EPL, England, Europe, Features, Ian John, Leagues, Regions POSTS
First Night Nerves?
Published by Ian John on August 16, 2010
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So the EPL season is back under way and already there have been a few notable performances, the usual claptrap from a manager moaning about referees (in this case, utterly incorrectly), dreadful mistakes, fantastic goals, shock results and we’ve still got Manchester United v Newcastle United to come later on today.
Lets start first with the laughable side of the Premier League and Sunderland and in particular Steve Bruce bleating on like a molten sheep about Lee Cattermole being red-carded for two ‘debatable’ bookable offences. It is bad enough that Bruce actually feels Cattermole has a case for not being sent off. He could have been dismissed for a particularly nasty elbow to Garry O’Connor’s head in the first half alone, that left the Birmingham man bloodied and half-unconscious on the floor. Not satisfied with that, Cattermole then makes two ridiculously poor decisions to deservedly earn two yellow cards and his marching orders. Or not, according to Bruce, who felt that the referee lacked experience and didn’t do his job properly. Utter tosh I’m afraid Steve, Cattermole more than deserved to go and the referee was 100% correct in his decision. Now pick up your dummy, get the botox injected and try and gain some perspective.
It’s not a good weekend if you are a goalkeeper on Merseyside. Tim Howard threw one to Nicola Kalinic to give Blackburn a winning start to the season at Everton’s expense and not to be outdone by their city rivals yesterday, Pepe Reina threw one in for Arsenal in the last minute to gift the Gunners a point against 10 man Liverpool at Anfield. I know he has been linked with a £20m move to the Emirates this pre-season but if he is going to sign for Arsenal, he didn’t have to do that first did he?
Joe Cole’s sending off was, depending who you listen to, entirely correct or the worst decision in the history of football. I missed it I’m afraid and I’ve not yet had chance to see it, so I cannot possibly comment. Suffice to say that Cole moaned about leaving Chelsea because he spent too much time in the stands or on the bench. Well Joe, my boy, getting sent off doesn’t tend to help resolve that issue much.
Another Joe, Hart this time, had a fantastic game for Manchester City against Tottenham to earn them a point at White Hart Lane. England’s number one? Hopefully for a very long time on this performance.
Chelsea strolled to a 6-0 hammering of West Bromwich Albion on Saturday evening. The Baggies put up a stern resistance for, ooh, at least two minutes, before they gave up the ghost and let Chelsea walk all over them. It was a somewhat pathetic performance from West Brom and gave no indication that my prediction for them to go straight back down, would be inaccurate.
However performance of the weekend has to be Ian Holloway’s Blackpool who thumped Wigan Athletic 4-0 at the DW stadium. This was a simply stunning performance from the seasiders, not withstanding that it was Wigan Athletic (who are surely set for the drop this year). They were top of the Premier League pile until Chelsea contrived to spoil things on Saturday night and I hope there are a few more stunning performances like this coming from Ian Holloway’s team, though I can’t help worrying that this performance was as good as it is going to get this season.
And tonight United (Manchester) take on United (Newcastle) at Old Trafford. What are the odds on the toon army doing a Blackpool then?
No, I thought not too.
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