The BBC reports that Chelsea midfield Michael Essien will be out for months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament. This is a major blow for our main rivals as I see Essien as Chelsea’s key player.
Make no mistake, Chelsea are still a good team without him, but Essien is the sort of player that can raise the whole team to a new level of performance with his drive. Think of Roy Keane but (occasional poor tackles aside) without the red cards.
He was criminally underused by Chelsea, often playing at right back or centre back. Would Fergie have tried to play Keane at rightback for any length of time? I do remember Paul Ince playing in that position for a few games in the 90’s but that was for a very short period of time. Essien may have been a competant defender, but it removes a very potent midfielder from the side.
Chelsea have got good options in midfield and I think this will make matters worse for them. It may seem that they will be okay without him, but it will mean the odd point or two will slip every so often which will leave them short come the end of the season.
Looks like Louis Saha is starting his Everton career as he ended his United career; on the treatment bench. Turns out he will be out for a month with a calf injury. Makes me wonder what the Everton medical team actually checked when they did the test.
Seems we have a net profit of two new strikers as Manucho got his work permit and we, of course got the main man, Berbatov. This is exchange for two players who didn’t play much for us last season at all. Saha was nearly permanently injured, whilst Campbell was on loan at Hull.
The other news is at Mike Phelan has been made assistant manager. Clearly, this is one assistant who will never be made the actual manager in the future. I remember little about Phelan as a player, mainly his moustache and the fact that he was the least able of the midfielders Fergie bought at the time (Webb and Ince I remember), so he was a sort of Fletcher to Hargreaves and Scholes.
Finally, I updated the blog to the latest version of Wordpress, so it’s missing lots of the stuff from the sidebar, but I couldn’t edit any of that stuff anyway.
More heroics from ex-red Phil Neville, but ultimately in vain as the ref lets Stevie Gerrard do the sending off.
The situation is this. 1-1 in the Mersey derby in injury time. Everton already down to 10 men (thanks to the aforementioned Gerrard). The keeper has made a save but is hopelessly out of position and the shot flies goal bound with only Phil Neville in the way.
Deciding a 3 game ban and a sending off is worth a chance at swapping a certain goal for a chance the penalty will be saved, Phil saves the ball with his hand. Cue mutliple England goalkeeping jokes.
Ding Dong. The Witch is Dead. Yep, the Special Needs One has left Chelsea (see BBC report here). Whilst he was an annoying man, he was a very good manager and this can only be good news for United. They may not have played attractive football, but it was effective football. And coming from a man who follows the New Old Arsenal (4 1-0’s in a row? When did that last happen?) sometimes effective is required.
However, rumour has it that the rubbish attendance at Standford Bridge was the last straw as Roman wants his team to play attractive, watchable football and the is fact that Chelsea play anything but that.
Should make Sunday even more interesting. Expect the home crowd (around three times the size of Chelsea) to mock mercilessly
It’s international football weekend (as well as the Rugby World Cup and England v India in International Cricket) and, lets face it, watching England play is as much fun as watching Chelsea grind out the inevitable 1-0 win; without the inevitable 1-0 win.
So, I want to take you the other way. Last Saturday, FC United played their first game in the FA Cup, beating Trafford 5-2. If you want a feel of what a “real” English football atmosphere is like watch this FC United Video from Altrincham’s Moss Lane.
Coming from Timperley myself, I have some interestingly vague memories of Moss Lane and this video brought it all back.
I’d recommend you subscribe to the Biffafootie blog if you like getting a real ground eye level of watching Manchester United (and FC United) as there are regular video updates of going to Old Trafford.
Rafael has no fear of playing and has great belief in himself. He is only 18 but he has started very well. He did well against Middlesbrough last week and he has progressed again.
