Monday, October 04, 2004
Normal Service Is Resumed

The title actually refers to the latest round of EPL matches rather than anything else but it could also very well refer to the Office X-Men as well.Jean Grey returns to the fold today to discover that ooops,nothing much has changed besides the fact that things conditions have progressively become worse and Rogue is slowly succumbing to dementia.It's amazing what such a thing could do to an X-Men.She'd stay in her office all day,shunning attention from everyone and consuming paper by the reams.Now,that explains why we are ordering so many boxes of paper from the stationery staff.

Dementia or not,it's time we have to start on our annual report this week.can you imagine?This is already coming to the end of the year.It's October now.How time flies.I can still remember when it was the beginning of the year and there was all sorts of plans to do all sorts of rubbish reports.Instead,my grand stats for the year stand right now at a significant ONE report.I can feel the axe falling on moi head already.Compared to the prodigious worker that is Wolverine,I am erm,shamed.

Anyway,back to the EPL.So the normal order is again resumed as we see yet another Arsenal romp,another unspired Chelsea win,ManUre returning to being its incompetent self after all that Looney euphoria and Spurs grinding out yet another uninspired and undeserved win.Let's go through the list one by one.While I listed Spurs last,I am of course going to talk about them first.

Jacques Santini still does not inspire much confidence in me,although when it comes to comedy,he is top-rate.If you want evidence of that,just watch any TV interview he gives and see whether you understand anything he says.The guy is a natural comedian and he doesn't even know it.And he looks like a goldfish.Anyway,back to Spurs.

They of course laboured to an undeserved 1-0 win over the rampant Everton.I have to confess I didn't watch the match in detail because I was expecting Everton to score anytime and I wanted to spare myself the agony of watching that.Lo and behold,Everton missed chance after chance and Spurs scored with their only strike of the match.Only after the strike did I watch the match but I was fairly confident they would hold on and win.How often do you say that of Spurs?!

It is my opinion that Spurs is riding on luck and will eventually get found out.It's a matter of time.Spurs' defending is unusually resolute this season and I have no compliants about that.Paul Robinson is simply world-class and Ledley King as well.It's the midfield that I can't bear to watch.Instead of moving forward,Spurs spend ALL their time passing sideways or hitting high long balls to the midget twins,Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane.Now there's a problem with such strategies.First,the goals are located at opposite ends of the pitch,not along the sidelines.If they were at the sidelines,Spurs would be the most attacking side in the country.Sidewards passing doesn't bring you into an attacking position,it just keeps swicthing sides and doesn't serve any purpose unless you have two good wingers who can make use of such passing.BUT Spurs have no wingmen.Simon Davies and Timothee Atouba are NOT wingers.Spurs are merely wasting time swinging from left to right and back again.As for the long balls,HELLO,you are talking about the smallest forward line in EPL here...

Arsenal continued their ridiculous form in the EPL,swapping aside Charlton like they weren't even on the park.I wish they'd swap their Champions' League form into the EPL and start stuttering as well.Because it's no fun watching them at all.Not if you are a neutral.An Arsenal EPl match is easy to predict.It's either 3-0 or 4-0,take your pick.

But why hasn't The Arse translated their imperious EPL form to the European stage?They looked unusually shaky in both European matches so far and looked far from dominating.My answer?It's Arsene Wenger!Unlike Jose Mourinho,Wenger simply doesn't have the tactical acumen to play the big guns in Europe.Mourinho knows how to stifle and break down the opposition and introduce changes in play patterns.Wenger simply plays a marauding style.It's pleasing to the eye for sure,it won't win you trophies because continental sides simply play the Mourinho gameplan against them.And unlike most EPL opponents,they have quality players to implement such plans.

Chelsea again looked uninspiring against Pool,although I have to admit I missed half the match because I thought it begings at 12 so I woke up at that time...only to disover it's already half-time.So they won 1-0 again.Nothing new.They won't concede goals but neither will they score goals for fun.They'd probably continue to win 1-0 for the rest of the season in EPL or draw 0-0.And that will come against the big name opponents as well.Real horrible thing is Mourinho might actually win the league and/or the European Cup using such tactics.Yawn...

ManUre,hahah,after all the Looney euphoria,it was good to see them brought down to earth with a crash.Normal service resumed then.Still their usual stuttering self then.EPL champions.Look at the gap between Arsenal,Chelsea and them and stop dreaming!No chance at all.Wayne Rooney was a peripheral figure in the match against Middlesbrough,which would be normal for him.I have a phrase for ManUre fans who thinks he's the MAN:"One game doesn't make a season nor a career" so beat it.Wenger said that Rooney could be the difference in the EPL race.Oh really?

Elsewhere,Pool remained largely unconvincing to my eyes.Rafael Benitez's decision to import Spanish talents wholesale into his side is,in my opinion,a huge mistake.Mourinho realised that to win the EPL,you need an English core.Which is why John Terry,Wayne Bridge,Frank Lampard and to a lesser extent,Joe Cole is there.ManUre,of course,has an established English heart to their side which has the guts and nerve to roar back when the chips are down.You might point to Arsenal and their French contingent but keep in mind,when Wenger initially took over,Arsenal had an English core.It took years to swicth that core into a French one,beginning with Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit and morphing into the shape it is today after 8 years.Benitez needed to start with an English core but instead he ripped the English heart out of his side and brought in his Spanish armada to start from scratch.His Spanish compatriots have to adapt to a new country and also blend in with the rest of the guys.It is going to take time and even then,it still may not work.Good luck to him.

W.B.A. proved that with just two decent players in the side,Hungarian international Zoltan Gera and Arsenal discard Nwankwo Kanu,they could still win against quality opposition like Bolton.Or maybe Bolton just missed mercurial playmaker Jay-Jay Okocha.But anyhow,this win should prove encouraging to the other newly-promoted sides and hopefully,they'd start winning matches too to provide some competition to the back-end of the league in terms of the relegation fight.Maybe,just maybe,they won't all get relegated and there is something interesting to watch.