Does anybody want to win the league?

 

If we’re talking the league title, then on the basis of last weekend nobody seems to want to win it. It saw Chelsea lose to a Birmingham side starting the game in the bottom three, Arsenal managed to throw away a 2-0 lead against their biggest rivals and lose, and United labour against 9-man Wigan. It shows how odd this year has been that these results were surprising yet predictable. Chelsea’s loss was their third in four games. Arsenal shot themselves in the foot. And United have now seemed to master playing terribly game after game but doing just enough to get the result. Basically unpredictability has become the norm.
The reason is that from top to bottom the gap has narrowed. This is mainly because of financial reasons, the Premier League’s big guns have declined while the second tier of teams have massively improved. Spurs have arguably the biggest squad around now, while City are powered more and more by their rich owners. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Spurs and City aren’t going to win the title, never mind Bolton. There is no outstanding team no obvious potential champions who have shown themselves to have the quality and desire to win this league.
But I for one am liking this. I think we, as fans should want this sort of league one that’s competitive where there is always potential for upset, and you cannot say for certain who will win the title. The Premier League is unpredictable, unlike La Liga, where only Barcelona and Real Madrid are the possible champions elect.
So let’s not begrudge the lack of an outstanding team to emerge this season. There’s plenty of time for that to change anyway, it’s not even Christmas yet. But even if doesn’t, as long as we continue to have good entertainment then I’m happy with an unpredictable league, even if it does mess with my football bets.

Defence is key for Spurs at the Emirates.

 

From a Spurs point of view,Saturday's lunchtime match against their great rivals is by far the biggest game of the season so far. Both teams are high in confidence following impressive wins in their last outings with Spurs securing a high scoring 4-2 home win against Blackburn and Arsenal grinding out a gutsy win against Everton at Goodison Park.With the signing of Rafael Van Der Vaart and the rise and rise of Gareth Bale, some fans will say that this is Tottenham’s best chance of overcoming Arsenal on their own patch,and I would have to agree.Having seen them cruse past Inter in the Champions league only a few weeks ago I believe Tottenham are more than a match for the Gunners.It's been seventeen years since they beat Arsenal away from home and Saturday's game is one of their best opportunities to erase that sequence.
So, how are Spurs going to tackle the high flying Gunners in their own back yard?They need to play with a mix of intensity and passion that a North London derby requires.Spurs need to employ the same tactics they had in conquering the mighty Inter Milan at White Hart Lane a few weeks ago in order to overcome a team that are odds on favourites.Their ability to defend properly will be their biggest task.The expected back four of Hutton, Kaboul, Gallas and Assou-Ekotto will have to be at their very best to eliminate any threat of the Arsenal front line.Samir Nasri, Marouane Chamakh and Cesc Fabregas are the in-form players they have to be wary off when not in possession of the ball.They cannot afford to give the same chances to Arsenal as they did Blackburn Rovers last week as they will be punished.Tottenham will ultimately look to both Newcastle’s and West Brom’s impressive feats of coming away from the Emirates with 3 points this season. So why can’t Spurs?If Peter Crouch can emmulate the goal he scored for England on Wednesday night and Bale and Van der Vaart perform to their high standards Spurs have a real chance of leaving with all three points.The key test though is how the Spurs defence copes with a team scoring goals for fun.If they defend properly I can see Spurs sneaking all three points.

Chelsea with serious problems?

Last weekends defeat at home at the hands of Sunderland was Chelsea's biggest home defeat in 8 years. In addition to that, the news that followed that both central defenders, Alex and John Terry will be out for several weeks, meaning that there will be no recognisable partnership in defence for Chelsea in the coming weeks is probably news that the other title contenders are relishing. Now it's time to take advantage. If Chelsea can come out of this period of the season without Terry and Alex still top of the league, it will be hard to see them stopped in my opinion.

Liverpool 2-0 Chelesa...Are Liverpool on the road to recovery?

I didn't think Liverpool would win this one, and that's coming from a Liverpool fan, so you have to give them great credit.At best I was hoping for a draw considering Chelsea's blistering start to the season. Even though Liverpool had won their previous three games, the way they'd won them wasn't too impressive and I wondered if they could raise their game against Chelsea - but they definitely did. Also, they didn't do it like Man City by sitting deep and trying to catch Chelsea on the break, they had a go at them in the first half. There were times in the second half when they had to defend and ride their luck, but they deserve all the plaudits,especially their matchwinner Fernando Torres who has received a lot of stick as of late.The out of form striker scored a brace on Sunday to double his league tally to four goals. Only time will tell if he gets back to his lethal best but he's certainly on the right track.

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