While it has been Chelsea taking the Premier League by storm during the opening few weeks of the season, their London rivals Arsenal have gradually been gradually continuing their solid start to the campaign.

Arsene Wenger’s side have been in very impressive form so far this season. They kicked off with a creditable 1-1 draw at Liverpool before three straight wins, including a 6-0 mauling of Premier League new boys Blackpool.

But in their last game they got their biggest boost of the season so far – the return to fitness and form of Cesc Fabregas. During the 4-1 win over Bolton, the little Spaniard showed the sort of ability which saw him linked with a big money move to Barcelona during the summer, and if he continues this form, Pep Guardiola may just regret not parting with the inflated transfer fee that Arsenal demanded.

You have to admire Fabregas’ attitude, just yesterday I criticised Fernando Torres, suggesting his heart was no longer at Liverpool and it was showing on the pitch, but with Fabregas, this simply wasn’t the case.

Wenger though claims he never doubted that Fabregas would be committed to the cause: “I was always convinced he loved Arsenal.

“When he is on the pitch, he enjoys it. We play the game he loves to play, the game turns around him as well. He grew up in this team, and to make this team win will be a bigger achievement than anything else for Fabregas.”

To be honest though you can see why Fabregas would remain loyal to Wenger, and so he should. Without the help of the Frenchman, Fabregas would be nowhere and repaying the gamble that Wenger took on him by staying for another year was really the very least Fabregas could have done.

Next summer I have no doubt that Fabregas will make the move to Barcelona, but in an era of player power it makes a refreshing change to see a player accepting the decision of his manager, keeping his head down and continuing to put in the high quality performances.

These high quality performances may just give Fabregas the only thing he has left to achieve at Arsenal, a trophy.

This coming weekend Liverpool will travel to Old Trafford giving Fernando Torres a chance to relive arguably his finest hour in a Liverpool shirt. In March 2008 Liverpool travelled along the M62 take on Alex Ferguson’s men knowing a win was vital to keep them in the title race. Enter Fernando Torres who raised his game to United defender to give Nemanja Vidic a torrid afternoon.

Liverpool would eventually run out 4-1 winners and although they wouldn’t go on to win the title, Torres’ performance had a raised expectations on him higher than ever. But unfortunately the former Atlético Madrid hit-man has never been able to hit the same heights since then.

A frustrating injury hit spell was topped off by yesterday’s performance in the dour draw with Birmingham demonstrated which just how far away from Torres is from his best. He looked completely lacking in confidence and motivation and the only positive to come out of his display was that he lasted the 90^th minutes.

Torres looked a shadow of his usual self, which is a worrying sign for Liverpool fans. After constant links with a move away from Liverpool in the summer, Torres ‘opted’ to stay put, but is he already regretting his decision?

Personally I don’t think that Torres did choose to stay at Anfield. I can’t but help think that if a potential move away from Anfield had of materialised then Torres would have jumped ship. I think the Spaniard has too much class about his personality to demand a move, and when nobody came in for him he was almost back in to a corner and forced to stay.

The reason why nobody came in for Torres is also down to his personality. I highly doubt he would want to move to another Premier League club out of respect to Liverpool. Likewise he wouldn’t play for Real Madrid due to his former connections at Atlético.

This means that Torres is now faced with a potential move to Italy or to Barcelona. With no Italian club seemingly in a financial position to bid for him, it is really only Barcelona that I can see him moving for the forward. Having said that though if rumors are to be believed than they aren’t in the most financially secure position either!

But I feel that if Barcelona want Torres they will find the money. Now Torres has to make them want him. The only way for him to do that is to return to his best form, and the only way to do that is to put in more effort than he did yesterday. The plus side for Liverpool is that they will get the best out of him this season if he adopts this attitude and up’s his game accordingly in a bid to get his dream move.

Can Raul Meireles (Right) add some bite to the Liverpool midfield?

Fernando Torres returned to goal scoring form to give Liverpool’s season a much needed kick-start against West Brom. But will this be the start of a bright season for Roy Hodgson’s side or will the men from Merseyside disappoint once again?

It’s been a bit of strange week for Liverpool. It started with midfielder Javier Mascherano apparently going on strike and refusing to play in their embarrassing 3-0 defeat to big spending Manchester City. But the week ended with their first league win of the season and a couple of very astute from Hodgson.

Hodgson has wasted little time in spending the money that will come when Mascherano completes his move to Barcelona and while neither Paul Konchesky nor Raul Meireles are of quite the same standard as Mascherano they will make the Reds a stronger side.

Meireles is very much in the Mascherano mould and would appear to be a like for like replacement. He was criticised by the Portuguese media before the World Cup for not having enough guile in his game, but this could be exactly what Liverpool need. He will add the steel and protection to the midfield that looked so desperately against Manchester City.

Konchesky is another who will improve Liverpool. He may not have the glamour of an Ashley Cole  type full back, but he is steady and will be a reliable player for Hodgson to turn too.

I would argue that Liverpool are in a better position for a successful season then they were at this time last week. Although losing Mascherano is a blow he was an almost a luxury player to have in midfield, and other players can do equally as good a job but for considerably less of the price. Namely Meireles.

I still don’t think Liverpool will have enough to challenge for the title, but if they can keep Torres and Steven Gerrard fit, the likes of Meireles and Konchesky will add a stern resolve to their side which was so bitterly missing during the Rafa Benitez era and I expect them to pose a much greater challenge for a Champions League spot.

Six foot three inch Ivorian central midfielder Yaya Toure has joined big Premier League spenders Manchester City on a five year deal from European club giants Barcelona. Toure joins older brother Kolo in the Eastlands setup and his signing pushes City’s spending to over £60 million pounds following the earlier captures of Hamburg and Germany international left back Jerome Boateng and ex-Valencia starlet David Silva.

The Ivory Coast international has joined City for a fee of around £27.5million, after three highly successful years with the Catalan giants, where Yaya won the La Liga twice and the Copa Del Rey. He also played a pivotal role in Barcelona’s Champions League Final success in 2009.

City chief Roberto Mancini told the club’s official website that Yaya Toure is “a another fantastic signing for Manchester City, and I am very pleased Yaya has joined us, he is a very good player.” He also added that he believes Toure’s “experience and ability will be very important for us.”

Toure will have competition for places at the City of Manchester Stadium, with Nigel De Jong, Gareth Barry, Stephen Ireland and Patrick Vieira all fighting to occupy the central midfield roles at the Abu Dhabi owned club. Expect more deals to pass through the chequebooks at the City of Manchester Stadium, as Roberto Mancini looks to strengthen his squad ahead of their forthcoming Europa League campaign, in which Toure will look to play a prominent and key role.

The question now on everybody’s lips is can the introduction of Toure help them win the Premier League, like so many City fans have been dreaming of since the takeover by the Abu Dhabi billionaires? In my opinion, no it can’t. The introduction of Nigel De Jong in the previous summer transfer window was supposed to have the same impact that Toure is stirring and City still finished outside the Champions League positions. They have done a shrewd piece of business by recruiting David Silva, as he will give the attacking flair and ingenuity that Manchester City have missed since the days of Georgi Kinkladze at Maine Road, but the signing of Toure shows their transfer market inexperience.

Yet again, Manchester City have wielded their financial muscles, without thinking of the club consequences. This move guarantees the exit door for Stephen Ireland and losing him is a massive blow to the club, as he is adored by the fans and I enjoy the way he plays and the variety he brings to City’s way of play. This signing also leaves either De Jong or Gareth Barry sitting on the bench, and with both of them progressing through the group stages of the World Cup with Holland and England respectively, they will feel they deserve a better chance than a midfielder who spent most of his time playing as a makeshift, although readily able, central defender. City will not want to lose the bite and feistiness that Barry and De Jong supplied in spades last season.

I understand the move on Toure’s behalf, as he wants first-team football at a rapidly growing football club both on the pitch and off. However, the conflict in midfield will again derail City and the fact that Mancini will have to juggle three top quality defensive midfielders into a team full of attacking flair from Tevez, Silva and Wright-Phillips will contribute to a low team morale and ultimately end up in another trophyless season and another Thursday night, Channel 5 job for the Manchester side. Whatever happens, City will make for interesting viewing when August comes.

So Cesc is off then. So long and thanks for all the skill, the vision and the bushy eyebrows.

Is this an Arsenal crisis in the making? Wasn’t Wenger building that team around Fabregas? How can you replace a player as good as that? It takes a lot of money. But Wenger doesn’t like to spend a lot of money – almost nobly so in fact. So how is he going to fill that Cesc-sized hole in the side? Can the likes of Nasri actually play that role as well as Fabregas? It’s far from clear.

I wonder if the problem this has created for Wenger will make him question the point of staying on at Arsenal for much longer. Let’s face it he’s spent four of five years creating the side that was nearly really good this season but which once again won nothing. In reality he’s probably only got one more season left to get it right with a new era potentially dawning soon and the arrival of a new owner who will be keen to be seen as the new conquering hero.

Wenger has built up a massive amount of capital at Arsenal and it’s been slow to be diminished but slowly it is now draining away. Fans grow restless at clubs like Arsenal without silverware; they shouldn’t but they do. Another potless season would be the breaking point for many previously loyal Wenger acolytes and how much harder will winning anything be without Fabregas in the centre, dictating things? A lot harder, I would argue.

With the pressing need for a top class goalkeeper, cover at centre half and up front and now a play maker of the highest order, there is much work for Wenger to do in the coming months and whoever he brings in will have to work straight away if he’s to keep the fans on board en masse. Suddenly, it’s looking like a major rebuild at Arsenal, not just in the first team but as crucially in the squad in case injuries, as they seem to all too frequently do at Arsenal, wreck their season again. They badly need some added depth.

If making these changes proves difficult this summer might it be time for Arsene to walk away and to look for another challenge.

His best exit strategy would be to win something next season and then bow out on top. But with the rise of Spurs and City’s money and the continued strength of Chelsea and United, it’s all looking less likely than ever. If Liverpool ever get sold and get their act together surely they couldn’t be as poor as this season and will provide yet more competition for the north Londoners.

Is Arsene up for the fight? The next couple of months could be very interesting to watch at The Emirates. Revolution may well be in the air.

Here we go again. Reports are coming out of the British media that Cesc Fabregas has told his friends that he wants to leave Arsenal and go to Barcelona. And, at the same time, Barcelona has confirmed that they want to sign Fabregas but note that they need to discuss the matter with Arsenal FC.

But for the good of Arsenal Football Club and Cesc Fabregas, should he leave and join Barcelona or not? Vote now.

Football is all about goals. That’s the cliché anyway, and it’s obviously true. Goals win games. But while this remains true, football is also about the art of defending. Defending is the less glamorous brother of attacking; the more dour, less flash relation. Some fans don’t really appreciate defending, but last night, Inter Milan gave one of the finest displays of the art form as you are ever likely to see. If you didn’t dig it, then maybe football is not your game.

Those addicted to open play and high-scoring games may have found it dull. However, those of us who draw as much pleasure from a well-organized defence as we do from a prolific striker totally loved it.

Going down to 10 men was actually the best thing that could have happened to Inter. It gave them a clear, unwavering game plan to stick to. Defend. Defend at all costs. And then defend again.

With 78% & 74% possession in the 1st and 2nd halves, Barcelona dominated in a manner that we have never seen before at this stage of the tournament. At times it looked like a training exercise of attack v defence.

Against any side this would have been a tough job, against the finest attacking club on earth, it looked to be impossible. However, inspired by Mourinho’s epic tactical nous and self-belief, they constantly denied Barcelona space in the centre, pushing them wide and away from goal, all the while breaking up the game by drawing fouls.

Lucio was imperious in the centre, the man looks like a beast and makes England’s supposed hard man, John Terry, look positively girlish by comparison. Walter Samuel was no less imposing as they harried and intercepted everything Barcelona threw at them. Even when they got a shot at goal, Cesar pulled off at least one world class save.

When Pique scored with six minutes to go, less stern, gritty souls would have panicked and collapsed at the final Barce onslaught, but their will and determination didn’t break. The mental strength they showed was off the scale.

Any England players watching should learn their lesson from this game. Even without possession, discipline, cohesion and organisation can still win the day. Their ‘they will not pass’ attitude was both inspiration and somehow noble.

Purists may bemoan the elimination of a side with Barcelona’s flair but over the two legs, Milan controlled the game better and played to their strengths while preventing their opponents from being able to play their natural expansive game. Milan was never going to out-football the Spanish, so didn’t even try to.

Mourinho emerged from this game with his reputation even further enhanced, if that were possible. He beat the best team in the world and he beat them by pure football intelligence applied perfectly by his players.

For me, it’s one of the most satisfying things in football to see a defence repeatedly close the door on an attack. Not so much poetry in motion as like watching a fine piece of machinery working, all gears and positions and cogs in perfect harmony. It will live long in the memory and that’s pretty much how Mourinho likes it as he continues to build his own astonishing legend.

Since it’s relaunch on March 1, the track record for FoxSoccer.tv — Fox’s broadband product that features live and recorded games — has been frustratingly poor. First there were the problems that plagued the Manchester United against Liverpool match shown live on Sunday, March 20. And Tuesday, the FoxSoccer.tv website was down for the entire first half of Arsenal’s biggest game of the year, their second leg against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.

Soccer fans trying to access the FoxSoccer.tv website on Tuesday afternoon received a timed-out error message (see above screenshot). The site was down for approximately 50 minutes from 2:45pm to 3:35pm ET. When the site did return at 3:35pm ET, the first half of the Barcelona against Arsenal match was already over and viewers were greeted with the half-time broadcast. Viewers desperate to see the match online would have missed four goals including a spectacular first half hat trick by Lionel Messi.

For matches of this magnitude, whether it’s Man United against Liverpool or Barcelona versus Arsenal, it’s vital that the website is able to handle the surge in traffic and to deliver a quality experience for the subscriber.

In addition to the issues with massive matches that are shown live, there continues to be a problem with games that are available on demand where the audio and video are not synced. Watching a game from this past weekend on demand, I ended up turning off the volume because the audio commentary was ten seconds ahead of the video and it completely ruined my experience of watching the game online.

Looking ahead to FoxSoccer.tv’s schedule for the close of the season, the following games are ones where we hope FoxSoccer.tv will be equipped to handle the surge in traffic during the most crucial time of the season:

• Sunday April 11: Tottenham Hotspur v Portsmouth, FA Cup semi-final, 11am ET
• Wednesday, April 14: Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal, 3pm ET
• Sunday, May 9: Final day of the Premier League season where the title race may come down to a photo-finish between Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal.

In the meantime, it’s probably no coincidence that Fox Sports Interactive has posted a job opening for a Broadband Product Manager who would work on the FoxSoccer.tv and FoxSoccerPlus.com website. What’s revealing in the job posting is that part of the job responsibilities is to “develop specs for product improvements such as picture in picture and live chats.” Both would be welcome additions to the FoxSoccer.tv experience.

What are your opinions about the technical issues that FoxSoccer.tv is encountering? Is your patience running thin, or is this to be expected due to a mid-season re-launch after Setanta USA went out of business? Post your feedback in the comments section below.

After the Tuesday night defeat in the Champions League at the hands of Lionel Messi and a sublime performance from Barcelona, Arsenal supporters are at a crossroads and have an important decision to make. Do they want beautiful football or do they want to win trophies? It’s as simple as that.

If they want to win trophies, I honestly believe that Arsene Wenger is no longer the man for the job. He’s an astute fellow who has an incredible eye for finding young talented footballers and grooming them into world-class players. And he’s completely modernized the game of football in England by bringing in the best of continental football. But when it comes down to making a decision between having his footballers play the beautiful brand of football that his team is renowned for, or changing his tactics and being more cautious in the way his team goes into a game, the man is stubborn. He always picks the same predictable, but beautiful, option.

That’s fine when you’re playing the likes of Blackburn Rovers and weaker European clubs in the Champions League. But when Arsenal faces better teams such as Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea or others who have more riches and more experience, Arsenal’s one-dimensional and predictable style of play will almost always lose.

There are only two ways to beat Barcelona. One is to beat them at their own game. The other is to stop them from playing their game and hope you can salvage a narrow victory. In the case of trying to beat Barcelona at their own game, you have to play better than them. And in the case of Arsenal, no matter how gifted the players are and how many injuries they had, the club is and will not be better than Barcelona.

As Wenger said Tuesday night, “But in the end, if you look at the whole game, they were a better team and deserved to win.”

Over the course of the two legs, I actually thought that Arsenal played much better in the second leg than the first one. In the game at the Emirates, Arsenal was fortunate that Almunia was able to make some critical saves to limit Barcelona to only two goals.

So if you’re not able to beat Barcelona at their own game, the only other option to beat Josep Guardiola’s side is to prevent them from playing their game. This is the option that Wenger stubbornly refuses to stoop down to, but it was the one that would have given the Gunners the best chance of winning over the two legs. Allowing Lionel Messi to roam free and have so much space on Tuesday night was criminal and was only going to spell trouble for Arsenal.

An example of a team that was able to go to the Nou Camp in the Champions League in recent years and win, and then eek out a second leg result to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League was Liverpool. Yes, Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool in 2007 who beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Camp Nou with a team featuring no Fernando Torres. Liverpool hung on for victory by scoring goals by John Arne Riise and Craig Bellamy, and then playing extremely defensively and withstanding Barcelona’s attacks.

Sure, the Liverpool side of this season is awful in comparison to the 2007 side who went all the way to the final only to lose to AC Milan. But Benitez was a master tactician in the way that he controlled his players to cut off the opposing team’s attacks and then break on the counter in the hopes of grabbing a winner.

For Wenger, it seems as if that style of play is beneath him and breaks the formula he so stubbornly holds on to.

In order for Arsenal to win silverware in Europe, the club must be able to adapt to opponents and play a different style of play when necessary. In the Premier League, it’s a different story because the clubs ahead of the Gunners aren’t light years better such as Barcelona. Plus, it’s a very long season and even if Arsenal loses the matches against Chelsea and Manchester United, the club still has a chance to win the title. Having said that, Arsenal would prosper more in the Premier League if the team was able to play a more controlled style of play in either the matches against the Big Four or in tough matches with lesser opposition when it needs to hold on for a 1-0 victory such as the team almost did against Birmingham City recently.

Let me finish by saying that I’m a massive admirer of the work that Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal players have done. Tuesday night I was very impressed by Diaby’s performance in the first half, and Clichy’s performance in the second half. Both footballers were playing out of their skin and putting everything into the game. But even with those two professionals trying their hardest, Arsenal had a mountain to climb because Wenger tried to do the impossible which was to beat Barcelona at Barca’s game. Arsenal is good and attractive to watch. But they’re not that good.

Via Flickr

Today beginning at 2:15 pm ET (7:15 UK Time), I will be liveblogging the Barcelona against Arsenal UEFA Champions League match, with a little EPL chat mixed in.

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=d48a0e36e6″ mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=d48a0e36e6″ >EPLTalk: Arsenal v. Barcelona Live Blog</a>

Editor’s note: Whether you’re at work or at home watching the game, log in to this post on EPL Talk during the game to share your observations about the game and read Jordan Acker and Phil Badger’s analysis. May the best team win. Let’s just hope that it’s as entertaining a match as the first leg.