Big Story
The future of Rafa Benitez dominates the British press this morning, as Liverpool slumped to their sixth defeat in seven games and fingers are being jabbed once again: former Liverpool star Ronnie Whelan suggests Rafa does not care about the Premier League; Sam Wallace concludes that Rafa is too clever for his own good; John Ley looks at the facts unnecessarily needed to prove Liverpool have had a poor start; and David Hytner looks at the club’s growing injury crisis, the one mitigating factor that seems to be saving Rafa.

But the most pertinent and balanced piece comes from Rory Smith in the Telegraph, getting to the heart of the issue: money, which Liverpool do not have to throw away. “Liverpool have neither the mechanism nor the means to effect a dismissal, requiring as it would a majority vote in a boardroom fractured beyond repair and up to £20 million to pay off Benítez and his staff (if they were not to be re-employed elsewhere),” Smith writes. “That money, it is fair to say, would be better spent backing Benítez in the January bring-and-buy sale.”

As ever, for all the ink spilled, that serious sum of cash is likely to ensure Rafa will stay come what may until at least the end of the season.

Worldwide News

• Following up on Saturday’s post on the debacle in Australia, where a record-low crowd showed up to see A-League expansion team Gold Coast United following anger at their billionaire owner’s decision to cut the capacity to 5,000, Football Federation Australia is stepping in to deal with a recalcitrant and short-sighted owner.
• League titles were decided in a couple of places you might not have noticed. In Lithuania, Ekranas faced the only team who could pip them to the title, sealing the deal with a 2-1 win over Vtra. And in China, fears of rioting proved unfounded as Beijing Guoan won their first ever Chinese Super League Title.
• I’m delighted to see that after a long hiatus, one of the blogs that inspired me to start Pitch Invasion a couple of years ago is back: the Culture of Soccer returns with a typically smart look at whether the United States is an importer or an exporter of talent. And the soccer blogosphere is a little wiser again.
• “Fan dressed as sheep set alight” is one of those headlines that sounds comedic at first glance, but the story here is pretty horrific on a train carrying Aberdeen fans home.
• Bulgarian football is in a state of disarray, as Botev Plovdiv’s 1-0 derby win over Lokomotiv was marred by fighting that involved pretty much everyone: players, staff and fans. CSKA Sofia, meanwhile, have suspended nine players for unspecified reasons, always the best ones to set-off wild speculation.
• Wembley Stadium’s owners announced they were pleased to only have lost £31m in 2008, which must be a nice position to be in. Expect more NFL and Coldplay there.
• The Table Football World Cup is underway in South Africa — why did no-one tell me about this before?

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Big Story
Yesterday’s stunning day of UEFA Champions League action is of course the focus of discussion today, with every game providing talking juicy points for the press.

The British press naturally focused on Liverpool after their home defeat to Lyon. Paul Hayward considers the future of  Rafa Benitez (“Everything that can go wrong is going wrong at the moment”, Rafa said after), and Kevin Gardside says fans are losing faith in the Spaniard, though Henry Winter reminds us how many players Rafa was missing in their defeat to Lyon and Gabrielle Marcotti gives sensible reasons for why Liverpool would be “mad to sack Benitez now”.

An even longer-term crisis is focused on up north in Scotland, as Rangers crushing defeat at home 4-1 to Romania’s FC Unirea has Ewan Murray saying that “The most comprehensive thesaurus in the world would barely contain the words to describe this Rangers performance. The latest evidence that Scottish football may be in terminal decline rather than just suffering a rough spell arrived on another harrowing night in Glasgow.” Rangers boss Walter Smith faced calls for his immediate resignation.

Still, probably the most surprising result of the night came in Spain – Barcelona’s coach Pep Guardiola tried unconvincingly to sound unperturbed by their defeat to Rubin Kazan at Camp Nou. And the last minute goal conceded by Arsenal to AZ Alkmar is picked over by Rob Kelly in the Telegraph, who had seemingly been waiting for a chance to make the obvious conclusion that the current team is not a patch on Wenger’s old “invincibles”.

Worldwide News

• It was also a night of Champions League action in the CONCACAF region, as Columbus went through to the knock-out stage, with DC United awaiting results to see if they will progress and Houston hoping to advance tonight (though that looks less likely). It looks like it could be a better year for MLS in continental action after last year’s debacle, when only one team made it to the quarter-final stage and no-one beyond that.
• Notts County were forced by the Football League’s Fit and Proper Persons Test to reveal to them who owned the club, a process undertaken with much reluctance but finally completed. We still don’t know ourselves who exactly is behind the wall of mirrors, but at least someone in authority does.
• Following the famous beach ball goal against Liverpool, the Guardian trawls through other examples of “outside agents” interfering in the game. My favourite is definitely Bryn the police dog.
• To follow-up on Monday’s item about direct supporter involvement in clubs, Exeter City have announced their Supporters’ Trust has now contributed over £1 million pounds to the club since it was set-up just six years ago. Remarkable.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

In the 48th minute, Benitez turned to face the fourth official after the goal that had put Aston Villa 2-0 up at Anfield, apparently questioning the call of the referee to award the preceding corner-kick. It was a few seconds that captured Rafa’s current mood of limp frustration, as he half-heartedly gesticulated in a rather dubious projection of his team’s failings onto officialdom.  It was almost as unconvincing and lame as Liverpool’s performance, and here it is summing up the surprising state of the Premier League this week.

The moment after

Contemplation

Gesticulation

Under the gaze

The fourth official considers Rafa's point

I can't hear you!

Back to reality, all too soon.