That’s almost it folks! We’ve nearly survived another international break! In just a few more days the debate will return to whether or not Wayne Rooney should be picked for Manchester United rather than whether or not he should have been picked for England. Either way the debate will return to Wayne Rooney. (more…)
The weekend turned out to be a good one if you are from certain areas of London or Liverpool. Chelsea managed to overcome Hull City at the KC Stadium, while Tottenham Hotspur ended Manchester City’s 100% record.
Liverpool played badly, according to JĂĽrgen Klopp, but still managed to beat Swansea at The Liberty Stadium. (more…)
After three games the top three in the Premier League had an air of predictability about it. José Mourinho had taken over at Manchester United, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and Antonio Conte at Chelsea. All three, at this stage, had 100% records.
Arsene Wenger soldiered on at Arsenal starting with his annual first game of the season loss at home. JĂĽrgen Klopp continued in his manic way while, over the park, Ronald Koeman quietly got on with things leaving the other “bigger name” managers at the “bigger clubs” to hog the limelight. (more…)
Of the manager’s pictured above, one will probably be crowned Premier League champion at the end of the season. At least another one of the five will miss out on the top four. So who will be the winner and who will be the loser(s)?
Although it is certainly not a foregone conclusion it is widely expected that the title will end up in Manchester. There are some bets being laid on the unknown quantity that is Antonio Conte at Chelsea but many think his lack of Premier League experience will mean that he falls just short this time out. (more…)
The straightforward, down-to-earth answer to the above question is: Yes, he is ridiculously expensive and nobody should be spending that amount of money on one player. As JĂĽrgen Klopp mentioned, at least three top class players could be brought in to strengthen a team for that sort of money. Also, the knock-on effect for other clubs is frightening, particularly the smaller clubs.
The true answer is: No, United will recover the money in a relatively short space of time, effectively meaning that he will have cost nothing. In fact, I read a short while ago that advance orders for Pogba shirts totalled somewhere in the region of ÂŁ72 million, so not much more is required to achieve a complete refund! (more…)
The Guardian calls them the “Magnificent Seven”, (that’s quite original for the Guardian!). These are the seven teams they reckon have a realistic chance of winning the Premier League title. They even have a natty little video to demonstrate which teams they are referring to. Have a look here, it’s quite good.
Now, even more realistically, which of the following managers will lift the trophy next May?
Arsene Wenger:
There isn’t much to say about Wenger that hasn’t already been said in his long time at Arsenal. There does seem to be some truth in the rumour that he is happy to finish in the top three, top four at a push, so that qualification for the Champion’s League is assured each year. This keeps the board happy but leaves the fans frustrated. Because this attitude seems to prevail at the Emirates, they will not win the title and may even struggle for top four this time out. (more…)
The answer to the above question has to be “yes”. If not then we may as well award the trophy now and just play the season for fun, which wouldn’t be much fun. Here’s a quick look at the contenders.
CHELSEA:
Their best signing could turn out to be Antonio Conte. Having taken an unfancied Italy to a penalty shoot-out defeat to the very much fancied Germans in the Euros, he has already proven that he can get the best out of a team considered no more than slightly better than average. He has also experienced winning the title in Italy so, the only real question is, can he do it in England? (more…)
Next season there will be almost as much interest in who wins the battle of Manchester as there will be in who eventually wins the Premier League. Mainly in Manchester of course, but the battle will still be watched with a certain amount of interest from all places outside of the “M” postal code area.
It is unfortunate that the teams cannot be compared in the Champion’s League due to the shortcomings of each of the previous managers, both of whom underachieved in their final season.
Louis van Gaal underachieved by so much that United haven’t even qualified for the tournament and City will have to play a pre-qualifier, (which they should win), having finished in a lowly fourth position last time out. (more…)
When the teams were announced before the game and James Milner was going to be playing at left back for Liverpool, myself and Paul Scholes both thought the same thing: play Martial on the right to have a run at him.
What did van Gaal do? Played Mata on the right! Apart from being slow, very left-footed and useless as a winger this was a stupid move. He also played Lingard, who should be dropped, on the left and he looked completely clueless.
Another stupid move was playing Varela at right back when he has the Italian right back sat on the bench. Darmian has nineteen caps for Italy so surely he is good enough for this Manchester United team!
Fellaini was retained in midfield for no apparent reason and huffed and puffed without ever achieving anything. (more…)
Manchester United: Not too long ago I wrote an article which described how United weren’t too far away from having a team to win the title. I thought, at the time, that they were short of two, maybe three, top players.
I have since revised my opinion. Whilst playing quite well recently they have relied on injuries to force through some of the promising youngsters. This is a sad indictment on the transfer windows where adequate players were not purchased. If van Gaal sees out the final year of his contract then they will again struggle to reach the top four.
If, however, they take the logical option and appoint Mourinho, then I would make them slight favourites to win it.
Manchester City: Should be a lot closer to winning the title than where they are now. Having said that, with the bonus of the Capital One Cup win, they could very easily go on an unbeaten run that still achieves their goal! (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 