Hardly any club is safe from major blows to title races

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"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."
-- Winston Churchill

It's a long season in soccer, especially if you're a club lucky enough to be involved in three or more competitions at once. So it's no surprise that nearly every big club in the world has fallen all over itself of late in an effort to stay the course. But never in this space have we had such a precipitous drop-off after No. 1.

Manchester United keeps the top spot this week thanks to a consistent few weeks of soccer. The Red Devils have muscled their way back to the summit of the English Premier League, booked a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals and, considering that three second-division clubs are in the FA Cup semis, didn't do so badly in losing out to Portsmouth.

From then on out, it gets dicey. Arsenal is still in second and also in the Champions League quarters after sensationally knocking out defending champs AC Milan. But injuries, inconsistency and inexperience have the Gunners reeling. Below that, the league leaders in both Spain and Italy have looked terrible of late, as have their main would-be title contenders.

In Latin America, it's a similar story, with the classic powers all struggling to find consistency early in their own domestic seasons and in the Copa Libertadores. Supposed cup favorite São Paulo is learning what it's like to rely on the mercurial Adriano, Boca Juniors may or may not get it in gear and the other big clubs are playing their way into form.

So is this the Ineptitude Edition of the Rankings? Maybe. Who can weather their respective storms will determine who's in it for real.

• Housekeeping note: We'll be back on April 17 after a break for some MLS season-preview materials. By then, we'll have four teams remaining in the Champions League. No excuses.

Note: All rankings, records and statistics are through March 19.

World Soccer Power Rankings Rank Prev. Team 1 1 Manchester United All bow down to Cristiano Ronaldo, whose pair of goals in Wednesday's win over Bolton give him a total of 33 in all competitions this season. It also ties him for the club record for a winger with George Best. "He's phenomenal," said Alex Ferguson. "It speaks everything for the player. I don't think there is a winger in this world that can do that and that's the measure of the quality of the lad and his scoring ability." 2 2 Arsenal It's a steep drop to No. 2. If you're a Gunners fan, you've got to be worried. Arsenal is now officially out of first place in the Premiership and hasn't won in four league matches. And how's this for a nasty stretch? Its next six games are away to Chelsea and Bolton, two home tilts with red-hot Liverpool in the Champions League and league, the return leg at Anfield and then an April 13 trip to Old Trafford. Duck and cover, boys. 3 5 Chelsea Yeah, it definitely looks like Tottenham Hotspur is the biggest thorn in Chelsea's side this season, stunning the Blues in the Carling Cup final and then keeping them from reaching second place in the EPL on Wednesday. But consider everything Chelsea has been through this season: outside the top six in England and out one iconic manager last fall, embarrassed in the Carling final last month and close to self-destruction two weeks ago after getting bounced out of the FA Cup by Barnsley. Yet the Blues are still within striking distance in England and they're in the Champions League quarterfinals for the fourth time in five years. All this despite speculation that half the team is heading for the exit door once the season is over. Just a regular week in Roman Abramovich's sandbox. 4 4 FC Barcelona Time and again, the Blaugrana are gifted a chance to gain ground on Real Madrid, and time and again they blow it. How many more opportunities will there be to make up ground? "We have to learn how to control games better, especially when we are in the lead," said frequent late-game hero Xavi earlier this week. "We have to be more mature and competitive in certain aspects of the game." 5 -- Liverpool Here come the Reds with another late-season surge. Minus that little FA Cup hiccup to Barnsley (and really, you're not cool these days unless you lose to the Tykes), Liverpool hasn't lost a game since late January. Fernando Torres is finally looking like a world-class striker again -- 27 goals in all competitions -- and we all know Liverpool is the team you least want to face in the latter stages of the Champions League. 6 6 AS Roma Scary times in the Eternal City, what with Roma's title hopes dwindling each day, a terrifying Champions League rematch with Man. United ahead and losing the Rome derby Wednesday to Lazio. But being the completely biased soccer writer I am, I'm more intrigued by the reports surfacing that John Fisher is interested in buying the club. We know the San Jose Earthquakes (and Oakland A's) co-owner is a huge soccer nut, but he's the silent partner in his sports teams, so not much has been forthcoming. If this does end up happening, though, expect a fan backlash that may be even worse than what's happening with Man. United and Liverpool. Italians are perhaps even more strongly nationalistic than the English, and the Romans are already having their predictable freak-out, not just over the fact that their club -- family-operated by the Sensi clan for 15 years -- could be sold, but going American to boot. 7 3 Inter Milan The ship is sinking fast. Inter's 2-1 win over Palermo on Sunday was only its second in eight games and masks a host of internal problems. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marco Materazzi reportedly aren't speaking. Roberto Mancini has fallen out of favor with a whole host of players, and apparently only agreed to stay on as manager if the club showed Luís Figo, Adriano and on-loan Álvaro Recoba the door. And once again, Inter flamed out of the Champions League in spectacular fashion. 8 8 Real Madrid Real has no excuse for its offensive ineptitude of late (zero shots on goal at Deportivo La Coruña?), but its drought could certainly be quenched by a healthy Ruud van Nistelrooy, out at least six weeks after ankle surgery. I had yet another barroom debate the other night with yet someone else who finds the Dutchman's game limited. Yep, "all" he does is score goals with clinical finishing ability. In other words, he does what he's paid to do. Real could've used him against Roma, no? 9 -- Boca Juniors No one club has been totally impressive in both the Copa Libertadores and its own domestic league thus far, but Boca has yet to drop an official match so far in '08 -- a stretch that will be more impressive should the Xeneizes grab a result at Colo-Colo on Thursday night. This Copa defense run could be the end of the fabled strike duo of Martín Palermo and Rodrigo Palacio, with the former perhaps on his way to MLS after breaking the club scoring record and the latter finally making a much-anticipated move to Europe. 10 7 Bayern Munich The Bavarians still sit atop the Budesliga, are into the UEFA Cup quarterfinals and have reached the German Cup final. But one thing you never, ever want to do if you're flexing your muscles is get shut out by the last-place team in your league, as Bayern meekly did at Energie Cottbus last weekend. "It's highly possible one or two of my players were deceived by all the talk of the title race being over and had started dreaming we'd won the championship already," said outgoing manager Ottmar Hitzfeld. Um, and isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen? Talk about lame-duck status. Honorable mentions: Getafe, Fenerbahçe, Rangers, Cruzeiro, FC Porto, Fluminense, Flamengo Dropped off: São Paulo