Premier League Round-Up



A stunning scoreline.



Believe it or not but we are roughly a quarter of the way through the football season. With the odd exception the teams are roughly where we expected them to be at the start of the season, but this is nothing like an ordinary season. Goals a plenty have flown in against the most unlikely teams. Who could have predicted that Manchester City, despite all their financial clout could put five past Tottenham at White Hart Lane, and even more astonishing, six past the league champions Manchester United away from home where the hosts have been unbeatable. Spurs who were reeling from a terrible start, put four past big spending Liverpool and then Man United themselves in perhaps the most unbelievable result beat Arsenal 8-2! Arsenal then rallied and went to Stamford Bridge beating Chelsea 5-3.

Perhaps the biggest strides have been made by Newcastle United who have confounded all their critics and at time of writing were sitting pretty in the Champions league places, only a point off second place. Even the most optimistic supporter doubts that they can hold the position for the season, but they should now be looking up rather than down for the remainder of the season. Man City surely have their best ever chance of winning the title, with players such as David Silva in such mercurial form they do look unbeatable at the moment. The battle for the rest of the top four looks as wide open as it’s ever been. Newcastle as mentioned have put themselves into the mix, but both North London sides, Arsenal and Tottenham are looking massively improved, Chelsea and Man United have been up and down but still look strong, and Liverpool’s new signings are slowly bedding in and are quietly climbing.

The battle to avoid the drop looks set to be as enthralling as ever, with only eight points separating Norwich in eight place from Wigan who sit bottom, and with all three promoted clubs playing well and in the top half, none of the teams in this bracket can afford to relax for a second.

Nominee for World Player of the Year  Luis Suarez may be in trouble.

Off the field the biggest stories involve Man City, where unrest still lurks over Carlos Tevez. Former captain and talisman Tevez has been trying to leave the club for some time, in the summer saying he did not want to return to Manchester ever again, (surprising as he is on a paltry £200,000 a week), but family commitments pushed him into a move back to South America, which fell through. Tevez, on the bench for a vital Champions League match away to German side Bayern Munich, allegedly refused to come off the bench. The exact sequence of events is still unclear with both sides adamant of their side of the argument. Nonetheless it seems pretty clear that his days as a City player are numbered.

Racism has no part in football, or in any sport for that matter, so it is disturbing that allegations have arisen recently involving two high profile players, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and England captain John Terry. Nothing has been proved thus far and one hopes this will be brought to a swift and fair resolution quickly.

There is doubt that this scene will be repeated in May.

With some massive games in the next few weeks the run into the Christmas fixtures look set to shape the table, but with the season going the way that is has been with crazy results, the destiny’s of the twenty clubs is far from certain.