Well…That certainly didn’t turn out very well. Van Nistelrooy scored near the end of the half making it 1-0. Then just 30 seconds into the second half, defender Joseph Yobo makes a major mental error - he passes the ball across the back right to Kevin Rooney of Man Utd. - 2-0. That seemed to take the wind out of the sails of Everton and they really didn’t do anything the rest of the game.
Not the kind of start I was expecting, as Man Utd. definitely could have been beaten.
Aston Villa 2 - 2 Bolton
Everton 0 - 2 Man Utd
Fulham 0 - 0 Birmingham
Man City 0 - 0 West Brom
Portsmouth 0 - 2 Tottenham
Sunderland 1 - 3 Charlton
West Ham 3 - 1 Blackburn
Saw highlights of the Wigan-Chelsea match - Wigan played pretty well and actually had a chance to win in stoppage time (had a nice counter-attack that they couldn’t finish). Crespo’s goal about 30 seconds later sealed the match.
In other news - Michael Essien of Lyon (French League) will be joining Chelsea on a 47+ million transfer. The rich just keep getting richer…
mmm, one right and 9 wrong. Remind me not to ask you which numbers you fancy for the lottery
Chelsea were lucky to get away with a win this time against Wigan but over the season as long as the champion’s league doesn’t interfere I just can’t see who’s going to topple them. Unless they try to “tap up” someone again and get punished by a massive points deduction.
Here’s a link to a fairly pessimistic article in the Guardian on the state of football in the EPL. There’s plenty of journalist-bleating involved, but I think he basically gets things right. link here
Very good article. A Real Madrid season ticket is only 200 quid? What a bargain, except you probably have to sit with their subset of skinhead racist supporters.
Interesting article. In most American sports there is the idea of a salary cap and revenue sharing, which makes for a more competitive balance. Not sure how (or if) that’d work in a promotion/relegation scheme. We have a similar problem with baseball, which may be the only US sport without some way to manage parity, but that sport is a game of percentages, so there’s usually a top team at the end with a low or middle payroll. National television money is shared here in all sports, AFAIK, but most teams maintain local broadcast rights (radio and television).
A problem is that football is obviously not just limited to the UK market, so if the EPL isn’t doling out top salaries (and keeping ticket and other prices high) then you lose talent to other leagues, whereas that’s not really a problem for American football, baseball, etc.
On a separate note, no predictions for this weekend’s matches?
I’m starting to worry that Everton’s season a year ago was a fluke. Or rather, they were lucky last season and didn’t suffer many injuries. Now with Carsely out for about 4 weeks, Beattie out for about 2 weeks, Kroldrup out until end of September, Naysmith still hurt, Everton’s prospects in the near future aren’t looking good.
There’s talk of bringing Mark Viduka from Middlesbrough, but he’s had a history of injury problems. Rumours keep swirling about Moyes’s attempts to sign other players, but many of them turn out not to be very concrete. Everton definitely needs more players to bolster the squad (especially a proven goal scorer).
Maybe I should stop reading the Everton fan sites/messages boards. Quite a bit of critical commentary that’s starting to make me feel pessimistic.
Simon Davies is also having slight problems with shin splints.
I should also point out that it is heartening to read in the press that the team is till quite upbeat and optimistic, despite the results against Villareal and Man Utd. It’s also heartening to read about how supportive the players have been with one another (several players can to the defense of Yobo after his gaffe against Man Utd.).
So it appears (at least from press reports) that the Everton spirit is still there (and the reason why I became a follower). So while I’m still a bit pessimistic, there’s still hope.
After my abysmal showing last week?
Lawrensen’s predictions :-
Man Utd 2 Aston Villa 0
Blackburn 1 Fulham 1
Charlton 2 Wigan 1
Liverpool 3 Sunderland 0
Newcastle 2 West Ham 0
Tottenham 2 Middlesbrough 1
West Brom 1 Portsmouth 0
Birmingham 2 Man City 0
Bolton 1 Everton 1
Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0
Ok then, mine :-
ManU 2 Villa 1 I think it will be a close game
Blackburn 1 Fulham 1 I will bow to Lawrensen on this one
Charlton 2 Wigan 1 And this one
Liverpool 2 Sunderland 0 Liverpool need to score, they have the players
Newcastle 1 West Ham 1 Newcastle are floundering a bit
Spurs 2 Middlesborough 0 Middlesborough were outplayed last week
West Brom 2 Portsmouth 0 A good start for West Brom, Portsmouth are going to struggle
Birmingham 1 Man City 1 The teams are about equal at the moment
Bolton 0 Everton 0 Bolton are a good team, Everton won;t break them down
Chelsea 0 Aresenal 2 Chelsea were lucky last week, should be a very interesting one Vetch I’ve never won the lottery either.
See how we get on against Bolton, eponymous. We’ve lost two games to two excellent teams, our season won’t be decided on whether we can beat ManU. It will be decided on beating teams like Bolton, so we need something out of Sunday’s game.
Lawrensen’s predictions :-
Man Utd 2 Aston Villa 0
Blackburn 1 Fulham 1
Charlton 2 Wigan 1
Liverpool 3 Sunderland 0
Newcastle 2 West Ham 0
Tottenham 2 Middlesbrough 1
West Brom 1 Portsmouth 0
Birmingham 2 Man City 0
Bolton 1 Everton 1
Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0 Rayh’s :-
ManU 2 Villa 1 I think it will be a close game
Blackburn 1 Fulham 1 I will bow to Lawrensen on this one
Charlton 2 Wigan 1 And this one
Liverpool 2 Sunderland 0 Liverpool need to score, they have the players
Newcastle 1 West Ham 1 Newcastle are floundering a bit
Spurs 2 Middlesborough 0 Middlesborough were outplayed last week
West Brom 2 Portsmouth 0 A good start for West Brom, Portsmouth are going to struggle
Birmingham 1 Man City 1 The teams are about equal at the moment
Bolton 0 Everton 0 Bolton are a good team, Everton won;t break them down
Chelsea 0 Aresenal 2 Chelsea were lucky last week, should be a very interesting one
Shibb’s
Man Utd 3 Aston Villa 1
Blackburn 2 Fulham 0
Charlton 1 Wigan 2 - What the hell!?!
Liverpool 4 Sunderland 0
Newcastle 1 West Ham 0
Tottenham 1 Middlesbrough 1
West Brom 0 Portsmouth 0
Birmingham 1 Man City 1
Bolton 2 Everton 1
Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2
Truly random, uneducated blathering… we’ll see how that goes against people with a sporting interest.
What the heck - I’ll give it a go…
Man Utd 2 Aston Villa 1
Blackburn 2 Fulham 2
Charlton 2 Wigan 1
Liverpool 2 Sunderland 1
Newcastle 1 West Ham 1
Tottenham 2 Middlesbrough 1
West Brom 1 Portsmouth 0
Birmingham 1 Man City 1
Bolton 1 Everton 1
Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1
OK, my dartboard can’t be any worse than anyone elses:
Man Utd 2 Aston Villa 2
Blackburn 0 Fulham 1
Charlton 2 Wigan 1
Liverpool 2 Sunderland 0
Newcastle 3 West Ham 1
Tottenham 4 Middlesbrough 3
West Brom 0 Portsmouth 0
Birmingham 1 Man City 2
Bolton 2 Everton 0
Chelsea 1 Arsenal 1
