Hello good people and welcome back to the Premier League… well, for many of us it wasn’t the kind of return we had hoped for!
I rushed home from the Cape Town Stadium (after watching WP’s U20’s smash the Leopards), stripped down, hit the couch and switched the box on to watch the worst Chelsea performance since getting whacked 5-2 by West Brom at the Bridge last year (also following a long unbeaten run).
Not taking anything away from the solid Brentford performance, but the Blues were simply off their game.
Could it have anything to do with the traumatic period the club is going through?
Perhaps the squad rotation ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League?
Whatever it may be, it simply isn’t good enough. There should be no excuses. Top international players, being paid top-end salaries, need to put in top class performances week-in-week-out.
I get it, there is such a thing as a ‘bad day at the office’ it happens, but for me (as mentioned often over the last few months) Chelsea have often looked disconnected and find it extremely difficult to sweep aside ‘smaller’ sides.
That’s a trait only Man City have mastered, (barring a couple of dodgy results against Crystal Palace this season) and they showed that again on Saturday with a potential banana skin win at Turf Moor.
It was clear in the second half that Pep Guardiola instructed his side to take the foot off the pedal, which gave Burnley a glimmer of hope here and there but it was a very comfortable win in the end.
The result put the Citizens back on top (and with reasonably fresh legs ahead of tonight’s Champions League clash against Atletico).
With a potentially season-defining game against Liverpool at the Etihad on Sunday, it kind of feels like the pendulum is swinging slightly in favour of City for me.
Despite an incredible fight back for the Championship over the last two months, an unconvincing three points against Watford at Anfield wasn’t the kind of tonic Liverpool needed.
They’re away at Benfica tonight and it will be interesting to see who’s up front considering the strange interaction (or lack of it) as Sadio Mane replaced Mo Salah on Saturday. No hug, no handshake?
Salah looking dejected, with back pages full of speculative transfer stories regarding his future at the club.
While we’re on the dejected subject, poor old Alex Ferguson was put through another horrible home performance as United scraped a point against Leicester.
It is ironic that one of their better players over the last while has been Fred, you know, the wannabee Willian.
It would be hard to score any of the side more than a 5 /10 for that outing. In particular Jaden Sancho.
Jeeeez, 80 million quid for that? I’d rather have Romelu Lukaku on the wing. He was bought to provide width, pace and attacking flare.
To take players on and provide for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford.
Wow, I still haven’t seen any of that. I mean, that’s the role Ryan Giggs owned for so many frightening years. This guy probably wouldn’t get passed me during my over-40s stint at FN Rangers on the Royal Road in Maitland.
Yoh, its frightening for a club like Manchester United. All the money spent, all the big names, but it just aint coming right.
I guess I speak for all y’all ‘Red Devils’ when I suggest Ralf Rangnick cannot be in the running for the post next season?
Ajax’s Eric ten Hag remains the fan’s (and bookies) favourite, odds on at 8/13, followed by Mauricio Pochettino 6/1 and then Thomas Thucel hahahaha, as if!
Ok, you never know these days given the UK governments torture of Chelsea, but yeah, my man aint going anywhere!
Guys and girls, it’s a huge six days ahead of us (football-wise) despite eight months or so of great performances, everything can come crashing down in a couple of games.
Good luck to you all (don’t really mean that) but yeah, may the best teams win! Chat next week…