A Bull Fight

How many superstars does it take to score a goal? Apparently twelve because the eleven Barcelona put on the pitch in yesterday's 0-0 Champions League match against Rangers were useless. Barcelona has always been one of my favourite European sides, and now more than ever with a stellar line up including the likes of Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Gio Dos Santos, Eidur Gudjohnsen,Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, plus the former Dutch international Frank Rijkhaard at the helm. No strangers to goal scoring, how is it none of the superstar strikers put a ball in the net? Ranger's defence was good but really. Ronaldinho had moments of brilliance and came closer than anyone to scoring. At least he appeared to be trying. Unlike his teammate and usually great goal scorer Thierry Henry who was for the most part invisible, so invisible I wondered if he was slipping over to the Arsenal vs Slavia game and scoring goals for his former team. Talk about going from the ridiculous to the sublime - Arsenal beat Slavia 7-nil. Of the 8 Champions League games played yesterday, two really stood out to me. One for what did happen and the other for what didn't. One of Barcelona's newest stars didn't light up the pitch, and his old team Arsenal proved the show must go on and pretty damn well without him. No doubt Henry made the right move going to Spain's often dazzling side, however is sharing the spotlight with so many other stars going to put a damper on his flare? Rangers put up a good fight warding off Barcelona's tempered weapons. It reached a point where I was praying they would score. Barry Ferguson had a few good chances; if only his legs had been a bit longer. I wanted them desperately to take the bull by the horns. It would have been a sweet victory. So how many superstars does it take to score a goal? Probably only one, as long as the rest stay in the wings.

The Great Dane

is what Manchester City's Kasper Schmeichel's dad Peter Schmeichel was affectionately known as. That and probably Manchester United's greatest goal keeper. It looks like that greatness runs in the family because Man City's young goalie was the star of the show today against the Gunners. Man City didn't get any balls into Arsenals net but Schmeichel prevented a hell of a lot of goals against Man City's. Arsenal had hundreds of chances to score but just couldn't get the ball past the rugged Danish goalie. The play of the game though was when Arsenal were awarded a penalty kick, hmm, funny how they always manage things like that, Fabregas looked more than confident when he hammered the ball and certainly joined the rest of his team in looking stunned when Schmeichel easily saved it. Stellar. Fabregast got his revenge in the 80th minute and walloped the first goal against Man City since the beginning of the season past the disappointed Schmeichel. One out of say ten, sure isn't bad. Not to be outdone, in the dying minutes of the game Schmeichel joined his team in the Gunner's penalty box and almost headed a corner kick into their opponents net. Then ran back to the other end of the pitch to pick up his post. That's some well-rounded player. They lost 1-nil to Arsenal but under the leadership of the infamous Sven-Goran Eriksson and with the 'Other Great Dane' in net, Manchester City's future look's quite bright.

Speaking of bright futures, oh, guess who is at the top of the standings now - here's a hint - Chelsea!! Hurrah!