Beginning of the season: A few thoughts
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. This is due to United’s increasingly ageing squad with an underperforming Wayne Rooney for the moment and Arsenal’s shaky new defence and continued problem with goalkeepers. Chelsea on the other hand look solid all across their team. Saying that both Arsenal and Man United look likely to feature strongly in both domestic cups and they will be up there near Chelsea at the end.
Over the last two seasons Spurs and Liverpool have essentially swapped places. Spurs look like they could well progress through the group stages in the Champions League and Liverpool are struggling away from home in the Europa Cup. Under Redknapp Spurs keep getting better and better and the talent and depth in their squad makes it look like they could push Liverpool out of the top four for a much longer time, particularly as Man City still look so shaky despite having such a strong squad on paper.
Liverpool will be really good under Hodgson, but he needs a good couple of months to get the team going and get players like Torres back to form. They all look a bit under par or not used to each other yet, but I have no doubt that in a few months time Liverpool will be back up to their form of previous seasons.
As for the rest of the teams in the Premiership, the quality seems to be getting better with each season meaning that the gap between the top seven teams and the rest continues to get smaller. Increasingly games that a Man United or Arsenal fan might have identified as an easy three points now look like a much harder prospect. The only team you could say that of at the moment are Blackpool, but even they are really having a go at teams.
Blackburn and Wolves seem to be competing with Stoke this year on who can be the dirtiest team. Diouf’s tactic of felling the Schwarzer and Henry’s attacks on Joey Barton are good cases in point. If things stay the way they are, it probably won’t be long till another play is on the end of a season ending tackle like that of Ramsey or Eduardo.
For me the most exciting thing of this season so far has been the rise of teams like Sunderland, Bolton, Birmingham and West Brom who are, together with the poor form of teams such as Everton and West Ham, making the games in the Prem increasingly more unpredictable and exciting.
So all in all its been a good start. As an Arsenal fan I was very optimistic about our first couple of games, but after the Sunderland 95th minute equaliser (which had only 4 minutes of extra time) and the inexcusable 3-2 loss at home to West Brom, I have found myself slipping back into a cynical expectation of another 3rd place finish with no silverware. But who knows, the boys could prove me wrong as long as key players stay fit and Arsenal show up to the big games (which they often failed to do last season).
