Throughout Barcelona's two-year run of groundbreaking excellence, Josep Guardiola i Sala role as a tactician tended to be undervalued. He reinstituted the "Total Football" concept that Johan Cruyff, Guardiola's former manager at FC Barcelona, instilled when he was a player and a manager at the club, and he changed the culture inside the dressing room. […]

Real Madrid and Barcelona's matches in La Liga this season have almost had the feeling of high-level training sessions. A few surprises sprinkled throughout, but the inevitability of the best team in the world and the most expensive team in the world deciding the championship arrives on Saturday night. Barcelona will come off a heavenly […]

In the coming days there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the fact that the Premier League, for the first time in seven years, has no teams in the semi-final of the Champions League. Boo Hoo. Does anyone outside of the media really care? There’s a staggering degree of hubris amongst the […]

Manchester United has gone crashing out of Champions League, having succumb to the left foot of Arjen Robben. On this episode of the EPL Talk podcast, I am joined by Laurence McKenna for our mid-week review show, talking about United's capitulation and Arsenals ouster at the boots of Lionel Messi. That, and a preview of […]

I've never been a big fan of the away goals rule because it seems like an odd rule that exists only as a cruel and unusual punishment to knock a losing team out of a cup tournament. But the match between Manchester United and Bayern Munich was a perfect example of how well it can […]

Serie A's lone representative in the Champions League advanced to the semi-finals with a 2-0 aggregate win over a feisty CSKA Moscow club. Their reward: facing probably the best team in the world, a Barcelona club that obliterated Arsenal yesterday at Camp Nou. Inter did what it needed to do to advance in the tournament – […]

After the Tuesday night defeat in the Champions League at the hands of Lionel Messi and a sublime performance from Barcelona, Arsenal supporters are at a crossroads and have an important decision to make. Do they want beautiful football or do they want to win trophies? It's as simple as that. If they want to […]

During the last round of Champions League action, Fox Soccer Channel's Bobby McMahon joined me to break down Chelsea's pivotal match at Stamford Bridge against Internazionale. Today, the analyst was kind enough to join us again to engage in the same detailed discussion of Manchester United's second leg of their quarterfinal match-up with Bayern Munich.

This mid-week is European week, which means Arsenal, Manchester United, Fulham and Liverpool will be playing for semi final spots in The Champions and Europa Leagues. Always an eternal optimist – no sooner when the draws were announced I was thinking of the possibility of two all English finals. Now I am not betting man, […]

Today beginning at 2:15 pm ET (7:15 UK Time), I will be liveblogging the Barcelona against Arsenal UEFA Champions League match, with a little EPL chat mixed in. EPLTalk: Arsenal v. Barcelona Live Blog Editor's note: Whether you're at work or at home watching the game, log in to this post on […]

The quarterfinals of UEFA Champions League have not been a rousing success for England's two representatives, though Arsenal's late comeback against Barcelona has given a reason for hope at the end of the mid-week fixtures. On this edition of the EPL Talk podcast, Laurence McKenna, Kartik Krishnaiyer and myself discussion the Champions League results as […]

There's a magic about soccer that sometimes feels like hypnotism. Whenever a goal is scored, it's almost as if everything that happened before it is erased from the person's mind. On Wednesday night, never mind the fact that Arsenal was outplayed for 75 minutes in their Champions League match against Barcelona. Instead focus on the […]

Football truly is a game like no other where minutes can feel like hours and hours can sometimes feel like days. As quickly and powerfully as the ball can be slammed into the net, it's equally as quick that a team's fortune or good form can disintegrate. American Baseball is described as a "game of inches", however, by my decree, football now […]

Who am I to outsmart Arsene Wenger, but I really feel that the Arsenal manager is making the wrong decision to play its typical brand of soccer against Barcelona in the Wednesday night Champions League match at Emirates Stadium. An open game from both sides will be entertaining but it'll be a brutal blow to […]

As a neutral observer, the best thing that could have happened on Tuesday night in the Champions League was for Manchester United to lose. After Wayne Rooney scored one of the easiest goals he's ever scored in the second minute at the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich, it seemed as if this was going to […]