What a start for United

After a shaky performance away at Benfica on Wednesday night many thought Chelsea stood a chance against an unbeaten Manchester United side. With Ferdinand and Vidic still sidelined United were once again forced to field a young defence with Evans and Evra leading the line. Chelsea however were looking strong with great starts for new signings Mata and Meireles and were coming off the back of a strong midweek Champions League performance. Despite being a big game between arguably the two main title contenders Villas Boas stated that the match "was not key" in a jovial press conference. It was a cracking game between two sides at the top of their game and despite Chelsea having 19 attempts on De Gea's goal - which is no mean feat at Old Trafford - the blues only came away with the single goal. It was by far Chelsea's best performance at Old Trafford in seasons gone by however United despite only having 6 attempts on target finished there chances very clinically. In this post i will be focusing on United's early sucsess this season rather than Chelsea's demise.

It is clear that once again Sir Alex was smart in his summer signings as Young, De Gea and Phil Jones are all already looking like they have been playing at Old Trafford for years. By making his signings early in the window it allowed Sir Alex to mould his squad throughout pre-season and prepare for the start of the season.   Youth has been key to Manchester United's great start with Tom Cleverly and Danny Welbeck both fitting straight back into the side after loan spells last season. With the addition of the youth Sir Alex has gained over the summer, United's squad certainly has strength in depth with plenty of attacking and defensive options at his disposal as well as a revitalised. But more than anything there has been one player who has been outstanding for United over the past eight months and almost the talisman of their recent success. Luis Nani is the man who has played a large part in their great star this season despite originally finding it hard to settle in when he joined. In his first 100 games he is equal on goals with Ronaldo after his first 100 United games yet has more than double Ronaldo's assists. He was a huge player for united last season scoring 10 goals and will be equally important this season as they face tough opposition for the title from the other side of Manchester. His efforts have certainly not gone unrecognised with Sir Alex saying "these are his best years".

So with united in easy mode at the top of the table, the question is can anyone challenge them for the title?

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Joe 

England... are we any good?

Due to me being exhausted and with little going on in the Premier League I have decided to briefly touch on the goings of the past few days regarding England's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign. After a convincing away win over Bulgaria and with Wales narrowly beating Montenegro England were sitting very comfortably at the top of Group G. The atmosphere in Bulgaria was nothing special as the National side were very unlikely to qualify. This meant that days before the game there were still 25,000 tickets still available which led to a desperate attempt to sell them at local stores and petrol stations.It was a comfortable win but beating a terrible Bulgaria side is nothing  for Capello to boast about. The Press once again began bigging up our chances in a major tournament... why do they do it, we should all just expect them to fail before a ball is even kicked; at least then we can't be disappointed. I mean Bulgaria were truly terrible which hid the fact that we didn't actually play that well and the goals came thanks to poor defending an good play between Downing and Rooney.  In addition England's home record at Wembley has been shocking with our last win being last year over Montenegro so there wasn't as much confidence as usual going into the match against the young Welsh outfit. Wales played surprisingly well following on from their win on Friday and it looked like after nearly a year of adjustments it looks like Gary Speed has finally got them playing the kind of football he wants them too. Despite Rob Earnshaw (who is clearly past his best) the Welsh looked young, energised and well led by 20 year old captain Aaron Ramsey. On the other England looked lazy and were slacking. Capello had bought Lampard and Milner in as the only 2 changes from Friday but the team couldn't manage to string more than five passes together... typical England! Wales deserved a point and would have got one if it wasn't for Robert Earnshaw having no idea how to put the ball in the net from 6 yards. Former England captain recently came out disgracing the England players saying that they no longer feel privileged playing for their National team. It now seems that International football has taken a major back-seat from the League and the Premier League and many are starting to wonder weather their will be any International football football in ten or fifteen years time. that do the England players still feel privileged playing for England. Could this be because the all the money is in club football? Personally I think so. In my opinion England cannot be judged until we play a team in the top 10 of the FIFA world rankings; I think when that time comes the nation will once again be sorely disappointed.

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Will be posting every weekend from now on as i have more time.

Deadline Day Aftermath - Round up of the big transfers in the BPL

Wenger left it late but in the end came away with Chelsea deadwood and an uncapped injury prone 28 year old as his replacements for Nasri and Fabregas... Arteta finally agreed personal terms with the London club in the dying minutes of the window despite some sources reporting the deal had stalled. Joey Barton's tweet of " Nasri and fabregas replaced with Benayoun and Arteta?? I wouldn't of done that on FM2010, that's all am saying"  voiced most football fans opinion on Wenger's last-minute business.I can see why Everton fans are frustrated as only two weeks ago in an interview with the BBC Arteta said "I am happy at the club" "I am going to give everything for Everton this season". He has also been very inconsistent for Everton and has had frequent injury problems. Criticisms aside Arteta is a good player in my opinion and has produced moments of greatness for Everton as well as scoring goals. I believe he will help to compensate for Arsenals big losses however i believe Arsenal will still struggle. As for Benayoun I don't believe he is a great player and has done very little in recent times, nevertheless he has key Premier League experience which is important as not alot of Arsenal team do

Chelsea, to my great surprise, made an exiting addition to the squad as they signed Raul Meireles from Liverpool just before the window slammed shut. The most likely reason for this signing is because Chelsea's £40m yes £40 MILLION pound bid for Luka Modric. I personally think that is ridiculous money for a player that has been out of touch since the start of last season. The fee was reportedly in the region of £12m which is a pretty good deal. It is certainly going to be interesting to see where Meireles fits into the Chelsea side.

Stoke managed to grab some last minute deals by obtaining the signatures of record signing Peter Crouch ( £10m but could rise to £12m), Wilson Palacios (£6m) and Cameron Jerome (£4m). They are sure to be key squad players when they start their European adventure in the Europa League.

Blackburn managed to sign Yakubu and Scott Dann Whilst keeping hold of big Chris Samba. But by far the best move from boss Steve Kean was the releasing of the awful foul moth and general idiot El Hadji Diouf.

Bolton added strength to their side with the loan signing of young up and coming stars Gael Kakuta (from Chelsea) and Dedrick Boyata (from Manchester City). They also bought in young French striker from Liverpool...Not too sure about that one Owen.

QPR Signed English pair Shaun Wright Phillips and Anton Ferdinand which are improvements on their average Championship level squad.

Apart from the loss of Meireles, Liverpool had a pretty good day as they signed out of favour former Manchester City and Wales captain Craig Bellamy. They also got rid of some deadwood with the sale of Christian Poulson to Ligue 1 side Evian Thonon and the loan of Joe Cole to Lille.

With 485 Million pounds spent in the Premier League this window it has certainly been a busy summer for the 20 English sides. Please comment and let me know your opinions on all the deadline day transfers (especially you Arsenal fans).

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Joe