I've already said we're title contenders but I'll say it again. We are genuine title contenders this season.
We've got the best keeper in the land in Pepe Reina and from his performances in pre-season Cav looks like he could be the best back up keeper, maybe only to be beaten by Cudicini. But Cav is better than Kuschack an the Polish lad Arsenal have.
Our centre back quartet is the best in the Premiership if not the world. We can bring in Skrtel/Hyypia whereas the other sides can only bring in Brown/O'Shea (Utd) Alex/Essien (Chelsea) Senderos/Djorou (Arsenal)
Same with our central midfield. Comparing Alonso and Lucas to Carrick/Hargreaves or Ramsey/Denilson or Mikel/Ballack. I think all four sides have very good central midfielders but our starting two (Stevie and Masch) are better than anythin else in the world and our two in reserve are as good as what the others can choose from.
Up top, well Fernando Torres speaks for himself. He's the best forward in the world by a country mile. Added to that Robbie Keane, who hasn't hit the heights just yet but he will come good. Then we have a couple of talented youngsters if required.
So again it's the wide areas where we struggle, but Arbeloa is a very good full back, my personal choice would be on the left where I think he's always played better anyway. Babel down the left wing will be a massive boost to us when he returns. Just because our wide players aren't quite as good as Evra/Clichy/Sagna/Ronaldo/Giggs doesn't mean we're that far away. I personally don't feel Chelsea's wide players are that good, the two Coles are massively overrated in my book, Wright-Phillips can't get a game and can't cross, Bosinga don't know him too well so can't judge to much. It's for this reason Chelsea just throw it long it to Drogba and hope Deco/Ballack/Lampard get on the end of it. Yesterday they threw it up to Anelka and again feeded off the second ball.
I think the top four are as good as each other, it comes down to consistantcy, right frame of mind, confidence and luck. Whoever has the most of those four will win the league. If we can consistantly grind out results like the Sunderland game we're contenders. If our mind's right and we don't drop our heads like the Sunderland game we're conteders. If we take confidence from two clean sheets and make it five six maybe seven clean sheets on the spin we're contenders. And most importantly if we can get slices of luck like that fella missin the header completely for Liege we're conteders. Obviously you need ability and we do have it, especially through the middle. But there's other factors which contribute to a title winning side other than ability.
We as fans also need to get right behind the lads. Our performances haven't been great so far this year, but performances don't win you titles, results do and so far our results have been acceptable. If we can continue to grind out tricky results while the players are still gelling then that'll do fine. Once we've got those first four or five wins under our belt and the confidence is flowing throughout the side then our performances will pick up and we'll be playing football that's worthy of winning the Premiership but until then we should be patient and be happy that we're getting the right results. Let's not be too negative in terms of the performances because it sinks down to the players and they then try and play a footballing performance, make a sloppy pass and we lose. Patience is important this year.
Finally we need to concentrate on football this year. If Hicks, Gillett or Parry decide to throw our name out on the back pages for the wrong reasons then we really need to pull together and support the side even more. Let the press say we're not good enough because we know we are. A season of just focusing on football will help us in our quest for that first Premiership title. If results are goin in our favour and we're winning games then the bad press will suddenly stop.
This is our year and it will kick start our dominantion of football again. Come on Reds!!!!
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