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.

Boxing Day treats for all the kiddies

When these two met earlier this season at Anfield Derby lost 6-0. At one time the Rams looked more like they were directing traffic than defending. Now Paul Jewell is here and everything is right with the world. Oh, the Reds are still going to give Derby a thumping, but hopefully only four or five goals. Seriously, if Rafa rotates the squad like he usually does to rest up his big players for mince pie after the match, Derby might be able to rescue some dignity at home. Stephan Bywater may be between the posts for the Rams, but he injured his shoulder against Newcastle so he might be short on mobility although the Liverpool offense with give him plenty of stretching during the match. 4-0 Liverpool.

Roy Keane gets to play host to his former boss at the Stadium of Light. When these teams met at Old Trafford the Black Cats only lost 1-0, not bad. Now Sunderland is third from the bottom and squarely in the relegation battle. They are going to need some of that Keane magic that brought them the League Championship title last year. What better way to start it off than by a Boxing Day beating of Man U? Roy has all of his top scorers available for this match, Kenwyne Jones, Michael Chopra and Danny Higginbotham will have the hopes of the Cats’ faithful on their shoulders.

Manchester United will have their full complement of players for this game with the exception of Van der Sar (groin). They visit West Ham on the weekend so a couple of key players might sit this one out. Either way Fergie’s boys should win this one, but Sunderland will keep it close. 2-0 Manchester United.

Villa beat Chelsea at Villa Park earlier this season and if the Blue’s form against Blackburn carries over they probably will again on Wednesday. Petr Cech is probably out due to injury so Avram Grant may need his third choice keeper to step in again. Henrique Hilario didn’t get much of a workout against the Rovers, but he should get more action against the Villans. Didier Drogba is still out, but with all the talent they have there is absolutely no reason they can’t still score on anyone. 

Gabriel Agbonlahor has scored six goals for Martin O’Neill’s side, one of those against Chelsea. Gareth Barry and Olof Mellberg have been solid and will need to be Wednesday to keep Chelsea at bay. Scott Carson has had an up and down season so concentration could be an issue. He’s not a bad keeper and when he’s on, he’s on. I think he’s going to step up. 1-1 Draw.

Everton can feel good, even though they are coming off of a loss to Man U. They played fantastic defense and really should have walked out of Old Trafford with a draw. Mikel Arteta might be back from illness and that would be bad news for Bolton. He’s a crafty midfielder so the Wanderers could have a rough day. Bolton are playing much better under Gary Megson, Nicolas Anelka could be playing for a big money transfer and this would be a prime opportunity for him to show the goods. This will be a good game so if you get to see it, do. 2-1 Everton.

Manchester City has had an impressive turn around this season and Sven-Goran Eriksson has the squad playing cohesively. Blumer Elano, Rolando Bianchi and Martin Petrov lead the team in goals, but the Blues are getting goals from all over. Joe Hart seems to have the nod as City keeper and Kasper Schmeichel is coming back from his loan spell with Cardiff City. Andreas Isaksson will probably end up moving on I think. Blackburn will be missing Robbie Savage, Stephen Warnock and Keith Treacy for this match and that will give Mark Hughes some heartburn. The Rovers do have Roque Santa Cruz though and they know how to put the pressure on, just ask Chelsea. 2-2 Draw.

Happy Christmas to all!

Sunday Wrap Up December 23, 2007

Great escape at Old Trafford. He is cocky, brash and he dives like an olympian, but my god Ronaldo can be fun to watch. His goal in the 22nd minute from twenty yards out gave the home crowd a glimpse of the electricity that this young man can bring to a game. But, Tim Cahill’s strong header just five minutes later gave the travelling Toffees hope that they might be able to go home with a point.

This was scrappy, like it always is (23 fouls total for the game), with four yellow cards in just fifteen minutes. Rooney got a card but no goals although he and Tevez both got off some really good shots. The Red Devils out shot Everton 19-5, but Everton just wouldn’t co-operate until Steven Pienaar stuck out a foot in the box and tripped up Ryan Giggs. This one was so obvious that even David Moyes couldn’t disagree. Ronaldo sent the ball where Tim Howard wasn’t and with two minutes to spare he closed the gap again on Arsenal. Manchester United 2-1 Everton.

                                     

Viduka saves Newcastle. Derby County have one win in the Premiership this season, against Newcastle. For thirty minutes the Toon Army had to sit in anguish at the thought that they might be the only team in the top flight to lose all six points to the worst team in the league. The Australian striker saved some embarassment when he pounded home a goal from the corner of the box. Stephen Bywater made 11 saves to give the Rams a shot at this one, he just couldn’t stop Viduka’s 87th minute equalizer. Too bad because Derby were worked hard and yet they still hung in. Nothing against Sam Allardyce I would like to have seen the underdog win this. Newcastle United 2-2 Derby County.

                        

Rovers rue chances at Ewood. Joe Cole’s superb strike half way through the first half proved to be all that Chelsea needed to pull within six points of the Gunners. But, the story of this match was the tenacity of Mark Hughes’ side as they took the game to the Blues for large chunks of the game. Roque Santa Cruz missed a number of chances to get on the score sheet and when Petr Cech hobbled off with a hip injury in the second half, a draw seemed immenent. Henrique Hilario made a couple of good saves when he stepped between the posts for Avram Grant’s side. However, the Chelsea defense did a great job of tightening up in the box and the Blackburn rally never materialized. Blackburn 0-1 Chelsea.