August premier league review

The month of August was pure perfection for Man city who recorded 4 wins out of 4. Scoring 10 goals and their defence boasting a record of 4 clean sheets to go with there impressive form. Man city spent big over the summer and for me the pick of their transfers could be Kevin De bruyne. Yes 55 million is a huge amount of money and a club record fee for City but he comes with an impressive CV in the bundesliga since he left Chelsea in January 2014. He racked up a whopping 20 assists last season for Wolfsburg equalling a league record. The so called big teams in the league have all had stuttering starts; Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, and arsenal have all looked unconvincing.

No one would of ever predicted The champions sitting 13th in the league after 4 games. Losing to both Crystal palace and Man city comprehensively, in a game in which saw Mourinho describe the outcome as a "fake result". Chelsea conceded the fewest goals (32) last season and only lost 3 times however the defence that was looking resolute and solid now looks very leaky. It would be very premature to think that Chelsea are out of the premier league race but it's vital that they win today at Everton. 

Since the season started last month I've been hugely impressed with Swansea and Leicester City and with Gomis, Mahrez and Ayew (The first two players are joint top goal scorers in the league with Callum Wilson all scoring 4 goals). Both Swansea and Leicester City remain unbeaten in the league.

Gomis has gone from strength to strength since Bony's big money move to Man City and becoming a starter in the Swansea side. In his last 8 seasons at Lyon he always scored at least 10 league goals a season. 

Man Utd vs Liverpool is always a game of great magnitude. It's a big game and Jamie redknapp was right in saying that neither side can afford to lose, both lost before the international break and a victory for either side could kick start their season. I'm hoping for a Liverpool win but realistically it will be a draw, final score 2-2. 

Big players big plays

 Thus sayeth the King, just pass me the ball. With 1.6 seconds left on the clock and with Derrick Rose levelling the game with a lay up previously Lebron took it upon himself to take the shot and win the game. His coach had called another play but that's why Lebron is called the king he scratched that and made the play, he can nail the big shots in the big pressure moments. Lebron would deffo agree his shooting wasn't completely on point last night and he did concede a lot of turnovers but his moment of magic won the game. Interestingly enough now he has the same amount of buzzer beaters in the post season as Micheal Jordan which is 3 hmmm interesting. 

Last Friday Austin Rivers was amazing really taking the game to the Rockets and cooking up a storm in the absence of Chris Paul he had a massive 25 points in the Clippers 124-99 win. Last night the Rockets had a unusual tactic fowling Deandre Jordan relentlessly forcing him to the free throw line. It was crazy Deandre Jordan set an NBA record of 28 free throw attempts in the first half!! All in all he had 34 attempts acoring only 14. Now the tactic seems reasonably considering Jordan converted only 39.7% of free throws in the regular season, Kevin Mchale said he did it to "muck up" the game and disrupt the flow of the clippers but it seems that the rockets where just truly out of it on both the offensive and defensive fronts. There punishment was a 128-95 loss and it looks now very likely that my beloved clippers will be advancing to the next round of the playoffs but never say never the Rockets could come back, if they can pull themselves together. 

Lacklustre Liverpool

To say I was annoyed last weekend is an understatement Liverpool could of closed the gap on the top four teams but instead they drew. It's all well and good having 73% of possession and 22 shots but these days Liverpool are struggling for goals massively. In fact the 22 shots on goal don't tell the true story because only 4 of those where on target the same amount that West Brom had with around half the number of shots, precisely 10 to be exact. Rodgers said Liverpool where outstanding he said ""I thought they were excellent. We didn't get the win, but our overall game was outstanding," He did admit to the goal threat being a problem, I'm not ranting in this blog just stating the facts and letting you the readers take what you want from it. 

Liverpool then lost 1-0 to hull midweek on the Tuesday. Everton had done Liverpool a favour by beating Man Utd 3-0 on Sunday a win over Hull would have cut the points difference between Man Utd and Liverpool to 4 points however Liverpool lost and with that a place in the champions league seems to have eluded them. Again it was the same old story, like a broken record large amount of possession (69%) shots on goal 12 (9 on target) but no goals. Second successive game with Liverpool not scoring. It almost seems like the back to back losses of Man Utd and Arsenal back in the March and April period knocked the stuffing out of the reds and they truly haven't recovered. 

When Liverpool had conceded the opening goal of the game i wasn't surprised that it would lead to a defeat. During this season Liverpool's ability to equalise has been very poor. According to soccerstats its at 18%. Yes goals have been a problem everyone could see that when Suarez has left but other strikers have not be fancied. Funnily enough the combined forces of Balotelli, Borini and Lambert have the same number of goals as Origi who Liverpool bought and loaned this is abysmal. On Tuesday night Messi, Suarez and Neymar took their tally to over 100 goals for the season. Liverpool couldn't manage any against hull.  

I'm not angry or upset I've accepted my fate as a Liverpool supporter for this season no champions league which was the minimum aim. I'm just mind boggled Rodgers knew Suarez was leaving and unless I'm mistaken and this isn't a huge kept secret but Sturridge is very injury prone. He is a quality striker but he gets injured far to much, however this season has been like a freak nightmare. Rodgers knew this and gambled massively, yes squad players where needed for a this season where Liverpool took part in the champions league but Liverpool needed proven quality not young talent. Everyone knew they where in for Sanchez but after that didn't work they should have pushed for other top strikers and proven stars. Sturridge was put on a pedestal to be some sort of saviour but that has flopped and his understudies have been poor. 

206.5m spent on transfers since the summer of 2012 and only 2 have been hugely fruitful is again mind boggling. This summer will be crucial for Liverpool if they have a poor start again I can see Rodgers getting sacked I don't want that to happen but there are huge demands at a top club like Liverpool and we all know how cut-throat the world of management can be!

Midweek Sports review and preview

Sports review and preview

Away goals are worth their weight in Gold. With Suarez’ scintillating brace and Neymar’s goal in the first leg Barcelona already had one foot in the semi final. In fact such was the display of Suarez in the first leg I wandered as a passionate Liverpool fan of what may have been in the FA cup semi final against Aston villa if he had played (A guy can dream right). The 2^nd leg for Barcelona was a formality with a brace by Neymar jnr already confirming what we already knew. In the other game it seemed like Bayern Munich had a sizeable task ahead of them, 3-1 down from the first game in which some of their defending had been questionable and sloppy. Thiago scored that night and he began the revival as Bayern were bashful and brutal scoring 5 goals in a period of 26 minutes to effectively end the tie. The game ended 6-1 (7-4 agg)

Tonight are the other two quarter final games I think the Juventus vs. Monaco game will be straightforward 2-1 win. The Madrid derby is anything but a mystery, last season’s champions where minutes way from losing that final if not for a Sergio Ramos header.  Diego Simone’s side showed so much grit, determination and hard work ethic that night and it will be the same again tonight. They do no not fear the Bernabéu. Since that final,Atletico Madrid have not lost to Real Madrid with their biggest win the 4-0 thrashing in their home league game on the 7^th February.  Real Madrid know that they have to be on their guard. It’s not all doom and gloom for Real Madrid are undefeated in their last 14 home games. Although they won’t have 2 thirds of the BBC (Bale and Benzema) Cristiano Ronaldo is more than formidable to score the goals that they need. He has scored a whopping 50 goals in all competitions this season!!

I can see this game going the full length extra time and penalties. Scoring the first goal in this game is important but not crucial however the timing of the goal is everything for both sides. If I have to pick a side I will pick Real Madrid to go through on penalties.

Crunch time in the NBA and NHL

The playoffs have already kicked off in these two prestigious leagues.  I'm still fairly new to American sport in general but I am definitely a fan. I've been supporting the LA clippers for 3 years now and getting the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of playoff seemed cruel but we won 107-92 with Chris Paul scoring 32 points and 6 assists and Blake Griffin (My favourite player) 26 points and 6 assists. My only hope is that the Clippers bench will last the series and provide big points when needed. San Antonio definitely have the playoff experience but I'm hoping my team will win tonight to go 2-0 into the 3^rd playoff game.  The NHL is truly something special I focus on the 2 New York teams the islanders and the rangers. This part of the season is crunch time you have to leave everything on the floor and the ice no regrets!!!  If you've never seen a game of ice hockey or basketball please do check it out. It took me a little while but they are both exhilarating sports to view. 

Midweek review, Liverpool's late charge

All of the top seven sides in the Barclay's Premiership recorded wins. Chelsea beat West Ham to maintain there title bid and they still have a game in hand over Man City. The fight for the four champions league places still rages on. I was over the moon with Liverpool's 2-0 win over Burnley continuing there excellent form. They are the form team of the year in 2015 with 7 premier league wins out of 9, collecting 23 points out of a possible 27 with no lose. Liverpool are on the charge!
Further down the table Stoke's 2-0 win was a highlight as it was there third successive win in the league and it saw them rise from 10th to 8th place. Mark Hughes is doing a fantastic job there.
As for Everton Martinez there boss was right to say no when asked if Everton where too good to go down. Everton have not win since the 31st of January when they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 thanks to a Lukaku goal. They definitely need a good run of form to take them away from the relegation battle.
The biggest win personally of the mid week premiership games was Aston villa's 2-1 win over West Brom. What Foster was doing in the final moments of the game no one knows, he basically gifted the penalty to Aston Villa. However it seemed as though Benteke had ice running in his veins when he took the penalty in the dying moments of the game. That goal was Benteke's 3 goal in the league and the first in 2015, the last time he scored was against Man utd way way back on the 20th of December 2014. To be fair he recently came back from an Achilles injury and his form has been patchy of late. Neither Agbonlahor or Weimann have come up with the goods between them they have 8 goals this season and goals around other areas of the team have dried up. The fact that Villa have only scored 15 goals this season in the league is a real worry but hopefully there first win over west brom and the injection of enthusiasm from Tim Sherwood can propel them up the table.   

Midweek sports review

 

Apologies everyone I got my fixtures mixed up with the Rugby it wasn't France vs. Ireland but more about the rugby in another post. I remember when the premiership season was just freshly upon us and Liverpool had Tottenham away I was a little nervous it was Balotelli’s debut in fact I remember in the first half of that game  he could of scored with his first touch of the game (Let’s not bring up his season stats for goals or attempts at goal, cue hide face emoji). Back then Liverpool where still trying to shrug of the SUAREZ question (Can Liverpool cope without the goals of Suarez?) and yes we have struggled but at the time sterling was playing at the top of the diamond 4-1-2-1-2 now he has been converted to a striker and that has helped. I remember that game Gerrard scored his 43^rd penalty setting a new club record, there where goals and Liverpool kept a clean sheet. Fast forward a little and the first part of this season has been dreadful but Rodgers has adapted, changed the formation and is seeming to cope without Suarez. Liverpool are in a fierce battle for the top 4.

The battle for the top 4 is what makes this game so interesting Tottenham are four points ahead of Liverpool and really hitting there stride. There derby win against Arsenal was fantastic and just like I said in my previous blog post having a striker in form like Kane is essential for there push towards a champions league spot. I’m even wandering where Liverpool would have been if they had some of his calibre to rely on while Sturridge has been out injured. I’m not knocking Lambert or borini or Balotelli but none of them have been as prolific as Kane this season.

I’m hoping and predicting that Liverpool win this 2-1 however Tottenham are on a good run of form so it could be 2-2.

In the other midweek fixtures I’m predicting wins for Arsenal, Chelsea, Man utd, Man city, Sunderland however the rest of the fixtures will be draws.

Weekend sports review

Here are four sporting matches that I've picked which will  keep you entertained this weekend!!

Rugby

England’s game against Wales was a fantastic six nations opener with England the triumphant team but today’s games will be just as juicy. Ireland vs. France is definitely my game to watch if you’re a rugby fan. Two nations with plenty of talent, I predict Ireland to win this seeing as they had a fantastic autumn in 2014 however you never know with the French and that’s why I’m tipping this to be a great game.

Football

I always wonder how the fixture generator seems to work but 2 derbies on a Saturday is delicious. Tottenham v Arsenal is the early kick off and Everton vs. Liverpool the last one of the Saturday evening. In the North London derby both teams go into the match in decent form, Arsenal just like Tottenham have lost only 2 of there last 10 games but everyone knows form goes out the window in a derby game. The game can be won in a moment and its great to see a local lad like Harry Kane in such exquisite form. He has scored 20 goals in 33 appearances (10 in the league) I’m tipping him to be on the score sheet. For me the defensive partnership of Koscielny and Mertesacker always gives Arsenal that assured look and they are a formidable partnership, arsenal have an array of attacking weapons so this game is in the balance for me. My thought is that the game will end a draw 2-2.

It’s an interesting game for Liverpool they've got Sturridge back from injury, coutinho on fire and sterling playing very well. I’m so happy as a Liverpool fan that they managed to turn things around, although Everton have lost 5 of their last 10 games they are still a formidable force. This game is going to turn out to be a draw or a narrow Liverpool win. It’s a shame that this will be Gerrard’s 33 and probably last derby. Only Ian Rush has scored more goals (25) in the Merseyside derby than Gerrard who has 10 but if this is to be a fairy tale ending for captain Marvel I reckon he will have the final say today!

Last but not least we have the African cup nations final on Sunday. I just can’t wait, being a proud Ghana supporter I was happy with the way we progressed to the final thanks to goals from Jordan Ayew, Wakaso and André Ayew however the ending of the game was really poor due to the crowd trouble and security issues. Ghana vs Ivory Coast starts at 6:30p.m definitely a watch on a Sunday evening, Ghana are aiming to win it for the 5^th time where surprisingly Ivory Coast have only won it once despite boasting a large amount of star players that play in Europe the golden generation has gone but they still have good players such as bony, gervinho and for me there key man is Yaya toure. He can do everything tackle, take on men, score, he is the whole package. I love the new look of the Ghana side players like muntari, kevin prince boateng and others have been replaced with new capped players like Atsu, Acquah and Kewsi Appiah and they don’t look out of place at all.

My heart says Ghana but my head says Ivory Coast. This game could go into extra time