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.

A new era repeats itself

In summer of 1996 there was a fumbling french boy in the AC Milan football camp by the name of Patrick Vieira. He never really had much success on the football pitch. Then one day things changed. A fellow countryman by the name of Arsène Wenger had become the new coach of Arsenal and was looking for new recruitments. He saw somethin in this twenty year old boy that AC Milan coaches obviously had missed. He bought him for a measly three million pounds and brought him to England. A new era had begun. Things were difficult at the start; ask every foreign import... they will no doubt admit it. But as time passed by the little boy matured into a midfield maestro. He became a phenom, a cultured attacker, a bossy midfielder and a person whose influence permeated throughout all major European stadia. The footballing world rarely sees a player of such quality. No wonder Real Madrid have been chasing him for the past three seasons. For nine whole years this master ran the midfield of Arsenal.

But it was time to move. Perhaps the reason for his leaving was the fact that Arsenal had achieved very little in the European circuit. He probably wanted that one cup that had been eluding him throughout his life – The Champions Trophy. Maybe he was right; his quality was way too much for a club like Arsenal. He will no doubt be successful in Turin. But one thing is clear : his presence will be missed by everyone, the neutrals and the oppostion. We will defintely miss all the high tension meetings with Roy Keane. Best of luck Patrick Vieira... Au revior!

There is one thing we can definetely do: that is, place oodles of faith in Arsène Wenger. Letting go of Patrick maybe was not the best thing to do. But lets not forget that it was Wenger who brought him to England in the first place...he brought him into the limelight from oblivion. If he can sign an unknown player, nuture him and bring him to be probably the best midfielder I have seen for a long time then he can do it again. There are promising signs in the Aresenal camp already. The already present Gilberto, the prodigy Fransesc Fabrigas, Mathieu Flamini and the nick named ‘dribbler’ Alexander Hleb will have to have to do a lot of work to even come close to the reputation that Vieira had left at Highbury. And thus begins a new era again for the Gunners and English Football. Will Wenger succeed in his endeavours? Theres only one person who can answer that question : thats Wenger himself. He is a shrewd man, a thinker and a football philosopher. Trust me, he knows his way around the football market. So best of luck Arsène!

We want everybody!

Two seasons ago, the footballing world saw something that they never thought they would. The rather stormy appearance of the governor from a small town in Russia, Chukotka. Little did the English F.A. know that this would mean a change in the hierarchy of English and quite possibly world football. Mr. Roman Abramovich changed English Football. He bought Chelsea. But he did not stop there. He bought, bought and he bought. Not casinos, real estate, or five star hotels. He bought some of the best footballers there are today. Along with a stubborn yet charismatic manager, José Mourinho Chelsea FC are giving Los Galacticos a run for their money. They have literally two players per position on the pitch. When Steven Gerard had serious contract issues, they even put up a £32 million bid for him in just a few days. Of course little Stevie did not have the heart to leave his club.

Things are going good for Chelsea. They won the league... well almost hands down. They lost only three games last season! Astonishing! But the question on everybody’s mind is that how long can they go on?
Football is a funny game. On some days even the weakest teams can beat the Goliaths. The enormous amounts that Abramovich is pouring into the game can have an bad impact on the game. The exhorbitant wages that are given to the players might just make or break their career... or even their club. If a season or two goes without silverware, for a club of this size, they might have to axe their workers... probably even plunging the club into massive debt and then, relegation. Look what happened to Leeds United. And that day might just not be so far away. Whatever happened to those days when talent used to be nurtured at a club, not imported.