"Kings and sons of god
Travel all
The way to Earth
Coming restless mile
Easing all of them
All of them for you
Strange times
Here." -- "Strange Times", the Black Keys
If I told you that a game involving Chelsea and Everton at Stamford Bridge would finish with six goals, wouldn't you put money toward a 5-1 result in favor of the Blues?
If I told you the match ended 3-3 and Chelsea ended up gaining points on Manchester United?
If I told you a match at White Hart Lane would end in a clean sheet, would you ever in a million years pick Wolves as the club to do it?
Would you believe me when I said the hottest team in the Premier League is Birmingham City, and it employs the hottest player -- Lee Bowyer?
Would you believe that Aston Villa beat Manchester United for the first time since
"Land Down Under", "Maneater", "Come on Eileen" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" topped the pop charts?
Would you believe that Portsmouth, yes last place Pompey, would score a late equalizer on the road and then have the goal scorer -- Younes Kaboul -- sent off for taking off his shirt?
Finally, what would have been the preseason odds that Wigan's Honduran midfielder Maynor Figueroa would hit the potential goal-of-the-year?
The odds of any of these things happening? Slim, like Nic Cage winning an Oscar. Oh wait, that happened. Let's amend that to post-1995 Cage winning the award.
All of them in the same weekend?
Strange Times, indeed.
Cech yo self before you wreck yo self:
Not to give myself a Barry Horowitz pat on the back, well, maybe to do that, but looks like people are catching on that Petr Cech has slipped in nets for Chelsea. It's understandable. To play at the level he was at in 2004-2006 would be nearly impossible. (Even his one-time rival for world's best keeper -- Gigi Buffon -- has taken a step back this year.) And Cech did has his skull crushed.
I know it's a while ago, but those gaffes vs. Turkey at the Euro killed the Cech mystique.
Saturday vs. Everton he caught two bad breaks -- a ball bouncing off his back when he dove to make a save, followed by Didier Drogba trying to head a ball clear, only for it to bounce off Louis Saha's back and into the goal.
When Chelsea won back-to-back titles under Mourninho, the core of the team was Cech, protected by John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Claude Makalele. Scoring on the Blues was harder Victorian England or the early 1990s post-Magic Johnson's HIV revelation.
Nowadays, if you've got some "game", you can slip one past Chelsea, as the strength of the team has moved up the field in the Drogba-Anelka-Lampard troika.
Of course, in irony of ironies, Chelsea drop points at home to Everton and end up picking up a point on Manchester United, which is stunning. I was having a Facebook conversation with Chelsea uber-fan Ironic Steel Salesman, deciding that it would be typical United to pull even in the league, despite not being all that good.
Didn't happened. Again, it was a weird week.
Vote Goldie Wilson for Maynor.
Maybe you saw the clip of Maynor Figueroa's behind-the-halfway-line free kick goal vs. Stoke City. I won't link it since the Premier League are grinches when it comes to copyrights and such.
You probably saw it anyway.
Impressive stuff.
The thing about those kind of hits -- seen by the likes of Beckham, Matty Taylor for Pompey years ago, Diego in the Bundesliga -- you have to catch the keeper off his line. (Didn't this happen to Tim Howard just recently, against I want to say, Spurs?)
I'm curious to see if Figueroa's goal has any affect on the Honduras World Cup betting line. With the Brits go all a'twitter over the hit? Will they now actually give Los Cratchcos a chance? It does give me something to aspire to in "FIFA 10" now.
Pee-Yoo
Say it was the injuries or a crowded fixture list, but Manchester United was about as toothless as I've ever seen in its 1-0 loss at home to Aston Villa.
Perhaps the only good chance was a Dmitar Berbatov 1-on-1 strike that Brad Friedel turned away with about 10 minutes left.
As I said before, it would be typical United fashion to sneak into the top spot, with a suspect team.
Didn't happen.
With the crowded two-a-week fixtures coming, can United and its injury ravaged defense keep up?
The S-A-F affect only counts for so much, you know?
On the other side, excellent job by Aston Villa to make Gabby Agbonlahor's 10th minute goal stand up. That is a fantastic showing.
Villa, though, remain a hard team to wax poetically about. They're efficient. They know their roles. Martin O'Neill seems like a guy you'd like to invite over for Christmas dinner.
The team doesn't have too much outward spark, but that's only a problem for us wretched husks that try to write about this kind of stuff.
Perhaps the best Villa story this season is the massive 'Eff-You' mode that Richard Dunne has played with since his longtime club -- Manchester City -- basically told him he wasn't cool enough to hang with them anymore. Never discount a footballer jilted by his lifetime club. It's like someone getting kicked out of a tribe, be it in the animal kingdom, prison gang, secret government agency. Alone, they can either whither and die off, or become the baddest one-man-show on the block.
And this season, have Kolo Toure or Jolean Lescott been any better than Dunne?
A word on Liverpool/Arsenal:
Andrey Arshavin is my totally, 100-percent platonic, heterosexual man-crush.
That is all.
And I won't be fooled by Arsenal as a title contender again. The Gunners weren't all that special Sunday, regardless of what the table says this morning.
... Liverpool? Handwave.
Other stuff:
I guess you can salute Manchester City for coming back from a couple one-goal deficits at Bolton, to save a 3-3 draw. Then again, the team got no juice whatsoever from beating Chelsea last weekend. Again, if you're a gambler stay away. STAY AWAY. They're those crazy young Hollywood starlets. Sure they book good, but they're batshit insane too. ... You are officially a part-time masochist if you follow Tottenham. How can anyone stomach the week-in, week-out drama hovering over this club? Is that part of the fun? To quote my old pal Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, that isn't a "bad job outta Spurs", that's a terrible job. You can't contend for the top four and drop three points at home to Wolves, especially letting a fourth-minute goal by Kevin Doyle stand out. ... At least Luka Modric returned. ... Oh wait Benoit Assou-Ekotto apparently tried to rumble with a fan. It never ends. (What else can you say? When a player confronts a fan is its NEVER a good thing.) ... Hey, to Wolves credit, Marcus Hahnemann was in goal. America! Fuck Yeah! Last time he was at White Hart Lane, Sours beat Reading 6-4. ... Can Arsenal just let the Robin van Persie injury rest? Does trying to get money from the Dutch Federation help anyone? It's like pulling off a band aid. Just move on and quit bringing it up and using it as an excuse the players can latch onto. ... At the current moment, you'd probably have to say on form, West Ham is the worst team in the league right now, especially since the Mustard Boys -- Hull/Wolves -- have shown some signs of life. ... Speaking of Hull, if they play a 0-0 draw with Blackburn, does it make a sound?
Line of the month:
"Wayne Rooney is a brainy player." -- Ian Darke.
The set-up is the punchline.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
As Bel Biv Devoe said, "Never trust a big butt and a smile." Well, never trust the injury notes on the Premier League fantasy game. On my team both Ryan Shawcross and Wayne Rooney were listed in the yellow as "doubtful." Both played. No, I'm not bitter I left 10 points in Shawcross on the bench. Nah.
Best team this week was, fittingly enough, Petr Čech Yourself managed by Turd Wellington, which got 26 from Drogba and solid around-the-board contributions.
Looking ahead:
Why the Premier League packs the fixture list in December continually confuses me. It's like if Major League Baseball decided to schedule Sunday double-headers in June for no apparent reason. What would happen? Teams pitching staffs would get ravaged in the short-term and that toll would continue to manifest itself the rest of the season.
So why soccer? We've already seen that players are as fragile as blown glass. To pack in midweek games -- especially for the big teams in European competitions -- seems crazy. Double that when you factor in the English winter. If you're going to double up, why not do it in April when the weather is more tolerable?
Anyway, we have matches Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday:
* Sunderland v. Aston Villa -- (Live, FSC, 2:30 p.m.) Sunderland 1, Aston Villa 1
* Birmingham City v. Blackburn -- Birmingham City 1, Blackburn 0
* Bolton v. West Ham -- Bolton 2, West Ham 2
* Manchester United v. Wolves -- (Live, Setanta, 2:45 p.m.) Manchester United 2, Wolves 0
Wednesday:
* Burnley v. Arsenal -- (Live, Fox Espanol, 3 p.m.) Burnley 0, Arsenal 2
* Chelsea v. Portsmouth -- (Live, Setanta, 3 p.m.) Chelsea 3, Portsmouth 0
* Tottenham v. Manchester City -- (Live, FSC, 3 p.m.) Spurs 2, City 1
* Liverpool v. Wigan -- Liverpool 1, Wigan 0
This weekend: 3-7, ouch.
Season: 81-78
One last thing:
South Africa is so hot right now.
Consider me confused. The World Cup is happening in the country next June, but this movie "Invictus" is out now and it's about rugby.
Hurm?
Aren't those two different sports?
(Sarcasm folks.)
Travel all
The way to Earth
Coming restless mile
Easing all of them
All of them for you
Strange times
Here." -- "Strange Times", the Black Keys
If I told you that a game involving Chelsea and Everton at Stamford Bridge would finish with six goals, wouldn't you put money toward a 5-1 result in favor of the Blues?
If I told you the match ended 3-3 and Chelsea ended up gaining points on Manchester United?
If I told you a match at White Hart Lane would end in a clean sheet, would you ever in a million years pick Wolves as the club to do it?
Would you believe me when I said the hottest team in the Premier League is Birmingham City, and it employs the hottest player -- Lee Bowyer?
Would you believe that Aston Villa beat Manchester United for the first time since
"Land Down Under", "Maneater", "Come on Eileen" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" topped the pop charts?
Would you believe that Portsmouth, yes last place Pompey, would score a late equalizer on the road and then have the goal scorer -- Younes Kaboul -- sent off for taking off his shirt?
Finally, what would have been the preseason odds that Wigan's Honduran midfielder Maynor Figueroa would hit the potential goal-of-the-year?
The odds of any of these things happening? Slim, like Nic Cage winning an Oscar. Oh wait, that happened. Let's amend that to post-1995 Cage winning the award.
All of them in the same weekend?
Strange Times, indeed.
Cech yo self before you wreck yo self:
Not to give myself a Barry Horowitz pat on the back, well, maybe to do that, but looks like people are catching on that Petr Cech has slipped in nets for Chelsea. It's understandable. To play at the level he was at in 2004-2006 would be nearly impossible. (Even his one-time rival for world's best keeper -- Gigi Buffon -- has taken a step back this year.) And Cech did has his skull crushed.
I know it's a while ago, but those gaffes vs. Turkey at the Euro killed the Cech mystique.
Saturday vs. Everton he caught two bad breaks -- a ball bouncing off his back when he dove to make a save, followed by Didier Drogba trying to head a ball clear, only for it to bounce off Louis Saha's back and into the goal.
When Chelsea won back-to-back titles under Mourninho, the core of the team was Cech, protected by John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Claude Makalele. Scoring on the Blues was harder Victorian England or the early 1990s post-Magic Johnson's HIV revelation.
Nowadays, if you've got some "game", you can slip one past Chelsea, as the strength of the team has moved up the field in the Drogba-Anelka-Lampard troika.
Of course, in irony of ironies, Chelsea drop points at home to Everton and end up picking up a point on Manchester United, which is stunning. I was having a Facebook conversation with Chelsea uber-fan Ironic Steel Salesman, deciding that it would be typical United to pull even in the league, despite not being all that good.
Didn't happened. Again, it was a weird week.
Vote Goldie Wilson for Maynor.
Maybe you saw the clip of Maynor Figueroa's behind-the-halfway-line free kick goal vs. Stoke City. I won't link it since the Premier League are grinches when it comes to copyrights and such.
You probably saw it anyway.
Impressive stuff.
The thing about those kind of hits -- seen by the likes of Beckham, Matty Taylor for Pompey years ago, Diego in the Bundesliga -- you have to catch the keeper off his line. (Didn't this happen to Tim Howard just recently, against I want to say, Spurs?)
I'm curious to see if Figueroa's goal has any affect on the Honduras World Cup betting line. With the Brits go all a'twitter over the hit? Will they now actually give Los Cratchcos a chance? It does give me something to aspire to in "FIFA 10" now.
Pee-Yoo
Say it was the injuries or a crowded fixture list, but Manchester United was about as toothless as I've ever seen in its 1-0 loss at home to Aston Villa.
Perhaps the only good chance was a Dmitar Berbatov 1-on-1 strike that Brad Friedel turned away with about 10 minutes left.
As I said before, it would be typical United fashion to sneak into the top spot, with a suspect team.
Didn't happen.
With the crowded two-a-week fixtures coming, can United and its injury ravaged defense keep up?
The S-A-F affect only counts for so much, you know?
On the other side, excellent job by Aston Villa to make Gabby Agbonlahor's 10th minute goal stand up. That is a fantastic showing.
Villa, though, remain a hard team to wax poetically about. They're efficient. They know their roles. Martin O'Neill seems like a guy you'd like to invite over for Christmas dinner.
The team doesn't have too much outward spark, but that's only a problem for us wretched husks that try to write about this kind of stuff.
Perhaps the best Villa story this season is the massive 'Eff-You' mode that Richard Dunne has played with since his longtime club -- Manchester City -- basically told him he wasn't cool enough to hang with them anymore. Never discount a footballer jilted by his lifetime club. It's like someone getting kicked out of a tribe, be it in the animal kingdom, prison gang, secret government agency. Alone, they can either whither and die off, or become the baddest one-man-show on the block.
And this season, have Kolo Toure or Jolean Lescott been any better than Dunne?
A word on Liverpool/Arsenal:
Andrey Arshavin is my totally, 100-percent platonic, heterosexual man-crush.
That is all.
And I won't be fooled by Arsenal as a title contender again. The Gunners weren't all that special Sunday, regardless of what the table says this morning.
... Liverpool? Handwave.
Other stuff:
I guess you can salute Manchester City for coming back from a couple one-goal deficits at Bolton, to save a 3-3 draw. Then again, the team got no juice whatsoever from beating Chelsea last weekend. Again, if you're a gambler stay away. STAY AWAY. They're those crazy young Hollywood starlets. Sure they book good, but they're batshit insane too. ... You are officially a part-time masochist if you follow Tottenham. How can anyone stomach the week-in, week-out drama hovering over this club? Is that part of the fun? To quote my old pal Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, that isn't a "bad job outta Spurs", that's a terrible job. You can't contend for the top four and drop three points at home to Wolves, especially letting a fourth-minute goal by Kevin Doyle stand out. ... At least Luka Modric returned. ... Oh wait Benoit Assou-Ekotto apparently tried to rumble with a fan. It never ends. (What else can you say? When a player confronts a fan is its NEVER a good thing.) ... Hey, to Wolves credit, Marcus Hahnemann was in goal. America! Fuck Yeah! Last time he was at White Hart Lane, Sours beat Reading 6-4. ... Can Arsenal just let the Robin van Persie injury rest? Does trying to get money from the Dutch Federation help anyone? It's like pulling off a band aid. Just move on and quit bringing it up and using it as an excuse the players can latch onto. ... At the current moment, you'd probably have to say on form, West Ham is the worst team in the league right now, especially since the Mustard Boys -- Hull/Wolves -- have shown some signs of life. ... Speaking of Hull, if they play a 0-0 draw with Blackburn, does it make a sound?
Line of the month:
"Wayne Rooney is a brainy player." -- Ian Darke.
The set-up is the punchline.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
As Bel Biv Devoe said, "Never trust a big butt and a smile." Well, never trust the injury notes on the Premier League fantasy game. On my team both Ryan Shawcross and Wayne Rooney were listed in the yellow as "doubtful." Both played. No, I'm not bitter I left 10 points in Shawcross on the bench. Nah.
Best team this week was, fittingly enough, Petr Čech Yourself managed by Turd Wellington, which got 26 from Drogba and solid around-the-board contributions.
Looking ahead:
Why the Premier League packs the fixture list in December continually confuses me. It's like if Major League Baseball decided to schedule Sunday double-headers in June for no apparent reason. What would happen? Teams pitching staffs would get ravaged in the short-term and that toll would continue to manifest itself the rest of the season.
So why soccer? We've already seen that players are as fragile as blown glass. To pack in midweek games -- especially for the big teams in European competitions -- seems crazy. Double that when you factor in the English winter. If you're going to double up, why not do it in April when the weather is more tolerable?
Anyway, we have matches Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday:
* Sunderland v. Aston Villa -- (Live, FSC, 2:30 p.m.) Sunderland 1, Aston Villa 1
* Birmingham City v. Blackburn -- Birmingham City 1, Blackburn 0
* Bolton v. West Ham -- Bolton 2, West Ham 2
* Manchester United v. Wolves -- (Live, Setanta, 2:45 p.m.) Manchester United 2, Wolves 0
Wednesday:
* Burnley v. Arsenal -- (Live, Fox Espanol, 3 p.m.) Burnley 0, Arsenal 2
* Chelsea v. Portsmouth -- (Live, Setanta, 3 p.m.) Chelsea 3, Portsmouth 0
* Tottenham v. Manchester City -- (Live, FSC, 3 p.m.) Spurs 2, City 1
* Liverpool v. Wigan -- Liverpool 1, Wigan 0
This weekend: 3-7, ouch.
Season: 81-78
One last thing:
South Africa is so hot right now.
Consider me confused. The World Cup is happening in the country next June, but this movie "Invictus" is out now and it's about rugby.
Hurm?
Aren't those two different sports?
(Sarcasm folks.)
Labels: Chelsea, Didier Drogba, English Premier League, Monday recaps, Soccer, tottenham hotspur
As I said on Saturday, Cech is definitely not as good as he was pre-injury; however, I don't think anything that he's done in the past two weeks were out-and-out howlers that people are making them out to be. He guessed wrong the FK against City - yes he should have let the wall do its job, but City was getting a lot of guys into the wall. The first and third goals this weekend he got punished for being tentative (he should have gone or stayed, in both situations he went half way), but they were unlucky bounces that were caused in large part because of bad defending from set plays. The second one was just awful defending all around, not at all helped by Carvalho falling down.
It won't happen, but I wouldn't mind seeing Ivanovic and Alex play in the central defense against Portsmouth as a wake-up call to Terry and Carvalho. Chelsea have four relatively easy games coming up - v Portsmouth, @ West Ham, @ Birmingham, v Fulham - which they'll probably need to sweep to stop the Ancelotti/Scolari comparisons. Especially now that Hiddink's Russia are out of the World Cup.
As for Van Persie, I think it's wreckless of Arsenal NOT to ask for compensation. I don't know exactly how the insurance / compensation works, but I recall Newcastle getting a bunch of money from the FA for Michael Owen's ACL tear after the 2006 World Cup. I don't think it's unreasonable for a national team to at least help out a club for treatment, rehab and lost wages for long-term injuries of key players. That's to say nothing for the potential loss of money for relegation or missing out on Champions League / Europa League / Cup Final money from that player not contributing. A team as cost-conscious as Arsenal has to at least ask.
No, you're right, the media is blowing Cech's struggle out of proportion, but he's not unbeatable like he was a couple years ago, is all I'm saying.
About RvP...I just think Arsenal needs to be quiet about it. Sure they deserve compensation, but by continuing to bring up the injury to subtly gives the players and fans an excuse to harp on if they fall short of the title.
I am not sure, granted Cech was world class a few years ago and a regression is to be expected at some point, but I feel that the most important attribute for a Keeper is confidence and clear decision making, both are severely lacking now with Cech.
I am not saying get ride of him, but I don't think this has to do with the head injury anymore, I just think he has been seriously off his game at times this season, would a "real" back up keeper make him get back into the swing of things, or maybe start Hilario for a game or two to clear Cech's mind? I agree Cardillo, I think this round of problems started with the Turkey match and have never been solved, just glossed over.
Keep up the great work.
I remember writing in the off-season that I thought Friedel might be headed to West London (and that did not mean Fulham) and Villa seem to be pleased with Guzan as the back-up/potential starter. The upside for Chelsea would be that Friedel could play in CL matches since he is not cup tied. Many, many of the potential January moves we will read about have only half value during this season for the big clubs because bringing Totti (or whomever) in to Chelsea or Liverpool or United only matters for the league. Remember Arsenal fans gnashing their teeth during the CL last year with Arshavin sitting in street clothes?
Side note: love how 'He has to be good, he's a Yank keeper' has become as persuasive (and shallow) an argument as 'He's from Brazil, of course he scores goals' was a few years back. Let's hope the US keeper reputation doesn't spring as many holes as all the third (and thirteenth) string Brazilians have.
The Figeroa goal was okay. All those long, chip the keeper goal are like that, in my opinion. I see a million times more skill in the Arshavin goal (just forzample).
I'm not sure how I feel about National teams being forced to 'pay' the club sides if a guy gets hurt on international duty. I understand why Arsenal fans are bummed out that Van Persie is out and I feel their pain (Are Milan fans pining for Gooch?). But why is it that the nation pays the club and not the other way around? And what if a very rich club (say Man City) demands money for a player who gets dinged whilst playing for his very poor home country (Adebayor for Togo) in the African Cup of Nations? I understand how club fans might feel aggrieved, but is this the right kind (or any kind) of solution?
Xeyedandpainless -- Good points on the confidence issue. I think you're spot on with his lack of confidence. I don't think he's getting as much support from his defence as he has in the past. I don't know if that's a cause of regression in form for JT and Carvalho, the rotation of CBs, or what. You could be right with playing the back-ups, it certainly worked for Spurs when Cuidicini came in.
30f - I would certainly not be opposed to Friedel playing for Chelsea short-term, but I think that probably made more sense in the summer. With Villa chasing a Champions League spot, I don't know that they'd part with Friedel. Although if Guzan came on and played well, that would be interesting to see if a controversy arises.
Again, I really don't know how the insurance thing works but I really don't see how the club should be responsible for paying the wages and rehab for the player. I see your point for smaller nations / bigger clubs, so I guess this is a case-by-case basis type of thing. It would probably be a lost cause for City to go after Togo, but I don't know that it's unreasonable for Arsenal to go after the Netherlands for a key player being injured in a friendly. Also, Cardillo you're right in saying that Arsenal needs to shut up but I haven't read anything, are they really whining or is it the media blowing things out of proportion again?
This whole club v country thing is confusing and makes my head hurt.