It was quite a bizarre weekend for Premier League football. The first half of the Arsenal against Manchester United match was played at such a scintillating pace that it was a joy to watch as both teams played attractive football and there were chances galore. Contrast that with the methodical and uninspiring match between Birmingham City and Tottenham Hotspur from Saturday, and you can see how the difference between some teams in the league is like night and day.

Before the match kicked off on Fox Soccer Channel, I was taken aback to hear Fox presenter Christian Miles call Tottenham “my team,” which was quite a bizarre thing to say especially when he is an Arsenal supporter. But perhaps he was joking?

As for the match itself, the first 30 minutes were a bore. Both teams seemed incapable of doing much right. The accuracy of passing from both teams was poor. And the shooting by both teams was just as bad. One person who was particularly guilty was Chuco Benitez who should by now have settled in to life in England’s top division, but his finishing was absolutely awful. Up until now, I’ve had a lot of patience for the lad because he’s obviously trying his hardest. But my patience has run out. He does the hard work to create the chances, but can’t capitalize on them and usually shoots straight at the keeper.

While watching the match, I had to rub my eyes a little to make sure what I was seeing was to believe. But at the top left of the screen, above the names of the team and the score, were the words “Barclays Premier League On FSC.” Of course, it’s the Premier League. And of course, I’m watching it on Fox. But over the entire weekend, all of the games had words above the score (for example, “Serie A On FSC,” etc), so it appears to be a deliberate move by Fox. It was annoying to see at first but it grew on me over the weekend, and could be a good way to differentiate Fox Soccer Channel’s programming from Fox Soccer Plus games if the latter says, for example “Barclays Premier League On FSC+.”

Right before the second half of the match kicked off, the TWI commentator did something which was very unlike TWI commentators. Gary Taphouse ruined some of the other games by mentioning at the beginning of the second half broadcast that Aston Villa and Liverpool were leading in their games. My hope is that this was a careless mistake and that football commentators won’t reveal spoilers like that again.

After Spurs finally scored, Tottenham Hotspur was far too defensively minded. With 8 mins of regulation to go, they had two successive corners but rather than trying to score from them, they wasted time on the clock instead by playing a short corner. With 8 mins to go this was not the best strategy. Spurs is not Italy. And besides, those 8 remaining minutes become 14 after 6 mins of injury time. If only Spurs had gone out on the attack to try to find a second goal instead of trying to sit on its precious one-nil lead.

So when Birmingham’s Liam Ridgewell scored late for Birmingham to tap in the goal from a Cameron Jerome header, it came as little surprise and was just desserts for Harry Redknapp whose team has become guilty for not being as dangerous as they have been earlier this season.

If you’re bored with the same old story lines in the Premier League that are repeated on blogs and websites around cyberspace, choose from the following Premier League-related articles that you may enjoy instead:

• ECB Abandon Plans for English Premier League (The Cricket Blog). We can now thank the Credit Crunch for one thing. Cricket authorities have decided against the creation of the English Premier League — a new cricket league that was not only going to have the same name as the Premier League (outside the UK), but also the same acronym and the same acronym as this site (EPL).
• Goodison Redevelopment & Everton Stadium Presentation (Keep Everton In Our City). Web design company BlackWidowDesign.com has created a video and presentation to show how Everton’s Goodison Park could be redeveloped to take the club into the 21st century without having to move to Kirkby. I’m in support of this campaign. Everton should stay where they are to preserve the site of one of the oldest football grounds in England.
• Ultimate XI: Broadcast Edition (The New York Times). Fox Soccer Channel’s Christian Miles picks his favorite 11 sports broadcasters. There are a couple of surprises. I’m not a big fan of Jon Champion, but the Setanta commentator is on his list. What do you think about Christian’s picks?
• Sport’s No Longer In The Pink at FT (Sports Journalists’ Association). The Financial Times newspaper has announced that it’s removing its sports section and firing approximately 20 staff members. The only salvation is that FT journalist Simon Kuper will write a weekly sports column.
• Africa’s Biggest Media Company Super Sports Secures Premier League Rights (Standard Times). Super Sport has secured the TV rights to the Premier League in Africa (outside of South Africa) after GTV recently liquidated.

What would you do if you were in charge of Fox Soccer Channel’s TV coverage? The dilemma is that you’re trying to establish your own brand and to build an audience with your own personnel, but soccer fans — as you’ll probably agree — are difficult people to please. We always want perfection.

A perfect example is this past Saturday’s England against Kazakhstan World Cup Qualifier that was shown live on Fox Soccer Channel. Hosts Nick Webster and Warren Barton did a fine job in the beginning of the show with expert analysis and discussion. But when the game started, soccer fans were startled to hear that Webster and Barton continued their discussion into the game and didn’t hand over the commentary, as is customary, to the international feed — which would have been Clive Tyldesley and Gary Stevens.

While Webster is a decent analyst, he is no soccer commentator. So instead of commentating the game, it feeled like Webster and Barton were simply talking over the game and providing their analysis. Webster’s style improved later when he began commentating on the game itself, but I always had the feeling that I was missing out on something — that one of the commentators from the international feed would have been able to impart some wisdom that Webster would have missed.

The dilemma for Fox is that GolTV does the same thing but with better results. Few people seem to complain when Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen commentate on the World Cup qualifiers that GolTV broadcast. It’s quite rare that GolTV will broadcast the commentators from the international feed.

So what would you do if you were Fox and you wanted to feature your commentators? Would you have someone like Max Bretos or Christian Miles do the main commentary instead, and have Webster and Barton provide the studio analysis only? Or would you suggest something different? Let us know by clicking the comments link below and sharing your thoughts.

Fox Soccer Channel was featured in Adweek last week, the bible for the advertising industry in the United States. The article focused on Bass Ale’s sponsorship of the Super Sunday Plus show featuring Christian Miles, Gary Richards and Keith Costigan.

The main message in the article is how Fox Soccer Channel is producing branded entertainment for sponsors rather than playing the typical 30 second spots. What Fox and Bass Ale have created on Super Sunday Plus is a package that is relevant. Three blokes sitting in a pub chatting about football with Bass Ale’s name splashed around the pub and across the screen. To me, this isn’t too much of an intrusion in my football watching experience.

The article mentions that Fox is in talks with other advertisers regarding similar branded entertainment opportunities. Here’s where I’m concerned. Other than a pub setting, what other branded entertainment opportunities could Fox create that would be a good fit? I really can’t think of any.

I haven’t watched Fox Football Fone-In this season but in previous seasons the co-hosts and set have been kitted out in so many football shirts and associated gear that it looked the show and the hosts were prostituting themselves for the almighty dollar.

The channel risks turning the network into a joke. Let’s hope that they make the right decision by promoting advertisers in an appropriate and sensible manner that keeps the focus on the content of the show and not the brand names that sponsor the show.

The opening day of the new 2008/2009 Premier League season is over, and there was plenty of entertainment in store. We’ll share our opinions of what we saw on the pitch over the next few days. But first, for viewers in the United States, I want to share my thoughts on the coverage from Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel.

Without a doubt, Setanta Sports showed today why they’re a must-see channel for followers of the Premier League in the States. First, they had the exclusive TV rights to the Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion season opener. Despite some technical problems in the first minute, the rest of the TV coverage was flawless.

Second, the network showed live coverage of the two biggest storylines from the day: the sensational performance by Middlesbrough in their throughly deserved 2-1 win against Tottenham, and the surprise 2-1 win by Hull City over Fulham.

Third, the pre-game, half-time and post-match analysis by Setanta Sports is simply better than that offered by Fox Soccer Channel. We’ll discuss that in more detail later in this article.

Fox Soccer Channel, in contrast, showed two matches: Everton’s 3-2 loss against Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool’s 1-0 win against Sunderland. The second half of the Everton against Blackburn game was very entertaining with plenty of chances from both sides to win the game including a header by Premier League debutant Jose Baxter, the 16-year-old for Everton. As far as entertainment value, the game wasn’t as good as Middlesbrough against Spurs, but it was definitely watchable and had a stunning finale.

For Fox, the 12:30pm ET/5:30pm GMT kickoff always seems to be cursed. It’s very rare that the match shown in that timeslot entertains, and this was no exception. Apart from one moment of brilliance by Fernando Torres deep in the second half that led to the goal, the game was pretty tense and filled with an avalanche of sloppy mistakes by Liverpool. Sunderland battled hard and deserved to at least get a point out of the game.

But while the Everton match thrilled and the Liverpool match bored, Fox has other issues to worry about. First, if someone already has Setanta Sports, they’re never going to watch the 9:30am ET Fox Soccer Match Day show because the 7:45am ET match doesn’t end until 9:50am ET. Second, the stiffness that Christian Miles and Warren Barton evoke by wearing suits and ties is in direct contrast to the comfortable and laid back banter that Setanta Sports features with Paul Dempsey and Pat Dolan.

The issue with Fox’s show is that hosts Christian Miles and Warren Barton are too polished, too squeaky clean, too scripted and don’t give the viewer many, if any, reasons to watch.

While Fox’s hosts are too nice to each other, Dempsey and Dolan banter back and forth, engage in more spirited arguments and are definitely more watchable.

Other benefits of Setanta’s coverage is that during half-time of the 10am ET/3pm GMT kickoff, the network provides half-time match reports from reporters around the grounds so you get more than just the scores which Fox provides. As an aside, Fox can’t even get the scorelines correct. At half-time, they showed Bolton beating Stoke 1-0 when the half-time score was actually 3-0.

The other challenge for Fox is that at the same time they’re providing previews and analysis between the Noon and 12:30pm ET timeslot in the run-up to the kickoff between Liverpool and Sunderland, Setanta Sports today expanded its coverage and kept the cameras running from their Dublin studio to provide more match analysis, even up to the point of the sides coming out of the tunnel.

When you’re faced between Setanta’s pre-match analysis compared to Fox, you have to go with Setanta each time — which is worrying news for FSC.

One last point and this is something that has upset a lot of Fox Soccer Channel viewers in the past. When Fox shows games live, they need to be shown live. For the Sunderland against Liverpool match, Fox started the kick-off almost two minutes after the game had actually started. For those of you who watch games on DVR, that’s not a problem. But when fans around the world are chatting online or trying to listen to the radio coverage of the game from Sirius Satellite, it’s a massive problem when you know a goal is going to be scored two minutes before you even see it on television!

There’s no excuse why Fox can’t show the games live, or delayed by a few seconds. Fox has 30 minutes to get in as many commercials and previews between Noon and 12:30pm ET, so to show the game delayed by two minutes is absolutely unacceptable.

I’ve finally figured out the biggest difference between Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports. If you’re a passionate follower of the Premier League or one of its 20 teams, the difference between both TV networks is Setanta is meant for die-hard football fans while Fox Soccer Channel is aimed at relative newcomers to the sport or league.

Fox’s coverage is dumbed down, while you usually learn something with what Setanta provides.

What are your thoughts about the opening day coverage from Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports? Share your feedback below by clicking the comments link.