Chelsea may have dropped their first points of the Premier League season at the weekend, but the result will have taken little away from a supremely impressive start to their defence of the Premier League.

One man who has been crucial to Carlo Ancelotti’s sides start has been Florent Malouda whose individual performances have very much mirrored Chelsea’s improvement under the Italian.

After arriving from Lyon in the summer of 2007 big things were expected from the winger. But unfortunately for Malouda he was expected to be the man to replace Arjen Robben, a task which was never going to be easy.

It didn’t help one bit that Jose Mourinho, the manager who brought him to the club, left soon after Malouda’s arrival. The Frenchman struggled to adapt to the demands of the Premier League, and looked set to be another expensive flop at Stamford Bridge.

But over time Malouda would gradually settle in and ever since the arrival of Ancelotti, he looks a snip at £13 million. He scored 12 times last season as Chelsea regained the title, and has started this season in an even more prolific manor, scoring 6 times already.

Malouda himself feels that the arrival of Ancelotti has helped his game: “Every single player at the club is having a lot of fun playing under him. I think our manager is one of the most proven managers there is.”

Personally I feel that Malouda’s emergence in to one of the world’s best wingers sums up the success Ancelotti has had at Chelsea. He has got players playing with confidence and freedom, none more so then Malouda, and the results have been nothing short of sensational.

Malouda has come a long way from the winger we first saw arrive in England, and his progression reflects a real reward for him sticking with English football after tough start. He is currently the Premier League’s joint top scorer, and if he can continue his excellent form, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him picking up a golden boot come May. Even if he doesn’t he has certainly replaced Robben now and easily surpassed him.

Former Liverpool boss Gérard Houllier is reportedly the man earmarked to take over at Aston Villa. The commanding Frenchmen has been out of work since 2007 after leaving Lyon but rumours have it that he is currently considering  an offer from Randy Lerner to return to work with the Midlands side. But would Houllier be the right man to step in for Martin O’Neill?

To be frank the answer is no. The right man for Aston Villa was Martin O’Neill. It is an unfortunate saga for football that has seen one of the most charismatic but gifted managers leave the game.  Whoever replaces O’Neill will have an almost impossible task.

But Houllier is somebody with vast experience and may be able to slowly make Villa fans forget about O’Neill era. Villa need a manager who can build a new dynasty and maybe somebody who can do something different to O’Neill.

Houllier is the sort of manager who will build a side that focuses on results rather than flair and this will be a big change for Villa fans that will have been used to different things under O’Neill.

But what Houllier can do is get the results. Liverpool fans will look back fondly to the days of success in cup competitions that the Frenchman had at Anfield.  In one off games Houllier was very successful at picking up positive results.

However in the league results were not so succesful and Houllier eventually lost his job due to his inability to secure Champions League football. This would be the making of any spell at Villa should he take over and going on history Houllier may suffer for his lack of ability to make his side grind out results.

But the main reason why I can’t see Houllier being a success at Villa Park is Houllier’s transfer policy.  Looking on his past at Liverpool this is where he drastically underperformed signing a huge amount of average players. O’Neill reportedly left because a lack of money for transfers meaning that Houllier would have to be immaculate with his budget and how he spent it.

I think Villa will find it very hard on to replace a manager of O’Neill’s stature and I feel the only way they can have any long term to success his to take a short term appointment on to fill the gap and help make fans forget about O’Neill. Because whoever replaces him is unfortunately destined to fail.

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League has been made, and there are some delightful matches drawn. Arsenal will play Barcelona – two of the most attractive to watch teams in the world. Manchester United will play Bayern Munich – as a repeat of that great 1999 Champions League Final. Lyon will play Bordeaux, which ensures that a French team will make it to the semi-final, and last but not least, Inter Milan will play CSKA Moscow.

In the semi-final, the winner of Arsenal versus Barcelona will play the winner of Inter Milan against CKSA Moscow. And the winner of Manchester United versus Bayern Munich will play the winner of Lyon against Bordeaux.

This means that if Manchester United wins both matches, Sir Alex Ferguson could face either Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan or a repeat of last year’s final with Barcelona. Or, of course, Arsenal or CSKA Moscow could make it to the final too if they can win both of their matches.

The quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League will be played over two legs on March 30-31 and April 6-7. The semi-finals of the Champions League will be played over two legs on April 20-21 and April 27-28.

What’s your reaction to the draw? Are you pleased with the opposition your team will be facing? If you’re a neutral, do you think the quarter-final draw will be exciting to watch? What storylines will you be interested in? Click the comments link below to share your opinion.

Group A

Bayern Munchen
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa

Group B

Manchester United
CSKA Moskow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C

AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D

Chelsea
Porto
Atletico Madrid
APOEL

Group E

Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debrecen

Group F

Barcelona
Internazionale
Dynamo Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G

Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni

Group H

Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard Liege

Reaction

Manchester United along with Arsenal have fairly straightforward groups and both should be looking to come out on top.

Chelsea have a couple of tough away trips to Porto and Madrid, while APOEL will prove to be Group D’s whipping boys.

Liverpool have a very tricky draw, Lyon spent big in the summer and thrashed Anderlecht in the qualifiers, plus Fiorentina are always a tough team, though I would expect Liverpool to progress as winners.

Other highlights include Zlatan Ibrahimovic returning to Inter and Kaka facing his beloved Milan. While Scottish representatives Rangers will be looking to progress and have a real chance of doing so.

Your thoughts on the draw please.

What the hell is going on at Portsmouth? Despite Sulaiman Al Fayed passing the fit and proper persons test that the Premier League subjected him to, he’s still not completed the takeover at Fratton Park. The fans of Pompey deserve better than this, it’s not fair and it’s getting beyond a joke. The club has had no additional finances for over 9 months now from current owner Alexandre Gaydamak, so desperate is he to recoup his overall investment.

Perhaps someone should point out to him that you get a lot less for a team that is either in the Championship or nothing for a team in administration. Portsmouth are clinging to the cliff edge by their fingernails and unless the deal gets sorted immediately, they are in serious trouble of lasting until the transfer window shuts.

On May 17th 2008, Portsmouth fielded the following side in the F.A. Cup final; James, Johnson, Hreidarsson, Distin, Campbell, Utaka, Mendes, Diarra, Kranjcar, Muntari, Kanu. Subs: Ashdown, Paramot, Diop, Nugent, Baros. Of that match day squad, 10 still remain at the club with another 8 who were either not at the club or unable to play that day, which swells the ranks to 18 first team players.

The Premiership season starts in 11 days and at this moment in time, it has now become clear that there is no guarentee that how many more of the remaining squad members will still be there come 3pm on the 15th when they face Fulham. That is unacceptable for Portsmouth’s fans, who always seem to be the last to know anything these days.

The protracted takeover for the club by Sulaiman Al Fayed has still not been completed and today the club inadvertently revealed the financial woes that the club faces. There’s nothing worse than sending a confidential e-mail to suddenly realise it’s become major sporting news.  Portsmouth’s Chief Executive Peter Storrie has opened a can of worms this evening after such a scenario revealed the state of Pompey’s financial woes. Storrie’s e-mail stated that “The business has debts to pay and the banks are not releasing funds, so this leaves the club with no option but to sell to keep going.”

Where does this idea of a European Super League keep coming from? Scratch that, WE know where the idea comes from, The European Club Association, the collective of 135 clubs dotted around Europe, keeps trying to push for this dreadful idea to come into fruition. I can’t think of anything I’d rather watch less than a 3 league competition of 60 European sides week in, week out played out in front of empty stadiums on television.

It’s an idea that’s been thrown about since the formation of the Champions League back in 1992 and reappears with regularity to terrify national league associations the length and breadth of Europe. For me, it’s a complete acknowledgement that certain people who own or run certain football clubs have a complete disregard for the bread and butter supporter who turn up every week. According the reports that appeared in today’s Sun, it seems A.C. Milan are the main movers behind this attempt to put the wind up U.E.F.A aided and abetted by the quiet and modest owner of Lyon, Jean-Michel Aulas.

Aulas has been slating the strength of the French League this week, blaming them for Lyon’s exit from the Champions League. Whilst I appreciate that Ligue 1 isn’t as strong as La Liga, The Premiership or Serie A, it’s a bit rich for the owner of Frances richest club to blame everyone else for their tactical naivety in the Champions League. Especially as this season has seen the closest title race in France for 5 years and sees Lyon hanging on to the top spot by a point from Marseille and PSG.

The irony of the ECA is that the Premiership has 5 members, The obvious big 4 but oddly Newcastle United are our fifth member, which for me makes a mockery of the whole set up. I could understand Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City vying for membership, but Newcastle United? I have yet to meet anyone who supports a Premier League club who would swap the Premiership for a Euro League of 38 games, the appetite for such competition simply exists in the boardrooms of greedy football clubs, detached from the true feelings of the fans. Sure, European competition can give us some truly wonderful nights of great football, but that’s what makes it so special.

It’s the desert to the main meal, a delightful bonus that can offer continental delight to the fans and gives us a different type of atmosphere. I have to say Anfield and Old Trafford’s atmosphere in a Champions League game can be spine tingling, Liverpool have thrived on such atmosphere’s since their magical routing of St Etienne in the 1977 European Cup Quarter Final Second League. Yet, we’ve seen this season half empty stadiums in the group stages of the Champions League across Europe for games where the results didn’t matter, so how would the European Super League change that? Who would be in the top league? Surely it wouldn’t change a thing in regards to the traditional power houses of European football still carving the spoils between them every year, Porto’s magical win in 2004 excluded.

I honestly believe that if the clubs are so determined to break out of their national leagues, then the leagues should let them go. Would the Premiership really die if the big 4 left and allowed the rest of the league to suddenly become competitive overnight? Would French football really miss Lyon? The Catalans wouldn’t care for it if they couldn’t play Real Madrid, Athletico, Valencia and Espanyol, Italian football, riddled with corruption and rampant hooliganism, couldn’t seriously consider bi-monthly visiting sides and the protection of any fan brave and rich enough to attempt a visit to the Stadio Olympico can they?

The one trick they miss here is that in European football, they all whine about the strength of the Premiership but every other league is far more weighted in the protection of its bigger clubs than England. The Premiership’s collective TV deal allows everyone from Manchester United to Watford to receive a flat fee regardless of the clubs size. Sure they receive additional monies for TV appearances and finishing positions, but no other major league in Europe does that. All the major clubs have individual deals, which in turn makes the leagues weaker by comparison, making them weaker when facing English clubs in Europe. They have an easy ride at home, so can’t cope with the raised level of performance they meet against Premiership sides.

To make European Football more competitive, UEFA needs to re-introduce collective TV deals for all leagues, then Jean-Michel Aulas will really have something to complain about when Lyon finish 6th in Ligue 1.

Why is Michael Essien so underrated is a mystery to me. I must admit that I was nonplussed about him as a player, knowing next to nothing about him when he signed for Chelsea from Lyon in August 2005 for £24 million. That was in the dark days before I had Setanta and could immerse myself in French football as often as I wished. Yet, it took next to no time for me to be impressed by his dynamic style and work rate, for me he’s easily one of the best midfielders in world football and this season has shown just how important he is for Chelsea.

His performances in the three games he’s played since returning from the damaged cruciate ligament he picked up playing for Ghana against Libya have been sensational, I consider him a swashbuckling player, dynamic runs, powerful in the tackle, yet a lovely range of passing, good in the air and the positional adaptability that all managers would adore to have in their team. His goal against Juventus showed that he wasn’t held back by his injury as some players can be on their return. By throwing himself at the ball and the imposing figure of Gianluigi Buffon, without a care about his knee showed he wanted to score over anything else, he just wanted to drag his team level and also evaporate any doubts over his long term fitness.Against Manchester City yesterday, he could have had a hatrick.

Essien has shown in those games just how important he is and yet he knows he has to push the continual development of his game. When he first joined, the only thing about his game that I thought he lacked was his goalscoring, only getting two in his debut season at Chelsea. He’s certainly added that to his game since though, and his two goals in Chelsea’s last two games were massive, massive goals. The goal against Juventus, coming when it did, was such a crucial strike. If Chelsea had gone in at half time one nil down, especially scoring a goal that the referee and linesman missed, they’d be out of Europe now, no question about it. The dreadful decision would have weighed down on them and I don’t think they’d have been able to pick themselves up enough in the second half, but Essien saved the day.

His return to fitness couldn’t come at a better time for the Blues and Guus Hiddink as we reach the final furlong in European football. The Premiership is too far out of reach, regardless of Liverpool’s destruction of Manchester United on Saturday, but with Chelsea still in the F.A.Cup and Champions League, the possibility of having two cracks at silverware is tantalising close. Essien will be crucial in this run in now, his drive and effervescence, matchless in Chelsea’s engine room.

With sounds emanating from Stamford Bridge that Chelsea look likely to have a major clear out in the Summer, Essien, along with Lampard and Anelka, would be top of the list of players to keep hold of with no question of selling any of that trio and building the new Chelsea around them for a serious assault on four fronts. Essien has to be the fulcrum, the pivot that allows the team to move freely. Get that balance right and Chelsea can look to scale the heights they achieved under Mourinho once again next year.