Michael Owen says that he is as good as ever, regardless of his age. Owen has been in good form for his current side, Manchester United, and insists that he is still as good as he was when he scored his famous hat trick against Germany for England eight years ago.

A lot of people have said that Owen would struggle to cope with the pace of life at the Premier League champions, but his performances to date have shown that Sir Alex Ferguson may well have pulled off a managerial masterstroke.

Owen said: “I am not slower now than I was seven, eight years ago. No chance. With the hamstring problems early in my career, they knocked a yard off my pace straightaway, but since then I have been the same player and if anything I have improved.”

“Game awareness is a good word for it. A lot of it is so instinctive it’s hard to put down. It is your experience taking you into areas. You think, ‘Would I have moved there as a kid, would I have anticipated that?’”

“People think I’m past my thirties, I’m in my forties, the way they talk about me. I’m only 29. I’m not past it. It’s not an easy squad to get into with the results the team are getting at the minute. But I’m as passionate as ever about extending my time with England.”

“He came to Highbury to watch us one time — I think I had five touches in the game. Then, I was coming back from injury. So there are reasons why he wouldn’t pick me so far. Yes, I have to play a bit more. I am sure with the number of games we have got, so many cup competitions, I will start my fair share.”

Owen’s recent performances have meant that he is in line for a starting place when Manchester United take on Wolfsburg later this evening. It was clear that playing Wayne Rooney up front on his own did not work in United’s last Champions League game and Ferguson may opt to go for experience over the unpredictable nature of Dimitar Berbatov.

Owen seems to have found his place and if he carries on playing well then he could well finish his career at United. He seems happy and the club seem happy and as far as all parties are concerned, it is a clossoming relationship.

John Terry has launched a full-scale attack on his Chelsea teammates after their disappointing performance in the weekend defeat at Wigan. Chelsea were so poor that not only did manager, Carlo Ancelotti, rip into them during and after the game, John Terry also jumped on board and said what he thought.

Chelsea are now making the same mistakes that have seen them give up their Premier League chances in recent years. The club have the annoying habit of being able to work themselves into some fantastic early season form and then throw it all away by not focusing in every single game.

Terry said: “When you go to places like Wigan, you’ve got to match them — match their workrate, match their effort, win your headers, win your tackles — and we simply didn’t do that in the first half.”

“You can go anywhere in the world and not play well, but the least we expect from every player is that we work hard and fight. We didn’t do that today — the whole team collectively. That’s the most disappointing thing of all.”

“All the other big sides in and around us have had emphatic wins, so it’s disappointing that we’ve thrown away three points. The manager has stressed that and the players feel that. You can’t come to places like this, when they’ve got their crowd right behind them, and not match their work ethic. We didn’t win our headers or our tackles and that’s simply not good enough. That’s the minimum we ask for.”

“It’s a massive game at home again for us next week and it’s important that we bounce back on Wednesday night [away to Apoel, of Cyprus, in the Champions League]. That’s probably the only good thing coming away from this game, that we’ve got another game on Wednesday. So we regroup, we go again and, hopefully, get a good win on Wednesday [to put ourselves in a good position in the Champions League group.”

Chelsea players have already said this season that they are feeling the pressure that is being put on them by the powers that be at the club. The facts are that the papers say Chelsea need to win either the Champions League or the Premier League this season for their manager and owner to be satisified.

Manchester United look as determined as ever and there are some very good sides dancing around in Europe so it will be tougher than ever before for the Blues.

Manchester City boss, Mark Hughes, is losing fans and admirers by the day. He has come out and defended the actions of key striker, Craig Bellamy, after the Welshman ran 30 yards to punch a fan after the Manchester derby last weekend.

Hughes is being forced to come out and defend a club on a daily basis that is right on the edge of losing all neutral fans that once respected the club. His defence in relation to the Bellamy incident is the fact that players need to show emotion during a game to prove they care.

He said: “You can’t take emotion out of football or any sport for that matter because that is fundamental to what you are trying to create. That passion from the players’ point of view is fundamental to how they develop as a top player. Every player who plays for Manchester City has passion but there will be varying degrees of it, because all players and personalities are different. You have to have it.”

“Craig went over to tell him to get off the pitch as quickly as he could, the guy made an aggressive move towards him and Craig has instinctively put his hand up in a defensive manner and pushed the lad away. That is the top and bottom of it and I think people will see that for what it is.”

“In terms of the amount of noise our fans made on Sunday you could possibly say we are a noisy neighbour, although I don’t think we made as much noise as is being made out. “If that is people’s perception [of Ferguson's agenda] then yes, we are quite comfortable with that. After our performance against Arsenal and the character we showed at Old Trafford, they know we are not going to go away. We are going to have an influence on who wins the Premier League in the seasons to come.”

Bellamy will not face any action and neither will Manchester United defender, Gary Neville. Neville was seen after the final whistle racing towards Manchester City supporters to give them a taste of their own medicine.

However, Neville saw sense half way down the pitch and made it look as though he was warming down. The FA were not fooled by this and picked up on the incident. They decided not to act because they did not ban Emanuel Adebayor for celebrating a goal in front of Arsenal fans after running the whole length of the pitch to do so.

Chelsea midfield player, Joe Cole, is set to make a long waited return from injury when he starts in this week’s Carling Cup tie. The blues have been without one of their best players for a long period when Cole damaged cruciate ligaments in his knee two seasons ago.

Well Cole is now set to take the first step on the path to getting back his England and Chelsea place and the pain of being out for so long is likely to propel him back into the spot light. For Chelsea the news has been met with universal enthusiasm.

Assistant Manager, Ray Wilkins, said: “Joe can make a difference because he does offer that bit of ‘fantasy’. He can go both sides, left and right, plays a pass and his work ethic is quite special. The World Cup is a lovely carrot for him, to work his way back into Fabio Capello’s reckoning.”

“He’s had a few problems with his knees but, with the reconstruction that has happened, the knee is far stronger and better prepared for football now. He’ll be a bit ring rusty but, given the amount of work he’s put in to get back, it’s lovely to see him back. It’s been tough for him but the workload he’s taken on has been phenomenal.”

“The cruciate injury is difficult to recover from, not physically – medicine has really come on in that respect – but mentally. You get down in the dumps sometimes and you always worry it might go again, wondering about that first kick you get. But he’s received a number of kicks in training and he’s coped.”

“He can provide something for us and for England … A fully fit Joe Cole will be in and around the England squad. Hecan play in any of the three midfield roles in the system we have but he likes that central one behind the forwards. He calls it the ’sausage role in the hole’. That’s Joe. It’s nice to see he’s bubbling.”

The opposition for Cole’s first game back will be Queens Park Rangers and the club are also set to hand a start to new signing, Yuri Zhirkov. However, Cole will be the main focus of attention for a lot of people as they look to see if he is still the same player after such a bad injury.

How he plays remains to be seen but it is just positive for the club and for England to see him back on the pitch again and not on the treatment table or in the gym. Cole is at his best when he is out on the pitch causing havoc and scoring special goals.

The memorial service of football legend, Sir Bobby Robson, has been attended by some of the biggest and most famous names in football. The elite turned out to pay tributes to a manager that seems to have attracted universal affection for the way he handled himself throughout his career.

Robson will be best known for taking the England side to the verge of World Cup success in 1990 when his side lost a heart breaking semi-final that they could have so easily won. The scenes yesterday were like a who’s who of football, as it appears that everyone wanted to turn out and show their respect and admiration.

Robson also spent a lot of time coaching in other countries and members of Barcelona have sent messages of well being and condolence to his family in a move that proves Robson’s reputation still lives on over seas. When he coached in Spain a lot of people said that Robson was the most simple thinking man that football had ever seen and that his mind and way of coaching would take his teams to tremendous success.

Current Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, said: “The enthusiasm, you just can’t explain it, special people have it. I think I speak for almost everyone here, in football terms. He influenced me but what made him so special was that he influenced people who didn’t know him. They admired his courage, his dignity, his enthusiasm. He influenced me then and he has always influenced me.”

It was a fitting send off for one of football’s great legends and is proof that in a game that is covered in egotistical dominance that there will always be space for that one person that wants to carry himself with respect and unite people across the world.

It was all too much for one of Robson’s greatest projects, Paul Gascoigne. ‘Gazza’ was reduced to tears at one point during the ceremony and has already said that he will never know another person that knew how to understand him in the way that Robson did.

Gazza was an enigma of the English game, often being caught off the field for a number of problems and situations that a football player should not be found in. However, Robson always saw the better side of him and was always the one person that Gazza says he knew he could turn to in his hour of need.

Manchester City striker, Craig Bellamy, could be in trouble with the police after he threw a punch at a Manchester United fan following their derby defeat the hands of the Premier League Champions.

The fan some how got onto the pitch after the game and confronted Bellamy after he celebrated in front of United fans following his second goal that he scored in the 90th minute. Bellamy also instigated chaotic scenes when he should have been sent off in the first half for a stamp on United’s Anderson that could have left the player with a broken leg.

A police spokesman said: “At the end of the derby between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford, a member of the public ran on to the pitch, and was detained by police and security staff. During this time, there was an altercation between the man and a player from Manchester City FC.”

“No formal complaint has been made by either party but police are continuing to make inquiries.”

Never the less Bellamy may now be punished by the Football Association over the incident. The FA can review tapes of the game and if the stamp on the player is deemed to warrant a red card then he could be banned for three games.

Although the incident after the game is now a police matter, it may well turn out that the FA ask Manchester City to explain why their player could not control himself and also why he just did not leave the field of play and ignore the confrontation.

It seems that bad publicity now wants to surround City like the plague and the club will have to be careful that they do not get disciplined further in the weeks coming up.

With the Emanuel Adebayor incidents having just been dealt with Mark Hughes needs to be careful that his club do not become the new hate figures of the Premier League. At the current rate they will have no fans left outside their own supporters and people are already saying that the club deserve every thing that is heading in their direction.

It is fair enough to say that the fan should not have even been on the pitch in the first place but the point is that Bellamy should have known better and if the referee had been paying attention earlier on in the game then the Welshman would have been down in the dressing room in the first half and the incident would never have happened.

Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, has said he is satisfied regardless of Liverpool’s win in their opening Champions League match against Debrecen. Liverpool won the match 1-0 but failed to cash in on the ample chances that they had through out the entire match.

On another night captain, Steven Gerrard, could have scored a hat trick but the manager says that as far as he is concerned, it is three points and a win is a win. Liverpool fans were audibly annoyed by the display, as the side struggled at times to make the most of their advantage.

Dirk Kuyt got the only goal of the game and even that was off a rebound after Fernando Torres had sent a tame shot in at the keeper. For Liverpool to stand a chance of competing against the bigger sides in the Champions League this season then they will have to drastically improve and improve quickly.

Benitez said: “This was always a dangerous game because before people were talking about us maybe scoring eight goals or something like this. But we knew that in Europe it is not easy, especially at this level.. They have won their league four times in the last five seasons because they have some quality so it was important just to get three points.”

“Today it was important just to win and now we can approach the next game with more confidence. We are winning games in a row now so hopefully confidence in the dressing room will be higher. You have to take your chances and then this type of game would be easy..”

“You have to give credit to them. They were well organised and they were working very hard, pressing every single ball. But they also made some mistakes in defence and we didn’t score – that was the difference for me. We had to be careful, especially at the end. We were expected to score a lot of goals and we had the chances but couldn’t score.”

Liverpool and the rest of the English sides all won their matches but were all unconvincing. It seems that Real Madrid were the only team to absolutely romp to a win as they scored five times in their opening match against FC Zurich.

Attention will now switch back to the Premier League but it looks like it will be an interesting campaign in Europe this year for Benitez’s men, one that they could just as easily do well in as fail in.