Friday Feelings

These are some thoughts and the odd score prediction for this weekend. Call me ‘Mystic Max’ if you must. Chelsea v West Brom Rafa will be booed. Chelsea will start nervously and then score towards half-time before rolling on to a straight forward win. Rafa will face questions about his future after the game, he […]

Monday Musings

A few thoughts on the weekend’s action

Man City 2-0 Chelsea

An absolutely dire, borderline unwatchable, first half sparkled in to life in the second half. Pre-match the commentators speculated that Mancini had selected a unit to grind out a result, and that’s exactly how it played out. A shattered looking Chelsea posed no threat at all during the game, despite Benitez heeding the calls to play Ba over Torres up front. Frank Lampard’s recent form deserted him, not just his penalty miss, but in open play he didn’t impose himself on the game at any stage. Only the always effervescent Juan Mata seemed to have any menace in his boots. They look like they need a week without a game, something that isn’t on the horizon for a while yet. The club’s reckless decision to pursue the League Cup with a full strength side is really coming back to bite them. The likes of Mata and Hazard have played an extra 4 games when they might have been resting. It’s all well and good looking to win everything you enter, but when you also take the World Club Cup to be important you are creating an extra 6 or 7 games that your main starters are playing, which translates to an extra month’s worth of action. All of this extra work is catching up with their main players now. This isn’t just a comment on the City game, Chelsea looked lacklustre against Sparta Prague, only just sneeking through with a last minute rocket from Hazard. If, as it seems, they are going to try and win the Europa League then more days like this could well follow domestically.

As for City, a side that seemed to be purring only a few weeks ago is spluttering along. They just don’t have that same zing as last season when Aguero, Silva, Nasri and latterly Tevez formed a lethal front 4 with the physical presence of Yaya supporting from behind, and this is what won them the league. However, only Tevez has hit any kind of form this year. Even then, he lost that during a 10 game barren spell in front of goal. Silva looks like the 5 years of consecutive football are affecting him now. Mancini himself criticised Nasri for resting on his laurels and Aguero has lost the potency of last year, indeed of his career up to this point . City really should have won this about 4-0 but Aguero spurned some unmissable opportunities. Maybe ex-Athletico Madrid strikers can only play in England for so long before forgetting how to play? Are you paying attention to this Falcao?

Arsenal 2-1 Villa

I’ve written about Arsenal this week and their problems haven’t changed since then. Giroud is not a top calibre striker which he demonstrated again with a hat load of misses, Szczesny is not an elite goal keeper as his pathetic attempt at saving Weimann’s decently hit strike showed yet again, Mertesacker is too slow and cumbersome, Vermaelen has forgetten how to defend, Arteta is not a holding midfielder, Jenkinson is not a Premier League player, etc. etc. etc. Yes, they won, but since when do Arsenal only beat relegation fodder 2-1 at home?

Fulham 1-0 Stoke

This was chosen as the TV game? Interesting…Incidentally, interesting is not a word that could be used to describe this. Aside from Berbatov’s lovely volleyed goal there was precious little quality. Indeed, the main story of the game was two red cards which weren’t shown. Berbatov’s elbow which re-arranged N’Zonzi’s face was sly and should have been punished, before he scored as well. N’Zonzi lost his head at that point and then responded by punching Bryan Ruiz, Which was also unpunished…A great advert for the World’s Greatest League TM

QPR 0-2 Man Utd

Two words; Champions, performance. Redknapp’s strategy of trying to draw his way to safety has seen QPR hold City and Spurs at home and win at Chelsea, all without conceding. So, with this in mind it was always going to be a tricky game for United, but in the event it wasn’t. They were untroubled throughout, with only a Rafael goal line clearance of any note. Rafael’s annihilation of the ball in to the top corner of Cesar’s net was good, but his pass which van Persie narrowly failed to convert was even better. The man of the match in this game only had one candidate, indeed, Rafael could claim the man of the weekend award.

QPR continue to struggle in front of goal, part tactics, part lack of quality. An unusually illuminating piece of analysis on Match of the Day highlighted the myth of Taarabt as the magician to pull QPR out of trouble. No magician can perform tricks without taking the stage and he doesn’t grab hold of games at this level. They are doomed.

Reading 0-3 Wigan

Even despite a couple of beautiful goals from Wigan and a truly appalling lunge from Pogrebnyak to get himself sent off, the highlight of this match was Brian McDermott’s analysis. He somehow got confused on the story of the game, thinking Pogrebnyak had been sent off before the 3rd went in. Although by no means at Steve Keen levels of saccharine positivity, he is starting to increasingly head that way. The passing resemblance doesn’t help.

Wigan though seem to be on their usual late season charge. Although Reading defended unbelievably badly Wigan punished them with some technically proficient and very well taken goals. The returning Arouna Kone in particular gives them some much needed quality and composure in front of goal.

Newcastle 4-2 Southampton

French day at Newcastle but luckily for them, they didn’t repeat the performance of the French rugby team this year. Their shopping spree in January has really stood them in good stead, with Moussa Sissosko heavily involved yet again and Debuchy rampaging forward from right back to great affect. Papiss Cisse returned to wonder goal scoring form, but Pardew needs him to contribute more consistently to help them continue to pull away from trouble. Their horrible slump left them as something of an outlier in the table and this resurgence is seeing them return to a more realistic position.

Pardew knows the French market better than Wenger! Seriously? We’re still doing this? Comments in various places to this extent have evidenced themselves again. So yes, Pardew DOES don a beret, hop on the Eurostar with his copy of ‘French for Beginners’, string of onions around his neck before sleuthing around some Ligue Un outpost to spot his latest bargain, the signing of which he then personally negotiates. Happy now ‘The Media’?

Norwich 2-1 Everton

How did Everton not win this? David Moyes will be asked the same thing, and contrary to his post match comments, I’m sure he doesn’t blame the referee. If he does, he’s looking in the wrong place. They throw away so many leads late in games, for two reasons. Firstly, they simply don’t score enough goals. Jelavic has joined the ‘forgotten how to score’ club this year and whilst there are pretty touches from Pienaar, Mirallas and Osman, they’re not able to make up the deficit. They score near enough every game, but usually only in 1s. Because of this, late in games they find themselves dropping back to defend increasingly direct play from opponents. But, they can’t defend balls in the air. Despite the height and power of Distin and the experience of Heitinga, and ‘he’s English so he’s good’ Jagielka, they simply don’t defend them well. Look back at the goals they concede late and it’s the same thing each time; long ball pumped forward, Howard frozen to his line, defence let it bounce or don’t get anything forceful on it, opposition pounce and score. This very turn of events happened in the reverse fixture, and Norwich took it one step further to win this one.

West Brom 2-1 Sunderland

It’s ridiculous that Chelsea would loan out Lukaku when they need a striker, typical Benitez!

Where to start? Chelsea loaned Lukaku out because they didn’t feel he was ready to play for them and would benefit from first team experience. Lo and behold, it’s working! He’s playing games, scoring goals and getting better. Imagine he played for West Brom and wasn’t on loan. He’s going to end on around 20 goals this year. How much would Chelsea pay for a 19 year old who scores 20 Premier League goals? Would he be considered an upgrade on Torres, and maybe even Ba? The answers; at least what they paid, and yes, a big upgrade. So, welcome back to Chelsea next year, ready to lead the line Romelu. They’ve also got the best young keeper in the world out on loan and doing amazing things with Athletico Madrid. The point is though, he wouldn’t be getting the game time he is now, and the point of the loan was the ready him for next year. Mission accomplished by Chelsea.

Oh and Sunderland really are appalling in attack.

This weekend’s awards will be coming later.

Fantasy Football Questionnaire Part 1 – Results

Following on from last weeks Fantasy Football Questionnaire, here are the results;

Q1 – For how many seasons have you been playing Fantasy Football?

3-4 seasons: 47%
5 seasons or more: 25%
2 seasons : 18%
1st season: 10%

Q2 – How many different Fantasy Football games do you play?

1: 64%
2: 25%
3: 6%
4 or more: 5%

Q3 – How often do you look at your team?

Several times a day: 47%
Once a day: 26%
A few times a week: 25%
Once a week: 2%

Q4 – Do you discuss Fantasy Football with friends or online?

Often: 62%
Sometimes: 33%
Rarely: 4%
Never: 1%

Q5 – Do you support a Premier League team?

Yes: 67%
No: 17%
Kind of: 15%

Q6 – How do you prefer to select your players?

I pick players in good form: 54%
I pick players with good fixtures: 36%
I pick players who have scored points previously: 7%
I pick my favourite players: 3%

Q7 – How do you feel if a player in your Fantasy Football team scores against the team you support?

Happy as long as my team wins: 57%
It doesn’t affect me: 17%
Delighted, I need the points!: 15%
I’d still be disappointed: 10%

Q8 – Would you captain a player in your Fantasy Football team against the team you support?

Only if they were the best option: 41%
Yes, without questions: 36%
Never: 17%
Only if they were the only option: 6%

Q9 – How much does a good Fantasy Football score affect your mood?

It has some affect: 57%
It heavily influences it: 36%
It has no affect: 7%

Q10 – How much does a bad Fantasy Football score affect your mood?

It has some affect: 58%
It heavily influences it: 29%
It has no affect: 13%

Part 2 will go in to more detail in to the motivations for playing fantasy football. If you have any suggestions for questions or any comments/soundbites please feel free to comment below or tweet me @MaxClaytonRobb