So it is nearly halfway through the season in England, with the exception of this coming weekend and some games to be made up due to weather. There have been many surprises to this point, both positive surprises but also many disappointments. For those of you who don't know (which is probably nobody who reads this on a regular basis), I am a big time United fan. So obviously, I am loving that. However, that isn't really that big of a surprise being that they have been there before. Three surprise stories so far in the Premiership are:
1.) Owen Coyle, Stuart Holden and the re-emergence of Bolton Wanderers - After Bolton's run in the 2007-2008 UEFA Cup, in which they earned a famous result away to Bayern, got the first ever European win at Red Star Belgrade (for any team), and defeated Atletico Madrid in the round of 32, they fell down and became a team that seemed to be struggling for survival year after year. Owen Coyle took over the team in January and revived the team from a near-bottom position last year to finish 14th and looking forward to this season. Bolton had one of the best transfer summers of any team in the Premier League, picking up American Stuart Holden, Martin Petrov and Rodrigo Moreno, which replenished their midfield options. They have picked up results against Manchester United, Everton and Aston Villa, while getting big victories against Newcastle and Tottenham. They currently sit 7th in the table, 1 point back of 5th, and have the 5th most goals scored and 5th highest goal differential. They were predicted by most people to finish in the bottom half of the table and while there is a lot left to be played for in England, Bolton looks to lock up another trip back in a European competition for the first time since that memorable run in 2008.
2.) Tottenham's Impressive Debut in the Champions League - With last year's strong finish to fourth, they qualified for their first ever UEFA Champions League. After they made it through a tough tie to qualify for the group stages, the draw put them against Defending European Champions, Inter Milan, as well as Dutch Champions FC Twente and a strong German outfit, Werder Bremen. Spurs were picked by most experts to go 2nd or 3rd in the group. However, with the help of Gareth Bale and new signing Rafael van der Vaart, Tottenham were able to get home wins against each team in their group, as well as 2 away results. The one game they didn't get a result from was away to Inter, in which they were down 4-0 after 30 minutes and came all the way back to 4-3 after a second half, Gareth Bale hat trick. They finished top of their group and were "rewarded" with a knockout stage tie with another Italian giant, AC Milan. Regardless of how they do against Milan, Tottenham can be proud of their performance thus far in their first ever Champions League.
3.) The Disappointment of West Ham - By no means were the Hammers supposed to be near top half finishers this season, but the start of the 2010-2011 season has been a complete embarrassment for the East London side. They are bottom of the table with only 13 points through 18 games. They have conceded the most goals, and have the worst goal differential of any team in the Premiership. Only one team has ever recovered from being bottom at Christmas, to survival at the end of the season (West Brom's Great Escape - 2005). It doesn't get any better, with talks of Avram Grant near the sack at the club. Although they were able to get a great 4-0 win against Manchester United, that did come in the Carling Cup and unfortunately does not help their league position at all. It is going to be a tough fight from now until May for West Ham.
Although I have not seen every game so far, however I have seen a lot, I feel I can pick a First XI team that represents the majority of performances this season. My team is as follows:
GK: Tim Howard (Everton)
DEF: Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)
DEF: Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United)
DEF: Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)
DEF: Gareth Bale (Tottenham)
MF: Samir Nasri (Arsenal)
MF: Stuart Holden (Bolton)
MF: Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham)
FWD: Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United)
FWD: Andy Carroll (Newcastle)
FWD: Danny Welbeck (Sunderland)
Subs: Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Rafael da Silva (Manchester United), Johan Elmander (Bolton), Florent Malouda (Chelsea)
No comments:
Post a Comment