Forever Find Flight

Last week, someone told me that I was a Chelsea fan. We aren't particularly close but we were discussing my situation as a neutral. He asked me who the best team that I had seen so far was and I said "Chelsea" as their thrashing of Arsenal was still fresh in my mind. He said that's all it took, but I protested that I didn't want to be a frontrunner. He said that it wasn't that deep. Later on, I discovered that he's a United supporter. For what it's worth, I don't think I'm a Chelsea fan. That feels too easy. 

I may not be a Chelsea fan but there was no other alternative this past Saturday. Supporting Liverpool in any capacity is out of the question. I was basing this mostly off of a few Liverpool fans that I've encountered in life, but listening to footy podcasts, I sense that maybe no one likes Liverpool, aside from their own fans. Anyway, the match at Anfield saw ten men keep things even against eleven for 45 minutes and some change. It was pretty cool to watch, wildly gripping. At times, it looked like, even a man down, Chelsea might hammer home another goal and win the game. Truth be told, rooting against the idea of a Liverpool victory was maybe the most comfortable I've felt as a football fan yet. 

I watched a fair chunk of Aston Villa versus Brentford on Saturday as well, but my stream was shaky which leaves my thoughts on the match incomplete. Brentford being back at the highest level after 74 years remains a great storyline and the team continues to play with an inspired energy. As always, the Aston Villa home kits looked wonderful. 

The end result of Sunday's Wolves versus United match was referred to as a "classic Manchester United smash and grab" on one of the footy podcasts that I spend time with, and my best guess is that refers to how the game was nil-nil for more than 80 minutes before Mason Greenwood hammered home the game-winner. All in all, it was a compelling back-and-forth where anything seemed possible until it wasn't. After that goal, there was a clear feeling that Wolves would not be able to match. It almost felt unfair. The game had been even for so long and then United went and took it all away. It's also unfair how fire those Manchester United away kits are, holy moly. 

There's no Prem scheduled for this upcoming weekend due to the international break so not sure what I'm going to do here. At some point last week, I began watching the Amazon series on Tottenham. Without stating the obvious, it's cool to see how a Premier League club is run. I think I've mentioned this before, but the Tottenham home kits are fantastic (clean, simple and could not be anymore minimal.) This series has also served as my introduction to Jose Mourinho. Some additional research has led me to believe that opinions are mixed on the man. On the one hand, everything he says sounds great, equal parts inspiring and calm cool. On the other hand, there is evidence to the argument that he's quick to take all credit for the victories but equally swift in assigning blame when his club falls. I'm still figuring a lot of this out, but I found the Spurs to be a lot of fun to follow along with; it's still up in the air how much of that is on them and how much of that is the magic of television editing.