To everyone still missing the Olympics (If you’re like me,
you weren’t ready to have Dressage pulled out of your life so abruptly) and to
everyone counting down the seconds until the NFL season starts, I have a
solution for you. The English Premier League (The EPL). The EPL kicked off its season
last week with an exciting Matchday 1 that featured thrilling comebacks,
blowouts, controversial officiating decisions, Robin Van Persie in a Manchester
United jersey, Andres Villas-Boas abandoning the fashionable trench coat in
order to look like a highschool gym teacher and more! In this weekly (hopefully
weekly) column I will be previewing the upcoming Matchday by highlighting the
key games to watch. That is until Michael Vick gets injured in week 3 and I go into
a deep depression that ends in me sobbing into my retro Reggie White jersey.
Until then though here are the top 5 games to look out for in Matchday 2.
5. West Ham United at Swansea City (Saturday August 25, 2012
– 7:45 AM ET)
Why wake up at 7:45 in the morning on a Saturday now that
Fox Kids is long gone (why wouldn’t they bring back good Saturday morning
cartoons? Never understood this) you ask? Because this is (somehow) a battle of
two teams coming off of week 1 wins. Newly promoted West Ham started the
campaign with a victory that came off of Kevin Nolan’s boot as The Hammers beat
Aston Villa 1-0 at Upton Park while the surprise of last year Swansea
demolished QPR 5-0 on the road no less with 2 goals coming from new signing
Michu (no idea how to pronounce this and based on last week, neither do the
announcers). Swansea appears to be the favorite as they seem to not have missed
a step despite switching managers in the off-season (Brendan Rodgers out,
Michael Laudrup in) and will look to play their fluid “tiki-taka” (Is there
really no better phrase to describe this brand of football than this? I mean
really?) style in front of their home support. I expect West Ham to stay back
and look for chances via the counter-attack and whatever set piece they manage
to get. If you manage to wake up this early on Saturday, this game will be fun
to watch.
Prediction: Draw
Drinking Game: Drink each time Michael Laudrup gets referred
to as “The Great Dane” or every time they cut to a shot of Michu adjusting his
hair. (I Don’t actually suggest drinking alcohol this early in the morning…unless
you haven’t stopped from the night before, if that’s the case then cheers!)
4. Arsenal FC at Stoke City (Sunday August 26, 2012 – 8:30
AM ET)
Ah what better way to cure your Saturday hangover than
watching one team try and play the game of football the “right way” with crisp
passes and fluid movements face off against a team who takes the “beautiful
game” behind the toolshed and beats it mercilessly with long balls, rugby
tackles and long throw-ins. I can’t wait. In all seriousness Arsenal will look
to get their first win and goal of the season as they take on Stoke City,
another team who could only manage a draw in the first week. Arsenal fans were
in a panic after the first game calling for Wenger’s head and all other sorts
of over-exaggerations that fans typically exhibit. However, new signing Santi
Cazorla looked lively and the Arsenal attack looked decent against a Sunderland
side that parked the bus effectively for 90 minutes. And yes, Olivier Giroud
missed a pretty easy chance but these things happen and it’s no time to panic
especially with the talent this team possesses. Stoke City will look like the
same side we’ve seen over the last few years, dull but stubborn and very
difficult to beat at home.
Prediction: An Arsenal victory (no real reason here, just a
gut feeling. Should let people know though that my “gut feelings” on gambling
on soccer have given me a Krusty-esque track record.)
Drinking Game: Drink each time Stoke City throws the ball
directly into the Arsenal box off a throw-in. Drink each time you’re confused
about Gervinho’s hairline (take very very small sips).
3. Fulham at Manchester United (Saturday August 25, 2012 –
10:00 AM ET)
One of these teams is coming off a 5-0 thrashing of Norwich
City and the other is Man U. Fulham began their campaign with a demolition of
an admittedly bad Norwich side at Craven Cottage. Norwich’s problems aside,
five goals is nothing to scoff at with one coming from Damien Duff (yes, he is
still alive) and two from new signing Mladen Petric could be signs that Fulham
will be more dangerous this season than in years past. United on the other hand, RVP
signing and all could do nothing but watch as Marouane Fellaini and his Sideshow Bob-like hair weaved in and out of
their defense leading Everton to a 1-0 victory. It will be very interesting to
see how Ferguson will use Van Persie from now on as I expect him to get the
start this week but for who is the real question. Kagawa looked impressive in
his debut being the lone piece of good news for United fans. Another question that will be answered on
Saturday is who gets the start alongside Vidic and his regrown hair at
centerback. In my opinion, Michael Carrick didn’t do a bad job against Everton
all things considered and should have an easier time at it playing against the
Fulham attack than he did against Fellaini and Jelavic. Panicking after one
game makes no sense but seeing 1 or maybe 0 points out of a possible 6 for
United will be a cause for concern meaning that the Red Devils should be in
attack mode from the get go on Saturday. That being said Fulham is no pushover
so this should be a good one to watch.
Prediction: Manchester United victory
Drinking Game: Drink each time the words
“little boy” and Van Persie are mentioned together. Drink for every minute of “Fergie
Time” (stay away from the hard liquor for this one).
*note – I’m a Chelsea fan so posts
relating to them may not be 100% impartial*
Eden Hazard. Eden Hazard. Eden Hazard. The man has 3 official, 5
unofficial (he drew two penalties both leading to goals so I’m not sure why
they’re not counted officially) assists in 2 games!! He’s making Branislav
Ivanovic look like Didier Drogba (2 goals in 2 games). As you can tell I have
been very pleased with Hazard’s play in the first two games of the season which
both ended up being victories. However Chelsea has not exactly played the
toughest of competition as of now as they have beaten Wigan and Reading
respectively, both teams that won’t be competing for a spot in Europe let alone
an EPL title so this upcoming match against Newcastle should give us a better
understanding of where Chelsea is as a team. Chelsea will most likely field the
same team as they have in the two games past although fatigue (3rd
game in 7 days so a meaningless exhibition, the UEFA Supercup can be played
later this month) may be a factor which could lead to line-up changes. Newly
acquired Victor Moses (don’t really see why we need him but hey why not!) from
Wigan will most likely not be ready for this game so Chelsea fans will have to
wait to see him in action. Newcastle on the other hand are also coming off a
victory in the first week, an impressive one that came against Tottenham at St.
James Park. Goals from Demba Ba and Ben Arfa were indicators to the rest of the
league that last year was no fluke and that Newcastle is once again a team not
to be taken lightly. I can’t wait for this one although I am dreading watching
the Chelsea back four defend against the speedy Newcastle attack. Expect goals
in this game.
Prediction: A Chelsea win in a high-scoring affair (this probably
means Newcastle is winning 1-0)
Drinking Game: Drink each time they cut to Roman Abramovich. Drink
each time they cut to the Chelsea physical trainer (has there ever been a more
random person that this many people seem to enjoy?).
1. Manchester City at Liverpool FC (Sunday August 26, 2012 – 11:00
AM ET)
The only way Brendan Rodgers’ first league game (a 3-0 depressing
loss to West Brom) as Liverpool manager could have been worse is if Rafael
Benitez had come out of the crowd to hit him with a steel chair wrestling style
followed by Phil Dowd seeing this and awarding West Brom another penalty.
Liverpool come in to this must-watch clash against defending champions City
with 0 points, a disheartened fanbase and lots of questions. How long will it
take for people to tire of Rodgers’ mentality, is Nuri Sahin actually coming?
What’s going to happen with Carroll? Can anyone help Suarez up front? How the
fuck did Zoltan Gera get that in? And so on. If Liverpool want to take anything
away from this fixture they have to play more like the side that got beat by a
wonder-strike in the first half last week rather than the side that laid down
in the second half. So what happened with Man City on the first Matchday?
Nothing much other than Aguero going down with an injury, falling behind 2-1 to
Southampton before mounting a comeback eerily reminiscent of the famous QPR
game last year to win 3-2. Roberto Mancini has said all sorts of things before
the season in order to try and paint his team as underdogs (Hey Roberto, you
have Mario Balotelli..on the bench!! Shut up with the underdog crap) to the
likes of United and Chelsea. Something he’s surely done to steer any pressure
away from his players but there’s no doubt that they are the favorites in this
fixture. If you don’t want to watch Liverpool take on Man City at
Anfield then I think there’s something wrong with you and that’s why this is
the number one game to look forward to on Matchday 2.
Prediction: Draw
Drinking Game: Take 5 shots each time a Man City player shows his
customized undershirt. Drink each time Mario Balotelli and Andy Carroll are
shown on the bench (if they don’t start).
Same time next week where we will look back at Matchday 2, how
very wrong my predictions were, and look forward to Matchday 3.
Until Next Time,
Luka Milanovic
Follow me on Twitter
@Luka_M91
and the blog at @MillenniumSandE
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