What a strange weekend for football results that was. I’ve been trying to remember when was the last time that the top 4 teams all failed to score over a weekend, anybody any idea?

It was a case of damage limitation for Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United as despite scoring they did manage to hold on to nil-nil draws. Status quo. Arsenal on the other hand (minus Gallas the snitch) got thumped by Man City, losing a little ground. Over previous years just losing so many games already would tell you that even at this early stage Arsenal are probably out of the reckoning. So that leaves a three horse race right?
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…or do we just expect far too much?

Personally I think it’s a combination of the 2, we are a bit rubbish and we certainly do expect too much of our national teams.

At the weekend I had the pleasure of watching both our national Rugby teams get stuffed. Please remember the we invented the sport of Rugby. First of all in a game that we were hotly tipped to win easily (why, our tournament record was shit?) our Rugby League team got hammered by New Zealand. Despite a mini comeback at the end of the first half this was not a close game. We were well and truly battered. At no point in the game did we even look like winning, never mind making it a stroll in the park. Read the rest of this entry »

Was last week a false start? I think today we are going to find out just how Martin Johnson’s England Rugby Union team intend to play. This afternoon they face Australia in the first of 3 games against the top southern hemisphere teams with South Africa and New Zealand to follow.
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Close Shave For Kuntz

Well it made me laugh!

Had to be Arsenal v Man Utd on Saturday. Easily the best game of Premier League football that I’ve seen in a long, long, time. Both teams are young and so you’d expect a lot of energy but it was the closest thing to basketball you’ll ever see on a football pitch. One end to the other, chance after chance. The only downer on it was that United lost but I’ll forgive them that, some times pure entertainment goes a long way! It’s helped to tighten things up at the top of the table and once again it’s looking like the usual 4 suspects who are going to be in contention.

I didn’t really get much of a chance to watch many more games, was my daughters birthday on Saturday so that took up a lot of the day and resultant hangover on the Sunday killed the chance of my doing much. I did catch MOTD though and once again it looks like refs are in the spotlight. It’s bloody wrong! The Arsenal United game was a cracker with all the conversation afterwards being about how great the game was, no mention of the referee and that’s the way it should be. Every other Premier League game over the weekend though has been dominated and influenced by refs and it’s the key talking point again. If they’re that shit can’t we just sack them? They are pro’s and paid to do a job, if they can’t do it well enough then get shut and bring in some new blood.

It’s been a great weekend and hopefully it can carry on tomorrow and Wednesday. There are plenty of all Premier League clashes to look forward to in the Carling Cup, probably most notable is Spurs – Liverpool on Wednesday night.

4 English teams have played in the Champions League this week, all four have been hotly tipped to not only progress from the group stages but also to have a very good chance of winning the trophy. It’s almost taken as a given that Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd will be there or there abouts!

So what the hell happened this week? Three draws and a loss saw the English teams lose the opportunity for early qualifying from the group stages. Of those 3 draws you could only say that Man Utd actually deserved that much, playing attach v defence against a resilient Celtic team that highlighted United’s lack of ability to create clear cut chances. Without Rooney they look a shadow of the team.

Arsenal in turn (who play Manchester United on Saturday) just about scraped a 0-0 draw with. No doubt Arsene Wenger will look to injuries in his front line but it’s not much of an excuse when you’re playing a Turkish team at home. Liverpool on the other hand have nobody else other than the ref to thank for their draw. 1 nil down in extra time and Steven Gerrard jumps to the ground whilst stretching for a header and gets a penalty. He gets a lot of penalties does good old Stevie G doesn’t he? If he was of another ethnic background he’d kop all sorts of shit for the way he throws himself to the ground in the penalty box but I suppose that’s a whole different rant for a different day.

Chelsea were soundly stuffed away to Roma. Strange as it sounds there’s probably no real shame in that, Roma are a good team. But that’s part of the problem with English teams in the Champions League. We just assume that we can go anywhere we like and roll teams over. Sorry boys, but the top level of European football isn’t that easy. I think last year was more of a blip with 2 English teams in the final, not a pattern for things to come. I was looking at a poll on another football website that asked the question “Do the Megabucks English Teams have an unfair advantage in Europe?” About 70 percent of the people that answered said yes! If that’s the case then judging by this weeks performances I think we need even more of an advantage.

Well done Lewis, awesome finish to a dodgy season but at least the best driver won the world championship!

I’m just sat watching England Australia, it’s a complete and utter fucking stuffing. The Australians have battered the English. Yet the English commentators fully expect England to make it through to the final where more likely than not they’ll play Australia. If England are supposed to be the second best team in the world at the moment and they’re getting beat by more than 40 points by the best team, why even bother carrying on? Why not just give Australia the trophy now and call it a day?

Personally from what I’ve seen England don’t look anything like the second best team in the Rugby League world at the moment (Fiji, New Zealand anybody?). At least half the teams in this years Rugby League World Cup have looked better than England. So I wonder why the hell are we just presuming that we’ll be in the final, we’ll be nowhere but back home if we play the same way against New Zealand in the semi final. That’s what gives me hope for the tournament, that the “usual” teams get a wake up call.

I guess I know why they didn’t bother holding this tournament 4 years ago, because at the moment it’s hardly competitive is it?