It over 100 degrees outside, so I had a chance today to catch up on watching preseason friendlies, and here are my thoughts in addition to some Premier League-related news:
  • Bohemians 0-1 Sunderland. Preseason friendlies are rarely exciting and aren’t the best reflection on how a team will perform in the approaching season. That’s the good news for Sunderland. The bad news is that their performance in this match on their Irish tour (viewed via Setanta in the States) was dreadful. I haven’t seen so many comical misses in one match as I did today. If Sunderland plays like this during the upcoming season, they’ll be the laughing stock of the league.
  • Arsenal 2-1 Paris Saint Germain. Arsenal kicked off their Emirates Cup friendly with a stumbling victory over PSG. At times, Arsenal played their beautiful brand of football. Othertimes during the match, they appeared to be shaky. Watch the highlights here.
  • It’s that time of the year when web sites are launching new designs before the season kicks off again. EPL Talk’s redesign will go live in the next few days. But in the meantime check out new designs from 101 Great Goals, BigSoccer and Champions Soccer Radio.
  • Former Match of the Day and Grandstand presenter Des Lynam appears in a TV commercial for Setanta in the UK to promote their Premier League coverage (thanks to Tokyo Toffeeman for the link).
  • Interested in working for Fox in Los Angeles as a production assistant presumably for either Fox Soccer Channel or Fox Sports Espanol?
  • If you’ve had the pleasure of listening to football radio reporter Stuart Hall (pictured above), you know he’s one of a kind with his ways of incorporating William Shakespeare and Mark Twain works into his football reports on BBC Five Live. Whether you’re familiar with him or not, read the following story to learn more about this fascinating fellow (someone I’d love to interview on the EPL Talk Podcast).
  • After listening to this week’s EPL Talk Podcast interview with Phil Lines from the Premier League, you’ll have an idea of how mad the Asians are about the Premier League. Now the Asian Football Business Review is reporting that a 24/7 Premier League channel has debuted in Singapore by StarHub entitled, simply enough, “Football Channel.”
  • Learn what Konami has in store for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 here.
  • Apologies for the EPL Talk Community being down. I have a message in to technical support but because it’s the weekend, the forums board may not be back up until Monday. The EPL Talk Community is now back online. Have a great rest of the weekend.