EPL 06/07 is ON again!

finally, the EPL season kicked off on 19 August 2006! i've been awaiting this moment for 3 months...to be able to watch my favourite team, Manchester United, play again!

i personally do not find world cup that great as national teams seldom gels as a result of players playing for different clubs in seasons long. thus, u can hardly see the actual capability of a player. u still remember how ronaldinho flopped in the previous world cup although he's been awarded the World Player of the Year in the same season?! there are also players who shone in the world cup but flopped at club levels... so, i still prefer to watch club-level football that continues season after season as you can see changes & improvement in clubs, rather than wait for 4 years for some knock-out competition!

the 1st day of EPL did creat some upsets, in my favour obviously ! first & foremost, Liverpool was lucky to have escaped with a draw against Sheffield United. The premiership newcomer was on course for victory, until the referee awarded Liverpool an unlikely penalty. Arsenal also left it late before finally equalising against Aston Villa at their new stadium. Imagine the 1st goal scored in the Emirates Stadium was by the visitors team!

Manchester United played on a sunday afternoon fixture against, imho, their bogey team. Fulham has always created problems for MU even though they are considered as a mid-table team. I was quite worried if MU is ever gonna claim a clean sheet against Fulham. Worry not, MU is back with a vintage performance where they have gone 4-0 up by 18 minutes of play! With goals from Saha, Rooney(2), Ronaldo & an own-goal completed the rout as MU demolished Fulham 5-1 at the final whistle. Seeing that all attackers managed to put their name onto the scoresheet, MU is still lethal up front though without van Nistelrooy. The team did relax after leading 4 goals to nil, & that resulted to Fulham clawing back a goal. The shot by Helguson would not have gone in if Ferdinand did not stick his head out & deflected it into the wrong side of Van der Sar. Other than that, Evra finally proved why Ferguson bought & defended him after his dismal debut last season.

Chelsea, who kicked off moments after MU's match, also won their first fixture of the season in style, romping to a 3-0 victory. Undeniably, Chelsea has many great players (thanks to the billionnaire Russian owner) but the pool of players may not gel. another year of domestic domination will do EPL no good, unless they prove they can also conquer the continental glory!

so glad that MU has got off a great start! it'll be worth waking up in the middle of the night this coming thursday to watch the game against Charlton Athletic!