Another week has been and gone and it’s time to round-up another week on The Football Project. The quietest week on the site since we launched on August 6th with only six new posts; but they are all worth your time.
Nottingham Forest have not started the season well under new manager Steve McClaren, the victory over Watford yesterday aside. After promising noises being made during the summer, the same problems that blighted Billy Davies’ time at the club have reared their ugly heads under the former England supremo. Dan Williams not only looked into Forest’s poor start but spoke to BBC Football’s Jonathan Stevenson, a man who bleeds red, about the shaky start made at the City Ground.
Last weekend Blackburn Rovers scored four goals and claimed three points against Arsenal at Ewood Park. The Lancashire side had been winless in the Premier League up to that point and the victory was seen in some quarters as a ‘corner turned’ for the club. Simon Furnivall didn’t agree and was quick to warn Blackburn fans not to get carried away by the win over Arsenal. They lost yesterday so he is sort of right; right?
Rangers won the first Old Firm game of the season, beating Celtic 4-2 at Ibrox. The win moved the Champions four points clear at the top of the early Scottish Premier League table; but as Ryan Keaney explains the games between the Old Firm rarely matter in the title race. Celtic bettered Rangers in the four games between them last season and shouldn’t worry that they have already lost ground to their nearest rivals.
In France, Didier Deschamps had a disastrous start to the season. Everything that could go wrong is going wrong. Jonathan Johnson explains all the many ways that Marseille’s season has failed to ignite.
One side that have started their season pretty well is Juventus. The Old Lady of Italian football, after a turbulent few years that saw them drop into Serie B for a time, are back amongst the early season favourites and as Andy Hunter profiles, its bloody glorious to see Juventus back at the top of the Serie A table.
If all of that excellent writing isn’t for you, you can also wrap your ears around this week’s podcast. Episode Seven features discussion on Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and a whole lot of Serie A conversation. Ryan Keaney was joined by Rocco Cammisola, David Swan and Simon Furnivall for an excellent chat about the Italian season so far.
There is probably something you missed in there.
