Has the football league ever had it so good?

The new football league season kicks off today and fan of the teams in the lower divisions of English football must be licking their lips at the opponents they will face. 

In the Championship, Newcastle and Middlesborough will be the big scalps of the season. Teams like Peterborough and Blackpool must be so pleased to be able to say that they are in the same division as these massive football clubs. It is only a few years since Kevin Keegan’s famous, ‘I would love it if we beat them rant’ at Alex Ferguson, when it looked as if Newcastle United would be Premier League champions. Middlesborough themselves were playing in Europe only a handful of seasons ago.

A league including other big clubs such as with Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Bristol City, West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday is sure to rouse the fans. Clubs that could all make a case for deserving to be in the Premiership for the size of their fan bases, will be sure to throw up a lot of interesting match-ups and fierce rivalries in the coming weeks. It looks like it could be one of the best Championship seasons in years.

Yet it is not just the Championship that now has all the big non-Premier League teams. League One can now boast an wonderful line up of once great clubs. Playing in the third tier of English football this season are most notably, Leeds United, Norwich City, Southampton and Charlton. All of whom have played in the Premier League within the last five years. Leeds United of course made the semi final of the Champions League in 2001 but since then have infamously collapsed into relative obscurity in League One.

Even League Two has hit the headlines in recent weeks. Although not boasting the same array of big clubs, the oldest club in the world Notts County have just signed up Sven Goran Eriksson as director of football. Eriksson is one of the highest profile managers in the world and arguably one of the best. With new rich Arab owners Notts County could be a club to watch in the next few seasons as they look to climb from the fourth league to the top.

Whatever happens it looks as if it will be a very exciting season this year.

Premier League Weekend Afterthought

The story of the weekend has to be Arsenal’s surprising win at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea who had gone over four years without a Premier League home defeat lost their second home game in recent weeks under dramatic circumstances. Arsenal, however, started the match very shakily and did not look comfortable as Chelsea seemingly dominated the possession and dictated the pace of the match. This was compounded by Djorou who put into his own net to give Chelsea a 1-0 half time lead.

Chelsea deserved their lead and looked good for it until a terrible referreeing decision allowed Arsenal to level midway through the second half. Denilson’s flick fell to Van Persie, who was visably a yard or two offside, no flag was raised and Van Persie slotted home.

A shell shocked Chelsea were outraged by the assistant referees mistake and were further made to pay when a sluggish Chelsea defence failed to clear allowing for Van Persie to turn on the ball and fire home the winner past a helpless Petr Cech a couple of minutes later. Chelsea never looked like scoring and again failed to come from a goal behind against strong opposition.

The Blues can look back on the match as an unlucky defeat but in truth Chelsea did not have enough spark at the Bridge to deserve anything from the match.

Scolari was surprisingly critical of the refereeing after the game. The Brazilian’s cool, calm and colleted reputation is quickly disappearing. The pressure may be getting to Big Phil, Chelsea are not looking they force they did at the start of the season. As the injury list grows and following the annoucement that Chelsea will not be buying players in January it is difficult to see how the home forn will be turned around.

As for Arsenal this result may have saved their season. They now are within 8 points of the top of the league and although it will be an uphill struggle the league title can still be theirs. Arsenal still lack a clear cutting edge but this result is sure to boost their confidence. Hopefully they will spend in January as the board have made it clear they have the funds to. Chelsea have now played all of the other three so called ‘big four’ at home this season and have only taken one point from those games not exactly title winning form.

Perhaps the fiercest derby in English Football went the way of Manchester United this weekend. United dominated the match and were good value for their win. Manchester City could not find the magic of last season to oust their rivals. Rooney scored a rebound tap in to seal the win for the Red Devils.

All did not end well for United, Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for a needless handball late in the second half. The win has meant United have closed the gap significantly at the top and are starting to look like the team of last season again. City are now hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone. People at City will be starting to wonder how much longer their ridiculously rich owners will stand for the poor league position.

Liverpool claimed top spot despite failing to capitalise on Chelsea’s loss and could only draw in a drab match at home to West Ham. The Reds were booed off at full time and the Anfield crowd were less than impressed with another goaless home draw against weaker opposition.

It was the same result at Villa Park as a gutsy Fulham earned a good point. Villa missed out on the chance to consolidate their position in the top four and have now fallen to fifth. The league has tightened even more this week and no one at the top is taking control over their rivals.

Towards the foot of the table things are so close that a win can take some teams up six or seven places.

West Brom lost again despite leading away to Wigan and look like the real certainties to go down at the moment.

The other team on a downward spiral are Sunderland, hammered at home 4-1 by Bolton of all teams. An embarressing result and it looks as though Roy Keane has become disillusioned with life in the North-East. He will not sign a new contract and has admitted he may leave the club which is hardly reassuring to the players and fans. It is difficult to see how they can turn their fortunes around under such a fickle manager. Maybe Keane should just leave now so that the club can appoint a new manager and raise the spirits on the club before it is too late.

There were also good wins for Everton away at Spurs and Portsmouth at home to Blackburn. Stoke and Hull managed a draw as did Middlesborough and Newcastle.

1	Liverpool	15	13	34
2	Chelsea	15	27	33
3	Man Utd	14	16	28
4	Arsenal	15	8	26
5	Aston Villa	15	6	25
6	Hull	15	-2	23
7	Everton	15	-2	22
8	Portsmouth	15	-4	22
9	Bolton	15	1	20
10	Fulham	14	1	19
11	Wigan	15	-1	19
12	Middlesbrough	15	-6	19
13	West Ham	15	-5	18
14	Stoke	15	-10	18
15	Man City	15	6	17
16	Tottenham	15	-4	15
17	Newcastle	15	-5	15
18	Sunderland	15	-11	15
19	Blackburn	15	-12	13
20	West Brom	15	-16	11