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When we talk about Americans in England, we always mention the same names: Brad Friedel, Marcus Hahnemann, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Benny Feilhaber, Randy Lerner, Malcolm Glazer, etc, etc. But the American invasion isn’t just happening on the pitch. Listen closely and you’ll hear plenty more American accents associated with Premier League football.

The list includes:

Gabriele Marcotti. While he considers himself Italian, his accent is definitely American having spent many of his adult years in the northeast United States graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

In addition to being the co-host of The Game Podcast from The Times, Marcotti can also be heard this season on BBC Five Live as one of their key analysts.

Bruce Buck. At the center of the Mourinho and Grant fiasco last week was American Bruce Buck, who is chairman of Chelsea Football Club. A lawyer by trade, Buck has been a Chelsea fan since the late 80’s.

Sean Wheelock. The veteran MLS analyst and broadcaster has been working front-and-center for BBC Five Live recently as one of the main guests on their World Football Phone-In Show with Tim Vickery as well as a key contributor to BBC’s Up All Night. His knowledge of the game is very thorough and is able to easily compare and contrast the differences between U.S. and English soccer for the British listeners.

What’s important about these three Americans is that they’re all respected individuals within England, and each position carries a lot of weight.

Now contrast that with the American influence within the newspaper business in England and you can understand, to a degree, why the British press seems to be anti-American or, at the very least, stereotypical in their reporting of American soccer and the impressions they have about how Major League Soccer compares with leagues in England.

Marcotti is the only “American” regularly writing for an English newspaper (in this case, the times). If more astute American journalists break into the British newspaper business, the better the chances are of the fellow Brit journos writing more intelligently about U.S. soccer.

Premiership Preview by Mohit

October 6th/7th 2007

After mid-week UEFA Cup and Champions League games for many the top clubs in England, it’s back to another exciting premiership weekend.

We start the weekend with the current champions, Manchester United hosting Wigan Athletic at Old Trafford. Sir Alex Fergusson’s men have failed to score more than one goal in all but one of their games this season and are a mere shadow of their attacking talents last season. However, there have been several glimpses of United’s attacking flair displayed in the past few weeks and it seems only like a matter of time before the floodgates open. Last week, Wigan recorded their seventeenth consecutive loss against the ‘Big Four’ of English Football, going down by a solitary goal to Liverpool at home. United are the overwhelming favorites to come out with the three points but Wigan will not go down without a fight!

The other Saturday game is a six-pointer between Aston Villa and West Ham United. Only two places and one point separate these teams and they will both be determined to win the game. The Hammers have had a promising away record this year: with two victories, a draw and a loss and will be looking to keep it going. Villa return home after their eight-goal thriller against the Spurs and have some defensive work to do after conceding three goals in the last quarter of that game.

The noon kickoff on Sunday is at the Emirates Stadium with Arsenal going up against Sunderland. The young ‘Gunners’ team proved last week that they were capable of playing with flair as well as grinding out away victories. These are promising signs for their manager, Arsene Wenger and the ‘Black Cats’ will have their work cut out for the game.

Two teams with the worst goal difference records of the league go head to head with Reading hosting Derby. Reading come into this game having conceded seven away goals to Portsmouth while Derby spirits will be high after their well-earned draw with Bolton last week. Newcastle face off against Everton at St. James’s Park and will be looking to make amends after they were completely outplayed last week by Manchester City. At Ewood Park, Blackburn host struggling Birmingham City for the second time this month. The last time these two sides met was in the Carling Cup with the home side dominating that fixture and winning comfortably by three goals. The home fans will be expecting more of the same this week!

Portsmouth travel to Fulham with their confidence high after putting seven goals past Reading last week. Fulham will also be confident after their hard-fought draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week which included several clear cut chances to beat the home side for the first time in three years. This promises to be a scruffy match and a crowd entertainer. The in-form Manchester City side hosts a struggling Middlesborough team at the City of Manchester Stadium. Boro have not recorded a victory in the previous four premiership outings while Eriksson’s men made an emphatic statement with a 3-1 victory over New castle last week. City’s Brazilian midfielder, Elano has already impressed many critics and will be one to look out for in this fixture.

After their improbable win in Valencia in mid-week, confidence in the Chelsea camp will be higher than it has ever been since Mourinho’s departure. They travel to the Reebok Stadium to face a Bolton side that has been woeful in the Premiership thus far. Manager Avram Grant will be looking to capitalize on this especially considering his team’s recent poor form in the Premiership. Many of Chelsea’s senior players believe that the victory against Valencia will be the turning point of their season.

Liverpool host Tottenham Hotspur in what has been billed as the match of the weekend. Both teams were involved in mid-week European games with the Spurs gaining an away draw in Cyprus and progressing to the group stages of the Uefa cup. Liverpool’s Champions league aspirations took a huge setback with their shock 1-0 loss to Marseille at Anfield. Rafa Benitez has urged his team to step up their game this week against Spurs as they aim to maintain the pressure on Arsenal. Martin Jol must be counting his lucky stars when his team staged an amazing three goal-comeback against Aston Villa last week. However, he knows his job as manager is far from secure but will also be aware that a win against an under-performing Liverpool side at Anfield might be the turning point of his season!

There you have it – another action filled weekend of football from the best league in the world.

Chelsea: 1, Bolton: 0Chelsea coach Avram Grant is finally putting a mark on the win column in their English Premier League campaign, beating out hosts Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium 1-0 over the weekend. The last time Chelsea won in an English Premier League match was back in August when they beat Portsmouth 1-0.Chelsea’s European Champions League campaign is a little brighter with a recent 2-1 away win against Valencia. But then, Chelsea’s problems have really been in the Premiership where their most recent results include a 2-0 defeat against Manchester United and a home draw against Fulham.Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou scored the lone goal of the match in the 41st minute, and that was enough to overcome a stubborn Bolton Wanderers.Read more on Chelsea beats Bolton…

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BBC Sport is reporting that Avram Grant is set to take over as permanent manager of Chelsea Football Club.

The current director of football at Chelsea will take Mourinho’s position after he departed the club “by mutual consent.” As is often the case when a new manager takes over, he’s thrown into the deep end as Chelsea travel this Sunday to Old Trafford to play Manchester United (11am ET, Fox Soccer Channel).

Roman Abramovich will “live by the sword, die by the sword” with the decision to appoint Grant as manager. We’ll quickly see whether the decision to sack Mourinho was a just one or a complete disaster. Grant’s experience thus far has been as technical director at Portsmouth and manager of Israel and Israeli teams Maccabi Haifi and Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

The biggest question mark about Chelsea is how the players will respond to the decision. We all know that players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole had tight relationships with Mourinho, but it’ll be a true test of their character to see how they respond to having a new manager in place.

It’s going to be difficult for Chelsea to concentrate on Sunday’s clash against Man United due to the media circus that’s going to circulate around Chelsea and their training over the next few days as swarms of photographers and TV cameras will watch every moment.

Abramovich has gotten what he wanted which is to kick Mourinho out based on the poor form the team has been displaying. Remarkably it hasn’t been the results that have been the issue, but rather it’s the poor way the team has been playing on the pitch. It’s safe to say that Chelsea doesn’t currently look like Premier League or Champions League winning material. They’ve been struck by injuries to key players, but the team has shown once again that they lack depth in key positions.

For Grant, this will be trial by fire. He has hardly any time to allow for transition and needs to quickly turn Chelsea around into a winning team both in terms of results and the way they play. Grant will not have the charm that Mourinho has. All Grant will have to win over Chelsea fans is the results on the pitch. I don’t envy Grant’s job one bit. He’s walking into one of the most difficult positions in football at this current moment in time.

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