Quite an entertaining second week for the premier league so far, I'm not going to write about every single game in detail now as it will just take up far too much room.
First let's talk about the transfer news. The first big bit of news is that Chelsea have agreed a fee with Valencia for the signing of Juan Mata, judging by how they played in the first half against West Brom, this can only be a beneficial signing. They need as much creativity as possible and, with the way Kalou and Anelka played, they need as much width as possible. Apparantly Chelsea are now also looking at Jovetic from Fiorentina, if they do get him they you have to think that their pursuit of Modric could be over, although some senior sources inside the Spurs camp have told me that the Modric deal is just a matter of money, contrary to what Levy says. There is also the news that Arsenal and City have finally agreed a fee for Nasri, what I don't understand is why Chelsea want to spend £30 million on Modric, and they still might fail with that, when Nasri is being sold for only £25 million.
After the second week of games I have made a few conclusions which I feel are important to share. First of all is that City still look a force to be reckoned with when going forward, they don't have to depend on one attacker either, unlike Liverpool. However if Silva gets injured they will lose a lot of that force and with their defence still being shaky I think their only chance to win the league is to score as many as possible, negating the amount they will let in. Back to Liverpool, they were drawing with, quite frankly, a weak Arsenal team, until Suarez came on and turned the game. Yes the rest of the team looked more threatening than Arsenal but they never looked likely to score until he came on. If a team can negate Suarez then they have a huge chance of beating Liverpool.
About United, yes they are the champions, yes they have spent a lot of money on new signings and yes they have a 100% record so far but it is far too early for every pundit to say that they cannot see any other team catching them. Other teams could sign a player that could turn out to be one of the best players ever in the premier league, all of these amazing players have to come from somewhere. And as teams settle down it will become more difficult for United, as it did for Chelsea last year, winning the first 9 games and then only winning once from October to January. I'm not saying the same will happen for United but if Chelsea did not have that blip then chances are they would have won the league, comfortably at that.
On to the new teams now; It is still pretty hard to judge QPR properly, as after they lost to Bolton 4-0 they managed to beat Everton 1-0. However Everton are in financial turmoil and without any new players they cannot keep up, so we have to wait until QPR play their next game. As for Norwich, after two decent draws they have staked a claim to suggest they may be able to stay up, whether or not they will be able to keep it up all year round I'm not sure. Swansea have not shown any promise as of yet to suggest they will stay up. First losing 4-0 to City would have been a blow but against a Wigan team, weakened from last year, they showed no attacking flair and they only salvaged a draw thanks to their goalkeeper, Vorm, who was an amazing signing for them.
In other sports news, a 4-0 series whitewash for England lead them to the top sport of the ICC test rankings above India, who are now placed 3rd. With the depth in squad that the England team have, I can see them being at the top for a long time. Just like the amazing Australian team were a few years ago. We have batsmen all the way down the order, even Jimmy Anderson can hit a ball when he needs to. I think the way it is set up now, with one batsmen staying around for a long time, usually Trott or Cook, and the rest around him increasing the strike rate, this is a very good way to play it because we score a lot of quick runs while also having the stability when it comes to the likes of Prior, Bresnan, Broad or Swann coming in to bat. There is no doubt in my mind that it will become a lot harder for England when they travel to the southern hemisphere but I still think they have enough to win, and win comfortably.
Dan
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