Red and Blue: a review of the season so far

This coming weekend not only marks the end of 2011, a very eventful year indeed, but it also marks the half way point of our football season which has been every bit as eventful. After 179 games and 509 goals it seems only logical to rewind 5 months, back to August to review the season so far, starting from the very beginning.

The likes of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea all made big money signings during this summer’s transfer window, just as you would expect of the big teams. Manchester City spent in excess of £80 million on Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and co adding to their ever increasing transfer bill that is likely to continue to increase at a substantial rate for some time yet.  Contrastingly Manchester United invested in youth players, bringing in Ashley Young, Phil Jones and Athletico Madrid hot shot David De Gea, to keep goal in place of the imperious Edwin van Der Sar at Old Trafford. Arsene Wenger was left with little choice but to spend during the transfer window after losing Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri. Wenger brought in a host of players to strengthen his squad including Mikel Arteta, Gervinho and German international Per Mertesacker. Elsewhere Chelsea continued their re-building process by adding Spanish magician Juan Mata and Belgian youngster Romelu Lukaku to the furniture at Stamford Bridge for a combined fee in the region of £45 million. Liverpool continue to invest in new players under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish spending big on Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing.

Although football is becoming a very expensive business and it is often necessary to overpay to get the top players it is occasionally the ‘less expensive’ players however that have the greatest impact on a team. Take for example, FWA Footballer of the Year Scott Parker who moved to Tottenham this summer in a deal worth roughly £5 million. Since his move across London from relegated West Ham he has given Spurs that extra bit of stability in midfield giving more freedom to the creative players in the team when going forward. This has enabled Spurs to mount a serious title challenge this season, which currently sees them sitting pretty in third place, 4 points clear of Chelsea heading into the new year. Fellow newcomer and top scorer this season Emmanuel Adebayor seems to be the answer to Harry Redknapp’s problem striker position, contributing 9 goals and 6 assists to Tottenham’s title push.

Having scored 14 goals in his last 13 appearances after being signed on a free transfer from West Ham surely makes Demba Ba one of the signings of the season. He has been integral to Newcastle’s brilliant if not surprising start to the season providing more than half of their 25 goals this season. Only Robin van Persie has scored more goals this season in the Premier League. Whilst Demba Ba has been providing the firepower up front the key to Newcastle’s strong start was a well organised defence that had only conceded 15 goals from their first 14 games. However an injury to Steven Taylor led to major defensive problems resulting in Newcastle conceding seven goals in three matches, four against Norwich City, outlining the importance Newcastle placed on their defence. It will therefore be interesting to see how Newcastle fare in the new year with Steven Taylor out for the rest of the season and Demba Ba on international duty with Senegal at the African Cup of Nations during January.

Newcastle striker Demba Ba after his hat-trick against Blackburn at St James's Park

The transfer window is open for  two months allowing clubs plenty of time to strengthen their squads, but somehow transfer deadline day always seems to be packed full of action, often as a result of panic buying following  a disappointing pre-season. Keeping with deadline day tradition we had a flurry of transfers this season, most notably from Arsene Wenger and Andre Villas Boas with Wenger signing Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun among others and AVB signing Raul Meireles from Liverpool. Leaving major signings until the last minute affected the form of both clubs. More so Arsenal but nonetheless Chelsea’s campaign didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts either with 4 defeats to their name already. Adding to a poor pre-season that involved an under par performance in the Emirates Cup, in which they finished third after draws to both PSG and Boca Juniors, Arsenal started the season in terrible form, losing to Liverpool, Manchester United, Blackburn and Tottenham, leading many fans to call for the end of Arsene Wenger’s 15 year reign at the helm of Arsenal. Andre Villas Boas’ start to Premier League life probably wasn’t as smooth as he would have hoped for as he has thus far failed to hit the heights Roman Abramovich would have been expecting, especially considering the amount he has invested into the club over the past few years. If it wasn’t for the €15 million Abramovich paid to release the young Portuguese manager from his contract at Porto, at the same time making him the most expensive coach in history, I fear his tenure at Chelsea may have been as short as his predecessors. Despite what can only be described as below par starts for both Chelsea and Arsenal they lie fourth and fifth respectively. In comparison Manchester United did their shopping early, giving their new signings plenty of time to settle into the squad during their pre-season tour of the States. This had the desired effect as United triumphed against rivals CIty in the Community Shield, before going on a sparkling run of form during the first few months of the season. All three new signings hit the ground running; Ashley Young showed his class with some stunning displays during United’s free scoring displays at the start of the season. Phil Jones has proved a revelation, featuring in all but two of United’s league games this season and David De Gea has shown he has the quality to become a world class ‘keeper in the future. Manchester United currently sit second on goal difference to Manchester City.

 Newcastle have slipped to seventh following their recent dip in form. Liverpool lie just above Newcastle in sixth place looking like a much better team this season under the stewardship of club legend Kenny Dalglish. Rounding off the top half are Stoke (8), West Bromwich Albion (9) and Everton (10). We have come to expect Tony Pulis’ Stoke to feature in the top half of the table joining the ever reliant David Moyes and his resilient Everton side. If Roy Hodgson can keep up his fine job at West Brom they will most certainly lose their rather unfortunate reputation as the ‘yo-yo club’.

Barclays Premier League table as of 29/12/2011

Norwich City sit just below Everton in eleventh place after an impressive start to the campaign from Paul Lambert and his men. Often newly promoted teams find it hard to come by goals which is why they end up going straight back down to the Championship. Norwich however have been able to rely on a very successful partnership between Grant holt and Steve Morison, which has produced 15 goals thus far and has made Norwich by far the top scoring newly promoted team this season. In fact, only the top 5 have scored more goals than Norwich City this term. However if it wasn’t for their strength in attack they would be in the midst of the relegation battle as they have conceded roughly the same number of goals as the bottom six. One point below them sit Aston Villa in twelfth, who, truth be told have struggled since parting ways with Martin O’Neill who led them to three consecutive sixth place finishes. Nonetheless you would expect them to be in the top half of the table come the end of the season especially as they finally seem to be getting to grips with life after Ashley Young and Stewart Downing. In thirteenth place are Fulham who have had a rather subdued start to the season under Martin Jol. The one bright spark in an otherwise average season for Fulham has been the form of their American talisman Clint Dempsey who has once again shown why he is arguably the best footballer to come from the United States, having contributed 7 goals and 4 assists to Fulham’s cause already this season. Newly promoted and the only Welsh team to ever make it to the Premier League, Swansea sit in fourteenth, one place above Sunderland.  Swansea have proved a breath of fresh air to the Premier League as Brendan Rodgers has got them playing a stylish possession game that has enabled The Swans to average 56.2% possession so far this season. Manchester City and Arsenal are the only teams to have a higher average possession figure this season at 57.8% and 59.3% respectively. This is very impressive for a newly promoted side that have come out every weekend and stuck to their passing philosophy even against the ‘big’ teams. The Swans have averaged 544 passes per game this term which has led some to hail them as the Premier League’s Barcelona, bringing with it the nickname ‘Swanselona’.

After only two wins from his first thirteen games Steve Bruce became the first managerial casualty of the season after being dismissed as manager by Sunderland after 98 games in charge spanning more than 2 years. That gave Martin O’Neill the perfect opportunity to rejoin the Premiership as manager of his beloved Sunderland and has since led The Black Cats to two wins, and seven points from his first four games in charge. The bottom half of the table is propped up by Queens Park Rangers (16), Wolverhampton Wanderers (17), Wigan Athletic (18), Bolton Wanderers (19) and Blackburn Rovers (20). Many had tipped either Steve Kean or Owen Coyle to win ‘the sack race’ after both Blackburn and Bolton made dreadful starts to their seasons. Bolton have lost 14 games and won 4 this season, continuing their current record of consecutive games without a draw, which currently stands at 34. Blackburn however have only lost 11 games, but have drawn 5 and only won 2, one of which was a giant victory against Arsenal. As with both other newly promoted teams, QPR look as though they have what it takes to stay up this season, with a decent squad, manager and plenty of cash available for Neil Warnock to dip into the transfer market if necessary. As ever it looks like the relegation battle will be going down to the wire come the end of the season with as many as 7 or 8 teams fighting for survival.

Life for English teams hasn’t been so rosy in European competition with Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City all failing to progress further than the group stage in their respective compeititons. City were welcomed into the Champions League for the first time by being drawn into a group with Napoli, Villarreal and German giants Bayern Munich. A third placed finish behind Munich and Napoli meant they would join rivals United in the Europa League whilst Chelsea and Arsenal both progressed through to the knockout stage of the competition. Tottenham also failed to make it out of their group meaning they were knocked out of the Europa League all together which could turn out to be advantageous as we move into the second half of the season, with Spurs chasing a return to the Champions League.

2011 also played host to the 20,000^th Premier League goal, scored by Aston Villa youngster Marc Albrighton against Arsenal on 21^st December. Minutes earlier in Manchester United’s match against Fulham, Ryan Giggs scored his first Premier League goal of the season meaning he has now scored in every one of the 20 seasons since the Premier League replaced the old Division One.

Derby day scarves: a tale of two Manchesters

So eighteen games down, twenty to go and United and City top the table with 45 points apiece with an identical record of 14 wins, 3 draws and one loss. The only thing that separates the pair is City’s superior goal difference which came as a result of the thrashing they dished out to United at Old Trafford back in October. Chelsea have already fallen 11 points behind and AVB has recently said the title is out of their grasp. Although Arsene Wenger is not likely to give up on the title quite as easily as AVB has done it will require a valiant effort from his Arsenal side to bring the title back to London. It seems local rivals Tottenham are now fly the flag for London, being the only team realistically within reach of the two Manchester clubs, 7 points behind with a game in hand. A lot has been said of Tottenham’s ‘title challenge’ and whether or not they have what it takes to bring the first division title back to White Hart Lane for the first time since 1960-61 season. Until Spurs can prove their title credentials it looks to be a battle between the Red and Blue of Manchester.

Rest assured we are in for a spectacular year of football ahead. Happy New Year.

cfreestone

Implications of the Euro draw

However painful it was watching the build up to the much anticipated Euro 2012 draw, it was certainly worth the wait. The draw threw out some treats and also some very interesting clashes, altogether making for a very appealing summer of 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. Group B, branded ‘the group of death’ is certainly the highlight of the draw, pitting the World Cup finalists, Netherlands against the third seeds, Germany, a Portugal team sporting one of the most in form forwards on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo and a vastly improved Denmark squad, spurred on by the phenomenal talent of youngster Christian Eriksen. All four teams have every chance of progressing through to the quarter finals, thus making for a very competitive group, showcasing some of the finest talent from across Europe.

Germany has the most impressive record going into the competition with ten wins from ten qualifying games, made more impressive by their youthful squad. Germany will turn up to next summer’s competition with a squad far superior to the one that humiliated England last summer and finished a respectable third place to Spain and the Netherlands in South Africa 2010. You have to remember Germany’s squad for the World Cup 2010 was a squad largely made up of the very successful under 21’s squad, meaning it was a fairly inexperienced squad. Since then however key players such as Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez, Mats Hummels and Manuel Neuer have established themselves at some of the best clubs in Europe; learning from and competing against the best players in Europe whilst gaining valuable experience that can help Germany hit the heights it should be reaching. These young players make up the core of the German national team, combining with experienced players such as Bastian Schweinsteiger and Phillip Lahm to build a solid squad capable of challenging for the Euro 2012 crown. The final piece in the jigsaw is their 19 year old sensation, Mario Gotze, fresh from winning the Bundesliga title with a youthful Borussia Dortmund, whilst also being awarded ‘Golden Boy 2011’, following in the footsteps of the likes of Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero, all to have won this prestigious award. The man in charge of this exciting squad, Joachim Low, certainly knows his stuff too, cementing Germany’s status as real contenders.

Mario Gotze of Borussia Dortmund - 'Golden Boy' 2011

Neighbours Netherlands also have a host of world class players; Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben the pick of the bunch. The Netherlands don’t have the strongest squad in the competition, but as always will definitely be there or thereabouts come the end of the competition. The fitness of premier league duo Robin van Persie and Rafael Van der Vaart will be key as they will be relied upon to produce the goals. Seventh seeds Portugal, although heavily reliant of Cristiano Ronaldo, will forever be a danger in big competitions and could cause Germany and Netherlands problems. And finally Denmark, already written off by most, are a handy team with a point to prove and nothing to lose.

In comparison then Group A seems a breeze. Of course, there are no easy games when it comes to the European Championships, but the four teams that make up Group A: Poland, Greece, Czech Republic and Russia are unlikely to still be in the competition come 1^st July. Saying that Greece stunned the world by winning Euro 2004, so it is possible for any one of the 16 teams  that have qualified to go on and win the competition. You would fancy Russia to progress through to the last eight, after that it is harder to predict as any one of the three teams left over stands a fair chance of progressing to the knockout stages. 

If there is one team that would love to win this tournament more than any other it may be Spain. Outright favourites, and for obvious reason, the current World and European champions will be vying for a place in history by becoming the first team ever to win back to back European championships. For this however they will first have to navigate through a tricky group consisting of Croatia, minnows Republic of Ireland and four time world champions Italy. Although Italy has an ageing squad and disappointed at last year’s world cup their pedigree in big competitions speaks for itself and is the reason they are the most successful team in Europe having won four World Cups and a European championship. Realistically it would only be a disastrous campaign that would stop Spain advancing from their group, through to the quarter finals. It is expected that Spain should finish top of their group, which could, god forbid result in a clash with the mighty Three Lions.

This leads perfectly onto Group D: co-hosts Ukraine, England, France and Sweden. From an England perspective it is a tricky group although the expectation will be to qualify, preferably top of the group to avoid a potential quarter final meeting with the World Champions, Spain.

We can beat Spain we’ve done it once we can do it again.

It isn’t that simple, unfortunately. Spain are a whole different animal when there is silverware on offer. In the friendly at Wembley England played a very lacklustre Spanish side that didn’t really get out of third gear. Not to take anything away from the result for which England played admirably well in defence and on the counter, but Spain have a lot more to offer than what they showed at Wembley back in November. Assuming that Spain do finish top of their group, England will need to top their group too in order to avoid that unwanted quarter final showdown. That is easier said than done. A re-energised French outfit, led by manager Laurent Blanc will be looking to put an abysmal world cup behind them and show the rest of Europe that they are still one of the top teams. Laurent Blanc has created a solid defence that only conceded four goals in the entire qualifying stage. Youngster Yann M’Vila is one to watch, touted the next Claude Makelele and for good reason, he controls the French midfield enabling the likes of Karim Benzema and Frank Ribery to press forward in search of goals. France will undoubtedly make it hard for England as will familiar rivals Sweden, led by powerhouse Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Although Ibrahimovic can be disappointing from time to time, on his day he is one of the best forwards on the planet and will most certainly be a handful for England’s defence, whether that be John Terry, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Phil Jagielka or any other defenders in Capello’s book. Another helping hand for Capello and his men is the fact that UEFA have very kindly reduced Wayne Rooney’s ban to two matches, meaning he will be available for the final group game against Ukraine. With recent performances things are looking on the up for England giving us good reason to be optimistic ahead of the ever approaching finals next summer.

cfreestone