Rafa shows the gap between Chelsea and the rest!
It was a near perfect day today! The perfect day would have been to see both Arsenal and Liverpool losing. Anyway, to see them both drop points on the same day was a great sight. It seems that their days of mediocrity are not over yet. Arsenal would never be a title contender as long as it drops points at home as easily as today. And Liverpool should start winning against the smaller teams to be anywhere near No.2.
Surprise was Bolton’s spirited 2-0 against Tottenham. Bolton put aside their torrid pre-season performances and was more aggressive and hungry to win the match.
I wasn’t able to watch the Sheffield United vs Liverpool match as there is nothing much I can comment on that. But I see that Sheff did get the lead and Liverpool had to get a lucky penalty to equalise. The new-found confidence and belief of the scousers after the ‘Cup win’ against Chelsea, did not help them. So it needed a newly promoted Sheff united to put things in perspective. Winning the title is about playing consistently over 10 months, weathering all storms etc.
I did see Arsenal vs Aston Villa. Arsennielle just continued from where they left last season, playing one-dimensional football and having no alternative plan at all. The goal conceded by Arsenal was poor marking and unnecessary intervention from Jens Lehmann. He could have just held his position which would have given him a chance to save. And after that raid after raid, it was becoming too boring to see Arsenal doing the same crap all over again – short passes, short flicks, get to the box, short passes and short flick again – lose the ball or a corner or a goal kick. Why can’t someone shoot? I go crazy when I see 5 passes being made within the penalty box.
There was absolutely no width in Arsennielle’s game. The brand new Emirates pitch is so big and still they played as if they are still playing in Highbury. Henry was invisible for most part of the game. There were atleast half a dozen times when Henry could have just pulled the trigger, but they wanted to score that beautiful goal so that they can call themselves the ambassadors of good football. But unfortunately, in the process they lost the ball in vital areas in silly manner. While they were still short passing, flicking and through passing through the centre, what got them the goal was a cross from the left. All the while, Villa just did their job. They kept defending very hard and thanks to that they could have almost won the match. What an embarrassment it could have been for the Gooners to lose their first premiership match in Emirates Stadium against Villa.
The only positive for Arsenal was that Theo Walcott was very promising since he was introduced with 10 minutes to go. But these are early days and he is still very much an unknown commodity and he can take advantage of that. We have to see as days go by, how he does against the bigger teams. By what we have seen today, it will do a world of good to Arsennielle, if Walcott gets to play 90 minutes.
Now you see Chelsea is spending millions, but that need not stop Liverpool from beating possible relegation battler. If Chelsea ends up with 100 points and Arsenal/Liverpool end up with 98 points, you understand their frustration in not having enough budget etc. When there is a 20-point gap, they should just stop talking and start winning. After all they have 36 non-Chelsea matches where they can win and draw and not lose. If they show up with a sub-standard performance at home or not able to beat a new comer, you can’t hold Chelsea or their money, responsible for this.
I had said that if at all Arsenal or Liverpool wanted to top the table today is the day as Chelsea would be playing on Sunday. But unfortunately, both teams could not top the table. May be they would never be able to do it this season. By all probabilities Chelsea would do a 2-0 or 3-0 on Sunday and if this does happen, all teams can start their Chelsea-chasing once again. You’ll never be able to catch us!
