Jose Mourinho relaxes as his side runs riot.
Football across Europe is in full flow as all the domestic leagues are currently on an early season break to make way for World Cup Qualifiers. But there has been a fair amount of incident and excitement in these the first tentative weeks of the season.
First Up is the Dutch Fire Sale which went on at Real Madrid following their mega spending splurge this season. So far winger Arjen Robben,playmaker Wesley Sneijder and striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have jumped ship to Bayern Munich, Inter Milan & AC Milan respectively and have already made a big impact at their new clubs.
Arjen Robben made a huge impact For Bayern as they beat Champions Wolfsburg 3-0 last weekend. The Winger grabbed a brace for his new side who looked impressive, since his reported €25 million move.
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga and Hamburg have set the early pace at the top of the league. They clearly followed my blog and added Eljero Elia to their ranks this season . Champions Wolfsburg has also strengthened up top with the signing of Obafemi Martins from Newcastle and have been drawn with Manchester United, CSKA Moscow & Besiktas in their debut Champions league season.
Wesley Sneijder also looked strong on his debut from Madrid as he ran the midfield against his team’s city rivals. New Signing Samuel Eto also got on the score-sheet as Inter ran riot. Milan where dealt the early blow with talismanic midfielder Reno Gattuso sent off. Dutch Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar also came off from the bench to make his home debut, but failed to inspire the Rossineri.
Over to England & top of the league Chelsea face a transfer ban for the alleged ‘tapping up’ of French youngster Gael Kakuta. Fifa have ruled that the club acted illegally in persuading from his current club Lens. In the league and Chelsea have been quietly winning games under Carlo Ancelotti.
Elsewhere and new boys Burnley caused a real shock in beating champions Manchester United at home 1-0. Veteran Robbie Blake lashed in a fantastic volley to give the Lancashire side a shock lead. Michael Carrick missed a penalty, in a game where United looked far from the imperious champions of last season.
Finally over to France and three teams have all set the early pace in Ligue 1. Bordeaux, PSG & Lyon all have ten points which promises for another exciting season. Lyon strengthened considerably in the summer following the sale of Karim Benzima to Real Madrid; they have brought in Porto striker Lisandro Lopez, St Etienne striker Befetimbi Gomis and also Michel Bastos who was mentioned by me in my top summer signings blog.
So with Europe all fully kicked off it promises to be a season of thrills, spills and plenty of interesting talking points. But this year I think I am going to make a few predictions for this season.
Top Scorer in Spain: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, The big Swede’s mega money move from Inter has already yielded goals as he scored on his league debut against Sporting Gijon. But with Ibra in the Barca side I predict he will bag plenty of goals for his new side and that is why I am tipping him for the top goal scorer.
Champions League Winners: Chelsea, I’m tipping for the London side to lift their first champion’s league title this season. Under the new management of Carlo Ancelotti, who has the experience of winning the big trophy with former club AC Milan. But with a strong squad and striker Didier Drogba on form im backing the Blues for Champions League glory.
I think Valencia can go all the way this year.
Europa League Winners: UEFA have rebranded this competition this season to a more ‘champion’s league format’ but you still have plenty of big names in the competition. Roma, Hamburg, Celtic & Benfica will all be gracing the competition this season. But I am tipping Valencia for the trophy this season. They have managed to hold on to David Villa & David Silva in the summer transfer market, and have plenty of exciting young players Michel & Ever Bangega. I think that despite their well reported problems I think they have enough to win the first Europa League.
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