JJ here,
‘Shit on the Villa, shit on the villa’… sorry just going over an old tune that always brings a smile to my face.
So the first weekend is over, all the teams have played and we already have glorious returns, hilarious flops, refereeing controversy, awful goalkeeping and late winners to talk about. The Premiership (as Mark insists it be called, and frankly I agree for no other reason than it’s the opposite opinion to Richard Scudamore, therefore correct) started with a bang.
One thing that is missing is a decent range of online footage of the games due to the lawsuits that were circling towards the end of the 06/07 season. For those of you who haven’t yet found it, I recommend www.virginmedia.com/sport/football/ to get five minute highlight packages of the matches played this weekend.
Like me, I’m sure you’ve been gobbling up the press reports of all the action so I won’t go too in depth on anything but instead serve up what generally happens on Mondays at Okeydokefootball… a few random thoughts after a heavy weekend.
- Villa were awful against Liverpool and deserved nothing. As for their opponents, a promising cameo from Ryan Babel, accompanied with some decent touches from Torres, were encouraging. Less encouraging was the latter’s miss from nine yards in the run up to the first goal. Still though, Torres and Kuyt sure beats the living crap out of Bellamy and Kuyt.
- John O’Shea up front for United, the rest of the strike force on the treatment table and Rossi still waiting for the Spanish season to begin over in Villareal. Odd beginnings for the champions. A half-fit Tevez will still score though if they recreate the chances they did yesterday during the coming weeks. The press are always looking for a crisis, when in fact Rooney’s injury could actually benefit them as Tevez is forced to bed into the team early on.
- Sven City were excellent and will be many people’s second side this season. They had a few scares but all in all a poor West Ham rarely troubled them. ‘Curbs’ looked like a man who feared his weekly chat with the chairman at the end of proceedings, though if they carry on in that vein he won’t have many more of those meetings to trouble him.
- Michael Owen may owe the Newcastle fans a few games but is looks unlikely that he’ll get them should Oba Martins continue his form.
- Spurs starting with Steed Malbranque had the air of Liverpool starting with Bolo Zenden last year. Never really effective during his time at Spurs so far, Jol will have to fire up the troops a whole lot more for Everton’s trip to White Hart Lane tomorrow. David Moyes’ side meanwhile were their lumbering efficient self against Wigan. I still think they’ll struggle though as the season goes on.
- Arsenal missed barndoors by the dozen as per usual but got away with it due to Fulham completely lacking any players that can hold on to the ball. Jens Lehmann’s first touch of the new season may hasten the debut of promising Polish star Lukasz Fabianski.
- Chelsea were eh… Chelsea.
- Birmingham were eh… ah who cares.
- Boro are apparently playing a ‘new attacking formation’. Apparently. In fairness, they actually looked unlucky to lose against a generally poor defensive performance from Blackburn. Roque Santa Cruz won’t score every week, though everyone thought that about McCarthy last year. Promising beginning for both; good to see Downing back in form too with a nice free kick while on the opposite side Derbyshire again looked like a top player in the making.
- Derby and Pompey looked a decent battle and Billy Davies’ side could be better equipped to deal with the league than Watford anyway.
- And as for Sunderland… well this is an Irish blog so we can only say that when Chopra bagged that last minute goal it was pretty sweet. Roy Keane is reason enough to watch this league, while Paul ‘Future Ireland Captain’ McShane is another for Irish eyes. A quality start to what already looks like a season that could be an absolute blinder. Then again, Liverpool are playing Chelsea next week; if that turns out to be a decent game (defying all previous evidence to the contrary) then we’ll know something truly special is upon us.
Sense? Ridiculous optimism? Send on your opinions folks.
‘Shit on the Villa, shit on the villa’… sorry just going over an old tune that always brings a smile to my face.
So the first weekend is over, all the teams have played and we already have glorious returns, hilarious flops, refereeing controversy, awful goalkeeping and late winners to talk about. The Premiership (as Mark insists it be called, and frankly I agree for no other reason than it’s the opposite opinion to Richard Scudamore, therefore correct) started with a bang.
One thing that is missing is a decent range of online footage of the games due to the lawsuits that were circling towards the end of the 06/07 season. For those of you who haven’t yet found it, I recommend www.virginmedia.com/sport/football/ to get five minute highlight packages of the matches played this weekend.
Like me, I’m sure you’ve been gobbling up the press reports of all the action so I won’t go too in depth on anything but instead serve up what generally happens on Mondays at Okeydokefootball… a few random thoughts after a heavy weekend.
- Villa were awful against Liverpool and deserved nothing. As for their opponents, a promising cameo from Ryan Babel, accompanied with some decent touches from Torres, were encouraging. Less encouraging was the latter’s miss from nine yards in the run up to the first goal. Still though, Torres and Kuyt sure beats the living crap out of Bellamy and Kuyt.
- John O’Shea up front for United, the rest of the strike force on the treatment table and Rossi still waiting for the Spanish season to begin over in Villareal. Odd beginnings for the champions. A half-fit Tevez will still score though if they recreate the chances they did yesterday during the coming weeks. The press are always looking for a crisis, when in fact Rooney’s injury could actually benefit them as Tevez is forced to bed into the team early on.
- Sven City were excellent and will be many people’s second side this season. They had a few scares but all in all a poor West Ham rarely troubled them. ‘Curbs’ looked like a man who feared his weekly chat with the chairman at the end of proceedings, though if they carry on in that vein he won’t have many more of those meetings to trouble him.
- Michael Owen may owe the Newcastle fans a few games but is looks unlikely that he’ll get them should Oba Martins continue his form.
- Spurs starting with Steed Malbranque had the air of Liverpool starting with Bolo Zenden last year. Never really effective during his time at Spurs so far, Jol will have to fire up the troops a whole lot more for Everton’s trip to White Hart Lane tomorrow. David Moyes’ side meanwhile were their lumbering efficient self against Wigan. I still think they’ll struggle though as the season goes on.
- Arsenal missed barndoors by the dozen as per usual but got away with it due to Fulham completely lacking any players that can hold on to the ball. Jens Lehmann’s first touch of the new season may hasten the debut of promising Polish star Lukasz Fabianski.
- Chelsea were eh… Chelsea.
- Birmingham were eh… ah who cares.
- Boro are apparently playing a ‘new attacking formation’. Apparently. In fairness, they actually looked unlucky to lose against a generally poor defensive performance from Blackburn. Roque Santa Cruz won’t score every week, though everyone thought that about McCarthy last year. Promising beginning for both; good to see Downing back in form too with a nice free kick while on the opposite side Derbyshire again looked like a top player in the making.
- Derby and Pompey looked a decent battle and Billy Davies’ side could be better equipped to deal with the league than Watford anyway.
- And as for Sunderland… well this is an Irish blog so we can only say that when Chopra bagged that last minute goal it was pretty sweet. Roy Keane is reason enough to watch this league, while Paul ‘Future Ireland Captain’ McShane is another for Irish eyes. A quality start to what already looks like a season that could be an absolute blinder. Then again, Liverpool are playing Chelsea next week; if that turns out to be a decent game (defying all previous evidence to the contrary) then we’ll know something truly special is upon us.
Sense? Ridiculous optimism? Send on your opinions folks.
2 comments:
I agree, slightly worrying opening result for United, had Rooney stayed on though, they prob would have scored. Tevez, Saha & Solskjaer should be fit by next week, no crisis, it's only 1 game.
And it was funny to see Lehmann make that clanger. He was always a bit mad but as time goes by, even the best goalies become shite, Schmeichel at Man City, the ponytail at Arsenal, etc...
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