Weekend full of surprises

The weekend started with Ferguson getting Manager of the Month award and Torres running away with the Player of the Month award but these were not the surprises this week.

Bolton 2-2 Tottenham

Tottenham have been flying really high this season with exceptions of their games against Manchester United and  Chelsea. They have been ruthless to all other opposition they have faced but against Bolton it was another story. Bolton took the lead twice and all Spurs could manage was a draw.

Burnley 2-1 Birmingham

Turf Moor has already got the reputation of a fortress this season but Birmingham have not been beaten on this ground since 1976. The record was broken finally with Fletcher and Bikey giving Burnley the win.

Hull City 2-1 Wigan

This was a contrasting change of fortunes for both teams. Wigan won last weekend against Chelsea while Hull were demolished by Liverpool. Yet, Hull managed to win this one.

Wolves 0-1 Portsmouth

Played 7 lost 7. Scored 3 conceded 13. This was Portsmouth story before this game. But finally they are off the mark with a win. Hassan Yebda, a loan signing from Benfica breaking the deadlock.

Manchester United 2-2 Sunderland

Who would have thought that a team with 9 consecutive wins in all competitions under their belt would come so close to losing all 3 points against Sunderland. The first half was all Sunderland. Nani, Wellbeck were not even visible. Scholes’ passing was wayward. Rooney and Berbatov were not getting any time on the ball. And Bent’s quickness caused them to concede pretty soon into the game. There was no shot on target by United in the first half. Second half saw them equalize through Berbatov’s brilliance but then Jones restored the lead with little help from Foster (who again disappointed in goal). It was Manchester United’s resilience that paid off finally when Evra’s shot which was going off target was deflected by Anton Ferdinand into his own net robbing Sunderland of the 3 points.

Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn

Blackburn took the lead twice before Arsenal placing the ball into Blackburn goal as and when they wanted to. It was a scintillating display from the Arsenal team who after going down made the scoreline look as if the 2 goals from Blackburn were just consolation. Vermaelen seems to have invented another position in football – Central Attacking Defender.

Everton 1-1 Stoke City

Everton went behind in this one before Osman equalized. Everton are unbeaten in 6 games now.

Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

The first half was good play by Liverpool but all their balls in the box were being cleared well by the Chelsea defence except once when Torres came really close to scoring. Chelsea on the other hand were causing trouble for Liverpool defence from set pieces getting free headers twice or thrice. But 2nd half saw Chelsea take the lead and ensure the win which takes them to the top of the table.

Sevilla 2-1 Real Madrid

Many thought that Madrid’s run till now didn’t have any real tests and this was the first time they are facing real quality opposition. If this was the case the result has failure written all over it for Real Madrid. With Barcelona winning again this weekend, this means Madrid are now 3 points adrift the pace.

Athletico Madrid 2-1 Real Zaragoza

Finally, Athletico Madrid manage to win. But they were lucky as Zaragoza got two penalties and missed one. Its surprising though that a team with talented strikers namely Aguerro and Forlan are barely able to register a win the Liga.

And now we are headed into the internationals break. Hope the internationals continue the same excitement as the leagues have.

Giggs and Nani do it again

You never listen, do you?

I disagree with anyone who says that Nani is inconsistent. I think he is very consistent. When his team needs him to pass, he shoots and when his team needs him to shoot, he passes. He continues to disappoint in every game he plays. What more level of consistency can one expect from him? His display against Stoke City proves it. When Berbatov and Rooney were unmarked on the edge of the box, he decided to shoot for goal himself and missed in the process. I think it was wrong of Rooney to expect a pass from him in this situation and he was wasting his time showing his anger at him.

All Manchester United fans are hoping that Nani can replace Ronaldo to some extent but Nani is doing is best to prove them wrong. I am just wondering how long will it take for Sir Alex Ferguson to get rid of him.

Giggs on the other hand showed what a simple game football is. He made a simple pass that created a goal for Berbatov (who rightfully acknowledged Giggs’ effort) and then produced a beautiful delivery from the free kick for John O’Shea to score.

Valencia on the other hand looks little above average if not great. He knows he has to run behind defenders and created passes and cross for the strikers and that is what he does. His delivery though will improve as he gets more playing time.

Fletcher and Scholes looked their usual self with their tackles. Fletcher good with them while Scholes bad with them. No one in the world can understand how come a player of Scholes talent never got his tackling right. But anyways good to see him avoid the red card. The handball was accidental and was not yellow card worthy.

It was a frustrating game till Giggs’ introduction and I was left with a question in my mind – If Nani is playing like he is, who’ll play when Giggs’ is injured or needs rest? Till I get an answer to this one, lets hope Nani does some wonders.

Everywhere else it was goals galore:

• Portsmouth 0-1 Everton: What a surprise?
• Birmingham 1-2 Bolton: Really not interested.
• Blackburn 2-1 Aston Villa: That was really a surprise.
• Liverpool 6-1 Hull City: The surprise was not Torres hattrick but Babel scoring two. One of my friends who is a Liverpool fan used to say Babel is worse than Nani, I beg to disagree. Details views are available here. Not on Babel/Nani words but the game.
• Tottenham 5-0 Burnley: Normal business resumes at White Hart Lane.
• Wigan 3-1 Chelsea: Perfect records goes away. Cech red card. But lack of character show by Chelsea.
• Fulham 0-1 Arsenal: A game that could have sprung a surprise but Arsenal did their business.
• Sunderland 5-2 Wolves: Goals galore.
• Man City 3-1 West Ham: Tevez scores against his old club.

Time for Manchester derby..doesn’t get better than this…

12 November 1881 – West Gordon (St. Marks) hosted Newton Heath. Result was Newton Heath winning by 3 goals to nothing. It was described as “a pleasant game”. West Gordon (St. Marks) went on to become Manchester City and Newton Heath went on to become Manchester United and the games between these two were no longer pleasant.

so much for pleasantness

In the 152nd derby meeting between these two, Manchester United (un)welcome Manchester City with there multi million $ signings to Old Trafford. Previous 151 meetings have resulted in 49 draws with United wining 61 times and City winning 41 times.

This is a hugely anticipated clash since Manchester City have given themselves the big club tag with their star signings namely – Tevez, Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Barry, Toure, Lescott (not sure how exactly these guys are stars, they are good players though). Manchester City are expecting themselves to be knocking on the top 4 door and with their display last weekend against Arsenal, everyone is thinking that they might just. But Arsenal are one thing and Manchester United are another. Arsenal are an amazing team but are many times undone by their own flamboyancy while Manchester United get the job done when needed to even if means without their usual style of play.

Manchester City are without their star players – Tevez, Robinho, Santa Cruz, Ireland (all injured) and Adebayor (out due to suspension for the tackle on Van Persie). Without these players, City look the same as last year with the exception of their defence – which conceded two over the weekend. Its difficult to see where the goals would be coming for City considering their major strike force and creative midfield missing. Their only hope is to prevent United from scoring and getting a 0-0 draw or probably try and nick 1 on the counterattack using the pace of Bellamy and Wright Phillips.

It would have a good booing exercise for United fans if Tevez would have played who snubbed United to join City.

I won't be sitting in this chair this weekend

Manchester United dispatched another top 4 contender in Spurs over the weekend and got an away win in Turkey in the Champions League. This is a chance for them to show Manchester City that they do not belong in top 4. Paul Scholes is ineligible for this game due to his red card in the game against Spurs. Ryan Giggs has played the most derby games and would be relishing another chance to run at City defence. Ferdinand should be back to full fitness after missing the game against Besiktas. Fletcher was rested during midweek fixture and should be starting this one. His steel in the midfield would be an important asset for United.

Line up that I would like to see on the pitch would be:

Foster

O’Shea – Ferdinand – Vidic – Evra

Valencia – Fletcher – Anderson – Giggs

Rooney – Berbatov

Man Utd have an incentive of going top with a win (since Chelsea are playing after United game) and also opening up the gap against City while City can leapfrog United into 2nd place with a win.

I expected a fast paced game with United being too good for City. 3-0 to United for me.

Watch it live this  Sunday 17:55 IST on ESPN

Other games this weekend:

• Burnley v Sunderland – Sunderland win. Live Saturday 17:10 IST on ESPN
• Arsenal v Wigan – Win for Arsenal. Live Saturday 19:25 IST on ESPN
• Aston Villa v Portsmouth - Easy win for Villa. Watch it Live Saturday 19:25 IST on Star Sports
• Bolton v Stoke City - Bolton win. Watch delayed telecast Saturday 21:30 IST on Star Sports
• Hull City v Birmingham - Scored draw.
• West Ham United v Liverpool - Liverpool win but West Ham would make it difficult for them. Watch it Live Saturday 21:55 IST on ESPN
• Wolves v Fulham - Should be an easy win for Fulham. Watch delayed telecast Sunday 21:30 IST on Star Sports
• Everton v Blackburn - Buoyed by their win in Europa League, Everton should win this one. Watch it Live Sunday 19:25 IST on Star Sports
• Chelsea v Tottenham - Another big four test for Spurs. They dispatched Liverpool at start of the season but were beaten by Manchester United. Spurs would be looking to get better of Chelsea to make a statement that they can still be considered a threat for the top 4. Chelsea have quietly kept winning points and this would be their first big test. Spurs are capable of beating anyone on their day but its always the question of which Spurs comes out to play. Scored draw for me. Watch it Live Sunday 17:55 IST on ESPN

Pick of deadline day deals

David Nugent to Burnley: 4.5/5

Finally, he goes to a place where he would get regular playing time.

I personally like him since his Preston North End days. He performed really well for them. When he moved to Portsmouth I considered it a good move for him and thought he would get good premier league experience but somehow he didn’t get as many starts as I expected. He has moved to Burnley on loan for 6 months with a view of making the move permanent. Burnley would be really happy to sign him since he is a proven goalscorer. He has scored regularly in Championship, netted a few in premier league and score for England under-21 as well as the senior team. With this signing Burnley can surely hope to kill few other giants as well and hopefully stay up.

Teemu Tainio moves to Birmingham: 2/5

I have seen this guy play for Tottenham Hotspur but I was not really impressed by him. Haven’t seen him perform for Sunderland so not sure how this would shape up. I think its an ok-ok signing.

Kranjcar moves to Tottenham: 3/5

Another Portsmouth players moves to Tottenham. Harry connections I guess. Kranjcar has come in as direct replacement of Modric who is out injured currently. He shouldn’t have much trouble settling in considering that he has earlier worked with Harry Rednapp and there are couple of other Croatian players in the team including Modric.

Heitinga to Everton: 4/5

This seems to be a really good catch to me. David Moyes has an ability of finding out obscure talent. Remember Lescott. He has made good business from him and made him a good defender. Heitinga can play in variety of positions – central defender, right back and defensive midfield. Seems to me a Phil Neville type player. Should work well for the Toffees. I am surprised though that they were not able to get the loan signing of Banega from Valencia.

James Collins, Dunne to Aston Villa: 4/5

Collins is a Wales international and had an effective partnership with Anton Ferdinand during 2006/07 season after which he got a 9 month injury layoff. Villa needed a couple of defenders badly after retirement of Laursen and sale of Zat Knight. They have also signed Dunne from Manchester City which is subject to clearance by the Premier League. Collectively these two signings would be a boost for Villa specially after their Europa League exit.

Ben Haim to Portsmouth: 3/5

He is a good defender and was in the form of his life during his time at Bolton which prompted his move to Chelsea where he barely got any playing time. Later he moved to Manchester City and now to Portsmouth. There is no doubt that he lacks the ability and talent but would he regain his best form, that needs to be seen. Worth a gamble though.