English Premier League Preview
by Brandon
The real Soccer season is upon us. The MLS with their aging “stars” from other countries is a poor excuse for a professional league. As the infamous WWE legend Iron Sheik would say “Americha, Haack phthchoo!”
Looking at the English Premier League teams, it is a top heavy league broken down as such; two or three teams battling for the league championship, two or three teams battling for a Champions League bid, a handful of teams hovering in the middle of the pack, and then up to six teams fighting to stay in the EPL.
The problem is that often the teams hoping to avoid relegation are the smaller clubs is that they do not have the funds to go get a Wesley Sneijder or a Christiano Ronaldo. A smaller club’s best chance is to make an impact in the Carling Cup or make a bid for the Europa League. Confused with all these Leagues and Cups? I hear you! In the end, what teams want is silverware.
Getting back to the English Premier League, Sir Alex Ferguson, skipper of Manchester United last year’s winner of the EPL, thinks it will take 84 points to with the league. A lot has to go right over 38 games to get to 84 points. Last year, I think Manchester United was lucky to get to 80 points with all the injuries sustained. This year, I think Chelsea has the right tools in goal, defense, and a superstar striker in Fernando Torres. It will be very difficult for Manchester United to repeat with a rookie in goal and a sometimes suspect defense, but I see bright spots in goalkeeper De Gea. Manchester United can help establish their prominence by signing Wesley Sneijder from Inter Milan, which will be the biggest signing of the year. Arsenal have not made enough moves in my opinion to make a run at the league title, and if they lose Cesc Fabregas it will really hurt their chances.
by Pete
The first fixture of the Premier League was, in a word, interesting. The Everton-Tottenham match was postponed due to rioting that had a distinctly Rodney King aura to it.
Arsenal showed a serious lack of offensive creativity in the biggest drawing match of the weekend at Newcastle. The drama surrounding the possible transfers of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City drew some of Arsenal’s focus and the rest was rent asunder by the tough (and dirty) play of Joey Barton and his stupid haircut. Gervinho’s red was deserved, but Barton should have drawn one as well.
Norwich City pulled even with Wigan at 1-1 in first half extra time. The score would be the eventual end result between two teams likely fighting to avoid relegation at year’s end.
Bolton welcomed Queens Park to the Premiership with a flurry of goals in front of only 15,000 fans at Loftus Road. QPR were able to find the net twice, but the first was disallowed because Blackpool transfer DJ Campbell was offside, and the second was an own goal in the 67th minute charged to Daniel Gabbidon.
Aston Villa and Fulham played to a tough 0-0 draw that saw Fulham backed up more than they should have been for dominating time of possession, but keeper Mark Schwerzer and his solid defense were able to hold off Villa.
Wolves went into Ewood Park and after trailing 0-1 scored two unanswered (one in the 22’ by Steven Fletcher, my pick for most underrated player in the Premiership) to take all 3 points.
Arguably the best match on opening Saturday was the 1-1 draw between Sunderland and Liverpool. After biffing a penaltykick at 7’, this year’s eventual top goal scorer Luis Suarez headed in a nice cross from Charlie Adam on a set piece in the 12th minute. Not to be outdone, however, the men in teal took advantage of a throw in to also hit a nice cross that Sebastian Larsson snapped back across the face of goal at 57’. A flurry of cards and subs would slow the second half a bit, and both teams appeared content to walk away with a point each coming out of the opening fixture.
Sunday’s matches saw a confused Chelsea squad wonder how it failed to score against the relentless Stoke City pressure that it seemed to have solved in the second half. Also vexing Chelsea fans (myself foremost among them) was new manager Andre Villas-Boas’s omission of Ivory Coast great Didier Drogba from the game entirely. AVB shot to the top of the Portugese table with Porto last year and even won the Europa League, but needs to figure English soccer out fast if he’s to take advantage of the easy first quarter of Chelsea’s schedule.
Manchester United got an early goal from Wayne Rooney (13’) but after that needed an own goal to eek out a victory against West Brom on the road. The Red Devils’ new keeper David De Gea showed what I believe the English call “blush” and what we call being green, but the strong United midfield and back line kept him out of any real trouble, although it wasn’t pretty.
Perhaps the most exciting match of the opening fixture was Manchester City’s 4-0 victory over Swansea City at Etihad. The game started slow and City had a plethora of chances turned away by a staunch Swansea side that looks to make a statement and obviously has no plans of a return to the Championship after just one year in the top league. But then Edzin Dzeko scored a close shot at 57’ and the floodgates opened. Touted transfer Sergio Aguero subbed on in the 60th minute and after only 8 minutes of play took a gorgeous cross from Micah Ricahrds to cap a solid end-to-end possession. David Silva would add in the 71’ and Aguero again in stoppage time to propel City to the top of the table.
The second fixture finally saw a full slate of games. Chelsea, Wolves, Aston Villa, and Man United all won at home, with the former needing to come from behind to do it and the latter two leading all the way. I’m not sure how the riots in Tottenham affected Spurs’ play, but like too many road teams in the Premiership recently they seemed to hold out strong until the first goal against and then melt like butter.
Draws seemed underrepresented in the second fixture, as Wigan tied at Swansea 0-0 and Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones hit a crushing blow in the last minute of stoppage time to snatch the victory from home side Norwich City. Swansea probably should have taken three points against a weak Wigan side, but it appears that Scott Sinclair is their only real offensive threat and that is insufficient for a top league team.
The slew of road victories continued in week two as Queens Park, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Manchester City all took 3 points. Queens Park scored their lone goal in 31’ minute on a right-footed-veering-right shot; exactly the shot that gives Tim Howard fits.[1] It didn’t help that Everton isn’t fielding a fully healthy squad, but they can take the positive of the low scoring game away. Like Everton, Newcastle thrives on a strong defense and a lot of one goal games.[2] Sunderland and Newcastle split possession in their fixture at the Stadium of Light, and for a team like Sunderland to win in that situation they’re going to need to have the ball much more often.
Liverpool walked all over the self-destructing Arsenal and Luis Suarez scored again. (In fairness, though Liverpool did not look too good, but they were able to do what top flight teams to: take advantage of opponents in disarray.) Frimpong drew red (two yellows) for Arsenal at 70’, Koscielny hurt himself 15’ in, and they still hadn’t squared up what they were doing with Samir Nasri. The Gunners could be in some serious trouble this season if Arsene Wenger can’t work his usual magic (like perhaps taking advantage of the player strikes in Serie A and La Liga?).
In a battle at the top of the table, Man City was able to hold off a storming home Bolton side. Two games in, we can be sure that Man City is going to be phenomenal offensively, even if Tevez leaves.[3] This game is interesting for the Wanderers, though, as they have succeeded early. The schedule gets tougher, though, as the next three fixtures are at Liverpool and then hosting Manchester United and Norwich. If Bolton can escape those three games with at least 5 points they could be in a nice early position.
[1] Unless, of course, he’s playing Chelsea. Against the Blues Howard fills the goal and stops everything that gets near him…much to my chagrin.
[2] Joey Barton’s play in the first fixture against Arsenal is probably what triggered his transfer to Queens Park. Barton is a tough but extremely sloppy and risky defender to employ on a team like Newcastle that has to count on tight, smart play.
[3] And especially because City finalized the transfer of Samir Nasri from Arsenal.
No comments:
Post a Comment