Its just past the halfway stage, but a few things are already pretty obvious.

Title: A two horse race

The title race is a duopoly, with Manchester United having the upper hand and Chelsea having serious problems at the back without John Terry. It is the exact opposite at United who have strong back up in defence, but are lacking in quality replacements in midfield and attack. Both these problems should be addressed when the transfer window opens. My prediction, a Chelsea hattrick of titles mainly due to the firepower they have in the squad. Classic case was last weekend when Chelsea and Man U played Everton and West Ham respectively. Chelsea brought on Kalou and Sheva while Man U brought on O’Shea to replace Giggs. Also given the amount of money that Chelsea have, a replacement defender for John Terry will not be too tough to find.

It’s going to be interesting to see the impact that Henrik Larsson has on the United squad. And what happens if he is a success? Is there a clause that lets him stay on till the end of the season? Also, will the whole Owen Hargreaves saga will come to an end? Hargreaves should cost upwards of 12 million pounds and this signing might mean that United wont have cash for any other signing.

Relegation:

Two confirmed, the third unpredictable

The other almost sure occurrence is the relegation of Watford and Charlton. Watford are putting up a fight, but that does not seem enough. Frankly, they haven’t been scoring enough goals and it remains to be seen what happens to Adrian Boothroyd if they get relegated.

Charlton have some quality (Hasselbaink, Rommedahl, Darren Bent have decent pedigree), but given they way they have been performing, any number of new managers will not change what has been happening. It’s going to be interesting to see the sort of impact that Pardew has on the squad. Of course he can’t make any new signings as Iain Dowie had spent next year’s transfer money as well.

The third team to get relegated is the most exciting part of the league for the neutrals and will cause the most tension to the supporters of the clubs in contention. Could be any of West Ham, Sheffield, Blackburn, Boro, Wigan, Man City, Fulham, Newcastle or Aston Villa. Just 7 points separates all these teams, so its just a question of a couple of wins or a couple of losses to be right back into the relegation “dogfight”. The other factor that makes this part of the table interesting is the unpredictability of these teams. On their day, they surely can beat the top of the table teams (Boro vs Chelsea, Blackburn vs Pool, West Ham vs Man U, Man City vs Arse etc).

Europe

The fight for Europe will be between the usual suspects Liverpool, Arsenal now challenged by the improving Spurs, the surprise of the season, Portsmouth and the team that introduced 4-5-1 to the EPL, the abrasive Bolton. Should be a good battle. Liverpool and Arsenal are still the favourites for the Champions League spots, but just when they seem to be getting into a winning run, they encounter a speed breaker in the form of a draw or a defeat.

Mid-table

Reading and Everton should be comfortably mid-table, a fair achievement for Reading. Everton owe a lot to their manager, David Moyes and after years of unstability, Everton finally seem to be settling down.

Goal of the season: Mathew Taylor against Everton

Honourable mention: Drogba against Everton again (is it something to do with Tim Howard? )

My team of the season so far: (4-4-2)

Keeper: Ben Foster (one of the few shining lights of the Watford team)
Defence: Steve Finnan, Nemanja Vidic, John Terry, Leighton Baines (of Wigan)
Midfield: Christiano Ronaldo, Joey Barton, Tim Cahill, Gareth Barry
Strikers: Drogba, Kanu

Kesavan

(Read the Author’s blog here)

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Z’s team (3-5-2)

Keeper: David “calamity” James (who would have thought!)
Defence: , Vidic, Campbell, Terry
Midfield: Ronaldo, Gilberto, Essien, Scholes, Barry
Strikers: Drogba, Kanu

Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal

Arsene Wenger must be hoping that his side can put together a string of good performances after the 2-week break. Perfect example of the unpredictability of sport. City were coming in off a rotten run, nothing has been going right for them and Thatcher’s horrific elbow on Pedro Mendes did not help either. City rode their luck through the match and somehow got home with a 1-0 victory. Special menion for Nicky Weaver. Only god knows how this man is playing football after all the operations. In fact he is making first team appearences after close to three years.

Goal of the Weekend:

Daniel Agger’s absolute cracker against West Ham United.Supposedly the best defender to come out of Denmark since the glory of Euro 92.

Watch the goal here.

Verdict:

Early days but all the signs are pointing towards a very interesting season. The presence of Martin O Neill and a rejuvenated Aston Villa could make the season more interesting. With Randy Lerner ’s (What a name!) imminent take over of Villa, it will be interesting to see the players he signs before the transfer window closes.

Technorati Tags: EPL, Football, Arsenal, United, Chelsea, Keane, Sunderland

V’s Top 5 goals I’ve seen in the last 10 years

(Click on the names to see the goals)

5) Fernando Redondo- Real Madrid vs Manutd – Q/F (CL)
‘ He had a magnet in his boots’ is what ferguson remarked when asked to assess Redondo’s performance in this Quarter Final Clash at Old Trafford. It was scintillating and was capped off with a move which drew applause from rival fans as well. Unfortunately, Redondo was consistently plagued by injuries and also tiffs with various Argentinian coaches cut short his international career.

Trivia: When Redondo was sold to AC Milan, there were riots in Madrid!

4) Rivaldo – Barcelona vs Valencia – Primera Liga

Barcelona needed to beat Valencia at the Nou Camp to pip them for the final Champions League spot. All hope seemed to have been lost once Ruben Baraja levelled the scores at 2-2.

Then Rivaldo came up with this in the 90th minute of the game. Spectacular is the word.

3) Ryan Giggs- Manchester United vs Arsenal- FA Cup Semis.This goal after a mazy run against the famed Arsenal back four was in Extra Time against MU’s arch rivals. The move would have done Diego proud. United fans have made sure that Patrick Vieira never got to forget the fact that he was the one who gave the ball away. Of c ourse, nobody really wanted to see Giggs without his shirt on.

2) Steven Gerrard – Liverpool vs Olympiakos at Anfield

This goal was decisive and was scored during Liverpools successful Champions League campaign. Liverpool were heading out of the tournament. Gerrard scored, Liverpool went through and the rest is history! They defeated AC Milan in the final after making one of the most stunning comebacks in football history.

It was a screamer from 25 yards and in the words of Andy Gray, It was a beauty. The commentary is particularly hair raising. This goal had to pip Gerrard’s effort against West Ham United in the 2005 FA Cup Final.

1) Zidane- Real Madrid Vs Bayer Leverkusen at Glasgow
What can i say? The magician from Marseille did this in The Champions League Final. Talk about being a clutch performer. Brilliant! This the sort of stuff that Zidane will always be remembered for. Do you agree? Have I missed any that you think deserves to be on the list?

V