So ‘Grand Slam Sunday’ has been and gone. There was a lot of build up to the top four teams in the premier league all playing each other on one day. Liverpool played at home to Manchester United and Chelsea visited Arsenal. Both games ended one nil with Manchester United and Arsenal being victorious.

What did this momentous day in English football teach us? It taught us not to expect great football, a lot of goals, or any goalmouth action when these teams play each other. It taught us not to expect Liverpool to gatecrash the party this year, and it taught us that Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are possibly the best centre back pairing English football has ever seen.

The games were tense, and absorbing, but it is hard to remember any of the four goalkeepers making a save. The Manchester United goal came from a well worked set piece, and Arsenal’s winner came through an uncharacteristic blunder from Chelsea keeper Peter Cech.

It is likely that Arsenal and Manchester United will contest the title this year although Chelsea are not out of it. They miss Didier Drogba terribly and unless they can replace him, if that is possible, in January, it is unlikely that they will sustain a challenge. Liverpool are simply not good enough.

The Manchester United team is full of attacking stars, Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, and Giggs. They are the players who rightly receive the plaudits because they are exciting to watch. Vidic and Ferdinand do not get the glory, but they are players at the very top of their game, at the very top of the game. They were faultless yesterday against a Liverpool team boasting the new wonder strlker Fernando Torres. He has been terrorising defences in England and in Europe. Yesterday, when he came up against the United defensive pairing it was men against a boy.

Ferdinand has had a distinguished career and I fail to understand why he is not universally recognised as the best centre half in this country. He is strong in the air, firm in the tackle, reads the game wonderfully well, and he can play. He is a neat footballer. He also has exceptional pace, the one thing the England captain John Terry does not posses.

Grand Slam Sunday was a disappointment in terms of being a feast of entertaining football, but it brought much to admire. Among those good things nothing shone brighter than Ferdinand and Vidic.

Amongst the disappointing things it brought were the performances of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. Neither player had an effect on either game. They have been recognised as being amongst the top four players in the world. This quite simply beggar’s belief. Can either of them be compared to Kaka, Ronaldinho, Messi, Robinho, Deco, Christiano Ronaldo, Henry, or Seedorf? I think not. Maybe the new England manager Fabio Capello will recognise that these two have had their chance and have totally failed to live up to their ‘World class’ billing.