Adebayor madness

I'm really disappointed with adebayor's attitude. 31 goals in one season, yes, is great but for him to get a 100% pay rise just after that is not too justified...45k£ is reasonable. if he scores another 31 goals in the coming season put him up to 60k etc etc.

Talking of Roque Santa Cruz: I'd say not a bad replacement should Adebayor choose to leave.

Comparing stats from wikipedia:

Adebayor (24 years): Appearances: 48 Goals:30 Assists:5
Roque (turning 27 years soon): Appearances: 42 Goals: 23
Assists 7.

With the excellent Arsenal supply line, he (theoretically) should be able to score many goals. He's a good finisher. Adebayor & Roque are both the same height too.

His stats @ Bayern are not all that though.

Down to the wire: English Premier League

I think Chelsea are now the guys to really watch out for.

Arsenal have a rather small squad, and thus have been spread rather thin. Ever since Eduardo's nasty injury, they have struggled in the premiership and are drawing games they should be winning. The theory I have is that they lost these games last season, this season they are drawing them, and next season they (should be) win them.

Man U had a hard game against Derby with some quarters claiming that Ronaldo's goal was offside. I didn't watch the game though so I can't say. They have a large talented squad, and Ronaldo is already my pick for world player of the year.

Liverpool are hitting form, but they are too far off the pace to win it. But they should secure 4th Place. The up coming Merseyside derby should be very interesting though.

Chelsea are grinding out results. After 6-1 on derby they ground out a win at Sunderland - a place where I thought they may struggle.

So who will win the EPL this time round. I don't know. I know whom I want to win it but in order of probability: Chelsea, Man U then Arsenal.

Whoever manages to win their remaining games of course will win it. But the chances of doing that are rather slim.. Still you never know..

Analysing the December games

My Part 1 analysis ended with 12 games played by Arsenal, 13 by Man U

From Arsenal games till the end of the year, they had the following games

H Wigan 2-0 comfortable
A Aston Villa 2-1 Aston Villa were really really good
A Newcastle 1-1 lots of signs of fatigue
A Boro 1-2 - only loss in the league which capped the end of a tiring period
H Chelsea 1-0 did not get to watch this but was told it was quite a sizzler.
H Tottenham - 2-1 Arsenal not at their best and Tottenham greatly improved meant that the gunners struggled to win.
A Portsmouth - 0-0 most boring game - no comment
A Everton - 4-1 thrashing - a game of two halves truly. Still cannot explain how Everton capitulated in the second half after dominating the first 30 minutes

During this period were 5 away games and 3 home games. A total 17 / 24 points gained.

In total 10 Home and 10 Away games.

Since then, they have played West Ham and Birmingham at home and dropped a further 2 points.

I'd said that if Arsenal won their 8 games in December, they would win the league. So its still up for grabs now that they did not.

The effect of losing Kolo Toure and Eboue remains to be seen and AW doesn't seem to want to buy anyone.

Chelsea

I have not watched alot of Chelsea this time round :D but from the look of things they are grinding out results without necessarily playing the best soccer. Cannot rule them out of the title race just yet.

Buying Anelka. A smart move going for this footballing nomad. Despite losing 4 players to the African Cup of Nations, they ought to remain on course.

Manchester United

I watched the 6-0 drubbing of Newcastle; an example of how to demolish a team, and how not to play soccer especially after losing your manager..

I'm tipping Cristiano Ronaldo as the next World Footballer of the Year and/or European Footballer of the year especially if (somehow) Portugal win the Euro Cup in June/July. Absolutely sizzling this time round.

They would be favorites for the EPL too, and a serious contender for the Champions League too.

Liverpool

are stuttering. 12 Points behind Arsenal and Man U albeit with a game in hand. I would rate their chances for the title extremely low, remembering that they still need to play the other members of the big 4 still.

-
So 16 games to go and 48 points up for grabs (or for dropping :) ) by May.

Arsenal perched at the top : End of Part 1 - Arsenal analysis

Phase 1 of the season is over. 12 games have been played by Arsenal and they lead the table on goals scored with a game in hand (Away against Newcastle) over Man U.

Lets break it down:

H Fulham 2-1 The team was still getting used to playing together and Lehmann didn't help things early on
A Blackburn 1-1 Lehmann's rubber hands - the bugger
H Man City 1-0 Man City despite all their attacking prowess came to play with 10 men behind the ball
H Portsmouth 3-1 quite impressive
A Spurs 3-1 This is when the team began to really gel
H Derby 5-0 Everyone was doing this so nothing really out of the ordinary
A West Ham 1-0 Quite impressive i must say - considering that Arsenal lost both home and away against them
H Sunderland 3-2 They learned a thing or two on what not to do when 2-0 up
H Bolton 2-0 Their patience bore fruit, with Bolton's physical and highly negative approach
A Liverpool 1-1 Ought to have won it
H Man U 2-2 Two thoughts:
- Arsenal were abit nervous in the first half, abit of inexperience, Man U people insist that their celebrations were somewhat overboard. I disagree. Anyone who scores an equalizer after going down by a goal so close to the end of the game would cheer with as much enthusiasm)
- The away game - they will have learned quite alot by then so lets not assume that Man U will roll over them - experience out of the window)
A Reading 3-1 Hmm who was away really. Arsenal really needed to be patient though. Should have been more.

Games In total - 7 Home; 5 Away - The fixtures have somewhat very slightly favoured Arsenal (its just 1 game difference really), it can be argued, though in games against top 4 teams home advantage does not really count.

6 Points dropped from a total of 36 available.
27 Goals Scored
10 Goals Conceded
An average of 2.25 goals per game (not bad at all)
An average of 0.833 goals per game (could improve on this)

MVP over this period - Cesc Fabregas (also leads the scoring charts with 10 goals in all competitions)
Most Improved Player - Mattheu Flamini

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Phase 2
The balance of home vs away games evens out by the end of Dec 2007:

H Wigan
A Aston Villa
A Newcastle
A Boro
H Chelsea
H Tottenham
A Portsmouth
A Everton

5 Away
3 Home
--
24 Points up for grabs. The trickiest stretch is the Chelsea Tottenham Portsmouth Everton bit. The Newcastle game is the one in hand. RVP should be back by the third game.

Player to watch - I would say Cesc, but also watch out for Adebayor - I think from last season he really picked up his game over December.
Player I would want to see improving - Adebayor's finishing needs a bit of work still. Eboue disappoints me most of the time.
Player I would like to see play more often - Diarra. Full stop.


Lets reserve judgment till Dec 29. where they will have played 20 games - 10 home and 10 away.... if they are still top - that will be very great....
and if Arsenal win these 8 games they will win the premiership IMHO.

Now we understand why Fabregas wanted that potential suspension out of the way as soon as possible... Better miss out on the easiest looking tie of the 8.

EPL Weekend Summary

Man U, continued their recovery to form with a 1-0 away win thanks to Vidic. Everton must have been disappointed though.
Liverpool's Rafa Benitez opted to tinker against Portsmouth and was rewarded with a goalless away draw, which would have been worse had Kanu converted his spot kick.
Arsenal somehow failed put the game beyond Tottenham in the first 10 minutes of their North London derby, before Gareth Bale scored from Tottenham's first real threat at goal. Arsenal stepped up the game, and would have scored several goals, and conceded at least two, but for Kolo toure's long foot, and Bent's 'bent' foot. Cesc scored a fabulous goal to give Arsenal the lead in between a Adebayor double (His second goal would have made Henry envious). - this was the game I watched hence the extended commentary..
Chelsea had a goal disallowed rather controversially against Blackburn. Mourinho is now demanding a public apology from the assistant referee who ruled the goal as invalid.
Heskey is out for six weeks after being in sizzling form over the last week or two for club and country.

Midweek games

Portsmouth again look to be a thorn in ManU's side after holding them to a 1-1 draw; this despite losing Sol Campbell and Lauren to injury during warm up. Seemed to be a rather heated game with both sides ending the game with 10 men. Chelsea look to be entering a vein of form winning 2-1 at home to Reading - apparently Mourinho 'now understands' why Manchester United had such a hard time with Reading.
Tottenham have their work cut out for them in their bid to break into the top 4 after losing 1-3 at home to Everton. Apparently Martin Jol has been summoned to explain what's happening. Man City and Newcastle might be teams to watch out for. It's early in the season though.

Meanwhile, Arsenal and Liverpool won away against Sparta Prague and Toulouse respectively. Arsenal had a bit of a tough and physical battle but came away 2-0 winners (which would really boost their confidence), and Liverpool won 1-0 thanks to one of their less prominent summer signings.


I'm looking forward to this weekend's games (.. GTV installed :) ). More on these later.

Continued: New English Premier League

Arsenal managed to save some blushes after Lehman made a potentially costly mistake. Lehman is a mzee.. Wenger says that he was the happiest man in the dressing room at the end of the game. I didn't get to watch this game though.

Chelsea were made to work for their opening win. If it wasn't for some suspect goal keeping, especially for the winning goal, things might have been different.

Man U are now playing. I am following the game online. 0-0 at half time.

I think I'm getting me some GTV :). I opted to delay subscribing to see what would be shown on NTV and DSTV.

New English Premier League

I'm told its called the Premier League now, not Premiership (like what's the difference)?

This season looks quite close to call, though Manchester United and Chelsea would be most people's initial bet. Liverpool wiht their lavish spending would be interesting though from the first 20 minutes of their game against Aston Villa, they may need some time to gel. Arsenal are an unknown force - will wait to see how they play against Fulham. I suspect AW is waiting to see how his young team cope in the first few games to make a decision on whether or not to bring in new faces. Man City have done abit of shopping, as have Tottenham and Aston Villa. Tottenham though lost game 1 of the season against Keane's Sunderland.

Back to 'How to watch the games'. I'm watching the Liverpool on NTV, but I think I may have to get me some GTV @ KES 2750. I don't watch too much movies, media so DSTV's 50+ channels don't appeal to me. I just need MPIRA :)

---

Update: Liverpool Won. Really. When you need something done, there's few people who can be relied on. Questionable free kick in the first place, but the free kick that Beckam would have been proud of. Babel looks very promising for them.

Wapi GTV?

Wapi GTV ?

Opening Day: 11 August.
Arsenal v Fulham
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Bolton v Newcastle
Chelsea v Birmingham
Derby v Portsmouth
Everton v Wigan
Man Utd v Reading
Middlesbrough v Blackburn
Sunderland v Tottenham
West Ham v Man City

The opening week as always is busy with a further two games for all the Premiership clubs, and here are some genuine titanic battles in store.

During the midweek, Newcastle host Arsenal - but the real eye-catchers of the opening week the following weekend when you can see the Manchester derby as United travel to City, and Chelsea's trip to Liverpool.

Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Birmingham v Sunderland
Portsmouth v Man Utd
Reading v Chelsea
Tottenham v Everton
Wigan v Middlesbrough
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Barclays Premier League
Blackburn v Aston Villa
Fulham v Bolton
Liverpool v West Ham
Man City v Derby
Newcastle v Arsenal

Saturday, 18 August 2007
Birmingham v West Ham
Blackburn v Arsenal
Fulham v Middlesbrough
Liverpool v Chelsea
Man City v Man Utd
Newcastle v Aston Villa
Portsmouth v Bolton
Reading v Everton
Tottenham v Derby
Wigan v Sunderland

Full skysports story here: here

FA Cup Final

Both teams seem quite depleted due to injuries - especially Chelsea.

Chelsea will be out to salvage some pride. ManU will be out to prove who's boss in England.

Should be an intriguing game. I only hope it's nothing like the Chelsea vs Liverpool UEFA Cup semi where I fell asleep before halftime.

I think ManU should shade it.

Mariga: Portsmouth and Now Bolton's Target

Seems that if Kenya was ranked more favourably in FIFA's country list, we could potentially have much more players playing in the gravy train that is the English Premier League.

Apparently Bolton Wanderers have joined in the hunt for MacDonald Mariga, joining Portsmouth who are rumoured to be ready to pay 250 000 Pounds for the highly rated player. He currently plays for Helsingborgs FC with Swedish star, Henrik Larsson and has established himself as a key player in their squad.

Some more rumours.

Chelsea 2 - Arsenal 1

Quite a game.

One of the best I've seen - apart from the last 5-10 minutes of normal time.

I didn't blog my opinion of this game - but I'd already given Chelsea the win.

Arsenal started really well, Walcott scored a classy goal - reminds me of Thierry Henry's kind of finish - there's definitely more coming from this kid.

Drogba's first goal was marginally offside - he got flagged later on from a similar position. However in soccer, one day you get those, the next day you don't so there's no point dwelling too much on such - even if they have the tendency to alter a game.

Arsenal really should have put the game beyond Chelsea in the first half but for outstanding stops by Peter Cech and defending by Carvalho.

Second half, Chelsea saw more of the ball (I don't agree with Mourinho's assessment that they dominated the second half) - it was more of a 50-50 with Chelsea's experience and strength showing towards the end.

I was really worried about John Terry's accidental kick on the head by Diaby. Hope it's not too serious. Diaby apparently got injured in the same incident - though I think he felt it more emotionally than physically.

Arsenal's attacking and threat was reduced with Diaby and Traore's substitution. And with no Clichy or Rosicky on the bench, the right side pair of Hleb and Hoyte didn't provide much attacking threat when played on the left.

Mourinho's introduction of Robben in the interval was a masterclass - as Makelele was ineffective in stopping the maurading youngsters. Robben ensured that they had much to think about by keeping them busy attacking. He also provided the pass that led to Drogba's second. I feel Chelsea need to keep Drogba fit if they are to catch ManU this season.

My assessment.
Chelsea won the cup, barely though. Arsenal's youngsters however have made their point. An outfield team of less than 21 years average age started the game. The entire squad cost less than Schevchenko I believe. History however will show that Chelsea won the Carling Cup. History will also show (I believe soon) the emergence of a young classy Arsenal side.

The other small thing (not so small though) - Toure really shouldn't have lost it at the end. He was the captain. I think Adebayor wasn't the culprit - Eboue was. There'll be quite a number of suspensions coming soon. I wonder what would have happened if John Terry and Lehmann were on the pitch :D

My Men of the Match:

Arsenal:
this is tricky - Walcott - he scored his first goal for arsenal

Chelsea:
Didier Drogba - really should win Player of the year this time round

Review: FA Cup - Bolton vs Arsenal

One of the most intriguing and entertaining games that I have watched in a long time.

Arsenal really should have closed the contest within 90 minutes, while Bolton hit the post twice, but really looked vulnerable at times with Arsenal failing to score from a host of chances, including a penalty and Adebayor clear on goal, in addition to possibly Baptista's worst first half of a game in Arsenal colours.

Nothing really controversial about the result though, on the balance of play and the chances created, Arsenal probably deserved it more than Bolton.

Bolton though are a very good side, and can play good soccer. They missed Kevin Davies up front alot though.

Arsenal will now need to recover from 120 minutes of soccer as they play in FA Cup 5th Round against Blackburn, who lost 2-3 away to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA cup yesterday, on Saturday at 1230 GMT.

Focus: Arsenal's perceived inconsistency

Fatigue and injuries are playing a large part in Arsenal's consistency.

The last two times they had at least 6 days rest:

Dec 16 - 23 - 6.5 days rest - next game at home to Blackburn. Result Arsenal win 6-2
Key Players MissingTH, Gallas, Eboue

Jan 14-21 - 7.5 days rest - next game at home to ManU. Result Arsenal win 2-1
Key Players MissingGilberto, Gallas

Seems to me that Hleb and RVP play an integral part in Arsenal Winning games. Also important is player freshness.

Preview: Bolton vs Arsenal

Kevin Davies and Abdoulaye Faye are out of this tie with injuries while Abdoulaye Meite calf problem and could miss the game

Hleb and Ljunberg back in squad are back in the Arsenal squad, but Lehman and Thierry Henry will be rested. Djourou will start despite suffering a nasty nose injury against Wigan. Gallas and Eboue are still nursing injuries, with Robin van Persie out long term and Senderos suspended.

I think resting Henry is a good idea, considering his contributions overall, over the last few games. I expect Cesc also to at least start on the bench as he has looked rather tired over the last few games. Rosicky also might be rested for the first half of the game.

Bolton could struggle without Kevin Davies, who is a critical part of the team, Faye's presence in the centre of the park would have been a major boost for them.

Arsenal will need to have a winning mentality to beat Bolton who have been their bogey team. Bolton's forward line is as good as any, with Anelka and possibly Diouf leading the line.

This is a tricky one to call, but I think Arsenal will shade this one.

Weekend Review

Manchester and Chelsea registered comfortable wins.

Liverpool dropped off the pace, losing away to Newcastle

Bolton and Arsenal both won 2-1 at home to Fulham and Wigan respectively, with Arsenal leaving it late (yet again).

Wigan: On the strength of their performance against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, I do not expect Wigan to go down this season. They displayed alot of character, skill and resilience.

Weekend Preview: English Premiership

This weekend sees Chelsea, Arsenal and ManU host Middleborough, Wigan and Charlton respectively with Liverpool visiting Newcastle.

My predictions for these four games: the top 4 all win.

Saturday, 10 February 2007

Chelsea v Middlesbrough, 1800
Everton v Blackburn, 1800
Man Utd v Charlton, 1800
Newcastle v Liverpool, 1800
Portsmouth v Man City, 2015
Reading v Aston Villa, 1545
Sheff Utd v Tottenham, 1800
West Ham v Watford, 1800

Sunday, 11 February 2007

Arsenal v Wigan, 1900
Bolton v Fulham, 1630

Review: England Weekend Games

Lots of Penalty Controversy:

Was Middlesborough's penalty justifed? Wenger chose to play it down. I thought Middlesborough played well. As usual, their problem is consistency: they play well one day, and go to sleep the next.

Ronaldo seemed to have dived against Tottenham. But Manchester United thoroughly deserved that win.

Chelsea while not at their best won at Charlton.

It looks like Manchester United are not about to take their foot off the pedal. Rooney however suffered an injury, the extent of which remains to be seen.

For me it looks like positions 1 and 2 are decided more or less, with 3/4 being between Liverpool and Arsenal.

Weekend Preview: English Premiership

The Merseyside derby gets the weekend games to a fly start.
Liverpool will want to continue their good run of form and put pressure on Chelsea.
Chelsea should have an easy time against Charlton and will be boosted as they welcome John Terry back from injury.
Arsenal will be boosted by their midweek victory over bitter rivals Tottenham and should beat Middlesborough away.
Sunday's game features injury depleted Tottenham meeting a Manchester side in sizzling form.
Should be a ManU win.

Saturday 3rd Feb 2007
Aston Villa v West Ham, 18:00
Blackburn v Sheff Utd, 18:00
Charlton v Chelsea, 18:00
Fulham v Newcastle, 18:00
Liverpool v Everton, 15:45
Man City v Reading, 18:00
Middlesbrough v Arsenal,20:15
Watford v Bolton, 18:00
Wigan v Portsmouth, 18:00

Sunday 4th Feb 2007
Tottenham v Man Utd, 19:00

Review: England Midweek Games

Chelsea cruised to a 3-0 win over Watford - Schevchenko was singled out for praise by 'The Special One' despite not getting on the scoresheet. However the good result was tempered by a potentially season threatening injury to Ashley Cole who got stretched off, and apparently cannot walk now.

ManUtd as expected cruised to a 4-0 win over Watford. Ronaldo as usual in outstanding form. 1 win down, 11 to go - Sir Alex Fergerson had set a target of 12 wins to win the EPL

Arsenal saw off Tottenham in the Carling Cup Semi final second leg in extra time. Wenger was pleased with his young side, and has promised to field a sizeable number of them in the Final against London rivals Chelsea.

Bolton failed to make up ground on Arsenal by drawing at home with Charlton - I expected them to struggle though.