It wasn’t the best of starts to the English Premiership for either Manchester United or Wayne Rooney.

The current Champions were held to a very frustrating 0 - 0 draw at Old Trafford by the surprise team of last season, Reading and it looks as though the Royals have started were they left off last season!

What made it even worse for United was that Reading were reduced to just 10 men and then to cap it all off, their England striker Rooney suffered a hairline fracture of his left foot. From memory, isn’t this the third foot injury Rooney has had now? And he’s still only 21! His mates call him “Lucky”!

The injury to Rooney looks like casting a huge shadow over the opening few weeks of the Premiership season for United. The fracture was sustained in a tackle from the Reading defender Michael Duberry towards the end of the first half. Rooney went straight to the hospital where a scan confirmed Utd’s worst fears.

Rooney knew something was seriously wrong.

It hasn’t been been revealed how long they think Rooney will be sidelined but it looks a certainty that this will also be a major setback for England and their crucial up coming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

The Man United manager Alex Ferguson is already without Louis Saha, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer through injury and the new signing Carlos Tevez isn’t properly match fit. It looks as though Tevez is going to have to shoulder a lot of work and responsibility in the coming weeks.

During the game at Old Trafford the home team did have most of the possession but failed to make any of it count against a Reading team that had a their stand in striker, Dave Kitson, sent off in the 72nd minutes. He’s only been on the pitch about a minute but obviously took an instant dislike to Patrice Evra and that was that!

After the game Ferguson conceded, “It just wasn’t our day. We created chances but we just didn’t take any of them.”

Elsewhere, Man Utd’s main rivals fared a lot better. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard produced a classic free-kick with only minuted left at Villa Park to secure a well deserved victory against Aston Villa. It had looked a like the same old “away” story for the Merseyside who just a couple of minutes before looked like they were yet again going to rue all their missed chances when Jamie Carragher gave away a penalty for hand ball. To be fair there wasn’t much he could do about it but the travelling away fans must have thought, “Here we go again!” However, the stage was set for Gerrard to step up and place an unstoppable free-kick past a helpless Taylor in the Villa goal.

Meanwhile Chelsea opened their challenge to regain the title with a 3 - 2 win at home to newly promoted Birmingham City. Looking to wrest the title back from United, Chelsea took all thrre points with a late strike from Michael Essien. The victory set a record in the top flight of 64 unbeaten home games in a row. The run dating back to February 2004 and beat the previous record held by Liverpool which was recorded between February 1978 and January 1981.

Whilst Arsenal also produced a late winner to see off London rivals Fulham. However before that the game saw a goalkeeping howler from German Jens Lehmann in the Arsenal goal that gifted Fulham a first minute lead at the Emirates Stadium. Lehmann’s “clearance” handing a tap in on a plate to the Northern Ireland striker David Healy.

It was until the 83rd minute that Dutch striker van Persie gave Arsenal hope with a penalty which left the Belarus midfielder Hleb to become the hero with a 90th minute winner.

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger must have been a relieved man and said after the game, “Better later than never! We were physically and mentally strong and didn’t give up. That kind of result can change a season for a team and certainly strengthen the belief.”

So this weekend’s action left Man Utd as the only one of the “big four” not to win on the opening day. Their three main rivals all got late winners and it will be interesting to see how all that went on at the weekend will effect each of the teams involved.

So the waiting is just about all over then! The English Premiership, which is followed avidly all over the world by millions, kicks off today for another season of drama, tension, great goals, surprise defeats etc. and by the end there will have been both tears of joy and tears of pain. Someone can claim to be the Champions and others will have that dreaded sinking feeling.

What they are all fighting over!

There will be a host of new faces to get used to and a whole lot more that have disappeared to pastures new. But at the end of the day, I think there will yet again in a little “mini” league appearing at the top of the table consisting of the “big four”. The Championship battle is yet again going to be down to them.

The current Champions, Manchester United have, like all clubs, reinforced their squad as they try to keep the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal from snatching the title away from them.

It is Liverpool who have the chance to strike the first blow in the Championship race as they are the only one of the real title contenders to kick-off on Saturday at Villa Park. The other three all play on Sunday. Man Utd play host to Reading, last year’s surprise package, Chelsea are at home to promoted Birmingham, whilst Arsenal kick-off with a London derby at home to Fulham.

The Man Utd Assistant Manager Carlos Queiroz has been insisting that the club are raring to get stuck into the new season and Reading. (Although I suspect they will be doing it, less one Gabriel Heinze. Can’t imagine he’s too popular at Old Trafford at the moment!) Queiroz has said, “We are ready. We believe the boys are fully prepared.

“we realise it is a different ball game today now, the Premier League is starting, it has a different atmosphere, different problems and there is a different intensity. But everyone is very excited by the challenge.”

So the arrivals at Old Trafford include the England international midfielder Owen Hargreaves, from Bayern Munich who they have long courted. The Portuguese winger Nani, the Brazilian midfielder Anderson and not forgetting Carlos Tevez, who’s protracted transfer from West Ham Utd has now been finally completed.

Chelsea however seem to have a few injury problems, as they will be without both their captain John Terry and main striker Didier Drogba as they kick off the campaign to try to regain the title they won for the previous two seasons.

The England midfielder Frank Lampard has been quoted as saying, “Fair play to Untied, they have gone out and bought some very talented players, but we have a real amount of belief in our squad. We believe we are the top team, it is simple as that. As soon as the season starts and the sooner we start showing that, the better.”

As far as Liverpool are concerned, their boss Rafael Benítez has spend heavily over the summer. His biggest catch, as Liverpool try to land their first title since 1990, was undoubtedly the Spanish striker Fernando Torres who cost £27m (approx. $54m). Benítez has said, “We have a side to score more goals, play good football and win more games. [They'll have to if they are going to win the title!]

“I look at the squad of Manchester United and see their quality and Chelsea built a team over five or six years spending hundreds of millions. They no longer need to spend at the same level.

“We have more pace and quality. Away from home especially, we have a lot more options.”

Meanwhile the last of the “big four”, Arsenal, start their Premiership campaign and a new era without their talisman and former captain Thierry Henry, (now at Barcelona). Arsene Wenger’s new captain is the former Chelsea player and French centre-back William Gallas.

They will be without the Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva probably until September as he is recovering from the Copa America campaign which Brazil won, beating the arch rivals Argentina in the Final. Arsenal also have another doubt over one of their star players in Emmanuel Adebayor who has a groin problem. However, Wenger has said, “It will take two or three weeks to get him ready. If you don’t do that he will suffer during the rest of the season.”

Anyway, the first Premiership match of the season kicks off at the Stadium of Light where newly promoted Championship winners Sunderland take on a well fancied Tottenham Hotspur.

Both sides have spent heavily over the summer with Roy Keane, Sunderland’s manager, eager to make his mark back in the top flight as a manager. Whilst Spurs will be looking to break into the top four and in doing so earn a Champions League position. I think Spurs could be a surprise package this season.

Then we have Newcastle and their new manager Sam Allardyce, who as fate would have it, takes his new team to his old one, Bolton, for the first game of the season. What were the odds! Do you think there may have been a little bit of extra programming when the computer churned out the fixtures!? Anyway, only three months after quitting as Bolton manager he’s back at the Reebok to be welcomed by his ex No. 2, Sammy Lee.

Big Sam, as Allardyce is known, did an excellent job at Bolton turning them into a side capable of fighting of Uefa positions however, it will be very interesting to see what kind of reception he gets from the Reebok crowd. It should be a good one really, shouldn’t it, but I wouldn’t put too much money on it I’m afraid. Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong.

England will today see the return of one Sven-Goran Eriksson, remember him? The English press will. They definitely viewed his reign as England manager as a costly flop. But he starts his new career as a Premiership manager today as his Manchester City side take on West Ham, the team that only just survived last season due to one Carlos Tevez.

Wigan, the other team to survive on the last day of the season at the expense of Sheffield Utd who are probably still arguing about it all, start the new campaign on Merseyside at Everton, who will be hoping to at least match last season sixth place and Uefa Cup position.

As I said earlier, probably the biggest surprise package of last season was Steve Coppell’s Reading. Quite often the second season proves to be a lot harder than the first and it will certainly be very interesting to see how Reading fair this season now that the other teams know what they are all about.

So, other than Tottenham and perhaps Newcastle, I don’t see any other team challenging the top four. I think the race for the title will be between three teams this season, not two. Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. I think Arsenal will go through a little transition period, post Henry. I’m not going to predict who will be Champions, but for those going down, Fulham, Birmingham and Derby.

To find a full list of this weekend’s fixtures Click Here

Good luck to your team this season!

The Soccer Blogger

So David Beckham has finally made his Major League Soccer debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Although it was only as a substitute. Beckham was introduced to the MLS after 72 minutes of the games against DC United in Washington last night, Thursday, but old Golden Balls was unable to prevent his new side losing 1-0.

You’d think that as he was paid god knows how much to be the face of Gillette, he’d be able to find a razor lying around somewhere for a shave, wouldn’t you!

Anyway, Becks, who has of course been struggling from a well documented ankle injury, apparently said he was delighted to finally play for his new team, despite their loss.

Beckham said, “It’s not nice to disappoint people who have paid a lot of money to see you, so it was good to get on the pitch.”

But the midfielder admitted he was disappointed with the 1 - 0 result, stating, “It was a good night, but it was also a bad night.

“Obviously, there’s been a certain amount of pressure because everyone is talking about how I’ve come to MLS and not played yet.

“But I don’t feel pressure in that sense. I feel pressure in myself to get fit and to get back playing again.”

Fortunately for Beckham he showed no ill-effects from the ankle injury. Although I suspect it’s only a matter of time before something else gets injuried.

Anyway, current England manager Steve McClaren (I say “current” because I don’t think he’s the right man for the job) was in Washington to watch Beckham, for all of his 18 minutes, and also to meet Beckham’s new coach Frank Yallop and Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas.

Former US international Lalas said McClaren is keen to build a solid working relationship with the club to monitor Beckham’s progress, stating, “That’s a discussion that we’ve had and will continue to keep him abreast of the situation here.

“Beckham wants to continue to play for England and I’m sure Steve wants to have him part of that but he needs to have him fully fit, so we’ll see how this next week goes, how quickly he progresses and then make a decision in cooperation.

“That was a huge reason for him to be out here, to get to know the new club, the new personnel, so we had a very nice chat about everything.”

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The Soccer Blogger

So it looks like Arjen Robben is finally leaving Chelsea and is off to sunny Spain. Can’t say I’m too sorry to see Robben leave the Premiership, he’s too much of a diver and play actor for me. Drives me round the bend, all that rolling around.

Anyway, apparently Robben, along with Royston Drenthe from Feyenoord, will both be paraded by Real Madrid on Friday and could be available to play in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup to be played on August 11. The Super Cup similar to the Community Shield in that the Champions play the Copa del Rey winners who are Sevilla.

It’s no great surprise to see Robben finally go as he appears to have been a target of Real and in particularly the Real President, Ramon Calderon, all summer. Well he’s finally got his man after Robben, who is only 23 but looks more like 43 to me, played 104 times for Chelsea scoring 19 goals since joining from PSV Eindhoven in 2004.

Adios Arjen!

Sorry, can you tell I’m not a big fan!

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The Soccer Blogger

I thought this was quite amusing!

The Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has been ruled our of attending two of his teams pre-season friendlies because he has been “grounded” by his wife Cathy! No doubting who’s the boss there then! As someone I know would say, “Go girl!” [That's a female friend, by the way!]

So whilst his team are in action playing Glentoran in Belfast and Dunfermline in Scotland [Mrs] Alex Ferguson will be at home. Well, actually moving home apparently!

Fergie was quoted as saying, “I told her I had a match that day but she wasn’t having any of it. She said it was only a friendly and that I had to help her.” Quite right too!

However, looking on the bright side of life, Ferguson also said, “She saved me from making a difficult choice because my father played for Glentoran but I also have a close association with Dunfermline. I played the best football of my career there before my transfer to Rangers [Glasgow variety].”

Perhaps Carlos Tevez can help Mrs & Mrs Ferguson with the house move? The Argentine striker is also set to miss out of the trip because, as I reported yesterday, his moved from West Ham Utd still hasn’t been officially approved by the Premier League. Let’s hope for Utd’s sake he doesn’t pull anything lifting all those heavy boxes for Lady Alex.

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The Soccer Blogger