A Little Lunacy!

2 games, 2 goals!

So another week, another round of matches done and dusted. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will the title be decided after 2 rounds, but early form suggests that Liverpool’s luck might just be an added advantage to them. Despite being second-best for most of the game and going down by a goal, the Reds somehow managed to nick all 3 points in the end. The big four except Arsenal, all won their fixtures this week. Here’s how it all went:

• Fulham shocked Arsenal with a 1-0 victory over the Gunners. Arsenal look very lightweight in midfield and their defense isn’t in great shape either. Arsene knows?

• Everton beat West Bromwich Albion by 2 goals to 1. Despite being very, very good in the Championship and being tipped as the most likely candidates to survive in the Premiership, the first two weeks of the season haven’t exactly given a reassurance to WBA.

• Same old, same old. New faces, same disjointed performance. Tottenham Hotspur lost again. This time going down 1-2 to Sunderland. French stiker Djibril Cisse scored on his debut for Roy Keane’s men.

• Stoke City turned the tables on Aston Villa by beating them 3-2. Villa were coming on the back of a good win against Manchester City, but the newcomers swiftly brought them back to earth.

• Newcastle United beat Bolton 1-0. Michael Owen scored, so apparently he is not injured. Yet.

• As mentioned earlier in this post, Liverpool rode their luck to win 2-1 against a spirited Middlesbrough side that went ahead thanks to the new leaner, meaner Mido. An incredibly lucky deflection brought Liverpool level and Steven Gerrard scored in the dying seconds with a good half-volley to win it.

• Blackburn and Hull City drew 1-1.

• Manchester City bounced back from their on-field and off-the-field problems to hand out a 3-0 thrashing to West Ham United.

• Manchester United beat Portsmouth 1-0. Darren Fletcher on the scoresheet. That tells you a lot, doesn’t it?

• Finally, Chelsea beat a plucky Wigan side 1-0 thanks to a sublime freekick from Deco.

Here’s how things stand at the moment:

Team standings after Week 2 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09

Here are the highlights of the Wigan vs Chelsea game. Don’t miss Deco’s freekick!!

Anoher week gone by. Chelsea on top. Can’t wait for the next round!

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Andriy Shevchenko.

AC Milan legend.

British record transfer.

Chelsea flop.

Now back to AC Milan for one last hurrah.

These lines efectively sum up Shevchenko’s career during the past few years. He arrived at Chelsea from AC Milan for a hefty amount and a massive reputation as Europe’s finest striker. He left yesterday with his reputation diminished and his confidence shattered. Not to mention being branded the Premier League’s most expensive flop ever.

The good old times...

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it appears to be a regular sale rather than a loan move. Whatever it is, it’s definitely something which will benefit both parties. Chelsea seem to have offloaded one of the highest earners at the club, thus significantly lowering the wage bill, Shevchenko on the other hand, will be hoping to rediscover his old form on the familiar hunting grounds of Italy.

Like most others, I had pretty high hopes from Shevchenko when he arrived at Stamford Bridge. But he failed to live up to the expectations. Injuries and the team’s unfavourable playing style hindered his game. But no one can point a finger at him for not trying. The man gave his all when playing in a Blue shirt. It wasn’t lack of effort by any means. His first season in English football didn’t go too well, and injuries took their toll on his second. I waited 2 years for him to finally come good and silence his critics, but guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Although he scored some cracking goals, most notably the one against Sp*rs, he just could not justify his price-tag and age was also catching up with him.

Did ya see that? Did ya? Did ya?

Anyways, he was one of my favourite players at the club. Never whined, nor complained about how he was treated at Chelsea. And if there’s one thing that’s missing in today’s footballers, it’s dignity. Sheva may not have shown his true ability, but he carried himself with dignity, unlike a few others at the club (Drogba, I’m looking at you). And now he has left in a dignified manner, without uttering anything against Chelsea, instead just expressing his delight (or was it relief?) on his return to Milan.

Here’s wishing him all the very best for his future and hoping that he’ll be remembered as an AC Milan legend, rather than a Chelsea flop.

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So the first round of the Barclays Premier League is over and most of the results were quite predictable. Here’s a roundup of this weekend’s action:

• Fulham suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of newcomers Hull City. Geovanni scored a corker.
• Arsenal just edged it 1-0 against another promoted side, West Bromwich Albion, with Samir Nasri marking his BPL debut with a goal.
• Middlesbrough beat Tottenham(or as some like to say, TopFour-enham) by a score of 2-1.
• Paul Ince’s Blackburn Rovers got off to a perfect start by beating Everton 3-2. Some very late drama there.
• Bolton Wanderers reminded Stoke City about the hardships of life in the top flight with a 3-1 win. Great (but a fluke) goal by Steinsson in this one.
• West Ham United beat Wigan Athletic by 2 goals to 1, thanks to a brace from Dean Ashton, who then got himself injured. Predictably.
• A lacklustre Liverpool scraped through against Sunderland by 1 goal to nil. Torres to the rescue!
• Agbonlahor scored a hat-trick as Aston Villa trounced Manchester City. 4-2 the score in that one.
• The two Uniteds – Manchester United and Newcastle United – played out a 1-1 draw.
• Ahh, and finally to the best result of the lot. Chelsea thumped Portsmouth 4-0.

And this is how the table looks like after the 1st round of matches:

Team standings after Week 1 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09

Take a bow, son. Take a bow.

Bosingwa looks like the real deal and could be the solution to the right-back problems that have plagued us for so long. As for Deco, the man has got a point to prove to his former club Barcelona and boy, is he on the right track! A man-of-the-match performance in midfield topped off with a debut goal. What more could you ask for?

Overall, Chelsea were a delight to watch, probably the best performance I’ve seen from them in a long time. Felipao seems to have removed the shackles from the players and given them a lot more freedom to express themselves. And the outcome was there to be seen. As they say, ‘It’s just like watching Brazil!’.

Hopefully there’s a lot more to come from this team over the course of the season and we’ll be at the top again, come May. CAREFREE!!

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