Premier League Weekend Preview.

Here we go again with another weekend of games in The Premiership. The fixtures are as follows:

Portsmouth 0 - 2 Everton - Portsmouth are absolutely the worst team in the league and have picked up ZERO points so far this season. Everton seem to be back on track and should win this.

Birmingham 1 - 1 Bolton - This is a matchup that is hard to get excited about. It won't be pretty but it will be scrappy. The two sides will share the spoils.

Blackburn 1 - 3 Aston Villa - Villa seem to be starting to find their feet after a stunningly poor start to the year. Their pace and verve will be too much for a slow Blackburn team.

Liverpool 4 - 1 Hull - If Liverpool are going to have any chance to win the league this year, this is a game they flat out have to win and win decisively. Hull are still terrible.

Stoke 1 -  2 Manchester United - Stoke are very stubborn and difficult to beat at home and will put up a strong fight as always with their physical play. United are just too good though and are playing flying high.

Tottenham 2 - 1 Burnley - Spurs have fallen from grace in their last couple of games but I still just don't believe in Burnley.

Wigan 0 - 3 - Chelsea - Wigan suck. Roberto Martinez keeps trying to get them to play a fancy style but they don't have the players to do it. Chelsea keep rolling along at the top.

Fulham 1- 2 Arsenal - A London derby that always produces good matches and occasionally, an upset. I don't think that will be the case this time though as Fulham do not look the same team as last year.

Sunderland 1 - 2 Wolves - Everyone should know by now that I pick Wolves to win every game. Wolves manager Mick McCarthy is going back to his old club and his players will want to win it for him. Should be close but my bias determines this pick.

Man City 3 - 2 West Ham - This should be a really good game actually. I love watching West Ham play for some reason. They don't usually win but there is something about it. Man City are a joke in my opinion but they are the better team so I guess I will pick them...

Game of the Week!

Ipswich 2 - 2 Newcastle

This is a special game of the week. Frankly, there aren't really any stand-out games in The Premier League so we turn to this matchup from its little brother The Championship. This is the league right below the top one. 

This game is important because features the two teams who are most closely associated to English Football legend Sir Bobby Robson who tragically passed away earlier this week after a long and incredibly hard fought battle with Cancer. Robson had a long and distinguished career as a manager in England and around Europe with some very big clubs but these were his two most famous jobs aside from his stint as manager of the English national team. He was truly one of the "good guys" in the game and the rare someone who was universally loved. No one had a bad word to say about him as seen from the turn out at his funeral which was basically like a who's who of legendary football figures coming to pay their respects.

This game will be special simply because it is an amazing coincidence that these two clubs play each other right after his death. The actual on field product probably won't be special but this would have warmed the great man's heart to see and for that reason, everyone should take the time to watch and pay their respects. I know I will. 

RIP Bobby.

Adebayor is scum!

Just a disclaimer, this post is going to be a rant...

Emmanuel Adebayor is a complete joke of a footballer. The former Arsenal and now Manchester City striker was cited today for two counts of misconduct by the Football Association. You can read about it here on the BBC website. Frankly, thats the least that should happen to him for his pathetic display on Saturday afternoon. 

First off, lets get a few things straight. He is a very good player. He was a very good player last year at Arsenal as well. He knows how to score goals. That is something I cannot argue with. What I can argue, is the fact that his attitude is appalling. "Ade-scum", angered Arsenal supporters greatly last season by comparing himself to legendary gunner Thierry Henry. Adebayor stated that he was just as good as Henry and should be paid at least as much as he was. This was seen by most as absolutely ridiculous considering Adebayor is not half the player the Henry was in his prime. This was just the first of many odd comments made by the striker that lead to his relationship with Arsenal fans completely falling apart and seeing him booed by his own fans during home games. Everything came to a head with Adebayor leaving the club this summer to join big spending Man City. 

When Arsenal and Man City met in last weekends game of the week, the preverbal you-know-what hit the fan. Adebayor was running around like a chicken with his head cut off flying in with dangerous tackles on various Arsenal players who were his teammates less than a year ago. The worst of which was a disgraceful stamp on Arsenal forward Robin van Persie's head which left him bloodied and was clearly intentional. Stamping in soccer is like spitting someone in American Football or throwing a sucker punch in Hockey. You just don't do it. The move showed a complete lack of class by Adebayor and left me, an Arsenal fan, screaming at the television in a fit of rage.

If this wasn't enough, Adebayor went on to break Arsenal hearts by scoring the eventual winning goal in the 4-2 City win. He then proceeded to reveal his true colours as an absolute tool by running the full length of the pitch to celebrate in front of and taunt the Arsenal supporters packed in the far corner. The Football Association has strict rules against taunting fans in celebrations and Adebayor has, quite rightly, had the book thrown at him for both this act of idiocy and his vicious stamp on a defenseless player.

Maybe this will teach him a lesson, but I wouldn't hold my breath. You see, like our good friend Kanye West, Adebayor seems to get a kick out of doing outrageous and controversial things to put his name out there, disregarding the consequences. He also has never struck me as the smartest guy. In fact, he has proven time and time again that he is a grade A moron. So congratulations Mr. Adebayor. You have made the whole footballing world hate you and can now enjoy some time on the sidelines. 

Mark your calendars for the 24th of April, 2010 when Adebayor truly gets what he deserves as his Man City tea has to go to the North End of London and into the lion's den to play at Arsenal. The Arsenal fans will be waiting for him with a punishment far worse than The FA could ever give.

Saturday Review

Ok, so my first round of predictions here on JFK didn't go so well. Give me a break.

That said, we did see some really good games today and some very interesting results. League leaders Chelsea were forced to wait until deep into injury time to finally get a winning goal from whiny Frenchman Florent Malouda and sneak past a very determined Stoke team. It seems like that's kind of going to be the pattern for Chelsea this year. They aren't blowing anyone away as they settle into the new style they're playing under Carlo Ancelotti but they are certainly getting results and that is really the only thing that counts. As much as I hate to say it, they look like the real-deal right now.

Sadly, speaking of the real-deal, Manchester United look like they are the definite front runners for the title again this year. Despite falling behind early to an unreal bicycle kick goal from the white hot Jermaine Defoe, they didn't panic and found their way back into the game to win 3-1. I still don't think their midfield offers enough of a goal scoring threat but they seem to be proving me wrong as Giggs and, of all people, Anderson!? scored today for them. I am still not convinced that guys like Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher should be playing regularly for a team wanting to win a title but we'll see. By the way, Paul Scholes still can't tackle to save his life and was sent off AGAIN today for a couple of awful challenges. Why does he even try? 

Before we get to looking at the game of the week, lets do a quick run-down of the less marquee matchups. Hull are worse than I thought and got crushed by a bad Sunderland team. This just confirms my belief that Hull are definitely going down this year. Liverpool, as predicted, thrashed Burnley who look set to come back down to earth after a couple of impressive wins. Special mention to the totally underrated Yossi Benayoun who scored a hat-trick for Liverpool and maybe thats finally enough to earn him some playing time for once. Wigan came out on top in a really awful game against West Ham which no one saw because it put everyone to sleep, Bolton and Portsmouth played out a stunningly exciting game with Bolton getting a late winner from Gary "don't call me Tim" Cahill and Blackburn crushed my beloved Wolves. I cried. Whatever.

I need some more time to gather myself before tearing a strip off the scum that is Emmanuel Adebayor when I analyze exactly what happened in the Arsenal v. Man City game of the week so check back in a bit. That's right, leave them wanting more. I am a blogging pro already.

Just to wet your appetite...

This is an awesome video of the 10 best goals in EPL history as voted on by fans over in England. This wouldn't quite be my list but there are some amazing ones in here. Hopefully this video can inspire any of you who aren't hardcore soccer fans to wake up and get into it!

Premier League Weekend Preview

After a week off for international play where England somehow managed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup of Soccer 2010, we are back to league play tomorrow with some pretty juicy match-ups coming our way.

By the way, I should probably clarify that I hate the English national team with a fiery passion and even though this is a site that deals almost entirely with English soccer, they will not get my respect... I am of Irish heritage and will forever dream that they will one day actually be as good as those dicks in white and red. For the record though, England looked super solid in absolutely thrashing a very good Croatia team on Wednesday and it appears they may actually be a contender in South Africa. *shudders* Let's be honest though, it's England. They WILL choke. You know it and I know it. Anyways back on topic...

Here are the fixtures for this weekends games in The Premiership along with my predicted scores:

Wolves (YES GO WOLVES! They are in fact my favourite team and I am deeply biased...) 2 - 1 Blackburn - I just really like Wolves...
Liverpool 3- 0 Burnley - Liverpool prove to be way too much for little Burnley to handle.
Portsmouth 0 - 1 Bolton - Bolton are awful but Portsmouth are even worse.
Stoke 1 - 3 Chelsea - Stoke are tough at home but they just don't have the talent to win this.
Sunderland 0 - 0 Hull - This is two bad teams playing each other. Bet on a draw.
Wigan 1 - 2 West Ham - Wigan have been really poor lately and West Ham are on the up.
Birmingham 1 - 2 Villa - Villa to win a closely contested match between arch-rivals.
Fulham 1 - 2 - Everton pull it out to get their season back on track.
Spurs 2 - 2 Manchester United - This should be a great one. It is a chance to see if Spurs are legitimate contenders or merely early season pretenders...

GAME OF THE WEEK:

Arsenal vs. Man City

This is a very interesting game because it will be City striker Emmanuel Adebayor's return to face his former club Arsenal. I expect him to get booed viciously by the Arsenal supporters but I also expect him to take his revenge and score.

The real test will be to see if Man City's struggling defence can handle the Arsenal forwards. If they can, I think City could win this game and stake a claim for that all important fourth place spot. If they can't, well I can see Arsenal, who will be missing key player Arshavin, winning this one comfortabley.

To be honest, I have yet to buy into all of the hype surrounding Manchester City and I expect the Gunners to win this match. Arsenal have been counted out way to early by a lot of pundits and this is a chance to really shut them up.

Verdict : Arsenal 2 - 1 Manchester City

So there you have it, those are my predictions for this week. You can check out Mark Lawrenson's picks here. He is the guy who does the predictions every week for BBC. He is almost always totally wrong though so uh, goodluck if you want to trust him.

NOW GO WATCH SOME SOCCER!

Welcome to JUST FOR KICKS!

Hey Everybody,

So this is the ceremonial first post of JUST FOR KICKS. Just to shorten things up, lets use the acronym JFK. That hasn't already been taken by anyone has it? Oh...right... well I am claiming it now.

I've created this blog as an outlet for me to express my love of soccer in Britain. For obvious reasons, special attention will be focused on The Premier League which is the top division in English Football (I am going to refer to soccer as "football" so deal with it). Hopefully the blog will also touch on the lower divisions of English football as well and maybe if I am really bored move into the Scottish leagues but, quite frankly, the Scottish leagues are terrible so lets hope we don't have to venture down that dark path.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy that blog as much as I am sure I will and your feedback is totally welcome.

Let's talk some soccer homies!

Keith