Five breakthroughs of the first half of the championship of England
1 REVIVAL OF INTRIGUE Everyone is good at the Premier League, but only the last two seasons she has not been able to keep the main secret for a long time - the champion. The advantage of Chelsea in both cases was so clear that already by the New Year this secret became an open secret. Only now, finally, competitors managed to nominate their plenipotentiary representative to fight the “blue” giant. This representative was another grand, red - Manchester United. With the triumphant return of Paul Scholes, matured, having survived the serious psychological overload of Cristiano Ronaldo and reaching the design capacity of the shock duo Rooney, the Saa Mancunians again regained their leadership position. Chelsea, having spent a couple of months searching for diamonds in the center of the field and having survived the difficult operation of implanting Ballack with Shevchenko , allowed the competitor to come off, but only then, to immediately rush to the chase. And while she goes movie-like beautiful and gambling: see the winning goals of the Londoners in the endings of matches with Everton and Wigan . The outcome of this fight is still far, and the duel of Sir Alex Ferguson with Jose Mourinho may well become an adornment of the European club season.
2 DROGB'S COLORING When it became clear in the summer that Andrei Shevchenko was going to Chelsea, the future of Didier Drogba seemed to some British foggy. However, the opposite happened: the African spends the best season of his career. Drogba, as they say, has matured. Center forward Chelsea began to score for real: a lot, in a timely manner, terribly beautiful. The winning super goals are Liverpool, Barcelona and Everton, hat tricks against Watford and Levski. A sequel will undoubtedly follow. When the Chelsea coach named Drogba the best forward of the world at the moment in October, someone might have considered it the usual Moorin bravado . We consider this a statement of fact.
3 PORTSMOUT'S DECISION The Chelsea ironic cliché for the poor, glued to the club from the south of England, Harry Radnapp's contradictory reputation and the incomprehensible principles of manning - all this did not portend anything outstanding to Portsmouth. However, a car assembled from defiantly heterogeneous parts suddenly drove off. And we would not rule out the possibility that, until the end of the season, Portsmouth will be in the company of applicants for Champion visas. The components of the success of the southerners are: reliable defense led by David James, who, surprisingly, has not yet made a single circus mistake; the suddenly opened fourth breath of Nwanquo Kanu; a playful insight that alternately attends Portsmouth midfielders, from Matthew Taylor to Nico Kranjcar.
4 “READING” WITHOUT COMPLEXES The practice of dizzying flights of newcomers of the elite over their own heads has recently become almost an ordinary occurrence and dates back to the exploits of Sunderland at the beginning of this century. The most recent example was last year's Wigan, but only until Reading appeared. The British uncompromising team, in addition to an unbending spirit, sometimes demonstrates more subtle, tactical moves. The “Royal” club, justifying the pathos nickname, has fixed itself in the upper half of the table, and its forward Kevin Doyle with 8 goals is among the best snipers of the championship. In addition to him, attacking Korean veteran Sel Ki Hien, Arsenal-trained defensive midfielder Steve Sidwell and American goalkeeper Markus Hahnemann are distinguished by their solid game. Steve Koppel’s team is hardly able to climb even higher, but there is every reason to count on maintaining a place in the top ten.
5 “ASTON VILLA” FUNDAMENTALS After changing ownership and choosing a new head coach after several years of timelessness, the Birmingham club did not go along the beaten track of immediate large-scale changes. Martin O'Neill refrained from abrupt gestures and managed to create a team from improvised material, adding only old friends - Bulgarian attacking midfielder Stilyan Petrov and striker Chris Sutton. As a result, the first 9 rounds of Aston Villa went without a defeat, and a slight decline allowed itself only by the beginning of winter. The real discovery of the season was Gabriel Agbonlahor , to whom O'Neill found a place on the right side of the problematic hitherto. It was here that the young talent found application of outstanding speed and extraordinary dribbling. Probably in January, new talent will come to Birmingham. So look for “Aston Villa” at the finish of the season is clearly in the upper third of the table.
Five failures of the first half of the championship of England
1 TERZANIA SHEVCHENKO The game of the most expensive football player of the summer transfer period in the first part of the season, of course, did not live up to high expectations. That's just in addition to Shevchenko himself, this is a problem of those who themselves were waiting. Fans demand everything at once, sometimes not noticing a living person with his natural problems behind millions of pounds. And Abramovich’s deal was initially aimed not only at a purely gaming reinforcement of Chelsea, but also at strengthening the ambiguous image of a businessman in the CIS countries. As a result, Shevchenko fell under the pressure of his own status and so far has not managed to properly fit into Mourinho's schemes. Although his game, of course, is not an outright failure: 6 goals and 3 assists in 21 matches of the season.
2 TESTIMONIES OF “WEST HEMA” “Hammers” and personally Alan Pardew fell victim to a whole complex of unfavorable circumstances, intricately overlapping. The long and uncertain process of selling the club, the "second season syndrome", a sharp decline in the game of individual players brought West Ham to the relegation zone, and Pardew to the labor exchange.
3 CHARLTON'S DISASTERS The current championship should give an answer to the sacramental question for Charlton: is there life without Kerbishli? The first part of the season is inexorable - no. Neither Jan Dowie, with whom great hopes were associated, nor even Les Reid could do anything with this team, although the staffing of the "Addix" this season is no worse than in the previous ones. Charlton still leaves an impression of hopelessness, and his fans look with longing and nostalgia at the West Ham coaching bridge.
4 SCALE INJURY The worst episode of the season happened on November 14 in Reading. At the beginning of the match of the local club with Chelsea, in a rather harmless situation, there was a clash between the forward of the hosts Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech, which could well have ended fatally. At the same time, as Drogba and Mourinho assure, the Reading player intentionally inflicted a serious injury on the goalkeeper. Cech was taken to the hospital, diagnosed with an “impressed skull fracture” and underwent a neurosurgical operation. Fortunately, everything worked out: Peter is already training individually, and from mid-January, according to forecasts, he will start working in the general group. Football happens like that.
5 LIVERPOOL ROTATION AROUND THE FINGER Before the start of the season, many in England were convinced that now Liverpool would finally prove himself and seriously fight for first place. But in the fall it became clear that this would not happen. Rafa Benitez shuffled the lineup with rare persistence and, time after time, losing the quality of the game, gave “rest” to the team leaders. Sometimes it seemed that the coach expects to hold at least five championships without a break. Merseysiders alternated successful home games with failed away games, which is not permissible for a team with such ambitions. Liverpool won their first victory outside Anfield’s hometown only in December, and then followed the spurt, which put the Merseysiders in the top three. But by this time it had already become clear: 13 points behind the “Manchester United” and 11 from “Chelsea” did not win back. Only cups can truly save the season for Benitez.