Would Liverpool take a point?

It's not their style right now, but Liverpool should be content to take the draw at home to Chelsea on Sunday. They will beat Newcastle at home on the last day, and although away to Crystal Palace is tougher than many would have expected, you'd have to think Liverpool should win there too.

Not that Brendan Rodgers should play for the draw. Do that and they'll lose - players just don't know how to play for a draw from the start of a game. If it's 1-1 with 10 minutes left, fine, shut up shop. But Liverpool are top and are playing fantastic football - they need to stick with what they know best.

Plus, if Jose Mourinho plays a weaker team, you have to get after them. Mark Schwarzer is 41, he can only dive so many times before he breaks a hip!

Then there's the other end of the spectrum. Sunderland at home to Cardiff. The visitors may take a point, but Sunderland need all three. Games are running out and while it's hard to see Norwich or Aston Villa getting many more points, they do already have points on the board.

No one can win the League this weekend, and no on can go down, but don't take your eyes of the games this weekend - unless you were going to watch Stoke v Tottenham. It will probably end up 5-4, but no one will care.

Win the Cup or stay in the League?

Would you rather your team stayed in the Premier League every year or won a trophy?

It's a tough decision due to the money generated from the Premier League's TV contract, but finishing 6th to 15th every year isn't a very exciting way to follow your club. There are only certain teams who can win the League, and apart from Arsenal (and to some degree Manchester United), they are owned by people who pump money into the club with no expectation of return.

Teams like Stoke, West Ham, Swansea and Everton can't compete. Yes, Everton are having a great year, but their best players are on loan. They can't sustain a challenge over a few years, unless they make the Champions League for at least three consecutive years. And there haven't been any that have been able to do that. Spurs made it one year, Everton were fourth once and even Liverpool have struggled to keep up now they don't have consistent money from UEFA.

So why not go for the Cups? Wigan won the FA Cup last year, West Ham and Sunderland are in the League Cup semi this week - it's the best chance to win something. I've been a fan almost 35 years and have never seen my team win anything (promotion and Intertoto don't count). I'd love to see a win at Wembley and be able to say "I was there."

Who are you going to tell that you were there when your team finished 8th in 2015? No one cares. Yeah you can remember a great win against the eventual champions or when they avoided relegation on the last day, but memories are built around great players and the success they had.

Or average players are remembered for moments. Ben Watson isn't a household name now, but Wigan fans will remember his FA Cup winner forever, despite them being relegated the same season.

So I can't understand why owners and managers don't go for it. Aston Villa fans are not happy that Paul Lambert didn't - and so it's another trophy-less season for them. The best they can hope for is 10th (maybe) - and that's not success.

Not everyone can be owned by a billionaire who treats football clubs like video games - and those that aren't should really target the Cups - you know it makes sense.

Huge tests for Arsenal, Napoli and Leverkeusen

Is tomorrow's early Premier League game the clash of this season's top two? Or should Chelsea still be among the favorites despite their ability to ship at least 2 a game? Liverpool are still there, but may not even be the best team in their city.

Arsenal away at Manchester City this weekend is huge. City have won 7 of 7 at the Etihad and scored 29 goals in that span - that's an average of more than 4 a game, and they have just conceded 2. Arsenal's defense has been pretty solid to start the season, but they were cut apart by Napoli in the week, and you have to think that Aguero, Silva, Yaya Toure and company (not Vincent, although he's a threat at set plays) are going to give the Gunners a run for their money. Mertesacker and Koscielny have been very good this season, but City move the ball so quickly and playing on the half-turn is really not their strength. If Jenkinson plays too, I think Navas will exploit him and really test that offside trap.

But Arsenal are not 5 points clear after 15 games for no reason. Ramsey has been a beast, and Ozil creates at least one great chance per game - the key may be whether Giroud or Walcott can take that chance - Ramsey has been scoring loads, but the forwards are the players that will decide if Arsenal can maintain their push. Bendtner off the bench isn't that inspiring when you're losing.

There's a big game for Liverpool away at Spurs too. Lose and you're have to think they will slip behind Chelsea and Everton, both who have home games that they should win easily. Liverpool have failed a couple of tests so far this season, but are more than just hanging around  - Suarez is scoring so many goals that you hardly notice the injuries to Gerrard and Sturridge. However, if the Uruguayan is not firing, can anyone else take the responsibility?

Some big games for West Ham at home to Sunderland and Hull home to Stoke. All 4 of those teams need to start getting some points. More losses and some of the managers may be getting nervous - Steve Bruce is doing well at Hull right now, but they are due a bad run at some point, so need to accumulate while the going is good.

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Roma remain unbeaten, but trail Juventus by 3 points - hard to imagine, but Juve have won 13 of 15 in Serie A, yet couldn't reach the knockout stages of the Champions League. Maybe Serie A isn't as strong as predicted it may be this year. Napoli also didn't advance in Europe, but have a huge game with Inter this weekend. Both teams need a win to stay in touch with the leaders, but the pressure will be on Napoli at home. Inter are unbeaten away, and will be looking to Rodrigo Palacio to nick one - after going out of the Champions League, Rafa Benitez can't afford to lose.

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Fair play to Bayer Leverkeusen - they are desperately holding on to the coattails of Bayern Munich and reached the knockout stages of the Champions League in midweek. It's going to be tough for them to compete on both fronts, but it's tough for anyone against Bayern (apart from James Milner!).

Chelsea look to exploit missing Kompany

With our La Liga preview here (ok, so it's an El Clasico preview), we're going to focus on the Premier League matchups, while I continue to ask Tio Pelotas for his MLS preview - he's doing it apparently, but is hungover and needs something greasy in his stomach.

Arsenal and Liverpool will be looking to pick up 3 more points against Crystal Palace and West Brom respectively, and if either are to seriously challenge for the title, then they have to win games like these. I think both have good chances of making the top 4, but that's not good enough for Arsenal, although it may be for Liverpool this year.

The huge game of the weekend is Chelsea against Manchester City. Both are coming off good wins in the Champions League, but City may be a little more fatigues after a trip to Russia, and playing on a pitch that looked like it was from the 1980s.

City are a different team without Vincent Kompany, and I'd expect Chelsea to try and expose Javi Garcia or Joleon Lescott. Pace is huge, and Samuel Eto'o still has plenty of that, even if he is trying to steal the ball off the goalkeeper just to open his account. Fernando Torres may start after his two goals in the week, but reports of him being back are stupid - yes, he's judged on how many goals he scores, but he (and Eto'o) needs a run in the team as the main man. Strikers need confidence, and neither has it in abundance at the moment - maybe they should stand next to Sergio Aguero at the kick-off in teh hope of catching some.

The teams returning from European action need wins too. Spurs will be hoping not to repeat what happened to them last time they played after some Thursday night action, while West Ham will hope Swansea are as generous as Tottenham were.

If Sunderland lose to Newcastle, Poyet will be out. I'm just kidding, but Gus needs a win (or at least not to lose), and a local derby changes everything. Form goes out of the window and passion comes through - I don't care how many 'johnny foreigners' are playing, the crowd will inspire whoever is out there.

Thanks for the 3 points, call me

European Leagues starting to take shape

So who was the biggest winner this weekend? PSG? Roma? Liverpool? West Ham?

It all depends on who you support, so you can never really say! See, summed that up perfectly.

Dortmund lost for the first time this season, Bayern Munich were held. Juventus and Napoli are hot on the heels of Roma, who thumped Inter 3-0 and made it 7 from 7 in Serie A. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid moved to 8 wins from 8, and Real Madrid had another 94th minute winner - seems those top teams need another 5 minutes to win games, even when there were no injuries of subsitutions! Big spending Monaco and PSG sit atop Ligue Un, with Falcao leading the way with 7 goals. And I didn't pause for breath to mention the Dutch League (Twente and PSV top) or Portugal's top flight (Porto are top).

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The leagues are starting to take shape all over Europe, and it makes you worry if your team is in the relegation zone, or makes you dare to dream if you're in contention.

Take Southampton and Sunderland. One is sitting in the top 4, playing well and already have a third of the points they will need to survive, from just 7 games. The other have 1 point from 7, have sacked their manager, lost their best striker to injury and look a bit of a shambles. Yes, Sunderland played well against both Liverpool and Manchester United in the last 2 weeks, but they're already 6 points from safety and I can't see them winning 1 game, let alone 2 to rejoin the pack. If they are still bottom and in single digits by the end of November, it's all pretty much done and dusted.

And then there were questions about Southampton last year. They sacked Nigel Adkins after all he had done for the club and took a new direction. They have spent a lot of money, become very hard to beat at home, and could be this season's West Brom. It's not necessarily that they are doing things right, but they started well, got points on the board and can now build without having to worry too much about what's going on beneath them.

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And so on to another International week. They seem to come around far too often for my liking, but usually just because England are painful to watch. Gives the Geezer a chance to rest though, and who doesn't want to take some time to reflect on a huge win at White Hart Lane!

When is the right time to fire the manager?

Paolo Di Canio only lasted a handful of games this season before being fired by Sunderland.

There's no doubt he's a egomaniac, nutcase, passionate, crazy Italian, but surely the owners of Sunderland knew that when they hired him. He was able to save them from the drop last year and was given free range, and a massive budget to sign new players. He then imposed his strange, unpredictable, overwhelming style of management.

He called out players for being lazy, unfit, unable to speak English, eating too much junk food, drinking too much soda. Di Canio called out his players for their poor performances, abusing individuals and embarrassing the team and club. But we all knew he would.

So why was he fired? The players weren't happy? I'm sure the fans haven't been happy for a long time, but they don't get to fire the manager or sack the players. They don't get to change things or demand better.

Being bottom of the league in September won't get you relegated. Sure, the form is not good and the players haven't gelled yet. But a new manager now has to deal with that, and will surely request his own players at even more expense once the January window opens.

Maybe managers should get a window, the same way there is for transfers. I'm not saying Paolo did a good job, but he didn't really get to do the job at all. Fans deserve better. Chopping and changing can work, but there has to be some consistency. A quarter of the season minimum? 20 games? The owners have the right to change all they want, but I'd like to know how many times it works - because getting a quick fix guy isn't the solution if you fire him as soon as he loses a couple of games.