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October 29, 2009

Big Sam should just go for it

Posted by Jon Champion on 29/10/2009

The more I see of the Barclays Premier League this season, the more I'm beginning to believe those who suggest there's been a levelling out of standards. Which is not to say that the likes of Hull and Portsmouth are going to start beating Chelsea and Manchester United on a regular basis, but the difference between the top four and the next group of clubs does appear to have narrowed.

In part that's down to the investment of Manchester City, Tottenham and even Sunderland plus the continued development of Aston Villa, but it's also due to the losses suffered by the so-called "Big Four". Manchester United have sold Ronaldo and opted not to buy Tevez, Chelsea waved goodbye to Hiddink, Liverpool – or at least their manager – decided they were better off without Alonso, and Arsenal parted company with Toure and Adebayor.

Significant departures in every case – and the result is a title race that should be a contest all the way through to May. Chelsea have convinced this observer more than any of the others so far, but doubts over their ability to conduct future transfers and the exodus of Drogba, Essien, Kalou and Mikel to the African Cup of Nations in January mean their participation in the race comes with an inbuilt handicap.

They were impressive in swatting aside flu-ridden Blackburn at Stamford Bridge last weekend, so Rovers' Saturday's ESPN live game at Old Trafford offers a point of comparison. Can Manchester United deal with Rovers in similarly dismissive fashion?

My hunch is they can't, not least because Sam Allardyce surely won't allow Blackburn to play as badly again. He was withering in his criticism of those players who failed to follow instructions, and Tuesday's Carling Cup victory over Peterborough allowed others to press their claims. Having said that, the champions have spent the week hurting after their meek display at Anfield, so both teams are eager to show some "bouncebackability", to borrow Iain Dowie's contribution to the linguistic lexicon.

Allardyce is a rarity – a manager with a good record at Old Trafford. He won there in consecutive seasons with Bolton Wanderers, memorable winners from Michael Ricketts and Kevin Nolan helping seal Bolton's reputation as troublesome upstarts. Last season, in only his 8th Premier League game as Blackburn's manager, he saw his team push Manchester United all the way before going down 2-1. Cristiano Ronaldo decided that game, just as he decided so many others, but Big Sam will demand similar defiance on Saturday.

Sunderland showed the best way to flourish in the champions' lair when a spirit of adventure took them to within seconds of victory at the start of the month. Fixtures like this will not decide Blackburn's fate, so they might as well follow suit – and give it a go.

Comments

Posted by mubanga mulenga on 30/10/2009

It is absurd why are people are always against Rafa. Rafa tried to keep Alonso but unfortunately for Rafa and LFC Alonso wanted to leave just like Ronaldo for Man U. Pundits and critics are biased, what ever bad happens at LFC, it is because of Benitez, why the rot. Give him a break for once. When LFC loses, it is a crisis, other teams lose, they are going through a bad patch, what hypocrisy.

Posted by philip morana on 30/10/2009

Mr Champion, I love listening to you week in and week out commentating on games, however as I am learning to analyze critically different texts, articles, editorials, and even blogs at my university there seems to be an underlying bias in not just this blog but most of your commentating that you just want manchester united to fail. Is this true? Is this the common feeling among other british commentators as well?