The second week of the Champions League has just finished, and all five British teams are in first or second place in their groups. Some open thread for comments on the season so far.

One more big game left before the World Cup. In the meantime, much was decided atop the major European leagues this weekend. Barca looked the most dominant of the title-winners, smashing Valladolid 4-0 while never having to rev above 2nd gear to do it. Sure, Messi whiffed on an easy chance, and the first score came via a silly deflection, but they were pouring it on. This team feels more dominant than last year's treble winners -- or at the very least, winning games by huge margins looks easier for them. And 99 points in La Liga is a once-in-a-generation achievement, right? It'd be interesting to see how people would compare the two teams if the ref hadn't waived off their second goal at home in the Champs semis vs Inter. As we discussed, Chelsea nearly tripped over themselves on the way to winning the FA Cup. I don't know how you hoist a trophy with two hands around your neck (especially if you're penalty "shooter" Frank Lampard), but Chelsea managed to do it, thus completing the first double in Blues history. I admire a lot of the elements of this Chelsea team, but consistency is not one of them. Still, as I said yesterday, when you can screw up that many times and win a Cup anyway, you must be pretty good. Meanwhile, Inter must've watched that FA Cup final and decided that slamming the crossbar repeatedly and mixing in several ridiculous misses in the first half was the key to victory, because they played just about as poorly as Chelsea. And yet, like Chelsea, they came away victorious thanks to an excellent strike by their top marksman. It's 5 titles in a row for Inter in Serie A, a double already secured, and a chance at the historic treble on Saturday. If they manage to hold onto Mourinho and sign Steven Gerrard (who'd no doubt be rejuvenated by a move), we could be writing that same sentence next season.* The big boys keep winning and thus keep earning. What else would you expect? But hats off to the champions and their fans -- this is the month to revel in (preordained?) glory. *Yeah, yeah, with the title count upped to 6.

As they did in the Premier League, Chelsea underachieved but still managed to bring home the hardware. This was a sloppy, nervy game from both sides. I can understand why underdog Pompey was anxious, but Chelsea -- league champs, world class players up and down the pitch, elite manager -- should've come out like assassins. Instead, they dropped trou in front of goal multiple times. Sure, they had some bad luck on a few of their misses, but they also whiffed on the easy ones, too. Everything seemed to turn when Chelsea's Belletti failed to slide in for the ball and clumsily clattered the Portsmouth attacker in the box -- penalty for Pompey! Sadly for them, nerves go the better of Kevin Prince Boateng. He scuffed the top of the ball and it dribble-rolled into Cech. About 3 minutes later, Drogba placed a perfect free kick at the base of the far post and it bounced in for the only goal of the game. With just a few minutes to go, Lampard drew a penalty to seal the win... only he couldn't even put the shot on target. It was a complete choke. What I can't figure out was why. Chelsea were winning, the game was almost over -- this should've been a chance to blast a celebratory ball home. Instead, every England fan immediately started fretting about penalties in the World Cup. Lots of chokers on that team from the spot... Chelsea did the double, and hats should be tipped to them. But this was far from their finest performance. I guess being able to win despite underachieving is one way to show your greatness....

0-0, and I have to say one of the most exciting 0-0s I've seen. Chelsea's smacked the frame 5 times -- 5 times! One of those went halfway across the line before bouncing out. Kalou missed point blank from a yard out with an empty goal in front of him. Portsmouth's Mokoena blocked two Drogba lasers in succession. And Portsmouth's even had a couple close chances themselves, forcing Cech into one great save. David James looks amazing in goal for Portsmouth -- great reflexes, top notch instincts, leadership from the back. This will certainly buy him a few more looks from good clubs; maybe he's not heading off into the twilight yet... Chelsea look like they'll eventually get on the board, and if they score first, one gets the sense that'll knock the wind out of Pompey. The underdogs' best hope is to continue to press on the counter and try to steal a surprise lead. If they bang one home before the Blues, the Chelsea irritation could become counter-productive anger. Follow all the action on Twitter with @Pandagoal now!

Twitter was overflowing with complaints about the quality of play in the first half of Chelsea vs. Liverpool. After some lackluster results the last few weeks, Chelsea could've tightened up in the second and given Liverpool a chance to take control of the game. Instead, Lampard and company kept their heads, defanged Liverpool with quality tackling, and kept pressing until Anelka put them ahead to stay. A team this talented can only be beaten by their own mental mistakes, but Chelsea showed championship nerves today in their 2-0 win over the Reds. Liverpool, meanwhile, answered some questions while raising new ones. The defense was much tighter -- even though Chelsea got in some shots off set pieces, Carragher and Skrtel were making a lot of plays to clear the ball and close off Chelsea attacks. But the offense completely disappeared under a pile of poor passes, tentative plays in the box, and an inability to force Hilario into a single tough save on the day. The loss will be hung on Liverpool's neck as the weight that sinks their title hopes, but the season is far from over. They remain 6 back of a team that has yet to face Man U, Arsenal, or Man City. While that negativity may be premature, calling Chelsea the class of the league is not.

Who needs any transfers before 2011 if you’ve got the following making their debuts/returns?

Debutants:
Yuri Zhirkov - saw him at the Seattle game, not sure if he is worth $18M but it will be fun to find out
Sam Hutchinson - again was at the Seattle Sounders game, this kid is one to watch for the future, he’s 19 and captained the England U18 team in the past
Fabio Borini - another youngster (18), and a striker for the future

Most important.  Who is captaining them tonight?  The return of Joe Cole!  Watch him make the push to regain his England place before the world cup.

You know this means they will lose 2-0 to QPR tonight of course ...

I flatter myself that I'd laugh as heartily at this story if it were a United player saying it, and lord knows Drogba's earned some bragging rights so far this season, but oh my:

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba feels his unselfish attitude does not receive the credit it deserves... "I often sacrifice myself for the good of the team," Drogba declared. "I don't look at my scoring statistics. Have you ever seen any other great striker do as much defending as I do?

I love Football365, and not just because they once published an essay of mine which got picked up elsewhere and made me a professional writer for the first time. Especially good is the Mediawatch section, and a recent item highlights the kind of joy they bring:

We're sure you've already read it, but if not, [John] Terry said: "I can speak about the England lads and the England team and it (diving) is something we don't do. "I think sometimes we're too honest because sometimes, even in the Premiership, you see the English lads get a bit of contact and try and stay on their feet and try and score from the chance they've been given." Sigh. Do we really need to do this? We do?

Click here and scroll down to see the long list of counter-examples. Seriously, there's nothing funnier than anyone defending his countrymen against charges of diving, since it's so easily proven wrong and obvious. That said, I do think the US players are far better than average. Cough. Later in the same column:

'England must do it Chelsea style, says JT' - CityAM. Yeah, nicking all the best young players from around the world would help, but we're not sure how it would work. Unless JT just means that England aren't allowed to do transfers...

Hee hee.

Breaking:

Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until 2011, after Fifa accused them of illegally inducing a French youth-team player to join the club in 2007. Fifa's dispute resolution chamber today released a statement fining Gaël Kakuta €780,000 following a complaint from FC Lens and finding Chelsea "jointly and severally liable". "A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches is imposed on the player Gaël Kakuta while the club FC Chelsea is banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision," the DRC statement said. "Furthermore, the club, FC Chelsea, has to pay to RC Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000."

Chelsea has vowed to appeal, obviously, and will probably be fighting this one out for some time. If this were to stick, though, the impact would be devastating. Any player who leaves wouldn't be replaced save through internal promotion, and it's hard to imagine any team staying at the top of the Premier League when they can't add talent from elsewhere for 2 full transfer periods. While I endorse a suspension of Arsenal's Eduardo, it's only a fair punishment if UEFA now punishes all clear divers the same way. Precedent's a mofo. And thus, while I endorse punishing a team for mucking about illegally with 15 year old prodigies, giving Chelsea a 2-window ban for something that probably happens a lot, hasn't been punished this harshly in the past, and won't be the easiest thing to prove against others in the future strikes me as too much. How does it strike you?

Good win for us today! Another beauty from Drogba, and Anelka scored his first goal of the season. Also, it was our first clean sheet, which is something we need every match if we are to win the Prem this year. That, plus LOTS more goals, and for Joe Cole to be fit and on the pitch doing what he does best... Patience. It's early days yet. Confession: I have a soft spot for Fulham and tend to think of them as a dear but pesky younger brother, competitive, but fairly innocuous. But, being that both teams hail from the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, it's a derby when our sides meet. To Fulham's credit, they always play their hearts out against us; in March '06 they beat us for the first time in 27 years, 1-0 at Craven Cottage. I was at Stamford Bridge the following December, when Carlos Bocanegra equalized late in the match for a 2-2 draw. That was my first match at The Bridge, one I will never forget... Before the match, I met Ron "Chopper" Harris, a true Chelsea legend, who asked me about Texas and then predicted rain by matchtime (it was mostly sunny at that moment). Sure enough, right after kick-off, the rain came, swirling around The Bridge with a vengeance. Despite wearing a rain coat and my Texas ball cap, I was drenched, but I didn't care. I was in Heaven!!! I was in the Matthew Harding Lower, 6 rows up and just to the right of the goal, and sang/chanted/screamed the entire match. The guy next to me probably thinks everyone from Texas is crazy. I was also at the home match this past May, when we beat them 3-1. This time I was way up in the Shed Upper ("we're the middle, we're the middle, we're the middle of the Shed"). Fulham's away supporters were to our right, and they got lots of stick, of course! "One team in Fulham, there's only one team in Fulham!" and "You're not singing, you're not singing anymore!" were among the songs du jour. I shared my sweets with the 12 year old boy seated next to me and had a good laugh when he sang along with some of the more colorful chants. (Apparently British children are taught that there's language appropriate only at football matches.) After the match I was standing outside the hotel at The Bridge, and Fulham's Paul Konchesky was standing just a few feet away. He looked scared, which isn't surprising since there were hundreds of Chelsea supporters milling around though no one else seemed to notice him. I can't help it, I felt badly for him -- Fulham had given it their all 'til the very end and lost. As he got into his car, I said "good match today" and smiled. It's alright, Little Brother. Better luck next time. He smiled back and waved as his driver sped away. My Chelsea friend Chris, who took my to my first 3 matches back in 2006, says that Craven Cottage is a lovely old stadium. Guess I'll have to wait until the 2010-11 season to visit.

Too bad.

So, what chance Chelsea this year? Just more Masochism, right? Do we just want to be disappointed? You can pretty much replace the name Chelsea in the title for any but a few clubs in the EPL, because investing heart and soul, as we true fans stupidly do, is a hiding to nothing. Let’s be honest, unless you supported Liverpool in the 70s and 80s or Man Utd in the 90s and now, whoever you supported was at best going to win a minor cup (e.g., the League Cup, Milk Cup, Carling Cup, whatever they call it) and at best was going to snag the FA Cup or get into Europe. The idea of winning the EPL (or the First Division as I still try to call it) wasn’t on the cards. Sure, if you supported Arsenal you might get a good couple of years, and even Blackburn have been known to win it, so it wasn’t unheard of. And truly that is the problem. Winning the EPL isn’t impossible, it just isn’t bloody likely! In fact most teams that are there have had glory days and won the thing. But the likelihood of winning it any particular year when your hopes are up and you’re invested heavily just isn’t going to pay off. Is this year going to be the same for Chelsea?

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Should play have been stopped before Frank Lampard scored the go-ahead for Chelsea? Was Wayne Rooney offsides when he tied it up the 92nd minute? Has Man U collectively adopted the "ZOMGHOWCOULDYOUDOTHATTOME?!" facial repertoire of the departed Ronaldo? Do Chelsea players look like half-footballer, half-bar-brawler monsters that score and beat you up along the way? Does Drogba finally look badass now that he dropped that little circle thingy he wore on his head? Was Michael Owen's irrelevance a sign of things to come? Has Petr Cech laid early claim to the mantle of the EPL's best keeper? Does Ancelotti's diamond formation make Lampard a better fantasy pick than Gerrard? Why was Man U nudging pathetic dribblers during the shootout while Chelsea was bombing balls into the corner? Will Man U be rattled by the poor PKs or buoyed by Rooney's run? Will Chelsea have a habit of letting up a bit too early at the end of games? The only thing of which I'm certain: this is going to be a barn-burner of a chase for all the silverware amongst the top teams in England.
You should read Tom Bryant's awesome minute-by-minute report.

Except when my team wins them, of course.

Can't wait for the Community Shield match!!! Sunday at 9AM (Austin time). I'll be at watching @ Fado, most likely.