Three For Chelsea, Three For Barca and Three For Shakhtar

Monday Night Football returned this week with the action coming from Bloomfield Road where Blackpool entertained Chelsea. Chelsea were fresh from their big mid-week win over Manchester United and with the leaders slipping up to Liverpool, they were looking to close in further at the top. They got off to the best start with captain Terry heading from a corner after twenty minutes. Chelsea had to wait to seal the game with Lampard making 2-0 from the spot after 62 minutes, he then made it three just four minutes later. Blackpool did get a consolation via Puncheon four minutes from the end but it did little to dampen Chelsea's rejuvenation.

Tuesday saw the first couple of Champions League second round second legs. Arsenal nursed a 2-1 lead into the Nou Camp but Messi broke the deadlock just before half-time to make it 2-2 on aggregate with Barcelona going through via away goals. But Arsenal equalised eight minutes into the second half when a Nasri corner was headed by Busquets into his own net to make it 3-2 on aggregate. Barcelona nearly scored straight away but brave goalkeeping by substitute Almunia on Villa kept it at 1-1. News got worse for Arsenal though, Van Persie was flagged offside three minutes later and carried on to take a shot shortly after. The referee harshly judged it to be kicking the ball away and brandished a second yellow card to Van Persie to reduce Arsenal to ten men. They paid the price when Xavi made it 2-1 (3-3 on aggregate) after 69 minutes which would have forced extra time. But the tie was won in the allotted time when Koscielny lost his head and brought down Pedro in the box just two minutes later, Messi stepped up and converted the penalty to send Barcelona through, 4-3 on aggregate.

The other Champions League tie saw Shakhtar Donetsk protect a 3-2 lead at home to Roma. Shakhtar opened the scoring with Tomas Hubschman after eighteen minutes to extend their advantage to 4-2. Roma's chances of a comeback got even slimmer when Mexes received a second yellow four minutes before half-time. Shakhtar took full advantage with Willian making it 2-0 after 58 minutes and Eduardo finished the tie off three minutes from time. Shakhtar won 3-0 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate to progress into the quarter finals for the first time in their history.