The Post without a title

As January turns to February and the snows melt, we enter a few weeks that could go some way to deciding Premier League Champions 2009/10.

Chelsea have weathered the African Nations Cup absences without dropping points, and scoring goals at an impressive clip-19 goals in 5 games without their African quartet, and a 100% record in both league and FA Cup. Aside from the injury to Michael Essien (which to me seemed like it was caused during a challenge with Didier Drogba!), Chelsea go into next weekend's (pivotal?) clash with Arsenal in rude health (an update on Ashley Cole's early departure at Burnley yesterday is pending). I have to say that Carlo appears to have got his team selections right of late-I lamented the fact that he opted for a lone striker at home to woeful Sunderland, yet they scored 7 goals. Against Burnley, Drogba was omitted from the squad, yet Anelka's early tap-in and John Terry's late winner got them 3 points. In addition, Ricardo Carvalho has received regular rest, with Alex proving to be an adequate replacement (albeit against some of the Premier League's lesser attacking forces).

Meanwhile, Man Utd and Arsenal have maintained their challenge, despite ceding top spot to Chelsea. Wayne Rooney's form has been excellent (I was hugely unimpressed with his performance at Hull on the December 27, but he's been all goals since.

In the battle for scraps, my money remains on Liverpool. As unimpressive as they have been for so long this season, they remain in the hunt, and despite the fact that they lacked both Gerrard and Torres in their Anfield clash with Spurs, they never looked in danger of losing the game, and were worthy of the 3 points. Prior to this, Spurs has failed to beat (or score on) Hull City at White Hart Lane.

Check back during the week when I'll react to Arsenal v Man Utd, preview Chelsea v Arsenal, and give my predictions for top 6 and bottom 3.

The Magnificent Seven!

Last Saturday, I went to my first Chelsea game. Was it worth it? Given they won 7-2, then the answer should be yes, but the curmudgeon in me has to say the following:

• Sunderland presented no opposition-Ashley Cole was allowed to operate as an auxiliary forward for crying out loud! So even though there were 9 goals, it wasn't really a great game (Still, my fear about going to a Premier League game was always that it would finish 0-0 or Chelsea would lose, so I really shouldn't moan).
• Florent Malouda was the most skilful player on the pitch. His recent comments about Frank Lampard haven't endeared him to the Chelsea faithful (there were more than a few boos when his name was read out and when he was on the ball) and himself and Lampard certainly seemed to get in each others way more than I would like to see.
• Joe Cole ain't the player he was. I'm not entirely surprised about these rumours.
  
• I would have liked to see Anelka get his hat-trick (and he should have-the shot that rattled the woodwork would have been a fine goal)
• I would have liked if I could have seen the video screens (if only for the fact that because it was my first time in the stadium I kept looking around me and missing the on-field action...)
• Beer in the stadium? Great. Heineken only? Not so much.
• And lastly, no Drogba, or Essien-how I would have loved to seen the Bison rampage!
  

But I'll be going back some day, that's for sure. Tis hard to beat live action.

P.S. You and now Follow Me! Yes, that's right, I'm now on Twitter. I'm sure it will be just as interesting as this blog...

P.P.S. If you like that Uncle Kracker song, please stop following this blog and don't ever talk to me again.

Don’t forget your shovel if you want to go work....

If you had a shovel.
If you had work.

Lucky me, I didn't have to brave the snow/slush/shit/frost/ice and venture out into the white today-I can work from home! So here's what caught my eye on the Beeb (and elsewhere) as I worked.

Portsmouth 'do not need to sell'

Odd-I was sure this headline read 'Portsmouth to sell stars' earlier. And so it did! The situation at Pompey reads like a League of Ireland saga involving the likes or Cork or Derry (more on that later). How on earth did whatever Sheikh/Sultan/Caliph/Ayatollah who currently owns the club pass the FA's 'fit and proper' test given that Pompey cannot seem to play their players on a timely basis (I wouldn't have thought bank loans are the best method of financing for a monthly expense like wages, but that's just the accountant in me....). Of course the situation isn't helped by the fact that the FA are withholding £7m in TV rights payments from the club and distributing directly to other clubs who are owed TV rights money from Portsmouth-Watford (who could use the money themselves I'm sure), Spurs (well 'Arry has to have readies to engage in his usual 'wheeling and dealing') and Chelsea (!!!).

Clive Delaney vents at the LoI

And who could blame him-given the fact he hasn't been paid for over 4 months? By the sounds of it, the days of the full-time footballer could be coming to an end in Ireland. And this might be no bad thing, right?

Disclaimer-I know Clive quite well and would consider him a mate. I hope he does well in Oz-I'd like to see him up against Robbie Fowler at some stage!

Opta Stats-they never lie!

Ok, I don't agree with the 'Lampard is the best player of the decade', but it sure is interesting that Kevin Kilbane has featured on more losing teams than any other player in that time. (I heard this story on Newstalk the other night, but the only links I could find were from that off forum above or the Sun. Easy choice which one to pick)

Birmingham are making moves

They've just signed Michel, enquired about Aiden McGeady, and had a £8m bid for Ryan Babel rejected. Egad-what are you thinking Rafa-take the money and run! At least someone in the Premier League is generating the right kind of headlines during the transfer window. Fair play to them-I'm seriously considering heading over to Stamford Bridge on 27 January to seem them play Chelsea-the last game wasn't bad. Hopefully Ghana and Ivory Coast will have exited the African Cup of Nations at that stage....


And finally, if you haven't caught the Winter vomiting bug, this should bring it on.

Rough justice?

"The red was obscene. He'll miss three games unless the ref has the guts to rescind it"

Steve Bruce is to be charged by the FA following the comment above. Link.

Meanwhile, 'Sir' Alex Ferguson had this to say about Chris Foy adding 5 minutes of injury time at the end of Man Utd's home defeat to League 1 side Leeds Utd on Sunday:

"That is an insult to the game and the players out there."

The only insulting thing is the beetroot faced Scot himself. No FA charges are expected for "Sir" Alex of course. This comment was deemed to be within the rules (i.e. it did not imply bias, question integrity or be personal in the nature of his comments). I guess it's all a matter of interpretation.

A Festive Feast of less than Fantastic Football

Watching games over the Xmas period, I am beginning to think that a festive break might be in order for the Premier League. The quality of play in the Hull v Man Utd and Aston Villa v Liverpool games was such that it would have been more entertaining for a supporter to stay home and watch the Great Escape or Wallace and Gromit. For the armchair fan, like myself, it's great having live sport to watch when pubs are closed or it's too icy too venture outside safely, but the quality of much of what was on show in the back end of 2009 was such that I wondered whether some players were guilty of eating and drinking as much as an above average slob as myself-there certainly were a lot of sluggish performances.

As to some of the results themselves:

• Birmingham 0-0 Chelsea. Chelsea's less than impressive sequence of results continued, albeit away to in-form Birmingham, for whom on loan Joe Hart was in inspired form. Christian Benitez scored a perfectly good goal but was incorrectly flagged for offside (thanks to Didier Drogba lying prone in his own 6 yard box.....), and Alex hit the bar with a thunderous free kick. Chelsea certainly didn't play well enough to win and a draw was probably a fair result.
• Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa. The beginning of the end for Aston Villa's Champions League quest? I think so. Villa were ok for the first 15 minutes or so, but really lost their way after that-Stillian Petrov looked a spent force and James Milner looked out of place in the centre of Villa's midfield. For Arsenal-the same old story-some lovely passing and counter-attacking, but a serious lack of execution in the basics of heading and shooting meant that it needed the introduction of not fully fit Cesc Febergas to change the game for Arsenal. Eduardo is really lacking confidence up front and Andrey Arshavin was largely anonymous. Arsenal could really do with adding a striker (not just a forward player), or hope that the return of Nicklas Bendtner can help make up for the loss of Robin van Persie for much of the rest of the season.
• Hull 1-Man Utd 3. What an awful game. After watching Chelsea play just ok and fail to win at Bermingham, I was worried that Man Utd would come out and crush Hull and gain the upper hand in the title race. Not exactly. What an awful game-it was hard to see why Wayne Rooney could be considered one of Europe's best, and why Ryan Giggs was in the running for player of the year less than 6 months ago. Hull look doomed-the loss of Jimmy Bullard until February is a blow for sure, but they look a worse team than West Ham and even Portsmouth based on what I saw on December 26th. Their comeback from 2-0 down away to Bolton did for Gary Megson-and rightly so I would say-but they are not a team I want to see staying in the Premier League.
• Wolves 0-3 Man City. The Roberto Mancini era has started well at Man City, but when the opposition is as toothless as Stoke and then Wolves, it's nothing that should excite the blue half of Manchester too much. Wolves play a nice enough brand of football-but never looked like scoring a goal in this game-Kevin Doyle is good worker and runs the channels tirelessly, but he never looks like regaining the scoring form of his Reading days. Chris Iwelumo? Well, he's not bad as a target man, but this suggests that he won't score many in the Premier League. As for City, they remain indebted to Shay Given for keeping them in may games and to Craig Bellamy for always giving 100%. Robinho looks desperately out of shape and disinterested-it will be interesting to see whether Mancini can succeed in getting him in shape and contributing like a player that cost Man City £25 million. Stories linking him with Bercelona don't hold any water with me-isn't this the same club that cut loose another Brazilian malcontent (Ronaldinho) at the start of the Guardiola era? It's hard to believe they would risk disrupting the best team in Europe with an overweight, out of form ex-Real Madrid player.
• Aston Villa 0-1 Liverpool. 2 of the top 6 sides in the Premier League? Jesus wept. There are very few strikers who have the finishing touch of Fernando Torres-he was the only difference between what looked like 2 very average teams.
  

Here's hoping the level of quality increases in 2010 and that the Premier League is won on merit rather than by default.