Arsenal vs. Manchester United

Danny Wellbeck gave Manchester United all three points at the Emirates this weekend to help Manchester United keep pace with rivals Manchester City at the top of the Barclays Premier League table. Antonio Valencia struck first with a header from a Ryan Giggs cross that put United ahead right before the halftime whistle in half that the Red Devils dominated from start to finish. Arsenal came out strong in the second half with chance after chance against a weakened United defense and finally got the break through from Robin Van Persie via a fantastic pass from Alex Oxlade Chamberlain who was impressive on his first start at the highest level for the Gunners. Things got interesting late on when Arsene Wenger controversially decided to remove Oxlade Chamberlain for the much maligned Andrei Arshavin. Alex Ferguson sent Antonio Valencia to right back to exploit this change and it paid dividends immediately after Valencia skinned Arshavin and squared it to Danny Wellbeck to give United all three points late on.

There were positives all over the pitch for United but it was Danny Wellbeck who stole the spotlight. Wellbeck has earned his starting spot and adds another element to the Manchester United attack especially compared to Javier Hernandez who offers little outside of his poaching instinct. His creative runs and quality in wide areas give defenders trouble constantly and had it not been for some last ditch defending he could have put the game to bed much earlier. There were doubts as to whether he was United quality after his Sunderland loan last season but he has put those doubts to rest with his performances this campaign and looks to have made the starting spot his own.

Chris Smalling, Antonio Valencia, and Michael Carrick, and Rafael Da Silva all impressed as well. Smalling looked imperious in his more natural position and is looking more and more like the perfect replacement for an aging Rio Ferdinand. Valencia continues to be as one dimensional as ever, but with devastating effect. Carrick kept it simple as usual but the midfield metronome has been instrumental in recent weeks with all the uncertainty over United's midfield. The Cleverley-Carrick midfield duo on paper is a mouth watering prospect and according to Toms recent tweets he isn't that far off a return to the first team. Rafael should be starting at this point and his performance as a substitute showed that much. The fact that right back is his natural position and he can attack like only a Brazilian full back can is reason enough to give him a run in the first team over the likes of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling who never look entirely convincing at right back.

The downward trend continues for Arsenal, unfortunately, as a top four finish looks increasingly unlikely as they move further and further away from the rest of the pack at the top. Wenger appears to have lost the plot and the the future of instrumental captain Robin Van Persie remains up in the air. Their lack of depth is being exposed at the toughest point of the season and it only gets tougher as resurgent Italian giants A.C Milan wait in the round of 16, another embarrassing result is on the cards unless Arsene brings in proper reinforcements.

Manchester United struggling.

Manchester United succumbed to defeat in Switzerland and went crashing out of the Champions League group stages becoming the first team to go out in the group stages after a Champions League Final the previous season. The loss has only increased the pressure on United after a slew of boring 1-0 wins in the domestic league.

Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young look bored and devoid of any creativity or drive, Nani is trying to be the superhero and is reverting back to the selfish play we saw years ago, the problems are endless. Sir Alex is in a sticky situation though as dropping these players would probably lead to the results getting even worse. Young has failed to impress since coming back from injury and hasn't registered an assist or goal in a United shirt since the home leg against the same Basel team over two months ago. Wayne Rooney isn't much better, having not made an offensive contribution since the away game at minnow Galati. Nani's stats are a lot better, having registered one goal and two assists since that same Galati game. But it's still not what we have come to expect as United fans from a player as talented as Nani.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about this loss is who SAF chose to start in central midfield behind Phil Jones. Ryan Giggs and workhorse Ji Sung Park conspired to produce one of the worst United midfield performances of all time. Giggs continually tried to thread the needle and play the Hollywood ball, he managed to create six chances which is decent but his incessant rushing of the play hurt United overall. Patience is needed in an away tie like this one where Basel were content putting ten men behind the ball and playing on the counter. Park was deployed a bit further forward than Giggs behind Rooney and looked just as clueless. The only notable thing he did all night was fall in the Basel penalty area and get all muddy. Jones takes less of the blame considering he did his job sweeping up in front of the back four well and was the biggest offensive threat from midfield despite being the deepest of the three.

The defense was solid and didn't deserve to concede two goals in all honesty. The decision by the referee to allow play to continue after a head injury occurred on Nemanja Vidic was questionable but there was no excuse for leaving Streller that open. The second goal was a result of young naive central defender Chris Smalling falling asleep and letting Frei sneak in behind him. He was out of position at right back and never looks convincing there but should have dealt with the cross better than he did.

Vidic was taken off on a stretcher and Sir Alex confirmed today that he will miss the remainder of the season. Which makes getting booted out of the Champions League a blessing in disguise for me, imagine playing against Barcelona or Real Madrid with Johnny Evans at center back? We would have been absolutely slaughtered.

Seriously?

I urge Ferguson to give Smalling and Jones a chance to form a partnership in the center of defense. They're the future and its time for Rio Ferdinand to pass the torch to the new guard. The experience in the big games domestically and in the Europa League will help them immensely and it looks unlikely that we will win either competition at this point with the other Manchester team running away with the league title and also being involved in the Europa League with their incredible squad depth.

This Weekend.

 A busy weekend came to a close yesterday and saw Manchester United finally open up a gap between the other Manchester club, Scudetto favorites A.C Milan fall in Naples, Jose Mourinho led Real Madrid fail to score against Barcelona impostors Levante for a second year running, and the Galaxy get that much closer to the MLS Supporters Shield.

In England the big talking point was the big Manchester United vs. Chelsea clash. It lived up to the hype, fans were treated to an extremely open match with tons of goal scoring opportunities for both sides. In the end Chelsea failed to take their chances and United ran out 3-1 winners with goals from Chris Smalling, Luis Nani, and Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney missed from the spot but it will be overlooked as he continues his scorching start to the season. He is on 9 goals and 1 assist after 5 games this season, his influence on this new younger United team cannot be overlooked. It's early days, but if he can maintain this form he will be the one challenging Messi at the end of the season for the Balon D'or and not former United player Cristiano Ronaldo. Elsewhere in England the promoted teams all won, the highlight was new look Q.P.R putting 3 past Wolves at  Molineux. New signings Joey Barton and Sean Wright-Phillips looked sharp in the thrashing, with Barton getting on the score sheet in the process. They look the most likely of the promoted sides to stay up after their  spending spree at the end of the transfer window.

In Italy current Scudetto holders A.C Milan were humbled by a rampant Napoli side who won 3-1. Edinson Cavani was the man of the match, the matador scored a hat trick to help his side roll past a Milan side that looked tired and devoid of any creativity without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Inter and Roma continue to struggle with new managers at the helm, as the sides played to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro. Roma looked the more likely to score but never manged to get one past Julio Cesar. Juventus continue to set the pace though after a tidy 1-0 win against promoted side Siena. Alessandro, Matri got the only goal of the game.

Barcelona made up for their two draws last week by thrashing Osasuna 8-0. Messi does what Messi does, putting 3 in for Barcelona. Real Madrid stumbled against a gutsy Levante side, losing 1-0. The talking point of the match came just before half time. Angel Di Maria was his usual theatrical self, and it cost his team in the end as Sammy Khedira pushed a Levante player in an attempt to come to Di Maria's aid despite the player not being in any pain or harm. He was already on a yellow, the push got him his second and Madrid were down to 10 men for the rest of the game. Madrid still managed to control the game but struggled to create clear cut chances against a resilient Levante side and the breakthrough came on a counterattack where Marcelo was caught out of position. On loan forward Arouna Kone scored the only goal which saw Madrid fall behind Barcelona for the first time this season. Is it already the end for Jose Mourinho and co.? It's too early to tell but with Barcelona having the upper hand in the Clasico's in recent times dropping points outside of those matches is really going to hurt Madrid's chances at dethroning Barcelona.

In MLS the playoff race heated up and LA got that much closer to its second consecutive Supporters Shield. Robbie Keane was on form against Vancouver and scored a goal and assisted one of Mike Magee's two goals as the Galaxy ran out 3-0 victors at the Home Depot Center. Questions will be raised about the referee denying Vancouver a penalty just before the Galaxies first goal though. This Galaxy team has been head and shoulders above everyone else for a second year running now, but it will all be for nothing unless the Galaxy can make a deep postseason run and make it to the MLS Cup Final which will be at their house this year. Anything less than an MLS Cup will be a failure for Bruce Arena's men.

Paul Scholes testimonial

The Paul Scholes testimonial match kicks off in 30 minutes, it signals the end of Manchester United's pre-season and it also signals the rebirth of the New York Cosmos franchise who will be looking to enter MLS within the next few seasons.

Expect this to be a boring match, the Cosmos are made up of a combination of world class veterans (Cannavaro, McBride, Pires) and some players from the Cosmos youth ranks. Expect United to play a reserve team with an eye towards the big Community Shield match on Sunday against arch rivals Manchester City, any injuries this late into the pre-season could be disastrous for Sir Alex and co. so expect very short cameos from the top players in this game.

Today's Action

Sounders vs. Manchester United
The red hot Sounders welcome Manchester United to CenturyLink field as part of the World Football Challenge tonight on FSC. The Sounders are perhaps the team most capable of causing and upset in all of tonight's action. Designated player Fredy Montero will improve on his great form over the past couple of weeks and Osvaldo Alonso will show everyone why he should have been on the All Star team to take on Manchester United.

Los Angeles vs. Columbus
The top team in MLS welcomes the Columbus Crew to the HDC tonight in what looks to be a pretty straight forward match on paper. The Galaxy are yet to lose at home this season and are riding a 12 game unbeaten run. I think a draw or a narrow one nil win for the Galaxy are in order especially after some poor results in the World Football Challenge and US Open Cup.

Real Madrid vs. Chivas USA
Not much to say about this one, I expect Real Madrid to wipe the floor with Chivas USA days after beating the Galaxy 4-1. This Chivas teams is one of the poorest in MLS and this Madrid team showed no mercy to the Galaxy.

Also, FSC has picked up the WPS match between the Western New York Flash and MagicJack. Around 15,000 are expected to be in attendance for this game welcoming back the USWNT stars. Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, and Marta will all be on show in New York tonight.