It’s not easy,but you can still upset odds
ONE of the reasons we all love football so much is because of its unpredictability. It would be boring if the favourites always won and those expected to fail always did so.
There are already signs that the EFL is living up to its unpredictable tag this term.
Okay, it’s early days, but who would have predicted that Aston Villa, the bookies’ favourites, wouldn’t win any of their opening three fixtures and would be in the relegation zone?
Pre-weekend, there was already talk that boss Steve Bruce, right, is under pressure. That’s ridiculous. Give him time and he’ll sort Villa out, but how often do managers get the time they need these days?
In League One, pundits and bookies made Blackburn Rovers favourites. Yet they lost their first two games and, like Villa, were in the relegation zone ahead of the weekend.
Of course, two games is nothing. Newcastle lost their first two last season and went on to win the Championship.
Yet Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray has already warned his troops that they quickly need to understand what it takes to win games in the third tier.
Understand
Other teams will raise their game when they take on Rovers. It might not be their ‘cup final’ but taking the scalp of Blackburn will be something opponents will be eager to achieve.
At the other end of the scale, hats off to Shrewsbury Town, who won their opening two matches in League One.
They had been written off in all quarters and tipped to go down. In an interesting feature in the South London Press, the paper asked journalists representing each club in the division to nominate teams for promotion and relegation.
In League One, a whopping 19 out of 24 went for Shrewsbury (only Gillingham with 21 got more votes).
Of course, the Shews might still go down, but six points on the board is a great way to start and evidence that Paul Hurst’s men may not be the easy pickings many felt they would be.
And what greater motivation can there be than when all and sundry are writing you off before a ball has even been kicked?
If I was a Shrewsbury player, I would be fired up to prove all the doubters wrong. It can go the other way, too. Perhaps those teams tipped to do well or thought of as hot favourites for promotion feel the pressure or weight of expectation more. Perhaps those teams who have thrown piles of money around to make a batch of signings need more time to gel, to become a team, to understand how each other plays. So far, Wolves have been one team with a new manager and players who have flown out of the blocks. That is credit to them, but only time will tell whether they will be able to last the pace. After all, it is a marathon, not a sprint. So whether your team has got off to a fast start or a false start, there’s no reason to lose hope just yet.