SPORTS NOTES - EPL MADNESS - CHELSEA'S ON TOP BUT WHAT THE HULL! - November, 2008

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

Harry Redknapp showed that he can only swim and not walk on water as the Spurs lost their first game under his leadership - Who-da-thunk a that a third of the way through the season that a promoted club Hull City would command holding down the sixth position in the standings - As the Beatles sang, ''Money can't buy you love,' and former owner and Thailand's fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra sold the club for a profit but is now a man without a country - FIFA TOP 10

Tuesday November 18, 2008

THE BATTLE FOR THE TITLE

Who would figure that the English Premiere League would be in such a scramble this season with never was teams knocking off top clubs and demanding and receiving respect that they are to be reckoned with. Luiz Felipe Scolari has Chelsea at the top with a 10-1-2 record for 32 points but what is most impressive is he is carrying out what owner Roman Abramovich is so adamant about playing beautiful offensive football with his club scoring 32 points. More importantly they re playing incredible defense by giving up only 4 points resulting in a 28 point goal difference. Their nearest rival in that department is Manchester United with 15.

Liverpool is tied at the top with 32 points but has scored only 21 goals and has given up 8 for a goal difference of 13 thus they hold down the second position. Though they lost their first game at home in years while during that time playing under four managers they are currently undefeated on the road with a 7-0 record.

Who-da-thunk a that a third of the way through the season that a promoted club Hull City would command holding down the sixth position in the standings with a 6-4-3 record. More remarkably is their form on the road where they command a 4-1-1 performance. But wait there's more.

In an almost sacrilegious move Harry (with the) Redknapp moved on from his beloved Portsmouth club to take up the Tottenham Hotspurs post basically within 24-hours of their sacking of Juande Ramos. Tottenham paid £5 million in compensation to Portsmouth for letting Redknapp go. OK it's about the money and it's a bigger club but who-da-thunk-it?

After his move it appeared that he walked o water after he led the club to an undefeated record while taking 10 of 12 points with 3 wins and one tie in his first four games with the team. They registered wins against Bolton, Liverpool and Manchester City and a draw against Arsenal. He then guided Tottenham to their first European win of the season in a 4-0 rout of Croatian champions, Dinamo Zagreb. The club moved out of the relegation zone and some would think that they were watching the second coming of Christ.

Then reality set in as Harry showed that he can only swim and not walk on water as the Spurs lost their first game under his leadership and low and behold they returned to the relegation zone. Their 12 points place them in the 19th position with only one point more than West Bromwich Albion who is holding up the league in the 20th spot.

Martin O'Neal's Aston Villa are showing good form and improvement as they hold down the fifth spot just behind Arsenal with 23 points due to goal difference and one point behind third place Manchester United who have scrapped to obtain 24 points up till now.

As the Beatles sang, ''Money can't buy you love,' and former owner and Thailand's fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra sold the club for a profit but is now a man without a country after England revoked his visa. He can't return to the country where he put his money down and bought into and out of the Premiere League.

In the process Man City has gone from the Golden Boys of the league when they obtained Robinho and were off to a fast start. The wheels came off during the Thaksin calamity and they are currently in the bottom half of the table with a dismal 4-7-2 record.

With Robinho they are playing what is referred to as beautiful football (fast paced, aggressive offense) and scoring goals with 26 but their problem is a lack of cohesive consistency with a weak defense that has given up 24 goals. Only three teams in the league have given up more with 24, Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion.

Arsene Wenger has displayed his young talent of teenagers which has had positive results. Though as usual some pundits are writing them off early in the season it remains to be seen if his utilizing his youngsters now will pay off at the end at crunch time when injuries and fatigue are a factor. Their experience now could prove to be beneficial then.

Some pundits claim that this is the best ever Premiere League fight for the title, it could be but we'll still have to wait and see. But hey… it's interesting to watch. WHAT THE HULL!!!

FIFA TOP 10 - Spain continue to reign supreme

Considerable movement in the top ten, Spain continue to reign supreme England back in the top ten

The 134 international matches played in the last few weeks, including 94 qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, have seen dramatic changes in the FIFA World Ranking. Spain continue to lead the way by some distance, but among the chasing pack, Germany (2nd, up 1) and Italy (3rd, down 1), the Netherlands (4th, up 1) and Brazil (5th, down 1), Argentina (6th, up 1) and Croatia (7th, down 1), and Russia (8th, up 1) and the Czech Republic (9th, down 1) have all swapped places. England (10th, up 4) are back in the top ten, sharing tenth position with non-movers Portugal .

This month’s major movers among the top 50 are Switzerland (27th, up 18), Serbia (30th, up 10), Ecuador (31st, up 11) and Slovakia (45th, up 15). Also returning to the top 50 along with Slovakia are Mali (49th, up 4). There is no change to the top 50 in terms of regional representation, as Senegal (51st, down 2) and Norway (54th, down 15) have dropped out of this group.

Jamaica have made the biggest leap forward. Crucial 1-0 victories in FIFA World Cup qualifiers against better-ranked opponents from Mexico and Honduras , added to victory in a friendly, have catapulted the Reggae Boyz from 116th to 83rd place. Israel (15th, up 1), Montenegro (115th, up 2) and the Philippines (157th, up 8) also enjoyed a successful month and have attained their highest ranking to date.

A little piece of history has been made at the bottom of the table: Timor-Leste, who have only been affiliated to FIFA since 2005, achieved the first success of their short footballing existence by drawing 2-2 with Cambodia , thus climbing to 198th position.

· Leader Spain (1, unchanged)

· Moves into top ten England (10, up 4)

· Moves out of top ten none

· Matches played in total 134

· Most matches played Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago , Suriname : 5

· Biggest move by points Switzerland: up 18

· Biggest move by ranks Jamaica: up 33

· Biggest drop by ranks Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan : down 27

· Newly ranked teams none

· Teams that are no longer ranked none

FIFA TOP 10 for November, 2008

Rank -- Team -- Points

1. Spain - 1657

2. Germany - 14136

3. Italy - 1356

4. Netherlands - 1306

5. Brazil - 1286

6. Argentina - 1181

7. Croatia 1158

8. Russia - 1079

9. Czech Republic 1062

10. Portugal - 1058

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