A GREAT SUNDAY (article in English and Español)

After the Christmas holidays almost all the European leagues return and they come back with many good games and especially during this Sunday, when we will have a real soccer´s marathon.

This particular marathon will start with a very attractive Manchester United-Chelsea FC, which may be understood as a real final for Chelsea FC, if the Felipao´s team loses its game at Old Trafford against Manchester United, it will say almost goodbye to the Championship and even to the second place, because between Chelsea and Manchester would be a gap of 5 points- I am assuming that Manchester will win its 2 comfortable and pending games (against Fulham FC and Wigan Athletic)-, and besides it will be another example that Felipao Scolari is not a good coach for a top European team (During this season, FC Chelsea has not win any game played against a top team, since it lost the games played against Liverpool FC and Arsenal FC-both played at Stamford Bridge - and it drew the game played against the United, and even the played games against Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United- all played at Stamford Bridge-). Both teams arrive to this game with their best players-United has only the problem of Owen Hargreaves´s injury (he will be injured all season) and Chelsea has the absence of the strong Mikael Essien (he is injured until next March) and the doubts of Malouda and Alex) - but they arrive to the game in a different way, because Manchester United is showing an incredible level-especially when it plays at Old Trafford where the Untied has the great record of 7 wins and 1 draw with 20 goals scored and 4 goals received- and in fact it does not lose any Premier´s game and it does not received any goal since last 8 of November-it lost the game played at Emirates Stadium against Arsenal (2-1)-. Instead Chelsea does not make very good season and it is not the solvent team of the Mourinho or Grant´s period and if we look at the record, the truth is that there are no good because of its last 7 games, it has only been capable to win 2 games! and with 5 goals received during these 7 games, which is strange when we speak about the "bleu", whose defensive performance was its identity sign during the last years. So it will be a difficult game for Chelsea and I think Felipao will continue with his bad record when his team plays against a top team…by the way ¿Will Anelka score in this game or he will continue with his bad performance when he plays against a top team since he arrived to Chelsea? we will have the answer on Sunday at 1700 c.e.t.

Also on Sunday we will be very attentive to the Italian classic between AS Roma and AC Milan, whose result is frankly uncertain because both teams have enough problems. On one side, AS Roma arrives this match with the absence of the great captain Francesco Totti, which can be understand as almost decisive to the final scorer, since AS Roma without Totti is a team without a soul, without a winner, without a leader who takes responsibility in the complicated moments of the games and resolve the problems. The totti-dependency is very obvious this season because if we analyze the results with and without Totti, we see that the best AS Roma´s record during this season has coincided with the presence of Francesco -Totti began to take his best fitness on the game 11 and since then AS Roma did not lose any league´s game until last game before Christmas´s holidays when Totti had an injury´s problem and he could only play 30 minutes against Catania Calcio and of course AS Roma without Totti lost the game .....so I think this game it is a clear example of the “mental fragility” during this season of the team of Spalleti, who counts on with the defender Max Tonneto and with French offensive midfielder Jérémy Menez-the presence of the French player will be hesitant until the end; by the way Menez must to improve in many thing to be an important player-. So, AS Roma will not have many chances to win this game, although it is also true that AC Milan is showing a very irregular level during this season and when AC Milan is playing, anything is possible, since it depends on the ability of its Brazilian trio-Ronaldinho, Kaka, Pato-, which is always dangerous, because if they do not have a good day, the team has many problems and especially far from San Siro, since AC Milan is showing very weak results when it plays as visitor and in fact it does not win a league´s game since last October 26 when it played at Bergamo against Atalanta-it has scorer 9 goals and it has received 13 goals in the 8 games played far from San Siro Stadium-. So, it is an uncertain game, although I think that AC Milan-Carlo Ancelotti will have the absences of: Nesta, Borriello, Gattuso, Bonera- has more chances to win the game, because AC Milan´s players have more quality and especially if we will see again the best version of Andrea Pirlo, whose level showed after his injury was quite vulgar and it is sure that the Christmas´s break was good for his total recovery. The game will be this Sunday at 20:30 cet at Olimpico Rome, where maybe we will see the debut of David Beckham-he is not ready to play many minutes- and of the Brazilian central defender Thiago Silva.

We will also pay attention to other Sunday´s games as the games of the 2 Spanish Giants(both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have comfortable games, although they must play concentrated if they do not want any problems with Real Mallorca-it showed a good level at the Camp Nou Stadium last week in the game against FC Barcelona- and with Osasuna-it is always a very uncomfortable team when it plays at home-), or the important game for second place of the French Championat between Girondins Bordeaux and Paris Saint Germaine at 21.00 c.e.t (it will be a duel between the 2 scorers of the French championship, Fernando Cavenaghi (11 goals)- finally we are seeing the best version of the Argentine in Europe who is helped by great players like Wendel, Gourcouff or Chamack- and the striker of PSG, Guillaume Hoarau (11 goals)-he showed a great level last season in Le Havre-french 2 division, where he scored 28 goals in 38 games- and now he is confirming his good abilities and that he is ready to play in a Top French-). Finally we will see what will it happen in Turkey, where the teams are playing Cup matches and they are awaiting the return of the Süper Lig next January 25.Possibly the most remarkable duels are Kayserispor-Ankaraspor (Saturday at 12.30 cet- Kayserispor won 2-1 thanks to the goals from Topuz-he sounds for Galatasaray- and Cangele) and Gaziantepspor-Besiktas (Saturday at 18.00 cet where we may see the debut of the new incorporation of Besiktas, the good and experienced midfielder Yusuf Simsek-I do not know if this kind of player was the main Besiktas´s need but of course it is always good to have in the squad players with the quality and vision of the game like Simsek) and the game between the modest Tokatspor and Fenerbahçe (on Sunday at 12:30 CET,. It is possible that Luis Aragones may give minutes to the new Fenerbahçe´s players: the promising midfielder Abdulkadir Kayali-he should play on loan in other team, cuase he needs minutes and I do not think that he have many chances this season at Fenerbahçe- and the right midfielder Gökhan Emreciksin- I do not know if this player was necessary, since Fenerbahçe has players like Kazim-Kazim (he is playing very bad, far from his last year´s level) and the offensive right back Gökhan Gönül, but as the Simsek´s case, it is always good to strengthen all the lines of the team.

Enjoy.

Cheers,

J&F