EPL Week In Review Nov 28/29
It would of been interesting to see what the reaction would of been if Portsmouth managed to walk away with a point against Manchester United. Technically Vidic’s shirt pull was a foul and the linesman was correct to give it. The flip side would be referees would be giving penalties on every long ball into the box. You can also look at it as if the referees called it to the letter of the law every once in awhile defenders wouldn’t be so quick to grab the jersey all the time.
Nice hat trick by Wayne Rooney who quickly erased any ideas Portsmouth had of grabbing a point with his early second half goal. I’m still waiting for such a game against an elite club.
What can you say about Ryan Giggs? At 36 he is still has good as he was at 31 when the wheels usually start to fall off for a player. Still worries me how Giggs is their best midfielder considering all the money Manchester United have spent in recent years.
Avram Grant sure throws himself into the fire. His first game in charge at Chelsea was a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United who has done it again to Grant in his first game at Portsmouth. I’ll give credit to Grant for one thing; usually coaches sit in the stands on a short week during their first game in charge, especially against a top team like Manchester United. Instead Grant took the bull by the horns, granted he got the horns but I’ll wish Grant luck the rest of the season.
Only West Ham can make a 5-0 lead feel unsafe. Always happy seeing Zola grab a win but West Ham won’t be scoring five goals every weekend but it seems like they will be giving up 2-3 goals no matter who they face.
When I heard Luis Jimenez was going to West Ham on loan from Inter Milan was expecting him to make an impact. It was a surprise to see Jimenez finally get on the score sheet for West Ham on the spot no less against Burnley. Jimenez did a useful job for Inter when Roberto Mancini was in charge but was out of sight out of mind for Jose Mourinho.
Drawing two or three games in a row is liveable. A coach can still claim his club is undefeated but drawing seven in a row is close to a joke. Manchester City should be putting teams like Hull away so when things like a late penalty are called it matters little to the overall game. The only time I can recall Manchester City putting the screws to someone was against Arsenal, aside from that they look like a collective of eleven highly paid players out there instead on a unified team out there.
In other words I find it unlikely Mark Hughes is the man to take Manchester City to the next level. I wouldn’t blame Manchester City one bit if they placed a call to Guus Hiddink in the coming days.
Very funny Jimmy Bullard with his goal celebration. Talk about a flare for the dramatic.
Considering everyone including myself was shoveling dirt on Phil Brown it’s amazing to see the turnaround for Hull this last month. When the press starts calling for your head usually it starts rolling on the ground soon after.
Wigan, three points in their last two games. Tottenham, four points in their last two games. Goals aside that’s the bottom line. I didn’t see it as the end of the world for Wigan when Tottenham kept kicking them when they were down last week. Great victory for Wigan this weekend against Sunderland. Not only did Wigan keep a clean sheet but also got one over on former coach Steve Bruce.
Wonder how the Wigan players felt when Steve Bruce left to Sunderland? Bruce is basically saying to those players I don’t think you’re good enough for my ambitious. Must make the win a little sweeter for those Wigan players who gave their all for Steve Bruce during his time in charge.
Who was the home team during the Aston Villa-Tottenham match? After Aston Villa opened the scoring they were very much on the back foot for most of the game. With all the chances Tottenham it was interesting Michael Dawson finally got one pass Brad Friedel but no denying the class of his strike.
As I’m writing this post, Jo is in an offside position somewhere.
Luckily for Liverpool they were facing a team with worst luck then them. When things go wrong you have things go against you like Javier Mascherano goal off Joseph Yobo. Everton may have been in control for long periods of the game but thanks for the clutch saves by Pepe Reina its Liverpool talking all the points. With Blackburn next week it might be a start of a turnaround for Liverpool.
I’m not going to beat up on Arsenal. I’ve said it many times before anyway. I’ll give credit to Wenger for at least saying this is the year Arsenal wins something but they were second best out there today. Chelsea is a group of men out there where as Arsenal is still trying to find their identity as football players. Once Drogba scored it was like taking a pin to a balloon as Arsenal were deflated from that moment on.