English Premier League-2010

The epl 2010 has officially kicked off and its been a good 2 weeks of wonderful soccer.As sir alex fergusion clearly stated this season the title race is more open than ever.And hes proven to be right due to the frenzy that we have seen in the last two weeks.

Lets start with last years champions-chelsea.

Well chelsea seemed to have continued their phenomenal form from last season despite a poor world cup experience for many of its key players.But the stamford bridge faithfuls have not been left in doubt.When news of injuries to players like drogba and essien and other key players started to float around,alarm bells started to sound in north london.But,All these fears were brought to an abrupt end when Chelsea thrashed Wba by a humongous scoreline of 6 goals to nil.

But many football pundits regarded this performance as a match which was way too easy for chlesea's calibre.So deciding to put these doubts to rest,ancelotti and his men decided to show that they were just as ominous away as well as at home and hence another 6-0 scoreline with wigan atheletic seemed to be their best way of answering anyone.

Double figures in goals in the first two matches?hmmm...Carlo ancelotti surely seems to be a man of his word.

The Red Devils had a wonderful season last year but missed the title by a point.But alex ferguson did not feel the need to sign a marquee player but instead bolstered his squad with chris smalling at the back and the much taleneted Javier"chicarito"hernandez and a striker by the name bebe.

United's first match with newacastle ended in a 3-0 win but once again they had to rely on a wonderful performance by the veteran duo scholes and giggs.Giggs,berbatov and fletcher got on to the scoresheet but it was paul scholes brilliant game of passing which won him praise from the likes of legends like zidane and even arsene wenger.This dependency on the veteran talent continued into their second game at craven cottage where they had a dissapointing game against fulham and were saved the blushes due to a brilliant long range effort by scholes and an own goal by hangeland who scored at the other end to end united's hopes of an away win early in the season. United did get a penalty to seal the game but nani fluffed his lines much to the dissapointment of the united fans.

Not a great start for the red devils...poor defence and a lack of finishing capabilty seem to be their biggest rivals.Their dependence on the veteran talent is a thing to worry as united believes in fostering young talent rather than buying them.

The one thing that shuts up any arsenal fan is when the argument turns to trophies.The gunners' trophy drought continues into this season ever since their fa cup win in 2005.However,Arsene wenger look set to change things this season after an impressive first game against liverpool where the match ended in a draw.Arsenal's main woes last season were the defence and an inability to finish.Although they had to settle for an own goal by pepe reina to snatch a point from the game,the defence has actually strengthened up to an impressive degree.Almunia was brilliant in his positioning and the back four were solid as a rock save for the one goal they allowed liverpool to fire into the net.Overall a decent game for the gunners but they only started emptying their ammuntion in their second game against blackpool which ended in a goal mela with a scoreline of 6-0.Walcott with a hattrick and a clean sheet for arsenal seemed to be the perfect answer after their mediocre performance aginst liverpool.Overall,Arsenal need to keep their back 4 coordinated and their strikeforce celebrating more consistently if they want a shot at a trophy this season.And since barca's been knocking for a certain cesc fabregas,who knows when arsenal will find themselves a wizard short?Looks like arsene wenger has the biggest job among all his compatriots this season.

Liverpool got off to a solid start this time when they looked very threatening in their first game against arsenal.And even though newly signed joe cole was sent of it took a lot of character from liverpool to put up a stellar performance against arsenal with only just 10 men for a large amount of the match.Roy hodgson finally looked like hes built up a winning team but all that changed in the hands of manchester city in their second match where they paled in comparison to a resilient manchester city team.Liverpool-Deja-vu again??? last season...where a couple of promising matches but going down hard in the rest.The defence was mediocre but the midfield save for kuyt and a bit of gerrard was terrible and the attack was pretty much non-existent.Liverpool need a haul over not only at the top but also in the dressing room as well.

For all the amount of slander thrown at them for their exorbitant expenditure these last few seasons,manchester city look like they have finally built up a winning team.After a decent start away with tottenham where they managed a draw,their second game at home against liverpool was nothing short of brilliant.City were simply flawless from the word go.Wether it was the threatening runs made by adam johnson or the brilliance of tevez and barry to find the net or joe hart's spectacular performance between the posts...Manchester city have finally got what it takes to join the top four.Sheikh mansour's first match live yesterday seemed to have been a lucky charm for the city team and no wonder mancini stated that he would like his owner to be around a lot more often.all city need to do is be more consistent and im sure the epl title race will be a real cracker this season.

Among the 3 newly promoted teams,Blackpool,newcastle united and wba...Blackpool and newcastle united have been causing the biggest waves yet.After a brilliant performance gainst wigan(3-0),they were brought crashing back down to earth by a determined arsenal team(0-6).

Newcastle on the other hand looked very ordinary against the onslaught by the red devils in their opening game which they lost by a scoreline of (0-3).But,decided to bounce back with a shock performance against aston villa which saw them breeze through with some brilliant counter-attack play to plow down them with a 6-0 scoreline.The toons dont seem to be joking anymore...

West bromwich albion had also managed a win in their second game against sunderland with a modest 1 goal win after their loss to chelsea in their first game.

The biggest dissapointment for me has been everton who have only manged two points from their first two games and then aston villa who succumbed to a newcastle united slaughter disastrously.

So for me, the teams to watch out for are:Manchester city,Blackpool and maybe newcastle united...Liverpool,man u ,chelsea and arsenal need to be wary of these 3 guys if they have a desire to lift a trophy this season.

So,whats your opinion on what just happened in these last two weeks of the epl 2010...share your comments...Soccer fans!!!

Corner thoughts...

They say...that life is something we all hold on to.No matter how it treats us,we end up wanting it more.

I wonder really how many of us have ever thought of actually ending it all?And how many of us have actually gone ahead with it?its laughable isnt it?We are all drama queens on the inside but on the outside we portray this nonchalant attitude which quickly becomes mundane.The reason?We all love life too much to let it go.

So the answer is to not give up on life...it is to give in to life.Whether,you're agnostic or an atheist or a religious devotee of the big guy up there you have to realise that life as we know it is not what it all seems in reality.

To be more lucid,haven't we all met someone and then misjudged them either in a positive or a negative manner?Only to realise later on,that they were someone else on the inside.

Thats life...it teaches you to let go,give in,give up and lose control.It tells you to do whatever it takes to scourge that burning feeling on the inside and replace it with something more poisonous which burns even more.It turns us into madmen,fools and even washouts.But we still dont give up,do we?

I remember seeing this movie on tv once.it was about the freedom struggle that india went through against the british and during the riots a young indian decides to enlist for the rebels who were trying to overthrow the british tyranny.He is first however taught to slay a chicken in his backyard...and he finds that he is unable to even bring the knife close to its throat.He gives up and realises that if hes unable to slay a chicken in cold blood,what use is he on the battlefield when real lives of real men are on the line?

He slowly nerves himself for the ordeal and finally slays the chicken...if im not wrong this man turns out to be a great indian freedom fighter in the latter part of his life.

All im trying to do here is draw up an analogy between this incident and how life is in general.You see,life prepares us for the big bad wolf out there.If we dont embrace it but instead fight it...we end up giving it up.We end up broken on the floor with not a stair in sight.

Wrapping it up,i feel that if we ever feel all battered up n the inside,we just got to know that its just life's way of steeling us up cuz a bigger storm might be heading our way and we need to learn to not be blown away again!!!