AUG 21 — I thought I should wait till the mid-week fixtures were out of the way before sharing my opinion on what has been an outstanding start to the season. The English Premier League (EPL) kicked off with six away wins and in midweek Wolverhampton Wanderers continued that with another away win over Wigan.
It is not the results that I would like to talk about but rather the reactions from fans and scribes that have quite shocked me. The hatred and vitriol directed at teams has been quite something I have never experienced before. I hate to imagine if these people were to be running professional football clubs.
Alex Ferguson has come under the most criticism after “only” winning one-nil against Birmingham City and losing away to Burnley.
There will always be “upsets” in sport and in particular football where the one-off results will happen. The Burnley goalkeeper was the man-of-the-match on Wednesday night, including for his efforts in saving the Michael Carrick penalty, and he certainly deserves the praise.
So, why take anything away from him and instead condemn the opponents he faced on the night?
In the opening two matches last season, Manchester United could only muster two points but they now have three. The suggestion, especially in Singapore, is that the Red Devils will not finish in the top four and that is only after two matches.
The Gunners had a great opening game and still there is talk of their young players. Even though I have my thoughts as to why Everton were so lethargic, I really would love to see Arsenal win the league just like how I enjoyed Spain becoming European Champions and Barcelona winning the Champions League. The trends in football are set by the brand of football that determines winners and these three teams simply play the best football.
The euphoria however surrounds Chelsea and their experienced team. They have not won a league title since the 2005/2006 season. Now that they are more experienced, they should win the title, right? I am not too convinced though and once again I would judge them come end of the season.
It’s quite amazing when people say Chelsea are going to win the title and the reason they give is Carlo Ancelloti. He is a respected coach but I just feel he will need to build his own team as this current one has looked like bridesmaids since Jose Mourinho left. Before anyone starts on about winning Cups, please do me a favour, even Spurs or Portsmouth have done that in recent years.
So, coming back to the hatred and vitriol that started this column, based on what I have heard we would have at least on average, four sackings every week. That is if the fans were running football teams. And the last team to have a fan running it is now hosting Coca Cola Championship matches at St James Park.
I rest my case.
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On your statement re: Chelsea " I am not too convinced though and once again I would judge them come end of the season" Well,well,well, the points on the table come end of the season, will tell us all and we can make our judgement... we don't need you to confirm the bleeding obvious!!!!
My, you get paid for this.... there is a dearth of good sports writers' and commentators' in Malaysia!!!