Out of eight Spanish and English teams playing in the Champions League this week, only Arsenal were victorious.

Was this a blip for the two powerhouses, or is it another indication that Europe’s top club competition is becoming more balanced?

I did a video blog on Tuesday about the difficulties in Italian football (and got a bit of stick for it!) and for 86 minutes of Dynamo Kiev v Inter Milan the problems were still there.

But a quick double burst by Jose Mourinho’s men gave them a 2-1 comeback win and they are now top of the group. If they beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp next time out then the holders could be in real trouble. 

In the long run, I still maintain that a Serie A side will really struggle to win it this season but what about flying Bordeaux?

It’s possibly beyond a French side as well, which leads me back to Arsenal.

Manchester United are suddenly looking shaky at the back while Chelsea, Barca, Real Madrid are far from perfect.

I reckoned at the start of the season that Arsenal, with their youthful exuberance and delightful play, could be real challengers in Europe and although they have probably had an easier group and are not even through yet, their chances look to be increasing.  

PHOTO: Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas scores his second goal in the 4-1 home win over AZ Alkmaar, Nov 4, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Bayern Munich directors must be feeling very uncomfortable at the moment. Their team are sixth in the Bundesliga and almost out of the Champions League.

So far their chosen successor to Juergen Klinsmann, who was sacked a few weeks before the end of last season for failing to secure any silverware, has had a worse run than the former striker.

Louis van Gaal, handpicked for what Bayern said was his discipline and teaching skills, was supposed to make everything good again after the Klinsmann experiment.

The Dutchman also got a roster boosted by more than 70 million euros worth of new signings including record Bundesliga transfer Mario Gomez, Croat striker Ivica Olic, Dutch midfielder Arjen Robben and Russian defensive midfielder Anatolyi Tymoshchuk as well as Croatia international Danijel Pranjic and Dutch defender Edson Braafheid.

Throw in 20-year-old Thomas Mueller’s superb current form and you have arguably a much stronger side. Klinsmann was begging for players but both Tymoshchuk and Olic, who were signed in December, joined in the summer.

Despite all this, Klinsmann still comes out on top on a head-to-head after 11 league matches played. Under him Bayern were in third place on 21 points with six wins, three draws and two defeats, with 25 goals for and 17 against.

Van Gaal’s Bayern are in sixth place after 11 matches on 19 points, with five wins, four draws, and two defeats. Goals are 17-9. So Klinsmann’s Bayern may have been conceding more goals but they also scored eight more in 11 matches. Without Gomez.

By this stage Bayern were already through to the next round of the Champions League under Klinsmann, all but out under van Gaal.

PHOTO: Bayern Munich’s coach Louis van Gaal watches his players during a team training session in Munich November 2, 2009. Bayern Munich will play Girondins Bordeaux in a Champions League soccer match on Tuesday. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

Resurgent AC Milan host Real Madrid in the Champions League later having beaten the Galacticos 3-2 at the Bernabeu two weeks ago.

Meanwhile Inter Milan are seven points clear in Serie A after just 11 games. All would seem to be rosy in one of Europe’s greatest soccer cities, but in reality Italian football is in the doldrums.

Mark Meadows discusses.

A memorable 3-2 victory for AC Milan at Real Madrid on Wednesday as much for the goalkeeping howlers as great play.

When Milan keeper Dida produced an all too frequent error to give Raul the chance to equal Gerd Mueller’s record of 66 goals in the three main European club competitions, it looked like a familiar story for a struggling Milan this season under new coach Leonardo.

It has been labelled a “Didaster” by Italian media but thanks to a stoming second-half performance, Milan pulled off a result even their most hardened of fans cannot have expected given their shaky start to the campaign.

But is it just papering over the cracks and were Real just too bad? Alexandre Pato scored twice, the first aided by Iker Casillas’s rush of blood, but otherwise laboured. Ronaldinho had another quiet evening on his return to Spain.

What the win did show is that Milan are at least finding a bit more grit and determination. They also conceded first in last weekend’s 2-1 win over AS Roma and fought back.

Milan’s problems are not fixed but Leonardo can dine out on the Bernabeu victory for a while.

PHOTO: AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato (2nd R) celebrates with team mates Ronaldinho (80) and Clarence Seedorf (R), as Real Madrid’s Marcelo watches, after Pato scored his 2nd goal during their Champions League match at Bernabeu Oct. 21, 2009. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Has Lady Luck deserted holders Barcelona as their players suggested or did Rubin Kazan coach Kurban Berdyev and his players pull off the tactical masterstroke that has eluded so many others since Pep Guardiola took over at the Nou Camp at the start of last season?

It was probably a bit of both that led to Barca’s 2-1 defeat on Tuesday, their first Champions League reverse in 10 matches and a first home defeat in any competition since they lost to Osasuna last May when they had already secured the La Liga title.

The match was reminiscent of last season’s semi-final first leg against Chelsea, when the visitors defended stoutly in numbers and several times came close to grabbing a goal on the break.

Rubin went one better than the London club, exploiting the indifferent form and lack of pace of Barca’s Mexican central defender Rafael Marquez for Gokdeniz Karadeniz’s excellent winner on the counter attack.

The wily Berdyev, an intensely private man, watched impassively from the sidelines fingering his prayer beads, and Barca’s rivals, both in Spain and beyond, will doubtless try to learn from his success.

Whatever the reasons for Barca’s shock defeat, the hacks at the Madrid-based sports sheets were rubbing their hands on Wednesday, gleefully pointing to last weekend’s goalless draw at Valencia in La Liga and proclaiming the demise of Guardiola’s record-breaking side.

“Russian revolution at the Nou Camp!” trumpeted Marca.

“The ‘Pep Team’ lost their identity and were unable to produce the rhythm the match required. This Barca is not the champion,” was the headline in As.

The Barcelona-based papers preferred to focus on the fact that the European champions remain top of Group F after three out of six matches and have their fate in their own hands ahead of the trips to Kazan and Dynamo Kiev and Inter Milan’s visit to the Nou Camp.

“Crisis? What crisis?” asked Gabriel Sans in El Mundo Deportivo. “Barca have lost some fluidity and tactical freshness but their fate still depends on their own results.

“The glass is half full and they’ll drain it in Russia and drink to the health of whoever wants it.”

“Damn woodwork!” wrote Sport, referring to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s acrobatic volley that shook the crossbar in the second half and Yaya Toure’s header at the death that crashed against a post.

Guardiola seemed to take the loss in his stride, although he had a minor altercation with a Russian journalist at the post-match news conference when he was bizarrely asked if he even knew Berdyev’s name.

“This is why football is special,” he said of the match. “In any other sport, with our statistics, we would have won.”

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts as Rubin Kazan’s Vital Kaleshin (R) gestures during their Champions League soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, October 20, 2009. REUTERS/Albert Gea

A half empty San Siro didn’t even whistle after Inter Milan’s 2-2 draw with Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League.

The Nerazzurri faithful are very used to average performances in Europe, they’ve not won in eight games and haven’t triumphed in the competition since 1965.

Coach Jose Mourinho wasn’t that upset either, he knew Inter had got out of jail thanks to Barcelona’s shock home defeat by Rubin Kazan in the other Group F game. Barca, Dynamo and Rubin are on four points with Inter on three with three to play.

 ”This is a group with great difficulties. It’s a group with four champions,” he said.

On Saturday Inter went to Genoa, possibly the trickiest ground to visit in Serie A, and won 5-0 with almost the same side that then drew with Dynamo.

Serie A has been declining in quality for years and champions Inter are clear at the top already despite only playing well in fits and starts.

The Champions League now looks like a whole different ball game compared to the domestic league. UEFA president Michel Platini was criticised for making sure more smaller teams were in the competition this season but it is still looking very competitive given the Rubin and Kiev results, and Rangers 1 Unirea Urziceni 4. Liverpool’s troubles are another story.

Unlike the past, Mourinho is hinting that a home game with the likes of Dynamo is more difficult than an away match at a decent Serie A side.

Is it beginning to be true in other leagues as well? Are Rubin Kazan better than the likes of Deportivo for example?

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Walter Samuel (L) challenges Dynamo Kiev’s Andriy Shevchenko during their Champions League soccer match at the San Siro stadium in Milan October 20, 2009. REUTERS/Max Rossi

He looks a bit like Screech from that U.S show “Saved by the Bell”, but there is nothing clumsy about Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic.

With a glorious crop of shaggy hair, the Montenegro striker destroyed Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday with two first-half goals that probably even shocked the Florence faithful.

The 19-year-old was thrown in at the deep-end with Alberto Gilardino suspended but responded in stunning fashion. Can anyone remember Liverpool being so overrun for 45 minutes?

If he wasn’t already, Jovetic will definitely be on the big clubs’ radars now.

The famous win for Fiorentina, fourth in Serie A last year, came at just the right time for the club. Things had been difficult with their president resigning last week while poor Adrian Mutu is still fighting against his enormous fine following his sacking by Chelsea.

It was also a glimmer of hope for the embattled Italian game after two years of flops in the Champions League.

Inter Milan racked up seven Champions League games without a win in the 1-1 draw at Rubin Kazan but they did battle hard after going down to 10 men.

Juventus visit the might of Bayern Munich later while AC Milan and coach Leonardo desperately need a win at home to FC Zurich after a dreadful start to the campaign which owner Silvio Berlusconi has, half-jokingly, labelled a “disaster”.

Could Jovetic’s showing be just the boost they all need?

PHOTO: Fiorentina’s Stevan Jovetic (R) challenges Yossi Benayoun of Liverpool during their Champions League soccer match at the Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence September 29, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Italian soccer club AC Milan played the famous music from the Champions League in their dressing room on Sunday to try to motivate the players. The only thing was they weren't playing in the Champions League -- it was a domestic match at home to Bologna.

Milan have stuttered in Italy for a few years now but they won the Champions League, Europe's top club trophy, in 2007 and had produced a good performance to beat Olympique Marseille in the same competition the previous week.

Club bosses decided that making the players hear the Champions League music even for a domestic game would give them the same battling mentality they show in Europe. They won 1-0.

What other strange motivational tunes are played in dressing rooms across the sporting world?

Unconventional English soccer club Wimbledon, known as the 'Crazy Gang', used to play heavy metal before matches in the late 1980s and early 90s.

The English cricket team run out to the hymn Jerusalem when playing at home while when David Lloyd was coach at the end of the last decade, he made the players listen to Winston Churchill speeches to gee them up. It didn't always work.

NFL's Cincinnati Bengals often play Guns n Roses' 'Welcome to the Jungle' in the stadium to get the crowd excited.

Of course there are lots of tunes especially used at sports stadiums, like Queen's 'We are the Champions' and Blur's 'Song 2'. What's your favourite?

PHOTO: Clarence Seedorf celebrates after scoring in AC Milan's 1-0 home win over Bologna in Serie A, Sept. 20 The hosts had listened to the Champions League tune to motivate themselves ahead of the match. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Having spent 250 million euros on reinforcements and with the final due to be staged at their own Bernabeu stadium, winning the Champions League is seen almost as an obligation for Real Madrid this season, at least by much of the Spanish media.

Kicking off their campaign, perhaps appropriately, in one of Europe’s most expensive cities, Real showed flashes of what may be to come, both in terms of attacking inspiration and defensive vulnerability, as they beat Swiss champions FC Zurich 5-2.

Cristiano Ronaldo was his old self, firing in two free kicks at decisive stages of the game, performing a few trademark shimmies and stepovers and remonstrating with the referee every time he was tackled by an opponent.

There were tantalising glimpses of the potential offered by his parternship with Raul and former World Player of the Year Kaka, although Real often gave the impression that they are still finding their feet with so many newcomers.

The unsung Gonzalo Higuain was just as influential as the Portuguese, setting up the second goal for Raul and scoring a superb third himself as he burst past a defender and then scored with a low shot into the far corner. It remains a mystery as to why Higuain has not been given a look-in by Argentina coach Diego Maradona.

Their defensive problems, however, show no sign of letting up. Having led 3-0 at halftime, Real had to sweat through the last 20 minutes after the unrated hosts scored twice in two minutes to bring it back to 3-2. Iker Casillas upended Alexander Alphonse to give away a penalty, they Silvio Aegerter was allowed to head in another at the near post.

Two late goals, including Ronaldo’s second free kick, gave the visitors a somewhat flattering win.

To put it into perspective, Grasshoppers, who may be forced to drop into the Swiss third division next season because of chronic financial problems, managed to put three past Zurich last Saturday and had a further goal controversially disallowed, although they conceded four in the progress.

One thing which money cannot buy is passionate support. The large contingent on Real fans sat silently through Tuesday’s match, stirring only with a few cries of Madrid after their team scored and a half-hearted version of Viva Espana late in the first half. Zurich’s South Curve never stopped singing, even when their team were 3-0 down.

Brian Homewood, Zurich

PHOTO: Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during their Champions League soccer match against FC Zurich (FCZ) at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich September 15, 2009. REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic

The Champions League is back and our reporters are currently wringing out their wet things (Mitch Phillips at Chelsea)/basking in the evening sunshine by the River Manzanares (Iain Rogers at Atletico) and undergoing all climactic variations in between.

Tonight’s first tranche of eight matches includes a repeat of the very first Champions League final, with AC Milan visiting Marseille, plus the European debut of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka for Real Madrid, with the Spaniards visiting Zurich.

We also have Manchester United at Besiktas, Wolfsburg hosting CSKA, Atletico at home to APOEL, Bayern Munich visiting Maccabi Haifa and Juventus against Bordeaux.

We’ll have every goal as they go in here, plus a few bits of commentary from me, and our reporters if the comms hold up, along the way.

I really appreciate comments, so please give your views in the comment section below. And can you name the player in the photo…?

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FC Zurich 2 Real Madrid 5: Cristiano Ronaldo responded to some less than flattering chants among the home fans by scoring from a free kick from the edge of the area. 1-0 in the 27th minute and Real Madrid are on their way to, well, Madrid. Seven minutes later and it’s 2-0 Real. This time Raul, who tapped in Gonzalo Higuain’s shot and is closing in on that record for goals in the European Cup. Let me have a rifle through the stats book… But in the mean time, Higuain has bagged the third himself. Too easy for Real… or is it?

The crowd livens up again with a 64th minute penalty from Xavier Margairaz and a minute later Silvan Aegerter makes it 2-3. Game on? Well, it got nervy for Real bu another free kick from Ronaldo sealed matters, with Guti’s effort in the 95th minute the cake icing.

Marseille 1 Milan 2: First goal of the 2009-10 edition of the Champions League goes to Milan, and Filippo Inzaghi. A superb cross from Seedorf for Inzaghi, left unmarked at far post, and he taps in from close range. 1-0 to the Italians in the 27th minute. Marseille level four minutes after the restart through the former Manchester United and Real Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze, who heads home a Benoit Cheyrou free kick. 2-1 to Milan with another Inzaghi goal with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Wolfsburg 3 CSKA 1: Wolfsburg have taken to the Champions League like a duck to water. The Brazilian Grafite, a much underrated player I remember well from my time in Germany, scored the first two goals, the first after 35 minutes, the second a penalty five minutes later. Alan Dzagoev pulls one back with 13 minutes to go. But Grafite completes his hat-trick three minutes from time and surely this is over now!

Chelsea 1 Porto 0: Don’t know what happened to my earlier udpate. Chelsea are ahead in the second half after Nicoals Anelka saw his first effort stopepd and then managed to fire on from a tricky angle.

Juventus 1 Bordeaux 1: Vincenzo Iaquinta puts Juventus up in the 63rd minute but Jaroslav Plasil evens things up with 15 minutes to go.

Maccabi Haifa 0 Bayern Munich 3: It’s raining goals now. The Germans are away thanks to a goal from Daniel van Buyten. Most of these matches going to form now and Bayern duly wrap up the win with two late goals from Thomas Mueller. Not a bad week for Mueller, who also scored two as Bayern beat Dortmund 5-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Besiktas 0 Manchester United 1. United are finally awake. It was a powerful shot by Nani that led to the goal in the 77th minute. The keeper parried it and Paul Scholes nodded in off the post, from a reasonable way out. Good header that.

The only match to finish goalless is Atletico Madrid v APOEL.

PHOTO: A mystery Chelsea player at training in Cobham, south of London, September 14, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh