English Premier League 2011/12

Certainly an interesting day today in the Premiership..

Great way to start the day with the early North West clash. Apart from the rivalry that has existed for the last 40 odd years between the clubs there is the extra buzz that will come from the non football racialist clash & an FA Cup defeat handed out by the visitors.
Don't expect a feast of football, both current sides pale when compared to the best that they have offered. Expect a tight display from Pool, hoping for a goal on the break. It could be a hard lunchtime for them if Young & Valencia are playing on the United flanks though.

Some games that could help decide who are favourites for the drop at 3pm but nothing to entice me onto a terrace on a cold February Saturday afternoon I will admit.
The late game would have done that though. Newcastle have not, generally, got a very good record playing in the capital & Spurs have possibly the most attractive footballing midfield in the Premiership. However Newcastle have shown that they can score goals just about anywhere this year & back to a full African contingent up front means they are not to be taken lightly. This could, for the neutral, be the game to watch this weekend...

See, I have given you plenty of opportunity to read the early omens to see if it is worth your while having a late viewing evening Statto....

Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool

Don't expect a feast of football, both current sides pale when compared to the best that they have offered. Expect a tight display from Pool, hoping for a goal on the break. It could be a hard lunchtime for them if Young & Valencia are playing on the United flanks though.

Well that summed up the first half exactly. United had a couple of half chances, but nothing more than that, Pool hardly troubled the half way line, let alone David de Gea in the United goal.

Then, in a mirror image of their last game, within minutes of the restart, United were 2 goals up in the blink of an eye. Both by Rooney & both coolly finished. United are, apparently, the top side at converting chances to goals this season, a highly respectable 1 in 5. Somewhat surprising ( but maybe not with the exception of Suarez before his break) Pool are the worst in the league, with 1 in 12.
Suarez rather started the game making the sort of name for himself that he will come to regret if he is not very careful. Rather petulantly refusing to shake Patrice Evra or, for some reason, David de Gea's hands in the pre-match line up.
He then went on to show exactly why Pool have missed him with a rather typical clinical finish in the split second he was given from a free kick. The goal was completely against the run of play & rather livened Pool up in a game that they had not impressed in up until then - either as an attacking or defensive unit.
But the last 5 minutes & extra time Pool went for it & showed what might have been with a bit more belief in the preceding 85 minutes. Rooney played the 'corner flag' well enough to run down the extra time & it was all too little, too late for the visitors...

Can now relax & enjoy the rest of the weekends' Premiership football, once I have penned a suitable 'with regrets' email to my two Liverpool supporting sons...

Not a good day for the visitors to Blackburn. The home side went 3 nil up before half time & were actually at that time out of the bottom 3. It didn't remain that good though as QPR hit back with a couple of late goals. So Blackburn remain 3rd. from bottom, kept their only by goal difference to Wolves & QPR. It is getting desperately tight as to who will go down now & QPR are certainly part of that equation.

The bottom two battled it out at Bolton & it was a real sickener for the home side after they had started to look like they might actually ease away. This result keeps them firmly in the mix & will give Wigan fans some belief that they can still escape. Wigan remain bottom, but just 2 points behind QPR who are in 16th. place.

I watched the Everton game & the result tells the story of the game. David Moyes made some astute low cost January deals & the benefits showed in this game. I don't think anyone inside Goodison ever thought that getting rid of Steven Pienaar was a great idea, either for the player or team. He proved that pretty quickly with a nice bit of skill to net the first for his loan side. Stracqualursi scored a second that was the first time that Everton have reached that number in 13 outings, underlining their real problems..
Chelsea were poor for most of the afternoon. Daniel Sturridge & Juan Mata seem to have got worse as the season has progressed, or more, now only play in patches. Torres looked a forlorn figure again & surely must be heading for a cut price return to Spain at season end. Not a lot to take from this match for the visiting fans who must be wondering how long the boss will give a manager who picks a side that plays like this...

Great result for Fulham that puts a 3 win points difference between them & the drop zone. Yet again showing what a huge difference there is between their home & away form.
Equally not many relegation fears for now equal on points Stoke, but their strange inconsistent season continues apace. I am not sure that the manager has much idea either as to how to get their consistency to return.

Well it looked like the O'Neill magic was continuing as they went into a one nil lead with only 20 minutes remaining.
However he has a poor record against the Arsenal boss & it continued as Henry came off the bench to win it for the Gunners & send them above Chelsea into 4th.
It is rather a bitter sweet victory though as it shows Gunner fans all too well exactly what is missing from their side, a world class striker. The Frenchman returns to his full time club, New York Red Bulls, next week & will be sorely missed.
The two sides meet in their FA Cup clash next Saturday. On the form of this game & sans Henry, that is not going to be an easy trip for the Gunners who were outclassed, or at least out worked, for the majority of this encounter.

The clash of the newly promoted & not overshadowed clubs looked like it was going as expected as the Swans went in at half time one nil up. They have only lost 1 game at home this season so I am sure that not many at the ground were expecting what happened in the second half.
That was that Norwich crashed in 3 goals in just 18 minutes to run away with the win. Swansea managed at second goal right at the death, but it was all too late by then.

Well I don't know what to say to console you Statto. When your side are a goal down after just 4 minutes & 4 goals down at half time then there is little to say except write it off to experience & wait for the next game.
Louis Saha showed what was always known about him, that he is a world class striker. History also suggests that he will only play a handful of games for Spurs though!!
The Spurs real man of the match was Emmanuel Adebayor. He had a hand in the build up to all 4 first half goals & scored the only one of the second half. I am not sure how much Spurs are willing to pay for a permanent move or how keen Citi will be to let him go to another Premiership side, given his form away from Eastlands. Indeed considering that the only real current weakness that Citi have is 'up front' if the current manager didn't appear to dislike the player then he has certainly done enough to warrant a return home...



Wolves have a real chance to pull away from trouble in the early kick off. However will the Baggies manager see this as a high profile chance to grab the limelight for the England job.....his side will have to go some to take the gloss off 'Arry's teams performance yesterday!!

Don't know what to expect at Villa. They have looked a lot more attack minded since the loan arrival of Robbie Keane. I am not sure that will be a good policy against a Citi side who rather like to have teams come at them.
Just about anything could happen in the game, but I imagine that Citi will pinch it by the odd goal..

Wolves 1-5 West Brom Sun 12 Feb

Well I know it is a derby match, but I never expected that.
First half was certainly an end to end affair but the visitors had by far the better chances & I thought Wolves were mighty fortunate to go in at 1 each. They left their fortune in the dressing room at half time though.
West Brom came out with a similar second half performance & won the half by 4 goals to nil. I think the win was the right result but by 4 goals flatters the Baggies considerably.
To be honest at least the last two goals were gifts by a team that had totally given up on the match.

Such was the severity of the defeat it was enough to put Wolves into the bottom 3 & elevate Blackburn out of the zone. In truth it is mighty tight with the bottom 5 clubs that any 3 of them could go down.
The result was a great one for The Baggies & did just about match Harry's Spurs efforts... The league position remains a rather different matter though.

West Brom go above Villa how are just kicking off against Citi...the chances of them returning above WB is rather slim I think, even in a weekend of quite strange matches & results....

Aston Villa 0-1 Man City Sun 12 Feb

Not a tremendous game of football to watch.
Villa played Robbie Keane but then resorted to lumps up field as a way to service him. A policy that looked pretty doomed to failure as Citi had both Lescott & Kompany playing, & so it proved as he rarely got a sight of goal.
For Citi Silva & Aguero continued to play their attractive brand of football but found Given in goal & the rest of the Villa defence in top mode.
The forgotten Englishman of football, Adam Johnson, made a rare Premiership start & accounted well enough for himself alongside his maybe more illustrious team mates. Although he does not seem to get many opportunities I hope that the new England manager does not disregard him just because of that.
It was hardly surprising, given the way that the game was going, that the only goal was scored by defender Lescott from a corner.
Probably one of the least attractive games of the weekend to watch, but the blame for that can firmly be placed at the door of Villa. As the home side they really should bear some responsibility to try & score a goal.
This match had a home side near the bottom of the Premiership looking for 1 point...

No lunchtime game today, but plenty of 3 o'clock choice & a late game.

This afternoon's games are probably more about what any of the clubs at the bottom can do to ease their position. To be honest it really does not look too hopeful for any of Bolton, Wolves or QPR. Wigan have a chance of getting something against Villa, while later on Blackburn are really up against it given the way Citi have played at home.
A win for one of the bottom 5 would be a huge boost, but while any of them could be lucky enough to draw you just can't see that as being sufficient.

Chelsea reverted to a more 'last season' look after the failed European event in mid week.
Lampard & Essien in mid field & Drogba up front.
It rather worked for them as well. They certainly looked by far the side most likely in a scoreless first half. Once they got the ball in the net after the break there was only going to be one victor.
Drogba showed just about everything that is lacking from Torres, belief, aggression & a certainty that something will happen for him. He & Sturridge are not a double act yet though & are possibly just a bit too alike in styles to ever become one. Mata has rather disappointed me since a quite brilliant start to his Premiership career. He still displays more class than anyone else on the pitch but it is more fleeting now & he does not quite go looking for the ball in order to dominate a match as previously. It also seems to me that perhaps he feels that he is wheat playing amongst the chaff & maybe the chaff should put in greater efforts as a result.
Torres got on at the end & failed to impress. A pity for him that he did not have longer. With David N'Gog playing for Bolton there was a great opportunity for the Spaniard not to be the worst forward on the pitch. Indeed, not even the worse ex-Liverpool forward!!
Bolton were poor & got just about what they deserved.
While not especially handing out plaudits to Chelsea, they did the job & that was oh so important to the team..

Everyone involved with Newcastle were welcoming & courteous towards the new man in charge at Wolves....until the kick off. Newcastle then gave the visitors a real first half lesson in life in the Premiership & the game looked past them as they went in two nil down.
Rather a different second half on display though. Terry Connor proved that he is going to bring something to the Wolves show with whatever he said at half time. So, as they lost the first half two nil, they won the second. Although, to be honest, it was a bit of a patchy performance by both sides.
Just the point for Newcastle is a huge disappointment especially after the first half hour of this game.
A point for Wolves is a huge start, but not enough. While it does put them into 16th. place, it is only two points away from bottom spot.

This was a game that Mark Hughes must have earmarked as a three pointer. Fulham are a terrible side away from home & although this is not exactly a long excursion, it should have been far enough.
However they let the visitors score after less than 10 minutes & then contrived to have a player sent off after just half an hour. Even to the worst travelling sides that left the home side in an almost impossible situation.
QPR have now had 5 red cards this season, a pretty high tally by anyone's standards.
It leaves them above the drop zone only by goal difference.
Meanwhile Fulham climb to 11th. & are starting to look like they are avoiding all the dramas..

The Baggies also did themselves a great deal of good against one of the current form sides in the Premiership.
Mr. Hodgson never really had time to build anything at Pool, but a Fulham he built a tight defensive squad who made life difficult for the opposition attack while looking for something on the break. If they scored two goals, then one was likely a penalty..
He has not developed anything like as a consistent a side at West Brom but they do have a bit of an eye for goal if they get on top in a game....5 last time out against Wolves, 4 this time against Sunderland, impressive.
I think Martin O'Neill won't be over concerned that the result means that he has got things wrong at Sunderland, just that his side took too long to get into this game & were effectively out of it by the time that actually happened.

Wigan had many, many chances to win this game & gain three points that would have assisted their plight immensely.
Sadly this result shows why I think that they are just about doomed unless a minor miracle happens. Week after week they play OK football but find it impossible to get much into the points gained spot.
The result keeps them in the chase to escape but a couple of the bottom 5 need some wins to draw themselves away & none of them look like being able to do that.
Villa were poor, they are in 15th. place but are 7 points away from danger. As long as 3 of the bottom 5 don't suddenly go on a winning run then they are pretty safe. Still a poor side to watch though.
I have made it pretty clear that I do not have a great deal of time for Alex McLeish's style of football & don't think that he is doing Villa any long term favours at all.
Football managers not employed by the few super wealthy have to make the best out of what they are given, or can afford to pick up cheaply. I can fully understand that & understand why the Boltons & Fulhams of this world often try & play to endeavour, rather than skill.
However, the strength in the Villa side is actually in attack & that the manager is concentrating on defence so much seems that he is organising by beliefs rather than by what he is managing.

No such worries for super rich Citi's manager. Although he is rather below par in the attacking front as defensively they are certainly the most solid unit in the Premiership.
This was not much of a test at either end for the home side though as Blackburn looked to justify their place in the Premiership & really failed to do so. I know that an away side at the leaders of the Premiership will not get many opportunities, but two shots at goal in 90 minutes is pretty pathetic.
If the opposition cannot muster more than this then Citi will have a very easy 12 game run in to the title. The gaps in everything between the top & bottom of the Premiership were just all too evidently on display here.



The battle for bragging rights in the capital reaches its head today at the Emirates.
The first time in many, many years Spurs probably go into this game with the belief that they can win it.
The Gunners are fragile at the back, but Spurs must be willing to come & try & exploit that. In turn that could leave the visitors vulnerable to the undoubted brilliance of van Persie at the other end.
An interesting match up, will it reach expectations though??

At the same time United travel to Norwich. This is not a match that they should take lightly. While the open football style of the home side may suit the creativity of the United strike force it will also harry the sometimes uncertain United defence. If United can get a couple of early goals then I foresee an easy run out for them, concede an early goal & it might make for a hard afternoon where Citi finally manage to make a gap at the top.

I don't know quite what to make of the final game.
The Swans are an attractive side to watch but have failed to convert that into points away from home.
However these two sides are together in the league & Stoke have, unusually, conceded a few goals this season.
That, coupled with a disappointing display in Europe in mid week, makes me totally unsure exactly who has the upper hand here!!