Let the Taunting Begin!

This is the first week of the new soccer season in England and it has been enjoyable. As usual, we saw some expected results and some surprises as well! Chelsea showed everyone why they were champions last season with a massacre of West Brom by putting 6 goals past them. On the other hand, new boys Blackpool surprised many fans by beating Wigan 4-0. Big spending Manchester City, with all their new signings, didn't impress me at all with their display against Tottenham. In fact, their best player on that day was Joe Hart, who only cost them a measly 1 million pounds.

Just finished watching the showdown between Liverpool and Arsenal. It was a pretty dour match, with both sides seemingly too cautious to attack. Ngog scored a really good goal for Liverpool and this may be the his breakout season. Joe Cole, whose signing is one best free transfers in a while, had a debut to forget, getting sent off just before halftime. Liverpool was unlucky to concede that last minute goal, with Pepe Reina, who has always been so reliable, making a schoolboy error. I guess Arsenal did deserve that goal after all the attacking play they produced.

Now, it is time to rant. I am currently playing the Fantasy Premier League, whereby each member will choose a team of 15 players from a long list of players from the English Premier League. Each member is given 100 credits to mix and match players from the 20 teams in the league. Points are then allocated to each player depending on their performance in the actual match. For this week, I chose Joe Cole and Jamie Carragher of Liverpool. After watching the match, I really regretted choosing them! What on earth was Cole thinking when he made that tackle? The Arsenal defender was so far back in his own half to be of any threat and Cole had to make that stupid lunging tackle. Carragher had a decent game so I can't fault him. In the end, I ended up with a grand total of 2 points provided by these two players (-2 for cole and +4 for Carragher). To put things into perspective, Stephen Crainey of Blackpool earned 6 points for keeping a clean sheet against Wigan).

I guess my point is that I cannot count on Liverpool players to provide me with the points to top the fantasy league! Hopefully, my Manchester United players (Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney) can make up for today's pathetic number of points garnered by bagging a truckload of them by thrashing Newcastle tomorrow night!