Skip to content

Jeff Stelling on Portsmouth, Liverpool thrashing Arsenal and return of Champions League

Image: Portsmouth: former stars Peter Crouch, Glen Johnson and Sylvain Distin celebrate against Man City in 2009.

I'm sure you can guess which game everyone is looking forward to this weekend...

Return of the Champions

We've had a decent break from the Champions League but ironically, that break has almost worked against Arsenal. When the group stages finished they were flying and everyone was singing the praises of Mesut Ozil; Aaron Ramsey was enjoying a breath-taking first half of these season; Theo Walcott was back to fitness and we were sat here thinking they would give anybody a game. And now they go in to this game with Bayern Munich on the back of a thumping at Liverpool, a disappointing performance against Manchester United and an FA Cup game this weekend against Liverpool again where goodness knows what sort of side Arsene Wenger will play because it looks to me like a lot of his players are pretty leg-weary. It's a massive ask as far as Arsenal are concerned to come up against the champions of Europe. It's a mouth-watering game but I do fear for Arsenal and hope for the best. I was at the Allianz Arena last year when they went there are won 2-0, and though it was a slightly false result because Bayern for all intents and purposes had qualified, the Germans had only just done enough to get through. The job gets even tougher for Arsenal because Bayern are flying at the moment. Off the back of a 5-0 win at Hamburg they haven't lost a Bundesliga game all season and have only drawn twice, they're 13 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen. We are all looking forward to seeing the likes of Mandzukic, Robben, Gotze, and Dante but from an Arsenal perspective you're going to be fearing them slightly. This year's last 16-draw is incredible, I'll be in Barcelona for their second leg game with Manchester City in a few weeks which will be absolutely terrific. We've also got Manchester United's big chance to prove themselves away from their disappointing domestic form against Olympiakos and then Didier Drogba's return with Galatasaray to face Chelsea. There's so much to look forward to on Sky Sports.

JEFF'S GEM OF THE WEEK

I normally go for lower league sides but you can't get away from Liverpool beating Arsenal 5-1. If Steven Gerrard says it's one of the greatest performances of his time at Liverpool then that's confirmation that it's good enough to be my Gem of the Week that's for sure. They were 4-0 up within 20 minutes but let's be honest, they could have been 6-0 up by then. People talk about the SAS, well now it's the SASAS - Sturridge and Suarez and Sterling! And well done to Brendan Rodgers because he's got them playing an exhilarating brand of football. A lot of the big guns have still got to go to Anfield including Manchester City and Chelsea and that could be where the title is decided. The only down side for me is that back four at the moment isn't good enough. We've seen Manchester City scoring lorryloads of goals and Liverpool are now only just behind them in terms in goals scored and points total as well. They've been absolutely fantastic and you can't wipe the smile off Phil Thompson's face!

Around Sky