Pellegrini says Man City will claim Champions League title

David Silva is to be assessed after making his return from a calf complaint in the 2-1 Champions League win over Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday.

Arsenal have lost to both Dynamo Zagreb and Olympiacos while Chelsea could not build on their opening win over Maccabi Tel Aviv and were beaten in Porto.

Rodgers said the competitive nature of the domestic league impacted on the prospects of England’s elite, but said other countries receive more help from their respective federations. To buy the best players, play the best football and sweep all before them.

Despite Premier League clubs’ financial advantage over all but a handful of their European counterparts, their dominance has waned over recent years to the extent that the competition could lose its fourth Champions League place in the coming seasons.

While the Premier League is considered by many observers as the most competitive tournament in the world, English clubs have been facing a long period of drought in winning the continental title.

“We are happy but I think Arsenal can come back from a defeat“.

Carroll tore ligaments in his knee in February but came off the bench against Norwich last weekend and is expected to shake off a sore ankle ahead of the game at the Stadium of Light.

“The physicality of this league is like no other”. Players are not machines.

Tottenham forward Erik Lamela was the most eye-catching recruit purchased with the £86million they received when selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in 2014, but so far he has largely failed to convince.

“So it all adds up for it being hard for the Premier League teams”.

“Here you play the team that is 17th and it is a tough game”. That is not possible in England.

“We’re under no illusions that the only option we’ve got is to go out and get three points”.

“In the last few weeks I don’t hear this anymore, they don’t complain about the style of play or anything and that is because we have improved”. We can solve the problem with other players but not a specialist like Shaw.

Neville picked out three former Premier League stars who also reached the point where it became impossible for them to compete at the top of their games on a regular basis.

Yet neighbours Liverpool, whose inconsistent start to the season has left them ninth in the table and heaped pressure on boss Rodgers, will have to recover from Thursday’s Europa League match against FC Sion. And it may be down to the money, but it’s a great thing to witness the rise of the Premier League’s mid-card.

“I would not want to be in the Europa League in the current format, that’s for sure”, stated Pardew, in an interview with ESPN.

My Fantrax team scored 151 points (with Alexis Sanchez and Daniel Sturridge leading the way), good enough to now put me in the 20th place in Beat the Bloggers League.

“We struggled with it at Newcastle and we were not alone in that”.

The place at which defending champions and title favourites (in many people’s books) Chelsea find themselves seven matches into the league. The weekend even ended with a particularly stunning performance from another number 10 – Everton’s Romelua Lukaku who twice found the net to help his team overturn a 2-0 deficit and win 3-2 against a spirited West Bromwich Albion.

“When you look at the strength in depth of the Premier League, we should be dominating that competition”.

So, the stakes are about to get very big for the English clubs in Europe.

Who’s to blame? Well, it would be easy to blame Arsenal after successive defeats, but they earned 4 points, simply through qualification, so it isn’t their fault yet.