Can Manchester United make it 4 in a row?

Having attempted to dissect and predict the outcome of the keenly fought relegation battle and the recent phenomenon that is the battle for fourth place, I shall begin this week’s piece by updating on each of these. The big winners in the relegation scrap being Bolton and Wigan whilst Burnley and Wolves remain entrenched. The big losers though appear to be West Ham who must have had a home game against Bolton marked as a clear opportunity for three points. Having lost this game though, the Hammers now face away games against Arsenal and Chelsea. It appears that the likable Gianfranco Zola is set for a few more weeks of sleepless nights yet. Of the teams involved in the fight to scrape into the final Champions League place, only Liverpool were in league action in this round of games due to the FA Cup. Their away game to Wigan looked like the perfect opportunity for Benitez’s men to leapfrog their rivals into fourth. However, as has often been the case this season Liverpool surrendered meekly to a 1-0 defeat which makes their chances look bleak to put it mildly. They have now played more games than their rivals and there appears no sign of their form turning for the better and it seems that they will continue to scrap for any points that they can get between now until the end of the season without looking remotely convincing.

Keen readers will note that having looked at the aforementioned battles in the Premier League, it is only left for this column to try and shed some light on the final prize on offer this season – the small matter of the title. As predicted at the start of the season this involves Chelsea and Manchester United who would appear in an article of similar ilk since the Premier League was created in 1992. More surprisingly, Arsenal are also in the thick of this battle and as it stands two points separate these three clubs meaning that as Brian Moore once said “it’s all up for grabs now”.
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An all too familiar sight at 3 grounds around May.

Having been brave/foolish enough to try and predict the outcome of the race for the final Champions League place in the Premier League this season, I am this week further putting my neck on the block by attempting to make sense of the muddy waters of the relegation battle.

As we stand all of the teams in the bottom tier of the Premier League have 11 games to try and save their season (and in many senses the financial future of their clubs as well). As in previous seasons this involves the majority of the teams promoted from the Championship last season and the usual more-established Premier League clubs.

I speak on this subject as someone who supports one of these more-established teams who begin every season with one aim – to get to 40 points ASAP. This is the case for all Premier League teams outside of the so called “Big Four” as well as Spurs, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton. From experience most of the rest are of a similar standard and success or failure comes down to who is able to gain the most points from home games against teams outside of those eight top clubs. It is for this reason that Fulham, Blackburn and Stoke are not in the mire this season, but I am sure messrs Hodgson, Pulis and Allardyce will have as their number one aim for next season as being to get to 40 points.
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An Otway Odyssey

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “odyssey” = noun (pl odysseys) a long eventful journey.

No shit.

Some of you may or may not be aware of my weekend past time of mountain biking. Occasionally I get a bit ahead of myself and sign up for crazy events such as 100km Marathons. It happened last year when I completed the BMC 100km Classic. For some strange reason, I signed up to compete (well, “take part in” really) in the 2010 Otway Odyssey. A 100km MTB Marathon that runs from Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road up through the Otway Ranges to the township of Forrest. And as I discovered this weekend, the OO made the BMC look like a swift jaunt to the shops to get skittles. The first 50km is basically up (and with a total elevation gain of around 2000m you’d expect that), then there is around 27km of beautiful singletrack around the world class trails in Forrest before the final 13km loop to the finish.
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Can Mancini deliver Champions League Football to Eastlands as promised.

Well the Premier League returned this weekend and whilst the title battle seemed to swing towards Chelsea and the relegation battle continued to look increasingly muddied, the most intriguing contest appears to be the race for the final Champions League place.

In recent years this has always been an intriguing battle and one that usually goes to the last game of the season. In the end though, it is always the self-titled “Big Four” of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United who always seem to make it in the end. The one year that Everton actually usurped their city neighbours, Liverpool went on to win the Chamions League itself so were allowed into it the following season in any event. Spurs also looked like they could crash this new world order until their final games of the season at West Ham which they lost meekly amid allegations of food poisoning centred on a dodgy lasagne.

This year the candidates for the 4th place are Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City and once again Spurs. The last weekend was seen as pivotal in deciding the outcome of this contest as the two favourites met at the City of Manchester Stadium. What transpired in actual fact was one of the most boring games of the season as these two simply decided not to attack the other and settle for a 0-0 draw. This therefore gave very little away in terms of who will triumph (if you can call finishing fourth a triumph). I will therefore endeavour to give an insight into who I think will claim the final coveted Chamions League place.
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Burnley win the 2009 Championship Playoff Final

Greetings all, welcome to the first of a weekly post on the topics of all things English football (and occassionally European football).

I am a follower of a team that is constantly invlolved in a relegation battle to stay in the Premiership. I therefore spend my life going through fixture lists to establish where the necessary 40 points can be gathered from so that I can do the same next season. However, the last weekend provided a break from the Premiership and this grim task and allowed the FA Cup to take centre stage. The FA Cup though failed to deliver if we’re honest and provided no talking points of note (other than the usual Neil Warnock rant at officials). I have therefore decided to direct this first post at all things Football League.

Sky and the BBC currently cover the Football League and in my experience, this coverage adopts a sort of patronising approach of – look at the funny little clubs playing “real” football. This is best highlighted in the BBC’s dreadful post Match of the Day Football League Show with its awful e-mail sections so that “real fans can contact the show”.
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Ok ok ok. I know I said I’d try harder. So here it is. Me trying harder.

Before the year runs out and I haven’t posted anything at all, I thought I’d better get my thoughts and expectations for the sporting year ahead. Sadly I’ve already missed the boat on the Australian Open, but if I had had chance to blog about it before the event I would have written about my hopes that Andy Murray would do well. You can imagine my delight that he did very well indeed. It is a shame that Roger Federer still exists! I did manage to catch Murray live in his second round match against Marc Giquel and I was stuck by how much more aggressive he looked on court. I had high hopes. I guess the only disappointment was that Murray couldn’t take that final set against Federer. I guess we all knew The Fed would prevail, but I had hoped Murray would take a set or two off him. Still, I have hopes for Andy. I have no doubt he will win a major one day, I just don’t think it will be Wimbledon. He seems far more at home on the hard courts of Australia and the USA.
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Wow. Long Time.

I must apologise to my legions of readers for the lack of posts recently. Sadly, I will have to play the work card. There’s been far too much of it recently. I do, however, have every intention of returning to regular posting within a few days. A Christmas holiday will do me a world of good. Since my absence though, the image of Andrew Strauss lifting the Ashes is a pretty good holding page.

If you fancy getting my regular tweets, you can follow me on Twitter. I’ve certainly been a little more active there!

In the meantime, we’ve had a lot of sport in the past few months. Jenson Button became F1 World Champion, despite his best efforts to throw it away. He’s now followed the money to McLaren, where he will be second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton. Manchester City, much to my frustration, succeeded in notching up an amazing run of seven consecutive Premier League wins. Fortunately, a fantastic win against Chelsea sees us on our way again. The England Cricket team somehow managed to notch up a ODI series win against SA, although I think the rain helped. This Trott character seems to be the business. And finally, the England rugby team raised few eyebrows with a poor showing in the Autumn Internationals. Although Rob Andrew et al seem to be convinced we’re getting better. At least no one was sent off this time. That IS an improvement.

Oh, and did anyone catch any of the cricket from Adelaide recently? Cracking test match between Windies and Australia. Would have loved a Windies win, especially since the hammering they coped from the Aussie press after the first test. Who says test cricket is dead? Game of Champions.

I look forward now to heading to France for Christmas, where I can relax with Sky Sports and Real Ale. Various musings will be coming your way in due course.

Bonos Nochos.

England reclaim The Ashes

WARNING: This article contains information that some Australians may find distressing.

Blimey! What a result!

Before I begin, I’d like to just take a moment to revel in my Englishness as I wallow in a jacuzzi of Australian misery. After all, I am an England fan, and this is the best thing thats happened for some time! For the next few weeks, every time I speak to an Aussie, there will be a twinkle in my eye and a wry and knowing smile. England getting one over the Aussies doesn’t happen very often, and I am in pole position to make the most of it.

As the article continues, I will try to become more objective, but right now, all I can say is, BOO YA!
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Can Man Utd make it 3 in a row?

I was meant to write this article last weekend, before the premiership kicked off. But unfortunately I was down the coast in Sorrento in a friend’s beach house, recovering from a round of golf and an afternoon wine tasting. I’m sure you can now understand why I didn’t get round to it. Still, I’m here now, and super psyched that the football season has begun. Also, I think we could do with a break from cricket on this blog!

To business then. Regular readers will know that I’m a Manchester City fan. And as such, I’ve been looking forward to this season with salivating anticipation, if that makes sense. As I’ve just been reminded, 11 years ago, at the start of the 1998/1999 season, City were building up for their assault on the then Division 2 [League Two] title. My early childhood hero, Georgi Kinkladze had just departed for Ajax, and things didn’t look good. Still, we had Paul Dickov and Kevin Horlock, among others! Surely things could only get better?
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