In the Champions League tonight, the Reds take on in form French team Lyon, who have impressed in recent weeks, with striker Lisandro Lopez particulary in great form.

A defeat tonight would leave them struggling to qualify, with two tough away games to follow.

On Sunday another big game will take centre stage, with Manchester United coming to Anfield, in which a defeat would surely rule out any possibility of winning the title this season.

Benitez’s team have struggled to get going this season, with four league defeats already doubling their total for the whole of last season.

Xabi Alonso’s exit has effected them greatly, with his replacement Alberto Aquilani still recovering from injury.

The usually reliable Steven Gerrard has also been out of sorts, and the defence have also  been poor which is very unusual for a Benitez team.

This is in stark contrast to Lyon, who are beginning to show signs of a return to their best form, after a disappointing campaign last season.

Despite the loss of two key players in Karim Benzema and Juninho, they stand top of Ligue 1 and of their Champions League group.

A win tonight would all but put them through to the knock out stages, although they have only won once on British soil previously.

Benitez faces one of his toughest weeks as Liverpool manager. Winning both games this week will quieten his critics and give his team the lift they will need to push for honours this season.

Picture courtesy of Jspace3

Jenson Button

The Briton crossed the line to win the race, which was to be a tactical scrap between several cars for the win.

The race started with pole sitter Jarno Trulli losing out to his Toyota team mate, Timo Glock at the first corner, with the German driver then pulling away from the field.

The start was also a good one for Lewis Hamilton, who used his KERS to slide his way up to third place from fifth.

On the second lap, the two Toyota’s continued to build up their advantage, and Jenson Button managed to get passed Hamilton’s Mclaren to take third.  

The order remained the same until the first round of pitstops, which saw Glock come in first, confirming that he did have less fuel onboard. The German also took on a new set of medium tyres, which cost him a lot of time.

Trulli pitted two laps later, but lost time after rejoining ahead of Glock, when he struggled with the yet to stop Fernando Alonso.

Button took over the lead of the race, and used his soft set of tyres wisely to set a series of quick laps. By the time he came into the pits  for his first stop, he had done enough to leap infront of the Toyota’s.

After the second round of pitstops, Vettel rejoined ahead of Trulli’s Toyota in second place, but by this time, Button was already out of sight in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton was in fourth place, with the possibility of clinching a podium if he could catch up onto the back of the struggling Trulli, but he could not find the pace in which to do so.

Button crossed the line clear of last weekends Chinese Grand Prix winner, Sebastian Vettel in second, with Trulli holding on to the final place on the podium, and Hamilton right behind in fourth.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, finished sixth but once again suffered problems with his KERS, preventing him from finishing higher and gaining more points.

There were more woes for the Italian giants of motoracing as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who had to pit for a new nose early on in the race, only managed to finish 14th.

But the day belongs to Jenson Button, who has now extended his drivers championship lead to 12 points over team mate Rubens Barrichello.

Sebastian Vettel is in third, the Toyota’s of Trulli and Glock follow, then comes Weber, Hamilton, Alonso and rounding out the top ten is Heidfeld and Kovalainen.

The championship heads next to Barcelona in Spain, for the fifth race of the season.

The German’s team mate, Mark Webber crossed the line 10 seconds further back to round off a one-two finish for the team, on a day which saw the race disrupted by rain once again.

The winner of the first two races this season, Jenson Button managed to bring his Brawn GP home in third, to keep up his lead in the championship.

The race was forced to start behind the safety car when rain soaked all of the circuit, leaving standing water in most of the corners. But despite several drivers claiming over the radio that they were aquaplaining, safety car oulled off eight laps in.

Vettel began to extend his lead over team mate Webber, while second place starter, Fernando Alonso dived into the pits to make an early stop for fuel – his Renault fueld very light in qualifying to make sure of a good starting place, however this strategy was now comprimised.

By the time Vettel stopped, he had already pulled out a healthy lead over his team mate, and an even bigger gap to the Brawn’s, who couldn’t repeat the pace of Australia and Malaysia - partially due to a heavy fuel load.

However, the Brawn’s long fuelled strategy failed to work, when the safety car was once again called out after Robert Kubica smashed into the back of Jarno Trulli, forcing the Toyota out of the race, and Kubica’s BMW to pit for repairs.

Vettel did have a close call under the safety car, when rookie, Sebastien Buemi in the sister team, Toro Rosso, made contact with Vettel’s Red Bull, but the only damage appeared to be body work flying of Buemi’s front wing.

On the restart, Vettel once again started to cruise away from the pack and around two seconds a lap from Button, who had passed Mark Webber in the pits, but after a battle seeing the pair of the exchange positions, Webber eased past and began pulling away.

Vettel soon had a full pitstop advantage over Button, after rejoining just behind the Brawn, but Button did need to make a final stop.

Lewis Hamilton put in a fine performance from ninth on the grid. The Mclaren star was involved in battles with both Ferrari drivers, team mate Heikki Kovalainen and the BMW of Nick Heidfeld.

It proved to be another misreable weekend for Ferrari. Felipe Massa stopped with a technical problem, and Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 10th place.

So with three races down, Button extends his lead to six points over team mate Rubens Barrichello, with Timo Glock a further five points behind in joint third with Vettel.

Webber and Trulli are fifth and sixth, with Alonso, Heidfeld and Hamilton all tied on four points.

Brawn have a 16.5 point lead over Red Bull and Toyota in the constructors championship, with Mclaren, Renault, Torro Rosso and Williams right behind.

Next week will see the drivers racing in even more extreme weather conditions as they head to the heat of the desert for the Bahrain Grand Prix, at the Sakhir circuit in Manama.

Button, started from pole position and was declared the winner after the race was stopped due to a tropical monsoon left the circuit in un-drivable conditions.

The race began poorly for Button as Williams driver Nico Rosberg slide through from fourth, and led until the first round of pit-stops, he was also passed by Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.

Rain had been promised from the start and when it arrived the entire field dived into the pits to fit their extreme wet tyres, all except Toyota’s Timo Glock.

This proved to be a successful gamble by Toyota as Glock quickly adapted to a track, that due to the light rain, was barely wet.

This prompted a quick change in strategy for the rest of the drivers, who followed Toyota’s decision and soon the rest of the field were back on track and Button had regained the lead.

Then, just moments later, the rain did begin lashing down and it was time for extreme wets again.

The safety car was deployed on lap 33 to neutralise the race, however, this proved useless as the drivers could not maintain the speed of the Mercedes safety car, and eventually the red flag was shown.

Nearly an hour passed before the race control decided it was too dangerous to continue.

This prompted a count-back to the last completed lap, which meant Jenson Button won the Grand Prix and extended his lead in the drivers championship.

Timo Glock, who had been second, was demoted to third after the count-back confirmed Nick Heidfeld was actually in second before the red flag.

Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn and Mark Webber’s Red Bull completed the rest of the top six, with Luis Hamilton managing seventh – in what has been a troubled week for the champion.

It was another miserable day for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen’s poor tyre choice saw him finish 14th, while Felipe Massa just missed out on the points, ending the race in 9th.

Button now leads the championship with 15 points while his Brawn team mate Barrichello is second with 10.

The next race in this bizarre campaign takes place in two weeks at the Shanghai International Circuit, in China.

As Brawn are threatening to run away with the season it is now up to the other teams to improve in time for China.

On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One world championship in Brazil, resulting in him being the youngest driver to take the title at the age of 23 and the first British champion in 12 years.

The following Tuesday, with great honour, Democrat Barack Obama won the presidential campaign, making him the first black president of the United States of America.

With this phenomenal success in a short period, Black history shall not be looked back in vain.

According to ITV, an average of 8.8 million viewers tuned in to watch Lewis Hamilton win the championship, making it the most watched race since ITV began broadcasting the sport in 1997.

Hamilton took the championship title away from Damon Hill who won it in 1996. Along with this Hamilton also has taken the title of being the youngest member of this sport away from Fernando Alonso.

With all the adrenaline pumping, Lewis says: “It’s amazing. I need to get my breath back. Give me some time.”

After all the excitement, once Hamilton managed to get out of his vehicle and escape the media mob he was praised by his dad Anthony Hamilton, brother Nicholas and girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger from girl band the Pussycat Dolls.

After it was announced Obama had won the election, he made a speech in front of thousands of supporters in his home town Chicago.

With his love and gratitude to his family and daughters he says: “Sasha and Malia, I love you both more than you can imagine, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.”

With Obama’s inspirational speeches and determination, there is no doubt about it; he is the best man for the job.

With this in mind he detained votes from Florida, Virginia and Colorado, all of which voted Republican in 2004. I guess blue is the new red.

Due to inauguration, Obama will have to wait until 20 January 2009 to become the official president of the United States.

So let’s hope for a brighter new year to come.