Reasons against Spain winning World Cup 2010

After the Champions League Final festivities have settled, it's now back to the anticipation and perhaps anxiety towards the long awaited World Cup 2010. Recently, I tried to do a survey on a sample of football fans. Due to mainly financial, resources, and time constraints, I only managed to survey 10 football fans. I simply asked each and everyone of them which country he/she thinks is going to win the World Cup. Amazingly, 9 out of 10 answered Spain as the country that is going to continue their recent supremacy in the world and grab the famous Jules Rimet trophy in South Africa, while the odd one out voted Brazil as the winner. This shows how Spain is seemingly a shoe-in to win this year's edition of the World Cup and that the roles of the other teams in the competition is reduced to basically to make up the numbers of 32 participants. But to them, Spain is the only one in the competition, and their triumph is a given. Is it that easy? Despite the overwhelming response favoring Spain, I believe even if I had increased the sample size to 100, I would still get at least 90 responses favoring Spain. But I beg to differ, in fact, I don't think Spain is capable of winning this one and as what I have been mentioning many times, I am tipping Argentina to win this one. The following are the reasons why Spain will not win this edition of the World Cup.

The very first reason is also the most obvious. Spain is simply the overwhelming favorites to win the competition. World Cup history suggests that the overwhelming favorites are always knocked out earlier than expected. Take for example World Cup 2002, in which France, the then defending champions and also just like Spain right now, had just won Euro 2000 two years earlier, and there was no reason why the all conquering French team at that time not to add one more star above the cockerel emblazoned on the France shirt. However, we knew that France didn't even make it out of the Group Stage, and yeah, they did not even score a single goal. In World Cup 2006, Brazil was the overwhelming favorites. Surely a team containing the legendary Ronaldo, the then world beating Ronaldinho, as well as all conquering Kaka won't go wrong and simply wipe everything on their path. But they were knocked out early, despite showing an attractive and daring attacking football in a 4-2-4 formation. Spain is now having that favorite tag. Everyone expects them to wipe anything and everything. They are said to play hypnotizing and extra-terrestrial football, and that even gravity might be defied by the mostly Barcelona players in the Spain squad.

To be fair to Spain, I personally believe that Spain will indeed play an extra-terrestrial, gravity defying football, and also wipe everything and anything on their path, but only for the three matches in the Group Stage. I dare say that they will simply swat aside Chile, Switzerland, and minnows Honduras and they might even score 20 goals and concede none, and obtain 9 points out of the available 9. At that time, even the most nationalistic Catalonian would be waving the Spanish flag. But everything will be over as soon as the last 16 kicks off. When they meet the more industrious, rigid, and unorthodox teams such as Italy, France, and Argentina respectively, they will be defeated with a skimpy scoreline, perhaps 1-0 or even in a penalty shoot-out. As usual, the tradition of Spain peaking too early in a big competition will not leave them. Not even the Euro 2008 victory could erase this. Yes, some might argue that winning the European Cup is much harder than winning the World Cup, but we have to argue again that in the last 16 and/r quarter finals, most if not all the teams left are likely to be the household European names and that's when the going gets tough, and the tough gets going. The lightning won't strike twice, if the 2009 Confederations Cup is of any indication.

The second reason picks up where I left off in the previous paragraph about how the Spanish team would falter when they meet the teams that play the anti-thesis of the kind of football that they are playing such as France, Argentina, and Italy as mentioned. Since the bulk of the Spanish squad are Barcelona players, and that their game is heavily reliant on the performances of these Barcelona men, Spain's game in the World Cup will be more or less a carbon copy of what Barcelona has been doing in the recently concluded season. Thus, it would be more than valid to draw comparisons with the Champions League, more specifically the second leg of the semi final tie of Barcelona against the eventual champions Internazionale. In this match, although many would argue that Barcelona won this match, it was shown to millions of audiences all over the world that the aforementioned slick passing, gravity defying Barcelona game can be ground to a halt by simply “Parking the bus in front of the goal”. There's no doubt that teams who are drawn against Spain, especially in the latter stages of the competition would want to take a leaf or two from Jose Mourinho's book to stop Spain, and they might just be successful. If it is a top team such as Argentina or France, they will lose by a sucker punch goal from a swift counterattack, but if it is an underdog such as the USA or Serbia, then expect them to be defeated either in the extra time or in the penalty shoot-out. Either way, Spain is going to be stopped by using Mourinho's successful tactics in the Champions League.

Lastly, with all their swashbuckling Barcelona carbon copy football, they sorely lack a credible Plan B to negotiate past the aforementioned time period starting from the last 16 when the tough gets going, and the going gets tough. This is where their Barcelona style of play will prove to be their undoing. Referring again to the previous paragraph in which they are faced with rigid and even anti-football tactics, they have to find a way out. Otherwise, they will just continuously passing around and no matter how they try, the burly opposition players will simply repel every single thing and simply toss the pint sized Spanish players away. I mean, what chance do small and short players such as Fabregas, David Villa, David Silva, Iniesta, Xavi and basically every single Spain players except for Puyol have against burly defensive players such as William Gallas, Walter Samuel, or even Branislav Ivanovic? I would say chances are it would be like seeing a group of 15 year olds being pushed away by pub bouncers to prevent them from entering. This problem is compounded by the exclusion of the relatively big sized Daniel Guiza, and I believe he is a better target-man to ram through the “parked bus” than Fernando Torres, their closest to a targetman. Without the unorthodox route one football, the kind of Inter's first goal in the final against Bayern Munich through a strong targetman Diego Milito, even if Casillas decides to lob the ball all the way to the opposition penalty area, the aforementioned burly players will just head the ball away and swat the small Spanish players away. They will not find a way through until the opposition scores a goal against them or draw them out in a siege until the lottery of the penalty shoot out (for the case of matches against underdogs).

Thus, with all of the reasons above, I don't see Spain winning this World Cup. People might still try to argue at this time using my comparison to the Spanish team with Barcelona in which they might present me with some matches in which Barcelona still win matches against teams, mostly the weaker teams in La Liga who put them on a siege by “parking the bus in front of a goal”, but no matter what, Barcelona still wins, mainly through last minute goals. But I bet anybody trying to argue along that line forgets one big thing. Even if the Spanish team is a carbon copy of Barcelona, it is just that. They have to remember that there's no Leo Messi to bail them out during those situations as “The Flea” is playing for Maradona's Argentina, the very team which might knock them out from the competition. I doubt Fernando Torres, David Villa, or Fabregas are able to do the kind of individual bailing out that Messi is doing for Barcelona, such as how Messi once dribbles past whole squads to score a brilliant goal or even his own “Hand of God” goal against Getafe to snatch victory from the jaws of draw.

Impacts of Champions League final: Inter vs Bayern Munich

First up, a massive congratulatory message to Internazionale, the team that has just notched a historic treble with the encouraging 2-0 victory against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. Also, congratulations to Jose Mourinho who has just joined an elite group of managers who have won the Champions League (or European Cup) with two clubs and potentially surpassing all of them as early as next season. (which will be touched upon again later on). Soon after, the massive celebrations among everyone associated with the Nerazzuri whether in Milan and all over the world will cease and soon after the World Cup will start and soon afterward, the new European footballing season will start again, and that's when the impacts from the recently concluded massive Champions League final between Internazionale and Bayern Munich will be revealed and also take effect in the top footballing arenas in Europe. The question now is that, what are the impacts I am talking about? and how are those impacts going to continue to write memorable football history for the next season and beyond...

First and foremost, the impact will be about the champions themselves, Internazionale. It is true that they have reached the ultimate footballing pinnacle right now by clinching a marvelous treble by clinching the routine but edgy Serie A title, the Coppa Italia in an intense match against AS Roma, and the recently won Champions League trophy against a gallant but rather unfortunate Bayern Munich side. After highlighting the first impact which is directly impacting Internazionale, Interistas who read this will perhaps brand me as a party pooper who tries to spoil Inter's celebrations (I am a Roma fan). But I assure everyone that this is an objective assessment on the issue and it is a time tested reality which will no doubt affect Inter as well. Let's face it, the only way a team would go after reaching the very apex of their game is down. Firstly, there's no longer a further way up as they have won anything and everything that are up for grabs in the season, and secondly, maintaining their position would be much more difficult than attaining the trophies in the first place. Thus the saying, “It is much harder to retain than to win a trophy in the first place”. Just like how we saw the all conquering Barcelona side losing steam this season, although they would still argue that they had won “unprecedented” 6 titles in a season, I would still say that we go by the European season calendar, and that's only totally valid if the season's schedule mimics that of the Russian Premier League, for instance. In any case, there's a marked decline in Barcelona's season although they are still able to win the La Liga title, which is decided by the El Clasico matches but nevertheless they won something.

Thus, I could see a similar decline happening in Internazionale very soon. One main reason for this is of course the departure of Jose “The Special One” Mourinho himself. His departure is already a big blow to the club and Italian football in general (no matter how volatile his relationship is with the personnel in Italy), and his departure is likely to be followed with a kind of exodus of the players, again looking at how the key players of Porto such as Paulo Ferreira, Deco, and Ricardo Carvalho just to name three left the club after the 2004 Champions League triumph, either following Mourinho or to another club. The same could be happening, and the loss of Maicon, Diego Milito, Julio Cesar, and even Wesley Sneijder could be a fatal blow to Inter, and this might even end their domination in Italian football, and if this scenario pans out, we are likely to see a new Champion of the Serie A next season. But then again, it is not a foregone conclusion, and even if this has been the case throughout football history, there's no reason against Inter breaking the rather unwanted tradition. Also, not forgetting the very fact that Mourinho eft for La Liga, already tipped as the next best league in Europe despite the fact that the recent flock of superstars to La Liga are to either Barcelona or Real Madrid. This gap will widen so much further as David Villa has left Valencia, and David Silva is very likely to follow, which fatally cripple Valencia, the nearest club to challenge the big two. But still, La Liga's standard will be bolstered so much with Mourinho's arrival in the Real Madrid hotseat while without the Special One, the Italian football's standard might decrease, especially if the Inter exodus mentioned above takes place.
Secondly, while it is too much to expect Mourinho to win back to back Champions League title by winning it with Real Madrid next season. One thing for sure is that any fans who followed Chelsea during the last season of Claudio Ranieri's tenure until the successful period under Mourinho will feel a huge sense of deja vu next season. In the aforementioned Chelsea case, Jose Mourinho simply arrived and sowed the fruits of Claudio Ranieri's labor, in which the Italian had set a foundation and laid the ground and assembled the core of the team which Mourinho utilized to win their first title since 1955. The same thing is going to happen in Real Madrid. Despite racking a record breaking number of points in the League (a whopping 96 points), Manuel Pellegrini will make way for Jose Mourinho since the Chilean failed to win any trophy in his first and last season in charge of Real Madrid. However, Manuel Pellegrini has actually laid the very foundation of the team. While many would argue that the team wasn't assembled by him but by Jorge Valdano and Florentino Perez, he has been integrating those great individuals such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, and the rest of the Galacticos as a team and also integrating them into the Spanish League. While no trophy has been won by the Chilean, this is arguably the baby steps required for a team to gel first, get to know how each other plays, and build a solid team chemistry. Even this season, he has succeeded to an extent, especially in the league with the impressive points collected. Given one more season, I believe Pellegrini would start winning the trophies that everyone associated with the “Casa Blanca” craves oh so much.

But football is not a nice game, not modern football at least. Mourinho will be in charge next season, and he will be in charge of a team which has gained a considerable degree of team chemistry, and Mourinho only needs to fine tune the team a little bit, perhaps by bringing in reinforcements from his Internazionale treble winning team and then perhaps he will be the very first manager who wins the Champions League thrice with three different teams, and perhaps confirms his status as a world beater who has won every single title within the triumvirate of World football (BPL, Serie A, and La Liga). The cruel aspect of this is how Mourinho hogs all the glory with the fruits of Pellegrini's labor this season.

If everything goes according to plan, and Mourinho really brings the glory days back to Real Madrid by winning another treble, this will further enhance La Liga's status as the best league in the world by a mile. Nevermind the aforementioned fact that the league is turning into a massively enhanced Scottish League. Also, more superstars such as Fabregas will continue on to flock into La Liga, and by that, continue to flock to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, I won't be surprised that the massively star studded teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona will be locked at the top of the league with both having 110 points and the tie breaking criteria are all exhausted and thus the title might be decided by a playoff in a neutral venue (the last tie breaking criterion if all other criteria fail). This third El Clasico will eclipse even the World Cup final itself. Trust me.

Last but not least, I have been blabbering about the winners. All about Inter, all about Mourinho and his new club Real Madrid. But why haven't I mentioned anything about the runners-up, Bayern Munich, who, to be fair to them and to their manager Louis van Gaal, played extremely well but rather unfortunate to lose the game, and also due to certain lapses in defense. The reason why they are mentioned last is simply because of the very fact that only the winners are remembered. Runners up are forgotten as soon as they have received their silver medals and the moment the Champions receive their gold medals and their captain hoisting the big eared trophy up in the sky, that's it for the runners up.

I have seen articles and comments by pundits and journalists around the world claiming that this will undoubtedly boost Bayern Munich's and more importantly the German Bundesliga's profile and that this is the signs of things to come for Bayern Munich as if they are able to win it next season. But I don't see it that way. Bayern might well continue to dominate the German football, but I don't see them emulating their amazing run all the way to the final of the Champions League like this season and even winning it next season. While Ribery has reportedly penned a new fresh deal to keep him in Bayern, he might still leave next season to places such as Manchester City and Real Madrid who won't be put up by the massive compensation to break him from his contract. Also, there's no guarantee that other important players such as Robben and even Louis van Gaal would stay put as despite the fact that collectively, the runners up will be forgotten, but at individual level, there would be suitors for the key players and the manager. Bayern Munich must be ruing their loss to Inter as they have to be careful not to lose the very foundations that have brought them this run in the first place. Also, looking at the effects on Inter and Bayern as explained in this article respectively, perhaps everyone associated with Bayern Munich, and all Bundesliga fans in general would really ask the huge what if question, “What if Bayern had won the treble instead of Inter?” My answer to that is simply that it would launch Bundesliga as yet another top league in the world, and Mourinho, the loser in this alternate universe will perhaps be eyeing Bundesliga as his destination in the future to win the title, and confirm his “world beater” title.

Can Italy retain the World Cup?

No one could ever forget the final of 2006, the sight of Fabio Cannavaro hoisting the World Cup trophy high in the sky. It was such an eventful competition, from Totti's last minute penalty against Australia to Zidane's emotional capitulation due to Materazzi's provocation which resulted in his headbutt which will forever be etched in football history. Four years on, La Nazionale, complete with the same manager, Marcello Lippi and most of the players from 2006 are getting ready to defend the World Cup Trophy in South Africa next month from the time of writing. A lot of questions have been asked to this Italian team. From the dubious team selection by Lippi for equally mind-boggling reasons, to the aforementioned fact that most of the players from 2006 are still in the squad and more. But sometimes, football is not so straightforward, and matches are won on the pitch instead of on the paper. Thus, the question remains, can Italy defend the World Cup trophy to win it two years in succession and in both occasions defying the odds? In my honest and humble opinion, the Italian team which will be representing the country in the Rainbow Nation will not be able to rise to the occasion this time.

The first reason for this is of course the well documented and mind-boggling squad selection by Marcello Lippi for this year's edition of the World Cup. What makes his squad selection ever more baffling is the fact that the reasons for his inclusion and exclusion of certain players are strongly influenced by the rather solidly pragmatic approach as well as based on his personal views and like-and-dislike towards certain players. His inclusion of most of the old guards from the 2006 winning team (which will be touched upon in greater detail later) and the exclusion of two of Italy's best performers in the recently concluded season who are none other than Fabrizio Miccoli and Antonio Cassano perfectly explain how he chooses his squad. The focus here will be the exclusion of the players. It has been well documented that both players will not have a slightest of chances to don the famous Azzuri shirt as long as Lippi is in charge of the squad. In other words, the only way for those players to feature for their country again is for this World Cup to be so disastrous that the wily old manager resigns or sacked.

They have the right to think that the day beckons as without both of these explosive players, Italy's attack is rather blunt and even if they are able to negotiate the usually easy Group Stage, when the top teams come to face Italy, that's when the flaws will be exposed. Without solid attackers like those two to breach the stubborn and world class defence, and not forgetting that without the two guys who are capable of converting rare half-chances that come their way into goals without second invitations, it is hard to see how the team will negotiate past top teams such as Brazil, Spain, Argentina, and Germany. Teams who do not take their chances, even assuming that Italy can create a lot of chances, will be severely punished. Just look at Arsenal, nice passing, nice build up, eye catching assists, but nobody to finish them, they still win nothing. Same goes for Italy. Since Lippi is so stubborn with his personal policies to choose his players, it is hard to see Italy progressing far into the competition, let alone winning it again.

The second reason why Italy would not be able to retain the famous trophy is because of the other half of Lippi's selection policy in which he favors the old guards of 2006 such as Fabio Cannavaro, Mauro Camoranesi, Zambrotta, and Gattuso instead of calling the young bloods who have performed so admirably for their respective clubs in the recently concluded club season. Yes, those players are World Class players, but nobody could expect those same players to perform at the same top level throughout their careers. There must be a point of time when they are no longer capable of producing the goods at the very top level, and it can be argued that they have reached that point long ago. With the opposing teams constantly experimenting and introducing new, young, and fresh players into the squad and giving birth to extreme innovations within their games, Italy's progress can be safely considered as stagnant and I would liken them to a monopoly company who refuses to innovate only to see their monopoly position being usurped by other companies who constantly adopt new innovations for themselves. While the inclusion of the old guards of 2006, at a glance, seems to be the embodiment of Team Chemistry attainment and consistency in selection, this is the wrong kind of those aspects of the game, especially the latter. When they face youthful squad brimming with raw pace and hunger, the old and clumsy Italians will totally be caught off guard and that's when they are going to be knocked out. Another disappointment akin to the one in Euro 2008 awaits?

Another reason why Italy is incapable of retaining the World Cup is due to history. Since the great Pele infused Brazilian team did in 1958 and 1962, no other teams have managed to retain the famous trophy. While this reason might not be a realistic one and merely more of a superstitious reason, sometimes history plays a bigger role than anyone could envisage in the game. As a comparison, perhaps one should look at how no team has ever retained the UEFA Champions League since it is no longer known as European Cup and even until the time of writing, and at least until May 2011, no team has mamaged to retain the trophy and same goes to the World Cup trophy. Thus, if history has its way, Italy will not retain the cup.

But we have to remember one golden rule in football, “Anything can happen in football”. I would be contradicting myself to suggest that since Italy seems to be in such a disadvantaged and weak position that they will not win the world cup. Let me remind everyone again that my favorite to win the World Cup is Argentina, and we know how we would be ridiculed for placing just one Euro bet on Argentina winning the World Cup. The same goes for Italy of course, and still using the argument from my position for favoring Argentina, history has also proven that usually the team that is least expected to win the World Cup go far in the tournament instead of the massive favorites, and Italy is certainly not a favorite. Although I have to add that Italy is not the only team with the underdog tag and if the theory comes to light in the competition, Italy will have to fight it out with other least favored teams such as France and Argentina just to name two to get their hands on the grandest prize of them all in football, the World Cup.

In conclusion, we have taken a look at how Marcello Lippi's dubious team selections whether the exclusion of game changing and in-form players such as Miccoli and Cassano as well as his equally dubious faith on the 2006 cup winning players minus Fabio Grosso, whose exclusion has ignited debates all over the world and of course in Italy and the fact that history is against them suggests that Italy will not be able to retain the World Cup and it is time for yet another team to win this one. Although we have to remember that nothing in football is certain, but obvious weakness in a squad and mind-boggling antics such as Lippi's will prove to be a team's downfall, totally defying the famous saying, “anything can happen in football”

Do France deserve their World Cup 2010 spot?

The question about whether or not France deserve to be taking part in the 2010 edition of the World Cup in South Africa has not been asked for such a long time, at least among the non-Irish in this world. However, with the World Cup in less than a month away from the time of writing, and also the fact that personally I have yet to present my case and perspective on this issue, I feel that this is the appropriate time to answer those big questions regarding the World Cup prior to the much anticipated opening match between the hosts South Africa and Mexico. Thus, despite seemingly to be the other way round, I dare say that France actually fully deserve their spot in the competition despite the widespread condemnation due to the nature of how their spot was clinched at the expense of the gallant Republic of Ireland and the reasons why will be covered in the following paragraphs.

The first reason why France deserve their spot in the upcoming World Cup is simply because of the time honored rule from FIFA regarding the referee's decisions in a football match. To be precise, it is about the very rule that no matter what, the referee's decisions in a match are final. There have been many well documented and hotly debated huge football incidents regarding referee's decisions in the past which are still disputed and begrudged even until this very day. I will just take arguably two of the most prominent of such incidents which are Geoff Hurst's infamous “phantom goal” which resulted in England winning their first and so far only World Cup every in 1996 on home soil at the expense of Germany and of course the “Hand of God” goal by Diego Maradona which arguably the knockout blow to England in the 1986's World Cup and of course a huge catalyst of Argentina winning that year's edition of the World Cup.

Therefore, just by taking a look at those two incidents, it could be seen that it is futile to debate all those incidents even in the decades after those incidents actually occurred. We have seen thousands of complaints from the German and English players who were undermined in the respective incidents, we have seen the replays of those incidents so many times that the replay is totally ingrained in our memories such that we are able to play out the exact video right in our minds. But one thing remains. The respective goals have stood until today. Referee's decisions are final. Period. So, it's pretty much the same for the incident when Thierry Henry swatted the ball for William Gallas to score which in turn swatting his country all the way to South Africa while swatting Ireland out of commission. No matter how the Irish want to debate this issue until we have introduced football to the aliens in the space and when we are able to host Mars United to play a friendly game, the decision will never be overturned and yes, this argument comes to a full circle, the referee's decision is final. Even if Thierry Henry had carried the ball with his hands, rugby style, all the way to beyond Shay Given's goal-line, and IF the referee allowed it, that's a goal, and nothing can ever change that, not even millions of Shillelagh blows on the referee's or Henry's head will be able to change anything, let alone the result of the match.

The second reason why France deserves to be in South Africa next month is pertaining to how FIFA made a very controversial rule change for the play-off stage of the UEFA World Cup qualifying campaign. The rule change was that FIFA suddenly decided to seed the teams who were in the playoffs according to their FIFA ranking. The reason for the controversy surrounding this decision is mainly due to the rather surprising conclusion in the various groups of the qualification campaign in which the football powerhouses such as France, Portugal, and even Russia didn't manage to top their groups and thus had to negotiate a potentially tricky random fixtures in the playoffs. But the rule change guaranteed that these powerhouses won't be facing one another. This sent the football conspiracy theorists to work overtime and concluded that this was all a conspiracy by FIFA to get as many top teams as possible in the World Cup while of course culling the “undesirable” teams as far as sponsorship and attendance issues are concerned. Had there been no rule change at all, we would have seen two top teams against each other, for example France vs Portugal and thus one of those teams would have to miss this year's World Cup. In the end, Portugal faced Bosnia-Herzegovina while France faced Republic of Ireland for the very clash which ignited debates such as what is being discussed in this article. In the end, both France and Portugal qualified. The only instance of the smaller teams defying the controversial rule change is only Slovenia as they managed to beat Guus Hiddink's fancied Russian team.

Well, if we look at this rule change objectively, it is indeed makes a whole world of sense for FIFA to try their best (according to the conspiracy theories at least) to get France and Portugal among other top teams to be in the World Cup for the aforementioned sponsorship and attendance issues. Picture this, it would be a disaster for sponsors such as NIKE and Adidas just to name two if players under contracts with them such as Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo are to miss the competition. It would be an utter disaster as far as profits are concerned. Besides sponsorship issues, we have to look at the attendance and gate receipt issues. How can one expect the South African populace and tourists from all over the world to pay a huge sum of money to go to the various South African cities where the matches are held to look at teams which an average fan would struggle to name just three squad members? (with all due respects to the teams). Even if one points out at Bosnian and Irish stars such as Hasan Salihamidzic, Vedad Ibisevic, Robbie Keane, and Shay Given, people would certainly prefer to see players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hugo Lloris, and Simao. I mean, the latter four players would put more bums on the seats of the South African stadiums. Again, it would be an utter disaster if the first World Cup on African soil is to fail due to poor attendance? The sight of the empty stadiums will be such a shameful sight for FIFA's top brass and also for South Africans and even for the world as a whole for that matter! Thus, it doesn't matter if the conspiracy theories are true or not, the fact that France is a team filled with the who's who in football and also perhaps the very fact that France has a better prospect in the competition in providing stern challenges that even Ireland (sorry Ireland fans) in the competition and thus, let's just be objective and harden our hearts, but yes, France deserves to be in the competition when we look at the economic reasons, (sponsorship and attendance) as well as in terms of the competition's pedigree as a whole. (the fact that France can potentially go further than Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina for instance and thus provide quality matches instead of thrashings).

The third and last reason for the day is also a bitter pill to swallow for the Irish, but let's all face it with our objective glasses, as what I would expect for anyone reading the previous paragraph. It is true that the one particular goal which resulted from the infamous handball was the sucker punch which destroyed all hopes of the Irish to go to the World Cup. But why? It's of course due to the fact that the Irish had first lost 1-0 in Dublin on the first leg of the tie and had a mountain to climb for the second leg in Paris. Robbie Keane managed to score one goal to bring the aggregate to 1-1 and to extra time. That's when the Hand of Henry assist ruined everything. But would it have been such a decisive incident had Ireland were 4-0 up for instance in that match, or if that seems too much, a 3-0 advantage from the first leg in Dublin? The extra time would not have happened and it is likely that the incident would not have happened. Of course it would not be right on my part to keep asking the what if questions, which I believe have been asked countless of times before, even until today. But that's what it is. Had Ireland managed to take their chances well, especially if they had managed to make full use of their home advantage in the first leg, not even two of such goals would prove to be so detrimental. But then again, we have to realize that the playoffs are never easy, not even after the aforementioned FIFA rule change and thus sometimes it takes just one goal, one mishap, one wrong referee decision to turn things around, and that's what happened, just like the two incidents in 1966 and 1986 mentioned above. Thus, based on the results alone over two legs. France deserves to go through as they managed to “hold off” Ireland in the two legs, especially in the 2nd leg after Robbie Keane's early goal in the match to stay in contention and won it, even if the assist to the winning goal wasn't a legitimate one.

Despite all of the reasons mentioned above regarding how France deserve their spot, it is pertinent that we should not immediately conclude that France totally, fully deserve their spot in the competition. It is because, no matter what, what Henry had done in the match was such a disgraceful act. It was obviously a blatant act not only to keep the ball from going out of the playing field for a goal kick, but also to launch the ball right on William Gallas' path, who is one of the French players in the Irish penalty box. Even though this is a football era in which the stakes are so high that the end justifies the means more often than not, and also in Henry's personal perspective that if France doesn't qualify, he might have played his last World Cup match in 2006 final, which didn't end that well for the French. But still, Thierry Henry is a world class superstar playing in world class matches beamed to a global audience, and there are kids who adore him as an idol and treat him as their role model. If that's the kind of example that he is setting on the pitch, it is saddening to see that the kids would think that it is okay to cheat their way to victory as long as they can win matches for their team, which is a wrong idea which might translate to other fields if they do not play football such as in their school examinations and even in the business world that they might end up as the next Nick Leeson and other irresponsible CEOs which might not only ruin a company but also ruin the whole world's economy as evident in the recent global financial crisis. But then again, football is not a philanthropic work, at least not today, and thus attaining goals, whether collective ones (bringing one's country to the World Cup) or individual ones (Henry's wish to play in one more World Cup for example) are at the top of the agenda, and I am afraid, in modern football at least, morality and even caring for the kids' affected moral values is nowhere near the top or even on the priority list itself...

In conclusion, no matter how many liters of Irish tears and also desperate attempts by the Irish to overturn the result, such as when they go as far as appealing to FIFA to include them as the competition's 33rd team, we have to see from the combination of the reasons stated above from how the referee's decision is final, how FIFA, the sponsors, and even the footballing world as a whole would benefit from France's inclusion in the World Cup, and also not forgetting the fact that the Irish failed to stamp their mark in the two matches to kill the tie off so that they are guaranteed a spot without heart stopping moments such as Henry's handball to ruin everything contribute to the fact that France deserve to be in the World Cup to entertain all of us. Although again the Irish and other detractors might wish for France to do another 2002 and exit the World Cup unceremoniously, I would beg to differ. I even dare say that since I have tipped Argentina (another team expected to go out early) to win this World Cup, and France, like Argentina is a team who have struggled a lot in the qualification campaign, and we know that teams that struggle in the qualification campaign tend to go far. Of course I am not that superstitious as to say that this is the only factor, but there are other factors which is totally out of the discussion in this particular occasion. In a nutshell, I am not ruling out the final consisting of a match between France and Argentina in this edition's World Cup! Therefore, I might even write another article in two months' time about whether France deserves to be in the final or even deserve to win the cup in the event that they do!

Is it fair to label Maradona crazy?

After witnessing scintillating ends to the top European leagues such as the Barclays Premier League, Spanish La Liga, and Italian Serie A, the attention is now diverted to the southern hemisphere in anticipation to the long awaited start to the 2010 edition of the FIFA World Cup. 32 teams will be, technically at least, be competing fiercely for the biggest prize of them all, the grandaddy of the footballing universe. It is no secret that I personally am tipping Diego Maradona's Argentina to win this World Cup, although one could see a plethora of journalists and pundits alike dismissing Argentina's chances to win the World Cup. However, it is not the time to debate about Argentina's chances per se, this is about their much derided manager Maradona, who has infamously utilized no less than 100 different players in their shaky and precarious qualification campaign and also infamously snubbing stars such as Juan Roman Riquelme and Diego Milito in favor of players such as Martin Palermo and Ariel Ortega. The question to be asked here is that, is it really fair and correct to label Maradona as crazy and incompetent, echoing the aforementioned journalists and pundits? Or is Maradona's bizarre tactics and selections so far is a fruit of his genius footballing brain?

It is actually not really correct to label Maradona as crazy simply because of Argentina's precarious qualification campaign which really gave them huge scare of not qualifying as well as the aforementioned “questionable” team selections. Firstly, Diego Maradona is perhaps simply trying to bring out unknown variables into the equation. We have to realize that if Maradona is to follow the so called mainstream and “correct” way of doing things by selecting only top European based players who are playing in the top clubs and the top leagues of this world, Argentina will become some sort of predictable unit, at least on individual level. This is simply because of the very fact that all of us, let alone the complicated and advanced network of scouts around the world know players such as Carlos Tevez, Leo Messi, and Diego Milito inside out largely thanks to the global coverage of the top European leagues in which those players are plying their trades in. If Argentina is to become such a predictable unit, the opposing defending players, who are themselves top players playing against the aforementioned Argentine players week in week out will not have any problems identifying one best way to stop them as what they have been doing at club level.

By choosing players from the Argentine League, it is from a division which has less coverage, and definitely has less information available for the oppositions in comparison to the top European leagues. They would be needing a totally different set of strategies to stop those players and also not mentioning how those players are not used to playing these players on a regular basis. Even if they have played against each other before, it is likely to be a one off match such as during the now defunct Intercontinental Cup or the Club World Cup. Even for players who have starred in Europe before such as Riquelme, Juan Veron, and Ariel Ortega, they have been out of the European game for so long and the players who used to rub shoulders with them have either retired from the international scene or retired altogether. Thus, we might want to start thinking how the “craziness” of Maradona is in fact a shrewd and smart thinking. And yes, we haven't start talking about how choosing players from the Argentine league will only do the domestic league a world of good!

Secondly, by choosing a whopping 100 different players in the qualification campaign, Maradona keeps everyone in the entire universe to keep guessing. Too many variables are involved, and there's no definite set up in Maradona's plans. Even if he chooses players from the Argentine league, people will start to study the way they play, the tempo that suits them, and a whole lot of factors needed to beat the team. But that's only for a team constantly playing together for every single match throughout the qualification campaign. But 100 different players? Those scouts or even the managers themselves might attend the Argentina matches, but each match brings a totally different dimension, and there's no set pattern. The variable changes for every single match. There's no chance at all to really study the Argentine team thoroughly as 100 players would mean that it is not one team, but around 10 different starting line ups! There's no way to study 10 different teams, and even if they succeed in doing that, they still have to guess which 23 players out of those will be chosen to go to South Africa (which is already done at the time of writing) and the oppositions would not have been successfully studied those 23 players thoroughly as those 23 might not be a team in the qualifications. Maybe each player comes from each different “team” sent by Maradona to each match? Totally no room at all to be studied and spied. Masterpiece from Maradona, although I am appalled at how those top class pundits and journalists fail to see this...

People will now point at the extreme scare of Maradona's qualification campaign which nearly knocked any hopes of Argentina qualifying, which they point out with their so called expert analysis that it would be a disaster if that had happened. That's true, but in the end Maradona kept to his words and qualified. At least Argentina secured their qualifications in a legitimate way. Even the fact that France secured their qualification through Thierry Henry's blatant, low class, and shameful cheating antic, they are in the World Cup, no matter how the Irish want to cry until the cow comes home. So who's to say that Maradona's Argentina who qualified legitimately do not deserve a plane to South Africa? Also, people may call me crazy, but I would love to think that besides trying to confuse oppositions as mentioned, he also used the qualification campaign as a form of mind games, so that he and his team are underestimated. He allows people all over the world to ridicule him as a madman, idiotic coach, and other appalling insults as a small sacrifice so that everyone will write them off and underestimate them, only to see them surge all the way to the World Cup Glory, and to add Maradona to a list of legends who has won the World Cup both as a player and as a manager. It is such a noble sacrifice for his country. Besides, in superstitious terms, we have seen too many times in too many World Cups that the teams who surge through all the way through the qualification campaigns (Spain and England as usual, be warned) always end up relatively early. As for Spain and England, maybe last 16 or the Quarter Finals are what they could dream of.

However, despite how Maradona's tactics might have been used to enhance Argentina's chances to win the World Cup, it is nevertheless pertinent to point out that Maradona's tactics were too risky for such a high stakes campaign. I mean, we can't dismiss those people who point out how Maradona had carried Argentina down so much that they were on the verge of failing to qualify to the World Cup barring Martin Palermo's last minute goal against Peru as indeed it was too precarious to be comfortable. I mean, if I am a manager, or a citizen of a country, I would rather be like Spain and England, qualify so comfortably through the qualification campaign and being knocked out early rather than not qualifying at all. It was indeed a high risk move by Maradona. But nevertheless, he has made it, Argentina is now ready to add one more star onto their shirts, and Maradona is ready to hug the famous Jules Rimet trophy one more time as a manager now.

Thus, it is utterly invalid to dismiss Maradona's tactics and team selections as simply idiotic moves as what have been mentioned above, Maradona might just be that one genius manager who thinks outside of the box and beats any other managers in the competition who religiously adhere to the so called “right way” or mainstream way of doing things. Remember, sometimes it is the unorthodox who triumph over the religiously orthodox exponents in a martial arts for example. Also, we have to remember that despite all of his private problems in the past, Maradona is still someone who is rational, and above all, someone who has a genius footballing brain. While it is again true that great players do not make great managers, we have to say that Maradona is one of them who are good in both worlds and the fact that he's still in charge until now speaks volume of how the AFA trust him for the job. They are rational people as well, and thus let's just sit back, and watch how Maradona's team surge through the competition all the way just like how the man himself waltzed through England's defence in 1986 on his way to scoring the goal of the century!

What a scintillating Premier League 09-10 Season!

After a few seasons of relative boredom in which we are seeing the same pattern again and again from the title winner, the Big Four in the league, as well as how the relegation battles have been shaped, finally we have a season worthy to be dubbed one of the best ever seasons of all time. The BPL season which has just been concluded with the crowning of their new Champions Chelsea was truly a scintillating season. Not only the title race was a heartstopping one, all the way to the penultimate match-day of the season, but the race to the coveted 4th spot was also equally mesmerizing and heartstopping. Besides the business end of the table, even the wrong end of the table provided a somewhat entertaining relegation battle as well as a sad and real story about the plight of a Premier League club being humiliated due to financial mismanagement in the past...

From the beginning of the season, there have been moments that actually determine how the season would pan out. First, we have Carlo Ancelotti being hired to lead Chelsea back to glory after Guus Hiddink's face saving 6month tenure which landed the FA Cup. To be frank, I was quite skeptical with the appointment of Ancelotti. He's the manager who have been failing with an aged AC Milan team in the past few seasons, and now he's taking over a team which is also going to face or even already facing the same aging problem, Chelsea. I didn't see them as champions, and instead I saw Manchester United's domination to continue on, and there won't be any excitement at all.

Manchester City also splurged on plenty of players such as Adebayor, Kolo Toure, and more importantly Carlos Tevez (and yes, Jolen Lescott... Sigh...). As a Manchester City fan, it is really great to see how Man City are massively upgrading their squad with the newfound wealth from the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). It seemed that this season is the season in which not only Man City are finally able to shake off their mediocre status, but this might be the season to dream big and challenge Man Utd's domination at the top of the table directly! I started to dream big about Man City's prospects this season.

The first match day started, and I remember looking at the match between Tottenham and Liverpool. In light of Liverpool's massive but futile title challenge in the previous season and how Tottenham once again failed to deliver, I felt that this game is a goner. Liverpool was certainly going to win this match. But my, how I was proven wrong, as Tottenham triumphantly beating Liverpool 2-0 and with their new center back Sebastien Bassong scoring on his debut. This turned out to be a perfect omen on what Tottenham was about to achieve this season, of course at the expense of my beloved Man City, Aston Villa, and Liverpool.

The following match days also proved how Liverpool huffed and puffed over the sheer expectations placed on them prior to the start of the season due to again, their performances in the previous season. But no thanks to the financial state which is increasingly in disarray, they weren't able to secure any meaningful reinforcement besides the flop Alberto Aquilani who arrived injured for 6 months and Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who was not a flop, but not the kind of signing that a team challenging for the title would make. The failure and inability of them to reinforce their squad properly proved to be at least one of the main catalysts of their downfall, as epitomized by their embarrassing knockouts in the Cup competitions.

By this time, it was almost Christmas time, and everyone started to celebrate the increasingly secularized celebration. However, there wasn't to be an unforgettable Christmas in the positive sense for anyone associated with Portsmouth, especially the fans. OK, maybe it should have been mentioned somewhere above, but I will mention it now. Upon the takeover by Sulaiman al Fahim, an Emirate tycoon who was one of the main players in the aforementioned ADUG takeover f Man City in the previous season, there was an air of optimism among Pompey fans, as they thought they were becoming the second Man City. As an average fan, I also thought that that since Sulaiman al Fahim is one of the main players in ADUG, Portsmouth would be able to achieve many great things, and perhaps greater than the apex of their season of all time when they won the FA Cup in 2008, which was ironically one of the main causes why they slumped to such an extent. But Sulaiman Al Fahim soon left and replaced by a rather mysterious figure called Ali al Faraj, which some sections of the media claimed that such person doesn't even exist, and before anyone could blink, the club changed hands again to Balram Chainrai, a Hong Kong businessman and soon, it became the first club in the Premier League to enter administration. I was really surprised at how the club's fortune changed in such a short period of time, and the rest, as they say is a history, a history which I believe even Southampton fans won't dare ridicule.

Around the same period, things got a little bit tough for Mark Hughes in Man City in which they equaled the all time draw records of 7 consecutive games in the top division. Actually, I think Mark Hughes was perfectly on course to clinch that coveted 4th place or even better than that as to think about it, Mar Hughes had 35 points at the halfway point of the season, and Tottenham, the team who clinched the spot has 70 points now, and even Tottenham manages to secure that number of points, had Hughes continued on, Man City would be the one clinching the spot due to superior goal difference. I mean, look at how Mark Hughes' team performed at home especially. Those high scoring games would do a world of good to Man City's goal difference record. Sadly, the board wants all things instant and they decided that Mark Hughes has failed and it's time for him to go. Actually, with a newly assembled team, Mark Hughes has done a great job and Roberto Mancini replaced him, a man with no real experience in England, and again, the rest is history... Bye2 4th spot, welcome oh so mighty Europa League!

If the sacking of Mark Hughes is not enough, the board also decided that Man City's captain Richard Dunne was not “Galactico” enough to don the sky blue shirt, let alone leading the team out as their Captain, and he was soon put in the transfer market, in which Aston Villa was only too happy to get him for a steal at a mere 5 million pounds. That proved t be a suicidal move as his departure left such a vacuum in Man City's defence that it became as porous as a sponge. However, fate has its way of twisting such that Richard Dunne would be back at the penultimate day of the season to lift Man City as high as possible, 5th place by scoring an own goal which proved to be the winning goal against Blackburn. Nonetheless, I think the sale of Richard Dunne was not a rational decision...

Then New Year time for all of us. 2009 turned to 2010. At this time, it is traditionally the time whereby all the races in the league, especially the title race right at the top heats up. Despite the fact that Chelsea was perched in a relative comfort at the top of the table, there was a sense of deja vu from the past, (it was with Arsenal) in which Man Utd would suddenly wake up from their half season slumber and start to surge up the table while their rivals start to run out of gas and simply slowly fade before being overtaken. Even last season,Rafa Benitez was the latest victim with his infamous “Rafa Rant”, reminiscence to the infamous implosion of Kevin Keegan's Newcastle in 1996. True enough, Man Utd started to rapidly surge up the table and Rooney was in the form of his life, scoring a hatful of goals week in week out, and Man Utd fans even started to declare “Ronaldo WHO?”. As a side personal note, the sudden burst of impressive form for Rooney prompted even a Liverpool fan acquaintance to praise Rooney non stop which irritated me to no end.

Meanwhile, also true to people's and my earlier expectations about Man Utd's habit of second half of the season surge up the table, this is compounded by the general consensus of football fans that Chelsea's squad is too old to last the race and they will at a point of time simply crash and burn, and Chelsea started to drop more and more points and the image of Ancelotti managing Chelsea resembled more of him managing AC Milan, as well as Chelsea's average age resembled that of AC Milan. At this point of time, had someone challenged me to place a bet on Man Utd winning the title, I would have done that.

Chelsea's problems and their supposed free fall were compounded by the infamous super injunction failure of John Terry to keep his dark little dirty secret off the public view. Suddenly, the already ferocious media world was filled by the sensational news about how John Terry had an affair with Wayne Bridge's ex partner in the past, Vanessa Perroncel. The last thing that Chelsea wanted was a scandal in the squad, let alone a huge one affecting their captain, affecting Mr. Chelsea himself! The effect was apparent when Chelsea hosted Man City in an expected EXPLOSIVE match with THAT infamous “phantom handshake” between Terry and Bridge when they came face to face and Chelsea was defeated 4-2 in front of their own fans. While Man Utd continued to catch up with them!

Like I said, besides the title race, even the relegation battle, which usually an average fan even in the UK (unless if they are the fans of the clubs concerned) would not be bothered to care, was quite a classic and quite a closely fought race. This started when Burnley was sucked in to the relegation dogfight with clubs such as West Ham, Wigan, Bolton, and of course Hull City after a decent first half season which included a 1-0 victory over Man Utd (which many pundits consider the beginning of the end for Man Utd, but for me, at that time, it didn't have any effect). Basically Owen Coyle, Burnley's manager who brought them to the Premier League in the first place decided to play Judas by going to Bolton, Burnley's direct title rival to fill the hotseat vacated by Gary Megson. This was the beginning of the end for Burnley as they hired Brian Laws, which even for me, it was the very first time I have heard of that name. He has just left Sheffield Wednesday in an extreme mess, which culminated in their relegation, and thus eventually he also brought Burnley down. Double relegation... Although for Burnley, with their heads up!

Hull City, another team fighting hard for survival sacked the now infamous Phil Brown and hired Iain Dowie. Another team on the freefall after Burnley... But after last season's extreme fiasco, for me, I have seen this coming and it's the matter of how soon and not if, the Tigers are going to be relegated from the Premier League. Thus, both Burnley and Hull were eventually relegated together with the doomed Portsmouth...

As for West Ham, it was amazing that they could have survived even with 31 point, in a league where 40 points is considered the safety mark to be targeted by any team trying to avoid relegation. Gianfranco Zola, as much as he's a likeable character managed to survive the axe as West Ham managed to retain their Premier League status, although it's more of the chaos in Burnley and Hull that secured his survival, but for how long?

Another special mention must also go to Fulham, who again many fans might have forgotten that they even exist, let alone creating fireworks in the Europa League, considered the poor little cousin of the Champions League. Without much fuss and media attention, Fulham negotiated round after round, top opponents after top opponents, and finally before anyone realizing, they are in the final of the Europa League, and at the time of writing, only needing to beat an erratic Atletico Madrid side to win the trophy and also giving Burnley Europa League qualification through the fair play table. I think Fulham have what it takes to notch a win against Atletico depending on how Atletico performs. Also, I believe Fulham has an upper hand as Fulham has been in the final venue before when they drew 0-0 against Hamburger SV in the first leg of the semi final match.

After such heartstopping moments and exciting chase, the much coveted fourth spot was clinched by Tottenham, which managed to beat Man City 1-0 thanks to a somewhat lucky goal by Peter Crouch, in a direct “Play-off, winners take all” match to decide who qualify to the Champions League next season, and Tottenhm eventually clutched the spot from Liverpool, and not Manchester City...

As for the title race, still fresh in everyone's minds at the time of writing, was also down to the very last day in which both Man Utd and Chelsea were up against small oppositions (stoke and Wigan respectively at home) and Chelsea of course managed to grab the title after thrashing a hapless Wigan a whopping 8-0 and in the process Drogba claiming the Golden Boot award, while Man Utd managed to gain an expected but futile 4-0 win against Stoke.

A special mention as well for Burnley who managed to beat Tottenham 4-2 in the very last day of their Premier League season at Turf Moor, and as for Chelsea, that's how you win the Premier League title, same goes for Burnley, that's how you sign off and say your goodbyes from the Premier League.

Besides the serious stuff, this season has also been littered with funny and even ridiculous moments such as how a naked Tony Pulis headbutted James Beattie in one of Stoke City's many internal scuffles, and also how Ancelotti swore to the world that he would run around the training ground naked if Chelsea had purchased any player in the January transfer window (which they didn't) and also another internal scuffle at Hull in which Jimmy Bullard was in a boxing match against Nick Barmby with elderly ladies from the Women Institute as spectators.

All in all, this season has been such a scintillating, exciting, heartstopping and even mind boggling that I believe I ought to write this piece for my own passion, as well as the world. I am not sure if the world eventually reads the thousands of words here, thousands of words which are basically echoing what top football journalists around the world have been saying, (as we talk about the same events) but only with additions of my own perspectives and comments on the issues, but even if the world refuses to read my piece, I would not be deterred and I will continue to write passionately for the sake of the Beautiful Game! Joga Bonito!

On Manchester City's Downfalls...

Alright, just like what I have been doing in my posts in the past, this post is no exception and I have to do the customary congratulation to Tottenham who have just secured the much coveted 4th spot, and in fact a possible 3rd place if they win their remaining game of the season against the already relegated Burnley and Fulham springs nasty surprises in the Emirates Stadium. That success comes at the expense of high spenders Manchester City who have been tipped all season to clinch that 4th spot and also replacing Liverpool as one of the Big Four in the Premier League this season. What went wrong? After such an obscene splurge, just like Real Madrid, they are expected to destroy everything in their path! But what went wrong with this team? The following paragraphs will show exactly why.

The first reason is of course goes back all the way to the halfway point of the season in which the Manchester City board sacked Mark Hughes who was really doing well with the newly assembled squad that he has. I mean, 35 points at the halfway point of the season is not a bad return at all. Mark Hughes was well on target. Just because he was drawing games doesn't mean that he's losing the plot. I mean, just look at Manuel Pellegrini. At around that time, Real Madrid also faced a kind of dip in form in all competitions, most famously being knocked out from the Copa del Rey by part timers Alcorcon, being thrashed severely by them in the first leg. It was such an embarrassment, and many speculated heavily that Manuel Pellegrini would be sacked soon after that cup fiasco. However, experience is indeed one's best teacher and Florentino Perez has learned his way, and he didn't sack Manuel Pellegrini. Look at Real Madrid now, they are still piling pressure on Barcelona even until the time of writing, potentially pipping them on the last day of the season if Real Madrid has their way. Barcelona fans might flame me, but that's the reality and you guys know it.But not for Manchester City, they chose to sack Mark Hughes and replace him with someone with no real experience in England besides a short playing stint with Leicester City which British commentators can't stop reminding us. This is pretty much like how US and its allies destroyed the relatively stable Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and replacing it with severely unstable new government. Now look at Manchester City, despite a great improvement from last season's 10th place finish, this is not the kind of return you would expect with that kind of squad and with that kind of money invested. I know people would just accuse me of sour grapes and asking too many “what if” questions but yeah, that's a valid question that with how Mark Hughes won at least the home games in scintillating manner to the tune of 5-1, 4-3, 6-0 week in week out, we really ought to ask plenty of “what if” questions

The second reason, which is evident not only in last night's match, but also throughout this season even before the sacking of Mark Hughes is the very fact that this expensively assembled team have no team chemistry at all. Most of the time, and last night's match included, it is Tevez that has to do it all alone to bring City up. Even Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi can't do things alone. Even Maradona himself during his heyday won't be able to carry his team's burden on his own week in week out. In any case I certainly appreciate the fact that the Abu Dhabi United Group has come and make Manchester City a force to be reckoned with, so that we Man City fans outside Manchester are no longer being ridiculed by the massively majority Manchester United fans around us, and also this kind of squad assembled in such a short amount of time will definitely need to gel. But this is nevertheless a huge problem, and this is definitely the same problem faced by my other favorite team, Real Madrid, in which team chemistry is very minute, if not absent. However, what I am hoping is that the players, manager (whoever that might be, hopefully it will be Roberto Mancini), and the board would not be rushed to immediately overhaul the squad once again as it will only make the team chemistry issue even worse and it will be severely detrimental What City should do is that to supplement this team according to the area which needs improvement and also doing it in a consistent by gradual manner. I just hope that they remember success doesn't come instantly, not only in football, but in every aspects of the world. This is the real world football, in which teams need time to gel and thus gain that kind of team chemistry. We could see that the players sometimes still haven't got used with each other. Such as how most of the time a pass from Bellamy from instance will only hit Adebayor's heel as he makes a run too soon and the stray ball is simply collected by the opposition to launch a swift and devastating counterattack and either Man City concede a disappointing goal, or Shay Given saves the day. This is not Football Manager or Winning Eleven in which the simple use of the Editor to move players from all over the world into a team, and in the very first match, the team is already able to destroy everyone and everything. Even in the newer versions of Football Manager, team chemistry is present and a newly assembled team will not play well.

In any case, it would not be fair and it would be amateurish to start condemning Man City as if they have crashed a toddler by the team bus based on that last night's match alone. Tottenham really made us of Peter Crouch's bodily giftedness really well last night in stationing him right in front of Marton Fulop and supplying him with balls to head into goal. Other players such as Luka Modric also constantly tested Fulop. Despite that, Fulop performed quite admirably in the match, as even if he was seen as a weak link, just like Fabianski recently, he was up to the task and more often than not, I forgot that the one between the sticks was not Shay Given! Even in Peter Crouch's goal, Fulop had saved in a really admirable manner before Crouch simply tapped in the rebound into the empty net. We can't blame Fulop for that, and credit to him that the defeat was only 1-0 and not an embarrassing 4-0 or even 8-0 which would certainly result in the sacking of Roberto Mancini on the spot, perhaps on the City of Manchester pitch a la Phil Brown's team talk there last season! Also, there's no reason to blame this on Given's injury as based on what I have seen in the two games, Marton Fulop has done well in deputizing for Shay Given.

Many Manchester City fans I know also complained on how Vieira is overutilized this season and how Vieira shouldn't have played in last night's game. They also questioned why Vieira was signed at the first place. OK, for this, I have to take all of you back to January in which Man City infamously lodged a 100 million Euro bid to lure the then AC Milan's Kaka into Manchester City. Needless to say, it was flatly rejected by Kaka himself who stated that he “loved” Milan, although the real reason was of course he wanted to move to a BIGGER club such as his current club Real Madrid. In my opinion, that's precisely the reason that led to Mancini signing Vieira. We have to admit that during his heyday, there's no chance in hell that Vieira would be joining Man City. But he's in the sunset of his career, and yet his legacy is immense and his name is nevertheless remain one of the household names of football. Thus, he was signed for free to be a catalyst to attract future big names to sign for Man City, and I kind of agree that assuming that's really the reason for his signing, he shouldn't be over utilized as a player as he would be a liability instead of helping City's cause.

Another source of problem for Man City this season is the sheer volatility and flammable dressing room atmosphere. It seems that the dressing room is full of methane gas in which a slightest of spark will cause a massive explosion. I mean, just look at the City squad. Craig Bellamy, Adebayor, Tevez, Robinho, and even Stephen Ireland. You can almost predict an explosion happening sooner rather than later with these explosive characteristics on board. That's not to say that it is a bad thing on its own. But the external environment can hasten the explosion process. OK, I won't talk about Harry Redknapp's mind games as like I said, we can't solely blame City's inability to win last night to the mind games being played about Bellamy's transfer. But even stray rumors from the media such as how it's rumored that Tevez is leaving, Bellamy is having an altercation with Mancini, it might ignite a disharmony in the dressing room with the aforementioned volatile characters on board. Simple rumors can become extremely poisonous venom without a calming influence to those hot-headed characters.


All in all, I, and of course other Man City fans wherever they might be will be keeping our fingers firmly crossed that the Man City board will be making rational and well-informed decisions such as sticking with Roberto Mancini for next season and not doing any massive culling and makeover to the squad. What should be done is simply take a leaf out of Real Madrid's book and just stick to their manager despite embarrassing comments from pundits and the media, and even snipes from opposing managers when results don't go their way. They have to realize that even a 300m Euros investment would require time and patience besides massive efforts to bear fruit.

Sacking Roberto Mancini at the end of this season will only lead to Manchester City sliding down the table again as further instability will ensue and that the big players already at the club might feel unhappy about the situation and start asking to be transferred out somewhere else. Worst comes to worst, the board itself might even decide that the investment is failing, I mean given their nature to want things to happen instantly, they might not even have the necessary patience for the City project to be successful and the only way out is to abandon ship and takeover a club which qualifies to the Champions League as their own short-cut to reach Europe's Premier Competition, and the next stop for the ADUG is, TOTTENHAM! Man City fans, all of us have been warned!

On Arsenal's Fiasco...

One more season for Arsenal's young guns, one more disappointment for their long suffering fans, one same excuse will be given by Wenger, and most importantly, zero addition to Arsenal's cobweb collecting trophy cabinet. At a glance, this is the season when Arsenal is supposed to have matured as a whole cohesive unit, and this is the year in which the young Gunners are finally ready to be able to be considered “Big Boys” and finally challenge on all fronts this season. However, in the usual Arsenal fashion, they simply failed to deliver yet again due to an alarming slide down the top end of the table in the run-in of the season.

That's at the macro level. Even looking at Arsenal at the micro level (game to game basis), Arsenal is still trapped in their old and usual routine, despite signs of that changing up to ¾ of this season, in which Arsenal will be blazing at the start of a match, and continue to do so while failing to register the second (or third) goal which would effectively kill the game after 20+ shots on goal or so, and then only to concede either 1 goal to make it a disappointing draw, or even 2-3 goals to make it a bitter and sorrowful defeat, all in the dying minutes of the game (between 85-90th minute). Thus, back to the macro level, Arsenal's season (this season is no exception) is also the same. They go all the way to the top with a trailing blaze, only to lose matches unnecessarily against oppositions which other top teams would thrash to the tune of a 19th century football game (9-1 anyone?) such as Wigan, in which Arsenal was pitifully defeated 3-2 no thanks to 3 goals conceded in the last 10 minutes, and recently Blackburn, again after leading the game 1-0 most of the game. It must be really frustrating to be an Arsenal fan, seriously. Especially looking at all those shiny but unused gold in their coffers (which will be touched upon again later).

Their manager, Arsene Wenger can do nothing but moan and groan about how his oppositions are playing “anti football” and are just out with machetes and hachetes to dismember his fragile, tiny, kids. This was shown in its full glory just recently in the aftermath of the 2-1 defeat against Blackburn, in which the Lanchasire outfit simply utilized the extremely low morale and confidence of Arsenal's stand in keeper Lukasz Fabianski by intimidating and distracting him by using huge players such as Chris Samba all the time, which culminated in both goals conceded eventually. Well, Arsene Wenger was really enraged by that strategy. But, just like what I have mentioned in the previous posts, that's what Blackburn (and a few other teams like Bolton) is known for, a rough but effective “Push and Shove” tactics. To be frank, that strategy works wonders for Blackburn and Bolton for instance, since both of them have been in the Premier League since their promotion back to the division God knows how long ago. And the fact that I, and I believe many other fans as well, have forgotten when the last time these two teams were outside of the division speaks volumes about how their general strategy is working!
Besides, in football, especially in the modern era of the sport in which the fine line dividing between winning and losing could mean existence and extinction has increased the volume of calls for Rationality in football, and rationality was just something implemented by Sam Allardyce during that match. I mean, think about this. You don't engage in programming contests with a pale, horrifically thin computer geek, you engage in a push-and-shove match with the geek, and that's how you win against the guy. I am apologetic for the possibly offensive analogy, but that's the perfect illustration for this. Any team facing a team full of slick and fast small sized attacking players like Arsenal would employ the same strategy. You don't engage in a dribbling and running contest with them, but you push them around the pitch and send high balls to your towering and burly targetmen instead of complying to a s-called “Law of Joga Bonito” and play carpet football and be thrashed by the Young Guns (just like how Everton found out the hard way at the start of this very season). Rationality and results are the keys, and most of the time in football, the end justifies the means, besides Blackburn didn't go against the ethics of the game such as diving, play-acting, (Sergi Busquets!) or executing career ending tackles...

Arsenal's main problem is actually the fact that even until today, Arsenal have yet to find the proper replacements for players such as David Seaman, Martin Keown, and Patrick Vieira. Not that Wenger hasn't been signing players, but as one would have noticed, he has been signing the same kind of players all these while, and that the players have to have certain criteria which are: The players must not be English, the player's height must be less than 180cm, the player must not be older than 23, and the player must be an attacking midfielder or a fast striker. (eg. Arshavin, Samir Nasri, Eduardo, Theo Walcott, Denilson etc.). Despite recent improvements in signing Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas, and well... re-signing Sol Campbell, the much expected replacement for Vieira has yet to arrive...
Also, Wenger has, as usual, been refusing to make that “WOW” signing, or peaking in terms of Australia's A-League, Arsenal have yet to sign a marquee player who will put bums on seats. A player along the line of David Villa, David Silva, Carlos Tevez, or even Leo Messi and C. Ronaldo! What I am trying to say is the kind of commanding player which can win games on his own, or even if the team is already leading, to be able to continue to spur his colleagues on, mostly by leading by example and I believe this will undoubtedly put a lid on Arsenal's “routine” problem mentioned in the first paragraph. However, despite the availability of the kind of budget to initiate this kind of signing, Wenger's continuous defiance and stubbornness to retain his own football philosophy would mean that Arsenal fans won't be able to see such “marquee” signings anytime soon, and yeah, trophies as well.

To be fair to Arsene Wenger, his youth and thrifty policies are actually a honorable and perhaps an economically ethical philosophy. If we look at what football has become nowadays, it is quite scary to look at how obscene the amount of money being spent to bolster a team (such as the recent free for all spending of Man City and Real Madrid, which are both my favorite teams) as well as how some teams have spent way beyond their means to acquire the players they want but with a debilitating consequences to them (such as the well documented problems of Leeds United and now Portsmouth). However, Wenger has stood tall to refuse to spend that kind of obscene money and instead focusing on developing and nurturing young players to minimize costs and also to do things the “correct” way. It is also paying dividends, at least economically as despite the huge costs incurred by the club to build the Emirates Stadium, they are very healthy financially and managed to escape the crippling consequences of the recent global financial crisis, in which many clubs found out to their peril, most notably Valencia which almost ceased from existence. Also, as far as transfers are concerned, they are the only team among the top teams in Europe that have raked in profits, and a huge one, from player turnovers. Also, not forgetting the fact that they have been responsible for properly nurturing many megastars such as Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, and Emmanuel Adebayor just to name four to make them the world beaters that they are from relative obscurity. We must also not forget how Arsenal's matches are so entertaining week in week out with the carpet football in full display! Such a delight to watch Arsenal!

However, his honorable policies don't seem to have paid off so far, even after all these years. Due to this, Wenger has been coming out with the exact same excuse of “they have yet to mature” at the end of every single season such that you feel that at some point he should just record it on a tape and just play it over and over again at the end of every trophyless season. Despite the fact that the excuses can be recorded and be played over and over again in the same manner, the players' age won't stay the same. Each year that Wenger gives the press conference, the players' are getting older and older and thus time is running out, as there will be a particular point of time when the “We are not matured yet” excuse has expired as the players can no longer be considered as “Young Guns” anymore and when the dreaded thought of the star players being frustrated for lack of trophies come forth....

Also, for the sake of Wenger's legacy to be remembered properly by the future generations, he ought to abandon his policies, at least mostly if not fully and get down and dirty and most importantly to start winning trophies. Remember, only winners are remembered, not even runners-up. In fact, being second can mean insults to many, and I have heard instances when players and managers alike have been known to throw away runners up medals, sometimes to the fans as soon as they have obtained it. I mean, just look at Tony Mowbray's delightful playing style instilled on his teams. First up is West Brom, despite playing good attacking football, they were relegated, and I believe there are many who have forgotten West Brom exists, let alone their exploits in the Premier League last season. Secondly is Celtic, in which their season ends in total disappointment as they win nothing and they have to play second fiddle in the league to a Rangers side with a plethora of financial problems off the pitch. Now, Tony Mowbray is contributing to Britain's unemployment rate. Thus, what use is his attractive attacking football now? Food for thought here....

Many Arsenal fans, and even those cynical non Arsenal fans would just quip, “Hey at least Arsenal is still hovering somewhere in 3rd and 4th position all these while, while YOUR Man City and Real Madrid fail big time despite having spent obscene amount of money”. Well, as a civilized fan, I would just be cool and tell them to their faces in a polite manner as I leave them alone, “Yeah, but if that continues, then it's the matter of when, not if, their star players such as Arshavin and Fabregas' moans and groans in the media about how playing for Barcelona is the greatest thing that could happen in their career gets louder and louder and eventually culminating in them wearing the Blaugrana colors...” That's what is brewing right now, and Arsenal, you have been warned!

Even if that's not happening, I mean the exodus, even this season, Arsenal is still in danger of being usurped by Tottenham of all clubs and they might have to see Tottenham finishing 3rd, higher than them in the league table. Also, if the exodus does happen, expect Arsenal to be the second team losing their Big Four Status after Liverpool, and if the Reds' status is wrestled by Manchester City, then Arsenal fans will be in an even more intense pain, as the one who would wrestle it from them is none other than Tottenham, again of all the teams...

However, in any case, actually I have no rights to say all of what I have been saying up to the last paragraph. After all, I am just an ordinary football fan who is simply trying hard but in a futile manner to be heard and known for my infatuation on football over the internet, while Arsene Wenger, the man I am talking about here, just like his nickname “Le Professeur” suggests, is a full time football professor who is one of the best in what he does, and thus, maybe what he is doing is the right thing and the best thing for Arsenal and for football in general, and also because we don't know what might happen in the future and Arsenal might be at the top sooner rather than later. I mean, just like how I said about how those journalists who criticized Robinho would struggle even to produce 1/20 of what Robinho was producing if they are given Man City's number 10 shirt, and thus perhaps if I am given one season to manage Arsenal, perhaps they will be relegated for the first time in their history with a plethora of financial problems. Thus, Wenger might not be wrong at all. In any case, we shall just sit back, relax, and see how the Beautiful Game unfolds!

On Lazio, Liverpool, and the BPL Title Race

In Europe yesterday, there were two teams whose names start with the letter L, and both of them had an extreme dilemma heading to their respective title decider matches. The first team is the Italian team Lazio, who was up against the Italian defending champions Internazionale. At that time, (even until now, mathematically at least) Lazio had yet secured their survival status in Serie A, and thus logically they would have needed to be at their 100% for this match, just like any other matches to collect the maximum number of points on offer from the match.

 However, Lazio really faced two tough choices, whether to win against Inter and secure their survival in the league, but effectively handing the Serie A title to their despised city rivals AS Roma or just lose this match, fight another day or hoping that the surrounding teams also drop points and prevent Roma from clinching their 4th Serie A title. A poll on Lazio fans across Italy suggested that around 70% would rather see Lazio lose yesterday than handing the title to AS Roma, while around 20% declared it would depend on Roma's match against Parma, while 10% would want survival secured regardless of whether Roma wins the title or not. Since Roma won against Parma, it would have meant that 90% of the Lazio fans polled would be happy to see Lazio surrender to Inter. It turned to be just that. Lazio were defeated 2-0 by Inter and now Inter has effectively as good as retaining their title as the last matches for both Inter and Roma are just the kind of match they will undoubtedly win.

 The second team with dilemma, another team with the letter L at the beginning of their name, is none other than the Barclays Premier League's Liverpool. They were up against champions elect Chelsea, and the dilemma that they had was that it's either Liverpool securing a win here and still having a remotest of chances to secure the 4th place and thus retaining their elite status of one of the Big Four and also leapfrogging 5th placed Aston Villa but effectively handing the League title to defending champions Manchester United, Liverpool's sworn arch-enemies. Not only they would have handed the title to the Red Devils (who as expected won against Sunderland) but also they would have allowed Man Utd to leapfrog them in the all time number of English titles won as this will be Man Utd's 19th English title. If this happens, the very last bastion of excuses and a tool to counter any criticisms for Liverpool fans for their shortcomings in the League in the past two decades will effectively be swept off them in an instant. The second option was just like Lazio, simply surrender to Chelsea and even if they effectively have no chance to secure the 4th place and qualify to the Champions League, they have at least successfully prevented Man Utd from winning the 19th title.

 Actually, we can't just say that there was a conspiracy theory or anything like that. Probably Lazio really gave their 110% but they were not good enough to defeat Inter and the same thing goes to Liverpool as Liverpool were also defeated 2-0. I know there are so many similarities by now, same L, same scoreline, same dilemma, and also same conspiracy theory brewing over them. But let's just look at this in an objective manner and not try to guess and/or “investigate” in a futile manner whether there was really a conspiracy. Thus, I will just look at the Liverpool defeat in a completely objective manner.

 
The first reason is perhaps a tongue in cheek reason, but it might make sense. The sharper ones among us who watched the match last night would have noticed something different on Liverpool's proud red shirt. The usual “Carlsberg” text was emblazoned in the Chinese characters. From this, someone quipped last night to me that due to that fact, it was perhaps that Liverpool indeed “surrendered” to Chelsea by sending a “Made in China” cheap imitation Liverpool FC instead of the “Proudly made in Britain” Liverpool FC. Well, it does make some sense at least just by looking at how Steven Gerrard did his backpass. Or perhaps it wasn't a backpass, it was indeed an assist to Didier Drogba, as an expression of regret that he didn't decide to join Chelsea long time ago when they almost signed him up... OK, I will stop here since I am starting to talk about conspiracy theories myself when I have promised to be objective. So yeah,

The second reason is perhaps more obvious. It's an old debate actually which has surfaced over and over again since there has been no change in the Liverpool team since then until now anyways, and that's the fact that Liverpool is extremely over-reliant and dependent on Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, and that Liverpool will only be functional if both men are playing and are at 100%! Last night, we were able to see how Torres was consigned to watch the agonizing match in the stands, and his facial expression spoke volumes about his agonizing experience. Nevertheless, Gerrard played, and he has saved Liverpool “oh so many times” over the years and even without Torres, “Captain Marvel” wold just save the day with one of his 30 meter strikes somewhere between the 87th and 96th minute or so. Yeah right, even if Gerrard did play, it was either a “Made in China” imitation Gerrard (see above paragraph) or more obviously the real Gerrard at far less than 100%. Just one look at his clumsy way of playing last night told a lot about how the Liverpool number 8 was an extremely jaded player. Seems that all these years of shouldering the whole of Liverpool FC over the years, just like how Atlas supports the whole world has taken a toll on the Captain. Also, partly, this match came right after that morale sapping and disappointing loss against Atletico Madrid which effectively dumped them out from the Europa League, the only chance of salvaging anything from the wreck of their season.

 Even the other fringe players such as Ryan Babel, David N'gog and the rest again only indicated how poor Liverpool's squad depth is, and Liverpool never looked like doing anything which harmed Chelsea with those players. There was simply no way that Liverpool, in their current state to harm Chelsea in any way. In fact, Chelsea was so rampant last night that not only it looked like the match was played at Stamford Bridge instead of Anfield, but also if not because of Pepe Reina's heroics between the goalposts, perhaps the scoreline would not be too far with Chelsea's recent 7-0 mauling of Stoke City.

 Yet another reason for Chelsea's victory was something which they owed and are still owing to a certain “Special” person. Yes, if the quoted word conjured the image of Jose Mourinho, then that's the correct answer. To be fair to Liverpool, they did threaten Chelsea especially in the last 10 minutes or so. Well, this is to be expected from how traditionally Liverpool would perform throughout a match, which is they will only be on the highest gear at the last minutes. However, Chelsea stood tall, although their defence looked shaky at times and Liverpool looked like scoring. But, this is where the ethos that has been ingrained by Mourinho, firmly entrenched in the Chelsea players' mind during his marvelous stint at Chelsea came in. In the last minutes, Chelsea simply performed various time wasting antics such as when Ashley Cole caused a stoppage in the match by refusing to get up not because he was injured, but he “needed” to adjust his shoelaces, and he certainly took his time to do that. Also, during substitutions, most apparent when Kalou was substituted by Zhirkov, Kalou really took his time to walk at a snail's pace from one end of the pitch all the way to the dugout. They performed the time wasting antics and causing stoppages to break Liverpool's momentum which started to build up rapidly in a so expert manner that for a moment, it seemed that the one in the dugout is Mourinho and Steve Clarke, not Ancelotti and Ray Wilkins!

 Now, Chelsea only needs to lift their other hand towards the trophy to snatch it from Man Utd's relentless and seemingly eternal grasps on it since 2007. They are one home match away against Wigan from the league title victory at Stamford Bridge, but they have to notch a routine win against Roberto Martinez's side first, which Chelsea is very very very likely to do, in an explosive fashion like the one against Stoke. Meanwhile, everyone associated with Man Utd will certainly become Wigan's fans for that day when Chelsea hosts Wigan, while Man Utd is certainly on their way to get another three points against Stoke at Old Trafford. All they need, badly, is for Chelsea to drop points against Wigan. But unless this match is in the tricky DW Stadium, don't expect that to happen. The title race is done and dusted, but yet again, we have to keep our eyes open as Mourinho himself, and countless other managers after that have said, “Anything can happen in football!”

Race to 4th place: 2 matches left!

Right after two heart wrenching matches involving three teams that are still fighting for the coveted 4^th spot in this season's BPL season, it has been concluded that the fight for that aforementioned coveted spot is going all the way to the wire, with the next two matches (with the exception of Aston Villa who has only one left) proving the absolute deciding factor. Basically, Tottenham managed to notch a 1-0 victory against a Bolton side who has nothing to play for as their survival has been secured in the previous week thanks to the three teams at the bottom. While Manchester City arguably clawed their way all the way from oblivion right back into contention for 4^th place by defeating fellow contenders Aston Villa 3-1 at home thanks to goals from Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Craig Bellamy.

At a glance, the race to the 4^th place are actually being contested by 4 teams, which are Tottenham, Manchester City, Aston Villa, and of course Liverpool. However, when we look beyond the always mind-boggling mathematical permutations and combinations, we could realistically see that actually it is now contested between two teams, which are none other than Tottenham and Manchester City. Furthermore, how fitting that the next match of both teams are actually a match with one another at the City of Manchester Stadium, which will be described again in great detail below.

 

Tottenham Hotspur

Besides Manchester City, they also managed to save themselves by beating Bolton 1-0 at White Hart Lane and they are at present perched on the 4^th spot, the very spot that is being contested from now all the way until the end. They currently have 67 points, and their next game as mentioned is an away match against Manchester City, followed by another away match against the already relegated Burnley.

For Tottenham, to ensure their passage to the 4^th place, nothing less than a win would be beneficial for Spurs. Although a draw would seemingly be enough for Spurs as Spurs' last match against Burnley would certainly net Harry Redknapp's men 3 full points even if the FA states that for them to win, they have to win by 3 clear goals, and that Redknapp has to field Mrs. Sandra Redknapp as his target(wo)man. While Manchester City will travel to a very tricky place (which will be appropriately discussed in the section for Manchester City). Thus, a draw would be ideal for Spurs but still, in this world, even more so in football, nothing is certain thus Spurs have to try their best to give their A-Game against Manchester City and break the Citizens' hearts in front of their passionate and long-suffering fans!

Although Manchester City have been shaky even at home, and that they are quite crippled in the goalkeeping department, it would still be a tall task to get something out of Man City at Manchester let alone claiming the full 3 points. This match is certainly anything that the match against Burnley illustrated in the previous paragraph is not.

 

Manchester City

Unlike Tottenham, nothing less than a win will do their chances to clinch the 4^th place any good. A draw will certainly put Man City's chances into extreme jeopardy and there will not be a way back this time for the Citizens. Man City have to really utilize whatever home advantage that they have against Spurs, From the fans in attendance, all the way down to the thinnest blade of grass on the stadium's pitch will have to be at their best in supporting the Man City players to bring their A-Game yet again just like how they managed to see off the tricky and dangerous challenge from Aston Villa and to come out victors against an even more dangerous Tottenham.

It is more than crucial for Man City to keep their star performers such as Bellamy, Tevez, and Adebayor motivated and firing on all cylinders for the next match against Spurs. Even more importantly, Roberto Mancini has to find a way to keep his defenders motivated and fired up, and also to formulate effective tactics and to ingrain those tactics into the defenders' minds so that they will be watertight in the match. This is extremely important as for this match, they won't be having Shay Given to bail them out if the defenders are in disarray such as how anyone watching Man City's matches regularly have become really accustomed to by now. One more thing that Man City have to do is simply to not let the recent rumors about how Roberto Mancini is planning to put the local hero Stephen Ireland up for sale at the end of the season and how he asked Tevez to leave if he is unhappy at City, not mentioning a rumored spat between him and Bellamy. Even if those dumb rumors are true, Roberto Mancini really have to dig deep into his reserve of footballing expertise to get the dressing room back before he loses it completely and thus Spurs will not need a second chance to pounce on City and thus the 4^th place.

Let's also not forget that if Man City cannot get a victory against Spurs, there is no way back as Spurs is sure to obtain 3 points against Burnley in their last match while Man city have to travel to West Ham an always tricky place to be. As although West Ham have secured their survival, somehow I believe, and I know I am not alone, Gianfranco Zola's men won't give less than 110% for that home match against Man City. Thus, other than a win, bye bye 4^th place for Man City.

Unlike the two teams mentioned above, the next two teams do not have their destinies in their own hands and will be relying on their rivals dropping massive points. But nevertheless, they are still in contention.

 

Aston Villa

With the 3-1 away defeat against Man City, Aston Villa has blown their do or die chance and now will need some sort of miracle if they are to clinch the 4^th spot. They will need Man City to be defeated against both Tottenham and West Ham while they themselves have to win against Blackburn at Villa Park. Even if they are able to win against Blackburn, hoping for Man City to drop 6 points is simply just too much. Thus, even with their mathematical chances, it's simply over for Villa. I mean, just look at Hull City's position. Mathematically, they have yet to be relegated, but realistically speaking, they have. This is pretty much the same case for Aston Villa's race to 4^th position.

 

Liverpool

This is the last contender for the 4^th place and the second team that will rely on their rivals dropping massive points. The thing is, Liverpool will need to go on a massive overdrive mode plus a generous dose of miracles to clinch the 4^th place. In any case, Liverpool have to win their remaining two matches while any teams above them must not obtain beyond 68 points. They can afford this as they have quite a competent goal difference record, but everyone staying at 67 would be the most ideal of course.

But look at Liverpool's two matches which they have to win. One is the next home match against Chelsea, while the second one, just like Tottenham is a sure fire win match against the already relegated Hull City.

But the question is about whether the beleaguered Liverpool have what it takes to inflict defeat on the champions elect Chelsea, and furthermore, by defeating Chelsea, they will be inadvertently aiding their arch enemy Man Utd to leapfrog their long standing record of the most number of titles won (18 titles) as Man Utd will be winning their 19^th, and it would mean that in light of the fact that Liverpool is still quite a long way off at the moment from another title, a 19^th title for their arch rival would mean that anyone associated with Liverpool will be having their last bastion of excuse for their recent failures taken away from them. But defeat Chelsea and Hull, they might still be able to retain their elite position as one of the Big Four and also qualify to next season's Champions League. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma.

To sum it all up, the race towards the 4^th spot is as scintillating or even better than the title race itself since this involves double the number of contenders, but just like what I have mentioned in the above paragraphs, realistically speaking, the race is just mainly between Tottenham and Manchester City, and this race will end as the final whistle in the City of Manchester Stadium in the “Super 4^th Spot Playoff” between Manchester City and Tottenham is blown. Enjoy the ride, soccer fans around the world, and don't blink, as you guys will miss the whole package of extreme, no holds barred excitement!