Unfortunately it isn't always quite as simple as that. Not that it's Sky's fault (although try telling that to some), but after this week, overall I find myself a little...underwhelmed. After Liverpool's less than convincing performance in Belgium, not even watching Man City finding playing against Midtjylland even more challenging than pronouncing it managed to entertain me. Nevertheless expectations were still high for the weekend, and hurrah! Arsenal took just 3 minutes to give those expectations a false dawn.
My reaction to Nasri's goal was two fold. Half resulted from my very recent decision to drop him from my fantasy team, and I really hope that the string of heavy language that followed didn't carry to the next room, where my best mate's parents were sitting quietly. On the other hand, this was more like it! I'm not an Arsenal fan but the prospect of them shifting a few goals past West Brom was one I was more than happy with.
Sadly while the game promised much, it delivered little and the remaining 87 minutes really was a bit dull. As I was realising this, it seems the commentary team on my TV were as well. They sounded as bored as I was. This wasn't the Hollywood coverage that usually earns Sky such mixed reviews, was the game really bad enough to stifle even the unbridled optimism of Sky, always promising bigger and better games from the "best league in the world", on the opening day of the season no less?
If I'm being a tad harsh on Arsenal and West Brom, I would like to make it very clear that the following is more than fair: the game I was invited to go and watch at Goodison Park was absolute garbage. I have never seen a worse game with so many goals. Everton were the poorer of the two teams and deserved their defeat even in the unfortunate manner it was delivered in. They put good moves together on 3 occasions which probably totalled about a minute. The rest of the time they were utterly dire, with the main culprit captain Phil Neville, who throughout the first half played a succession of long balls, none of which stayed in play, and seemed unable to control the ball at all.
To be fair Everton had injuries but still should have had some creativity coming from Arteta and Leon Osman. They looked completely void of ideas, but in the second half they came out and managed to string a couple of passes together. They looked good and it just goes to show once you remember how to play basic pass and move football it doesn't matter if you have Nuno Valente masquerading as a left winger.
But sadly after Yakubu's goal remembering is exactly the opposite of what Everton did and they went back to starving their best players of the ball, which when you think about it isn't particularly constructive.
Blackburn weren't overly spectacular either even if they were the better side, but in all honesty they didn't need to be to beat Everton. However Even if Roque Santa Cruz, who showed a few neat touches and took his goal characteristically well, leaves, I'm not sure all this recent talk about Ince being a rubbish manager and Blackburn being a decent bet to go down isn't a bit of an overreaction. They were solid at worst and they might not have enough to take points off the top teams but they will have no problem with the likes of Stoke I can assure you of that.
Time then to watch Liverpool, and as this is my first entry I should mention that I am a Liverpool fan. This probably increased my dissatisfaction at the quality of the game because admittedly Liverpool were rather poor, and seemed initially to share their neighbour's problem of keeping the ball away from their more creative players. Similarly Torres was about as anonymous as Arteta had been for much of the game but these kind of players can do nothing for the majority and then pop up with the goods when it mattered.
And it's a good job Torres did pop up because by the time Xabi Alonso was lining up from a good 60 yards I was reminded about an FA Cup tie against Burnley about 10 years ago, when the highlight was a similar effort from Stan Collymore, and that game still holds the honour of being the worst game I have ever seen live.
Robbie Keane's continuing mediocrity in a red (or rather grey, fantastic kit by the way) shirt was another source for my crippling disappointment. Although his clearance from Torres effort was particularly effective, top draw.
In all fairness, today things have improved, not least because there's now nearly 50 minutes gone up at Old Trafford and Man Utd aren't winning 4-0. And Kevin Keegan is the Newcastle manager. It's like I've gone back in time. If only Phillip Albert was playing...
Chelsea were excellent today, to put it bluntly. Even before the weekend they were this intrepid budding football writer's (scoff) pick for the title. Chelsea have strengthened with Bosingwa, who was the only player in this summer's European Championships to consistantly impress me, and Deco, who has been an unsung hero behind the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi for years. At 8 million Chelsea have for once paid under the odds for a player. I was more than happy, especially as it had no bearing on the result anyway, to see him rifle in his excellent goal, and I really hope that he doesn't get into the habits of his teammates that seem to make the public hate every single Chelsea player.
On that note I recon Chelsea might finally go some way to fulfilling their horrible smug chief executive's wish to improve their public image. Philipao (that's Big Phil to you and me) has arrived in England and has been very well received by the majority, despite being the man who has shafted England constantly over a number of years. If he can continue today's transition as far away from the "functional" side we've seen over the past few years then Chelsea might become the neutral's favourite in the top 4. As long as they keep Cashley Cole and Anelka locked away during Christmas partys.
So even though now with 60 minutes gone Manchester United have clearly decided they're going to leave it late, just to taunt me just that bit more, actually it's not all bad. My team won and maybe soon they'll actually start playing, a bit like Chelsea did today. So it can be done. Football is back and maybe Sky dialling down the hype is something to be embraced. They can keep the weekends full of football though, because I can't get enough of it.
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