Liverpool kept their cool to come away from sweltering Toulouse with a 1-0 lead in their Champions League qualifier. Andriy Voronin’s blistering 25-yard strike should ensure a comfortable night in the second leg at Anfield on August 28.

Toulouse captain Nicolas Dieuze had turned up the temperature before the game, saying ““Given how hot it will be, and the fact we have had more preparation time than them, we hope we can make them suffer.” But Liverpool found their biggest opponent on the day was the blazing mid-afternoon sun.

The scoreline suggests Toulouse were no pushover but Rafael Benitez clearly had one eye on Sunday’s mouth-watering Premier League clash with Chelsea. It took 43 minutes for the Reds to break through – Voronin latched on to a Peter Crouch flick-on, turned, teed the ball up and hit a powerful, rising drive through the legs of a defender. The keeper had no chance as it hit the back of the net like a rocket.

‘With Rooney out injured and Ronaldo facing suspension for three games, it can only get harder for Fergie’


Steven Gerrard had a good run out in the centre of midfield but picked up a knock. He will hope to be fit to face Jose Mourinho’s men in a match that can help stamp Liverpool’s authority on the new season and  send out the message that they are in it for the long run this time around.

Champions Manchester United have just two points from the opening two games and, with Rooney out injured and Ronaldo facing suspension for three games, it can only get harder. PFA player of the year Ronaldo must have misunderstood Sir Alex Ferguson’s half-time request at Fratton Park to “use your heads, boys” – the Portuguese wizard was sent off for butting Richard Hughes in front of the ref. But Fergie isn't yet ready to kiss the title goodbye after last night's point at Pompey and the weekend draw with Reading.

Chelsea showed their fighting spirit with a comeback against Reading. Money can’t buy injury-free players, Mourinho must be thinking as his list of casualties grows. Florent Malouda and Claudio Pizarro are wonderfully exciting players brought into a boring Chelsea side, who would win hands down “the least aesthetically pleasing football played in the Premier League – bar Derby County”. Boring, but effective, The Special One would retort.

Manchester City are looking good and have dumped the Chelsea-like tactics endorsed by Stuart Pearce. Sven Goran Eriksson, for all the negative press he’s had to endure, seems to be mounting a coup for one of the UEFA spots, with Thaksin Shinawatra providing the ammo needed to break through the mid-table mediocrity barrier.

City now play fast and attractive football, so maybe it was not so much the bad carpenter blaming the tools in the England job for Sven, but rather bad tools blaming the carpenter. It’s going to be a mouth-watering Manchester derby this weekend and the days of one-way traffic from the Red Devils have effectively come to an end. It's city pride at stake and the boys in blue have a new general and some expensive new recruits ready to take the battle to the red army.

Sunderland deserve special mention as the wild card of the season – their players are just too terrified of Roy Keane to lose. They beat Spurs and drew with Birmingham, scoring in the dying moments of both games.