Oxford United - Arsenal started 1 minute ago for the FA Cup. It's more of a practice game. They probably won't play in the strongest line-up today either. Arsenal will take the FA cup seriously, but it will be very difficult to win it. You can't risk playing with your best team again. Last weekend they had a competition for the competition and next weekend there will be football again. I think they want the game decided before half time so they don't have to take any risks in the 2nd half. Arsenal's focus will surely be on the league and on the EL. City - Chelsea was a big crush.

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

All sellers of such groups have the same sales pitch and strategy. Supposedly they don't want to make any bets themselves and want to be sure. The truth is in 99.99% of the cases that they are scammers who have no reliable information at all. Sometimes it can happen that a match ends as predicted, but those are always odds around 1.90 so there is a 50% chance that they will still win. I would absolutely not do business with such people, apart from the fact that it is also punishable of course.

Good for Napoli that they still won the game at Sampdoria. With a view to the difficult game against Juventus soon, it is good to have some margin for a possible defeat. The other way around, it is also the case that if Napoli wins against Juventus, you will run far out again. Inter disappointed with a draw yesterday. They should have won to claim the title. It also shows how unstable Inter Milan is. Lazio at home got no further than a 2-2 draw against Empoli. Also a huge disappointment for Lazio.

It looks like Sevilla is going to win another match. They were in 17th place and desperately need the points. It's all difficult, but now only results count. For Barcelona, the difficult away match against Atletico Madrid will also be on the program. A game they have to win to be at the top, but if you are not careful you can still lose in Madrid. What also strikes me is that a player like Rakitic still plays at Sevilla. Isn't that much better than having to play in the basement of the Spanish league? At Barcelona they no longer needed him, but there are plenty of teams that want him at the top of the league.

Great job by Djokovic that he managed to win this match against Costa in the final. Surprising name for an American. Costa even got a match point in the 2nd set. However, experience was the deciding factor. I heard Djokovic hasn't lost a game on Australian soil for 3 years. That is a good perspective for his participation in the Australian open. Based on this data, we can conclude that Djokovic is certainly the best player on this surface at the moment. Alcaraz does not participate in the Australian open unfortunately. If you had to bet on something I would go for Djokovic, but there are more hijackers on the coast.

Carlsen is a pleasure player. He plays chess because he likes it. Not just for money or business like many other pros do. Much has been said and written about Hans Niemann. Whether he ever cheated can no longer be proven, at least not with hard evidence. You can only make assumptions, but on that basis you cannot exclude someone from the chess federation. And Niemann will of course never let himself be caught and will not take any risks. Soon the Tata steel chess tournament will start, in which Carlsen will also participate. He is the favorite there, but we also get a number of players from the absolute world top. It is also the strongest regular chess tournament in the world.

What a draw at the FA Cup too. That exactly Man City and Chelsea have been drawn against each other. You can draw all teams from all types of divisions and then you get this match. The FA Cup is a prestigious prize in England. Man City are now 1-0 up, but we are only halfway through the first half. It is curious that a return has to be played if the match ends in a draw. In England they already have a busy schedule, of course these kinds of regulations do not help at all. You would be better off just doing an extension and adding up on penalties like in any tournament.

Juventus has secretly caught up with the leader and AC Milan. I thought they would be much lower. They play a hitherto inconspicuous role but have managed to find their way up again. Udinese can be a tough team to play against, but they are not the Udinese of years and years ago. So it should be an easy win for Juventus. Inter can go to Monza, I also expect an easy victory for Inter there. AC Milan - Roma tomorrow is I think the top game of this weekend and next week Napoli will play at home against Juventus. That can also be another defeat for Napoli.

No football in the league, but a lot of matches in the FA cup. Which is arguably the biggest football tournament in the world. Tottenham got a very close victory in the home game against Portsmouth. Liverpool can play again tonight, that team also plays a lot of games in a few weeks. In this way, new injuries will still be added. And they will have to do without Van Dijk. If they lose at home to Wolverhampton tonight, won't there really be questions about the current policy and the possible appointment of a new trainer?

Villareal is currently leading 2-1 against Real Madrid. Villareal is a tough opponent. They might win this match. Very favorable for Barcelona and perhaps also crucial. Barcelona can now take over the lead from Real Madrid again. Where it was only 0-0 at halftime, 3 goals were already scored in this game in 20 minutes in the 2nd half. We have seen strange things at Real Madrid before, I wouldn't be surprised if 2 or 3 more goals are scored and that Real Madrid could also win the match 2-3. Benzema has already scored his goal again.

I don't think it's optimal for the teams in terms of logistics. If you have to travel from the North of America to Mexico for a match, it has a lot of influence. I am not only talking about the travel time, but also about the difference in temperature. It is a nice initiative that they organize it in 3 countries, but far from ideal for players and teams. I assume that all top countries will qualify for the tournament without any problems. The advantage for Canada is that they have already qualified in this way because they are also an organizing country of the tournament. Mexico and the USA should normally be strong enough to qualify on their own.

I think Djokovic is the favourite. But it's not that the other players don't have a chance. That was quite different, in a year in which Djokovic won almost everything there was to win. And there is also a new young generation ready to take over from the experienced players. Out of the top 15 there are certainly a few players who can beat Djokovic. Alcaraz is the number 1 in the world and has gained a lot of experience in recent years. On gravel he would be the favorite together with Nadal, but on this surface it is a different story. But Alcaraz was good at the US open in the summer, in itself that surface is not very different from the surface at the Australian open. the top is close to each other. That was very different in the 90s and 2000s.

AS Roma does have the potential to finish in the top 3. But I think a 3rd place would be the maximum achievable for this team. They don't have a bad team, but they can't become champions. The top in Italian football is very strong. The title fight is probably between Napoli, AC Milan and Inter. I can't think of any other teams that can seriously claim the national championship in the current situation. That title fight has in any case become a lot more exciting due to the loss of Napoli against Inter. And let's hope that doesn't collapse at Napoli, which we have seen regularly in the past with other teams in other competitions.

Elche at the bottom with only 4 points. Rarely have I seen a team score as few points as Elche this season. Are they really that bad? Maybe it's lucky for Sevilla that they won't be last in any case and that the teams above don't have many points ahead. Sevilla may be performing the worst in the club's history, but what about Valencia? Once a regular participant in the CL is now only a moderate 10th place. Tomorrow Villareal will play at home against Real Madrid, not an easy game for Madrid at all. You can easily run into a defeat at Villareal. Benzema is fit again, that will make a difference for the Madrilenians.

It looks like Liverpool will have to miss Virgil van Dijk for quite some time. That will certainly have an impact on Liverpool's performance. The last time Van Dijk was sidelined for a long time with an injury, things were not going well for Liverpool. You could also say that the time may now have come to do something about the current way of playing, because it is also a bad season with van Dijk at the moment. But they may also be looking for reinforcements as the transfer window closes soon and they need to get down to business quickly. United have already brought in another goalkeeper. A successor to Ronaldo has not yet been achieved and may not come?

Chelsea almost seem to be able to buy whatever they want. But how many players were really good that they bought in recent years? Ziyech is also allowed to leave again and has never really had a starting place under the new coach. When Kampard was a coach, he thought very differently about the policy. Werner couldn't live up to it either. They make a lot of purchases, but they don't bring in real global players. Maybe that's the mistake they make at the club. They try to sit just below it, while a club with that much money could better build security with other investments. You need players like Ronaldo, Messi, Lewndowsky. You used to have Drogba at Chelsea.

A draw is the most common result between top players in the world. Soon the tournament will start in the Netherlands, Tata Steel chess tournament. I would never bet on blitz games, those games can go in any direction. At a classic pace of play, the better players generally emerge. There are also often games that quickly end in a draw. You should think of games between compatriots or that they can secure a shared tournament victory in this way. There might be some value in that.

For the football fan, of course, a great result that Inter Milan managed to beat Napoli at home. For the supporters of Napoli it is especially disappointing. So much dominated the competition and immediately a defeat when the competition resumed. It is also the first loss of the season. You can lose at Inter, but this result can change everything quickly. Napoli must remain mentally strong and not be driven crazy. AC Milan has caught up a bit, but perhaps even more important is that Inter can also compete for the title again.

In a few minutes we will have the top game between Chelsea and Manchester City. City has to catch up with Arsenal, which recently lost points due to a draw against Newcastle. But Chelsea is a team that can also play well at times. And without playing well, they also manage to win matches regularly. City have a strong team, but are certainly not doing great at the moment. The question is whether they will be able to win this match in London. I wouldn't be surprised if Chelsea take the win tonight. If Manchester City lose this match, the title chances will start to shrink considerably. I do not expect to much goals here.