Wednesday night’s Champions League matches completed in less than spectacular fashion as there was little to no excitement around the continent. Both English clubs – Manchester United and Chelsea – grabbed scrappy wins while one Champions League giant was embarrassed at home. The upset of the round was Zurich’s 1-0 win over AC Milan at the San Siro, and results elsewhere in the competition all favored the bigger clubs.

Manchester United put in an uninspiring performance at Old Trafford as the Red Devils had a stroll in the park against uninterested Wolfsburg. Neither side ever really got going, but Dimitar Berbatov showed United fans what to look forward to. The Bulgarian opened his full bag of tricks and flicks against the German champions, but it wasn’t enough to give the Premiership leaders the lead.

In the second half a predictable goal from prolific striker Edin Dzeko gave the Bundesliga side a 1-0 lead, but just minutes later a deflected Ryan Giggs goal equalized the match. Giggs was at it again as he received a pass from Dimitar Berbatov in the box and found Michael Carrick, who coolly slotted home from 18 yards to secure a 2-1 win.

Chelsea’s win was no more impressive. After a disappointing display against Wigan at the weekend, many expected a strong and convincing display against Champions League minnows Apoel. Instead, it was a lone Nicolas Anelka goal that spared Chelsea’s blushes and gave the Blues a slender 1-0 win.

The boring day of Champions League action was perfectly complimented by Bayern Munich’s drab 0-0 draw with Italian giants Juventus. It was always destined to be a close match, and the scoreline suggests that there is nothing separating the two sides.

Zurich provided the only glimmer of light on the day as they upset AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro. Hannu Tihinen’s unlikely goal leaves Milan in real danger of not progressing out of the group stage. Real Madrid have a firm grip on Group C, but if Marseille can find some form then they could topple Leonardo’s AC Milan.

Champions League group stages – what a bore, right? Or wrong? Have your say below!

Bolton manager Gary Megson has yet another tough fight on his hands. With Bolton enjoying a shaky start to the season, one of the few shining lights has been the form of defender Gary Cahill. The 23 year old is breaking onto the national scene and it’s only a matter of time before he moves on to a bigger club.

Sir Alex Ferguson is rumored to be very keen on bringing Cahill to Old Trafford, and the United scouts were on hand to see Cahill bang in his first Bolton goal on in the Carling Cup last week. Fergie believes Cahill would be excellent cover for the increasingly injured Rio Ferdinand.

In addition to United’s interest, Chelsea have been taking a long, hard look at the England international. Cahill’s stock has risen considerably following his international cap in England’s World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan last June, and a partnership with captain John Terry could work wonders at Stamford Bridge.

Italian giants Juventus and AC Milan are also heavily linked to the Wanderers center back. Cahill has made six appearances for Bolton in the Premier League this season, and Gary Megson is determined to do all he can to hang on to the defender.

“Football-wise, it would be suicide to sell him in January,” said manager Megson.

“We did brilliantly to remove an escape clause from his deal in the summer. Now we don’t need to sell.”

Would Cahill be a good fit at United or Chelsea? Have your say below!

It’s Wednesday: time for more Champions League action! Join in the below chat live! from 2:00pm EST, 7:00pm GMT and chat with the Premiership Talk team as well as fans from around the world. Get live news and updates from all of today’s Champions League matches and talk about all things football! The chat will be open until 5:00pm EST, 10:00pm GMT.

In what could be the most obvious Wednesday Wonder to date, Robbie Keane is this week’s pick after his stunning performance on Saturday against Burnley. I’ll admit that I’ve overlooked a hat-trick for the Wednesday Wonder before and picked somebody else, but there is something special about that fourth goal. Scoring four goals in any match is a remarkable feat. I don’t care if Keane scored four goals against the lowly Derby team of the 2007/08 season. It’s still an amazing performance.

Keane’s four goals came against a Burnley squad that has really been stirring up the standings lately. This can be noted by their performance just a month ago that earned the whole squad the Wednesday Wonder crown. Since then, the newly promoted side has continued to cause problems for everybody. On paper Burnley would seem not all that threatening, but there is something about playing them at Turf Moor that really gets them and their fans fired up. Lucky enough for Robbie Keane, the match was played at White Hart Lane.

Toward the end of this match you would have expected that Tottenham had grinded out a hard fought victory, but that was when the floodgates opened in the Burnley defense. Let’s go back and see how we got to this point, though. The scoring got underway for Tottenham in the 18th minute when Jermaine Defoe was stupidly challenged (Anton Ferdinand are you out there?) by Burnley defender Andre Bikey in the box. The penalty was immediately awarded to Spurs who sent their captain Robbie Keane up to take the kick. Burnley keeper Brian Jensen dove one way and Keane coolly slotted home his first goal of the day, putting Tottenham up 1-0.

Spurs’ second goal of the day was also a result of Keane, but he was not the scorer. Keane took the ball at the top of the box and ripped a shot that caromed off a Burnley defender right back out to Jermaine Jenas. Jenas took one touch to figure what he was going to do with the ball, and then his second touch picked the ball out of mid-air and took a shot a goal. Luckily for him it hit another Burnley defender. This altered the flight of his shot, which made it impossible for Jensen to do anything. The ball easily found the back of the net and put Spurs up 2-0 going into halftime.

The score stayed that way until the aforementioned floodgates opened in the 73rd minute. A beautifully placed through ball to Aaron Lennon on the right flank resulted in a quick cut into the box. That freed up plenty of space for Lennon to pass the ball across the box where Robbie Keane was running to. Keane pounded home the ball from twelve yards out and put Tottenham up 3-0. For many teams, the scoring would be done at this point, but Tottenham is still flexing their muscles and showing that they really are a force to be reckoned with this season.

Keane’s hat-trick was completed just four minutes later. Tom Huddlestone booted a long ball to Keane from Spurs’ half of the pitch. The ball happened to land perfectly for Keane – who had already cleared the Burnley defense – who let it bounce twice at his feet and then smacked a left-footed shot by Jensen to add to the already insurmountable lead.

The captain added his final goal in the 86th minute of the match. Peter Crouch flicked a perfect ball through to Keane who was in the process of splitting the Burnley defense – yet again – to receive the ball. Once he received the ball, Keane took a scorcher of a shot on the ground at Jensen, splitting his legs in the process, and finding the back of the net. A 5-0 victory for Tottenham in a glorious performance from Robbie Keane. Four goals has earned you the title of Premiership Talk Wednesday Wonder! Congratulations, Robbie! Maybe Peter Crouch shouldn’t be starting over you after all…

An a side note it’s worth mentioning that the curse may be over. Gareth Bale was subbed on late in the match, which allowed him to earn his first Premier League victory of his career. Does this mean Taylor chose the wrong Wednesday Wonder? Have your say below!

As the Olympiacos team bus got closer and closer to the Finsbury Park area, I am sure veteran goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis began to relive some of the greatest moments of his career at the highest level. From his invaluable contribution in Greece’s historic Euro 2004 win to his consistency during his club’s league triumph over the last three years, Nikopolidis is no stranger to success at a grand stage.

Judging by his side’s listless performance at The Emirates Tuesday evening, however, it seems that playing away to Arsenal proved a stage that was too grand to handle. The Greek giants had been unconvincing on matchday 1, when they barely managed a 1-0 win against a disciplined visitor in AZ Alkmaar. As visitors themselves, the legendary Zico’s men were far from disciplined.

Most attacking threats were easily dealt with by Arsenal while the occasional promising shot on target was not good enough to go past an increasingly impressive Vito Mannone. The defense, meanwhile, was even worse as Robin van Persie flirted with their backline with almost no apprehension. Clearly, the reason why Olympiacos refused to fall behind in this game was the heroic performance on display from the man between their sticks.

Antonios Nikopolidis may be 38 years old, but his reflexes can embarass the youngest of his counterparts. With a string of impressive saves in the first half, he ensured that the Gunners entered the tunnel with an extremely frustrated look on their faces. In particular, Arsene Wenger looked astonished from the touchline as he sought to draft a halftime plan that would go on to finally beat Nikopolidis.

In the second half, the proceedings picked up from exactly where they had left off before the interval. The hosts created plenty of chances from a gamut of different positions and yet, there seemed to be absolutely no way past the visiting goalkeeper. Such was the amateurish vulnerability of the Olympiacos defense that they let William Gallas take a touch or two to control a ball he had picked up at point blank range from Nikopolidis in the latter stages of the game.

To their relief, Gallas was still denied by the composed Greek veteran who had certainly merited a clean sheet by that time. Unfortunately for him, football is a cruel game, especially when one’s team is not playing like a team at all. Arsenal had seen enough and there was no way their fluency would be denied by a one-man show from the Olympiacos goalkeeper.

In the 78th minute, Eduardo slid a sneaky ball into the path of Robin van Persie, who gave Nikopolidis no chance at all with an unstoppable drive from close range. Although Andrei Arshavin later rubbed the salt into the wounds of the visitors by scoring a second goal from a dubiously offside position, a 2-0 scoreline was the least that Arsenal had deserved against a horrendously underperforming Olympiacos side.

There had been quite a few lifted eyebrows when the Arsenal Box Office, as well as Arsenal Online Ticketing, had to resort to the rare tactic of opening the ticket sale of this fixture to the general public. Perhaps seeing the quality of Olympiacos can explain why most Gooners opted to stay away from such a one-sided game. Nevertheless, the Arsenal supporters who attended got a good return on investment as their side took solo command atop Group H at the expense of an extremely unfortunate Antonios Nikopolidis.

Was Arsenal the better side? Have your say below!

Following Sunderland’s hard fought 5-2 win over Wolves, Darren Bent was in the spotlight once again. Not only did the English frontman grab a brace (although the second goal has since been declared an own goal by Wolves defender Michael Mancienne), but Bent stole the headlines with his generous act of handing teammate Kenwyne Jones a penalty.

Darren Bent got the ball rolling with a first half penalty, and when the Black Cats were rewarded a second just minutes later Bent opted to give the ball to Kenwyne Jones. Jones netted the penalty and eventually went on to add a second, but manager Steve Bruce was not happy with Bent’s generosity.

“I thought Kenwyne had been playing really well without getting the goal he deserved. He told me he fancied it and since I had already scored one I said ‘have it’,” Bent said.

“I think if he hadn’t scored the first from the spot, maybe he wouldn’t have scored his second goal which was really important. I was happy for him as well but the gaffer had a go at me afterwards.

“Thinking about it now, maybe I shouldn’t have done it because if Kenwyne hadn’t scored, he wouldn’t have been at all happy. But Kenwyne being Kenwyne, I knew he was going to score.

“Even though the manager had a little go at me, I think it’s important that all of the strikers are firing. It’s not just about me, it’s vital Kenwyne is firing and Fraizer Campbell too.

“It can only be good for the club that we have got so many players who are in good form and scoring goals.”

Should Brucey be mad at his star striker for giving Kenwyne Jones a confidence boost? Have your say below!

Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong has revealed that he has considered a career in motor racing.

“I was always into cars as a kid,” the Dutchman revealed. “It started with my grandfather. He worked for Ford for 40 years and every two years he would come home with a new car. I used to go to the factory to see the new models when they were coming out.

“I am happy to show my talents as a footballer but I did think about Formula One or go-karts. I raced karts as a kid, I still do in my spare time with a couple of other guys. I am not the next Lewis Hamilton or Michael Schumacher, but I do love the adrenaline. To be sitting in a car at speed, it’s quite a nice feeling.”

de Jong has made five Premier League appearances for City this season as he enters his first full season at the Eastlands. City face a tricky away tie against Aston Villa on Monday.

While Manchester City continue their winning ways, Brazilian superstar Robinho is still working towards a return to training.

Robinho injured his ankle earlier this month on international duty for Brazil, and the stress fracture has forced him to miss City’s last four matches. His recovery has taken longer than initially expected as the striker isn’t back in training just yet.

“It is still in a pot, so he is not training, just doing work in the gym,” said City boss Mark Hughes.

“I would imagine it would be another two to three weeks.”

In Robinho’s absence, Welsh forward Craig Bellamy has wowed fans and managers alike. Bellamy put in another fine performance against West Ham on Monday, and his good form means that Robinho must work hard to regain his place in the side.

Should Robinho slot right back into the City starting eleven? Have your say below!