Its been 2 weeks/3 matchdays and my fantasy team has been performing well.. albeit luckily because of my cheap defenders :P ..yet I feel thats there is something lacking..a Tottenham striker??a Man City player??dunno right now..probably things will clear up in the next few weeks. I'm very sorry to admit that my view of the game (like a number of us) is influenced equally by the fantasy points that the players earn as watching the game itself!!! Why not?? The points sorta bring out the match as any match report in the paper. Yes there are a few cases where they don't like Xabi Alonso for example..his value to the Liverpool squad can't be portrayed by the points he earned last season.
Well, enough of intro..Lets start by taking a look at the table..Tottenham and Chelsea lead the pack..Arsenal are 3rd coz they have a match in hand..then come the Manchester clubs with..surprise surprise..Sunderland and Burnley completing the list of teams with 6 pts and more!!Defoe,by courtesy of his hattrick against Hull,leads the goald scoring pack with Rooney and Drogba keeping pace. Two of the three promoted teams have kept 2 clean sheets with Sorensen, Hart and the gangling Jensen the goalkeepers to bet your money on.
Now lets go over them team by team..Manchester United:looks hollow..if you cast a look at last season,s 10 clean sheet streak..they had two 5-0 victories and eight 1-0 victories..what does that tell you??were they really that formidable?except beating Chelsea 3-0 they didn't have any remarkable result in the other 5 matches against the remaining top 3..yet they won!!!thats coz Liverpool and Chelsea had numerous draws against the lower teams and didn't utilise the opportunities.However this year Man U have no Ronaldo or even Tevez to come off the bench and save them like he did last year against Wigan.Rooney is the pivot this year around but you can see his frustation when he doesn't get the ball the way he desires and by the number of long rangers he has already taken. Take a look at the prices of the Man U defenders..Vidic 8.0 Ferdinand 7.0(initially) Evra 6.5 and the rest 5.5 or below signifying there's no fixed 4th defender(O'Shea is 6.0 but he isn't a regular).They lack the smooth passing of last season and its not coz the team is new(like it is in the case of Real Madrid)..Ferguson has played 2 holding medios in 2 matches..Scholes and Fletcher..they played decent football for 20 min of the Wigan match.Simply put..they aren't playing good football like last year..I predict next week Arsenal are gonna take down Man U to pieces!!
Yes..Arsenal!!!10 goals in 2 matches..smooth clean passing and above all..what was missing last year..clean finishing..but the question arises here!!!Who has been scoring the goals??10 goals and only 1 by a forward..Eduardo..3 of the goals by defenders!!!This isn't good news..especially if they want to win against the big clubs..having supposedly weakened their club by sellling off Adebayor and Toure to Man City, Wenger has come back pretty strongly inspite of Rosicky, Walcott and Nasri not playing!!!Imagine Arsenal at their full strength!!!btw its rumoured that Wenger sold off the duo to break up the African nexus that had formed in the dressing room with Eboue and Song to add!!!Pretty smart move I guess!!!Lets look forward to more beautiful football!!!
Liverpool have continued their distratous form fronm the pre-season into the EPL..what they need is another striker in the class of Torres whereas what they have are a string of wingers who can score goals..Xabi Alonso will be missed badly!!!so...it all comes down to the one man ...Gerrard!!!If he plays Liverpool play ..if he doesn't, bad luck you scousers!!!
Chelsea..the team spoilt for choice brought in a defensive coach in the form of Ancelotti..but have managed 7 goals so far..not bad!!! Just think...Essien ,Deco,Ballack ..such people warm the benchin this team!!!One reason is the same deal as Marcos Senna being preferred over Xabi Alonso in the Spanish squad..Mikel is better suited for the holding role than anybody else..so that reduces the number of midfield players by 1..and Anelka and drogba both getting starts..whjat else can one expect??Chelsea came back pretty srongly in the l2nd half in the first two games..and the third one was a drab..but it all depends whether they can beat the smaller clubs consistently..we will find out next week against Burnley!!!
The team that has come out a cropper(after Liverpool) so far is Everton..no creativity in their game..and no finisher..soo no goals this season too!!!Ferguson said that Burnley have a string of tough matches..so they can eitehr cause a string of upsets or be beaten black and blue..and Coyle's men have stood up to the task formidably..they have nice midfield players who can control the game..Birmingham had a woderful defensive record in the Championship last season while Wolves had a woderful attacking one..Birmingham with their new goalkeeper have stood up pretty well while the Wolves have had mixed results..maybe because their main 2 strikers Ebanks-Blake and Iwelumo as well their record signing Doyle are injured..hope they can buck up soon..
The black horses this season will be Tottenham and Man City who have made a strong start but it is to be seen whether they can hold their act together for the best part of the season..Robbie kEane seems to be relishing his role which is much similar to Rooney's present role for Man U,whereas it is to be seen how long Mark Hughes plan of playing without a holding medio stays successful!!!
Redknapp's head will be twitching more vigorously while ferguson will be chewing his gum even more harder while the season unfolds..its early days..but 1 small fact..Man U had 5 pts from 3 matches last season..this time they have 6..but there wont be no Ronaldo to return from injury this time..lets wait and see!!!
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