Last night I spent the evening in the company of a number of old friends who constitute football journalists and football-educated “civvies” and, as one would expect three days before the start of the season, the conversation was predictable. We gather about the same time every year to thrash out our hopes, dreams and, more [...]
Europe has been in shutdown this last week and a half because of a volcano in meltdown in Iceland, and football has not escaped its heavenly wrath. Meanwhile, League One continues to be an enigma right to the end – although at least Norwich have deservedly been promoted. And, the Premier League’s top four have had a poor season this year – but it may not be the same next season. Sean Smith writes…
Chelsea are just a few games from an historic double for the club, but the concensus of opinion is that they are a poor winner of a broken league weakened by the financial crisis of the last few years. What does this mean for the near future of English football. Is it heading backwards?
Is there anything that can be done about the constant lying of managers – it is really starting to infringe on the betting public’s decision making. What we need is the formalisation of the relationship between football clubs and the betting industry. And we need it now…
So we have three teams within three points of each other at the top of the Premier League, and the bookies are undecided as to who is going in it. Chelsea (61 points) and Man Utd (60 points) are impossible to split at 6/4, while Arsenal (58 points) are a little bit bigger on 11/4. Exciting stuff, eh? And, here’s the thing: it’s going to get a lot more exciting because the outsider is going to rip right through the field and win.
You wonder sometimes if Sir Alex Ferguson can hear himself talking sometimes.
His side lose another tie against a top four side and, yet again, it is the fault of the referee, the ‘cheating’ of an opposition player, or pretty much anyone except himself and his underperforming team.
Granted, at Stamford Bridge on Sunday Man Utd set themselves out exceptionally well tactically speaking – stifling Chelsea through the middle and negating the threat of Ashley Cole on the left – but, in the end, they deserved to lose.
