Saturday review; Morecambe draw (again!) with Chesterfield; United cruise at Blackburn

At a sodden Christie Park Morecambe picked up another draw against Chesterfield. In a match were the rain never much dipped below torrential levels, Steward Drummond opened the scoring with a well placed shot from outside the area. The lead, nice though it was to take the lead for once, didn't last for long as Chesterfield equalised shortly afterwards with a header unmarked in the penalty area, before Bentley brought down Jack Lester in the area to give Chestefield a penalty, which was driven home.

The match was a scrappy affair, due to the driving wind and the rain - passes along the ground went astray due to soggy conditions, and anything above head height was caught by the wind. Morecambe played some nice football, but as much nasty football with plenty of stray passes and wasted possession. McIllroy through on Wainright and Curtis to try and turn the tide in our favour in the second half, and it seemed to work as more and more chances were created. Young Aaron Taylor made his first team debut after impressing in the reserves, and it was his influence that unsettled the Chesterfield goalie right at the death, causing him to spill the ball and allow Rene Howe to knock the ball into an empty net from about one yard out.

In the tea time telly game, Man Utd eased to victory at Ewood Park with goals from Wes Brown and Rooney. Wes' goal possibly would have been given as a foul by other referees, as Vidic clattered the goalkeeper, but it's one of those ones that seems to divide opinion (personally I think it was fine), but makes a mockery of repeated suggestions that video replays would make referee's decisions more accurate. United commanded the match, and were profligate in front of goal once more, and easily could have got three or four in this match. All of which leaves them three points off the top of the league - not bad for the "slow start" the papers would have you believe they are having.

Saturday review

The weekend’s viewing began with my first Morecambe match in three weeks, after missing the last home match after going to an Ash concert in London. On that day, by all accounts we were very impressive against a title-challenging Shrewsbury, who beat Gillingham 7-0 the week after as we stole a 1-0 win. Against Grimsby at the weekend, we failed categorically to reproduce that kind of form, going down to an early penalty and then labouring for the next 50 minutes, practically devoid of any kind of creativity as the ball was passed along midfield, back to the centrebacks and hoofed up field. After the introduction of Craig Stanley to the midfield and Wayne Curtis, who has been our best player in the last few weeks, to the wing, we finally got going and Curtis headed an equaliser shortly after coming on. Curtis then wellied over the goal when put clean through, before Grimsby had two late chances well saved by Roche which allowed us to get a point out of the match.

The stop start nature of the season is frustrating, in that any good performance is usually followed up by a poor one so no momentum can be built. That said, we are unbeaten in four matches now, but worryingly have only kept one clean sheet this season. It’s a funny situation in League 2, with so many teams on minus points, and the teams down amongst us must fight to not become complacement and let these teams overtake them.

After that, I at least watched some entertaining football, as I took in the first hour of Arsenal’s match at Bolton. In a startling contrast of football styles, at one stage early in the first half, the on screen graphic showed Arsenal had completed 129 passes, to Bolton’s 19. That said, it was Bolton who took the lead, but soon after Arsenal took it back with two quick goals, both from fabulous moves, even if Eboue was just offside for the first goal. Arsenal played pretty football, although were guilty of overplaying on occasion, as is their way, looking for the final killer pass rather than trying the more direct approach, but it was one of those Arsenal performances that was really pleasing, even for the non-gunner. I missed the final goal as we popped out for some shopping, but Arsenal are impressing in the same way they did at the start of last season. If they can get players back to fitness and maintain this form, they have to be regarded as contenders; although with so many injury prone players, and a relatively thin squad compared to their fellow contenders, they will probably have to be content with a Champions’ League spot. Which is a shame, but shows how strong the top 4 in the Premier League have become – almost tediously so.

The first day of the Premier League Season

EPL back today. Be still whilst I contain my joy!

Anyhoo, started the day with the return of Soccer AM. New look to go along with the new presenter (feel a bit for Andy Goldstein, I quite liked him, an improvement over Tim Lovejoy in my opinion, who had become a self-centred tool). Although it's pretty much the same old show as ever, signs are that the new presenter looks OK, and hopefully wil improve as he builds up a rapport with Helen.

Staying on Sky for the opening match of the EPL, Arsenal vs West Brom, looked like it might be a rampage for Arsenal as Nasri opened the scoring after 4 minutes. However, luckily for West Brom, Arsenal struggled to create many more chances and looked in control without creating much after that. My interest waned and I browsed the internet looking for a new phone whilst watching it.

I was shocked at how thin Arsenal's squad has become. I know they are suffering from injuries, but they seem to be down to almost the bones, and even had a 16-year old (according to the SKy interactive stats) on the bench. Lots of young players indicate just how much of a selling club Arsenal have become - get a player young, train him in the Arsenal way and flog him high after a few years. It would be interesting if Arsenal ever were taken over by an investor - Wenger could make somebody a lot of money, but as I heard somewhere else, the amount of players they need to sell to help pay off the stadium debt must be worrying, especially if Arsenal don't qualify for the Champions League. Will be an interesting season to see if the young players can rise to the challenge when they face sterner tests.

Off to Christie Park for the first home match of the season against Rotherham. We were comprehensively outplayed for the majority of the match, going 1-0 down to a superbly taken long range goal after 8 minutes, and after that Rotherham dominated us for the match. They broke strong and quick, and we couldn't get anything through their midfield, leaving us to punt the ball up long for their central denfenders to comfortably deal with. Another one just before half time, from the edge of the box (closing players down is not our strong point). Mid-way through the second half, we scored and put them under a sustained period of pressure, only for them to curl another goal in from the corner of the area right at the death. Pandemonium on the messageboard this evening, as people criticise all and sundry and blame the manager for everything. Yes, we played poorly, but it was exactly the same team who held a strong Wycombe team at Adams Park last Saturday. I don't think we'll go down (and with three teams still on minus points, we shouldn't!) but I don't think we'll challenge for the play-offs either, but then that was always unlikely. After a few seasons of success, fans expectations get raised, often unrealistically, and many seem unable to deal with us losing more regularly, after becoming accustomed to us winning often in the Conference.

Home, and watched Setanta to see Sunderland against Liverpool. Or at least, I would have, had we not discovered that our cat may have contracted worms from somewhere and we had to mount a major clean up operation in the room where the cat sleeps and has her tray and food. I watched the first part, and was interested to see how uncreative Liverpool were, and then stuck the rest of the match on a stream on the laptop whilst I was cleaning. I came back downstairs just as Torres got a goal from nothing, which shows what £24 million buys. The first match of the season is always interesting, as it leaves you to speculate if Liverpool were poor, or if it was down to improvements in the Sunderland squad that lead to Liverpool struggling.

Interestingly, it seems that both of the foreign cards I use may have been barred from broadcasting 3pm English matches for a certain period, as it seems the cards are becoming too prolific in the UK, and the Premier League are leaning heavily on the broadcasters. If this continues, it should help me in my quest to explore other leagues, as I will be forced into watching other countries leagues on Saturday afternoons when I haven't gone to Morecambe away matches.

Will most likely watch some of match of the day to catch up on the other Premier League goals, and become incensed with Gary Linker's smug face.

Matches so far this season:
Sky: 2
Setanta: 3
Foreign Satellite: 2