Mea Culpa

The day's been a bit dreary here following last night's rain storm.  Of course, when it rains it pours you know.  But, some key clubs have got to be wondering when the poor weather is going to stop for them.

Arsene Wenger delivered his analysis of Arsenal's poor performance last weekend and places the blame on a lack of focus by his side.  Certainly, something had to be going wrong for both Song and Koscielny to be putting the ball into their own goal.  I don't know if the coach is to blame, but I can't help but feel that his activity in the transfer market this summer was not indicative of a strong season. 

New Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas critiqued his club's performance against Manchester United, as well as the decision making capabilities of the match officials.  He didn't outright defend Torres's terrible mistake, but he did level and reason that Rooney's miss was nearly as devastating.  But, Villas-Boas seems rather upset with what he (and honestly many other people) thought to be two offside goals by United that were not caught.  Luckily, the manager doesn't use that as an actual excuse and he seems pretty level-headed.

Michael Oening gets owned

In Germany, Hamburg SV have officially relieved manager Michael Oenning of his job.  They currently sit in last place in the Bundesliga tables after a record consisting of 0 wins, 1 tie, and 5 losses for the season. Rodolfo Cardoso is slated to take over as manager for the time being.  

Inter Milan's manager Gian Piero Gasperini believes that their greatest chance to come back from this four match winless streak is to come away the victors this Tuesday against Novara.  Inter definitely has the necessary players to pull such a feat, but can they perform?

Jose Mourinho spoke about Real Madrid's loss to Levante and placed a lot of the blame on Sami Khedira's red card.  I don't think Khedira is the only one that needs to learn a lesson about etiquette and proper decision making in-game.  But, at least Mourinho had some praise for Levante's performance.  

All this talk of bad coaching and poor performance accentuates the point that Wesley Sneijder had about Gasperini's performance.  To a certain point, it may be the coach's fault for making a few bad decisions, but continuing to show poorly really reflects on the players more than their manager.