Kevin Keegan thinks the Premier League is getting boring — see our latest Vlog on the Pitch — but, not for the first time, Sir Alex Ferguson sees things a bit differently.

“The League is murder for me and Avram Grant and nerve-racking for fans and players,” Ferguson said. “It would be impossible to make the Premier League any more exciting.”

Perhaps Ferguson has a point. The top two are heading into the final day level on points, and a glance at Mike Collett’s piece here will show you how rare that is.

But look at this phrase of Ferguson’s, as quoted in the Daily Telegraph.

“Domination is not a word that will get used again with Everton and Aston Villa getting better,” Ferguson was quoted as saying.

Yet the fact remains, Tottenham, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton will all face a battle from the big four just to maintain their star players this summer.

Gareth Barry and Dimitar Berbatov have been strongly linked with moves to Liverpool and Manchester United, meaning Villa and Spurs could be weakened before they can try to add to their squads.

So what’s the answer? A salary cap? It would at least stop the likes of Chelsea and United adding all the top players to already bulging squads and allow the smaller clubs to compete.  

One league that does use this method is Rugby’s English Premiership, where six of the 12 teams were in contention to win this year’s title with two games to go.

Something has to be done, certainly. Whether Keegan is right or not, the truth is that the top four clubs get pretty much all the top players  in the end. Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Michael Carrick are examples of this.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez said Didier Drogba was a diver ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final, but the Ivorian had the last laugh with two goals in Chelsea’s victory.

Vlogonthepitch regulars Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley are joined by Tony Donovan to discuss Drogba, Avram Grant’s future, Frank Lampard’s courage and the amazing Stamford Bridge atmosphere.

Leave your comments below or make your own video, load it up to youtube or wherever tagged “vlog on the pitch”, and if we like it we’ll put it up here.

NOTE: We fixed a typo in the headline… see the comments.

He has achieved something no other Chelsea manager has by taking the club to a Champions League final, but there is still speculation Avram Grant will be axed at the end of the season.

With a Premier League title still also a possibility, what more does the man need to do to keep his job?

Admittedly, he is working with a team put together by fans’ favourite Jose Mourinho but he has gone one better than the “special one” with Chelsea in Europe - with those same players.

He may lack Mourinho’s charisma but is that reason enough to not want him in charge? At least he also lacks the Portuguese’s arrogance and there are certainly a fair few neutrals out there who do not miss Mourinho’s regular TV rants.

On the other hand, Grant has yet to prove he can build a great team in the way Mourinho did, the flair is still missing and his tactics have been dubious at times.

Will Grant ever be “special” or will he be a victim of his predecessor’s popularity?

Sonia Oxley, London

PHOTO: Chelsea manager Avram Grant celebrates at the final whistle of their English Premier League soccer match against Manchester United, April 26 REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

On a soggy night at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea finally prevailed against Liverpool in a Champions League semi-final after failures in 2005 and 2007.

Didier Drogba was immense on the muddy surface and bagged two lightning quick goals at the near post as the Londoners triumphed 3-2 after extra time and 4-3 on aggregate. 

Liverpool battled hard with Fernando Torres scoring yet again but ultimately Chelsea were worthy winners, even if they thought a chance had gone when Michael Essien’s strike was ruled out for offside…probably correctly.

After all the boardroom wrangling at Liverpool, it will be interesting to see what Rafa Benitez does next. Chelsea boss Avram Grant is on his way to Moscow to face Manchester United in the first all-English final, and as he sank to his knees at the end Chelsea fans finally saw the emotion they thought was lacking since Jose Mourinho’s departure.

The night, though, belonged to Frank Lampard, who slotted home an extra time penalty to make it 2-1 for Chelsea after Sami Hyypia’s careless foul on Michael Ballack just inside the box.

Days after the death of his mother, Lampard placed the spotkick perfectly and ran to the corner kissing his black armband and holding it to the sky. She would have been proud of you, Frank.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has returned to training following the death of his mother last week but, even if he wants to, should he play in Wednesday’s Champions League game against Liverpool?  

Lampard sat out Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash with Manchester United, which came two days after the death of his 58-year-old mother Pat, and in his absence Chelsea produced their best performance for months.

It was probably no surprise that Michael Ballack, finally given the main man mantle he revels in for big games, stepped up to the plate and capped an impressive all-round performance with both goals in the 2-1 win that kept the title race alive.   

Lampard is undoubtedly a hugely influential and popular player for Chelsea, with an uncanny knack of timing his runs and choosing his positions perfectly to ensure a remarkably regular and prolific goal return.    

However, as England have found to their cost all too often with his failure to gel with Steven Gerrard, his presence does not always seem to bring out the best in those around him - Ballack being the obvious example at Chelsea.    

What a dilemma for Grant. He could leave Lampard on the bench on Wednesday and retain the powerful trio of Ballack, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien, who performed so impressively against United, but it would be a tough and emotional call to tell Lampard he was surplus to requirements in the most important game of the season so far.

Mitch Phillips, London

Chelsea’s 1-1 Champions League draw at Liverpool on Tuesday was all about Avram Grant getting a reprieve from the hacks who only days earlier said his time under Roman Abramovich was almost up.

No question that Chelsea were poorer on the night. Liverpool should have had one or two more goals in reserve for the return leg at Stamford Bridge before John Arne Riise’s injury time own goal gave the Blues a huge boost. It also lifted the pressure from Grant for now, at least.

If he makes it to the final in Moscow, Grant will have surpassed Jose Mourinho’s efforts with Chelsea in the competition, but will the press notice? Probably not. Grant’s supporters complain that after more than half a year in the job, Mourinho is still getting the credit for his successor’s achievements.

There can be no doubt that former Israel coach Grant has adequate coaching abilities even if some of his critics point to the fact that before the Chelsea hot seat he was never tested at such a high level.

Like many Israelis who regard him as an ambassador of the Jewish state and its soccer, Grant undoubtedly feels that because he is an outsider from a small nation of modest sporting achievements, he will never gain the respect he deserves.

How frustrating it must be when you appear from nowhere, do so much better than anyone imagined, you are still in the running for silverware at the end of the season, and yet you are told most mornings that the axe is about to fall on your head.

Much boils down to Grant’s inability to keep the jounalists on-side and because this rather grey character stepped right into the shoes of Mourinho, their darling.

Back home, his detractors said he used an agreeable manner to befriend reporters and neutralise them as critics. They also said he relied more on luck than on coaching ability - Riise is a new bit of ammo for them. But Grant’s supporters said that his style, which was more to be the players’ friend and rely less on discipline, was a formula guaranteed to succeed.

Talk from the dressing room certainly suggested that Israeli players liked working with Grant. He also appeared to usually find favour with the heads of the Israeli FA, but the bottom line was that he was delivering results.

Many Israelis take it almost personally when something bad is said or written about Grant in the UK. Certainly, in view of his good results, they feel he does not deserve the frosty reception he gets in some of the British media.

But Israelis and perhaps Grant himself have not fathomed the difference between the relatively small number of Israeli reporters, who for the most part are more forgiving, and the school of British sharks who are far less willing to compromise in the cut-throat U.K. media marketplace.

Ori Lewis is a Reuters correspondent based in Jerusalem

John Arne Riise’s astonishing own goal seems to have given Chelsea the edge in the first Champions League semi-final.

Liverpool’s Norwegian defender bent down to spectacularly head in deep into injury time and leave the scores at 1-1 ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Has their ever been a more important own goal? Liverpool were the better side on the night and looked to be easing to a 1-0 first-leg advantage after Dirk Kuyt’s first-half strike. To have that lead ripped away so late and in such a strange fashion cannot have helped their confidence while it has given Chelsea a boost they barely deserved.

Colombia defender Andres Escobar scored an own goal in the 1994 World Cup which knocked them out. He was later shot dead in his home town. Des Walker and Steven Gerrard beat their own keepers in Cup finals but with the importance of the Champions League these days, Riise’s feat will be long remembered.

It may be important for some, but for many neutrals it is certainly one of the funniest football moments.

PHOTO: Liverpool’s John Arne Riise scores an own goal against Chelsea during their Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield, April 22. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Has it reached the stage where a Champions League semi-final is not enough to safeguard a coach’s job?

Avram Grant, whose Chelsea side visit Liverpool in their first leg on Tuesday, is under pressure despite his team stil having an outside chance of the Premier League title.

Boardroom squabbles mean Rafa Benitez is not 100 percent certain to be at Anfield next season while Barcelona’s Frank Rijkaard desperately needs a win against Manchester United on Wednesday to deflect attention from Primera Liga disappointment.

And what about poor Roberto Mancini? He is on the verge of leading Inter Milan to another scudettoand yet the papers are again full of talk that Jose Mourinho is San Siro-bound.

Surely the problems at PSG and Valencia show what real failure is like? Our dynamic duo Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley discuss the pressure on coaches these days and want your views.  

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It was with more than the usual haste that I strode off from the Nou Camp after Frank Rijkaard’s customary non-committal news conference on the eve of Barcelona’s Champions League match against Schalke on Tuesday. Liverpool against Arsenal was being shown on terrestrial TV here in Spain and it was one of those games that you didn’t want to miss.

So I settled down to my usual Reuters expenses supper of a bottle of beer and a Kit Kat from the hotel minibar and wasn’t disappointed. For sheer breathless excitement, intensity and entertainment the match couldn’t be beaten. The game had the Spanish commentators gasping with delight at the football being played by both sides, the commitment from the players and the non-stop support from the fans.

The next day the Spanish media was awash with tributes to the English game, with sports daily AS even managing to bring in an unexpected reference to Nelson and Trafalgar in their editorial on the match.

The Admiral’s famous “England expects every man to do his duty,” was the motto of English football, said the paper’s director Alfredo Relaño.

“There may have been almost no English players on the pitch, but this was pure English football,” he said. “It was open, attacking football, full of commitment, enthusiasm, risk and nobility.

“The fact that there were few English players involved showed that this sort of football has nothing to do with genetics but with the atmosphere in the English game, one of respect, fair play, solidarity and a job well done. Players who in other leagues are cheats, moaners and defensive turn into exemplary competitors in England. This is how football should be played.”

Now Alfredo may have got a little carried away with his purple prose but there is little doubt that with three sides in the Champions League semi-finals for the second year in a row England is without doubt the dominant force in European club football (See Mike Collett’s analysis and lots of other stuff on our main soccer site).

The contrast with Spanish football at the moment couldn’t be sharper. Admittedly they still have two sides in European competitions, but the quality in La Liga has undergone a worrying downturn in the last two seasons.

The patient, short-passing game favoured by so many Spanish sides is past its sell-by date. The stop-start nature of matches in the Primera Liga does little to prepare teams for the intensity of European encounters, while the players are struggling to match with the sheer physicality of English-based players.

Where the best players were once clamouring to join Spanish sides, an increasing number are now looking to England first and it isn’t just because of the money on offer. Being part of a top English club now appears to offer the best chance of success in the continent’s elite competition.

I get the impression it is the same story in other European leagues. Is there anything they can do to stop the English domination?

Simon Baskett

PHOTO: Carlos Tevez scores with a diving header to give Manchester United a 1-0 win on the night and a 3-0 aggregate victory over AS Roma in their Champions League quarter-final. Roma were Italy’s last representatives in this year’s competition, April 9. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Liverpool’s rivalry with Arsenal now involves 202 matches dating back to 1893 and Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final will, for the neutral, forever rank among the greatest of them all.

Arsenal fans will never forget Michael Thomas’s last kick of the season goal at Anfield in 1989 which gave them, and not Liverpool, the title.

They’ve never forgotten Charlie George’s blistering shot and celebratory lie-down at Wembley which secured the FA Cup and League double in 1971 either.

Likewise Liverpool fans will always remember Michael Owen’s two late goals that transformed the 2001 FA Cup final and gave Liverpool a 2-1 win over the Gunners at Cardiff when all seemed lost.

But although there was no prize at stake — apart from a place in the Champions League semi-finals of course — I have rarely witnessed such UNRELENTING tension as there was at Anfield for 90 minutes which helped turn Tuesday’s match into an instant classic.

With the teams tied at 1-1 from the first leg — and with Saturday’s 1-1 Premier League draw at the Emirates merely adding to the occasion — there had to be a winner on Tuesday and the away goals rule played a huge part in the agony and ecstacy.

Arsenal set the tone from the kick off playing some brilliantly inspired football which led to three scoring chances inside the first nine minutes — all of which were annulled by the offside flag. That didn’t phase them. They carried on looking for the goal they had to score and once they got it after 13 minutes, the stakes were raised.

Liverpool had to score and did but even when they were 2-1 ahead on the night and 3-2 up on aggregate, they could not relax because another Arsenal goal would put the Londoners ahead on aways goals.

When it came Anfield was silenced. Arsenal were almost through. The Kop was stunned. It took a lot of nerve for Steven Gerrard to take and score the penalty that put Liverpool back in front a minute later … but even then Liverpool were not safe.

Another Arsenal goal meant they would be on top again. At that stage, with more than five minutes still to play, Liverpool fans were literally screaming in agony at Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt to blow for time.

It wasn’t until substitute Ryan Babel scored in the 90th minute to end all of Arsenal’s hopes that the issue was beyond doubt. Ninety minutes of unrelenting drama and tension were over. The football wasn’t bad either.

Mike Collett, Reuters soccer correspondent

PHOTO: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger gestures as Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez watches their Champions League quarter-final second leg match. April 8 REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito