Manchester City will win the Premier League. Liverpool will finish second. That, at the moment, is all that is fair to assume as the other two slots available within the top four are being contested between teams who appear to be doing their utmost to hand the position to a rival.
Tottenham Hotspur were in a reasonably comfortable third position until they lost at their new home for the first time, beaten by West Ham. Their unbeaten home record must be one of the shortest in history! (more…)
Now that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been installed as the “permanent” manager, at least until he becomes the ex-manager, has his attitude or approach to the job changed?
Has he, for example, confronted some players safe in the knowledge that HE will still be in charge next season, something he would have been unlikely to do as a caretaker?
Also, some of his recent decisions seem to have been a trifle strange. Why did he rest players against West Ham? United may have a deep squad but it isn’t blessed with more than one or two world class players and they only beat the Hammers courtesy of two penalties when, in fact, West Ham should have won the game. (more…)
Sunday’s games were a treat for anybody from London. The rest of the world, forced by Sky TV to pay for, and watch, teams in whom they had little interest, just sat back in the hope that everybody’s favourite London club, West Ham, would beat nobody’s favourite London club, (except maybe some of their own supporters), Chelsea.
They also hoped that everybody’s favourite Merseyside club, Everton, would beat nobody’s favourite London club, (except maybe some of their own supporters), Arsenal.
The first game ended in a 0-0 draw which wasn’t quite as good as a west Ham win would have been but at least it prevented Chelsea from maintaining their 100% winning record. (more…)
That’s the meaningless friendlies Nation’s League out of the way for a whole month. Yes folks, just as you are getting used to watching your favourite overpaid Premier League stars, UEFA will pull the curtain down yet again. And the month after that and the month after that and so on.
They seem absolutely determined to spoil everybody’s enjoyment of the Premier League, (and other leagues around Europe, no doubt), by forcing their own idea of entertainment on the football loving public.
Call it what you will the Nation’s League, whilst being a little more competitive than just a few plain old friendlies is actually just a few plain old friendlies dressed up to go out. (more…)
Arsenal
The Gunners have finally won a game under Unai Emery at the third attempt. Having lost at home to Manchester City then away to Chelsea, not necessarily games from which they would be expected to pick up points at any stage of their evolution, they managed to overcome another side with another new manager who were also pointless from their opening games.
The difference is that West Ham’s aims for the season probably include a top half finish whereas this would represent a disappointing campaign for Arsenal who will be looking at top six, if not top four. (more…)
In a quiet news week where most of the headlines have been about English cricketers or rugby players fighting outside pubs and then objecting when they are arrested and charged, it was refreshing to see everybody’s favourite outsiders Burnley sneak past Başakşehir of Turkey with a 1-0 win after extra time at Turf Moor.
The TV companies worldwide had decided that this one wasn’t worth televising which, to an extent, is understandable although BT, with three sports channels, undoubtedly broadcast something far less interesting on at least two of them! (more…)
The Premier League has gone from a two-team competition whereby it was contested between Manchester United and Arsenal, to a two-team competition whereby Arsenal were replaced by Chelsea. It then became a three-team competition when Manchester City woke up one morning to find they had won the lottery.
In fairness, they didn’t become serious contenders overnight and it wasn’t until they had spent many millions that they won the title back in 2011. They have since won it a further twice. (more…)
And so to the final day of our troll through the Premier League managers. We have now considered the futures of fourteen of the poor souls and decided that most of them will continue to collect their relatively easy money for another few months at least.
If not, they will leave their current employ to be appointed by another clueless club who will continue paying them an absolute fortune for very little, if any, return. West Ham and Everton seem like good candidates for out of work managers to be interviewing!
Another example of the recycling trend is about to occur in West London. We have just been reading that serial failure Steve McClaren is to be announced as their new manager by serial losers QPR. This will change the perception of neither the club nor the manager! (more…)
Yaya Touré played his 316th game for Manchester City in what was a historic occasion both for him and, as it turned out, for the club.
City won the game against Brighton 3-1 and in so doing set a new record for points achieved – 97, goals scored – 105 and wins in a season – 31. These figures will probably change again when they play Southampton in the last game of the season but this is the one where the records were made. (more…)
Antonio Conte – “Happy” to stay at Chelsea
Antonio Conte will not resign as Chelsea manager. If he did that he wouldn’t be entitled to any compensation so, from his point of view, it wouldn’t make sense.
Roman Abramovich will not sack Antonio Conte at the moment because that is exactly what the Italian wants him to do and the Russian doesn’t do what others want, only what he wants.
So an uncomfortable impasse is now in place whereby Chelsea have a manager who doesn’t want to be there and an owner who doesn’t really want him there, but he is going nowhere.
The other consideration for Abramovich of course, apart from his own pride, is that the timing, if he were to sack Conte now, would be inconvenient, to say the least. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 