LONDON-Eurosport blogger and Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka mulls over how a lazy summer can impact on a club’s season.
“I’m not going to comment on what Newcastle’s stand-in manager Joe Kinnear said in that press conference, but it seemed to have some kind of effect on the players - coming from two down to draw at Everton is a good result by anyone’s standards! Hopefully it will give them some confidence to build on.
On the other hand, Everton should be challenging the big teams but I did have a feeling that they would struggle to repeat last year’s top-five finish. And now I really doubt they can come close to it.
They have started the season quite badly, and their recruitment in the summer did not match the level of their ambition.
Everton lost several players in important positions, but they did not bring enough of the right men in to replace them and to improve the team, while other clubs have made big signings. They will not do so well this season, I think.
Hull City, however, are a massive surprise. I hope that they continue in this way but it will be difficult because the season is long and a lot of things can happen.
They have made a very, very good start because in the summer they brought in loads of good players, players who can cut it at this level. I mean Geovanni played for Barcelona a few years ago and he is still pretty young!
I don’t think their performance, and the good start by West Brom, says that the Championship is necessarily closing in on the Premier League.
What I do think it shows is that, if you are a well-run club like Hull, and you use the money you get for promotion in a clever, coherent way, that you can close the gap quite quickly.
And it also shows that the bigger clubs cannot be complacent with this kind of competition going on in the market.
Back to Chelsea, I came off during the 2-0 win against Aston Villa, but it was more of a precaution than anything else.
We have so many injuries at the moment that there was no point in risking losing another player. Joe Cole, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Didier Drogba, Alex, Michael Essien... It’s getting a bit silly now!
I hurt myself before that match, in the Champions League draw with CFR Cluj, but it was just a little tightening in my thigh.
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