• Ramires appeared to be injured when struck by the ball
• Brazilian could miss Champions League tie against Napoli

Ramires may be out “for at least four weeks at least” due to a medial knee ligament injury suffered during the second half of Chelsea’s FA Cup fourth-round victory at Queens Park Rangers.

The injury appeared to happen when the ball hit the Brazilian midfielder’s leg. After lengthy treatment by club medical staff he was carried off on a stretcher.

If he is out a month, he could miss at least four Premier League games and the last-16 round of the Champions League when it resumes next month.

André Villas-Boas, the Chelsea manager, said: “It’s not so bad in terms of knee injuries. He’ll have the MRI on Sunday and we’ll know the full extent. Hopefully he is going to avoid an operation and he is going be back soon.

“We have to know the extent of the injury – eventually with treatment we could look at a four-week period, maybe more, hopefully not.”

The midfielder is likely to miss the league games with Swansea, Manchester United, Everton and Bolton Wanderers, plus the first leg of the Champions League last-16 encounter with Napoli.

Frank Lampard, who sat out the 1-0 win over QPR with a calf injury, is rated at 50-50 to play against Swansea City on Tuesday.

ChelseaQPRFA Cup 2011-12FA CupJamie Jackson
guardian.co.uk

• Fan appears to make monkey signs
• Photograph is circulated on Twitter

Liverpool knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup but were put on the defensive when the question of racism again raised its head at Anfield. An image of a Liverpool fan appearing to make an offensive monkey gesture in the direction of Patrice Evra was circulated on Twitter, prompting Merseyside police to investigate.

Patrice Evra, who became embroiled in a row that led to Luis Suárez being found guilty of racially abusing the United defender in the 1-1 draw on 15 October, was booed loudly every time he touched the ball during the Cup tie, which Liverpool won 2–1.

“This matter is now under investigation by specialist hate crime detectives and we are working with Liverpool Football Club to identify the man in question,” said the match commander, Ch Supt Jon Ward, while Liverpool asked supporters who may be able to help to contact the club.

When Kenny Dalglish was asked what he thought of Evra’s every touch being booed, the Liverpool manager responded: “Are you winding me up?” He added: “Why would I be disappointed for Patrice Evra? I can’t believe you have asked that question before anything else. Have you ever played football? I used to get booed.

“The media has played its part this week in trying to maintain dignity and respect on the pitch and to concentrate on the game. The behaviour of both sets of players on the pitch was a credit to the game. There was banter between the two sets of fans but it was friendly. There may not have been a lot of respect, but both sets of supporters were brilliant. I don’t think there was anything there that was untoward.”

The Kop joined in several choruses of “There’s only one lying bastard”, putting into words what appeared to be the underlying theme of Liverpool’s defence of Suárez.

Queens Park Rangers players took a collective decision to back Anton Ferdinand by not shaking hands with their opponents before their Cup tie with Chelsea at Loftus Road, which they lost 1–0. However, the Football Association chose to discard the usual pre-match convention. The issue was a concern due to John Terry being accused of making a racially abusive slur at Ferdinand in October. Terry will answer the charge, which he denies, at West London magistrates’ court on

Twenty years on the top flight has turned many former big hitters into small-town clubs

Every time the hype and anticipation surrounding Spain’s El Clásico series of grudge matches starts up in earnest, as it did last week for Barcelona’s 2–1 Copa del Rey defeat of Real Madrid, it is remarked rather smugly in this country that at least the Premier League can boast more than two teams capable of winning the title.

That is still just about true, though by common consent – Roberto Mancini, Sir Alex Ferguson, André Villas-Boas and a few others – the number presently stands at three. Viz, the two Manchester sides and Tottenham Hotspur, and even that number may reduce should City open up an eight-point gap over Spurs on Sunday afternoon. The rest of the chasers are already looking at an even bigger chasm to bridge, and as the Manchester United manager said last weekend it would take a collapse by all three teams at the top of the table to give Chelsea and Arsenal a glimmer of hope.

Three teams is only slightly better than two, though what the Premier League can rejoice in and La Liga cannot is that two of those three names are new. Manchester City have not won a league title since 1968, have had 22 managers since Joe Mercer, have been all the way to the third tier of English football and back and were everyone’s favourite joke club until three or four years ago. Spurs have never quite gone in for comedy to the same extent but you could have raised a laugh just a few seasons ago with the notion that they would be leading London’s challenge for the title with Chelsea and Arsenal floundering in their wake.

So the argument that the Premier League is more competitive than La Liga is not without merit, particularly as Arsenal and Chelsea are still in the Champions League and are still capable of mounting a convincing domestic challenge most seasons, and not forgetting it is less than a month since the bottom-placed team rather grandly prevented United ascending to the top of the table by beating them 3-2 at Old Trafford. There is more to English football than a rivalry between two teams, as is the rather unhealthy case in Spain, though increasingly the Premier League is becoming a tale of two cities.

Consider the facts. In the 20 years of its history, the Premier League has been won only once by a team from outside London or Manchester, and unless Liverpool or Newcastle are going to be absolutely amazing in the coming months, this season will conform to the usual pattern. The only exception to the rule, Blackburn under Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish, was 18 years ago and acknowledged even at the time to be a one-off, never to be repeated achievement. In the first year of the Premier League Aston Villa were runners-up and Norwich finished third. The next few years saw Blackburn, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Leeds claim what might be termed podium finishes, though since the turn of the century the London-Manchester duopoly has tightened its grip. Only Liverpool, runners-up twice and in third place three times, have managed to get a look-in at the top in the past 11 years, apart from Newcastle, who managed third place in 2003. That means, of 33 possible podium places, only six have ended up outside London or Manchester since the 2000-01 season.

Liverpool and Newcastle, as it happens, are still the likeliest challengers to the duopoly, though not so likely that London or Manchester need be worried. At least not the leading teams in London and Manchester. Arsenal and Chelsea will be well aware that fourth place is still up for grabs, and Liverpool supporters in particular confident that once a toehold in Europe has been gained it can be used as a springboard to much greater glory. But as things stand Dalglish has yet to reverse the slow decline that has been his club’s story since they won their last title 22 years ago, and Newcastle have still to prove they can match the standards set under Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson.

Elsewhere, however, the wastage is even worse. Everton and Leeds, among the last winners of the old First Division title, have slipped well out of contention. Leeds, like Nottingham Forest, have even slipped the odd division. Aston Villa have more in common with Midlands neighbours Wolves and West Brom in fearing relegation more than aspiring to achievement, three Lancashire clubs could easily be relegated – not that Blackburn, Bolton or Wigan have been doing much of late at the other end of the table – and although a certain level of success can presently be claimed at Stoke, Sunderland, Norwich and Swansea it is on a regional rather than national scale. That is not to denigrate the considerable achievements of Tony Pulis, Martin O’Neill, Paul Lambert and Brendan Rodgers, just to point out that it will be a while before they are acclaimed outside the Premier League.

abroad used to be that England was a country with an astonishing number of professional clubs and an incredible depth to its league system. That largely remains the case, though it is being obscured by the view that London and Manchester are synonymous with English success. The rest of the world can just about grasp that London, as a major capital and population centre, can contain a bewildering number of professional teams, though Spurs joining Arsenal and Chelsea in the Champions League bracket gives it an unusual potency. Manchester is a provincial city – that’s why both its teams carry its name – and although United’s unparalleled success in the last couple of decades has been the single biggest factor in shutting out the rest of the country, City’s wealth now seems likely to continue the process.

For how long is anyone’s guess, but the predictions made at the beginning of the Premier League, that it would eventually work against small-town teams and favour big clubs from big cities, appear to be coming true. It is just that 20 years ago no one had Liverpool and Birmingham or Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds down as small towns. And no one imagined the number of big cities would be just two.

This afternoon’s big matches – City v Spurs, Arsenal v United – would have been pretty big at most points in the game’s history. London v Manchester has always been a rivalry within the overall context of English football, but where it used to be a subplot, it is now the whole story. It is true that more teams are involved in England, and there is comfort in that, but the situation is not so far removed from Spain that the Premier League can afford to feel smugness or superiority.

Manchester CityManchester UnitedArsenalTottenham HotspurChelseaPremier League 2011-12Premier LeaguePaul Wilson
guardian.co.uk