This season is going to be fun. There is always something exciting when a team in a more isolated area of the country (football-wise) makes it into the Premier League. Cardiff and Swansea were always good value, and I look forward to whenever it is that Bristol City (or Rovers I guess…) make it. Carrow […]
Rafa Benitez is such a rare thing in an era where player power is king, social media vitriol spreads like a virus and chairman have itchy trigger fingers. From Liverpool to Chelsea and Newcastle he is looked on with nothing but fondness. This season has the potential to be the one that shows exactly what […]
Manchester United are a club that require nothing but simple analysis when trying to understand their current position, what they might achieve and what can be expected from them. As a club, they are obviously currently performing below what would be expected from them. As a set of players, they are individually performing below what […]
While Manchester City obviously have a lot to live up to after last year, it feels like there is an even greater burden of expectation on Liverpool for this upcoming season. While the lack of any serious action in the transfer window is probably attempting to send a “Same again lads” message to the team, […]
It was somewhere towards the end of last season that I gradually realised that Leicester City were the team I most looked forward to watching live. They have a really exciting crop of ball-playing footballers all over the park, and a couple of players who feel like they are on the verge of a real […]
Everton sit alongside Leicester and Wolves as the three times that I am currently most excited about in the Premier League. I would absolutely forgive Everton fans themselves of not necessarily having quite the same positivity, as they have suffered from all-too-familiar false dawns in recent times. But if you look through Everton’s team, the […]
It doesn’t feel like hyperbole to boil the preview of Crystal Palace’s season down to a consideration of the Zaha situation. It was evident from last season’s performances how much they rely on him – games with and without him on the pitch were chalk and cheese. The fact that the window slammed shut with […]
Chelsea are embarking on what will be one of the more fascinating seasons we’re likely to see any club. Having been the trailblazers in the UK for the ‘spend until you win’ mentality, their transfer ban now sees them needing to fall back on incumbents rather than arrivals. Similarly, it feels like the appointment of […]
Burnley are a club that are truly to be admired – and an aspirational story that should give hope to all clubs out there in the football league ladder. They are from an unglamorous city, they have a manager that could be used as the poster boy for the phrase ‘down-to-earth’, they rarely spend money, […]
I’m not sure if it is the sensationalism that has been forcibly injected with increasing desperation by both the BBC and Sky Sports into deadline day, but today felt like something of an anti-climax. The day felt like it had peaked when Juventus stepped in to kybosh the Dybala-to-Spurs deal, and that happened around lunchtime. […]