This seaon has been the best chance for Arsenal to win the Premier League Title for a couple of
years. Behind Man United and Chelsea, Arsenal and consistently been the team to have chased and
fallen near the end to the third spot. This is an achievement in itself when so many have
predicted the downfall of Arsenal and their removal from title contendership.
Over the past three months controversy has arisen as three teams in the Preniership have been
accused being overly physical and pummeling teams to get points from them. These three teams are
Stoke City, Wolverhamton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers. Stoke have had this reputation for a
while but it seems that with the beginning of the latest season, both Wolves and Blackburn have
quickly earned themselves a similar label.
So now that's it's at the end of September and the season is well underway what can we make of
things so far and what can be predicted for the football year ahead. Here are my thoughts on a
collection of issues
Chelsea will retain their title. Their looking too good and the closest rivals for the title
Arsenal and Man United both look too likely to slip up.
It appears that as the season is nearly upon us the silly season is about to start again. And
it makes me wish it was 1st September already as we will have a lot fo the answers by then. I am
trying not to get too excited at the moment as a Liverpool fan, with all this talk of quick take
overs and millions of pounds to be given to Roy the boy before the window shuts it makes your heart
start to race.
A shocking World Cup for England. Also a bad World Cup for FIFA:
1. They gave us a brand new and much-hyped match ball, the
JABULANI, which is supposedly the most 'advanced' football ever. Unfortunately,
Every single Jabulani seems to have been BEWITCHED, presumably by some capricious African witch
doctor with a hatred for goalkeepers.
England's 30-man provisional squad for the World Cup finals:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West
Ham).
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole
(Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool),
Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston
Villa).
Yes, the referee was an incompetent moron – on several
occasions, but most of all when disallowing a perfectly good goal by Peter Crouch. Yes, the pitch
was a complete disgrace, by any standard, but especially for a showpiece FA Cup semi-final – and
it cost us Pompey's first goal, Michael Dawson's slip that left Piquionne unmarked attributable
entirely to the unstable Wembley surface.
For anyone who saw the last weekends football, they'll probably be familiar with this image
Which was of course Aaron Ramsey being on the end of a tackle which broke his leg meaning
that no replay could be seen. As an Arsenal fan who didn't know the score before watching MOTD I
was gutted.
As its January, its the time of the Premiership season when the final stretch is in sight and
every game starts to have seemingly more significance. The results around this time will
determine who is in the race for the title and who is likely to be relegated/ qualify for the
Champions League etc.
OK, so this is the wrong sport for this blog, but it is worth putting up anyway. Everyone knows
there are fights in Ice Hockey matches, but this one almost devolved into a full breakdown of
society. It's a slow burner BUT WATCH IT FOR THE FULL SIX MINUTES... it's totally
worth it!
It seemed like last week that Liverpool were very keen to see their Premier League game called
off with Spurs. Now when this happened I really did think that Liverpool were doing it not
because of the weather, but because it gave them a few more days to build some confidence and it
allowed Mascherano to serve his ban in the FA Cup and not in the league.
Carrying on from the two posts below, which comment on the cancellation of this week's football
matches due to the snow, I wanted to share the following post by comedian Dara O'Briain, and have a
little moan:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jan/09/arsenal-bolton-postponed-dara-o-briain
Dara quite rightly points out the absurdity of cancelling Wednesday night's Arsenal-Bolton game,
not because the pitch was unplayable, but because 'fans own safety'.
