Money over Tradition?

This past weekend, the second best league in the world was back. And how?

Real Madrid played Deportivo in the opening fixture of this season's La Liga. The galacticos had a chance to show what fans can expect for the rest of the season.

But, my attention was drawn not to the result and the performance, but to the goalscorers. One goalscorer in particular. Christiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo scored his first competitive goal for Madrid - from the penalty spot. Now, what bothers me is, why/how did Ronaldo get the nod to take the penalty over Raul who was the regular penalty taker for so many years? Raul is such an icon at Madrid that, even when Raul was not performing, he was not even considered for a transfer.

Has Ronaldo edged ahead of Raul as the first choice for taking penalties? Is this a marketing strategy for Madrid? Is there a clause in his contract regarding this? Who knows?

Know the difference?

There is one particular aspect of football that has me going berserk every time it happens. Well, who am I kidding? There are many aspects of football which makes me go berserk. Here's one of them.

There were two incidents in the Manchester United-Arsenal game which I would like to point out. One was the incident where Fletcher threw himself at Arshavin in the penalty box and Fletcher got the ball after he got the man.

Then, minutes later, there was another incident where Diaby took down Evra with a similar challenge outside the area.

This was the conversation between Martin Tyler and Andy Gray after the second of those incidents.

Martin : You know the difference?
Andy : Ya, I know the difference. One was inside the penalty box and the other wasn't.

One was given as a foul and the other wasn't. No points for guessing which was given.

Wake up!!!!

The start of the EPL season has been very very weird for quite a few reasons. Here are some of them off the top of my head.

1. Spurs are top of the league.
2. There has not been a deflected goal from Lampard yet.
3. There has been only one draw in three rounds of EPL games.
4. Burnley beat Manchester United.
5. Liverpool have lost twice in the first three matches.
6. Michael Owen is in an United shirt.
7. The only person to be sent off in the EPL so far is Sammy Lee (Assistant Manager of Liverpool).
8. Adebayor has scored two in two games.
9. Arsenal have started shooting from distance.
10. Bolton are trying to play football.

Oh, and did I mention Spurs are TOP of the league?

Am I dreaming? Nightmare? Will normal service be restored? I need to wake up...Quick...

Disgruntled

After a lean couple of weeks in terms of the blog scenario, I'm back. I did not have any words to write after the first game of the season.

Well, let me rephrase that. I did not have any words that did not include unparliamentary language. Now that I've got my head straight, I'll dive into the football. To be more precise, I'll dive into Liverpool.

There's no points for guessing why I was not in the right mood after the opening round of fixtures. Liverpool lost in terms of the result and they got beat in terms of the football. The loss of Alonso was there for all to see. Also, the formation seemed all wrong. Gerrard in the hole behind Torres seemed extremely wrong without Alonso. I agree that Lucas is a different player to Alonso. But shouldn't that mean Liverpool alter their play too? There was talk about Gerrard dropping back to midfield in a traditional 4-4-2 and playing Voronin up front with Torres. But all such talk was quashed when Lucas was named "Star of the pre-season". Well, something didn't quite add up with that statement. I have given lots of stick to Lucas in the past and let me assure you I will stick with that. Last night's result against Stoke might have eased the tension but does not prove anything yet. The jury is still out.

Disclaimer : As a football fan, my thoughts might have been different.