In summary it was not a good weekend really for either C or J with their respective teams! C was present at Loftus Road to watch the R's suffer opening day humiliation at the hands of the Swans with a 5-0 mauling. While J's beloved Red Devils were beaten soundly 1-0 by a very impressive Everton team on Monday night. Meanwhile J was also at the Alexandra Stadium on Saturday to watch Crewe Alex lose 2-1 to 10-man Notts County disappointingly.
C & J would like to apologise for some misleading information posted in last week's preview of the weekend games. Union Berlin were not playing Rot Weiss Essen in 2. Bundesliga but it was in fact the DfB cup. We can only offer our sincere apologies at this mix up and can assure you the member of staff responsible for this mix up was hastily fired. On a lighter note Union Berlin won 1-0 and this result marks their first cup win in 5 years!
We hope that you did not put any weight on our weekend predictions as we showed ourselves to be absolutely awful at predicting results. Both C & J got one correct result out of three and there were no correct scores! As you can probably tell the betting companies love us!
On to a round up of important points regarding this weekend's action:
QPR 0-5 Swansea - C will be bringing you a match report from the QPR game on Saturday and he was also present at Bournemouth v MK Dons last night so I will leave analysis on these matches to him but I would say that Michu looks a terrific player and an absolute steal at £2m. Opta Joe told me that he was the highest scoring midfielder in La Liga last year and he is an early candidate for signing of the season by Swansea. More importantly, he is also a Fantasy Football dream for me, picking up 18 points this weekend!
Everton 1-0 Man Utd - I was actually not too disheartened by this result as I thought Everton were terrific and there won't be many harder teams United will face the rest of this season. Everton were bang up for the game and Marouane Fellaini was unplayable. United had 4 central defenders injured and Michael Carrick was valiant in defence but was no match for Fellaini so sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say the better team won. Everton were hungry and passionate, whereas United lacked urgency and the majority of the players looked lethargic. I would go so far as to say the only players that really turned up on the day and performed well were De Gea and Shinji Kagawa.Kagawa looks a really good player and his runs were so intelligent, and his passing was exceptional. The weight of each pass seemed to be measured to perfection and if the strikers have a better game he could be an excellent link up and creative player. The sight of Robin Van Persie in a United shirt was one to behold and I cannot wait to see him and an on-form Wayne Rooney link up together.
Speaking of Rooney - I've seen him get a lot of stick on a number of sites but any player can have an off night. Wayne Rooney on a good day is better than the majority of players in the Premier League and it is impossible to expect him to be on his game 100% from the word go at the start of the season. With time for him and RVP to gel in training they could be a devastating combination.
I would like to see United sign a combative midfielder to provide some steel in front of the defence as they were bullied by Everton in this area and were lacking in this department all of last season. Cleverley is a great prospect but he is creative and we need a destructive force more than anything. A player in the mould of Check Tiote would be extremely productive in this United side.
I think I speak for all Man United fans when I say watch out City, now we have Alex Buttner that title is ours...seriously though, I don't see the point in sending a young prospect Fabio out on loan to leave one left back, then bringing a new young prospect to provide back up? Seems illogical. But Fergie is God and when he does something who am I to question it!
Crewe 1-2 Notts County - I was present at Gresty Road for this season opener and it was a not too disheartening loss for the Railwaymen. It was a fairly even game without a lot of clear cut chances. Notts County were simply more clinical and took their two chances really well. They have a lot of League 1 quality players, such as Francois Zoko signed from Carlisle in the summer, and this showed in relation to Crewe who have an exciting young side, but whom are mostly from the youth setup in League 2 or from the non-leagues. Mathias Pogba was a summer signing up front from Wrexham to provide a physical presence up front, but strangely he was deployed on the left for most of the game, which seemed to just waste his main attributes. He did get on the score sheet late on to notch his 11th goal in 12 games. Notts County were reduced to 10 men in the 60th minute when Yoann Arquis was sent off but they held on as they were 2-0 up at the time. They were indebted to Lee Hughes who cleared a Max Clayton shot off the line late on to deny Crewe an equaliser. Overall Crewe had enough positives to take from the game, and a happy sidenote is that they beat Scunthorpe 2-1 away from home for their first points of the season, thanks to Ajay Leitch-Smith and Luke Murphy.
What we learned this weekend:
- Santi Cazorla could be a difference maker for Arsenal this season, he looks a real class player, in the mould of a Fabregas. They will hope Giroud or Podolski can take the chances that he will undoubtedly create.
- Is every comeback win from Man City going to be like 'that May afternoon at the Etihad last season'?
- Newcastle showed it doesn't look like last season's achievements were a fluke.
- Fulham look like they will be one of the best sides to watch this season, on pure attractiveness of football.
- Start with Rickie Lambert, Nigel.
- Aston Villa need a good striker quickly.
- I may have underestimated West Brom in my season's preview!
If you would like us to cover any issues or teams or transfers etc that we haven't already please comment on the blog or let us know on twitter ( @esdbfootball ) and we'll be happy to oblige!
Enjoy tonight's matches and we will be back soon!
C&J
No comments:
Post a Comment