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THE SEASON SO FAR 6-10-06
James Bassett
With seven matches gone and our Carling Cup campaign over, here's a summary of how we are doing and how the Premiership season is going to date, as published in The Observer, 8th October 2006.
100 words on how the season has started for you. Matching your expectations? What are the problems? Where will you end up? Happy with the manager?
It was always going to be a difficult season, but the comedown from the Uefa Cup final has been rougher than most fans would've anticipated. Southgate's outstanding tenure as a player means that he's being granted a degree of patience, but for all the goodwill, some tactical naiveté and odd team selections are making it difficult to shake the belief that managing a club with European ambitions is not the place to learn the ropes.
If Southgate can improve the transition between defence and attack we should pull away from the relegation zone, but at the moment we wouldn't look out of place in the Championship.
Who has been your star player so far, and why?
Jonathan Woodgate and Mark Schwarzer have both excelled, but most pleasing has been the immeasurable improvement from Emmanuel Pogatetz.
Who's been the biggest disappointment, and why?
It's becoming harder to tell whether Yakubu is unfit, unconfident or just not very good.
Premiership moment of the season so far (not your club)? ie (Thatcher's tackle, Craig Allardyce squirming on Panorama, Van Persie's goal, Joey Barton's arse...)
Arsene Wenger celebrating a decade at Arsenal. For better or worse, the man has defined the Premiership perhaps more than any other manager.
Cristiano Ronaldo - will he be player of the season? Boo-boy or genius?
A genius, if only he could cross the ball.
Who'll win the title?
I'll stick with my foolish pre-season prediction of Liverpool.
Who'll go down?
Sheffield United, Charlton and Wigan.
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