The Premiership is missing the Premier touch

I’m sure I was not alone in eagerly anticipating the Premiership football of last weekend .  The ever-feisty Merseyside derby, and a tantalising clash of the two biggest London teams back to back.  This is what Sundays are all about!  Or so I thought. 

The media build up prior to the Everton – Liverpool encounter placed the managers of both teams under intense pressure, insinuating that the losing boss’ job would be under scrutiny, and implying that an insurmountable crisis would ensue. 

Although obviously untrue, this added to the undeniable attraction of the game, and I felt sure of witnessing a committed, tenacious, do-or-die-derby.  What followed however was anything but enthralling.  Everton would have needed to have scored first to have realistically had any chance of winning the game, since it always seemed highly improbable that they would manage more than one goal. 

I was consequently disappointed to see them trail to a fortuitously deflected shot from Javier Mascherano, and although they showed plenty of fight, they were unable to find the equaliser.  The industrious but hardly prolific Dirk Kuyt added a second, and the first Merseyside derby of the season ended rather anticlimactically.  Even the atmosphere did not seem to be as boisterous as I have come to expect from such occasions.   The whole match left me with a feeling of having been strangely cheated.

If I was slightly subdued after the first match, surely the Arsenal versus Chelsea face-off could not let me down?  The game started promisingly enough, Arsenal looking as though they genuinely would not settle for anything but the three points.  As the match progressed however, Chelsea’s superior class told, and the final score left the gunners with red faces to match their shirts.  Someone I was watching the game with observed at the time “Arsenal could play all week and they still wouldn’t score today.”  How true that statement proved.

At the conclusion of this game, I stumbled across the meeting of the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, hoping the timeless ‘third time lucky’ phrase would prove appropriate.  And how!  I loved this match.  Never mind that there were less goals than in either of the Premiership encounters; this game was lively, passion-filled, and full of exceptional skill. 

Madrid were the better team in the first half, but failed to fashion the opening that may have turned the eventual result on its head.  The second half however, demonstrated the brilliance of this current Barca team: they scored a fantastic goal through Zlatan Ibrahimovich, and the diminutive Lionel Messi showed flashes of the type of skill that left the Premiership with Cristiano Ronaldo.  Even a red card for Sergio Busquets did not deter their zest for attack, and they looked closer to scoring a second than Madrid ever did to equalising. 

Thus, I learned a valuable lesson.  It is not all about the Premiership.  It has also confirmed for me that I truly cannot wait for the start of the World Cup.

Mike Dicker