CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS BACK

Jose Mourinho has started getting his excuses in early; it’s the referee that caused them victory in their champions’ league game with Manchester United yesterday. Inter Milan were so ordinary in the first 45 minutes I actually thought they were playing at Old Trafford. Fergie’s men were so dominant, they could easily have been 3 -0 up by half time; it was just a pity that Ryan Giggs didn’t have his scoring boots on.

The ex-special one had earlier boasted that he was not going to change for Manchester United but did just that at the beginning of the 2nd half to curtail the dominance of Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher in the midfield. He eventually played with 3 strikers but all that supposed fire power remained toothless and barely bothered Edwin van Der Saar.

But more importantly, is the fact that once again, Mourinho has accused another referee of impropriety. How exactly the referee made the Inter team play as poorly as they did in the first half is still a mystery. He tried this same ploy when he coached at Chelsea, accusing the Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard of joining the referee in their room during the half time of a champion’s league game. The UEFA honchos and more especially Michel Platini will ignore this gamesmanship obviously because it wasn’t an English team coach who made the accusations.

Arsenal played yesterday too and I was getting ready TO watch this game when I heard Arsenals line up included a midfield trio of Emmanuel Eboue, Abou Diaby and Denilson. I switched over to Man U – Inter instead. And true to type Arsenal were as wasteful as they’ve been all season. Nicholas “I should play more” Bendtner unleashed a glorious miss from 8 yards out and Emmanuel Eboue had the goal at his mercy but still found the side netting when it could have been easier to tap in. At least they scored this time and prevented a fourth consecutive 0-0 draw.

Will Arsenal rue all the chances they missed when they needed to build up a big lead with the return game at the Stadio Olympico looming with Roma’s talisman expected back? Have they missed the chance to guarantee passage to the quarter finals?