Gareth Southgate’s young Boro side started the season brightly but have since slumped to 3 straight defeats in League and Cup on the road. This weekend they return to the Riverside where they boast a 100% record this season (two league & one cup match). The Baggies have failed to score in both their away League games this season so Middlesbrough will be strong favourites.

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It was a great day for my old club Liverpool on Saturday as they finally ended their poor run against Manchester United. This was significant for a number of reasons namely that not only did the team achieve a great result but they also played well too. Rafa’s team hadn’t played well in their opening 3 games so this was a huge improvement particularly in the second half.

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There has been a number of new strikers joining the Premier League this summer with the likes of Xisco joining Newcastle, Roman Pavlyuchenko joining Spurs and Jo joining Man City. These players come with good reputations but remain unknown quantities in terms of how they’ll adapt to the physical nature of the English game.

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The last transfer deadline day ended with the usual flurry of signings and excitement as Manchester United finally got their man Dimitar Berbatov and Man City’s new owners made a £32.5m statement of intent.

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Just two weeks into the season and a number of critics have already made their minds up over certain club’s fate. For me, it’s far too early to make sweeping assumptions but I must say I have been impressed so far by all three club’s from the North-East.

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Just 2 weeks into the new Premier League season and already the fortunes of the three North-East clubs looks far brighter than the last campaign. In fact, they’ve all done well. Middlesbrough were desperately unlucky against Liverpool as were Sunderland.

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These clubs have not faced each other in two years since the Baggies were last in the Premier League but after a disappointing start to the season, it’s Tony Mowbray’s team that need to get points on the board. Both these clubs were surprisingly knocked out of the Carling Cup in midweek so confidence won’t be high. However, it’s West Brom whose confidence will already be rocked by a 100% losing record in their 3 League and Cup games. Unfortunately, a trip to the Reebok is not usually a good place to visit as Stoke have already found out this season.

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As the money-orientated Premier League continues to invest in big money, big name signings fewer and fewer young players are progressing from the academies into the various first teams. The halcyon period when Manchester United’s ‘golden generation’ of the Neville brothers, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt all progressed into the Red Devils side seems a long time ago with very few kids making the grade since.

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England entertain the Czech Republic tonight with much of the publicity around the match being focussed on John Terry retaining the Captain’s armband. However, after looking at the squad I want to focus on the quartet of forwards included for the match and English striking talent in general.

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I had been looking forward to the opening weekend of the Premier League for some time mainly to see one player, that man was Chelsea’s Deco and he didn’t disappoint.The Brazilian-born Portuguese international stepped into the Chelsea side like he’d always been there and was quite simply superb. He reinforced an already strong Chelsea side and will be an integral component in Felipe Scolari’s new look team.

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