Premiership

The reason why i am not a big fan of the Premiership is the competitiveness beyond the first 4 teams of the 20. It has repeated again as usual this year with just Man U and Chelsea making any serious run for the title. When you look at 1st Man U-85 pts, 2nd Chelsea-80 Pts and 3rd Liverpool 67 points summarizes it all.

Teams:
Manchester united has made watching them play a delight. I am reminded a lot of Brazil in 2002 WC when i see them play.Barring some glaring mistakes by Rio/Van Der Saar combo it has been a pretty solid season. C.Ronaldo definitely a stand out player. Though he still has the problem of dribbling too much and show casing too much of his skills maybe Alex Ferguson has taken up a new approach this season and that is " If you dont want to pass, then why dont you try to score"
It has defenitely worked!!.

Chelsea have been unlucky with injuries to be fair. First it was the unfortunate accident to Cech and then the defenders. Always a next time.

Liverpool as usual always looking at Captain fantastic for any sort of inspiration...

Arsenal has been less than impressive but i should say with Henry almost out for the entire season they have done a pretty good job. Baptista on Loan has only shown glimpses on and off and again he plays as a second striker and his natural position is that of an AM. Adebayor has been a find definitely.

The middle of the league has seen some teams really show their class. Reading, Bolton, Portsmouth have been really good. Bolton unfortunately have been now left without a manager for the rest of the season. I heard an interesting comment abt Sam that he has been successful in bringing out the best in some of the players who were considered to be past their best. I can name four right away- Ivan Campo, Jay Jay Okocha, Anelka and maybe Hierro for one season.

I saw a few games that Portsmouth played and i should say they are pretty good and they could very well end up qualifying for Europe.

Reading-I am impressed with Stephen Hunt i dont know from where they got this guy.

Newcastle-Time for them to find a new manager and start playing for their name.

Middlesbrough in 14th place i am a little surprised... they have played some good games. Their match against Man U was a cracker and i was really impressed with their defensive duo of Woodgate and Pogatetz. For an uncalled blatant penalty Middlesbrough would have embarrassed Man U's fire power.

A player i saw in a few games and who has in my opinion has had such a phenomenal season is Berbatov. Keane is the one who has also benefited from their strike partnership. except for an impression that Berbatov sets of a lazy elegance he is definitely going to be snatched by one of the big 4. Berbatov and Dawson have been the best players for Tot.

I see a definite reason why Teams from the Premiership fare better in the Chamions league as compared to the premiership teams in the Champions Cup. My thoughts in a seperate post.