Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It is with regret that I must inform you that due to some unfortunate and unplanned housing difficulties arising from my recent relocation I will, from tomorrow, be without an internet connection for an unknown amount of time – probably a couple of weeks. So not long after getting the site ticking over again it looks like I’ll be forced into taking another break which is a real shame because I’m loving all the football that’s happening at the moment and writing about it is currently a lot of fun.

However, I want to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year. I really do appreciate all the support I get from you and hopefully you all have a great festive period with your families (and the busy fixture schedule!). All being well I’ll be back in the New Year sometime so please do check back regularly so that when I return we can get straight back into it and catch up on all that we’ve missed.

Take care everyone, and once again, Merry Christmas!
Adam.x

Everton 1-1 Birmingham City: Match Reaction

Three of Everton's creators celebrate Bily's cracking goal.

As an Evertonian, if you’d offered me a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham before the season began, I’d have been more than a little disappointing. That’s meant with no disrespect for Birmingham, it just goes to show how quickly things can change in football and actually, given the circumstances, a home draw with Birmingham (who were, let’s not forget, the form team in the league going into this game, should not be too much of a disappointment.

That’s what I felt when I rolled bleary-eyed out of bed at 6.55am this morning and checked the score at least. But then, an hour and fifty-five minutes later having watched the delayed coverage of the match, I was beginning to feel disappointed again. Watching the game you’d have sworn, had you not known otherwise, that Everton were the form team and that Birmingham were struggling. We completely dominated them and to only get a point is a bit hard to take. But I think we’re right to be not too disappointed.

Premiership Conclusions

You might well say it’s a bit early to be drawing conclusions from this weekend’s Premier League action given that there’s still plenty of fixtures to be played tomorrow and Monday, but I think we can safely say that Saturday’s action both on and off the pitch has given us plenty to be discuss to be going on with. Plus, tomorrow is likely to be both my last day with an internet connection for some while and very busy, so there’s no time like the present.

To business at hand then and as I said yesterday, this season’s Premier League action is proving to be nigh on impossible to predict. We’ve now had two weekends full of surprise results and the established order that has developed over so many years seems to be quickly unravelling. It’s hard to know what to make of it at times but I think at least some conclusions can be cautiously made.

Premiership Predictions

Last weekend’s Premier League action can only really be described as ‘shocktastic’ after Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and Sunderland were all arguably held to a draw or defeated unexpectedly and it has been this unpredictability that has made the 09/10 season so exciting so far. It also makes predicting the results nigh on impossible, but I do my best and it works as a preview to the action too, so here goes…

Saturday Fixtures; kick-offs 3pm unless stated.
Portsmouth vs. Liverpool (12.45pm)
Portsmouth are starting to drift away again at the foot of the Premier League but with a creditable draw thanks to a late goal at Sunderland and a closely fought midweek defeat against Chelsea, they’re at least showing some signs of fight under Avram Grant. The new boss will recognise Liverpool as a potential upset in the making as the Reds have struggled for consistency this season but will probably be able to call on Torres and Gerrard and for that reason I expect them to build on their midweek win against Wigan.
Prediction: 0-2.

Quick Plug: GreatestPlayerEver.com

Idan Tal or James Vaughan: who's the greatest?

A quick one for my fellow Evertonians here as James Terry from greatestplayerever.com recently got in touch with me to announce the launch of a site that encourages fans to vote for their greatest ever player or team lineup via the head to head battles of randomly selected players from the clubs history. It’s obviously a bit hard to explain here but if you head over to www.greatestevertonplayer.com you’ll soon get the hang of it and it can be surprisingly addicting.

For me though, the best bit about the site (and what makes it worth the recommendation) is how many half-forgotten names it will remind you of. All those players who have played a bit-part in your beloved club’s history but wallow in the backwaters of your memory, and every time a new name comes up you get another flash of reminiscence which can make it very worthwhile. For fans of other clubs, there are versions of the site for many of you too and I do genuinely recommend it as a good way to take a stroll down memory lane.

So click here to vote for Everton’s greatest ever player…
Or here if you want to vote for a different club…

Naughty or Nice: Premier League Managers’ Wishlists (Part Two)

It's 12.25am, I don't have the time or energy to make a new image!

Yesterday saw me run through the likely Christmas wishes of the first ten Premier League managers (alphabetically, by club), assessing what they’ll be hoping for in the second half of the season and whether or not they’re likely to get it. It’s mostly a bit of light hearted Christmas fun, but there’s a fair bit of serious information in there anyway (at least, there’s supposed to be). For yesterday’s first part, click here; for the second part…

Naughty or Nice: Premier League Managers’ Wishlists (Part One)

Will Santa bring these managers what they want?

With Christmas just around the corner (which I’ve only just remembered, due to the inclement Christmas weather here in New Zealand, i.e. constant sunshine; and a familial housing disaster quickly developing) we’ve doubtless all turned our thoughts to what we’d like Santa to leave under the tree (don’t ruin the magic!). The twenty managers of the Premier League will be no different, but from a footballing perspective what do they most want Santa to bring them for the second half of the season? And are they likely to get it?

Why Chelsea MUST spend in January.

"Carlo wants you!" But does he?

It seems weird really that Chelsea now look somewhat unlikely to spend money in the upcoming transfer window when since Roman Abramovich took over the club, they seem to have done little else. But Carlo Ancelotti has repeatedly asserted that he is happy with his squad and won’t be dipping into the transfer market come January, despite repeated rumours of interest in everyone from Rodwell to Aguero.

And while I admire Ancelotti’s faith in his current squad and certainly agree that the club will benefit from a degree of stability in terms of playing staff, I think that it is crucial for Chelsea’s short and long-term prospects that Ancelotti strengthens his squad in the new year. This belief is inspired by several factors, some of them obvious and some of them arguably less so after their start to the season but I think that if Chelsea are to maintain their assault on the summit of English football, they must spend in January.

Life after Capello: O’Neill for the top job?

Would O'Neill be a good successor to Fabio Capello for England?

Fabio Capello was yesterday honoured by the BBC as the Sports Personality Coach of the Year and that’s testament to what really has been an impressive transformation of England’s fortunes by the Italian. However, Capello has previously suggested that this will be his last job in management whether or not he wins the World Cup and so, while I remain full of hope that his reign will end on a high, I today had my thoughts turned towards possible successors.

Watching a replay of Aston Villa’s momentous triumph over Manchester United on Saturday evening I was really impressed by Aston Villa’s performance and the way in which they took the game to the Champions. Most incredibly though, was that aside from Brad Friedel and Stylian Petrov, the entire starting lineup was British, and (from memory) seven of them actually English. I couldn’t help thinking upon this realisation – and my apologies to Villa fans here – that Martin O’Neill would be the perfect successor to Fabio Capello.

Are the ‘big four’ crumbling?

Chelsea's defence undone for a third time by Everton: are they crumbling?

Last week Manchester City came from behind to beat Chelsea by two goals to one and many a football pundit saw that as proof that, despite all the draws and flattering to deceive, the Eastlands Billionaires could be a real threat to the ‘big four’ this season. Thus, after Everton’s injury-decimated side also matched Chelsea with a 3-3 draw yesterday, the same logic could be used to suggest that my beloved Toffees too, could realistically hope to breach the big four this season.

Such logic is clearly flawed though, because even as an Evertonian I’m realistic enough to know that we pose no threat to the Champions League spots and City’s inability to beat Bolton yesterday has seemingly confirmed that they too lack the necessary consistency to ‘break’ the top four. However, I still think we may see an unfamiliar team near the summit of the Premier League this season, considering Chelsea’s recent stutters alongside those of the other ‘big four’ clubs, it could be argued that they are not as untouchable as they have been in recent seasons.