A preview of the 2005/06 English Premier League - contd.

Arsenal

After the departure of Patrick Vieira, the media in my opinion, has been tryin to paint a gloomy picture in the Arsenal camp. If you and I were to follow statistical data then we would definitely conclude that in the past year or so Vieira’s performance has not been up to the mark. Whether this has happened due all the transfer speculation or not, we shall never be able to confirm. Or just maybe it was time for him to move on.

Move on, he did and so must Arsenal. The fantastic array of talented footballers that Arsene Wenger manages to bring out season after season has no doubt bamboozled all the football philosophers. Last season was no different; Fransesc Fabregas, Matthieu Flamini, Robin van Persie and Phillipe Senderos were rank outsiders the season before. Now they find themselves in the middle of it all. Alexander Hleb is a good signing; it seems that Wenger had been following him for quite some time. Filling in the boots of Vieira will definitely be the most diffcult thing to do for Hleb given the rash, physical nature of the game which Jose Reyes found out last season when Gary Neville welcomed him with a tackle or two.Alexander Song also has been training with the squad but he is only seventeen years old and definitely has a long way to go before he can get anywhere close to the playing in the league. Wenger has been searching for a keeper and he thinks Sebastien Viera might be a good replacement for the ageing Jens Lehmann. Manuel Almunia might have to play only in the league cup matches. Julio Baptista’s refusal to join Arsenal might not have been so good for the club but Wenger remains positive. He believes that Baptista’s refusal gives the younger players in the club to showcase his talents.


Players to watch out for

The back four:

• Phillipe Senderos seems to be the ideal replacement for Sol Campbell after a string of clean sheets towards the end of the season. I think it was like this: played 11; goals conceded 1; 10 continuous clean sheets. That one goal conceded was by Justin Hoyte i.e a penalty.
• Kolo Touré has turned out to be a fantastic discovery for Wenger. He has played in many positions on the pitch, in midfield, up front, centre back and right back and also as a right winger. Having found his spot last season he did pretty well and im sure he will continue to do well
• Gael Clichy is said to be the fastest runner in the team. Yup he is faster than Henry himself. Wenger did himself a lot of good by signing him as he is a ditto replacement for Ashley Cole. He might have to spruce up his defending skills if he is to find himself on the starting eleven.
  

The midfield

• Fransesc Fabregas was an inspired signing from Barcelona. Infact the Catalan giants were unhappy at letting such a talent leave the club. Fabregas has left an indelible impression on the minds of the footballing pundits after putting on very mature performances in the EPL and in Europe last season. He says that he is ready to fill in Vieiras boots. He has super control and can provide amazing passes. But the only drawback is that he doesn’t have a physical dimension to his game like Vieira did. If he can somehow manage to get that then im sure he would be the ideal replacement
  
• Nicknamed the ‘ dribbler’ Alexander Hleb has a lot of work to do to fill up the empty space left by the departure of Vieira. Primarily being an attacking midfielder, Helb provides more choices to Wenger’s gameplans. But this would leave the burden of defence to Gilberto who has shown that he has what it takes to do all the dirty work in the midfield.
  

Up front

• Thierry Henry is no stranger. So Im not writing about him
  
• José Anyonio Reyes was having fun last season till the match with Man U where he was the victim of many a vicious challenge. From then on he never really recovered despite scoring a few goals and popping up here and there to provide assists. A little more strength and tenacity in his game will do him very good to improve his career in Arsenal
  
• Robin van Persie does show a lot of promise but in my opinion he needs to keep calm on the pitch when things are not happening for him. He has a lethal left foot and has shown that he can play as a striker on the left as well the right side of the pitch

It is not going to be easy for Arsene Wenger. Vieira is irreplaceable. But like I said before the team must move on. There is no dearth of talent in Arsenal and as always Wenger continually keeps putting his faith in all the young guns of Arsenal. Go get’em guys!

A preview of the 2005/06 English Premier League

I have been waiting impatiently for the new season to begin. With events like Vieira leaving, Gerrard’s contract problems and Owen’s possible return to the Premiership, there is just too much drama this time! One good prospect this time is that the Premiership will certainly not be a two horse race. Especially with Liverpool strengthening their side with all the spanish flavour they can get, it may not be hard to guess that Premiership might just be a four horse race.
I have decided to review some teams to see how their new signings and strategy will determine their postion in the league.

Liverpool

Rafa has been buying. A lot from the Spanish bazaar. He is an awesome manager. We all know what he did at Valencia. The kind of comments he got from his team when he left the Mestalla is a measure of his quality; David Albelda was furious at his manager for leaving. He has been buying a lot of players from the place he comes; he should, he knows them best there.
But doesn’t it look like he has got a little too much Spanish spice in his team? I mean let’s not disagree that La Liga does not even come to being called a physical league when compared to the likes of the English Premiership or the Scottish League. For instance, a Luis Garcia or a Xabi Alonso is good when it comes to being slithery, making intelligent runs on the pitch and possessing slick passing skills. The not-so-good part of this repertoire that it is incomplete, not possessing the hard, back-breaking work that is needed in an English game.

Players to watch out for

The back four in Liverpool have been monumental in the last season. Carragher’s performance in the Champion’s League just shows us that he should be given respect that is due for quite some time. Maybe it is time to put Carragher in the same lot as the Terrys, Nestas and the Ferdinands.Hyypia too has been outstanding last season, popping up rarely during their attacks and scoring the odd goal.

The Liverpool midfield is studded with stars. Gerrard, Riise, Alonso, Hamman, Le Tallec, Nunez, Garcia, Kewell, Sissoko, Zenden will have to compete for just four spots on the starting line up. Boy oh boy. Isn’t there gonna be some competition! Sissoko, in my opinion is a good signing because he can be physical as well as creative in the midfield. If Garcia can put on some more upper body strength then he can do a lot better than he is doing right now. Kewell hasn’t delivered much for Liverpool since his transfer from Leeds United. It is increasingly looking like he is past his heyday and with so much competition in the midfield, and the added speculation that Luis Figo might land his footballing boots on the same pitch might just edge him well out of the starting line up.

Up front, Rafa has quite a few options. Cisse looked quite sharp last season till he broke his leg. The signing of Peter Crouch seemed quite unnecessary to me; shelling out £7 million was a bit too much for a striker of Crouch's calibre. But there has been some rather unbelievable speculation that Rafa plans to convert him into a centre-back because of his height. This definetely will not happen but it is nice to know that things like this can be taken seriously by the footballing community! Crouch’s signing seemed to ring the death knell for Baros’ career in Liverpool. Morientes and Sinama-Pongolle might have to compete for the other spot on the field although it doesn’t seem that the latter will play any part in the Premiership or the Champions League and might just have to be content to be playing in the FA cup and the Carling cup.

Rafa along with his Spanish contingent will no doubt be difficult to beat this season especially when he has the luxory of the talismanic Steven Gerrard. We will just have to wait and watch if Liverpool can truly challenge the big guns of English football.