Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The Good:
- Football has returned, it wasn’t necessarily a classic start to the week but as always there were talking points and lots of them (Well let’s say 9 after this one)and at least that means shopping with the Girlfriend is on hiatus until June. No actually there’s the Euro’s as well this Summer so let’s say that trip to B&Q is now postponed to July 2016 at the earliest.
- The “Big 4” didn’t all win on the opening day and Arsenal were bought down to Earth with an almighty bang. Talk of them winning the title had been the loudest voice of the past week but The Gunners were certainly silenced on Sunday at The Emirates. Credit must go to Slaven Bilic for getting his tactics spot on while Reece Oxford who at 16 will be getting his GCSE results this week had Mesut Ozil firmly in his pocket. On Saturday Champions Chelsea were twice clawed back by Swansea, coupled with their Community Shield defeat and it’s fair to say they aren’t quite firing on all cylinders. Will Mourinho be looking to add a few more names to his squad before September?
- Manchester City cruised to a 3-0 on Monday Night and showed the kind of swagger that they were lacking in the tail end of last season. Yaya Toure dominated in Midfield and David Silva never really broke a sweat as The Baggies were run ragged. It’s far too early to talk about season defining matches but if City can beat Chelsea on Sunday then they will already have a 5 point head start on their nearest title rivals.
- Leicester picked up where they left off last season with a 4-2 win over Sunderland, many people have them as definite contenders for the drop mainly due to the fact that the appointment of Claudio Ranieri was a little leftfield to say the least. But the Italian has started in the best possible way with a win, when interviewed after the game Ranieri went to say he was inspired by Kasabian before the game. Will there be some Rock n Roll Football at The King Power Stadium this season?
- Bournemouth in the Premier League, not quite the fairy tale start to the season after they went down 1-0 at home to Aston Villa but they certainly didn’t look out of their depth on Saturday and not only will they win many plaudits this season, I think Eddie Howe should do well enough to keep the evil Harry Redknapp at bay when his knee miraculously recovers again around October/November
The Bad:
- Football League Tonight on Channel 5 – Somehow Channel 5 have made a Football Highlights show without any highlights, ok that’s not strictly true but I think it was timed at about 38 minutes worth of actual action in a show twice that length. The big question is why will people understand that all people want from a Football League highlights show is Goals. Nothing more and certainly nothing less, there was so much wrong with this show I could probably devote numbers 2 to 5 in the bad section to the show, but to summarise briefly I think the worst bits were:
Adam Virgo – saying “As you say” even when someone didn’t actually say it
The studio audience – Football + Top Gear style audiences just don’t work, especially when they are not miked up
The structure of the show – leaving some Championship Goals to the end so people don’t tune out
The Tables – My god, The Tables. Much hyped and when revealed it was like something the Chuckle Brothers had created, please use some graphics next week.
- Simon Hooper’s decision to disallow Cameron Jerome’s late effort at Carrow Road which could have earned them a point against Crystal Palace. If that’s a high foot then we will have to rule out any particularly acrobatic attempt goal from now on. Only we won’t because there’s no consistency from referees therefore it can only go down as an incorrect call. To rub salt in the wounds for Norwich, Yohan Cabaye’s injury time goal sealed all 3 points for The Eagles.
- Where do we start with Tottenham? Now as a Spurs fan I could talk at length and probably will do in the future but as for Saturday I will keep it short. They started well and had they gone ahead from Eriksen early on it could have been a different story but once going behind we never really threatened and we certainly didn’t have a Plan B on the bench. The sooner some additional firepower for Harry Kane can be introduced the better. If Soldado and Adebayor are still the number 2 and 3 strikers by the end of the month it’s going to be a long season.
- Petr Cech – He was meant to be winning Arsenal 15 extra points, he’s currently won them none. The belief is he only wanted to move to a club in London so not to unsettle his family, after the much hyped signing in the Summer. Is he actually going to live up to the hype? Or have Arsenal been given a Bounced Cech?
- Stoke vs Liverpool. That was a bad game, if that was the advert for the “Best League in The World” then I’m not buying it. Ultimately Brendan Rodgers is still trying to work out his best 11 so don’t expect Liverpool to be firing on all cylinders just yet but that was an incredibly tough game to watch. At the end of the day getting out of Stoke with 3 points is a success, to be honest just getting out of Stoke is a success
The Bad:
