Villas-Boas takes on Ferguson in early season showdown

This weekend will see Andre Villas-Boas bring his Chelsea side to Old Trafford for arguably the most important game of the Premier League season so far. With the Blues trailing both Manchester United and Manchester City by two points already, a defeat would certainly put them at a huge disadvantage so early in the campaign. While United and City have got their campaigns off to flying starts, Chelsea have been a bit more subdued with not particularly convincing wins over West Brom, Norwich and Sunderland following on from a goalless draw at Stoke. However, Villas-Boas will see the showdown with Sir Alex Ferguson, a man 36 years his senior, as an ideal catalyst for his club's season.

It has been an odd quirk of the fixture list that many previous Chelsea managers have begun their reigns with games against the Red Devils. Claudio Ranieri began with a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford back in September 2000, Jose Mourinho won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in August 2004, Avram Grant lost 2-0 just over three years later and Carlo Ancelotti won on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the 2009 Community Shield. Unlike his predecessors, Villas-Boas has had the advantage of a summer of preparation as well as four league fixtures and one Champions League game before taking his men to Manchester.

What we have seen in that time is a Chelsea team undergoing transition. Finally the likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry don't quite seem guaranteed their place in the team. A new regime is in the making at Stamford Bridge and Juan Mata, Danny Sturridge and David Luiz look to be at the heart of it. Fernando Torres is still a far cry from the confident, free-scoring forward seen in his early Liverpool days but his two assists against Bayer Leverkusen this week offered promise that he may soon be finding the back of the net himself. While results so far are yet to be spectacular, Villas-Boas would appear to have the Pensioners on the right track.

As for their opposition, the Red Devils have gone goal-crazy with what is very much a new-look team. With Paul Scholes, Edwin Van der Sar, Gary Neville, John O'Shea and Wes Brown all gone, and the likes of Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov, Park Ji-Sung and Ryan Giggs so far playing peripheral roles, a new era seems to have dawned at Old Trafford. With Wayne Rooney, Nani and Anderson cast in the new role of 'senior players' and Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, David de Gea and the now injured duo of Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck adding much youthful zest to the team, it is a far cry from the squad that some people foolishly labelled too old at the start of last season.

United fans would be foolish themselves to get over-confident though, as is exemplified by the end result of Chelsea's similar flying start to last season. Ferguson will be determined not to let the same thing happen to his team and will realise the importance of this Sunday's game, even though it is so early in the season. A draw would not be disastrous for either team, but a win for United could really increase their already substantial momentum, and a win for the away team could mark an early twist in a title race which many are identifying as the 'battle of Manchester'.

Key battles across the pitch will include the duo of Rooney and Javier Hernandez taking on Chelsea's centre-backs, presumably Terry and Luiz, although Branislav Ivanovic and Alex are also in contention. Hernandez's pace and Rooney's guile punished Chelsea in the three defeats they suffered at the hands of United late on last season. Mata will be looking to continue his early strong form and might fancy his chances against United full-backs Patrice Evra and Smalling. The experience of Evra could be vital in shackling the Spaniard and Sturridge, who may well be played wide as well. In the centre of the park Anderson and Carrick (although Fletcher is also vying for a place) will look to Rooney to help them combat Chelsea's midfield trio, likely to be Ramires, Lampard and Raul Meireles. This is a big game for Lampard who has been doubted, perhaps unfairly, by many pundits this season.

But the most important factor could well be the plight of Torres against United's centre-backs. With old foe Nemanja Vidic out injured, the ex-Atletico Madrid man is likely to face Rio Ferdinand (rested in mid-week) and either Jonny Evans or Jones. The forward has shone in front of the Old Trafford crowd before in his Liverpool days, and if he can capitalise on Ferdinand's slight loss of pace, Evans occasional rash decision-making or Jones' inexperience, he could well put his career back on track and make himself a Chelsea hero. If Ferdinand's experience combined with his youthful defensive partner successfully contain the Spain international, then United would have a great opportunity to show the Premier League that this season they really mean business.

Where's the belief?

I was at Wembley Stadium last night to witness what, on paper, was a home victory which puts Fabio Capello's England squad to within touching distance of Euro 2012. However, the conclusion I drew was that England are as far away as ever from reaching the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1996, let alone winning one for the first time since 1966.

In truth, the Three Lions were lucky to escape with all three points as Wales striker Robert Earnshaw missed a golden opportunity to equalise with 14 minutes of the game remaining and for large spells of the game Gary Speed's men were equal to the hosts. While Ashley Young's first half strike proved enough to win the game, that was the only shot on target from a team who looked nowhere near as confident as a home team, top of the qualification group and facing a team ranked 117th in the world, should do.

Individual performances were, on the whole, acceptable. There wasn't a single player who you could point out as having had a particularly awful game. The problem was that the team seemed to be stricken by an epidemic of indifference. Not one of the eleven players on the pitch seemed intent on making the difference that would have killed off the game long before Earnshaw could make the 75,000+ England fans in the crowd exhale a sigh of extreme relief.

In terms of personnel, Capello seems to have at his disposal a highly competent, competitive squad - Wayne Rooney is certainly the man to lead the line (although he could excel in a deeper role) and Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and James Milner have all the attributes to support him in the attack. Scott Parker and Gareth Barry, despite the latter's detractors, make a very good screening duo in midfield and the emergence of Chris Smalling at right-back, as well as Gary Cahill and Phil Jones as central options seem to complement an already efficient defence. The formation issues of the World Cup, where Capello stuck to a 4-4-2 system despite popular demand seem to be over. A successful 4-2-3-1 has been deployed (as in Bulgaria) , as well as a 4-3-3, and the afore-mentioned midfielders along with Frank Lampard (still an important squad member, though much more efficient in a midfield three), Jack Wilshere and Steven Gerrard seem to understand what is required of both systems.

Yet England still are nowhere near reaching the calibre of Spain, Holland or Germany. Or even France, Italy and Portugal for that matter. The missing ingredient seems to be belief. Especially at Wembley. The booing of the team, or individual players such as Lampard and Ashley Cole has been well documented in the past and this could well have nurtured an element of fear when the Three Lions turn up at home. Before Young's goal against Wales, Capello's men appeared to be very uncertain of how to push on and impose themselves on their opposition. When they failed to increase their lead early in the second half, they reverted to this unsure attitude. Barry, in the deepest midfield role seemed the only assured presence on the ball, and that was largely because the Welsh were content to sit off him and defend deep. When the visitors did launch attacks, England dealt with them, but not with complete certainty. Some more accurate finishing from Speed's team could have seen a very different result. It was the first home win at Wembley in a year, and the four intervening fixtures had all displayed this uncertainty from England.

Elsewhere last night, world champions Spain beat Liechtenstein 6-0 at home. That is to be expected, but Liechtenstein are only two places lower than the Welsh in the world rankings and England should really be racking up that kind of scoreline, and an accompanying assured performance against this sort of team if they have any aspirations of success next summer. England's players are more talented than that of many countries, as exemplified by their many successes at club level, but if they are to push on and do the country pride in Poland and Ukraine next year, they are going to have to play with the confidence to attack teams and score goals. Anaemic performances like this win over Wales, last year's draw with Montenegro, and the first half of the Switzerland draw in June will result in an early farewell from Eastern Europe and the start of a long daunting road to Brazil 2014.

Arsene's Gunners finally call the cavalry

Following on from my article on Arsenal's situation back on the 12th August, I thought it was only right to give my opinion on Arsene Wenger's eventual business in the transfer window and the games that have taken place since.

Firstly, it has to be said that the club came through what was their most important challenge, defeating Udinese to qualify for the Champions League, impressively. Udinese showed themselves to be a very good team across the two legs, but when it mattered most, in the second half of the second leg, Wojciech Szczesny, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott all proved that the Gunners still have some big characters in their team.

However, it was the league matches that meant the alarm bells were constantly ringing for the Emirates faithful. A dire 0-0 draw with Newcastle followed by an even worse 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool were bad enough, but the panic button was finally hit with an unbelievable 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Manchester United.

Arsenal's biggest defeat in 115 years really did force Wenger into action in the transfer market, and in my opinion he has bought wisely. Three weeks ago I wrote that he needed to add a goalkeeper, two defenders, one midfielder and another forward to the squad, all of which need to be experienced and not youth players.

Apart from the goalkeeper (and to be fair Szczesny looks like he could make the grade), Wenger had done all this and more, bringing in not one, but two midfielders. Per Mertesacker at 26, Andre Santos at 28, Mikel Arteta at 29, Yossi Benayoun at 31 and Park Chu-Young at 26 are all experienced professionals, and just what Wenger's squad was in desperate need of.

Chu-Young is captain of a successful South Korea team and has taken the number 9 shirt at Arsenal, while he is no prolific goalscorer he has the potential to be a great foil for van Persie. Arteta and Benayoun have both performed in the Premier League well for years. The concerns would be that Arteta has been injury prone during his time at Everton and Benayoun has just come off the back of an injury-hindered season at Chelsea. However, if both can stay fit then the young Arsenal midfield of Alex Song, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey will have some experienced midfield team-mates to look up to and learn from. At the back, arguably where Arsenal needed strengthening the most, Santos and Mertesacker look to be just what was required. The former has won trophies with Flamengo, Corinthians and Fenerbahce as well as caps for Brazil, while the latter has amassed an impressive 75 caps for the ever-consistent German national team.

While the Arsenal squad is still by no means capable of winning the Premier League title, it now looks competitive enough to challenge Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur for 4th place, and I would in fact reinstate them as my favourites for the position. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre at Old Trafford, I believed without serious strengthening, they would struggle to even make 6th place. However, while Wenger certainly left it very late, he has strengthened the squad sufficiently, with not just talent, but experience. The club certainly still have a number of issues to overcome, including the indiscipline which has seen three red cards in as many league games this season, and a steelier style of play may be required to get the team through certain away fixtures. Mertesacker, for one, should be able to help in that department.

Elsewhere in the transfer market, Chelsea's late move for Raul Meireles, in addition to the signing of Juan Mata may well see them challenge the Manchester duo for the title after all, although their squad still appears to be one very much in transition. It may well be the 2012-13 season when we see Andre Villas-Boas really show off his ability as a manager.

At the other end of the table, some shrewd signings from QPR certainly make them a much stronger team and the additions of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Joey Barton amongst others would certainly give them a better chance of survival than had previously been expected.

Fulham were also active on deadline day with the additions of Bryan Ruiz and Zdenek Grygera which should see them pushing for a top-half finish.

It will be interesting to see how Nicklas Bendtner settles in at Sunderland after a spell in North London which has never matched the size of his ego. Stoke City will also be hoping their additions of Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome see them finish comfortably in the top half, all three players would appear to fit Tony Pulis' style of play.

Tottenham did well to sign Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor, but their biggest victory was in keeping Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart, all of whom had been linked with moves away last season and throughout the summer. Whether they can hold on to Modric, in particular, longer than January may well depend on their league form between now and then. A repeat of the 5-1 home defeat to Manchester City will definitely not be on Harry Redknapp's agenda.