Who will cross the finish line first..?

horsesOur crystal ball spoke to us clearly and concisely when the excitement and anticipation of the 2009/10 season kicked-off.  We made our predictions. We chose the chosen ones and it was off to the races.

As the best of the best galloped into the eyes of victory and defeat, we raved, we ranted, we posted and we polled about the beautiful game. And as the race to be crowned champion nears its end, we can’t help but wonder, who will cross the finish line first?

For so long Chelsea have been the favourites to scoop the Premier League title. If I remember correctly, we warned the Stamford Bridge outfit not to celebrate too soon. At Christmas, the Chelsea players and faithful believed they had it in the bag. There was an evident cockiness to them which has become synonymous with Chelsea. But a loss to Everton and a whipping by Manchester City in their own park soon made the Blues players and fans realize the fight to the finish will not be so easy. Did they under estimate their opponents? Did the John Terry scandal hurt them? What would they do without Drogba? Will the iron Chelski curtain find its strength again as they head towards the finish?

With Wayne Rooney turning on the style and making a case to be European Footballer of the Year, Manchester United are once again finding their strength and form at the right time. Determined to create history and make it four Premier League titles in a row, the Red Devils are as hungry as ever for silver ware. They’ve already bagged the Carling Cup, they have one eye on a Champions League quarter final spot and they are two points clear at the Premier League summit. Granted they haven’t been as exciting to watch as a team this term, but Rooney has given us every reason to be up for watching Manchester United play. Do you think they’d be flying if Ferdinand and Vidic were fit all season? Do you think Rooney deserves to be Player of the Year? Has Valencia been a success? Will Berbatov be the man United fans want him to be?

And what of Arsenal? After losses to Manchester United and Chelsea, everyone had written off their title chances for good. How could the Gunners win the league if they couldn’t beat the two best teams in the country? Somehow, some way, Arsenal have hung in there. Even though they lost to the big two, they picked up some good results in games we’ve easily seen them lose over the last few seasons. Beating the likes of Stoke and Hull has helped. Losing Ramsey to such a horrific injury has not. But unlike the Eduardo injury experience which saw Arsenal implode that season, it appears this time around the team are galvanized to win it for Ramsey. They seem to have a purpose we may not have seen in recent times. Can Arsenal finish strong without Fabregas? Would they be clear of United and Chelsea on points at this stage if Van Persie hadn’t been injured? Was Vermaelen the best buy of the season? How good could Arsenal actually be if they bought three more world class players?

The rest of the league are fighting for a fourth Champions League spot, a Europa League place or just plain old fashioned survival. How do your predictions match up to what you thought at the beginning of the season? Who do you see wining it all? Chelsea? Manchester United? Or Arsenal? Can Tottenham really steal a Champions League birth? Will Manchester City or Aston Villa ruin their coming out party? Will we see another famous old club like West Ham go down? Has Hull City’s luck finally run out? When Portsmouth go down, how much further will they sink over the next few years? Remember Leeds?

There is still much to play for. It’s sad that the season is almost ending but fear not fellow footie fans! The silver lining is that we are in a World Cup year so the wait for some quality football won’t feel like eternity. Could this be the year Wayne Rooney shines on the world stage? Is it his time to be crowned a world football superstar? The race to the finish line is almost over. The only question is, who will win?

Santa’s bag of tricks…

DVDCharlieBrownCharlie Brown often gets off to a bad start around the holidays. But somehow, some way, it all comes together for him in the end with a little help from his friends and Santa Claus of course. Around this time of year, Santa can be your best friend. He can bring you gifts you never dreamed of and he can make things happen by just simply sliding up and down your chimney! If you could have one football wish this holiday season what would it be? What would you like to receive from Santa?

If you are a Liverpool fan, you might want a new manager. If you are a Manchester United fan, you might want to see new referees in the league. If you are an Arsenal fan, you are praying for something silver this year! If you are a Tottenham fan, you are hoping your man Defoe can keep up the scoring! If you are a Chelsea fan, you might be wishing for the double this season. And if you are a Manchester City fan…well you got your gift when you beat Chelsea!

Spare a thought for Portsmouth, Hull and West ham fans. What can they be hoping for this holiday season? A boat to prevent them from drowning as they lurk in the deep and dangerous waters of the Premier League? What about Bolton fans. Surely their wish is to see the back of Gary Megson already. They’ve been asking Santa for years now! And let’s spare a thought for Evertonians. They are having a dodgy season and are finding themselves at the wrong end of the table. Are they praying not to be the Newcastle United of the 09/10 season?

You could be wishing for the Premier League title, the Champions League, the F.A. Cup, the Carling Cup, or just plain and pure survival. Heck you might already be praying your country wins the World Cup next summer. Whatever it is we might be hoping for, the one thing that brings us all together is the love of the game. The passion, the heartache, the elation and the despair. It’s that time of year. It’s Christmas. It’s the time where hearts can be broken and when the shape of things to come is evident. It’s make or break time. Keep praying, keep hoping, keep wishing and keep watching. Santa’s bag of tricks could be on your side this holiday season. If Charlie Brown is anything to go by, it might just turn out fine in the end for some of us fans…

I can smell the dirty burger…

cheeseburger-702189It’s like the night before Christmas. You feel like you’ve waited all year for this moment. You are so excited you can’t even stand yourself. There are a million and two thoughts swirling around in your football brain as the new season is about to begin. Sure you are worried about how the summer transfers will work out and how your biceps or cleavage look in this season’s new home kit. But at the top of your list of things to think about is that first home game. The tension and nerves are evident in every fans eyes. It’s hard to relax when all you want is for your team to get off to a winning start. The best way to calm the anticipation…munch on a classic dirty burger.

As you approach the stadium and soak in the atmosphere, one always vows to start the season healthy with something good to eat. Unfortunately, that good thing to eat weighs about a quarter or half-a-pound and can clog your arteries faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100 meters. It’s decadent, it’s delightful and it’s dirty. In fact, the dirtier, the better. It’s tradition. It’s an excuse to be bad and it always happens around 3pm on a soggy Saturday afternoon.

Not every stadium in England serves up a quality dirty burger. The food in general at Anfield is rancid. Well it was when Ian Wright was still playing for Arsenal. We’d make the trek up the motorway and in the early days we made the huge mistake of thinking we could get something decent to eat when we arrived in Scouser heaven. Let’s just say we learned our lesson fast when going to an away game at Anfield. How hard is it to get a dirty burger right? Turns out it is very hard! Even the sausage rolls at Liverpool could turn Arsenal’s red and white army yellow. Shocking stuff.

Admittedly, the burgers at Tottenham are pretty good. You’ve just got to make sure you buy them outside of the grounds. White van man on White Hart Lane delivers his burgers with a classic dirt consistency you can only dream of having at the start of every new season. The dirty burger could be the only good thing that happens down at the Lane year after year, after year!!

The game has changed even when it comes to the types of food being served on match day. Sure you can get healthy stuff now and you don’t have to gorge on dirty burgers and dodgy hot dogs. But football fans drew a conclusion many moons ago when it came to the lifestyle of being a fan on match day. What’s the point of being good when you are surrounded by things that tempt you to be bad? Interesting theory no? On game day, we fans obviously have no desire to test our restraint or willpower when it comes to what we eat. That’s not how football fans roll. We go the whole hog. There’s no holding back. It’s part of our make-up to be bad with a little dirty on the side…

Ba Ba Barcelona…

Spain Soccer La LigaFor Real Madrid, Saturday’s game against Barcelona was more El Miserablo than El Clasico. For a brief second, it looked like both teams could score lots of goals. But in the end, it was the Catalan Kings that had their happy fans singing well into Sunday morning.

Let’s not beat around the corner flag here people..Barcelona gave their rivals an absolute beating. Raul and co. are probably still applying ailment to help ease the pain after the many lashings they received. Barcelona were sensational. Henry’s performance was vintage Arsenal and Messi was sublime and brilliant as usual. But Xavi and Iniesta tore the Real Madrid midfield apart and proved once again why they are two of the best players in the world. They carved- up Diarra, Gago and Robben like a Christmas turkey and slice by slice we devoured their perfect display of beautiful football. I was stuffed at full-time but could have had plenty more if they were willing to serve it up. Wow.

Next is the Champions League semi-final agains Chelsea. Should the Blues be afraid of getting a football whipping on Wednesday? Will their physical strength see them through to the final in Rome? Will Barcelona choke? Can anyone beat them? Soak it up footie fans. This is the beautiful game at it’s beautiful best and we’ll all be watching.

Football + Christmas = Paradise…

new_years_toast-746564Happy New Year to the world. May 2009 be filled with health, happiness and bloody good football! I’m not sure about you guys but I’ve just emerged from the festive season having indulged in some major soccer. It was pure gluttony and I loved every single second. Sure there are a group of managers that complain about not having a Christmas break. And we can all understand this based on how strenuous the season gets. But as fans, we love it. We can’t get enough of it. And if you gave us more, we’d eat it all up, just like our Christmas leftovers.So thank you Premier League for making the festive season exactly that…festive. Here’s to a great year for the beautiful game…