After its brief winter break, La Liga recommenced this weekend, with important wins for what is now the top three: Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid.

FC Barcelona 3 – 1 Real Mallorca

Barcelona started the weekend on Saturday evening, at home to Real Mallorca.  Lionel Messi was rested, so Alexsandr Hleb started on the right.  Another player familiar to English fans, Eidur Gudjohnsen, made only his sixth league start of the season.  While it was not Barca’s strongest starting eleven, the Camp Nou was shocked as Mallorca took an early lead through Aritz Aduriz. 

Even a side as good as Barcelona miss a player of Messi’s quality, and their play lacked the spark Messi provides.  When they did equalise, it was from exploiting the second ball from a corner, Thierry Henry smashing it home from a tight angle. 

A relatively pedestrian second half improved with the introduction of Dani Alves and Andrés Iniesta, the latter for the lacklustre Hleb.  And it was Iniesta, returning from months out injured, who put Barca ahead with fifteen minutes left.  He started a move from the left, which went through Xavi and Eto’o before he got on the end of Gudjohnsen’s cross to slot home.  Yaya Touré scored the third in stoppage time, with a nice run and shot.

Valencia 3 – 1 Atlético Madrid

One of the ties of the weekend, between two sides separated only by goal difference.  With thirty points from the first sixteen games, they were both strong contenders for the 2009/10 Champions League places.

As good as the pairing of Diego Forlan and Sergio Agüero has been this year, they were outshone and outdone by Valencia’s front two, Davids Silva and Villa.  It was Villa who put Valencia ahead with a penalty on 34 minutes, won by Baraja’s exaggerated fall.  It was Villa’s thirteenth league goal of the season.  Valencia went two ahead five minutes later, as Miguel burst down the right and found David Silva, who finished with the outside of his left boot.

Atlético pulled one back in first half stoppage time, Diego Forlan converting a penalty.  Baraja received the booking he should have got for his earlier dive after pushing over Kun Agüero in the box.  There was no serious second half fightback thought from Atlético, pinned back as they were by Joaquin and Mata on the wings.  David Silva scored Valencia’s third on 68 minutes with a great strike from twenty five yards out.

Real Madrid 1 – 0 Villareal

The big story was the debuts of Real’s two £20m Christmas presents, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra.  Diarra partnered Gago in central midfield, in the absence of Guti.  Huntelaar replaced the flu-struck Gonzalo Higuaín up front with Raúl.

But the star performance was from Arjen Robben.  The former Chelsea winger is having his best season yet at the Bernabeu, and started this game from the right wing, rather than his usual outside-left role.  While Raul and Huntelaar were kept quiet, Robben gave left back Joan Capdevila a torrid time, racing past him both inside and out.

It was when he came inside onto his left foot that he produced the game’s one moment of exceptional quality, dropping his shoulder and beating three defenders before finding the top corner from twenty yards out.  It was a ludicrously good goal, and a hint that when form and fitness are on his side, Arjen Robben is not very far away from the Ronaldo/Messi bracket.

The rest of the game was less good.  Iker Casillas had to make a few very good saves, as the Heinze-Pepe-Cannavaro-Ramos back four again looked less good on the pitch than it does on paper.  Royston Drenthe came on for Huntelaar with forty minutes left and proved that, if he does make his unlikely move, Jermaine Pennant will not be the worst ever player to play for Real Madrid.

Picture the scene – its the 24th of March, 2009, and at Anfield, with minutes remaining, Spurs are holding Liverpool to a 2-2 draw. A Jermaine Defoe double for Spurs had given Tottenham an early lead, stunning a packed and expecting Anfield. Torres got one back before half time, and Gomes returned to beginning-of-the-season form to gift Robbie Keane an open goal after attempting to nutmeg him in his own box. With the Man United players nervously waiting on the final result from Liverpool, Steven Gerrard steps up and pings (surely the only word to describe his immaculate technique) a 30 yard volley into the top corner, past a spralling Gomes, to bring the League title back to Liverpool. Kristian, another 12:45 blogger, begins his week long bender, and the whole of Liverpool (the red half at least) erupts in ectasy, but also relief. It has been too long. Now, finally, Liverpool can relax.

Certaintly, this could happen. Over christmas, Liverpool seem to have stepped up their performances, a sure sign of a title winning side – slowly going up the gears, scoring more goals, playing with more confidence, and this is with Torres to come back. Even the Gerrard fiasco might create a siege mentality that will help the club. Yet, I still feel there is a time bomb of emotion at Liverpool. You can see a ‘St. Andrews’ moment occurring, just like Arsenal last season, when in one moment, the Clichy mistake, they capitulated. For Arsenal there was too much emotion in the dressing room, too many fiery characters, which were inflamed by Clichy and the terrible injury to Eduardo. For Liverpool, you sense that the fans, who are, it pains me to admit, the best in the country, want the league title so much, that their emotion and passion could explode on the pitch. Maybe Liverpool lack the calm ruthlessness of Manchester United and Chelsea, who are used to winning league, and know how to pick up those 1-0 wins, who will not feel the heat as much as at Anfield if they go one nil down at home. This is just a gut instinct, maybe just because I have never seen a Liverpool captain lift the title. But the club, built on such strong emotional attachment with their players, might succumb to the inevitable pressure of the more sanitised franchise of Manchester United.

Meanwhile, in the midlands, Aston Villa are celebrating champions league football next season, to the despair of Arsenal fans, although they have known their fate for some time. Villa fans, however, will be brought back down to earth by Gareth Barry who still hands in a transfer request, and ends up signing for Liverpool, mainly to play with his mate Gerrard. Arsenal lose Adebayor to A.C. Milan for 23 million, but, just, hold on to Cesc Fabregas with a long term, and expensive contract. Wenger turns down the chance to jump ship to Real Madrid and pledges to rebuild a quality, title winning team at the Emirates.

There are tears in the Midlands aswell, as West Brom are once again relegated. Fans blame the board rather than the promosing Tony Mobwray. Stoke head back to the championship aswell, after realising that long throws will only take you so far. Hull also finish in the bottom three. Phil Brown cuts a ridiculous figure, after claiming ‘no Phil Brown side will go down’. This pompous, self-important, over-rated, orange coach never manages in the Premiership again.  

As for Spurs, we’ll probably win the Carling cup, and dream of a top four finish. This season, this season…

League Champions: Manchester United

F.A Cup: Manchester United

Carling Cup: Tottenham Hotspur

Champions League: Barcelona

• Manchester United to beat Liverpool to the title by three or four points.  The decision to drop Berbatov and re-unite Rooney and Tevez up front is seen as the catalyst.  Michael Carrick to win Writers’ Player of the Year.  PFA Player of the Year for a heart broken Steven Gerrard.  PFA Young Player to Ashley Young, who guides Aston Villa to fourth place.

• Barcelona to sweep all before them.  Narrowly miss out on 100 La Liga points (96? 98?), but to breeze past 100 league goals.  Eto’o will score more than 30 of them, Henry and Messi roughly 20 each.  Will win the Champions League in Rome, and maybe the Copa del Rey as well.  Leo Messi to win the 2009 Ballon d’Or.

• Mike Ashley sees that Barca’s great success is built on the appointment of a recently retired playing legend as manager.  He appoints Alan Shearer  in the summer, calling him ‘the Geordie Guardiola’.  Shearer is sacked before Christmas, with four points from his first fifteen games.  Big Al’s assisstant, Rob Lee, takes over as caretaker.  Who’d have thought that Ameobi and Rob Hulse wouldn’t work up front? 

• The Republic, inspired by the return of Stevie Ireland to international football, to beat Bulgaria, Georgia and Montenegro to seal second place in Group 8 and go through to the play offs for World Cup qualification.  Scotland lose in Holland and in Norway and only finish third in Group 9.  England finish with 28 points from a possible 30. 

• Man City buy Kaka, David Villa and Sergio Ramos in the summer, at a combined cost of over £120million.  New manager Frank Rijkaard still finds a way to fit Michael Ball and Darius Vassell into the side.

Apparently it was worse than the 8-1 at the Riverside last season. 

The main problem with City this season is the short-term damage done by Hughes’ casting himself as the anti-Eriksson.  A revolution in attitude, approach and training methods followed, and with it a squad divided between those for and against the new management. 

On his side, Hughes has Kompany, Zabaleta, Ireland, Wright-Phillips and maybe Robinho.  Those who prospered under Eriksson though – Hamann, Elano, Dunne, Richards, Hart, Gelson and Vassell – apparently can’t stand him.

And so when we’re without Ireland, Robinho and SWP, as we were yesterday, we are left only with players of the Eriksson era and before.  Elano and Gelson (Sven buys) started in midfield, up front were Sturridge (just 19), Caicedo (Sven buy) and Vassell (Pearce buy). 

No wonder they didn’t perform.  Hughes has spent all season talking of clearing out dead wood, of turning over the tables of Eriksson’s lazy and complacent side.  Who could have thought that he would have to rely on the Eriksson squad in an FA Cup third round tie? After the game Hughes tore into the players, publicly and bitterly.  But next up is Pompey away, Ireland is suspended and SWP is injured.  We’ll play Vassell and Elano and lose.  And the cycle will repeat again.

A lack of flair. Not the sort of accusation usually levelled at Wenger’s men. Yet this season it’s one of many things lacking. No creativity, no invention, no spark.

Today’s FA cup tie against Plymouth however, gave a chance to see something different. With chief pedestrian culprit Denilson out with injury in stepped the rather less regulation Aaron Ramsey.

Ramsey possesses superb quick feet, and admirable range of passing and most importantly some genuine invention. He takes men on, shoots on sight and plays the sort of quick one touch passing that has made Arsenal so irresistible in the past.

Not to suggest of course that he is the current solution. Ramsey just turned 18 on Boxing Day and like many players quite so inexperienced gives the ball away rather a lot; but at least he gives it away trying something rather more regulation than a 5 yard pass backwards.

It’s no surprise that the difference between the two sides today was Robin van Persie, whose ability to make something out of nothing, especially the turn to help provide the second goal was a clear example of the sort of ingenuity needed at the highest level.

Admittedly Arsenal are currently robbed of much of their creativity and spark with Rosicky, Walcott and of course Fabregas absent. Yet with all of these out for a fair while Wenger must either bring in someone with such spark or put the faith in his young guns to avoid facing months of slow paced, tepid performances while the injuries subside.

Arsenal fail when their football hits snails pace and becomes predictable. Inventive, fast passing is what makes their football irresistible and so hard to stop and Wenger’s decision this month must reflect this reality if any silverware is to be chased.

…has started well for Tottenham. It was a bad last month of 2008 which ended with a worrying string of results and performances that reminded Tottenham fans of the chaos and lack of direction that was so prominent in the Ramos-era.

We looked one-dimensional against Fulham, with a forlorn and desperate Darrem Bent up-front on his own, unable to win anything in the air, or in the channels and Luka Modric trying his hardest floating behind. ‘Arry’s decision to base Tottenham’s whole attacking play through the undoubted talent of Modric was becoming stale and obvious. We lacked any penetration or subtlety, with Lennon the only player to really cause any problems.

Yet, in the funny way football works, it was the rather unlucky sending off of Bene Assou-Ekotto against West Brom which might change the future direction for ‘Arry and Tottenham. That dismissal forced his hand, and Modric began to play as a central midfielder in a four, rather than the free man of a five. He apparently showed enough then to convince ‘Arry to play him there permanently, allowing two traditional strikers to start upfront. Against Wigan, this worked much better, with Pavleychenko looking pacey, strong and clinical.

The prospect of Jermaine Defoe making a triumphant return and partnering the Russian looks mouth-watering. If Modric continues to prove his worth in the midfield battle that is Premiership Football, and ‘Arry gets a left footed winger (Downing – a real dynamic force in the Premiership who constantly gets abuse from fans who underrate him because of a few poor performances for England. His play on the left, the right and in the middle for Boro have been fantastic at times in the last few seasons) in January, the future will look very bright indeed.

As for Jack PB’s blog on Arry’s transfer business – perhaps we should applaud the east end genius for being honest. Spurs make an approach for Defoe, ‘Arry says he likes Defoe but doesn’t know if a deal will be done…seems fair enough to me. Perhaps City fans should worry a bit more about spending 12 million on a left back who obviously isn’t that keen on first team football, after spending several years happy to play the odd cup tie. Let this be the first of many gold-diggers city spend over the odds for…

Match report for Tottenham V Wigan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/7803222.stm  

I wrote last week about Real’s problem: only one of their January buys can be registered for the Champions League.  Both Lassana Diarra and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have played UEFA Cup already this season, and only one of them can have their registration switched. 

After some deliberation, Spanish football daily (and Real mouthpiece) Marca reported on Wednesday that they’ve gone for Huntelaar. 

What a poor decision! Never mind the fact that in Gonzalo Higuain and Raúl they have two decent centre forwards, with Javier Saviola on the fringes.  Higuain has confounded everyone this season, with 11 goals in 14 La Liga games thus far – behind only Eto’o and Villa in the race for the Pichichi.  Huntelaar’s a good player, but not desperately needed for the moment.

Things are different in midfield.  In the long term absence of Mahamadou Diarra, they are left with: Guti (nice passer, can’t hold), Fernando Gago (nice passer, can’t hold), Rafael van der Vaart (nice passer, can’t hold) and Wesley Sneijder (fantastic player, but only when free of responsibilities).  Their other front line cental midfielder, Ruben de la Red, had a suspected heart attack in October and won’t play again this season.

But who cares about solidity when you can sell shirts to kids that play Fifa?

I love the transfer window. I love the gossip, the intrigue, the ludicrously-spun out dramas and sagas. I’m really looking forward to City signing some more goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and strikers. One thing, though, that I cannot stand, and that almost ruins the transfer season for me, is Harry Redknapp.

Every morning he’ll be there, on Sky Sports News, conducting his transfer policy in public. You know the drill. Some friendly hack mentions a player (let’s say, Peter Crouch) to ‘Arry.  He responds,

“Crouchie? Yeah I’m a big fan of Crouchie. I’d love him here. He’s a top player.  But that’s an issue between Daniel Levy and Peter Storrie – nothing to do with me.”

So far this window he’s done this with Jermain Defoe, Bobby Zamora and Craig Bellamy, having done it last summer with Peter Crouch, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Richard Dunne and many more. Next up will be Glen Johnson, then Crouch for real, then Joe Cole (former Redknapp protege), then whichever other players he wants to unsettle.

But with the London media (both press and television) full of Redknapp fans, there will be no criticism, no tough questions, nothing. But don’t expect them to keep quiet if Juventus keep sniffing around Luka Modric.