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  • Writer's pictureElliot Burrow

Burrows Babblings - part 4, the weather's great isn't it?

Updated: Feb 1, 2023

Part 4 of the blog is here, and despite all the awful weather we've had over the last week, there was plenty of action to brighten up the sporting world, as we had the return of the Premier League to look forward to.


The usual round-up of it all returns, while I also take a look at Chelsea and how successful they have been so far under Thomas Tuchel.


We have a look at some of the horse racing results and pick out some more to put into the tracker, and we also see how Fylde got on at the weekend in their away trip to league leaders Sedgley.


Plenty of action to go through despite their being no rugby league now so let's get going.


United struggle against Leicester while Liverpool thrash Watford - PL round-up


Manchester United fell to defeat again on Saturday, as the pressure continues to grow on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.


The decision to start Harry Maguire who was still unfit, had a massive impact on the match, and despite getting back to 2-2 with 10 minutes to go, they failed to see the game out and Leicester eventually ran out 4-2 winners.


Aston Villa and Wolves produced a thriller at Villa park, with the home side leading 2-0 with only 10 minutes to play.


However, the away side rallied, and when Romain Saiss and Conor Coady brought it back to 2-2 to cancel out earlier goals from Danny Ings and John McGinn, the writing was already on the walls when Ruben Neves stepped up to take a free-kick in added time.


Neves didn't strike it clean by any means, but a massive deflection off Matt Targett helped it on it's way and gave Wolves the three points.


Liverpool thrashed Watford and Manchester City were also comfortable against Burnley while Norwich picked up their second point of the season, as they dree with Brighton.


Southampton picked up a vital win over a Leeds side who still have plenty of their key players missing and Chelsea worked hard in the Saturday night football to score an important 1-0 victory over a strong Brentford team.


Sunday saw Tottenham spoil the party at Newcastle with a 3-2 away victory, while West Ham left it late to beat Everton, before Arsenal and Crystal Palace played out an exciting 2-2 draw on Monday night to round off this set of games.


Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City are starting to pull away a little at the top, but it's still all to play for, and it's the big one this weekend as Manchester United welcome Liverpool to Old Trafford, trying to get back on track again.


A Tuch of class - Chelsea and their new identity


Chelsea have been really impressive so far under Thomas Tuchel, he delivered them a Champions League trophy with an excellent display over Manchester City after only being appointed earlier on in the season.


A big bit of the credit for Chelsea's success at the minute has to go the Frank Lampard, who had the right idea of bringing the youth players through at the club, he just wasn't ready as a manager yet to make it work.


Tuchel brought that experience to the table through his past work at PSG and Borussia Dortmund and that allowed the side to pick up that Champions League trophy.


The excitement surrounding players such as Sarr, Chalobah and the return of Romelu Lukaku to help partner Werner and Havertz has helped the fans at the club start to believe that they are back to the best again and a long way past the Mourinho days.


Kante does his usual defensive work in the middle of the park which allows his fellow central midfielders to play football and create chances for the attackers, and mix that with a side who look to play football out from the back, it's a much more calmer and composed Chelsea who look to dominate the ball instead of looking at counter attacking.


They're definite title contenders this season, and could be a real threat to the Liverpool and Manchester City dominance that we've got used to the past few years, and that's the exciting bit.


Baeed storms the Palace - Horse Racing round-up


Saturday was a big day in the flat racing calendar, with Oisin Murphy wrapping up another jockeys' title, while the brilliant Baeed beat Palace Pier to cement himself as one of the leading lights in the 1m division.


Trueshan beat Stradivarius again with a strong performance under Hollie Doyle but I'm going to take it back into the jumping action now and give you some horses for the tracker for the rest of the season.


It's good to keep a close eye on some of the bumpers this time of year, because even though we don't really know what the form means, we could still see some useful prospects pop up.


The one on Sunday at Sedgefield was a race that I watched and I have to say I was impressed with the way A Different Kind and Brian Hughes swept clear of the rest of the field.


Obviously it's too early to comment on whether this horse will go onto bigger and better things, but I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on where it goes next after that performance.


Sceau Royal returned with a bang at Kempton on the same day as well to beat Silver Streak who lacked his usual fluence over the obstacles.


I think the run will help the grey though, and I'll be making sure that next time he runs I'll be watching because he can be an exciting horse to watch when everything comes together, like he did that day he beat Epatante.


Home sweet home for Fylde


Another trip to the Woodlands awaits me this weekend to see Fylde take on Bourneville, any guesses on what their nickname could be?


It was a tough game last week for them with a trip to the league leaders, but they battled on hard in the second half, and if they take some of them positives into the game on Saturday I'm sure they will be picking up another home win, and keep that unbeaten home run going.


Getting a few of the players that have been injured back could have a big impact on the game with the conditions also looking like they are probably going to play a part and stop any expansive rugby from being played.


It's 5th against 7th though and whoever does win could see themselves moving up the table towards those promotion places.


That's it again for this week in the blog, I'll be doing previews ahead of The Showcase meeting at Cheltenham on Friday and Saturday this weekend and I'll be at Fylde on Saturday again so, plenty of action to keep me going through what can only be described as horrendous weather.






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