Premier League Game of the Week: Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea

Don’t adjust your eyes the Champions League final does not take place for almost three weeks but the finalists of the 2021 edition did play each other over the weekend.

Chelsea came out as victors as they came back from a goal down to beat City 2-1 at the Etihad. Don’t be fooled to just brush off this match either just because it is inevitable that City will win the league this season. Arguably it is Chelsea who are the best side in England right now and they will want to extend that to the rest of Europe by the end of this month.

Manchester City’s 5th defeat of the season almost feels like it has been glossed over but this loss did feel important. Chelsea have been superb since Thomas Tuchel took over as manager from the sacked Frank Lampard at the end of January and the club have lost just 1 game in the Premier League since he took the job. Indeed Tuchel’s win rate is currently at 68% and he has won 17 games from the 25 coached so far.

As for the game City were installed as the favourites to win, being at home, wanting to lay down a marker before the Champions League final and of course a victory for City would mean the league title. All was going well until Sergio Aguero’s penalty….

Raheem Sterling opened the scoring on the 44th minute when he seemed to intercept an Aguero chance but took the ball himself and City were a goal up. It had been a dominant half from the home side and Chelsea had only managed 1 shot on target. In injury time of the first half it seemed that this game would be wrapped up when City were awarded what looked like a soft penalty.

Aguero put himself forward to take the penalty, here was the man who historically won City the league title with the final kick of the season a decade ago and could seal another with a penalty kick. However an over confident Aguero chose to use the method of the paneka and chipped the ball softly to the centre of the goal. When it comes off the striker looks super cool and the goalkeeper looks like a fool. When it doesn’t reverse that statement. Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy who has been outstanding for the club this season simply stood his line and easily saved the spot kick. Aguero looked a tad embarrassed and the whistle went for half time. Chelsea should have been out of the game but were instead in with a chance of a comeback and that is what materialised.

This would be a game of two halves and in the 2nd half Chelsea showed all of their qualities and it is why City will be worried ahead of the Champions League final, because in that second period Chelsea were by far the better team.

The Blues equalised just after the hour mark through Hakim Ziyech. He shot from the edge of the area and found a sweet point to beat Ederson in goal and it was game on.

With 10 minutes to go Callum Hudson-Odoi thought he had put the visitors in the lead but his goal was rightly ruled out for offside. But Chelsea would get their winner.

Timo Werner set up the ball for Marcos Alonso in a clever move and Alonso’s beautiful shot wrapped up the game and Chelsea had won it.

For Chelsea they have been chasing a top four spot for the majority of the season but their fantastic form means they are in 3rd place now and will probably finish in that position. But there will be a lot of confidence within the squad when they face City again in a few weeks time for the grandest of all club prizes.

As for City they must wait for the title. It could be awarded to them tonight if Manchester United lose at home to Leicester or Liverpool in a couple of days time. Failing that City will play Newcastle United away from home at the weekend and they will be the favourites to win that match.

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Premier League Game of the Week: Tottenham 4-0 Sheffield United

Gareth Bale was the hero of the weekend for Tottenham as the Welshman scored a superb hat-trick as Tottenham thumped bottom side Sheffield United 4-0.

Bale was the talk of the game of course and after getting the nod to start by interim manager Ryan Mason he grabbed that chance and did all of his talking on the pitch. Too often this season Bale was used as a scapegoat for some of Tottenham’s poor performances but if he goes back to Real Madrid this summer it is almost certain that he will leave the Premier League being able to look at himself in the mirror.

There’s been a lot of criticism thrown at Bale since his loan back move to Tottenham but let’s remind ourselves that with the three goals at the weekend he has scored 9 times in the Premier League and 14 times in all competitions not a bad record when you read some of the accusations thrown at the 31 year old.

The goals did not start until the 35th minute as the Blades had frustrated the home side up until then. Serge Aurier assisted in the first goal with a fine lobbed pass which caught out Sheffield United’s defence and the ball found a charging Bale who neatly lobbed the goalkeeper. Tottenham deserved their goal and that had been their 5th shot on target for the half against the Blades who had had zero. The half ended 1-0.

Heung-Min Son thought that he had made it 2-0 a few minutes into the second half but his effort was ruled out for offside. However just pass the hour mark Tottenham had doubled the lead when Son broke clear and squared the ball to Bale who only had the keeper to beat, still from 20 yards out Bale composed himself at speed and smashed the ball into the top right corner.

Bale completed his hat-trick seven minutes later with a shot from the edge of the area. Pumped full of confidence Bale was more than happy to take his chances and everything was turning into gold for the midfielder.

Son who had worked so hard the entire game got the goal of the game to make it 4-0 soon after. He turned wickedly beating his defender and smashed the ball home, a fine goal that will get better and better with each viewing.

The win for Tottenham puts them on 56 points and they are 5 points behind 4th placed Chelsea. The club have a small chance of a top four finish and at least with this victory have kept that dream alive.

As for interim coach Ryan Mason that’s 2 league wins from two and 6 goals scored and 1 conceded not such a bad start for him.

Tottenham will try to make it 3 wins in a row in the league when they play Leeds United away from home this weekend.

Sheffield United are relegated already and they will play Crystal Palace at home next. The Blades are 9 points behind 19th placed West Bromwich Albion and look set to finish last in the Premier League for this season.

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Iheanacho and Maddison have become the main players at Leicester City this season

Leicester City are the club that are simply here to stay and try and improve themselves by each passing season. Forget the incredible 2016 league title that no one saw coming. As amazing as it was the Foxes have always had a longer agenda which is not only to climb to the top of the mountain but to try and stay there too. This season is proving that Brendan Rodgers side have no plans of a descent.

Leicester are 3rd in the Premier League and hoping to qualify for the Champions League but they have also reached the final of the FA Cup. Now this is significant given that they are 90 minutes away from winning a trophy. The Foxes will face Chelsea one of the best in form sides in Europe but still there is a chance if they are able to click on the day. Leicester have never won the FA Cup and this will be their first final since 1969.

But there are a few players that have really driven the side this season. Jamie Vardy as ever will always get mentioned first, he is a bona fide Leicester legend and will certainly leave his mark on Premier League history when he retires. Vardy started the season in brilliant form but it has to be said that the striker has faded in the second half of the season. He is all about scoring goals and he hasn’t scored since February 13th when Leicester beat Liverpool 3-1. Indeed that has been his only league goal for the club this year so far.

Is club legend Vardy starting to struggle? it seems so but then again it would be wrong to write him off. Because of his fantastic start he is still ranked as the best fantasy player to have for the Foxes and has 65 points- that’s 9 more than the second best player and let’s remember that Vardy has still scored 13 goals and made 7 assists, far from a poor season, but certainly a poor run at this time.

So if Vardy is the captain of the ship who has been steering Leicester into elite waters? This seems mostly to have fallen upon two players. The first is James Maddison who has scored some very important goals this season and has played with total dedication in midfield. Maddison has earned 56 points and has probably scored the goals that Vardy should have been cleaning up with in previous seasons. He has assisted in 8 goals and been involved in 14 in total.

The real revelation though has been Kelechi Iheanacho. Here is a player that has promised much in the past but hasn’t always consistency delivered. The striker though seems to have picked up fantastic form the moment Vardy lost his and has been key to Leicester’s successes this season and still holding a top 4 position as we come to the end of April.

Iheanacho has scored 8 goals, though because it was one game after another it seems that he has scored double that. He has been a saving grace in many ways for the Foxes and one has to wonder if Leicester would have stayed the course without these two players performing to the level they have done so with Vardy’s drop of form?

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Premier League Game of the Week: Chelsea 2-5 West Bromwich Albion

Curse those international breaks, this is what Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was probably thinking when the final whistle sounded at Stamford Bridge this past weekend. But this was a game that looked over and out at least 20 minutes before the end.

West Bromwich Albion defeating Chelsea away from home was something, a shock, a surprise on a certain level. It can happen. But scoring 5 goals, that simply was not expected and the result was easily up there with Aston Villa putting 7 goals past Liverpool earlier in the season. It was mammoth and it had Tuchel fuming and Baggies manager Sam Allardyce laughing and grinning like a Cheshire cat. It was a small beautiful moment in a season, which for West Brom has looked desperate and toothless.

It’s always a surprise when one third of the game has gone without goals and then there were 7 but that was almost the case with this match and the goals didn’t arrive until the 27th minute and it would be predictably the home team that would open the scoring through Christian Pulisic. Marcos Alonso produced a near brilliant free kick that the keeper could not take hold of and Pulisic was in the right place at the right time to tap in from only a few yards out.

It is worth mentioning by this time that Thiago Silva of Chelsea had already been booked for holding, because just two minutes later he received his second booking and was sent off for a challenge that had actually happened after the ball was struck. The challenge looked nasty and was two footed but one could also believe that there was no malice intended, it didn’t matter though and Chelsea were now down to 10 men.

Everything was to change in injury time of the first half, something quite spectacular indeed, and it is this unpredictable nature of the Premier League which probably makes it the best competition in Europe- barring the fact of course that Manchester City are running away with the league.

West Brom’s Sam Johnstone looping pass found an unmarked Matheus Pereira who then looped the ball past Edouard Mendy in goal and on the 45th minute +1 it was 1-1. Pereira wasn’t finished yet though. There was chaos in the Chelsea defence as West Brom came forward again and despite there being 3 defenders in front of Pereira his shot still went past them and into the back of the net. Suddenly West Brom were heading into the break 2-1 up.

True you could argue that Chelsea had had the better chances of the first half but West Brom had not come here to defend and park the bus like many would have expected, and they remained a constant threat and had chances of their own. Even still Chelsea remained the favourites to go on and win the game despite being reduced to 10 men. That myth was busted within 20 minutes of the 2nd half re start.

There would be no 2-2 score line and then the inevitable Chelsea come back, West Brom firstly went 3-1 up and then 4-1 up. It felt like madness on paper but in reality was grounded in hard work and a desire to win a game that nobody thought would be possible for Allardyce’s side.

Callum Robinson slotted in a beautiful third and when Mbaye Diagne soon after scored a fourth goal for the Baggies, this was suddenly looking very easy for the away side who are in 19th place.

West Brom did show some vulnerabilities at the back, and this is why they could get relegated this season to let in Chelsea for 2-4 when the Blues easily picked them off and the goal was finished by the impressive Mason Mount from just a few yards out. Suddenly a threat from the home side was there, this is a game that Chelsea could possibly draw. But it was the away side that needed these points.

But as the time went on Chelsea were not able to find the chances in the final third to create much danger and then Robinson scored his 2nd of the game, perhaps the finest of the encounter with a beautiful little dip beating the keeper for an incredible 5-2 victory.

Chelsea lost their first game in over 2 months and Tuchel has faced his first taste of defeat in the Premier League. The result is a blow to the Blues top 4 chances too and they saw West Ham pass them for 4th place and the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham have edged nearer.

As for West Brom, well Sam Allardyce has never been relegated with his teams and perhaps the great escape is on. It would indeed be the greatest given how West Brom are in 19th with 21 points and are 8 points from safety with just 24 left to play.

Let’s take a look at the latest betting odds for relegation in the Premier League.

Sheffield United 1/500

West Bromwich Albion 1/25

Fulham 8/11

Newcastle 11/10

Burnley 16/1

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Premier League: Best 11 Players of Week 29

Because it was FA Cup weekend only 4 of the scheduled 10 Premier League games took place over the weekend but there were still some very significant results.

Tottenham bounced back after a nightmare week as they stepped up their top 4 hopes with victory over Aston Villa. The most thrilling game though involved Tottenham north London neighbours in another London derby as Arsenal came back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 against West Ham.

Brighton won their 2nd game in a row and they have pushed 6 points clear of the bottom three as a result.

Let’s look at the players that made the team of the week.

Goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris- Tottenham 7pts

After a disappointing week for the club the captain would have been happy to have secured his 10th clean sheet of the season as Tottenham got back to winning ways to beat Aston Villa 2-0 away from home. Lloris now has 48 points.

Defender: – Sergio Reguilon Tottenham 5pts

Sergio Reguilon has been one of the best defenders in the league this season and he was alert and focused as Tottenham beat Aston Villa 2-0. He has now helped to keep six clean sheets.

Defender: Lewis Dunk- Brighton 5pts

Lewis Dunk really stood out for Brighton as they achieved a fantastic and much needed 3 points at the weekend by beating Newcastle 3-0. Dunk helped to keep a clean sheet and his value is is 7m and he is rated as the best Brighton defender.

Defender: Ben Davies- Tottenham 5pts

Ben Davies had a solid game for Tottenham when he came on for Reguilon in the 2nd half. Davies could be called upon and was so effective that Aston Villa were not able to come back into the game when he was brought on.

Defender: Joel Veltman- Brighton 7pts

Joel Veltman was at the heart of Brighton’s team performance. The defender helped to keep a clean sheet as he saw his side beat Newcastle 3-0. He also assisted in the first goal which got the ball rolling. Veltman now has 27 points and his value is 7.5m.

Midfielder: Neal Maupay- Brighton 6pts

Neal Maupay scored his 8th goal of the season as his goal helped Brighton on their way to beat Newcastle. It was a huge win for the club who with that victory have been able to move six points clear of the bottom three.

Midfielder: Jesse Lingard- West Ham 6pts

Jesse Lingard has had a very positive start to his career as a West Ham player. Lingard opened the scoring against Arsenal and then assisted two minutes later for the 2nd goal. Lingard has already since January, been involved in seven goals and scored 5 of them.

Midfielder: Lucas Moura- Tottenham 4pts

Lucas Moura assisted in Tottenham’s opening goal and that was the midfielder’s third of the season so far. Moura with 38 points is ranked as the best midfielder for the club and pulled 8 points clear of Tanguy NDombele.

Midfielder: Raphinha- Leeds United 4pts

Many expected Fulham to pull together another win as they are battling hard in relegation but Leeds pulled off a great victory by beating Fulham 2-1.Raphinha scored the winning goal and he now has six goals so far this season.

Striker: Patrick Bamford- Leeds United 5pts

Patrick Bamford scored the other goal for Leeds as they beat Fulham 2-1. That was Bamford’s 14th goal of the season and he has also assisted six times in what has been a superb season for the player so far. Bamford now has 68 points overall.

Striker: Harry Kane- Tottenham 4pts

Harry Kane was back to his best as he converted a penalty for Tottenham which secured their win and ended up being the winning goal as they bounced back to beat Aston Villa 2-1 after a miserable week for the club. That was Kane’s 17th goal of the season.

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Premier League Game of the Week: Liverpool 0-1 Fulham

This game between Liverpool and Fulham only had 1 goal, but what a significant and history making game it was all the same.

You see Liverpool have never lost 5 games in a row at home before, but that’s old news. The defeat to Fulham made it six games in a row, Liverpool in their 139 year history have, at least for this period, never looked so poor. This is all the while astonishing given that for the past 18 months the club has arguably been the best club side in the world. How funny and quite complex football can be and the implosion of this great club chortles along at rapid speed.

So devastating has Liverpool’s form been that one has to question if they will be playing in the Champions League next season? This comes after reaching the final in 2018 and winning the competition the year after. The defeat to Fulham has left Liverpool 7 points adrift of a top four place and for now they look out of contention. However surely one would assume with the players that the Reds boast they will find their swagger again before the end of the season to recharge their batteries.

For now the game at Anfield swung on a different story and that was Fulham’s possible survival. The Cottagers have looked destined for a speedy return to the Championship for much of the season but since December Scott Parker has got his troops pointing in the right direction. Their hunger and desire has been brilliant albeit the majority of their results in the past three months have ended in draws, but by and large they are picking up points here and there and avoiding defeats. That’s how you survive in arguably the worlds most competitive league.

The only goal of the game in which Fulham would win 1-0 came just before half time. Mario Lemina was today’s hero for Parker’s side he had a bit to do but the ball was nicely set up for him in the area and he was able to score with relative ease. Up until the goal it was Fulham who were on the front foot, this in itself seems bizarre that the Cottagers would have chances and time on the ball at Anfield and indeed Liverpool would finish the game with just 3 shots on target.

Inevitably Liverpool had their best moments in possession in the 2nd half but made no real threat on goal in the final third and had just 1 real chance in this period. It was another limp display from the champions and for Fulham more glory on Merseyside given that they had beaten Everton here a few weeks ago by 2-0.

Will Fulham stay up? The omens are looking good for Parker’s team because of the fight they have shown and they have reduced a seven point gap to just goal difference over Brighton. Fulham could also have a challenge at Newcastle in 16th place given that the Magpies are only 1 point in front of Fulham.

As for Lemina that was his first goal of the season and scoring the winning goal against the champions he would have taken that to be his debut of the campaign.

If you beat the champions surely that will only reinforce the belief that you are going to stay up. Brighton, Newcastle and even perhaps Burnley in 15th place will be on high alert and the last few weeks of the Premier League season will be unmissable.

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Premier League Game of the Week: Arsenal 4-2 Leeds United

Arsenal won their first game since January 26th by beating Leeds United 4-2 and the day was capped off as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick. Aubameyang much like Arsenal this season has underperformed so it was a nice symmetry to proceedings and the Gunners will now have one eye on a European finish after their 10th win of the season.

Aubameyang scored the opening goal of the game with just 13 minutes played as he used quick feet on the edge of the area to shoot into goal and that set the game up for the Gunners. Five minutes before half time and it was 2-0 to Arsenal as Illan Meslier was adjudged to have fouled Bukayo Saka. Whilst it did look like a penalty on repeated views the keeper made next to no contact. Aubameyang made no mistakes in slotting home.

It looked like Arsenal would head into half time with a 2 goal lead but Hector Bellerin an unlikely player to score made it 3. The player burst through and from an acute angle tried his luck and it went in. Leeds also had their chances but Marcelo Bielsa’s side found themselves 3-0 down and this game looked over.

If the match wasn’t finished by the end of the first half it certainly was two minutes into the second half as Aubameyang again scored to complete his hat-trick. He headed in from an unmarked position and to be fair this was a simple goal for the forward, and now it was 4-0.

However this is Leeds, and the way the club play means that they can always get score goals. Perhaps Arsenal could be accused of taking their foot off the gas a little but Leeds started to enjoy more of the ball and chances soon after and pulled a goal back through Pascal Struijk. Raphinha had assisted from the corner and Struijk rose high above the Arsenal defence to put in.

On the 69th minute Leeds scored another through a smart move finished off by Helder Costa now it was 4-2 and there was a small chance perhaps that Leeds were going to stage a dramatic comeback.

However it wasn’t to be and to their credit Arsenal defended well and held on. It was a mature performance from Arsenal who showed their attacking abilities in the first half and apart from a few errors were then able to shore up defence. We have seen in the past from Mikel Arteta’s side how they have failed to keep a lead so this was an important result for the Gunners.

Arsenal leap frogged Leeds with this win and have 34 points. They are only six points adrift of a possible European place and 2 points behind their arch rivals Tottenham albeit that Jose Mourinho’s team has an extra game to play.

As for Leeds they slipped down to 11th but the club will be more than safe this season and have 32 points.

Arsenal will play league leaders Manchester City next weekend at home and that is sure to be quite a spectacle whilst Leeds are away to Wolves and Wolves would overtake Bielsa’s side with victory.

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Have David Gold and David Sullivan won West Ham fans over with David Moyes?

The tension filled relationship between West Ham’s owners David Gold and David Sullivan and the fans of the club is actually legendary. Hate is a strong word that really shouldn’t be used but in this case it feels that the Hammers fans really have no time for the clubs owners.

In the past games have been stopped because fans have wanted answers as to how the club is being run. Managers have been sacked good players have been sold and the final straw seemed to be when the owners decided to move stadium.

The new stadium was used of course for the London Olympics and whilst it is double the capacity of the clubs old stadium the Boleyn Ground fans have complained that it lacks the intimate atmosphere. They would be right. On the other side though change is good and usually is something that is inevitable especially in football.

Fans were outraged once more when at the end of 2019 David Moyes was announced as the new manager. This is the same manager that the same club had sacked just over a year previously. Inevitably life started bad under Moyes and the fans seemed very justified in berating the board for making obvious mistakes.

But slowly and surely towards the end of the season and when the pandemic hit West Ham went on a good run and finished the season quite strong. And yet this season was seen as the one where the club would return to the Championship.

West Ham were toothless in their first game of the season losing 2-0 at home to Newcastle United. However since then the club have largely been flawless. They have climbed up to 4th in the league and after 20 games already have 35 points. As a reference point last season the club finished in 16th position with 39 points from 38 games.

Moyes has worked tirelessy behind the scenes to make things better on the pitch. The Scotsman was once known for digging in deep and resting on his laurels but this West Ham team attack and they have upset many teams along the way. They have beaten the likes of Wolves, Leicester, Chelsea and drew with Manchester City, the improvement has been significant and for now West Ham seem to be going in the right direction.

Now how does this sit with the demanding fans? Well they seem to have gone quiet at the same time it’s hard to know the real scope of fans’ thought without scouring online club forums with fans of course not allowed to attend matches. But it seems that Gold and Sullivan as controversial owners as they have been have made the right choice in appointing Moyes again. It should have gone predictably wrong for the Hammers, but hard work pays dividends and one can say this has been the case for the Londoners.

Below we will take a look at the best players this season for West Ham and right now the club look like having their best season in the top flight since the 1986 season when they finished in 3rd place.

Aaron Cresswell

Aaron Cresswell has amassed an impressive 34 points playing in defence and has helped to keep seven clean sheets. He isn’t his job to score goals and since he has zero we can’t complain on that front but he has assisted in 5 goals which is very impressive.

Michail Antonio

Michail Antonio seems to be getting better by age and is a real quality striker on his day. So far this season he has scored 5 goals from 12 games. He does have a tendency to get injured and miss periods of the season but he holds the ball up well and isn’t just used as an out and out striker.

Angelo Ogbonna

Ogbonna now has 29 points and has helped to keep seven clean sheets at home. For a defender he has done well too as he has scored twice this season and overall he has been one of West Ham’s most important players.

Pablo Fornals

Let’s be honest Pablo Fornals debut season with the club was underwhelming, and much was expected. But he is working hard behind the scenes and that seems to be paying off for this season. He has 24 points and his value is 7m. He has been involved in 4 goals this season.

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What’s happening to the Premier League after Project Big Picture, the Super League and pay per view?

As far as public relations go it hasn’t been a great month for the English Premier League. From meetings involving only the elite clubs or the so called big six, to a super league and now pay per view TV fans and clubs will rightly be questioning just what is going on with the most popular league in the world?

Project Big Picture was halted in its tracks earlier this month but as most observers have commented it isn’t dead in the water and will most probably resurface with different negotiations. But something else has now surfaced from those initial meetings with the big six clubs which is that the other 14 Premier League clubs were not notified of the first meeting. Simply being kept in the dark, which is odd in that in this day and age that is a hard thing to do, and so it proved. There is also a feeling of us and them and that cannot be good for the league even if it is good for the big six.

And who are the big six? Liverpool historically are and certainly in the last 18 months have reinforced that fact by winning .the Champions League and the league title, but it took them 30 years to win the latter. Manchester City would have been laughed out of the big six room 8 years ago, but wealth has landed them a meeting, and true they have won plenty of league titles now to be included. Chelsea’s strengths seem more fitted to the 2000s than the past decade and indeed in the present day but there are enough kids donning their shirts and the club still has the power to buy some of Europe’s best players.

Manchester United are with Liverpool the biggest club in England, so it feels like a no brainer to include them, but they have also been a shadow of their great sides for the past seven years. And then we have the curious cases of both Arsenal and Tottenham. History is putting them in that room because Arsenal have not won a league title for 16 years and next year Tottenham will be celebrating 50 years without a league title. Whilst a club like Everton for example may not be in favour wouldn’t the Merseyside team have a good shout of being in the room compared to Tottenham?

There is also talk of a European Super League. Money is king in football and the clubs taking part will become mega rich, winners of the competition could walk away with over £100m. In essence a super league would feel like the present day Champions League except there is one sticking point, there will be no relegation or promotion. Whilst one could expect the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona to participate,what value do the other teams have, except for being really good in this present time to qualify?

With no promotion though it means that teams in Europe who do not make the elite cut will always feel second rate and will always end up with second rate players. There will be no hope although domestic leagues could become more competitive as teams out of the top 5 would strive to upset the ‘balance of the elite’. Also going back to England, they have initially been quoted 5 clubs for the Super League. So which big six club misses out? Questions questions. A Super League wouldn’t mean the end of the Champions League though but a re branding where the top teams simply would not take part. But UEFA will be frustrated and sadden if this goes ahead, as they will lose sponsor power and an undermining of their elite competition- but how can they react?

There is an agreement in place until the 2024 edition of the Champions League so one would think that a Super League couldn’t start until 2025, but this is football and anything can happen.

Finally the pay per view nonsense has to stop, and this isn’t in favour of the fans. In England Sky and BT have never shown every Premier League game live and the PPV is only about showing those extra games that wouldn’t normally be shown live to fans for an extra fee. There seems little wrong with it, although the price does seem unfair. At £14.95 per game that seems quite steep to just watch one match on television. One hopes that the price will be lowered but die hard fans are not helping that fact given that PPV viewing figures are showing that 40,000 are watching each game- so for the clubs this is a huge success. The aim was always to have roughly the same viewing figures as the attendance in grounds.

A future worry for PPV would be if clubs get greedy with television and decide that the biggest games will no longer be free. After already paying a subscription to a service this would feel like a hard slap in the face. Could we for example have a PPV situation where Manchester City and Liverpool are playing each other in a title crunch game?

Given that even the Champions League final isn’t shown on terrestrial TV anymore nothing can be ruled out of a game which has sadly turned to opportunism and greed bang in the middle of a pandemic.

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Chelsea back on track but is star striker Timo Werner struggling?

After Chelsea destroyed a very good Crystal Palace side 4-0 the Blues look back to form and focused after a shaky start. The victory has put Chelsea into 7th place and they are now just two points behind the top four. It was a game that means the club have gone unbeaten for the last two.

The 4-0 score line was obviously one sided and Chelsea deserved their win but without looking at the scorers list you could have been forgiven that at least one of the goals had come from star striker Timo Werner, but sadly that wasn’t the case. One has to bring up the question is Germany’s number 1 choice struggling in the Premier League?

True it is very early days and some strikers do take time to adapt. Chelsea have brought in so many different faces that as a team the club are expected to take time to gel together, but football is a business and sport that doesn’t allow too much time. The league is a month old and Werner has hardly made an impact.

Werner has scored in the Carabao Cup but in the Premier League he is yet to register a goal. Is that cause for concern? Many would say no, but the player himself just like any other striker will be worried that he hasn’t got that first goal. Strikers live for goals and it is what gives them confidence to get more and play better.No Chelsea fan wants to be reminded of the likes of two great strikers who failed at the club in Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres. And that is the key here just because you are a world class striker doesn’t mean every club and every league can fit into your game.

Werner has 1 assist for a goal in the four games that he has played and most damning could be if you have the German in your fantasy team as he has zero points so far.

The critics have been kind and Werner has received no negatives despite going a month without a goal in the league. This is because he is a new signing and he will be allowed time. But if we are in November and he still hasn’t registered the pressure will start to build. At the same time Werner has proven in the last few years that he is a top striker and the betting would be that he will end up having a successful season with Chelsea.

For now the money spent on the player has not been justified and manager Frank Lampard may have to switch his system which has seen Werner play a slightly deeper role to a more advanced one if he wants to see the goals. Only time will tell.

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