Breaking down the EPL thus far
Thursday, 06 November 08, 01:41 PM · Comments(2)
While 11 matches played isn’t any normal marking point within a given EPL season, who says you need to reach halfway before doing a little table-wide analysis? Let’s check out a few key developments so far this year and see what might lie ahead.
1) The Big 4 are doing their thing. People might want more parity within the league, but we once again look like we’re heading toward the normal tight finish between the usual suspects. Aston Villa and Hull City both sit tied for fourth with Arsenal at 20 points, but right now only Villa looks like they could make a run at breaking into that select group.
2) Title already looking like a reach for Arsenal. Granted, it’s early. Quite early. But some things start to make you wonder about a team in the long run, and Arsenal’s last couple weeks have started to put those questions into our heads. The four-four draw at home against Tottenham, while a thrilling game, was an absolute disaster from the Gunners’ standpoint. Blowing a two-goal lead at home in the last couple minutes doesn’t bode well for a squad trying to build on last year, when they jumped out to a great start only to falter near the finish line. Even worse, they’ve failed miserably to bounce back from that defeat with a 2-1 loss to Stoke last weekend and then a draw at home to Fenerbahce (who they beat 5-2 away) on Wednesday. And those who read the papers see Wenger getting a bit edgy. You can’t call games must-win at this point, but losing all three points on Saturday at the Emirates to Man United would be rough to say the least.
3) Hard to differentiate between Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool at this point. There’s no doubt that Man United suffered early from both injuries and a brutal schedule, but they look to be back on track now with an in-form Ronaldo and 21 points with a game in hand. Still, letting Hull back into Saturday’s game wasn’t a very impressive display, and the Reds have had some finishing issues lately (ending with Dimitar Berbatov’s miss last night that could’ve given United the win against Celtic). At this point, Chelsea and Liverpool have looked consistently the best, although both have suffered defeats in the last few weeks (Chelsea to Liverpool and Roma, Liverpool to Tottenham). Chelsea can’t be pleased with the 3-1 loss away to Roma on Tuesday, but they still l........read the rest at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-642-Soccer-Examiner~y2008m11d6-Five-talking-points-so-far-from-the-EPL
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2 Comments · Add yours
Nice to see the whole of the EPL taken into account and not just the big sides so we can all be interested by this piece.....
Why is there no analysis of the smaller sides fighting down the bottom?
i agree with coley23. plz analyse bottom of table too