Manchester City's rivals may find ruling Europe easier than catching Pep Guardiola's side in the Premier League

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So, worst case scenario, Manchester City can't be caught. The lead, five points as it stands now after just 10 games, continues to grow. Over 38 matches, they exert their superiority. Try as they might, Manchester United and Tottenham fall away. What then?

Well, it may not be as bad as you think. Watching Tottenham run amok against Real Madrid at Wembley, seeing Manchester United cruise through qualifying, all is not lost. 

Even if City do take the Premier League, that does not mean they cannot be beaten in Europe. These are set-piece events in a cup competition. The best team doesn't always win.

Manchester City are so strong that their rivals might lost touch in the Premier League 

Jose Mourinho's management style is well suited to the format of cup competitions 

Jose Mourinho has conquered Europe twice. Either time, did he have the best team? Quite probably not. Manchester United should have beaten Porto in 2004 and the rearguard action that took Inter Milan past Barcelona in 2010 was staggering. Mourinho set his players up magnificently in both campaigns, just as he did when steering United through the Europa League last season.

A brilliant 90 minutes has a greater impact in Europe than it does domestically. Mourinho may well have a plan to halt Manchester City when the clubs meet on December 10, but if City are better over 38 games it can only have limited impact.

In 2013-14, Mourinho's brilliantly organised Chelsea side defeated Manchester City home and away. It didn't matter — over 38 games, City won the League, four points ahead of Chelsea, who came third.

If City gain five points on Manchester United every 10 games this season, they can lose to them twice and still win the League by 13 points.

Manchester United may well have a better chance of winning in Europe than domestically 

Cup competitions are different. Manna for a tactician like Mourinho, in fact. His 0-0 draw at Anfield would have been a great result in a Champions League knockout game. Get them back to Old Trafford, win, and you're through. Indeed, if Manchester City went head to head with Manchester United over two legs in Europe, Mourinho's unapologetic pragmatism would be to his advantage.

Pep Guardiola plays his way. He will not change. His believes in his methods and has the track record to support his argument. Mourinho is not so proud.

He adapts to the circumstances, even if it makes him unpopular. Inter Milan swept Barcelona aside in their first leg in 2010 then defended magnificently when the occasion called for it in the return — particularly once reduced to 10 men.

Mourinho would have no qualms about stifling any game if necessary. He would be an extraordinarily dangerous Champions League opponent for Guardiola.

Now consider Tottenham. The problem is obvious. In a run stretching back to 1998, the club have won four of 86 away matches against Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Last week's defeat at Old Trafford was typical of the malaise.

Tottenham's lack of confidence against Premier League rivals may not be a problem in Europe

Even without Harry Kane, Spurs looked good in the first half, but confidence failed them, they faded after half-time and United deserved their victory. It is hard to win the League with such a poor record against immediate rivals.

But cup football is random. Tottenham may not have to overcome feelings of inferiority at Old Trafford to win in Europe, a rival could dispose of United for them.

In 2011-12, Chelsea lost three and drew two of their six Premier League matches against Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal, the top three. It didn't stop them winning the Champions League, however, because Bayern Munich and Napoli took out City at the group stage, where Basle and Benfica did for Manchester United. AC Milan then dispatched Arsenal in the last 16.

In some sports, golf, for instance, or much of athletics, the winner has to beat the field. But cup football is like tennis. Andy Murray did not have to defeat Roger Federer to win the 2012 US Open because he was eliminated by Tomas Berdych. At Wimbledon in 2016, Federer and Novak Djokovic were conveniently taken out by Milos Raonic and Sam Querrey.

That is the nature of knockout competition. What if Guardiola's Manchester City were drawn against Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals? There are all sorts of ways paths could open for Spurs. Wolves, don't forget, were a late one-on-one chance from knocking Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup this season.

It was not entirely the same for Liverpool, when they won the Champions League under Rafa Benitez in 2004-05. They lost to Manchester United home and away in the League that year — but AC Milan took care of United in Europe.

Manchester City will always play Pep Guardiola's way regardless of the competition 

Arsenal succumbed to Bayern Munich, as ever, leaving Liverpool to overcome Chelsea at the semi-final stage. This they did, despite losing home and away to them in the League that season — because it's cup football and one night, and one goal, can mean everything.

So it may be that Manchester City's march continues against Arsenal on Sunday. At home, and abroad, they look a very good team, and the result against Napoli this week was hugely impressive.

So nothing will be easy — but getting ahead of them over 38 matches, is considerably harder than doing it over two.

If United and Tottenham can't be top dogs in England, they could always try defeating Europe.

Versatility is the key in Young recall  

It comes as no surprise that Ashley Young has been called up by England. Not only is he in excellent form for Manchester United, how many players could occupy six of 10 outfield positions in a team? 

Young, in an emergency, could play on either side as a full back, wingback or wide midfielder and on either side as a wide forward in a front three. Utility players come into their own when a tournament squad is selected. Eric Dier and Phil Jones are valuable for the same reason.

Manchester United's Ashley Young (second left) has returned to the England set up

Sam's scorn for kids means Everton must keep looking 

Sam Allardyce said all the right things when applying for the Everton job through beIN Sports.

'It looks like it's really going to be tough for them to get out of that position,' he announced. 'They just perhaps want a bit of guidance on how to rectify those problems. I've been in this position with the last three clubs I've had and I'd just put the team back to basics.'

So far, so predictable. Allardyce has a deserved reputation as the Premier League's Red Adair. He takes over doomed clubs such as Sunderland and Crystal Palace and extinguishes fires.

Sunderland may well fall through two divisions without him. Palace recorded the worst start in Premier League history after he left. Blackburn Rovers have never been the same since sacking him.

Former Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce is in the running for the Everton vacancy

There is no doubt Allardyce is the man for lost causes. The question is, exactly how lost are Everton?

This is no time for complacency but, equally, does a club with Everton's squad strength need Allardyce's limited prescription for revival? In the same week that he offered himself for consideration at Goodison, Allardyce gave his thoughts on England's Under 17 World Cup win. It would not make happy reading for Everton's highly regarded youth.

'I don't think people understand or recognise the pressure that managers are under to get results short term,' Allardyce wrote in The Times. 

'Jobs are on the line earlier and earlier. Every game is a must-win game. Do you go with a teenager who is highly talented but may not yet have the physical, mental or tactical maturity to do what you require of him? 

'Or do you go with a senior international, who is already physically and mentally conditioned to the Premier League? Nine times out of 10, if you are in a pressurised situation, you go with experience. I have been in that situation many times and I have usually gone with experience. Very few lads of 17 or 18 are ready to play in the Premier League. It's not just about ability.

'You do not want players who will learn on the job, learn from their mistakes. You want to minimise risk. Some of them may have to drop down to the Championship to prove themselves or move abroad.'

For English football, that's merely a rather disheartening view. For Everton, with youth development the most consistently successful arm of the club, it should be terrifying. How can Allardyce be the right man for a club that has Tom Davies, Ademola Lookman, Mason Holgate, Jonjoe Kenny, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, even Ross Barkley and Michael Keane, on their books, if he thinks like that?

Everton are searching for a new manager after dismissing Ronald Koeman in October

Youth has been everything to Everton in recent years, not least a financial lifeline. Say what you like about David Moyes, he had Wayne Rooney in the team at 16, gave Barkley his debut at 17 — and it would have been sooner had he not broken a leg on England Under 19 duty — and bought John Stones from Barnsley for £3million. 

Meanwhile, when Allardyce wished to assert his credentials on youth he mentioned giving Phil Jones his debut at Blackburn — more than eight years ago. Jones, however, was 'the exception, not the norm'. Let's hope the norm wasn't the team Allardyce fielded for West Ham, against second-tier Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on January 5, 2014. 

Ostensibly to preserve first-team players for a Capital One Cup tie with Manchester City — which West Ham duly lost 6-0, so heaven knows what the score would have been were they tired — Allardyce broke with tradition and threw in nine kids, including three substitutes.

West Ham lost 5-0 to Forest and many fledgling careers did not recover. Only Reece Burke, now on loan at Bolton, still has a contract with the club and many contemporaries have fallen from the League altogether. A quick where-are-they-now, finds players from the Forest game at Boreham Wood, Macclesfield, Margate and Hemel Hempstead Town.

Maybe West Ham — the club of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick — were simply in an extremely fallow spell for youth production, or maybe that is what happens with insensitive treatment, or when the manager so rarely looks the way of its teenagers.  

Allardyce would keep Everton up, there is no doubt of that — but that is not the same as saying he is what Everton need. Mauricio Pochettino is what they need — or at least a manager who thinks like him — who sees strong youth as an opportunity to be embraced, not a miserable gamble that will get him fired. Everton should keep looking.

This looks like a Real crisis for Zidane 

Taking nothing away from Tottenham, who were magnificent on Wednesday, but something is clearly not right at Real Madrid. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's influence cannot be underestimated and maybe he is not the force he was last season. Perhaps, having become the first club to retain the Champions League in its modern format, the players are sated by success. 

The team looks as if it could do with an overhaul; fresh blood; new faces. Sir Alex Ferguson built and stripped down three great teams at Manchester United. 

Zinedine Zidane has most certainly earned the right to do this at least once at Madrid, too. The club's history, however, suggests he will not be given the opportunity; that one disappointing season will be his last. It seems wrong, but it is the Madrid way.

The pressure is building on Zinedine Zidane following a poor performance against Tottenham

Dodgers fall foul of away day blues

In three of the past four seasons, the World Series has gone down to its seventh game decider.

On each occasion, baseball's title has been won by the away team on the night. This year was no different, Houston Astros winning 5-1 at Los Angeles Dodgers, to take the series 4-3. They follow on from Chicago Cubs winning at Cleveland Indians, and San Francisco Giants winning at Kansas City Royals.

The last two occasions when a European Cup finalist has had home advantage have ended in defeat, too — Bayern Munich to Chelsea in 2012, Roma to Liverpool in 1984.

Sports analysts make a great deal of playing at home, but the higher the stakes the greater the pressure. The Dodgers were 5-0 down before the end of the second inning on Wednesday and could not recover. Expectation overwhelmed them, and starting pitcher Yu Darvish. They would have been better in Texas.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish (right) walks off the field after he was relieved

From Russia with love... says Stan 

Stan Collymore insists his new show on Russia Today will tackle football's big issues and be free of influence.

He used his newspaper column to promote it — and the fun to be had at the World Cup next summer. Collymore had travelled to Moscow, to watch Champions League games involving Liverpool and Spartak and Manchester United and CSKA. 

'What I saw convinced me the authorities simply won't allow hooligans from Russia or anywhere else to tarnish the biggest football show on earth,' Collymore wrote.

'Fans I spoke to from both English clubs had a cracking time and didn't feel threatened or intimidated. The atmosphere was good in Red Square, there were no problems on the metro or buses…'

And just that tiny fly in the chardonnay of a UEFA charge against Spartak for monkey chants aimed at Liverpool's black players during a UEFA Youth League game — that Collymore appears to have overlooked. Maybe that's why he's not being censored.