The game lived up to expectations and was full of goals and incidents.  Vincent Kompany’s two-footed challenge was in every way a fantastic, clean tackle.  He won the ball and didn’t touch the player.

However, both feet were off the floor.  To the letter of the law, that is a red card offence.  Ridiculous though it may be, the referee had to make a split second decision, and got it spot on.  Even though a red card is unwarranted for such a clean challenge that in no way was reckless or dangerous.

Man City were clearly shaken at losing their influential captain in the 12th minute not long after conceding an early headed goal from Wayne Rooney.

Ferguson and Manchester United fans were probably looking to avenge the thrashing from earlier in the season when they found themselves 3-0 at half-time.  But in the second-half Manchester City showed how far they have come as a team rather than a group of individual players and fought back to within an inch of saving the game.

A brilliant free-lick from Aleksandar Kolarov gave the blue half of Manchester hope while Paul Scholes was introduced to tighten up the midfield.  Unfortunately a lack of match fitness showed, and when Aguerro scored a second, it was City that looked the more likely to score again.

It ended 3-2 to Manchester United who will now face Liverpool in the Fourth Round.

Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town caused the upset of the round as they beat Premier League Wigan; and when Sam Allardyce announced a weakened West Ham team, it wasn’t a surprise to see League One promotion contenders Sheffield Wednesday win through to the next round.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

•    Brighton or Wrexham v Newcastle
•    Sunderland v Middlesbrough
•    Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall v Southampton
•    Hull City v Crawley Town
•    MK Dons or QPR v Chelsea
•    West Brom v Norwich
•    Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday
•    Arsenal or Leeds v Aston Villa
•    Stevenage v Notts County
•    Watford v Tottenham
•    Liverpool v Manchester United
•    Derby v Stoke
•    Everton v Fulham
•    Macclesfield or Bolton v Swansea
•    Sheffield United v Birmingham or Wolves
•    Nottingham Forest or Leicester v Swindon

All matches to be played over the weekend of the 28th & 29th January.  Too soon for a Suarez v Evra rematch. Though don’t be too surprised if Sir Alex Ferguson is calling Edwin Van Der Sar & Peter Schmeichel.

What with Chelsea continuing to stutter under the ‘leadership’ of Andre Villas-Boas as he attempts to stake a strong air of Mourinho-like authority and dampen any dissenting voices from the old guard, going into the Christmas period it seemed that Manchester United & Manchester City were going to sprint away from the chasing pack.  That was until last weekend when both clubs lost.

Unfortunately for the chasing pack didn’t take full advantage.

After scoring no less than 10 goals against Fulham & Wigan, Manchester United lost at home to bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers 3-2. Take nothing away from Blackburn whose mix of young and experienced players appeared to be playing out of their skins for under-fire manager Steve Kean, Manchester United were shocking; and Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave Wayne Rooney out of the squad for some petty disciplinary decision backfired.  Why when it comes to Ferguson making blatant mistakes do football pundits & journalists alike not tell it as it is? Yes he’s the most successful manager English football has ever seen.  But when he gets it wrong, say so!

Chelsea & Tottenham failed to capitalise on Man Utd losing points (Chelsea lost at home to Aston Villa 3-1 & Spurs drew with Swansea 1-1), leaving Arsenal as the only top 6 team to win last Saturday.

To cap a weekend of surprising results in the Premier League, Manchester City failed to take advantage of Ferguson & United’s blunder on Monday, knowing that winning at Sunderland would have opened a three point gap at the top.  But they failed to beat a rejuvenated Sunderland on Monday as Martin O’Neil continued to steer the Black Cats away from the threat of relegation & into the top half of the Premier League.

As the busy Christmas & New Year fixtures reached a final round of matches this week there were wins for Manchester City (Liverpool 3-0), Spurs (West Brom 1-0) & Sunderland away to Wigan 4-1 on Tuesday; and yesterday was a chance for Bolton to start the New Year with a win and for Man Utd to make amends for ending 2011 with their tail firmly between their legs.

Bolton was captained by Gary Cahill at Goodison Park as they took on an Everton side that included American Landon Donovan in his second loan spell from LA Galaxy. Cahill was probably playing his last match for the North-east side before moving to London.  Though it was interesting to see Harry Redknapp & his chief scout at Goodison, as personal talks between Cahill & Chelsea appear to have stalled.  I expect Redknapp to do everything in his power to sign Gary Cahill. The decision I believe is going to be down to Cahill.

The match produced the most bizarre goal of the season as Tim Howard hoofed a big clearance downfield only for the ball to get caught up in the gusty wind & end up in the Bolton net.  Howard becomes only the fourth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League after Brad Friedel, Peter Schmeichel & Paul Robinson.

The other Premier League game saw Manchester Utd travel to St. James Park (yes, I kmow its been renamed!). Newcastle were in the midst of a bad run with only one win in their last three games, so I was thoroughly expecting Manchester Utd to hit them for four.  Wayne Rooney started along with Dimitar Berbatov.  But United played worse than they did last Saturday.  While Newcastle played with confidence and bossed the midfield.  Alan Pardew’s Newcastle went on to win 3-0.  Another shock result. United have leaked 6 goals in two games.  But more than anything else I believe they are missing a midfield general.  I wonder what Paul Scholes thought of Man Utd’s performance.

At the weekend Manchester United play Manchester City in the FA Cup.  I can’t wait!

I don’t think anyone could have expected Liverpool to be so poor.  They never got off the bus, as one cliché goes; and Spurs took full advantage by playing fast, fluid football, the best I’ve seen them play since last season’s Champions League matches against Inter Milan.

Liverpool finished the match with nine players after two yellow cards were shown to Charlie Adam and Lucas respectively.  But the way they were playing, Liverpool wouldn’t have won if they had finished with their whole squad on the pitch!

In between the first and last matches of the day, Manchester City threw away a two goal lead at Fulham, and even more surprising was Sunderland thrashing Stoke 4-0 at the Stadium Of Light.

So confident were the bookmakers Paddy Power of a Manchester United victory, they were offering money back on all losing bets, if Chelsea won.

So many times matches like this one are hyped to ridiculous levels and fall short on entertainment value but this was a corker.  Chelsea performed well with an attacking formation.  Andre Villas-Boas continued with the young strike force of Fernando Torres, Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge.

The weakest link was Frank Lampard who looked off the pace and lacking confidence. Lampard was substituted at half term as Man Utd were amazing leading 3-0 even though the end-to-end game was anything but one sided, with Chelsea having their fare share of possession and more shots on goal.

Minutes into the second half and Fernando Torres was put through one on one against former Athletico Madrid team-mate David de Gea.

Torres showed his growing confidence with a deft chip.  He was put through again and once more showed great skill to beat de Gea, only to shoot wide in front of an open goal.  It was this which courted the headlines, rather than Torres playing well and Wayne Rooney missing a penalty as he slid and landed on his bottom, reminiscent of John Terry’s penalty miss in the Champions League Final against Manchester United in Moscow.

As for Arsenal, they through away a lead to lose 4-3 to Blackburn Rovers.  Pressure continues to grow on Arsene Wenger as the main question appears to be not whether he should keep his position but who Arsenal could possibly replace him with.

Manchester Utd were awesome and deserved the win though Andre Villas-Boas tactic to attack United rather than sit back almost paid off.

They are now two points clear at the top of the Premier League and the only team in the division with maximum points.  In past seasons they have been slow out of the blocks and finish strongly.  This season it could be all over by Christmas!

Roberto Mancini’s Man City must have thought they had done enough when they put five past Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the early afternoon kick-off, which had Harry Redknapp blaming Chelsea for their poor start to the season.  Sami Nasri made his debut and alongside David Silva helped the blue side of Manchester completely outplay Spurs.

Upfront Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko were chosen ahead of Carlos Tevez & Mario Balotelli as it happened this was to be the game that all doubters of Edin Dzeko’s ability were to eat their words, as the Bosnian striker scored four goals with a truly sublime performance; and for the first time I witnessed why Manchester City paid £27m last January.

Manchester City’s demolition of Spurs followed a 3-2 away win at Bolton and a convincing 4-0 home win against newly promoted Swansea>  But it was the thrashing of Spurs who finished fifth last season suggests City have stepped up another gear as they look likely to be the only serious Premier League contenders to Man Utd.

Whatever Man City can do, Manchester United can do better!

After whipping Spurs 3-0 at Old Trafford last week it was the turn of north London rivals Arsenal to enter the Theatre Of Dreams; and with a new look Man Utd brimming with Barcelona-style confidence it was a bad time for a depleted Arsenal side without a handful of first-team regulars and the loss of Sami Nasri & Cesc Fabregas, I don’t think anyone apart from the most blinkered of Arsenal fans expected anything but a comfortable home win.  But no one was expecting 8-2!

8-2 and it could have so easily been more.  Wayne Rooney hit the post and Wojciech Szczesny was one of the only Arsenal players who could seriously hold his head up after what was such a humiliating defeat that Arsenal FC have apologised and offered all fans that made the trip a free away game ticket.

I am confident that Arsenal’s troubles are not going to disappear that quickly, and along with Tottenham were left at the weekend scratching their heads wondering if someone has put something in the Manchester water supply.

Of the other so-called ‘big six’ teams, Chelsea looked laboured, slow and obvious in their play until new signings Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku were introduced in the second-half as they eventually beat off Norwich at Stamford Bridge 3-1, while Liverpool continue to forge ahead under the leadership of King Kenny Dalglish as they beat Bolton 3-1 at Anfield.

It’s been a great start to the Premier League, and one thing is for sure, the Premier League champions will be from Manchester.

Amazingly Man Utd went into the game without Rio Ferdinand & Nemanja Vidic.  But Phil Jones, Johnny Evans and Chris Smalling joined Patrice Evra along with new goalkeeper David de Gea in keeping a weak Spurs attack with Jermain Defoe offering no threat as the lone striker.

In fact, if it wasn’t for veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel, playing his league debut, Spurs could have lost by a whole lot more.

Both City and United have now won back to back Premier League matches and have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the chasing pack.  After this display, is anyone foolish enough to bet on the Premier League title going anywhere else but Manchester come May?

The only team to soak up the pressure for 80 minutes and then attack Barcelona in the last 10 minutes with any success were Arsenal at the Emirates. So, yes it can be done and Barcelona are beatable.  But can Manchester United play such a tight disciplined game?

Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola has singled-out Wayne Rooney as the main threat, and it’s true to say Manchester United have been on a role since Wayne Rooney returned to form.  But don’t underestimate the sheer brilliance of Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez who has formed a great striking partnership with Rooney which has seen Premier League top goals corer and big sulky pants Dimitar Berbatov sidelined for much of 2011.

If Ferguson is true to his word, he will name both Rooney & Hernandez in an attacking formation of 4-4-2 with Rooney dropping into midfield for a 4-5-1 when they lose possession.  The plan will only succeed if Man Utd can keep this up for the whole game and in the process saturate the midfield and suffocate the genius of Xavi & Iniesta as they look for space to feed Lionel Messi between the midfield and defence. But it only needs one sloppy pass or one moments’ lack of concentration and Barcelona can punish even the best of sides, which is what beat Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho’s plan in both legs of the semi-final.

When the two teams met in the 2009 Champions League Final in Rome Manchester United started brightly enough but were punished after just 10 minutes by a Samuel Eto’o goal and completely outplayed by the better side.  Barcelona went on to win 2-0 with Messi, the smallest player on the pitch, heading a second goal in the 70th minute.

Wembley is a fitting stadium for the final as it was where both teams were first crowned champions of Europe.  Barcelona beat Sampdoria in 1992 1-0 and for Manchester United, who were the first English team to win the European Cup (as it was called), beat Benfica 4-1 after extra-time in 1968.  That day they managed to stop the brilliance of Eusebio.  But in fairness they did have Bobby Charlton, George Best & Denis Law!

For the neutral a Barcelona v Manchester United Champions League Final promises to be an exciting open and high scoring game.  3-2 would be good. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations.

As for Bolton Wanderers reaching the other semi-final in the same year legend Nat Lofthouse died, well it seemed almost written in the stars that it would be apt if there was a repeat of the 1958 FA Cup final when Nat Lofthouse helped Bolton beat Manchester United 2-0.
I was pretty confident both semi-finals played at Wembley last weekend would be tight but exciting matches.  On Saturday Man Utd started the brighter, and if Dimitar Berbetov had scored one of his two early chances, the game would have taken on a completely different path.  As it was, Man City weathered the initial storm and gradually began to dominant the game.  Every Manchester City player worked hard, even Mario Balotelli, but the difference was David Silva.  He managed to boss the midfield while Joe Hart showed touches of brilliance to keep United at bay.

Even after an early second half goal (Yaya Toure, 59 minutes), City continued to pressurise United and kept control of the game.  Paul Scholes didn’t help the cause by being sent off for a trademark late challenge that left a calling card on Pablo Zabaleta’s thigh.

So with one surprise already complete I sat down on Sunday to watch the second Wembley semi-final between the much fancied Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City.   What happened next was the most one-sided semi-final I have ever seen, in any competition … in any sport!
Not only were Stoke City 3-0 up within 30 minutes but they looked likely to score every time they looked at the Bolton goal, let alone had a shot.  The normally dependable Jussi Jaaskelainen could have done better with every goal but he wasn’t helped by the whole Bolton team who looked stagestruck!

Bolton were truly shocking but I couldn’t believe it when supporters began filing out after less than one third of the game considering the expense of the ticket and the hours they had spent travelling down to north London. Stoke City went on to win 5-0 though it could have been more.

The last time Tony Pulis was at Wembley was in the League One play-off match as manager of Gillingham.  With 10 minutes to go they were leading 2-0 only to let in two late goals and eventually lose on penalties.  The opponents on that day were Manchester City.  Must has changed in the lives of Tony Pulis and Manchester City since then but for Pulis, revenge would be sweet.

Even though they are one of the oldest clubs in the English Football League, Saturday 14th May will be Stoke City’s first appearance in an FA Cup final.  They will start the game as massive underdogs and know Manchester City will not be overawed by the big occasion. The size of the pitch should suit Manchester City, but that’s what pundits were said about Bolton Wanderers.

On Tuesday Tottenham Hotspur suffered from a sore throat, a psychotic striker and a 4-0 thrashing by Real Madrid in the Bernabeu Stadium; while the current European Champions, Inter Milan suffered a shocking 5-2 stuffing by Schalke 04 who are currently mid-table in the German Bundesliga.  Both Spurs and Inter Milan had a man sent-off.

Barcelona look set to meet Real Madrid in the semi-finals after a comfortable 5-1 win in the Nou Camp against Ukranian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.  While the all-English tie at Stamford Bridge last night was always destined to be a tight game, but it was far from cagey.

Chelsea had three spells in the game where they looked threatening, the start and end of the first half and the final few minutes, where they should have been awarded a penalty for a challenge on Ramires by Patrice Evra who, as the last defender, should have received the red card.  The penalty wasn’t given which evens up the poor decision that went in Chelsea’s favour in last month’s Premier League match.

Despite constant booing and a couple of late challenges, Wayne Rooney was on his best behaviour and scored the winning goal after a great cutback from Man Utd legend Ryan Giggs.

The second leg ties will be played next Tuesday (Man United v Chelsea & Shakhtar Donetsk v Barcelona) and Wednesday (Spurs v Real Madrid & Schalke 04 v Inter Milan).

Though Chelsea beat Manchester United in the Premier League 2-1  last season, I would be very surprised if they join Real Madrid, Barcelona & Schalke 04 in the Champions League semi-finals.

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.

Sports betting fans knew that the game had little meaning overall in the grand scheme of things but as friendlies go, the game was played at high tempo and though neither team were committed to 50-50 challenges, the game was a good test for both England and Denmark before their next European Championship qualifying matches against local opposition in Wales and Norway, respectively.

18-year-old Christian Eriksen used the game as a shop window for all Premier League teams to sit up and take notice of this teenager midfield general currently playing his football with Ajax; and after a magnificent performance I would be surprised if he doesn’t follow his former team-mate Luis Suarez with a move to England in the summer.

There were several Premier League players in the Denmark team including Stoke City goalkeeper Thomas Sorenson and Liverpool’s Christian Poulsen and Daniel Agger.  Agger opened the scoring with a great headed cross though it was helped by poor defending by Michael Dawson.

After falling behind 1-0 in the seventh minute, England quickly responded just three minutes later. Wayne Rooney crossed a great pass from left to right, finding Theo Walcott on the edge of the Denmark goal area.  Walcott’s determination to get a cross in left him with a cut eye from a flailing arm. The ball was drilled across the six yard line and met by Darren Bent in the 10th minute.

As with all international friendlies, Fabio Capello had agreed to use six substitutes and only play 45 minutes to certain key players. It was apparent that Capello was doing his best to keep on good terms with the teams in the Champions League as the substitutes were made.  Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, Tottenham’s Michael Dawson, Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere and Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney were all substituted.

Two more Aston Villa forwards joined Darren Bent in the second half, Ashley Young and  Stewart Downing; and they combined with Glen Johnson for Ashley Young to score his first international goal and the winner for England in a good second half performance.

Jack Wilshere had an impressive 45 minutes before being substituted at half time, even though he was played as a holding midfielder.  Whether this was Capello’s plan to see if a young Wilshere who loves to go forward was disciplined enough to play simple passes and keep his position or just a way of fitting him in alongside more seasoned midfielders Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott and James Milner, it marked Jack Wilshere’s arrival as an England player.