FOOTBALL CLUB WORLD

Arsenal could not defeat Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium and got a useless 1-1 draw. Robin van Persie scored the opener for the Gunners and Dirk Kuyt netted the equalizer in the very last second of the game.

As dramatic as it sounds, Wenger's men were victorius until minut 101, but a penalty shoot converted by Kuyt crashed Arsenal's hopes. The real winner of this game was Manchester United, absolute leader of the Premier League.

We must mention that Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher left the pitch unconscious after recieving a hard hit in the head. Fortunately, doctors say his condition is stable.

Ancelotti's men are decided to fight until the end. Chelsea got an important 1-3 win as visitors over West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns Stadium on Saturday.

West Bromwich scored the first goal by Peter Odemwingie, but Chelsea reacted thanks to Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard.

Spanish star Fernando Torres entered in the second half, but he still cannot score his first goal with the Blues, a fact that now is called the "Torres curse".

Chelsea remains in the third position of the Premier League, one point behind Arsenal and eight behind Manchester United.

Chelsea's 1-0 win over Wigan was not a good game for Carlo Ancelotti's squad and the coach is aware of the lack of good football in his team. The next rival, Manchester United, will not be as easy as Wigan, and Ancelotti already warned his players: "We must improve to advance".

Manchester United's number in Champions League are far superior compared with Chelsea, but Ancelotti is convinced that among his players there is enough talent to make history at the Old Trafford.

"We are not converting goals. That's why we suffered so much against Wigan. But that's normal in football. If we are at our 100%, we can beat United" said the coach.

Arsenal was not lucky at the Champions League quarterfinals draw: the Gunners will face the powerfull Barcelona, Lionel Messi included. Today's Champions Leageu draw took place in Nyon, Switzerland.

Arsene Wenger expressed his thoughts about this match: "I think my team will not be favourite but for me it will be a 50-50 match. That's how we have to take it. When you get to the quarter-finals of the Champions League you play extremely good clubs and Barcelona has a fantastic team indeed."

In another fascinating leg, Manchester United will face Bayern Munich. And lets mention that Lyon will play French rival Bordeaux and Inter Milan faces CSKA Moscow in the other quarterfinals of the Champions League.

These encounters will take place on March 30 and 31 and April 6 and 7 with Arsenal, Lyon, Bayern, and Inter hosting the first matches.

The French coach Wenger has conceded for the first time that Arsenal have no hope of title in the Premier League this season, as he declared the current leaders Manchester United just untouchable for them.

We must consider that Arsenal sit in fifth place, 15 points behind the reigning champions, after United victory over Fulham, a victory that takes Sir Alex Ferguson’s side five points clear of second-placed Liverpool.

All the top five sides will have 13 clashes left to play after tonight, with Arsenal still to visit United, giving them a small chance of reducing the points difference. However, Wenger sees United as being in such amazing form that even an Arsenal victory at Old Trafford would not halt Ferguson’s men on their way to a third successive Premier League title.

In any case, Wenger’s side visit Old Trafford on the penultimate weekend of the season, when a victory might come too late to make any difference. Wenger cannot see United also losing four other games to give Arsenal a chance of the title.

The manager expressed: “We promised ourselves to give everything until the very last day of the season. At the moment Man United look untouchable, they beat Fulham tonight. United’s results are really consistent. They victory 1-0, and in despite of that, you always think during the match they will drop a point tonight, or drop maybe more than two points, and in despite of that, no, they always manage to find, somewhere, the resources to victory the game.

“That means if they victory their game in hand they are 15 points in front of us. That means they need to lose five games for us to catch up. Let’s say they lose one against us, that leaves four. They still need to lose four other games, which they haven’t done yet this season. and in despite of that, we promised ourselves. We are very consistent. We are on a very strong run. We just missed the goals recently we know we are capable of scoring.”

It’s amazing to notice that Wenger saw his side cruise into the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday night, defeating Cardiff City in their replay 4-0, and they now have a relatively straightforward path through to the semi-finals. They next play Burnley, at the Emirates, and if they victory that they will play either Sheffield United or Hull City in the quarter-finals, again at the Emirates.

However, Wenger has downplayed the importance of the Cup, insisting that it is more important to finish in the top four of the Premier League, thus qualifying for the Champions League preliminary stages.

Wenger, whose last trophy was the FA Cup in 2005, responded, when asked about the Cup being his best chance of silverware: “I believe our basic target is to get in the Champions League. Therefore the championship remains our priority.”

The Gunners’ hopes of overhauling Chelsea or Aston Villa to finish fourth were lifted with the return to first-team action of Eduardo on Monday night. Their Croatia international forward played his first encounter for Arsenal since breaking his left leg and dislocating his ankle against Birmingham City 51 weeks ago.

Eduardo scored twice, with a header and a penalty, and looked lively throughout his 67 minutes on the pitch, before he was taken off as a precautionary measure, due to a tight hamstring.

Wenger expressed Eduardo, 26 next week, had shown that, “mentally, he is as strong as a mountain” in coming back from such a serious injury.

We must consider that the Brazil-born Eduardo wants to carry on where he left off last season, when his goals looked like they might take Arsenal to the league title. Now he has his eyes on European and FA Cup success.

He expressed: “We have three months until the end of the championship. I am here to help Arsenal to be on top of the Premier League or in the first three. Now we are in the FA Cup, I want to get to the final and in the Champions League we want to go far. I feel I can play again like before.”

Historical night for every blue fan, player, board member and supporters around the world. After many years of struggling, Chelsea reached the Champions League Final for the first time in history.

What's more, it will be the first European Cup final between two English clubs, and beating Manchester United to win the title will make it even more special.

Owner Roman Abramovich wasn't at Stamford Bridge to see his expensively assembled team beat Liverpool 3-2 in extra time to advance to the final on May 21, but United manager Alex Ferguson was.

Manchester United and Chelsea are also neck-and-neck in the Premier League. The Blues beat the Red Devils 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to draw level on points with United, which leads on goal difference with two encounters to go.

"An all-English final. I think everyone's looking forward to it," Chelsea leader John Terry said. "They have been very good in the league. Also we matched them the other week and managed to defeat them here. All in all, they're playing very well. I think we're at the top of our game so in three weeks time it's going to be a very tough game."

It's important to notice that even though it's the first time two English teams have made it to the final, there are no English coaches.

The last Englishman to lead a team to a European Cup triumph was Liverpool's Joe Fagan in 1984. That was at a time when English coaches did well in the competition with seven triumphs in eight seasons, including victories from Liverpool's Bob Paisley (three), Nottingham Forest's Brian Clough (two), Aston Villa's Tony Barton and Fagan between 1977 and '84.

Manchester United has had the veteran Ferguson in charge for 22 years, and the Scot has led the Red Devils to nine Premier League triumphs and five FA Cups and is now chasing his second Champions League title to go with the one he won in 1999.

As for Avram Grant, he is the former coach of Israel who has led Chelsea to its first Champions League final after the man he replaced, Jose Mourinho, failed three times. Mourinho moved to Stamford Bridge in June 2004, a month after leading FC Porto to a triumph in the competition.

And although he won two league titles in a row, Chelsea's first in half a century, portuguese Mourinho couldn't capture a European success and the club replaced him in September. Now, the fact that two English teams are playing each other thousands of miles away in Moscow for a major prize is good timing.

Now talking about the semifinal match, we can say it was one of the most exciting games of the year. Didier Drogba scored the first goal that seemed to assure their ticket to the final. But Fernando Torres kept the emotion alive up to the 90th minute.

In the extra time, the referee downed a goal scored by Kalou, but just two minutes later a penalty shot was converted by Frank Lampard. His celebration is now inprinted in the memory of every blue fan.

Drogba appeared again to score the third one, to unleash the emotion of every Chelsea supporter. Babel scored a goal for Liverpool, but that was not enough to save his team.

Now Chelsea will face Manchester United knowing all about Cristiano Ronaldo's dribbling and shooting skills and how to stop him from adding to his 38 league and cup goals this season. It also has to break open the solid defensive partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

Because it played Chelsea on Saturday, Manchester United is aware of the dangers posed by Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Ballack and the defensive strengths of Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.

Ferguson's team has a 65-41 record against Chelsea with 44 draws. But the last time they met in a final, Chelsea edged Man. United 1-0 in last season's FA Cup at Wembley.