Video of the Week: Chelsea outclasses Arsenal

Yesterday, Chelsea emphasized their Premier League superiority this season with a 3-0 demolition of Arsenal, and Drogba once again led the way. The Ivorian scored the opener in the 41st with a beautifully angled redirection, before Thomas Vermaelen ended the half with an own goal, producing an odd and unfortunate carbon copy of Drogba's strike. A wonderful Drogba free-kick sealed the game, as Chelsea won by 3 at the Emirates for a second straight season.

Chelsea have now won all 4 of their games thus far against Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham, scoring 9 times on their main title rivals without conceding a single goal. If they cope well with losing players to January's African Cup of Nations, something will have to change dramatically for Chelsea to lose out on the title.

Video of the Week: Egypt survives at the death

Scenes of ecstatic disbelief exploded all over Egypt on Saturday, as Emad Moteab powered home a header from 8 yards to win 2-0 over Algeria in Cairo. Egypt went into the game needing a 2-goal win in order to avoid being knocked out of the World Cup, and after Amr Zaki's 2' goal, they had to wait until the 5th minute injury time to score the crucial second goal.

Extraordinarily, that goal meant that Egypt and Algeria finish with identical records: 13 points (4W, 1D, 1L), nine goals scored, four goals conceded. The two sides are even tied on head-to-head record, due to Algeria's 3-1 win in the reverse fixture. Almost nothing separates these two sides.

As a result, FIFA has ordered the two teams to play a near-unprecedented one-match playoff, in neutral Sudan on Wednesday. Nothing is ever easy for the Egyptians, so Wednesday's match is surely going to be one hell of a spectacle.

Video of the Mid-Week: Drogba is an immovable object

Kun Aguero's fantastic goals took most of the plaudits in the 2-2 draw between Atletico and Chelsea, but Drogba showed with this goal why Chelsea is so dependent on his form. Bulling through three Atletico defenders, Drogba looked like an unstoppable force as he persisted to score his second goal.

Chelsea have a top-of-the-table clash with Manchester United this Sunday, and if this kind of form is any indication, Chelsea must be considered the favorites in the match, as well as for the title.

"An extraordinary night of football at Old Trafford"

Wednesday afternoon, I avoided all Champions League news until after the FSC replay of Manchester United-CSKA Moscow, and I hope some of you did the same. The match was easily the most refreshing European tie I've seen recently, because any preconceived notion of a "stale" Champions League was thrown out the window from the opening whistle. CSKA ran the show offensively while an under-strength United side struggled to break down a tight defense, yet the Red Devils dominated the end of the game to produce a signature stirring comeback.

You can read a more detailed summary of the game here, but I had four observations that you might not see anywhere else.

**

That 3-1 lead was CSKA's to lose, and make no mistake, they lost it more than United overcame it. Nothing exemplifies this better than one clearance around the 80th minute: the ball fell near 3 CSKA attackers and 3 United defenders at midfield, yet no CSKA player made any pretense of going for the neutral ball. At the time, FSC's commentators lightly mentioned that CSKA refused to go forward for fear of being caught out, and that mentality was exactly what killed them. If you sit back and let an elite team like United take their chances, they will make you pay, as they've demonstrated ad nauseam to the point that "stirring comebacks" have become United's media-hyped habit. As CSKA had demonstrated for the first 75 minutes, the best way to shut United down is to put them on the back foot, and the Russians accomplished that in spades for the majority of the game. But as soon as they abandoned their offense for the last 15 minutes, you could just tell that United would pull it back, and I wasn't particularly flabbergasted when it happened.

**

No telling if it swung the game's outcome, but Olégario Benquerença put in a pretty poor officiating performance, for two reasons. First, he seemed to make some calls based on distinct preconceptions of players' styles. Darren Fletcher was the major victim of this policy, as he was booked early in the 2nd half for diving on a clear penalty decision, and later was mystifyingly whistled on a perfect tackle near the touchline. Second, Benquerença's yellow-card bark was never followed up with any real red-card bite. Yevgeny Aldonin abused the practical no-red-card policy as he went unpunished for multiple studs-up knee-high tackles, despite being on a yellow for the game's last 35 minutes. As a result, the game devolved into chippy skirmishes towards its heated conclusion, and when Benquerença finally did send off Deividas Samberas for a relatively benign skirmish with Gabriel Obertan, it was too late to reverse the game's degeneration. Just a very schizophrenic way to officiate a high-profile match.

**

Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan are exact foils at this point in their careers. Owen contributed a vital goal, an instinctive finish based on years of striking prowess, but otherwise his movement was totally out of synch with the team. Meanwhile, Obertan dazzled with deceptive runs and complete field vision, but he is still learning how to direct that raw ability into a deadly product. The former contributes on the field via his vast experience in the game, while the latter contributes by progressively harnessing his great promise. The important similarity is that both found a way to contribute, and that the team looks most dangerous when everybody contributes in whatever way possible. Many pundits have noted that this United team is characterized by a

worrying dichotomy of young and old players, but judging by the contributions of Owen and Obertan, such a set-up could arguably be United's best way to beat young Arsenal and aging Chelsea to the title.

**

Together with Rubin Kazan's victory over Barcelona last matchday, CSKA's performance cements the Russian Premier League as a viable force on league, club, and individual levels. The League itself is approaching a firework-filled conclusion with Rubin Kazan and Spartak Moscow separated by a single point, a situation that exhibits some parity with traditional powers CSKA and Zenit St. Petersburg. The flagship clubs clearly can succeed in the Champions League, as Rubin and CSKA have earned points at two of the most hallowed grounds in Europe, and both are in control of their European destiny. And as Alan Dzagoev, Milos Krasic, and Igor Akinfeev proved in the CSKA-United game, Andrei Arshavin is far from the last superstar to come through the Russian Premier League. Forget their collective history in the Champions League, the Russian clubs are ready to make waves.