Wednesday Review

Portsmouth 1-1 Man Utd
The talked about starts of this season will be Spurs with two defeats and Man Utd with two draws. Both have been lacklustre and struggled with different line-up problems; Spurs lack a creative midfielder, and here Man Utd missed a centre forward. Tevez looked good on his debut, coming close several times, but United really miss the likes of Rooney or Saha making breaks forward. Perhaps The Purple One will dip into the transfer market before the month is out. An exciting match was marred by two stupid sendings off, Muntary and Ronaldo, both players in my Fantasy team.

Reading 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea looked more attacking, but made heavy work; yet again they went behind to a soft goal by a lesser side. Jose's "attacking philosophy" seems to be of the Keven Keegan "we'll score one more goal than you" school of thought. At least they're allowing the other team to score these days... Reading looked solid, and could've scored another couple - my prediction of them to struggle is looking pretty stupid right now.

Man City 1-0 Derby
A second win on the trot for Sven, courtesy of a Michael Johnson screamer. Derby looked feisty going forward, but looked decidedly Championship at the back. I'm not sure how much to read into Citteh's start, as they've only played a terrible West Ham and an early Derby prototype; Man Utd will prove to be more of a challenge - Ferguson's renowned hatred of Svennis will mean his side won't dare lose, or draw.

Sunderland 2-2 Birmingham
The most 80s match I've seen in years; Garry O'Connor's disgusting hair, Birmingham's badge, and both managers general demeanor are those of blokes not au fait with the Metrosexual 00s. Football-wise, the match was end to end stuff, gritty tackles, shonky defending, and battered goals. Not sure which of these two will fare better yet, but Michael Chopra's bizarrely fantastic form is pointing to the Mackems.

Wigan 1-0 Boro
From two teams who were in the Championship last season, to two who'll be there next season. A dreadful game, Sibierski's tenacity getting his second goal in two games, and giving Wigan all three points; which is more than the number of fans they had. Boro looked dire.

Fulham 2-1 Bolton
After Tony Warner's heroics against Arsenal, he made a Mad Jens-esque howler to allow Bolton to take the lead. David Healy scored a proper goal this time, and was denied a pretty solid penalty, before Smertin's fortunate deflection. Bolton looked poor; the new "on the deck" style of play seems to ill suit the players they've got.

Wednesday Preview

Busy Prem card, plus some European action (Liverpool are 1-0 up at Toulouse as I type).

Birmingham v Sunderland
Saturday had a good performance and a great result for these teams, scoring two at Stamford Bridge and beating Spurs, respectively. Both managers, friends at Old Trafford, will be viewing the other as a good chance to getting three points closer to safety. Sunderland's fluke last minute goal against Spurs in comparison to scoring two goals against Chelsea, means I'm plumping for Birmingham.
Verdict: Home

Fulham v Bolton
Fulham were solid against Arsenal on Saturday, playing a strong defensive game, though the absurd manner of their goal might leave questions surrounding their threat; David Healy will only take confidence from scoring, however. Bolton suffered a heavy defeat in their grudge match against Newcastle; they will have to rely on Nolan and Anelka performing here to have any hope.
Verdict: Home

Manchester City v Derby
Difficult to call. Man City were impressive on Saturday, but were playing West Ham. Derby could be the sort of team that will upset Sven's new boys.
Verdict: Home

Portsmouth v Manchester United
I can easily see Portsmouth winning this, which would be interesting, but I fancy Tevez to score on his debut.
Verdict: Away

Reading v Chelsea
Reading's performance against Man Utd, one of the most comprehensive man-to-man marking games I've ever seen, will have exhausted them, and they'll need to play much the same against Chelsea. Losing two goals against Birmingham is poor for Chelsea's standard of defending, but they should be stronger tonight.
Verdict: Away

Wigan v Middlesbrough
Two of my tips for relegation; all I can predict is the most miserable game of football ever. No doubt it'll be a six-all thriller having said that...
Verdict: Draw

I should be so Luque

Skysports report that Levante have pulled out of a deal to sign Albert Luque. I think this could be a good thing for Newcastle; Luque looked good in pre-season, and Big Sam has previous with the likes of Diouf and Anelka.

Stupid Rumours

First up, the BBC's gossip page:

Stupid:
Fulham can sign Sami Hyypia for £1.5m - if Liverpool can find a replacement for the defender. (The Sun)
- While he's not going to play every game, this is Liverpool's real weakness, in terms of strength in depth. Carragher and Agger are top quality, but they don't have any back-up there.

The Magpies are set to offer £4m for Everton's Phil Neville. (Various)
- Cascading from yesterday's rumours... Obviously, what's happened is that Big Sam's said to someone that he'd like a player like Phil Neville, and it's grown arms and legs up to the point where he's offering £4m for him. Everton are not going to sell their captain.
Everton will sign Manuel Fernandes on a fixed-term contract similar to the one that took Carlos Tevez to Manchester United. (Telegraph)
- Groan...
Wigan striker Emile Heskey may earn a recall for England's friendly against Germany on 22 August. (Daily Star)
- Words fail me.

Interesting:
West Ham have resurrected a £6m deal for Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer and he is expected to complete the move within days. (Daily Express)
- Finally, this would be good to clear up. Very, very good move for Newcastle.

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce is in talks with Barcelona's Brazilian full-back Juliano Belletti over a £3m move. (Daily Mail)
Bolton have reluctantly agreed to sell Senegal defender Abdoulaye Faye to Newcastle for £2m. (Daily Star)
- Big Sam realises what Glenn Roeder and Graeme Souness didn't; Newcastle need a defence. He's bought well so far, and cheaply.

From the Guardian's Rumour Mill:

Stupid:
Speaking of Brazilian full-backs, and don't stop us if you've heard this one before, Sam Allardyce is once again sniffing around Brazilian full-back Juliano Belletti. Not content with being the only manager in the world who thinks Barcelona is a place to go shopping for defenders, he'll also stop by Liverpool for a striker - poor neglected Peter Crouch.
- Newcastle just do not need any more centre forwards, do they? Where does this story come from? They were linked to him under Roeder.

The Sun's managed to find a new twist on Yakubu's imminent move to Everton. Apparently Toffees defender Joseph Yobo has "ordered" the Yak to join him on Merseyside, which is an interesting interpretation of Yobo's statement: "I'll be happy if he joins us".
- Yet another example of tabloid tittle-tattle.

Interesting:
If he [Big Sam]'s lucky he might even see Lawrie Sanchez while he's up there, since the Fulham boss is tying up a £1.5m deal for Sami Hyypiä.
- What happened to the Hyypia to Newcastle rumours? They still need a centre half or two, and he'd fit the bill, especially at that price.

From Football365:

Stupid:
NEVILLE FOR TOON? NOT REALLY
Sam Allardyce must be a busy man. The Independent says that, as well as Faye, the Newcastle manager is 'is interested in trying to sign Phil Neville'. However, it's a pretty poor piece of Transfer Gossip as Alllardyce is described as being 'realistic about his chances' of signing Neville. 'Neville, the captain of Everton, joined the Goodison Park club two summers ago and signed a five-year contract. At 30, Neville might be expected to cost up to £4m but Everton are not hard-pressed for cash and Neville is not the sort of player who would cause disruption at a club simply to engineer an exit. 'No bid has been made by Newcastle but if one does materialise by the end of this transfer window then Everton will have to inform the player and the situation could develop,' the newspaper says. 'Could develop'?! They really don't know how to write salacious transfer gossip, do they?
- Yet another example of broadsheet transfer tittle-tattle. See above, but this gets closer to what I was saying. Nonsense.

Interesting:
Derby chairman Peter Gadsby is considering reporting West Ham to the Premier League for an alleged illegal approach for Giles Barnes...
- Good on him.

Carragher

Steve McLaren has failed. In his bid to get Jamie Carragher to not retire, as much as the other things.

Two sides to this:

1. Carragher has handled his irritation with discretion and care; if he's not getting a game, and he disagrees with it, then he's done the right thing. Other players would have a go at the manager, he's kept his own counsel. Besides, Man Utd and Newcastle fans are incredibly glad at the decisions by Paul Scholes and Alan Shearer to retire; sitting at home with his family and resting, rather than flying to Russia and Isreal in a midweek to sit on the bench will do wonders for Carragher's fitness, and help Rafa's thin central defence back-up problem.

2. McClown has been a complete idiot yet again. Not content with the barn full of eggs on his face over dropping Beckham, then reselecting him, his constant ignorance of Jamie Carragher's form for Liverpool, even so far as selecting Ledley King ahead of him, has come back to haunt him with Tegsy out injured for the Germany game. The next England manager has to be someone with half a clue on how to manage players, not a red-faced monkey who filled out forms for Sven and The Purple One, before doing very averagely for Boro.

If it was me, I'd've gone out and slagged McClown off in the press, saying he doesn't know what he's doing, but that's not really in Carragher's character.

He strikes again

I always thought that the age-old Celtic and Rangers in the Premiership nonsense would get resolved once and for all, one way or the other, when a Welsh team, namely Cardiff, got into the Premiership, as has looked possible in the last few seasons. However, the BBC reports Cardiff are getting sued for a £30m loan, and I realise that it wasn't going to happen with Peter Ridsdale and his financial astuteness in charge there.

Tuesday Review

Tottenham 1-3 Everton
Tabloids will talk of a crisis at White Hart Lane, as Spurs crash to their second successive defeat, in a season which was supposed to offer them so much. On the evidence of this, it will still offer them much, but they are looking weak in midfield and at the back, especially with Kaboul limping off. Everton, on the other hand, looked strong and played some attractive football; Arteta was the conductor of this win, controlling the tempo, setting up most of the attacks. One concern for Everton is that their centre forwards aren't scoring yet; if Yakubu had been playing here, he would have linked with AJ better than Anichebe did. In summary, it's difficult to read too much into the second match of the season, but there were many periods where Spurs looked deadly, and even at 3-1 down, they looked like they could have still won the match.