The richest club in the world are closer to breaking the bottom three than the Big Four

At the start of the season everyone was discussing the impact Sir Alex Ferguson’s protégés were going to make in the Premier League but less than halfway into the season, almost all of them have struggled.

Steve Bruce is the exception and his Wigan team are ninth but Roy Keane left Sunderland, who won 4-0 today, in the relegation zone while Paul Ince has gone eleven games without a win and is five points from safety with a Blackburn team that finished seventh last season.

But the one who has almost slipped under the radar is Mark Hughes. Obviously Manchester City’s chances of relegation are minimal considering they will spend big next month. However, Hughes inherited a team that finished tenth last season and spent close to £80 million over the summer so to be just two points above the drop, a gap Newcastle could eradicate with victory tomorrow, is clearly unacceptable.

Hughes won just two of his first fourteen games in charge of Blackburn before establishing himself as one of the country’s most promising young managers so should Manchester City give him time or is he simply the wrong man to take the Citizens to the next level? Let us know with a vote and comment below:

Premier League, Sat, 5.30pm, Setanta Sports 1, Free £10 bet

There might not be a Sky Sport’s super-duper Grand Slam Sunday this season but this pretty enormous Saturday is probably the closest thing to it. In the morning, Liverpool face Manchester United and then, at half five, the two richest clubs in the Premier League - Robinho’s new club and the team Robinho actually wanted to join - go head-to-head. Here’s why chickendinner believe the original success buyers are going to come out on top:

1. Chelsea are the only team in the country that haven’t lost a league game in 2008.

2. The Blues have won their last four league away games and comfortably had the best away record in the league last season - winning thirteen of their nineteen games.

3. Manchester City have beaten Chelsea in just one of their previous eleven home games against them in the Premier League - although that win was the first loss of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea career.