Weekend Review (September 22-23)

My views on the Manchester derby from a predominantly Manchester United view can be found on the latest 'United Corner' which can be read here.

These are just some of my thoughts from the last weekend of football.

Liverpool's early start: In a world of social media like Facebook and Twitter, you can really see the 'giddy-o-meter' of fans and track the ups and downs of where a team is and one such team was Liverpool after the first month of the season.

At that point, Liverpool had won three straight games, albeit with the aid of a Stoke City penalty miss on the opening day of the season, and there were some murmurings that Liverpool could make the top four and a Champions League place or maybe even challenge for the title that they haven't won in 23 years.

There didn't seem to be too many worries about the fact that the side had won all three League games by the same 1-0 scoreline, but they have failed to win a game since September 1st and have now lost their last couple of games, one in the League Cup by 1-0 scores.

Luis Suarez' return will help the Liverpool side in terms of goals, but the loss of Philip Coutinho is a major miss over the next month and I think they will return to the mean and that is likely going to be more dropped points in the coming games. I'm not a big fan of Daniel Sturridge despite the hot start to the new season and I just think fans should take it easy before jumping on a bandwagon that may not be moving.


Hull City potential for survival: Steve Bruce has prior experience of helping teams survive in the top flight and he has seemingly put together a squad at Hull City that could potentially do the same despite a lot of people tipping them to go straight back down.

The result at St James' Park last week was impressive, but Hull also performed very well at Manchester City and were arguably unfortunate to not pick up any points from that game. A lot will likely depend on their form at home and so the game against West Ham United this weekend could be a very important one as I am sure Bruce will look at games like those as ones he has to win.

Hull would have seen the 1-1 home draw with Cardiff City as two dropped points and while it is still too early to make snap judgements, there does seem to be enough about the newly named Tigers to ensure a second season in the top flight.


Crystal Palace's problems: While Hull City fans can perhaps look ahead with some positive thoughts about the season, I think it is a lot harder for Crystal Palace fans to be feeling the same way.

There have been times when I have been impressed with what Palace have brought to the table and they certainly pushed Tottenham Hotspur while looking fairly solid until having a man sent off against Manchester United.

Positives from those games were erased though in the manner they were outplayed so easily by Swansea at Selhurst Park last Sunday and that has to concern Ian Holloway as to whether his squad have enough quality to survive in the top flight after losing players like Wilfried Zaha to Manchester United and Glenn Murray to injury.

Goals are going to be a problem if the early games are anything to go by and they face a big test of their credentials to stay in the Premier League when they travel to Southampton this week.


Manchester City's performance: I was actually surprised to read in some quarters that Manchester City's performance in the Manchester derby was good, but not great and a lot of the game was more to do with how ordinary Manchester United looked.

I would disagree with that sentiment completely as the pace and tempo that City used in that game was the difference and they are the first team that made some of the United players look 'old' as it was put to me while watching the game.

There won't be too many teams that can live with City if they can replicate that performance in other games this season and I don't think anyone should try and downplay what they did last weekend and just accept it as a top performance and move on.


Queens Park Rangers favourites for promotion: It has always been said that teams that don't play well but pick up positive results are destined for big seasons and Queens Park Rangers fit into that category in the early stages of the Championship.

They are winning a lot of games 1-0, but you have to be impressed with the signings made and I think it will take a few more games for them to click as a team and then Rangers will be very tough to stop. Tom Carroll could really show his quality at this level and he will dictate play, while the likes of Andrew Johnson and Charlie Austin will score goals.

A quick look at the squad shows the talent that is available for Harry Redknapp and the squad wouldn't look out of place in the Premier League and I do think QPR are going to be tough to stop. Of course, I could look a fool in three months time predicting anything in a Division like the Championship which has so many strange results every weekend, but Queens Park Rangers look a little too good for their rivals and I would expect them to earn automatic promotion.