It's September. What's Been Happening?

Barely six weeks have passed since our dearly beloved Premier League packed away its sun cream and knotted handkerchief and readied itself for another nine months of serious footballing business. After the crashing comedown of England’s World Cup debacle, those top flight followers amongst us soon began counting down the days until we could once more drown ourselves in a sea of Sam Allardyce hyperbole, safe in the knowledge that the national team’s multitudinous failings can be safely glossed over for another two years. Unless it’s an international weekend. They’re just the worst aren’t they?

Anyway, today feels, for no salient reason whatsoever, like the perfect opportunity to have a brief and in-no-way-premature glance at a couple of the season’s major-ish talking points. Either that or I’m just searching for a thinly-veiled excuse to have a pop at Liverpool. You decide.

Judging by their early season efforts, I feel I was perhaps a touch generous in offering Liverpool the much-cherished fourth Champions League berth when the traditional pre-season predictions were doing the rounds. It seems fair to say that Uncle Roy’s first stab at the domestic big time hasn’t got off to the smoothest of starts, with Wednesday’s League Cup humbling by Northampton highlighting not only the paucity of squad depth that he inherited, but also the sheer scale of the task ahead. But what exactly does said task entail? Under Hodgson’s guidance, Fulham’s rise from relegation fodder to Europa League finalists was as epic and speedy as it was surprising, which leads me to worry that he may have been installed on the sole remit of re-establishing Liverpool at the league’s top table as hastily as possible.

Unfortunately, and truthfully, much work needs to be done from the bottom of the club upwards. The man himself admitted recently that the size of his playing staff is horribly bloated with fringe players, and while Arsenal, Manchester United and even Chelsea’s youth systems are beginning to bear fruit, you’d have to point to Steven Gerrard as the last Liverpool academy graduate of note to force their way into the first XI and stay there. (Correct me if I’m wrong here; my levels of research for this sort of thing are, at best, minimal.) Such is the off-field instability overshadowing the club, Hodgson’s mission for the time being must, in reality, be to clear out the dead wood and attempt to ingrain his own philosophies in order to set his regime apart from that of his humorously-bearded predecessor. It might take a while.

The other sore-thumb sticking out from my pre-season palm of predictions is Everton, although I know I’m not alone is expecting better things there. True, they’ve been labelled “slow starters” for a good few years now, yet this season they’ve been not so much sluggish out of the blocks as simply forgetting to climb into them in the first place. Something’s amiss at Goodison, and you do start to wonder just how far David Moyes thinks he can take them. He’s clearly a fantastically talented and scarily-faced manager, but it might be time to consider casting those crazy, ref-hating eyes towards pastures new. Where that leaves Everton is anyone’s guess, though it probably won’t be 7^th.

With regards to the top of the table, I felt it necessary to break ranks with my peers in placing United ahead of Chelsea as champions and, despite the Londoner’s spectacular start, were it not for two late in the day switch-offs, United would be right up alongside them. To say the early season fixture list has been kind to Chelsea would be like claiming North Korea has some minor PR issues, but even so you can’t deny they’re looking ruthlessly efficient. Neutrals should probably pray that United and Arsenal do everything in their power to keep them within arms length for the time being at least, lest they become nothing more than a hazy blue mirage in the distance.

I’m aware plenty more exciting topics have been brewing too (I know for a fact that Mick McCarthy has already been interviewed publicly at least twice) but I’ve been writing this through my lunch break and I should probably get back to the day job. So stick around, there will be plenty more stirring insights like these to be consumed over the coming weeks and months. And maybe some good stuff too.


~ Matt