So we are back up and running, but nothing has really set the world alight, but it is early days, let’s start the round up with two six pointer relegation battles, yes even this early there were two important games.
Wolves won at Blackburn in a crucial game between two sides that face a relegation battle, of the two Wolves seem to be in the better position, they have unity at the club and the board seem to want to assist the manager, Blackburn, in my opinion, will be lucky to finish 19th, so a crucial victory for Wolves.
Norwich and Wigan was the other game and this ended all square, these are two sides that I want to survive, they have given young managers the chance, and I hope this proves correct, Norwich has always been a side that I have admired, always played good football as is the tradition, Wigan are a club that has a great manager and an even better chairman, Martinez always acknowledges the game and shows his love for football by trying to do things the right way, and in conjunction with Dave Whelan, who is refreshingly honest and business savvy, I want them to survive, so a point shared was a reasonable start.
For the pretenders to the crown, there were no real signs of improvement, Chelsea were the same, robotic side, no new faces of note, and no creativity in the side, they are a big unit who try to overpower sides, but up against Stoke, they met their match, we also saw the horrible side of the game with Torres and Lampard throwing themselves to the ground in a way my five year old son does, then John Terry making the ref aware he should feel sorry for them.
Arsenal, I don’t think, we can consider as genuine title contenders, I believe they are in a battle for 4th place with Liverpool, neither side impressed the weekend, Arsenal look short of freshness and new ideas, the headlines from St James Park will be about Joey Barton, who for the record did nothing wrong, he got stamped on and slapped and has now been hung, drawn and quartered from all angles, shocking, but back to Arsenal, with more exits before the end of the month, Wenger needs a trophy signing, his philosophies simply don’t work now, and even his own crowd must be coming to the end of understanding with him.
Liverpool clearly have a better squad this year, but do they have the squad to challenge the top four, it is clear that three clubs are far and away better than the rest in Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea, Dalglish is playing catch up from far back and he has bought good British players that will make them more competitive, but they lack the factor that makes them serious contenders, and this was clear to see in their opener at a much improved Sunderland, I fully expect Sunderland to be in the top 8 this season with the signings made by Bruce.
The champions of last season, showed why they will be champions again this season, the opening 30 minutes of the game at West Brom was the best football of the weekend by a long way, coupled with the second half demolition of Man City last week, they are exciting to watch, the second reason they will win the league was that even though they were below par second half, they still found a winner from the impressive Ashley Young, most people will be doubting the new keeper, but look at Reina when he first joined Liverpool, the great Dane when he first joined Utd, plus many other keepers that take time to settle, he will come good.
Fulham and Aston Villa should end up mid-table and this was giving further credence by a 0-0 draw against each other.
The surprise team of the year will be Bolton, and their thrashing of QPR was the ideal start, no matter what the problems are at QPR, it is impressive at the way Bolton hit the ground running, as for QPR, I expect they will be in the bottom three alongside Blackburn.
So without a home win all weekend in the Premiership, it is now down to Man City to rectify that against Swansea, a tough start for the swans against one of the top three sides this season. We will see.
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