Saturday Wrap Up December 29, 2007

Upton Park upset. The Hammers can now claim three straight victories over Premiership Champions Manchester United. With late goals by Anton Ferdinand and Matthew Upson West Ham continued their domination of the Red Devils. Cristiano Ronaldo put Man U up early with a brilliant header off of a Ryan Giggs cross. But, a spectacular miss by the Portuguese winger from the penalty spot gave the home side hope. West Ham capitalized on the momentum shift and took more control of the game. They dominated the visitors in shots and corners and were rewarded with the win.

Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick were missing from the Red Devils line-up with stomach viruses, but there was no excuse for United to perform so badly. Carlos Tevez made his return to Upton Park, but he made very little impact on the pitch and ended up making way for Anderson in the 64th minute. The fact that Sir Alex’s boys knew how much was at stake and still failed to come through does not bode well for them when the Champions League resumes.

The Hammers have knocked off one contender to the crown and on New Years Day they will get a shot at the other. Arsenal will have to be concerned that they might be the next to fall. West Ham 2-1 Manchester United.

                   

Gunners regain lead at Goodison. I had hoped to see Everton at their best. Unfortunately, after a promising first half the Toffees fell apart. Tim Cahill put the home side ahead in the 19th minute and at the break it looked like they might just hold Arsenal off. De Silva Eduardo put that dream to bed two minutes in to the second half when he took control of a long ball and slipped the ball into Tim Howard’s net. Ten minutes later the Croatian striker did it again. Nicklas Bendtner was sent off after receiving his second yellow card. Even that didn’t slow down Arsenal as Emmanuel Adebayor put his own rebound into the net two minutes later. Tomas Rosicky finished the Toffees off after Mikel Arteta had been sent off. The Gunners took back the League lead convincingly. This race is far from over.

While Arsenal deserved to win this game, I was disappointed to see some of their players showing very little class in victory. Cesc Fabregas is a fantastic player and he doesn’t need to resort to cheap tricks to win. While he thinks nothing of scything down an opposing player from behind (against the rules I believe), he overacts drawing a red card on a Arteta for an inadvertent elbow (while he was doing the same thing to Arteta). Kolo Toure also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to draw fouls by bitching constantly about nonexistent fouls. Both players were guilty of the fouls they adamantly complained about. These players are better than that. Everton 1-4 Arsenal.

Lost. Any defense at White Hart Lane. Dimitar Berbatov scored four goals and so did Reading. Ten goals found the twine as the match turned into more of a track meet. Reading held the lead three times and still weren’t able come away with any points. Juande Ramos has the Spurs offense firing on all cylinders as they have scored 11 goals in the last two games. Berbatov was joined on the score sheet by Steed Malbranque and Jermain Defoe. Robbie Keane could have joined the fun, but apparently a bit more practice is required on penalties.

The Royals got plenty of goals from Kalifa Cisse, Ivar Ingimarsson and two from Dave Kitson, but when you give up six goals it’s a bit difficult to win. Giving up three goals in the last fifteen minutes will give Steve Coppell something to discuss at practice this week. He might want to find out how four officials missed seeing Defoe enter the box before Keane took the penalty? Just a thought. Tottenham Hotspur 6-4 Reading.

Sunderland shines at the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats pulled themselves out of the bottom three with a beauty of a win over Bolton. Kieron Richardson came back to the starting lineup with a shout as he opened the scoring in the 13th minute. Kenwyne Jones doubled the score just after the half hour mark with a fantastic header off of a Richardson cross. Danny Higgenbotham and Paul McShane kept the clamps on Nicolas Anelka, keeping the volatile Frenchman from becoming a factor. Daryl Murphy finished the Sunderland scoring in stoppage time with a finish from Jones’ flick on.

El-Hadji Diouf had the goal of the game as his free kick snuck through and slid just inside the far post in the 41st minute to give Roy Keane’s lads something to worry about. The Trotters couldn’t make a comeback though and were unable to sneak any points. Their current form has not been good so their visit to Derby January 2nd could be the tonic they need. Sunderland 3-1 Bolton Wanderers.

Birmingham City 1-1 Fulham; Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle; Portsmouth 0-1 Middlesbrough; Wigan 1-2 Aston Villa .

Last matchups for 2007

It’s been an exciting year for football and we have finally reached the last weekend of 2007. Hopefully these games will give us all something good to remember when the clock strikes midnight. On with the show:

Goodison Park will be electric when the ball starts rolling on Saturday. Everton has played well lately and they know that they have a prime opportunity to put their stamp on the title race. Arsenal comes off of a disappointing draw with Portsmouth on Boxing Day, so they know that they have to beat the Toffees on the road. David Moyes will be without Leon Osman, Alan Stubbs, Leighton Baines and possibly Tomas Graveson for this match. But, everyone else will be ready to take on the Gunners. Arsenal might have William Gallas, but they will be without Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott.

Everton has a great chance to beat Arsenal. The Toffees have a record of 6W-1L-1D in December with their only loss at Manchester United (2-1). If anyone is in the right form to beat Arsenal it’s Everton. They have shown an ability to play stifling defense while looking to strike on the counter attack. Arsenal have a potent attack of their own, but they showed that they had trouble with Pompey’s defense on Wednesday. I’m going with the upset in this game. 1-0 Everton.

Sam Allardyce’s woes will continue on Saturday. Chelsea will be without Frank Lampard, John Terry, Florent Malouda, Ricardo Carvalho (r.c.), Ashley Cole (r.c.) and Claude Makelele this weekend. Newcastle will be without Joey Barton because he’s in the nick. They might have Michael Owen back from his thigh injury, but he’ll injure something else after fifteen minutes. Newcastle can’t seem to get things together and Chelsea are infinitely better than Wigan. The Toon Army will be screaming for Big Sam’s sacking unless he gets a big win over the Blues. Not happening. Even though they are depleted Chelsea are better than Newcastle. 3-1 Chelsea.

West Ham have a full squad for this match with League leading Manchester United. Unfortunately for Alan Curbishley, he can’t put all of them on the pitch at the same time. The Red Devils will have everyone but Edwin Van der Sar (groin). Carlos Tevez is making his return to Upton Park where he single handedly kept the Hammers in the Premiership. With Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo all on the attack Robert Green will get quite a workout in the West Ham goal. The Hammers did the double over Man U last season so Sir Alex will have no trouble firing up his lads for this game.

Tevez isn’t the only Red Devil to have played for West Ham. Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand both got their start at Upton Park. Kinda like old home week. Don’t expect mercy from these three on Saturday. United need a win to keep the pressure on Arsenal and Cristiano Ronaldo is just unstoppable this season. If West Ham gives up a free kick anywhere inside their own half Ronaldo will most likely make them pay. 3-0 Manchester United.

Wigan have beaten Blackburn (5-3) and Newcastle (1-0), drawn Manchester City (1-1) and Fulham (1-1) and lost to Bolton (1-4) in December. So they are playing better than their League standing suggests. Aston Villa are coming off of three straight draws (Sunderland, Manchester City and Chelsea). So on form Wigan should win this game. Not so fast. Villa have Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young on the wings. Their speed is amazing! The Latics will struggle to keep them from finding Big John Carew in the centre. Marcus Bent will give Wigan some hope in the offense as he will take advantage of the Villans missing defender Zat Knight (r.c.).

If Martin O’Neill’s boys play half as well as they did against Chelsea on Boxing Day, the J.J.B. will be a sad stadium. 3-1 Aston Villa. 

I don’t talk about the Brummies much. They haven’t been overly impressive this season with 5W-11L-3D. But, they’re playing at St. Andrews and Fulham suck something awful. Roy Hodgson will take over for the Cottagers against Chelsea, but he’s going to have to watch them lose again before then. Alex McLeish will field the same team that beat Middlesbrough 3-0. Antti Neimi got waxed by Tottenham as they sunk five goals on the Finnish keeper. He might want to fake a knock in this one and let Kasey Keller take the beating against Chelsea on New Years Day. Birmingham shouldn’t struggle in this one. 2-0 Birmingham City.

Manchester City have only beaten Liverpool once in a home Premier League game since 1995. However, the Blues are stronger this season than they have been in a long time. Sven-Goran Eriksson has this squad believing that they belong in the title race so they will not fear Liverpool for a change. The Reds struggled with Derby in their last outing and would have gone home with a draw if Steven Gerrard hadn’t beaten the rookie keeper in the waning moments (people are giving Gerrard way too much credit on this one). City won’t be a pushover and they have a better attack than the Rams did. They will challenge Pepe Reina.

No major injuries for either team makes this a good match. Daniel Agger might be back for Rafa Benitez, but Sami Hyypia will be out so that’s a wash. I think City are going to be charged up for this game. 2-1 Manchester City.

Sam spreads the blame

The Toon Army were so happy when they signed Sam Allardyce to be their new manager. Big Sam was going to bring them something they hadn’t had in a very long time, titles. Now the fans are screaming for his head and even when Newcastle wins a match there is still chanting for Allardyce to be replaced. So Sam has done what he’s taken to doing lately, blame the squad. Of course. It’s all the team’s fault. Why would the responsibility fall on the manager’s shoulders? Sam says that his managerial future is riding on a team that just aren’t good enough. I think I feel a tear coming on.

                                                  

First of all, Sam, if the players that are out on the field aren’t playing well that’s your fault. The manager MANAGES the team. That’s why the owner writes those nice big cheques to you. You lost to Wigan. A team in the relegation zone and doesn’t have near the big money players that you do. But, Steve Bruce has his side playing like a team and that’s the difference. Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Abdoulaye Faye, Geremi and Habib Baye are your signings. You have Obafemi Martins who is constantly speculated as the target of some of the big squads. No Sam, if this team is not good enough it’s because you have allowed it. Now you want to spend in the transfer window to solve the problem. Ain’t gonna happen. You had eight years at Bolton to make them title contenders and you didn’t.

                                         

Second of all, what did Newcastle think they were getting when they signed Allardyce? When he left the Wanderers he said that he wanted to go somewhere that he could win silverware, but didn’t anyone realize that he couldn’t win silverware at Bolton with a squad he built himself? Sam has had some success in his career. Winning playoffs, matches in the UEFA Cup and beating some of the big boys on occasion are all great things. But, they are not a resume of a proven manager. Eight years to build a team in your image shows what you are capable of so you got what you paid for.

Damien Duff has come to the defense of his boss and admitted that the players are to blame for the lack of form recently. To some extent he is right, the players do need to step up. But, it’s been nineteen League matches so if the players were going to step they should have done it by now. Allardyce needs to take control both on and off of the pitch. Now they have to go to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea and Joey Barton is in jail. For Newcastle United’s sake I hope he can straighten things out.

                                                    

Boxing Day Results December 26, 2007

 Classic Clash at Stamford Bridge. Whether you are a fan of either of these teams or not, you had to appreciate the match that they put on. Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young started in on Chelsea early with blistering pace and great crosses in the box. John Carew’s size and strength in front made things dicey for the Blue’s back four. Two goals by Shaun Maloney gave the travelling fans reason to hope for the double over the London giants. Then Phil Dowd sent off Zat Knight after Michael Ballack put in his nomination for an Oscar with one of the most obvious dives I’ve seen in awhile. Andriy Shevchenko converted Dowd’s gift to cut the lead in half at the end of the first half. Shevchenko tied the match in the 50th minute with a beautiful strike from outside of the box. Alex and Martin Laursen traded goals to keep everyone on the edge of their seats at 3-3. The Chelsea faithful were chilling the bubbly when Ballack slipped a free kick into the Villa goal with two minutes to go in the game. But Ashley Cole was able to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory as he handled the ball on his own line giving Villa an opportunity to get a well deserved point from the penalty spot. Gareth Barry converted to finish off the match. The Villans played a fabulous game, and I think that Martin O’Neill has a side that has shown that they can make a run at the title next season. Chelsea 4-4 Aston Villa.

 

Roy sees red at Stadium of Light. His team held Manchester United to one goal earlier this year. Roy Keane would probably have given anything for that result today. But, Sir Alex had a different idea as Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo scored first half goals to put this match to bed early. Ross Wallace gave the Black Cats their only real chance of the first half only to watch Tomasz Kuszczak tip the ball away. Keane put out a more defensive formation in the second half to try and staunch the bleeding, but it was very clear that United could score when they wanted to. And when Danny Collins brought down Nani in the box Saha sunk the shot into the net and drove the stake deeper into the Sunderland heart. Manchester United moved into 1st position while Sunderland dropped to 19th. Sunderland 0-4 Manchester United.

                                     

Gunners fumble at Fratton Park. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal knew what they had to do before kickoff. Unfortunately for them so did Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth. Pompey had been embarrassed on the weekend by Liverpool and this was their chance to show that they were not that bad. Sol Campbell dug his heels in and led his defenders to a display of defense that kept his former team off of the scoreboard. David James was called into action occasionally and he showed why many are calling for him to be recalled for the national side. Tomas Rosicky challenged James with a shot to the top right of the frame only to see the Pompey keeper save with a leaping catch. Portsmouth had their chances to win, but at the end of the game they resolutely held on to their point under a desperate attack by Arsenal. Portsmouth 0-0 Arsenal.

 

Derby show heart of a lion. The Rams had looked like a Conference side the first time these teams met. Not today. After giving up a goal to Fernando Torres, Derby hardened up and played like a team that had new found confidence. Jay McEveley levelled for Paul Jewell’s boys in the 67th minute and Pride Park went crazy. The Reds had chances to salt away a go ahead goal, however some manic defending and some great saves by the rookie keeper Lewis Price. Steven Gerrard started and finished the attack that finally broke the home fans’ hearts in the 90th minute. I’ve never bought into the Gerrard mystique as he has a habit of not showing up for big games for club and country more often than when he comes up big. Derby can walk tall after this game. They showed that they just may belong on the same field as the big boys. Derby County 1-2 Liverpool.

                                        

Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 Fulham; West Ham 1-1 Reading; Birmingham 3-0 Middlesbrough; Everton 2-0 Bolton; Wigan 1-0 Newcastle