IT is just after Christmas and already Celtic seem to have the Scottish Premier League title in the bag. Celtic beat rivals Rangers 3-0 on Sunday go a massive 11 points clear at the top and even the Rangers manager Alex McLeish has admitted it would be virtually impossible to catch Celtic now. And there is still half of the season to go yet! For Celtic to lose it now would take a miracle for Rangers and I definitely do not see that happening.

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Manchester United went three points clear after the games on Wednesday night when they beat Bolton 2-1 and took advantage of Chelsea losing to Liverpool 1-0 and Arsenal only gaining a point in their 1-1 draw with Everton.

This weekend United face Newcastle and while it promises to be a good game, you know what happened last season when Newcastle went ahead only for United to come back and hit a handful of goals with Paul Scholes playing a great game. Scholes, who scored both goals in United's FA Cup 2-1 win against Aston Villa on the weekend, scored again for United in their match against Bolton and although I have said it before, I will say it again ? Paul Scholes is the most underrated player in England. He has everything.

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Well the FA Cup is where dreams ? and money ? are made for lower division teams. And fair play to Gillingham who beat Charlton last weekend 3-2 in the FA Cup and now go into the next round. This is what the FA Cup is all about. And next week a couple of more lower division teams have the chance to join Gillingham ? Chelsea will host Watford after their draw last weekend and Kidderminster have the chance to beat Wolves in their replay. Both games are at Wolves and Chelsea and no doubt the players from Kidderminster and Watford are relishing the chance to play in front of packed crowds. And no doubt their clubs are relishing the chance to earn some good money from the matches.

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Roma, who were previously unbeaten in Italy, suffered their first loss of the season last week when AC Milan beat them 2-1. I watched the match and was very impressed with AC Milan's Brazilian Kaka. He played beautifully. But that is not to take away from the great Russian striker Andriy Shevchenko who scored both of AC Milan's goals ? one a fantastic delicate lob after chesting down a very good cross by Clarence Seedorf and the other from a strike midway through the second half. Roma had their six point lead cut in half with Juventus beating Perugia with a great goal from European Player of the Year Pavel Nedved. But the player I was really impressed with was AC Milan's Kaka ? he has so much talent.

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While Kaka seems to be playing very well in the Italian league, Rivaldo has left Italy to go back home to Brazil where he joined Brazilian champions Cruzeiro this week.

Rivaldo, who starred for Barcelona before moving to AC Milan, was often not even on the bench for the Italian club before leaving. I had thought that an English team might pick him up but he decided to go back home. Some leagues are better for some players than others. I feel that is what happened to Rivaldo when he went to Italy ? the type of game they play in Italy perhaps did not suit his style of play. In Italy the tackling can be very harsh and they give you no room to move. I think that Rivaldo will be a lot happier with the Brazilian style of play which is more open and more creative. I know that for my money, Rivaldo can certainly help out any club he goes to. He may be getting a bit older but he still has it. I wish him the best.

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Real Madrid stayed on top of the Spanish League with a 1-0 victory over Murcia last weekend. It certainly wasn't pretty but it was three points and that is what counts. I have seen teams play a beautiful game and come away with nothing. Winning is what counts. Meanwhile Barcelona lost badly to Racing Santander ? and that is not good enough for a team like Barcelona. Now manager Feank Rijkaard has announced a get-tough policy concerning his players hanging out at nightclubs. And well he should ? if you are playing for a club like Barcelona that should be your total focus. Stay out of nightclubs ? there is plenty of time for that later after your career has finished.

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Spurs will lose their striker Kanoute who FIFA cleared to play for Mali in the African Nations Cup. Spurs are unhappy naturally because the African Nations Cup can take a player away from a team for a month. FIFA really need to organise it so that these big competitions around the world are all played at the same time.