Football Poets

Premier League review

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So here we are at the business end of
The Premier League, City still
But only marginally ahead
Of the Merseyside cruiser
Liverpool, edging nervously
Past the claret and blue
Marauding armies
West Ham beaten but unbowed
Liverpool, a study in pragmatism
Rather than the frills and thrills
Of days gone by
When art deco met art nouveau
Between the Shankly gates
Picturesque brush strokes
By Roger Hunt, Ian St John,
Keegan and Toshack
A collaboration of gifted minds
Wired up telepathically and
Technically, reading each other
Like weighty novels
Now Sane and Salah
Of sophisticated minds
West Ham unravelled
Like a red cotton reel
Sane nips in to score
Keeping Manchester City
Within arms length
City now locked into a
Ferocious argument
With noisy neighbours
United. Please can
We have a little decorum
Gentlemen. It is only a derby
And you can have your ball
Back, when we tell you
Such unnecessary bickering and
Quarrelling.
Meanwhile at Villa Park
Villa launch the cavalry
And gorge themselves
On yet another mouth watering
Haute cuisine of goals
Steven Gerrard is using his
His honours degree and
Those rich Liverpool qualifications
Villa, heavily influenced by
Gerrard’s Master of Arts
At the Anfield academy
Southampton hit for four
Then Chelsea, blooming like a
An early daffodil ransack
The Burnley vault with
A complete demolition job
At Turfmoor, surely within
Touching distance of top
Three or four will suffice
To be followed dessert and
Pudding at the top table
Of the Premier League elite
At Molineux
Billy Wright would have
Been horrified at the collapse
Of Wolves modern day icons
Who abandon their post
Yesterday at the hands of
A Palace take over
Where the flunkeys and
Servants help themselves
To rich pickings
Patrick Viera’s remembering
His Arsenal studies
And patient tuition
Under Wenger’s scholarly
Influence
Now Viera gives us
A revolutionary era
And two goals at the Wolves
Mid table respectability, it’s
Certain and definite
Then the Foxes of Leicester
Hunt in the way that predators do
Foraging and scavenging through
The brittle fragility of Leeds
Now stripped of Bielsa
Who thought he had radical
Leanings but sacked when
Over ambitious theories
Were rumbled by the humble
Of the Premier League great
Leicester back in the limelight
Top ten finish without a doubt
Finally both Newcastle and Norwich
Almost gobbled up by relegation hounds
But paddling furiously against the drop
Eddie Howe’s Geordie black and white
Stripes, another pint of intoxication please
Barman or woman, a rich foaming glass
Of victory over the Seagulls of Brighton
St James Park will survive the scars
And ravages of battles against the
Fall back into the Championship
And finally, sadly, impending doom
Norwich City, unsure of their bearings
Neither good or bad, too good for the
Championship lower orders but clearly
Unsuited for dinner jacketed gatherings
And champagne quaffing at Premier
League tables of gold but only silver
Cutlery, when Preston and Ipswich
Are visitors at another buffet
Brentford Bees full of honeyed
Intentions . This is their first time
In the top flight
Debut season, wet behind the ears
But frightening the life of
Canaries in a coalmine
Sliding back from whence
They came
So refreshing to see
Christian Eriksen
Among the Brentford
Nylons again

24