Is Liverpool strong enough to win the title this year?
Liverpool won the league title last time in 1989-1990 season finishing most of the time behind Manchester, Chelsea and Arsenal.
In February 2007 the club was taken over by the American businessmen George Gillet and Tom Hicks.
Since then Liverpool invested over £ 100 m in new players and stadium. Players like Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Javier Mascherano, Albert Riera, Robbie Keane, Andrea Dossena arrived to replace Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellami, Steve Finnan, Scot Carson, Peter Crouch, John Arne Riise, Harry Kewell who all left the club. This huge changes into the team starting line-up and tactics had a negative effect on the team consistency in the last seasons. The main reasons are that the new players need time to settle with the new team mates and with the new tactics.
Bad starts cost Liverpool 12-15 point every year, ending the title hopes until half of the season.
Benitez also invested in young players having brought close to 25 youth team players since he manage Liverpool.
This transfer policy is questioned by many of the fans and someof football people who consider that spending bigger sums in two or three world class players would be more efficient.
Following such massive investments, manager Rafa Benitez will be under pressure to fight for the title. Now he will not have have any excuse that he couldn’t afford the top players that he wanted.
Liverpool are currently on second position with 7 points from 3 matches.
Golden Boot goes to David Villa
The UEFA EURO 2008 adidas Golden Boot prize has been presented to the EURO champion , the spanish striker David Villa.
His contribution to Spain’s win in the European championship , where he scored four goals, was recognized and awarded with the Golden Boot.
David Villa, Valencia’s striker has score a hatrick in the opening match against Russia in group D leading his team into a 4-1 victory that anounced Spain claim to the european title.
Unfortunately for him he’s injuries kept him from scoring more goals but even so, with the goal scored in the win against Sweden 2-1, and despite he missed the final against Germany, no other player managed to match his four strikes.
He therefore received this award and we can only watch how his carrer will evolve in the future.
Michael Essien could be out for six months
Michael Essien suffered a knee injury during national game lost by Ghana against Libya on Sunday.
The injury seems to be worse than was thought innitialy and he will need an operation.
Essien‘s agent Fabien Piveteau declared that there is a big problem and that this is the second or third time when he suffered a blow at that knee.
Essien played only two games for Chelsea this season and now after this injury coach Felipe Scolari will have serrious problems at the midfield considering that Michael Ballack is also injured and John Obi Mikel just returned to training.
Chelsea will play the next match against Man City on Saturday, when Didier Drogba is also expected to play after knee injury.
Federer wins fifth consecutive US Open
In the US Open men’s final Roger Federer beat Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 and became the first men who won five titles in a row at US Open and at Wimbledon.
This is his 13th major championship, just one from Pete Sampras record.
Federer has also has three titles at Australian Open but he never won at Roland Garros.
The match ended in less then two hours being shorter than the two sets women final.
Federer dominated the entire match taking control and placing his shots in the right places.
With this performance Federer showed that he is not done and that he can be again number one.
Federer remains on second position in the ATP standings while Murray reach the forth position behind Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.
Federer declared that he is very happy with the win and that he will not stop at 13 for sure.
He also wanted to thanks to the fans saying that they were incredible.
