I'm not sold on either Man City or Chelsea, both have looked vulnerable. In fact Arsenal and Spurs have probably looked the most solid so far (barring our opening game).
Agree with that City had a good win yesterday, but so far they've not looked like they really want it this season. Chelsea have been pretty average to be honest and Maureen mocking people for criticising them after they beat Fulham is just begging to come back and bite him on the arse. I'm not convinced with Torres or E'eto and I think they have loaned their best striker out to Everton.
1. They've been ****e defensively, but Kompany was out for a few games, and he's a talismanic figure for them. No coincidence they were a lot better yesterday with him back. They've got a good manager and an excellent squad, they should be contenders 2. Completely agree. Torres has proved he's past it, Eto'o is getting old, loaning out Lukaku was idiotic, considering he has all the traits to be the next Drogba (he just needs to work on his diving). But they are too strong in other areas, will probably address the striker issue in January and have Mourinho, a proven winner, at the helm. Whilst us and Spurs have improved, i don't see us being good enough yet, the small squad could still cause us even more issues, especially as a few players looked beyond tired after yesterday's game. Spurs still need to bed their players in, and i'm still not sold on Villas-Boas.
I was scratching my head with that one, why loan out a perfectly good striker like Lukaku and retain Torres? The pressure will soon pile on all three managers if their teams start struggling. We'll get a better idea how good they are once they play other top opposition.
We definitely need to add to our squad still, but we have Arteta back, and Oxo coming back soon too as well as Vermaelen. Flamini looks to have been a really solid addition and a shrewd signing, he can play in defence too. The one area we really need to address is up front. I'd really like to see us go in for Suarez again in January. Spurs have started well, but when they've been tested against the top teams so far - us - they've faltered. So it remains to be seen whether they can challenge all season. They might do well against the others and end up skirting around fourth / fifth if they can't beat Utd, City, Chelsea and us.
Also, what the hell is Maureen playing at with Mata ? He's now come out and said that Mata need to prove himself .... ??? Surely he's proved he's already one of the best MF players in the prem ? Maybe we should make a bid in Jan ? I still think there's room in our MF for him.
That's the strangest so far. I agree, we should bid for Mata but Wenger may need to give him a ring.....
I'd agree with pretty much all that but I'd say it was the same case last season. That's part of the reason I'm reluctant to start writing them off, last season they looked really dodgy at the start of the season and you thought they wouldn't keep scoring enough goals to bail themselves out but they did and without ever looking that impressive on the pitch they seemed to pile up the results. I know it's Moyes this time but if they get RVP fit again I can see them improving now they've got 3 tough games out of the way early on. With City, I think the only question mark over them is whether they really care about the Premier League. It's clear they want to do better in the CL and whilst I think they've got the squad to compete in both, it may be that their players aren't so interested for the "lesser" PL games. I think it's a bit of a long shot though and they're still my pick for the title. Chelsea have surprised me. Or rather Mourinho has. He might prove me wrong but I just don't see see the logic in what he's doing there. It looked pretty obvious what they needed after last season, a World class centre back and striker and I would've thought they were set. Instead Mourinho missed out on the top quality striker and took a bit of a punt on Eto'o, pushed Luiz back to centre back(and then dropped him) and has tried to change the whole style of play which has marginalised arguably their best player. If it wasn't have Mourinho having such a good record in management I'd expect them to struggle to finish in the top 4 this season. It's early days but it's certainly started well for our clubs.
To be honest I was expecting Mourinho to drop a few 'established' players. It does'nt really matter how talented you are in a Mourinho squad - If you are not suited to the role he wants you to play then you wont get games. Plus he actually prefers having a small squad. I wont be suprised if we see him ship out a few guys in January. Mourinho has chosen Oscar as his Number 10. Therefore he wants Mata to play as an orthodox winger - which is not really his best position. I was more suprised Luiz was left on th bench. I think the Brazilian is a brilliant defenisve midfielder and a decent centreback. The BIG issue at Chelsea though is that this squad is nothing like a typical Mouinho squad.
Now that Ive watched a few Games I think its going to be a three way fight between ourselves City and Chelsea for the league. Ive got a feeling its going to go really pear-shaped for United this Season. I can see them finishing outside the top four. (fingers crossed)
Just noticed ManU play Liverpool this Wednesday... the pressure that will be on Moyes if he loses another one of those this early.
Any chance fergie might be brought back if moyes keeps failing and is sacked? Then they would be a threat, but atm they look bad for a side of their quality. I'm actually looking forward to our game against them, as their midfield is slow and not really suited to closing down our quick passing
So long as he rests enough players I think he'll get away with it. If he puts out a full team though then the result will undoubtedly come under scrutiny.
Losing to Liverpool and City in the space of 3 weeks is as enough for him but if he loses to one of them at Old Trafford the pressure really will be on. 9,000 Liverpool fans up there, will be a lively game. I think he'll definitely come under pressure because the Carling Cup and FA Cup are his best chance of winning silverware, to go out of one of them at this point would be a disaster.
Well, I've always been swimming against the stream on this one, but I've never rated Mata as highly as most people do. Good player yes, masses of potential yes, but does have weaknesses and I think they happen to be the things that Mourinho values. He likes pacey wingers and he likes a #10 that can tackle back, and in both positions Mata lacks a little in those regards.
