David Mankellow

Barcelona

If there is one small positive in Chelsea not being in the Champions League it’s the fact that I can simply enjoy it. I can look at it simply as a neutral, something I haven’t been able to do for a while. Chelsea went out fair and square so I don’t feel aggrieved either. This makes for good, impartial Champions League blogging!

Tonight (30^th March 2010) we have Bayern Munich Vs Man United along with Lyon Vs Bordeaux. Tomorrow we have Arsenal Vs Barcelona as well as Inter Vs CSKA Moscow. For obvious reasons i’m really looking forward to the United and Arsenal games. They are both mouth-watering but for the football purist it’s Arsenal Vs Barcelona that is the eye-catcher. The idiot that is Michel Platini will be purring in his lair (or probably at the game) watching, hoping that the best team that is not English wins!

Let’s take a look at the favourites left. In my opinion they are Man United, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern and Inter. In my opinion that list could be whittled down to exclude Bayern and Arsenal. Bayern Munich don’t have the squad or defensive guile to win the CL and Arsenal have shown time and time again this season that at the very top they can’t quite cut it.

Last year everyone (myself included) was making comparisons between Ronaldo and Messi, clash of the titans, Hakkinen and Schumacher, McEnroe and Connors, Eastenders and Corrie. This year is no different, Rooney Vs Messi. This type of thing always annoys me a little. There are so many good players on display! It’s always the fashionable ones that get all of the press time. Darren Fletcher is as valuable to United as anyone this season but somehow I don’t think it’s going to be billed as “Fletcher Vs Van Bommel” tonight, not quite the same ring as “Rooney Vs Ribery”. At this stage of the Champions League the teams with the best defences will come out on top, fact.

I have to say i’m looking forward to the game tomorrow. Seeing just how Arsenal’s way of playing pits against the front runners of flowing passing football. I think that the Barcelona team of the season isn’t quite as good as last seasons. I genuinely believe that Eto’o is the better striker in the Ibrahimovic/ Eto’o swap deal. Ibrahimovic seems to float in and out of games and I’ve yet to see him play remotely well in the Champions League when it counts. Henry is a year older and I don’t think he’s improving these days but young Pedro looks to be one to watch out for. Messi needs no explanation and I have to say i’ll enjoy seeing Campbell trying to stop him! In midfield Iniesta is a huge miss. He is one of the most intelligent midfielders in the world and any player(s) that can keep Fabregas out of the Spain side is a very good player indeed. This is also a superb test to see how good some of the Arsenal players are. I think that players with question marks over them should relish this test. Players like Bendtner, Walcott, Song, Diaby, Denilson all should want to prove their worth at this level and there’s nothing like playing the best team in the world to do so.