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Chief Executive League Manager´s Association Richard Bevan says that Chelsea´s owner decision to sack Andre Villas-Boas is an embarrassment to the Premier League.

In nine years Chelsea´s owner Roman Abramovich has hired, and fired, eight managers, with Villas-Boas being the last of the saga.

According to Bevan “What´s for sure is the club, despite unlimited wealth, haven´t yet worked out how to build a successful football club”

On the other hand, Villas-Boas claims that he was not given enough time to connect with the players and to take his plan into the next level.

And now the question is… who will replace the Portuguese?

Roberti Di Matteo second in command up until now will be in charge of the team; at least until the end of the season, but the speculation dance has already begun. The two names that sound the most are right now the top rated managers in the world, playing in the same League: Real Madrid´s Mourinho and FC Barcelona´s Pep Guardiola. The first one has already made clear that he wants to return to the Premier, and Guardiola has not renew his contract with FC Barcelona yet, in fact, is taking him longer than ever to decide over his future in the club.

Who, at the end, will have the courage to become the ninth manager in nine years in a team full of aging players, owned by a capricious multimillionaire difficult to please?

What is going on? Last year three English sides were up for the title in quarter-finals. Now the reputation of English football relies only on Chelsea.

Manchester City and Manchester United did not pass the initial stages of the competition, and Arsenal was swept away by an amazing Milan lead by an even more amazing Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Of course, a second leg still remains to be played, but, frankly, even Arsène Wegner is pessimistic, saying that their performance, last Wednesday, was “the worst in Europe ever”. Something similar was said a few days ago when Chelsea´s manager Andre Villas-Boas stated that his team defeat to Everton (2-0) was the worst of the season so far. So let´s just way that right now it is difficult to have faith on Chelsea, the only English team alive in Champions. They will face Napoli next Tuesday in Stadio San Paolo.

If neither Arsenal nor Chelsea passes this round, it would mean the worst European Cup performance in 16 years by English teams.

On the other side, Italian football seems to be making a comeback. Napoli beat Manchester City, and Milan crashed Arsenal.

Could it be that Italians are back, and English teams are rapidly fading way? Or are we jumping to conclusions too soon?

While English Soccer is looking at ways to glamorize the FA CUP, (we´ll talk about it in following posts) let´s just say that at least this Saturday there will be no need to draw more extra attention to the competition.

All eyes are, undoubtedly so, set on the clash between Liverpool and Manchester United.

It would be the first time they met since Luis Suárez was banned for eight matches, after shouting racial slurs to Patrice Evra in the 1-1 draw in October.

But this circumstance, instead of being treated as a hassle, Liverpool´s managing director, Ian Ayres, plans to use it as a way to showcase a new attitude in the club requesting calm and respect towards the rivals from both fans and players.

On the other hand, Sir Alex Ferguson, following the same line, addressed the fans writing a letter that said: “I wrote to fans attending the away match in October urging them to co-operate with stewards and officials at Liverpool so we can make a strong case for restoring our allocation for future United games at Anfield. The fans did almost everything asked of that day and as a result, we have a much improved allocation for this important FA Cup tie”.

The rest is just common sense. Let´s follow both of them and hope that next post will be focused only on football, and not on hate or violence.

Things did not look good for Real Madrid fans when Mourinho announced his final line-up to take over FC Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter finals. The list included Carvalho and Altintop .

But, still, in the 11th minute, thanks to a great assist from Karim Benzema, and the always appreciated help from Pinto (Barça´s eternal question-mark goalkeeper in the Copa del Rey competition), Cristiano Ronaldo scored and for a moment it looked like the conservative tactic planned by Mourinho was going to be successful.

Time only proved that Ronaldo´s goal was just good luck, and when Barcelona started to play the way they always do, Madrid started to shake.

Let´s just say that Barcelona did not crushed Real Madrid thanks to Iker Casillas and the posts. Instead, Barcelona scored in a very unusual way that only emphasizes that the whole team was really connected and concentrated on the work at hand. In the 49th minute Puyol shoot a powerful header after a corner kick. This goal, this way, really took Madrid players by surprise. So did the one by Abidal, who scored the coolest goal in the 77th minute after a wonderful play and assist by Messi.

And the Argentinean was, unintentionally so, one of the main characters in the bad play starring the overly aggressive Madrid defender Pepe, who showed us once again that something terrible in going on in his brain. The Portuguese stepped on Messi´s hand voluntarily, when the Argentinean was getting on his feet after falling down. Still, he saw no red card.

What did Mourinho said after the match? “I haven’t seen it, but obviously if it is deliberate he will be punished,”

And Pep Guardiola… well, he was extremely happy, politely saying that he did not see the aggression thanking instead all the players for their wonderful job and even taking the time to single out Alexis: “I want to especially thank Alexis [Sanchez],” He has played a fantastic game. He has stolen my heart”.

This result leaves Barcelona a comfortable leeway to prepare for second leg taking place next Wednesday at Camp Nou.

Allegations of racism in the Premier League are sadly becoming news. One of the most shocking incidents involves Liverpool´s Luis Suárez, who allegedly racially abused Manchester United´s Patrice Evra in a match that took place October 15th in Anfield.

If you are not familiar with what happened, it appears that Suárez kicked Evra, and when Evra asked why he had been so aggressive, Suárez reportedly said that “because you are black”. But the accusations do not stop here. The English Football Association report indicates that Suárez is alleged to have said “black” to Evra seven times in two minutes.

This not the only case of this nature taking place in the Premier league. Also in October, Chelsea´s John Terry reportedly used a racial slur against Queens Park Rangers Anton Ferdinand, although Terry denies it.

The English Football Association has already taken actions against both players, Terry and Suárez. Suárez has been banned for eight games; Liverpool has until January 13 to appeal if the club decides to do so. Terry faces a criminal charge, and his case will be heard at a London magistrate´s court in February.

But whatever the outcome, we can only conclude that it is a real shame that we have to continue talking about this issue, and now involving such great players from such emblematic teams. We hope that racism disappears, not only because of the popularity of the people involved in these incidents, or because the Olympics are getting closer, but because it is the right thing to do, and because London has to show the world that it is a city that embraces its multicultural component with maturity.

The most anticipated football game of the weekend, El Clasico, finished leaving behind any doubts that FC Barcelona continues to be the best team in the world, beating Real Madrid (1-3) at their own home.

The match started, surprisingly enough, with one of the fastest goals in El Clasico history. Víctor Valdés sent a pass into midfield that ended up in Benzema´s feet, scoring just 22 seconds from the start.

But Barça, far from going down, started to play the way they know, being always truthful to their own style. Slowly but surely they started dominating midfield and that´s how in the 30th minute, Alexis scored the equalizer after a great assist from Messi. Another mistake, this time on Madrid´s side, ended up with Marcelo scoring an own goal in the 53th minute. And then, in the 66th minute, a great team play finished up with a diving header by Cesc Fàbregas.

It was an easy win on Barcelona´s side, and a complete shock for Madrid. And now Barcelona is in Japan, ready to win the Club World Cup, but first would have to beat Al Sadd, the Asian Champions on Thursday´s semi-final in Yokohama.

England´s Clasico

Manchester City visits Stamford Bridge. The City are the Premier League leader, and after being kicked off the Champions, they will focus on maintaining their flawless league record. The Blues are 10 points behind and currently on fifth place, but, they did what the City couldn´t, and are still up and running in the European Realm.

Things are heating up just 8 days before the greatest match of the season: El Clásico between FC Barcelona & Real Madrid next December 10th.

One of the brightest stars of Barça´s squad, Andrés Iniesta, said to reporters that even though Madrid is ahead by 6 points, he believes that they can still win the Spanish League. According to him, they first have to win on December 10th at Santiago Bernabeu, a difficult feat, but not an impossible one for Mr. Iniesta. Some had speculated about the idea that Barça will, on this occasion, be more cautious, an insinuation that Iniesta denies by assuring that their strategy will be offensive, like always, and that they are not changing their attacking approach.

On the other side, that is, in Madrid, tickets for the match are scarce and their prize is soaring. Meanwhile one of Madrid´s players Karim Benzemà said that they are more than ready for the challenge and eager to play against Barcelona. He believes that he´ll be at the start of the match because according to him Mourinho has shown his trust on him.

But before December 10th there is another round of matches this weekend. Barcelona will play against the revelation team of the season: Levante, and Madrid will visit Sporting de Gijón, and even though they will have to focus on these matches, for sure the attention to the Clasico will only increase in days to come.

Wembley Stadium, London, was again the scenario of a magical night for England. Yes, it was only a friendly, but the opponent was Spain, the actual World and European Champions. This game was a biggie, and this time, Fabio Capello had it his way.

Spain played better, had the precious ball´s possession, and tried desperately to score, but the incredible England´s defensive performance won the battle, mostly thanks to Phill Jones and Scott Parker that controlled Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta to perfection.

First half showed Spain´s superiority, but just after four minutes of the restart England had their reward for being patient. Bent headed the ball against the post, bouncing back to Lampard that did not miss the opportunity to score on an empty net.

Spain missed three great occasions. David Villa boosted the ball against the post and Cesc Fàbregas missed two opportunities to hit the net on the second half.

There was technical superiority in Vicente Del Bosque´s side, but there was discipline in Capello´s squad that managed to overcome their limitations and got a moral boosting victory.

On the other side, Spain failed again on a friendly against a top rated squad, same thing that happened against Argentina and Italy.

Now, concentrating on matches to come….England will face Sweden and Spain plays against Costa Rica.

One of the stars of Saturday´s night, Jagielka will not play against Sweden on due to a toe injury that has sent him back to Everton.

Jack Rodwell, Daniel Sturridge and Kyle Walker are all ready for their first England starts. Capello is also considering giving goalkeeper Scott Carson another chance in the national squad.

Capello is taking Tuesday´s match seriously. Sweden line-up includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a striker Capello knows well since it was him who bought him to Italy as Juventus manager. He knows he is a danger, but after his victory against Spain, for sure he feels more confident and optimist.

Plenty of goals and records in the last round of Champions League matches, all coming from FC Barcelona.

The highlight: Lionel Messi and his fabulous hat-trick, becoming the second 200 goal scorer in FC Barcelona´s history. It was also the day Pep Guardiola coached his 200th official game for Barça and goalkeeper Victor Valdes set a new Barcelona record for minutes without conceding a goal.

On Group G Zenit won Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0) with an only goal from Nicolas Lombaerts. And Apoel surprisingly remains the group´s leader after beating Porto (2-1)

On Group H an early and only goal from Ibrahimovic wasn´t enough for Milan, that had to settled with a draw against Bate Borisov (1-1). And now the match of records: Plzen players did whatever they could but still had to endure the whole force of FC Barcelona (hat-trick from Messi included ) losing (0-4)

On Group E Valencia beat Bayern Leverkusen (3-1) with one of the quickest goals to remember. The Brazilian Jonas scored after only 12 seconds from the start of the match. And Chelsea doesn’t seem to be at its best moment, getting just a draw with Genk (1-1)

On Group F there were few goals. Arsenal and Marseille finished with a draw (0-0). The euphoria after beating Chelsea (5-3) on the Premier did not last and even though they tried, Arsenal players did not score a single time.
The only goal in this group was from Borussia Dortmund ´s Kevin Grosskreutz, giving his team a victory over Olympiacos (1-0)

On Group A there were plenty of goals between Bayern and Napoli, (3-2) with a hat-trick from Mario Gomez that secured the victory for the Germans. On a sad note, Bastian Schwinsteiger fractured his collarbone in the 51st minute in an unfortunate collision with Gökhan Inler. Manchester City smashed Villarreal hopes, now eliminated from the tournament (0-3)

On Group B no goals in Turkey between Trabzonspor and CSKA Moskva (0-0). And Inter beat Lille (2-1), thanks to goals from Walter Samuel and Diego Milito.

On Group C Manchester United did their homework at Old Trafford beating Otelul Galati (2-0). Benfica got a home draw (1-1) against Basel, missing the opportunity to secure qualification.

On Group D Real Madrid did as expected of them in France, beating Olympique Lyonnais (0-2) with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice, thanks to a free-kick and and a penalty. Ajax also won easily, and with style, Dinamo Zagreb (4-0)

Next Champions activity on November 22nd and 23rd

Another round of Champions League matches went by without surprises.

AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, CSKA Moscow, Manchester United, Ajax, Real Madrid, and Olympiakos beat their opponents as expected. The highlights were Madrid´s easy win over Olympique Lyonnais (4-0) and Chelsea’s 5 goals against Genk, two of them from Fernando Torres.

Let´s start with Group H, were AC Milan and Barcelona both shared the same result beating their team (2-0). Milan went ahead with a strong Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and after that the whole match was a stroll for the Italians that won effortless against Bate Borisov. Barcelona had multiple occasions, mostly came from Messi, but at the end it was Iniesta and later on David Villa the ones that ended up scoring.

On Group A, Bayer Munich dropped their first points of the Champions League against Napoli (1-1) and Manchester City beat Villarreal only a few minutes away from the end, thanks to Sergio Aguero that scored the second goal for the City (2-1)

On Group C, Benfica beat Basel, (2-0) and Manchester United registered their first Champions League win of the season against SC Otelul Galati (2-0)

On Group B, CSKA Moskva beat Trabzonspor (3-0) with a stellar performance from Seydou Doumbia who scored twice. Inter Milan won over Lille (0-1)

On Group D, Real Madrid was the highlight of Tuesday night matches beating easily Olympique Lyonnais (4-0). Ajax won away against Dinamo Zagreb (0-2)

The following day, on Group E it was Chelsea’s turn to hit the net on multiple occasions beating Genk (5-0) with two goals from Fernando Torres. Bayer Leverkusen wiped off Valencia´s hope beating the Spanish team (2-1)

On Group F Arsenal beat Marseille (0-1) and Olympiakos won Dortmund (3-1)

On Group G there were two draws, Shakhtar Donetsk against Zenith (2-2) and FC Porto-Apoel Nicosia (1-1)

The first qualifying round will continue on November 1st and 2nd.