Monday, 16 November 2009
Monday, 24 August 2009
Another Win...
I got two of the results wrong, Spurs managed a win thanks to Carlton Cole's attempt to show he and Defoe could do a job for the national team in front of Capello with a neat through ball to his countryman.
Add to that Bolton showed no backbone against Hull, who could of have many more than the one they got.
I did however win another £82 accumulator, thanks to Burnley beating Everton 1-0.
7 Days of the transfer window left, i think things will start to hot up now. Lescott is finally... actually i'm not doing that again.
Liverpool play Villa tonight. Villa are struggling with a small squad and a lack of confidence much like Everton. Liverpool will not want to drop any points after the rest of the big 4 winning already.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Match Preview
Predictions for today.
Arsenal 3 - Pompey 0
Birmingham 1 - Stoke 1
Hull 1 - Bolton 1
Citeh 2 - Wolves 0
Sunderland 2 - Rovers 0
Wigan 1 - Utd 2
Sunday.
West Ham 1 - Spurs 1
Burnley 1 - Everton 0
Fulham 0 - Chelsea 2
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Midweek Mayhem
On Tuesday night Arsenal’s game with Bolton was prosponed so they could play in the more important champions league qualifier at Parkhead. With 5 players missing they won the game 2-0.
On Wednesday night the Red Devils made the short trip to Burnley with 5 players missing and lost 1-0.
Depth.
Owen missed a sitter early on, Carrick missed a penalty and Jensen nicknamed ‘Beast’ by the Burnley supporters made a number of good saves. Burnley could play that game another 10 times and be beaten 4-0 every time just like Paul Merson said on Sky Sports News. But Burnley were lucky, were up for their first home game in the Premiership and Robbie Blake smashed one past Englands number 2 just like Matt Le Tisser predicted pre-game. If Ronaldo was playing for United, he would of scored the penalty Carrick missed and probably created another. He made his name destroying mediocre teams like Burnley.
Rooney and Owen doesn’t look a good partnership. Berbatov’s relaxed style make it look like he is not putting in the effort. That frustrates Rooney, so Rooney and Berbatov doesn’t look a good partnership either.
United had 17 shots and 13 corners. Ferguson has 2 weeks to buy a striker. If he doesn’t and Rooney was to get injured then they could drop out of the top 4.
Spurs tore Hull apart 5-1 with Defoe smashing home a fantastic hatrick. That should make up Arry’s mind that its Defoe and someone for the majority of the season. Hull on the other hand have been a mess for a long time, relegation front runners.
Liverpool faltered first game of the season, but got back to winning ways at home to Stoke. Torres opened his account for the season, Johnson opened his account for the club and all was well again in the land of Mersey. Except of course Rafa's possible exit.
The weekend’s games will be interesting, Portsmouth will get turned over by a confident Arsenal side, Wigan will provide a strong test for United, Liverpool will continue winning ways to Villa and Chelsea should out do their nearest rivals Fulham.
I’ll have my predictions up on Friday.
Monday, 17 August 2009
And So It Begins...
All eyes were on the big game of the weekend with Liverpool’s trip to Spurs on the Sunday. After 40 minutes of Spurs minor pressure and a few chances saved by Reina the home side went one up. Liverpool looked stale and off pace, the big players didn’t turn up. On top of that even the most rose-tinted glasses wearing of scousers would be unable to make a case for the depth of the Liverpool squad with the likes of Voronin and alongside some of the clubs young ‘prospects’. Spurs look like more the side that they were a few years ago and with challenge for the Europa league places with a strong squad of internationals. Liverpool don’t have the squad for a season in the Premiership let alone for Europe and the cup competitions. Liverpool are the only team capable of dropping out of the ‘big four’. That won’t sit well with Liverpool fans, but too many people are getting drawn into Liverpool’s last season. That was a fluke. Torres and Gerrard with win games on their own but in reality if either gets injured for any length of time they don’t have the attacking force to replace them. Neither is capable of performing at the top level for a whole 60 game season. They will have a blip, but my gut feeling is they will have the nous to finish 4th.
The massive talking point of the weekend’s action saw Arsenal’s destruction of a poor Everton side 6 goals to 1. As much as the papers talked about the lack of aerial ability of the Arsenal side, the performances both defensively and going forward told its own story with 2 headed goals. Thomas Vermaelen made an impressive debut at the heart of defence winning the majority of headers and challenges that came his way, but it was Alex Song who was easily man of the match. His quick feet, awareness and tackling would have gone unnoticed to many, but his ‘invisible wall’ performance will put the mind of many Arsenal fans to rest. Everton look like a side who lack a cutting edge upfront and a team who need to sell Lescott before his unrest causes more problems. Sky Sports reported that he asked NOT to play in the game because his head wasn’t right and it showed as the defence lacked leadership. Everton will be barmy to turn down the reported £22m offer coming their way from Citeh. I still believe he will be sold, probably early next week, Everton will bring in Senderos whose personal terms are already agreed and Arsenal will bid late for Hangeland. Arsene will already have in mind who he will buy, but he will wait till the last minute to pick up players. Arsenal will solidify their position with a squad growing in confidence but without significant strengthening wont challenge for the title, eventually finishing 3rd. Everton will get in Europe again with the same squad as last year.
Man City outplayed a bottom half level Blackburn who were missing players. The new players all received debuts with Barry the pick of the bunch breaking up play with a strong midfield performance. Citeh were a class above their opponents, and will press till the end of the season but finish 5th.
The United game was interesting. Manyoo lined up without their best 5 players last season. Tevez, Ronaldo, VDS, Rio and Vidic. Did it make any difference? Yes it did, as they staled to a 1-0 win against newly promoted Brum. United defensively looked pretty strong and Brum didn’t really attempt to create much bar a couple of counter attack half chances. It was at the other end that the losses showed up, with everything having to go through Rooney they lack the cutting edge and moment of brilliance that Ronaldo can bring. United’s new recruits had a mixed effect; Valencia’s effect was of a player who looked slightly in awe of his surroundings. His usual wing play disappeared and he trundled alone in out of position for most of the game. Owen only saw the last few minutes of the game out but succeeded in missing a one on one.
Sunderland and Fulham both recorded wins. Darren Bent looked lively; I think he’ll get some goals this season especially with Jones partnering him. Bent’s record is still good even though his time at Spurs didn’t go like it should have. Pompey were Fulham’s victims, they lacked backbone and look dead certs to go down without investment. Goals will be few and far between. Sunderland beat Bolton who will bully their way safe this season as always.
I won £130 on a 5 team accumulator. Fulham, Leeds, Charlton, Arsenal, City.
Next set of games I’ll put my tips down before as proof.
So what have we learnt from the opening weekend of the season?
1. Owen is not a magical striker who comes on a scores at every opportunity, he is neither Tevez or Ronaldo
2. Unless Gerrard or Torres perform Liverpool will lose games
3. Arsenal’s height is not a major problem, it turns out the papers forgot about Song, Bendtner and Van Persie not being Borrowers
4. Spurs have great depth, they have potential to be the best team outside the big 4
5. Chelsea will win games without playing well, Man Utd without Ronaldo may not
6. Everton and Villa won’t finish 5th and 6th this year; neither have the squad of Spurs or Sunderland, let alone Citeh.
7. Gomes is still a clumsy clown, Harry may make a move to replace him
8. Transfers over the last few days of the season may render all the above points void.
Football is back.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Transfer News: Thumb Twiddling...
Imagine being a player during a transfer window, sitting waiting for the phone to ring to hear Real Madrid had finally stump up the necessary funds to take you from your scouse residence to the plain of Spain. You should be imagining yourself with an ever increase amount of facial hair, face like a Moomin and think Basque accent. You should also imagine youself with Alonso 14 on your back.
After Kolo Toure becomes the John Terry that Mark Hughes always wanted, club captain Richard Dunne’s career as Eastland may parallel his surname. He’ll make a move to Sunderland in the coming weeks rather than sit on the bench watching the part Klingon, Joleon Lescott put his shirt on.
Spurs cut away the deadwood of Bent to bring in the towering oak, Crouch whose friendly plutonic relationship with both Defoe and Redknapp will delight Robbie Keane. It could be worse, as Roman Pavlychenko will find out so he will desert North London to join Roma.
Arsenal have money in the bank which is rapidly growing at Manu Eboo-ah will take his dancing antics to Florence, but this mean Patrick Vieira will be able to return home to Highbury, realise it’s now apartments and make the five minute walk around the corner to Ashburton Grove. “Sacrebleu” he will exclaim then promptly teach Alex Song the ways of a defensive midfielder.
West Ham want another striker, and being of Italian persuasion Zola will bring in hit and miss Mario Barwuah Balotelli so he can then let injury prone Ashton go to Stoke to free up space in the physio room for Kieran Dyer.
Finally with 2 weeks left till the season starts the panic buying may being as Hull realise they have done no business so far, Phil Brown will being his Churchill Dog act by saying “Oh Yes” to anything thrown at him lumbering him with a Chimbonda and a Barton because nobody else wants them.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Why Man City Cannot Challenge For The Title
Sadly the misguided Citeh faithful will have to make do with a tight challenge for European honours with Spurs, Everton and Villa in the Europa League chase rather than heading for at seat at the premiere European table and break the top 4. The problem with signing these ‘superstar’ names for big money is that actually whatever the media will lead them to think these players are not the superstar names that they appear to be. The club is more likely to fall into disrepute with a team of mercenaries being over paid who are happy enough to collect their massive wage packets without putting in the effort needed to climb the table. There reward is given out before they step onto the pitch. Will Gareth Barry care if he doesn’t win the league? Will Adebayor be bothered is he is not in the Champions League? Do these players have the hunger to win something for Man City? Are they ready to give it all for the fans? Or are they more hunger to fill their bank balance?
Citeh need a strong backbone. They would like to sign a heroic stalwart centre-back to build a defence round. A leader of men. They would like John Terry to be that warrior but will have a hard time getting him. Terry means more to the Chelsea fans than the club because those in the club realise his ‘throw his body on the line’ tactics have left him susceptible to injury and a large offer would be difficult to turn down. JT will hope that any offer that does come with be rebuffed and his contract will be upped to the same wage as Frank Lampard. Wherever he plays his football next season, and Man City is genuinely an option, he will be lucky to play ¾ of the games without his back giving out. If Citeh don’t get Terry they should look at a proven top level defender coming into their peak like John Mensah, Naldo or Bruno Alves. That would be a better and cheaper move to make.
Mark Hughes has the 2nd toughest job in football right now. (The top position goes to Manuel Pellegrini.) Hughes has to take these new signings and mould them into a team. His job is being made increasingly difficult every time a new player joins because already his players are saying “am I going to be in the first eleven”. The amount of competition doesn’t always create increased performance, there is such a thing as too many players. The luxury of Hughes’ situation is that some of those players will happily sit on the bench for 80 minutes deciding what to spend their next pay check on. Dealing with the ego’s that come with the stars is a job Hughes must adapt to fast. His experiences last year will help him but dropping players who have cost £20m is difficult and with the fans anticipation comes a short time period to get into full flow. As I see it this time next season the money men will have a new man in charge, a foreigner manager of course, but someone use to dealing with big names. It could be Mourinho.
There is too much that could go wrong at Citeh for a race for the title this season. Too much has chopped and changed for players to settle. When the group took over they immediately said this would be a long term project, but then they tried to sign Kaka for £100m. This made them a target for every club in the world to be overcharged. Until the season transfer window is closed I’m not going to talk about positions because too much depends on who the top 4 bring in between now and then.
Arsenal fans are pinching themselves as Emmanuel Adebayor looks set to join the Citeh ‘revolution’ for a whooping £25m after he joined for just £3m in January 2006. In the 07/08 season he pulled a large haul of 30 goals in 48 games but for those close to the club who saw the games rather than the MOTD highlights they know his tally should have been double that. Then after gaining the plaudits and respect of the majority of the fans his attitude changed. Firstly forcing a doubling his wages to a reported 80k-a-week then resting on his laurels he firmly believes he is one of the top strikers in the world, deserving to be loved in the same way the supporters respect Cesc Fabregas or Robin van Persie. This could have been the case if his work rate had improved but his lack of effort teamed with his obvious lust for more money and a bigger stage left his relationship with the fans at breaking point. His statement about Milan’s advances being like Beyonce was after him and his interview on Football Focus with Garth Crooks where he referred to himself in the 3rd person ended his career at Arsenal.
Fans appreciate work rate, sweat, effort, motivation, exertion over talent. Any player who will run his heart out like a fan of the club would do, will gain the respect of the crowd quicker than any solo strike will. Arsenal fans know that waiting in the wings is Nicklas Bendtner, another tall striker who likes the ball at his feet more than his head. Bendtner lacks the experience of Adebayor, but in a 10minute cameo in a game already won or lost will put in 100% effort. Even if Adebayor goes im not convinced Wenger will replace him with Chamakah. He already has Eduardo, Van Persie, Bendtner, Arshavin, Walcott and Vela as striking options. Last season the gap between Everton and Arsenal was 9 points, the gap between City and Arsenal was 22 points. The question Citeh fans need to ask is do these new players plug a gap of at least 22 points?
Now this is a Premiership blog, you probably realise that through the title so I will do my bit to cover the lower end of the league. Burnley must make an impact in the transfer window. At the moment they will go down with a points total like Sunderland and Derby. Last season in the Championship they conceded 60 goals only 6 clubs conceded more and 3 of those were relegated. I haven’t decided whether the other two have a chance, Birmingham are a bigger club than Newcastle. I’d rather see Birmingham v Villa than Newcastle v Sunderland.
That is all.
