But for his ridiculous sulk at Birmingham, Gallas' tenure as captain would be remembered for his habit of scoring critical goals.


Drawers

Manchester United
The best that Arsene Wenger could say of Arsenal's salvaged draw in Kiev was that it maintained "momentum". For United, the stalemate against Villarreal merely maintained the sense of a stutter becoming a slump. The season has begun in tepid fashion, with just one victory in six matches. It is easy to say that this is not the form of the side that won domestic and European titles four months ago, it's more difficult to fathom whether the current malaise is a consequence of those achievements and the exertions they required. Not since 1990 have the champions of Europe successfully defended their title. Perhaps United are discovering why. There is something missing from the current United team and it is not just the spark of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese forward's return was the sole highlight on another subdued evening and the reaction of the Old Trafford faithful was indicative of their growing concerns. All was instantly forgiven and forgotten in a time of need, the standing ovation he received a victory for pragmatism over principle. Yet as Old Trafford rose to its feet, acclaiming Ronaldo as a returning hero rather than a fallen idol, there must have been disquiet, an awareness of what that acclaim revealed.

For those United fans still unwilling to fete a player who flirted so publicly and shamelessly with Real Madrid, the worst that can be said is that United's slump will not continue for long. Whether the recovery begins at Chelsea or beyond, it is bound to coincide with Ronaldo's return. Dodging those 'one-player team' barbs will be harder than ever. United, it seems, need Ronaldo far more than he needs them.


Arsenal
Arsenal's modus operandi for dropping points is clearly established. Begin brightly, miss chances, dominate, miss more chances, concede a soft goal to the first shot on target, struggle thereafter.. The only diversion in type in Kiev was the rescue of a point that their second-half display only arguably warranted.

Profligaters-in-chief Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor should accept the brunt of the blame but missing chances is an occupational hazard for strikers. Making saves is also part of a goalkeeper's remit but that particular activity is one that Manuel Almunia rarely keeps. It may seem an odd observation to make given that Kiev's goal was a penalty but the inability of Almunia - a goalkeeper of few mistakes but even fewer stops - to save his side is becoming an uncomfortable familiarity. In recent years, Pepe Reina, Petr Cech and even Edwin van der Sar (who boasted the highest saves-to-shots ratio of any first-choice top-flight goalkeeper last season) have all made a habit of saving their sides over recent seasons; in a year-and-a-bit, Almunia's solitary memorable contribution was repelling a poorly-struck penalty by Robbie Keane. It is not enough.


Luis Cantalejo
It is no wonder that the corrosive spread of time-wasting in the game has gathered pace in recent years when there are referees like Luis Cantalejo in charge. Having blown for half-time even before 45 minutes had been played, he then signalled for three minutes of second-half injury time despite the physios being on the pitch for at least double that time, and then played two minutes and thirty seconds despite Kiev making two separate substitutions after the 90th minute.

Pete Gill