Every fan thinks that their club is special, that it is only they who go the range of emotions that we all experience every Saturday afternoon, slightly later on a Sunday afternoon, Monday evening or whenever is convenient for the television companies. The truth is, of course, that we all get out of football what […]
Category Archives: Off the Mark
Off the Mark: REVEALED: The two men who could define Manchester United’s next five years, and David Moyes isn’t one of them
Feb 5
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat at Stoke last Saturday was that it wasn’t that surprising. The Potters had already beaten Chelsea at home this season, as well as drawing with Manchester City and only losing out to Liverpool in a mad eight-goal shootout from which they were unfortunate not to […]
Off the Mark: Arsene Wenger’s new Arsenal contract should include a statue clause
Jan 29
If you’ve been to the Emirates Stadium recently you’ll have noticed something fairly new about the place, and it’s not that the Arsenal fans are smiling. In late 2011, Arsenal unveiled statues of three club legends around the ground; managerial icon Herbert Chapman, defensive hero Tony Adams and goalscoring God Thierry Henry. The trio so […]
Off the Mark: Samuel Eto’o is at Chelsea for a good time, not a long time
Jan 22
Perhaps it’s a Manchester United thing. Those of us who were at Anfield in early March 2011 will have noticed a stark resemblance between what happened to the Red Devils there and what occurred to them on Sunday at Stamford Bridge. The man in the dugout may have changed, but the damage inflicted to his […]
Off the Mark: Why I’m backing Andy Carroll to lead West Ham to Premier League safety
Jan 15
When the bat signal was finally visible, it was shining over the gloomy skies of the Welsh capital. The silhouette of the hulking, ponytailed figure looked a little different to how we’d remembered it in the past. There was a bushy beard and, dare we admit it, even a few extra pounds, but there was […]
Off the Mark: Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho isn’t special enough to fool us this time
Jan 8
They say that getting older and getting wiser go hand in hand, but not a lot is made of the stubborn streak which also appears to grow as the years advance. This streak is particularly prevalent in football managers, men who spend their lives living on the edge and, in a work sense, living and […]
Off the Mark: Tottenham trouncing shows it’s time to talk about Liverpool
Dec 18
After Liverpool’s recent 4-1 win over West Ham at Anfield, manager Brendan Rodgers expressed his satisfaction at being “in the title conversation.” Following Sunday’s stunning win at Tottenham that killed off Andre Villas-Boas, they are now the team that everyone is talking about. The Reds delivered a complete performance at White Hart Lane, and whilst […]
Off the Mark: Manchester United fear factor proving too much for David Moyes
Dec 11
The sight of a forlorn, almost apologetic David Moyes taking part in a post-match interview has been seen far too often for Manchester United fans’ liking already this season. There was, however, something which stood out about the Scot’s thoughts following the 1-0 defeat at home to Newcastle last weekend, something which made this particular […]
Off the Mark: Why Manchester City could be four days away from becoming champions
Even the most one-sided Premier League title races were never won in December, but each and every winning team will always be able to point to the month as a key one.
Fixtures come thick and fast and there is no international break or FA Cup weekend to get in the way, and as such the momentum that you pick up now can prove to be crucial later on in the season.
But for Manchester City – who are 13/8 to win the title with Coral – it isn’t so much the next month that will be important, but more the next four days.
A real Jekyll and Hyde team, City’s home league record of played seven, won seven, scored 29 is in stark contrast to form on the road which features four defeats and just four points.
Losses at Cardiff, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland are what leaves Manuel Pellegrini’s side six points off the top of the table going into these midweek round of fixtures, but the next four days would appear to offer City the perfect chance to get their away hoodoo over with.
The 3-0 weekend win over Swansea was a fifth success in the last six games in all competitions for Pellegrini’s side, with all of those wins coming at home and featuring a grand total of 25 City goals. Now though, they head for the relative discomfort of The Hawthorns and St Mary’s.
Tonight’s fixture at West Bromwich Albion would appear to be the perfect test of City’s resolve, so much so that it might not be too over the top to bill it as one of the most important matches of the season so far.
Win it, and the Blues will have a spring in their step heading into Saturday’s meeting with Southampton, another huge test and one that passing will create elevated levels of confidence that Pellegrini’s men might not ever come down from.
If they can pick up six points out of six over these next four days then it is not difficult to imagine City never looking back, and springing into their next fixtures with the swagger of potential champions. And following hot on the heels of those West Brom and Southampton games is the small matter of the visit of table-topping Arsenal to the Etihad Stadium.
The prospect of shooting down the Gunners will already have excited Pellegrini’s players, but if those players can come through this week with a couple of wins then they’ll enter that game in even higher spirits.
For Arsenal – who face home matches with Hull and Everton over this period that City will be on the road – the sight of a revved up and fully-charged Manchester City in their rear view mirror is sure to see the nerves kick in, and they more than anybody will have one eye on events at The Hawthorns and St Mary’s over the next few days.
Neither are easy fixtures of course – West Brom drew at home to Arsenal and won at Old Trafford this season, whilst Southampton’s quality has been there for all to see throughout the campaign, and they stuck a knife into City’s title ambitions with a 3-1 home win over them last February – but there is little doubt that a team with the quality Pellegrini has at his disposal can collect maximum points.
With Sergio Aguero as dangerous as ever, Alvaro Negredo looking as though he was born to score goals in England, Jesus Navas having got over a difficult opening few months, Samir Nasri repeating the form that made him such a hit at Arsenal and Yaya Toure still a dominant force, City have plenty to be proud of this season.
But the fact remains that all of their best moments have come in Manchester.
If that can change over the next four days, then we could be looking at the 2013/14 Premier League champions.
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City 1 Tigers 0
A month isn’t allowed to pass by without someone in a position of power at a football club doing something which makes the rest of us wonder if they actually understand the game at all.
Assem Allam, the Hull CITY owner, is the latest to take the prize after he slammed the club’s fans for their protest over Hull CITY’s potential rebranding.
Those Hull CITY fans were as terrific as their team Hull CITY were in their deserved 3-1 victory over Liverpool, and seeing as those Hull CITY supporters will still be there whatever happens to the club in the future – whether they are beating Liverpool or Lincoln – then they should be the ones consulted on any potential name change, not that there’s anything wrong with Hull CITY in the first place.
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Backing the Mackems
Sunderland have only picked up one point and haven’t even scored a goal on the road under Gus Poyet, but at home it’s been a different matter.
A win in the derby against Newcastle and against Manchester City set them up nicely for a tough home double header against Chelsea and then Tottenham, and although the Blues might prove to be too strong they could heap the pressure on Andre Villas-Boas with a win on Saturday.
Off the Mark: Gareth Bale’s brilliance used to save Tottenham, now it’s the team’s turn
Spot the odd one out in this sequence.
Sergio Aguero: 11 games, 10 goals. Luis Suarez: Seven games, nine goals. Daniel Sturridge: 12 games, nine goals. Tottenham Hotspur: 12 games, nine goals.
That’s right. Three are individuals, one is an entire football club, a world-renowned football club who are expecting to challenge the elite teams at the top of the Premier League table and not have goalscoring records that would only stack up to the individuals who play for them.
The goalscoring problem at Spurs has been highlighted throughout their decidedly mixed start to the season, but at the weekend we saw a far more alarming concern come to light.
Granted, they were facing a trip to Manchester City – probably the toughest assignment in the Premier League just now – but their meek surrender and almost acceptance of a 6-0 hammering must be tough to take for Spurs fans, whose team are now priced at 4.60 to make next season’s Champions League with Bwin.
Those same supporters spent the summer putting on a brave face over the departure of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, and perhaps understandably looked towards the huge influx of players brought in with the money from his sale with expectation more than hope.
These players seemingly have it all.
There is Roberto Soldado’s excellent La Liga goalscoring record, Erik Lamela’s series of eye-catching displays in an entertaining Roma side, Christian Eriksen’s performances for Ajax which had scouts heading over to Amsterdam in their droves, Paulinho’s increasing importance for Brazil.
It is all there, and all of them are clearly fine players, but none of them is Bale.
Time and time again last season, the Welshman would ride to the rescue for Tottenham and Andre Villas-Boas with a timely intervention usually taking the form of a spectacular goal. “Where would they be without him?” we often wondered, and the answer was here.
But “here” isn’t actually that bad.
Spurs are ninth going into the weekend, but that is only four points off second placed Liverpool in this increasingly condensed Premier League table.
Following on from Thursday night’s Europa League distraction against Tromso in Norway, they welcome Manchester United to White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon in what could just be the perfect game for them.
David Moyes and his men have hardly been impressive on the road this season, with their latest slip-up coming in the dying moments at Cardiff, and this could just represent the perfect chance for Spurs to inject some life into their season.
As well as the City drubbing, the recent home reverses against West Ham and Newcastle are likely to be on the minds of plenty of home fans who attend the game early on Sunday, but the players must sense that this is an opportunity for them to get back on track.
Win, and it will have been the perfect start to a week which also includes trips to struggling Fulham and Sunderland, matches in which it will be the team ethic that gets them over the line as opposed to any form of individual brilliance from one of their stars.
It was always going to be difficult for Tottenham at the beginning of this season due to the sheer number of new faces who had entered the building and were playing on the same pitch as each other before really introducing themselves, but a little more trust in one another could go a long way.
Soldado isn’t going to score the same amount of goals as Bale.
Lamela isn’t going to sprint at defences in the same manner that Bale did.
Eriksen isn’t going to score free-kicks like Bale.
And Paulinho isn’t going to dominate games like Bale.
Bale is gone, but Tottenham live on, and it’s about time that the team acted like it.
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We need to talk about Kevin(s)
It is all well and good claiming that referees need more help and would benefit from a greater use of technology, but when they make errors as glaring as the ones that Phil Dowd and Kevin Friend made on Saturday it is hard to have any sympathy for them.
Kevin Mirallas’ lunge on Luis Suarez in the Merseyside derby wasn’t just a red card it was about three of them, whilst what an earth possessed Friend to dismiss Wes Brown in Sunderland’s clash at Stoke is beyond all rational observers.
So give referees help if they need it, sure, but make sure they get the basics right first, and if they don’t then ban them until they do.
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Bluebirds can silence Gunners
Manchester City obliged last week, and this weekend’s best bet would be one that they’d welcome as well.
Title rivals Arsenal go to a Cardiff side who’ve already beaten City and drawn with Manchester United on their own patch this season, with another draw here looking like the way to go.
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