It is said that Andre Villas-Boas has to lead Chelsea to victory over two legs against Napoli to save his job, but the real factor undermining the club's season is not the shortcomings of their inexperienced manager, but the stubbornness of their senior players.

There are certain individuals at Chelsea who have served their time, but are clinging on to their status as best they can. They had success under Jose Mourinho and carried it on under Carlo Ancelotti, but they have become too powerful. I think some of them are trying to take control of a young manager.

Some of the older players know

FA Cup trophyI hate to say it, but none of the top teams still in the FA Cup should be treating the competition as their priority.

The two Manchester clubs are out, which leaves Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool as the biggest contenders for the Cup — but their focus should be elsewhere.

Take Tottenham. If you told the fans at the start of the season that they could finish fourth in the league and win the FA Cup this campaign, they'd have bitten your hand off. But here we are in February, and their situation is slightly different.

Champions League football doesn't look like being a problem for

Luis Suarez: heading out of Anfield?Given the negative publicity surrounding events at Old Trafford on Saturday, and Liverpool's current predicament in the league, I won't be surprised at all if Luis Suarez is not a Reds player at the start of next season.

Reports on Monday morning suggest Liverpool may be ready to sell the forward after he lied to the club regarding his intention to shake Patrice Evra's hand at Old Trafford, only to then snub the Manchester United defender in a moment that brought shame on the club.

I think there is a suspicion Suarez may want to get away from England and also that the club may feel they are

Stuart Pearce found himself on the front page of the newspapersI could not help but find the front pages of some of Friday's newspapers anything other than embarrassing.

Stuart Pearce has only just been named as England's caretaker manager, and already the press have dredged up some story from years ago in an attempt to discredit him.

I just cannot understand this attitude of the British media that as soon as someone is elevated to sufficiently high office they are fair game. Even if there is nothing new to smear a person's name with, they will happily trawl through a person's past just to get anything on them.

That is what has happened here with an

England boss Fabio Capello looks quizzicalThe FA should take another brave decision and fire Fabio Capello after he undermined their authority in the latest episode of this John Terry saga.

Capello's comments to Italian TV — when he said he completely disagreed with the decision to strip Terry of the England captaincy because of his upcoming court case — are evidence enough in themselves that the right call was taken: Terry is a one-man media circus, a distraction and a sideshow and an embarrassing one at that.

Capello's comments also undermine the authority of his paymasters, the other senior players in the England squad — who know

John Terry on England media dutyYesterday they celebrated Groundhog Day in the US, a term which has come to mean living the same day over and over again. It certainly feels as though we are going through the same motions today following the news that John Terry has again been stripped of the England captaincy.

It'’s almost two years to the day since he first had the armband taken off him following claims of misbehaviour off the pitch. Now it is the repercussions of something that he is alleged to have done on the field - something which he denies - which has led to him losing it again.

I realise that the FA felt they had to

David De Gea (AFP)The dust has finally settled on Manchester United's FA Cup defeat to Liverpool, and there can be little doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson's greatest concern will be David De Gea.

It was not really the Spaniard's errors that were the problem for me; I thought his mistakes for both goals were relatively minor and he was undone by some poor defending.

What really bothered me was his apparently complete lack of confidence.

It makes me wonder if he will be able to handle the scrutiny he is under at the moment.

Has he got people here to support him? Not just at the club, but also family and friends.

When

Luis Suarez was banned for eight matches for racially abusing Patrice EvraI think Patrice Evra has the character to deal with whatever is thrown at him when Manchester United visit Liverpool in the FA Cup on Saturday and I don't think he will let any abuse from the stands affect him.

I am sure the controversy won't affect Manchester United either, though the intimidating atmosphere as a whole may have an impact on those players who haven't played at Anfield before in a United shirt. It is quite an experience.

The Luis Suarez racism case hangs over this match of course, and it was disappointing how Liverpool tried to make out that Evra was the villain of the piece