I don’t play football. I watch the occasional “big” matches, or watch the Footytube.com video clips of the goals that were scored. And I do like reading up news about football. Its a habit from the time I was in Secondary school. Reading the news from the sports page at the back to the headlines in the frontpage. Now the news are more up to date online. Since I started blogging, I have tried predicting every year but got it right only once. Forgot which year. But its very unpredictable the Premier league, more so with the rise of the Asian dragons and tigers and their bookies. Yes, of course there probably is some “betting” influence on the major games. I may sound cynical, but actually I am being very realistic about human greed. But before I ramble off on a tangent, here are my personal predictions based on gut feel:
Champions : CHELSEA: (they have the pace, muscle, experience and master tactician)
Runners up: LIVERPOOL, (bridesmaid again: they sold the chance to be champions for 30m pounds when they sold the lungs of the team)
3rd: MANCHESTER (without Ronaldo and Tevez)
4th: ARSENAL (without a “Viera-like enforcer” in the middle of the park)
What are yours?
Tonight the matches begin!
Note: Blogpastor is a fan of Arsenal and would have loved to play professionally for them this year as an enforcer but the coach only takes in kids under 25 years, and anyway my church would not consider this a proper sabbatical! 🙂
Pastor,
Looks like your prediction is going to be way out. Chelsea ..mm..may be but they will be missing the African players early next year…
Man United 4 – Man City 3.What a game and it was a night of frustration for me as I watched the most expensive defender, Rio ferdinand makes such an aweful mistake but when my neighbours scream and shout within the next minute, I knew it was victory for Man United.
The following smses came within another minute:
” Referee Chiat Chow, more then one minute extra give.He wants Man U to win”
Another one came shortly:”Congrats Sunny! Man U needed an Liverpool Ex Striker 2 get the winner or elas Ferdinand can’t sleep”.
The next day when I attended the GLS, so many anti Man U fans came out to me and basically referee was not fair.
Who cares, I knew Man U played well and deserved to win. Punishment for Mna City for the arrogance they showed last week to Arsenal?
Hi Sunny
The anti-Man U fans may not be wrong as is shown in a study done by Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/22/manchester-united-goals-stoppage-time
Aiya, this is another typical media scoring chance for The Guardian. Just like the AWARE, Straits Times prefers to report what the consumers like to read and make it more juicy ma..
Although there are massive MU fans, so are there Anti-MU fans. In my office, I was surrounded by Liverpool fans including Stephen Koh and in church, I was with At least half a dozen of Liverpool fans, not to mention the Arsenal fans.
Whatever it is, there is only one United.
Hmm, looks like i;’m late in the prediction. i thought u;re still resting from blogging. 🙂
Champions : Chelsea (not much changes to team-teamwork shld improve more. enough depth. dangerous force in drogba and anelka playing well together)
Runners up: Man U (replacement for ronaldo and tevez not good enough. but they still can grind out results(as evidence against arsenal…grrr) overall, they are still solid)
3rd: Arsenal (vermalean is a longgggg overdue buy. lack depth-need 1 or 2 more experienced solid players. “kids”are growing up fast and becoming much better. tend to lost steam towards end of season though)
4th: Liverpool (i still think they are an european side. EPL? sorry liverpool fans – they somehow still can’t get their consistency running. too heavy a dependence on gerard and torres)
It’ll be interesting to see spurs and man city against the big guns. Arsenal imho is still highly unpredictable so don’t write them off yet. but as an arsenal fan, i still dun think they can match the marathon EPL without 1 or 2 more experienced players.(we need leaders!!!)
Hi Jason, thanks for visiting. I lost your URL in the Great Hack. As usual we Arsenal fans have to rank our team realistically and after yesterday’s loss to Manchester City, I’d like to sell the genuine Arsenal jersey my son bought me. Interested in buying? 🙂
What is your comments on Adebayor’s emotional run from one goal post to another? His foot on Van Persie’s face? I am wondering what is he going to get when he visits Emirate’s stadium? I am not a prophet but I can foresee that he will be injured before the game as there is no problem in replacing him. Ha ha
He reminds me of members who have left their churches for “greener pastures” and when they see their friends or pastors of the church they had left,they talk about how the new church is better and how they have grown since they moved, which is sometimes true, though equation is not that simple.
They should learn from Adebayor what not to do! 🙂
This is quite an inspired analogy don’t you think?
Yes I have experienced it once. But he said it with a “cigarette in his mouth”.
Ha ha ha..That’s a good analogy.
But not all will be like Adebayor For instance, Mark Hughes. He left for Bacelona (I think) for a year but came back to MU and realised how good the club was. So are our Eliams and Daniel Yuens. I believe some may come back and serve with a faithful and grateful heart. Amen?
cigarette in his mouth literally? or really real? hahaha…
Hey Pst, if i were u? stick a churoot in my moouth man (small cigar)….hahahhaa….buay tahan, some people are just so like that.
forgive….(i am still learning) hahaha…
woops. late in reply again. 🙂 yea, the loss was frustrating. we’re a lot better in attack now(more confidence, creativity and clinical finishes) but leaking in goals like a buffet spread. Against teams like blackburn(no disrespect to BB fans but i’m sure u’ll agree there is a gulf), it’s more realistic to catch up and win. But against top opponents, leaking easy goals is dangerous (as we can see in the Man C match). IMHO, the problem is still with the DM arena. With a crazy attacking all out force, an experience DM with good reading and tackling skills is v.much needed for protection. The 2nd goal in the blackburn match highlights just how easy it is for opponents to score on the counter. The long ball just pass by every arsenal player bcos they’re all too way up!
just for the jersey, hmmm, i thought i’ll get it had i ripped mine. but it’s still intact so i think u can keep it for matches like the 6-2 win. 🙂
Ok here goes.
1st place: man u/chelsea
2nd place: Liverpool
3rd place: Maybe spurs man
4th place: Arsenal or man city.
reason being? Man u is a team players team. Even without CR or CT. Not much diff, they’ll have to adapt to individual/group playing style…
Chelsea? more guile this year with all the late 20’s and early 30’s inside. More footballing brains la…
Spurs?: harry redknapp good man motivator and good english spine in king, huddlestone,defoe and crouchie
Arsenal? flash in pan usually till mid season, kids will become burnt out due to thin squad. but the way they played on everton? alamak….solid la!
Man City? – can’t totally discount arabic gold and silver pouring in.
Pastor, sorry to hear that you do not have faith to believe that Arsenal can win the EPL or even in the runner-up position.
It’s going be a tough fight since MU is without CR & CT. Arsenal has such a young but vibreant team. Chelsea is rather boring and It is not going to be easy for the new manager. Benitez really depends on Gerrard & Torres If one of them is injured(which is most likely), there goes the points.
The difference it’s going to be Managers. Wenger,Benitez & Ferguson have all the experience but I will rate Wenger & Ferguson.
1st: Manchester United
2nd: Arsenal
3rd: Liverpool
4th: Chelsea.
1st: Liverpool
2nd: Don’t Care
3rd: Don’t Care
4th: Don’t Care
I’ve been wondering when I’ll wake up from this 20 yrs nightmare! 🙂
It’s been dragging for way too long!!
Is it just me or the title is as good as gone for the Reds? 🙁
i’m a Spurs fan and we – technically by EPL standards – arch enemies right now. fortunately i’m with St. Paul when he said that there is no Gunner and no Spur under Christ.
So we’re still cool 🙂