1 Liverpool plays away at Boro this weekend. Boro's been nothing special this season except for their 2-1 defeat of Chelsea. Liverpool needs a win away from home. Now.

2. Perhaps a bit late to comment, but Barcelona's loss of Messi for three months is going to really hurt them. They've already lost their top goalscorer, Ronnie's decided to take this year off, and now they've lost their dynamo.

3. Real Madrid plays Lyon next week (Nov 21) in a battle of titans. Lyon won 2-nil to kick off this year's CL, a performance of which Real fans could not have been proud. But Real rebounded, pounding two lesser teams in the next two CL matches (as did Lyon), so it will be interesting to see which Real shows up next Tuesday.

FF