Ilkay Gündoğan – Man-of-the-Match and two goals to boot.
After emphatic away wins for Manchester City and Liverpool they are both, barring disasters of seismic proportions, through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League.
Having beaten Basel 4-0 in Switzerland City fans will be thinking that there will be tougher tests ahead and they would be right in so thinking.
The only question raised by the performance of the Swiss team is how they managed to beat Manchester United and Liverpool in the recent past!
On this form, which has been pretty consistent all season, City need fear nobody and are certainly a match for the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Münich.
Sadio Mané – Scored a hat-trick against Porto
The only team they should be wary of meeting is, in fact, a team who has already ended their unbeaten record in the Premier League, and that’s Liverpool.
They were even more impressive whilst beating Porto 5-0 in Portugal.
Again, tougher challenges lie ahead but they are another team which now will have the confidence to play anybody in the next round.
Tottenham Hotspur had, arguably, one of the two toughest games of the English clubs when facing Juventus away from home. A long unbeaten record along with not having conceded a goal in ages made Spurs second favourites for this one and going two goals down didn’t change anybody’s opinion.
They are, however, made of sterner stuff these days and fought back for a creditable 2-2 draw meaning they have now become favourites to go through to the next round.
The only caveat is that they have, at times this season, been inconsistent at Wembley and this is all they need guard against in the second leg.
So, after an excellent week of Champion’s League football for the English clubs can these results and this form be replicated by Chelsea and Manchester United next week?
Olivier Giroud – Already impressing Chelsea fans
Chelsea face Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in what has to be the other tough tie of the round for an English club.
Having found some form in beating West Bromwich Albion last Monday they will find Barcelona a much tougher proposition. Chelsea’s problem is that Barcelona will also be a much tougher proposition than either Bournemouth or Watford, both of whom had resounding victories against the Blues in recent weeks.
Unfortunately, this isn’t even a close one to call and the Spaniards will be far to good for Chelsea. The best they can hope for in the home leg is a draw and, if they can keep that draw to 0-0, then even better.
They then need to score in the Nou Camp and hope for the best.
This is probably all asking a little too much of a side who seem to be in a state of confusion over their manager, who keeps trying to get sacked, and their transfer policy which has included speculation about Andy Carroll and Peter Crouch. They then settled for Olivier Giroud who couldn’t get in Arsenal’s first team!
Paul Pogba – Needs to find his best form
Manchester United, meanwhile, travel to Spain to take on Seville. Again, a draw would be a favourable result and, as always, an away goal or two would be very welcome.
The result of this game depends largely on which Manchester United turn up. If it is the one which was scoring four goals regularly at the start of the season then a win is entirely possible. If it is the side which struggled so hard to score a single goal against Newcastle then a defeat is on the cards.
As long as the game is close there will always be the feeling that the tie can be won in the second leg at Old Trafford and that is probably what will happen.
In other words, don’t expect any repeat of either the City or Liverpool results next week.
And finally…..
Danny Welbeck – Got a rare start in Sweden
Stubborn Old Man took his team to Sweden. Whilst there they played a game of football against Östersund and won.
Even without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette they had, in the form of Danny Welbeck, the match-winner.
He didn’t actually score, you understand, but his very presence was enough to ensure an easy victory for the Gunners.
Now that they are taking Big Vase seriously because it is their only route back into the Champion’s League, it will be interesting to hear what Wenger now thinks of the competition.
Our bet is that his mind has been firmly changed on the subject but that he won’t admit it!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 