Unpredictable Summer Of English Football - Part I

It’s been an unpredictable summer so far.

One usually finds it easier to write an article at the emergence of a pattern. The pattern gets researched, then written in words. The only pattern to emerge out of this summer is unfortunately, one of unpredictability.

The Premier League that gets most of my attention in terms of eyeball minutes of live action, has reached it’s more than one shilling completion.

Five games have passed, usually for some pattern to emerge, for self-certified analysts like me to make some sort of prediction. Most of them fall in quicksand as time goes on. But this season has been different.

Chelsea tops the table. Seeing the transfer activity pre-season, one would have hardly been surprised. They sit at the top unbeaten, but yet there seems to be a lack of rhythm. But the season has just started, with new imports trying to gel together with the old guard, as is the case with every team. They are yet to play a big team though.

Manchester United. The start was pretty ominous. But the worse the start, the more quicker SAF gets to lash out and fix any offenders and ship them out before bad performances becomes a bubonic plague. With three comeback wins, a thrashing of Wigan whose victory last season turned the tide, and a win not deserved against arch-rivals Liverpool but a win nevertheless, has them where they will be through the whole season. At the top or thereabouts.

I really feel for Moyes. I can only imagine what he can do with a little bit more money. If anybody has a few million quid to spare, then Everton F.C. with David Moyes seems as the best return of investment to me. It’s been different this season with a very good start, so if they can finish strong like they usually do, who knows where they will sit at the end.

Arsenal, to me holds immense promise. Arsenal have gotten to a lot of fliers in the few seasons prior to last only to hit a reinforced wall. But this time it seems different. Still unbeaten, there is a fluidity in the formation. If Bould has brought about that change, then keep him at whatever price. This looks like an Arsenal team that will build and gather steam and be potent. There is also a depth in the squad out of some brilliant acquisitions. But despite their hammering of the Saints, and a balance overall, the sharpening of defensive teeth, that guile in the front seems to have ducked, but that could be simple bias, not seeing RVP up there. As much as Giroud looks like a cheap inferior replacement, the trio combined, Podolski, Cazorla and Giroud look like they could do more damage than a single-handed RVP.

Steve Clark with West Brom, might come back to haunt a few past employers. Liverpool has learnt that. I have a feeling more teams will. They look like a top half finish. A decently drilled side. Questions will be asked of the big teams, and if they are lacking in answers, it might as well be the case of, only if we converted at the Hawthorne, we might have lingering thoughts over the dinner table for years to come.