Saturday 13th March, 2010
Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Blackburn Rovers
Seating in the top four in the league, Spurs are doing well to hold on to that position. My big news about this result is Roman Pavlyuchenko. He was ‘sidelined’ on the bench by Harry Redknapp for some unknown reasons as recently as a month ago, but after increasing pressure from the fans and unsatisfactory results, Pav has been called to start games and every time he’s played he has scored goals.
Blackburn lost Robinson in the game and had to bring in the reserve goalie that it’s safe to say was a little rusty and may have committed shall we say ‘rookie’ mistakes.
Birmingham City 2-2 Everton
This is was a good game to watch as a neutral. Everton took the lead with a stunning goal by Victor Anichebe and in no time went two up when Anichebe’s fellow country man Yakubu made it two.
I really thought this was going to be an away performance by the toffees that will symbolize their growing confidence and recent run of form, but I forgot they were playing at Birmingham who themselves have been going strong and have proven all pundits wrong this season so far.
Keeping this in mind, I was not surprised at the draw and might I add it was probably the right result for both teams.
Bolton 4-0 Wigan Athletic
Owen Coyle may have finally gotten it right with this inherited Bolton side. But then again I wouldn’t get too excited considering who the opponents was in this game – the most inconsistent team in the Premiership, Wigan Athletic.
The lactic defending in this game was shocking. Sometimes I think the players deliberately play well against the big teams to boost their ratings but fail to remember that points against the lower teams around Wigan is what most likely will save their place in the league.
Wigan with this loss is four points from the relegation zone.
Burnley 1-2 Wolves
It’s almost evident now that Burnley will be one of the teams going straight back to the championship even if there was a doubt when Brian Laws was first hired to replace Owen Coyle.
They’ve lost five and drawn 1 of their last six. With stats like that who needs a soothsayer to forecast Burnley’s fate.
Mick McCarthy and Wolves on the other hand know the games that matter to keep them in the Premiership and this was a double for Wolves that pushes them just a place above their opponents.
Chelsea 4-1 West Ham
Malouda was the talking point of this game. He was simply incredible terrorizing the defense and creating goal scoring opportunities for the blues and scored a brilliant goal himself
I was really routing for West Ham in this game for two reasons. One,they rise up to the challenge when it involves their London rivals and two I was hoping they would get the necessary points they need to stay away from the relegation zone with this Chelsea game because they will be playing us (Arsenal) next and we will probably beat them.
Not to worry though, Zola and boys have at least seven more games in which they can try and save their season.
Stoke City 0-0 Aston Villa
The killers of football – Stoke City did it again, dragging the visiting team down the drenches of direct, flat and uninspiring football all in the name of survival in the Premiership.
The Villan’s themselves have been accused as a long ball football team so playing Stoke was down their alley.
This was a really boring match according to reports and I’m really not surprised.
Exhaustion should be setting in just about now with Martin O’Neill’s boys so expect a dip in form from here on.
Hull City 1-2 Arsenal
This was a game that seemed on paper an easy three points for the Arsenal but in reality and in times past have been proven to be the opposite and this time was no different. After going one up through an Arshavin brilliant finish, the Gunners looked like they were ready to rip Hull apart and for majority of the first half the amount of possession should have provided more than one goal.
Three main talking points for me in this Gunners performance and one of them is Sol Campbell. For some weird reason he looked real tired and exhausted almost like he was struggling to catch a breath in the first twenty-five minutes of the game. I agree he is experienced enough to know that his positioning matters not necessarily his pace at this stage in his career, but even his positioning in this game was suspect. Just as I noticed his weariness he was adjudged to have fouled Jan Venegoor of Hessellink and conceded a penalty of which Jimmy Bullard excellently put away.
So it’s one all and Hull are back in the game and awake from their slumber. The home team had a very decent spell of possession and pressure after this goal and into the second half but the best chances of the game was created by the gunners which brings me to my second point. Most of the chances created fell to the goal scorer for Arsenal, but AA23 could not seem to locate his scoring boots after the first goal. He blew chance after chance after chance that could have sealed the three points for the gunners and made it an easy victory. George Boateng was sent off close to toe end of the first half for the home team so, there was really no excuse NOT to have won this game even though Hull did close shop and fortify the defense to make it difficult for the potential league champions.
Hull played better than 10 men on the field and held Arsenal till the ninety-third minute which really seemed like Déjà vu all over with the gunners – not being able to win ‘easy’ points games but that was before Bendtner showed why he believes in himself. He latches on to a rebound by Myhill from Denilson’s shot from outside the 18 and controls it just (keyword: just) past Myhill for the winning goal. My third talking point is, even though I have been critical of B52’s non-challant play sometimes, if it helps his confidence to keep his arrogance on high alert to score more goals critical ones at that, I’m all for it.
Sunday 14th March, 2010
Manchester United 3-0 Fulham
This was a reversal of scores from the first time these two teams met in the first half of the season. When these two met at Craven Cottage, Fulham was the better team on that day and Sir Alex Ferguson had said they were beaten that day by a better team. Well this time Roy Hodgson says the same! Are these guys’ beer buddies or something? First exchanging scorelines, now exchanging pleasantries?
Back to the football on the pitch – Rooney scored the first two and Berbatov who had tons of chances scores the third. So much talk about ‘Rooney – being the best player in the world’ and ‘he might beat Ronaldo’s 42 goals season record’ and on and on.
I’m not so convinced about the accolades and praises for Mr. Rooney. I honestly think most of his goals (at least his last five or six) have been more defensive lapses by the opposition rather than sheer genius by the United’s goal scorer. Sir Alex had mandated that his team win their remaining fixtures of the season to guarantee their Premier league title. One down, seven to go and frankly as a Gunners fan losing two or three of those seven would be highly ideal.
Sunderland 1-1 Manchester City
This was the fixture that marked the end of Mark Hughes’ reign as the City manager when these two met at the Eastlands. One nagging question for me about this Manchester city side is ‘are they any better off since Mancini took over’. I’ll be writing on this once I put all my thoughts together.
Mancini’s side was saved by an Adam Johnson fabulously inch perfect strike. Whether fluke or intentional, it was a well guided shot that could have caught any goal keeper off guard. It was obviously frustrating for Mancini to see his team drop points when Spurs – the other top four contenders won this weekend.
But Mancini’s frustration cannot be compared with Steve Bruce’s for sure. His side totally dominated the first half and should have been up more than a goal by half time. Sunderland have conceded 10 goals in the last ten minutes of games this season and with those stats it’s really explicable why they’ve only garnered thirty-one points so far this season when they should have been over the forty points safety mark.
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