After weeks of waiting, the Barclays Premier League is up and running again, the first weekend was slightly disappointing, but have we got an early insight as to how the big five are going to compete this season?
Finally, it’s back. After weeks upon weeks of sitting down on a Saturday just not knowing what to do with myself, the Barclays Premier League has returned to save myself from the boredom, and quite frankly unimaginable thought of weekends without football. This year felt worse than others, is it just me or has the transfer window been especially boring this year? Part of me wishes the transfer window was open for a day, or a week, it might not give the clubs much time to sort out transfers, but it would make absolutely fantastic viewing on Sky Sports News!
After much anticipation, I found myself slightly disappointed by the time the first week of the new season had come to a close. I don’t know if it was just because of the fact that Arsenal looked depressingly average, but it just didn’t seem to have the feel of the start of a new season. The games on Saturday didn’t really help I suppose, the five games that kicked off at 3 o’clock weren’t particularly exciting, three low scoring draws, an uneventful 2-1 win for Wolves, and Bolton rolled QPR over. As a result, my hope of a memorable opening day to the 2011/12 season rested on the shoulders of Newcastle vs Arsenal in the late kick off. It was painful viewing. The flowing football that Arsenal are known for just didn’t appear, and Newcastle never really threatened, it made for a dull football match that I definitely wouldn’t have watched had I been a neutral fan, and the madness in the last twenty minutes only summed up the problems Arsenal are going through at the moment.
Cue Sunday, Stoke vs Chelsea and West Brom vs Manchester United, these two fixtures lightened up the weekend slightly. Stoke Chelsea did finish goalless but there were as many as four legitimate penalty shouts to add a bit of spice to the game, and the physical tussle between both sides was good to watch. It’s also worth noting that although Torres didn’t get on the score sheet, he looked a lot brighter than he has done in a long time and is definitely going to be a threat for Chelsea this season. Manchester United followed in a match that is just typical of them, away from home they were struggling to snatch a win, but with just ten minutes remaining, after a barrage of attacks, Ashley Young managed to force an own goal to make it 2-1 to the reigning champions. The final game of the weekend featured City and Swansea which ended 4-0 to City, the final score wasn’t a surprise but the immediate birth of a new Manchester City star was. New signing Sergio Aguero was given thirty minutes to impress, he proceeded to score two and then set up another in his debut for Manchester City, a performance that has earned himself a place in my Fantasy Football team. I was shocked at how quickly he looks to have settled into his new team.
The new Premier League season has basically picked up where it left off from last season. Manchester United are still unconvincing away from home, but with an improved squad I feel this won’t be the case this season. Manchester City showed they know how to dismantle the lesser teams much like they did last season, I’m waiting to see if their defence can hold up to the attacks of the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, City do have a world class goalkeeper, but I’m still unconvinced by the likes of Lescott and Clichy.
Arsenal continued their run of unconvincing form from last season with a bore draw against an average Newcastle side, after losing Fabregas to Barcelona on Monday; I feel that Arsene Wenger has to make a big signing to reinvigorate a tired looking Arsenal team in order to give them any chance of challenging for the title. Liverpool have spent nearly one hundred million pounds on players since January and they’re still as unpredictable as ever, they seem to have resorted to just pumping the ball forward to Andy Carroll because he’s tall, forgetting that he’s dominant on the ground too, although I do believe once all their players have settled, they will turn into a formidable team. Chelsea were unlucky to draw against Stoke, but I think every top team is going to struggle to win at the Britannia so I don’t think this could be considered as a major setback for Chelsea.
Arsenal continued their run of unconvincing form from last season with a bore draw against an average Newcastle side, after losing Fabregas to Barcelona on Monday; I feel that Arsene Wenger has to make a big signing to reinvigorate a tired looking Arsenal team in order to give them any chance of challenging for the title. Liverpool have spent nearly one hundred million pounds on players since January and they’re still as unpredictable as ever, they seem to have resorted to just pumping the ball forward to Andy Carroll because he’s tall, forgetting that he’s dominant on the ground too, although I do believe once all their players have settled, they will turn into a formidable team. Chelsea were unlucky to draw against Stoke, but I think every top team is going to struggle to win at the Britannia so I don’t think this could be considered as a major setback for Chelsea.
The next couple of weeks of the season should be a lot more interesting, Arsenal have two massive tests coming up against Liverpool and then Manchester United and Tottenham will have to face Manchester United and Manchester City. By the end of the third or fourth week I expect Chelsea to be close to the top of the league, they have a fairly easy start, and with the guarantee that their title rivals will be taking points off each other over the next couple of weeks, Chelsea should expect to be in a dominant position by the end of August.
So, despite a relatively slow start to the season, I have big expectations for the next two weeks, there are some huge matches in which title rivals can gain a march on one another, if a team wins the league by the odd point in May, I believe these two weekends will have a lot to say about who lifts the Premier League trophy at the end of the season. At this early stage I’d be willing to put my money on the title being a three horse race; I expect United, City and Chelsea to be in this race. I also think Arsenal will be pushed harder than ever for fourth place, Liverpool are looking a lot stronger than last year despite their slip up on Saturday, and we can’t forget about Tottenham, although they haven’t made any blockbuster signings this summer they have managed to keep their team together, something their North London rivals have failed to do.
0 comments:
Post a Comment