For a side with genuine hopes bordering on a sense of entitlement of retaining the Premier League title, Manchester City's nine league defeats to date have highlighted the lack of attention given to the squad at a time when it hit its creative peak. To remain at the top, continually repel a chasing pack and…
Mired in mediocrity the EFL Championship affords little preparation for the culture shock awaiting those promoted from it
The English Football League(EFL) Championship: highly competitive, much of a muchness, or of such a poor standard that it is merely rearing the next battery farmed, low quality fodder for next season's Premier League? Notwithstanding the enforced Covid-19 break the Championship season is roughly at the mid-April stage, a point where the league table has…
Lampard primed for Chelsea return, for whom Sarri remains the hardest word
The Roman Abramovich-era ha over the last fifteen years brought unimaginable success to Chelsea Football Club but with success comes expectation, impatience, and as demonstrated on innumerable occasions: the costliest of mistakes. A self-made, Russian oligarch who prospered during the aftermath of Soviet disintegration and the economic free-for-all under the disastrous Boris Yeltsin presidency, Abramovich,…
Disparity between Premier League & Bundesliga exemplified by Hummels’ return to Dortmund
The return of Mats Hummels to Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park highlights the widening gap between those long regarded as Bundesliga elite and their Premier League counterparts. Television money and restrictive, although hardly egregious, ownership rules designed to ensure fans remain as such in the eyes of the clubs they support, and not assets from…
Liverpool primed for further glory whilst Tottenham remain in a holding pattern
I was almost relieved by Divock Origi's decisive intervention in last night's Champions' League final. Played out by two under par sides who hardly stated a cast iron argument for the strength of the Premier League, I was at least grateful that such an occasion wasn't settled by Mo Salah's contentious first minute penalty, although…
Manchester United: Breaking Up Such a Poor Squad Will be Hard to Do
It is not unreasonable to suggest that five years is a lifetime in football. Furthermore, when arguably out of his depth as manager of Cardiff City it would have seemed more than inconceivable for an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer team, half a decade later, being put to the sword on the last day of the Premier…
Liverpool and Manchester City throw down the gauntlet to the best of the rest
After narrowly negotiating two potential title-ending games against Burnley and Leicester City goal-shy Brighton and Hove Albion was in many ways the ideal final-day opponents for Manchester City, albeit at the Sussex side's Falmer headquarters, and so it proved. All Liverpool's fans, sympathizers, and those eager for a nerve-shredding end to a record breaking season…
Liverpool vs. Barcelona: A night where distinction dispatched presumption into obscurity
A few observations from last night's Champions' League tie between Liverpool and Barcelona: Liverpool have the strongest domestic squad in Europe, and in effect, the world. Barcelona were put to the sword without the absent Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Adam Lallana, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, whilst Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri seamlessly stepped up…
Chelsea fail to convince as Tottenham surrender title challenge
Barely 72 hours after an honourable defeat to Manchester City in the Carabao (League) Cup Final at Wembley Chelsea might have been forgiven, although perhaps not by owner Roman Abramovich, for a less-energetic, nervier performance against London and top four rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. As it transpired, Sarri-ball lives to fight another day. Although a chance…
Chelsea pay the price for failing to adequately replace Diego Costa
To call Chelsea a club in crisis is akin to pandering to snowflake-generation hyperbole. To underscore the term 'crisis club' look no further than Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, and Coventry City, not the faltering Roman revolution at Stamford Bridge. There is though a sense that the west Londoners are being left behind in the annual stampede…
Chelsea: Loftus-Cheek’s Europa League hat-trick unlikely to sway Sarri’s thinking
A timely reminder perhaps, but in reality Ruben Loftus-Cheek's Europa League hat-trick will have told Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri few things he didn't already know. Missing the injured Eden Hazard and a continued absence of a world class striker on their roster, Chelsea might have wondered where last night's goals against Belarusian outfit BATE Borisov…
Chelsea start another Premier League season by once more overlooking Ruben Loftus-Cheek
A penny for the thoughts of Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek. From being picked for England's 2018 World Cup squad on the back of an outstanding season on loan at Crystal Palace, the 22 year old could already feel aggrieved that former Blues' manager Antonio Conte purchased Leicester City's Danny Drinkwater for a frighteningly over-inflated £30 million,…
Real Madrid – Liverpool Champion League Final: a fitting sequel to Sliding Doors
The now managerless Real Madrid’s game-management guided the Los Blancos to a 13th European title, although their performance against a slightly unfortunately Liverpool could never be described as vintage. Starting with the same eleven from the corresponding 2017 final but with an obviously frustrated Gareth Bale, despite his telling intervention, cutting a brooding figure at…
Premier League 2017/18 season snapshots: Chelsea
Fifth place and thirty points behind albeit runaway champions Manchester City is a far cry from Chelsea’s Premier League triumph but a year ago. The hand dealt Antonio Conte in what must be said to be two haphazard transfer windows since the Blues’ fifth Premier League title begs the question who sourced, and ultimately ratified…
English Premier League 2017/18 season snapshots: Liverpool
After a season that has yielded 90 goals from its much vaunted tripartite of attackers, it seems absurd to suggest that Liverpool require an out-and-out striker to compete at the very highest level, but I believe this is what is needed to propel the Reds, along with a top class central defender to partner Virgil…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 