Matchday 1 con't: Whaaaa?

There's crazy, and then there's the absolute lunacy of Chealsea boss Jose Mourinho quitting the Blues less than two months into the season, and in the midst of a Champions League campaign.

Leave it to Mourinho, the sports most insatiable attention whore, to steal the headlines on a day his team isn't even playing. According to early reports, Mourinho added a touch of class to his abandoning the team by informing Chelsea skipper John Terry via text message. Details of the breakup are still under wraps, but it's not hard to imagine that the "Special One" quit in a fit of pique, considering he's done little except behave like a child the last three seasons.

The Times' always entertaining Martin Samuel has penned the first of what promises to be many incisive columns on the Mourinho era, and how it ended. It's so well-written that I suspect it's been hanging around in a makeshift obit file, since the only thing surprising about this divorce is that it happened so early in the season, and at Mourinho's suggestion.

The million-pound question, now, is what we can expect of the Blues the rest of the way out. They head to Old Trafford, Sunday, for what has the makings of a bloodbath at the hands of Ronaldo and Co., which could be the first domino to fall in what's now promising to be a disastrous EPL campaign (a campaign that wasn't looking all that hot, mind you, when Mourinho was still in charge). As for the Champions League, which probably now registers as an afterthought for the Blues, it's as hard to imagine them not earning one of the top two spots in group play as it is to imagine them getting very far at all in the knockout stages (again, this isn't a marked change from Chelsea's prospects with TSO at the helm).

Regardless, it's safe to assume the only group involved that will, in time, regret Mourinho's departure from English soccer — because he's got a better chance of bedding Gemma Atkinson than getting another EPL job after his puerile departure from Stamford Bridge — is the media, which relished Mourinho's willingness to slander just about everyone, including his own players.

As for the games themselves, Wednesday's slate traded in Tuesday's plodding pace — and unexpectedly ugly performances by favorites — for a couple of blowouts and an otherwise uneventful victories by favorites (no, I do not considering the "tearful" 1-0 victory for Man-U over Sporting to be eventful). About the only thing I can think of that's remotely notable is how little Barça's 3-0 victory over Lyon really tells us about the team many feel is a favorite for a trip to the finals. With Eto'o out to injury, Barça was able to accommodate all of its available all-work attackers within a more traditional 4-3-3, but the play still appeared stilted. Henry's first goal with his new side was more happenstance than skill, and he still looks completely out of place having to play up front with players who are actually better than him. The passing is well below what one would expect of a team with that much class on display, and one wonders if there will be too much talent overlap — not to mention too few places on the field for everyone to play within a reasonable structure — once Eto'o's available for play again. In the spirit of making predictions one might regret later, I'll go ahead and say that Barça's run will be a lot shorter than most expect this season.

Tomorrow: Inter loses! Who can't be happy about that?

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Mid-Week Fixture: Champions League Predictions

Today’s 3-0 Champions League wins for Barcelona and Arsenal over their top group rivals, Lyon and Sevilla, respectively, demonstrate the collective power of these two teams. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that these two could be the last two standings next May when the championship game is contested in Moscow.

What you might not be expecting me to say is that I think Arsenal has a better chance of winning, and will win, the Champions League, than their Spanish rivals.

We all know about Barcelona’s star-power, but Arsenal’s more of an unknown quantity, despite currently sitting at the top of the Premier League standings. Facing an unknown is a dangerous proposition in the Champions League, a collection of teams that know everybody else inside-out. One just has to look at the Porto-Monaco final from 2004 or Liverpool’s triumph a year later to see that the Champions League, despite its glamorous façade, is still a competition that isn’t always kind to the teams you'd expect to win — just ask Roman Abramovich.

Arsene Wenger recently signed a contract extension that settles his situation and keeps him at Arsenal until 2011. He mentioned that he did it for the young players at the club, but his intentions weren’t entirely out of sympathy – those young players are very good. So good, in fact, they are surprising even the most optimistic Gunners fan by looking like they will contend this season, not in two or three years. I’ll take it one step further, and I’m not the only one, and say they can win this year’s Champions League.

By selling Thierry Henry to Barcelona, it appeared as if Arsenal was giving up on their claim of being one of Europe’s great clubs and starting from scratch. Instead, they gave Barça a spectacular, but injury-prone, attacking player to a team that already has three of them. The results so far haven’t been spectacular, as Barça’s high-powered offense has two 0-0 draws on the road against middling teams, the kind of results that gifted the title to Real Madrid last season. The team’s best and most in-form player, Lionel Messi, is also the least egotistical of its attacking quartet, and often makes way for the clubs more ornery players, Henry, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o. Neither of those three have hit their stride yet this season, and their video-game offense is known to backfire.

Its most consistent player up front last year and the guy that does the small stuff for his better-known teammates, Eidur Gudjohnsen, is practically on vacation on the Barça bench until he’s sold somewhere else. Worse yet, their defending last season was abysmal in all competitions; the addition of Gabriel Milito and Éric Abidal will help, but this is still a team that has the mistake-prone Rafa Marquez and Carlos Puyol and the aging Lilian Thuram at the back, not to mention a shaky keeper in Victor Valdés. For all their attacking prowess, the rearguard was the reason why they lost to Liverpool in last year’s second round.

Arsenal, meanwhile, ridded itself of its dependence on Henry, which they got a taste of for most of last season. While the club will certainly be asking a lot of its forwards, the talented but relatively untested Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Eduardo da Silva and Theo Walcott, they will get support from everywhere in Arsene Wenger’s system. The midfield, in particular, has pound-for-pound the best balance of bite and skill in Europe, led by the incomparable Cesc Fabregas. Had Barcelona been paying better attention a few years back, Cesc would be exactly the player they need now – a box-to-box player with great instincts and a nose for goal.

Defensively, Arsenal could do better than have the error-prone Jens Lehmann in goal, but the backbone of Kolo Toure and William Gallas, with Gilberto Silva protecting them from midfield, is athletic and aware enough to handle anybody. Perhaps Arsenal’s biggest weakness is themselves — too often, they are criticized for searching for the perfect goal instead of being selfish. The draw here can help them if they avoid an Italian team that could easily stifle their free-flowing style of football, but with that human highlight-reel Thierry Henry gone, I think the current crop of Gunners will be less likely to play to the fans and instead go for the victory.

Final Four Predictions: Arsenal (winners), Barcelona (runners-up), Liverpool, Milan

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