A Weekend of Upsets & Chokery

Barcelona and Manchester United. They are both struggling. Oh yes they are.

On a weekend of upsets, Barcelona lost 1-0 away at Zaragoza, and United went down 2-1 at Portsmouth. Both sides are choking badly, and while United have a once-again consistent Chelsea grinding out wins and catching up with them, Barcelona are fortunate to have equally bad chokers Sevilla as their title challengers. Time and time again Sevilla have failed to capitalise on Barca's slip-ups, and on Saturday they could only manage a goalless draw against Racing Santander in response to Barca's defeat, which came courtesy of a typically opportunistic Diego Milito strike .

It all certainly has provided a very interesting twist to the finishes of Europe's two major leagues. A while ago, United looked confident and in-control, especially when Chelsea were struggling, but the tables look like they might be turned now. Henrik Larsson is being sorely missed. He might not have set the world on fire in his short spell at Old Trafford, but he was an experienced, top-class player that they had in an attack short of depth; his departure has left the attack short of ideas and confidence, and just 3 points ahead of Chelsea.

Rooney hasn't scored many this year, neither has Saha, and Solskjaer has been patchy when fit. Cristiano Ronaldo has been their main threat, and it looks like a situation where they will now have to prioritise between the Champions League and the Premiership, although that problem might not last much longer if they fail to overturn their 2-1 first leg away defeat against AS Roma. Ferdinand will have to regain his confidence after scoring a wildly entertaining own goal at the weekend, and Van der Sar has looked a bit shaky – he failed to cleanly either hold or punch away shots against Roma and Pompey , both of which resulted in similar rebound goals.

Barca however have no real excuses. Eto'o and Messi are both fit and the latter has been wonderful since his return from injury, they have a team that is far stronger than last season's and really should be doing better. But they have been generally shaky this term, and slipping up a lot. They are out of the Champions' League, and should be focussing 100% on domestic duties, but somehow seem to have confused their objectives even more by handing the initiative to everyone else. Barca are on 56 points, Sevilla are on 55, Real Madrid are on 54, and Zaragoza and Valencia are both on 50 .

Not many people have mentioned much about Zaragoza this season, but they have been steadily climbing up the the league, and whilst their 1-0 win over Barca might be considered an upset by most, there are some who will look at the league table and say that every team in the top 7 is very, very tricky. Barca have already lost to Real, Valencia, Sevilla and Zaragoza this year, and if you can't beat your opponents at the top, then you don't deserve to win. Something just seems to be awry at the Nou Camp, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Rijkaard gone in the summer.

Anyway, off to sleep for me. Tomorrow's Champions League action could make me a very, very happy man if both Man United and Chelsea go out of the competition :)