Cristiano Ronaldo The Cheat, Arsenal Exposed and Rafa Loses The Plot Again

Ronaldo behaving badly

Anyone who caught the Man United/Derby County game yesterday knows it was pretty dire. The pitch was a mess, the sleet started in the second half and Derby still look much like a Championship side headed for certain relegation.

On the brighter side, Derby did notch their first away goal in the 4 - 1 loss and Ryan Giggs scored his 100th league goal.

On the darker side, Cristiano Ronaldo showed his true class, or lack of, by diving to draw a penalty in the waning moments of the match. The replay clearly showed Ronaldo was untouched and in light of their comfortable lead so close to the death, it was truly unsporting of the Portuguese international.

Equally unsporting was his insistence at taking the penalty, denying the man of the match Carlos Tevez the opportunity to seal a hat-trick. It seemed it was more important for Ronaldo to notch his 14th goal of the season and score in his sixth straight match.

I have begrudgingly begun to admire Ronaldo's skills, but his cheating antics will need to stop before I'm ready to accept him as the top class player. Shame on him.

Arsenal's Achilles

Middlesbrough's 2 - 1 shocker over Arsenal was an impressive spectacle. The Boro squad suffocated the league leaders, who were made to look absolutely pedestrian. The home side had a standout performance from former Arsenal man Jeremie Aliadiere. He'd looked like a bust for most of the season, but against his old team he was very good indeed. For Middlesbrough's sake, let's hope he keeps it up.

As for the Gunners, after a loss to Sevilla in their last Champions League match a week and a half ago, they looked vulnerable in victory against Aston Villa and shaky in a draw versus Newcastle before finally losing their first league match at the Riverside Stadium.

In Arsenal's defense, they were without Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb who would have undoubtedly made an impact.

But the past three matches show that tireless running and closing down of Arsenal will lead to positive results. Holding back and leaving room for them to pass the ball is absolutely the wrong way forward, especially for teams that don't have the skill to match the Gunners. Watch out in games to come.

Not again...Reading 3, Liverpool 1

I didn't see this whole match, but all I needed to see was the Liverpool team sheet: 4-3-3, no wide men and Momo Sissoko.

When will Rafa Benitez learn that if he wants to win the league, he can't take any team lightly - especially on the road. I understood immediately that he was looking towards the final Champions League game against Marseille in mid-week and Man United next weekend.

This, of course, was confirmed when Benitez took Fernando Torres off once they went down a goal and Gerrard off after Reading's third. Since when is a game over with 30 minutes left? Or even 20? Surely Rafa doesn't think he can get off lightly in a match like this, looking ahead when points are at stake?

But this is the Premier League, and were it not for Middlesbrough, Liverpool would be 10 points back of top spot right now. They needed a draw at least and failed.

A Liverpool failure to beat Marseille and get a victory against Man United at home will make the Reading game all the more important in retrospect for the manager. Too bad he doesn't appear to see it the same way.