Great Action Weekend

Ronaldo takes his season tally to 29

Ronaldo and Rooney scored a brace as ManUtd destroyed Newcastle 5-1 at St.James' Park. Wonder what the Geordies now think of their 'Messiah'? The Red Devils are now just 3 points behind Arsenal who were held to a 2-2 draw at Birmingham. Eduardo Silva suffered a horrific injury and is now out for the season and the Euro Championships. Arsene Wenger, who we all know has selective blindness, surprisingly saw the tackle from Birmingham's Martin Taylor that caused Eduardo's injury!

Meanwhile, Tottenham won their first trophy in nine years, beating Chelsea 2-1 in the Carling Cup. After dominating Chelsea in an exciting match, Tottenham needed to come back from a goal behind and win the match in extra time, Woodgate's header proving to be the winner. It's actually good to see a team outside the top four finally winning something!

Start of Ramos Revolution?

Liga Fight!

Barca too closed the gap on Real to just 2 points after they beat Levante 5-1 thanks to Eto's hat-trick and Real's home defeat against Getafe, in comic circumstances. Robben thought he had scored and as Real players gathered to celebrate, little did they know that it was actually ruled offside. Getafe took a quick free kick and scored from the counter-attack.

Man, is it U?

Week 6 of EPL and the usual suspects make the top 4 in the Premiership table. Arsenal has been in great form, Liverpool still has away blues, Chelsea seems to stutter and ManU has forgotten they are the reigning Champs. ManU's recent displays against Sunderland and Everton have been inept, to say the least. For a team that was playing great attacking football until a few months back, this is clearly unexpected.

Ever since Saha succumbed to injuries, ManU has looked terrible up front. With Rooney and Ronaldo out, Giggs was paired up front with Tevez and the latter, not being an out-and-out striker clearly struggled with his new role. Ronaldo is back now but was not at his best against Everton. And, can someone please tell Ron he sucks at free-kicks!

Champions League starts mid-week and ManU plays away at Sporting Lisbon. This is a tricky encounter, given the form ManU is in but then I expect Sporting's old boys Ron and Nani to play a huge role at their former stadium.

A few random thoughts...

1. What has happened to Giggs this season? He doesn't look good but then he has been playing up front, rather than in the wings.
2. Silvestre at LB and Evra at left wing? What is Fergie/Carlos thinking? But one consolation...looks like Egghead is out for a long time with an injury he suffered at Everton.
3. Tevez struggles up front but seems an entirely different (much better) player with Saha for company. Hope Saha, the Brittle' stays clear of any more injuries this season.
4. Too early to say this but with Hargreaves in CM, ManU look so different. They are much better at defending but far from the attacking force they were last season. Personally, I would prefer Owen only for games against top clubs and in Europe.
5. Martin Jol's days at Tottenham are numbered now. 40 million+ pounds later, they lose the London derby at home against Arsenal!? Wondering whether we will see Lippi, Koeman or Ramos?

Need a Striker, Please!

Two draws and a loss - hardly the start the champions would have envisaged, especially after spending a lot of money this summer. But the loss of Rooney against Reading and Ronaldo's red card against Portsmouth didn't help matters. Tevez is better off playing deep and the Red Devils clearly miss the presence of a striker up front. The derby loss against Man City was clearly a shock, especially having dominated the match. City had just one chance and they scored! ManU has to play 4-4-2 this weekend, and perhaps Fergie should give a chance to reserve-player Frazier Campbell who impressed in pre-season games. Btw, ManU are linked to Anelka, Martins, Berbatov, Huntelaar...the list just goes on!

The weekend match against Tottenham, another club in crisis, is a must-win for both teams. Martin Jol is in a precarious position after losing the first 2 matches of the season and pundits are already beginning to doubt if Spurs can achieve the elusive Champions League spot. Rumor has it Sevilla coach Ramos has declined Tottenham's offer and that he wants to wait for a possible position as the coach of Chelsea next season.

Btw, the penalty given to Chelsea against Liverpool was one of the worst ever refereeing decisions one would see in the EPL. ManU should be at least happy their main rivals Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal drew their matches. And, Fulham lost against Boro, thanks to the seemingly blind assistant referee and lack of goal-line technology. When technology such as Hawk-eye is being used in tennis and cricket, I don't understand why it is taking so much time to be implemented in football. The sooner it is implemented, the better it is for the game.

New Season and New Scorers

The new EPL season has started! An exciting weekend saw a number of players scoring on debut for their new clubs - Bianchi & Geovanni for Manchester City, Chopra for Sunderland, Pizzaro and Malouda for Chelsea, Cruz for Blackburn, Sibierski for Wigan, Healy for Fulham, Kapo for Birmingham, and Utaka for Portsmouth.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal scraped through to wins against lowly opponents Birmingham, Villa, and Fulham while Champions ManUtd could just manage a goalless draw against Reading. Tottenham show they are yet to make the step up, suffering a shock loss at Keane's Sunderland. The most surprising was ManCity's performance under Sven Goran Ericksson, whose signings show real quality and moreover, the flair which was never witnessed at City under Stuart Pearce was on full display as City beat West Ham away. The excitement and fun has just started and hope this season turns out into a memorable one.

Summer of Signings

The summer signing spree continues. Clubs armed with new billionaire owners and cash from the new TV deal are going all out to get their man. Money is pouring into EPL, which is by far the most attractive league in the world. Move over millionaires. It's now billionaires who seek to buy football clubs and turn them into money-making enterprises. Ex-Thai PM Shinowatra has bought ManCity and brought in Eriksson (ManU fans, rejoice!) as the new manager. Newcastle and Birmingham are other clubs who have new owners. Taking a look at some of the major signings this summer...

ManU
It has been ManU all the way, splashing the most cash to get Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson, and most probably Tevez too. That would take ManU's spending to about 70 million pounds. The Glazers might seem spendthrift but then they know they will have to invest to make money. Btw, ManU fans can forget big money signings for at least another 10 years.

Liverpool
It's a fight between the Kop and Spurs for the 2nd place in spending most money. Until now, the Reds have bought Torres (£20.2m), Babel (£12m), Benayoun (£4m), Voronin (free), and about a thousand youngsters. Liverpool have strengthened the squad and should provide stiff challenge to Chelsea and ManU.

Tottenham
G Bale (£10m), D Bent (£16.5m), A Taarabt, Y Berchiche, Y Kaboul. Expect Tottenham to make more signings. But I expect Tottenham to stutter again and finish fifth.

Chelsea
Malouda(£12m), free - Sidwell, Pizzaro, Alex, Ben Haim. Chelsea have a strong squad and good backup players too. Mourinho has intended to revert to his 4-3-3 formation and that should be a lot better than the snoozefest provided by their 4-5-1 formation of last season.

Arsenal
Eduardo Da Silva (D Zagreb, £8m), L Fabianski (Legia Warsaw, £2m), H Nordveit (FK Haugesund, £2m), B Sagna (Auxerre, £6m rising to £8m)
Henry moving to Barca might be a blessing in disguise. Youngsters will have to come to the forefront and I am sure Wenger will see to that. Arsenal might even challenge for the title if they can get one of their strikers to score more than 20 goals this season.