The Whole Delivery

Fulltime: Liverpool 3-2 Manchester City - The Winner from Coutinho  A man desperate for a Premier League title, Steven Gerrard displayed great emotions to the global audience after the match. He told his team to start focusing on Norwich, knowing that today's massive result is just one result.  He also had a great word to Jeff Shreeves after the match:  More to come at The Whole Delivery today, stay tuned.  Halftime Version - Liverpool 2-0 Manchester City  First Edit: Aguero will start the match on the bench.  Pre-Game Version Biggest game of the season, and somehow, I think that with Aguero supposedly coming back, I see a rare draw for Liverpool as of late.  (Halftime and fulltime versions to come) 

Full Time (Manchester City 0-2 Barcelona; Bayer Leverkusen 0-4 PSG)  Dani Alves late tally gives Barcelona a major advantage going into leg two, but City still had their chances despite down 10 men.  This tie is still alive but City will need to be their best in attack at the Nou Camp to advance now, and that was before the right back's tally.  Meanwhile, it is unquestionable for Bayer, as they were thrashed at home again for a second time against Zlatan and company, who did it without Edison Cavani.  Still, despite another great display, thoughts of PSG being right next to Bayern and maybe a mix of Barcelona, Madrid, and Chelsea as the prime favorites needs to be slightly scaled back. For Manchester United did one better than them in Leverkusen with that 5-0 pasting that certainly echoed tonight for Bayer manager Sami Hyypia.   (Will be back tomorrow for more Leg 1 action on Matchday 14 of the Champions League.)  Halftime Revi...

FT: Manchester City 6-0 Tottenham  It was that type of nightmare afternoon for Tottenham Hotspur. Still, Lloris' awful mistake has nothing on Boruc's all time gaffe from yesterday. The Other Notable Events The great Llorente and Tevez new partnership for Juventus is truly coming around these days, though Pogba is without a doubt the inspiration when Vidal isn't there. JUVENTUS VS LIVORNO I 2-0 | Highlights I All... by GEntertianment With Roma playing tomorrow, Juventus take the lead in Serie A for the first time this season. In fact, it was a weekend like the old 90's days of Serie A, with only one high scoring effort from 4-goal Torino on hapless Catania. Despite the Premier League's tightness this season, no Big 6/7 UEFA league is as tight as they great Eredivisie, a league that has gone from a three team domination into a wonderful league filled with parody but enough quality, like the Brasileiro and unlike MLS.  The tweets from go...

Shaun Wright-Phillips winner gave QPR a shock win at Chelsea, but they need a lot more results to save them.   It truly is three different seasons in the Barclays Premier League, with the holiday festive year end/year start four game period being its own grueling season of importance. It could further spurn you to make hasty or needy moves in a January transfer window that you didn't want to have to dabble in, and it sets the table for the second half of the season. After another festive period, Manchester United are in the front and center. But unlike last season, where a clear lost to Newcastle spelled omens on what became a title-less season, Sir Alex's men are sound favorites for the title. Shaun Wright-Phillips huge goal to give QPR the 1-0 win at Chelsea moved Harry Redknapp side from bottom of the table to......bottom of the table. I just don't see enough consistent team chemistry to overcome the drop for them, although they should finish ahead of Reading...

Final: Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United  In all honesty, City were never truly deserving of a point. United through Rooney, Young, Valencia and Van Persie had much more cutting edge and clarity, as the first half showed.  Ever the constant playmaker for Van Persie at the start of the season, Wayne Rooney is definitely now finding himself in places to show his class finishing and get higher on the goal list. As always, at least in the league under Mancini the last season and a half, City play their best when it seems like everything is about to crumble. Tevez gave them the lead man play that Balotelli hasn't given them all season, and with Johnny Evans out, City's persistence was able to cause United's defense to leak more goals this year. But thankfully for United, they didn't start off on the back foot this time, and always kept their nerve whenever adversity hits in a match (Barcelona aside). Despite the comeback from City, Van Persie's de...

Photo from Premierleague.com It's no question who Chelsea's boogeyman team is right now. Manchester City has defeated the league leaders once again, becoming the first team to take any points away from the champions this year thanks to Carlos Tevez fine 59th minute effort to give City a big 1-0 win. City's midfield was just "too powerful" for Chelsea as coach Carlo Ancelotti described, as both Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda had very quiet days in attack today. But the even more eye popping result today in the league was without a doubt West Brom 3-2 shock win at Arsenal. The rest of the results from Saturday highlight clearly how the parody in this league is growing bit by bit. Steven Gerrard had to save Liverpool avoid defeat at home, ending their match against visiting Sunderland 2-2. In the battle of "The Blacks", Blackburn scored a late winner to devastate Blackpool 2-1. Probably the most boring match of the day featured Birmingham a...

And talk about a way to kick off the season, with the battle of the Rising 2 who are a threat to the traditional Top 4 and truly both believe they have outside title ambitious this year. It's Tottenham and Manchester City, oh what a commencement to a glorious new season:

( I was going to talk about an exciting day of parity and balance in this great league, but that will hope off into tomorrow because of this :) Photo from Getty Images In a move that was both expected and exposes the worst in modern club soccer, Mark Hughes has been let go as the Manchester City manager by his impatient owners, in my honest assessment of this move. Despite beating Chelsea two weeks ago, being handicapped with the absence of Joleon Lescott, burdened with the occasionally mistake prone Kolo Toure and the rest of that shaky defense, getting to the Carling Cup semifinals, and being in the midst of the coveted Top 4 place in the league, the Abu Dhabi owners of the blue side of Manchester thought it was in their best interest to let Hughes go. These owners must have thought they were going to be at the top of the league after this offseason right away. Because this move to fire a competent manager in Hughes, and replace him with a manager with no Premier League experience r...

Certainly was an enthralling encounter that they will remember for years in Manchester.