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

David Beckham will tread a familiar path once the MLS season is over, joining AC Milan on loan again for a five-month loan spell from January.

Milan have just announced the deal on their website (just in Italian for now), meaning any lingering hopes Premier League clubs had of changing the England midfielder’s mind have finally been dashed.

Milan sound thrilled:

“We are very happy to David Beckham in the red and black shirt again after the splendid experience of last season,” Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani told www.acmilan.com.

“We are sure that this period in Europe will help the player to take part in the next World Cup and then to continue his career at Los Angeles Galaxy, whom we thank for their help.”

Beckham’s main target is obviously the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, as the Milan chief hints. Wonder if he’ll be on the plane…

PHOTO: Los Angeles Galaxy’s David Beckham walks on the field during Game 1 of their MLS Cup western conference semifinal soccer playoff series against Chivas USA in Carson, California, November 1, 2009. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat at Liverpool has again exposed the chinks in the Premier League champions’ armour, notably their defensive frailties against top level opposition.

While United overcame Rio Ferdinand’s howler in a 4-3 win over City in the Manchester derby, the England centre back’s lack of pace and cutting edge cost Alex Ferguson’s side dearly against Liverpool.

The ease with which a half-fit Fernando Torres got away from Ferdinand to score Liverpool’s opening goal will have raised not only Ferguson’s eyebrows, but also given Fabio Capello a headache.

Is Ferdinand, who has looked completely at sea in the heart of United’s defence this season and had a nightmare of a game in England’s 1-0 defeat by Ukraine, going through just a temporary loss of form or are his best days behind him?

Ferguson has no world class cover for Ferdinand in his squad and his decision to let Gerard Pique return to Barcelona after United’s 2008 Champions League triumph might come back to haunt him. That is if it hasn’t already…Pique stopped United from taking the lead in the 2009 final while Ferdinand was at fault for Barcelona’s second goal in the 2-0 defeat by the Spanish champions.

England’s potential rivals in the 2010 World Cup will also be rubbing their hands over Ferdinand becoming a liability and while Capello must hope he rediscovers his form, the Italian might also want to consider an alternative partner to John Terry in the centre of England’s defence.

PHOTO: Liverpool’s Fernando Torres (front) outmuscles Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand to score during their English Premier League match at Anfield, Oct 25, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble

A quick look around the blogosphere suggests that for many England fans the idea of watching the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in front of a computer screen at the mercy of an ISP, or at a crammed cinema, sounds about as appealing as making the long trip to Dnipropetrovsk.

But do not despair, England fans, because there is an option for those of you determined to watch it on telly.

Croatia’s HRT 2 state television, also viewable in Serbia on cable, is showing the game live, so here is your chance to combine a bit of light football watching with an autumn dip in the Adriatic somewhere along Croatia’s mesmerising coast, or an evening spent sampling Belgrade’s unique and vibrant nightlife, epitomised by boat-bars and clubs along the Danube.

And fear not that the Croatian faithful might have a go at you after their team’s recent 5-1 drubbing at Wembley. They will be praying for an England win that would leave their boys in the driving seat for a runners-up spot in Group Six.

PHOTO: A subscription page is shown on a laptop computer at a cafe in central London October 5, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville

We’ll be updating the points to the prediction league on Tuesday after Manchester City v West Ham later so please check back to see how appallingly badly we’ve all done.

Personally I was very pleased with Portsmouth 0-1 Everton which gave me a full five points, especially given my dismal showing so far.

Chipking reckons he’s had a bad week so he needs something spectacular up at Eastlands but spare a thought for Paul Radford and Kevin’s Dad who both said Liverpool 6-0 Hull.

Why did Geovanni bother to score one goal for Hull? Could he not have saved it for a game where they didn’t concede six?

PHOTO: Liverpool’s Fernando Torres (R) shoots past Hull City’s Ibrahima Sonko to score during their English Premier League soccer match at Anfield in Liverpool, northern England, September 26, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble

-Professor Simon Chadwick, Director, Centre for the International Business of Sport, Coventry, UK. The opinions expressed are his own. -

There is a famous song, composed in the run-up to UEFA Euro 96, in which the Lightening Seeds, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel refer to England’s 30 years of hurt (the period at the time since England won its one and only World Cup).

England recently took a step closer towards addressing their continued failure to win world football’s biggest prize, by beating Croatia 5-1 to qualify for next year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa. In so doing, the team also overcame its two years of hurt, following a failure to qualify for Euro 2008 at the hands of their Croatian rivals.

While the fervent mood amongst passionate English fans and patriots alike will no doubt grow as we progress towards the start of the tournament in June 2010, there is likely to be much more action off the pitch than there is on it – and not necessarily just in England, in all of the countries that have teams which qualify for South Africa.

Indeed, as we get closer to the 11th June kick-off, World Cup micro-economies will start emerging domestically and internationally across the world.

Many English, Korean and Brazilian fans will already have booked their flights, arranged their hotels, possibly even have bought their replica shirts, flags and hats, diverting expenditure away from other industrial sectors or from their savings accounts. During English summers, the intensity of such expenditure is becoming legendary, if not mind-blowing.

Whether bedecking one’s car in flags and stickers, hanging a banner out of the bedroom window, buying the latest England merchandise, bulk-buying beer and burgers for a garden barbeque or relentlessly purchasing packs of stickers for a World Cup album collection, all are becoming the essence of what football tournaments have become.

The question is: how much are such micro economies worth? In England, there are various estimates of this, ranging from 1.2 billion pounds through to 2 billion pounds or more. Such figures in themselves have taken on an almost mythical status, as reliable scientific data about the economic effects of winning is unavailable.

We think we know what happens, there have historically been plenty of predictions, but we don’t actually seem to know what the precise economic impact will be when that winning goal goes in, nobody has ever collected the data.

In addition to the tangible impact of "that" goal in qualifying, there is a consensus too that qualification for big tournaments is also likely to generate intangible positive impacts.

The "Feel Good Factor" is seemingly worth something, with people working harder and spending more, as national team success induces a sense of euphoria, whilst also diverting people’s attention away from their normal everyday travails.

Moreover, in terms of national identity, the enhanced national self-esteem that such high profile success brings is surely worth millions, if not billions, of pounds? But again, this is accepted wisdom rather than scientifically proven fact. Nobody really knows if this is true because nobody has ever set out to measure the impact.

It would be easy to surf the wave of hype and expectation that inevitably accompanies a national team qualifying for an international tournament, but one needs to mitigate the potential for a positive impact with the potential for negative impacts. Has anyone ever monitored the decrease in productivity around World Cup time, as people spend more time chatting and speculating than they do producing and managing?

Moreover, is anyone prepared to acknowledge that absence through sickness stats go through the roof around tournament time, especially when a game at a crucial stage of the tournament kicks –off in the middle of the day?

And what about the drunk and disorderly behaviour of some fans down at the local pub and the noise they make, or the litter that people generate when watching games on public viewing screens in the local park? All of these activities, and more, have a negative impact and, so, a cost attached to them. The question is: how much?

And could it actually be the case that the costs of qualifying could, in theory at least, outweigh the benefits of progressing to the finals of a World Cup? Nobody knows because nobody has ever set out to accurately measure it before.

My prediction for next year? From an English perspective, Quarter-Final defeat, probably on penalties, following the sending off of a key player for a questionable challenge on an arch enemy. Off the field, who knows?

Given the conventional wisdom, my next prediction is an economic impact of between 1 billion and 2 billion pounds – that’s a decent enough of a margin of error. But we really need precise, robust measures of impact to know exactly how important the World Cup will be.

Join Owen Wyatt for our regular wrap of world sport. This week, it’s a World Cup qualifier special, as we consider the plight of Diego Maradona and the battle for golden tickets for South Africa 2010.

We particularly welcome comments, so if you’d like to critique Owen’s schoolboy fashion errors, please do…

So, once again, England qualify in style. The garages can start stocking up on plastic flags of St George, the breweries can breathe a sigh of relief and the tabloids can start their gradual shift from cautious support to the crescendo of expectation that will accompany Fabio Capello and his squad to South Africa next year.

But is there any evidence that “this time, more than any other time, they’ll do it right“?

Do England really have a team capable of getting beyond the quarter-finals, let alone winning the thing?

Points in favour:

1. The rest of the world aren’t so hot at the moment. Brazil, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are going along pretty nicely but Argentina, France, Portugal and even Italy have got problems. None of them looks unbeatable.

2. Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. These are players truly deserving the “world class” tag and when fit and on form provide England with a deadly attacking triangle capable of undoing the very best of defences.

3. Capello. The Italian’s calm authority has permeated a squad previously drowning in its own self-satisfaction. There shouldn’t be any idiotic selections and once in South Africa this squad will be focused solely on the task in hand — and that won’t be accompanying their wives on shopping trips to Sandton.

4. A winter World Cup. England haven’t played in one since 1962 in Chile. For all the high-tech kits they roll out ever two years and for all the efforts and intervention of foreign coaches, England’s all-action approach is not suited to boiling temperatures.

5. It’s about time.

Points against.

1. The number one problem. Capello says David James is his first choice goalkeeper but even if the 39-year-old year old regains fitness and has a great season his history of high-profile calamities will be in the back of everyone’s mind as England advance.

England have suffered previously from hanging on too long to ageing goalkeepers, with the concrete boots of Peter Shilton (1990) and David Seaman (2002) leaving indelible images of inaction.

The back-up cast of Robert Green, Paul Robinson, Scott Carson, Ben Foster and Joe Hart all have their talents but none inspires total confidence.

2. Second striker. Emile Heskey seems the current first-choice partner for Rooney but few teams win a World Cup with a forward who is allergic to goals. Jermain Defoe has staked an early claim to replace him but sharp finisher though he is he does not link well. Carlton Cole is surely not the answer. Peter Crouch offers all sorts of options, scores goals, has great control and an incisive pass and defenders don’t like playing against him. However, he does not seem to be Capello’s favourite, which leaves an extraordinary amount of pressure on Rooney.

3. Defence. Ashley Cole is superb and the John Terry/Rio Ferdinand partnership has proved reliable, even if showing worrying signs of positional wanderings of late. However, Glen Johnson looks like a winger forced to borrow a number two shirt and opposition coaches will attack him mercilessly.

4. Strength in depth (lack thereof). England, without Rooney in Portugal and Germany, were a team heading home. Another injury or red card for the maestro will again end their hopes at a stroke. The squad players generally look a short on class and World Cup finals are rarely won with the 11 players a manager would have pencilled in at the start of a tournament.

Maybe Capello has enough about him to craft a team able to triumph in 10 months’ time but, as ever, it looks an extraordinarily difficult task.

Michael Owen missed four glorious chances in Manchester United’s 2-0 friendly win over Valencia but the very fact that he was there to miss them signals a real chance of the former Liverpool reviving his career for club and country.

Owen’s failure to find the net was described as a wasted opportunity by some, given that England coach Fabio Capello was there watching him, but consider … playing for Newcastle at the end of last season, when did he look in with a chance of scoring even one?

Here’s what Alex Ferguson said about Owen’s display:

“Michael showed marvellous movement. He should’ve scored four, but he was unlucky with the first one that he just chipped it over the goalkeeper’s shoulder and by the post. He deserved at least one of them.”

Whether he deserved to score or not is beside the point, which is that playing in this United team he can expect to have chances every time he plays. He scored four on United’s tour of the Far East and if he fluffed his lines on his Old Trafford debut he can safely reflect that it was only a dress rehearsal for the new season after all.

As for England, the fact that he is playing for United alongside Wayne Rooney will only help. Assuming he starts scoring in the Premier League, and given the sheer number of chances he can expect that seems inevitable, how long before Capello decides to translate the United forward partnership to the England set-up?

PHOTO: Manchester United’s Michael Owen reacts after a missed opportunity during their friendly soccer match against Valencia in Manchester August 5, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

The death of Sir Bobby Robson, England's most successful manager after Sir Alf Ramsey, had been expected given his long battle with cancer, but his passing still jolts.

The son of a miner, Robson's career was characterised by dignity, loyalty and hard graft and no little success.

As a player he won 20 England caps, but it was as an innovative manager that he will be best remembered, notably his success in guiding England to a World Cup semi-final in 1990, when his side came agonisingly close to reaching the final.

Before his stint with the national team, Robson managed Ipswich for 13 years, guiding the Suffolk club to FA and UEFA Cup success and twice led the Portman Road side to the runners-up spot in the old First Division.

At Ipswich, Robson brought in two Dutch players -- Arnold Muhren and Franz Thijssen -- who helped forge Ipswich's reputation as a passing side playing attractive and enterprising football.

After stepping down as England manager in 1990, Robson then went to Holland, where he managed PSV Eindhoven, before going on to coach Sporting Lisbon and Porto in Portugal and then Barcelona in Spain.

While he was at Barca he helped to preside over the development of the Brazilian striker Ronaldo, before he returned to England to manage Newcastle in his native north-east.

Robson was famed for his malapropisms. Once when former England captain Bryan Robson emerged from a lift, his manager greeted him by saying "Hello, Bobby," to be met with the response: "No boss, me Bryan, you Bobby."

The football knight will be much missed. What are your memories of Sir Bobby and what is his importance to English football?