I’m afraid that due to the amount of time it takes to write 10 400 or so word match summaries that I am going to have to limit myself to doing 5 in-depth records instead, with the other 5 more general. This week’s in-depth reports are on; Blackburn vs Arsenal, Aston Villa vs Everton, Chelsea vs Stoke, Wigan vs Tottenham and Sunderland vs Man City. In the weeks to come I shall choose the matches on Friday’s – before the games – so that I can more unbiased towards the most entertaining games
ARSENAL BEAT BLACKBURN’S BRUTE FORCE AS THEO RULES ROOST!
BLACKBURN 1 - 2 ARSENAL
M.B. Diouf 28’ Walcott 20’
Arshavin 51’
Arsenal must have come into this game with some trepidation about the kind of treatment they would receive at the hands of the Blackburn player’s after Arsene Wenger’s midweek comments about some teams turning Football into Rugby. Sam Allardyce have been the crux of Arsene Wenger for many years now, with his Bolton side in particular always having been a bogey team for Arsenal whilst Big Sam was their manager.
It was the Gunner’s however, that started the brighter of the two teams by quite a distance. Abou Diaby had his effort saved of the line by a mixture of Grella and Paul Robinson after Fabregas and Robin Van Persie caught out the Blackburn defence with a short corner taken quickly. Shortly afterwards, there was a brief bust-up between El-Hadji Diouf and Manuel Almunia following on from the flair up they had at the Emirates after Diouf put in a very poor and rather intentional challenge on Almunia.
Blackburn then had a chance of their own saved off the line when Christopher Samba rose highest only for an alert Fabregas protecting the far post to react quick enough to save an early opening goal. Samba followed this up with another two headers as he dominated aerially, with one looping effort taking a good save from Almunia who bashed his head against the post to make it, and another just over the bar.
Arsenal did not take these warnings lightly, with 20 minutes gone, Arshavin had the ball in the centre circle, with a loose touch he had to struggle to beat his man and pass on to Robin Van Persie, who, with an elegant swish with the outside of his left foot picked the gap in the defence to find Walcott running onto the ball. Without breaking stride, the England winger took one touch and fired the ball across goal into the bottom left corner on the half-volley with an awesome strike. One that even managed to break a section of the net! This prompted the after match comment of “well, I can hit them quite hard these days” from Mr Walcott, a man whose confidence is growing vastly having scored 4 goals in the last 2 games.
This served to spice up the game, with the tempo lifting somewhat. This lead to Samba dispossessing an Arsenal player and striding to the centre circle to then deliver a wonderful ball down the channel to El-Hadji Diouf who cut in, skinned Koscielny for pace and delivered the ball across to his name-sake Mame Birme Diouf for him to get his first goal for the club five minutes before half time.
The winner though, came the same amount of time after the half-time whistle. Bacary Sagna was able to sprint down the right wing, whip in an excellent cross that fell to Fabregas, whose blocked shot came straight to the feet of Arshavin who had no hesitance in slotting the ball into the corner past Robinson and his supporting defenders. Arsenal should really have gone on to confirm the victory sooner with a Theo Walcott effort from 30 yards that went narrowly over as well as a Wilshere one on one effort when Walcott had slipped the ball across to him.
Arsene Wenger will not mind though, he will be delighted that his team - often mooted as weak and unphysical – have managed to go to Ewood Park and collect the points necessary to keep up with Chelsea. They go into the international break in 2nd, 2 points behind the pace.
NEW BOY VARNEY THE HERO AS BLACKPOOL TAKE POINT
Blackpool 2 - 2 Fulham
Pantsil (OG) 71’ Zamora 35’
Varney 76’ Etuhu 87’
• Dembele produced a flat cross for Zamora to head home.
• Pantsil sliced a kick into his own goal to give Blackpool an equaliser.
• New signing Varney then put Blackpool ahead as he picked his way into between two Fulham defenders to get onto a through-ball and finish calmly from the edge of the box.
• Etuhu got Fulham a share of the points with a late chipped effort.
NOT SIX, BUT CHELSEA STILL STROLL
CHELSEA 2 - 0 STOKE
Malouda 32’
Drogba (Pen) 77’
At the close of play, Ancelotti and his boys may well be upset no to have kept up their 6 goal-scoring momentum, but they still have absolutely nothing to be complaining about, they still haven’t conceded yet this season and have a goal difference of +14.
They didn’t quite manage to create the same amount of chances as they normally do; probably illustrating that Stoke had been doing their homework properly. Having said that though, the game was over before Drogba’s converted his penalty with consummate ease in the 77th minute. Drogba’s wasn’t the only penalty of the day though, with Shawcross tripping up Florent Malouda early on in the first half, only for Frank Lampard to miss his third penalty in a row, a record he will most certainly not be boasting about!
The felled Malouda made up for the erring of Lampard with a nice curled finish around Sorensen from the edge of the area to continue his good start to the season. He is a player who quickly establishing himself as one of Chelsea’s main danger men alongside Lampard and Drogba.
Before the half was out, Ashley Cole attempted a truly outrageous volley. A throw in from the left flank came over his shoulder, he swung with his left foot, unleashing an amazing shot to rattle the crossbar. Stoke had their own effort hit the crossbar, with Glenn Whelan hitting a good 25 yard effort that had Cech beaten.
Chelsea finally killed the game off with 15 minutes left on the clock, Anelka was fouled by Sorensen for a stone-wall penalty, which Drogba scored to present him with his 4th league goal this season. Still having their 100% record, Chelsea are still hot favourites to lift the trophy even with the league still in its embryonic stage.
AL-HABSI POINTS!
TOTTENHAM 0 – 1 WIGAN
Rodallega 80’
When Wigan lost 9-1 at White Hart Lane last season, Roberto Martinez was backed for the sack, before Saturday’s game, he was in the same position after two bad losses this season. He would most likely not have dreamed of being able to beat Spurs on their own patch.
However an 80th minute winner from Hugo Rodallega got them three massive points to get them off the mark for the season. It was a goal fully against the run of play, but one that no one associated with Wigan will refuse.
Wigan also had the first meaningful chance of the match with centre-back Steve Gohouri hitting the crossbar early on. Ekotto was almost punished on two separate occasions for dawdling on the ball as he was dispossessed but McCarthy and Bosselli couldn’t quite work things into a goal.
Tottenham then began dominating the game, with a Wigan handball and in-turn penalty appeal being turned down. Jermaine Defoe, who had put his groin operation on hold to play, then forced a sharp reaction save from Al-Habsi when he turned and shot fluidly from an Assou-Ekotto cross.
As the 2nd half pressed on Alcaraz somehow managed to miss from 3 yards, a miss only equalled by Carlos Tevez’s howler. This was followed from an over the bar volley from Jordi Gomez and Wigan started to get nearer. Rodallega then scored his goal to put Wigan into an unlikely lead.
The game came to an end after Krancjar hit a brilliant 30 yard shot that was stopped again by Al-Habsi, followed up by another save with Dawson and Younes Kaboul missed a guilt-edge header. Wigan had smashed and grabbed a victory here and will be delighted with their effort, this will have helped Roberto Martinez keep his position to no end.
CARROLL SONG STILL ECHOING AROUND MOLINEUX
Wolves 1 - 1 Newcastle
Ebanks-Blake 43’ Carroll 62’
• Ebanks-Blake scores again to put Wovles ahead just before half time with a strong touch- down and strike.
• Jarvis was not awarded clear penalty after a tackle from Perch.
• Carroll headed into the back of the net from a Joey Barton free-kick on the hour.
UNITED TAKE IT EASY AS ROO FINALLY SCORES
Man Utd 3 - 0 West Ham
Rooney (Pen) 33’
Nani 50’
Berbatov 69’
• Rooney finally breaks his long-lived deadlock from the spot after Giggs was tripped in the box.
• Nani cuts in onto his left foot and curls the ball into the corner from 18 yards.
• Berbatov finishes the job with an excellent horizontal volley from a Nani cross.
JUSS A BIT STUPID FROM JAASKELAINEN AS 10-MAN BOLTON SCRAPE A POINT
Bolton 2 - 2 Birmingham
K. Davies 71’ R. Johnson 4’
Blake 81’ Gardner 50’
• Jaaskelainen got sent off after slapping R. Johnson.
• Craig Gardner finished from Cameron Jerome’s strong knock-down.
• Johnson brought a man down in the area to allow Kevin Davies to convert a good penalty.
HODGSON’S HOME DELIGHT AS TORRES RETURNS
Liverpool 1 - 0 West Brom
Torres 65’
• Torres volleys Liverpool to three points for edge of the early to end a torrid time personally.
• Both Liverpool and Wigan are turned down debatable penalties, in particular Wigan’s after Olsson was pulled down by him.
• Morrisson sent off for a dangerous tackle on Torres with 5 minutes remaining.
SUNDERLAND GRAB THE POINTS AS CITY SLICKERS SLIP
SUNDERLAND 1 - 0 MAN CITY
Bent (Pen) 90’
Sunderland came out looking for a big 3 points today in a match that was always going to be tough for both teams. Carlos Tevez will no doubt be left hanging his head in deep shame after a shocking miss from 10 yards with the goal gaping opening.
Sunderland came back at City after this early miss with one narrow one of their own, a 30 yard effort from Henderson that had Hart watching. Lescott and Turner then got involved in a mean tackle with the Wear-side player coming off worse for wear in the tackle. This preceded an even nastier moment for Frazier Campbell off as his knee jarred in the ground, an injury that can now be confirmed as a tear of his cruciate ligaments leading to an absence of around six months.
Following such mean moments Yaya Toure was denied at close-range by Mignolet, who has been making quite a reputation for himself as a strong shot-stopper. This was backed up by his brilliant stretching save to stop a superb back-heeled effort from Emmanuel Adebayor late on in the 2nd half for 6 yards.
Then as the match seemed to be coming to a close, with the Match of the Day commentator tempting fate by saying, “it looks like Joe Hart is set to keep a fifth straight clean-sheet”. Micah Richard tugged all over the back of and brought Darren Bent down in the 3rd minute of 3 minutes of injury time to present Darren Bent with a penalty that would either secure 3 points for Sunderland or a share of the points. As it was Bent successfully put the penalty past a despairing Hart. This leaves City dropping more points to leave them 5 points adrift already, something that will not be likely to please Sheikh Mansour.
YOUNG THE THIEF AS VILLANS SOME TOFFEE
ASTON VILLA 1 - 0 EVERTON
L. Young 9’
After this latest disappointment, Everton have sealed their worst start to a season in 11 years with only 1 point from their 3 games. Considering they have played Blackburn away and Wolves at Goodison Park before today, David Moyes really will not be best pleased. Villa on the other hand were needing to make come-backs from the joint disappointments of crashing out of the Europa League and being beaten by Newcastle last weekend.
All in all it was a game dominated by Everton but the consistent as always Brad Friedel kept them at bay superbly, denying a late effort from Louis Saha at full stretch to save his team’s points with Jagielka heading over late-on as well. Not to be out-done, Tim Howard also made a good double-save from Carew and then Ashley Young stretching far and wide to prevent such efforts.
Mark Albrighton had a very good penalty appeal turned down by the referee when Pienaar was adjudged to have brought him down cleanly. This came after Villa’s enterprising opener and – in the end – winner. Luke Young made a curving, penetrative run into the box and was found by a ball from Ashley Young that was so well-timed and hit that Luke Young didn’t even have break stride to curve it first time with his left foot to score his 1st goal of the season.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Thursday 26 August 2010
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
Group A
Inter Milan (Italy)
Werder Bremen (Germany)
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
FC Twente (Holland)
Group B
Olympique Lyonnais (France)
Benfica (Portugal)
FC Schalke (Germany)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Israel)
Group C
Manchester United (England)
Valencia (Spain)
Rangers (Scotland)
Bursapor (Turkey)
Group D
Barcelona (Spain)
Panathinaikos (Greece)
FC Kobenhavn (Denmark)
Rubin Kazan (Russia)
Group E
Bayern Munich (Germany)
Roma (Italy)
FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland)
CFR 1907 Cluj (Romania)
Group F
Chelsea (England)
Olympique Marseille (France)
Spartak Moskva (Russia)
MSK Zilina (Slovakia)
Group G
AC Milan (Italy)
Real Madrid (Spain)
Ajax (Holland)
AJ Auxerre (France)
Group H
Arsenal (England)
Shaktar Donetsk (Ukraine)
SC Braga (Portugal)
FC Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Julio Cesar, Maicon, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito won UEFA Club Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward of the year respectively. Incidently they all played for Champions Inter Milan. Congratulations to all!
Group G looks as though it will be the main "Group of Death" with Group C and A also looking tough, whilst Chelsea and Arsenal will likely be quietly happy with their draws, having avoided Real Madrid. Tottenham have a difficult task to progress from their Group which contains reigning Champions. Man Utd and Rangers will face off against each other.
Personally, I cannot wait for another year of Champions League Football! Good luck to all (but Arsenal in particular!)
Inter Milan (Italy)
Werder Bremen (Germany)
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
FC Twente (Holland)
Group B
Olympique Lyonnais (France)
Benfica (Portugal)
FC Schalke (Germany)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Israel)
Group C
Manchester United (England)
Valencia (Spain)
Rangers (Scotland)
Bursapor (Turkey)
Group D
Barcelona (Spain)
Panathinaikos (Greece)
FC Kobenhavn (Denmark)
Rubin Kazan (Russia)
Group E
Bayern Munich (Germany)
Roma (Italy)
FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland)
CFR 1907 Cluj (Romania)
Group F
Chelsea (England)
Olympique Marseille (France)
Spartak Moskva (Russia)
MSK Zilina (Slovakia)
Group G
AC Milan (Italy)
Real Madrid (Spain)
Ajax (Holland)
AJ Auxerre (France)
Group H
Arsenal (England)
Shaktar Donetsk (Ukraine)
SC Braga (Portugal)
FC Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Julio Cesar, Maicon, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito won UEFA Club Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward of the year respectively. Incidently they all played for Champions Inter Milan. Congratulations to all!
Group G looks as though it will be the main "Group of Death" with Group C and A also looking tough, whilst Chelsea and Arsenal will likely be quietly happy with their draws, having avoided Real Madrid. Tottenham have a difficult task to progress from their Group which contains reigning Champions. Man Utd and Rangers will face off against each other.
Personally, I cannot wait for another year of Champions League Football! Good luck to all (but Arsenal in particular!)
Wednesday 25 August 2010
SPORTING NEWS OF THE WEEK 3
- Tottenham lose first leg of first Champions League game 3-2, after being 3-0 down after 28 minutes away from home against the Swiss outfit, Young Boys. Roman Pavlyuchenko scored a brilliant second after Bassong got Spurs on the board.
- Babel gives Liverpool a 1-0 advantage of Trabzonspor in Europa League with the away leg next Thursday.
- Aston Villa draw 1-1 with Rapid Vienna away in their Europa League opener, with youngster Roy Bannan scoring after another youngster, Mark Albrighton set him up.
- Alastair Cook gives his Test career a much needed kick-start with 110 in the 2nd innings of the 3rd Test versus Pakistan as England lose at the Oval after a collapse with England falling from 194-3 to 222 all out following Cook’s dismissal as well as having been 94/7 in the first innings.
Pakistan 308 (Ali 92*) Swann 4-68
England 222 (Cook 110) Amir 5-52
Pakistan 148/6 (Butt 46) Swann 3-50
Pakistan win by 4 wickets.
- William Gallas secures North London switch from Arsenal to Tottenham
- French International defender Squillaci comes to Arsenal for rumoured fee of £6.5million.
- Algerian defender Haliche moves to Fulham.
- ·Mario Balotelli makes his long awaited move to Man City history with supposed £24million bid.
- Liverpool misfit Alberto Aquilani is sent on loan to Juventus with a permanent deal to the Old Lady looking on the cards.
- Craig Bellamy makes eventual shock move to Cardiff after too many personal differences with City see him left out in the cold.
- Roger Federer wins in Cincinatti in the run up to the US Open after beating Mardy Fish in the final.
- New Zealand defeat South Africa in a thriller of a rugby match in front of 95,000 at Soccer City, the All Blacks win narrowly 29-22 to break Bok hearts.
- Theo Walcott and Andy Carroll grab hat-tricks in the Premier League as Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea all beat Aston Villa, Blackpool and Wigan 6-0 respectively.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND-UP - WEEK 2
TRIO FOR THEO AS GUNNERS SOUR TANGERINES
Arsenal 6 - 0 Blackpool
Walcott 12’, 39’, 58’
Arshavin (Pen) 32’
Diaby 49’
Chamakh 83’
When Arsene Wenger heard Theo Walcott was not going to South Africa this summer, it probably struck him with a mixture of thoughts; will he recover? At least he’ll be fresh, how strong is he mentally? Its fair to say that, although the match was against relegation candidates Blackpool, Walcott shone like a star. Not only did he score 3 goals, but he was also forever making good runs, with or without the ball and on top of this was Arsenal’s main creative hub with nearly every move going through him at some point.
Whilst the game itself got off to a rather scrappy start with no real long periods of possession, it did not take long for Arsenal to find the right gear. On 12 minutes Arshavin set an excellent ball across goal to Walcott, 10 yards out, who coolly slotted the ball back across goal first time to open the scoring.
Even though the score-line makes it sound completely one-sided through out, Blackpool very nearly had themselves an equaliser when Taylor-Fletcher headed wide in a position he should have at least been hitting the target from.
The Orange’s were made to regret such a mistake as Chamakh ran through only to be felled by Evatt, debatably outside the box to present Arsenal with a penalty and Evatt with an early shower. Arshavin duly converted from the spot to double the Gunners’ lead and with one less man, Blackpool’s fans will have began thinking they were in for a long day. They were not wrong as 17 minutes later Arsenal had managed to re-double their lead through a second Walcott strike and a Diaby volley across goal to be 4-0 up 5minutes into the 2nd half.
In the meantime Arsenal had started to dominate possession as they tend to at the Emirates, with Chamakh narrowly missing a few one on one chances that should have had him a hat-trick of his own. However with one of his trademark off-ball runs, Walcott was played in by Diaby and with 4 touches had the ball past 3 defenders and in the bottom corner of the net after a wonderful left-footed curler.
With the score at 5-0, the Tangerine’s must have been thinking that things could not worsen. They were to be proved wrong however by the sight of skipper Cesc Fabregas and Dutch International, Robin Van Persie coming off the bench to enter the fray. Fabregas arrival attracted a massive ovation from the Arsenal fans, many of whom will have spent their summer worrying about the Spaniard’s future. An ovation that was only bettered by that received at Theo Walcott’s exit from the pitch to make way for Carlos Vela.
Arsenal finally ended the rout with a textbook header to give Chamakh his first Premier League goal from a Robin Van Persie corner.
This leaves Arsenal 2nd for this weekend with a trip to Ewood Park next Saturday lunchtime, one where Fabregas and Van Persie will be looking to outshine the glorious display of Walcott!
FAB FOSTER SAVES BRUM
Birmingham 2 - 1 Blackburn
Gardner 57’, 71’ Nzonzi 54’
On a day where the referee was amongst the youngsters on the pitch, aged only 25, a most interesting game unfolded at St. Andrew’s between two of the Premier League’s expected mid-table teams.
It was the hosts that had the first opening from a corner, with centre-back Scott Dann powering a header that was denied commendably by recent international retiree Paul Robinson. The two teams heard the half time whistle at 0-0 with a fairly tense game that many hoped would open up in the 2nd half.
Those hoper’s got their wish as 5 minutes into the half, new Brum signing Zigic felled Christopher Samba in the penalty area for the young referee to award a straight-forward penalty. Morten Gamst Pedersen stepped up for the spot-kick, but saw it superbly saved by Ben Foster flying to his left and palming the ball onto the post and wide. Foster also saved from an Nzonzi header and a well hit effort from Kalinic in a game where he showed the kind of form that got Man Utd and England interested in his services, the kind of form that has, until now, been to infrequent. He could however, do nothing to stop Nzonzi’s 54th minute flicked header - from a Pedersen corner – from finding the back of his net to put the visitors one up in spite of their penalty miss.
Despite the set-back, Birmingham used the goal as impetus to encourage more positive play of their own, play that they quickly found themselves rewarded for as ex-Aston Villa midfielder Craig Gardner pushed in an equaliser after McFadden side-foot volley a good ball across the 6 yard box.
This event brought out the attacking elements in both teams with Kalinic hitting the post on a day where he impressed without managing to bag a goal. Birmingham proceeded with some good play of their own which finally culminated in a 71st minute winner, again from Gardner. This came after the Blackburn back line refused to shut him down as he dribbled closer to goal and hit a fiery daisy-cutter from 25 yards to beat Robinson for the second time and take the points.
Whilst Gardner will be credited with winning the points with his two goals, a share of the accolades must also go to the brilliant goal keeping of Ben Foster. He saved Birmingham from going 1-0 down earlier than they did and by doing so gave them the momentum to go in search of the win.
EBANKS THE EQUALISER FOR WOLVES
Everton 1 - 1 Wolves
Cahill 43’ Ebanks-Blake 79’
The corresponding fixture last season ended in the exact same result, it was Everton though, who had to scrap from behind to find the equaliser.
It was also Everton who dominated this season’s game, with Heitinga hitting the first true effort with a blistering 25 yard hit that Hahnemann had to be on his toes for. The Everton goal came just before half time sounded and presented itself in interesting circumstances. After Cahill had already had a good penalty shout turned down, Arteta found himself similarly disappointed as he was brought down by Ward in the box, only to be awarded a free-kick instead. Arteta hit the free-kick into the wall, where the ball bounced around and broke out to Cahill, who questionably pulled back a defender in order to get to the ball first and when he did, smash it into the top of the net for Everton’s first goal of the campaign.
The 2nd half proceeded at quite a pace, with Wolves starting to press and with a few gaps opening in the Everton defence now and then. Jody Craddock almost equalised with a cheeky back-heel on the hour, but only found the side-netting.
A quarter of an hour later, after Guedioura questionably fouled Heitinga, Wolves found themselves with a counter-attack on. Guedioura set Doyle to his right for Doyle to cut back an excellent ball for an easy finish for last season’s peripheral figure, Syvain Ebanks-Blake.
Everton almost managed to spoil Wolves’ afternoon late on when Saha scooped a head over a scrapping Hahnemann, only for the ball to fall onto the roof of the net. The two teams had replicated the result they achieved last year, a result that will do Everton no favours in their hopes for Europa League football next season with only 1 point from the 6 available. Mick McCarthy on the other hand, will be delighted after his team were “hopeless in the first half”.
BALE BRACE BRINGS BONUS AT BRITTANIA
Stoke 1 - 2 Tottenham
Fuller 25’ Bale 19’, 30’
The Brittania saw a controversial end to this match with the score at 2-1, Stoke midfielder McCarthy headed goalwards, a header that was denied by a sprawling Peter Crouch, supposedly on the line. The goal was not given. Replays however show that the ball was fully over the line when it hit Crouch in yet another incident that simple goal-line technology would have resolved in an instant.
The opening to the game was contrastingly clean and easy, with few chances coming in the first 15minutes. However, Tottenham struck shortly after as Aaron Lennon slid Bale in behind with a beautiful through pass. Sorensen, saved Bale’s first effort only for it to fall to Crouch, whose shot deflected off a defender, into Bale’s face and in for a goal as bizarre as Hernandez’ in the Community Shield.
Stoke’s response did not take in coming as Etherington’s corner found its to Fuller after a couple of touches and into the back of the net to set things square after 25 minutes.
Again Spurs did not wait long to change that score-line with a wonder goal from Bale to get his second. Lennon picked him out with a floated 20 yard cross-pitch ball, with the ball at shoulder height, Bale leant sideways and volleyed with his left foot with a angelic shot at drifted round Sorensen and into the top corner.
Spurs almost got themselves a third with a scrap on Stoke’s line after Bale cut back a cross that Jenas and Crouch both managed to squeeze off efforts from.
This said, Stoke almost equalised through Fuller and then twice through Tuncay who missed a one on one chance with a loose first touch.
Then, with seconds remaining came the controversy as Crouch blocked McCarthy’s header over the line, yet the goal was not awarded. This left Stoke boss, Tony Pulis fuming post-match, “the referee couldn’t have had a better position for it (Crouch’s clearance)”.
ODEMWINNING!
West Brom 1 - 0 Sunderland
Odemwingie 81’
A fairly dull game at the Hawthorns was lifted by new signing Peter Odemwingie. Importantly, relegation favourites West Brom managed to secure three points due to the Nigerian’s goal that came ten minutes from time. He had missed a chance that was probably easier early on. He was slid in behind the Sunderland back-line to slot past the on-rushing Mignolet.
The only other chance of particular note came from Chris Brunt who attempted a 30 yard shot with the keeper beaten but alas to no avail.
West Brom will be cherishing any points they can get their hands on as they look to beat the critics as well as the drop and finally sustain a place in the Premier League, rather than living up to their yo-yo reputation.
BUBBLES BURST AS BOLTON BOSH HAMMERS
West Ham 1 - 3 Bolton
Noble (pen) 78’ Upson OG 48’
Elmander 68’, 84’
After their convincing 3-0 defeat at Villa Park, West Ham returned to Upton Park this week to take on a Bolton team that had seen a 0-0 stalemate with Fulham last week.
The match opened up with an early Elmander effort going across goal and wide. Down the other end Steinsson brought down Carlton Cole in the box for a Hammer’s penalty. Cole bravely stepped forward to take the penalty he had won but was denied by a strong Jaaskelainen save to keep the score-line blank. The Clarets then found themselves denied a handball inside the area that could well have been given on another day.
Kieron Dyer and Piquionne both wasted good chances in front of goal, with the former striking the up-right, chances that were surely cited by Avram Grant as he remarked “we created many chances but had no results”. Such wasting was punished harshly by Bolton as the 2nd half opened up as they went into the lead through a Matthew Upson own goal when a route one effort ended in Davies pressuring Upson into making a header that finished up in the back of the net.
Bolton kept on coming at the Hammer’s, giving them much to think about at the back, and a further reward came with 20 minutes still to go when Lee’s well paced cross was headed in expertly by Johan Elmander. 10 minutes later however, West Ham attempted a fight back, with Scott Parker being pulled down in the box by Gary Cahill, another penalty was given, this time Mark Noble slotted it home.
This attempted was short-lived though, as Ilunga cleared poorly, going straight to Elmander who sealed a smart braced with a 10yard finish after a questionable Kevin Davies handball.
This gives Bolton a strong start to the league with 4 points from 2 games, West Ham however, are at the other end of the spectrum with 0 points and are sitting at the foot of the table.
SIX AGAIN AS CHELSEA STAMPEDE LATICS
Wigan 0 - 6 Chelsea
Malouda 34’
Anelka 48’, 52’
Kalou 78, 90’
Benayoun 90’
Twelve goals in their opening games, zero conceded and 29 goals in their last five league games. These are just some of the impressive statistics that Chelsea can boast after their latest dismissal. They were just as impressive as they were last week, if not more so because their perennial top-scorers Lampard and Drogba didn’t even make the score-sheet, instead leaving it to their team-mates for a change.
Despite the eventual result, it was Wigan that opened up the stronger of the two teams with Figueroa and Rodellega forcing early Cech saves. On top of this there was a McCarthy shot deflected by Cech to the post, for the offside Boselli to put away only to be flagged up.
After that though, Wigan really did not get much of a look in as Malouda opened the scoring after Lampard had his effort palmed out by Kirkland for Malouda to pounce.
Half time came 10 minutes later with the score at 1-0.
After the break Chelsea were straight back onto Wigan’s case. It only took 3 minutes for the lead to double as Anelka found himself on the end of a brilliant Mikel diagonal that he slotted across goal with a smart finish. Four minutes later Anelka had another as Drogba got no leverage on an effort from a Malouda cross, and the banned International jumped highest to head home to put Chelsea 3 up by 52 minutes.
Then after coming off the bench, it was Kalou’s turn to add to the goal pile on 78minutes. With the Wigan defence tiring and leaving gaps at the back, Drogba turned, beat one man and was clean through to run 30 yards towards Kirkland’s goal, most unselfishly when he arrived, instead of shooting himself, he laid in Kalou who finished comfortably. 10 minutes later it was five as Kalou struck again, this time with a good flicked header from a beautiful Drogba cross.
To put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, new recruit Yossi Benayoun scored his first Chelsea goal in the 93rd minute when Ferreira slid a nice ball across the penalty area. Finally Chelsea were done, and whilst Drogba didn’t score, he didn’t half make up for it with assists. Once again Chelsea have warned the other teams of their calibre, they will prove tough to beat and are the only Premier League team with a 100% record left after two games, something of a stat! Who will step forward to de-throne the Champions of it?
CHRISTMAS CARROLL COME EARLY AT ROCKING ST JAMES’!
Newcastle 6 - 0 Aston Villa
Barton 12’
Nolan 31’, 87’
Carroll 34’, 67’, 90’
Another day in the Premier League, another 6-0 score-line. The kind of result one would expect to see around 4 times a year has instead been produced 4 times in 2 game week. It is an impressive sign of attacking intent from the teams that have done it (Chelsea and Arsenal).
Aston Villa have been shamed and embarrassed by this result, perhaps the background turmoil at the club finally manifesting on the pitch. They barely had any chances after John Carew scooped an early penalty far over the bar following Harper’s tackle on Ashley Young.
Joey Barton capitalised on this missed chance with a superb 20 yard arrow into the top corner 13 minutes in to put the Geordies in the driving seat. The game went on with Newcastle dominating play over an Aston Villa side that had Steven Ireland in it’s line-up for the first time after his exchange with James Milner.
Kevin Nolan managed to extended the advantage after half an hour when his first header from Carroll’s knockdown got saved, he reacted to the rebound fastest to put his second header away. Following this came Carroll’s first goal three minutes later, coming through a left footed effort after a scramble from a Barton corner.
This signalled the end of the first half goals and Newcastle went in to the 2nd half in buoyant mood, looking to humiliate their opponents. They managed this comfortably when Carroll scored his second after brilliant work from Williamson to give him a chipped through ball to volley across goal.
Nolan doubled his own goal tally 3 minutes from time with a hooked shot from an Ameobi knockdown from another Newcastle corner.
The scoring was finally finished in injury time by the new Geordie number 9, Andy Carroll who bagged his hat-trick after a disappointing first game in the league against Man Utd.
St James’ was officially back on the Premier League map with a superb display from their home team showing that they can more than hold their own in this league this season. However, it wouldn’t be a Newcastle season if their wasn’t some controversy and roller-coaster moments along the way!
HANGELAND FROM ZERO TO HERO AS FULHAM EARN POINT
Fulham 2 - 2 Man Utd
Davies 57’ Scholes 10’
Hangeland 89’ Hangeland OG 84’
Probably the most exciting match of the Premier League so far took place on Sunday afternoon down at Craven Cottage. With United not having the best of recent records on the Thames-side Stadium, it was always likely to be a strongly contested game and it did not disappoint. Having been banished 3-0 at the Cottage last year with a weakened defence, Utd were looking to re-assert themselves over the Whites.
An entertaining, open and fast paced first half seemed to fly by with few stoppages. Fulham probably enjoyed more of the game during it, but it was United that took first blood through the on-form Paul Scholes on 10 minutes. Berbatov had the ball – back to goal – on the edge of the box and laid back to Scholes who was still a good 30 yards back. With the ball spinning, Scholes hit across it with a superb daisy-cutter - the kind that has become a trademark of his over the years – that arrowed into the bottom corner of Stockdale’s (still between the posts in Schwarzer’s absence) net.
Not to be discouraged by such a piece of brilliance, Fulham continued to press United heavily and worked several openings of their own, with Simon Davies pulling their creative strings.
In an end-to-end game, United also received their chances, mainly through Berbatov, who had an overhead kick and an angled shot excellently saved by young Stockdale.
On 23 minutes, Zamora had Fulham’s best opportunity yet, with a sliced header that went across goal after Konchesky’s well-flighted cross.
The unusual source of Dickson Etuhu also came close for Fulham, and if it hadn’t been for a mixture of Etuhu’s poor hitting and Van Der Sar’s brilliant double save, the honours would undoubtedly have been even.
The 2nd half advanced at the same furious pace as the 1st, and it took Fulham only 10 minutes to draw level. Damien Duff beat Evra superbly down Fulham’s right wing and played Zamora down the line, who pulled a ball back across the box for the ever-present Davies to latch onto, despite Van Der Sar’s best efforts.
Fulham then got heavily unlucky as their new signing Moussa Dembele had a blatant penalty refused with Vidic yanking on his shirt with an hour gone. Danny Murphy was the next to come close with a 25 yard curler bringing another smart save out of the Dutch International keeper. This was followed 7 minutes later with a Nani free kick that skimmed the roof of the net.
Fulham’s chances continued on 80 minutes when Konchesky gave Zamora another perfect cross, which he volleyed wide of goal with Etuhu closing in once again.
Then two misfortunes struck the Cottager’s within 2 minutes of each other. Firstly an uncharacteristic Brede Hangeland own goal from an Utd corner put them behind. But then an 87th minute penalty was wrongly awarded when Damien Duff kicked onto his own arm with no chances of reacting against it.
Much to Ferguson’s later surprise, Nani, instead of Giggs stepped up for the penalty, one that was resplendently saved by the nigh-on flawless Stockdale.
Finally after all this bad luck had passed by, Fulham entered into ecstasy with 2 minutes remaining as a Duff corner was met by a strong Hangeland header to level up and restore Hangeland’s pride. With that the whistle blew and Fulham had saved and earned a deserved point against Utd and had foiled Ferguson’s team yet again.
MANSOUR PERFORMANCE FROM CITY AS LIVERPOOL GET THE SHEIKHS
Man City 3 - 0 Liverpool
Barry 13’
Tevez 56’, 68’ (Pen)
Right now, these two clubs could not be much more opposite, one sits at the peak of financial power, with bags of backing an investment. The other is desperately looking for new money and transfer funds from fresh backers.
Sheikh Mansour finally put a face to “kamikaze” spending with his first appearance at Eastlands, an appearance that got a generous ovation from the City fans.
Once the football got underway it didn’t take long for the City fans to be applauded again. Adam Johnson’s early 25 yard effort went narrowly wide, encouraging the supporters. Shortly after, City started the scoring, Milner having been played down the right flank, he cut a ball across the box for Barry to put into the bottom corner to finish an all ex-Aston Villa move. Such play showed City’s sharpness, meanwhile the Reds looked weary and sloppy in a lot of their play.
With 37minutes gone, Johnson cut in and hit another narrowly wide effort. This was followed minutes later by a Micah Richard’s header at back-post that went just wide also. With minutes in the half left, Liverpool came back into the match a bit more, with a couple of Gerrard efforts that couldn’t find their way past the City defenders, but did signal more intent.
City struck a 2nd blow to Reds after 53 minutes, when a Milner corner was headed on by Richards and apparently touched in by Tevez two yards out. Two minutes later came Liverpool’s best chance to get back into the game. Gerrard first hit the post, with the ball rebounding to Ngog whose effort was saved by Hart and again rebounded to Torres who shot was also brilliantly saved by the magnificent Hart from close range.
10 minutes later Johnson closed the game off when he beat two men and was chopped down in the box by Martin Skrtel to bring a penalty that Tevez duly scored from.
A couple of half-chances past Liverpool by, but this was always City’s night and a performance that will have Sheikh Mansour smiling all the way to the bank as he continues to invest City’s trophy hopes.
Arsenal 6 - 0 Blackpool
Walcott 12’, 39’, 58’
Arshavin (Pen) 32’
Diaby 49’
Chamakh 83’
When Arsene Wenger heard Theo Walcott was not going to South Africa this summer, it probably struck him with a mixture of thoughts; will he recover? At least he’ll be fresh, how strong is he mentally? Its fair to say that, although the match was against relegation candidates Blackpool, Walcott shone like a star. Not only did he score 3 goals, but he was also forever making good runs, with or without the ball and on top of this was Arsenal’s main creative hub with nearly every move going through him at some point.
Whilst the game itself got off to a rather scrappy start with no real long periods of possession, it did not take long for Arsenal to find the right gear. On 12 minutes Arshavin set an excellent ball across goal to Walcott, 10 yards out, who coolly slotted the ball back across goal first time to open the scoring.
Even though the score-line makes it sound completely one-sided through out, Blackpool very nearly had themselves an equaliser when Taylor-Fletcher headed wide in a position he should have at least been hitting the target from.
The Orange’s were made to regret such a mistake as Chamakh ran through only to be felled by Evatt, debatably outside the box to present Arsenal with a penalty and Evatt with an early shower. Arshavin duly converted from the spot to double the Gunners’ lead and with one less man, Blackpool’s fans will have began thinking they were in for a long day. They were not wrong as 17 minutes later Arsenal had managed to re-double their lead through a second Walcott strike and a Diaby volley across goal to be 4-0 up 5minutes into the 2nd half.
In the meantime Arsenal had started to dominate possession as they tend to at the Emirates, with Chamakh narrowly missing a few one on one chances that should have had him a hat-trick of his own. However with one of his trademark off-ball runs, Walcott was played in by Diaby and with 4 touches had the ball past 3 defenders and in the bottom corner of the net after a wonderful left-footed curler.
With the score at 5-0, the Tangerine’s must have been thinking that things could not worsen. They were to be proved wrong however by the sight of skipper Cesc Fabregas and Dutch International, Robin Van Persie coming off the bench to enter the fray. Fabregas arrival attracted a massive ovation from the Arsenal fans, many of whom will have spent their summer worrying about the Spaniard’s future. An ovation that was only bettered by that received at Theo Walcott’s exit from the pitch to make way for Carlos Vela.
Arsenal finally ended the rout with a textbook header to give Chamakh his first Premier League goal from a Robin Van Persie corner.
This leaves Arsenal 2nd for this weekend with a trip to Ewood Park next Saturday lunchtime, one where Fabregas and Van Persie will be looking to outshine the glorious display of Walcott!
FAB FOSTER SAVES BRUM
Birmingham 2 - 1 Blackburn
Gardner 57’, 71’ Nzonzi 54’
On a day where the referee was amongst the youngsters on the pitch, aged only 25, a most interesting game unfolded at St. Andrew’s between two of the Premier League’s expected mid-table teams.
It was the hosts that had the first opening from a corner, with centre-back Scott Dann powering a header that was denied commendably by recent international retiree Paul Robinson. The two teams heard the half time whistle at 0-0 with a fairly tense game that many hoped would open up in the 2nd half.
Those hoper’s got their wish as 5 minutes into the half, new Brum signing Zigic felled Christopher Samba in the penalty area for the young referee to award a straight-forward penalty. Morten Gamst Pedersen stepped up for the spot-kick, but saw it superbly saved by Ben Foster flying to his left and palming the ball onto the post and wide. Foster also saved from an Nzonzi header and a well hit effort from Kalinic in a game where he showed the kind of form that got Man Utd and England interested in his services, the kind of form that has, until now, been to infrequent. He could however, do nothing to stop Nzonzi’s 54th minute flicked header - from a Pedersen corner – from finding the back of his net to put the visitors one up in spite of their penalty miss.
Despite the set-back, Birmingham used the goal as impetus to encourage more positive play of their own, play that they quickly found themselves rewarded for as ex-Aston Villa midfielder Craig Gardner pushed in an equaliser after McFadden side-foot volley a good ball across the 6 yard box.
This event brought out the attacking elements in both teams with Kalinic hitting the post on a day where he impressed without managing to bag a goal. Birmingham proceeded with some good play of their own which finally culminated in a 71st minute winner, again from Gardner. This came after the Blackburn back line refused to shut him down as he dribbled closer to goal and hit a fiery daisy-cutter from 25 yards to beat Robinson for the second time and take the points.
Whilst Gardner will be credited with winning the points with his two goals, a share of the accolades must also go to the brilliant goal keeping of Ben Foster. He saved Birmingham from going 1-0 down earlier than they did and by doing so gave them the momentum to go in search of the win.
EBANKS THE EQUALISER FOR WOLVES
Everton 1 - 1 Wolves
Cahill 43’ Ebanks-Blake 79’
The corresponding fixture last season ended in the exact same result, it was Everton though, who had to scrap from behind to find the equaliser.
It was also Everton who dominated this season’s game, with Heitinga hitting the first true effort with a blistering 25 yard hit that Hahnemann had to be on his toes for. The Everton goal came just before half time sounded and presented itself in interesting circumstances. After Cahill had already had a good penalty shout turned down, Arteta found himself similarly disappointed as he was brought down by Ward in the box, only to be awarded a free-kick instead. Arteta hit the free-kick into the wall, where the ball bounced around and broke out to Cahill, who questionably pulled back a defender in order to get to the ball first and when he did, smash it into the top of the net for Everton’s first goal of the campaign.
The 2nd half proceeded at quite a pace, with Wolves starting to press and with a few gaps opening in the Everton defence now and then. Jody Craddock almost equalised with a cheeky back-heel on the hour, but only found the side-netting.
A quarter of an hour later, after Guedioura questionably fouled Heitinga, Wolves found themselves with a counter-attack on. Guedioura set Doyle to his right for Doyle to cut back an excellent ball for an easy finish for last season’s peripheral figure, Syvain Ebanks-Blake.
Everton almost managed to spoil Wolves’ afternoon late on when Saha scooped a head over a scrapping Hahnemann, only for the ball to fall onto the roof of the net. The two teams had replicated the result they achieved last year, a result that will do Everton no favours in their hopes for Europa League football next season with only 1 point from the 6 available. Mick McCarthy on the other hand, will be delighted after his team were “hopeless in the first half”.
BALE BRACE BRINGS BONUS AT BRITTANIA
Stoke 1 - 2 Tottenham
Fuller 25’ Bale 19’, 30’
The Brittania saw a controversial end to this match with the score at 2-1, Stoke midfielder McCarthy headed goalwards, a header that was denied by a sprawling Peter Crouch, supposedly on the line. The goal was not given. Replays however show that the ball was fully over the line when it hit Crouch in yet another incident that simple goal-line technology would have resolved in an instant.
The opening to the game was contrastingly clean and easy, with few chances coming in the first 15minutes. However, Tottenham struck shortly after as Aaron Lennon slid Bale in behind with a beautiful through pass. Sorensen, saved Bale’s first effort only for it to fall to Crouch, whose shot deflected off a defender, into Bale’s face and in for a goal as bizarre as Hernandez’ in the Community Shield.
Stoke’s response did not take in coming as Etherington’s corner found its to Fuller after a couple of touches and into the back of the net to set things square after 25 minutes.
Again Spurs did not wait long to change that score-line with a wonder goal from Bale to get his second. Lennon picked him out with a floated 20 yard cross-pitch ball, with the ball at shoulder height, Bale leant sideways and volleyed with his left foot with a angelic shot at drifted round Sorensen and into the top corner.
Spurs almost got themselves a third with a scrap on Stoke’s line after Bale cut back a cross that Jenas and Crouch both managed to squeeze off efforts from.
This said, Stoke almost equalised through Fuller and then twice through Tuncay who missed a one on one chance with a loose first touch.
Then, with seconds remaining came the controversy as Crouch blocked McCarthy’s header over the line, yet the goal was not awarded. This left Stoke boss, Tony Pulis fuming post-match, “the referee couldn’t have had a better position for it (Crouch’s clearance)”.
ODEMWINNING!
West Brom 1 - 0 Sunderland
Odemwingie 81’
A fairly dull game at the Hawthorns was lifted by new signing Peter Odemwingie. Importantly, relegation favourites West Brom managed to secure three points due to the Nigerian’s goal that came ten minutes from time. He had missed a chance that was probably easier early on. He was slid in behind the Sunderland back-line to slot past the on-rushing Mignolet.
The only other chance of particular note came from Chris Brunt who attempted a 30 yard shot with the keeper beaten but alas to no avail.
West Brom will be cherishing any points they can get their hands on as they look to beat the critics as well as the drop and finally sustain a place in the Premier League, rather than living up to their yo-yo reputation.
BUBBLES BURST AS BOLTON BOSH HAMMERS
West Ham 1 - 3 Bolton
Noble (pen) 78’ Upson OG 48’
Elmander 68’, 84’
After their convincing 3-0 defeat at Villa Park, West Ham returned to Upton Park this week to take on a Bolton team that had seen a 0-0 stalemate with Fulham last week.
The match opened up with an early Elmander effort going across goal and wide. Down the other end Steinsson brought down Carlton Cole in the box for a Hammer’s penalty. Cole bravely stepped forward to take the penalty he had won but was denied by a strong Jaaskelainen save to keep the score-line blank. The Clarets then found themselves denied a handball inside the area that could well have been given on another day.
Kieron Dyer and Piquionne both wasted good chances in front of goal, with the former striking the up-right, chances that were surely cited by Avram Grant as he remarked “we created many chances but had no results”. Such wasting was punished harshly by Bolton as the 2nd half opened up as they went into the lead through a Matthew Upson own goal when a route one effort ended in Davies pressuring Upson into making a header that finished up in the back of the net.
Bolton kept on coming at the Hammer’s, giving them much to think about at the back, and a further reward came with 20 minutes still to go when Lee’s well paced cross was headed in expertly by Johan Elmander. 10 minutes later however, West Ham attempted a fight back, with Scott Parker being pulled down in the box by Gary Cahill, another penalty was given, this time Mark Noble slotted it home.
This attempted was short-lived though, as Ilunga cleared poorly, going straight to Elmander who sealed a smart braced with a 10yard finish after a questionable Kevin Davies handball.
This gives Bolton a strong start to the league with 4 points from 2 games, West Ham however, are at the other end of the spectrum with 0 points and are sitting at the foot of the table.
SIX AGAIN AS CHELSEA STAMPEDE LATICS
Wigan 0 - 6 Chelsea
Malouda 34’
Anelka 48’, 52’
Kalou 78, 90’
Benayoun 90’
Twelve goals in their opening games, zero conceded and 29 goals in their last five league games. These are just some of the impressive statistics that Chelsea can boast after their latest dismissal. They were just as impressive as they were last week, if not more so because their perennial top-scorers Lampard and Drogba didn’t even make the score-sheet, instead leaving it to their team-mates for a change.
Despite the eventual result, it was Wigan that opened up the stronger of the two teams with Figueroa and Rodellega forcing early Cech saves. On top of this there was a McCarthy shot deflected by Cech to the post, for the offside Boselli to put away only to be flagged up.
After that though, Wigan really did not get much of a look in as Malouda opened the scoring after Lampard had his effort palmed out by Kirkland for Malouda to pounce.
Half time came 10 minutes later with the score at 1-0.
After the break Chelsea were straight back onto Wigan’s case. It only took 3 minutes for the lead to double as Anelka found himself on the end of a brilliant Mikel diagonal that he slotted across goal with a smart finish. Four minutes later Anelka had another as Drogba got no leverage on an effort from a Malouda cross, and the banned International jumped highest to head home to put Chelsea 3 up by 52 minutes.
Then after coming off the bench, it was Kalou’s turn to add to the goal pile on 78minutes. With the Wigan defence tiring and leaving gaps at the back, Drogba turned, beat one man and was clean through to run 30 yards towards Kirkland’s goal, most unselfishly when he arrived, instead of shooting himself, he laid in Kalou who finished comfortably. 10 minutes later it was five as Kalou struck again, this time with a good flicked header from a beautiful Drogba cross.
To put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, new recruit Yossi Benayoun scored his first Chelsea goal in the 93rd minute when Ferreira slid a nice ball across the penalty area. Finally Chelsea were done, and whilst Drogba didn’t score, he didn’t half make up for it with assists. Once again Chelsea have warned the other teams of their calibre, they will prove tough to beat and are the only Premier League team with a 100% record left after two games, something of a stat! Who will step forward to de-throne the Champions of it?
CHRISTMAS CARROLL COME EARLY AT ROCKING ST JAMES’!
Newcastle 6 - 0 Aston Villa
Barton 12’
Nolan 31’, 87’
Carroll 34’, 67’, 90’
Another day in the Premier League, another 6-0 score-line. The kind of result one would expect to see around 4 times a year has instead been produced 4 times in 2 game week. It is an impressive sign of attacking intent from the teams that have done it (Chelsea and Arsenal).
Aston Villa have been shamed and embarrassed by this result, perhaps the background turmoil at the club finally manifesting on the pitch. They barely had any chances after John Carew scooped an early penalty far over the bar following Harper’s tackle on Ashley Young.
Joey Barton capitalised on this missed chance with a superb 20 yard arrow into the top corner 13 minutes in to put the Geordies in the driving seat. The game went on with Newcastle dominating play over an Aston Villa side that had Steven Ireland in it’s line-up for the first time after his exchange with James Milner.
Kevin Nolan managed to extended the advantage after half an hour when his first header from Carroll’s knockdown got saved, he reacted to the rebound fastest to put his second header away. Following this came Carroll’s first goal three minutes later, coming through a left footed effort after a scramble from a Barton corner.
This signalled the end of the first half goals and Newcastle went in to the 2nd half in buoyant mood, looking to humiliate their opponents. They managed this comfortably when Carroll scored his second after brilliant work from Williamson to give him a chipped through ball to volley across goal.
Nolan doubled his own goal tally 3 minutes from time with a hooked shot from an Ameobi knockdown from another Newcastle corner.
The scoring was finally finished in injury time by the new Geordie number 9, Andy Carroll who bagged his hat-trick after a disappointing first game in the league against Man Utd.
St James’ was officially back on the Premier League map with a superb display from their home team showing that they can more than hold their own in this league this season. However, it wouldn’t be a Newcastle season if their wasn’t some controversy and roller-coaster moments along the way!
HANGELAND FROM ZERO TO HERO AS FULHAM EARN POINT
Fulham 2 - 2 Man Utd
Davies 57’ Scholes 10’
Hangeland 89’ Hangeland OG 84’
Probably the most exciting match of the Premier League so far took place on Sunday afternoon down at Craven Cottage. With United not having the best of recent records on the Thames-side Stadium, it was always likely to be a strongly contested game and it did not disappoint. Having been banished 3-0 at the Cottage last year with a weakened defence, Utd were looking to re-assert themselves over the Whites.
An entertaining, open and fast paced first half seemed to fly by with few stoppages. Fulham probably enjoyed more of the game during it, but it was United that took first blood through the on-form Paul Scholes on 10 minutes. Berbatov had the ball – back to goal – on the edge of the box and laid back to Scholes who was still a good 30 yards back. With the ball spinning, Scholes hit across it with a superb daisy-cutter - the kind that has become a trademark of his over the years – that arrowed into the bottom corner of Stockdale’s (still between the posts in Schwarzer’s absence) net.
Not to be discouraged by such a piece of brilliance, Fulham continued to press United heavily and worked several openings of their own, with Simon Davies pulling their creative strings.
In an end-to-end game, United also received their chances, mainly through Berbatov, who had an overhead kick and an angled shot excellently saved by young Stockdale.
On 23 minutes, Zamora had Fulham’s best opportunity yet, with a sliced header that went across goal after Konchesky’s well-flighted cross.
The unusual source of Dickson Etuhu also came close for Fulham, and if it hadn’t been for a mixture of Etuhu’s poor hitting and Van Der Sar’s brilliant double save, the honours would undoubtedly have been even.
The 2nd half advanced at the same furious pace as the 1st, and it took Fulham only 10 minutes to draw level. Damien Duff beat Evra superbly down Fulham’s right wing and played Zamora down the line, who pulled a ball back across the box for the ever-present Davies to latch onto, despite Van Der Sar’s best efforts.
Fulham then got heavily unlucky as their new signing Moussa Dembele had a blatant penalty refused with Vidic yanking on his shirt with an hour gone. Danny Murphy was the next to come close with a 25 yard curler bringing another smart save out of the Dutch International keeper. This was followed 7 minutes later with a Nani free kick that skimmed the roof of the net.
Fulham’s chances continued on 80 minutes when Konchesky gave Zamora another perfect cross, which he volleyed wide of goal with Etuhu closing in once again.
Then two misfortunes struck the Cottager’s within 2 minutes of each other. Firstly an uncharacteristic Brede Hangeland own goal from an Utd corner put them behind. But then an 87th minute penalty was wrongly awarded when Damien Duff kicked onto his own arm with no chances of reacting against it.
Much to Ferguson’s later surprise, Nani, instead of Giggs stepped up for the penalty, one that was resplendently saved by the nigh-on flawless Stockdale.
Finally after all this bad luck had passed by, Fulham entered into ecstasy with 2 minutes remaining as a Duff corner was met by a strong Hangeland header to level up and restore Hangeland’s pride. With that the whistle blew and Fulham had saved and earned a deserved point against Utd and had foiled Ferguson’s team yet again.
MANSOUR PERFORMANCE FROM CITY AS LIVERPOOL GET THE SHEIKHS
Man City 3 - 0 Liverpool
Barry 13’
Tevez 56’, 68’ (Pen)
Right now, these two clubs could not be much more opposite, one sits at the peak of financial power, with bags of backing an investment. The other is desperately looking for new money and transfer funds from fresh backers.
Sheikh Mansour finally put a face to “kamikaze” spending with his first appearance at Eastlands, an appearance that got a generous ovation from the City fans.
Once the football got underway it didn’t take long for the City fans to be applauded again. Adam Johnson’s early 25 yard effort went narrowly wide, encouraging the supporters. Shortly after, City started the scoring, Milner having been played down the right flank, he cut a ball across the box for Barry to put into the bottom corner to finish an all ex-Aston Villa move. Such play showed City’s sharpness, meanwhile the Reds looked weary and sloppy in a lot of their play.
With 37minutes gone, Johnson cut in and hit another narrowly wide effort. This was followed minutes later by a Micah Richard’s header at back-post that went just wide also. With minutes in the half left, Liverpool came back into the match a bit more, with a couple of Gerrard efforts that couldn’t find their way past the City defenders, but did signal more intent.
City struck a 2nd blow to Reds after 53 minutes, when a Milner corner was headed on by Richards and apparently touched in by Tevez two yards out. Two minutes later came Liverpool’s best chance to get back into the game. Gerrard first hit the post, with the ball rebounding to Ngog whose effort was saved by Hart and again rebounded to Torres who shot was also brilliantly saved by the magnificent Hart from close range.
10 minutes later Johnson closed the game off when he beat two men and was chopped down in the box by Martin Skrtel to bring a penalty that Tevez duly scored from.
A couple of half-chances past Liverpool by, but this was always City’s night and a performance that will have Sheikh Mansour smiling all the way to the bank as he continues to invest City’s trophy hopes.
Tuesday 17 August 2010
SPORTING NEWS OF THE WEEK 2
• Tyson Gay won again this week, although he was not racing Usain Bolt in Crystal Palace. He won in a time of 9.78seconds, the fastest time in the World this year.
• Hampshire became T20 Champions this week in a highly dramatic finish against Somerset in a last over that contained byes straight to the keeper and a runner for the last ball. Hampshire won on wickets lost after they hit 173/5 the same amount of runs Somerset got for 6 wickets.
• Steve Coppell and Kevin Blackwell both left their clubs this week. Coppell due to mutual consent. Blackwell was given the sack after the Blades lost 3-0.
• James Milner made his big money move to Man City, with Craig Bellamy going from one City to another, Manchester to Cardiff.
• The Toronto Masters saw some brilliant tennis which culminated in a Murray, Federer final. Murray had to beat Nadal, Nalbandian and Monfils to get through with Federer beating Djokovic and Berdych. Murray won 7-5, 7-5 in the final after having broken and been broken by Federer several times in a match that had an hour long rain break. Congrats Andy!
• German Golfer Martin Kaymer lifted the USPGA trophy at Whistling Straits after having beaten Bubba Watson in a playoff by a single shot over three holes. Young Irishman Rory McIlroy was only a few shots of the pace for the whole tournament.
• The Premier League got underway once more, providing some excellent scenes such as Blackpool’s victory and Paul Scholes’ individual performance at Old Trafford on Monday night.
• Hampshire became T20 Champions this week in a highly dramatic finish against Somerset in a last over that contained byes straight to the keeper and a runner for the last ball. Hampshire won on wickets lost after they hit 173/5 the same amount of runs Somerset got for 6 wickets.
• Steve Coppell and Kevin Blackwell both left their clubs this week. Coppell due to mutual consent. Blackwell was given the sack after the Blades lost 3-0.
• James Milner made his big money move to Man City, with Craig Bellamy going from one City to another, Manchester to Cardiff.
• The Toronto Masters saw some brilliant tennis which culminated in a Murray, Federer final. Murray had to beat Nadal, Nalbandian and Monfils to get through with Federer beating Djokovic and Berdych. Murray won 7-5, 7-5 in the final after having broken and been broken by Federer several times in a match that had an hour long rain break. Congrats Andy!
• German Golfer Martin Kaymer lifted the USPGA trophy at Whistling Straits after having beaten Bubba Watson in a playoff by a single shot over three holes. Young Irishman Rory McIlroy was only a few shots of the pace for the whole tournament.
• The Premier League got underway once more, providing some excellent scenes such as Blackpool’s victory and Paul Scholes’ individual performance at Old Trafford on Monday night.
PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND-UP
CITY PLAY WITH HART AT THE LANE
Manchester City 0 - 0 Tottenham
The most anticipated pre-season question was emphatically answered at White Hart Lane by City boss Roberto Mancini so as who to play in goal. Was it to be England’s new number one, Joe Hart? Or the consistent, experienced hands of Shay Given? Like Fabio Capello did on Wednesday, Mancini went with the young Ex-Shrewsbury town keeper. He was not let down by his selection, with a resplendent performance and above all, clean-sheet that Hart provided. He first saved from Defoe 15minutes in, after which he pulled of a save from a magnificent volley from Huddlestone. Tottenham proceeded to pile on the pressure in the first half, Bale striking the post and taking many corners.
Fresh from having signed Mario Balotelli on Friday, City looked as though they were strangers in the first half. They started with three of their new signings, Kolarov, Toure and David Silva. In the 2nd half however, City began to turn on the heat. Their best chance came when Shaun Wright-Phillips found himself in and through, only for Assou-Ekotto to pull out a superb, last-ditch tackle in the penalty area.
At the final whistle, the first thoughts of many were that the money had not had immediate success. With Tottenham enjoying the lion share of chances and opportunities, it leaves City Manager, Roberto Mancini with plenty to work on. Harry Redknapp was generally pleased with his team’s performance, “we created lots of chances, but couldn’t beat a great-keeper”.
MILNER’S PARTING GIFT??
Aston Villa 3 - 0 West Ham
Downing 15’
Petrov 40’
Milner 66’
There were few anxious faces around Villa Park as the teams walked out on to the pitch at Villa Park, not only were they without a secure manager, Academy Manager Kevin McDonald standing in, but also fearing that this could be the last game for their main playmaker, James Milner.
West Ham also had a new manager taking charge, Avram Grant having replaced Gianfranco Zola in the off-season.
Villa started the brighter of the two teams, and were rewarded for this with Stewart Downing’s goal on 15minutes, having pounced on Robert Green’s parry, to the cry of the West Ham defenders that Downing was offside, which, replays showed, was indeed offside.
Following this, Villa persisted with good, attacking play, resulting in Ashley Young almost catching Green off his line with a lob, only for Green to save it. Green could not manage to stop Stiyilan Petrov’s stronger header from a Young cross to double the Villan’s lead 5 minutes shy of half time.
If West Ham thought that there would be a change of events at half time, they were very mistaken as the match continued on its very one-sided path. This was exemplified by Stewart Downing’s magnificent free-kick that rocked the cross-bar. Only for Milner, with what could be his last goal for the club, to produce a beautiful left-foot drive across goal from the edge of the box after hot young prospect Albrighton beat 2 West Ham men and cut back to Milner to make it 3-0. Villa did not see fit stopping there though, but couldn’t make it four, not for the want of not trying however, with Carew hitting the post.
Villa had dominated and strolled the match, doing no more than was necessary against a poorly shaped West Ham side that “start sloppily” accorded to Grant and never recovered from that start. McDonald saying in his post-match conference that the “players were true pro’s” after the turmoil Aston Villa have seen this last week after O’Neill’s departure.
CHELSEA CRUISE TO SIX AS DROGBA TREBLES UP
Chelsea 6 - 0 West Brom
Malouda 6’, 90’
Drogba 45’, 55’, 68’
Lampard 63’
It was the return of West Brom boss, Roberto DiMatteo, to Stamford Bridge, his old stomping ground for this fixture. That will probably be the only positive memory he will maintain from the experience or, should I say, the drubbing.
His post-match sentiments of “we’ll have to do better” could not be more spot-on with his “yo-yo” side looking to avoid another Premier League relegation.
West Brom can’t even look back and say “at least we made them wait”, because the first goal came in the 6th minute, courtesy of Frenchman, Florent Malouda due to a poor parry off of a Drogba free-kick from keeper Scott Carson that Malouda was all to happy to finish off from 5 yards. This set the tone for the match, with West Brom simply giving away far too many free-kicks within goal-scoring range for the likes of Drogba and Lampard to attempt to punish. Drogba did indeed punish this ill-disciplined tackling just before half time, with a low free-kick that found its way through the wall and into the bottom corner of Carson’s net.
After half-time, Chelsea came out even more ruthless, terrorising the Brom defence and after 10minutes managed to find their 3rd goal, once again, through Drogba with a scrappy finish from a corner. Coach, Carlo Ancelotti will be pleased with such ruthlessness as he thinks there will be “a lot of teams involved at the top” this season.
Chelsea were far from finished though, with Lampard running into the penalty area unmarked after Anelka and Cole made a smooth interchange of passes. Five minutes later, Drogba – rather fortunately – found his hat-trick with a 20 yard shot that took a horrendous deflection to complete bamboozle and wrong-foot Carson.
Malouda decided to finish the rout in injury time in similar fashion to Lampard, simply wandering through unmarked, taking the ball around the keeper and slotting home cooly.
West Brom, though probably given the worst first fixture of the season, will be needing to do much better than this in the future, with their defensive shape poor and lax. Chelsea however, sit atop the Premier League pile after the first week on a very strong goal-difference which, with so many challenging teams this season, could prove pivotal come May.
HOWARD HOWLER HANDS BLACKBURN POINTS
Blackburn 1 - 0 Everton
Kalinic 14’
This is a day that if Everton miss out on European Football by 1 or 2 points at the end of season, Tim Howard may come into account for, the only separator in this match was his terrible mistake.
The match had got off to a slow, considered start from both teams looking to keep possession early-on and try and work out each other’s weaknesses. This approach changed on 14 minutes, when a seemingly innocuous, regulation take for Tim Howard managed to find its way to the ground, with Blackburn striker, Kalinic being quickest to react to the gaff and swiftly putting the ball into Everton’s open net.
In an otherwise eventless match, Nzonzi should have made the lead 2-0 with a header from a Diouf cross that he failed to convert.
After the match, David Moyes refused to blame Howard for the loss, instead choosing to sight the fact that Everton had not presented “enough attacking threats” to deserve or merit taking any points out of the game.
BRUM CLAW A DRAW AS 3 DEFENDERS SCORE!
Sunderland 2 - 2 Birmingham
Bent 24’ (Pen) Dann 77’
Carr (OG) 56’ Ridgewell 88’
It was a day where three Birmingham defenders got on the score-sheet and we saw our first red card of the season, unsurprisingly from Lee Cattermole.
It wasn’t for his use of the elbow in an aerial challenge that got him the card, but instead received 2 yellows, the second of which, a terrible challenge on Lee Bowyer from behind on the stroke of half time. All of this happening after Cattermole had been entrusted with the captaincy by Steve Bruce, who formerly managed the Blues, saying afterwards that Cattermole “needed to learn more common sense”.
When Frazier Campbell was felled by Carr, debatably outside of the box, a penalty was awarded, one that was cooly placed home by rejected England striker Darren Bent.
This lead extended itself 10 minutes into the second half, when Steven Carr – the Brum skipper having a severe off day – lobbed his keeper with a header from a long diagonal ball to leave both him and Ben Foster looking rather silly.
Despite this cushion, Sunderland were beginning to tire, being one man light and Birmingham began to pressure them more effectively. This eventually culminated when, in the 77th minute, Scott Dann managed to find a header from a Birmingham corner to half the deficit.
An exciting 10minutes of football ensued, with Birmingham continuing to press hard on a Sunderland back-line that was beginning to wilt. Birmingham managed to make this count two minutes from time when Liam Ridgewell was adjudged to have the last touch on a near goal-line scrap against the Sunderland defenders from another corner, something Steve Bruce will no doubt be looking to sort.
Birmingham had salvaged an early point away from home and one that could prove important as they look for an outside chance of Europa League football. Sunderland, though, will be disappointed that they failed to hold on to a 2 goal lead when their players will be the freshest they’ll be all season. Bruce failed to mention as such in his press conference, instead saying that the referee, who was making one of his first few Premier League appearances, was not quite at the races after Cattermole’s red card.
TANGERINE’S TORCH THE DW
Wigan 0 - 4 Blackpool
Taylor – Fletcher 16’
Harewood 38’, 43’
Baptiste 75’
Any person who decided to put a bet on Blackpool being top of the league after the 3pm Saturday kick off’s, though surely receiving many laughs at his expense before hand, will be laughing all the way to bank after the Orange’s dismantled Wigan away from home.
It was simply a joy to behold, with all the pre-season speculation saying that Blackpool would never be able to stay afloat and that they didn’t have the resources, players or the funds to make it. Though only one win, this will have boosted their image massively. However they will have to watch out for any complacency and instead aim to play as well in all other matches as they did in this season’s opener.
Having said this, the pre-season chat around the DW stadium was not exactly bright and enterprising itself. Both clubs seem to have been predicted by many to face the drop come the end of the season and this dismal display of football and defending in particular, will have done nothing to silence the critics.
The dream started for Blackpool in the 16th minute, when ex-Hammers striker, Marlon Harewood, put in a low cross to the back post where Taylor-Fletcher lay in wait to tap in, queue pandemonium in the small section of the DW where all the Blackpool fans were situated.
If it hadn’t been for Kirkland and the linesman, the score-line could have been even more embarrassing for Roberto Martinez’s side, as Kirkland made a string of fine saves and the linesman denied Taylor-Fletcher a second that was in fact legitimate.
The often criticised Harewood then managed to help himself to two goals within 5 minutes before the half time whistle sounded. Firstly he hit a 20 yard daisy-cutter that admittedly should have been saved and then he pounced on a rebound from an acute angle to leave Blackpool fans celebrating a 3-0 lead.
Wigan defender, Gohouri then had a goal disallowed, once again mistakenly by the linesman’s offside flag, leaving Wigan supporter’s up in arms. This, before Baptiste completely put the match to bed with a freak goal, beating Kirkland at his near-post in similar fashion to how Arsenal keeper Lukas Fabianski was beaten away at Porto in last year’s Champions League tie.
Wigan will have been left distraught and embarrassed by such a hammering at home at the hands of a team that is being backed to go back down to the Championship. Martinez openly admitted that “everything that could have gone wrong did”. In contrast to Holloway’s summary of the match, “I’m proud of these boys and their fantastic spirit!” Let’s just hope Holloway will still be able to say the same things in May.
WOLVES HOWL STOKE AWAY
Wolves 2 - 1 Stoke
D. Jones 37’ Faye 55’
Fletcher 39’
Two sides that were both candidates for relegation last year, but eventually finished 11th and 15th met to do battle on the opening day of a season that they both hope will end similarly than the last.
Stoke had the best of the early exchanges, with new record signing Kenwyne Jones hitting the bar early on with the scores deadlocked. His afternoon was ended shortly afterwards by a horrible ankle twist after being on the receiving end of a Jody Craddock tackle that saw him play no further part in the match.
In the mean time, the Jones of Wolves had a goal disallowed for a foul on Sorensen. Not to be stopped however, he produced a magnificent goal 37minutes in. A free-kick had been won for Wolves just outside the edge of the penalty D. Jones stepped behind it to have it laid back, this happened, then Jones flicked the ball up with his left foot, volleyed it with the same foot and got the ball over the wall and then to dip to hit the underside of the crossbar and go in. It was a truly fantastic attempt and a reward to all of those who dream of scoring inventive goals. Steven Fletcher went on to double the lead 4 minutes later with a header from short range after a Berra cross deflected over Sorensen to take Wolves into half time 2-0 up in front of their home fans at Molineux.
The ever-physical Stoke team continued to drive on valiantly, and were given an opportunity when Faye headed home from an Etherington corner. However they could not find another goal to get themselves a share of the points.
This allowed Wolves to take all 3 and give themselves a great start to what could possibly be a very tough one. Tony Pulis bemoaned the loss of Jones so early on saying “it took the wind out our sails”. Fortunately scans have shown that Jones will not be out for as long as first thought.
STOCKDALE SUPREME IN STALEMATE
Bolton 0 - 0 Fulham
The big news at the Reebok was that Mark Schwarzer was left on the bench by new Fulham boss Mark Hughes, leaving reserve keeper Stockdale to make his debut. Does this show the world that Hughes could well be resigned to losing Schwarzer, who is being tailed by Arsenal.
If it was worried that Fulham would not be the same with Schwarzer, those fears were dispelled after a string of fine saves by Stockdale from first Martin Petrov and then Elmander.
Bolton’s Holden came closest to breaking the deadline when he hit the post only for the ball to rebound unhelpfully.
This match was probably the most easily predictable 0-0 draw out of the weekend’s matches, with neither team renowned for goal-scoring and normally fairly consistent at the back.
POINTS LET OFF THE REINAS
Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal
Ngog 46’ Reina (OG) 89’
The first Super Sunday of the new season, and there were indeed parts of it that were super. Roy Hodgson and Joe Cole made their headline debuts whilst Arsene Wenger had just signed a new contract to keep him at Arsenal until 2014 and Chamakh and Koscielny starting the Premier League for the first time. Jack Wilshere rounded of a great personal week with a start for Arsenal to go alongside his first England cap.
Arsenal were completely without the services of skipper Fabregas and Van Persie was left on the bench alongside Fernando Torres.
The game took a while to get off its feet with both teams fairly conservative and whilst Arsenal took 60% of the first half possession it was neither threatening nor high tempo for the majority. Thomas Vermaelen had the first opportunity of the game with a brilliant free-kick from 30 yard struck with venomous power, alas though, Reina was equal to it.
The game had a real talking point to speak of just shy of half time when Joe Cole lunged through Koscielny, crushing his ankle, to receive a straight red, much to his and the Kop’s dismay. Koscielny, though having been stretchered off the pitch, rejoined the game in the 2nd half, much to the thanks of his shin-pad I suspect.
In spite of this setback, Liverpool fired out of the blocks in the 2nd half, with Ngog opening the scoring a minute in after beating Almunia at his near-post with a lethal hit from a narrow angle. This brought a slightly higher tempo of passing out of Arsenal, using Nasri as their focal point and they should have equalised when Rosicky wrestled clean through only for Reina to produce a magnificent save to tip it over the bar.
Walcott and Van Persie were brought on as Arsenal looked and sought an equaliser and they very nearly unlocked Liverpool when Van Persie kept the ball in play, headed back across goal, with Walcott just failed to get a clean opportunity with the company of three Liverpool defenders.
With 90minutes gone, the pressure on Liverpool reached its breaking point as Rosicky sent in a beautiful cross that hung up in the sun, not aiding Pepe Reina, who found Chamakh running across the line of ball. Chamakh got a touch that rolled into the post and out, with Reina running back towards his own goal he could not prevent himself from juggling it into the back of the net to get Arsenal back in the game.
An edgey 5 minutes of football followed, with Koscielny picking up a 2nd yellow for an apparent handball at close range and Gerrard testing Almunia with a stinging free-kick. However the game finished 1-1 which at the end of the day was a fair result with neither team at full strength with their respective passing and moving games. Liverpool did however do very well with 10 men and it barely showed that they were a man light, perhaps a testament to the training drills and defensive shape that Roy Hodgson is famous for drilling into his teams.
SCHOLES ROLLS BACK THE YEARS IN UNITED PROCESSION
Manchester United 3 - 0 Newcastle United
Berbatov 33’
Fletcher 43’
Giggs 85’
15 years ago, this fixture would have been a top of the table clash, now though, whilst one team still owns that status, the other has only just rejoined the League from the Championship. This fact was glaringly obvious throughout the match, with Man Utd on superb form and in particular one Paul Scholes who drew the words “Paul is a master of his trade. His vision, passing range and willingness to play is marvellous” from Alex Ferguson after the match.
Whilst Wayne Rooney was withdrawn after an hour having still not scored for club or country in over 1000 minutes, it was Berbatov who finally shouldered his weight up front as he, along with Scholes played a very strong match and bagged himself a goal half an hour in thanks to a well weighted through ball from Scholes and he proceeded to finish across goal from a tough angle.
It was Newcastle on the other hand who had the first meaningful chance of the game, with Andy Carroll rising well from a corner only to head the ball wide from 6 yards, a chance he will surely regret missing. From then on in though, Man Utd simply dominated with the “Ginger Pele” pulling any and every string available. His superb passing range was on show for all to see with 30/40 yard diagonals out to Valencia, Nani and Rooney in stark contrast with little give and go’s with Berbatov and Fletcher. Newcastle could simply not keep tabs on him and he punished them for it time and again. Scholes did nevertheless manage to get himself a yellow card with his now customary poor tackling ability when he felled Joey Barton (sporting a hilarious moustache!) with his studs showing.
United went 2 up after the Newcastle midfielders were caught ball watching, allowing Evra to run through unchallenged, fizz a ball across to Rooney who touched it on to Fletcher who turned and shot from close range to go into half time with a comfortable and well deserved 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, Utd simply did not quit in the 2nd half, and whilst Newcastle tried to play on the counter with big men Carroll and Nolan up front, it failed miserably and they were left constantly chasing the ball with little or no reward. They purely did not deserve to be there playing against such a team on such magnificent form.
United inevitably created more chances, with Scholes having a penalty appeal refused after great one-touch play with Berbatov. Berbatov himself had some good chances as well, a one on one with Harper that he should have finished but instead rolled wide. On top of this a chance in the 82nd minute when he rescued an Evra cross, turned and beat a man to shoot at Harper from close range from a difficult angle.
United got their 3rd and final goal 5 minutes from the end when another Scholes diagonal found Giggs’ left foot volley into the far corner to round up a superb performance and send out a warning shot to the other challenging teams.
Manchester City 0 - 0 Tottenham
The most anticipated pre-season question was emphatically answered at White Hart Lane by City boss Roberto Mancini so as who to play in goal. Was it to be England’s new number one, Joe Hart? Or the consistent, experienced hands of Shay Given? Like Fabio Capello did on Wednesday, Mancini went with the young Ex-Shrewsbury town keeper. He was not let down by his selection, with a resplendent performance and above all, clean-sheet that Hart provided. He first saved from Defoe 15minutes in, after which he pulled of a save from a magnificent volley from Huddlestone. Tottenham proceeded to pile on the pressure in the first half, Bale striking the post and taking many corners.
Fresh from having signed Mario Balotelli on Friday, City looked as though they were strangers in the first half. They started with three of their new signings, Kolarov, Toure and David Silva. In the 2nd half however, City began to turn on the heat. Their best chance came when Shaun Wright-Phillips found himself in and through, only for Assou-Ekotto to pull out a superb, last-ditch tackle in the penalty area.
At the final whistle, the first thoughts of many were that the money had not had immediate success. With Tottenham enjoying the lion share of chances and opportunities, it leaves City Manager, Roberto Mancini with plenty to work on. Harry Redknapp was generally pleased with his team’s performance, “we created lots of chances, but couldn’t beat a great-keeper”.
MILNER’S PARTING GIFT??
Aston Villa 3 - 0 West Ham
Downing 15’
Petrov 40’
Milner 66’
There were few anxious faces around Villa Park as the teams walked out on to the pitch at Villa Park, not only were they without a secure manager, Academy Manager Kevin McDonald standing in, but also fearing that this could be the last game for their main playmaker, James Milner.
West Ham also had a new manager taking charge, Avram Grant having replaced Gianfranco Zola in the off-season.
Villa started the brighter of the two teams, and were rewarded for this with Stewart Downing’s goal on 15minutes, having pounced on Robert Green’s parry, to the cry of the West Ham defenders that Downing was offside, which, replays showed, was indeed offside.
Following this, Villa persisted with good, attacking play, resulting in Ashley Young almost catching Green off his line with a lob, only for Green to save it. Green could not manage to stop Stiyilan Petrov’s stronger header from a Young cross to double the Villan’s lead 5 minutes shy of half time.
If West Ham thought that there would be a change of events at half time, they were very mistaken as the match continued on its very one-sided path. This was exemplified by Stewart Downing’s magnificent free-kick that rocked the cross-bar. Only for Milner, with what could be his last goal for the club, to produce a beautiful left-foot drive across goal from the edge of the box after hot young prospect Albrighton beat 2 West Ham men and cut back to Milner to make it 3-0. Villa did not see fit stopping there though, but couldn’t make it four, not for the want of not trying however, with Carew hitting the post.
Villa had dominated and strolled the match, doing no more than was necessary against a poorly shaped West Ham side that “start sloppily” accorded to Grant and never recovered from that start. McDonald saying in his post-match conference that the “players were true pro’s” after the turmoil Aston Villa have seen this last week after O’Neill’s departure.
CHELSEA CRUISE TO SIX AS DROGBA TREBLES UP
Chelsea 6 - 0 West Brom
Malouda 6’, 90’
Drogba 45’, 55’, 68’
Lampard 63’
It was the return of West Brom boss, Roberto DiMatteo, to Stamford Bridge, his old stomping ground for this fixture. That will probably be the only positive memory he will maintain from the experience or, should I say, the drubbing.
His post-match sentiments of “we’ll have to do better” could not be more spot-on with his “yo-yo” side looking to avoid another Premier League relegation.
West Brom can’t even look back and say “at least we made them wait”, because the first goal came in the 6th minute, courtesy of Frenchman, Florent Malouda due to a poor parry off of a Drogba free-kick from keeper Scott Carson that Malouda was all to happy to finish off from 5 yards. This set the tone for the match, with West Brom simply giving away far too many free-kicks within goal-scoring range for the likes of Drogba and Lampard to attempt to punish. Drogba did indeed punish this ill-disciplined tackling just before half time, with a low free-kick that found its way through the wall and into the bottom corner of Carson’s net.
After half-time, Chelsea came out even more ruthless, terrorising the Brom defence and after 10minutes managed to find their 3rd goal, once again, through Drogba with a scrappy finish from a corner. Coach, Carlo Ancelotti will be pleased with such ruthlessness as he thinks there will be “a lot of teams involved at the top” this season.
Chelsea were far from finished though, with Lampard running into the penalty area unmarked after Anelka and Cole made a smooth interchange of passes. Five minutes later, Drogba – rather fortunately – found his hat-trick with a 20 yard shot that took a horrendous deflection to complete bamboozle and wrong-foot Carson.
Malouda decided to finish the rout in injury time in similar fashion to Lampard, simply wandering through unmarked, taking the ball around the keeper and slotting home cooly.
West Brom, though probably given the worst first fixture of the season, will be needing to do much better than this in the future, with their defensive shape poor and lax. Chelsea however, sit atop the Premier League pile after the first week on a very strong goal-difference which, with so many challenging teams this season, could prove pivotal come May.
HOWARD HOWLER HANDS BLACKBURN POINTS
Blackburn 1 - 0 Everton
Kalinic 14’
This is a day that if Everton miss out on European Football by 1 or 2 points at the end of season, Tim Howard may come into account for, the only separator in this match was his terrible mistake.
The match had got off to a slow, considered start from both teams looking to keep possession early-on and try and work out each other’s weaknesses. This approach changed on 14 minutes, when a seemingly innocuous, regulation take for Tim Howard managed to find its way to the ground, with Blackburn striker, Kalinic being quickest to react to the gaff and swiftly putting the ball into Everton’s open net.
In an otherwise eventless match, Nzonzi should have made the lead 2-0 with a header from a Diouf cross that he failed to convert.
After the match, David Moyes refused to blame Howard for the loss, instead choosing to sight the fact that Everton had not presented “enough attacking threats” to deserve or merit taking any points out of the game.
BRUM CLAW A DRAW AS 3 DEFENDERS SCORE!
Sunderland 2 - 2 Birmingham
Bent 24’ (Pen) Dann 77’
Carr (OG) 56’ Ridgewell 88’
It was a day where three Birmingham defenders got on the score-sheet and we saw our first red card of the season, unsurprisingly from Lee Cattermole.
It wasn’t for his use of the elbow in an aerial challenge that got him the card, but instead received 2 yellows, the second of which, a terrible challenge on Lee Bowyer from behind on the stroke of half time. All of this happening after Cattermole had been entrusted with the captaincy by Steve Bruce, who formerly managed the Blues, saying afterwards that Cattermole “needed to learn more common sense”.
When Frazier Campbell was felled by Carr, debatably outside of the box, a penalty was awarded, one that was cooly placed home by rejected England striker Darren Bent.
This lead extended itself 10 minutes into the second half, when Steven Carr – the Brum skipper having a severe off day – lobbed his keeper with a header from a long diagonal ball to leave both him and Ben Foster looking rather silly.
Despite this cushion, Sunderland were beginning to tire, being one man light and Birmingham began to pressure them more effectively. This eventually culminated when, in the 77th minute, Scott Dann managed to find a header from a Birmingham corner to half the deficit.
An exciting 10minutes of football ensued, with Birmingham continuing to press hard on a Sunderland back-line that was beginning to wilt. Birmingham managed to make this count two minutes from time when Liam Ridgewell was adjudged to have the last touch on a near goal-line scrap against the Sunderland defenders from another corner, something Steve Bruce will no doubt be looking to sort.
Birmingham had salvaged an early point away from home and one that could prove important as they look for an outside chance of Europa League football. Sunderland, though, will be disappointed that they failed to hold on to a 2 goal lead when their players will be the freshest they’ll be all season. Bruce failed to mention as such in his press conference, instead saying that the referee, who was making one of his first few Premier League appearances, was not quite at the races after Cattermole’s red card.
TANGERINE’S TORCH THE DW
Wigan 0 - 4 Blackpool
Taylor – Fletcher 16’
Harewood 38’, 43’
Baptiste 75’
Any person who decided to put a bet on Blackpool being top of the league after the 3pm Saturday kick off’s, though surely receiving many laughs at his expense before hand, will be laughing all the way to bank after the Orange’s dismantled Wigan away from home.
It was simply a joy to behold, with all the pre-season speculation saying that Blackpool would never be able to stay afloat and that they didn’t have the resources, players or the funds to make it. Though only one win, this will have boosted their image massively. However they will have to watch out for any complacency and instead aim to play as well in all other matches as they did in this season’s opener.
Having said this, the pre-season chat around the DW stadium was not exactly bright and enterprising itself. Both clubs seem to have been predicted by many to face the drop come the end of the season and this dismal display of football and defending in particular, will have done nothing to silence the critics.
The dream started for Blackpool in the 16th minute, when ex-Hammers striker, Marlon Harewood, put in a low cross to the back post where Taylor-Fletcher lay in wait to tap in, queue pandemonium in the small section of the DW where all the Blackpool fans were situated.
If it hadn’t been for Kirkland and the linesman, the score-line could have been even more embarrassing for Roberto Martinez’s side, as Kirkland made a string of fine saves and the linesman denied Taylor-Fletcher a second that was in fact legitimate.
The often criticised Harewood then managed to help himself to two goals within 5 minutes before the half time whistle sounded. Firstly he hit a 20 yard daisy-cutter that admittedly should have been saved and then he pounced on a rebound from an acute angle to leave Blackpool fans celebrating a 3-0 lead.
Wigan defender, Gohouri then had a goal disallowed, once again mistakenly by the linesman’s offside flag, leaving Wigan supporter’s up in arms. This, before Baptiste completely put the match to bed with a freak goal, beating Kirkland at his near-post in similar fashion to how Arsenal keeper Lukas Fabianski was beaten away at Porto in last year’s Champions League tie.
Wigan will have been left distraught and embarrassed by such a hammering at home at the hands of a team that is being backed to go back down to the Championship. Martinez openly admitted that “everything that could have gone wrong did”. In contrast to Holloway’s summary of the match, “I’m proud of these boys and their fantastic spirit!” Let’s just hope Holloway will still be able to say the same things in May.
WOLVES HOWL STOKE AWAY
Wolves 2 - 1 Stoke
D. Jones 37’ Faye 55’
Fletcher 39’
Two sides that were both candidates for relegation last year, but eventually finished 11th and 15th met to do battle on the opening day of a season that they both hope will end similarly than the last.
Stoke had the best of the early exchanges, with new record signing Kenwyne Jones hitting the bar early on with the scores deadlocked. His afternoon was ended shortly afterwards by a horrible ankle twist after being on the receiving end of a Jody Craddock tackle that saw him play no further part in the match.
In the mean time, the Jones of Wolves had a goal disallowed for a foul on Sorensen. Not to be stopped however, he produced a magnificent goal 37minutes in. A free-kick had been won for Wolves just outside the edge of the penalty D. Jones stepped behind it to have it laid back, this happened, then Jones flicked the ball up with his left foot, volleyed it with the same foot and got the ball over the wall and then to dip to hit the underside of the crossbar and go in. It was a truly fantastic attempt and a reward to all of those who dream of scoring inventive goals. Steven Fletcher went on to double the lead 4 minutes later with a header from short range after a Berra cross deflected over Sorensen to take Wolves into half time 2-0 up in front of their home fans at Molineux.
The ever-physical Stoke team continued to drive on valiantly, and were given an opportunity when Faye headed home from an Etherington corner. However they could not find another goal to get themselves a share of the points.
This allowed Wolves to take all 3 and give themselves a great start to what could possibly be a very tough one. Tony Pulis bemoaned the loss of Jones so early on saying “it took the wind out our sails”. Fortunately scans have shown that Jones will not be out for as long as first thought.
STOCKDALE SUPREME IN STALEMATE
Bolton 0 - 0 Fulham
The big news at the Reebok was that Mark Schwarzer was left on the bench by new Fulham boss Mark Hughes, leaving reserve keeper Stockdale to make his debut. Does this show the world that Hughes could well be resigned to losing Schwarzer, who is being tailed by Arsenal.
If it was worried that Fulham would not be the same with Schwarzer, those fears were dispelled after a string of fine saves by Stockdale from first Martin Petrov and then Elmander.
Bolton’s Holden came closest to breaking the deadline when he hit the post only for the ball to rebound unhelpfully.
This match was probably the most easily predictable 0-0 draw out of the weekend’s matches, with neither team renowned for goal-scoring and normally fairly consistent at the back.
POINTS LET OFF THE REINAS
Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal
Ngog 46’ Reina (OG) 89’
The first Super Sunday of the new season, and there were indeed parts of it that were super. Roy Hodgson and Joe Cole made their headline debuts whilst Arsene Wenger had just signed a new contract to keep him at Arsenal until 2014 and Chamakh and Koscielny starting the Premier League for the first time. Jack Wilshere rounded of a great personal week with a start for Arsenal to go alongside his first England cap.
Arsenal were completely without the services of skipper Fabregas and Van Persie was left on the bench alongside Fernando Torres.
The game took a while to get off its feet with both teams fairly conservative and whilst Arsenal took 60% of the first half possession it was neither threatening nor high tempo for the majority. Thomas Vermaelen had the first opportunity of the game with a brilliant free-kick from 30 yard struck with venomous power, alas though, Reina was equal to it.
The game had a real talking point to speak of just shy of half time when Joe Cole lunged through Koscielny, crushing his ankle, to receive a straight red, much to his and the Kop’s dismay. Koscielny, though having been stretchered off the pitch, rejoined the game in the 2nd half, much to the thanks of his shin-pad I suspect.
In spite of this setback, Liverpool fired out of the blocks in the 2nd half, with Ngog opening the scoring a minute in after beating Almunia at his near-post with a lethal hit from a narrow angle. This brought a slightly higher tempo of passing out of Arsenal, using Nasri as their focal point and they should have equalised when Rosicky wrestled clean through only for Reina to produce a magnificent save to tip it over the bar.
Walcott and Van Persie were brought on as Arsenal looked and sought an equaliser and they very nearly unlocked Liverpool when Van Persie kept the ball in play, headed back across goal, with Walcott just failed to get a clean opportunity with the company of three Liverpool defenders.
With 90minutes gone, the pressure on Liverpool reached its breaking point as Rosicky sent in a beautiful cross that hung up in the sun, not aiding Pepe Reina, who found Chamakh running across the line of ball. Chamakh got a touch that rolled into the post and out, with Reina running back towards his own goal he could not prevent himself from juggling it into the back of the net to get Arsenal back in the game.
An edgey 5 minutes of football followed, with Koscielny picking up a 2nd yellow for an apparent handball at close range and Gerrard testing Almunia with a stinging free-kick. However the game finished 1-1 which at the end of the day was a fair result with neither team at full strength with their respective passing and moving games. Liverpool did however do very well with 10 men and it barely showed that they were a man light, perhaps a testament to the training drills and defensive shape that Roy Hodgson is famous for drilling into his teams.
SCHOLES ROLLS BACK THE YEARS IN UNITED PROCESSION
Manchester United 3 - 0 Newcastle United
Berbatov 33’
Fletcher 43’
Giggs 85’
15 years ago, this fixture would have been a top of the table clash, now though, whilst one team still owns that status, the other has only just rejoined the League from the Championship. This fact was glaringly obvious throughout the match, with Man Utd on superb form and in particular one Paul Scholes who drew the words “Paul is a master of his trade. His vision, passing range and willingness to play is marvellous” from Alex Ferguson after the match.
Whilst Wayne Rooney was withdrawn after an hour having still not scored for club or country in over 1000 minutes, it was Berbatov who finally shouldered his weight up front as he, along with Scholes played a very strong match and bagged himself a goal half an hour in thanks to a well weighted through ball from Scholes and he proceeded to finish across goal from a tough angle.
It was Newcastle on the other hand who had the first meaningful chance of the game, with Andy Carroll rising well from a corner only to head the ball wide from 6 yards, a chance he will surely regret missing. From then on in though, Man Utd simply dominated with the “Ginger Pele” pulling any and every string available. His superb passing range was on show for all to see with 30/40 yard diagonals out to Valencia, Nani and Rooney in stark contrast with little give and go’s with Berbatov and Fletcher. Newcastle could simply not keep tabs on him and he punished them for it time and again. Scholes did nevertheless manage to get himself a yellow card with his now customary poor tackling ability when he felled Joey Barton (sporting a hilarious moustache!) with his studs showing.
United went 2 up after the Newcastle midfielders were caught ball watching, allowing Evra to run through unchallenged, fizz a ball across to Rooney who touched it on to Fletcher who turned and shot from close range to go into half time with a comfortable and well deserved 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, Utd simply did not quit in the 2nd half, and whilst Newcastle tried to play on the counter with big men Carroll and Nolan up front, it failed miserably and they were left constantly chasing the ball with little or no reward. They purely did not deserve to be there playing against such a team on such magnificent form.
United inevitably created more chances, with Scholes having a penalty appeal refused after great one-touch play with Berbatov. Berbatov himself had some good chances as well, a one on one with Harper that he should have finished but instead rolled wide. On top of this a chance in the 82nd minute when he rescued an Evra cross, turned and beat a man to shoot at Harper from close range from a difficult angle.
United got their 3rd and final goal 5 minutes from the end when another Scholes diagonal found Giggs’ left foot volley into the far corner to round up a superb performance and send out a warning shot to the other challenging teams.
Monday 9 August 2010
Sporting News of the Week
Man Utd beat Chelsea 3-1 in the season's curtain raiser, the Community Shield with goals from; Valencia, Hernandez, and a beautiful lob from Berbatov, with Chelsea's Kalou scoring in return.
Martin O'Neill has stunned English football by resigning from his post at Aston Villa with immediate effect, leaving, fans, pundits and football followers alike wondering whether his power was taken from him with the issue of James Milner's apparently impending move to Man City. This leaves Villa vulnerable and worried about a mass exodus of players who may have lost faith in the club's apparent lack of ambition to finance new signings.
England annilihate Pakistan by 9 wickets on the 4th Day, with 118 to win, Trott and Strauss both finnished on not out half-centuries.
England manager Fabio Capello's grip on his England squad seems to be slackening, with only 16 of the 23 players called-up turning up to training. Wes Brown and Paul Robinson having retired, with 5 others apparently unfit. Arsenal youngsters Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wiltshere have been called up in a new look team alongside, Gary Cahill (Bolton), Phil Jagielka (Everton) and Fulham's Bobby Zamora.
Cesc Fabregas pledges his allegiance to Arsenal in what looked like somewhat of a forced move. It has left fans interested and anxious to see how he performs come the season.
An in-form Tyson Gay stormed to victory in the Diamond League meet in Stockholm ahead of a lethargic, yet still under 10 seconds Usain Bolt, in a time of 9.84secs.
The long awaited return of the Premier League will arrive on Saturday noon, with an epic battle, with plenty of unfinnished business in it's backstory between Manchester City and Tottenham, followed (for ESPN viewers) with Chelsea's opener against West Brom. Then to Super Sunday which sees the mouth-watering fixture of Liverpool vs Arsenal, hopefully with, Torres, Gerrard, Reina, Cole, Van Persie, Nasri, Fabregas and Arshavin all on show. Then to round of Week 1 of the League, a match with plenty of history, Manchester United vs Newcastle Utd in the return of Monday Night Football on SkySports.
Martin O'Neill has stunned English football by resigning from his post at Aston Villa with immediate effect, leaving, fans, pundits and football followers alike wondering whether his power was taken from him with the issue of James Milner's apparently impending move to Man City. This leaves Villa vulnerable and worried about a mass exodus of players who may have lost faith in the club's apparent lack of ambition to finance new signings.
England annilihate Pakistan by 9 wickets on the 4th Day, with 118 to win, Trott and Strauss both finnished on not out half-centuries.
England manager Fabio Capello's grip on his England squad seems to be slackening, with only 16 of the 23 players called-up turning up to training. Wes Brown and Paul Robinson having retired, with 5 others apparently unfit. Arsenal youngsters Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wiltshere have been called up in a new look team alongside, Gary Cahill (Bolton), Phil Jagielka (Everton) and Fulham's Bobby Zamora.
Cesc Fabregas pledges his allegiance to Arsenal in what looked like somewhat of a forced move. It has left fans interested and anxious to see how he performs come the season.
An in-form Tyson Gay stormed to victory in the Diamond League meet in Stockholm ahead of a lethargic, yet still under 10 seconds Usain Bolt, in a time of 9.84secs.
The long awaited return of the Premier League will arrive on Saturday noon, with an epic battle, with plenty of unfinnished business in it's backstory between Manchester City and Tottenham, followed (for ESPN viewers) with Chelsea's opener against West Brom. Then to Super Sunday which sees the mouth-watering fixture of Liverpool vs Arsenal, hopefully with, Torres, Gerrard, Reina, Cole, Van Persie, Nasri, Fabregas and Arshavin all on show. Then to round of Week 1 of the League, a match with plenty of history, Manchester United vs Newcastle Utd in the return of Monday Night Football on SkySports.
Friday 6 August 2010
Tendulkar's Tonnes of Tests, Murali's Masses of Magic!
There are simply some things, people and achievements that will forever live on in the memory, transcending generations and change, people whose ability and presence allow them to shine on any stage that they arrive at. Player who will have won matches for their countries before they have even begun, because the opponents will have seen their name on the team-list and turned to stone.
With India playing Sri Lanka at the moment, a culmination of adjectives can describe the matches that are likely to occur, one’s with spice, drama and quality between arguably the two best Asian cricketing nations. But another element it provides viewers with is the tantalising head to head battle of the most prolific run-scorer in Test and One-Day International (ODI) history, against the most prolific wicket-taker in Test and One-Day International match history.
The career statistics of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Muttiah Muralitharan makes the eye boggle. They also well and truly speak volumes of the quality of play given by the two over the quantity of time they have played (or did play for Murali). Tendulkar, on top of his run-scoring prowess, has, in this test series become the most-capped Test player in the history of cricket, overtaking Steve Waugh having represented his country at Test-level a whopping 169 times.
Matches Innings Runs Highest Score Average 100’s 50’s
168 274 13742 248* 56.08 48 55
Matches Innings Wickets Best Bowling Innings Average 10wkts 5wkts
133 230 800 9/51 22.72 22 67
Above – Top Row, Tendulkar’s Career Batting Statistics. Bottom Row, Muralitharan’s Career Bowling Statistics.
The records that the two share between them are a list of hall fame achievements; Highest run-scorer in Test and 50over cricket, Highest wicket-taker in Test and 50over cricket, Most-capped Test player and highest individual score (200) in ODI history to name but a few. But it is not just the numbers, statistics and records that mark these two individuals out as true legends of the game. They are also probably two of the most popular cricketers around; Tendulkar gets mobbed in India wherever he goes by his fans. This led to ex-Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden saying, “I have seen God, and he bats at number 4 for India”. Muralitharan gets similar treatment in Sri Lanka for his humanitarian work after the 2006 tsunami on top of his cricketing abilities.
A batsman best known for his balance, poise and compact technique, Tendulkar has been terrorising bowling attacks since 1989, when he made his debut against Pakistan as a 16 and a half year-old batsman. The world was never ready enough for such a talent and his career statistics reflect this heavily. He is still playing today, 21 years later, and has scored runs in any situation, whoever, wherever and whenever. He has always been able to play both sides of the wicket with comfort as well as straight back down the ground. Neither did he ever have an issue playing of front or back foot either, with his signature shots being the pull and back foot punch through cover.
Best of Both Worlds; Most Prolific Run-Scorer, Tendulkar (left) and Most Prolific Wicket-Taker (right)
‘Murali’ as he is affectionately known, first came to fame in 1992 versus Australia, his unusual bowling action due to his abnormal wrist and elbow and ability to get the ball to spin off almost any surface. Many have protested the legitimacy of his bowling action, yet such objections have always been unfounded. Beyond this, the fact remains that he is a magnificent bowler, the likes of whom the world will never see again and with that one of the best ever seen. His 800 Test wickets stand as the proof in this pudding, he created a ball batsmen all round the world have been struggling to fathom ever since, the ‘Doosra’. It has caused such problems because of the brilliance and subtlety with which he disguises it, not allowing the batsman to ‘pick’ it, only for it to spin in the other direction to his normal, stock delivery. Calling it a stock delivery however, makes it sound terribly average, an adjective it has always been far from being, due to this infamous ability to get turn on nearly any strip. The ball to remove Indian number 11, Ojha, the one that subsequently brought about his 800th wicket was the last of his career, as he retired with immediacy after the match. It was truly a fairytale fashion with which to end a truly awesome 18 year international Test cricket career.
With Tendulkar still playing strong, having scored the 5th double hundred of his illustrious tenure, along with the flawless double hundred he scored against South Africa last year in the 50 over version of the game. It looks as though Murali will be missed even more keenly than off immediate impulse.
Undoubtedly the best players their countries have ever produced and arguably 2 of the greatest cricketers of all time. Watching either play really does let you know you are witnessing something truly unique and special. The world of cricket has been blessed plentifully by them and will be a sadder place for it when Tendulkar finally decides to rest his bat. Only then will cricketers worldwide realise just how good the “Little Master” and the “Spinning Genius” really were. With Murali’s abdication from the throne of bowling, I’m sure many international batsmen will have blown a great sigh of relief.
In other news ; Congratulations to Surrey, scoring the highest ever 40 over score in domestic history in their 38 over (rain delayed) innings. Skipper Hamilton-Brown scored 115 from 69 balls, legend Ramprakash 85* off 45 deliveries, with Spriegel 56* and Davies 88. All of this action coming at a run rate of over 10 an over! Incredible scenes down at The Oval.
Pakistan, after having won the toss at Edgbaston, slipped to 72 all out with Anderson and Broad taking 4-20 and 4-38 respectively and Steven Finn taking 2-10. With England currently on 75-2 with Trott and Pietersen at the crease, giving them a 3-run lead.
Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay meet in Stockholm tonight in a rematch of the Berlin World Championships 100m Final. In said race, Bolt set the current World Record of 9.58 and Gay, despite running the 3rd quickest time in history had to settle for 2nd, just ahead of Asafa Powell who unfortunately had to pull out through injury.
Monday 2 August 2010
The Essay I sent to Skysports for their Fanzone application (allowing you to follow and write blog like articles about your team)
In 500 words, discuss your hopes and fears for your team this season -
After five long years of hurt, my first hope as an Arsenal fan is that my beloved Gunners finally get their hands on some silverware! We've come close a couple of times with the Carling Cup and Champions League finals, but stumbled at the last hurdle in both.
Having just received the Number 10, I hope that Van Persie is going to keep emulating dennis Bergkamp with his dazzling technique and majestic finishing. He has promised so much, yet injuries have hindered his influence over the years. No more so than last season where he was on fire before his untimely injury versus Italy, topping both goals and assists charts in the Premier League I believe. In spite of this, he still managed 20 goals from 38 starts, so all Arsenal fans will be praying for a full season from him
After having watched the Emirates Cup, I believe that Samir Nasri is a player to watch out for this term. Having been ridiculously omitted from the French squad by controversial coach Raymond Domenech, he has something to prove, and his hunger has been on show for all to see with blistering pre-season performances, long may it continue Samir!
It was an Emirates Cup that also gave Arsenal fans a chance to see new signings Marouane Chamakh and Laurent Koscielney, both of whom impressed heavily, with Chamakh even managing a debut Emirates goal! This provides much to look forward to. I do, however, hope that Mr Wenger purchases one or two more central defenders before the market closes after the departures of Gallas, Silvestre and Campbell. We could just do with a few reinforcements so that if injuries strike, we aren't found wanting once again.
Moving onto injuries, this has become a severe problem at Arsenal the past few years, with a terrible injury record being the norm. Walcott, Rosicky, Nasri, Ramsey, Fabregas, Van Persie and Denilson to name a few all having suffered lengthy injuries last term. That said, most of our players should be fit and fresh because this Arsenal team, though being one filled with internationals, is one where many have not played in the World Cup. With Clichy, Sagna and Diaby having played a couple of games before France's early exit, only Fabregas and Van Persie have sustained strenuous World Cups.
Whilst I fear whether Fabregas will be an Arsenal player for much longer (whether it be this year or next that he may depart), I am heavily satisfied that the likes of Nasri, Rosicky, Ramsey and Wilshere would be able to nigh-on seemlessly take his place as Clichy did Ashley Cole's a few years back.
Overall, I am very optimistic about the coming season and hope it will be a memorable one for all us Gooners!!
My Best XI - GK - Almunia
LB - Clichy
LCB - Vermaelen
RCB - Koscielney
RB - Sagna
DM - Song
CM - Nasri
CM - Fabregas
RWF - Walcott
LWF - Arshavin
CF - Van Persie
Subs Bench
1. Fabianski
2. Djourou
3. Gibbs/Traore
4. Diaby
5. Wilshere/Bendtner
6. Rosicky/Vela
7. Chamakh
After five long years of hurt, my first hope as an Arsenal fan is that my beloved Gunners finally get their hands on some silverware! We've come close a couple of times with the Carling Cup and Champions League finals, but stumbled at the last hurdle in both.
Having just received the Number 10, I hope that Van Persie is going to keep emulating dennis Bergkamp with his dazzling technique and majestic finishing. He has promised so much, yet injuries have hindered his influence over the years. No more so than last season where he was on fire before his untimely injury versus Italy, topping both goals and assists charts in the Premier League I believe. In spite of this, he still managed 20 goals from 38 starts, so all Arsenal fans will be praying for a full season from him
After having watched the Emirates Cup, I believe that Samir Nasri is a player to watch out for this term. Having been ridiculously omitted from the French squad by controversial coach Raymond Domenech, he has something to prove, and his hunger has been on show for all to see with blistering pre-season performances, long may it continue Samir!
It was an Emirates Cup that also gave Arsenal fans a chance to see new signings Marouane Chamakh and Laurent Koscielney, both of whom impressed heavily, with Chamakh even managing a debut Emirates goal! This provides much to look forward to. I do, however, hope that Mr Wenger purchases one or two more central defenders before the market closes after the departures of Gallas, Silvestre and Campbell. We could just do with a few reinforcements so that if injuries strike, we aren't found wanting once again.
Moving onto injuries, this has become a severe problem at Arsenal the past few years, with a terrible injury record being the norm. Walcott, Rosicky, Nasri, Ramsey, Fabregas, Van Persie and Denilson to name a few all having suffered lengthy injuries last term. That said, most of our players should be fit and fresh because this Arsenal team, though being one filled with internationals, is one where many have not played in the World Cup. With Clichy, Sagna and Diaby having played a couple of games before France's early exit, only Fabregas and Van Persie have sustained strenuous World Cups.
Whilst I fear whether Fabregas will be an Arsenal player for much longer (whether it be this year or next that he may depart), I am heavily satisfied that the likes of Nasri, Rosicky, Ramsey and Wilshere would be able to nigh-on seemlessly take his place as Clichy did Ashley Cole's a few years back.
Overall, I am very optimistic about the coming season and hope it will be a memorable one for all us Gooners!!
My Best XI - GK - Almunia
LB - Clichy
LCB - Vermaelen
RCB - Koscielney
RB - Sagna
DM - Song
CM - Nasri
CM - Fabregas
RWF - Walcott
LWF - Arshavin
CF - Van Persie
Subs Bench
1. Fabianski
2. Djourou
3. Gibbs/Traore
4. Diaby
5. Wilshere/Bendtner
6. Rosicky/Vela
7. Chamakh
Welcome!
Hi there!
I'm Adam and I'm 18 years old. Decided to embark upon a blog because I've decided to take a Journalism course at University and want to try and hone some skills before I go in Sept 2011. Also made the decision as an outlet of emotion and views for my avid support of Arsenal FC and English and International Test, ODI and T20 Cricket (I play for my beloved Farncombe CC), as well as loving to follow Usain Bolt, Birtish Athletics, Andy Murray, Tiger Woods. This is likely to be a predominantly sports based Blog, due to my want to become a Sports Journalist post-Uni.
However I'm happy to keep an open mind and will explore any area of news/media that takes my fancy. With that said, I hope those of you that may choose to follow this blog do enjoy my postings. I am more than happy to take any words of advice/constructive criticism you have for me as I look to make myself well-rounded.
Thank You :)
Adam
I'm Adam and I'm 18 years old. Decided to embark upon a blog because I've decided to take a Journalism course at University and want to try and hone some skills before I go in Sept 2011. Also made the decision as an outlet of emotion and views for my avid support of Arsenal FC and English and International Test, ODI and T20 Cricket (I play for my beloved Farncombe CC), as well as loving to follow Usain Bolt, Birtish Athletics, Andy Murray, Tiger Woods. This is likely to be a predominantly sports based Blog, due to my want to become a Sports Journalist post-Uni.
However I'm happy to keep an open mind and will explore any area of news/media that takes my fancy. With that said, I hope those of you that may choose to follow this blog do enjoy my postings. I am more than happy to take any words of advice/constructive criticism you have for me as I look to make myself well-rounded.
Thank You :)
Adam
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