Manchester teams looks to continue strong start

Both Manchester United and Manchester City have started the season in dominating fashion and will look to continue that form Sunday against Arsenal and Tottenham, respectively, teams both fighting for their first wins of the season.  Meanwhile, Liverpool aims to improve on last season as they take on Bolton, where they only won once in the first eight games of the year (yikes).  Definitely a solid slate of games this weekend, especially considering the top four clash between Aston Villa and Wolves kicks off action for game week three.

TV SCHEDULE
Saturday, August 27
Aston Villa vs. Wolves – 7 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Wigan vs. QPR – 7:23 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
Swansea vs. Sunderland – 9:53 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
Chelsea vs. Norwich – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Blackburn vs. Everton – 10 a.m. ET
Liverpool vs. Bolton – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, August 28
Newcastle vs. Fulham – 7:53 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
Tottenham vs. Manchester City – 8:30 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
West Brom vs. Stoke – 9:53 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
Manchester United vs. Arsenal – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

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Premier League predictions

The 2011-12 Premier League season starts tomorrow and I can’t wait. I am so ridiculously excited.  My prediction?  This is one of the closest title races in a long time and it comes down to the last couple weeks. As much as I hate to say it, I think that Manchester United will win its second straight title as Chicharito takes the league by storm. I peg Man City as runners-up as the team builds on its success last year. Even without Tevez, Sergio Aguero is more than capable of picking up the slack. Liverpool makes a triumphant return to the top four after two years out and Chelsea rounds out the top four.

Champion: Manchester United
Top Four: Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea
Relegated: Swansea, West Brom, Wolves
Golden Boot: Chicharito, MU

TV SCHEDULE
Saturday, August 13
Blackburn vs. Wolves – 2 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Delayed)
Fulham vs. Aston Villa – 9:30 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Liverpool vs. Sunderland – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
QPR vs. Bolton – 9:55 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
Wigan vs. Norwich – 2:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Newcastle vs. Arsenal – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, August 14
Stoke City vs. Chelsea – 8:25 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer Plus (Live)
West Brom vs. Manchester United – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Monday, August 15
Manchester City vs. Swansea – 3 p.m. ET/ESPN 2 (Live)

*One more plug for Fantasy Premier League: http://fantasy.premierleague.com and the code is 1335966-299712!

Liverpool needs to find some passion

Well this season has sunk to a new level of suckitude already as Liverpool managed to lose to League Two side Northampton on penalties in the third round of the Carling Cup yesterday. Really, Liverpool?!  There are pretty much zero positives to take out of that game other than the fact that it better serve as a wake-up call for the team.  While Liverpool did not field a full-strength squad against Northampton, players like Ryan Babel, David N’Gog, Daniel Agger, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Lucas Leiva should have been able to notch a win.  Milan Jovanic scored an early goal for Liverpool, but the team could not figure out how to close out the win (working on penalties might be a good place to start).

The Reds are not exactly brimming with confidence as they sit 16th in the table with five points out of five games and yesterday’s loss does not help the situation.  A win this weekend against Sunderland would be huge as three points would see them jump into the top half of the table (as long as they can stay away from any beach balls).

There’s questions out there about whether Roy Hodgson has bitten off more than he can chew and players like Daniel Agger are already spouting off about how they are not fans of Hodgson’s system and don’t want to change the way they play.  I still think it’s too early to judge Hodgson as manager of Liverpool, but he does need to figure out how to get the entire team firing on all cylinders at the same time and he needs to do it decently soon.  Of course, Hodgson is not the one out there playing the game, so all the blame for the poor results can’t be on his shoulders.  The players have to step up their game as well.  Players like Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres need to lead the charge and get their teammates fired up.

Liverpool shows what could’ve been

Liverpool easily dispatched Sunderland, 3-0, behind a two-goal performance from Fernando Torres.  The Reds dominated the game from start to finish and should’ve scored at least three more goals.  Pepe Reina only had to make one save.  In other words, it was a complete performance, something the team has not done much this year.  If only they could have played like this earlier this year, gah! 

 The win put Liverpool into fifth place, four  points back from Tottenham, who have a game in hand.  Liverpool definitely has the easier run over the last month and half of the season, including three teams facing the threat of relegation, and they need to take advantage of it.  Winning is the only option if Liverpool want any chance at the fourth and final Champions League spot.  Hopefully, we will actually  see some consistency (and more goals from Nando!)  as they come down the home stretch.

The remaining schedule for the Reds: @Birmingham, Fulham, West Ham, @Burnley, Chelsea and @Hull.  Obviously Chelsea is a tough game and as West Ham, Burnley and Hull fight for their Premier League lives, those clashes will be battles, as well.  It’s no cake walk, but Liverpool has the potential to end the season on a really positive note.

  Now, the remaining fixtures for Spurs: @Sunderland, Arsenal, Chelsea, @Manchester United, Bolton, @Manchester City, and @Burnley.  I would say this is just a little bit tougher than what Liverpool  have to face.

Snow wreaks havoc on Premier League

Photo of the snowfall from Ryan Babel's twitter (he is good for something!).

As of right now, five Premier League matches for this weekend have been postponed due to the snow. No make-up dates have been scheduled yet. The big concern is the area around the stadiums as well as fans getting to the grounds. The Arsenal/Bolton match scheduled for earlier this week was also called off. Several Championship fixtures have been postponed, as well as all the League One and League Two matches.

EPL Matches postponed
Sunderland vs. Bolton
Burnley vs. Stoke
Fulham vs. Portsmouth
Liverpool vs. Tottenham
Hull vs. Chelsea

Premier League Schedule – December 26-27

The best game of the weekend is Aston Villa at Arsenal on Sunday. Each team has 35 points and a victory could vault the winner into second place, depending on the result of the Manchester United game. Liverpool desperately need a win to get their season back on track (I feel like I’ve written that sentence a lot this year.)

Saturday, December 26
Birmingham vs. Chelsea – 7:30 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Fulham vs. Tottenham – 8 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
West Ham vs. Portsmouth – 7:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Burnley vs. Bolton – 2:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Manchester City vs. Stoke – 9:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Sunderland vs. Everton – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Wigan vs. Blackburn – 3 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Liverpool vs. Wolves – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, December 27
Arsenal vs. Aston Villa – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Hull vs. Manchester United – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Premier League Schedule Dec. 19-21

Manchester United looks to go joint top with a win over Fulham on Saturday, while Chelsea looks to keep a three-point gap from their closest challenger against West Ham Sunday.  Meanwhile, Liverpool needs a win over bottom-dwelling Portsmouth if they want to keep any hope of a top four finish alive.

I will add the US broadcasts for Fox Soccer games later tonight as the new Foxsoccer.com website doesn’t seem to want to give me that information at the moment.

Saturday, December 19
Portsmouth vs. Liverpool – 7:45 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Aston Villa vs. Stoke
Blackburn vs. Tottenham
Fulham vs. Manchester United – 9:30 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Manchester City vs. Sunderland
Arsenal vs. Hull

Sunday, December 20
Wolves vs. Burnley – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Everton vs. Birmingham
West Ham vs. Chelsea

Monday, December 21
Wigan vs. Bolton