Jonathan Wilson: Premier League title far from a formality for early leader Chelsea

[Jonathan Wilson]

Premier League title far from a formality for early leader Chelsea​

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...premier.league.review/index.html?eref=writers

Under normal circumstances in the Premier League, you'd look at a side that was five points clear with a quarter of the season played and assume it was strolling toward the title. These, though, are not normal circumstances.
Chelsea has been the best team, scoring four more goals than anybody else and conceding five fewer. Beyond statistics, it feels as though Chelsea has been playing the best football.

Opponents seem unable to match Chelsea's muscularity and sense of purpose, and there is a pleasing sense of calm about Stamford Bridge and its training ground at Cobham -- something absent under Avram Grant or Luiz Felipe Scolari. Almost unmentioned is the fact that Chelsea's impressive performances have come largely without Frank Lampard. Chelsea deserves its lead.
The caveat, though, is that the fixture list is weirdly imbalanced. Only three of Chelsea's nine games have been against sides that entered the season with realistic expectations of finishing in the top half: Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa. However emphatically the other six were dismissed -- West Brom, Wigan, Stoke, West Ham, Blackpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers -- the fact remains that in its three tough games, Chelsea has picked up only four points.

There is a precedent. In 1985-86, Manchester United won its first 10 league games, and didn't lose until the 16th; it then lost nine of the remaining 26 games and ended up finishing fourth, 12 points behind the champion, Liverpool. This Chelsea club appears more emotionally stable than that United team, but still, the next month will provide a truer picture of how good it really is. After games at Blackburn and Liverpool, Chelsea faces Fulham and Sunderland at home before awkward trips to Birmingham and Newcastle. The two weeks surrounding Christmas, with consecutive games against Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal, looks even tougher.

Given the relatively simple fixtures, and the chaos that seems to have engulfed its rivals, Chelsea may think that its lead should be more than five points, over Arsenal, United and City. Arsenal has been desperately inconsistent. Losing 3-2 at home to West Brom hardly seems like the form of a potential title challenger (even considering how well Roberto Di Matteo's side has done since its 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea on the opening weekend), but the 3-0 win at Manchester City on Sunday showed Arsenal's potential -- and seven points from its last four away games, against Blackburn, Sunderland, Chelsea and City, is seven more than in the corresponding fixtures last season.

Any praise of Sunday's victory, of course, must be tempered by the fact that Arsenal was playing against 10 men for all but five minutes, but still, it showed a composure that has been lacking in the recent past and, surprisingly, matched City's muscle. City itself should take credit for its willingness to battle despite the early red card to Dedryck Boyata, and the fact that it remains the only side to have beaten Chelsea in the league -- when it dominated the midfield battle -- gives it reason for optimism, despite the reportedly uneasy relationship between Roberto Mancini and his squad.

It is United, of course, that has undergone the most upheaval, with Wayne Rooney in abject form and causing ructions off the pitch. Uncharacteristically, United has squandered leads in six of nine league games -- regaining the lead twice -- and yet somehow remains the only unbeaten side. Just as Chelsea may wonder how it is only five points clear, United is probably bewildered and rather pleased to be only five points adrift given its wastefulness. Nemanja Vidic's continued excellence at center back aside, the great positive has been the burgeoning partnership between Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez, which has gone some way to mitigating Rooney's problems.
Just as intriguingly, it's far from clear who will be contesting the relegation battle, partly because of Liverpool's awful start, which has left it third from the bottom, and partly because all the newly promoted sides have started well. Only three points separate Sunderland in seventh from Liverpool in 18th. Given the slenderness of its squad, it's fair to assume that Blackpool will falter at some stage, just as West Brom presumably will, too. In a sense, Blackpool has already exceeded expectations -- many pundits predicted it would be the weakest Premier League side in history -- but the early momentum has at least given it a fighting chance of survival. West Brom seems rather better than that, although, again, the pressure may take effect come January and February.

West Ham is last, but had seemed to be finding form before Saturday's home defeat to Newcastle. The squad looks strong enough to survive, but there is a mood of gloom about east London that, allied to defensive frailties, could be debilitating. Wolves also has six points, and the temptation is to say that it will fall victim to its lack of resources and second-season syndrome, but it played as brightly at Stamford Bridge on Saturday as any away side has done this season.
Wigan, after losing 4-0 to Blackpool and 6-0 to Chelsea in its first two games, looked doomed, but it recovered to beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Dropping two points after leading 2-0 at Newcastle, though, may prove costly, and its next two games, at Fulham and at Blackburn, could determine its trajectory for the rest of the season.
Blackburn, as ever, battles on, with destabilizing takeover talk rumbling in the background, while Fulham, having gone unbeaten in its first seven games, suddenly looks vulnerable after losing its last two. Injuries, it should be said, robbed Fulham of its entire first-choice midfield for Saturday's defeat at West Brom, but the poor run won't have to continue for much longer before the general glee at the more expansive approach introduced by Mark Hughes fades to a grudging acceptance that perhaps Roy Hodgson's cautious ways were best.
Which brings us to Liverpool. The boardroom shenanigans at last settled, the focus can shift to the pitch. Two wins at this stage tells its own story, but Hodgson, for all the doubts about whether he has the stature for the job, surely deserves time to at least try to impose his methods, particularly given the off-field distractions.

There were positive signs in the 2-1 win over Blackburn on Sunday, and while former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler has said this is a weaker squad than the one he was relegated with at Leeds, it's still hard to believe it will be in a relegation battle come March

 

[IanC]

Anything can happen. Chelsea are favourites but a mass of injuries scupper their hopes. Still plenty of games left to play yet.

 

[CJACKO11]

Im massivly confident, we are out the league cup and basicly qualified for the next round of the champions league already. We are resting players like Drogba and letting players take a little longer to come back from injury i.e Lampard. I don't see where people say we have a small squad, all we have done it got rid of some of the old players all on 50k a week plus and letting the youngsters be the back-up players insted and so far i see no reason not to trust them. I think Utd are lacking a playmaker and its laughable that they signed this Bebe lad for near on the same price Spurs bought VDV for. Arsenal always seem to slip away and lose against Chelsea and Utd but i do expect them to finish 2nd this season especially if and this is a big if they get Van Persie back fit. City will win alot of games this year but it seems already unrest if creaping in with what Santa Cruz has said so i think they will finish 4th with Utd in 3rd.

 

[Scott]

Im massivly confident, we are out the league cup and basicly qualified for the next round of the champions league already. We are resting players like Drogba and letting players take a little longer to come back from injury i.e Lampard. I don't see where people say we have a small squad, all we have done it got rid of some of the old players all on 50k a week plus and letting the youngsters be the back-up players insted and so far i see no reason not to trust them. I think Utd are lacking a playmaker and its laughable that they signed this Bebe lad for near on the same price Spurs bought VDV for. Arsenal always seem to slip away and lose against Chelsea and Utd but i do expect them to finish 2nd this season especially if and this is a big if they get Van Persie back fit. City will win alot of games this year but it seems already unrest if creaping in with what Santa Cruz has said so i think they will finish 4th with Utd in 3rd.

You Know this Bebe Lad was signed for the same price of VDV. We get that picture it is become very boring very quickly. Bad signings( if he turns out to be a bad signing) happens all the time. For all you or anyone else know is he could become world class in a few years time. You said something very similar on herdanez when he first came in, How you have changed your mind. I fully expect chelsea to be up there, but i wouldnt be confident if i was you.

 

[nilelg5]

You Know this Bebe Lad was signed for the same price of VDV. We get that picture it is become very boring very quickly. Bad signings( if he turns out to be a bad signing) happens all the time. For all you or anyone else know is he could become world class in a few years time. You said something very similar on herdanez when he first came in, How you have changed your mind. I fully expect chelsea to be up there, but i wouldnt be confident if i was you.

For the first time in my life I 100% agree with a man u fan!

 

[KingOfJC]

To be honest, Arsenal should be finishing 1st considering all the red cards and penalties going for them, especially if they keep getting them.

I can't remember which season (think 08/09) but when Liverpool finished 2nd, they played 1/4 to 1/3rd of their games against 10 men, it's hard not to finish in the top 2 when this happens.

Chelseas only lost points so far have been away from home - we lost to City away last season (and home) and in the last two seasons we have lost to Villa away 1-0 and 2-1, and in one of these seasons we still won the title. So in reality, we have picked up a point that we didn't get last season which is always good.

You Know this Bebe Lad was signed for the same price of VDV. We get that picture it is become very boring very quickly. Bad signings( if he turns out to be a bad signing) happens all the time. For all you or anyone else know is he could become world class in a few years time. You said something very similar on herdanez when he first came in, How you have changed your mind. I fully expect chelsea to be up there, but i wouldnt be confident if i was you.

Every team makes bad signings though and will do forever. No one will have problems listing ours (Sheva, SWP, Parker, Kezman, etc).

 

[sunilvk7]

I think Utd are lacking a playmaker and its laughable that they signed this Bebe lad for near on the same price Spurs bought VDV for..

Chelsea signed Ramires for 18M when Madrid signed Ozil for 12M and Barca signed Mascha for 18M. Its laughable too. And how many times have you seen Bebe play? We United supporters have hardly got any chance, i dont know how you passed your judgement on him.

 

[Stann]

I think it's the whole how he signed him a couple of months after he went for tuppence to a lower tier Portugeuse team. And they found him from the "Homeless World Cup". If you ask me sounds like a very similar story to us signing Joao Silva, except that was for 1% of Bebe's price. But as we know because United signed him everyone bigs him up, and he gets talked about non-stop. I bet half of you haven't even heard of Joao Silva. Looks very promising btw.

 

[sunilvk7]

I loved how everyone said Hernandez will flop and he was signed just for marketing. Just skimmed through the past threads and it was fun.

Ngog 2.0, Vela > Henandez, Dos Santos > Hernandez, Manucho 2.0.

I'm really glad that he has proved many doubters wrong. I think some chelsea supporter posted saying He wont win league on his own. But he has won few points on his own already.

I'm saying this just to say have some patience before writing off any player. Yesterday it was Hernandez, today its Bebe.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

To be honest, Arsenal should be finishing 1st considering all the red cards and penalties going for them, especially if they keep getting them.

I can't remember which season (think 08/09) but when Liverpool finished 2nd, they played 1/4 to 1/3rd of their games against 10 men, it's hard not to finish in the top 2 when this happens.
.

We had 7 players sent off against us (about 5 of them vs Alonso) which is more than 1/5. I've heard this banded around this forum quite a lot, but it dosen't take away how **** good we played for nigh all the season. We got 96 points, the most any team has had and not won the league. We done the double on United and Chelsea, most of those matches without Gerrard and/or Torres. Luck had very little to do with it.

Anyway, that's off my chest...Back to the topic on hand...<)

 

[Eds]

I agree with the United fans saying Bebe could turn into something special, and could easily fail. How many games have we seen him play? Carlos Quieroz is a phenomenal scouter of talent and the last time he recommended someone as highly as this to Sir Alex, it was that boy Cristiano.

 

[Stann]

I agree with the United fans saying Bebe could turn into something special, and could easily fail. How many games have we seen him play? Carlos Quieroz is a phenomenal scouter of talent and the last time he recommended someone as highly as this to Sir Alex, it was that boy Cristiano.

Yes but the difference with Cristiano was he had been playing at a high level in Liga Sagres setting Portugal alight. This kid has literally come from the streets, so £8million is a big big gamble. I'd say 20% chance of him becoming a serious player, 50% becoming decent prem sub, 30% absolute flop goes back to Portugal.

 

[Mike.]

Yes but the difference with Cristiano was he had been playing at a high level in Liga Sagres setting Portugal alight. This kid has literally come from the streets, so £8million is a big big gamble. I'd say 20% chance of him becoming a serious player, 50% becoming decent prem sub, 30% absolute flop goes back to Portugal.

based on what though you cant just throw out arbitrary figures on how well he would do, less talented players than him have gone on to be stars and more talented players have flopped.

 

[Eds]

You're right, it's a huge gamble, as is every single transfer of a footballer (granted this is far more of a risk). But Quieroz is one of the best in the business at scouting talent. I can safely say I would trust his opinion over 99.9% of people.

 

[dasty]

I think it's the whole how he signed him a couple of months after he went for tuppence to a lower tier Portugeuse team. And they found him from the "Homeless World Cup". If you ask me sounds like a very similar story to us signing Joao Silva, except that was for 1% of Bebe's price. But as we know because United signed him everyone bigs him up, and he gets talked about non-stop. I bet half of you haven't even heard of Joao Silva. Looks very promising btw.

Everyone bigs him up? Are you serious about what you've said? To be honest, all I've heard about Bebe is negative stuff. He was labelled as a total flop before he even reached Man Utd and was deemed as a horrible player before he even took the field. The fact that he wasn't included in his first reserve match for Man Utd was blown so out of proportion that papers everywhere were writing how this lad would be an automatic fail.

Seriously, no matter which football forum/websites I go to, people are talking about Bebe as if he's the biggest flop in football history. Try and google abit and you'll know what I'm talking about.

 

[CJACKO11]

You Know this Bebe Lad was signed for the same price of VDV. We get that picture it is become very boring very quickly. Bad signings( if he turns out to be a bad signing) happens all the time. For all you or anyone else know is he could become world class in a few years time. You said something very similar on herdanez when he first came in, How you have changed your mind. I fully expect chelsea to be up there, but i wouldnt be confident if i was you.

On the Hernandez thing i said he might struggle only because he had only 1 proper scoring season before joining Utd and i must have had some faith in him to put him in my Dream Team. I don't understand why you don't think i should be confident we are the current champions and i think we haven't seen the best from us yet.

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------

Chelsea signed Ramires for 18M when Madrid signed Ozil for 12M and Barca signed Mascha for 18M. Its laughable too. And how many times have you seen Bebe play? We United supporters have hardly got any chance, i dont know how you passed your judgement on him.

We had to pay 18million for Ramires because we had to pay off his former club Cruziero and he had a invester who had shares in him and the PL don't like this, thats the only reason we had to pay so much. Also Ozil was in his last year of his contract so Bremen either sold him for a cut price or lose him for nothing next season. And as for Mascherano he wanted out and Pool needed the money so the deal had to be done, and also Ramires isen't a bad player and has had a really good start. Im not knocking Bebe at all and i never said he wouldn't be a good player in the future but you need a playmaker now and it would have made more sence if you signed VDV thats all im saying.

 

[Mike.]

On the Hernandez thing i said he might struggle only because he had only 1 proper scoring season before joining Utd and i must have had some faith in him to put him in my Dream Team. I don't understand why you don't think i should be confident we are the current champions and i think we haven't seen the best from us yet.

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------



We had to pay 18million for Ramires because we had to pay off his former club Cruziero and he had a invester who had shares in him and the PL don't like this, thats the only reason we had to pay so much. Also Ozil was in his last year of his contract so Bremen either sold him for a cut price or lose him for nothing next season. And as for Mascherano he wanted out and Pool needed the money so the deal had to be done, and also Ramires isen't a bad player and has had a really good start. Im not knocking Bebe at all and i never said he wouldn't be a good player in the future but you need a playmaker now and it would have made more sence if you signed VDV thats all im saying.

not in the way we play. VDV attacks into the area Dimi plays in, theres only room for one in the side,and VDV wouldnt have come for rotation status

 

[sunilvk7]

We had to pay 18million for Ramires because we had to pay off his former club Cruziero and he had a invester who had shares in him and the PL don't like this, thats the only reason we had to pay so much. Also Ozil was in his last year of his contract so Bremen either sold him for a cut price or lose him for nothing next season. And as for Mascherano he wanted out and Pool needed the money so the deal had to be done, and also Ramires isen't a bad player and has had a really good start. Im not knocking Bebe at all and i never said he wouldn't be a good player in the future but you need a playmaker now and it would have made more sence if you signed VDV thats all im saying.

Portuguese media: Bebe cost fraction of £7.4 million quoted 27 October 2010 - 13:59 | Sport.co.uk

Manchester United reportedly paid considerably less than the £7.4 million quoted for Bebe according to reports in Portugal.

Eyebrows were raised in the summer when the Premier League giants signed Bebe for a reported fee of £7.4 million, particularly after Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed he had never seen the 20-year-old play before, yet the initial fee purported by the British media appears grossly exaggerated if Portuguese newspaper O Jogo is to be believed.

The Portuguese daily suggests Ferguson paid as little as £4.8 million for the former Victoria De Guimaraes starlet.

The report, picked up by talkSport, suggests Vitoria president Emilio Macedo was addressing an assembly of club associates when he revealed Manchester United had signed the precocious youngster for less than the initial fee quoted upon Bebe’s arrival at Old Trafford.

Bebe marked his full debut for Manchester United with a deflected goal during their 3-2 victory over Wolves at Old Trafford last night.

We payed so much as he signed for his club just 5 weeks back and according to reports we had to wrap it up as Madrid were also interested.

 

[CJACKO11]

not in the way we play. VDV attacks into the area Dimi plays in, theres only room for one in the side,and VDV wouldnt have come for rotation status

Lets be absolutely honest here, Berba has been better this season but really how much better?? He blows hot and cold and i would easily drop him for VDV without a dout.

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------

Portuguese media: Bebe cost fraction of £7.4 million quoted 27 October 2010 - 13:59 | Sport.co.uk



We payed so much as he signed for his club just 5 weeks back and according to reports we had to wrap it up as Madrid were also interested.

You could have had him for pennies last January lol, like i said im not knocking the boy as i have seen abit of him and he looks good but i just think you need a playmaker now not in a year or 2 time.

 

[Mike.]

Lets be absolutely honest here, Berba has been better this season but really how much better?? He blows hot and cold and i would easily drop him for VDV without a dout.

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------



You could have had him for pennies last January lol, like i said im not knocking the boy as i have seen abit of him and he looks good but i just think you need a playmaker now not in a year or 2 time.

well considering he has been vital to almost all approach play, and effective performs two roles at th esame time, dimi everyday