Shake Up Saturday

Well it definitely wasn’t exactly how we expected the days fixtures to go. But, by the end of the day the title race tightened up considerably.

Chelsea received some good news from their Brazilian central defender Alex when he announced that he was going to postpone much-needed knee surgery. But, while the Chelsea attack had numerous opportunities to score, it was Lee Bowyer’s fantastic strike that was the difference in this one. He timed his 17th minute run perfectly into the gap normally filled by John Terry and deftly slotted it home. 

After the humiliation of last week’s loss at home to Sunderland, this defeat has to have the Blues supporters nervously watching the injury board for some help to come soon. Birmingham City 1-0 Chelsea.

The match at Old Trafford had all the earmarkings of another draw. Wigan again showed the shortcomings of the United defense as they counter attacked effectively in the first half. But for a little luck the Latics could have had a 2-0 lead through Charles N’Zogbia and Hugo Rodallega. The Red Devils got a couple of fortunate bounces to keep the sheet clean and were rewarded when Patrice Evra headed home Park Ji Sung’s cross just before the half time whistle. Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi started to come out for the ball but second guessed himself and it cost him.

Red cards for Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega within a couple of minutes of each other took the sting out of a game Wigan side. Javier Hernandez drove home a diving header to double the margin with a shade less than a quarter of an hour remaining and United were cruising.

Wayne Rooney returned early in the second half to a fairly positive reaction by the Manchester United faithful and should have scored late. Manchester United 2-0 Wigan Athletic.

If you only watched the first half of the London derby, the final score would have come as quite a shock. Arsenal had an opportunity to take the Premier League lead and, after Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh each scored early, they had to have gone into the dressing room quite confident. Nasri’s goal was both exciting and comical as Gomes’ indecisiveness got him caught in no man’s land and the Frenchman slipped past him and rolled the ball in from a very sharp angle. Chamakh doubled the score mid way through the opening half by turning an  Andrey Arshavin cross home.

But, if the Spurs have taught us anything this season, it’s that when you have Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart on the pitch you’re never really out of the game. The two combined for the first goal as the Dutchman flicked the ball through two defenders to set up Bale for number one. A hand ball in the box gave van der Vaart a chance to even the score from the penalty spot. Younes Kaboul finished an epic comeback when he headed home a van der Vaart cross late in the match to break the Gunner’s hearts. Arsenal 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur.

This is turning into an interesting season. Just when you are ready to hand the title to Chelsea, everything gets turned upside down. That’s what makes the Premiership so much fun!

Stamford Blues

Problems have struck the heart of the Chelsea defense as John Terry’s extended absence has been joined by Alex. The Brazilian needs surgery on his right knee which could keep him out of the lineup for up to eight weeks.

Given their home result against Sunderland without their defensive talismans, Chelsea could have some difficulty in the upcoming weeks. The defensive group on Sunday just couldn’t get it done.

December sees the Blues facing Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal. Definitely not a good time to lose these two.

Champions League Final Four

So four of the semi-finalists are English and the odd man out is not getting a lot of respect as the pundits are calling it an all England final. Kind of sounds familiar. Last year AC Milan weren’t given much of a shot at making the finals let alone win it all. This year Barcelona face the exact same task and that makes the semis interesting.

 Barcelona

The Catalan club has the big guns to spoil the Anglo final in Moscow. Lionel Messi is back and should have enough playing time by April 23rd rolls around. Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho are all spectacular players and will be a sincere threat to the scoresheet. Although they had trouble scoring against Schalke. Their defense has some strength, but they have not faced a club that can score in big chunks in the tournament. They have the history and won’t back down from anyone. The side is unsettled though and their La Lega form has been shameful. This team is not on the same level as AC Milan last year, but beating them will be a task.

 Manchester United

The Red Devils are leading the Premiership and have not lost to the three other English sides this season. They are strong in all areas of the pitch especially in the attack. Cristiano Ronaldo leads the Premiership and the Champions League in scoring and has matured since his no show in Milan last year. The addition of Carlos Tevez gives them two bulldogs up front with him and Wayne Rooney tormenting defenders. United have the ability to score, but they only averaged 1.25 goals in last two rounds. The defense is strong even without Nemanja Vidic. If he’s back for April 23rd they will be tough to beat.

 Liverpool

The Reds have a lot of experience at this level of the Champions League. Last year they made the finals only to watch the cup go back to Milan. Steven Gerrard is the talisman for Liverpool in the CL, but this season he got a big boost when Rafa Benitez brought in Fernando Torres in the attack. Between Gerrard and Torres Liverpool have two of the top four scorers in the Champions League this season. However, if clubs shut down these two, there rarely seems to be anyone who steps up. They have a strong midfield that can make it tough going for opposing attacks. Rafa’s boys are hitting stride lately so they are going to make things hard on the opposition.

 Chelsea

The Blues are a hard team to figure out this season. They’ve lost some head scratchers this year, but they are slowly creeping up the domestic table to challenge. Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are each super strikers, but their midfield is the star of the club. Between Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard they can play with any team. The big question is going to be between the posts. With Petr Cech out with a facial injury and Carlo Cudicini’s hamstring injury putting Henrique Hilario in goal, there is some question about the last line of defense. They have been at this stage before so we’ll see if they can make it to the final stage for the first time.

Predictions… As badly as I do predicting I’m going with

 

Manchester United v Liverpool

 

What a Sunday

The top four clubs went at it today in two battles for supremacy. All four are in the Champions League quarter-finals, so this is a good indicator of what is to come in the fight for the European title.

Game One:

 Manchester United 3 - 0 Liverpool

United came into the match three points ahead of Arsenal and coming off of a solid outing against Bolton on Wednesday. For their part Liverpool had newly regained fourth position in the league and have played some decent football of their own. The hosts opened up the game with Wayne Rooney making a statement of intent by beating Jamie Carragher and forcing Pepe Reina to make a save. Javier Mascherano got into referee Steve Bennett’s book in the 11th minute with a hard tackle on Paul Scholes, setting the tone for the Reds.

Wes Brown surprised the Old Trafford faithful in the 34th by deflecting Rooney’s cross into the net for his first goal in a dog’s age. The match remained close until just before the half. Fernando Torres took exception to some questionable tackles by Manchester United players and started an argument with Bennett. The referee showed Torres a yellow card for dissent prompting Mascherano to join the conversation. To be fair, by booking Torres already Bennett had no choice but to book the Argentinian. If there had been no previous booking in the incident Mascherano would probably have stayed in the game. His second card of the match meant that he had to hit the showers. Not that he was willing to go and brought him an escort off of the pitch.

Liverpool’s chances in the match left the pitch with their midfielder and in the 79th minute Cristiano Ronaldo headed Nani’s cross home to give the home side some breathing room. Ronaldo looked like he was destined to score throughout the match, coming close on more than a couple of shots. Nani closed the door for good on the Reds two minutes later with a beautiful move to create space and a powerful shot to dent the twine. The Red Devils gave Liverpool a lot of trouble with high balls into the area (Hmmm… that might come in handy to remember).

Game Two:

  Chelsea 2 - 1 Arsenal 

A month ago Arsenal had one hand on the Premiership trophy, but that’s why they play all of the games. Chelsea knew that with a win they would leapfrog the Gunners into second. Both sides went on the attack early getting the keepers into the flow quickly. Robin van Persie has been out with injury for most of the season. He got back into the swing of the game early and tested Carlo Cudicini a couple of times with nicely taken shots. Not to be out done Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba each put pressure on Manuel Almunia.

Each side had their own plan of attack with Arsenal opting for moving the ball forward with short passes and Chelsea utalizing the longer more direct approach. There was plenty of excitement at both ends of the pitch, but the Gunners drew first blood through Bacary Sagna’s header from Cesc Fabregas’ corner in the 59th minute. Cudicini was left out in the cold as Frank Lampard failed to close down on Sagna (or move for that matter). After going down at home Avram Grant made an overdue substitution by bringing on Nicolas Anelka and Juliano Belletti. The move payed off quickly as Didier Drogba scored the equalizer three minutes later. The ball rebounded off of Lampard and into the path of Drogba who made no mistake and powered the ball past the outstretched Almunia.

The Ivornian striker was on the receiving end of Anelka’s header and he flicked it past the Arsenal keeper for the win. Arsenal were unable to put any real pressure on Chelsea down the stretch. The Blues pulled to within five points of Manchester United and they will host the leaders  at Stamford Bridge April 26th in what may be a title game.