Premiership review 23rd November 2013

The Premiership returned yesterday after the international break and Arsenal beat Southampton by two goals to nil.

This was a good win as Southampton where third in the league. I am mightly relieved that Arsene Wenger took this game seriously. 

This win was also needed after the disappointing loss to Manchester United. 

This winning this game would has helped us to stay top of the league and continue in the winning mentality.

Which is so desparately needed after eight seasons of no trophies. I was pleased that Olivier Giroud got the goals.

As I think he has not had a good start to the season. So hopefully this will encourage him to be more confident in front of goal. 

Lastly this win has helped us to break our  poor November record where we have not had many wins in this month. 

 

Elsewhere Chelsea beat West Ham by three goals to nil and this win has put them in a top four position and and just four points behind Arsenal. 

I was surprised at the ease in which Chelsea beat West Ham as the rivalry between both clubs would make this kind of scoreline difficult to get. 

Lastly Liverpool drew three all to Everton and I was not suprised by this result has merseyside rivalries would make this a tough encounter. 

However I was suprised that Brendan Rogers named Kolo Toure as a sub and then didn't play him. 

I would have thought the Rogers would know how important Kolo his to the defence. 

Liverpool have not been conceding too many goals. That is I fully expect Kolo to be back in the back four in the next match.

So with Liverpool drawing and Arsenal winning it has extended Arsenal lead at the top to four points. Definitely exciting times if you are an Arsenal fan!

World Cup round up - playoffs

Some of the World Cup playoffs took place last night and France beat Ukraine by three goals to nil.

It was a fantastic come back for the French as they had lost the first leg by two goals to nil.

I was relieved that Didier Deschamps left Oliver Giroud on the bench, as I think that technically Giroud would have been ineffective last night.

 

It is credit to Didier Deschamps that he went for more attacking line up which helped them to win the match and qualify for Brazil 2014.

Elsewhere Ghana qualified for their third successive World Cup and which means Ghana are now going to Brazil 2014.

International Friendlies - review

The last of the international friendlies for the year took place yesterday and Germany beat England by a goal to nil.

To be fair it was always going to be an up hill struggle for England to beat Germany. What made it even harder for England was that Roy Hodgson could  not play all his first team players. 

For England it's the first time in over thirty years that they have lost two back to back friendlies and it goes to show that there are no easy games at this level. 

Naturally there will probably be the usual media uproar, but we are still about six months away from the start of the Brazil 2014.

 

 I think these two losses will give the players and  the fans a reality check for Brazil 2014. 

Elsewhere the reigning World Champions Spain where beaten one nil by South Africa.

 I was shocked by this result and thought either South Africa have made some real improvements or Spain had a very bad night but most likely a bit of both.

It was probably a wake up call for a team like Spain no to be too complacent and it does go to show that unexpected results can happen to the best or worst of teams.

World Cup - round up

The first leg of the of the play-off tie took place over the weekend France lost two nil to the Ukraine.

This was a bad result for France and they are really going to need to up their game if they want to qualify for the World Cup. 

 

I will be very surprised if Oliver Giroud can score the three goals they need to make it to Brazil 2014.

 

 Leaving Bacary Sagna on the bench was a bad move as he can defend as well as whip
those crosses in. 

 

So if they want to make it to the final they need to amend the line up and include Bacary Sagna. 

 

Elsewhere some the African teams played the second leg of the play-offs and this meant Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast all qualified for Brazil 2014.

International friendlies review 15 November 2013

England lost two nil to Chile and at home. At first I was surprised that the convincing way in which Chile beat England.

But after seeing the England line up and I was no longer surprised. The some of players that Roy Hodgson chose for this friendly.  Where mainly players who would struggle to get into their premiership team. 

 

This meant that it would have been unrealistic for England to beat Chile who had brought a much better team. 

England would have needed all their first team players to have any chance of winning this match.

Please check out the highlights to this match below. (commentating is in Russian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPbIjD8nhVI
 

Scotland drew nil nil with the USA and this result was a surprise. I thought there was going to be lots of goals and I also thought that USA where going to win. 

The USA brought a strong team to Scotland and Scotland after previously losing to the USA where determined that they would not be humiliated at home.

So I think the draw must have felt like win for Scotland and for the USA it must have felt like a loss,

 

International Friendlies

So the international friendlies are taking place today and England will take on Chile. Roy Hodgson has decided drop goalkeeper Joe Hart to the bench.

I  have never rated Joe Hart but the reality is, he is the only decent goalkeeper England have got. I think the result will be two goals one in England's  favour.

Scotland are playing the USA tonight and I think it will be a close win for the USA like England, USA  have already qualified for Brazil 2014. 

It should be a good game as Scotland will have nothing to prove and USA will want to be seen as potential champions in Brazil 2014.

Arsenal's season so far

As we are now on an international break, I thought it would be a good time to look at Arsenal's season so far.

The stats do not lie and Arsenal are in a better league position now than this time last year.

Arsene Wenger may have added a few new players, but the existing players have all started to play well especially Laurent Koscielny  and Aaron Ramsey.

Aaron Ramsey is scoring goals that has surprised fans far and wide. 

The end of summer signing Mesut Ozil has been a bit of relevation and his link up play has been second to none. 

So the area of the field that Arsenal still have a problem is upfront. We are still trying to walk the ball into the back of the net. It has been particularly hard for Oliver Giroud this season. 

I cannot see Arsene Wenger buying a striker in the January window so our bet is to hope Lucas Polodski returns from injury to partner Oliver Giroud. 

We are currently top of the league and how long we stay largely depends on when our injured players are coming back to help the squad to deliver our first trophy in eight years.