Barcelona will encourage Manchester City interest in Thierry Henry as the Spanish league leaders seek to bolster their summer transfer budget. Barça are also receptive to offers for their leading scorer, Samuel Eto’o, who they fear losing for nothing when his contract expires at the end of next season.

City’s aggressive plans to purchase a squad capable of qualifying for the Champions League have positioned them as European football’s cash cow and Barcelona are eager to milk them to support their own recruitment strategy. They would like to replace Henry with Robin van Persie and add his Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fábregas to their midfield, but currently do not have the resources to fund both transfers.

Barcelona are nursing an unexpected €30m (£27.3m) deficit after the Catalan broadcaster TV3 refused to cover a fine imposed on the club for unilaterally breaking a contract with another television company, Audiovisual Sport, to screen its matches. Barça have banned TV3 from the Camp Nou in an unsuccessful attempt to force payment, but are also preparing to sell to make up the shortfall.

Henry struggled for fitness and form in his first season at the club and, although the striker has been a more effective force this campaign, he turns 32 in August and is considered replaceable. While Barça would accept far less than the €125m release clause on Henry’s contract, the player himself is understood to be unwilling to switch the success and climate of Barcelona for the uncertainty of chasing a top-four place at Eastlands. The possibility of jeopardising his place in France’s 2010 World Cup squad is another consideration.

Barça would also be receptive to offers for Yaya Touré and Seydou Keita, aware that both midfielders are likely to be on African Nations Cup duty in January, with Ivory Coast and Mali respectively. Touré has been a target for several Premier League sides, including City. Eto’o, meanwhile, has been advised to sit out the final season of his contract and entertain offers as a free agent in 2010. The Cameroon forward has little loyalty to Barça’s board after the club unsuccessfully put him up for sale last summer.

In Germany, a 5-1 home victory for Wolfsburg against Bayern Munich proved enough to take the winners to the top of the Bundesliga, because the erstwhile leaders, Hertha Berlin, lost 3-1 at home to Borussia Dortmund. Wolfsburg lead Hamburg, 1-0 victors at home to Hoffenheim, on goal difference.

Wolfsburg were level at half-time against the team who started the day in second, after two goals in two minutes just before the break. Luca Toni equalised for Bayern after Christian Gentner’s opener. In the second half, though, two goals apiece from Edin Dzeko and Grafite gave Wolfsburg an emphatic win. For the fifth, Grafite dribbled past two defenders and the goalkeeper before scoring with a backheel in front of two other stunned Bayern defenders.

Liverpool’s captain has sparked a late-season Anfield revival and now the midfielder has Wednesday’s visitors running scared

John Terry is not normally scared of anything, with the possible exception of his mother making any more shopping trips, so it is a mark of his respect for Steven Gerrard and Liverpool when he acknowledges that Wednesday’s Champions League visit to Anfield is a daunting prospect.

“Gerrard is definitely one of the best players in the world, that’s for sure, and he’s in great form at the minute,” the Chelsea and England captain said. “To be honest I’m dreading going there to play him because he is different class. Liverpool have got a great backbone with [José] Reina, [Jamie] Carragher, Stevie G and [Fernando] Torres. What a spine that is, but Stevie is the heartbeat of the team, similar to the way Frank Lampard is with Chelsea. It’s going to be a big clash but we’re thoroughly looking forward to it.”

This is a fixture becoming as much of a Champions League tradition as the familiarly naff theme music or Sir Alex Ferguson moaning about the way the following weekend’s games never do Manchester United any favours, yet it is a meeting between fierce rivals that has altered subtly in the past season or two. More people are looking forward to it now, there is less talk of anti-football or malodorous matter on the end of a stick. Chelsea’s renewed confidence under Guus Hiddink has something to do with that but Terry is right to suggest the Liverpool revival, with Gerrard at its heart, has been the one that has made everyone re-evaluate their assumptions about where the season’s prizes will end up.

Liverpool have stopped grinding out results and started being both entertaining and devastatingly effective, scoring four goals to blow away Real Madrid and Manchester United and coming off the field after a 5-0 victory over Aston Villa to find their manager disappointed they had not scored more. Gerrard has emerged from nowhere to take over the running as player of the year and is increasingly being mentioned in high places as the world’s best footballer. Zinedine Zidane is one person who thinks so, even if Rafa Benítez, as he congratulated himself on following his own contract extension with one tying his captain to the club for the foreseeable future, was more circumspect. Just because Liverpool are playing with new abandon does not mean Benítez is about to throw caution to the wind.

“He is one of the best players in the world, that’s all you can say,” the Liverpool manager argued. “There are different teams and different positions and you should never say one man is the best, but Stevie is happy at the moment because the team is balanced and he is playing in a position he enjoys, and I am happy because we wanted to be sure we could keep him as captain for a long time. I think we might have found his most effective position, but that’s not to say he will always play there. Because he’s such a good player we can use him somewhere else if we ever need to.”

Benítez would say that, wouldn’t he? When you find the Chelsea manager singing from almost exactly the same hymn sheet, though, you begin to realise that Gerrard is not just a Liverpool phenomenon but a player of global renown. In his capacity as coach of Russia Hiddink was asked to evaluate players he had encountered in the European Championship and he put Gerrard at the top of the list, despite England’s non-qualification. “I’m not saying Cristiano Ronaldo is not good, he has his efficiency and his style of play which is very attractive, but I had to make a choice at that moment and chose Gerrard,” the part-time Chelsea manager said. “Gerrard is a team player and on top of that he is very determined and decisive. It’s not just him though. Liverpool now have a very balanced team and Gerrard has some skilful players around him. Gerrard is one of a few players – I could name John Terry and Frank Lampard too – who are becoming legends while they are still playing. Most only become legends when they stop but those three are terrific examples for English football.”

At this rate the only thing that will prevent Gerrard scooping all the individual awards, enlarging his medal collection and stopping more traffic than President Obama might be praise going to his head and causing him to overbalance. That might be why the Liverpool captain has already evolved his own coping strategy. He simply diverts most of the credit towards Torres.

A few seasons ago, when Gerrard wondered whether Liverpool were the club to fulfil his ambitions, the midfielder frequently said he wanted to be playing along side other world-class footballers. His wish would appear to have been granted. “The key to our team, and the reason why we have suddenly come back to form again, is the fitness of Fernando Torres,” he said. “He gives a big lift to everyone in the team. He runs in behind and stretches opponents and you can see the confidence rise in other players in the side when he’s fit. If we can keep him right to the end of the season it’s going to be an exciting finish. We’ve got nothing to lose. Manchester United are the favourites in both competitions but we believe we can win something. We’ve got to believe that after our recent results.”

Gerrard is honest enough to confess he was surprised at how quickly Liverpool came back into contention in the title race. “We were surprised at United losing two games on the spin,” he said with a suggestion of false modesty, given that Liverpool were responsible for the first and United were clearly still traumatised when they travelled to Fulham.

“You don’t expect that, with the quality they’ve got and the unbeaten run they were on. But we’ve got a final chance now and we all want to take it. Confidence is very high at the club and it’s important to keep that momentum going, especially as it has come at just the right time for the Champions League. Chelsea know that they are in for two tough games, but so do Liverpool. They are two very strong teams and the games tend to be decided by very small details. It seems for us to win a cup we always have to knock Chelsea out, but we can do that if we perform to our maximum levels.

“I wasn’t exactly disappointed to draw Chelsea again. I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t hoping to get someone else but you get what you’re given. To win this tournament you have to knock the best teams out, and Chelsea count as one of those. When we won it we had to knock top teams out on the way, that’s the nature of the competition. We feel we have made progress this season, and in the league especially it has been a long time coming. There have been seasons when we have been miles behind Chelsea and United, and that’s not good enough for Liverpool. Now we are here, it is important to keep up the pressure until the end.”

Liverpool were undone in the first leg last season by a late own-goal that made their task at Stamford Bridge more difficult and had the effect of deflating the players. “We were much the better team but conceding so late cost us,” Benítez said. “Clearly we will be trying not to concede this time, but it is just as important to be offensive in the first leg. That is how we have been winning our recent games.” He can say that again. Torres and Gerrard may have taken a while to gel this season, but at their best they are close to unplayable. Terry and the Chelsea defence have been watching: they know exactly what is coming their way.

Tim Lott isn’t quite won over by the claim that 1989 was a watershed year for Englishness and all that was great about football

Jason Cowley’s first non-fiction book comes in the wake of a number of memoirs that have attempted to tell the story of an era via football, fathers, or both together, Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch being the most notable example. Cowley has taken pains to etch in precise detail a personal history and a societal epoch. He focuses, like Hornby, on Arsenal, of whom he is also a keen supporter, but at a later time - the final Arsenal-Liverpool match of 1989. It was the last game of that year’s season, in which Arsenal, by scoring a second goal in the dying moments at Anfield, edged ahead of Liverpool to snatch the title.

It was a remarkable game and an unforgettable moment in sport. But Cowley sees it as more than this. He attempts to suggest that “the Last Game” marked the end of an era, for the country, football, himself and his relationship with his father, Tony (who was a West Ham supporter).

Cowley grew up in Harlow, Essex, and paints it as an everytown with his father as an everyman of the war generation - polite, proud, decent. He rolls into the narrative another event of 1989 - the Hillsborough disaster - and implies that, along with “the Last Game”, this marked the end of innocence for English football, and even a kind of Englishness itself. Later he brings in Bobby Moore (who died in 1993, two years after his father). He describes Moore as someone his father thought of as “a symbol of a certain kind of English innocence”. Then he seeks to draw a line between Moore and his father, which is “something to do with the end of a certain way of life, with the loss of a certain sense of duty and decorum”.

Cowley marks his narrative with extensive, well-sketched reminiscences and in-depth interviews with key actors from the Arsenal v Liverpool drama. He recreates the game on the page with great vigour in one of the high moments of the book. We learn something about Cowley’s father - how he enjoyed table tennis, how his music tastes were way ahead of the rest of his generation, how he dapper and well turned-out he was, how admired and loved, how he turned away from football in disgust after Hillsborough. We learn less about Cowley himself. This is forgivable - the book is largely a tribute to football and Cowley’s father - yet it is no accident that one of the most successful passages is when Cowley rushes to the local working men’s club to find his father has died of a heart attack. He notes, brilliantly, the price sticker on his father’s upturned soles and his own stunned reactions. It is a profoundly moving scene.

The problem with The Last Game is not its lack of detail or its voice - it is both lovingly crafted and well executed. It is a problem of theme. Most of the events - Cowley’s rites of passage between university and work, his relationship with his father, his love of football, the passing of the national game after 1989 into the modern turbo-driven Premier League - do not connect. They are simply a sequence of events that happened roughly to coincide with other events, such as Tiananmen Square, the falling of the Berlin Wall, the fading of Margaret Thatcher.

A further difficulty is that the “era” Cowley is lamenting the passing of - the local club exemplified by Arsenal at Highbury as opposed to the international, market-based club now represented at the Emirates stadium - is muddied by a central confusion. On the one hand, Cowley is appalled by the violence and mob mentality that characterised 1980s football; on the other, he includes a tribute to Dainton Connell, an infamous thug from the Highbury terraces, the first “black skinhead”. On the one hand, he laments the passing of men like his father and Bobby Moore; on the other, he applauds the arrival of the new modernism and multiculturalism ushered in by the 1990 World Cup and its hip “World in Motion” soundtrack.

Cowley works heavily at the groove of the idea that 1989 was a mystically significant year. The trouble is that in England it wasn’t. The game started to change in the 90s, certainly. But elsewhere, although Thatcher went in 1990, Thatcherism continued at least until Tony Blair in 1997. The emergence of multiculturalism had virtually nothing to do with football. Decency didn’t die with Bobby Moore and Tony Cowley and football hooliganism was anything but decent in the first place.

Cowley is clearly a good son and indisputably a good writer, though he lacks the real writer’s chip of ice at the heart. But in this case - partly out of a lack of diligence and partly out of a sort of ill-focussed over-diligence - he has shot well over the goal into some random, colourful but slightly chaotic part of the stands.

• Tim Lott’s books include the memoir The Scent of Dried Roses (Penguin)

The underdogs bristle with South American spirit

Porto’s Champions League chances at Old Trafford on Tuesday will depend largely on the influence of the player they call El Comandante. Luis Oscar González, or Lucho as he is billed on his No8 shirt, is a 28-year-old central midfielder and on-field leader.

He heads an ever-growing and, in Portuguese football, almost unheard of Argentine subdivision at Porto, which currently stands eight-strong. They have as many Argentines as Portuguese in their Champions League squad. Lucho lines up on the right of Porto’s usual 4-3-3 formation behind his countryman Lisandro López, the Blue Dragons’ top scorer in the Champions League who also arrived in northern Portugal in 2005.

A conjoined history usually determines that it is the boys from Brazil who settle in Portugal. Porto have three – the beefy and aptly named striker Hulk, Fernando, a midfielder, and the goalkeeper Helton, all of whom should start on Tuesday. That they also have so many Argentines on the payroll is largely because of the general manager Antero Henrique’s contact book, and the club’s specific character.

“Porto has a fighting mentality,” says Piet de Visser, the chief football adviser to Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, who is often in the stadiums and streets of Argentine towns scouting for the boss. “The Brazilians have greater skill but the Argentines have more fighting spirit.”

Sir Alex Ferguson is well aware of the South American threat from Porto. “They’ve a lot of Argentinians and the boy Lisandro López, the centre-forward, he’s definitely a finisher,” Ferguson said. “Obviously Carlos [Tevez] will be able to give us some information.” Ferguson is also impressed with Hulk. “I’m surprised he’s not in the Brazilian squad. He’s a big, powerful lad with a good left foot.”

Henrique, meanwhile, sounds like the ideal model of a continental-style director of football. Unlike the Porto coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, Henrique has a long-term contract. “He’s a very good manager,” says the former Porto assistant Jan Olde Riekerink, now in charge of Ajax’s youth set-up but who worked with Co Adriaanse when Porto won the double in 2005-06, Lucho and López’s first season in Portugal. “He has a lot of contacts everywhere so they always manage to pick the right players.” Among those contacts are Fernando Hidalgo, a prominent Argentine agent, and his sometime associate Pini Zahavi, arguably football’s most influential fixer.

“Javier Mascherano and Lucho were the big stars of River Plate, and Porto needed a player like Lucho at the time,” says Zahavi, who recommended him to Henrique. “There were not so many Argentine players at the time.”

What are Lucho and Lisandro’s qualities? “Lisandro is more explosive, an individual character who’s creative and focuses on scoring – he has more difficulty dealing with disappointment,” says Olde Riekerink. “Lucho is a very stable personality, quiet, more of a team player. He’s now the full-time leader.

“Lucho was important [in the 2006 double team] but for Lisandro it was difficult because he played on the right, then the left and did not always start because our system was 3-4-2-1 so we needed a striker who could take the first ball and let others play.”

Lucho and Lisandro’s success led, in time, to the extension of the Pampas Family. “We opened the way to the other Argentines,” said Lucho, “and have been important for them in adapting when they arrived. As a group, we’re very together.” It is a sentiment echoed by Lisandro. “I have always been treated very well,” says the 26-year-old, who has 43 goals in 100 league games and 12 in 26 Champions League appearances for the club. “So I gave good recommendations to those who arrived later.”

The first of those was Ernesto Farías, a striker, in 2007. Last summer he was followed by Nelson Benítez and the midfielders Tomás Costa and Mariano González, who was an unused substitute in Argentina’s 2004 Olympic gold-winning team (Lucho started the final, which was won by a Carlos Tevez goal). Andrés Madrid signed on loan from Braga in January and only one of Porto’s Argentines – Mario Bolatti, who is on a temporary deal at Huracán in his homeland – is not in Tuesday’s squad.

Benítez, a 24-year-old defender, is pleased the club has invested in so many of his countrymen. “We have a winning mentality. It makes us proud to have so many Argentines here.”

Porto are the outsiders of the eight remaining teams, yet the low level of expectation will do little to alleviate the pressure on Ferreira, who has won the league title in his first two seasons at Porto. “There’s little to be won and much to lose because plenty of others have won titles with Porto,” Ferreira says wearily when asked about his future, despite the club again leading the championship. “Only in England do coaches have long contracts. When mine expires we’ll have to see if I’m still here.”

It will be difficult for Porto on Tuesday, though if United lose today in front of their own crowd against Aston Villa it would be a third consecutive defeat and a signal of a definite slump at the most important part of the season.

Lucho, who with Lisandro was in the Argentina squad that suffered a record 6–1 defeat in Bolivia on Wednesday, suggests his team are ready to exploit any weakness. “We want to go as far as possible in the Champions League – the traditions of this club demand that.”

Alan Shearer is already taking out insurance on being a false Messiah

Another of those weeks when very little made sense and, once again, the catalyst was Alan Shearer. There he was surrounded by adoring press doing his best to look like a Messiah (albeit a pro-tem Messiah) and in reply to a tame question admitted he had taken the job because a friend had said to him how would he feel if he didn’t take the job and Newcastle managed to stay up.

This was odd. Surely the point of being a Messiah/Hero to the Geordie nation is that you take on the role because you could not live with dodging your destiny and Newcastle being turfed out of the promised land. If your nation, be it Jewish or Geordie, can be saved by a stricken Joe Kinnear or interim Chris Hughton there really is little call for a Messiah. With one answer Shearer had revealed that this whole exercise is all about Shearer and very little to do with Newcastle. He, and his brand, couldn’t live with someone else receiving credit for something he might have done so he graciously/grudgingly agreed to do it for however many hundreds of grand a game. Once again it is all about Shearer. If he succeeds he is hailed; if he fails he can say like so many false Messiahs before him, “if only I had had the time”.

The Shearer brand is based on the Shearer look and it was in evidence as he cased his many friends in the press room just reminding them, if such a reminder were needed, that it would be unwise to stray out of line. He even tried it on the fans, perhaps trying to stare down anyone tempted to put in an early critical call to 606. It is very similar to the look that Alan Sugar employs from his stacked chair as he surveys his boardroom full of nincompoops and it is probable that Shearer used it in his job interview.

Big Al has the brand, the look, the patented goal celebration but he doesn’t have the medals to back it all up. In fact he only has a single medal (1994-1995) for actual achievement and a host of gongs for mythical achievements (Overall Player of the Decade, Outstanding Contribution to the Premier League and the rest). Ruud Gullit was on to something when he told him he was “the most overrated player he had ever seen”, even if it cost him his job. It is also notable that the Geordie that Alex Ferguson regrets not signing most is the rickety and unreliable Gascoigne rather than the creosoted Shearer, and not signing him has never cost him his job.

Shearer’s appointment will automatically improve Match of the Day and thereby allow the BBC to increase its advantage over its only terrestrial competitor as ITV’s coverage continues to be hobbled by an over-reliance on one man. When they have a slot to fill the call goes up “Where’s Andy?” and, having located the tagged Townsend, the cameras are dispatched to do the show right there with Andy and whoever else is around. So it was that Wednesday night’s “reaction” programme featured Andy and drinking buddy Graeme Le Saux and someone who I assume must have been an autograph hunter and had been roped in at the last minute to do a bit of linking under the obviously cod name Matt Smith. How else to explain a discussion on “Being Wayne Rooney” which possessed not a shred of sense and Smith’s perpetual use of the phrase “at international level”. As in “you can’t waste chances at international level” whereas, I suppose, at national level, as the career of Shearer attests you can waste as many as you like and still be judged to have made the “outstanding contribution”.

Sir Alex Ferguson has denied as “absolute nonsense” allegations of a training-ground bust-up between himself and Wayne Rooney and has poured scorn on reports that this may have led to the striker being benched for Manchester United’s game against Fulham two weeks ago.

The affair is a further unwanted distraction following reports yesterday that a deal to take Cristiano Ronaldo from United to Real Madrid this summer is in place. Sources have claimed to Observer Sport that the deal was completed as long ago as September and that both sides signed a confidentiality agreement. The news comes at a crucial point for United as they hope to bounce back from consecutive Premier League defeats when Aston Villa visit Old Trafford today.

The pressure on them to defeat Villa heightened yesterday when Liverpool won at Fulham courtesy of a stoppage-time goal from Yossi Benayoun. The substitute’s strike lifted Liverpool top of the Premier League, two points clear of United, who have two games in hand.

United’s visit to Craven Cottage had been less successful. They lost 2–0 there, having been defeated 4–1 by Liverpool the previous weekend. Rooney played the full 90 minutes of the Liverpool game, but Ferguson then decided he should be a replacement for the awkward visit to Fulham, despite knowing victory would have frustrated Liverpool’s resurgence.

Instead, with United losing at half-time, Ferguson introduced Rooney who was sent off after accruing two yellow cards, incurring a one-match ban, which means Ferguson cannot select him today.

After England’s 4–0 victory over Slovakia last weekend, in which Rooney scored twice, Mark Lawrenson, the former Liverpool defender who is now a BBC summariser, said: “Everybody knows he had a massive row with Fergie after the Liverpool game and was then left out against Fulham. It is an ongoing problem, but if anyone can deal with it, it is Sir Alex.”

Ferguson, though, when asked if he was aware of Lawrenson’s comments, insisted that there had been no row. “I was made aware of it. Absolute nonsense. I don’t know where that came from, but the revealing part of it is ‘everybody knows’, but I didn’t know and I was in there. These people self-promote but who the hell’s bothered about it? Nobody followed it up which tells you everything because if there was any truth you’d have found out.”

Rooney is one of several players unavailable to Ferguson, including Paul Scholes, who also received a red card at Fulham, and Nemanja Vidic, who was dismissed against Liverpool. Dimitar Berbatov is ruled out for a fortnight because of injury and Carlos Tevez returned only yesterday from Argentina’s 6–1 defeat to Bolivia.

This has forced Ferguson to consider selecting the little-known Italian striker Federico Macheda, a 17-year-old who scored a hat-trick for the reserves in the week and who will be at least a substitute this afternoon. “Berbatov and Rooney missing is a bad blow to us, but it’s there and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Ferguson. “I’ve got options of course. I could play Ronaldo through the middle, I could play [Danny] Welbeck, I could play Macheda or I could play [Ryan] Giggs – the great thing is the flexibility of players, Giggs, Ronaldo, those types.

“The boy Macheda is developing at a great rate of speed now, his performances for the reserves have been very good, he’s a natural finisher and he’ll definitely be on the bench at least with Welbeck.”Ferguson did not comment on Ronaldo’s future but accepted the 24-year-old has been unable to reproduce the form of last season that ended with him scoring a career-high 42 goals. “The one that isn’t on the level of last year is Ronaldo, but he’ll still score more than 20 goals.”

Usain Bolt, however, was less circumspect, branding Ronaldo a “wuss”. The double Olympic sprint champion is due to give United a training session on 16 May before their penultimate game of the season against Arsenal. “The first thing I’m going to tell him: stop acting like a wuss,” he said. “Seriously, because the fact why his game is kind of down right now is because these guys are picking on him because he’s so soft. No one in football will try it with Rooney. Ronaldo’s got to be a little like Rooney, he’s got to be aggressive, then these guys will stop picking on him. If Ronaldo’s aggressive back to these guys, and gets a few red cards, people will stop picking on him.”

Old Trafford, Sunday 5 April, 4pm

Shaun O’Donnell, Observer reader

We go into this game on the back of two successive league defeats, which has let the Scousers and the media think they have already won the league, but we won’t lie down and let that happen. Regardless of players coming back from international duties, our lot will be well up for it and out to avenge the previous week’s debacles. Aston Villa look like a team “shot” and the hopes of them reaching the coveted fourth spot looks like fading as a resurgent Arsenal seem to have found a second wind. Coupled with our excellent record against them and the fact that Martin O’Neill has never beaten Manchester United as Aston Villa manager, that is why I expect us to win. We’re minus a few players due to suspensions and injuries but expect to see Giggs, Park and Fletcher start, with Ronaldo partnering Tevez up front. Who would have thought a month ago that we would be going into this must-win game with such nervousness, but we can take comfort from the fact that every time the Scousers had the opportunity of pulling away from the chasing pack when they were leading they bottled it – after all, they are sponsored by Carlsberg. I can see us winning 2-0 with the comfort of knowing we have players rested for Tuesday against Porto.

Due a big game Cristiano Ronaldo – Cometh the hour cometh the man, we need our best player to be firing on all cylinders and not following around the referee moaning.

Jonathan Pritchard, Observer reader Funny how quick the milk turns sour! Sadly our lack of January transfer activity has come home to roost. I agree that signings for signings’ sake do no good but some churning of the bench with loans etc may have helped the fatigue that clearly has afflicted us. Tactically I’m not sure march will be remembered by MON as his finest month but the two weeks off has to be looked upon as a watershed. We have seven winnable games left and sunday is not an impossible mission. Reverting to 451 is a must and if we can get to mid april just 5 or 6 points behind arsenal that the race for fourth isn’t over. Maybe the lack of pressure will help us? Perspective is required,of course, BUT, will history tell us that frugality or inertia cost us?

Due a big game Gabriel Agbonlahor – Come on Gabby, prove the man in the street wrong. A troubled united back four should be unhinged by his pace and he could re-endear himself with everyone with a choke-out showing.

To take part in the Verdict, email fans@observer.co.uk

• Delight, despair and all points in between
• To take part in the fans’ verdict, email fans@observer.co.uk

Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City

Louise Cowburn, Observer reader

I wrote a piece for the Observer at the beginning of the season suggesting it could be “au revoir” to Wenger if we didn’t win a trophy this year, but that won’t be the case now and that’s as it should be. Everyone was behind Wenger today, which was good. There was lots of creativity and a real sense of “teamship”; we basically took over the show. Having Fábregas back and Walcott there was massive. In fact, everyone was behind the team, and the players looked confident. Even Emmanuel Eboué got plenty of support when he came on.

Player ratings Almunia 9; Sagna 7, Touré 8, Gallas 8, Clichy 6; Denilson 7, Song 6; Walcott 8 (Eboué 70 7), Fábregas 8 (Ramsey 79 6), Arshavin 7; Adebayor 8 (Bendtner 70 5)

Kevin Parker, official supporters’ club We’ve become used to this away from home. It’s depressing. It looked like the players expected to get beat, but the worst thing was that they didn’t put up a fight. I thought Dunne and Onuoha played quite well, but beyond that there were several less than acceptable performances. There was no chanting for Mark Hughes to be out, but the reality is that it depends on the Uefa Cup this week. There were some individuals having a go at Hughes, but he will really be under pressure if we fail this Thursday. Everyone is waiting for that game.

Player ratings Given 7; Richards 6, Onuoha 7, Dunne 6, Bridge 5 (Fernandes 17 5); Wright-Phillips 6, Zabaleta 5, De Jong 5, Kompany 5 (Elano 38 5), Robinho 5 (Sturridge 76 n/a); Bellamy 5

Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur

Bill Boaden, Observer reader

We didn’t deserve the win. Our passing was woeful, but we’ve got spirit and we’ve played better and lost. Tottenham didn’t help. It’s in our hands now and we should stay up. We’re supposed to respect referees, but Peter Walton was unsighted for the handball and still gave a penalty. We’ve had him before and he’s been poor. We’re happy with Allardyce. It’s not always pretty, but he’s got us organised.

Player ratings Gomes 7; Corluka 7, King 7, Woodgate 7, Assou-Ekotto 6; Lennon 7 (Zokora 81 6), Palacios 7, Jenas 6, Modric 7; Keane 6, Bent 6 Subs not used Cudicini, Dawson, Chimbonda, Huddlestone, Bentley, Pavlyuchenko

Dave Mason, Observer reader

We lost because we had no drive to impose our superiority. We were at least a division better than them, but we got into a comfort zone, and players like Keane and Jenas go missing. With Allardyce teams it’s watch your ankle time. How they got one yellow card for dissent alone is beyond me, and Diouf disgraced himself at the end by winding up our fans. Allardyce’s team was epitomised by Diouf’s sneering attitude.

Player ratings Robinson 6; Andrews 5, Nelsen 6, Samba 7, Givet 7; Diouf 6, Mokoena 5 (Tugay 62 6), Warnock 7, Pedersen 6 (Dunn 25 7); McCarthy 6, Roberts 6 (Ooijer h-t 7) Subs not used Brown, Olsson, Villanueva, Treacy

Bolton Wanderers 4-1 Middlesbrough

Aaron Haley, worldwidewanderers.co.uk

4–1’s a flattering result, but you have to win these games in such a tight league. Ricardo Gardner was outstanding and could be our player of the year alongside Kevin Davies. Gary Megson still gets stick. He has done well, but he’s the wrong fit for us. We needed someone with fresh ideas after Allardyce and Lee. But we’re safe now and you can’t argue with that.

Player ratings Jaaskelainen 6; Steinsson 6, Cahill 7, Shittu 7, Samuel 6; McCann 7; Davies 6, Muamba 6, Gardner 9, Taylor 7; Elmander 7 (Basham 83 6) Subs not used Al Habsi, Hunt, Puygrenier, Cohen, O’Brien, Smolarek

Rob Skilbeck, MSS-online.org

We’re down. We were relegated after the Stoke game but this was the final nail in the coffin. We gifted them three goals, and teams will punish you. The lesson for Southgate is that if you sign a £13m striker, make sure he can head. Alves missed an absolute sitter at 2–1. When we went down in 1997, we fought until the final day, but this time everyone’s already given up.

Player ratings Jones 5; Wheater 4, Huth 4, Pogatetz 4 (Taylor 36 5); Hoyte 4, Bates 5, O’Neil 5, Downing 5; Tuncay 8; Aliadière 5 (Emnes 74 5), Alves 3 Subs not used Turnbull, McMahon, Shawky, Walker, King

Fulham 0-1 Liverpool

David Lloyd, There’s Only One F In Fulham

It was a sickener. The stats will show that Liverpool had countless attempts, it was like crossbar challenge. We were in the game. They couldn’t finish and the fact that we lost shouldn’t detract from how well we were in the game. We had courageous defending – compact, solid. Murphy did very well against his old team and there were no real weak links. Unlike United they really came at us. There was full commitment from both teams and a feeling for us of being calm in the situation. I drove away thinking: where did he get the extra four minutes?

Player ratings 8, Konchesky 7; Davies 6 (Gera 79 6), Etuhu 7, Murphy 8 (Dacourt 76 6), Dempsey 6; Johnson 7, Zamora 6 Subs not used Zuberbühler, Nevland, Kamara, Kallio, Baird

Darren Phillips, ShanklyGates.co.uk

To borrow a saying: Football – bloody hell. It was amazing because a player not due to play comes on and has an impact. We didn’t seem affected by the international break. For a while it felt like the woodwork was giving Fulham an extra man. Fulham played much the same as against Man United but I think we had more chances. And we hit the bar four times – just a matter of inches but it never seemed it was going to go in. I’m delighted to be on top of the league again – you fear a draw just wouldn’t have been enough with United looming.

Player ratings Reina 6; Arbeloa 7, Skrtel 7, Carragher 7, Insúa 7; Alonso 8, Lucas 7; Kuyt 7 (Benayoun 7 76), Gerrard 8 (Agger 90), Dossena 7 (Babel 6 65); Torres 7 Subs not used Cavalieri, Riera, Mascherano, Ngog

Hull City 0-0 Portsmouth

Rick Skelton, HullCityOnline.com

A poor game, all in all. There were only about three or four serious efforts at goal in the entire game. Towards the end David James made a good save from Fagan and Portsmouth hit the post in stoppage time. Both defences were on top – Crouch didn’t win a thing and was well marshalled. It was a scrappy midfield. Glen Johnson should have been sent off for his first yellow card.

Player ratings Duke 7; Dawson 7, Zayatte 8, Turner 8, Ricketts 7 (Folan 85 n/a); Fagan 6 (Kilbane 71 6), Ashbee 8, Geovanni 6, Mendy 5; Barmby 8 (Marney 74 5); Manucho Subs not used Myhill, Garcia, Halmosi, Featherstone

Chris Gibbs, Pompey-Fans.com

The biggest cheer of the day was actually when Southampton’s score went up – as they’d lost! This wasn’t the best of games and you could see why both teams are where they are in the league. The match was crying out for a bit of inventiveness. Neither manager was prepared to commit more players forward. Kaboul was perhaps man of the match, but the keepers had little to do.

Player ratings James 7; Kaboul 7, Campbell 6, Hughes 6, Distin 6; Johnson 5, Mullins 5, Kranjcar 6 (Belhadj 76 7), Hreidarsson 6; Crouch 7, Nugent 5 (Kanu 64 7) Subs not used Begovic, Pennant, Basinas, Pamarot, Utaka

Newcastle United 0-2 Chelsea

Rob Higgins, Observer reader

The Shearer bubble of the past few days was already pricked before kick-off by the result from Blackburn and the atmosphere was surprisingly flat. Chelsea quickly showed they were different class with their slick passing, and our back four – with Coloccini as the new Titus Bramble – was always going to cave in. The second half was a stroll for Chelsea. The effort was there but we didn’t have the quality. It was great to see Shearer on the touchline but we need him in his prime and on the pitch. All the signs are that we’re going down.

Player ratings Harper 7; R Taylor 3, Beye 5, Coloccini 3, José Enrique 5; Lovenkrands 5 (Duff 44 4), Butt 4, Nolan 4 (Guthrie 69 4), Gutiérrez 4; Martins 4 (Carroll 80 n/a), Owen 5 Subs not used Forster, Smith, Geremi, Edgar

We started poorly and for a long while it was looking horribly like the defeat at Spurs until Lampard – as usual – came to the rescue. After the first goal the team relaxed and we could’ve had three or four. It was peculiar that Anelka was playing wide, it was only when he came into the centre that we looked dangerous, I don’t know why Quaresma isn’t used more. I don’t think we’re back in the title race, we had our chance at Spurs and blew it. Newcastle were dire. They call Shearer the messiah and he’ll need higher powers to keep them up!

Player ratings Essien 8 (Ballack 57 7), Mikel 7, Lampard 8; Kalou 6, Anelka 6 (Di Santo 68 8), Malouda 7 Subs not used Hilario, Carvalho, Deco, Belletti, Mancienne

West Bromwich Albion 0-2 Stoke City

Terry Wills, Baggies@yahoogroups.com

Before the game we had already lost the war to stay in the Premier League but, considering our record against Stoke, I just wanted us to win this one battle. But instead of coming out of the trenches fighting, we came over the top waving a white flag. It was a huge letdown; we made the usual defensive errors and the game was effectively settled in the second minute. In midfield, we continued to overplay and pass the ball in every direction but forward. This result confirms we’re back on the road to nowhere in terms of securing a long-term position in the top flight.

Player ratings Carson 4; Zuiverloon 4, Martis 6, Olsson 6, Robinson 5 (Bednar 61 4); Morrison 4, Greening 5 (Koren 61 5), Valero 6, Brunt 5; Fortune 5, Simpson 4 (Teixeira 61 4) Subs not used Kiely, Hoefkens, Moore, Dorrans

Richard Murphy, Author, Stoke City On This Day

We’ve finally claimed our first away win of the season – but we always beat West Brom so we knew that was going to happen! It was a normal Stoke-West Brom game from start to finish: they had all the ball and we scored all the goals. But to start the way we did with Fuller’s strike, they were destined to struggle. We’re really playing to our strengths, we’ve got blokes who can score in Fuller and Beattie and neither goal came from a long throw. To be honest, Stoke fans always knew we’d stay up – and now we’re one step closer to proving that to everyone else.

Player ratings Sorensen 7; Wilkinson 7, Shawcross 8, Faye 8 (Pugh 75 6), Higginbotham 7; Lawrence 6, Whelan 8, Delap 7, Etherington 6; Beattie 8 (Cresswell 79 6), Fuller 9 (Olofinjana 89 n/a) Subs not used Simonsen, Kelly, Camara, Sonko

West Ham United 2-0 Sunderland

Pete May, author, Hammers in the Heart

Really good result today, considering the scratch team we had to put out. It was great to see Stanislas and Tomkins score, and players like Lucas Neill did well out of position. Even Boa Morte had one of his better games. If we can get results out of games like today and get a few players back like Parker and Cole we’ve got a chance of Europe, but it’ll be difficult. It’s just nice to see the academy still going strong.

Player ratings Green 7; Spector 6 (J Collins 73 5), Tomkins 8, Upson 7, Ilunga 6; Neill 7; Boa Morte 7, Noble 7, Stanislas 8 (López 90 n/a) Tristán 6, Di Michele 6 (Dyer 81 n/a) Subs not used Lastuvka, Savio, Sears, Payne

Martyn McFadden, A-Love-Supreme.com

We were too negative from the outset, and despite some good possession in the first half had no penetration. Worryingly, we didn’t show any fight. In the past we had players who may not have been as good but gave 110%; now we have better players who don’t give 100%. The matches against Hull and West Brom will decide our fate. Sbragia hasn’t proved himself. We need a high-profile, box-office manager.

Player ratings Gordon 7; Bardsley 7, Ferdinand 6, D Collins 6, Ben Haim 5; Malbranque 6 (Edwards 75 6), Leadbitter 6, Richardson 7, Whitehead 6, Murphy 4 (Jones 54 5); Cissé 6 Subs not used Fulop, Nosworthy, Reid, Healy, McShane

The application of pressure is not an art that Rafa Benítez shies away from. New contracts for himself, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt and assorted backroom staff? Push, push, push until the powers that be accede. Total control of transfers and the forced exit of a truculent chief executive. Shove, shove and shove again.

Now his Spanish stubbornness can be fully focused on the field – on pressing Manchester United into a spectacular fall from Premier League grace. A late, late victory at Fulham yesterday brought three points from a venue where Liverpool’s great rivals ceded them a fortnight before.

When Sir Alex Ferguson examines the League table this morning he’ll find Benítez two points above, asking pressing questions about what United can make of their two surplus games.

This could, though, have been a quite different story. Utterly dominant for the first half, Liverpool slipped into frustrated raggedness in the second. Specialists in late-game revivals that they are, this did not look like being one of them until Yossi Benayoun walked on to resurrect them. Nursing calf and hamstring injuries, the Israeli substitute twice missed the home net by a foot before a 92nd-minute ball found him in enough space to turn and redirect it past Mark Schwarzer.

“That will be the most important goal of the season if we can win the title,” said Benítez of his team’s eighth added-time finish this league season. In the away end, Liverpool’s supporters were still chanting “we’re going to win the League” – the first time those words have passed their collective lips in over 18 years.

“Hopefully we can keep them happy until the end,” Benítez added. “That will be the most important thing. Today we have to enjoy, we have to be really pleased, but still there are a lot of games to come. As a manager you have to be calm. The winning mentality is not to say things, it is to do things. So we are doing things.”

It is typical of Benítez that he arrived at Craven Cottage with half an eye on the Champions League. Though Gerrard and Fernando Torres went unrotated, it was hard to imagine Andrea Dossena, Lucas and Emiliano Insúa starting were Chelsea not due at Anfield on Wednesday evening. Employed on the left wing, Dossena almost extended his unlikely run of chipped finishes early on. From the ensuing corner the Italy defender redirected a netbound Martin Skrtel strike on to the crossbar.

With four attackers pushed uncharacteristically high up the pitch, the visitors regularly invaded Fulham’s area. Gerrard marched down the left side then cut the ball back to an isolated Torres; Schwarzer needed two goes at saving the Spaniard’s low shot. A free header over was followed by Torres spinning around the box to tee up Xabi Alonso, and the midfielder was unfortunate to see his fine volley cannon off the woodwork.

As pensive Liverpool supporters recalled the dominance that preceded early-season defeat at Tottenham, Torres concluded an immaculate Gerrard one-two with a pass beyond the keeper but off the inside of the post. A minute later the captain crossed for Dossena to find yet more timber – this time from six yards.

While Fulham were making sparse impact in attack, Liverpool’s fluidity departed them after half-time, with midfield passing being eschewed for long balls forward, few of which created anything of note. An increasingly jumpy Benítez attempted to reinvigorate proceedings by adding Ryan Babel, who came close to converting on the counter. Torres and Kuyt then just failed to connect with Gerrard’s near-post cross.

Fulham kept faith in their methods, their shape steadfastly retained as they sought to exploit Liverpool’s anxiety. Danny Murphy threatened from a free-kick and visiting defenders dived into fouls as Fulham closed in on an eighth home point against the Champions League elite. But Benayoun changed all that – and just maybe a great deal more.

New manager casts off his pundit’s caution as he sees first hand how tough it will be to keep his struggling team in the top flight

This report is a messiah-free zone, because to ascribe too many miraculous powers to Alan Shearer would only conceal the mediocrity of the side he now has seven games to save from relegation.

They can change the icon but the chaos that brought such a motley band of players to the Tyneside cathedral is still wreaking damage. Half an hour into this 2-0 defeat to Chelsea, Shearer watched Jonás Gutiérrez make a hash of a cross and yelled to his assistant, Iain Dowie: “That’s useless, that is!” Too late, you might cry, has Shearer’s punditry acquired an acerbic edge.

On the evidence of some fruity denunciations of his team’s often abject play we could conclude that he will do his best work for Match of the Day in the technical area of the ground he graced as a player. The last of the saviours will fancy his chances of a win a bit more at Stoke on Saturday yet this performance will hardly encourage him to break his pledge to stay for eight games and eight games only.

“It was a very hard task when I arrived and it’s harder now,” he said. “We know we’re in a fight and we’ll give it a fight. I’m still confident, and my players are, that we can avoid the drop.”

Outside the players’ entrance here, there is a bank of steps where the upturned faces of the barcode congregation have gathered over the years to cheer, beg, welcome back, denounce, protest, despair and generally vent their emotions on a club who have toyed mercilessly with their emotions. These scenes have led outsiders to see Newcastle’s following as a kind of cult for whom adoration of the leader is a necessary part of the St James’ Park experience. Shearer, though, is not buying into it.

Kevin Keegan always stepped on to this stage with a faintly moist-eyed, choked up look, but for “Super Al” it was the gunslinger’s entrance in a white shirt and tie and smart grey suit. As the snappers jostled and the bulbs flashed he walked to his vantage point at a stately pace and offered no acknowledgment to the crowd.

High marks are earned for that. The caretaker was being true to his promise not to hog the frame. He has seen too many empty personality cults to make himself another one. He left the field the same way after goals from Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda had left Newcastle three points from safety.

“I’ll try and do everything to deflect the thing away from myself. I think the result might do that, to be honest. Not that that’s a positive. Yeah, I was determined to try and keep it as low-key as possible.”

Inscrutability was always Shearer’s favourite mask and he wore it well except when forgetting that his comments were audible in the press seats. As the game commenced his gaze settled on a jumble of players assembled in different eras and from contrasting managerial philosophies, most of them incompatible.

“Who’s supposed to be picking up John Terry?” he demanded of Dowie after the England captain had carted his special brand of menace into the Newcastle penalty area for a set-piece. These are the unglamorous specifics of the survival trade: proper marking, defensive set-ups and the like. If messianic auras play a role in these areas, it is only to inspire players to perform the jobs they have been assigned on the training ground and in team talks.

Relegation-threatened teams place results against the Big Four clubs in a separate file. These are matches they expect not to win. Which is just as well, because Newcastle have not beaten Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal in 17 attempts. They have one win from 13 Premier League matches, or six from 31 overall. They have had as many managers (four) as they can claim home victories. This was their 200th Premier League defeat.

There is a pattern there, and Shearer can only hope to change it in the next seven games through sheer force of personality. He can neither buy new players nor sell those who materialised from obscure locations and have no business wearing a Newcastle shirt. He is heavily dependent on Michael Owen, Nicky Butt and Steven Taylor, who was absent yesterday.

According to the local paper, The Journal, “The Alan Shearer effect has created a spending boom in the region,” with the benefits felt in the “leisure, travel and retail sectors”. Five thousand extra ticket inquiries and an 8% rise in hotel bookings were cited as evidence. Hardly Klondike, but around town there was an unmistakable sense that this would be a day for expectant striding towards the ground rather than the usual pessimistic trudge.

By the time the game kicked off, though, the excitement seemed slightly mannered, as if the fans can no longer bring themselves to believe in saints. Not when they have to watch Ryan Taylor and Peter Lovenkrands. Or Obafemi Martins on one of his aimless days, which this undoubtedly was.

The pre-match idea was to urge Argentina’s Gutiérrez further forward and restore Owen to the heart of the team’s attacking play. Owen performed a role similar to Wayne Rooney’s for England, only a lot deeper, but Martins is no Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch. No real centre-forward play, a lack of width and duplication in a central midfield of Butt and Kevin Nolan: this is not a formula likely to have impressed Houdini.

At close of play, football across the north-east was threatening to take a three-club pratfall. A survey commissioned by the Football Association has found that this region produces more England players per head of population than any other. Yet Newcastle and Middlesbrough are in the Premier League’s bottom three, with Sunderland only one place higher. The odds are shortening on the fight to stay out of the third relegation spot descending into a giant derby match between Sunderland and Newcastle.

Home wins against Portsmouth, Boro and Fulham remain conceivable but even then points would be needed from the trips to Stoke, Spurs, Liverpool and Aston Villa on the final day. On his debut day as a manager, Shearer was looking at a team that reflects the endless sackings, U-turns and drift that landed Chris Hughton with the task of managing the side while Joe Kinnear was undergoing heart surgery.

Keegan, Kinnear, Hughton and Shearer. Even at such a capricious club no Newcastle fan could have expected that to be the managerial sequence in 31 Premier League assignments. For the fourth man in there can be no doubt now that this team need demolishing and reconstructing, which will cost money Mike Ashley, the owner, is probably disinclined to part with.

But for now Shearer can only be part priest, part hard man and part schemer as he seeks to eke out the 11-plus points Newcastle need to endure in the highest tier.

“The players don’t want to hear harsh things about themselves, they want to hear good things about themselves and the football club,” he said. Seven games to correct the seven deadly sins of chaotic ownership over many years.