Premier League Review 16th December 2011
Football fans all over England will be wishing for a good Christmas period and the stakes don't get bigger than the Barclays Premier League. Manchester City have set the pace, with their relentless, aggressive spending and managerial musical chairs finally sticking with a great squad/coach combination this season. Money can warp and transform Premier League trends. Who would have thought 5 years ago that Arsenal would tentatively travel to the City of Manchester Stadium (aka the Etihad) expecting to struggle to come away with even 1 point.
As a Spurs fan, I loved Mancini dissing Chelsea as in his mind there is a 3 horse race of Man City, Man Utd and Tottenham. As we get closer to the transfer window, will Chelsea get rid of Torres? Andre Villas-Boas has insisted that he isn't for sale; however his failure won't fall on the new Blues boss's shoulders.
Man Utd are almost guaranteed to be there or thereabouts despite losing Nemanja Vidic for the rest of the season and Darren Fletcher for an unknown period of time. Fergie's larger than life management style shines through irrespective of the manpower constraints that pop up in any football squad as he makes sure that his players understand what it means to pull on the Manchester United jersey. That said, Aguero and co are better. :-)
This weekend's fixtures are very interesting as the top 4 teams are all in extremely difficult matches. Chelsea will have a physical battle on their hands at the DW. Manchester United travel to QPR who have been very impressive in their debut Premier League season. Spurs might suffer from new manager syndrome as they face Sunderland and Manchester City have to keep Robin Van Persie out who is currently on fire.
Here are the fixtures - enjoy fellow football freaks!
Premiership fixtures 17th and 18th December 2011
Sat December 17th 2011
Blackburn v West Bromwich Albion 3pm @ Ewood Park
Everton v Norwich 3pm @ Goodison Park
Fulham v Bolton 3pm @ Craven Cottage
Newcastle United v Swansea 3pm St James's Park
Wolverhampton v Stoke City 3pm Molineaux
Wigan v Chelsea 3pm DW stadium
Sun December 18th 2011
QPR v Man Utd 12pm Loftus Road
Aston Villa v Liverpool 2pm Villa Park
Tottenham v Sunderland 3pm White Hart Lane
Man City v Arsenal 4pm Etihad Stadium
