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THE WEEKEND THAT WAS 6-2-06
Kean Thomas
THE WEEKEND THAT WAS IS SPONSORED BY PADDY POWER
Morning Smoggies & Smoggettes and welcome to the review of the weekend
fixtures. I'm going to try and make some sense of what happened with the results
this past couple of days.
Sunday's results.
Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0
The special one just keeps grinding out the results. Chelski are now fifteen points ahead of Manchester United and twenty-one ahead of Liverpool. Although Liverpool might feel a tad pissed off with the result, as well as finishing the game with ten men after Reina was sent off, it looks likely that they will take the runners-up spot behind Chelsea. Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez commented on Reina's dismissal:
"If that was a red card it was crazy. I know Reina made a mistake by touching Robben's face but when the player went down it looked as though he would spend a week in the hospital."
Chelsea were missing Didier Drogba who is still messing about in Egypt and face
a tricky tie next week... away to Boro. Ahem. Liverpool are visiting
Charlton on Wednesday, then face a north-west derby against Wigan on Saturday.
Tottenham 3 Charlton 1
The Spuds are keeping their noses in front of Arsenal in the race for the last Champions League spot, and had another good result yesterday, beating an inconsistent Charlton. Jermain Defoe started the game and scored a couple of goals to put himself back in the frame for both Tottenham and England. Martin Jol's men are travelling up to the Stadium of Light on Sunday for Sunday roast and three points, possibly both at the same time.
Now for Saturday... I suppose we have to...
Birmingham 0 Arsenal 2
Luckily Birmingham are proving to be as shite as Boro at the moment and are managing
to keep us out of the bottom three. Arsenal bounced back from their 3-2 defeat at West Ham with Terry Henry's 200th goal for Arsenal wrapping up the points. Sol Campbell missed this match... presumably he may have been too tempted with Butt on the pitch (allegedly).
Arsenal face a tough week next week, home to Bolton on Saturday then a Tuesday
evening visit to Anfield... cue St. Valentines Day massacre headlines in The Sun.
Birmingham face a tough trip to West Ham on Saturday, and boy do we need them to
keep losing.
Bolton 1 Wigan 1
The fight for a Uefa Cup spot stays alive after this north-west clash ended all
Square. Stelios Giannakopoulos gave Sam Allardyce United Nations FC the lead on
sixty-two minutes, before Andreas Johansson equalised... some good old fashioned Lancashire names there then. Both teams were missing players due to the African
Cup Of Nations. Boo-Hoo. Both teams will be looking to pull off a shock result
next week when they visit Arsenal (Bolton) and host Liverpool (Wigan). Come on
Wigan!
Everton 1 Manchester City 0
Everton have turned their season round. After looking like relegation certainties they are now comfortable in mid-table. How have they done this? Lots of 1-0 wins - five in the last nine games and now unbeaten in nine. Manchester City gave a debut to their new £6m striker Georgios Samaras who missed their best chance. Both teams are looking to push up the table and challenge for a Uefa Cup spot. Everton are at home to Blackburn next week and must be looking to win that (1-0 I'd bet) while Manchester City host Charlton.
Manchester United 4 Fulham 2
United left Rooney on the bench for this game and Park scored his first for the
club after some dogged displays. Also, Ronaldo broke the world record for
step-overs. Fulham boss Chris Coleman was sent to the stand for having a Welsh
accent or something or maybe for saying that Ruud Van Horse was offside (FA Law 54.3 Paragraph 4
"No home player shall ever be offside at Old Trafford"). Fulham could still be
sucked into the relegation battle if they lose at home to West Brom next week.
United meanwhile visit sunny Hampshire and take on Pompey.
Boro 0 Aston Villa 4
Fuck. Bollocks. Shite. Just some of the words I used on Saturday afternoon.
Still can't figure out why Yakubu has been left on the bench for the last two games. Well done to the guy who threw his season ticket at SMc, next time tie it to a brick though. After three points gained against Sunderland this was a massive game for us, if we had gotten three points we could have easily pushed on to safety. As it is we're in deep shit. Next week we welcome Chelsea, which knowing Boro we'll win 4-0. Or get beat 6-0.
Quote from SMc: "You can't win football matches unless you defend." With such tactical nous it's not surprising the FA want him for England manager. Take him. Now. Villa are at home to Newcastle next week. If you care.
Newcastle 2 Portsmouth 0
All hail Lord Shearer of Tyneside, who after forty-two years of trying has broken Jackie Milburn's club scoring record. Well done Alan. Really I mean it... well done. Now can we stop hearing about it? Most of us really couldn't give a shit. Newcastle won, Portsmouth lost. Portsmouth stay in deep do-do with us. Toon are off to Villa, Pompey are home to Manchester United. Watch them win as well.
West Brom 2 Blackburn 0
Robbo looks like he's doing it again with the Baggies (shame he couldn't do it with us). After this win West Brom leapfrogged Boro into relative safety. Although Boro have a game in hand the momentum looks like it's gone to West Brom. West Brom can pull further away from us next week when they play Fulham away. Blackburn aren't out of the mire yet, but a win at Everton next week could ease their worries.
West Ham 2 Sunderland 0
The happy Hammers keep on rolling, up to eighth in the table and quietly improving week on week. Dean Ashton made his debut and scored, Sunderland are wonderfully consistently crap. West Ham can keep up their push for Europe with a win a Birmingham on Monday and do us a favour. Sunderland are going to be spanked at home by Tottenham on Sunday.
Elsewhere.....
Reading maintain their magnificent run - they last lost on the opening day of the
season - by beating Crewe 4-3.
Hartlepool are struggling badly in League One and drew 0-0 with Rotherham
Darlington seem to be the only team in the North East having a decent season,
sitting seventh in League Two after drawing 0-0 with Gazza's old team Boston.
Future Boro boss Mogga recorded a 3-0 win at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup. Win them
a bit of silver before you come to us Mogga.
Coventry beat Brighton 2-0 with Dennis Wise getting both. That's three in two games for him... shame he's not cup-tied.
That's it...see you all next week.
THE WEEKEND THAT WAS IS SPONSORED BY PADDY POWER
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