Football: Prem 2011 Week 2


When Will The Quality Start Flowing?

Unlike last season, where it seemed that despite its obvious affluence the Prem had actually shed players of genuine quality and was a worse offering than in the 2009-10 season, this season looks as if the Prem has actually brought in some class. And while the loss of Fabregas to La Liga is obviously a bad thing (for the Prem, if not for Fab himself), the arrival of Sergio Aguero and Juan Mata should more than make up for it.

However, despite the apparent influx of quality, the season has started in slothful form. After two weeks-worth of fixtures, there’s been precious little quality or even enjoyable football on offer. Sure there’s been laughs a-plenty as the Arsenal comedy defence managed to bookend a truly terrible six months for the Gunners, but there’s only been one genuinely watchable match as Man City ploughed their way through Swansea.

This week’s round of matches failed to live up to that promise, with few moments of genuine class and nothing to suggest that this year’s Prem is anything other than Man U’s to lose (and they’ll have to implode pretty spectacularly to do that).

Plus Ça Change Corner

Some things just don’t change. And Week 2 of the Prem just showed them off.

  • Lee Cattermole – Booked (still hasn’t learned how and when to attempt a tackle)
  • Ryan Shawcross – Booked (still thinks that holding and obstruction are a normal part of football)
  • Arsenal v Liverpool – Arsenal have man sent off after Frimpong gets physical. Yet again the best footballing side in the division has the worst disciplinary record.
  • Amazingly Robert Huth has still not been booked. He is now an impressive 7 yellows and 3 red cards (we’re counting that Song stamp as a straight red) behind Arsenal after only two games.

Games

The supposed ‘Big’ match of the weekend, Arsenal at home to Liverpool Red Sox, failed to provide any of the anticipated fireworks. Arsenal, shorn of some dozen players through suspensions, injury, uselessness and transfers to Barcelona, were unusually tentative, not unsurprising for a team that looked very much like their typical Carling Cup side. Still, Liverpool were more than a match for them in terms of low quality, having started without Champion Cheat Dirty Suarez, and look a very average side without their star player. The match finally came to life when Arsenal’s midfield handgrenade, Frimpong, finally exploded into a studs-up challenge that simply demanded a red card, and the team then conspired to head in an own goal when third/fourth/final choice fullback Miguel’s clearance looped off Ramsey’s back over Szczesny into the net. It was every bit as comedy a moment as the Szczesny/Koscielney snafu in the Carling Cup final and hopefully bookends a truly useless six months for Arsenal. Still, with their Big Cup qualifier to play on Wednesday, Arsenal have bigger fish to fry in a season that is, once again, all about rebuilding. Liverpool, by contrast, still look a few players away from genuine competitors.

Possibly the best match of the weekend, if you can call it best (or indeed if you can call it a weekend when it was played on Monday evening), was Man U‘s victory over Spurs. While Man U started with the same side that had rescued the Charity Shield, they displayed little of the midfield flair that characterised the final. True Spurs were far worse than Man City, but United seemed relatively ponderous in their gameplay. That said, their second goal, a great flowing move upfield followed by a cheeky backheel in the box from Welbeck to set up Anderson was the best move of the weekend. Spurs look a striker (or two) and a midfield away from seriously challenging for fourth.

Man City were vaguely entertaining, in a way that only those who are both sure of winning and capable of shipping goals at any point in a match can be. They took on surprise Prem leaders Bolton, who only led because they were the first team to play QPR, and were given more of a game than most suspected. City’s defence, their undoubted strength, was done over twice with surprising ease, while their attack looked a little jaded, if you can be jaded only two weeks into the season. Still, nothing that a quick purchase or ten can’t solve. Silva was, once again, by far the most influential player on the pitch, ruling the midfield and scoring again.

Chelsea struggled to make sense of themselves against West Brom, who went hurridly off-script by scoring in the fourth minute. Villas-Boas doesn’t seem to have figured out his best team yet, while Torres, The Drog and Anelka (along with pretty much the rest of the squad) are still trying to find their form. Still they had enough nous to defeat West Brom.

Wolves are craftily sneaking up on the inside. They’ve played two and won two and must wish they could stop the season now and get off. It simply can’t get any better than this. Unless, of course, they win against Villa on Saturday, which would make it three out of three and a beating on their closest rivals. They did over a poor Fulham side, who one again are proving that without Zamora they are pitifully toothless.

Villa, meanwhile, displayed uncharacteristic attacking flair against Blackburn, who look ready for the end of the season and relegation already. If this carries on McLeish may actually have a future in Prem management after all.

The biggest let down was Man U Old Boys‘ loss at home to Newcastle. Not least because this was a great match last season. MUOB as we must now call Sunderland, haven’t quite managed to bottle that Man U never say die spirit despite purchasing all their surplus players over the summer. Newcastle still haven’t really got a coherent side together and seem to be essentially Joey Barton plus ten. Still they had the luck and they rode it.

Contrary to expectations all three promoted teams did well this week. The defensively inept QPR proved too strong for the attackingly incapable Everton, Swansea had a muted first home game against Wigan, which did them slightly more credit than it did the visitors, while Narrich held out against a Stoke side who aren’t nearly as effective on the road as they are at home.

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