Champions League Round Up

English clubs have started well in the Champions league this season not losing a single game. It would be interesting to see if the ‘Big Four’ can make it to the semifinals this time. That would definitely be the talking point as the season wears down. 

While Arsenal and Manchester United had emphatic victories, Chelsea earned 3 points courtesy to their captain while Liverpool earned hard fought out draw.

 In a match that was billed as the ‘Battle of Britain’ Manchester United turned on the style against their Scottish rivals in the second half. Berbatov added two more goals, which were contentious as they looked offside, to his short United career while Rooney who is currently enjoying a rich vein of form added another after he was denied a perfectly legitimate goal.

Manchester United 3- 0 Celtic

 Elsewhere Arsenal and Fenerbache played if they didn’t know what defending was all about. Arsenal got goals from Song and Diaby which would make them and Wenger feel good while Fenerbache got one thanks to an own goal by Silvestre. It was not as if the Man Utd fans didn’t warn their Arsenal compatriots about that.

Arsenal 5-2 Fenerbache

Reports suggest Chelsea were far from their best and John Terry grabbed the winner from a set piece in a match that lacked any sort of tempo and both the teams were below par.

Chelsea 1-0 Roma

Robbie Keane scored for Lievrpool after opening his account against PSV Eindhoven earlier in the competition. Immediately after the first half Aguero was introduced for Athletico and it changed the complexion of the game as Athletico dominated the game in the second half andhad  more than a couple of chances to level before Simao scored an equalizer seven minutes from time.

Liverpool 1-1 Athletico Madrid.

 

Finally to end the round up with a joke on Tottenham as that seems to be the latest fad in footballing circles .

Q. What is the difference between Tottenham and a triangle?

A. A triangle has three points.

 

Spurs Down and Out ?

The world no more makes sense to the Tottenham Hotspur fans. If they were granted just one wish by a genie right now they would wish to wake up from a nightmare that they had been sleeping through over the last few months. Unfortunately for them the man who was touted to be their genie, Juande Ramos, is failing to deliver after promising a lot.

Tottenham has been perennially tagged as ‘Pretenders’ or ‘Fools Gold’ and Ramos and his ambitious Chief executive at the club vowed to finally throw those tags in the bins. Ramos showed the right intent when he came to the club as he immediately snatched up a defender that the club was missing so much. Woodgate suddenly got rid of the demons inside him and he was no more a regular visitor to the team physio. He started brightly, scored a goal in the Carling Cup which they won and played like a general for the second half of last season. Probably Woodgate promised a bit too much that Ramos blissfully and totally wrongly ignored the lack of quality defensive cover in the team. Ledley King when fit is an excellent and inspirational defender but one gets to see him as sporadically as one gets to see the sun in northern part of England.

If defense has always been their undermining their attack this season too falls way short of the quality that they have had for quite a few years. Ramos’ transfer activity will once again under the microscope and not without a reason. Ramos went for young bright talents in Bentley, Dos Santos, Corluka and Modric when he could have done with a couple of experienced players more so considering the departure of their two most talismanic players Berbatov and Keane.

Daniel Levy will really have to put his hand up for Spurs’ dismal start to their season. It is actually baffling to even think how he hung onto Berbatov until the last day of the season trying to increase his sale value rather than selling him and giving Ramos some time to find his replacements. It is always an excellent strategy to change the way your team plays after a season as Sir Alex will have you know but sometimes it is always safe and prudent to go for like-for-like replacements. Ramos brought in a couple of wingers and he has Darrent Bent and Pavlyuchenko leading their line and if you watch a s Spurs game this season it is quite astonishing to see the number of crosses that they are putting into the box now. To be fair to Ramos Bent and Pavlyuchenko have neither the skill or finesse to play one touch football as their predecessors but you buy replacements according to the way you want to play the game not always play the game according to the players you have. Ramos had the whole summer to plan and be prepared for the departure of his strike force and he failed to strengthen that area in particular. One gets a feeling that Tottenham’s board members have failed to learn from their mistakes. They have failed to fill the mid-field void left by Carrick ever since his departure to Man Utd and now they seem to be treading on a similar path. Ramos will have to come up with a solution , a quick solution or else ass the table suggests right now Tottenham’s fans would be cheering their club in another league.

These transfers below sum up the transfer activity of Tottenham this season:

IN:

Vedran Corluka; from Manchester City; £8.5m

Roman Pavlyuchenko; from Spartak Moscowl; £14m

Cesar Sanchez; from Real Zaragoza

David Bentley; from Blackburn Rovers; £17m

Giovani Dos Santos; from Barcelona; £4.7million fee rising to £8.6million depending on appearances

Luka Modric; from Dinamo Zagreb; £8.75(subject to granting of a work permit)

John Bostock; from Crystal Palace; £700,000

Heurelho Gomes; from PSV; £7.8m

Paul-Jose Mpoku; from Standard Liege

OUT:

Dimitar Berbatov; to Manchester United £30m

Lee Young-Pyo; to Borussia Dortmund

Anthony Gardner; to Hull; £2.5m

Younes Kaboul; to Portsmouth

Steed Malbranque; to Sunderland

Robbie Keane; to Liverpool; £20.3m

Pascal Chimbonda; to Sunderland

Paul Robinson; to Blackburn; £3.5million

Teemu Tainio; to Sunderland

Tommy Forecast; to Southampton

Radek Cerny; to QPR; free

Joe Martin; to Blackpool.

 

 

Weekend EPL Predicitons

Weekend Predicitons

# Middlesbrough v Chelsea
Boro are not an easy place to go to,especially for the "BIG FOUR".Chelsea know they have a tough game on their hands.Chelsea's quality should eventually win them the game.
Prediction:1-3

# Arsenal v Everton
Arsenal have lost some important players to injuries in the international break.Everton will combative as usual as we know they usually are under Moyes,though they been under performing of late.
Prediction:2-0

# Aston Villa v Portsmouth
Will be an interesting match.Villa have started well this season with Young,their star player so far.Pompey havent hit their stride yet,but Defoe and Crouch are starting to combine well.Expect a few goals here.
Prediction:2-2

# Bolton v Blackburn
Bolton have 7 points out of 7 and are struggling.Rovers have been OK under Ince so far.We can expect them to do better when Santa Cruz starts firing.
Prediction:1-2

# Fulham v Sunderland
Expect home advantage to count here.Not much difference to pick out between the teams in terms of quality or form.
Prediction:2-1

# Liverpool v Wigan
Liverpool have been in good form and we can expect them to run out easy winners in this game.Zaki is scoring for fun.I dont see him scoring here, though I would be quite happy to see him proving me wrong.
Prediction:3-0

# Man Utd v West Brom
ManUtd are on a good run and so is Rooney for both club and country in front of goal.I dont expect the Baggies to hold on for long.
Prediction:2-0

# Hull City v West Ham
Hull have been the surprise package so far this season,lying 3rd in the table with an impressive 14 points from 7 games,2 more than the Hammers who have 12.Expect a close contest between these two.
Prediction:2-1

# Stoke City v Tottenham
Its the bottom two against each other.Spurs have made their worst start in 96 years.It might get worse as Stoke will give them a tough time but Spurs' quality should help them get their first win of the season.
Prediction:0-2

# Newcastle v Man City
Robinho's a major doubt for this game after picking up an injury while playing for Brazil in their WC qualifier against Colombia.But they do have SWP who seems to be back playing at his best after a couple of forgettable seasons at Stamford Bridge.Have Newcastle turned a corner under Kinnear after their well earned draw at Goodison Park in their last match?
Prediction:1-1

Ban the clubs in debts ?

Amidst all the doom and gloom in the Wall Street right now because of the financial turmoil FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Platini have talked about banning teams which are in debts from the champions league competition. Teams such as Man Utd , Liverpool and Chelsea would find themselves relegated to playing UEFA cup if the voice for banning these clubs becomes strong. Some on one hand might say there is nothing wrong if a business can be started by taking loans and debts and they would be fine if they can repay back the loans or clear the debts with the revenue that they generate for themselves. Some on the other hand are seriously worried about the escalating number of clubs which are landing themselves in financial debts.

I happened to come across a post by a passionate Man Utd supporter airing his views on the aforementioned topic. One can find a few good points in the post and I would request the ABU(anything but United) fans to realize that the poster is a Man Utd fan and hence neglect the negative insinuations about the other clubs in the post.

 

When will the game wake up to these problem and when will governments like the EU realize that they have contributed to this lunacy by not allowing football to govern itself accordingly. Instead stringent and reformist changes are not allowed to happen because they break EU labor laws. What a load of total rubbish. We are dealing with a game and leagues where the main employees are all millionaires. My heart really bleeds for poor Johnny Bosman. Please, bring back some sanity to this game somebody. The problem is a European problem because that is where the money is. To cure the problem you have to inject sanity in Europe before it spreads to the rest of the world.

Two things have to stop for things to improve in the game. Letting anybody with a briefcase and a bank account buy a team especially with loans or credit of other types, and allowing unlimited players from foreign lands to come and play in a given country and then paying them 80 times what their market value is. The game has to become more domesticated and it must cater and service it’s domestic market first and foremost. Honestly, where are the Italians on Inter Milan? That’s Argentina’s practice roster over there. Arsenal has done wonders for French and African players but other than Theo Walcott, what has Wneger done for the British in developing the game? Chelsea are a joke and Roman Abramovich is the Antichrist in this debate. He may not have started the insanity but he has certainly fueled it with his wasteful and irresponsible spending and total disregard for the league and the game he is slowly but surely destroying.

Then you have greedy oil consortium’s like the Man City group and the infamous Dubai group who want to flash around their billions yet I seriously doubt they give a damn about the game, it’s history in England and what this temporary hobby will do to the city of Manchester and to the league that allows them to get away with bloody murder. And what about United? Can we just sit back and wait for the clubs possible or is it imminent collapse due to the fact we allowed an American investor to come and buy the team with bloody loans that are so astronomical that they could have bailed out Wall Street with just the interest payments alone. OK the last comment was major exaggeration but I think most of you are smart enough to get my jest there. Bottom line is the game is setting itself up and structuring itself in the same manner the banks in America did when they started loaning too much money and giving out high mortgages to people who could not afford them.

Right off the top of my head I can think of teams like Liverpool, Man Utd, West Ham, Newcastle, Man City (before the recent buyer), Valencia in Spain and others who have leveraged their future in massive debt just so that they can play with the big teams who have the capital to play the game with ugly greed disregard and carelessness.

One shouldn’t worry too much about Man Utd. They are the biggest club in the world not because of their wealth (remember the massive debt), but because of their popularity and great potential to always make money. Their world popularity will ensure that even if the Glazer’s lose it all and default on their loans, someone like the Dubai Group will come out of the fog to buy the team, save it and probably make it even wealthier than before. But what about the teams less fortunate like Newcastle, Blackburn, West Ham, Everton etc? What happens to them? They don’t have such great world appeal and their licensing isn’t big enough to draw a lot of interest from billionaires. And lets remember, there are only so many of those supposed footy loving billionaires out there. How many teams will be so lucky that when they crash, somebody will be there to build them back up again? Where have all the rich English investors and owners gone? Why does Corporate England not give a damn about there beloved sport enough to invest in it and keep the bloody foreigners out of it? Easy answer to that really. The game has with it’s greed and delusions of grandeur priced these prospective owners out of the picture. Business people are in a business to make money. I’m sure if one looks at the Chelsea books over the past five years they will see a substantial loss in revenue. The have lost a ton of money but Mafia Moneybags has so much money that he considers Chelsea nothing more than a hobby. When will he finally get bored with the hobby? Who knows, but when he does, the Grim Reaper will be knocking on the gates at Stamford Bridge because Roman will find it very difficult to sell a team unless he eats the massive debt. And then I seriously doubt the new owners will be as interested in throwing away money on players who don’t perform or who sit on the bench while Chelsea fans will still be crying for the days of the Special One.

Honestly, what does the FA, The Premier League and FIFA think is going to happen in the future? All teams will be owned by billionaires and the price of tickets for fans will only cost 5 quid? These foreign owners don’t give a damn about a team’s heritage, history or responsibility to it’s fan base. They only care about the team label and licensing the team around the world. Thats where they make money. The game is selling out to tv, marketing and kit sales abroad. They are more concerned about making sure United jersey’s sell for three times the going price in a special boutique in a Dubai hotel. That’s what it’s all about. It’s an ego trip for these foreign owners and it eventually wears off as do all trivial things with very rich people. They have no religious connection with the team they have bought, the city or the footballing community they are raping. And nobody cares enough to see what is happening and try to nip it in the bud before it becomes an incurable cancer.

Sorry for this doom and gloom mega post but I am so pissed off with all this. Ethics, reason and common sense have been flushed down the toilet and replaced by greed, payola and corruption. Just look at where the next World Cup and next EUROS are supposed to be held. None of these countries have the money or proper infrastructure to deal with holding these tournaments but FIFA in it’s cold stupid and ridiculous manner, continues to do nothing and I feel certain that those tournaments are heading for disaster. Can you imagine what the market crashes have done to an already troubled problem with these countries? And then we expect Blatter and his muppets to give a damn about unethical ownership, player movement and escalating transfer fees and wages?

 

The changing face of the game

I find it quite apt now to discuss about the changing face of the modern football. Is it any longer the all beautiful game? Or is the beautiful game on the descend and the pure physical play on the ascend? 

Football has gone through many changes since its inception into the hearts of millions of lovers all over the world. Football was started by the blue collar people as a brute contact sport which required loads of athleticism and then it captured the imagination of the more privileged classes much later on when people around the world started to take up the game as a profession to earn their daily bread. 

Football is a religion in Brazil and it is often said that a Brazilian infant is actually introduced to a football before being handed over to its parents. Brazil and the way it played its football in the 20^th century must be the best thing that has ever happened to the game. Watching Pele and Garrincha at their peaks must surely have been one of the best sights of football ever. Their imagination and pure genius captured the hearts of many and the game soon started to grow in Europe. When Cryuff and his Dutch team played ‘total football’ it looked like the second coming of the beautiful game. But the loss of that extraordinary team in the final of 1974 world cup will surely be registered as one of the worst things to have happened to modern football for it exposed the deficiencies that might creep in when playing the game as it should be. Pundits around the world argued that an intricate pass and move kind of play can get you as far as being second best and that teams needed to have a mental and a physical edge over the rest to be regarded as the best. They suggested that football was always not as much about the beautiful artistry like a lovely Van Gogh painting but also it was a game of hard battle hungry players. 

The late 70’s and early 80’s saw the emergence of a pragmatic approach to the game with teams like Italy, Liverpool and Everton mastering that art or rather the lack of it. Football started to change its face during this period; it was like a Da Vinci painting being tampered with and dabbled with colours by an amateur artist. This kind of style brought success to the game; teams started winning using tactics which emphasized more on the shape of the team than on the imagination of its players.

Football has also witnessed a change in the style of its exponents. There is almost no room for a player who is slow or rather sluggish. Tim Vickery, a columnist for the BBC, recently mentioned in his blog that players like Riquelme are a dying breed. The game has completely changed its face and is no longer a game of the skilful artists with the ball at their feet. But if the game has taught us a lesson then that is it never losses its capacity to attract viewers. That is the reason we should actually take our hats of and celebrate players such as Zidane, Riquelme, Scholes, Fabregas, Deco, Iniesta and as a matter of fact Berbatov who still continue to make the game look so simple and easy on the eye. There are a few managers around the world who like their players to express themselves on the pitch and it is really a testament to their managerial ability and footballing acumen to keep these kind of players perform what they are best at yet have players around them who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the team.

As a football fan the last thing I would want to see is a dying tradition of playing the game the way it should be. Long may it continue.

Amen

Done with Porto, Next is Sunderland

A brief analysis on the mid-week game before we discuss about the Sunderland fixture. Well we(arsenal fans) got the response expected from the team after the ignominy of losing to Hull City at home. It was a good team effort and everybody looked sharper(including Gallas) this time compared to the previous match. Though responding well is a sign of any good team, as i told time and again arsenal needs to be more consistent to win any trophies. They were consistent until the last quarter of the previous season and lost the title because of taking the foot off the gas after that. So imagine what it would be like to lose matches in such early part of the season.

Moving on to more cheerful things, apart from the goal scorers (Adebayor and Persie) Theo Walcott did really well, playing with a lot of confidence and pace. That one incident where he starts well behind the defender, kicks the ball to ahead of the defender, overtakes him and passes will stay in my memory for long time. He would have been credited for two assists had his team mates been more accurate. Certainly he deserved a goal or an assist from the match apart from the thunderous reception he received every time he got onto the ball. Also we need to appreciate the hard work done by fabregas in orchestrating the midfield so well. He looked tired by the end of the match with the extra defensive work he had to do. I feel that Denilson should be the guy who should trace back and win the ball rather than Fabregas, as it will take a lot out of Cesc and he is the best midfielder we got. We need to exploit a player in his area of expertise and certainly defending is not fabregas’ cup of tea.

Rest all played their roles perfectly. Even the defence looked better except for a couple of incidents (one on the counter and one corner). The partnership of Adebayor and Persie upfront worked really well and hopefully it will get even better with time. Same time last season they had a really good partnership blossoming between them but then Persie got injured and after that he never played for more than two matches at a time to develop that telepathic understanding with Adebayor. Lets see if they can do it this time. Forgot to mention about Almunia. He made a couple of good saves and was critical in keeping a clean sheet. He has been going with his work silently without much fuss and i have no complaints. He is confident during the corners and has that assured presence at the back which Lehmann lacked at the last phase of his arsenal career. Overall it was an entertaining match and after the Hull disaster it was a good confidence booster, which the team can carry forward to the weekend fixture.

Now coming to that match, RoyKeane has always been a tough nut to crack for Arsenal and his team was no different last season. Nevertheless Arsenal won against them in both the legs after lot of struggle. In the first leg at the emirates, after leading them by 2-0, arsenal conceded the advantage and was on level terms before Van Persie’s strike restored the lead and arsenal won 3-2 at the end. Even at the stadium of light on the very last day of the season,it was a hard fought victory and we came out with a 1-0 win , though i would like to mention that many of the first team players didn’t play in that match. I can’t see it to be any different this time and Arsenal need to be at their best to return with all the three points.

Sunderland didn’t have a bright start to the season (losing to Liverpool at home) but had mixed feelings after that(WLDWL). They have good attackers like Cisse, Jones, Diouf etc and with the addition of Anton Ferdinand and Chimbonda they have a good balance in the defence too. Especially Diouf was a tormentor of Arsenal when he was at Bolton and i hope keane has put some sense into him and make him play proper football, else arsenal need to deal with his antics too.

So it is going to be tough with Sunderland, which as many teams do will try to be more direct and frustrate Arsenal. Arsenal has to be sharp in their counters and has to finish whatever opportunities they get. Being wasteful as against Hull will be disastrous.

Prediction: My prediction is that Arsenal will continue their impressive form away from home and come out as the winners. But the score line may not look as exciting as that in Bolton and Blackburn. Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal.

Talking about the Arsenal line up Wenger will stick to his winning combination, without any changes. Though Song is back i can’t see denilson or nasri being sacrificed for him. Eboue would have been in the starting eleven but for Arsene’s feeling that Arsenal will have more penetration and right mix with Walcott in the team instead of Eboue, away from home.
Line up: Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Walcott-Fabregas-Denilson-Nasri
Persie-Adebayor

Men to Watch: Theo Walcott was the person who set up the winner at the emirates and who scored the only goal at Sunderland last season. Even this time he would be the person who will unlock their defense. For Sunderland Cisse would be the man to watch out for.

Crisis at the Bridge

Its getting insane now. When Essien got injured and was facing a lengthy period on the treatment table, it was a setback but then I thought we have depth in the midfield area and the likes of Mikel can step up and take his place. Even Ballack was back by that time, though not fully fit. Then it was time for the influential Portuguese pair to follow suit. Although for not such a long period but Carvalho and Deco were going to be missed. We had trouble to break down packed defenses last season without a creative spark in the center of the park. That spark was added to our game in the guise of our number 20. Just a couple of games later, however, he was lost to a small injury. So was our best defender, Carvalho, in the same game. I still thought, ok! We have Alex and Ivanovic, two very good replacements in the squad for Carvalho and since Drogba was back from injury, for the time Deco is out we could take route one if the need be and still get results.

Joe Cole was then lost to injury before the Stoke game and Kalou took a knock in the same game and was taken off at half time. By this time things were getting slightly insane, and had it not been for the depth of our squad, loud alarm bells would already have started ringing from Fulham Street. With the squad already stretched, Scolari would have done without Drogba taking another blow on his knee and not only that, 3/4th of the back line also took knocks in the CL game against Cluj. Fingers crossed for JT and Alex to make the important game at the weekend against high flying Aston Villa. Ashley Cole too got a sore back after the game but he should be fit.

I can only have sympathy with Scolari, who got rid of some dead wood in the summer market to keep the squad small and handsome, but he wouldn't even have dreamt of this scenario. In fact, no one can. It will be interesting to see the line up he puts on the pitch in the weekend but one thing is for sure, it would by no means be what he'd have planned for while trimming his squad for this kind of game. Let me get into Scholari's shoes for once and pick eleven fit players from the squad. Following could well be the line up at the weekend:

Cech

Bosingwa Ivanovic Ferriera Cole

Lamps Mikel Ballack

Kalou(if fit!) Anelka Malouda

Bench: Cudicini, Bridge, Mancienne, Miniero, Di Santo, Sinclair, Woods

Lets hope Deco and Carvalho are back soon!