football_premier_league

All the same at the top

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At the top of the Premiership, Manchester United missed the chance to extend their lead over Chelsea to nine points … or, looking at it another way, Chelsea missed the chance to narrow the gap between United and themselves to three. As it is, the gap remains at six points after a weekend of two ‘classic’ encounters between giants of the English game.

Chelsea lost 0-2 at Liverpool on Saturday, the first time that Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez has beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea in the Premiership.The Reds’ second goal was a clear contender for goal of the season, Jermaine Pennant controlling a loose ball outside the area to the right of the goal and hitting it sweetly into the top left hand corner of the net. Worrying for Chelsea fans would have been the inability to react to being two-down after less than 20 minutes.

On Sunday, it looked for half an hour in the second half as if Arsenal would lose at the Emirates Stadium for the first time, in front of a crowd of 60,000. Wayne Rooney put Manchester United in front on 53 minutes, but in the last ten minutes, Robin Van Persie and then Thierry Henry, in added time, turned the game around for the Gunners. The results squash the first four places into a band of twelve points, with Liverpool third and Arsenal fourth, just one point behind.

All this at the end of a week when a new global TV deal for the Premiership was announced. As from next season, the club finishing top will get at least £50 million (around 76 million euros), which will make winning the title even more attractive. Chelsea got just over £30 million (around 45 million euros) as Champions last season. Next season, the bottom club will get that.

But it may not be enough of a consolation. Clubs that go down sometimes stay down, and this can be disastrous if their budgets, especially in respect of players’ salaries, are geared towards Premiership football. Leeds United, historically a big club, won the title in 1992, but in 2004 they slipped out of the Premiership with severe money problems and are currently fighting against relegation from the Championship. So the battle to avoid relegation from the Premiership can be a desperate one.

At the end of the season, three teams will go down to the Championship. At the moment, Watford, who were promoted this season, seem to have booked their ticket down already, with a meagre 12 points from 22 games, although they have two games in hand on disappointing Charlton, clearly missing coach Alan Curbishley … who is now at West Ham, currently occupying the third relegation place. Curiously, Charlton are now coached by Alan Pardew … recently sacked by West Ham. West Ham have signed Scottish international midfielder Nigel Quashie from West Brom, but the Hammers’ directors should perhaps have looked a little more closely at his CV: Quashie has played for QPR, Nottingham Forest, Southampton and West Brom … all relegated while he was playing for them.

In Scotland, a hat-trick by the Dutch striker who sounds like a Viking, Vennegoor of Hesselink, helped to give Celtic a comfortable 5-1 win over lowly St Mirren, while second placed Rangers won 1-0 at Dunfermline. But the result of the day was arguably Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s 3-0 win over Hibs. This is only Caley’s third season in the top flight, and they are managing to survive on meagre crowds (record attendance: 7,100, against Celtic) and a miniscule budget (record signing: John Rankin from Ross County last August for just £65,000 – 99,000 euros). It’s not the English Premiership; it’s a different world entirely.

By Phil Town

Chelsea Crisis and Rocky Toffee!

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Chelsea and their coach, José Mourinho, praised to the sky here last week, are having a bit of a crisis. Mourinho is angry that his bosses won’t let him spend money during the transfer window, but among other things, the team desperately needs a top class defender. Captain John Terry is out of action with a back injury, and other injuries mean that right back Paulo Ferreira has been a provisional and not entirely satisfactory replacement to accompany compatriot Ricardo Carvalho in the centre of the defence. Mourinho has his eye on Micah Richards of Manchester City and/or Bolton's Tal Ben Haim, but the owner of the club, Roman Abramovich, has suddenly become a little tight-fisted.

The crisis behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge (despite the team being in second place and still theoretically in the title race behind Manchester United) is such that there have been rumours that Mourinho could be on his way out of the club, although his contract only expires in 2010. If The Blues’ fans were in charge, however, he would stay; the reception they gave him at Saturday’s home game against Wigan was tremendous. And the players have also given their support, Dutch winger Arjen Robben saying “As a group we can only say that we love having him here at Chelsea.”

Man of the match Robben was in great form against Wigan, scoring the second goal and crossing for the third in a 4-0 win. After Chelsea's surprising draw against modest Wycombe Wanderers in the League Cup, it’s a result that will take a little of the pressure off. Meanwhile, this was Wigan's second consecutive league defeat, the northern team conceding seven goals and scoring a grand total of none at all. The Latics are dangerously close to the relegation zone now, and under a different kind of pressure to Chelsea's.

Elsewhere, arguably the best moment of a rather dull afternoon at Goodison Park came before kick off in the match between Everton and Reading, with a familiar figure striding out onto the pitch to warm applause: Rocky Balboa … aka Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone, in England to promote his film ‘Rocky 6’. He was wearing an Everton scarf, and was later seen wildly celebrating Andy Johnson’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw. So now we know: Sylvester Stallone is a Toffee. [Everton’s nickname]

North of the border in Scotland, the big story of the weekend was the triumphant return to Rangers of coach Walter Smith. Smith, at Ibrox for the second time, replaced Frenchman Paul le Guen, sacked at the beginning of January. The team could not have given him a better welcome: a 5-0 victory over Dundee United. The ‘Gers are still 17 points behind old rivals Celtic, but they’ve pulled away a little from Aberdeen and Hearts.

by Phil Town

Money talks in football

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Money talks in football, and no more so than in the English Premiership, awash with cash from attendances, merchandising, TV rights and impossibly-rich chairmen. The wealth (or not) of clubs has been a major factor for success on the field in recent years, and this season is no exception, Manchester United and Chelsea sprinting away from the pack with more than half the season over.

Manchester United, with an average gate of over 75,000 and millions from sponsorship contracts and kit sales, have established over time an all-round quality squad, from the safety of Dutch goalkeeper Edwin Van de Saar, through the undoubtedly talented (if irregular) central defender Rio Ferdinand, to the re-born Paul Scholes in midfield and the brilliant match-winners Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo up front, not to mention the now veteran but always dangerous Ryan Giggs. It’s not just any club that could afford to attract such players, and it’s not just any that could afford to keep them.

While the northerners have built up their base over a number of years, Chelsea have been transformed almost overnight into a powerhouse in the English game; ever since, in fact, the arrival at Stamford Bridge in June 2003 of Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich (considered the richest Russian in the world in 2006) and super-coach José Mourinho, along with a bag-full of top-class, highly expensive players. There are those in England who are unhappy with clubs producing ‘instant’ teams in this way. They argue that it’s unfair competition for the lesser clubs in the league, and that flashing cheque-books does not allow young English players to come through the ranks. But there is no law against it (yet!), and at least Chelsea (and especially the influential Portuguese Mourinho) have been able to mould these players (the disappointing Shevchenko is the exception that proves the rule) into exceptional teams, unlike, for example, Spanish giants Real Madrid, whose pricey Galácticos have been able to produce anything but stellar football this season. Which just goes to show that money alone is not everything … although it can certainly help.

There is a side-bet rivalry between Manchester United and Chelsea, too: Which team is going to have the Player of the Year? There are two stand-out candidates so far: Chelsea's Ivory Coast international striker Didier Drogba, the scorer of some absolutely sensational goals, and Manchester United’s incredibly versatile Portuguese winger/striker Cristiano Ronaldo. When the latter was involved in the sending-off of English international Wayne Rooney in the 2006 World Cup, the British tabloid press was out for his blood and warned that the player would be booed off the pitch in every game this season, and Cristiano Ronaldo himself seemed worried about the reception he would get, to the point of saying he wanted to leave Old Trafford. But he has silenced his critics with his stunning dribbling, shooting, heading and all-round form. He’s proved a constant headache for opponents … and he’s still only 21.

If the Premiership looks like being a two-horse race, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) has long since had just one pedigree pony trotting comfortably out in front: Gordon Strachan’s Celtic, who have built up a massive 17-point lead over ‘Old Firm’ rivals Rangers with just over half the season gone. In fact the most interesting contest north of the border will surely be for the runners-up place: Rangers, the resurgent Aberdeen and Hearts are on 39, 38 and 37 points respectively.

by Phil Town