Arsenal Recover, Inter Sink

With a wealthy amount of games played today, clubs are starting to get far enough into the season to make definitive remarks on their performance.  Of particular mention are Arsenal, Manchester United, Internazionale, and Villareal.

Today, Arsenal fought back from a 1-0 at half time to Shrewsbury Town in the Carling Cup of Nations to secure a deserved 3-1 victory.  Wenger's squad showed promise as a lot of youngsters had a chance and performed well.  In particular, the goals came from some rather unknown faces at Arsenal.  It's good to see that they've finally bounced back after a poor start to the season.

Gasperini could be done tomorrow

Inter, on the other hand are just lacking something.  The '09-'10 treble winning team fell 1-3 in a truly disappointing loss to Novara, with Cambiasso's late goal the only consoling effort.  This marks Inter's third league game without a win and potentially last game with Gian Piero Gasperini as head coach.  Inter's president Massio Moratti is set to decide on Gasperini's future tomorrow.  Gasperini hopes he will be given another chance, but the booing Inter fans appear to be fed up already.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are defending Premier League champions Manchester United, who produced an easy 3-0 win over Leeds United.  There was no "Rooney magic" today, as head coach Alex Ferguson fielded an older team that resulted in both Ryan Giggs and Michael Owen appearing on the score sheet.  United have clearly proven that they are capable of winning almost regardless of which players they use.  This season I feel like they will be the team to beat in both the Champions League and the Premier League.

Giuseppe Rossi celebrates

In Spain, Villareal showed a sign of the skill they had last season in their 2-0 win over Mallorca.  Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar both played great games and scored great goals, but from watching it seemed that Villareal should have scored more.  Perhaps they were just unlucky, but Mallorca's performance in the final 20 minutes of the game certainly gave Villareal some worry.  Villareal may not challenge for the league title this season, but I wouldn't be surprised for them to finish in third or fourth place.

Tomorrow, I look forward to watching Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Chelsea play in a day that is practically inundated with matches.