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Chelsea winning at home has ranked alongside death and taxes in the list of life's certainties in recent seasons - but showed how times have changed at Stamford Bridge.

It used to be almost impossible for any team to lay a glove on Chelsea on home turf in the Premier League in an unbeaten run stretching back over four years until .

But Luiz Felipe Scolari's agitated performance during and after this game was a reflection on how Chelsea had been floored by two classic sucker punches from Robin van Persie.

Indeed, the body language of Scolari and his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger told much of the story of a game that looked to be moving towards a routine Chelsea win until the Gunners hit back to suggest it may yet be too soon to pen their title obituaries.

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Sir Alex Ferguson turned up the temperature in trademark fashion ahead of Sunday's derby with a and power.

Asked if he was concerned by City's threat, Manchester United's old prize-fighter made no attempt to disguise his incredulity at the very idea of the empire being challenged from Eastlands.

"Where are they at the moment? Excuse me. At this moment in time it is Chelsea and Liverpool who are sitting above us."

It will have raised hackles at Manchester City - especially - but the brutal truth is that he is right.

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Arsene Wenger's theory on captaincy is that the era of a single team leader has gone - an out-moded figure made extinct by the demands of the modern game.

I was at the Emirates to hear Wenger outline his beliefs after fended off those who felt his side lacked leadership.

This is what he said: "I don't agree any more with people who say you need a leader. Football is so quick that you need shared leadership. The time when centre-backs could just talk is over because the game is too quick."

I disagreed with him then - and maybe Wenger himself is having second thoughts after

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Fabio Capello is the man with the Midas touch - and his gold reserves delivered a resounding message to England's established order with .

If Capello spent the build-up to this friendly wrestling with selection problems caused by of first-choice stars, he left Berlin contemplating a dilemma of a different kind as England's second string recorded a deserved victory.

Capello dismissed the absence of a previous "Golden Generation" to insist he could still learn much from a friendly against a nation England will always be measured against.

And, to his undoubted delight, he discovered England's resources have a strength in depth that will only add to the growing optimism surrounding Capello's reign.

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Fabio Capello's decision to summon to England's base ahead of Wednesday's friendly in was a very obvious flexing of his managerial muscle.

Liverpool announced, with lavish detail, that Gerrard had suffered "a tear in the in his right leg" and would not be available.

Adductor magnus or no adductor magnus, decided that England's medical staff, not just Liverpool's, would be the judges of whether Gerrard would be available for the game in Berlin.

, but it was the familiar England battleground of club versus country - and Capello shows signs of being a more combative figure than his predecessors and .

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Fabio Capello travelled to Arsenal on Tuesday night to watch Chris Kirkland in action - and may just have got a glimpse into England's golden future.

Not in the shape of Kirkland, but in the form of a glittering array of young talent who gave Wigan's goalkeeper a busy, and ultimately unhappy, evening against Arsenal.

And the man who can shape some of the key components of England's next generation is a manager who has been wrongly accused of ignoring home-grown talent in favour of polishing gems found on foreign soil.

Arsene Wenger has always judged players on ability as opposed to passport, and the start of an eloquent answer to his critics may have been on display .

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Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has moved swifly to silence that City's unspectacular start to the season would persuade Abu Dhabi United Group to jettison Hughes and bring in their own man.

This qualifies as the dreaded vote of confidence - remember votes of confidence are always "dreaded" - and may even be regarded by some cynics as confirming their suspicions that Hughes is not booked in for the long haul at Eastlands.

But we have no cause to doubt the word of City's owners, and it is to be hoped they will stand by Hughes. They should keep an excellent emerging manager alongside them as they talk of building an Eastlands dynasty on their back of their financial firepower.

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Arsene Wenger's face was a study in satisfaction as he reflected on a game that was .

Arsenal's manager has endured a troubling 10 days, with a draw against Spurs and the causing previously adoring supporters to openly question him for the first time.

But, after the Emirates reverberated to the sound of Wenger's name and Manchester United were beaten, he was able to answer his doubters in typically eloquent fashion.

Wenger sat tracksuited in the opulence of the Emirates media theatre and admitted he knew what defeat would have meant - but he drew huge pleasure from a win that meant even more.

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Celtic made a mockery of that it was "men against boys" when they met Manchester United - as Scotland's pace-setters rounded off a testing week for England's elite in the Champions League.

after they lost 3-0 at Old Trafford recently, conveniently ignoring the fact that plenty of English clubs have suffered that sort of ignominy, and worse, at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

For all their deficiencies and inferiority in the face of United's attacking riches on another noisy night of Parkhead passion, the qualities you could never doubt were their heart, spirit and bravery. These were real men at work.

If they actually wanted to answer Ince's sideswipe, and there was a feeling in the air that they did, then it was achieved.

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reinforced every stereotypical criticism aimed at Arsene Wenger and his players in these recent, relatively barren, years.

To see a group of lavishly gifted performers bundled aside so unceremoniously - and deservedly - by a Stoke side showing greater heart and stomach for the fight would have presented an unedifying spectacle for Arsenal's fans.

The mantra "Arsene Knows" has been presented as fact by those inhabiting Highbury and The Emirates on a regular basis during his wonderful reign, and to write off Arsenal's season on the basis of events at The Brittania Stadium on Saturday is premature and folly.

But if Arsene truly knows, and his track record suggests he does, then who rightly revere him are valid and should be acted upon.

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