Ritchie De Laet

Having watched two of the three premiership game of Norwich, I can clearly say that if they are going to stay up De Laet will be one of the main reasons. In my former blogs, I`ve stated that Norwich and Swansea are the ones who try to play decent football. Paul Lambert for Norwich is of course the architect for this structure and he really needs to be appreciated to have a great eye which helped him to catch De Laet, as well as to have the courage to put him into the middle of defence without a doubt. It`s still essential to state that De Laet should give up doing basic mistakes which caused to two goals to Norwich goal so far.

Remembering watched him two years ago, I actually thought he was a right back but his main position is obviously centre back which I can say based on the performances he show for the first three games of Norwich. Ferguson likes to play centre backs on right back, to improve their passing skills but having seen De Laet`s performances I really wonder maybe it should have been Johnny Evans whom should have been sent as a loan. If he continues his performance level up, then I think he even can cut Smalling out of starting 11. Smalling is a fine defender but he`s mainly selected ahead of Evans due to his simple play and few error making during the matches.

De Laet has also been selected to the Belgium squad on 2009 where he first played for Manu. But his place is not secure as there are the likes of Kompany, Van Buyten, Vertonghen and Vermaelen for centre back position. Still, I really think that he can make the jump and take place in the Belgium squad which`s actually still on the verge of a transition. I should definitely say the Belgium squad seems promising and De Laet would be very priviliged to find himself in the squad. 

Once upon a time I was blowing storms

The thoughts that probably came into Wenger`s mind after humiliating defeat to Manu, or at least that`s what the fans would like to think like: Admitting defeat. Because so far Arsene Wenger hasn`t still admitted that he has done major wrongs since the departure of Vieira, not even Henry. From that moment, it`s still downwards. 

As many football fans know Arsenal has a strict wage structure and a limit for transfer fees and this might be a block to transfer experienced players for Wenger but recently he quoted as "I`ll spend even 40 million pounds if the player is right" and even he continued with "I don`t want to spend too big amounts on average players". 

Well, if you would ask to many pundits probably they`ll tell you that Arsenal is now consisting of many average players. Still, there were some quality players like Nasri and Fabregas but they were kinda the latest leaves that have left and they also dropped. In my opinion, it`s just RVP and Vermaelen are the ones who can be in a team that`s racing for the title.

It`s really pity but also annoying to see Arsenal`s status now and the reactions of Wenger. He says that after Manu disgrace that he lacked 8 senior players but actually forgets that it was kinda the reserve team of Manu that he was beaten to. There were maybe 6 players that were not in the team of last year and the first 11. Finding excuses and ignoring the facts will not improve Arsenal and I believe Wenger is actually aware of it but what he wanted to was to protest the current football manner in terms of money stating that it is killing the smaller teams and though improvement of the league or the contest. However, I believe he chose the wrong way to protest it. He still could have bought very good players with small amount of moneys but he didn`t do so and it seems it`s going to cost more for both him and Arsenal.

Predictions

27 Aug 12:05	Aston Villa		2v1		Wolves
27 Aug 12:30	Wigan		1v0		QPR
27 Aug 15:00	Blackburn		1v0		Everton
27 Aug 15:00	Chelsea		2v0		Norwich
27 Aug 15:00	Swansea		1v2		Sunderland
27 Aug 17:30	Liverpool		3v0		Bolton
28 Aug 13:00	Newcastle		0v1		Fulham
28 Aug 13:30	Tottenham		0v2		Man City
28 Aug 15:00	West Brom		2v0		Stoke City
28 Aug 16:00	Man Utd		4v0		Arsenal

Wolves are in form but their defence hasn`t been tested by a better team. Match to go draw for a large time and Villa to score at the late stage. 

Wigan to claim first win but due their inability to score it`s going to be again narrow. Qpr is the worst team from the upcomers.

Blackburn and Kean need points and return of Samba with the other signings are a massive boost. Everton in crisis all over the place. 

Norwich is a tidy side trying to play nice football but Chelsea are just too strong for them. Last week`s win gave a bit confidence to the side. Torres to score first goal.

Swansea like Norwich plays nice football again and Sunderland is on the verge of a transition. Number of occasions will occur with both team scoring. Gyan should start to pick his form up.

An easy prediction. Bolton are really very bad at away games albeit Qpr win. Klasnic may score again, he`s a natural poacher.

Surprise of the week for me. Fulham needs to get points and will to do so. Dembele getting more time and introduction of Kasami and Gecov might do the difference. Newcastle still doesn`t have a proper forward.

West Brom have played really good against Manu and Chelsea. Long scored on the process for two times and Stoke is just ineffective in the area so far.

Tottenham is dealing with injuries but return of Modric is a boost albeit the protests will highly occur at White Hart Lane. City is on fire and with the substitutions be placed wisely, third win is imminent.

Manu will pass Arsenal very easily. I really don`t think atm, that Arsenal players are concentrated on anything. With youngs again displaying the eagerness to show themselves, Manu will have no trouble.

Traditional Everton beginning started!

The final match of the gameweek was, for me, a very obvious one, in terms of result. Tottenham is having a midfield injury crisis right now and ManU at home was a definite victory. Anderson and Cleverley started really good to the season and I believe Fergie will use them very much for the league and use Carrick and Fletcher for the Champs League. Tottenham needs to sort out Modric`s situation definitely.

For this gw, Wolves-Fulham match was an eye-catching one for me as I in my former writing stated that these two teams will surprise this year. Murphy seems getting very old and Jol has to replace him with someone else because with Etuhu playing next to him they obviously lack playmaking as well as creativity a lot in midfield. Wolves started really well and everything seems fine for them but they have not been tested by the better teams so far. Still, if they continue this form against the lesser teams they`ll not worry about relegation this year; pushing through mid-table. This might be Jarvis`s year.

Everton`s traditional beginning to the league started one week later due to the events happened in Tottenham area of London. I assumed a draw for this match but Everton is surely missing a quality forward. Beckford is just not Everton quality nor his workrate. Qpr also didn`t create so many chances but they were lucky to find one. 

Villas-Boas is trying to do all the right things imho. His preference Kalou over Malouda and Torres over Drogba is simply showing that he wants to build a hardworking team. But transitions are never easy and this will also take some blood but the sooner it`ll be, means a better Chelsea team we`ll see this season. 

Arsenal is in serious trouble and in addition to the necessity of not selling Nasri, they should buy at least 4 players to compete for Champs League spot, not for the title. The match was like Liverpool home against Arsenal.

Alex McLeish seems to be succesfull at Aston Villa, which is signaled by the preference of Agbonlahor playing on the right flank which I believe was a clever one. They`ll get points easier at home but their away record will show their position in the league.

When we pass gameweek two, City and United are clear favourites of championship but what City needs to do again is not depending on the individual skills. I just wonder what they`ll do if Silva gets injured or Dzeko. Will Balotelli and Johnson be enough to be trusted? If they also can turn to a system team like Utd, then they really have the great chance of pursuing the title. Barry`s goal and Milner`s assists show that this transition will occur but I wonder how many losses will they get due to the Champs League.

Am I ever going to be better? (Arsenal-Newcastle)

Arsenal is really in a serious trouble this year where the deterioration began after the Champions League final against Barcelona. Since then, six years of cupless era is enough for the fans to be angry very much and they are definitely right to be so. And now they also lost Fabregas and will also lose Nasri and there will be really too little difference between them and a team like Fulham or Sunderland. Clichy is gone and no other left back is bought as was the case when Cole left. Gervinho seems to be like Chamakh and even if he wouldn`t be it will not be enough fighting for the title.

The match was really boring which is indicated by the result 0-0. Both teams had few chances and for Arsenal the likes of Ramsey and Rosicky didn`t seem fit. Song`s stupid play also will cause lots of trouble for Arsenal and he should know that he was very lucky that the referee didn`t see what he did to Barton. There is just a little hope due to Van Persie but the hope`s to qualify for the Champions League. I really am believing is that the race for 4th will be between L`pool and Tottenham. This might really be the last season of Wenger and there are some reports in the media suggesting him to go to PSG next year. I really feel sorry for Arsenal fans for what they`ve become.

Can I be a champion?(Liverpool-Sunderland)

The first five minutes the pressure was on Liverpool simply because the new signings were a bit nervous especially Henderson seemed to me very much. On the contrary I should say Enrique seemed quite confident and he also doesn`t look like the player he was at Newcastle, showing signs of improvement. However, after the first five minutes all of Henderson, Adam and Downing were classy. An interesting note to add would be the age of squad, where except Carragher there`s not any second player who is over 30. So, this shows that Liverpool will suffer a bit of inexperience as they go further on the league, contradicting the title.

Despite the hard work by Carroll and Suarez, Liverpool couldn`t score the second goal where they came too close by Downing`s cracking shot which hit the post. So, that brought my mind what L`pool would do if Sunderland somehow scores which was the case at the second half. Sunderland, for me, was definite to score because when they get close even at the tiniest bit to the Liverpool goal, they always crossed the ball into the area which pleased me a lot because as they are constructing the team upside down right now (even though Bruce played only two of them(Brown and Larsson)) they didn`t try to mature the attacks, they simply showed L`pool that they were there to get a result and they did. Bruce might have started with Vaughan instead of Colback but I guess he just didn`t want to introduce a new signing from the first game on showing the intention that he`s going to make the transition slower. However, the new two signings who have played Brown and Larsson contributed to the result most where Brown was elected MoM and Larsson scored on his debut for the draw.

Mr. Dalglish made clever substitutions but I would never understand why he wouldn`t choose a player like Kuyt as a starter. He`s proven, he scores goals and he never stops running. Maybe the difference between the two would be Dalglish`s choice to make the transition faster by introducing the young Henderson starting from the first game where Bruce chose to do so later in the game. N`gog would always be a good sub for these games because he has the flair and also the will to prove himself and as Dalglish stopped at two, Brown`s rigid play tired Carroll enough and the match concluded easily by Sunderland with a draw. 

Predictions

My predictions for the Premier League:

Champions: Manchester United
CL Qualifiers: Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool
Europa League: Tottenham
Relegated will be: Blackburn, Norwich and Swansea
Teams that will surprise: Wolves and Fulham

I`d like to mention a bit more about the teams that I think will surprise. Wolves have formed a solid spine which includes Johnson, Foley, Jarvis, O`Hara, Doyle and Fletcher. If the hardworkers like Henry, Hunt and Berra contribute enough then Wolves would really be a team to look at.

Second team would be Fulham because they simply have a brilliant manager. Jol was success every place he went and he also was very successful with Tottenham during his spell. He`s also known for his eye of a deteceting young talents as well as putting them straight into the team. He also included Riise to the steady Fulham defense as well as Kasami preparing him to replace the aging captain Murphy. Dempsey, Duff, Hangeland and Zamora are very good Premier League players who are capable of taking Fulham easily higher on the table.