Archive for the ‘Premier League’ Category

More On Replacing Mourinho At Manchester United

Posted: September 11, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Firstly, we have to start this little monologue with the assertion that we think José Mourinho is doing an OK job at Manchester United. It isn’t perfect but we don’t think we could have reasonably expected much more out of the first two seasons in charge.

We were happy with the three trophies in his first season, even if none of them were “A list”. We appreciated that the team would slide down the table somewhat in their quest for Europa League glory so the sixth place finish was acceptable, particularly as the winning of Big Vase meant automatic qualification for The Champion’s League.

The following season saw an improvement in league form and finish but very little, if anything, else. Second place was a decent ending to the season but didn’t mask the fact that United were 19 points behind City. (more…)

More On Which Premier League Managers Are Doing Well And Which Aren’t

Posted: September 9, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Sunsport, which is the very original name for the sports section of The Sun newspaper, has conducted an exclusive poll. This must mean that they were the only ones who thought it had any relevance and, on that basis, nobody would be really interested in the findings.

Wrong! As greedy gobblers of anything football related, particularly when it’s about the Premier League and, even more particularly, when it’s an oasis in the desert of an international injury window, we at WSA thought it was quite interesting reading.

The poll was to decide which of the Premier League managers had increased their popularity rating with the fans and which hadn’t, thereby heading in the opposite direction. (more…)

More On That “Away Goals” Rule And Wilf Wows The Women

Posted: September 7, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Europe’s “top” coaches who, apparently, don’t include Pep Guardiola who is probably the toppest, but do include Arséne Wenger who is neither a coach nor was he, latterly anyway, one of the top ones, have requested that UEFA take another look at the away goals rule. You know the one, it’s when a cup tie finishes level and the win is awarded to the team who scored the most goals in the away leg.

We were always under the misapprehension that the rule was introduced to stop teams boring supporters to death by defending for ninety minutes in the away leg of a tie, usually having won the home leg 1-0. It was to replace the coin toss and encourage the away side to play attacking football, or so we thought. (more…)

More On Raheem Sterling, Not-Ready-Lane And A Change Of Mood At Old Trafford

Posted: September 5, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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The impending international injury window has already seen Raheem Sterling pull out of the England team for the two utterly meaningless games against Spain and Switzerland.

It shows a little forethought from a player not deemed to be blessed with one of the higher IQs in the game because he obviously knows that he is not really good enough to play for Manchester City so, the last thing he wants, is to be injured whilst with England and then fail to get his place back in the City team.

In our book he would be behind Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Leroy Sané, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Pep Guardiola, Mike Summerbee and uncle Tom Cobbley in the pecking order. Yes he really is that average. (more…)

More On Who Will Win The Premier League, (After Only Four Games)!

Posted: September 4, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Having boldly predicted that Manchester City would be the team to catch this season we also boldly predicted that Liverpool were probably the best equipped to catch them.

Having also written off Chelsea and Arsenal because of “new manager syndrome”, whatever that may be, and Tottenham Hotspur because, well, they won nothing last year and they have the same players this year so how can they win anything with that blasé approach to life in the Premier League, we were left with Manchester United as the only other possible challengers to City’s crown. (more…)

More On The Weekend’s “Big Six” Games

Posted: September 3, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Continuing our look at the Premier League games involving the big six and today was the turn of Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsenal and Manchester United have both managed a paltry three points from their first three games whereas Spurs have an impeccable record with three wins from three, although their game against Watford who also had three from three would see the end of one or both the 100% records.

First up was Arsenal who were in Wales playing Cardiff who somehow, along with Swansea at one stage, managed to escape the Welsh League and find their way into the English Premier League. We are pretty sure that both Celtic and Rangers would like to know how this was achieved! (more…)

More On The Day’s Premier League Games Involving Three Of The Big Six

Posted: September 2, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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The Premier League weekend started with an early game at the King Power stadium between Leicester City and Liverpool with the visitors looking reasonably comfortable when taking a two goals lead into the interval.

Sadio Mané and Roberto Fermino had scored the goals with the other member of the trio, Mo Salah, missing a great chance and, eventually, being substituted in the second half.

Leicester certainly chased the game and the referee didn’t appear to be of much assistance when giving free-kicks to Liverpool every time one of their players fell over. (more…)

More On Anthony Martial’s New Contract, Mesut Özil Falling Out With Everybody And Another International Injury Window

Posted: August 31, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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So the board at Manchester United which, effectively, appears to be Ed Woodward, have decided to reward Anthony Martial’s poor performances, petulance and disobedience by offering him a new contract until 2023 with the usual raise in pay.

This is despite manager José Mourinho wishing to sell him and the player expressing a desire to leave the club.

Either Ed Woodward himself or the Glazers seem to have bestowed upon the diminutive marketing man from Chelmsford, a power of attorney which gives him the final say over everything at the club. He has proven on several occasions that his knowledge of football is, at best, dodgy, when he has preferred to look at transfer targets with a high marketing value rather than their potential benefit to the team. (more…)

More On Whether Or Not Manchester United Should Fire José Mourinho

Posted: August 30, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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All of those Manchester United “supporters” who want José Mourinho to be shown the door marked “do one”, should be careful what they wish for.

We here at WSA are United through and through and it is difficult to watch this team most of the time, but patience is required.

We also found it very difficult to watch teams assembled by Wilf McGuinness, Frank O’Farrell and Dave Sexton. The team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson for the first five years of his tenure was an awful sight to behold and lost regularly.

Then we got David Moyes and Louis van Gaal so, if you think this is bad, where have you been for the last 50 odd years? (more…)

More On Why José Mourinho Continues To Struggle At Manchester United

Posted: August 29, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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So what is it then? The players aren’t good enough? They are overpaid and lazy? The manager is not good enough? Would the players, for example, get away with this standard of performance if Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge?

Many excuses and reasons have been offered for the downturn in form of Manchester United. Remember also that this is José Mourinho’s third season and we all know what happened to him at Chelsea when he supposedly “lost” some of the players and was sacked.

There aren’t too many examples of what has happened to him in the third season at other clubs but that is mainly because he usually only sticks around for two. (more…)

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