English Premier League 2011/12

Watching Nani strip the ball at midfield and score the winning goal as the clock was running out was enough to make my Sunday night TV watching worthwhile........and I hardly know the first thing about soccer.

Interesting game, which United won, with virtually the last kick of the match, 3-2.
Although they went in at half time 2-0 up, Citi had rarely been in the first half. The first goal came from a set piece with centre half Lescott beating all to head in a goal. It was a sight reminiscent of many of Citi's goals last season & Sir A must have been most disappointed. Eight minutes later they were 2 up as Dzeko hit a fine shot from distance to completely befuddle new United goalie De Gea. While the blame for the first goal could be clearly laid at the feet of Ferdinand & Vidic the keeper was fully responsible for the second.
Such was the United managers' disgust at the 2 goals that he started the second half without his 2 experienced central defenders & also took the experienced Carrick out of midfield to be replaced by youngster Cleverley. It was a huge reversal from last year when all too often the United side were carried by the experience of Giggs & Scholes. This must have been the youngest Manchester United side to take to the pitch in a very long time.
Under Mancini Citi have rather made a name for themselves of being a resilient defensive side who are hard to beat once they are in front. United battered them with a display of attacking football in the second half that they found it impossible to play against. Once United got an early goal back in the second half then they always looked like being the only winners in normal time.

So a great start for United.
De Gea didn't have the best of starts & looked poor in attempting to save the second goal.
The new boy at the back (Jones) played like he had never played anywhere else and set up immediate understanding with Evans. Smalling replaced Nevell from the start & rarely put a foot out of place. As the game progressed he attacked down the flank more & more.
Cleverley looked a class player with very quick feet. After this display I don't think the United manager will be battering down Wesley Sneijder door at 200K a week just yet.
Young had a great start to his career with United. One match does not make it assured but he showed enough to suggest that he will fit in very nicely with the rest of the team.
Welbeck played well along side Rooney. I think that Berbatov has now been pushed down the starting line up to the number 4 striker.

Citi will not be happy...
Aguero, sadly, did not get on the pitch to show what he brings to the party. However Citi seem to have spent masses on centre forwards who just do not work.
Self styled best player in the world Balotelli contributed little except his normal petulance and was replaced after the hour.
Dzeko scored a goal & that was it. The final United goal came from a Citi corner that Dzeko should have least got his head on & sent towards the net. He missed the ball completely & it was hoofed up field for Nani to score the winner. Just about any other member of the Citi side would have at least made the goalie make a save.
Silva looked their best attacking option by far - but saw far too little of the ball to make a winning contribution.
Milner, De Jong & Y Toure were all out tackled by Anderson, who rather ran the midfield in a way that will disappoint the Citi coaching team.

Just a final bit of trivia...
Since the Community Cup moved back to Wembley the team that has won it has then gone on to win the Premiership....

One game still to go tonight... Citi against the Swans..

Saturday, 13 August 2011 Barclays Premier League
Blackburn 1-2 Wolverhampton
Fulham 0-0 Aston Villa
Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland
Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal
QPR 0-4 Bolton
Wigan 1-1 Norwich
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Stoke 0-0 Chelsea
West Brom 1-2 Man Utd

Wolves got off to a great start at Blackburn after going behind. Blackburn look like they will be strong candidates for the drop after this sort of result. Only stayed up last year because of the start Allardyce gave them before the Indian owners gave him the chop. Expect current manager Steve Kean to be a favourite for a very early chop as well.

Fulham looked quite up for this game after not having much time off due to Europa qualifiers but could not break down a quite defense minded Villa. Not sure that any club that starts (& finishes) with Heskey as a main striker is going to get my vote for being one to watch this season.

Pool started well enough & went ahead despite missing a penalty. Sunderland muscled their way back into the game & ended up looking much the fitter side & the most likely to win. Despite missing the penalty Suarez looked a class apart, even though was far from match fit & had to be subbed in the second half. Carroll failed to show much & was well handled by Sunderland new boy Wes Brown. Looked like the new boys at Pool will take a time to bed in while Sunderland do not look like they will gift anyone anything again this season.

I guess that the Magpies will not be unhappy with a point after drawing the Gunners for their first game. Nasri & Fab were missing so it gives a fair indication of the Arsenal that the rest of the teams will face this year...Not much of a daunting task on this showing. I gather that Arsene had been in talks with newly (& richly) owned PSG about taking a role (manager or director, his choice) there this Summer, but had turned it down. The door still appears to be open though & I think a move for him is more likely than at anytime before.

Welcome back to the Premiership QPR...it looks like it is not going to be a very happy return either. Rather chaos on & off the pitch at the moment. Bolton top of the Premiership has not happened for a while & I do not expect that it will be that way for very long. However manager Owen Coyle has steadily improved his side since he has been there & they are well capable of rolling over anybody that is having a bad day.

Two of the other pre-season relegation candidates hammered out a draw at Wigan. Looks like the book makers seldom get it wrong. Will take large slices of luck & an improvement for either to survive.

Sunday saw two of the favourites for the title playing - yes Stoke & West Brom...

Stoke played well enough but it was a backs to the wall battle once Chelsea stepped up a gear in the second half. However, for all that, they survived. Chelsea will be delighted by a return to something like form from Torres. He did everything except score on a day that must mark his best ever showing in a Chelsea shirt. He was a class apart from anyone else on the pitch, maybe because the new boss showed enough faith to start & play him for almost the whole match. Stoke showed that they are going to be even harder to beat at home this year than last. As long as they can get some results away from home then they can look forward to a mid table season. Chelsea will not be happy with the result but there were some encouraging signs for them. I am sure that last season proved to them that the season ends in May & recovery from an average start is more than possible.

United came out against the Baggies much as they ended the Community Shield, playing attractive passing football. They swept into a lead & should have had a couple more before the half time whistle went. After that it was a different game though. United dropped the pace & West Brom picked theirs up. It was no real surprise when they equalised, especially when it was via a mistake by new man in the net De Gea.
Both centre halfs (Vidic & Ferdinand) went off to be replaced by youngsters as in the Cup, but this time due to injury rather than choice. As usual though United waited until the last 10 minutes to pinch the lead in a manner all too reminiscent of many matches last season. This time it was newboy Young who did it via a double deflection.
Rooney looked great when given space at the start. Young looked like he had been playing with the rest of the team for years. Cleverley had a reasonable match, especially when age is taken into consideration. Nani showed that he is still match winner one week, chance waster the next. The very young defense & keeper will make mistakes this year, however the long term future at Old Trafford at the back looks very secure indeed.

Monday, 15 August 2011 Barclays Premier League
Man City 4-0 Swansea |

Seems an easy win for Citi & in the second half it probably was...
After Dzeko got the first it was all downhill for the Swans, who had held their own in the first half.
The goal signalled that Citi would bring on not fully fit, most expensive player in the world Aguero. Now Citi already have 2 centre forwards who think that they are pretty special and are clearly not - Dzeko & Balotelli - so I was interested in how Aguero would fare. Put simply, on this half hour showing, he is the best striker in the Premiership.
He has pace & skill in abundance & does not mind putting in the effort as well. He chased down a pass that many would have given up for lost, got to it & managed to centre (all in one move) for Silva to score Citi's third. He also scored 2 goals himself - all in 30 minutes.
OK half an hour does not make a season (and the opposition was defensively poor) but it looked a class apart from anyone else on the pitch - with the possible exception of Silva.
Citi will come a lot closer to winning the Premiership with Aguero than without him, that is for sure. How well he will play on a cold February in Sunderland with defenders trying to put him in row Z remains to be seen, however he looks even worth his outrageous fee when compared to the other two Citi strikers in the squad. Although that could equally show just how ridiculous the fees paid for them were...
What of the Swans....Well they will not be playing the richest club in the Premiership every week, but I still think that they will struggle. Rather like Blackpool last season they have built a reputation for wanting to play football. Sadly they do not have the players in the squad to compete on a footballing skills basis & have no Plan B when that fails. Others in a similar position to Swansea will possibly try a more robust approach against the likes of Citi. Whether that will work we will have to wait & see but, although they are far from the finished article, I do not imagine that there will be many sides playing Citi off the park while they have Aguero & Silva on the pitch.

Saturday, 20 August 2011 Barclays Premier League
Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool
Aston Villa 3-1 Blackburn
Chelsea 2-1 West Brom
Everton 0-1 QPR
Sunderland 0-1 Newcastle
Swansea 0-0 Wigan

Gunners v Pool was the early match & I missed it because I was travelling. I gather that it is deep despair for Arsene (although that could just be media talk) as they were outplayed completely. Best Arsenal player was, I gather Nasri - not a good sign with transfer talks ongoing. They play United next weekend so chance for a turnaround immediately.

Still can't handle a side starting with Heskey being top 5 of the Premiership. Do not expect it to last, they will not play Blackburn every week. Probable saw the manager destined to to go first this year - unless Arsene fancies PSG...

Chelsea went behind but did enough to win it. Tough start for the Baggies. United last week, Chelsea this. Have got nothing out of either game while playing nice football..

Oh dear another bad start to a year by the Toffees. David just must be getting near the point when he decides that enough is enough & moves on. Lack of cash is destroying his reputation as a manager. Air Asia start the Premiership with a win... Will still be amazed if they manage to stay up this year though. However with Wigan struggling for points again this season, Blackburn looking like a Championship side already & Everton unable to field a Premiership side teams could stay up despite their own poor efforts.

Everything is well with the Toons. Beating Sunderland away means that they can now even pass into the Championship with a smile on their face... Seriously a good win - at one of the sides tipped by all the pundits to feature strongly to lead the pack after the big boys.

Martinez returns home for a shared point. Just about what both teams deserved, but I fancy that they will both be scrabbling for points all season.

Sunday, 21 August 2011 Barclays Premier League
Bolton 2-3 Man City
Norwich 1-1 Stoke
Wolverhampton 2-0 Fulham

Great win by Citi. This was the sort of match that they would have lost or drawn last season.
Aguero started but was replaced at about the hour by Tevez. Neither got on the score board but both showed that they are the class strikers at the club - the others look ponderous in comparison. Aguero missed a few opportunities to show that he is not Jesus Christ returned to earth but showed enough to prove that he is an extremely talented player who is not afraid of hard work. While the score makes it look easy for Citi, it was not. The lack of penetration from Citi from midfield (excepting the yet again excellent Silva) showed why they are desperate to add Nasri to their squad. As for Bolton, they will be grateful that they will not play Citi every week. They were competitive & skilful but don't have the all round talent available. Davies showed that he is still by far the best old fashioned 'English' centre forward playing in the Premiership & gave the much saluted Citi defence a torrid afternoon.

I imagine that Norwich will be happier with the draw than Stoke. The visitors are a much improved side since they joined the Premiership & I imagine that they are looking for a better than mid table finish again this year. A point away is not a disaster but I imagine that they were hoping for better against one of the newcomers.

Great result for Wolves. After starting disastrously last year & needing to fight for survival right to the end they are making a much more pleasant start this season. Can't see them remaining at their current dizzy heights for long, but 6 out of 6 means only another 34 to get...

Monday, 22 August 2011 Barclays Premier League
Man Utd 3-0 Tottenham

Spurs first Premiership game of the new season as their at home opener was cancelled because of the UK civil unrest centred on their part of London. United put out their second youngest starting 11 in the Premier League - not that they had much choice with their injury issues.
The first half was very much an end to end 50 50 affair without either side creating too many opportunities.
The second half was rather a different affair though as United seemed to up the pace all over the pitch while the Spurs players just seemed to visibly tire. A goal on the hour from Welbeck just sealed the game for United & it became pretty one sided as Anderson & Rooney put the icing on the cake with additional goals.
Spurs have not won at Old Trafford since about the late 60s & have not even managed a draw for seasons & seasons so it is probably not a shock result, although the seeming gulf in fitness between the two sides should alarm anyone associated with Tottenham. Their need for a quality centre forward was also highlighted. Spurs often got into good attacking positions only for it to harmlessly petter out as no one seemed to have the ability to capitalise on it.
For United the goalie had a bit of a wobble late on (he probably had to be woken up to deal with the event) but Jones & Evans in front of him had a stroll in the park & Smalling has turned himself into one of the best full backs playing in the Premiership within a couple of games. Hernandez also came on for 10 minutes at the end to give Sir A real selection problems up front for the rest of the season.