An intriguing weekend of Premier League action. Here are some observations sprinkled with the occasional insight.......

- John Terry. Great player, bad person? Let's remember that this was the guy who on the actual 9/11 was drunkenly taunting American tourists in a London hotel. OK he was a young lad back then but the stories flying around about his infidelity make the revelations over the weekend none too surprising. The question is this: should it affect his right to be England captain? Is committing adultery a bad enough sin to be punished in the sporting world? Both JFK and Bill Clinton committed adultery while in the White House. Did that preclude either of them from being very able Presidents of the United States? "Ahh" you say, "but John Terry is scumbag". Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. I'm lost for inspiration here and generally subscribe to the Simon Barnes view that we expect too much of our sporting idols when it comes to being "role models" for the younger generation. But I'm very (VERY) interested to see which way Ab-Fab Capello comes down on this. What this whole saga has drawn attention to is the lack of natural leaders in the likely England squad. Gerrard? Too whiney. Ferdinand? Too injured. Rooney? Too young. Lampard? Too Lampard. I'm surprised Gareth Barry isn't receiving more of a mention as with the continued absence of Owen Hargreaves he looks more and more certain to start every game. I ask you this though: is a team devoid of leadership, short of a world class goal-keeper and with zero depth up-front (please stay fit Wayne Rooney) a likely winner of a World Cup? England need a big following wind this summer in South Africa......which maybe they're due.......but I wouldn't put money on it.

- It appears the title race (Chelsea vs Man Utd) and the battle for 4th spot (Liverpool vs Man City) are both taking shape. But this monster of a relegation scrap shows no signs of a shake-out whatsoever. There are eight desperate teams down there separated by only five points and on the presumption that Portsmouth looked doomed (what bad luck being bought by the only Arab business consortium with no money) it's any guess which two teams will join them in the dreaded drop. It doesn't look good for Hull but they continue to scrap for Phil Brown. Burnley are in the death sprial but Turf Moor remains a tough(ish) place to go. Wolves show flashes of quality but remain maddeningly inconsistent. The Bolton squad looks devoid of much quality but they have the fillip of a new manager. The Hammers are showing signs of life but is there any real money behind Gold and Sullivan? Sunderland are also in the death spiral but there's goals still in Darren Bent. Stoke are the only member of this congregation of busted hopes and broken dreams who look "safe" on 25 points particularly with their enviable home record. I'm gonna be boring and go with the table as it stands. Burnley had "one and done" written all over them coming into this season and despite some early season Owen Coyle inspired heroics they've made the error of reading the script. And as much as Hull fight, they just can't break out of that bottom three. I'll say this.....West Ham, Wolves, Bolton and the like should be very grateful there are three teams as poor as Pompey, Hull and Burnley in England's top flight this season. With Newcastle, Notts Forest and West Brom likely joining us next season......their luck won't last for long.....

So there I was sat at the Emirates Stadium for the big game of the weekend and I have lots of observations courtesy of my elevated view from row 56......
- With Ronaldo gone and Wenger's babes twelve-ish months older, I honestly thought it wouldn't be the "men vs boys" we saw in last year's Champions League semi-final. Boy was I wrong......
- It finished 3-1 but could easily have been 6-1.
- Fletcher, Scholes and Carrick dominated the midfield space meaning the legacy of the Carlos Quiroz 4-3-2-1 formation that has served Utd so well in big away games lives on......and on......
- As the Arsenal fans around me were keen to point out, blink and you would have missed the contributions of Nasri and Denilson. Both were utterly woeful and if the Gunners are serious about challenging for honours this season guys like that need to step-up massively.
- Though it pains me to write this because he's a seriously nice guy who's been cursed by injuries, but Thomas Rosicky looked off the pace all game.
- It wasn't the Arsenal centre-backs who let them down, in fact without Vermaelen and Galls the scoreline would have been ever worse.
- Clichy vs Nani was like watching Murray vs Federer.
- That's the first time all season Nani has truly stepped into Ronaldo's boots. Mind you, so chuffed was he for having done so he decided to give himself the second half off.....
- Praise the Lord that Wayne Rooney is British.......meaning he's far less likely to swap the rain and pies of the North West for the sun and paella of Spain.
- Rooney-Nani-Rooney for Utd's second goal bore an uncanny (and for Arsenal fans I'm sure painful) resemblance to the now famous Ronaldo-Rooney-Ronaldo goal at the Emirates last May.
- Andrei Arshavin is a bundle of movement, skill and energy......withouth him Arsenal would have posed even less goal threat than they did.
- The Evans-Brown centre-back pairing isn't quite Ferdinand-Vidic......but it ain't far off. I reiterate the view I've been espousing in this column since last autumn: with Evans, Brown and now Smalling swelling the ranks, Vidic is a gonner for silly money this summer. Decent centre-backs are the most over-populated species of footballer right now and only idiots would pay a king's ransom for one. Enter Florentino Perez.....
- A spirit-crushing loss for Arsene Wenger who once again missed some spine in the centre of midfield and some leadership in general. If his Gunners react badly to this and fail to beat either Chelsea or Liverpool in three brutal days next week, it's Champions League or nowt for Le Professor once again. And I'm sure Arsenal fans don't need reminding, that generally means nowt......

- Spurs.....stutter, belch, stumble. Goodbye Roman Pavlyuchenko and Robbie Keane......off to Russia and Scotland respectively.....brrrrr......

- Six Premier League games for Liverpool......4 wins and 2 draws.....and that little lot includes trips to Villa (tough), Stoke (physical) and Wolves (scrapping). It could have gone so, so wrong for the Pool but to be fair to the players and Rafa Benitez they've hauled themselves back into the race for 4th spot. Next-up Everton (home), Arsenal (away) and Man City (away)......all without Fernando Torres. Don't get too exited yet Liverpool fans.....

- Remember I talked about the easy fixture list that was laid-out for Roberto Mancini on his arrival at Man City? Portsmouth at home was the latest tricky fixture his men safely negotiated. Which is why everyone (press and fans) are currently on Mancini's side. The alternative argument is that he's only had two really tricky encounters.....away at Everton where City were annihilated and the Carling Cup semi against Utd which City lost. Hull, Bolton and Stoke next-up (yawn). You have to wait for a 2-week stretch starting Feb 21st before we really find out about Mancini: Liverpool, Chelsea then Spurs.

- A sign of the regard in which Roy Hodgson is held: Fulham have lost 5 league games on a row and nobody even mentions it. What does a team need having lost 5 in a row? Portsmouth at home.....perfick.

- Hull 2-2 Wolves. No, no, no, no, no. Wins people.....you need wins.

- West Ham 0-0 Blackburn. No, no, no, no, no. Wins people.....you need....errmm.....am I repating myself? Gianfranco Zola says: "It wasn't a nice game, the tension got to us and we couldn't produce". Isn't it your job to make sure the tension doesn't get to your team and they do produce? My contention stands that foreign managers get a much easier ride in the Premier League than Brits.....and I've no idea why.....I think we just assume they know what they're doing.

- Everton seem to move up 3 spots in the league every week right now. And now they're winning ugly also.....always a good sign. Very good to see Miguel Arteta back on the pitch......massively under-rated player who (ironically for Everton fans) may well have left for a "bigger" club had he not blown his knee out when he did.

- Cometh the hour, cometh the Gabriel Agbonlahor......10 league goals now......next highest scorer at Villa has just 4. Not enough goals means there won't be enough points to finish 4th come season's end.


Some non Premier League chit-chat.....

- Guess what? Roger Federer is a very good tennis player. So calm down British tennis fans as Andy Murray has got 4-5 grand slam wins written all over him....patience grasshoppers.

- What exactly was Shahid Afridi thinking? If the ban for that is "only" two 20-20 matches, the ICC may as well legalise ball-tampering. Maybe that's the answer to a better balance between bat and ball anyway?

- It's kind of a microcosm of Phil Mickleson's career.....whenever Tiger Woods looks vulnerable on a golf course, the grinning lefty generally fails to take advantage. Now Tiger has ceded the moral high ground so Phil the Mick decides to bend the rules and play with twenty-year old wedges with square grooves prompting outrage from fellow pros. Memo to Phil: ditch the old wedges and embrace the new rules.....and do yourself a massive favour in the process.

- The BDO rejecting Barry Hearn's buy-out is like a diabetic rejecting insulin. At some point death is inevitable.

- Another European Tour event passes by with a "who's who" final leaderboard (Karlsson, Westwood, Casey all in the Top 5). Is Colin Montgomerie going to enjoy something as Ryder Cup captain that he rarely enjoyed as a player......a healthy dose of luck?

- Great success the Africa Cup of Nations......deaths, dreadfully boring football, insanely vicious tackles and the same winner for the third time in a row. Yours......

- So Otis Gibson is off to coach the West Indies. Cue a tonne of melo-drama from the British press about how influential the bowling coach is aka Troy Cooley 4 years ago. Surely there's somebody else out there in the world of cricket who can point Stuart Broad towards the top of off-stump?

- If Dwight Freeney is a non-starter next Sunday in Miami I'm narrowing my "Colts by 10" call down to "Colts by 4".