By Tony Attwood
We’re at the international break with the newly fangled “Extragames Country Cup” which from my limited experience not too many people quite get, and since I’m persistently anti-international matches I’m not going to explain.
But before the season began we made a prediction about who would win six different leagues in Europe and it is time at the first international break to see how we are getting on with our prediction.
And just to remind you, the point was that in a growing number of leagues one club dominates to such a degree that we know who is going to win the league before the season begins. Which rather defeats the object of it all.
So here are our predictions, and how it is going so far…
England – predicted winner: Manchester City
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 | 12 |
| Chelsea | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 12 |
| Watford | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 3 | +6 | 12 |
| Manchester City | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 3 | +8 | 10 |
| Tottenham Nomads | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 9 |
So what has gone wrong with our prediction? Well, basically one game which ended Wolverhampton 1 Manchester City 1. Had it ended Wolverthampton 0 Man City 1 then our nominees would indeed have been top of the league.
And we should also note the Manchester City have the same number of points as they had after four games last season. Pep Guardiola (the manager) has said he is “satisfied” with how things have gone so far, but he is worried about performance and fitness.
Much of this comes from two facts. First Manchester City, in common with some other clubs, rushed their players back after the WC giving the players far less recovery time than is normal. We will see if this affects them – especially as they have a smaller squad than the teams around them.
Spain – predicted winner: Barcelona
Of course in Spain there are two challengers for the title and Atletico with an outside chance, but we expected Barcelona to keep on keeping on as Real Mad changed things around at the management level.
And after just three games, yes they are top, although with Real Mad right on their tails. But Barcelona have scored 12 goals in three games – it isn’t really a competition is it?
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2 | +10 | 9 |
| Real Madrid | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 9 |
| Celta Vigo | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 |
| Levante | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 4 |
| Sevilla FC | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 4 |
Scotland – predicted winner: Celtic
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart of Midlothian | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 12 |
| Celtic | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 9 |
| Kilmarnock | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 7 |
| Livingston | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 7 |
| St Johnstone | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Hibernian | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 5 |
| Rangers | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 5 |
I’ve included the list down to 7th because there has been some thought that if there is to be a challenge it will come from Rangers, but in fact it is coming in these early days from Hearts. It was the game which ended Hearts 1 Celtic 0 that tilted the balance.
Italy – predicted winner: Juventus
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pys | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juventus | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 9 |
| Sassuolo | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 5 | +3 | 7 |
| Fiorentina | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 6 |
| SPAL | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 6 |
| Napoli | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 6 |
And Juventus it is. How could it be any other way? Sassuolo is now entering their sixth year in the top division. The only point of interest is Sassuolo has scored one more goal than Juventus.
Germany – predicted winners: Bayern
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayern Munich | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 6 |
| VfL Wolfsburg | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 6 |
| Hertha Berlin | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 6 |
| Borussia Dortmund | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 4 |
| Borussia Monchengladbach | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 4 |
Another obvious one – and that is the point of all this, to point out that the fundamental essence of the competition has been allowed to vanish. We know who will win before we start, so what’s the point?
France – predicted winners: PSG
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris Saint-Germain | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4 | +9 | 12 |
| Dijon FCO | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 9 |
| Toulouse | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 9 |
| Lille | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 |
| Marseille | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 7 |
No outcry from any media outlet regarding Harry Arters blatant dive against Arsenal.Not even a whisper from any pro Arsenal blogs , including Untold Arsenal.Very disappointed!Are we just going to sit back?
Yes and certainly, the La Liga Title should be won by Real Madrid or FC Barcelona this season and I think Real Madrid could pip Barca to Title this time around if the law of averages will come into play in favour of R Madrid despite their not having Cristiano Ronaldo anymore. But Gareth Bale is still there to lead the line for them.
In the Bundesliga, Ligue One and Seriea A, one will not be surprised to see Bayen Munchen, PSG and Jeventus win their League Titles because that has been the norm in those Leagues.
But in the Premier League, despite their being a petrol dollar financed club side having unlimited money to sign any top quality player they want in a window to enabled them to buy the PL Title, but Messi, Leymar, Mbappe and Ronaldo they’ve appeared not able to touch. Nevertheless, Man City will not win the Premier League Title this season. Because the PL is a highly competitive League which having money in excess cannot always buy it’s League Title.
Liverpool and Chelsea won’t win the PL Title this season too despite their early strong showing in the campaign which I believe they won’t be able to sustain it when it matters. And Man Utd Ed Woodward and Jose Mourinho fued saga will continue to rage on in the season to cause distractions for the Red Devils and deny them focusing on the PL Title win charge forcing them to drop points and struggle to get a top 4th place finish.
Tottenham Hotspur daring into building a brand new White Hart Lane Stadium that ate up virtually all their money to denied them of reinforcing their squad this summer could prove to be costly for them as they won’t have a credibly PL Title win challenge this season. But if they can reinforce in January, they may be able to challenge for a top 4th place finish. And Spurs vs Man City clash in the PL after the international break should end in a draw match to give Arsenal the chance of making lost ground on the duo clubs.
Arsenal can win the PL Title this season if they have the hungry to win it after recovering from their slow start to the season in the PL campaign. Unai Emery has a very strong squad on ground that can make Arsenal challenge for the PLTitle win in the first half of this season to be among the front runners contending for the Title win. And if their PL squad is reinforced with one or two top quality players in the January window, the onus will be on Arsenal to sustain their charge in the campaign to win the Title as they top the table to beat all their rival 5 big clubs to the Title win.
I think the point is more that we have tried everything imaginable to get the question of refereeing onto the agenda, and failed.
It has been written about by a number of correspondents on this site, but what can we do which has not been done before – and failed.
Concerned Arsenal fan
I cannot speak for anyone else but personally I don’t think he dived.
I think he kicked the ground, and as most of would do if we tripped ourselves up, he attempted to make it look like someone else’s fault.
I doubt in his wildest dreams he expected anyone to be fooled for one second, let alone actually get a free kick.
Enter the inept, (corrupt?) Mr Anthony Taylor.
I believe in this case it is purely towards the cheating PiGMOL that our venom needs to be directed.
Again personally, I think Cardiff played the match in a good spirit, and despite there managers pre match remarks, certainly didn’t attempt to hurt any of our players.
Concerned Arsenal fan…………..what exactly and specifically do you recommend AFC and UA, along with other supporters, do to highlight to the authorities the incompetence of Taylor and the deceptive behaviour of Arter?