Chelsea’s first leg clash with Juventus is all about one man, Claudio Ranieri. The manager who was first fired by Roman at Chelsea, after getting one season, knew he was a lame duck and insists the fact he didn’t give up shows the character he has. For a man who thinks he did ok, he certainly did alright by me…even if that meant heartbreak against Monaco in a Champions League semi-final and Arsenal in an FA Cup final.

Guus Hiddink’s first home match in charge of Chelsea has almost taken a back seat to Ranieri’s return. But Hididnk knows his place, win and win now. While Hiddink’s preparation for Juventus wasn’t exactly ideal, Guus says he won’t make excuses if there isn’t instant success.

Chelsea/Juve is an interesting tie for sure. Two sides who’s form have appeared to mirror each other will take the park Wednesday (2:45 pm ET ESPN2). This one all falls on which set of strikers decide to show up, and if John Terry doesn’t turn out to be the liability he has been of late. While Terry did have a half decent outing against Aston Villa, Ranieri will know his old players well, and which ones to quickly exploit.

That doesn’t mean the build up to the Real Madrid/Liverpool hasn’t been dull (Setanta Sports 2:45 pm). Let’s start with the Real Madrid president predicting a 5-1 aggregate victory. We then read that Rafael van der Vaart thinks Liverpool are scared of Real Madrid. Arjen Robben, he just wants revenge.

Rafa has an interesting dilemma ahead of him. Steven Gerrard is close to being fully fit, the question is will Rafa play him? I think that answer the most obvious answer of the year (yes). Fernando Torres is looking forward to making an impact in Madrid, after not  Alvaro Arbeloa has no regrets about his past and is looking to his future with Liverpool, Xavi Alonso is a bit worried about the threat Real Madrid pose.

Real Madrid come into this tie with Liverpool on fire, Liverpool just look ice cold. Rafa has always proved his sides can do the job over two legs, and with his contract still not signed, there is extra motivation. Of all the four ties between English clubs in this round of the Champions League, this could end up being the most entertaining to watch.

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Martin O’Neill has left key players out of the side heading to Russia for Aston Villa’s second leg tie with CSKA Moscow. While I understand his wanting to have his side focused on qualifying for the Champions League, why do I get the sneaky feeling they may end up in the round of sixteen?

Darren Fletcher had a little more on his mind than he bargained for last night after it was revealed his house was robbed and his girlfriend held at knife point. I hope these bastards are caught and get exactly what they deserve.

Could AirAsia be Manchester United’s next kit sponsor?

Steve Bruce believes South Korean international Cho Won-hee will pay off for Wigan Athletic. If Bruce can keep him healthy, he might be right.

The Football League is not happy with Wembley Stadium. Reason being, that 2011 Champions League final…well it clashes with one of the dates the Football League had already booked for the playoff finals. Expect money to exchange hands on that one.

Joe Kinnear has been told to chill out after apparently spending more time worrying about Newcastle United than recovering from triple-bypass surgery.

Here’s an interesting way to apologize. Craig Bellamy says all Robinho has to do is ‘play his best‘. You first Craig.

Giofranco Zola disagrees with those who have devalued the FA Cup, insisting he wants to win the trophy as manager of West Ham. Gareth Southgate, doesn’t plan on sacrafacing the FA Cup just because they are in the relegation zone.

And Sam Allardyce says he will stick with Blackburn, even if they are relegated.

Tomorrow night sees a meeting between two of  Europe’s best coaches in the Champions League when Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United travel to Milan to face Jose Mourinho’s Inter side. Mourinho’s magic touch is still continuing in his current spell in Italy, with one trophy already safely stashed away with the SuperCoppa and 3 more on the horizon for Inter. Currently sitting 9 points clear of second placed Juventus and 10 ahead of fierce rivals A.C. Milan, Jose has continued his phenomenal run as a coach by now reaching 110 home games unbeaten in all competitions since 23rd February 2002.

English football has certainly been duller since Chelsea made the ultimate mistake by letting him leave by “mutual consent” back in September 2007, Chelsea haven’t won a trophy since and are now on their 3rd managerial replacement with a 4th lined up to take over from Guus Hiddink in the summer. Abramovich may have all the money, but he can’t buy the qualities that Mourinho gave the Blues and his 6 trophies in 3 seasons spoilt them. He took a Portugueseteam and won both European competitions in successive seasons when faced with richer, stronger opponents on the way, including beating Manchester United in the 2004 Champions League with a last minute goal from Costinha at Old Trafford that took them through.

Mourinho’s celebratory sprint down the line introduced him to the British public and no doubt his growing reputation was cemented with Porto’s success that season. Beating Lyon in the next round too was a impressive performance, Lyon were a better side than they are now and probably will never have as good a chance to finally add some European silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet as they did that season. In his last 3 jobs, as manager of Porto, Chelsea and now Inter he has collected 13 trophies and has an incredible winning percentage of 71% in all competitions.

The Inter job is probably the easiest one he’s had in his career so far, replacing Roberto Mancini last summer saw him take over the reigning Italian Champions so he had a more successful platform to move on from but he knows he will be judged on Inter’s success in the Champions League. Inter have spent over £600 million since president Massimo Morratti took over in 1995 but have only a lonely Cup Winners Cup trophy, won in 1998, as their only European silverware during his tenure to show for that investment. If anyone can take Inter to the next level, Jose Mourinho is the man.

If Inter knock Manchester United out of the Champions League this time, only Barcelona can stop Mourinho winning the title for the second time in my opinion, but to win it again would confirm his reputation as the best manager in the world. I know a lot of his critics accuse him of arrogance, but he simply has supreme self confidence, as he once again showed in his press conference when taking over at Inter, when he claimed to have learnt Italian in 3 weeks and dropped local terms in to his answers, showing once again his unbridled ability to work hard and continually push himself forwards.

Now that was impressive, both in linguistic ability and his attitude of soaking himself in local culture. Learning Catalan whilst at Barcelona was another excellent piece of P.R. for him, the Barcelona fans take anyone to their heart who learns the language. He perhaps strained that relationship with his antics in the clash during the 2005 Champions League, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go there after he’s finished his latest project in Italy.

A man that can speak 5 languages so fluently (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Catalan and now Italian), with trophies in 3 different countries and has a wonderful ability to wind his opponents up, after his spats with Wenger and Benitez in England and now Ranieri in Italy, often seems him come out on top in the mind games and a penchant for sartorial excellence. Yet he’s not always so spiky and outspoken, notably in the  fantastic relationships with other managers, such Sir Alex Ferguson, Martin Jol and Sir Bobby Robson.  Sometimes he can go too far, as the voyeur comments towards Wenger and his current fall out with Claudio Ranieri but he will apologise when he realises he’s gone too far. He loves his family and his Yorkshire Terrier dog, he demands respect from his players and they love him for it. He pushes himself constantly and strives for improvement. He wears his heart on his sleeve, announces targets and usually achieves them. He is a winner.

It looks as though the Serie A title is Inters, giving Mourinho his 14th trophy but Jose knows that only the Champions League will do to take Inter back to their golden period of the 1960′s.  As Inter are celebrating 100 years of unbroken top flight football, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Mourinho takes the Champions League again. He’s the real deal, the Special One and you can never rule any team he manages out of any competition.

You would think Rafa Benitez would have already learned his lesson. Instead Rafa is left to choke on more words, and a title dream lost.

Before Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City, Rafa reacted to Arsene Wenger’s comments that Manchester United were untouchable. “I can only talk of my team but I don’t think they are untouchable. In football now every game is tough so anything can happen. We have reduced the gap very well and want to reduce it more. It will be difficult but if we’re in the same position going to Old Trafford maybe that could be important”, came the words of Rafa Benitez. Now the gap is seven and even winning at Old Trafford guarantees nothing for Rafa.

Why Rafa took the bait on what was such an innocent comment from Wenger defies belief. Instead of focusing on what Rafa was going to do without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres in the lineup to get three points at home against a Manchester City side that had not done much away from Eastlands this year, or even worrying about signing a new contract, Rafa decides that his vendetta against Sir Alex Ferguson is just that more important.

With Real Madrid hitting a bit of form, Liverpool have a bigger fight on their hands in the round of sixteen of the Champions League than even I expected a month ago. Should Liverpool not advance out of the Champions League, will their season truly be over with before March tenth?

Rafa may have finally admitted that the title race has slipped away from Liverpool, but it’s too late for that. He may have seen these tricks work when he managed at Valencia, but Rafa can’t fool the man who let’s the football do the talking first…then the man.

One person I never expected to come out with an almighty rant would be Tony Mowbray. The manager who’s side has been rooted at the bottom for a good portion of this season decides that before West Brom’s visit to Fulham to take a swipe at, of all things, Match of the Day. Not the show itself, just those ‘sofa pundits’ on it.

“I’ve got the world telling me I’m doing this wrong and that wrong, and playing the wrong formation. But I will stay single-minded and focused on what I believe in.

‘If the experts sitting on the sofas were good enough, they would all be doing this job themselves. Even when you get teams winning 10 games on the bounce, there are still people telling you that you are not doing something right.”

Mowbray’s West Brom then proceeded to see Fulham tear them apart in a match where 2-0 was too kind a scoreline. When that happens, those sofa pundits look like absolute geniuses. In the Championship, you can get away with single-minded tactics and thinking. In the Premier League, single-minded tactics and thinking see you relegated and begging for your job.

While I’m on the subject Mowbray, shouldn’t you be taking a little responsibility for how pathetic your teams have played? Shouldn’t you be putting the pressure on the players in private to up their standard instead of lashing out on pundits who are paid to do so (and seemingly doing a better job at pointing fingers than you are)?

There are winnable games in West Brom’s future, and now it’s the time for Tony Mowbray to show that he can adapt and be flexible. Single-minded football has been a losing proposition for West Brom so far, and sitting at the bottom of the table is not the time to be stubborn with what brought you up in the first place.

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While not a Premier League story, credit has to go Joe Prodomo for keeping Weymouth from losing by 10 or more goals.

So Bolton Wanderers are denying rumors that Gary Megson will be sacked at the end of the season and replaced by Owen Coyle, Burnley manager. Okay I was alright up until the name Owen Coyle appeared. So Bolton want to replace a guy who currently is guiding Bolton into a mid-table finish with a guy who, while has Burnley in the playoff fight, has been proven nothing more than a cup specialist. Good going there Bolton management.

The last thing Everton needed was to see Mikel Arteta injured on Sunday.

Claudio Ranieri admitted that he fell asleep while watching Chelsea play Aston Villa ahead of Juve’s Champions League clash.

And Richard Scudamore has rejected the idea of a salary cap in the Premier League. All together now…WHAT A SHOCK!