Apart from a host of downbeat Arsenal fans, I don’t think anyone saw that the circus was visiting Ewood Park at the weekend.

Manchester United’s Chris Smalling has certainly been one of the revelations of English football over the last couple of seasons. Within 4 and a half years he has gone from playing for Non-League side Maidstone to becoming one of the most recongisable young players in the Premier League.

By all accounts, on Saturday Barcelona tore through Osasuna, spanking the Pamplona side 8-0. While this may have added flames to the fire that is the non-competitive nature of La Liga, it also added to the thought that this Barcelona side is one of the best that the world has ever seen. But while everything on the pitch seems as rosy as ever, off the pitch the club appears to be at a crossroads.

I have to say, Leon Clarke’s hat-trick for Chesterfield against Carlisle did make me smile. My joy for Clarke had nothing to do with any personal feelings towards the on-loan striker, it was more a case of how it went down with his parent club Swindon Town.

This meeting has been called after witnessing the farce of a performance from Liverpool at White Hart Lane yesterday afternoon. To call the performance lame would be both an understatement and a disservice to Harry Redknapp and his team. To cut an unfortunately long story short, Kenny Dalglish’s men were stuffed four goals to nothing by a well-organized, hard-working and dominant Spurs side.