EVERYONE can see just how important Ronaldo is to Real Madrid following Real's 4-2 win over Monaco in the Champions League first-leg quarterfinal match on Wednesday. Real have been suffering lately without Ronaldo in the team. The great Brazilian has been injured and Real suffered a 4-2 loss at home last weekend against Athletic de Bilbao only a few days after being beaten in the King's Cup final by Real Zaragoza. Now they are only one point ahead of Valencia who trounced Mallorca 5-1 on the weekend. But with Ronaldo back things should pick up for Real Madrid. If Ronaldo is not scoring goals he is helping to set them up or taking defenders with him to allow someone else more space. He truly is a great player.

However Real are not out of danger in the Champions League as Monaco have two away goals. They still have a lot of work to do when they play in Monaco in the second leg.

Chelsea and Arsenal drew 1-1 in their first-leg Champions League game at Stamford Bridge and I thought that Chelsea might have managed to grab all three points after Gudjohnsen opened the scoring in the second half after a dreadful error by Arsenal's 'keeper. But give Arsenal credit for coming back with a Robert Pires header to even things up. The second leg at Highbury should be exciting.

Porto and AC Milan did what they had to do at home in their first-leg matches. Porto scored a 2-0 victory over Olympique Lyon while AC Milan had a 4-1 victory over Spain's Deportivo Coruna which should see them through to the semifinals.

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It is amazing when you think that Barcelona are now only six points behind Spanish leaders Real Madrid. Barcelona have been on fire and are now in third place after Brazil's Ronaldinho scored a beautiful free kick against Real Sociedad to win 1-0 on the weekend. Barcelona have now won nine games on the trot and much of that success is due to Ronaldinho and Edgar Davids and also the fact that the team is jelling well right now. Barcelona didn't have a very good start to the season but they are playing like a big club should. I just love Ronaldinho ? for me he is one, if not the, most exciting player in the world right now. His attitude is great ? he is always smiling and it is so obvious just how much he loves playing. And he can do things other players in the world can't. He simply is a joy to watch.

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The next two weeks will see Arsenal and Manchester United play each other twice ? this Sunday in the league at Arsenal and next weekend in the FA Cup at Villa Park. United managed to get back on track last weekend when they defeated Spurs 3-0 but I still do not see them beating Arsenal this weekend. United still have that problem at the back with Rio Ferdinand missing and it will always be a problem until he returns from that eight-month suspension. But it should be a good game and I hope that cool heads will prevail on both sides since it can become explosive when these two teams meet.

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Speaking of explosive, it seems that three matches this past weekend saw the return of violence ? something that really hurts the game.

The worst was when Roma played their city rivals Lazio on the weekend and the match had to be abandoned. There was a six-hour battle between fans and police in which some 170 people were injured. In England we saw fans from my team West Ham and those from Millwall fight it out after the game and then there was fighting between Portsmouth and Southampton fans after their match which Portsmouth won 1-0. We really do not need to return to the days when this kind of thing happened all over the place. Hopefully it can be stopped quickly.

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I was with a friend in the car this week when someone I don't know shouted out "it is football ? not soccer". Well I would like to say to that guy that a BMW and a Jag are both cars! I picked up using the word soccer after playing in the US at the end of my career. In fact I think that if you go back many years a fair number of the football magazines in the UK used the word soccer in their title.