[2014-2015] Persaingan team-team papan atas EPL ... ?!?!

[zudomiriku]

Gary Neville says Manchester United will not win the Premier League title this year

* Former Red Devil doubts whether his old side can clinch the championship
* Neville believes it's a two-horse race between Manchester City and Chelsea
* United's defensive frailties will be exposed by big sides, says Sky pundit

Gary Neville believes Manchester United will fail to win the Premier League title but claimed the Red Devils are in better shape than they were at the start of the season.

United defeated QPR 4-0 on Sunday as new boys Angel di Maria, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Ander Herrera all impressed.

However, former Old Trafford defender Neville believes defeating sides like newly-promoted QPR are the games United should be winning comfortably and thinks his old


Louis van Gaal gives Manchester United's improved performance the thumbs up

club may become unstuck against tougher opposition.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, when asked whether Louis van Gaal’s side can finish top of the table, Neville said: ‘I don’t think they can no.

‘I think Chelsea and (Manchester) City are going to be the two strongest teams.’

‘I think defensively, when they come up against the big sides, I think there will be a problem defensively in dealing with them.

‘I think they’re closer to the title than they were three weeks ago. In repsect of maybe next season or the season after, you can see some light at the end of the tunnel with the players that they’ve signed.’

However, Neville wasn’t getting too excited about United’s victory, claiming United should be beating teams of QPR’s calibre and said: ‘These are the games you expect United to win three or four-nil, historically. They did (by beating QPR) what they should be doing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2757113/Gary-Neville-says-Manchester-United-not-win-Premier-League-title.html

[rondwisan]

PremierLuague.com - Mon 6 Oct 2014
There is a long way to go in title race, says Mourinho
Chelsea manager is not getting carried away with impressive 2-0 victory over Arsenal



Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he is not getting carried away with his side's start to the Barclays Premier League season after the Blues went five points clear at the top of the table with a 2-0 victory over London rivals Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

Goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa sealed the win at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's sixth victory from the opening seven matches, to extend their unbeaten start to the campaign.

Although Chelsea have made an eye-catching start to the season, Mourinho believes it is far too early to predict the destination of the title.

"There is a long way to go," he said. "It's just seven matches. It's the beginning of October. If you tell me this will be the*situation in*February*I would say great, but it's not February."

The derby was a keenly contested affair, with both sides struggling to carve out genuine goalscoring opportunities early on, only for Hazard to produce a moment of inspiration for the opening goal on 27 minutes. The 23-year-old Belgian jinked his way through the Arsenal defence before being fouled by Laurent Koscielny in the area, Hazard picking himself up to convert the penalty.

"I'm even more pleased to win because we played against a good Arsenal"
- Jose Mourinho

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Chelsea striker Diego Costa doubled his side’s lead with 12 minutes to go, when he collected Cesc Fabregas's pinpoint long pass before chipping over the advancing Wojciech Szczesny for his ninth goal of the season. Mourinho singled out Hazard and Fabregas for praise, while also hailing the consistent performance of others.

"I liked [Eden Hazard's] performance very much," said Mourinho. "In these matches you need one of your top players to take some magic cards out of his pocket and he did it when it was 0-0, when the game was tight.

"On top of that he scored the penalty and he had one or two more opportunities. His defensive work was really good, keeping the ball when we needed it. It was a very complete performance from him.

"[Cesc Fabregas] was fantastic. It wasn’t because the opponent was Arsenal [his former team] he produced this performance. He has been doing this since day one. I don’t remember a game this season where he was not fantastic. It was not just him. There are other boys who have been very consistent through the season: Matic, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill."

Mourinho was also pleased with his side’s application against a side who were the only other unbeaten team in the BPL going into the contest.

"I'm even more pleased to win because we played against a good Arsenal," he said. "They played a good game; they gave us a difficult game. We were able to deal with it without problems, which is fantastic.

"We were ready for them to have the ball because they like the ball. We were compact between the lines; we controlled Ozil and Alexis coming inside.

"Defensively we played very, very well. When we were 1-0 up the game was almost in the pocket. We controlled it, we were always dangerous on the counter-attack, and I think we deserved the victory."

[rondwisan]

The fact up to GW#7, CFC blom terkalahkan (6 menang, 1 seri), dengan Diego Costa sebagai top scorer dan Cesc Fabregas sebagai top assist, paling produktif dengan 21 gol (di atas City, 14 gol), goal different +14, untuk kemasukan gol 7 (masih di bawah Soton dg 5 gol), watch out Reds ....

[tumpal_oneunited]

Originally Posted by rondwisan

The fact up to GW#7, CFC blom terkalahkan (6 menang, 1 seri), dengan Diego Costa sebagai top scorer dan Cesc Fabregas sebagai top assist, paling produktif dengan 21 gol (di atas City, 14 gol), goal different +14, untuk kemasukan gol 7 (masih di bawah Soton dg 5 gol), watch out Reds ....

Harapannya sebelum pergantian tahun, Manchester United udah di atas chelsea Opa Ron. Amin.
Glory..Glory..Manchester United!!

[zudomiriku]

Pablo Zabaleta says Premier League title race is more than just Manchester City and Chelsea

Jose Mourinho's side are already five points clear and unbeaten with the reigning champions sitting second - but Zabaleta says others have a shot at the title


More horses: Zabaleta says there are a number of teams in the title race this term

Pablo Zabaleta refuses to see the title fight as a two-horse race between Manchester City and Chelsea.

Zabaleta claims the chasing pack of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Southampton cannot be dismissed at this early stage of the campaign.

"I think you cannot forget about other teams like United, Arsenal, Liverpool," said the City full-back. "I think Southampton are in good shape at the moment.

"I don't know....we just need to think about ourselves and keep working hard to try and win games.

"We know how tough this competition, the Premier League, is. We have won it twice in the last three years and we know how tough it is to win it. Every game is so hard to win, especially playing away from home."

Chelsea remain unbeaten at the top of the Premier League with a five-point lead and Zabaleta says City must not let them increase their advantage.

"Of course Chelsea look a really solid team," said the Argentine international. "They keep winning games and look really strong, probably one of the best teams in the Premier League at the moment.

"They are not going to lose too many games because the way they play, they will not concede many goals and then they have quality enough up front to score goals.

"Five points at the moment after seven games, although there is still a long way to go, you always need to win games and try to reduce the gap between us and Chelsea.

"We need to keep winning games to try and catch them and go top of the league, if it's possible."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/pablo-zabaleta-says-premier-league-4395597

[rondwisan]

PremierLeague.com - Wed 8 Oct 2014
Are the Blues in seventh heaven or are their 19 points from seven matches a bad omen?


Chelsea are flying high at the top of the Barclays Premier League table after their 2-0 victory over Arsenal on Sunday. But Jose Mourinho says there is still "a long way to go" before the title is decided. So is the Chelsea manager right to play down expectations? Here we take a look at how previous early season pacesetters have fared after hitting their straps over the course of the first seven matches.

"The start of the season is good, but it’s just seven matches and the beginning of October," said Mourinho after Sunday's home triumph over Arsenal took the west Londoners five points clear of nearest rivals Manchester City. "If you tell me in February we are in this situation, I say, 'great', but it's not February or March, it's the beginning of October, so [there is] a long way to go."

A look at previous seasons in the Barclays Premier League suggests that Mourinho is right to err on the side of caution. Only six times in 22 seasons have the leaders after seven fixtures gone on to lift the title. The last time this happened was when Manchester United stayed the course in the 2006/07 season.

BPL winners who led after seven matches

Team - Season - Pts after 7 matches - Pts after 38 matches
Man Utd - 2006/07 - 16 - 89
Chelsea - 2005/06 - 21 - 91
Arsenal - 2003/04 - 17 - 90
Man Utd - 2000/01 - 15 - 80
Man Utd - 1999/00 - 19 - 91
Man Utd - 1993/94 - 16 - 82

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Chelsea's 19-point haul after the opening seven matches of a season has only ever been bettered once before in the history of the Barclays Premier League, when a Chelsea side managed by Mourinho rattled off seven successive wins for a return of a maximum 21 points on their way to the 2005/06 title.

Indeed on only six previous occasions have a side led the Barclays Premier League standings with 19 points from seven outings. However, it is worth noting that of these six precedents only once did the side doing so go on to lift the BPL title.

How BPL teams with 19 points after seven matches fared

Team - Season - Final position - Final pts - Winners - Winners' pts total - Winners' pts (7 matches)
Chelsea - 2012/13 - 3rd - 75 - Man Utd - 89 - 15
Man Utd - 2011/12 - 2nd - 89 - Man City - 89 - 19
Arsenal - 2007/08 - 3rd - 83 - Man Utd - 87 - 14
Arsenal - 2004/05 - 2nd - 83 - Chelsea - 95 - 17
Man Utd - 1999/00 - 1st - 91 - Man Utd - 91 -19
Newcastle - 1994/95 - 6th - 72 - Blackburn - 89 - 17

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Manchester United bucked the trend to win in the 1999/2000 campaign, but Sir Alex Ferguson's charges fell short after a similar 19-point start in the 2011/12 season, and so did Newcastle United in 1994/95, Arsenal in both 2004/05 and 2007/08 and Chelsea in 2012/13. Chelsea also won 19 points after their first seven matches of the 2003/04 season but trailed to Arsenal, who had played one match more, and went on to finish second to the north Londoners.

Of the teams below Chelsea this season, history would suggest that only Manchester City, five points behind, and Southampton, a point further back, have genuine title hopes. The largest points-deficit clawed back by eventual champions trailing the leaders after seven matches is six points. This feat was achieved by Manchester United in the 2002/03 season, when they lay in eighth place with 11 points, before overhauling the then leaders Arsenal to claim the title with a five-point margin of victory over Arsene Wenger's side.

[rondwisan]

Sang captain mulai (ikutan) songong
But they deserved sih ...
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PremierLeague - Thu 9 Oct 2014
Chelsea can outscore anyone, says Terry
Blues captain confident in his side's attacking resources and tactical awareness


John Terry believes that Chelsea have the attacking talents at their disposal to outscore any opponent in the Barclays Premier League this season.

"Every team in the league are conceding goals because the quality in the Premier League is getting higher each year – it's as simple as that
- John Terry

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Jose Mourinho's side are five points clear of champions Manchester City at the top of the table after winning six of their opening seven matches in 2014/15. Much of Chelsea's progress has been down to the goalscoring ability of Diego Costa, the summer signing who has scored nine goals in seven Barclays Premier League matches since arriving from Atletico Madrid.

Terry, the Chelsea captain who is just six short of 450 Barclays Premier League appearances, feels the combination of a menacing attack and a solid defence can be a recipe for success over the course of a challenging top-flight campaign.

"You can look at every team in the league and they are all conceding goals," the defender told chelseafc.com. "That is because the quality in the Premier League is getting higher each year. It's as simple as that.

"When we conceded goals earlier on in the season everyone was questioning it, but it's going to happen. There are so many good teams and individuals in the league that we are going to concede goals.

"The important thing is that going forward we've got goals in us, as long as we're not conceding too many. We're maybe a little bit more attacking this year as well but we've had a few clean sheets on the bounce now and defensively we look very solid."

Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-0 on Sunday and Terry, who is featuring in his 17th season as a Chelsea player, says the willingness of attacking players such as Eden Hazard and Andre Schurrle to play their part all over the pitch as they did on Sunday will pay dividends in the club's quest for a fourth Barclays Premier League title.

'Killer instinct'

"It was a good win [against Arsenal], a good performance, and we were good defensively," he said. "We had the killer instinct going forward too so there was a bit of everything against a really good side.

"It's people like Eden and Andre dropping in and coming back but being able to go forward as well – that's the key for me"
- John Terry

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"Defensively we did very well but that's not just the back four or the back five. It's people like Eden and Andre dropping in and coming back but being able to go forward as well – that's the key for me."

One of Mourinho's biggest calls at the beginning of the new campaign was whether to stick with long-serving goalkeeper Petr Cech or promote Thibaut Courtois, who spent the previous three seasons on loan at Atletico Madrid. The Portuguese opted for the 22-year-old Belgian as his first choice, but Cech was called into action when Courtois sustained a head injury against Arsenal.

Terry feels the luxury of having two world-class goalkeepers is just one sign of Chelsea's riches when it comes to personnel.

"Big Pete came on and did very well which just shows the strength in depth of our squad as well," he said.

[rondwisan]

PremierLeague - Sun 12 Oct 2014
Talking Tactics: Chelsea's striking similarities with class of '04
Adrian Clarke says Jose Mourinho is shaping a similar team to his dominant 2004/05 Chelsea side



Believe it or not we are almost a fifth of the way through the 2014/15 season already. Where does the time go?

With no live Barclays Premier League football to look forward to this weekend, our tactics columnist Adrian Clarke instead explores some of what we have learned from the early weeks of the campaign.

Mourinho's tried and trusted formula

If you have had a feeling Chelsea's class of 2014 seemed familiar, you were on to something. For Jose Mourinho has sculpted this season's squad in an almost identical style to his title winners of a decade ago.

Some of his decision-making has been spookily similar. For example, back in the summer of 2004 he released two much-loved senior players (Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Marcel Desailly) to make room for fresh blood; he swapped his popular goalkeeper (Carlo Cudicini) for a younger more promising model (Petr Cech); and after loaning out a big-money striker who had struggled for form (Hernan Crespo) he signed a big, powerful centre-forward from overseas who revelled in bullying defenders (Didier Drogba).

Any of that strike a chord with what has happened in west London this summer?

On the pitch Mourinho's tactical approach also shares several parallels with the side who won the title by 12 points that season, finishing the campaign with just one defeat to their name.

The make-up of his favoured four-man rearguard contains three natural central defenders, just as it did back then, with the right back also more naturally inclined to join in with their attacks than the man on the other side.

In midfield Mourinho has stopped rotating his central midfielders, always selecting Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas when fit; just as he did with an ever-present pairing who closely resembled them in style during 2004/05, Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard.

Out wide he is once again equipped with attacking midfielders who can switch flanks with ease, and in attack his gameplan is built around an aggressive striker in his mid-20s (Diego Costa) who is hungry, just as Drogba was, to make an impression in English football.

Whether the Chelsea manager's approach this season has been deliberate or subconscious we cannot be sure, but the comparisons are unmistakable.

Double-acts and diamonds back in vogue

There was a time not so long ago, when centre-forward partnerships appeared to be a dying breed. With 4-2-3-1 dominating the tactical landscape for a period, I did wonder if the term 'strike duo' might eventually become instinct.

Thankfully, that has not transpired. In fact 'duos' are back in fashion, with over half of the top-flight managers either experimenting with a front two, or using them regularly so far this term. This is perhaps inspired by the success of Manchester City and Liverpool's twin strike-forces in 2013/14.

Most of the partnerships are also proving to be highly effective. Leicester City, West Ham United and Hull City have all enjoyed a positive lift thanks to their bold decision to deploy two forwards in tandem. In possession they have greater attacking options, and without the ball they are finding it easier to press higher up the pitch.

Top BPL strike partnerships
Strike duos - Matches - Goals
- Leonardo Ulloa and David Nugent (LEI) - 6 - 6
- Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia (WHU) - 4 - 5
- Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero (MCI) - 3 - 4
- Abel Hernandez and Nikica Jelavic (HUL) - 4 - 4
- Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie (MUN) - 3 - 3
- Connor Wickham and Steven Fletcher (SUN) - 4 - 2
- Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann (AVL) - 1 - 2

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In midfield the 'diamond formation' is another tactical shape that is all the rage.

Brendan Rodgers used it to great effect in Liverpool's 3-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur, and others are following suit.

Manchester United are currently set on this 4-1-2-1-2 system, while West Ham, Hull and Queens Park Rangers have all tried it too. It is a fluid shape that works well with mobile front men and creative midfielders. Watch out for more clubs experimenting with 'a diamond' during the coming months.

Back threes on the backburner

A trio of clubs started the new campaign with three centre-backs, but all have subsequently altered their shape.

Louis van Gaal's Man Utd never seemed comfortable with their 3-4-1-2 set up, despite working on it throughout pre-season. Injuries to key personnel did not help, but the Dutchman's side struggled positionally, and also with accurate distribution from the back. It may return but fitting all their superstar midfielders and forwards into the same XI is likely to prohibit that any day soon.

Steve Bruce has constantly flicked between three and four at the back as Hull manager, and that will remain the case at the KC Stadium. A point of interest though: the Tigers have averaged less than three shots on target and 1.25 goals per match with three centre-backs, and 4.6 on target and two goals per match with just the two. As an attacking unit they seem to work better when deploying a back four.*

As for QPR, they attempted a 3-5-2 formation for the opening two Barclays Premier League matches, with Harry Redknapp changing it on 78 minutes and 45 minutes of each encounter, before dropping it completely. The chances of its return look slim.

While the 2014 FIFA World Cup highlighted how effective this formation can be if used correctly, it appears Barclays Premier League clubs have yet to get to grips with it.

Settling-in periods a thing of the past?

A stand-out feature of the season so far has been the notable impact made by players who had never played Barclays Premier League football before we kicked off in August.

Major signings Alexis Sanchez and Angel Di Maria have taken no time at all to settle into English football, while other previously less-heralded newcomers such as Leandro Ulloa, Diafra Sakho and Graziano Pelle have made equally sizeable contributions in the early weeks.

Elsewhere, Manchester City's Fernando has become a key man at the Etihad Stadium, topping their passing accuracy stats, and only five players in the division have created more chances than Remy Cabella, of struggling Newcastle United.

Is the Barclays Premier League becoming less of a unique environment for overseas stars to adapt to? Or have these newcomers merely joined clubs that suit their style of play perfectly? The answer perhaps lies somewhere in between.

[HaRrY-UIK]

Originally Posted by rondwisan

The fact up to GW#7, CFC blom terkalahkan (6 menang, 1 seri), dengan Diego Costa sebagai top scorer dan Cesc Fabregas sebagai top assist, paling produktif dengan 21 gol (di atas City, 14 gol), goal different +14, untuk kemasukan gol 7 (masih di bawah Soton dg 5 gol), watch out Reds ....

Chelsea dibanding tim lain juga belum kena virus cedera..

Kalo gak salah komposisi starter kiper+beknya gak berubah dari pekan pertama, cmiiw

Mungkin Chelsea bisa goyah juga kalo antara Diego Costa or Fabregas harus absen, hehe

[rondwisan]

Ada yg merendah nih ...
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Bola.net
Koeman: Premier League Cuma Antara City dan Chelsea



Bos Southampton, Ronald Koeman, membantah kemungkinan bahwa timnya bakal masuk dalam bursa perebutan gelar juara Premier League musim ini. Ia justru ngotot hanya ada dua tim yang ada di dalam peta persaingan: Manchester City dan Chelsea.

The Saints sendiri tengah menunjukkan penampilan yang mengejutkan musim ini. Mereka tengah duduk di peringkat dua klasemen sementara dengan 22 poin dari 10 pertandingan.

"Saya pikir ini cuma akan jadi balapan antara dua tim," tutur Koeman menurut laporan Inside Futbol.

"Saya pikir Chelsea dan Manchester City dalam tim yang jauh lebih kuat dibanding kontestan lainnya, namun tidak dalam satu laga, karena saya yakin kami bisa mengalahkan mereka," pungkasnya.