Humbling the pretenders

In a weekend when the established Premier League giants ground out the results that were expected of them, what was more interesting was to see two of the league's teams most hopeful of cracking that cartel being humbled. First were Tottenham Hotspur, continuing last year's inconsistancy with their first home defeat of the campaign to the team that were fast becoming 2010's whipping boys. Hugo Rodallega's second half strike was enough to condemn Spurs to defeat and go some way to perhaps vanquishing the raised expectations after last season's fourth placed finish.

There is no doubt that Wigan are a poor side - conceding ten goals in two opening home fixtures, four to the play-off promoted side, is proof of that. Wigan have since last season looked poor whenever going behind, choosing to collapse to crushing defeats more often than show the spirit that saw them overturn a two goal deficit to beat Arsenal 3-2 with ten minutes remaining. In the reverse fixture of this game last season this was proved, as Spurs rampaged to a 9-1 home win and eased to a 4-0 away thrashing. But when they have gone ahead they have looked a decent side, beat Liverpool 1-0 among other noticable results last season.

Spurs should remeber that last season's campaign was not without a hitch - despite home wins over teams including Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, they still suffered the indignity of losing at home to Stoke and being doubled by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Finishing fourth was quite an achievement, but was down to the failures as others as much as their own success. While they may just sound like a Liverpool fan being bitter, it is notable that their main competitors could not perform to a consistant level - Manchester City ended up drawing around a quarter of their league games, seven in succession, Aston Villa often fell short at the crucial time, Everton failed to start playing to their potential until March and Liverpool's woes are well documented. Tottenham are succeptable to getting carried away with a good result or two, and then crashing against 'inferior' opposition - if they want another good league campaign they must resolve this, and they will be crushed in the Champions' League if they do not. No doubt the depth they have added and the squad built up will help to deal with the many games, with players like Rafael Van der Vaart likely to prove key.

Manchester City were the other aspirational team to be found wanting, succombing to the kind of late winning goal that they should be accustomed to by now after their red rivals won three games against them in this manner last season. Darren Bent stepped up to take a woeful penalty - not that the Black Cats will mind as it somehow went in - and steal the points at the Stadium of Light. Carlos Tevez put forward his effort for worst miss of the season with the sort of effort that would make an eight year old in a park cringe. City may have spent their hundreds of millions and may have a bench worth more than the bottom half of the table combined, but what will propel them up the league is results at Sunderland and the like, not at Anfield and Stamford Bridge.

The players no doubt find it easy to be motivated for the top draw games, when they take on other multimillionaires who are occupying the slots at the top half of the table. They may well get convincing results against these sides - last season they were the only side to double Chelsea. However, it is often more important to be able to defeat the sides you are expected to, as Liverpool proved when a single home goal in games against West Ham and Fulham two seasons ago would have been sufficient to win them the Premier League. If a side can beat every team at home and all of the bottom ten home and away that's 90 points and the title. The Sheikh's players may perform when they feel the need, but they will need to perform on cold nights in Wigan and Bolton and get three points when a goal down with stud marks in their legs if they are to truly realise their ambitions and not falter at places like Sunderland.

Elsewhere in the league the usual sides got their usual results. Liverpool managed to beat West Brom, and though I was disappointed that it was only by one goal, at leat Roy's boys have their first win and Fernando Torres has shown he is still capable of scoring with his hair a different colour. Manchester United eased past West Ham, who were once their bogey team, with a comprehensive win. Nani played the sort of game fans will hope he can every week, while Wayne Rooney still looks some way off the mark.

Chelsea had no problems in beating Stoke, proving that they can play fancy football and win a fight when they have to. More concerning was Frank Lampard's hat-trick of missed penalties - he seemed to emulate the Darren-Bent silly little sprint on the spot before running forward and aimlessly passing it towards the goalkeeper, which is clearly a bad strategy. Hopefully Steven Gerrard will be taking spot kicks for England from now on. Arsenal showed how they have matures past the team of three years ago who would always be bullied into defeat every time they travelled up the M6 with a win at Blackburn. Theo Walcott seems to be developing well which can only bode well for the national team.

Wolverhampton Wanderers look increasingly like an established Premier League side every week, and this time succombed to a draw against Newcastle. There are already calls for Andy Carrol to join England and the centre forward seems to be proving himself at the top level. I expect Newcastle to steer comfortably clear of relegation this season and quickly establish themselves as a mid table side. Blackburn took a point from their first home game and suffered the heartache of a late equaliser against Fulham. While it is always nice to see a team take the fancy football approach rather than the Stoke throw-it-and-head-it-in appraoch, team's that play this style without the quality are always likely to get relegated for their naivity, as West Brom prove every other year.

Birmingham are another intimidating looking side who should steer well clear of the bottom three, especially with their recent transfer activity in securing ex-Arsenal playmaker Alexander Hleb among others.They took a 2-0 lead on a tough trip to Bolton before throwing the game away, and were no doubt helped by Jussi Jaaskelainen's red-mist moment that saw him slap Roger Johnson. Johnson acted surprised at the petulant outburst and didn't retaliate - why these footballers show petty violence and not just a good thump and a proper fight is always bemusing. Aston Villa were the other team to get back to winning ways after their thrashing at St James' Park the week before. Everton continued to look blunt up with Jermaine Beckford struggling to make an impact outside of League One - they missed the chance to sign another striker but will need to sharpen up if they are to realised their potential early on this campaign.

So the teams in and around the top half of the table need to become consistant if they want to challenge for honours - and invariably make the Premier League a more exciting an unpredictable one for its followers. Chelsea and Man Utd will always be near the top and regularly grinding out the important results - now we just need a more wide spread winning mentality and focus in other teams to have six or seven teams scrapping at the top instead of just two.

(Picture: Daily Mirror)

Ups and downs

Expectations have been surpassed or fallen short of as the Premer League season entered it's second weekend and Britain's teams fought for the right to represent the country in Europe. Tottenham Hotspur managed to silence the sniggers coming from the Emirates as they overturned their first leg defeat in Bern. Harry Redknapp's minions overcame what had the potential to be a very nervy affair as they thrashed BSC Young Boys 4-0, with a hat-trick from Peter Crouch sparing their blushes and the numerous 'men against boys' puns that would have been reversed in their defeat. They will face tougher tests ahead - most obviously against holders Inter Milan in the group stage - but they also face Werder Bremen and FC Twente in a tricky group.

There were no such fears about the group stages for the other three English teams. Manchester United face Valencia minus their two best players, Buraspor (?? a Turkish side, so expect plenty of flares on the pitch) and Rangers, who will no doubt continue the recent fine Scottish tradition of failing to win any significsnt European games. Arsenal will be trying not to kick too many balls down the mountain as they head to Braga, while Partizan Belgrade and Shakhtar Donetsk, the last winners of the UEFA Cup before being humbled by Fulham the following year, should not pose too many problems. Chelsea were handed what looks like on of their annual favouable FA Cup runs (when they usually have to beat several Championship and League One teams and then a couple of mid-table Premier sides to reachthe final) as they face Marseille, Spartak Moscow and Zilina, a Slovakian side.

In Europe's second tier competition, which I now unfotunately have to take more than a passing interest in, I was pleased to see Liverpool edge past Trabzonspor - it's just unfortunate they haven't beaten any proper teams yet. Man City's millions saw them ease past FC Timisoara, with forgotten multi-million pound additions Jo and Shaun Wright-Phillips even managing to get some match time. Aston Villa continued to make fans wonder why they are so keen to get into the Champions' League with another insipid display as Rapid Vienna beat them 3-2 in Birmingham. Celtic meanwhile continued to shame Scotland in Europe as they slumped to an embaressing thrashing at Utrecht, with Dundee United and Motherwell doing their part to ensure our northern neighbours would play no part in the Europa League.

In the Premier League there were mixed fortunes and some surprise results. I was obviously disappointed to see Liverpool fall short at middle Eastlands, with a second successive Reina appearing to assist Tevez in getting his second. The team looked naive to set out in a 4-4-2 formation, and though City seemed unambitious by setting out with what looked like three holding midfielders and a back four, they clearly had more urgency and tempo and were deserved winner. Although one point from two games isn't a good start for Liverpool, the team had the same return from these fixtures last year, and had played two good teams. Pundits often speculate that to win the league you must beat the best teams, but the reverse can be true - if a team can win all of its home games and double every team in the bottom ten then that's 90 points, enough to win the league. Although this was a humbling blow for Liverpool, their season can still be defined with success in their other fixtures.

Chelsea though face the opposite dilemma of not having been truly tested yet. They eased past Wigan in a game that showed little promise of repeating last season's upset. It's too early to condemn any team, but Wigan look like they have overstayed their welcome in the top flight - they seem to have been riding their luck for the last three seasons. Each year the club sells its best players, and not neccessarily to better clubs, but often in a sideways move to rivals. Though this may be essential to their finances, it creates a situation whereby every player is not performing for the good of the team, but is rather treating each game as an audition to showcase his talent and aim for a transfer and a pay rise at a different club. This policy was bound to condemn them eventually. Roberto Martinez's men also look lost and bewildered once behind, and instead of making a 1-0 deficit 1-1 they are more likely to make it 4-0 or more.

Arsenal brought Blackpool back down to earth after the previous week's thrashing of Wigan with a 6-0 thumping of their own. The Seasiders are not likely to win these games - certainly not if they try and play open attacking football against a team assembled for ten times to cost on ten times the wages - and will be targetting other fixtures to take points from. Theo Walcott started to look a quality player and not just an impact one, and England fans will be hoping his improvement is both fast and continuous. Man Utd continued to take little joy back up the M6 from Craven Cottage as Fulham salvaged a draw. Nani irked fans with his inconsistancy as a season of poor penalties continued and the visitors could not kill off the game. After Brede Hangeland was no doubt pleased to redeem himself by equalising late on after putting the opposition ahead, and it made a surprise to see Utd dropping points in the closing stages instead of winning them.

West Ham reinforced their credentials as relegation candidates as they crashed to a home defeat by Bolton Wanderers - exactly the sort of game they should be looking to take at least one point from. Avram Grant is already conceding that staying up is the aim in what looks like a difficult season, especially with the Davids undermining his authority and demoralising the squad. West Brom showed that good football can beat mediocre sides and they will be hoping for more similar results to their win over Sunderland - though if they continue this style against the Chelseas and Man Utds there will be more thrashings than narrow victories.

Tottenham may have shown that the Britannia Stadium is not the fortress it was as they ensured Stoke have no points. It took a fluke goal and a contender for goal of the season from the revelation that has happened since moving Gareth Bale a few yards further up the pitch (Glen Johnson take note, perhaps?) and a perfectly good goal being disallowed, but it is these fortuitious breaks that are needed for a successful season. Everton's 4-6-0 formation continued to fail, and without a quality recognised striker there will be more pain ahead in dropped points as they drew 1-1 at Goodison Park with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Permenantly injured Louis Saha and league one success Jermain Beckford will not be good enough to take Everton forward - a step up of two divisions is a big ask for any player.

Birmingham still impress under the shrewd Scot Alex McLeish as they came from behind to beat Blackburn. Ben Foster looked strong in goal apart from his strong penalty save, and his improvement can only be good news for the England team. The surprise result of the weekend came with Newcastle United's thrashing of Aston Villa at St James' Park, with Andy Carrol the player everyone (well, myself at least) regretted not having in their fantasy football XI. Just when it seemed the Villains were going to be fine after Milner moved north to quadruple his salary, they get thrashed by a newly promoted side and dumped out of Europe - strange how much things can change in a week. The Magpies should have enough to stay up this season, and hopefully their fans will be content with that and not demanding Champions' League football already.

But despite all the mixed starts for different teams both home, away and abroad, it's worth remmebereding that it is only the second week of the season. Title can't be won yet - but they can be lost. There will be harder and easier games to come for all, so it is much too soon for any fans to become too disappointed or elated with their team's performance. Lets wait until at least ten games in before starting to make reasonable aims for the remainder of the campaign.

(Picture: The Guardian)

And we're off!

And so the rollercoaster of football has begun...all before the Premier League has even kicked off. Players have been abandoning England faster than the Titanic and Martin O'Neill became the first managerial casulaty.

There was also the small matter of the Championship kicking off. Ipswich have already started better than last season's debacle after coming from behind to beat Middlesbrough. I was keeping an eye on the score on my phone while at New Croft and when I saw the half time score thought that was that - perhaps they could taken even longer to get a win this season than they did last season? But they showed some spirit to fire home three times after the break to win at the Riverside, with Jon Stead scoring, who I always findly remember for his virtuoso goal against West Ham for Sheffield United in ther Premier League to win 3-0 while Bramall Lane sang 'That's why you're going down' - how cruel irony can be. They followed that up with a 3-2 extra time win at Exeter to advance in the Carling Cup. Now Roy just needs to keep them at the top end of the table and away from the dogfight they were embroiled in last season.

I was obviously quite disappointed to see Sheffield United finish opening day with a meagre point. However, a 1-1 draw at least season's play off finalists can't be seen as a bad result.

Elsewhere, the Villains kept the focus on the Premier League as Martin O'Neill stormed off. The reasons why still haven't been clarified, with most speculating it has something to do with transfer requests that he opposed being accepted. Barry left for Man City mediocrity after O'Neill blocked him the year before, and £12m with a year to go didn't seem a bad offer. Likewise if the amount being suggested that Eastlands will pay for Milner, around the £24m mark, are accurate, then that's double the figure Villa paid the year before. Other suggestions have been of Friedal and Ashley Young moving on - wikipedia proudly, albeit briefly, stated that Young 'plays as a winger or second striker for Tottenham Hotspur' though this has now been corrected to 'Aston Villa'. Could there be any truth to this? I got excited when I read 'Liverpool in talks over Young', only to sigh that is was Luke Young instead. And if Spurs sign Young, what will Bale, Modric and Krancjar think about it? I thought their days of signing miniature galacticos, regardless of how they would fit into their system, were over.

On another note, who will be the next manager to go? And how long will it take the managerial merry-go-round to get into full swing? I think Roberto Mancini will be the next to face the axe after a thumping defeat in their first home league game.

A lot has been made of O'Neill's relationship at Villa Park, and the troubles of the new 'sell to buy' policy. But a question remains, just how possible is it to make a football club a sustainable business? Abramovich has poured million into Chelsea, and with the club making annual profits that Sir Fred Goodwin would be proud of, there will be people living on the moon before they break even. Barcelona have been sweeping trophies and winning all before them for the last two years, but despite their success they can't pay the salaries of their squad. Arsenal seem to be a sound business model, but have yet to win anything for five years. Fans despise the debt-laden systems of Liverpool and Man Utd, but the vast expenditure of Chelsea, Madird and City are in no way sustainable. So what is the attraction to top businessmen? Can football be a successful club and business? It seems that was what Randy Lerner sought to accomplish at Villa, and now he may have lost his manager for it.

It seems the only way to be successful as a club is to make a loss as a business - for a fan to buy the club and accept that the owner will not be able to make an operating profit from running the football club. Teams that come up already plan for relegation - teams like Burnley and Blackpool do not spend big for fear that when they get relegated they will make a loss, so instead of signing quality players on high wages to stay in the Premier League they instead sign mediocrity on low salaries and feel doomed. It seems those who come up take a gamble - keep wages and fees low and prepare for relegation, or spend big and hope to stay up. At the higher end, this applied to European qualification, with top teams assuming Champions' League qualification to build their budget, and those below having to gamble and hope to qualify to make the money - effectively spending the cash before they have it and hoping they will. When this goes wrong, the results are clear to see, with Leeds the classic example.

Elsewhere, Fabio Capello was forced back into the tabloid firing line as he had to pick his first squad since the World Cup, and England's supposed homecoming parade against Hungary has descended into a parade of professional managers all moaning and bickering about the time of the game, from Sralex Ferguson to the never outspoken Neil Warnock. Players sought to abandon ship and disassociate themselves from the farce that the England team has become - first Brown and then Paul Robinson, while Michael Carrick showed that although injury may stop him from the immense pride of donning and England shirt, it won't keep him away from helping Man Utd to win the Community Sheild. The team is on such a high that even the captain says he would be booing them from the Wembley stands tonight.

But the big question is, who cares that Brown and Robinson won't be appearing for England? Glen Johnson is, admittedly, a liability as right back, and would sturggle to defend a sand castle from a toddler. But was Brown any better? He has played as 'utility man' for the Man Utd defence - an euphemism for someone who isn't quite good enough to fit into any one position consistantly. And what fond memories of Robinson will we have? His Croatia air kick is no doubt his defining memory, but lets also remember his other comedy blunders such as providing the assist for Russia's 2-1 win, and my favourite was during a Tottenham game when he caught a long ball and fell backwards into his own goal - unfortunately his Spurs exploits were soon eclipsed by Gomes' weekly attempts to kill Vedran Corluka. Though with Calamity James' numerous blunders, Wally Carson acting as a ramp for a Croatian backpass to send them to Euro 2008 and Green-fingers hopelessly palming the USA into the lead, it seems we have a rich and recent tradition of comically bad English goalkeepers. Hopefully Joe Hart will put an end to this.

Anyway, we'll see how good England are looking when they entertain the Hungarians tonight. At the very least we'll just have to hope the players are all up for it and hungary. It should soon be revealed why Martin O'Neill left - and what he plans to do with the Liverpool and England vacanice recently filled. And of course, come the weekend we have the resumption of the Championship, the football league, and Premier League kick off to anticipate.

(Picture - Press Association)

Backwater tour of Europe continues

And so it seems Liverpool got enough gold rings to ease past Dr Robotnicki and into the next round of Europe's inferior competition (okay, the Sonic jokes got old long ago). So far everyone seems to be getting excited about how they beat a team that many believe would be more suited playing in the Ryman League than the Champions' League. But Joe Cole looked sharp on his debut and David Ngog, though still not an apt replacement for Torres and his fibreglass legs, is at least scoring a few.

After the difficulty of having the reserves come home triumphant from Macedonia, they now face a journey to Trabzonspor- although it sounds like a type of medicine, apparently it's a town in Turkey. Just when you thought Besiktas, Fernerbache and Galatasaray weren't glamorous opposition...

Anyway, hopefully Liverpool will do well in the Europa League. Although it seemed like they didn't want to be there after being relegated from the Champions' League last season, I thought they still gave it a good go. And if it hadn't been for Diego Forlan, the bane of English football last year, we would have had an English winner.

However, most English teams in the competition seem to treat it with some disdain. And why is this? It isn't the Champions' League and teams do have to suffer the indignity of being televised on Channel Five, but it is still a European competition. Bolton were in a good position to do well a few season ago before exiting to Sevilla, and Villa decided to promote their resources to their annual quest to finish sixth rather than have a good run in Europe. Fulham took it seriously and humbled the mighty Italian legends Juventus and the rigning champions Shakhtar Donetsk among other, so hopefully more will follow their example in the future.

Of course Villa have the chance again this year as they face Rapid Vienna, while Manchester City's millionaires will face thge might of Timisoara - not an ancient warrior, a city in Romania. I hope Villa do well and take the tournament seriously, and I believe City will. I'd be surprised if they treated it as anything except an audition for where they hope to be next season, but with their squad of £20m + players then they should be able to compete on all fronts.

And let's not forget the Champions' League draw - Spurs were no doubt pleased to be facing Young Boys - the Swiss team, not Arsenal's Carling Cup team. They have avoided Braga, who spectacularly humbled Celtic to show just how poor Scottish football has become, and once they reach the group stage the luck of the draw could be theirs. It will be interesting to see if their squad can cope with the Premier League and the Champions' League if they have a good run in the latter. If they have to choose, will it be for Euro glory at the cost of a mid table finish or for a high Premier League finish as the European dream passes them by?

So now it's not just the Premier League to eagerly anticipate - Spurs fans are ready for their first season in Europe while Liverpool and City fans will be unenthusiastically preparing for their competitions. With a good spread of English representation, lets hope they all put in a good showing (with Liverpool coming out on top of course) to show UEFA that Barcelona aren't the only side that can play good football and that the Premier League is still better than La Liga.

(Picture courtesy of the BBC)