From James : Why, Myles?
What entertains you about the Premier League?
I thought you’d appreciate good football. Good passing, strong tactics, consistent, incisive attacking play – Premier League has very little of that. All I see is kick and rush and headless chickens.
This is still the worst Man U team for over 20 years, Chelsea have gone down the plughole, Man City lose one player (Kompany) and they’re all at see. Arsenal are… Arsenal.
In the Champions League, English clubs are dreadful and the league is dreadful.
I wouldn’t bank on West Ham beating Chelsea either, they’ve already failed to beat Norwich, Bournemouth and Leicester at Upton Park.
Do you know who the most consistent team in the Premier League is at the moment? Tottenham. They’re 8 unbeaten and have avoided losing to Liverpool, Swansea (A), in-form Leicester (A), and they beat in -form Palace at home and trounced Man City 4-1. This is very un-Tottenham-like.
Seven of their games have been against the top 11 teams.
Alderweireld has fitted in beautifully, Son Heung-Min looks quality, Demebele is finally starting to play, and statistically they’re the most impressive pressing team in the PL. Erikson is the best set-piece taker in the Prem by a mile.
And this is without Kane reaching any sort of form.
Spurs could be this season’s dark horse. I’m very impressed with Pochettino.
I’m also delighted Klopp is at Liverpool.
I wish they’d scrap the UEFA Cup, that would break the dominance of a weak top four in England.
Myles says:
Good passing, strong tactics, consistent, incisive attacking play?
You’re describing West Ham!
I like to see a league where the BIg Four can all be beaten by the next six. And where the title is NOT decided by Xmas, as it was last season.
Having watched Liverpool draw 1-1 with Rubin Kazan, I reckon they’ll run hard for the rest of 2015. Maybe in 2016 they’ll start to score goals.
EUROPA CUP? The Manchesters love the fact that Spurs and Liverpool are playing on Thursday nights!
Spurs, a dynamic side, were sloppy in Belgium, where Anderlecht beat them 2-1.
Arsenal play Walcott for 70 minutes and Giroud for 20.
That’s become the pattern and it’s worked rather well.
Was told tonight that Bayern had a secret training session, in addition to the one at the stadium, and that Lewandowski did not take part. Maybe Lewa was below 100% and maybe that’s why Bayern played so much keep-ball, a strategy that worked for 77 minutes.
However, that was a memorable victory by Arsenal. Will Bayern want revenge in the second leg when they’ll qualify anyway?
Who knows?
The mentality of the really big stars at the wealthiest clubs is slightly different to that of the best players at the rather less grand clubs.
On one level PSG versus Real Madrid was about whether my Brazilians really want to beat your Brazilians.
But on another level it was a wet night in Paris and a 0-0 draw suited both teams.
When we were in Split on Matchday 2 I didn’t see any whole matches on TV, just a bit of Man City one night. The football shirts that were on sale, in the stalls between the bus station and the beach, were the red & white Croatian national team strip: MODRIC RAKITIC MANDZUKIC.
Sevilla’s recruitment was professional enough to acquire Rakitic for 2.5m euros!
One Tuesday on holiday, when Monday’s Guardian wasn’t available, I bought the Financial Times and it contained this excellent feature by Simon Kuyper about a PSG executive who’s having an exemplary career. What he says about Juventus is interesting.