English Football

[Larry B.]

What a match today. I was so pissed off at halftime that I had the TV muted and I wasn't even watching when Smalling began the comeback. Cleverly is already looking like a classic ManU player, and I was amazed by Smalling's skills down the right. What an amazing job the ManU coaches do.

I love Kompany, but he screwed up bigtime, although I blame it on Clichy. He caused Kompany's confusion...

Great way to start the day, great way to start the season. I changed my Satellite TV provider so that I get all the matches from the English Premier League, Liga Española, Serie A, Champions League and Europa League.

And Sneijder hasn't even arrived yet...

[Juana]

Oh this is about Soccer, I got confused for a second. Carry on.

[Larry B.]

[Bandit72]

It's about football...a ball played with a foot?

[cashinnowperry]

Hell yes. Nothing like beating City to start things off. I thought De Gea looked a bit shaky, but other than that it was a great showing.

[Juana]

haha

[Larry B.]

and yeah, De Gea played a part in both City goals... but he also showed some signs of great skill and quick reflexes.

It was interesting how during the final 20 minutes, the 5 players at the back of ManU had an average age of 20.8 years. De Gea is 20, for fucks sake... and the typical peak for a goalkeeper happens around age 33.

[esqfool]

Watching the replay right now. Don't like Man U, but really don't like City. Can't wait to see this collapse and City's reaction, hahaha. I root for Arsenal which is basically year after year of this . I'd have hoped Wenger would have bought some players by now, but then again I'm not surprised. Although there's a ton of time in the transfer window.

[Larry B.]

I root for Arsenal which is basically year after year of this .

Totally... can't believe Arsenal finished 4th last season. They reaaally need to start scoring. And get a decent goalkeeper, although I think Szczęsny is really good. The 4-4 last season against Newcastle was typical Arsenal, for me. They are all comfy, and BAM, they remember they have no balls.

[esqfool]

Yeah, Sczesny is legit, it the rest of the defense that worries me, although if Vermaelen isn't hurt, then somehow they might have pulled it off. The end of the season was so depressing. I don't see why Nasri is in such a rush to leave, he did dick the second half of the season, and will be replaced at Man City by their next group of signings next season. If I were him, I'd take over for Fabregas and go from there. Better to be a big fish in a small pond sometimes. Gervinho looks pretty good, and is a direct player rather than dicking around like the rest love to do.

[Larry B.]

The England U20 has just been eliminated in the round of 16 from the Colombia U20 World Cup. In the group stage, the tied 3 games 0-0. In the fourth game, they lost 1-0. What a shame. Not that they had great stars in the team, but still... I guess you always expect a little more from England. And I guess they always fall short of expectations.

[Bandit72]

Big kick off tomorrow! Shame about the Tottenham Everton game but I guess they have to do what they think.

[Larry B.]

[Larry B.]

- Arsenal's game was the absolute Arsenal standard: precise touches, some beautiful close football at times, no goals, tense players and a stupid send off.

- Liverpool's game was pretty enjoyable, with Suarez's goal (what a player), and even more so with the game being a tie...

- I'm watching Stoke-Chelsea right now... I was totally looking forward to watching Villas-Boas' influence in the team, but I still don't see it... they still seem awfully insecure, without creative ideas, unable to connect and create beautiful touches. On the other hand, Stoke (as usual) is one tough motherfucking team. And I fucking hate Fernando Torres. I hope he gets kicked in the balls sometime during the game.

- In a couple more hours I'll see ManU vs. West Brom. I will only watch the first half, so I guess I'm only going to see 3 or 4 goals by my team...

[Bandit72]

Yeh, Arsenal are gonna struggle this season. Yet again, week 1, and the diving has started. Good point for us at Fulham. And great to see Utd spend £19m on a dog shit goal keeper.

[cashinnowperry]

- Arsenal's game was the absolute Arsenal standard: precise touches, some beautiful close football at times, no goals, tense players and a stupid send off.

- Liverpool's game was pretty enjoyable, with Suarez's goal (what a player), and even more so with the game being a tie...

- I'm watching Stoke-Chelsea right now... I was totally looking forward to watching Villas-Boas' influence in the team, but I still don't see it... they still seem awfully insecure, without creative ideas, unable to connect and create beautiful touches. On the other hand, Stoke (as usual) is one tough motherfucking team. And I fucking hate Fernando Torres. I hope he gets kicked in the balls sometime during the game.

- In a couple more hours I'll see ManU vs. West Brom. I will only watch the first half, so I guess I'm only going to see 3 or 4 goals by my team...

Torres is fucking garbage. I wonder if Chelsea will get more than 1 goal out of him this year.

I can't believe we needed an own goal to get by West Brom. That was brutal. Props to Young though, well played. De Gea has already earned himself the nicknames of "butter-fingered Spaniard", "Almunia,"and "Taibi." Mancunians are so clever, aren't they? I'm sure he'll get much more comfortable as the year goes on, and as he learns English.

And it looks like Fabregas is finally off to Barca. Maybe Wenger can worry about more important things now, like finding a way to score after all of the brilliant passing.

[Larry B.]

"Almunia"

The guy's usually a very good keeper. It'll take time for him to fully develop his skills, but he did make a couple of outstanding saves. I think he needs to come off the line a lot quicker and basically to be a bit more concentrated. And yeah, he needs to learn some English. That's fucking basic.

Did anyone saw Agüero's debut for Man City? Man-o-man... 2 goals and 1 assist in 25 minutes. Against Swansea, I know, I know... but damn'...

United now has several important injuries... Ferdinand, Vidic, Rafael and Evra. So the most likely back 4 for the next match would be Fabio, O'Shea, Jones, Smalling. Best luck to the lads...

As a side note, I was impressed with Alexis Sanchez's performance for Barça against Real Madrid. He could definitely bring some good stuff to the team. And Barcelona misses Puyol waaay too much. They NEED another world-class central defender, aside from Puyol and Piqué.

Still looking forward to seeing Sneijder in ManU and to knowing whether Tévez stays or leaves...

[Larry B.]

The Arsenal vs. Liverpool match just ended...

It's a shame to see this Arsenal... apparently lacking ideas, you could feel the absence of Fábregas in the middle of the park and the lack of concentration of Nasri, most likely due to his possible transfer to Man City.

Apparently, this was the first time EVER Liverpool has won at the Emirates. Arsène definitely needs a couple of good arrivals and hopefully a new tactic. He's not doing much with only one striker, specially if only Walcott will manage to dribble by one defender. Today, Arshavin was nothing.

I feel for Wenger

[Bandit72]

Top of the league Larry!

For a day

[esqfool]

Watched that Arsenal vs. Liverpool game on DVR. Nasri I thought looked pretty good but wasn't surrounded by much. Jenkinson and Miquel looked fine too. Arshavin is so frustrating. Back in Euro 2008 he looked amazing and now he's pretty much useless. Walcott all day seemed confused. He refused to blow by Enrique and aim for a cross. And Van Persie's never been my favorite, and honestly was MIA a lot of times the ball was played in. To their credit, I thought Arsenal held on quite well against a stacked Liverpool team. Frimpong being an idiot is what doomed them, and of course the fluke own goal. I really like Liverpool's team, so deep this year. Chelsea to me is not a real good team. Never been a Frank Lampard fan, and Torres is the new Shevchenko. I do like Malouda and Drogba though.

[cashinnowperry]

Going back to last week, I believe in De Gea. Like you said Larry, he's usually a great keeper, and I think he'll adjust just like Schmeichel did.

Agüero was unreal. Swansea is my "other" EPL team (in addition to Sunderland, since it's basically Man United North), so I was bummed to see that happen, but their goalie looked as good as humanly possible when giving up 4 goals. Saved a PK and earned 'em a draw today, too. It's looking pretty shitty at the Emirates, and losing Nasri isn't gonna make it any better. Best of luck to Wenger, he's gonna need it. Andy Carroll scares me, I'm gonna be a bit nervous when we face Liverpool. I actually like van Persie a lot, but yeah, he pulled a bit of a disappearing act today. Chelsea is supposed to be getting Lukaku from Belgium, that dude is dangerous. All in all though, this looks like it's gonna be a great season (unless you're a Gooner.)

[esqfool]

Watched Mang City vs. Bolton. Bolton surprisingly didn't wilt versus them. Dzeko finally looked good for once. Up until now he's kind of been a nonfactor. City is looking good this year and looking to play to win rather than get in a close game and on comes 3 defensive mids.

Should be an interesting game tomorrow with Spurs and United. I expect lots of long range shots on De Gea or "Almunia" as was mentioned. That had me laughing real good. If he flubs again, then his confidence is shot, but he's made some pretty good saves in the games he did fuck up.

[Larry B.]

Should be an interesting game tomorrow with Spurs and United. I expect lots of long range shots on De Gea or "Almunia" as was mentioned. That had me laughing real good. If he flubs again, then his confidence is shot, but he's made some pretty good saves in the games he did fuck up.

Yeah, tomorrow's game will be good... a fine test for United's young defensive line and goalkeeper.

BTW, did you guys know what really happened with Chicharito? He received a ball in the head and had a severe epileptic seizure; his epilepsy was actually a major fact when he, about 3 or 4 years ago, almost decided to quit football.

I hope his condition doesn't prevent him from keeping it up. He's an outstanding goalscorer.

[cashinnowperry]

Good game today. I wasn't really sold on Welbeck, but I sure liked what I saw. Good to see Chicharito back out there, didn't know all the details about the epilepsy but let's hope it's behind him. Of course there was some shakiness from De Gea, but I loved how he got in Defoe's face after that foul. And he got his first clean sheet for us. They look quite good, and I can't wait for Arsenal to come visit on Sunday.

[Larry B.]

Yeah, I really enjoyed the game... I knew they were going to test De Gea from distance, and fortunately he saved safely most of them. He gave a couple of rebounds, but he reacted quickly on one of them and the other one went behind the back line, so no big deal.

Other than that, United's second half was great. Tottenham was pretty much ran over, save for those 3 or 4 minutes when they almost scored one back. Sometimes (well, most of the time) I fucking hate Nani. He's too damn selfish and has this great insecurity about not being Cristiano Ronaldo. The guy has skills, but he always wants to dribble a little bit more, even if he doesn't have any oppositioin in front of him.

Sunday game will be important for Arsenal, I think. Picture Arsenal without Fabregas, maybe without Nasri, 1 point in 3 games and United with 9 points from 3 games. Picture Arsenal in the 17th position. Even though it would have been only 3 games, it still is a position you don't want to be in. Gonna be a tough clash, for sure. Tomorrow they play Udinese in Italy, which can cheer them up or bring them waaay down.