Three derbies and a clásico…

Three or four times a season you get a weekend when the schedules throw out a handful fixtures that have fans, partisan and neutral, salivating in anticipation. This is one of these weekends.

Everton vs. Liverpool

The latest edition of the Merseyside derby finds both clubs in difficult and trying circumstances. Liverpool will not be present when the draw for the knock out stages of the Champions League is made and with five losses in their opening thirteen league games a dogfight for a top four spot seems to be in prospect.

Perhaps Liverpool’s troubles that have sheltered Everton from a storm of criticism given they are also off to a less than stellar start.  Both clubs can point to extensive injury problems but the statistic that

Crisis is such a relative term – particularly in soccer. How else can you explain Burnley, with 12 points sitting in 9th position and a goal difference of –10, being regarded as a success while Liverpool are two positions and three points better off and enjoy a goal difference of 9 but are currently the crisis club of the Premier League?

Much of it comes down to the old adage about under promising and over delivering. Burnley supporters have seen their side return to the top flight after a trek through the Football League wilderness that lasted just short of a record set back in biblical times. For Burnley this season, survival equates to success.

However, for Liverpool supporters and many media pundits this was going to be the year that Liverpool won the Premier League for

The Best…..

Francesco Totti was the architect of Roma’s much needed win over Fiorentina.  He scored from the spot to give Roma the lead and then added to the lead after the ball broke to him after a corner kick. He then help to set up De Rossi with a header from the edge of the penalty box and Claudio Ranieri’s side went in with a 3-0 half time lead and from there on a Roam win was never in doubt.

In two seasons at Portsmouth David Nugent managed just three goals. For a striker who had edged his way into the English squad it was a meager return. Just as the transfer window was closing earlier this month Burnley was able to secure his services from Pompey on a six month loan.

Nugent spent little time repaying Owen Coyle’s faith when he scored a double on his

Yes it is too early in the season to talk of title deciders and must win games but a Manchester United – Arsenal clash is guaranteed to get the juices flowing no matter when it takes place.

These two teams have served up some classics over the years. What’s more it will not have escaped the notice of the two managers that Arsenal’s previous wins in the league at Old Trafford have a strong correlation to the Gunners winning the title.

Arsenal have won four top flight titles in the last two decades and have only won four times at Old Trafford in the league in that time and all by 1-0 scorelines. Three of wins have been precursors to winning the league while an infamous scoreless draw in September 2003 proved to be a critical moment in their unbeaten season of 2003/04.

October

<sup>The start of the new Premier League season is only days away and over the next five days I will preview all twenty clubs. It is an opportunity to stick your own neck out as well. Criticize my picks and the picks of others as much as you like – but be ready to back up your statements with your own predicted finishes. No trolling – instant red card.  You can also predict the first manager to leave their post as well as the three teams that will come up from the Championship.

Prediction contest rules are:
1. Five points for every exact finishing position predicted correctly.</sup>

^{2. Bonus points for correctly predicting the following:
           Champion 25 points
           Runner}

We are all inclined to place our behaviour or motivations in the best possible light when it suits us. Players are obviously no exception to this and just recently we had Kolo Toure explain his motivation for leaving Arsenal and joining Manchester City.

Admittedly Toure’s explanation falls short of former teammate Freddie Ljungberg’s classic from 2007 when he moved to West Ham. Ljungberg was quoted at the time that the ambition of the West Ham board exceeded that of the Arsenal directors and so it was time to move on.

Considering that West Ham had not, at the time or since, won a major trophy in over a quarter of a century, had never finished higher than 5th in the Premier League and had just survived a near-relegation-experience Freddie’s assessment of ambition must surely