Right back where we started

Chelsea beat Liverpool
Man Utd beat Arsenal
Liverpool beat Man Utd
Chelsea have lost 2 games already
Man Utd have lost 2 games already
Arsenal have lost 2 games already
Liverpool have lost 3 games already

Just who is the best team in the current edition of the Premier League?
Although Chelsea sit at the top of the table, Arsenal could move ahead of them on goal difference if they win their game in hand, and, were the better team for long stretches of their visit to Old Trafford. But, they shipped 4 goals to Man City and just blew a 2 goal lead at West Ham. Man Utd have been beaten by Burnley, needed an injury time equaliser to get a draw at home to Sunderland and beat Man City in similar fashion. Chelsea looked disinterested when losing 3-1 at Wigan and defensively naive when losing to Aston Villa. Liverpool have lost to Sunderland.

So, we might just be looking at one of the more competitive Premier League season in some time now. Note that 'competitive' does not imply that we are going to see a lot of quality-look at last Sunday's clash of Liverpool and Man Utd-the standard of play-flashes of brilliance from Fernando Torres and the odd cameo from Yossi Benayoun aside-was poor. Liverpool won despite the fact that they had surely the worst Brazilian ever to kick a ball in the middle of the field, and were helped by a largely anonymous display from Man Utd's midfield and an ineffectual display from their front 2. It's worth noting however that Man Utd still looked like a more natural attacking force when they got forward in the 1st half, and Liverpool's first instinct appeared to play the ball sqaure or backwards. How they miss the drive of Steven Gerrard.

Sure Man Utd might have benefited from the industry and strength of Darren Flethcher, and maybe even the likes of Park and Andersen would have made an impact, but Carrick and Valencia are first choice and hardly looked the part on Sunday. Fernando Torres seems to be Nemanja Vidic's kryptonite. It is debatable as to whether Liverpool really played well enough to win the game, but equally, it is a stetch to say that Man Utd deserved anything other than a defeat. Makes sense? Good.

November could make the picture a little clearer with Chelsea playing host to Man Utd and facing Arsenal at The Emirates. Clashes between the 'Big 4' don't always tend to matter greatly in determining the Premier League winner, but in a year where parity appears to have returned, points taken from your closest challengers could be more important than in recent years.

I think I smell a rat......

Hmmm. The svelte Eamon Dunphy must be around. It was a bit much to listen to Eamo ranting and raving after Ireland had secured a place in the World Cup play-offs by virtue of a 2-2 draw with Italy (World Champions Italy as King George kept reminding us over the course of the evening)-we have had worse results recently, but Stephen Hunt couldn't avoid coming down to Eamo's level to hit back at Dunphy's 'shameful' comments. Dunphy came out and apologised (fair play to him for that I guess), but it wasn't as if he was goaded into making the comments in the first place, so you would wonder what he was smoking when he lashed out last Saturday. At least Trap didn't seem to let it bother him, but no surprise there I guess.

Eamo is right enough in one respect-it is 'shameful' that Andy Reid can't get in the Ireland squad, but at this stage, it's time to build a bridge. Ireland are where we expected/hoped to be at the start of this qualifying campaign, and for that, the current manager and squad should be congratulated. But, it doesn't take from that we led twice against Italy and failed to win. Indeed, the truth of it was that Italy looked like they score whenever they wanted or needed to do so-the point gained in Dublin was enough for them to win the group and qualify automatically. We also failed to beat Bulgaria, despite having led both home and away (and Bulgaria looked very average on both occasions) and Montenegro on 2 occasions (albeit the Croke Park game was a dead rubber). So Ireland were unbeaten, but their 4 wins during the campaign were single goal victories over Cyprus and Georgia (more than other Ireland managers could manage, which is a sign of progress I suppose). That doesn't look likely to get us through a play-off when our potential opponents will be one from France, Portugal, Russia or Greece.

Of that lot, it's hard to know who we should be hoping to draw next Monday. On paper, Greece appear to be the weakest of the 4, Russia the least desirable place to go at this time of the year, while Portugal and France have the star names and big reputations, but appear to lack form. Some of the match-ups are pretty daunting-Ronaldo v Kilbane; Arshavin v. St Leger; Ribery v. O'Shea; anyone in Greece v. the Irish midfield.

Whoever Ireland end up playing, not everyone will be welcome at the game. The FAI were offering an incentive to buy tickets for last night's game against Montenegro-post your ticket stub to them and you would have first preference for buying tickets to the play-off game in Croke Park. A few (un)lucky fans may not be there-because of displaying this banner-the FAI took umbrage to the banner, confiscated it and the fan's ticket stub, and asked the Gardai to get involved. It turns out that the guys got there tickets back, but only after the FAI had scanned/photographed them. What next? RTE actually showed footage of the banner at the end-will they be stripped of their rights to broadcast future Ireland games? Godwin's Law decrees I should say nothing further about the FAI.

A Machiavellian Outcome?

The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote in Electra (c 409 B.C.), "The end excuses any evil". I've never read it, I probably never will. Heck, I've never even seen the film Elektra.

No, this blog has not 'got culture' all of a sudden. The above represents Geovanni Trappatoni's modus operandi it would seem, based on what we saw in the 2-1 victory in Cyprus where the performance wasn't really much better than that which saw us beaten 3-0 by Australia-the main differences being the result (better) and the quality of the opposition (worse), and indeed what we have seen from the septuagenarian Italian's Ireland XI's to date. Indeed, it was not surprising to stumble across this piece, which may give some insight into his seemingly ultra-conservative nature.

Ireland will take the field on Saturday without one of the most in-form Irish midfield players in the Premier League at the moment, one who actually wants to play for his country. Andy Reid's absence has become more baffling as his fitness and form has improved considerably since the last round of games, and it beggared belief when Martin Rowlands (who I have to admit I have not seen play, but given that he is now 30 years of age and has never played Premier League football, I have to believe is not a better player than Andy Reid) was called up as cover for the injured Damien Duff during the week. Ireland just don't have the luxury of leaving out players like Andy Reid-he's no world beater, and may not neatly fit in the manager's preferred system, but he has the ability to create-something that is severely lacking among the rest of the fit midfielders in the squad.

Il Trap appears to have brought some defensive stability to the Irish team, and you cannot argue that results have not improved, but I get the impression that this team is not set up to win the games that will really matter-if Italy come to the Northside to play, we will not be able to stand toe to toe with them. Ireland have trundled along with the attitude that its is the result rather than the performance that matters (or the end justifies the means), which is well and good, but sooner or later, mediocre performances catch up with you. I am waiting for a last minute sucker punch to do for us at some stage in this campaign-the knock out may not come on Saturday, but given the recently announced seeding system, I fear it will come via the play-offs.

In other news, Steve Staunton appears to have found his level-amazing that he managed Ireland before he was given the job at the team lying at the foot of League 2.

In other news (September)

• College Football and NFL seasons kicked off-this means that primetime gambling is here again, and I won't be tempted so much by football and other random bets (over the course of the summer it's been rugby, tennis, golf and who knows what else).
  

• I spent 4 amazing days in Cleveland. What did I do? Went to watch sports. Friday night-Progressive Field, where we watched 7 or so innings of a meaningless game between the bad Indians and the equally bad Royals. Still, hard to beat watching live sports with your friends on a beautiful Friday evening while drinking overpriced light beer. Saturday was the real deal-I was at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio along with over 106,000 other people (Vince Vaughan and Will Farrell among them) to watch Ohio State slug it out with USC. The atmosphere, pagentry and noise was simply amazing. It was a pity that the home team lost late in the game, but it couldn't take away from a great experience. On Sunday, opening day at Cleveland Browns Stadium, and my first taste of tailgating. What a great idea-pubs before games are fun, but this is even better. Shame the Browns couldn't keep the party going on the field, but I did see Adrian Peterson score 3 touchdowns and LeBron James was not more than 100 feet away from where I sat. A great trip.
  

• An American Football player at Oregon University was suspended by his own college for the rest of the year (after their first game) for throwing one punch at an opponent who was taunting him after a Boise State beat Oregon last week. LeGarrette (yes, Garret just wasn't enough apparently) Blount was Oregon's star player and a potential NFL star. I can't believe that his actions warranted such a discretionary suspension and that his coach was so tearful about the whole thing. Add to this the fact that many analysts/writers are now discounting his chances of being drafted by a NFL team, and I just can't help but wonder if the sometime shambolic disciplinary procedures we have in GAA and rugby are better than US style sports discipline.

• I really felt for Tipperary after their All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny. Tipp had managed to turn a 2 point half-time deficit into a 3 point lead over The Cats with around 10 minutes to go. And then, a moment of madness (Benny Dunne's wild strike on Tommy Walsh-how ironic that Walsh would find himself on the end of a foul blow), and a moment of incompetence (referee Diarmuid Kirwan's decision to award a penalty to Kilkenny) ultimately turned the tie back in Kilkenny's favour. Not since Limerick's stunning collapse against Offaly in 1994 can I remember a hurling final where a team do deserving of victory were denied the Liam McCarthy Cup. However, it has to be said that Kilkenny are indeed a great team and they have rarely relied in fortune to win them games. They had the rub of the green on Sunday for sure, but great teams always stick around, and their never say die attitude along with some outstanding saves from PJ Ryan kept them in it to win it.

• Chelsea score a late, late winner at Stoke, while Man City win a heated game against Arsenal. Man Utd put Spurs in their place. This weekend Man Utd play Man City at Old Trafford, while Spurs travel to Stamford Bridge. A big weekend then, with both local pride and Premier League momentum at stake.

• The Champions League kicked off-with all 4 English teams winning, but only Arsenal providing any drama after coming from 2 goals down after 5 minutes to snatch a win at Liege.
  

A golden age of....shite

They say, 'there's no such thing as bad publicity', and. and an ad works if it gets people talking about it, good or bad. As Mr Burns said, 'I disagree'. There's a plethora of awful stuff out there are the moment, such as:

Glade-"I want to do a poo..."
Remember-it's wrong to beat kids that ain't yours.

Volvic-"The Volvic Challenge"
What to say about this one. Words fail me. I don't want to post anything that may incriminate me at a later date.

Spar-"The S Factor"
The one on the radio is possibly worse. I like Spar, but not any more. Londis or Centra it is. The genius behind this masterpiece is Oliver Callan, aka 'Nob Nation'. How apt.

Guinness-"To Arthur"
Cop on. You can't get drunk enough on Guinness to engender the kind of bonhomie that ad implies.

Vodafone-"Mission Red"
Listen Vodafone (Chris), your mission is to stop dropping my calls while in am on the M50. Never mind this crap.

Vodafone-GAA/Sean Boylan
Such trite BS.

123.ie-"Ivan Answer"
Again, their radio ads are probably worse, but this is guaranteed to be muted. Just was well it's animation based-you wouldn't want to put a human face to this sort of evil.

There are many, many more (any ad on Comedy Central, any ad for ringtones, any ad for laser hair removal or laser eye surgery, pretty much any ad on the radio), but I can't find the videos so I won't bother linking to them. For now, I leave you with this gem from Bill Hicks:

Anybody in advertising or marketing should just kill themselves. Seriously

Trap laughs long and hard at his own joke

4 weeks ago the good people of Limerick (for the price of €55 per ticket) were treated to Ireland being humiliated by Australia (the title refers to Trapattoni's demeanour after they scored their 3rd goal). Normally we might not be surprised to see our Antipodean cousins giving the Boys in Green a good beating at Thomand Park, but in soccer? Surely not. Alas, it doesn't say much for Ireland that we were well and truly beaten, indeed you could say outclassed, by an Australian team that didn't feature too many household names. Still, I was impressed with them-unlike Ireland, they looked like an international football team, as opposed to a mid-table Premier League team.

In Ireland's case, the whole doesn't seem to be greater than the sum of the parts any longer-we go as Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane, and, to a lesser extent, Kevin Doyle, go. The odd burst from Duff, McGeady or Hunt can produce a goal, but the lack of consistent end product from all 3 wide men means that you can't really say for sure what you are going to get from each one on any given night. And while both Dunne and Given are generally excellent, Keane does disappear on too many occasions.

And the rest? How John O'Shea was deemed a better player to keep at Man Utd than Gerard Pique (among others) is a mystery to me. Whoever partners Dunne at centre-back (whether it is St Ledger or McShane/O'Shea) is not up to the task. Kevin Kilbane has been a great servant to Ireland (I think I've even seen him singing the anthem), but to ask him to play left back on a regular basis is not fair to him, or Ireland's chances. A fair percentage of our goals conceded seem to stem from Kilbane's lack of ability to close people down and his lack defensive positioning awareness.

It is the Irish midfield that garners the most discussion, both in terms of who plays (Glenn Whelan) and who doesn't (Stephen Ireland). We have no-one selected at the moment who is capable of holding possession, or indeed acting as a link man between defence and attack. It is hard to say what Glenn Whelan brings to the party-a live body maybe, but not much else. I've seen Andrews play ok for Blackburn, but he's not good enough for this level, well not without someone of a higher standard alongside him. Darron Gibson hasn't looked great either-you would think Man Utd rate him highly enough or they would have let him go, but it's hard to see how much he will develop in their reserves or Carling Cup team.

Trappatoni seems to have brought a bit of order to the team-we no longer look like the shambles we did under Steve Staunton, but we don't look like we're developing much. We are at are worst when leading-our inability to hold the ball and our instinct to drop deep leaves us open to late equalisers or winners-the worrying thing is that this is a trend that was evident under Brian Kerr and has not looked like being reversed under successive managers.

Bulgaria will probably still be alive after this weekend given that they play Montenegro at home, but I expect Ireland to be one step closer to securing 2nd place in the group-if that is not motivation enough, then our 5-2 hammering in Cyprus under Steve Staunton and the fact that the Cypriots are without 2 of their better players through suspension should serve to focus the minds of the Boys in Green on coming away with a win. A win would go a long way to put us in a play off, and looking at some of the other possible 2nd place teams (Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Macedonia....), Ireland should still fancy their chances of making their first finals since 2002. Trap would surely be entitled to the last laugh if that turns out to be the case.

Arrivederci August

And so we have had our first 'grand slam' clash of the season, with Arsenal making the trip to Old Trafford for an odd Saturday evening kick-off time (I haven't looked into the reasons-anyone care to enlighten me?). The result wasn't exactly a surprise to me as I failed to see how Arsenal could have improved so much since last year having lost 2 starters and added only Thomas Vermaelen (who wasn't really tested enough on Saturday for me to have anything other than a pretty neutral view of him to date), but, it has to be said, they can feel slightly unfortunate to have come away with nothing after taking the lead and generally playing the better football. Still, after Rooney's penalty (I agreed with the award, just as I disagreed with the ref's failure to award anything for Fletcher's 'challenge' on Arshavin), I didn't see Arsenal coming back to win. Nicklas Bendtner did not impress me when coming on as a sub, and I still don't rate Clichy and Song. His poorly direct header for the winning own goal aside, Abou Diaby looks like a player. But I cannot help think Arsenal would be a better team if they had kept Mathieu Flamini, or indeed moved Kolo Toure into midfield (as has been suggested to me by my brother), as they still lack 'bite'. Their heads shouldn't drop too much after this defeat, but they cannot afford too many 'moral' victories if they are to challenge for the title. By the way, RVP doesn't strike me as someone who can lead the line, especially away from home on his own. Adebayor has scored 3 in 3 games for Man City, 2 on the road. Just saying.

Liverpool had a decidedly mixed week-losing 3-1 at home to a Villa team that hasn't impressed in a long time, and then coming from behind to snatch a 3-2 victory away at Bolton. A 3rd loss at this early stage would surely have ended any hopes Liverpool have of winning their first Premiership title and indeed ending Man Utd's charge at their league title record. Nonetheless, the signs are not good-a thin squad, with no notable reinforcements arriving since the arrival of the still injured Aquilani; Andriy Voronin as your primary striking option from the bench; and other than the goalscoring exploits of Glen Johnson, not much sign of form from the remainder of the starting XI, with Gerrard and Torres strangely subduded in the initial stages of the season.

All of the above is of course encouraging for Chelsea, who still haven't beaten anyone of substance, but look like they are improving with each game. The news that Joe Cole has returned to training is certainly welcome, but the return to form of Deco is also encouraging. Chelsea play Spurs on September 20th, and although an away trip to Stoke in the interim shouldn't be taken lightly, this will be their first true test under Ancellotti, and a good opportunity to establish their dominance over their London rivals. So far so good then, but a long way to go.

In other news,

• Spurs kept up their unbeaten run with a late, late winner at home to Birmingham. A bitter-sweet victory, given the unfortunate injury suffered by the talented Luka Modric (which has triggered an interesting conspiracy allegation in the Balkans)
  
• Everton got off the mark with a late, late penalty needed to secure a win over Wigan (who have regressed since their opening day win at Villa)
• Portsmouth remain pointless, but a confirmation in the change in ownership has spurred a flurry of signings, which may help Paul Hart in getting things back on track. I watched their game with Man City on Saturday, while they were unfortunate not to get a point, it appeared to me that they have too many players that are not of Premier League standard in the starting XI. The loss of Niko Krancjar on deadline day (more below) doesn't help their case.
• Man City are still unbeaten and have equalled their away win total from all of least season.

'Notable' transfers today:

• Niko Kranjcar to Spurs. In the Man City/Portsmouth game at the weekend, I thought he was the best player on the pitch (granted Robinho was on the bench), and this is an excellent signing for Spurs, especially given the injury to Modric. I have to admit, Harry has built an impressive squad.
• Richard Dunne to Villa. Was just confirmed today, a good move for both parties-City now have strength in depth at that position (Toure, Lescott, Onuoha, Richards) and Villa need a quality replacement for Martin Laursen.
  
• Johnny Heitinga to Everton. Any body with a pulse is an improvement on Tony Hibbert. The blue half of Merseyside doth rejoice!
  
• Carlos Edwards and Grant Leadbitter to Ipswich. I get the impression Roy Keane will not be long in East Anglia.

And finally-
Did Eduardo dive? Probably. Did he deserve a ban? Yes, but only if the same punishment is applied in all such cases. A bit of consistency would be nice to see from UEFA in this regard.