Friday 26 November 2010

What Came Before The Weekend Ahead

So its happened, after much umming and ahhing its finally happened, the blog is here!


Being a lover of football and an LFC supporter, talking, discussing, living, breathing football is a big deal and lets face it when it comes to football, everyone has an opinion and that opinion is never gonna please everyone, whether your down the pub or on sky news your opinion is always gonna receive a mixed reception.......hence the name of the blog. Whether you agree with my views or think they're a load of bollocks let me know, always love to hear what people think. But to be clear the views and opinions expressed are my own and no one elses, so with that out the way lets get to the real content.....


Its been a funny old 2010 never mind season so far, expectations have changed, performances have suffered, attendances dropped and Fulham reached the Europa Final, strange indeed. And thats across the board, it seems at some point or other the change has hit everyone be it for the better or the worse. Liverpool in particular have had it rough, after a nearly there season came a barely there season to the shambles of the season so far. City have single handedly fought the recession to little avail, their neighbours from Salford despite poor performances havent lost a game and are joint top and Chelsea seem to have picked up Liverpools early season heebie jeebies since the two sides met at holloween, the champions form has certainly been frightening since. And Spurs well they're either really good or really average at the moment and Villa have slipped away from the top 6 which they fought so hard to stay over recent years.


But some things havent changed much, Everton are still below Liverpool, Rafa's under pressure, Hodgson cant win away to save his life, Rooney's still into escorts but good old Arsene Wenger never saw it...see some things just dont change. Referee controversies, pointless friendlies/needless injuries, the list goes on and there is an endless wealth of topics to keep us going into the new year.


What is clear though is that the Premier league HAS changed, its tighter now than Bill Kenwrights wallet and Moyes will testify to that. 2 good wins and some fortunate results elsewhere could see every team placed 5th to 13th climb up into the top 5 and for those placed higher up in that bracket top2/3. Its crazy but lets be honest its all class, you never know whats gonna happen, teams that you put down for nailed on victories suffer horrible reverses and it all leads to a very exciting christmas period. Even at this early stage in the season my prediction is that whoever the league champions will be (and at this stage its hard to pick a cert) they will finish the season with the lowest points total for league champions in Premier League history. And folks that total is currently the 75 points ammassed by Man Utd in the 96/97 season, the same number of points that 3rd placed Arsenal totalled last season. Wonder what the odds are on that one.....answers in the comment box please!


And so now we turn to the weekend ahead, if your still here that is...hopefully. My game of the weekend has to be Stoke v ManCity/Spurs v Liverpool, i know thats 2 games but its hard to say which one will edge it out of the two. Stoke: three wins on the bounce,9 points compared to City's 5 over the same period, they're frustrating, they're at home so you can bet Delap spends about 20mins game time on throw ins and despite all the negativity you can throw at them they're startin to get results and the key battle will be Delap vs City's suspect defence (alright they've only let in 11 but Joe Hart takes the plaudits there - he carries that backline). Stoke to edge it 2-1.


Spurs v Liverpool, not too optimistic altho following on from their European exploits Spurs have taken 10 out of a possible 18 points so far after featuring in europe and havent really put in a decent shift in any of them. Liverpool, 13 points from the last 6 games, only the devils team have taken more and Roy has promised us a Spurs 'surprise', so whether he means Pacheco will make the squad or somethin along the lines of the 'hell of a game' he promised Chelsea is unkown but last time he came out an made a bold statement was prior to the Chelsea game an the team delivered a fine first half attacking display follewed by a composed if not dangerous defensive display second half. Its hard to call but i'll say 1-0 Liverpool an Pepe to hit the big 100.


Anyone expecting Man Utd to suffer a first league defeat of the season might want to hold back a week as i dont particularly think that Fergies old mate the walrus will want to upset his sugar daddy not with top spot up for grabs an christmas around the corner.


Alrite then thats article number one out the way, if your still here thanks a bunch and feel free to comment, quite tame this one but we all have to start somewhere.....