Football League weekend review, charity shield, England mayhem and the Prem Pedictions.

Good day,

Loved the amount of football this weekend. Just loved it. Going back to Saturday we were treated to some brilliant games in the Championship. Leeds v Derby was a cracker and it was a fantastic start to the season for the rams. Leeds, like Norwich on Friday, were reminded that just because a very big club is back within one season of the Premier League it shouldn't be forgotten they are a promoted club with a lot to do to consolidate their position in an immensely competitive Championship.

That level of competition was proved by Ipswich's brilliant second half showing against unanimous title favourites Middlesbrough. Roy Keane's side have really got off to a flyer, picking up three points in one of the most difficult games they will play all season. Perhaps Boro suffered form some opening day complacency - Strachan will do well to ensure a swift bounce back from a disappointing result.

Elsewhere poor old Barnsley were given a hammering by QPR, a side many think could make an impact under that twat Neil Warnock while Millwall made a great start with a comfy 3-0 victory at Bristol City. It seemed there was interest everywhere with focus on relegated Portsmouth, Hull and Burnley obviously high - but un-fancied Scunthorpe pulled off a great win against Reading via a goal that was offside but wasn't but counted anyway. Strange.

A league lower there was much hitting the ground with a bump as Notts County (perhaps the Leeds of League One given their high expectations) were slapped 3-0 by a punishing Huddersfield tea. The three teams who slipped down from the Championship all started well, with the Posh and the Owls picking up three comfortable home points each, whilst Plymouth, under the trustworthy leadership of Peter Reid weathered Southampton possession to take home a 1-0 victory from St Mary's. Another huge Championship favourite beaten, which only goes to prove the level of competitiveness that the lower leagues provide in comparison to the Premier League. Long may it continue, it makes for a more exciting league in my opinion (in terms of competition, not standard obviously).

Torquay, Shrewsbury and Wycombe made good start in League Two, whilst Football League debutants Stevenge-not-Borough-FC picked up a point in an entertaining game at home to Macclesfield.

This weekend also saw United and Chelsea lock horns in the friendliest of friendlies at Wembley. Was a decent contest as the players got a run out and the fans got to look at some of the new talent their club have invested in over the summer. Given the generally quiet transfer period there wasn't an awful lot to go on in terms of players we didn't know. Chicharito scored with lesser spotted stab-ball-in-via-face-whilst careering-arse-over-tit technique perfected by athletes in the paralympic games based on a similar technique used by the great Ferenc Puskas. A goal, ladies and gentleman, truly is a goal. Goal = Goal. Goal +Goal - (Goal x 2) = 0. Its maths, OK? Think he's gonna be a great goalscorer - how he adapts will be seen over the next few months but he has undoubted talent and could be a Solskjaer type player. Need a goal and he gets you one kinda guy.

The other story of the weekend was England. What the fuck is going on? It is mental. I believe this is the mystifying journalistic term 'fallout' that we are seeing now. Robinson and Brown quit. Gutted about Brown cos I think he's great. Robinson is just a petulant little cunt who obviously believed his own hype when he was at Leeds and cant believe he hasn't been number one consistently since 2004. Well fuck him. Brown...hard. I like the reason he has given, he wants young players to come through and his knees are a bit shit so fair enough Wes, fair enough.

Moving on to young players and to me this whole England squad seems like a big fucking PR manoeuvre. Capello has cut the people who he could afford to and kept the characters he couldn't afford to cut out. The likes of Terry and Barry who were fucking shit at the world cup, absolutely fucking dog muck and have not shown club form over the end of last season to demand a place in the team (I know Chelsea won the double but Terry made shit load of errors in that time). Basically he's changed it a bit but the spine of the team will still be the same players who don't really give a fuck about internationals because of their club priorities.

Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs of Arsenal have been included. You would think a big Arsenal fan would be delighted but I am a bit worried these whipper snappers will begin to believe their own hype and become intolerable little fuckers who get an England chance but get found out because of their attitude. The classic example of this is David Bentley. Too impatient to realise he could learn from some of the great players at Arsenal when he was a kid, he moved on leaving the club with a temper tantrum, he had a good season at Blackburn, a brief flutter for England and since them has spent his career being a mixture between a laughing stock and a genuine threat at Spurs.

Now Gibbs and Wilshere don't have the same level of competition at Arsenal as Bentley had, but it is simple - competition makes you a better player because you have to be to get a game. I hope that these youngsters don't get too big for their boots and stop developing before they've even got anywhere.

Now...drum roll please. Today it is only six days until the Premier League begins and I am going to have to just handle the fact that the transfer market is going to go mental soon and put my neck on the line regarding who is going to perform and fail this season.

This week I will be reviewing four teams a day before the big kick off on Saturday. The traditional way to do this is Alphabetically. But I have nothing to do and I thought that was boring so I am going to tackle the teams in a different way. First, I'm not going to give an exact league position for every team, give me a chance - plus that takes figuring out.. This blog is about straight talking. I am not an impartial journalist so I have split the teams into three groups. 8 I hope underachieve this season, 8 I hope do well, and four who I absolutely couldn't give a rats cunt about. My wishes will have no bearing on my opinion of how well the teams will perform in reality. I will alternate the groups each day. So lets start with Four teams I hope underachieve this season:

Blackburn: predicted finish 16-13th - The reason I hope they do shit? Allardyce. Fella is the epitome of the old brand of football that distrusts the modern game and believes it to be evil. He is undoubtedly a good manger, capable of getting the best out of old, dying professionals - but that is all he is. He should never have moved on from Bolton (where he had great success) as he was found out at Newcastle and I can see this being another boring season for the one time Champions, possibly flirting with relegation. All-in-all their season highlights will be some gritty home draws against better opposition and maybe a cup run. The likes of Dunn and possibly new boy Diouf (from United) can provide quality whilst they have a settled core to the team with Robinson, Nelson and Dunn that should pull them through. Hope they fuck it though and get relegated.

Chelsea: predicted finish 2nd-4th - I actually like Ancelotti a lot. He has great ability as a manager and is a level headed man with great humility. Good luck to him. But fuck the likes of Cole, Terry and Drogba. Great players but cant stand them. That, and their regular proximity to Arsenal in the table means I naturally want Chelsea to shag it up. I actually think they will not retain the title, which I see going back to United this year. But there is no way they wont qualify for the champions league and with Ancelotti satisfied in terms of trophies domestically they will surely make a huge push for Chelsea's first ever European cup.

Stoke City: predicted finish 10-8th - People probably think I don't like Stoke because they have beaten Arsenal. Not the case. They actually play good football going forward with Etherington, Tuncay and Lawrence really good players. Pulis is undoubtedly trying to develop the teams attacking side of the game - which is commendable. However, I hate the cunt. He tried to turn the whole Ramsey-Shawcross incident around on Arsenal and Wenger by saying we shouldn't talk about players we don't know whilst spewing a load of puss about how Shawcross "Isn't that kind of player". What a fucking stupid thing to say, anybody who says that needs a slap. Of course he fucking isn't. You would have to be a psychopath to deliberately try and break another players leg - nobody is suggesting this. Arsenal's beef wasn't about Shawcross, intent, or physical play. It was about attitude, pre-game tactics and media stirring-up of a load of bullshit. Pulis tried to add to that, so even though he's got a good, progressive side I expect to do even better again this season - I hope they fuck it.

Manchester City: predicted finish -4th - Simple. They have a great squad, an excellent manager and all they have to do is put it together, keep everybody happy and they should make 4th this season. Don't think their defence is solid enough to be pushing for a title yet, but they should make the top four with the lack of progression this summer in the likes of Tottenham and Villa. But what they are doing is just.....mental. I don't like it and I hope they cant put it together.

So there we go. Tomorrow I will look at Blackpool, Everton, Newcastle and West Ham and any big new that crops up.

Ciao.