Arsenal drop points at Birmingham

I should begin this week’s article with a quick summary of the issues that I have, somewhat foolishly, attempted to predict the outcome of in the last few weeks. Those of you with good memories will have noticed that I concluded that I could not see Arsenal dropping another point in their remaining games which would lead to them being crowned champions. What should happen in the weekend just past then dear reader? Well Arsenal go and concede a stupid goal in injury time at Birmingham to draw with the over-achieving but still distinctly average Blues. Quite simply this now makes Arsenal’s title triumph unlikely and the reason for this is none other than Manuel Almunia. Mr. Almunia has never convinced as a top goalkeeper but for some reason Arsene has stuck with him when he could have bought Messrs. Given or Jaaskelainen to provide a much more convincing presence between the sticks. However, as a matter of consistency I better stick to an Arsenal title – although god knows how that can happen now!

The race for fourth is now down to three teams as Aston Villa have, as last season, capitulated in the run-in – losing 7-1 to Chelsea was so ridiculous even Salomon Kalou managed to score – whilst Man City, Liverpool and Spurs all won comfortably. Worryingly Liverpool have got by far the easiest run-in and it will be very depressing if the self-titled “Big Four” finish as per the last few years again – so come on Spurs and City keep going and keep winning.
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Jose Mourinho has a successful return to Stamford Bridge

It has been another action-packed week in the continually wacky world of football that has managed to provide numerous talking points (luckily for me in the sense that this article would be rather sparse if nothing eventful had happened). I will therefore dear reader attempt to cover the main headlines that have emerged from the Champions League, the Europa League (nee UEFA Cup), the Premier League and lastly the Football League.

To take you back to the middle of last week, we were in the midst of the second round of fixtures to decide the quarter final line-up of the Champions League. The focal point of hype was the second leg of the Chelsea v. Inter Milan tie as this saw the return of “The Special One” to Stamford Bridge (Sky got so excited in the build-up to this fixture that they even led one bulletin with a report that Jose was going for a walk in Hyde Park, which seems to put question marks on the use of the word “News” in “Sky Sports News”).

Going into this game I fully expected Chelsea to be too strong for Inter as despite losing the first leg 2-1 they were actually the better team in that game. What transpired, however, was a tepid Chelsea performance as Inter controlled the game from start to finish and fully deserved to progress into the last eight. I therefore feel obliged to partially eat my words on the weakness of Serie A as suggested a couple of weeks ago as Inter completely out-played Chelsea and seemed to have superior players in every position. Since arriving at Stamford Bridge with his billions in 2003, Roman Abramovich has craved the Champions League more than any other trophy. Despite hiring a manager with an extremely good record in the competition and a team packed with winning experience they have again failed. It may be harsh to dispense with Ancelotti but there is an increasingly valid train of thought that the Chelsea team is an ageing group that is only going to get worse. Therefore expect Roman to get the cheque-book out to reinvigorate his Chelsea team to give them a fresh crack at wining the ultimate club football prize.
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Joanh Lomu clatters through England

The great thing about sport is that occasionally it produces an athlete so talented, so exceptional, so perfect, that the only conclusion we can draw, is that they were either artificially created in a lab, or that they are merely some freak of nature that was born to do what they do. Someone that would look totally out of place doing something other then the sporting discipline they are taking part in.

The subject for my first article on sporting freaks is one such athlete. You can’t imagine this guy doing anything other then playing rugby. Or maybe sumo wrestling. But you can’t, for example, envisage him as an accountant.

Cast your mind back to early 1995. Rugby Union was in a pretty major transitional phase, with professionalism only just around the corner. (The game went professional in August 1995). South Africa had only recently returned from the international wilderness and were preparing to host the World Cup. If I remember rightly I was a young wipper-snapper winger playing school boy rugby, and my favourite player was Rob Andrew (I think). The world of Rugby was filled with such players like Rob Andrew and Brian Moore. Honest chaps who held down civilised jobs during the week, whilst taking to the rugby pitch at weekends.

Then, along came Jonah.
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Career over for David?

Having in recent weeks put my neck on the line by attempting to predict the outcome of the various ongoing battles in the Premier League, I am retreating to safer territory by giving my take on the goings on in the last week in the world of football.

If I can take you back, dear reader, to the middle of last week you will recall that we were in the midst of the first installment of the second leg Champions League ties (I don’t really know what this round of the competition is actually called but I do know that I refuse to call it the round of 16 as this is Europe not America). These games saw Arsenal and Manchester United progress with considerable ease into the quarter finals with comfortable wins over Porto and AC Milan, however they confirmed the fact that Italian football really must be rather poor as AC Milan looked absolutely hopeless at Old Trafford yet they sit only 3 points off the top of Serie A – but more of them later. Special mention also to Samir Nasri who scored a truly brilliant goal in the Arsenal game which I urge you to check out below if you missed it.

As the games involving the English teams were relatively incident free, special mention should go to Lyon who hilariously knocked out Real Madrid. For the last couple of years Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter have made increasing noises about the debt levels of English clubs as they continue to dominate European club football yet ignoring the spending of the big two from Spain. Safe to say that Madrid did not find Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema and Alonso under the Christmas tree – they actually borrowed a lot of money to pay for them. Despite of this they have again been knocked out in the first knock-out round to the far more modest Olympique Lyonnais. They will no doubt react by sacking their manager and signing another bunch of over-priced attackers only to suffer the same fate next year. It seems they just don’t learn having witnessed the previous Galactico nonsense end in complete chaos.
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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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