For the Manchester teams, the international break came at exactly the wrong time, both sides were playing some vintage football and had managed maximum points from their opening games, for others however the break was much needed, Blackburn have not managed a point in their opening 3 fixtures and things aren’t much better for Fulham who have just 1 point from a possible 9.
The Lancashire side are in a bit of turmoil it is fair to say, from being comfortable under Sam Allardyce they now seem to be flirting with relegation. They imploded somewhat last year after they were acquired by the Indian poultry people and their safety was not assured until the final climatic day of the season, things haven’t exactly improved after the Summer break however. They strengthened whilst the transfer window was open, and obviously it will take time for these new players to bed down. It was deadline day that perhaps brought the most well known names, capturing Scott Dann from Birmingham and Yakubu from Everton.
Whilst Dann is a great player, who, to be honest, I thought would move to a bigger club than Rovers, I am less certain about the Nigerian striker. We all know how short Everton have been in the forwards department for the past couple of seasons, and the fact they allowed him to go on loan to Leicester in the Championship last season says quite a lot about the players current desire. He was successful to be fair as part of Sven’s revolution at the Walkers Stadium, but I am unsure whether he still has the hunger to be a decent Premier League goal scorer. Clearly he will offer experience as he has performed reasonably well in the top flight for years, but he certainly isn’t the savoir.
The biggest disapointment for Steve Keane so far will have been the opening day defeat at the hands of Wolves, they followed it up with a pretty conclusive defeat at Villa Park, and then a ridiculous defeat at home to Everton in which they missed 2 penalties. To be fair they should have won that game, and that would have put them in a much healthier looking position.
For me the brightest spark has been the form of Canadian winger/striker Junior Hoilett, his ability to carry the ball, and beat his man is exciting and causes no end of problems for opposition defences. The other good piece of news when the window slammed shut was that they managed to hang onto their defensive rock Chris Samba who I think will form a superb partnership with other new boy Dann. Spirits seems high in the camp, well at least according to their manager and I think they can pick up a vital 3 points at Fulham this weekend.
Martin Jol and his men are already deep into their season because of their obligations in the Europa League, the match on Sunday will be their 12th game of the season and although they are going quite well in continental competition things haven’t been quite as rosy in the league. They have to be fair played some more difficult opposition, but they seem to be having some problems dealing with the quantity of games, something as a Manchester City fan I can totally understand. I have a lot of time for Fulham and with Jol in charge I think they will have a decent season once they get up and running in the league, but being knocked out of their European competition at some point could be a real blessing in disguise.
To get back on track however, Blackburn need to register a win, it is going to be a long hard season for the Lancashire team and I fear they will face a relegation battle all season. Some pundits have tipped them for the drop, but I believe they can stay up, purely because I think there are teams worse than them in the league already. The takeover of QPR however will probably make this a much closer race since they now seem to be putting together a team capable of safety.
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