THERE ARE TWO THINGS ON MY MIND THIS WEEKEND SAYS BY SEGUN ODEGBAMI

There are two things on my mind this weekend – the Barclays Premier League and Nigeria’s match against Sudan!

I am thinking and looking already closer at the real contenders for this season’s BPL trophy.

So far, so Chelsea

I had noted one week into the league season that Chelsea FC looked very seriously like the team to beat this season.

Man U - Not looking United this time

Manchester United FC, until last week, have looked out of sorts with Luis Van Gaal wondering whatever happened to his football magic wand, conceding that this has been his worst and most challenging experience since he started coaching and how difficult it now appeared to be for the club to rise again and play like the champions of old.

Although it is still morning in the league, the signs don’t indicate a typical Man U resurgence. Whatever happened to Rooney, Van Persie and the new mercurial on-loan striker, the Colombian Radamel Falcao?

Falcao looks lost in the Man U team. Di Maria, when he hits full throttle and finally starts to play as well as we all know he is capable of doing, may well become the Joker in the pack and alter the fortunes of Man U for good.

Fluctuating Gunners

The Gunners, with their heavy spending this season, still need to spend some more to get the perfect combination going.

Sanchez who came in with great credentials from FC Barcelona, for me, has been a great disappointment. His performance during the World Cup for Chile was so fantastic that even I believed that any club would be lucky to pry him away. Instead, he has looked rather slow and uncertain about how to play at Arsenal, just as the team also continues to display great vulnerability when defending.

The team’s performance has kept oscillating between brilliant and abysmal!

Arsenal also, like Manchester United, have not played like potential champions. Arsene Wenger still needs to make use of the next transfer window for players that can shore up the team’s defence or this may be his last season with the Gunners!

Liverpool - walking alone

Liverpool FC have just not struck a great rhythm yet. They have played with the promise of great things to come, but have failed to be firm in their delivery. There is more bottled up inside the team than what have been displayed so far.

They are unlikely to walk away with the crown this time even if on paper they have the capability.

Impressive defending champions

Manchester City FC have been impressive. They are improving with every match and may indeed have the best front line in the Premiership this season with several attacking options upfront led by Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and Hazard.

Yaya Toure continues to inspire with his week-in week-out textbook demonstration of how to play in central midfield. He is the perfect bridge and the anchor between defence and attack. He surely must be in contention for the best central midfield player in the world as well as a leading contender for Africa’s next Player of the Year Award again this December

But it is Chelsea FC in England (not in Europe where they have looked boring and have been playing tamely) that have shown quite clearly their intention to win the Premiership. The team has played every match with the signature of Jose Mourinho written all over it,

The shoving spat between Wenger and Mourinho last weekend, when Chelsea trounced Arsenal with consummate ease, really confirmed Chelsea’s strength and determination this season.

They are the team playing with the spirit of potential champions....

Stephen Keshi, Super Eagles and the Ides of March!

The last thing on my mind as we approach this weekend is the most discussed issue in Nigerian football at the moment, As the Super Eagles of Nigeria play away in Sudan, the match could determine Stephen Keshi’s fate as manager of the Super Eagles.

Undoubtedly the Super Eagles have been anything but super since after the World Cup.

Before then Keshi could do no wrong. He had amassed the most successful record for a Nigerian in the history of football in the country.

Then he took Nigeria to the World Cup where he put up a fairly good performance until some immature behavior by the players, that many people have said he encouraged and benefitted from, crept in to ruin everything he had worked for.

With a new Executive Committee that appears not to want him but unable to get rid of him easily, he now faces the biggest threat to his stay as manager of the national team.

For now he is hanging on to the job with the skin of his teeth, and is likely to be laid off should the Eagles fail to impress this weekend.

The biggest thing going for him is the absence of any alternative to him as coach of the Eagles.

In this era of ex-internationals, no other Nigerian ex-international has his rich football management credentials. So, to consider anyone among a list of the few in his category is difficult. It can’t be justified.

Samson Siasia, whose name is been dangled as a possible replacement, would be a hard sell. Nothing has happened in Siasia’s career since he was replaced by Keshi to indicate that he is now a different and better coach.

Perhaps Sunday Oliseh? He looks the part. But can he walk his talk?

I do not like the setting of this weekend’s match at all. I wonder why CAF would allow a match of this magnitude to be played on artificial turf. This could well spell doom for the Super Eagles.

I do not like it one bit! The Super Eagles and Stephen Keshi must beware the Ides of March! But good luck Eagles!