Saturday alone saw 27 goals! Only one team in the top half of the table pocketed three points on the day- that team being Sunderland. The Sunday double kick-off of the two Manchester clubs and their wins over their London rivals at the top of the table would be the all-too-obvious picks, but there was so much more:
Top game: It was a weekend of spectacular goals and comebacks: A superb strike by Danny Guthrie opened the score for Newcastle and gave them a false sence of security, comfort and confidence at Fulham. A soft penalty taken by Danny Murphy then gave Fulham the equaliser and put both former Liverpool players on the score sheet. Clint Dempsey's 13th goal of the season made it 2-1 and his 14th followed soon after with a cracking finish to make it 3-1 and him the highest American scorer in Premier League history. Bobby Zamora netted the second penalty to make it 4-1 which added together to four goals in 16 minutes! A good bit of skill by Hatem Ben Arfa tucking himself inside the defender made it 4-2. But Dempsey with a hat-trick made sure that at 5-2 it all stayed under Fulham's control! What a game of two halves and comeback kings!
Top team: Eventhough it ended up in defeat, Tottenham were more than just an opposition to league leaders Manchester City. They were strong competitors who looked set to be the first side to deny Robert Mancini's side a home win in the Premier League. It was a quite firm competition until it all kicked of in the second half with four goals in ten minutes. Gareth Bale's looked like he had grabbed Spurs a point when he met the ball first-time and curled it into the top corner, until Ledley King was penalised for pulling down Mario Balotelli and the Italian substitute stepped up to beat Brad Friedel. Spurs are now eight points behind the leaders in third place, but five points ahead of Chelsea in fourth, making the Champions League spot more and more their own.
Top player: Robbie Keane starred for the other comeback kings of the day, Aston Villa, with two gobsmacking goals! After making his debut for Wolves over 14 years ago, he returned to the Premier League on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy, beating his former side in spectacular fashion. The Irishman hasn't seen much action over the last month-and-a-bit, the more impressive his display way. Steve Morison and Frank Lampard had scored in every game for their respective teams so far this year, Norwich and Chelsea having won all three games before their goalless draw. 
Top goal: Keane's 125th Premier League goal deserves to be put under this category not only for the statistic or for the comeback but also in what skilful fashion it was executed. Keane made defender Roger Johnson pay for a poor headed clearance by lashing his long-range strike in off the crossbar from 25 yards out.Top news: FA Cup 4th round coming up, with Liverpool facing bitter rivals Manchester United at Anfield, in the last week of the January transfer window 2012.
Flop game: I knew before it kicked off, United against Arsenal could not compete against City's win over Tottenham in terms of entertainment and quality (and goals) and it didn't. Chelsea's goalless draw against Norwich was just an agonising watch. The chances that were created weren's even close. Norwich will be more than glad about the result, but Chelsea will have to worry whether they can keep hold of a Champions League spot if they continue like this.
Flop team: Liverpool showed some shocking defending! They were two goals down within 28 minutes, allowing man-of-the-match Chris Eagles to run free, all Red shirts around the box but leaving Mark Davies and Nigel Reo-Coker still free to score both goals. Craig Bellamy pulled one back, but it was again a case of false hope. Bolton sealed the win at 3-1 with a magnificent finish after David Wheater headed back Martin Petrov's corner for Gretar Steinsson to volley the ball into the bottom right-hand corner. It looked all too easy for Bolton, whilst the Reds drew a sorry, very sorry picture of themselves.
Flop player: Balotelli cannot stay out of the headlines and his stamp on Scott Parker was just so evil, it's ridiculous! Various reporters were discussing whether the striker knew where Parker's head was, whether it was just an unlucks accident... Please! Who would kick back like that if there wasn't anything or anyone there they were targeting?! Another player under negative scrutiny, Fernando Torres was NOT on the scoreboard for Chelsea once again with chances galore, but no goal. The Spaniard has now gone 15 games without scoring, the last one against Genk in October, his worst run since he came to England when he joined Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2007. No bien!
Flop goal: Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen will not want to see either goal which gave West Brom a win and three points at the Britannia Stadium. West Brom hadn't beaten Stoke in 10 meetings in 30 years. When the ball swerved over Sorensen's left leg after he saw it too late and wrong-sided, it was clearly one of those video-collection-blooper moments which gave the visitors the lead. After Stoke had equalised and thought they would escape with a point, an injury-time free kick in by Graham Dorrans saw goalkeeper Sorensen helpless again and Stoke losing two goals and three points to West Brom. OUCH!Flop news: Harry Redknapp's tax-dodging trial starts this coming week, see what comes out there... I wonder if his pet dog Rosie will be questioned in court, too...
My predictions - Actual results
Norwich 2:1 Chelsea - 0:0
Everton 1:1 Blackburn - 1:1
Fulham 1:2 Newcastle - 5:2
QPR 2:2 Wigan - 3:1
Stoke 1:0 West Brom - 1:2
Sunderland 2:1 Swansea - 2:0
Wolves 1:1 Aston Villa - 2:3
Bolton 2:3 Liverpool - 3:1
Man City 1:2 Tottenham - 3:2
Arsenal 2:2 Man Utd - 1:2
No comments:
Post a Comment