The Merry-go-round of the Transfer Market

In a week where Nakhi Wells added another million to his price-tag, I'll be taking a look at how some of the new signings are getting on with their respective clubs and how some teams will fare if they lose players in the coming week...

Fulham 1-3 Arsenal

Fulham have made a lot of nice signings; Scott Parker, Adel Taarabt and Darren Bent among the best of them, with the latter scoring a tap-in on debut after a wonderful bit of Dimitar Berbatov skill (nice to see that again!).  All three have proven Premier League pedigree (with the potential exception of Adel Taarabt, whose raw talent can certainly not be debated but is sometimes let down by his lack of discipline) and that will hopefully add to Martin Jol's squad. It has been well documented that Arsenal are yet to spend any cash this summer but the tabloids would have us believe that there is a busy week ahead for them. Watch this space...

Arsenal will be encouraged by this away performance (and both legs of the Champions League qualifiers albeit against a weak Fenerbahce side) where they were clinical if not dazzling, but their squad is thin and they surely won't be able to keep up the same level of performance without the ability to rotate.
Fulham did well and will come up against weaker teams. They've made good signings and could be pushing for a top half finish with their new chairman, Shahid Khan, likely to supply more investment should the need arise in the January transfer window.

Stat Attack: Despite having one of the most threatening scoring centre-back's in the league (Brede Hangelaand) Fulham only averaged 4.6 corners in the league last season and have only won 1 in their first two games this season, joint worst in the league with Hull. 

Stoke 2-1 C.Palace

Chamakh has started well at Palace, scoring with a very composed finish against Stoke, and he seems to fit in better at the lower end of the league table than he did with Arsenal a couple of years ago. Kevin Phillips is another of Palace's signings and although he has now turned 40, his experience is bound to earn them some points at some stage this season.
Stoke have actually been very quiet in the transfer market with the main story this summer being the appointment of Mark Hughes, much to the dismay of the Stoke fans. They have signed Dutch left back Erik Pieters (£3million) who did add some pace to the Stoke attack and could be a nice signing for the Potters.

I feel sorry for Palace - well, as much as a former Brighton employee can - they played some nice football and really deserved to come away from the Brittania with more than they got. But that is always the threat Stoke possess, they are just one hoof away from scoring and that is what undid Palace on this occasion. Palace played some nice football but will have to learn to be more street smart in future.

Stat Attack: Stoke had the least amount of Shots and the lowest Shots on Target ratio in the Premier League last season. 

Cardiff 3-2 Manchester City
I watched the first half of this live and if you had told me the final score I would have laughed you out of the pub. However, after dominating possession and then Dzeko finding that piece of magic required to penetrate the Cardiff defence things went a bit pear-shaped for the blue side of Manchester. They conceded after a wonderful jinking run from Kim who crossed for Frazier Campbell; Joe Hart saved well but could do nothing about the follow up which fell kindly for Aron Gunnarson to sweep home.
It then got worse for Man City as they failed to deal with two consecutive corners as Frazier Campbell headed home twice to give Cardiff City an unassailable advantage. So for all Man City's dominance they conceded weak goals from two set pieces to a striker no taller than myself. For a title-chasing side that is simply not good enough. For the final goal Campbell was being marked by Zabaleta as well, supposedly City's 'best' defender. But this is sometimes the price you pay when you fill your team with attacking defenders, a lack of defensive ability.
New signing Negredo headed in a consolation for the away side but they weren't able to complete a comeback meaning they lose their first league game before December in the league for the first time since 2010.
The magic of the Premier League, teams who try to play like Barcelona end up getting undone from corners. Awesome...

Stat Attack: Cardiff won the game despite having only 30% of possession. 

Lightning Strikes Twice:

Another brilliant goal from Daniel Sturridge and another penalty conversion from Roberto Soldado saw Liverpool and Tottenham respectively secure the same scoreline (1-0) with the same scorers in consecutive weeks. Both games were very similar to last week as well, with neither team able to kill off their opposition. Spooky...

Aston Villa 0-1 Liverpool

Liverpool have now kept two clean sheets in their first two Premier League games for the first time since 2002. This is in no small part down to the signing of Simon Mignolet (£9million) and Kolo Toure on a free as a replacement for the now retired Jamie Carragher. Both have been very solid in the first two games and the latter seems like a very shrewd signing for Brendan Rogers. 

Tottenham 1-0 Swansea

Will Spurs be able to cope without Bale? Well they're certainly signing plenty of replacements; Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Lamela (according to Roma) and plenty more to come. The question is will 5 (or more) quality players be enough to replace a world class one; probably long term but Bale scored a lot of winners last year that turned one point into three and that's something they will miss out on but Tottenham's spending certainly shows ambition and if their signings start to gel then they could well be favourites for a top four finish. 

For Swansea I'm not sure about the signing of Jonjo Shelvey, he's a good player but I'm not sure he should be playing such a key role for them. He's just a bit clumsy and this game proved that, he conceded one penalty and should have conceded a second but for some poor refereeing/linesmanning...

Best of the Rest:

Hull 1-0 Norwich

The signings of Jake Livermore and Tom Huddlestone may suggest the look of a Spurs reserve team, but make no mistake, both have had plenty of exposure to the Premier League and also European competitions whilst at Tottenham and that is sure to anchor that midfield nicely for Hull. They made a nice start together securing the win against Norwich who haven't started as well as their transfer activity might have suggested. 

Stat Attack: Hull managed to win despite playing for over an hour with 10 men. 

Southampton 1-1 Sunderland

Southampton found things frustrating against Sunderland after falling behind to an early Giaccherini header. They were chasing for the rest of the game and, after a couple of rejected penalty appeals and a debatable offside decision ruling out a Jay Rodriguez effort, they finally equalised when Jose Fonte headed in James Ward-Prowse's cross to secure a deserved point. 

Everton 0-0 West Brom

A game Everton dominated but just couldn't find a way through. Martinez will hope he can hang on to Baines and Fellaini or they may struggle to fill the void left although they do have some good youth players in Barkley and Coleman making their impressions this year. 

A good point for West Brom whose bad luck continues, after losing Nicholas Anelka on compassionate grounds, Ben Foster broke his foot in this game. 

Manchester United 0-0 Chelsea

Well, the less said about the game the better really. It was a bit of a let down after all the hype about goals galore. The main media attention surrounded Moyes and Mourinho, and of course Wayne Rooney, who performed well on the night. Mourinho came defensive and got the point he desired. The game was too early in the season and both sides were too worried about the consequences of losing this match. 

The main point I'd like to make though is about Danny Welbeck and one of my biggest gripes about some Premier League footballers. 

Why are some players so one-footed?

They are professionals, surely they can practice and get better. Not to blow my own trumpet but I was a very one-footed player as a child, as many left footers tend to be, but I worked hard on my right foot and now many people don't believe me when I say I'm left-footed. So why can't professionals do it?

My point with Welbeck is that he has been given a lot of plaudits recently and yet he relies entirely on his right foot. He could have scored at least two goals in this game easily if he had had the confidence to use his left, but instead he opted to pass or cut in on his right foot to shoot, which were not the right options. Sometimes the goals you don't score should be recognised as much as the ones you do. Alas, this is not the case and my Welbeck bashing will inevitably fall on deaf ears...

Newcastle 0-0 West Ham

Stewart Downing should be a good signing for West Ham, he really impressed me last year at Liverpool after many years of me telling everyone he was useless. Newcastle look a bit light and seem likely to lose players rather than gain any in the coming week.

West Ham played well and perhaps deserved more than a point. Newcastle look poor at the moment but should have taken all three points had Gouffran not executed the miss of the season so far in the dying seconds. 

Down the Leagues:

I'm going to start with the joke of a game at the Valley. A game abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch in August. That's almost as bad as West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison wearing gloves when he came on at the weekend. Charlton were 3-0 down after half an hour before the game was suspended due to the pitch. The Doncaster players tried to clear the pitch and eventually the game resumed, Charlton scored and Doncaster had Keegan (the first goal-scorer) sent off before the game was abandoned at half time. The biggest loser from all of this, Paul Keegan, who has his goal chalked off the records but who still has to serve the ban for his red card; harsh!

In other Championship news, Huddersfield and Blackburn thrashed Bournemouth and Barnsley respectively and Millwall finally secured a point with a hard-fought 2-2 draw away at Sheffield Wednesday.

In League One, Nakhi Wells scored in his 8th competitive match for Bradford City - a new record for the club - as they won 2-0 over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United. There were good wins for Peterborough and Leyton Orient who continue their 100% records and Coventry played out another entertaining 'home' game, drawing 4-4 with Preston at the Sixfields Stadium.

In League Two, Wimbledon produced a stunning comeback from two goals down against Scunthorpe to win 3-2 at home. Accrington and Hartlepool lost again to leave both teams firmly in the relegation zone.


That's it for this week, here's hoping that Alan Shearer learns how to use the technology slightly better for next week's Match of the Day 2; he's no Gary Neville bless him. Join me next weekend for the next installment where I'll be discussing the big fixtures of the weekend; West Ham versus Stoke, Palace versus Sunderland and I might just give a line or two to Liverpool versus United. 

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think. 

New Season - What Can We Take From Opening Weekend?

Welcome to what will hopefully be a weekly summary of the weekend's football, mostly focused on the Premier League but I'll also take a glance on the lower leagues as well. I'll try not to focus on the top teams so much but this week is a bit of an exception as this weekend saw the start of the Premier League Season.

Chelsea 2-0 Hull
Chelsea have been widely tipped as favourites for the title under new (or should that be old) manager Jose Mourinho. The Special One has returned declaring himself the 'Happy One' at the helm of Chelsea Football Club. After this display they may well be rightfully favourites to win the league.
Frank Lampard missed an early penalty before Oscar tucked away from a de Bruyne through ball.
Frank Lampard atoned for his earlier penalty miss with an aplomb of a strike from a free kick midway through the first half. Take nothing away from the free kick, but Hull's wall was attroicous. Branislav Ivanovic simply leaned into it and it took three Hull players completely out of it, a case that happened again towards the end of the game. For their sake it's a good job the free kicks were brilliant, otherwise they may have got an earful from Steve Bruce and Alan McGregor!
Chelsea absolutely dominated the first half but seemed to take their foot off the gas in the second half and Hull should be thankful as it could have been a rugby score if this game had been a few weeks into the season. Hull may struggle this season against the big boys; I worry about the strike power they possess when facing the 'smaller' sides.
Ultimately great start for Chelsea and I'm so glad to see Mourinho back at the Bridge!

Manchester City 4-0 Newcastle
Manchester City are second favourites for the title although I feel they have the most to do. A relatively unknown manager and yet again a barrage of new signings to be gelled together. Having said that they seem to have made a bright enough start, thrashing Newcastle 4-0, but there will be bigger tests ahead, likewise for Newcastle, these games will not decide their season. Unfortunately I've not seen this game so I can't comment much further than that.

Swansea City 1-4 Manchester United
That makes Manchester United, the defending champions, unbelievably, only third favourites for the title! With the Sir Alex Ferguson factor gone forever from the champions, bookies and the media alike are apparently expecting a slump in fortunes for David Moyes' men. Well based on the first weekend's display, it seems they have made a terrible error in judgement. United were as ruthless as ever, scoring some fantastic goals and gaining a convincing scoreline against Swansea (a team that will probably finish in the top half and one that will not lose many games at home) after a relatively even contest. What people seem to forget is that United still have some fantastic players that are full of confidence from last seasons title victory and if anything more galvanised under Moyes' tenureship!
As for Swansea they played some nice football and have made some good signings during the summer. They should be fine and end up in the top 10 but the test for them this season will be dealing with those long hard trips on a Thursday night to the other side of Europe. We saw how difficult Newcastle found it a couple of seasons ago, but I feel Swansea are better set up for the task. Anyway, no sympathy from me I'm afraid, that's what you get for beating Bradford in the Capital One Cup final!

Arsenal 1-3 Aston Villa
Arsenal fans are yet again disgruntled with their sides lack of transfer activity during the summer. Although they were certainly not at their best this weekend, they were very unlucky with decisions and injuries. I thought Anthony Taylor's refereeing was fairly poor; first penalty I agree with, second I certainly do not and the red card in the end was harsh as I believe both yellows were debatable.
In regards to the transfer market Arsenal have actually done some good business, selling both Chamakh to West Ham and Gervinho to Roma in a staggering deal apparently worth £8million. Shame they weren't able to get rid of Bacary Sagna (for me one of the worst players in the Premier League - watch the last Villa goal, he's jogging back when his counter-part is tearing through the centre of the park to score!). Players going out is not what Gunners fans are interested in hearing about however, and it is clear they need a few more players if they want to be anywhere near that top 4 at the end of the season. At the end of the day, thin squads tend to get all the bad luck with decisions and injuries so that is something Mr. Wenger and his backroom staff will have to amend sooner rather than later, to apease the fans if anything else.
As for Aston Villa, it looks like the year of risk playing with youngsters has payed off. There were some fantastic performances all over the pitch, with the team looking lethal on the counter-attack and I'll give a special mention to Brad Guzan, whose reflex save from Santi Cazorla onto the crossbar was outstanding. They could well be the surprise team of the year if they carry on this early momentum.

Best of the Rest
Norwich saved a good point at home thanks to record signing van Wolfswinkel against Everton, who already look like they have made a nice transition under the wing of Roberto Martinez, a fantastic appointment to succeed David Moyes. If it weren't for a couple of fortuitous moments from Steven Whittaker, Everton would have taken 3 points comfortably.
Liverpool were solid and convincing if not particularly sparkling in their 1-0 victory over Stoke, but that's always a nice 3 points to have, especially on the first day of the season. The Sturridge, Aspas, Coutinho combination looks like it could have serious prospects this season. Having said that Liverpool must kill off games they dominate, if it were not for a penalty save on debut from Mignolet against a predictable Jonathon Walters, Stoke would have taken an undeserved point.
Tottenham played nicely for their away win against Crystal Palace but, like Liverpool, must learn to kill off games if they are to challenge for the top four, with or without Gareth Bale. They have been active in the transfer market and that could really help that challenge. I don't agree with Ian Holloway's rant about the lack of a free-kick being awarded in the build-up to the Tottenham penalty. I think it may have been a foul, the kind you get 50% of the time but to say it was in the build-up was a little inaccurate. Palace won the ball back at least three times after that and there was at least a minute between the non-foul and the penalty being awarded. I'm disappointed with Holloway who said prior to the game he needed to be calmer and think before he speaks. Clearly that was just hot air, but at least he'll still be entertaining.
A bad start for the promoted clubs was rounded off by Cardiff who lost to West Ham. Ricky Lambert rounded off a dream week for him (scoring the winner with his first touch on debut for England in midweek) by scoring the winner for Southampton away at West Brom and Fulham made a solid start away at Sunderland, who could struggle this season.

Down the Leagues

Forest kept up their 100% start in the league with a dominant win over Bolton, another team that are expected to be up their at the end of the season. There were good wins for Leicester away at Derby, for Bournemouth at home to much fancied Wigan and a fantastic comeback from Watford saw them take a point away at Reading, too sides that are expected to be in the mix come the end of the season.

In League One, Carlisle continued their terrible start with their third 4-0 defeat on the trot at the hands of Coventry. It could be a long season for their fans. Peterborough and Leyton Orient kept up their 100% records and Wolves secured an impressive 3 points away at Bristol City. Stevenage remain in the bottom four after their third straight 1-0 defeat of the season.

All teams in League Two are now off the mark after Bury and Plymouth won and Hartlepool secured an away point at York. Oxford and Southend extended their winning starts with wins away at Torquay and at home to Northampton respectively.

Final word to Barnet (who I have a soft spot for), who have made a decent start to life outside league football, with 7 points from a possible 9.


Thank you for reading, come back for the next installment of the Premier League next weekend with Manchester United v Chelsea likely to be the big talking point.