English football steadfastly refuses to adopt a winter break - instead the football calendar has just gone through one of it's busiest spells of the entire season. Many clubs faced a schedule of 4 games in just 10 days - a ridiculous demand to place on the resources of thinly stretched lower league squads, and one which resulted in some bizarre results and inevitable strain injuries.
The amount of football that has been played since I last posted on Christmas Eve has had a significant impact on the Premier League table - we are now over halfway into the season and teams are starting to understand what the aim is for the remaining four months.
All teams from Fulham in 14th down to West Ham at the bottom must now face up to the fact that 2011 starts for them with a relegation battle. It is extremely tight at the foot of the table at present, just 2 points seperate the 6 bottom clubs; and results are proving highly unpredictable. Anyone who had money on Wolves to beat Liverpool and Chelsea deserves their winnings.
A run such as that which Wolves have enjoyed of late can ensure that the season still promises much for any of the clubs in the middle section of the table. My own Southampton demonstrate this perfectly - putting together a decent string of results over the festive period to catapult themselves from 8th into 2nd, a position which they will hope to consolidate in a concerted push for automatic promotion this year.
Sunderland and Bolton have had mixed results over the last fortnight but both find themselves tantalisingly close to the European positions and should be targeting the team in fifth. That team, much to my disbelief and the ridicule of an earlier blog predicting they'd be home and dry by now...are Chelsea.
A shocking run of form, one not seen since the pre-Abramovich days, has left Carlo Ancelotti's Blues very blue indeed. They sit in fifth but more importantly, they are 9 points away from the summit having played an extra game. That is not going to be an easy lead to diminish and unless they find some form quickly, Chelsea may have to face up to the unthinkable and ensure they secure a top four finish, forgetting about the championship altogether.
The team at the summit is, who else, Manchester United. Not the all-conquering, dominating beats that has been seen in the past, but a slightly unconvincing and sub-par edition of the Premier League's most successful club. If United win the league this year they will be a pale shadow of their former league-winning vintages, and they will only win it because the rest were not good enough; not because they were irresistibly strong themselves. I certainly don't want them to win it - they have enough league titles already and to get another one with such a relatively ordinary team just doesn't feel right.
The pretenders realistically look to be Arsenal and Manchester City who played out a goal-less draw to round out their run of fixtures. City have already begun their annual January spendathon with the recruitment of Bosnian Edin Dzeko and are likely to continue - however as already written they have yet to make a convincing case. Arsenal, with a 3-1 win over Chelsea might just have shaken the monkey off their back and could be ready to step up. Let's face it though. It's going to be United isn't it.
--------------------------------------------------------
Having had the break, I'll step things up again now. Keep reading and interacting, always good to hear comments and thoughts. Next couple of days I'm planning a Crystal Ball special so get yourself down the bookies and I'll take 10% of the inevitable resultant winnings.
No comments:
Post a Comment