Premier League: Week Two Report

Another lively weekend in the Premier League sees Chelsea, Swansea and Everton topping the table after week two. Here’s the wrap up of all the games from our weekly columnist @j_wattsy.

Lack of Premier League experience sees Villa fall fowl

Football’s a game where too many opinions can be drawn from one game. Robbie Savage will be happy with his prediction that Villa will go down this season. Alex McLeish will insist after Villa’s opening game that the claret and blue army need more
players. One of those is correct.

Yes, controversial as this might be, but big eck had a point. One that actually we all agree with, at the same time as knowing the Scot is a poor manager, also correct.

Guest Blog: Aston Villa’s Next Manager

As the hunt for a new manager seems to be in full swing, with a new favourite every day, @kerrylynn21 shares her thoughts on how the Midlands’ biggest club (!) should approach the appointment.

At the moment, despite what the latest odds are saying, there’s been no official statements of intent from the Board or the club and no informing the fans of how the manager search is being conducted. This however is no surprise for many Villa fans: the club and the fans are two separate entities at present – the connection between the two has been worn down so far it’s practically non-existent.

The birth of #mnfdiscussions

his evening I had what I like to call a “good idea” and alongside my flatmate (@webby1984) started #mnfdiscussions. I won’t explain it. It was good fun. Everyone likes chattering away during the football, especially on Twitter it seems and MNF is dear in every football purist’s heart. Therefore we combined these three simple elements and now each time I’ll summarise the evening’s antics on here. So below are the highlights (OK it’s all of it, but if I say highlights it sounds like there was alot more, which of course next time out there will be)…

Guest Blog: Is Steve Bruce’s exit part of a new cycle?

Whilst reading this article from Phil McNulty I started thinking that the cycle that Sunderland are going through rang true a little, like I’d read the blog before, and like I could really connect and felt sorry for Sunderland fans and the situation their club is in. I came to the conclusion that Bruce’s exit is a sign of what may well now be the norm for clubs such as Sunderland.

This is the cycle which Villa, Everton, even Spurs to an extent (obviously less now than in the past) will go through. Work hard, sign good players, create a happy squad with a few star players. Inevitably, with the money the big guns have we’ll see them now circle to sign these players, turning their heads and offering large contracts: Bent; Henderson in Sunderland’s case; Downing and Young in Villa’s; potentially (despite a new contract) Fallaini at Everton; and Modric at Spurs (if it wasn’t for Levy digging his heels in). They then leave and the re-building starts again. Other players question the ambition of the club and the harmony is broken. Results suffer, Chairmen are impatient and the manager is sacked, simply to start the cycle again.

Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 1]

One of the best and worst things about football, in my opinion, is the fans. The good: they follow their team without a thought – bad form, bad weather, bad players or a a bad manager, nothing will put fans off supporting their club. The bad: they can have ridiculous expectations towards their team, they can chant foul things and they can have one too many beer and have a fight after the match. But we do know that the one thing fans always bring to any match, home or away, is a football chant. This week the Cooler Editors bring you their favourite football chants, and here is part 1, from Editor-in-Chief, George. We’ve tried to stick to one for our club and one from another.

My best from my team has to be Villa at Liverpool, singing “Let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal, let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal…. <cue noises of elation>”

AFC Wimbledon: A man walks into a (local) pub…

…usually the start of some Davroesque gag. I’m afraid you’ll have to go back to repeats of Bobby Davro on the Box if you want some of his classics.

The title is more about that feeling you get when you walk into a small village pub. You know the feeling. You open the old creaking door. Upon entry, you are welcomed by hardcore stares, seemingly from the cast of Lord of the Rings, as the room falls silent.

Invariably you make your excuses and leave, quick smart.

Ye Olde nPower League 2 Inn seemed inviting from the outside but once we opened that door what would happen? Would we be laughed out of the place? Would the nutter leaning on the bar crack us over the head with a stool? Would the barmaid even understand us? Do they have amaretto and pineapple juice?

Guest Blog: Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him

Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him

The football world was left stunned by Carlos Tevez on Tuesday, when he refused to come off the bench for City in their Champions League fixture against Bayern. We asked fans of his current and previous English clubs whether this has fatally tainted him in their eyes, if that hadn’t happened already, or whether there’s still some love left for the man and his unquestionable talent on the pitch.

Guest Blog: Are Manchester United Fans Getting Carried Away Too Soon?

With Manchester United off to a flying start this season and scoring hatfuls along the way, I’ve decided that Manchester United fans are getting too carried away too soon. This might be because I’m slightly bitter because they signed Villa’s best player in the summer, but it might just be that fans of United (and City for that matter) should err on the side of caution when claiming the title is theirs so soon. They only need to look at Chelsea last season when Chelsea were 5 points clear of their rivals in October and off to a flyer. It’s a long season! I asked Man Utd fan Sam (@Cranno7) for his thoughts on the matter.

The new United: Are we all getting carried away too soon?

Four games in and much of the early hype has been about the new-look Manchester United and how they swept aside Arsenal at Old Trafford two weeks ago and Bolton at the Reebok yesterday. There is no doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson’s young team are looking the part at this stage but it is a long season and I’m not sure United have their 20^th title in the bag just yet.

What Sir Alex appears to have got right is getting his squad together early. The team that have started the Premier League campaign this season enjoyed a full tour of the United States together in the pre-season. In the US, the likes of Young, Cleverly and Welbeck were able to learn the Manchester United philosophy of attacking, whilst Smalling and Jones got themselves accustomed to the United backline. The one weak link so far appears to be the Spaniard between the posts who has the potential to be the next Massimo Taibi (remember that calamity against Southampton!?). The jury is certainly still out on him. But the US tour meant that when United began their competitive season against Manchester City at Wembley they looked far more composed, comfortable and unified than their city rivals and this was encapsulated with Nani’s first goal after a great team move.

Sir Alex had his full squad whilst the other big teams were sweating over transfer deals on deadline day (Sneijder never looked likely from the outset). And four early wins, including an 8-2 demolition of Arsenal, sees the pundits and journalists already engraving Manchester United on the Premiership trophy. But… after a shaky opening game at the Reebok, Manchester City have four wins from four and a strike-force of Dzeko, Aguero and Silva who are all enjoying their football at City and scoring goals in the process. Questions will continue to be asked about Mancini and whether he has the ability to keep his very large and very talented squad happy. You feel that if the City boss can solve his selection dilemma and keep his team content then he might just be able to take the Premier League trophy to Eastlands.

Away from Manchester the other top contenders are looking far from threatening. Liverpool, who were tipped by many to be a real title challenger this season, have failed to impress thus far and suffered their first defeat yesterday to Stoke. Kenny Dalglish has spent a huge amount of money since January on players that would probably not make the first XI if they found themselves at City or United. After four games they are already five points behind the leaders and will need to do a lot more to impress. Tottenham have had a dreadful start to their season including a 5-1 thrashing at home to City and Harry Redknapp’s team seem to be a long way from the team that beat AC Milan in the San Siro in February. Redknapp will hope that the signings of Parker and Adebayor will make the difference at White Hart Lane and they were pivotal in their win away at Wolves yesterday. As for Arsenal… we shall see! Chelsea, though, look the only other credible threat to United apart from City.

As it stands it looks like a three horse race but it is only the beginning of September and there are a lot of games to play. One of the major factors marking United and City apart from their rivals at this stage is the number of goals they are scoring at home and away – both have goal differences in double figures already with Chelsea leading the rest of the pack with just four.

The question of this blog was whether we’re all getting carried away with this new Manchester United team. In reality the answer is yes – much can happen between now and May but with Wayne Rooney and his new hair getting back-to-back hat-tricks it is extremely difficult not to get carried away. City are posting big scores but the message from United every weekend seems to be ‘anything you can do we can do better’.

For me, the most important dates to remember this season are 23 October (United v City at Old Trafford) and 28 April (City v United at Eastlands). This is where the title could be won or lost because both teams look unbeatable right now.

You can read more from Sam Cranston on his great Blog, but for now, why not let us know your thoughts below!!

Guest blog: Simply an “okay” transfer window for Spurs

One of the clubs I always look out for in the transfer market is Spurs. Not only are an annoying number of my friends fans and even season ticket holders, but they have a Chairman in Daniel Levy and a manager in Mr Harry “leaning out the car window to speak to SKY” Redknapp who are particularly interesting during this time. Therefore I thought it would be worth hearing from avid Spurs fan and, once nicknamed, “football brain” @NickOD84‘s thoughts on this summer’s activity down at the Lane… 

I would like you all to cast your minds back to September 2008, around 23.30, and pictures of Dimitar Berbatov at Old Trafford waving to the Manchester United fans that had stayed up late to see their new £30.75 million striker arrive at the club. Just a couple of weeks prior to that, Dimitar had refused to start against Middlesbrough in Tottenham’s first game of the season – and consequently the season was altogether disappointing, resulting in Juande Ramos being sacked in early October and a resurgent Tottenham, under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp only managing to climb to 8^th.

Fast forward three years and a sense of déjà vu was in the air as another “big club” were looking at Tottenham’s talisman Luka Modric to make their side complete. The first game of the season this year came round and Luka Modric told Harry Redknapp that “my head is not in the right place”.

However, in 2011, Daniel Levy had learnt from his mistakes and there were no pictures of Modric at Stamford Bridge or Cobham, but simply him training with his Croatian team-mates. Modric is not for sale at any price – and that includes £40million (apparently).

On the outset, many Tottenham fans will look at this and say that the transfer window was a success, and Tottenham, unlike their neighbours in North London had not sold their “Best Players” to their rivals.

However, my personal opinion is that this has simply been an “okay” transfer window and not as successful as many might believe.

Levy has succeeded when it comes to the huge wage bill that has been relieved … Bentley, Jenas, Hutton and Palacios were on big wages and losing them (along with Mr. Crouch) probably saves around £1million a month on wages. Saying that, how much West Ham are really paying of Bentley’s wages we don’t know.

Looking at who Tottenham have bought, I believe that Parker is a good addition – however, we could have bought him before the season started and not waited until the final day (as per usual with Tottenham) and Adebayor is a good signing on loan. Once he has a contract, he normally relaxes, but while playing for a contract Adebayor has always produced. On his day he is unplayable and alongside Defoe or with Van der Vaart behind him, he could do really well this year.

However, if Adebayor gets injured in the Barclays Premier League this season, then Spurs are left with Defoe and Pavlyucenko up front – on last season’s performances, not exactly a threatening strike force that will result in a top 4 finish. If Dawson gets injured, I have no idea who will play at the back (Can we rely on Gallas and King to play much this season?). And this is the key area of the squad where Tottenham did not deliver in the transfer window … for Redknapp to say that Spurs could not agree a fee with Bolton for Cahill is beyond me! Tottenham sold Crouch for £10 million, Palacios for £8 million and Keane for £3.5 million this summer. Even if Spurs had to pay £17 million for Cahill they would still be in profit this summer (and they have a young England centre-half, who will only get better)! If Cahill signed, Bassong could have gone on loan to QPR and more wages would have been off the payroll as well. If I’m honest, this is my main area of concern for the season … this is a team that has conceded 8 goals in their first two games after all!

Away from who has been signed and who has been sold, my overall feeling of the transfer window is the same as it was in 2008 … taking away the joy (not!) of watching Jim White on Sky Sports News, the start of season has resulted in Spurs being in a state of turmoil at the end of August, and now having to play catch up on the rest of the pack.

Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd all bought early in the window (only adding a couple of freebies on deadline day) and the effect has been shown by them all starting the season settled and looking good (although, I am still not sure about Liverpool if honest – Henderson isn’t good enough, and if they lose Suarez to injury, just like if Spurs lose Adebayor, I feel they will struggle a bit).

But deadline day has gone now and Spurs need to pick up points against Wolves in a week or so time.

So, until January, when Chelsea come sniffing back to Chigwell for Modric, the next three months should give Tottenham some much needed time to settle down and start playing the fast, fluid football that the Spurs fans have come to live with over the last couple of years. Admittedly a lot of this will depend on how good Mr. Redknapp’s man-management skills are and whether they work on rejuvenating the little magician from Croatia!