The win against Newcastle came as pressure mounted on the young manager’s shoulders after being knocked out of the League Cup last Tuesday with an awful performance against Liverpool.

AVB continues his quest to play exciting attack-minded football with a high defensive line. But with a slow defence this appears to be causing Chelsea as many problems on the field as their over-inflated egos.  I believe Villa-Boas needs to address the ‘clear as day’ fact that while John Terry continues to show his strength as a natural born leader, his pace is letting the side down, while central defensive partner David Luiz is a defensive liability.

The victory must have caused Andre Villas-Boas a sigh of relief even though he has continued to state to the media that he is still confident he has Roman Abramovich’s backing and fully expects to be at Chelsea for the next three years. Whether he honestly believes this or not, it will surely be a grave concern to know that Villas-Boas has the worst start of any manager at Chelsea since Abramovich took over; and he is not known for his patience!

It’s a job made even more difficult by the fact that Chelsea want instant success.  I remember this time last year Carlo Ancelotti saying these very words as the pressure began to mount on his Stamford Bridge future.  Success for Chelsea and Roman Abramovich is to win trophies, especially the quest to win the Champions League.  Failure is to win nothing and not qualify for next season’s Champions League.  But at the same time, Chelsea have not been able to replicate the level of success with gradual first team changes in the same way as Arsenal and Manchester United. But time has run out for Chelsea.  Now is the time to go with the likes of Sturridge, Mata, Torres, Romeu, Meireles and buy one or two solid central defenders – Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka in January.

Steve Kean can also rest in peace today after Blackburn Rovers beat Swansea 4-2 with Yakubu scoring all four goals in a rare treat for home fans that lifts Blackburn off the bottom of the Premier League table.

So while Sunderland appointed Martin O’Neil as their new manager yesterday, after sacking Steve Bruce in the week, who will be the next Premier League manager to lose his job?  If it was down to the voice of the fans then it would be between Aston Villa’s Alex McLeish and Wolves manager Mick McCarthy.

Wolves play Sunderland today; and while Martin O’Neil will be watching from the stands while assistant manager Eric Black takes charge today, Mick McCarty will be under the spotlight of owners and fans once again.  If Wolves lose to fellow strugglers Sunderland today at Molineux you might not need to read the football betting tips on BettingExpert.

Less than one full season into his contract, Aston Villa has parted company with Gerard Houllier who was hospitalised before the end of last season. That said, I felt Houllier was about to get the sack anyway and expected Rafa Benitez, who has been loitering around since returning to his family home in England in January, to become the next Aston Villa manager.

But Fulham boss Mark Hughes is the bookies favourite for the job. This follows rumours that Hughes has recently fallen out with Fulham owner Mohammed Al- Fayed and that he has a get-out clause in his contract. But yesterday I heard that ex-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has stated that he would like to stay in England rather than return to Italy. I am sure both parties would be interested in Ancelotti becoming the next manager of Aston Villa.

The other manager-less Premier League team, Chelsea look like they are closing in on their first choice to replace Ancelotti at Stamford Bridge, as Guus Hiddink has apparently stated he is ready to leave his current position coaching the Turkey national team, to return to club management. If there is any truth in this statement then I would expect Hiddink to be the next Chelsea manager by next week.

Guus Hiddink to Chelsea & Carlo Ancelotti to Aston Villa is my bet.

The appointments of a Chelsea and Aston Villa manager will be followed by what I believe will be a busy summer for transfers in the English Premier League. Chelsea desperately need to buy some younger players and begin to build a team around striker Fernando Torres. While Manchester City will be throwing a lot of money around again, only in this transfer window they will be able to attract the very best players in the world with Champions League football next season.

When Roman Abramovich last needed help he called on then Russia manager Guus Hiddink but was unable to persuade the highly rated and very experienced Dutch manager to take on the Chelsea manager role on a full-time basis even after winning the FA Cup in his short spell as caretaker manager.

Hiddink is now manager of Turkey and is once again under contract.  Personally, I think Hiddink enjoys national team management more than the day-to-day routine of club management.  He will never be short of offers after successful roles with Holland, South Korea, Australia and Russia.  So I believe Chelsea will need to look elsewhere.

Surprisingly Harry Redknapp has become the favourite with many bookmakers over the past day or so.  This comes with the news that Real Madrid appear to have patched up any differences with Jose Mourinho, counting him out of any immediate return to Stamford Bridge.

Other favourites include former Holland striker and manager Marco Van Basten and Andrea Villa-Boas who last week won the Europa League as manager of Porto.

Van Basten did not set the world alight with his previous managerial roles for Ajax or Holland.  But Andrea Villa-Boas could fit the bill.  He has been dubbed the new Jose Mourinho and apparently according to one report, topped the list of managers Liverpool fans wanted to replace Roy Hodgson before King Kenny Dalglish was ushered in.

Like Jose Mourinho, Andrea Villa-Boas worked under Bobby Robson.  Robson appointed him to Porto’s observation department. He is only 33, never made it as a professional football player and is the youngest manager to win a European title.  He speaks fluent English, would no doubt be ready for a big money move to Chelsea, and I assume is highly regarded by Mourinho who he also worked under at Porto.  The main drawbacks are his age and lack of experience (he only became Porto manager in June 2010).

I’m sure plenty of out-of-work managers would be only too pleased to take the position at Chelsea where they would be faced with the option of winning the Champions League or face the sack with a large pay-off.  And the more I think about it, the more I can see Harry Redknapp actually being interested in the position.  Though he appears to have a good working relationship with Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy and is building a good team with a great future at Spurs, they are currently unable to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City when it comes to spending power.

Would Harry Redknapp be content with a crack at winning the Premier League and Champions League next season knowing a move to Chelsea would be a risk?  I think he would.  And if Chelsea cannot tempt Guus Hiddink to become Chelsea manager in the next couple of weeks, I think we will see a serious approach to tempt Harry Redknapp to cross from North to West London.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Schalke 04 all but booked their places after first leg goal fests against Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham and Inter Milan respectively but Chelsea only trailed Manchester United by one goal when they visited Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Chelsea were abysmal, and the 1-0 result on the night leaves plenty of questions but as yet, no answers.  Carlo Ancelotti surprised everyone, possibly including his players, by playing a 4-3-2-1 formation, once referred to as ‘the Christmas Tree formation’ by then England manager Terry Venables.  Frank Lampard played a more advanced role tucked in alongside Nicolas Anelka behind the lone striker, Fernando Torres while Didier Drogba started the match on the subs bench!

Not surprisingly Frank Lampard had a poor game and no effect on the match whatsoever. Drogba replaced Torres at half-time but the whole team were poor.  If only they hadn’t of sacked Ray Wilkins earlier in the season Ancelotti could have brought him on to replace any one of the midfield players.

Whether or not Ancelotti is being told to play Torres, I don’t expect he will be making the decision next season.  Rumours suggest Carlo Ancelotti is going to Roma in the summer and once again Roman Abramovich and Chelsea will no doubt be looking for a high profile manager to supply a quick fix rather than a long term strategy.

Spurs on the other hand put on a great performance that left their supporters cheering them on until the final whistle even when Heurelho Gomes fumbled a Christiano Ronaldo shot for Real Madrid to win 1-0 on the night and 5-0 over two legs. Tottenham now need to secure fourth place in the Premier League to qualify for next season’s Champions League, if they are going to continue their progress under Harry Redknapp.

Manchester United have come unstuck in Champions League semi-finals against German opposition in the past including Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, so will be weary of Schalke 04.  But the other semi-final is a mouth-watering prospect as Real Madrid play Barcelona.

Pepe Guardiola still has Barcelona playing at the peak of their game and for that reason they have remained favourites to win the Champions League all season.  However, if there’s one manager that can work out how to stop and beat Barcelona, it’s Jose Mourinho.  He managed to stifle Barca last season with an Inter Milan side that I believe were inferior to Real Madrid. And just to rub salt in Chelsea’s wounds, who would bet against Jose Mourinho being the first manager to win the Champions League with three different clubs?

I am going to stick my neck out and say I think Real Madrid will beat Manchester United in the Champions League Final at Wembley on 28th May.

Castrol Edge performance data shows that Michael Carrick was a key member of the United team in the first leg, the midfielder made seven interceptions on the night, three more than any other player on the pitch.

The England international was also impeccable in his delivery, completing 36 of his 41 passes, an 88% success ratio that no other United midfielder could match at the Bridge.

Ryan Giggs was the highest beneficiary of his passes (seven), a fact that reaped rewards with Carrick’s long diagonal ball to the Welsh wizard being the catalyst for the only goal of the game.

On a near perfect night, he also won all seven of his duels, including the two dribbles he embarked on. Physical but fair, he was the only United outfield player who didn’t concede a foul.

The question that Chelsea fans will be asking is where are the goals going to come from for the Blues if they are to beat United and progress in the competition.

There appears to be a general frustration with the contribution of Fernando Torres since his move from Liverpool, he has taken time to adjust to the Chelsea style, but he has not been helped so far by Carlo Ancelotti who has only just got his head around how best to utilise Drogba and Anelka in the team.

However, Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that no player has had more shots on target than Fernando Torres in the Champions League knockout stages this season.

The Chelsea striker has tested the ‘keeper eight times, a tally only Lionel Messi can match, although the Barcelona wizard has scored from two of those chances.  Surely it is just a matter of time before Torres breaks his duck for the Blues in Europe and Old Trafford could be the perfect arena for that.

At the moment though, he is the player who has had the most attempts without scoring in the knockout stages of this season’s competition, ahead of teammate Didier Drogba and Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.

A goal fest for Torres or another clean sheet for Carrick?

In fact the Chelsea strike force has been nowhere near as potent as you would expect from a world class trio of strikers, Drogba, Anelka and Torres and the blues will be looking for a change of fortune tonight, if they are to progress.

According to Castrol EDGE Performance Analysis, Chelsea’s strikers haven’t clicked since the arrival of Fernando Torres.

Nicolas Anelka scored two goals in the Champions League against FC Copenhagen, but Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres haven’t managed a goal between them.

In the Champions League, it has not been for the want of trying as the three strikers have mustered 13 shots on target in the two matches against their Danish opponents.

But in domestic competition, it has been a different story with the three forwards managing just two shots on target between them in over 16 hours combined.

The struggle to find an effective combination is also demonstrated by the fact that they have only two assists in that time, both for Drogba, prior to last weekend’s games.

While Manchester United have experienced few problems in front of goal in the Premier League, Rooney and Berbatov have been scoring for fun, in the Champions League they have not been at their sharpest.

Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that Manchester United have struggled in attack in the Champions League this season and they will need to improve their goalscoring record when they go up against rivals Chelsea in the Champions League quarter finals tonight if they fancy their chances of taking an advantage back to Old Trafford in the second leg.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side scored on average one goal for every nine shots in the Champions League compared to one in for every 5.6 in domestic games, and as a result have scored nearly twice as many goals per game.

Chelsea have won all three Premier League meetings with Manchester United since Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Stamford Bridge, with United scoring just two goals in the three games.

So if you are looking for goals it looks like the best bet maybe in the other game between favourites Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Lampard almost plays a free role when Chelsea play 4-3-3, making late runs into the penalty box as well as dropping back to start attacks with sweeping passes, sometimes from his own half,  whereas the diamond formation effectively pushes him further forward in a more confined role supporting the two strikers.

When Chelsea bought Nicolas Anelka in the 2008 January Transfer Window from Bolton I was sure it was a replacement for Didier Drogba who had hinted at a move to Italy.  And though Anelka and Drogba have successfully played together over the past few seasons, I still hold the belief they do not compliment each other’s play.  Anelka plays second fiddle whenever Drogba plays the central striker; and though their interplay can be very effective, Chelsea would only play either if they had another world class forward to choose from.

The arrival of Fernando Torres from Liverpool for £50 million, a British record transfer fee, is going to force Chelsea to reconsider playing 4-4-2 as playing Fernando Torres out of position would not strengthen Chelsea; and leaving Didier Drogba out of the team would be a loss.  If Chelsea can switch to a 4-4-2 and Drogba & Torres can become as much an effective partnership as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsson when they scored 50 goals in one season, then Chelsea could still be on for the treble this season.

Carlo Ancelotti wanted Torres last summer and apparently the deal could have been made if it wasn’t for Roman Abramovich’s reluctance to spend more of his money on buying world class footballers than booking pop stars for his New Years Eve Party!  But with his signing on the last day of the January Transfer Window, Fernando Torres is now set to make his Chelsea debut at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool; and you can get 22/1 for Fernando Torres to score the first goal and Chelsea to win 2-0.

Abramovich still appears to want the Champions League over a domestic trophy which is apparently why he over ruled the board of directors in appointing  Carlo Ancellotti over Mark Hughes.  Ancelotti has won the Champions League four times, twice as a player and twice as manager, with AC Milan.  And with Torres being legible to play in the forthcoming Champions League games, there was probably no other striker of his quality available, which underlines why Roman Abramovich was willing to hang over a barrel from his short and curlies to meet Liverpool’s £50 million price tag.

Oh, and if we are looking to spice up the game on Sunday as much as possible, let’s not forget it was Liverpool that humiliated Ancelotti’s AC Milan in that amazing Champions League final in Istanbul when they came back from 3-0 down and half-time to win 4-3.

Other betting has Chelsea third favourite to win the Premier League at 13/2 behind Manchester United (8/13) and Arsenal (11/4); or 150/1 to win the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League.  If Chelsea beat Liverpool on Sunday with signs that Torres and Drogba are as powerful a partnership on the field as they are on paper then expect those prices to begin to fall.

Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti and Roy Hodgson’s days are surely numbered after Blackburn Rovers thrashed Liverpool 3-1, West Ham was humiliated by Newcastle United 5-0 and Chelsea were embarrassed at Wolves whose 1-0 victory lifts them out of the relegation zone.

I think Roy Hodgson’s time was already up before the kick-off but this latest defeat may have the Liverpool owners turning to Kenny Dalglish as a caretaker manager until they can get a big name to take up the reins at Anfield.

Carlo Ancelotti and Chelsea’s poor run continued last night at Molineux.  It’s still amazing what has happened at Stamford Bridge since the sacking of Ray Wilkins. They started the season scoring for fun only to stumble and fall at the first serious challenge against Manchester City, and since then have never looked that confident.  If ever an English Premiership team could be compared to David Haye at the beginning of the season, only to fall from grace and turn into Audley Harrison midway through the season, Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea are that team!

Of the three managers things were looking brightest for Avram Grant this time yesterday afternoon.  I assume owners David Sullivan and David Gold may have been content with a draw against Newcastle at St. James Park until it was confirmed their first and second choice strikers, Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi, were both injured.  They must have expected West Ham to grab all three points, not get absolutely hammered 5-0 with some of the poorest defending I had seen on Match of the Day since the Liverpool game, thirty minutes earlier!

Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool to sack their managers in January, what are the odds on that?

For reasons of money, investment and past glories, it is easy to think of the aforementioned clubs as the five teams that still have a realistic chance of winning this season’s Premier League. But Spurs are only above Bolton Wanderers (who have a better goal difference) because Bolton could only manage a home draw with Blackpool on Saturday.  Both Bolton and Blackpool are playing really exciting football under the guidance of Owen Coyle and Ian Holloway respectively, and have been involved in some surprise results already this season.

So, as we head into December it is good to see there are only six points between the top 5 clubs, and the top half of the Premiership includes some surprises.  Liverpool can only scrape into the top half of the table on goal difference, ahead of two of last season’s promoted teams, Blackpool and West Brom. While ahead of them are Bolton (6th), Sunderland (7th), Stoke City (8th) and Newcastle United (9th).

Manchester United are top of the league for the first time this season after a 7-1 thrashing of Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford on Saturday.  It marked the return of Wayne Rooney to the starting line-up and also the best performance I have witnessed from Dimitar Berbatov since his move from Spurs.  Not only did the Bulgarian striker score five goals, his movement and link up play with Rooney was as sharp as I have seen.

Blackburn were awful but that takes nothing away from an excellent team performance by Man Utd who remain unbeaten this season but moreover have started to play better football and look like possible champions. Lest we forget, Manchester Utd have regularly started the season off slowly in recent years, only to make a charge for the Premiership title come the New Year.

Furthermore, United’s thrashing of Blackburn has meant they now have the same goal difference as Chelsea who started the season so well.

Defending champions Chelsea find themselves two points behind Manchester United after only being able to manage a draw against Newcastle at St James Park.  This follows defeats to Sunderland & Birmingham, and more importantly, the surprise sacking of assistant manager, Ray Wilkins, which has now been followed by the news that Frank Arneson has resigned and will leave his post as head talent scout at the end of the season.

It is clear that there is something wrong behind the scenes as well as on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, and though the return of John Terry, Michael Essein and Frank Lampard to the Chelsea team will help alleviate some of the problems Carlo Ancelotti is faces on the pitch with a team that were playing exciting football and looked invincible just a month or so ago, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Chelsea continue to implode over the coming weeks and months.

For the first time since July, I can muster a grin at the fact that I had a pre-season bet that Manchester United would win the Premier League this season.

Unable to put the shock of losing at home to Newcastle in the Carling Cup behind them, Chelsea’s free scoring goal machine ground to an abrupt halt at Eastlands on Saturday as Roberto Mancini’s men closed them down all over the park resulting in only a handful of chances coming the champions way.

Ironically it was Carlos Tevez, who had earlier in the week confirmed that he had been the subject of interest from the London club before signing for City, who provided the decisive goal to send the Blues to their first Premier League defeat.

Chelsea will be relying heavily on the current form of Florent Malouda as they go into the Champions League game, hoping that he can show the same form in front of goal as he has shown in the early part of this seasons EPL games.

Missing Didier Drogba through suspension, Chelsea will be relying on Malouda’s goal scoring expertise, following his six in as many games in the start to this season.

Castrol performance data suggests that Chelsea may well be susceptible to the prolific crossing of the French side, four of the six goals they have conceded in all competitions this season have come from wide balls and Marseille will look to exploit this weakness on Tuesday night.

Left full-back Taye Taiwo was the most prolific in that department against Spartak Moscow, completing five of his seven crosses. Balls whipped in from wide areas contributed to Marseille racking up the most headed shots (six, three of which came from Brazilian striker Brandao). Marseille have only lost one of their last five trips to England in European competition and any point at Stamford Bridge will be the perfect remedy after a disappointing start.

Chelsea meanwhile will be anxious to avoid their third defeat within a week and will need to dig deep into their reserves if they are to take the three points from Marseille. Although it would not be the end of the world for the Londoners to lose the game, Carlo Ancelloti’s job will be lot easier if Chelsea quickly get back to winning ways.