The most decisive Manchester derby since Dennis Law’s back-heel in 1974 will highlight where success and failure lies in a footballing city marked by a season of transition.

Forget the War of the Roses. Forget the north/south divide. Saturday’s clash between the red and blue armies of Manchester promises to be an epic, with meteoric implications for both clubs and both sets of supporters.

Beckham, Terry, Cole…injuries and melodramas expose England’s Achilles’ heel

As the Greek myth of the Trojan War goes, it was the heel of the great Achilles – pierced by a poisoned arrow fired by Paris – that killed the apparently invulnerable warrior. Now in England’s World Cup campaign, one that seemed so promising six months ago, it is the stricken heel of David Beckham that has all but killed off the nation’s chances of success in South Africa.

Which self-important, deluded, foreign-funded club would you least like to see take the final Champions League spot at the end of the season?

Wayne Rooney has six goals in seven for Manchester United so far. For England in qualification matches his record is nine in eight. The national side has booked their place for the World Cup next summer allowing him to whet his appetite for South Africa by focusing on Premier League and European competition.

Times they are a changing in the Premier League

Six weeks ago the English press were running around like little school girls gushing over the brilliance of our national league. Three teams representing the Premiership had reached the last four of the European Cup two years on the bounce. The English champions were the world champions and they had nurtured and cultivated the world’s player of the year. All eyes across the planet were focused on these shores and the allure of the league had never been stronger.

Rory Delap: One reason why the Euro champs wouldn’t reign in England

One further debate that has emerged since Manchester United “didn’t turn up” in the Stadio Olimpico, and the vertically challenged Spaniards, Iniesta and Xavi, stole the show in Rome, has been to question just how good this treble-winning Barcelona side really are. Not content to question how much they could dominate their own league, pundits have been considering how they would fare in the perceived, ‘best league in the world’ of the Premiership.

Now I don’t mean to rip off the idea Dexy, but this whole best XI business somehow got my mind racing. It got me thinking about those past and present who have been our eyes, ears and experts on the game, and just what we think about them. Who do we appreciate (see below) and who are best forgotten (see David Pleat, Mark Lawrenson, John Barnes, etc.). So here is my Ultimate 11 of pundits, critics, presenters and commentators for the game we all know and love:

After all the fuss has died down

A special place is reserved for people like Tom Henning Ovrebo. Just like Anders Frisk, Graham Poll, Robert Mugabe, and Osama Bin Laden before him, Tom has achieved household name status and established himself on Interpol’s top ten most wanted overnight.

A season of so nears yet so fars

Unlike Arsenal, Liverpool has no youth policy to point to in excuse of a season bereft of silverware, so can the Anfield faithful truly call this be a season of progress and positives?

Arsenal are having to come to terms with yet another trophy-less campaign and this predicament can be mirrored in the inevitable failings of Liverpool. While the Gunners begrudge their frailties in youth, a commendable performance in both leading cup competitions will remind them how far this reliance has taken them. The Scousers, in contrast, have no such excuses to leap to in defence of a season that promised so much but delivered so little.

The big boys league

In response to Stephen Trenery’s post suggesting that the Premier League has reverted to its boring tag as the ‘top four’ dominate everything, I felt compelled to doing some investigation.

This predominance of certain teams at the top of their leagues affects all the best competitions in Europe, without fail. Nevertheless, Liverpool are an exception. They are invariably in or about the top of the league but have failed to finish first for verging on two decades now. So why does this trend of dominance occur? It may seem a little obvious, but success breeds success. And in this day and age, that means money, ensuring they remain at the top of the table.
As the leading domestic competitions of England, Spain and Italy illustrate, there are always dominant teams that compete for the trophy who excel more than the rest and move away from the chasing pack.