Fourth Place Race Explained !

Hello All.
What an agonising weekend it was for Arsenal fans! Southampton held Tottenham until last minute winner from Gareth Bale whose curled finish from left foot left many Gooners biting their nails. And then the Champions hosted Benitez's Blues side and looked so disinterested in the game till few mins off added time in first half. RvP deliberately kept going at the far post when Valencia crossed everything near post. Chelsea managed to score a winner; again very late in the game as Mata's shot deflected off Jones and off the frame and trickled into the goal past Lindergaard. While Spurs and Chelsea scored late goals; Arsenal's Theo Walcott scored the fastest goal of the season (21 secs) and then basically switched off the for the rest of 92 mins and 39 secs of the game. 3 points are all that matters but such close is the race that 3 points matter only if other results go our way.

The league table stands as is:
Chelsea 68
Arsenal 67
Spurs 65

Here I present you all permutations that may go into the fight for securing Top 4.

What is pretty much obvious from above permutations is Arsenal's fate is not in their own hands. But also most of the fate will be decided based on the outcome of Chelsea v Spurs game on Tuesday. And the best possible result for us will be that Chelsea beat Spurs. If chelsea beat spurs they are in driver's seat for 3rd place But those who have a strong heart and are willing to risk their lives for 2 more weeks would like to hope that both teams drop points and expect it to be a draw. If the game is a draw then the race goes down to the wire... (I am one of those! see below) :-)



My gut feeling is we will still finish Top 4. We might finish level on points with Chelsea. All that players and manager needs to do is perform...get out there, sweat it out, bleed if required and ensure maximum points in all the games.  And same message goes out for Gooners... make noise, make more noise get behind the team such that every cheer from the stands, terraces, in front of  television sets, at the screening or if you're listening on the radio leads to opposition making mistake and we scoring a goal. COYG!!!

My Winter Sonnet

Give me some sunshine, 
Oh Lord to thee I pray,
Give homeless some shelter,
To spend night and day.

Give me some sunshine,
Oh Lord to thee I pray,
Give protests some peace,
Coz Rome wasn't built in a day.

Give me some sunshine,
Oh Lord to thee I pray,
Give ODI Champions a challenge,
Else we remain champions of yesterday.

Alarm clock rings frozen as I lay,
Hey but Thank God It's Friday!

The Best Of Last 20 Years In The PL

Hello All.

A quick post about the awards season now that PL drawing to close.

There is a contest going on the Premier League site. Make sure you vote for the best. Although some of the nominations I don't agree that they merit to be short listed.

So the categories for Public Votes and Panel Votes are

PUBLIC VOTES

• Best Goal
• Best Match
• Best Save
• Best Celebration

PANEL VOTES

• Best Team
• Best Players
• Best Quote
• Best Season
• Best Manager

PANEL & PUBLIC VOTES

Fantasy Team

Here's my pick in each of the categories:

Best Goal

Dennis Bergkamp, Newcastle United v Arsenal 2001/02 (sheer artistry in that goal Only he knows how he did it!)

David Beckham, Wimbledon v Man U 1996/97 (This goal is my introduction to football. In India the sport has got popular because of David Beckham and this goal from half line)

But my all time 20 seasons favorite favorite PL goal has to be Henry's goal against Liverpool on Boxing Day when he side stepped 2 defenders to score... even Robert Pires was left stranded and mesmerised on the pitch Arsenal won 4-2 on that day.

Eventually I have voted for Beckham's goal.

Best Match
Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal 2008/09 (obvious reason being Arsenal fan and for Arshavin 4 goals)

Portsmouth 7-4 Reading 2007/08 (great spectacle for a neutral just in terms of # of goals scored)

I have voted for Liverpool v Arsenal :)

Best Celebration
Temuri Ketsbaia, Newcastle v Bolton 1997/98
(What madness shown by the player. Loved it. Laughed it. Wow!!!)

Best Save
Jussi Jaskelainen, Man U v Bolton 2001/02
(Any save against United has to be good and he did twice and denied from close range)

If I were on Panel then my votes would be

Best Team - Arsenal, The Invincibles

Best Player - Thierry Henry

Best Quote - "I did not see the incident." OR "Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home."

Best Season - 2002-03, Although Arsenal lost to Leeds handing United the title. I think this season onwards PL became more marketable product and started getting more exposure on the Asian markets, particularly India.

Best Manager - Sir Alex Fergusson beats Arsene Wenger by 0.000000000000001. Fine margins there.

Fantasy Team:

VDS - Dixon - Adams - Vidic - Cole - C Ronaldo - Paul Scholes - Vieira - Pires - Nistelrooy - Henry

Going by Fantasy Rules of not having more than 3 players of same team and say try and fit into 100m purchase kitty.

VDS - Petrescu - Adams - Vidic - Le Saux - Beckham - Vieira - Matt Le Tissier - David Ginola - Shearer - Henry

And about some real nominations for this season - hope Robin van Persie gets PFA Player of the Season award. Who Needs Batman, We Have Robin!

Whoever wins the mini league wins the title!

Hello All.

I am writing after a long time due to sudden availability of time at work place. In my long absence I have missed paying tributes to Rahul Dravid on his retirement, Sachin Tendulkar on his 100th hundred and Arsenal's new 7 game winning streak. So for all those great guys and great moments I say just two words - Thank You!

Now moving on to something which I can post about which is about to happen in next 2 months. Premier League title race, race for Top 4, race for relegation, IPL season 5 and F1 "Kimi" Returns. This blog will focus only on the Premier League title race and race for Top 4. 

So here we go.

EPL Mini League Table – 2010/11 season
Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
Man U	10	5	2	3	14	10	4	17
Liverpool	10	4	2	4	14	13	1	14
Arsenal	10	3	4	3	14	12	2	13
Tottenham	10	3	4	3	11	11	0	13
Chelsea	10	4	1	5	11	12	-1	13
Man C	10	3	3	4	6	12	-6	12

A few pointers from last season

• Man C is bottom of the mini league. Last season they had bought horde of holding midfielders for 150m and as a result they scored very few goals and still have a negative goal difference of -6.
• Liverpool played well against top teams but not so well against lower teams.
• Arsenal is above Tottenham with a positive goal difference of 2. 
• Chelsea have the highest loss % - 50% games lost
• Man U keep plugging away silently with sometimes help of referees and manage to win the league every time.
• The mini league was closer and games against each other were competitive. There were 16 draws last season and deviation in goal difference is 3.4.

EPL Mini League Table – 2011/12 season so far
Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
Man U	9	6	2	1	26	16	10	20
Man C	8	6	1	1	22	8	14	19
Arsenal	8	3	0	5	16	21	-5	9
Liverpool	9	2	3	4	8	14	-6	9
Tottenham	10	2	3	5	13	21	-8	9
Chelsea	8	1	3	4	12	17	-5	6

A few pointers from this season

• The mini league has been one sided this year. Only one of the team has dominated the fixture against each other. There have been 12 draws so far and deviation in goal difference is 9.4.
• 80% of Man U’s positive goal difference can be attributed to their two Arsenal matches.
• 80% of Man C’s positive goal difference can be attributed to their back to back heavy wins earlier in the season against Man U (6-1) and Spurs (5-0)
• Arsenal is the only team with no draws and yet they are in third place on the mini-League table. Proving, once again, that playing for a draw is almost always the worst tactic possible.
• Liverpool have not performed as well as they did last season against Top 6
• Man C corrected their short coming from last season by scoring 22 goals and also conceding only 8 goals after spending 200m on strikers and defenders.
• No matter how the season starts, Spurs are and will always be below Arsenal :)
• Chelsea has the lowest win % - 12% of games won so far.
• As it stands, both Man U and Man City have taken 27% of their total points haul from their top six competitors.

CONCLUSION:

Based on the above stats, it is safe to predict that Manchester derby on 30th April will be the title decider. But it would be so much better if Arsenal wins their game on 8th April at Emirates against City’s mercenaries and which could also firmly put United in cruise control mode of the league.

Predictions for mini league table at the end of the season

Team	P	Points
Man U	38	93
Man C	38	88
Arsenal	38	80
Tottenham	38	72
Chelsea	38	69
Newcastle	38	63
Liverpool	38	57

Once again thanks everyone for reading. Enjoy the summers. :) :) :)

Is F1 Indian Grand Prix A Boon Or Curse?

This is my first ever blog on a F1 race. I am delighted to present this case in a most simplest of manners like I have done on many of my previous posts. The wait for one of the greatest sporting spectacles in India will soon get over. The 17^th Grand Prix of the season and with Championship winner already known, this race could provide us with an entertaining climax to the season. The event has already drawn its own critics and admirers and as always it is a case of “Every coin has 2 sides” and I am willing to call “Heads” and I hope I am not proved wrong by the event organizers. But before that an overview of Indian Grand Prix – 

Overview: The Indian Grand Prix will be held at Buddha International Circuit, Greater Noida just at the outskirts of New Delhi, the capital of India. The circuit has been designed under the supervision of Jaypee Group and is approx. 3.31 miles and the cars will run as many as 61 times across the circuit covering 16 corners.

Tails: There are a few handful people who have said that F1 in India is a complete waste of money. Primarily the reason being it is a sport which very less people in India can actually afford to think of taking up as profession. The sport itself is prone to accidents and the F1 drivers have to go through a lot during the simulators tests and on the race days. Then we have had environment related concerns before getting approval nods for building the huge Jaypee Sports Complex not only for F1 race but for other sports in near future. The problem with space as for F1 races not only the cars but huge machinery setup that comes in separate flights require space as much as a size of a football field. The F1 races usually have all the paparazzi along with them which lead to another top issue of security forces which the country regularly faces with. Looking closer at only the racing aspect how many Indians have actually made it in this sport – just 2 out of 2 billion people. That itself says a lot about awareness of F1 in India. I can basically understand from where these insecurities are being expressed. It is the failure of Commonwealth games and corruption. People fear if such malpractices have again been adopted in hyping up the F1 Indian GP.

Heads: I am sure the lessons have been learnt and this is India’s best opportunity to put itself on global map once again after the CWG debacle. Indian GP epitomizes changing trends in Formula 1. It is an acknowledgement of India's economic clout and its status as one of the world's most happening automobile markets. It is therefore natural that a sport, whose heart and soul is in automobile engineering excellence achieved by some of the best known car manufacturers that they should come here. It also gives a chance to corporate India to put its marketing skills on display as various brands constantly flash on TV ads reminding us about the F1 race, the drivers and the skills and everything else a PR could creatively come up with. Events like these lead to awareness and might perhaps give rise to a budding F1 racer in India. A program called as X Factor started by Dr. Vijay Mallya, co-owner of Sahara Force India F1 car to search for India’s next driver. And as and when more people start understanding the finer aspects of the making of F1 car, we would not only have drivers but technicians also manning the pit lanes. There has been sudden increase in count of visitors to Go-Kart circuits across the country. And of course the tourism industry gets a boost with foreign delegates travelling into the country. Still F1 is not all about money. Think about it from a racing perspective – no matter how many laps a driver does on simulator test – it is quite a different prospect to actually be there on the newest track on a Friday practice session or a Saturday qualifying lap than a Sunday race day. I am hoping to see some over taking maneuvers attempted rather than the tyres and pit stop strategy to win the race.

I have not watched F1 race with a keen interest as I have watched may be football or cricket. But always been a huge fan of Ferrari and Kimi Raikonnen. So I will be cheering for the Scuderia on Sunday hoping either Fernando Alonso or Felipe Massa finish first and the Red Bulls occupy the remaining spots on the podium.

It is time…

To smell the rubber burning…

To hear the engine clattering…

To feel the heart stopping at hairpins…

To see the jubilation as the cars cross the finish line…

As the Chequered Flag is waved.