Official Premier League 2015-2016 Season (Page 6 for 2015)

[Sload Soap]

And so ends one of nature's great mass migrations, the Club Football transfer window.

For sensible clubs like ourselves and Chelsea it ended a few weeks ago but there was some last minute scrambles at Arsenal, who bagged Danny Welbeck, and United, who bagged Falcao and Daley Blind.

United's transfer policy this window looked like it was being controlled by a 12 year old playing FIFA. These are sexy signings when they needed gritty ones. As someone put it, they went in needing heart surgery but came out with a boob job instead. I actually suspect some of the bigger named signings (Di Maria and Falcao) have been purely done to offset lost revenue from no Champions League with shirt sales, merchandise etc.

I think Welbeck at the Arse is interesting. He's not an out and out goalscorer but I think the idea is he'll be played in roles that free up Sanchez and allow Ramsey and Ozil more time in attacking positions. Might be a very canny signing. I respectfully tip my hat towards Mr. Wenger.

Of all the teams though, Hull City probably did the best business on deadline day. Bought in some interesting names to sexify their attack. Hull City are now officially the Cleveland Browns of the Premier League. I wonder if they'll have a documentary made about them?

As far as the actual football went this weekend, Chelsea have really put down a marker for everyone else in the way they defeated Everton. Diego Costa and Fabregas look like they have always played for Chelsea and it's a pretty worrying for the rest of the league. That and the cheating.

Meanwhile, City and Arsenal both slipped up in games they should be winning. Taking nothing from Stoke or Leicester, who both played out of their skin, but we really shouldn't be taking so long to break down these sorts of tactics. Ah, well long time to go and all that.

Liverpool cruised past a poor Tottenham with little sign Balotelli is a disruption to the team balance. Burnley and United's game was so boring it could actually give you narcolepsy through the the TV. Dangerous stuff! The best part of the United game was seeing the pundits squirm as they desperately tried to think up positives from United's performance. Tee hee.

My other picks for the weekend go to Southampton who show no signs of buckling from their summer purge and Swansea who are just so good to watch.

Now for a pointless international break in the company of the useless England team. OH JOY!

[Blu]

Sload, so much to process!

First, thanks for the laughs. Manchester have been absolutely dreadful. They clearly need a strengthening of the back line but are adopting the Peyton Manning / Indianapolis Colts the best defense is a good offense. Except they aren't finding the back of the net. I'm still puzzled. The heart surgery line had me on the floor.

I am excited about Welbeck. He's easily been overshadowed at ManU with the likes of RVP and Rooney. And for 6.9M he's a steal. I'll be interested in how he slides into the formation, will he be out wide or more centrally located. I'm slightly worried about his conversion rate, but again I believe that's because he's been out wide. He has performed when Rooney was out as Sturridge did without the assistance of Suarez. I guess we'll have to see. I am disappointed we drew level with Leicester, the team that bled the most goals out of the promoted teams.

Chelsea is the team to catch, and the back line looked a little shaky versus Everton. That gives me some hope, but I won't be holding my breath either. They look strong.

Manchester City couldn't connect the attack. Aguero is definitely a glass cannon and I think it's a matter of time before he's reinjured. It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

Gylfi Siggurdson and Nathan Dyer are on fire. Swansea always comes hard early on then tends to fade, but for now I'm enjoying the fireworks.

[Sload Soap]

First, thanks for the laughs. Manchester have been absolutely dreadful. They clearly need a strengthening of the back line but are adopting the Peyton Manning / Indianapolis Colts the best defense is a good offense. Except they aren't finding the back of the net. I'm still puzzled. The heart surgery line had me on the floor.

I think you're bang on. They know the defence is shocking so they're just hoping to outscore people. That's the weirdest thing, they know they're about to have a heart attack but the are just so happy with their new tits they don't care.

I think you actually paid £16 million for Welbeck. Still a good deal though and a sign of intent.

At least this international break gives me another week to try and figure out the NFL. I watched it last year but I think because I haven't played the sport I don't quite get it. It's too far from Rugby as well to use that as a guide.

[Blu]

I think the same can be said about any sport, ever. If we turned our attention and energies away from the business of sport, we'd probably solve a lot of the worlds problems.

And for what it's worth, Arsenal shouldn't necessarily be lumped in with the likes of Manchester United. Manchester City, United, and Chelsea have spent three times amount what we've done in transfers over the past five years. I honestly believe Wenger is nearing the end of his tenure and has been uncharacteristically spending to win a championship. This year we've spent 42M, City spent 32M, Liverpool spent 36M, and Manchester United spent 122M. Nearly a billion dollars for a hundred or so soccer players.

[Sload Soap]

Trouble is it was the wage caps and performance fees that created the conditions for this kind of excess in the first place.

In 1961 the PFA (Professional Footballer's Association) threatened strike action if the maximum player wage wasn't raised above £20 a week which in today's money is a fairly low £402. Enough to live on sure but as the PFA saw it, not a fair wage for players puling in crowds of upwards of 60,000 people a week. The players argument won out and so the levy broke, as it were.

Even before that a players strike in Argentina in 1948 lead to a lot of players moving to Colombia, and more specifically Millonarios Futbol Club, for the chance to earn what they saw as a fair wage.

As for FIFA themselves I'm not sure they can enforce a wage cap on a bunch of privately run businesses which is what Football Clubs essentially are. I'm not even sure the EU could do that either. I assume it's a private company's right to pay their employees whatever wages they see fit but it's also their right to fuck up and go bankrupt as we've seen happen with Wimbledon, Portsmouth and Rangers, to name a few.

Having said that the wages these days are ridiculous though, I agree. Wayne Rooney isn't worth a threepenny bit. But that's less a sign that football is broken and more a sign that our society has skewed priorities.

[Sload Soap]

After a pointless but profitable international break, we were treated to some football that was actually worth watching yesterday.

Seriously the quality of football on display in the Chelsea V Swansea, Arsenal V City and Southampton V Newcastle games was world class.

The Arsenal V City game also proved how badly some players perform when in an England shirt as Jack Wilshire, very middling against Switzerland, showed a lot of real class and determination that almost won Arsenal the game. To be clear, I don't hate on Wilshire I just think he is underwhelming for England as he is unsuited for the role Hodgson wants him to perform. But that's England all over.

City could, and maybe should, have won the game in the last ten minutes but it was even overall. There was some pointless remarks made by City manager Pellegrini after the game that I don't endorse and it wasn't handball by Wilshire nor were any of the goals scored offside. Sorry folks, no controversy in this game, just good football for once. Fancy that!

Diego Costa and Fabregas continue to show that Chelsea did the best business in the last transfer window. Costa's ability to create space for himself without seeming to actually move is pretty impressive and the sign of a player well suited for this league. That and he's a dirty dirty cheat. I am very jealous.

Southampton and Aston Villa continue to be the teams that most impress me though. Some had these two down for relegation but both are playing smart attractive football and look dangerous against clubs who should be brushing them aside. Southampton especially have made a metric fuck ton of money of summer sales and have reinvested that money wisely in players well suited to their playstyle.

On the other side of the coin it's likely Newcastle manager Alan Pardew will be sacked. Like at Crystal Palace, I wonder if there is actually anyone to take the job who is better than the man already in charge? Talk of Steve Bruce moving up there but why would he when the Hull team he has built are doing so well?

And on today's game, as ever I hope United crash and burn. As Real are showing in La Liga, spending shit loads of cash doesn't immediately equal league success.

[Blu]

Such a great weekend of soccer. Here's my highlights.

I loved the Arsenal vs. Manchester City game like you did Sload. We were playing really flashy, beautiful soccer in the first 25 minutes. Looked like we were even toying with them to be honest. Crisp passing and Welbeck getting extremely unlucky. I worry that he's still developing into a world class finisher and that's what we still need. Unfortunate that our defense is buckling, losing Debuchy for three months also hurts tremendously, I don't think Chambers is up to the task yet but we'll see. Wouldve loved to see three points, my biggest criticism is Arsenal not playing up to the same level of physicality that Manchester City did, and they roughed us up enough to knock us off of our game. How three people were left unmarked on a set piece is embarrassing and fundamental. That and Ozil needs to start showing up.

Loved the upset at Enfield, didn't see that one coming and I thought it was a mistake to bench Raheem when they fielded a team full of younger fresh talent.

Fabregas and Costa are prolific together. Chelsea is the team to chase right now.

Cheers to Southampton for having loaded pockets and a team that I thought was going to be in shambles doing just fine. Great fundamental footy there and it's paying off tremendously.

Manchester United really have to be tested. I think a lot of their mentality is building momentum. I don't think they have the mental toughness to climb back from being down. DeMaria looks to want to work for it, and Ander Herrera too, but I don't think the other 9 work as hard as those two do, and it will show. If ManU concede first, I think it's a done deal.

[Sload Soap]

It's time for the weekly soccerball round up!

I'll start with the Champions League whose opening week was pretty bad for the English clubs. Arsenal lost away in Germany to Dortmund, City lost away in Germany to Bayern and Chelsea drew against another (and pretty mediocre) German team, Schalke 04. Even Liverpool's win against Bulgarian minnows Ludogorets was somewhat of a downer as it had to be decided by a contentious penalty.

Another bad year for English clubs ahead in the Champions League? Could well be. I can see them all progressing (even City from the group of death) but like last year I can only see Chelsea making it very far. They have the edge over the smaller teams but there are too many defensive frailties to take on a Bayern or an Barca or a Real. We'll see though but I think the days of PL domination of the Champions League are gone.

At least the Premiership held a bit of solace from those disappointing mid-week results. Unless you're a Liverpool fan. Otherwise the PL is a bit grim.

On saturday Arsenal bounced back from Europe with an emphatic 3-0 drubbing of high flying Aston Villa. Danny Welbeck got his first goal and Ozil's opener will silence his critics for a while. Really nice attacking stuff that completely overwhelmed the Villa defence.

In the late kick off Liverpool were handed their third league defeat of the season being seen off by West Ham 3-1. Pretty poor really although it did spawn another amusing Balotelli meme.

Elsewhere Southampton continued to impress by beating Swansea-lona away and under fire Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was 20 minutes from losing his job until his side fought back from a two goal deficit to draw with HULL (has to be in all caps). I imagine Pardew will probably go soon though.

Sunday was bizarro day. Not only did Spurs and Everton contrive to lose at home to teams in the bottom six (West Brom and Crystal Palace respectively) but Fat Frankie Lampard scored an late equalising goal...against Chelsea.

In the biggest game of the season so far, Man City and Chelsea locked gold plated horns at Eastlands. While the football was of a high calibre it was slightly marred by a tetchy outburst from City LEGEND (also has to be all caps) Pablo Zabaleta who saw himself seeing red for reacting angrily to Brazilian turncoat Diego Costa's well polished cheating.

If FIFA and Pro Evo had a stat for being a cheating bastard, Costa's would be OP. Truly he follows in the footsteps of the previous cheating greats like Drogba, Suarez, Shearer and anyone who has ever played for or managed Manchester United.

Mourinho was pretty smug when Schurrle put Chelski ahead but much less smug when New York City loanee and general PL legend Frank Lampard popped up late to score the sort of goal against Chelsea that made him their all time goal scorer.

And I laughed.

Even more amusing though was another brilliant capitulation from United who fluffed a 1-3 lead away at newly promoted Leicester and ended up losing 5-3 in what will probably be the game of the season.

What made it even better was that one second half period completely showed up United's entire summer policy of bringing in sexy attacking players and ignoring the defence, as Leicester hoofed three long balls over United's high backline and got three goals for it. What made it even betterer was that Leicester got back into the game off the back of the sort of terrible penalty decision United have profited from for over twenty years. Sweet sweet karma!

And I laughed and laughed again.

[jfrost]

All I know is Manchester City is really overpowered in FIFA 14.

I don't know yet if I'll be buying 15.

[Sload Soap]

All I know is Manchester City is really overpowered in FIFA 14.

I don't know yet if I'll be buying 15.

As we should be.

I played the demo of FIFA 15 and found myself frustrated with the problems the game has had since 13 that EA seem either incapable or unwilling to fix. Maybe 15 is a shoddy hack job like the widely panned 360/PS3 versions of the latest Madden?