Watford away: a game in prospect

I'm about to head off to Watford for the Blues game which, although early in the season, will be another important one in terms of Clark finding his best team that he can then use for the more nitty-gritty games around mid-September sort of time.

 

I say this because, judging by our performance against Charlton last week and the result at Sheffield Wednesday in midweek, we are still in pre-season mode. Given everything that has happened this summer with Hughton leaving and a minor overhaul of the squad, not to mention all of the uncertainty in the boardroom, it has inevitably taken time for the players to gel and for the dust to settle- I still don't think that process is over.

 

I also think Watford are in a similar position to ourselves in some ways. They've had some new Italian owners coming in this summer who have brought in Gianfranco Zola as their new manager, plus a few new Italiany players coming in on loan. There's an Italian theme coming through at that club.

 

Whenever anyone mentions Zola to me I can't help but remember Chelsea's pre-Ambromovich period when they had Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink about 10 years ago. I remember Blues playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Zola absolutely walked over us. I think for Watford though, the new players will take time to bed in and the fact that Watford won their first game and then lost their second suggests that it's to early in the season to make much of a judgement on them.

 

With both teams still in that transitional period, I can only really see a draw for this game. I won't be very popular in the pub beforehand for saying this, but it has 0-0 written all over it. If I'm honest, the main reason I'm going to the game is to meet up with my brother who's just come back from Thailand this week.

For a few of the other games briefly, I think Blackburn against Leicester will be the key match in the Championship. If Blackburn win, their fans may begin to have faith in their manager Steve Kean- which would be interesting to see. I think the way he's perservered with the job given so much hate  and stick from his own fans, it shows a kind of bravery that borderlines on stupidity. So many people would have walked away- I can't help but admire him for that. For Leicester, they need to bounce back from losing at Charlton on Tuesday to ensure they're not playing catch-up football in September.

In the Premiership, I think it was a big statement of intent for United to spend £20 million on van Persie, I've got a feeling he will score against Fulham. You've also got to fancy Man City for the win at Liverpool on Sunday, to begin to pile the pressure on Brendan Rodgers- he's made the same mistake as Dalglish by spending too much money on average players.