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Deja Vu?
Published by Ian John on February 8, 2010
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Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose… No I haven’t gone all French for today’s article, just an observation really that while the past weekend’s football events may have changed the face of the title race, they really didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.
Arsenal defensively are woeful and cannot defend against the counter attack, they can’t deal effectively with Drogba, Everton can’t win at Anfield, Portsmouth have about as much chance as avoiding the drop as a parachutist 5 seconds after leaving the plane and Peyton Manning always gives teams at least one chance in games and New Orleans took it… Ok it’s a different brand of football but the idea fits.
Sunday’s game was over inside 20 minutes. Arsenal’s creative play simply overpowered by three things, Didier Drogba, Chelsea’s efficient defending and the way Chelsea converted their chances from set pieces or on the counter attack. The frailties that have been highlighted time and time again at Arsenal were there in glorious technicolour once again. Poor marking, poor defending, not physically strong enough either in defence or attack and too reliant on breaking teams down through the middle.
Chelsea on the other hand looked strong. As did Manchester United. Although Manchester United did play Portsmouth who are beginning to make Derby County look like Barcelona at the moment. They have a fourth new owner this season now but still no money, no discernable future and seemingly an inevitable relegation looming on the horizon, coupled with all the financial implications that will follow. Scoring three own goals in a game seldom helps either.
Birmingham City pulled a rabbit out of the hat in their local derby with Wolves. Kevin Phillips coming off the bench to roll back the years and score two excellent goals. He could well be a key player from the bench over the last few months of the season for the Blues.
Liverpool took an ill-tempered Merseyside derby at Anfield, despite playing most of the game with 10 men after Sotiris Kyrgiakos was rightly sent off for a terrible lunge at Fellaini (who should probably have also been at least yellow carded for going over the ball and crashing into the Greek defender). Everton looked worryingly toothless, even against a ten man Liverpool, and manager David Moyes will know his team will have to markedly improve on that if they are to make any impact higher up the table.
For Liverpool, Dirk Kuyt was once again the goalscoring hero however Javier Mascherano performed superbly in an emergency right back role. It wasn’t pretty but manager Rafa Benitez will be happy at the spirit and effort put in by his players over the whole rather fragmented 90 minutes of anger-filled play.
It was a good weekend for Liverpool. Manchester City lost surprisingly at Hull and Tottenham and Aston Villa held each other to a 0-0 bore draw at White Hart Lane, which does neither teams hopes of a fourth place finish much good.
So, Liverpool win the Merseyside derby, Chelsea beat Arsenal inspired by Didier Drogba and Arsenal’s inept defending, United roll on against a dreadful Pompey, City, Villa and Spurs start to falter, the top four now reads, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool and Peyton Manning blew it by throwing an interception in a key play off game.
Plus ça change…
Image Courtesy of ***SamalMarr *** at flickr.com
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