Archive for the ‘Chelsea’ Category

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Manchester City 

Judging by his plea for Manchester City fans to turn up in their thousands for the Champion’s League game against Shakhtar Donetsk, Pep Guardiola is taking the competition very seriously. He has also asked that the Etihad crowd stop booing the Champion’s League music, an act which goes back to when City were fined for contravening FFP regulations, and a plea which may very well fall on deaf ears.

The fans thought the punishment was excessive and a clear case of victimisation which, considering that only City and PSG were fined, and that they were only fined once, is probably true. Here’s the full story if you’re interested. (more…)

It would appear that the top four by the end of this season could very well be made up of the four clubs represented by these players.

Having researched this a little, with the emphasis on “little“, the evidence suggests that, in the main, the teams with regular twenty-plus goalscorers in their ranks are the ones which finish the highest.

Now it could very well be that Sadio ManĂ© of Liverpool and Alexandre Lacazette of Arsenal also score twenty or more goals this season, but we think they will fall short of the other four. (more…)

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Having recently retired as the “undisputed prediction king – failed abysmally“, (for the time being anyway), our thoughts now turn to new, (or at least re-worked old), ways of filling the column inches.

The first subject which springs to mind is the return of the Champion’s League. You know, that tournament which, according to stubborn old man at Arsenal, has lost some of it’s sparkle. This is what he said. (more…)

Well, avid readers, so far it has been a very mixed weekend in prediction land, which is where WSA has been living for the last 24 hours.

The first prediction we made was that Manchester United may play in grey and would win 3-1.
Wrong! On both counts. They played in black and white which was almost as dull and boring as their performance. (more…)

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(“They’re behind you!” Antonio Valencia tries in vain to find his team mates, who have become invisible thanks to that magical grey kit)

Manchester United will have an opportunity to wear their new grey third kit when they play Southampton at St.Mary’s on Saturday. If they do, then it will be the first time they have worn it in the top flight since they wore it in a 3-1 defeat at yes, you guessed it, Southampton.

On that day, back in 1996, Ferguson ordered the team to change their kit at half-time, blaming it for the players having become invisible whilst wearing it and being unable to see each other on the pitch. (more…)

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Manchester United began their defence of the Carabao Cup in some style. Whilst they have never actually won the cup under it’s current sponsorship, they did win it last time when it was the plain old EFL Cup.

An easy 4-1 win at Old Trafford over a poor Burton Albion side meant that JosĂ© Mourinho and his team progress and will now meet Swansea City in Wales in the next round. (more…)

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The first question to be asked is; do either of the two clubs really need him? And the short answer to this question is; no, they don’t, not really.

Sánchez is a goalscorer and creator of the highest order and would improve virtually any club for whom he played.

City, however, already have Sergio AgĂĽero and Gabriel JĂ©sus scoring goals and, on the creative side, they have Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy SanĂ©, Raheem Sterling, Ilkay GĂĽndogan, Benjamin Mendy, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Yaya TourĂ©, so it is difficult to see where he would fit into the side. (more…)

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At around the same time last year Manchester’s City and United were about to meet each other in the derby, the loss of which was to be followed by a change in fortune for United.

Having started the season, along with City and Chelsea on a 100% winning run they were to go on and draw many games they should have won and finish the season in sixth, whilst the other two, as we all know, finished first and second.

Here we look at the opening few games of the so-called “big six” and compare them, where possible, to results against the same opposition last season. (more…)

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They have played the same amount of games. They have won the same amount of games. They have scored the same amount of goals and they have conceded the same amount of goals. They have both drawn one game and neither have lost a game. Consequently they have the same amount of points thanks to their identical tallies in everything else.

They are, however, only three points ahead of Chelsea and have only played five game so it’s still definitely very early days yet. (more…)

There goes another weekend and now we can all look forward to the Carabao Cup. Yes, dear readers, the Carabao Cup fills in for the Champion’s League this week and much excitement will be available to fans when they watch United take on Burton Albion at Old Trafford and City play Mr. Entertainment himself, Tony Pulis and his West Brom team at The Hawthorns.

Not this week the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern MĂĽnich and Qarabag. No, it is the lesser known teams of football, the minnows who get their chance in the spotlight. (more…)