Football Orphan: The pressure is building in the Premier League…
This weekends Premier League fixtures throw up a few intriguing match up’s. The centre piece of the action will be served up at Anfield, where Manchester City take on Liverpool. City will be fresh from their midweek disappointment in Naples, and will be either a “wounded animal” or wallowing in self-pity come Sunday afternoon. Dalglish’s men on the other hand will be buzzing after a fine performance at Stamford Bridge to send Roman Abramovich scampering for the location of AVB’s P45, just in case. The league leaders have only dropped 2 points so far this season and the law of averages will favour City dropping more points in the coming games. I don’t see City taking all the shares from Merseyside in the circumstances, I’ll stick my neck out and say that Liverpool will enjoy upsetting another one of the big boys and end Mancini’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season.
Fresh from losing their own unbeaten record, Newcastle face a daunting trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United. If United fail to overcome the Geordies, serious questions will be asked of Fergie’s men having leaked so many goals this season, whilst stuttering their way through their Champions League campaign. Alan Pardew has been a revelation in the North East this season so much so that, in sections of the english media he has been touted as a possible successor to Fabio Cappello. For me, this smacks of flavour of the month in a similar vein to when Steve Mcclaren was appointed. It would be impossible to see a defeat for United at home, in fact Ferguson’s team are at their most dangerous when they’ve had a shaky result such as the calamity of the 2-2 against Benfica on Wednesday. I’ll plump for a comfortable home win on this one.
At the other end of the table I fear for certain clubs this weekend as we might see one or two being cut adrift so early in the season. In previous years we’ve witnessed the likes of Sunderland, Derby County stare relegation in the face from the starters’ pistol. This time around I believe it’s Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers who will entertain this notion untill the last whistle of the season. Both will in my opinion be on the other end of an away day hiding as both Stoke and Sunderland are certain to steady the ship after a little early season turbulence.
Other games don’t look so clear-cut, so gamblers beware of the likes of Swansea entertaining Villa, Everton at the Reebok to face Bolton, Norwich at home to QPR and Champions League chasing Tottenham away to West Brom. If the majority of these games don’t end in stalemate, they’ll only be won by the odd goal. Last but not least, the late kick off on Saturday see’s a Fulham team lacking any sort of continuity, travel to the Emirates to attempt to upset Arsenal. This is potentially the trickiest fixture of the weekend to call. While Wenger’s men have qualified for the knock out stages of the Champions League with a game to spare, Fulham tend to blow a little hot and cold against The Gunners. Arsenal supporters will be hoping that this the former of the two come Saturday evening.
Football Orphan: Newcastle cut down Forest with last gasp winner.
Photo courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
Newcastle United have never been a club to allow their supporters to sit comfortably for long. This was again the case last night at the City Ground as The Magpies eliminated Nottingham Forest from the Carling Cup, and heaped even more misery on to former England boss Steve McClaren. In a game that absolutely rained goals it was Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini who dramatically snatched a 4-3 victory for the Geordies in the 12oth minute of the game. Forest had equalised three times before the killer blow came, with virtually the last kick of the game. The result leaves McClaren’s team flailing in the bottom three of the Championship, after a disastrous loss to bitter rivals Derby County at the weekend. They have now been painfully dumped out of the League Cup in a season that had been originally filled with so much hope and expectation. The former England head coach will surely be his usual bullet proof self, and claim his team showed character, giving everything for the cause. There is little doubt in my mind that this is a sinking ship, with time fast approaching for McClaren to protect in his mind Nottingham Forest’s most “important” asset, himself.
Having been ordained “The Wally with the Brolly” while on England duty, McClaren went on to huge success in the Netherlands with Fc Twente before another low in his career with an ill-fated spell at Wolfsburg. It’s at Forest where he seems to have fit back into his calamitous ways again. It was reported that the Forest boss had walked out of the job he has only occupied for a few months just two weeks ago, due to a petty power struggle, which he feels his hands are tied when trying to run the club. One can only have guessed that these terms had been agreed upon when all of the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed as “The king of smug” swept through the City Ground for the obligatory press call, while unveiling of “The man who would lead Nottingham Forrest back to the promised land”.
It will be an interesting time ahead for the former Manchester United assistant. As is usually the case for McClaren, he allows no criticism to stick to him. He avoids tricky confrontation with well punctuated responses, as he deflects blame with the old “Group failure” mantra. With news filtering through that his old side Fc Twente are showing increasing interest is his services once again, it can only be a matter of time before he washes his hands of the great club that Brian Clough once lead to back to back European Cups. There is no doubt that ultimately McClaren will lay accountability at someone elses door, the single quality that prevails at every club the hapless coach has turned up is his ability to spin a situation so he surfaces without blame.
Football Orphan 