English Premier League

Hey people!

Well the English Premier League is back with a BANG! Haha! After months of only feeding off with Euro2008 and the Olympics, am happy that my weekly soccer is back. This season again tends to be a two sided season between Man United and Chelsea. Honestly, I have a feeling the Chelsea is gonna nick it this year as they have the astute Phil Scolari including the wonderful playmaker Deco. Man United will be creaking with the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo for at least 3 months and certain discontentment in the team caused by the transfer meanderings of Ronaldo. Furthermore, they are lacking a true box striker unless Alex Ferguson is able to bring in Dmitar Berbatov. However, i still say the stars are pointing to Chelsea especially when the African Nations Cup wouldn’t be interfering with their season this year (This accounts to no loss of Essien, Kalou & Drogba). Overall, it will still be an exciting race between the two which will most certainly be decided only till the last match.

Well i honestly forgot all about soccer as i was busily watching the Italy vs Belgium and Brazil vs Cameroon Olympic matches. The Italy vs Belgium match was amazing with Belgium stunning the favourites with a 3-2 victory. Man of the match for me was most certainly Dembele with his two superb goals. The Brazil match was a drab bore with Brazil needing 100 minutes and for a Cameroon player to be sent off before they were able to put in 2 goals. I have a feeling that Brazil wouldn’t win the Olympic Gold Medal.

Arsenal 1 vs WBA 0

Lucky for me then that i was switching channels when i reached Channel 27 to get a glimpse of Arsenal vs WBA. I was like, wait, why is there a Live sign below the Football Channel Logo. Oh DAMN! It’s started! Haha. Well the Arsenal match was a bore except for the first ten minutes. Samir Nasri goal was superb, a brilliant debut for the young Frenchman. His abilities befitting his price tag of 12 million pounds. Once again, Arsenal played with sublime passing only always lacking the finishing kill in the final third. They still look thread bare without experienced players and I deemed them to wither away once again in the latter part of the season. Commendations to WBA for putting up a good fight and indeed Ishmael Miller is a promising player for them. Lets see if they can stay up this season.

Everton 2 vs Blackburn 3

An exhilarating brilliant thriller match. Simply superb which truly whet my appetite for soccer. Blackburn opened the scoring by stunning Everton. However, Everton came back with two goals to show their opponents why they were in the top 6. Just when i thought Paul Ince team will wither away, they surprised me by coming back with 2 more goals to win it. Indeed, I will be looking forward to see how Paul Ince will keep Blackburn up this season.

Liverpool 1 vs Sunderland 0

Well i was looking forward to this match. Interested to see the revamped Liverpool with the new partnership of Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres. I knew Roy Keane’s Sunderland will be as tough as ever and indeed they played much better in the first half with the creative players of El Hadji Diouf and Steed Malbranque. However, again a brilliant match with Xabi Alonso ( Benitez must be crazy of wanting to sell him!) Liverpool only came alive in the second half as they pinned down Sunderland with incessant attacks. However, it was evident that the Keane-Torres partnership still needs a lot of work especially when both players lunging at a chance only for Keane to block Torres shot from a sure destined goal. It was only when Keane was taken off did Torres  finally showed his magic with an amazing 20 yard shot that beat the magnificent Craig Gordon in the far left corner of the net. It seems that Liverpool will once again be a one-man Torres team unless Keane finds his feet soon.

Well it was quite a good weekend though i was utterly surprised with Tottenham’s lost after Juande Ramos spent those millions on Luka Modric, Giovanni Dos Santos and David Bentley. I guess they haven’t clicked and i do hope I will be able to see Arshavin playing with them soon.

Oh well, I can’t wait for tonight’s match which will almost certainly be absolute thrillers. Chelsea vs Portsmouth and Man United vs Newcastle. I do hope that my team will be able to pull past one the wily Ferguson. You never know, miracles do happen. Enjoy the games!

Fai @ ilovelookinggood