After suffering their 6th defeat of the league season to Arsenal, Liverpool have left the door wide open to the likes of Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City, who all chase top four finishes. Compound this with inconsistency from the remainder of the big four and you have many predicting the end of this elite group.

I prefer to stay away from such band wagons and point to the second half of the season where injuries, fatigue and doubts will challenge these teams to their very limits. Villa present a compelling case study as Martin O’Neill’s men saw 11 of their 17 premier league victories last season come before the new year.

However, there are other mountains to face, namely the pressure associated with rising expectation. It may be good fun to smash Wigan 9-1 in November when nobody expects anything, but when columns, radio shows and television channels turn their attention to the team, can the players handle the heat? Manchester City have a slight advantage here, as their team comprises of the likes of Tevez, Adebayor and Toure, who have experience with such matters.

If it wasn’t hard enough, there is the question of talent and match winners. In the marathon of a league, no team, no matter how strong, can be expected to play well throughout. Ultimately, there are spells where a select few must stand up and provide the difference. The consistency of men like Gerrard, Lampard, Torres and Ronaldo are testament to this.

All in all, I guess you could say I will be very surprised if the ‘big four’ is broken this season.

Arsenal fans should not jump at this as the team from North London have also conceded 14 league goals and are therefore projected to concede 48 league goals. Manchester United hold the record for the most league goals conceded by a team going to win the Premiership, with 45 league goals in 99/00.

You may argue, it is not a question of goals scored or goals conceded, but rather the goal difference. That may well be, but a team winning 1-0 three times in a row are better off than a team winning 4-0, 4-0 and losing a game 1-0. Arsenal are unlikely to maintain such a rich goalscoring rate and therefore will experience periods where the team will have to defend better.

Finally, it is worth adding that Chelsea and Manchester United are projected to score 92 and 73 league goals this season, respectively. The projected conceded league goals for the same clubs are 25 and 38, respectively.

Losing Xabi Alonso has been a major talking point. Steven Gerrard described Alonso as Liverpool’s best player last season and his precision passing undoubtedly orchestrated many victories. This season Rafa’s men have scored the second most league goals and it seems there are no real signs of their attacking qualities in decline.

The real problem has been in defence where Liverpool have conceded 10 goals from set pieces which is the most for any Premiership club. Contrast this to the champions, Manchester United, who are yet to concede from a set piece. However, is this really a major problem? I would argue no, since one would expect a top manager like Rafa Benitez to address this quickly.

Looking through the defeats Liverpool have suffered, the club have not really been outclassed. Against Sunderland, the Reds attempted 424 passes (85% success) compared to their opponents who attempted 185 passes (69% success). In their home defeat to Aston Villa these statistics were 512 passes (85% success) and 261 passes (75% success) to Liverpool and Villa, respectively. One would also note, this type of dominance rivals similar statistics from Arsenal who are renown for controlling football matches.

The only real criticism I accept about Liverpool is that they rely too heavily on Gerrard and Torres. With the exception of Dirk Kuyt, it is difficult to see who else offers real attacking options. The picture is much different when you look at clubs like Chelsea, United and Arsenal. Having said that, Liverpool are yet to unveil the talented Alberto Aquilani and one expects the Italian to make a huge impact.

David James 525

Ashley Cole 694
Rio Ferdinand 538
John Terry 719
Glen Johnson 616

Steven Gerrard 531
Gareth Barry 675
Frank Lampard 890
Theo Walcott 457

Wayne Rooney 760
Emile Heskey 508

The most striking statistic is that of Frank Lampard who continues to demonstrate consistency and reliability for England. Amazingly, he has missed 10 minutes of qualifiers for England.

There are several questions which naturally follow from the above:

Who will play in goal for England?
James, Green, Kirkland, Foster, Carson, Robinson …

Who will play on the right side of midfield?
Walcott, Lennon, Milner, Beckham, Gerrard …

Who will play alongside Rooney?
Heskey, Defoe, Crouch, Owen, Agbonlahor …

After returning from injury, can Joe Cole take the left sided position?

Please discuss!

However, 4 minutes into the game, Vito Manone failed to collect Paul Robinson’s free kick and N’Zonzi looped the ball into the back of the net, giving the away side an unlikely 1-0 lead. Arsenal responded with new boy Vermaelen, who fired home from the edge of the area, after being set up by Cesc Fabregas.

Arsenal began to settle and dictate terms, but once again found themselves trailing when David Dunn’s deflected shot found its way into the goal. This was a classic example of the good and the bad with Arsenal – relying primarily on Sagna and Clichy to provide width during possession, but ultimately leaving themselves open during counterattacks.

Van Persie levelled on 33 minutes, with Arshavin sending the home team into the lead 4 minutes later. Both times, Fabregas was the provider, who then took it upon himself to settle the 3 points on the hour mark. However, prior to this, Blackburn were denied a clear penalty when Dunn was fouled in the area by Vermaelen.

Naturally, Allardyce referred to the penalty shout as a turning point in the game and in doing so seemed to forego his team’s lack of invention and endeavour during the match. Rovers achieved 35% ball possession and managed a 58% pass succession rate, compared to Arsenal’s 83%.

Fabregas (who else) found substitute Theo Walcott in the 75 minute, taking his statistics in the game to 4 assists and 1 goal. Blackburn can be forgiven for not nullifying the threat of the Arsenal captain, who causes a major headache for opponents by operating from deep where there is inevitably more time and space.

Danish international, Nicklas Bendtner completed the rout, giving his team a 6-2 victory and a perfect afternoon for the Gunners fans.

Mike Hussey, also known as ‘Mr Cricket’, began 2008 with a Test Match average of 80.56. To put this in context only 4 players in the history of the game have finished their careers with an average of over 60 and only one of them (Donald Bradman) had an average of over 90.

Currently, Hussey’s batting average has slumped to 52.65, which suggests his cricketing powers are in terminal decline. His fall from grace has been punctuated by the occasional Test Match hundred, his most recent coming in his last innings at the Oval . The Australian selectors will be debating his place in the side and I believe there are three points of concern.

Firstly, at the age of 34, Mike Hussey does not have time on his side. Anything the selectors hope they can get from the batsmen must be achieved in the here and now. Technical deficiencies that may have been exposed in his game over the last few years must be addressable with slight tweaking.

Secondly, Hussey’s poor batting form is not an isolated problem. Currently, Michael Clarke is batting at number 5 and is widely regarded as one of the world’s premier batsmen. His phenomenal displays in the Ashes, whilst his side were capitulating around him, are testament to this.

However, at number 5 you are simply responding to events rather than dictating the terms. Clarke cannot bat at number 3 since Ponting is a class act in this position, so that leaves number 4? When Mike Hussey was hitting a hundred every innings, exempting Clarke from this batting position was justifiable. Since this is no longer the case, Australia are at serious risk of not fully utilising their most in form player.

Finally, and most importantly, the enormous faith the selectors have given to Hussey is contrary to Australian cricketing philosophy. Australia are renown for their hard line with players, most famously when the legendary Waugh brothers were dropped from the one day team in 2002.

Hussey is now perilously close to living on reputation and any closer will certainly undermine the messages the selectors try to send out to players. If it were up to me, Hussey would go. This may be harsh but Australia need to think long term.

The advanced player behind the front two should expect little room to maneuver as he will be marked closely by the holding midfielder from the opposition. Consequently, any attacking midfielder will not do. Those whose game is based on movement, particularly from deep, would find it difficult to impose themselves from this position.

Instead, a more intricate player is required, one who can thread passes after 1 or 2 touches. Pace and ball skills are of added bonus since this would induce free kicks in dangerous positions. In Chelsea’s case, it may therefore be more effective to employ a player like Deco as opposed to Lampard in this role.

Note, playing one behind two front men is different from playing 1 behind a single striker. The later situation offers more opportunities for movement than the prior.

Width is important as otherwise approach play becomes narrow and predictable. This is not something to be overlooked as highly skilled teams can suffer from this. Arsenal, for one, have intentionally concentrated their play down the centre, which has caused opposition teams to pack the midfield. Liverpool too, over the last 18 months have shown excessive dependency on the Gerrard-Torres link up.

One way to offset this is to send the middle two in the diamond into wide areas when the team has possession. This can be problematic as these players are unlikely to be effective down the flanks and more importantly leave large spaces in the event of a counter attack.

Ideally, you compensate for a lack of width via your full backs. This sounds easier than it is. Your first concern as a manager doing this is whether your full backs are physically up to the task. Can Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa sustain trips up and down the pitch for 50 games in a season? Your second concern is the end product of these players, if their crossing or final ball is poor than what exactly is the point?

Most academies will educate young players to force opposition play down the sides as any resulting cross should be dealt with by the defense. The compelling argument for playing the diamond is that this process happens naturally.

Williams (as of August 10) has 8628 ranking points, 6500 of which has come from Grand Slams. In other words, the American has only 25% of her ranking points coming from outside the 4 most prestigious events. This compares to 52% for Safina.

These statistics show the already considerable weight given to winning Grand Slams by the WTA. Indeed, winning a Grand Slam buys you 2000 points which is double the next highest for winning Premier Mandatory tournaments.

Should Grand Slams then get you more points? I would argue no, in fact, I would argue in favour of the reverse. Tennis suffers from having excessive focus on these events, after all how many of us take into consideration the winners of Indian Wells, MIami or Madrid when deciding who is the best? Not many and perhaps more worryingly, how many of us even know about these tournaments?

For many Safina is a frustrating number 1 as she was a losing finalist at the US, Australian and French Open. However, this is precisely the point, she was a finalist at three consecutive Grand Slams and won 3 out 5 finals in Tokyo, Sydney, Stuttgart, Rome and Madrid.

The WTA needs to act in the interest of the sport, not perpetuate the obsession with Grand Slams. If history has rendered these 4 events as the most prestigious prizes for tennis players, it is the responsibility of the WTA to divorce themselves from this sentiment and promote professional tennis as a sacrifice to be made all year around.

This is not to say Serena Williams is not committed. The spin the media put on her 4 consecutive defeats in Miami, Marbella, Rome and Madrid was harsh since in all of these matches she was experiencing injury problems. However, injury problems are your own and to see WIlliams still at number 2, let alone number 1, shows how trivial some of these so called Premier tournaments are.

We all know Serena is the most talented female tennis player, but she must be asked to put the points on the board if she wants to be officially number 1. This should mean more consistency outside the Grand Slams.

Although Liverpool have never won the Premiership, the usual preseason optimism that comes with the dawn of a new football season seemed justified. Rafa Benitez steered his team to second last season with only two league defeats and a massive 86 points. Modulo an exceptional performance from Manchester United who amassed 90 points, they may have finished top.

It begs the question, what makes up the 4 point gap? I say Christiano Ronaldo. The World Player of the Year has been United’s hero for the best part of 3 seasons and now, ironically, he will be playing alongside Alonso. If Xabi ever wanted to add a Premiership medal to the cabinet, now was the time to stay focused with Liverpool.

Many would want to play alongside Kaka and Ronaldo, but the midfield trio of Mascherano, Gerrrard and Alonso evolved as the backbone of Liverpool. The blend of strength and penetration allowed Liverpool to dominate football matches and it became increasingly difficult to see the club losing.

Alonso must also be aware that Arsenal have lost key players and Chelsea with an aging squad have long lost their aura. At 27, time is not running out and a move to Spain next year would have perhaps been more rational. I guess the glittering lights of the Bernabeu were too much to resist.

However, given that Liverpool amassed 86 points last season, 4 less than Manchester United, I have slowly begun to take the former Valencia boss seriously. With just over three weeks to the new season, I discuss here my reasons as to why Liverpool have become favourites for the title.

Manchester United Are Weaker

The champions have lost Cristiano Ronaldo, whose goals either blow teams away or make the difference in tight football matches. Valencia and Owen are good signings, but they are unlikely to be worth 66 league goals in 3 seasons.

The Midfield

Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard provide the perfect blend of strength, precision and penetration. Even though Liverpool seem ordinary down the flanks, this is more than compensated for by the work of these men. I challenge anyone to suggest a more balanced midfield in the world.

Fernando Torres

Goalscorers are needed by any team wishing to challenge for top honours. Drogba, Henry and Ronaldo have helped their respective teams win titles by regularly netting. Most managers are now in agreement that Torres is virtually unplayable.

Liverpool Are Unchanged

The most important observation to be made this summer is that amongst the clubs challenging for the title, Liverpool have experienced the least amount of changes. Chelsea have a new manager, Arsenal have lost Emmanuel Adebayor, United have lost Ronaldo and Manchester City have what can only be described as a face lift.

The factors mentioned above may have nudged Liverpool ahead of their rivals but the transfer window is still open and things can change overnight.