Sunday Wrap Up February 3, 2008

Heads up at St James’. I want to know first of all how does Michael Owen out jump anyone to score a header????? Well he did it in the 60th minute to give Newcastle a 1-0 lead after having two other goals disallowed. Late in the second half Robert Huth tied the score with a deflection from his noggin breaking Kevin Keegan’s chances for his first victory since returning Tyneside. Stuart Downing would have made things worse had he not been offsides in injury time. The stats were evenly split so it seems to reason that the final score be the same. Newcastle United 1-1 Middlesbrough.

A win for Fulham! No really! Roy Hodgson got his first victory courtesy of a gutty performance by his club. The Cottagers came out swinging and came close a few times, however it was Aaron Hughes’ own goal that put an attacking Aston Villa on top. Fulham fought back and Jimmy Bullard found Simon Davies for the equalizer four minutes later. Bullard, who has come back from career threatening knee surgery, became the hero of Craven Cottage when he curled in a beautiful free kick in the 86th minute. Look out, the Cottagers are on the rise! They scored three times today!

The bad news is that Gabriel Agbonlahor went out at the half with a hamstring injury. He’s very doubtful for Switzerland Wednesday. Fulham 2-1 Aston Villa.  

Saturday Wrap Up January 19, 2008

 Fulham feeble at Craven Cottage. Just how many players did Arsenal have on the pitch in the second half? Though up 2-0 in the second half from two Emmanuel Adebayor headers, the Gunners showed their quality by not letting up on the struggling Cottagers. Every time Fulham tried to bring the ball forward they seemed to have fifteen red jerseys surrounding them. When Czech winger Tomas Rosicky poked home Arsenal’s third goal in the 81st minute the air went out of the stadium.

I don’t know what Roy Hodgson is going to do to pull the club out of the nose dive their in. Is this a result of Lawrie Sanchez’s poor selection of talent? I think that they have some good players, however Al Fayed’s patience is going to be over if they go down to the Championship next season.

Arsene Wenger has his side playing like champions. The run in to the title is going to be fun to watch. Fulham 0-3 Arsenal.

         

 United maintain at the Madejski. Wayne Rooney took a bevy of shots last week against Newcastle and wasn’t able to make the score-sheet in the end. I felt sorry for Marcus Hahnemann coming into this match. But, the American keeper made some great saves and got a gutty performance from his defense to keep the Royals in the match. Until Carlos Tevez found Rooney in the left side of the box. Wayne stuck out his foot and redirected the ball  into the far corner. Not a power shot from the United striker, but a beautiful piece of skill. Cristiano Ronaldo kept up the scoring run with a goal deep into injury time as he counter attacked the Reading counter attack.

Manchester United retain the top spot in the Premiership on goal difference, but this race is far from over. Reading 0-2 Manchester United.

  

St. James stalemate. With all of the excitement surrounding Kevin Keegan’s return Tyneside even non-Geordie fans had to expect some fireworks in his first match. Especially as they were at home in front of an ecstatic Toon Army. Even though the Newcastle squad seemed to be more free flowing than I’ve seen in awhile, they couldn’t break down a gritty Bolton defense.

Newcastle out shot the Trotters 2 to 1, but Bolton’s Jlloyd Samuels nearly pulled out a shocking victory for the visitors when he spun around to control a surprising through ball, then took a quick shot at point blank range. Shay Givens was lucky enough to have it hit his left leg and deflect out of bounds. This wasn’t how “King Kev” wanted to start. On the plus side last week they lost 6-0. Newcastle United 0-0 Bolton Wanderers.

                                    

The race for futility is in full swing as the bottom three teams lost by a combined score of 8-1 on Saturday. Sunderland is in a tight race with five other teams to stay in the top flight. However, Fulham and Derby County are definitely rejoining the ranks of the second tier. It’s sad that a team like Derby would only get one year up with the big boys before going back to the Championship. Fulham on the other hand has been on life support for a couple of years now and it would be merciful to the club and it’s fans to put it out of it’s misery.

Birmingham City 0-1 Chelsea; Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Middlesbrough; Portsmouth 3-1 Derby County; Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Sunderland.

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.

Saturday Wrap Up December 22, 2007

Early Christmas for Arsenal. Tottenham had the lion’s share of possession in this match (69% – 31%), but were unable to give the league leaders their second loss of the season. Emmanuel Adebayor opened the scoring just after halftime with a wicked finish from a Cesc Fabregas feed. Eighteen minutes later Dimitar Berbatov squeezed the ball between two defenders to even the score. Kolo Toure handed the Spurs a golden opportunity when he brought Berbatov down in the box. Gunner’s keeper Manuel Almunia saved Robbie Keane’s penalty and four minutes later substitute Nicklas Bendtner headed home the winner to keep Arsenal atop the Premier League standings. If Berbatov stays at White Hart Lane in January, I can’t think that it will be his choice. Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham.

 

Wanderers show Blues the door at the Reebok. Birmingham had a couple of early chances to take control of the match, but Bolton’s defense were able to keep the Blues off of the score-sheet and in contention for the relegation zone. El-Hadji Diouf broke the deadlock when he fired home in the 72nd minute. Nicolas Anelka added to the Birmingham woes when he intercepted a defensive throw in and dented the net from a tight angle in the 78th minute. The Birmingham defense gave the ball away in stoppage time and Anelka made them pay with his second goal of the match. I know that the money is tempting, but Bolton need to try and hold onto Nicolas Anelka in the transfer window. Bolton 3-0 Birmingham.

Torres tortures Pompey at Anfield. Liverpool always looked like they were in control of this one as Portsmouth never really showed much of an attacking attitude. The Reds opened up the scoring when Yossi Benayoun sent a rocket past David James from twenty yards out.  Sylvain Distin got on the board for Portsmouth three minutes later as he put the ball past James and into his own net. The look on Distin’s face showed his disbelief. The goal was actually set up by Fernando Torres as he flicked the ball at Distin in the Pompey box with enough pace to get the accidental deflection into the net. Torres’ pace tormented Portsmouth throughout the game and he could easily have had more than the two goals in the second half. Benjani Mwaruwari brought Portsmouth to 2-1 when he scored early in the second half, however, Portsmouth never had the control of the ball when they had possession. It was a bit like watching the five year olds kicking it around at the park. Liverpool 4-1 Portsmouth.

Slugfest at Craven Cottage. This match was very much like watching a fight between two well matched boxers. Both threw everything they had at each other creating a game that was just fun to watch. The first half was highlighted by scrambles in front of both nets, with near misses for both teams. Both keepers came up with good saves with Fulham putting a bit more pressure on Chris Kirkland. Marcus Bent looked as though he was going to hand the Latics their second consecutive victory with a brilliant display of control and finishing in the 70th minute. But, Clint Dempsey fired a cracker in from the right corner of the box to give the Cottagers a well deserved point. I thought that there would be more scoring in this one, and there could have been. It was a fun watch though. Fulham 1-1 Wigan.

Other scores: Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester City; Middlesbrough 1-2 West Ham; Reading 2-1 Sunderland.