EPL this month

There's just a few more games till the end of the season. Who is finishing the season strong, who is not; it's all right here.

Top Teams this Month
Liverpool- One thing you have to say about manager Rafael Benitez. Under him, Liverpool always finish the season strong. Their unbeaten run came a little too late to catch Man Utd, but they are making it far closer than anyone thought they would. Even the injury of Steven Gerrard hadn’t really slowed them down. It’s a season of ‘what if’ however for Liverpool fans; what if Fernando Torres hadn’t been injured, what of Gerrard was fully fit. What if Rafael Benitez hadn’t gone into rotation mode during Christmas? What if…?

Arsenal- Andrei Arshavin showed the world how good he really is when he scored 4 goals against Liverpool, at Anfield to boot. That doesn’t surprise me as I have always rated Arshavin highly but what’s surprising to me is how well he and Cesc Fabregas are playing together. I admit I thought manager Arsene Wenger would have a problem playing them together but so far, it’s been great.

Surprise Team this month
Everton- After 7 long years, manager David Moyes has finally got Everton within sight of a major trophy. They beat Man Utd on penalties but the fans cheering the loudest would be those belonging to Chelsea. Everton maybe hard to beat, but they can’t beat the major teams either. I mean if Everton can’t beat the Man Utd 2nd team in normal time, what chance do they have against Chelsea? That’s too bad because Moyes probably deserved a title after all the hard work he put in.

Disappointing Teams this month
Newcastle- I can understand why Newcastle took on a new manager. Fighting for their EPL life, you just can’t afford to have your manager on sick leave, no matter how well he had done so far. However picking a new, inexperience manager like Alan Shearer is just like picking up an invitation to the Championship. He may have been a good player, but Shearer is unproven as a manager and to throw him straight into a relegation fight is just looking for trouble. Since he took over, Newcastle has not won and had scored just 1 goal in 4 games. Seems like a bad, desperate decision to me.

Aston Villa- Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “When they go, they go fast and there’s not much you can do to stop it.” He was talking about the loss of form at the end of the season. That is exactly what happened to Aston Villa now. Manager Martin O’Neill used only about 20 players the whole season and it is beginning to tell. The players are tired and they never quite recover from the loss of Martin Laursen. Villa has gone from challenging the Big 4 to looking forward to the end of the season.

Hull City- They cannot buy a win right now. I said the same thing last month and this is almost a repeat of that because nothing has changed. While the other teams around them are scrapping for points and wins, I can’t even remember when was the last time Hull got a point. Not one thing is going right for Hull City right now and they seem almost amazingly certain to drop back into the Championship.