RACE TO THE TITLE PART 2

LIVERPOOL did what was expected but no one expected them to beat Aston Villa by 5 goals. If this was meant as a declaration of intent, then it was the best I’ve ever seen. Most teams would have withered under the pressure like Chelsea but Liverpool did not and tore Aston Villa a new one.

Liverpool came out of the dressing room ready for a battle and started so brightly that it was obvious that Martin O’Neill had no idea how to countermand the onslaught he was witnessing. Attack upon attack resulted in Aton Villa playing the lousiest game of their vaunted season.

By half time, Aston Villa had been beaten into submission; it was actually unfair for them to continue the second half. If this was boxing match, the referee would have stopped this punishment at half time. But Aston Villa needed to understand that joining the big four was not a job for the weak hearted or the skills deficient manager. If he couldn’t stop the attacks of Liverpool, admittedly not the best attacking team in the league, how was he expected to match up against the really attacking teams like Arsenal or Manchester United.

Something I just learnt about Martin O’Neill and a warning to the Man Utd fans who believe that O’Neill should take over from Fergie when he gives up the ghost at Old Trafford – Aston Villa have never won a game in March since O’Neill became manager. In the three years he has been manager at Villa Park; he takes a spring break and doesn’t bother coaching to win. Imagine that???


Arsenal have continued their unbeaten run and dumped Newcastle into the bottom three on Saturday afternoon. Andrei Arshavin has informed us what Arsene Wenger told them to expect. Newcastle will come out blowing very hot and run round the pitch a lot. They will then tire and then Arsenal should beat them easily. It happened just like Wenger said; and this suicide approach of Newcastle is embodied fully in the silliness of Steven Taylor. His energy is evident but his stupid consistent fouling led to Arsenal’s first goal and his self induced injury compounded the issue when he was off the field for the second goal.


Blackburn lost again and once again Sam Allardyce is blaming some one else. Phil Brown served under Sam Allardyce for six years at Bolton; they must have spent many nights perfecting the art of delusional responsibilities shifting from themselves to the referee or to the opposing side.

Which way Manchester United? They have Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Emmanuel Vidic suspended for their next game against the hapless Aston Villa. Dimitar Berbatov is injured and might not be available. Carlos Tevez might be the biggest waste of strikers space this side of Nicholas Bendtner. Ronaldo doesn’t like the physical touch of opposing players and is complaining too much. So Fergie has to earn this title with all the guile and determination that has kept him at the top of his game over the last 16 years.

I stick by Manchester United winning the league but only on the last game.

Race to the title Part 1

I have already stated that Manchester United will win the league so I won’t be pulling back from that yet. But it does look like we are in for a resurgent premiership run-in. man Utd will have to battle to win it this year and we pray that Liverpool doesn’t give up the chase today against Aston Villa.


For the first time in 4 years Manchester United has lost consecutive games, letting Liverpool back into the race for one of their quintuplet. What happens next is up to Fergie and his men. My friend OO has been predicting a blip like this for weeks because ManU have been playing below their normal level for a very long time and it just caught up with them. Losing 2-0 to Fulham is not necessarily a bad thing but the manner in which they lost their discipline is alarming. The red card for Paul Scholes was inevitable after his attempt at playing volley ball but the petulance of Cristiano Ronaldo and then Wayne Rooney were unnecessary and ultimately led to this result.

Man Utd’s next game is against 4th place chasing Aston Villa in two weeks time and if they continue to play further below their normal standards then they will be handing the title to Liverpool. Fergie needs to recognise that the squeaky bum time he so neatly taunted Arsene Wenger with some years ago might be affecting him now and he needs to man up and find a way to win games and keep his teams discipline intact.


Before yesterday’s game, Chelsea had lost to Tottenham once in the 17 years of the premiership; they kicked off knowing Man Utd were already trailing to Fulham and just needed to win to keep up the pressure but still conspired to hand Tottenham a victory that rules Chelsea out of the title race.

How Chelsea football club is not able to recognise that this is the teams last chance of winning anything anytime soon is a mystery. They are an aging side and the only young ones – Solomon Kalou & Florent Malouda – are such poor players that they can barely be sold in exchange for James Beattie. Roman Abramovich has lost a bundle in this recession and has instructed Chelsea that they must balance their books from next season effectively ruling out a new assault on the premiership with roubles. My friend JJ must be crying in his sleep on hearing this news.

Hull has just lost again; Wigan beat them 1-0. Phil Brown, the Hull city manager blames the defeat on Arsene Wenger for not shaking his hand and Cesc Fabregas for spitting. We are looking forward to the day when Phil Brown will grow a pair and admit that his team is playing poorly because of his management skills.


Can Liverpool cut the deficit to just one point? Can Rafa continue his good judgement?

Part 2 to follow.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW - PROPER

The actual draw is below and you can see that I got two of the matches right.

Villarreal vs. Arsenal
Manchester United vs. Porto
Liverpool vs. Chelsea
Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich

Man Utd gets a walkover.

And Chelsea plays Liverpool for the umpteenth time in this competition.

Arsenal will be meeting up with Pascal Cygan and Robert Pires in their own opponents. And who knows

The game between Barcelona and Bayern Munich should be worth the admission.

The winners of the Villarreal-Arsenal game will play the winners of the Porto-ManUtd in the semis.

Liverpool or Chelsea will play either Bayern Munich or Barcelona in the semis.

Good luck to all these teams.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW - DRAFT

This morning in Switzerland the draw for the Champions league quarter and semi finals will be made. Every team wants to play Arsenal, Villarreal and Porto, the supposed weaker teams left in the draw.
The teams left in the competition are:
1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
5. Barcelona
6. Villarreal
7. Bayern Munich
8. Porto

Based on the previous history of the draw and how it normally works out for some of the teams like Man Utd, this is how I believe the draw will pan out.

1. Manchester Utd vs. Villarreal or Porto
2. Chelsea vs. Liverpool
3. Arsenal vs. Barcelona or Bayern Munich

Watch this space for what actually happens from 11 am.

SHEFFIELD'S UNITED STUPID SUITS

I don’t know exactly what West Ham did wrong when they signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in the summer 2006 but I know that football has gone mad over the purchase ever since.

Somehow Carlos Tevez contract and not Javier Mascherano’s became an issue; but I can assume that Liverpool in buying Mascherano in the January window must have regularised something that West Ham had omitted to do.

So the FA get involved and somehow fined West Ham and then the courts got involved and Sheffield United, who were relegated that season, found a stupid judge who believed the argument that because West Ham had Tevez and had acquired him illegally that they are liable to pay them a large sum of money.

My problem is simple; did Tevez’s presence in West Ham prevent Sheffield United from winning more than half of their games. Did Tevez score in the games West ham played against Sheffield United? Did it matter if he did?

So after West Ham and Sheffield United agreed on an out of court settlement; there seems to be an open season on suing West Ham. Neil Warnock, the manager that took Sheffield United down wants to sue West Ham for not being a premiership manager. Can someone explain to him that he is not a premiership manager because he did not win the games he had to? Don’t blame West Ham or Tevez; look in a mirror to see who to blame.

Even the Sheffield United players are looking to sue West Ham for being deprived of a premiership status. A premiership status they worked very little to protect when they were in the league. Do these players have no shame?

If three teams were relegated that year, how come it is only Sheffield Utd that is suing? Why stop at the teams that were relegated? Why can’t Man Utd sue for not achieving a higher points total because Tevez scored against them in the final league game of the season? Arsenal can also sue for ending 4th in the league; they would have won the league if Carlos Tevez was not bought by West Ham.

The possibilities of suits are endless, the fans, the hooligans; any one can sue West Ham today and the feckless idiots in the FA and court will entertain the nonsense.

A young black man looking into the window of a jewellery shop must be casing the joint. Aiming to come back later that night with his posse of thugs to break in and cart away stuff. This is England in 2009. Barely 2 months after the United States inaugurated a black man as president; the racist police of Cheshire are still profiling all black men as crooks.

Victor Anichebe, a young black man who also happens to play football for Everton, one of the bigger teams in England was arrested by the Cheshire police force because he was looking into the window of a jewellery shop. That was his crime, looking through the windows.

The racist police force says they were directed there by CCTV operators and because of increased criminal activity they decided that they had to ask them what they were doing looking through a jewellery shop. Of course, the idiotic redneck policemen didn’t know that the man they were talking to didn’t have to case the joint but could easily buy the joint with his pocket money.

But when is the black man going to be free; if Victor Anichebe, a premiership footballer can’t look through the windows of a jewellery shop without being hassled, imagine the treatment waiting for the inner city kid who might be caught walking down these same streets.

Wake up, white man; the black man is now the most powerful man in the world and you are still locking them up for no reason at all. Wake up.

Victor Anichebe should sue and make this case a cause celebre; don’t listen to the old white men who only care for him because of his football skills. They would tell him to put it behind him and move on; but how does he move on where he is seen as a potential crook just because of the colour of his skin. This is the problem we continue to have with our black celebrities; they falsely believe that because the white man accepts him because of his skills, that it is ok for other black people to be third class citizens.

Sue for large sums and let’s see how the racist redneck pigs grovel. Don’t accept any belated apology.

Quartet for Quarters????

Last night Rafa Benitez showed that he can still be an inspirational manager and stand toe to toe with any manager in Europe. His Liverpool side dispatched Real Madrid with such ease that besides Iker Casillas could have beaten Real Madrid by 13.
Rafa can still be petulant and will do or say something foolish before the weekend ends but on a given day he is as good as any one else.

Liverpool, were lucky the referee was blind and didn’t see the foul on Pepe for the first goal or that Gabriel Heinze didn’t actually handle the ball for the penalty and second goal; but besides the two goals from those incidents, Liverpool were always going to beat these clueless former galaticos.

Now they get ready to meet up with ManUtd at Old Trafford on Saturday for arguably the game of the season and Liverpool will have to find a way of repeating yesterday’s performance to leave with any points.

Chelsea, the team that will benefit the most from a stalemate between Liverpool & ManUtd, are also in the draw for the quarter finals of the champions league. A rough and tumble game between Chelsea and Juventus ended all square; and Chelsea progressing on a 3-2 aggregate. This was another game that could easily have been marred by referees incompetence but the hard working boys from west London refused to lay down and got the goals needed. Guus Hiddink is a good coach and is doing something right but they will lose sometime but I hope it is not this weekend.

ManUtd’s is on a quest for a clean sweep of all competitions and I can clearly state that this is not going to happen. Not counting the nonsense world club cup that they couldn’t have lost; the carling cup and premiership are already wrapped up but it then gets hazy. First, no team has ever done back to back champions league, Secondly, what about the Inter team they play tonight, then Barcelona and Bayern Munich and Liverpool or Chelsea to come. They might beat Inter but Jose Mourinho is just that kind of coach who will inspire his team into a score draw to win this tie.

Then the FA cup where they still have Everton and Chelsea to deal with.It will still be tough

Arsenal, the fourth member of this English quartet, is the team with the hardest job of getting by their opponents. A 1-0 lead is good but they could and should have scored more. Will Theo Walcott and Eduardo start; if they don’t, Arsenal will be out by 930pm tonight.

Arsene Wenger needs a strong spine in this team and Eboue, Song and Kolo are not it at all.

PEP & BARCELONA TIRED?

Just 2 weeks ago, Barcelona was 12 points ahead of the chasing pack and looking invincible. They were tipped to win La Liga, Copa Del Rey and champion’s league. They faltered against two teams and gave them a 1-0 lead and still came back to beat both teams with late goals. Coach Pep Guardiola (picture) should have seen the writing on the wall but he is an inexperienced coach and didn't see the symptoms of his team badly timed blip.

But in the last week they have seen their insurmountable lead of 12 cut down to just 4. It started with a draw and then losing to Espanyol and Athletico Madrid in successive weeks. Is Barcelona tired? Because Real Madrid has won 10 games in a row and are looking hungry and are playing ugly enough to knock Barcelona off their perch if given the opportunity.

Juande Ramos seems such a guru now leading Real Madrid and his motley crew to within 4 points of Barcelona and I cant wait for the next El Classico.

IS ARSENE WENGER LOONY?

Can some one with some sense please explain to Arsene Wenger, the embattled manager of Arsenal football club that the aim of a football game is to score more goals than your opponent and earn a victory or a win?

The half blind manager just said somewhere that his Arsenal team dominates opposing teams more than Manchester United. I wish to believe that this statement was taken out of context and somewhere in that interview he made a point to say that Man Utd however, has learnt how to win games more than Arsenal; and his own team needs to learn how to do the same like they did back in the day.

Actually, I am not even sure that Arsenal dominates more games than the mancunians because the league position of both teams cannot bear that assertion out. Arsenal is 16 points behind Man Utd and the gap isn’t closing any time soon. Man Utd have scored more goals and conceded less, so from which orifice did Wenger pull this one from.

And more importantly, when exactly did domination become a point of reward in a game like goals or victory. Arsene, the best you could do this season is finish fifth and see if you can win an European (UEFA) cup next year. Everton is waiting to pounce on your present position so be careful.

WEEKEND GONE

Congratulations to Manchester United for winning the Carling Cup yesterday. The first of multiple cups they will win this season. But where did they get this quintuplet nonsense? Is the Mickey Mouse cup they won playing two games against some asian side and another south American part of this historic five competitions they can win?

Is Harry Redknapp mad? He rests his best players in midweek and is removed from the UEFA cup; his intention was to bring back the big guns for the Carling cup final. He forgot to tell his big boys that was their program and ended up losing the finals in a penalty shoot out. Don't they practise penalties. Tottenham had many chances to beat Manchester United but were just useless in the final third and besides Aaron Lennon has no clue up front. Tottenham have outspent many third world countries and still are struggling to stave off relegation.


Liverpool can beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeau but not Middlesbrough at the riverside, what is wrong with Rafa Benitez? What are his priorities? Who else believes Liverpool will finish second. A tenty year wait to win the league is long. Ask ManU and Chelsea fans how long the wait weighs on you.


Arsene Wenger needs a new challenge; I didn’t say he should be sacked but 4 consecutive goalless draws is a little bit much. This is a team that went through a season scoring in every game. A team that produced 5 players who scored more than 10 goals each four years ago now can't score against the like of West Ham and Sunderland; why were they disbanded with such haste? ARSENE KNOWS NOTHING NOW.