I don’t blog about religion very often because I’m just not a very religious person. I’m a Buddhist but the Noble Eight-fold Path does not rule my life.
However I do know a few things; Buddhism is the teaching of the Buddha and if some guy or some group decides to one day start calling the Buddha by another name, I will be unhappy about it.
So I can absolutely understand why Muslims in Malaysia are unhappy about Christians using the name “Allah”. Problem started when Malaysian Roman Catholic Church wanted to use the name “Allah”. Naturally, Muslims in Malaysia are up in arms about the matter.
First off, I can’t understand why Christians, much less the Malaysia's Roman Catholic Church, want to call their God “Allah”. It just does not make sense to me. Allah is the name of the God of Islam, not the name of the God of Christianity. Why do they want to call their god “Allah” when it’s not His name. And if Christians want to give their god a name, surely the name they ought to pick is “Yahweh” not “Allah”.
Second, I cannot understand why the Malaysian Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed non-Muslims to use "Allah". Names are important, much less the names of gods! I cannot understand why the court this to happen.
Third, can someone from the Malaysia's Roman Catholic Church please come out and argue their case. Muslims in Malaysian are arguing that “Allah” is the name of their God, not the God of Christianity. To me, a Buddhist, this makes prefect sense. The Buddha is the Buddha. I can’t even imagine calling the Buddha by another name, so why is in the world would Christians want to start calling their god “Allah”? That makes no sense to me. Explain to me why the Malaysian Roman Catholic Church wants to call their god “Allah”, and not “Yahweh” or even “God” (like you know, every other Christians I know of in the world).
I can just tell the explanation is going to be a good one.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Revised OPC
I have said before that when it comes to cars, Singaporeans would throw their brains out of the window. To prove my point again, here comes the revised Off-Peak Car Scheme (OPC).
Under the revised OPC scheme, OPC cars will be allowed to start driving on the whole Saturday, and no longer need to wait till 3pm. OPC owners can’t wait till 25th Jan to start registering for the new scheme.
Hold your horses people because the extra timing comes with a catch; you have to pay a higher road tax (RT) to drive your car. Currently, RT for OPC comes with a $800 discount per year, minimum payment of $50. Under the revised OPC scheme, this discount will be cut to $500, minimum payment of $70. So no matter what, you will be paying more under the new scheme.
Before any of you OPC owners scoffed at the $70 RT, note that it is the “minimum payment of $70”. Your new RT payment will most likely be more than that. For example if you have a 1600cc car, your RT per year ought be to $744 but if your car is an OPC, the RT is only $50 as you have a $800 discount on the RT. Under the new revised OPC, your RT payment will be $244 because the RT discount has been cut!
An extra $200 per year just for driving a few more hours on Saturday? Frankly I don’t think it’s worth it.
Under the revised OPC scheme, OPC cars will be allowed to start driving on the whole Saturday, and no longer need to wait till 3pm. OPC owners can’t wait till 25th Jan to start registering for the new scheme.
Hold your horses people because the extra timing comes with a catch; you have to pay a higher road tax (RT) to drive your car. Currently, RT for OPC comes with a $800 discount per year, minimum payment of $50. Under the revised OPC scheme, this discount will be cut to $500, minimum payment of $70. So no matter what, you will be paying more under the new scheme.
Before any of you OPC owners scoffed at the $70 RT, note that it is the “minimum payment of $70”. Your new RT payment will most likely be more than that. For example if you have a 1600cc car, your RT per year ought be to $744 but if your car is an OPC, the RT is only $50 as you have a $800 discount on the RT. Under the new revised OPC, your RT payment will be $244 because the RT discount has been cut!
An extra $200 per year just for driving a few more hours on Saturday? Frankly I don’t think it’s worth it.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Comics this week
Blackest Night #6- The cover page says “The New Guardians” and the issue was great. There is a giant loophole in the plot; the power rings can duplicate? Good, fine and great but why the hell didn’t they do this in the first place? Outside that, the story continues to rock and Ivan Reis’ art is as good as always. It was fun seeing the rings choose their wearers but Mera with the ring of rage? Seeing how many angry heroes and villains there are on Earth, the ring picked the wife of Aquaman? Overall it’s another brilliant issue of Blackest Night!
Siege #1- There’s only one reason why I’m picking up Siege and that’s to see the end of ‘Dark Reign’. A storyline that had lasted way too long, I look forward to the end of it. However even ‘Dark Reign’ means nothing to you, this issue is pretty good. Norman Osborn's insanity is front and centre here as he bulldozed his way into a conflict with the gods of Asgard, I mean when even Bulleye and Moonstone think a war against Asgard is crazy. That in short is my biggest problem with Seige. An army of mortals (even with super-powers) verse an army of gods? How will this even be a contest? That’s like Superman going up against Batman only it’s a Superman with no weakness. Still, it’ll be nice to see Osborn getting his ass kicked.
Suicide Squad #67- We comics fans are a loyal bunch. I’m no fan of John Ostrander's Suicide Squad which I think is a cool concept series that overstayed its welcome. However loyal Suicide Squad fans have constantly asked for the series reinstatement. I have to admit, DC got a cool idea with resurrecting old series for Blackest Night. Since it will be a crossover with Secret Six, I pick up Suicide Squad. Glad I did too, because it’s actually a pretty good Secret Six issue. Although it’s Suicide Squad #67, the issue is more about the Six. Scandal’s “It’s…it’s pink!” was just priceless and it was humorous seeing how Ragdoll tried to run interference between Bane and Scandal's date Liana. This being a Blackest Night tie-in was barely mentioned and that was what made this a good issue.
Siege #1- There’s only one reason why I’m picking up Siege and that’s to see the end of ‘Dark Reign’. A storyline that had lasted way too long, I look forward to the end of it. However even ‘Dark Reign’ means nothing to you, this issue is pretty good. Norman Osborn's insanity is front and centre here as he bulldozed his way into a conflict with the gods of Asgard, I mean when even Bulleye and Moonstone think a war against Asgard is crazy. That in short is my biggest problem with Seige. An army of mortals (even with super-powers) verse an army of gods? How will this even be a contest? That’s like Superman going up against Batman only it’s a Superman with no weakness. Still, it’ll be nice to see Osborn getting his ass kicked.
Suicide Squad #67- We comics fans are a loyal bunch. I’m no fan of John Ostrander's Suicide Squad which I think is a cool concept series that overstayed its welcome. However loyal Suicide Squad fans have constantly asked for the series reinstatement. I have to admit, DC got a cool idea with resurrecting old series for Blackest Night. Since it will be a crossover with Secret Six, I pick up Suicide Squad. Glad I did too, because it’s actually a pretty good Secret Six issue. Although it’s Suicide Squad #67, the issue is more about the Six. Scandal’s “It’s…it’s pink!” was just priceless and it was humorous seeing how Ragdoll tried to run interference between Bane and Scandal's date Liana. This being a Blackest Night tie-in was barely mentioned and that was what made this a good issue.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Review of Avatar
Like a world-destroying Death Star, Avatar came into Singapore and started to push all other movies to the wayside. The return of the “King of the World” James Cameron, 10 years & $400 million to make, the next stage of movie-making, etc; the promotional guys went overtime on the movie.
After all the hype, how was the movie?
First off, the story of Avatar is really quite predictable. Sam Worthington stars as Jake Sully, an ex-marine who lost the use of his legs in military service, and then lost his twin brother in a robbery.
Sully's brother was a scientist who was supposed to be sent to Pandora, an alien moon populated by giant, blue-skinned, humanoids called the Na'vi. Pandora has an atmosphere that is poisonous to humans, so humans created the Avatars; biological alien bodies created by combining human and alien DNA. These Avatars can only be controlled by the humans who provide the human DNA of the Avatars and Sully’s brother was one of these humans. With his death, his Avatar is useless but as they were twins; Sully was offered his brother’s position.
Once on Pandora, Sully found that he enjoy being in his Avatar body and was given the mission of infiltrating the Na'vi, and find out what they want in exchange for moving out of their village. The Na’vi village sits on a massive deposit of Unobtainium, an alien metal that the humans want to mine.
From there, Sully found himself and enjoyed life with the Na’vi. By the end of the movie, Sully had switched sides and helped the Na’vi fight against the greedy humans.
Avatar is a movie with a simple story but that doesn’t really matters because what Avatar is really about is CGI magic. The avatars were created by using motion-capture sensors on the face and bodies of the actors and adding CGI from the information gathered. I’m sure there is a better explanation of the technique but I just know one thing. It worked!
The avatars are amazing. Even though they are 3m tall, totally blue, with a slimmer built and shape to humans; you can recognized the actors playing the avatars. When I first saw Grace’s avatar, I went like, “that’s Sigourney Weaver!” The avatars actually do resemble their human counterparts.
They are so good and so life-like that I can say Zoe Saldana turned in an excellent performance even though her character, Neytiri, was totally in CGI. The CGI also work as Pandora was a beautiful world. Its’ jungle, rain forests, coastlines, flying mountains, alien vegetation, were all wonderfully alien. James Cameron really did manage to bring viewers to an alien world.
Graphically, out of 10, I will give Avatar a 11. However, that is the best thing about the movie.
The story is passable, but unfortunately so was the acting. Outside the already mentioned Zoe Saldana (who was excellent), everyone else was only passable…at best. Sam Worthington was very good in Terminator Salvation so I was kind of disappointed in his performance as Jake Sully. Sully’s jump from a more-than-willing spy to a more-than-happy to kill fellow human sympathizer required a leap of faith from viewers. He had alien sex, logout of his avatar, log back in, sees a giant tractor coming towards him, destroyed said giant tractor, and then he’s on the Na’vi side of the war. Wow, alien sex must be great.
Yes, the movie script didn’t help but really Worthington should have done much better. His weak performance made the love affair between Sully and Neytiri the weakness part of the movie. Even Stephen Lang turned in a better performance and his Col. Miles Quaritch character was a cardboard villain!
The movie also skipped a few key points. It was never said why Unobtainium was so precious. Yes, it’s expensive but the movie never explain why it was so sought after. I also feel that they missed a great chance about the massively-interconnectivity organism that is Pandora.
Pandora is like a living moon whose tree-roots can link up with each living being on the moon and the Na’vi can spiritually use Pandora to connect with other creatures living on the moon. The Na'vi called this Elywa, which could be what they called Pandora. The humans of course laugh at this. A living moon? Ha!
That was science fiction at its best. In sci-fi, one of the most important things to get right is the new and different worlds. It must be alien but at the same time interesting and understandable to people. Pandora fulfilled all of these points but instead of concentrating on the sci-fi story of Pandora, James Cameron had to put in a love story between a human and Na’vi that made no sense.
In fact, I’m not exactly sure what kind of movie Avatar really is. It’s like James Cameron tried to touch all the bases here because in the end Avatar became a sci-fi/love story/war movie hybrid.
Overall I have mixed feelings about Avatar. It was a technically beautiful movie set in a very interesting world, however what could have been a great movie was letdown by a poor script and so-so direction. If Avatar had stayed a science fiction movie, it would have been great but it didn’t and that ultimately turned Avatar into an average movie with good eye-candy.
In short, Avatar is a good movie that would and should have been great.
After all the hype, how was the movie?
First off, the story of Avatar is really quite predictable. Sam Worthington stars as Jake Sully, an ex-marine who lost the use of his legs in military service, and then lost his twin brother in a robbery.
Sully's brother was a scientist who was supposed to be sent to Pandora, an alien moon populated by giant, blue-skinned, humanoids called the Na'vi. Pandora has an atmosphere that is poisonous to humans, so humans created the Avatars; biological alien bodies created by combining human and alien DNA. These Avatars can only be controlled by the humans who provide the human DNA of the Avatars and Sully’s brother was one of these humans. With his death, his Avatar is useless but as they were twins; Sully was offered his brother’s position.
Once on Pandora, Sully found that he enjoy being in his Avatar body and was given the mission of infiltrating the Na'vi, and find out what they want in exchange for moving out of their village. The Na’vi village sits on a massive deposit of Unobtainium, an alien metal that the humans want to mine.
From there, Sully found himself and enjoyed life with the Na’vi. By the end of the movie, Sully had switched sides and helped the Na’vi fight against the greedy humans.
Avatar is a movie with a simple story but that doesn’t really matters because what Avatar is really about is CGI magic. The avatars were created by using motion-capture sensors on the face and bodies of the actors and adding CGI from the information gathered. I’m sure there is a better explanation of the technique but I just know one thing. It worked!
The avatars are amazing. Even though they are 3m tall, totally blue, with a slimmer built and shape to humans; you can recognized the actors playing the avatars. When I first saw Grace’s avatar, I went like, “that’s Sigourney Weaver!” The avatars actually do resemble their human counterparts.
They are so good and so life-like that I can say Zoe Saldana turned in an excellent performance even though her character, Neytiri, was totally in CGI. The CGI also work as Pandora was a beautiful world. Its’ jungle, rain forests, coastlines, flying mountains, alien vegetation, were all wonderfully alien. James Cameron really did manage to bring viewers to an alien world.
Graphically, out of 10, I will give Avatar a 11. However, that is the best thing about the movie.
The story is passable, but unfortunately so was the acting. Outside the already mentioned Zoe Saldana (who was excellent), everyone else was only passable…at best. Sam Worthington was very good in Terminator Salvation so I was kind of disappointed in his performance as Jake Sully. Sully’s jump from a more-than-willing spy to a more-than-happy to kill fellow human sympathizer required a leap of faith from viewers. He had alien sex, logout of his avatar, log back in, sees a giant tractor coming towards him, destroyed said giant tractor, and then he’s on the Na’vi side of the war. Wow, alien sex must be great.
Yes, the movie script didn’t help but really Worthington should have done much better. His weak performance made the love affair between Sully and Neytiri the weakness part of the movie. Even Stephen Lang turned in a better performance and his Col. Miles Quaritch character was a cardboard villain!
The movie also skipped a few key points. It was never said why Unobtainium was so precious. Yes, it’s expensive but the movie never explain why it was so sought after. I also feel that they missed a great chance about the massively-interconnectivity organism that is Pandora.
Pandora is like a living moon whose tree-roots can link up with each living being on the moon and the Na’vi can spiritually use Pandora to connect with other creatures living on the moon. The Na'vi called this Elywa, which could be what they called Pandora. The humans of course laugh at this. A living moon? Ha!
That was science fiction at its best. In sci-fi, one of the most important things to get right is the new and different worlds. It must be alien but at the same time interesting and understandable to people. Pandora fulfilled all of these points but instead of concentrating on the sci-fi story of Pandora, James Cameron had to put in a love story between a human and Na’vi that made no sense.
In fact, I’m not exactly sure what kind of movie Avatar really is. It’s like James Cameron tried to touch all the bases here because in the end Avatar became a sci-fi/love story/war movie hybrid.
Overall I have mixed feelings about Avatar. It was a technically beautiful movie set in a very interesting world, however what could have been a great movie was letdown by a poor script and so-so direction. If Avatar had stayed a science fiction movie, it would have been great but it didn’t and that ultimately turned Avatar into an average movie with good eye-candy.
In short, Avatar is a good movie that would and should have been great.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
If Dubai can get away with it...
At the start of the global financial meltdown, one of the countries hardest hit was Iceland. The Icelandic bank collapse affected not only Iceland but also people in the U.K and Holland.
Thousands of British and Dutch nationals had invested in a bank called Icesave and were left with nothing when the bank collapsed. The British and Dutch government had pressured the Icelandic government to compensate their nationals and the Icelandic government caved after being told an IMF bank loan would depend on compensation to British and Dutch nationals.
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir had put together a bill, narrowly approved by the Icelandic parliament on December 31, that will payout 3.8 billion euros to the British and Dutch governments as compensation to more than 320,000 British and Dutch savers who lost money in the collapse of the Icelandic bank but the Icelandic president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, had so far refused to sign the vastly unpopular bill.
Under the Icelandic constitution, that means the bill would be put to a popular referendum. Since the bill is vastly unpopular, it is almost certain to be rejected by the Icelandic people and the British and the Dutch are up in hands about it.
Now it’s sad that thousands of British and Dutch savers had lost money in the collapse of the Icelandic bank but quite frankly Britain and Holland do not have a legal leg to stand on and here’s why;
Icesave is not a government bank. Icesave do not belong to the Icelandic government. I mean if Dubai can say Dubai World do not belong to the Government of Dubai, after years of “implying” that it was, how can you ask the Icelandic government to compensate other nationals for a bank failure that do not belong to the Icelandic government?
It doesn’t make any sense at all. To my knowledge, Icesave never pretended to belong to the Icelandic government so how can you ask the Icelandic government to pay for the bank failure? Especially when neither the U.K or Holland made a sound when Dubai said that Dubai World do not belong to them?
If Dubai can get away with it, why not Iceland? It’s that simple and Iceland got more of a case than Dubai ever did! Like I said before; If Dubai can get away with it, expect more of the same from other countries. Since Dubai had seemingly got away with itr, I expect Iceland to be but the first of many countries to try the same thing.
Thousands of British and Dutch nationals had invested in a bank called Icesave and were left with nothing when the bank collapsed. The British and Dutch government had pressured the Icelandic government to compensate their nationals and the Icelandic government caved after being told an IMF bank loan would depend on compensation to British and Dutch nationals.
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir had put together a bill, narrowly approved by the Icelandic parliament on December 31, that will payout 3.8 billion euros to the British and Dutch governments as compensation to more than 320,000 British and Dutch savers who lost money in the collapse of the Icelandic bank but the Icelandic president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, had so far refused to sign the vastly unpopular bill.
Under the Icelandic constitution, that means the bill would be put to a popular referendum. Since the bill is vastly unpopular, it is almost certain to be rejected by the Icelandic people and the British and the Dutch are up in hands about it.
Now it’s sad that thousands of British and Dutch savers had lost money in the collapse of the Icelandic bank but quite frankly Britain and Holland do not have a legal leg to stand on and here’s why;
Icesave is not a government bank. Icesave do not belong to the Icelandic government. I mean if Dubai can say Dubai World do not belong to the Government of Dubai, after years of “implying” that it was, how can you ask the Icelandic government to compensate other nationals for a bank failure that do not belong to the Icelandic government?
It doesn’t make any sense at all. To my knowledge, Icesave never pretended to belong to the Icelandic government so how can you ask the Icelandic government to pay for the bank failure? Especially when neither the U.K or Holland made a sound when Dubai said that Dubai World do not belong to them?
If Dubai can get away with it, why not Iceland? It’s that simple and Iceland got more of a case than Dubai ever did! Like I said before; If Dubai can get away with it, expect more of the same from other countries. Since Dubai had seemingly got away with itr, I expect Iceland to be but the first of many countries to try the same thing.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Interesting Year Ahead
As Dubai opened the new highest building in the world, there is hope that economically 2010 will be better than 2009. Don’t count on it people because we are living in interesting times. For non-Asians readers out there, that is consider a curse here.
Why do I say this? Because France just reported that their debt has reached record levels, and there is suddenly a new worry for the world. Just how many nations will be able to pay off their debts in the year ahead?
One of the ways nations raise money is to issue bonds in order to raise cash to pay for programs such as financing a war, public healthcare etc. These bonds are often considered safe investments because most countries would have no problems paying off their debt. One of the reason bonds are viewed (rightfully) as far safer is because countries could say raise taxes or issued even more bonds to raise money to pay off their debts. However as the case of Dubai proves, we are living in interesting times.
Anyone who questioned the danger of default can just look at the near default of Dubai. It was the darling of the world before it all come tumbling down but as big as Dubai was, it is really nothing compare to giant European countries defaulting. Already the ratings of Ireland and Spain had been cut by rating agencies and France look likely to join them.
Now before anyone say its impossible for countries to lack the money to pay off their debts, this sort of things happened before. Russia defaulted in 1998, Argentina did it in 2002, and the most recent case was Ecuador in December 2008. With the global credit system still under trouble due to the credit crisis last year, certain nations are now hard-pressed to raise money.
Greece and Ukraine are the 2 countries currently in the most danger. At least 3 rating agencies had downgraded Greece’s rating in the past month as Greece faces the risk of sinking under its debts and Ukraine had been having problems paying for its’ gas imports from Russia since early 09. If one of these European countries default…look out people.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are living in interesting times.
Why do I say this? Because France just reported that their debt has reached record levels, and there is suddenly a new worry for the world. Just how many nations will be able to pay off their debts in the year ahead?
One of the ways nations raise money is to issue bonds in order to raise cash to pay for programs such as financing a war, public healthcare etc. These bonds are often considered safe investments because most countries would have no problems paying off their debt. One of the reason bonds are viewed (rightfully) as far safer is because countries could say raise taxes or issued even more bonds to raise money to pay off their debts. However as the case of Dubai proves, we are living in interesting times.
Anyone who questioned the danger of default can just look at the near default of Dubai. It was the darling of the world before it all come tumbling down but as big as Dubai was, it is really nothing compare to giant European countries defaulting. Already the ratings of Ireland and Spain had been cut by rating agencies and France look likely to join them.
Now before anyone say its impossible for countries to lack the money to pay off their debts, this sort of things happened before. Russia defaulted in 1998, Argentina did it in 2002, and the most recent case was Ecuador in December 2008. With the global credit system still under trouble due to the credit crisis last year, certain nations are now hard-pressed to raise money.
Greece and Ukraine are the 2 countries currently in the most danger. At least 3 rating agencies had downgraded Greece’s rating in the past month as Greece faces the risk of sinking under its debts and Ukraine had been having problems paying for its’ gas imports from Russia since early 09. If one of these European countries default…look out people.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are living in interesting times.
Monday, January 4, 2010
EPL this month
The January transfer window is about to open and some teams just can’t wait for it. Here are some of the teams that need to buy players;
Top Teams this Month
Chelsea- People say that Chelsea is in a slump but I don’t quite understand it. They are 2 points in front of everyone, and even if Arsenal win the hand in hand they have, Chelsea will still be on top. Their rivals better hope Chelsea is not in a slump, because if this is their slump, then the title is as good as theirs.
Manchester United – When Sir Alex Ferguson has to play Michael Carrick in central defense and Darren Fletcher is right-back, you know Man Utd has an injury crisis on its hands. Good news is that Chelsea has not managed to pull away from them; bad news is that Arsenal has managed to take second place from them. However for all their problems at the back, they are still getting points and are firmly near the top of the league.
Arsenal- When Robin van Persie went down, their season looked over. However Andrei Arshavin has been excellent as a makeshift striker, but then Cesc Fabregas had to go and join van Persie on the treatment table. Even with the good run the Gunners are on, they now look short of players in midfield and attack. The January transfer window can’t come fast enough for manager Arsene Wenger.
Surprise Team this month
Man City- After 2 wins in 11 games, manager Mark Hughes is gone and Italian Roberto Mancini is now the man in charge. People say that Hughes had been badly treated but 2 wins in 11 says a lot and I wasn’t that surprised that he was given the boot. I mean Sven-Goran Eriksson did as well as Hughes with much less resources and he was given the boot as well, so it’s not like this is unusual for Man City. I just wonder how long Mancini is going to last.
Disappointing Teams this month
Aston Villa- Just when you think Aston Villa is going to make a breakthrough, they go and prove you wrong. Suffering 2 straight defeats, to Arsenal away and Liverpool at home means that Villa is more pretender than genuine contender to the Big 4. Manager Martin O’Neill will need to go into the transfer market or Villa will end up like last season; an also-ran.
Liverpool- They beat Wolves at home and Aston Villa away, but even with 2 straight victories there is no denying Liverpool are in big, big trouble. Manager Rafa Benitez had to rush unfit Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard back into the team, the captain openly admit that he is praying for divine help, and not even the most died hard Liverpool fan believe they can win the title this season. In fact, more than a few of them are wondering if Liverpool can finish in the Top 4 this season. And to think everyone thought Liverpool would be a title contender at the start of the season.
Portsmouth- You have to feel for their fans. They got a new manager, the team is fighting and scrapping for points, and it could be all for nothing. The team own money to the British tax-collectors and for the second time this season, players' salaries were late. They are already last in the league, and if they go into administration they will suffer a 9 points deduction, making survival impossible. You have to feel for their fans.
Top Teams this Month
Chelsea- People say that Chelsea is in a slump but I don’t quite understand it. They are 2 points in front of everyone, and even if Arsenal win the hand in hand they have, Chelsea will still be on top. Their rivals better hope Chelsea is not in a slump, because if this is their slump, then the title is as good as theirs.
Manchester United – When Sir Alex Ferguson has to play Michael Carrick in central defense and Darren Fletcher is right-back, you know Man Utd has an injury crisis on its hands. Good news is that Chelsea has not managed to pull away from them; bad news is that Arsenal has managed to take second place from them. However for all their problems at the back, they are still getting points and are firmly near the top of the league.
Arsenal- When Robin van Persie went down, their season looked over. However Andrei Arshavin has been excellent as a makeshift striker, but then Cesc Fabregas had to go and join van Persie on the treatment table. Even with the good run the Gunners are on, they now look short of players in midfield and attack. The January transfer window can’t come fast enough for manager Arsene Wenger.
Surprise Team this month
Man City- After 2 wins in 11 games, manager Mark Hughes is gone and Italian Roberto Mancini is now the man in charge. People say that Hughes had been badly treated but 2 wins in 11 says a lot and I wasn’t that surprised that he was given the boot. I mean Sven-Goran Eriksson did as well as Hughes with much less resources and he was given the boot as well, so it’s not like this is unusual for Man City. I just wonder how long Mancini is going to last.
Disappointing Teams this month
Aston Villa- Just when you think Aston Villa is going to make a breakthrough, they go and prove you wrong. Suffering 2 straight defeats, to Arsenal away and Liverpool at home means that Villa is more pretender than genuine contender to the Big 4. Manager Martin O’Neill will need to go into the transfer market or Villa will end up like last season; an also-ran.
Liverpool- They beat Wolves at home and Aston Villa away, but even with 2 straight victories there is no denying Liverpool are in big, big trouble. Manager Rafa Benitez had to rush unfit Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard back into the team, the captain openly admit that he is praying for divine help, and not even the most died hard Liverpool fan believe they can win the title this season. In fact, more than a few of them are wondering if Liverpool can finish in the Top 4 this season. And to think everyone thought Liverpool would be a title contender at the start of the season.
Portsmouth- You have to feel for their fans. They got a new manager, the team is fighting and scrapping for points, and it could be all for nothing. The team own money to the British tax-collectors and for the second time this season, players' salaries were late. They are already last in the league, and if they go into administration they will suffer a 9 points deduction, making survival impossible. You have to feel for their fans.
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