English
Premier League.
Frantic weekend it was, and surely Match day 6
revealed the managers who failed to get their daily dosage of dodo, Arise David
Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini. This week gave neutrals the joy of seeing the PL at
its finest, from Leandro Bacuna’s powerful free-kick to Amalfitano’s mazing run
and delicate chip over the league’s finest CB and goalie(based on last year’s
PFA team of the year), it was definitely a crazy week!
The games in a few words…..
Tottenham 1 – 1 Chelsea. [Sigurdsson 19’/ Terry
65’]MOTM- MoussaDembele!
“John Terry
cancels out Gylfi Sigurdsson's opener for Spurs. But Fernando Torres is sent
off for the Blues”.
 |
| Lucky?........Maybe Not |
This was an encounter of the
highest technical quality
with two
Portuguese fellas Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas going at it with both
tweaking their sides tactically. Mourinho’s second coming hasn’t proved to be
too rosy but in conjuring a point from the well organized Spurs side, he
achieved what not many sides will this season, Fernando Torres and Mata played
the game like their careers depended on it, for Mata maybe, and he definitely
won Mourinho over with the Portuguese man admitting the diminutive Spaniard was
in for a start against Steaua Bucuresti. Torres red card was
errrr……undeserved??(first scratch should have been a red) 2 wrongs??. John
Terry was under the spotlight after his lack of pace gifted Sigurdsson a goal,
he made for it with a fine header! Spurs were resolute in deffence and Moussa Dembele’s
beast of a performance was a joy to behold!
DOWNSIDE: For Spurs a
team aiming to play CL football next season, the points garnered against the
big uns will aid their chances considerably and with 0 against Arsenal and 1
here, Mr. Boas needs to up the big game tactics!
AstonVilla 3- 2
Manchester City. [El Ahmadi 51’, Bacuna 73’, Weimann 76’ - Toure 45’, Dzeko 55’]
[MOTM- Leandro Bacuna].
 |
| Andreas Weimann celebrates his winner with the fans! |
“Frenzy at Villa Park
as Weimann sent the villains into raptures”.
Yaya Toure is a beast!
And he is one because he eats dodo! His fourth goal of the season kickstarted
the funfare at Villa Park but El Ahmadi’s calm finish served as an equalizer in
a battle of the hotter African, Dzeko was on hand to restore the visitors lead
and calm the bookmakers but Leandro Bacuna, who performed admirably in his new
position at RB quelling Kolarov and Nasri equaled the score with the most
amazing curler of a free-kick you would see from a Villa player this season and
while the fans were still recovering from the shocker of an equalizer, Villa
took the lead with Weimann nicking the ball past the onrushing Hart after racing
onto Libor Kozak's flick. Once again this game exposed City’s frailties away
from home even after crushing neighbors last week!
Fulham 1 – 2 Cardiff [ Ruiz 45 –
Caulker 12, Mutch 90+2]MOTM-
Steven Caulker
Crazy goals, Messrs. Ruiz and
Mutch definitely threw their hats in the ring for the goal of the season contest
come the season’s end scoring a curler and scorcher respectively! Caulker got
his first goal in his PL career on the 12th minute and Ruiz leveled
things up in the 45th minute but Jordan Mutch was to have the final
say as the Welsh outfit proved to be too hot to handle. Cardiff are definitely
not laying low! Peter Odemwingie definitely didn’t have his bole’ because his
performance was below expectations!
Sunderland 1 – 3 Liverpool. [Giaccherini
52’ – Suarez 36’, 89’, Sturridge 28’]MOTM-
Daniel Sturridge
Danny Sturridge had his most
mature performance in a long while to welcome Suarez back with two of the
easiest goals he will ever score, Sturridge started the rout with a hand/head
combo past Westwood and his pace et trickery served as torment for the Black
cats in a game where he had 2 assists and a goal. Giaccherini continued his
bright start to life in the PL pouncing on the rebound from KI’s shot to bring
the game to 2-1 but Suarez was on hand to receive Sturridge’s pass to seal the
deal 1-3. The Black cats are definitely favorites to get relegated this season!
Manchester United 1 – 2 Westbrom.
[Rooney 57’ – Amalfitano 54’, Berahino 67’] MOTM: Amalfitano
Pluses: Nani + Rooney
Downs: The rest of the team.
From Sessegnon to Anichebe the
ease at which the Baggies tore down the United defence only to be stopped by
their lack of precision or De Gea’s brilliance showed the gaping hole United
had in midfield/defence. This column is too small to express my thoughts but I
would keep Sir. Alex Ferguson’s last words as United manager in my head, ‘’your
job now as fans is to back your new manager’’. The fact we have failed to score
from open play in the league since the win at Swansea is worrying, 450+ minutes
without a goal from open play!
When
you look at Moyes, the picture’s pretty clear. How
many unexpectedly good performances has he produced? None. Maybe one, if you
count Swansea, but the score as more impressive than the actual result. Perhaps
you can could see the Bayer match as another surprisingly strong show, though
Leverkusen were poor that day. Overall, those performances are more expected
than surprising.
Now,
how many unexpected poor performances has United given under Moyes? Chelsea at home, Liverpool away,City
away and Westbrom at home. These aren’t maybes, like the ones we listed, above.
These are bad results. In eight games (six league, one Champions League, one
League Cup), Moyes’s teams have disappointed four times.
This is a terrible start
– United’s worst in the Premier League era. You can blame the schedule if you
want, but it hasn’t been that bad, especially once Saturday’s visit form one of
the league’s strugglers balanced it out.
The only excuse that
remains is a powerful one: That we’re only eight games into the Moyes era. The
new boss certainly deserves more time, though that shouldn’t keep us from
noting how bad his start has been.
Swansea 1 – 2 Arsenal [Davies 82’
– Gnabry 58’, Ramsey62’] MOTM: Aaron
Ramsey.
In a game where Arsenal’s front-six had trouble maintaining a hold
on the match, their defense deserves some credit. Of Swansea’s 10 shots (three
on goal), only three came within the 18-yard box. Contrast that with Arsenal,
who saw seven of their 10 shots come within Michael Vorm‘s penalty area. The result was a win at Swansea, leaving Arsenal
alone atop the Premier League.
Arsenal have developed an ability to win games they don’t control.
Granted, it’s been a while since the image of the possession-dominant, imposing
Gunners was actually true. But since when does Arsenal only see 42 percent of
the ball and not only win but win relatively comfortably?
Getting performances like Aaron Ramsey‘s helps. Setting up the first while scoring the second, Ramsey is
now second in the league in goals (four) and assists (two) – statures that
arguably understate his contributions. His performances have made him one of
the league’s best players as well as one of its most timely. On Saturday, his
contributions tipped a game that went into halftime nil-nil.
In other games, Robbie Brady
continued his fine form scoring a penalty to give Hull city a 1-0 win over Westham
United, Luke Shaw marshaled the Southampton defence to yet another clean sheet
vs. Crystal Palace in a 2-0 win, goals courtesy of Lambert and Osvaldo. Johnny
Howson was the man to get Chris Hughton back to winning ways as his 34th
minute strike proved decisive as Norwich beat Stoke city!
In other leagues,
Spain.
Barcelona continued their romping dominance of
the La Liga by winning 0-2 vs. Almeria goals courtesy of Messi(always scores,
doesn’t he?) and Adriano. Diego Costa’s strike proved to be the decider of the
Madrid derby in advert of poor finishing with Ronaldo, Benzema and Costa as
models. The fun game of the week proved to be Valladolid vs. Malaga with both
sides scoring twice to provide an exciting attacking display, elsewhere there
were wins for Elche [1-0 Celta], Levante[1-0 Osasuna], Betis[1-0 Villareal],
Getafe[2-0 Espanyol] and an overdue win for Valencia, Sevilla recorded a one
all stalemate at Betis.
Italy.
The
Turin Derby ended with a 0-1win for Juventus
courtesy of a Paul Pogba header, in Rome, Francesco Totti was the catalyst
providing two assists as Roma mauled Bologna 5-0 with Gervinho scoring a brace,
ValterBirsa rose to the occasion as AC Milan recorded a 1-0 win over Sampdoria
in their first match without Balotelli as the Italian begins his 3 game ban.
Cagliari forced a draw off Inter and elsewhere there were wins for [Napoli 2-0
Genoa], Catania[2-0 Chievo], Verona[2-1 Livorno], and Atalanta [2-0 Udinese].
Germany.
Borussia Dortmund
were the biggest winners of the week in Germany with a 5-0 win over Freiburg
courtesy of braces from Lewandowski and Reus with Kuba rounding off the goals,
for Bayern Munich it was a drab affair as they emerged 1-0 winners over
Wolfsburg with Thomas Mueller getting the lone goal. There were wins for Hertha
BSC, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen and stalemates at Augsburg[2-2 Monchengladbach],
Hoffenheim 3-3 Schalke 04], Frankfurt 2-2 Hamburg] and Werder Bremen 3-3
Nurnberg].
France.
The big buys had a good week as Radamel
Falcao’s brace inspired Monaco to a 3-0 win over Bastia with Edinson Cavani
scoring as PSG beat Valenciennes one-nil. There were wins for Lille[3-0 vs
Evian], [Marseille 2-1 Saint Etienne], [Ajaccio 2-1 Lyon], [Guingamp 5 – 1
Sochaux], [Nantes 2 – 0 Nice] and Toulouse who beat FC Lorient by a goal to
nil. The draws were to be seen at [Montpellier 0 – 0 Rennes] and [Bordeaux 0 –
Stade de Reims 0].
As you leave your comments, do follow the writer and guest
columnist on twitter @dajoker05
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