Article By Gooner Anand For The Malaysian Insider

Out of death, destruction and pain, I have learnt that sometimes good can come out too.Relaxing over the past few days at a cosy resort in the middle of the jungle, attending a spiritual getaway, I truly enjoyed the peace and serenity.

Transition was the theme and I was ready to face up to the possibilities of transcending to a better place, while still in this world.The venue was a great place to do some soul searching, if one is so inclined, or at least, where one could just escape the busy schedules of our daily lives.

Peace (and love too, as the Beatles told us) can’t be bought, but this place I stayed in really comes close.There were no televisions, no radios. It was just calm, (almost) silent spiritual guidance and a lot of harmony with nature. I had no plan to leave this soulful place, but a relative’s death forced me to return home, having to make urgent plans to travel across the causeway.

It also meant that I had a few hours back home to watch a day of football that I had originally planned to miss.It turned out to be quite an interesting piece of viewing, watching all the live matches live up to my predictions as per my article I had submitted earlier for publication yesterday – “Does football really matter?” 

Liverpool let in a late goal for what could be considered another loss going by their fans’ expectations, Chelsea destroy Sunderland, Manchester United grab three goals and three points against Burnley while Manchester City suffers its first loss under Roberto Mancini. Four for four.

Actually, it is five for five, if you include the fact that I tipped Darren Bent to score for Sunderland in the loss to Chelsea. He barely did, in the 90th minute.I will go out on a limb again and give my predictions for tonight’s matches – Aston Villa vs West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers vs Arsenal.

The Hammers have lost four of their last six matches and ain’t too clever away from Upton Park. This can be contrastingly compared with Villa’s seven wins of the last nine matches in all competitions.Despite the possibility of takeovers bringing some light to the West Ham players and supporters alike, the Londoners are just out of their depth this season, both financially and on the pitch. The Villans should win this battle of the claret and blue quite easily.

In the other tie, Bolton Wanderers has a new manager, Owen Coyle, take charge of their match at home to Arsenal. This match-up will also be a unique double-header in the league this week with the Gunners then hosting Bolton at The Emirates on Wednesday. The latter is the match postponed since August, and again due to snow two weeks ago. It will not be easy for Arsenal supporters as we all know how bad our team usually performs when playing against teams who have a newly-appointed manager. My hope is that the curse will be lifted this time around.

On a positive note, following Sam Allardyce’s departure from Bolton, the Gunners have won their last six matches against them, in all competitions, netting 14 times in the process.So, I expect The Gunners, young and talented that they are, to grab all six points leaving Coyle wondering why he didn’t take up that Celtic offer at the start of the season instead.