Five for Berbatov

36 goals were scored on a record-breaking Saturday in the Premier League, followed by 5 more on Sunday as all 20 teams scored in a weekend for the first time in Premier League history. There were several fightbacks, including Spurs win over Liverpool and Wolves last-minute winner against Sunderland. Man United blasted their way to the top of the league, finally finding their form with Berbatov on song, before staying there as Chelsea could only draw at Newcastle. The quality of the goals stands out for me though, especially Berbatov’s third and Bolton’s injury-time equaliser. And with Barca v Madrid tonight, it raises the same old question in my mind. Which league is better, the Premier League or the Spanish Primera Liga?

The big one!

With Messi and Ronaldo on 13 and 14 goals, respectively, and Barca playing the best football anyone could hope to see, tonight’s La Liga encounter is a real mouth-watering prospect. Jose Mourinho’s victory over Pep Guardiola in last season’s Champions League semi-final, adds another dimension to the clash, with the Catalan fans ready to give Mourinho a reception similar to the one given to Luis Figo back in 2002, after he made the fabled move from Barca to Madrid.

Two great teams, probably both better than anything the Premier League can offer at the moment, but these two apart, surely the Prem is the place to be.

Yeah, admittedly, the quality in England is lower, but the intensity, tempo and excitement is undoubtedly higher, perhaps this is a fair trade-off? Maybe Barca and Madrid are so good, that they are flying the La Liga flag on their own, that is a little unfair on the other Spanish teams, but I do think the Premier League has more strength and depth.

Whatever you think, the argument doesn’t look like going away any time soon. I do think, however, that it’s fitting that the Premier League threw down some sort of gauntlet this weekend, I’m now just waiting for it to be thrown back with a 5-5 draw tonight!

'Best Position'

Where do we start? I don’t want to be one of these people who just jumps on bandwagon’s and use words like “Disgrace” and “The players don’t care”, because they obviously do. So whose fault is it? something is definitely going wrong somewhere. They say the buck stops at the manager, and in many ways, I think ‘they’ might be right. Capello hasn’t just become a bad manager overnight, after all this time last year, the media were labelling him a genius. I reckon he just isn’t what we need right now, England are going through a transitional period and perhaps Don Fabio isn’t the man to orchestrate it. What Kevin Davies will bring to international football is a mystery and as poor(or non-existent) as he may have been so far this season, Joe Cole is the man we needed out there to break down Montenegro. Capello has a few character traits, stubbornness mostly, that hamper the teams development.

‘They’ also say it’s the players fault. Admittedly they all perform better at their clubs, but this is because they have other good players at club level who naturally gel more training and playing together every week. I mean, it’s not Gareth Barry’s fault that he’s shit. Barry seems to have come out of this game worst and although I think he isn’t a good player (to put it politely) yesterday he stifled Gerrard as well. Stevie G often loves a Hollywood pass and consequently giving the ball away, but I can understand he doesn’t want to give it 10 yards to Barry next to him. Rooney too was below par, but however much he would deny it, it is obvious his personal problems are affecting his form for club and country. Ashley Young looked a bit out of his depth (Again Joe Cole!) and Glen Johnson can’t defend, as you all know. Adam Johnson was perhaps the only hint of a positive, always looking likely to beat his man although his final ball/shooting wasn’t as good as required.

Maybe it’s the media. Building up the players and manager at the first sign of anything half decent, only to crucify them a couple months later on the back of one bad result. Putting added pressure on the players which might be making them play poorly. Honestly…I don’t know! I don’t know how those 11 England players couldn’t beat those 11 Montenegro players, who were without Jovetic and Vucinic AND came closer to scoring than we did. Yes we should’ve had a penalty. Yes we dominated possession and territory, but did we ever look like winning? Not really. I never really expect much when settling down to watch an England game, even after the small improvement shown in the previous two games but even I expected them to nick a late goal or two. Capello has said he will use the upcoming friendly to try out younger players. I just hope when these younger players out perform yesterdays bunch, he actually uses them in competitive games. Our next competitive game, as it happens isn’t for a few months so there is time to sort this mess out. Wales away won’t be easy though, well not as easy as Montenegro at hom….Oh wait.

Defoe silenced critics

Before the World Cup I had an unfounded optimism for England but the shocking displays have now had the opposite effect. Whilst secretly hoping to be able to slag England off today, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, we were playing the mighty Bulgaria so shouldn’t get carried away. Gareth Barry for starters should be nowhere near that team, his touch is poor, he takes too long and he rarely finds a white shirt. You might argue “he does a job” – Yeah, a bad one! Why on earth wasn’t Huddlestone in the squad, let alone team. Glen Johnson is another one who I’ve taken a dislike to. He is a good player, but everyone knows he can’t defend and this shows more and more at international level. Milner couldn’t really get in the game on the left and I would have preferred to see Adam Johnson, or even Ashley Young, who I don’t rate.

Anyway I did say I was impressed. Particularly with Jagielka, Hart and predictably Defoe. Jagielka looked very assured at the back and I hope he is now the definite 3rd choice centre back. Joe Hart has looked immense in all his games so far this season and is England’s undisputed number one….2 months late really isn’t it? Defoe did what he does and scored a great hat-trick. Rooney too was very influential when he got on the ball, proving he is key to any success and highlighting the stupidity of those who booed him.

With the risk of sounding like the awful commentators, England looked more fluid to me. More balanced. Gerrard, with a lot of help from Rooney, ran the game for the first hour and it will be interesting to see what Fabio does when Lampard is back. Let’s be honest though, it was Bulgaria, and a better test of the ‘New’ England will come on Tuesday.

While you are reading ‘News of the World’ and ‘The Daily Mail’, be wary of the journalists that tell you England are fixed. Just remember it wasn’t that long ago that this happened.

Wally with a Brolly?

And it’s most of the same players.

Then we were told Capello would revolutionise England, only for the same newspapers to call for his sacking a couple months ago. Because most of us are swayed by what we read, and although journalists will say England fans love moaning, it’s not true, we just don’t have a lot to cheer about at the moment.

Nah, to be honest as we head into the international break (oh god) this years Premier League looks like it might be rather good. The top 3 apart, the league is as unpredictable as ever, epitomised by Wigan…again. The title race will probably be between Arsenal, United and Chelsea and I can only hope that the gooners and ourselves can keep up with what currently looks like an unbeatable Chelsea. I refuse to put City in the frame because, well I can’t see them winning it. They should get a top 4 place with the squad at their disposal but I don’t get why everyone is ‘tipping’ them for the title. The difference between them and Chelsea 5 years ago is a simple one, Jose Mourinho. Of course there is more to it than that, but Macini’s previous title wins were won while Italy was engulfed by their huge match-fixing scandal.

As for the other end of the table, my picks are West Ham, Wigan and Blackpool. Despite a good start, I don’t think the seasiders will last although I would like them too and I’m sure Holloway will give us some entertaining insights, post-match. Wigan are the ones I’m undecided on, it’s out of them and West Brom, you could even add West Ham to that, but basically 2 from 3 along with Blackpool.

The best of the rest is probably fronted by Everton, despite another bad start and Spurs. With both teams looking pretty good regardless of results. Newcastle also look promising. They’ve got an experienced and talented midfield, add to this a capable young striker and I reckon they should be fine. I also think Bolton will do well this season for some reason, perhaps even sneaking into Europe, although that is probably a little over ambitious.

So everything is looking pretty much how it was last season. Same challengers, same relegation candidates and same shit referees, with a couple new ones.

As I have said before although the entertainment value of the Premier League is arguably better than ever, there is now no doubt in my mind that some quality has been sacrificed. Blackburn of all teams finished in the top 10. Wigan conceded 79 goals, yet finished two places above the relegation zone. In fact, the bottom half of the league is full of very poor teams, with the exception of Fulham, who sacrificed league performance for a place in the Europa League final towards the end of the season.

Even at the other end, there’s nothing to shout about. Man United look clearly inferior to last season, especially when Wayne Rooney isn’t in the team. Arsenal only wrapped up 3rd place on the final day and although Spurs and City have looked good at times, both are probably aren’t ready to compete with Europe’s best at the moment. Liverpool? let’s not go there, as much as I would like to. Villa, and Everton, as the start of the season showed, haven’t quite got the squad to compete for fourth yet. That leaves us with our champions. They have looked unstoppable at times, scoring 7 or more, five times, speaks for itself. Saying this, there has been something of a Jekyll & Hide about Chelsea, with draws against Blackburn and Birmingham, as well as defeats against Citeh and Everton, undermining their pitch as world-beaters.

As well as this, the awful performances by referees week after week has been frustrating, even infuriating for me. While I can accept it is a very very difficult job, they are professionals at the highest level and shouldn’t be that bad, that often. Unfortunately it seems video technology is the only answer.

Enough of the negatives though. I have enjoyed this season. There wasn’t a single draw until matchday 3 and over 1000 goals shows that the entertainment value is still there. There have been some stunners in that thousand as well. Danny Rose’s strike against Arsenal springs to mind. The emergence of players like Gareth Bale, Alex Song and Darren Fletcher has been very pleasing and at the other end of the spectrum, the continued dominance of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

The best thing about this season though is that most of the top teams have realised they are not that good, and will almost certainly be spending money in the summer. Ah well, at least we have the World Cup to come…..Come on England!………..yeah right.

There is a great race for the title, which now seems to be down to two. There is also a great race for fourth place, which again, now seems to be down to two. And, as always, there is a thrilling relegation dogfight. But underneath the surface, you will find the true cause. Portsmouth, now relegated, seem like a better team than a few months ago. A little further up, West Ham were beaten yesterday, extremely comfortably by a poor Liverpool side – minus Fernando Torres. It looks as though the Hammers will stay up, but this in itself proves how poor our league is, that there are three worse teams than West Ham at the moment.

In the race for fourth, Spurs and, Citeh in particular have spent millions and millions on assembling two very fine squads. Yet they are still fighting a withering challenge from Aston Villa and if it hadn’t been for such a bad start, I would’ve fancied Everton to pip the pair of them. As well as this, they are still miles away from 3rd place Arsenal.

Arsenal themselves surrendered a 2 goal lead within 11 minutes against 16th place Wigan at the weekend. Results like this and draws against supposed weaker teams such as Birmingham, coupled with regular defeats to the two teams above them, make it even more astonishing that Arsenal are/were still in the title race this late in the season. Bringing us to this years title race, neither team seems to want to take a hold on top spot. United have had a stop start and quite poor season, especially in terms of performances. A good season from Van der Sar and an even better one from Wayne Rooney have got the champions to within a shout of a fourth title on the spin. The favourites though, are still Chelsea. At times this season they have looked unbeatable, 7 against Villa, 4 and 5 goals regularly throughout winter/spring. On the other hand, scrappy performances such as the 1-1 at Hull means they still have work to do. And with the decline in for of John Terry and the increasing injury to Drogba, it will be an exciting finish.

So what has gone wrong this year? Only one superstar in Ronaldo has left the league completely. Xabi Alonso has also departed, but these do not change the quality of a league as a whole. Maybe it’s just one of those years. The absence of any English representative in the semi-finals of the Champions League speaks volumes but while the quality might be missing this year, the entertainment value has gone nowhere. And this is why I would still pick the Premier League above any other!

It’s been a while since my last post, and what stirred me back into action was quite extraordinary. The performance of Lionel Messi in the 2nd leg of a quarter-final against Arsenal last night has left the world in awe. How can he do those things? How can he be that good at 22? Will he overtake the top-tier of Pele and Maradona? Messi became the 6th player to score a champions league hat trick, as well as overtake Rivaldo as Barcelona’s top European scorer. The superlatives for Messi have all been exhausted, so now let the comparisons begin.

He seems to have eclipsed all his current competitors. Cristiano Ronaldo has only begun his La Liga career but still has an impressive, and hasn’t made the impact he may have liked, however with 25 goals in 27 games (25 starts), he will still argue that he is alongside Messi. Wayne Rooney’s emergence this season has seen him thrust amongst Ronaldo and Messi as the world’s best. Rooney has scored 34 in 38 games, as well as 6 in 8 for England, which perhaps gives him an edge? Think again, Messi may have only 4 goals in 12 games for Argentina but his 37 in 37 for Barca is nothing short of superb, with more assists than the other two as well.

I admit I used to feel that Messi wouldn’t have the same impact in England as either Ronaldo or Rooney had, the truth is, he would have an even greater impact. The physical side has no effect on Messi, having been treated by Barca for a growth hormone deficiency, he now rides challenges with ease, and almost with a smile, reminiscent of a certain George Best. I reckon that Messi will be regarded in the same ilk as Pele and Maradona, the difference being, he will win more honours than the two and probably still playing when his full recognition comes.

Messi is able to do whatever he wants with the ball, whenever he wants. Arsene Wenger described him, perfectly, as a “Playstation player”. He can pick up the ball anywhere and you really wouldn’t be surprised if he scored. He has also proved that he loves the occasion. Four goals last night, follows 3 other hat tricks in the past three months. There was also a hat trick at the Bernabeu in El Classico last season and the second in Rome against Man United.

So the big debate at the moment is where does Messi sit amongst the all time greats. For me, he will eventually sit at the top, this may be because he is actually performing in my era, unlike a lot of his peers. The main comparison will come between him and Maradona, the latter single-handedly won trophies for Napoli, as well as the World Cup. Messi has that opportunity this summer, with the great Diego watching from the dugout. Other greats like Cryuff and Zidane, controlled their team’s performance. They made the team tick and when the played well, their team won. Although the same can be said for Messi, it is really Xavi who makes Barca tick. I think that Messi draws any comparisons with George Best. Although I wasn’t alive when Best was playing. He was always my favourite ‘old’ player whom I have seen videos of. He and Messi were both blessed with unbelievable ability, along with a grit and determination which set them apart. They are/were the star player in an excellent team. There are countless other comparisons that Messi can allure to.

Obviously we can not predict what will happen. Perhaps Argentina aren’t good enough for Messi to star in South Africa, perhaps he will actually do what Maradona did so spectacularly in ’86. He may even get injured (touch wood). I, like every other football fan, hope this isn’t the case. We all can’t wait to watch him play again. His work rate and tracking back go unnoticed but the thing is, football fans love a trier. In Messi we have someone who tries, can, will, and does.

This year we are guaranteed a French team in the semi-finals which adds a bit of variety, don’t write them off though, Bordeaux are a very solid outfit with a couple of standout players in Gourcuff and Chamakh. Lyon have already demonstrated they are capable of upsetting Europe’s big teams with the scalp of Real Madrid. Bayern Munich and Man United meet in the fourth quarter-final and luckily we (United) have the second leg at home as I wouldn’t fancy going to Germany needing a result. This Bayern team aren’t as dominant as the beaten 1999 finalists but, slightly unusually for a German team, they have an abundance of creativity and pace, and are capable of scoring at any moment. I’m quite confident United should have enough in the tank to take control of the tie at Old Trafford, especially with an on-fire Wayne Rooney leading the line.

So the smart money would be on a repeat of last years final. If this happens I would expect Barca to win although for some reason I just don’t think they will get there. Whoever wins the Arsenal/Barca clash will gain huge confidence, but then they will probably have to face a very good Inter Milan team. Also teams like Arsenal and Bordeaux aren’t used to fighting on both European and domestic fronts at this stage of the season, unlike Man United and Barca, this could be a crucial fact as we get further into the tournament and teams may have to choose what is most important to them…