The Mist

 "Whats going on?"

"Don't know, I can't see anything..."

THE END

September Football 2023

 Its the return of my football ratings of the month, I watch a lot of football for pleasure and trading. Here are the matches I watched this month rated from worst to best;

Roma 1-2 AC Milan, Serie A. An awful match where Roma offered nothing except trolling until the final few minutes despite being a man up from the 60 minute point.

Newcastle Utd 1-0 Brentford, English Premier League. Neither team got started, it felt like watching a 90 minute warm up.

Everton 0-1 Arsenal, English Premier League. Everton were rubbish and the dragged Arsenal down to their level, a heavy favourite won 1-0...

Luton Town 1-2 West Ham Utd, English Premier League. Lutons first home game in the EPL saw counter attacking West Ham with most of the play until they scored. Neither team are used to having possession and it showed, plenty of off target shots and corners little on action or decent play.

Inter Milan 5-1 AC Milan, Serie A, I missed the start of Strictly to watch Milan get thumped.

Olympique Lyon 0-0 Le Havre, Ligue 1. A battling display from the away team earnt a point against an unconfident Lyon. Plenty of blocked shots and Le Havre worked a minor miracle to keep a clean sheet. 

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Burnley, English premier League. A game about misses, Forest would miss a ton of dead certs which gave Burnley the confidence to go ahead late in the first half. Forest equalised with a brilliant goal in a game that both will feel that they could have won.   

West Ham Utd 1-3 Manchester City, English Premier League. West Ham with more of their on the break routine went ahead in the second half City came back with the inevitability of heat death.

Millwall 0-3 Leeds, Championship. Fun attacking game with both sides going for it.

Sunderland 5-0 Southampton, Championship. A very good performance from Sunderland who played on the break for most of the game. A fun attacking game with Southampton unable to penetrate despite having most of the play.

Southampton 1-4 Leicester City, Championship. Jamie Vardy started a party after 20 seconds and Southampton cried because they wanted too.

Latvia 0-2 Wales, European Championship Qualifiers. A young Welsh side dominated a niggly Latvia, Wales should have scored more. 

Crystal Palace 3-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers, English Premier League. Enjoyable end to end match, fun trading which got better when the goals started flying in during the second half.   

Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 Bayern Munich, Budesliga. A dominating display from Bayern in a game enlivened by the hosts going ahead midway through the second half. Wave after wave of Bayern attacks saw them equalise and then grab a winner in the final few minutes. A good trading game created by the hosts going ahead. 

Burnley 2-5 Tottenham Hotspur, English Premier League. A dominant away display by Spurs who bossed Burnley. A good display of a new manager asserting his personality on the team as well as a satisfying hattrick from Son proving there is more to him than his partnership with Kane. 

FC Twente 3-1 Ajax, Eredivisie. A dominant display from Twente in a game of many chances, even by Eredivisie standards. Twente keep up their 100% league record and Ajax are already 7 points behind the leaders.

Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Newcastle Utd, English Premier League. A dominant display from Brighton who kept Newcastle in their pockets for most of the game. Very impressive as I'd expected this game to be a lot closer. 

Sheffield Utd 2-2 Everton, English Premier League. A fun, attacking game with both teams going for it feeling that this was a game both could win. A 12:30 kick off and one of the most enjoyable EPL games that have been in this time slot. 

Genoa 2-2 Napoli, Serie A. An out of sorts Napoli with an eye on Europe went to Genoa and found themselves two goals down. An aging Kevin Strootman for most of the game kept Napoli at bay but when he ran out of gas things looked grim. After hooking him off around the mid 70 minute mark Napoli would score an equaliser and an away banker turned into a score draw.

Bayern Munich 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga. Kane put Bayern ahead within ten minutes and it looked like game over, Leverkusen ripped up the script, did some adlibbing and equalised. Bayern went ahead again late but a penalty earned a point for the away side in what was an unexpectedly an even game.

Paris Saint-Germain 2-3 Nice, Ligue 1. There's nothing like a good pantomime villain (OH NO THEY DON'T) and in recent years that is what PSG have become just that. Nice went ahead early and despite being pegged back before half time mounted a counter attacking second half that saw them go 3-1 up. PSG would pull another goal back but thankfully Nice held on and a Merry Festivus was had by all.

Fiorentina 3-2 Atalanta, Serie A. I felt this was going to be a good game and it didn't disappoint. Both teams would go ahead and take turns dominating what was a good above mid table league game. Possibly the best flowing game I've seen this month and I look forward to a good season from both teams.   

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-3 Liverpool, English Premier League. Liverpool don't do midday first half's, Wolves do and they had a cracker going 1-0 up and could have got a few more. Liverpool made a change at half time then another two ten minutes later, in a unique move for a subbed player Gakpo left via the penalty box and scored an equaliser. From that point Liverpool were rarely in trouble going ahead via Robertson with a counter attacking run from a cleared corner and Harvey Elliot making three although it would be credited as an own goal. 

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester Utd, English Premier League. A fantastic guns blazing game from two sides who were going out to win. Plenty of cards, corners, chances and talking points, a far cry from the damp squib that I feared. A lot closer than the score line suggests with the two late goals creating chaos on the correct score market. 

Napoli 1-2 Lazio, Serie A. The top two clubs in Serie A last season went to battle early in the month at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and produced a belter. After a few waves of attack from Napoli they fell behind to a deft Lazio flick only to equalise minutes later. Napoli would spend the rest of the match on attack with Lazio playing on the break. Lazio had two goals ruled off for offside however their game plan was well executed. 

Borussia Dortmund 2-2 FC Heidenheim, Bundesliga. What started as a standard game with Dortmund taking a two goal lead turned into something special as Heidenheim mounted a comeback complete with VAR and disallowed goals that earned them their first ever point in the Bundesliga.

Caveat, I fell ill and was in hospital most of the second half of the month.