Is there any excuse for Rafael Benitez?

Jorge Valdano of Real Madrid once described the football that Rafa Benitez as, ‘s*** on a stick.’ He produced much the same type of football wherever he went after Liverpool. He did it at Inter, destroying a Champions League winning side left by Jose Mourinho. He did it at Napoli, and he did it at Chelsea. It doesn’t stop him doing well in cup competitions, and he’s not a manager without merit if you want to secure some absolutely 7/10 management.

Benitez has taken control of Real Madrid, a side with Isco, James Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, and he has them playing the kind of football that makes people check the prices at Dignitas. Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp is installed at Liverpool, ready to try to recreate the excitement he conjured up at Dortmund, all at the club Benitez won the Champions League. Benitez. Klopp. Benitez. Klopp. Benitez. Why?

Has Louis van Gaal taken United as far as he can?

Manchester United began in control against CSKA, as they do against most clubs. They played a great deal of the opening period with the ball in their opponent’s half, and dominated possession.

They then showed on a few occasions that they were vulnerable on the counterattack down the left-wing, where Marcos Rojo struggled until he was replaced by the slower but more solid Daley Blind. The space afforded to them forced Anthony Martial into a foolish error - one that he deserves some blame for but he found himself in that position because the team were unacceptably stretched. There was no alteration in the tactics for the first half, and in between panic down the wings, United had most of the ball. It was the same as ever for Louis van Gaal.

At half time, Van Gaal took off United’s best midfielder and replaced him with their worst, Marouane Fellaini. Fellaini is a useful option off the bench in attack, but far too awkward to be an effective foil in the middle of the pitch. So it proved, as he lunged and fouled his way around the pitch.

As CSKA tired, and United dominated, the away side increasingly found room to play in, and Wayne Rooney aimed a relatively straightforward header at the ‘keeper. A few minutes later, the far superior Martial demonstrated his ability with a glancing header against the post, that squeezed in to level the scores. It makes a mockery of Rooney’s continued inclusion at the expense of someone competent. Juan Mata was on the bench, saved for City on Saturday. If Rooney keeps his place, then it must be time for us all to examine the small print in his contract.

But in truth, it’s not Rooney’s fault that he keeps destroying his side from within. It is the man who picks him. Van Gaal has had his fabled three months to adjust his players to his philosophy, and it’s still as poor as ever. There are growing and legitimate concerns over his future. If a better manager became available, there is now no compelling reason to keep him at Old Trafford.

City can’t decide who they want to be

Manchester City appeared to suffer a similar case of sloth in the opening stages of their game against Sevilla, and duly fell behind. They were stirred into action eventually, but the defence was creaking throughout.

When the players finally got their act together, they were good enough to bring the scores level, but the game hardly ended promisingly. For all the money spent on the squad, Manuel Pellegrini ended up with Yaya Toure playing as the striker. With the game against Manchester United coming up at the weekend, there is little that will have left Van Gaal exceptionally worried. So far this season, City have looked both thrilling and bereft. In this match it was both, as the slow and turgid play gave way to Kevin De Bruyne’s winner.  City remain favourites for the match on Sunday, but it’s hard to tell what the players will decide to do from game to game.
Chelsea aren’t fixed, but they appear much less broken
Chelsea should be pleased with their draw over Dinamo Kiev, and if it wasn’t for their terrible form so far this season then the feelings of an opportunity missed would be greater. Chelsea have still won only one match in the Champions League this season, but they should now be confident of victory. Things have not been fixed, exactly, but they certainly appear to be less obviously broken.
Branislav Ivanovic remains rightly dropped from first-team action. Against Aston Villa, Baba Rahman took his place and looked skittish. That’s to be expected to some degree, given his relative lack of experience, and that he is getting used to his new side. And so Cesar Azpilicueta started on the left, with Kurt Zouma on the right wing. It provided a pretty effective shield, and Andriy Yarmolenko didn’t seem the plaudits that he started the match with. It seems like the defence for Chelsea has found its best permutation for now.
Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas looked, if not anywhere close to their best, far from the wretched standards of earlier in the season. Ahead of him Diego Costa and Eden Hazard both appeared sharper and more determined than they have so far this season. It wasn’t especially threatening - they didn’t score a goal and the closest they came was from Willian’s set pieces, but it was an improvement on much of what Jose Mourinho has overseen in 2015/16.

There’s room for much more to come, but it was instructive that Mourinho reacted without the defensiveness of the previous few weeks. Out he came with an enjoyably sarcastic riposte, paraphrasing Arsene Wenger’s ‘weak and naive’ comment from earlier. Nothing to do with the Champions League refereeing really, but a sign that Mourinho has identified Wenger as one of two things - still the same old feckless waster of the last decade, or perhaps worse than that, the manager of a serious rival for the Premier League title. Mourinho has form for driving even Pep Guardiola to distraction with his pettiness and criticism. This should run for another few months at least.

Wenger should be the happiest of any manager in the Champions League

Arsene Wenger will possibly be feeling the very smuggest he has felt since he last one a Premier League, which was over a decade ago, and since he was in a Champions League final, which was well over a decade ago. In the last few weeks he has beaten his bogey side, Manchester United, with a team that was clearly superior across the pitch, and with the kind of tactics he has been peddling for well over a decade. Against Bayern Munich he one with an organised defence that didn’t ride their luck. They simply waited to see what Bayern were planning to do with all their position, and it turned out to be not very much.

In response, Arsenal kept their shape and discipline, and made the most of the chances that were afforded to them. They were lucky in the sense that Olivier Giroud got away with a shot that came off his arm, but in even a mildly grand scheme of things, that does not matter at all in the slightest. What matters is that playing an entirely different way, against one of the best two sides in the world, Wenger and his side had a victory that gave them a fairly optimistic chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League. Before the match, they look stranded. Wenger will have looked at Mourinho’s comments and felt barely a flicker of emotion. You’d hope.