You know those really useful predictions everyone makes before the start of the football season? Don’t lie, you made them yourself, either on paper or indirectly to friends. Well guess what, they already took a hit this weekend; heck, my only prediction was short-sighted and that went wrong, saying assuredly that Aston Villa wouldn’t win at Stoke. No, I’ve been smart, savvy and football patient. I have bravely waited until after the first weekend of the Premier League season before making bold predictions.
Everyone is a pundit these days, even Michael Owen, so I am allowed to at least share my credible, or nonsensical winners and losers in black and white. Chelsea are going to win the Premier League first of all, so shall I get stuck into that?
They just beat Burnley 3-1! I hear you – OK I don’t actually hear you, smarty – but I can feel the cries of ‘but Burnley are newly promoted and favourites for relegation’. They surely are, but I also must remind you that Chelsea are favourites for the title. Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis, and let me throw in Didier Drogba for sentimental purposes, culminate in a huge upheaval, and with Thibaut Courtois ten years Petr Cech’s junior the future between the sticks, the Blues look like giving every other team the, uh, blues.
How risqué of me. There is a lot of pressure on the Special One, the Funny Sounding One, the Take-The-Mickey-Out-Of-Arsene-Wenger One. He didn’t win a single trophy last season – the scandal must end! – And second place will not do. This is not Arsenal, as Jose loves to point out. If I let Mourinho into my exclusive predictions league, one thing he would never do is predict Wenger will be sacked for not winning the title. Back to the Stamford Bridge outfit, and their opening win over Burnley showed us all one unmistakable thing that was missing last campaign – a potent and dangerous attack. Technically that’s two things rolled into one but that may work as Fabregas and Costa link up in what I believe has flown hugely under the radar this summer.
Maybe it’s the good weather we experienced on these shores – young reader in China, I type these words of wisdom from London, England – or the World Cup which shadowed Fabregas’ switch to west London. The Spanish international is one of the best midfielders we have seen in the Premier League era. I should know, I was born the year it was formed, so I am its longest serving fan. Fabregas, perhaps under-appreciated at Barcelona because of the Nou Camp’s uncanny ability to have too many good players, didn’t achieve all that he set out for when he returned home to La Masia from Arsenal. He wanted to win trophies, and he did, but not to the scale he targeted. Six trophies in three seasons; but only one La Liga title and no Champions League medal. At Chelsea I expect him to win more. He is scarily good, carrying the ability to penetrate defences but also hold sturdy in front of a back four. Fabregas has even played as a false striker for Spain – honestly, what does that even mean; if you are a striker you are a striker – so if Costa decides he is going to replicate the form of past Chelsea great Andrey Schevchenko and current fan favourite Fernando Torres, the former Arsenal man can step into the breach. Damn it, I forgot about big Didier. Well, he isn’t so big anymore.
Costa might not know his true nationality or what a pukka pie in the north of England really tastes like, but he sure can find the net. He scored on his league debut at Turf Moor following a good preseason, and despite my thinking that his face looks somewhat like an aging brute, he is quick and intelligent off the ball, deadly and menacing on it. If I wanted to get technical, like the aforementioned Owen, I could even say he is ‘on the ball’ at this point.
Unlike others, I really do hope Arsenal challenge once again domestically. Man City will be looking to win back-to-back titles, a feat hard to come by without the help of Sir Alex Ferguson, who will surely be blamed in some way if Dutchman Louis Van Gaal doesn’t do any better than Sir David Moyes at Manchester United. Wait, Moyes wasn’t knighted for his heralded decade at Goodison Park? The travesty.
I will write more on these teams, and my beloved Aston Villa in the weeks to come. My blood is boiling for several reasons, topped by the return of right-back Alan Hutton. Alan Hutton. The enigma. And more importantly, the guy Paul Lambert shunned to the reserves, loaned out to Spain, even Bolton, as long as he was nowhere near Villa Park. Well the Scottish international – that title is either a drawn out joke on Hutton’s behalf or a joke of the standard of football north of the border – is back, surely diminishing any credibility Lambert actually had left, and will be on the forefront of my next edition.
Thanks for reading, and keep it real. As real as you feel real is.
