Spurs need goals

Watching Tottenham against Everton yesterday, it was obvious what Tottenham's problems are.

They do not have sufficient goal-scoring threat.

They have only scored nine goals in ten games, yet still sit fourth in the table. Their defensive record (5 conceded) is second only to the unlikely Southampton in the division.

But as long as Tottenham can't score, they will not represent a long-term threat to the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Yesterday's first half was completely dominated by Spurs at Goodison Park, but Everton held them at bay, and the second half was much more in Everton's favour.

If Andre Villas-Boas cannot find a combination with his current players, then he will be very keen to delve into the transfer market come January's window.

And yet Spurs are reported to be happy to let Jermain Defoe go. Defoe may never have quite reached the heights that his earlier potential promised, but surely he's worth a run in the Spurs line-up.

They need goals.

Manchester United top the rankings for September

On the rankings in the Football Ranking System Manchester United have regained top spot from Manchester City, who have slipped to fifth with indifferent form of late. Chelsea have jumped from fourth to second, only held back by draws with QPR and Juventus. Everton have kept up their early season form and are in third position.

Inevitably, Celtic head the Scottish challenge, falling one place to seventh. Hearts are next for the Scots in 27th.

Rangers continue to fall and have slipped from 19th to 33rd. from 8th to 19th.

Aston Villa have staged something of a recovery, rising from 29th to 19th and Championship risers Cardiff City jumped from 37th to 23rd.

Biggest fallers were Coventry City, who plummeted from 53rd to 72nd.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:
Leicester City, up from 34 to 24.
Dundee United, down from 18 to 32.
Brighton & Hove Albion, up from 47 to 31.
Kilmarnock, up from 46 to 35.
Wolverhamption Wanderers, up from 49 to 36.
Sheffield Wednesday, down from 31 to 47.
Ipswich Town, down from 40 to 55.
Portsmouth, down from 57 to 70.
Crawley Town, up from 84 to 74.
Morton, up from 91 to 80.
Leyton Orient, up from 92 to 82.
Hamilton Academical, down from 76 to 87.
Port Vale, up from 102 to 92.
Southend United, up from 105 to 95.
Wycombe Wanderers, down from 85 to 96.
Hartlepool United, down from 87 to 98.
Burton Albion, up from 113 to 99.
Aldershot Town, down from 96 to 108.
Oxford United, down from 99 to 113.
Dartford, up from 169 to 157.
Chester, up from 173 to 159.
Oxford City up from 179 to 168.

Early season shapes the football rankings

From the Football Ranking System we see that Manchester City have just about retained top spot from the very in-form early season pace-setters Chelsea. Indeed, a Chelsea win in the UEFA Super Cup tonight might see them take over on top.

The other early season form team Everton have risen from 6th to 4th.

It will be fascinating to see how far Rangers fall now that they are in Scottish League Division Three. Among such lowly opposition they will not score so many points unless they thrash everyone of them, and they're not doing that yet. In August Rangers have fallen  from 8th to 19th.

Conversely, Swansea City have gone the other way, rising from 18th to 9th, and Wigan Athletic have gone from 14th to 7th.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:

• Sheffield Wednesday, up from 55 to 21.
• Leeds United, up from 49 to 36.
• Motherwell, down from 28 to 38.
• Yeovil Town, up from 80 to 69.
• Swindon Town, up from 87 to 71.
• Dundee, down from 62 to 73.
• Preston North End, up from 85 to 74.
• Crawley Town, up from 98 to 84.
• Chesterfield, down from 76 to 86.
• Bradford City, up from 107 to 97.
• Ayr United, down from 88 to 100.
• Southend United, down from 95 to 105.
• Dumbarton, down from 106 to 117.
• Brackley, new in at 157.
• Bradford Park Avenue, new in at 161.
• Woking, up from 177 to 166.
• Dartford, up from 178 to 168.
• Chester, new in at 173.
• Altrincham, down from 165 to 176.
• Oxford City, new in at 179.
• Billericay Town, new in at 184.
• Corby Town, down from 174 to 186.
• AFC Hornhcurch, new in at 190.
• Bromley, down from 189 to 199.

It's fun to make predictions

It's fun to make some scoreline predictions from time to time, so let's have a look at this weekend's Premier League clashes.

Everton face Manchester United in the noon kick-off on Saturday. Manchester United "bounced back" from their 1-6 loss at home to Manchester City during midweek by beating Aldershot Town 3-0 in the Carling Cup, but it's necessarily in quotes because, in all fairness to Aldershot, they weren't top class opponents, in addition to which, Sir Alex Ferguson changed his whole starting eleven anyway. Everton can be stubborn and drew with Chelsea over 90 minutes in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.
Prediction: Everton 1-1 Manchester United

Chelsea play Arsenal in the Saturday lunchtime televised game. Chelsea are progressing well, if unexcitingly (last week's oddity at QPR an exception), and Arsenal have now won seven out of their last eight games. Hence, the Gunners are not making the news any more. Where's the fun in them winning? I think the Blues will prove too strong, however.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal

A bit of a nightmare for Wolves, who, having been dumped out of the Carling Cup on Wednesday by Manchester City 5-2, now face them again in the league. Without a win in six league games for Wolves, City are not the ideal opponents. City are in seemingly imperious form.
Prediction: Manchester City 3-0 Wolves

Here are the rest:
Norwich City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Sunderland 1-1 Aston Villa
Swansea City 1-0 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-0 Fulham
West Brom 1-2 Liverpool

Tottenham v Everton falls victim to the riots

I see that Tottenham v Everton has been postponed for this Saturday as a result of the recent riots in the area. This has to be the right decision at this uncertain time.

It will be interesting to see what other games get postponed. Games in London and Bristol were postponed in the Carling Cup during the week.

Thus, other games that must be vulnerable are:
Fulham v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Sunderland
QPR v Bolton
Birmingham v Coventry
Crystal Palace v Burnley

West Brom v Manchester United on Sunday, and
Manchester City v Swansea City on Monday.

It looks like being a stuttering start to the season.

Football fans will join the rest of the public in their anger against these idiotic looters.

Latest defeat hurts Liverpool more than most

And so Liverpool were on the end of another defeat on Sunday. This one would hurt more than most as it was against their city rivals Everton.

The 2-0 defeat for the Reds exposed their lack of confidence and the vulnerability of their defence. They now sit second from bottom in the Premier league table, only goal difference keeping them above West Ham United.

After eight games, it may be too early to start talking about relegation (after all, Everton were one place above Liverpool before game, and the win took them up six places to 11th), but when you're in the relegation zone, it's unavoidable.

One thing Liverpool should definitely avoid is thinking they're "too good to go down" or they're "too big a club to go down". Football doesn't work on sentiment.

Liverpool now have new owners, but the hopes that may go with that were dashed yesterday by the goals from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta. It is time for the players, and manager Roy Hodgson, to stand up and be counted. No more blaming the American owners (they've got another one anyway), and no more blaming the debt. These things have little relevance to what happens on the pitch, but now any excuses are gone.

I have little doubt that Liverpool will turn things round. There is nothing wrong here that a deflected shot to earn a lucky 1-0 win will not cure. Having said that, the next two games against Blackburn Rovers at home, and Bolton Wanderers away, are just the sort of games that clubs in a relegation scrap must take points from.

Liverpool join Everton in League Cup graveyard

The Carling Cup proved to be the graveyard of some of the biggest names in the Premier League over the last couple of days.

Topping the shock list has to be Liverpool who could only draw 2-2 at home with League Two side Northampton Town, before The Cobblers - placed 17th in their division - knocked out their hosts 4-2 on penalties. The sight of a drenched Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson was evocative of the dreadful result.

This followed the demise of Liverpool's local rivals Everton, similarly on penalties (4-3), at the hands of League One's Brentford - currently placed 19th.

Even Chelsea, the mighty champions of the country - thrashing everyone in their path to date - fell at their first League Cup hurdle, losing 4-3 at home to Newcastle United. From 3-1 down and with only ten men, the Blues battled back to level, only for Shola Ameobi to head the winner as time ran out.

Lesser shocks were Bolton Wanderers losing at Burnley and Manchester City losing at West Brom, but the League Cup once again showed its propensity for promoting lower clubs through its rounds. Weakened teams may be an excuse, but on one could tell me that Liverpool and Everton wanted to lose to their humble opponents.

What's the Europa League all about?

The bloated new Europa League limps on. Starting with an unbelievable 162 clubs from every corner of Europe, it has now been reduced to 48 clubs, grouped in 12 groups of four. Only two games into the six-game groups, it's already tiring even the most avid football-watchers.

After the group stages the 12 winners and 12 runners-up will be joined by the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League to create a final 32. This farce of adding some form of "best losers" from another competition only serves to devalue the Europa Cup further. Why stop at the third-placed teams from the Champions League groups? Surely the losers from the round of 16, the quarter-finals or semi-finals are more deserving of a place? Why not just put the losing Champions League finalists straight into the Europa League final? I'm being silly? Hey, UEFA started it!

Nor do I quite understand the apparent obsessive desire of English clubs to get into Europe when many of them then do their best to get straight out again! Aston Villa managed it in the qualifying rounds this year, having frustratingly qualified out of their group last season (luckily, they got knocked out in the first knock-out stage by playing a weakened team in Moscow!).

Last night Fulham made five changes and Everton were "without" 10 first-teamers.

What's the point?