It wasn’t a good week for Barcelona with their defeat at home to bitter rivals Real Madrid and now they must realise that they need to bounce back and prepare for the bigger picture in the immediate future.All good things must come to an end and it was their time to feel what every team does, and it is time to figure out a different way to play. Over time people have grown accustomed to their tactics and figured out a way to beat them.Jose Mourinho and Madrid went out with a game plan and stuck to it and it showed that they could be beaten quite convincingly.AC Milan did the initial tactic of not allowing them to play the ball through gaps and allowing Lionel Messi to run riot, and as a result they played across the field and not into the little channels that they are used to exposing.They go to the Bernabeu today and they must now come out and produce to reassert themselves as the head of the table in the league.Another big game this weekend is the North London derby, but there isn’t that much emphasis that should be placed on this match as it can go either way.Derbies tend to bring the best out of each club and their fans, and it is added incentive given Tottenham are in third and Arsenal are in fifth and only four points separates the pair.In the end this could be the telling point in each of their season and both will look to go out and win the game.With Chelsea losing last weekend to Manchester City, it has thrown a wrench in everything and now a host of sides can reach the top four.Rafa Benitez isn’t looking too good to last until the end of the season, he said he is finished in May but if they continue to produce bad results then he will be gone sooner.Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, doesn’t play around when it comes to winning and doesn’t take any prisoners when it comes to his money.I don’t know who he will replace Benitez with because he has had some of the best coaches in the world in his dugout and just throws them away when he feel fit to do so.Benitez’s issue it that he doesn’t have the changing room and that is a huge problem. City’s win did them good in terms of still being in the title race, but the title is in Manchester United’s hands and theirs to lose.With 11 or 12 matches left I have a hard time thinking that they will lose three games and allow City to get back in. You have to take you hat off to United and saw they are the better club.Everyone is talking up Gareth Bale after the form he has shown with Spurs this season but the Player of the Year has to be Robin Van Persie because without him United wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the table.He has had two good seasons, and when you look at him leaving Arsenal where he was scoring goals to United where he is still scoring, the pace of his game hasn’t changed at all.He is a pure scorer and is more of a threat that anyone in the league and his team is top of the table.Hard luck with Nahki Wells and Bradford City in the Capital One Cup final last weekend because they were outplayed by Swansea. However, they have a lot of football left to be played and can make a good run at the promotion playoff places.As long as he can keep his feet on the ground and focus on what is in front of him Nahki will do well. He admitted that they got a good schooling, but Swansea on that day would have beaten anyone and when you get a team that plays well and knocks the ball around like that you will always be in trouble.They did well to get to the final but perhaps the occasion got to them.