goodfootballerornot

NEC 0-1 Tottenham : Not a great performance from Spurs but they deserved to win.  Gomes had a game without any sort of dodgy moment which should help Spurs.  Just a home game to get through and should do without too much trouble.

Portsmouth 2-2 AC Milan :  That Milan didn’t score till the 84th and 92nd minute to snatch a draw is the surprise of this one.   Slow, slow start for both sides and miserable conditions – why cant we build stadiums with covers for rain?  Tony Adams just doesn’t seem to have the luck to get a win with these sort of games.

Schalke 0-2 Man City : Little trouble for City without their very expensive signing.  Their shaky form in the league is baffling.

Bordeaux 1-1 Chelsea : Some ropey defending from Chelsea caused a bit of an upset for Scolari but considering how little they produced in attack for the first hour its a fair result.  A late sending off for Lampard had no effect on the game but he will miss the somewhat important last group game.

Liverpool 1-0 Marseille : Not a comfortable win and the ball pinged around a great deal with lots of flicks and back heels from both sides, flashy but mostly ineffectual compared to a normal pass.  Reina made some very good saves and could be the key to Liverpools domestic and Champions League success or failure.  Messy but somewhat entertaining.

Villarreal 0-0 Man Utd :  Man U continue their season off after doing so well last lear.  Another draw for them and a pretty lame effort.  Shocking high tackle on Ronaldo.

Arsenal 1-0 Dynamo Kiev : Pretty poor stuff from the team supposedly playing the best football in Europe who had to rely on a late Bendtner goal.  Some relief for  Wengers squeaky bum for now.

Aalborg 2-1 Celtic : Habits are hard to break, particularly for Celtic trying to win away in the competition.  They also loose out on the UEFA cup too.  Still, since they are so appallingly bad that’s not unreasonable.

Everton doing thier bit to keep the table tight.  Poor stuff from the “best league in the world”.  Football quality low, interest high as its a real competition so far this year.

Tottenham 1-0 Blackburn:  Aaron Lennon showed he can play well for extended periods of time, well in the same game at least.  He completely embarrassed Martin Olsson who was sent off for trying to tackle a player who was so much better than him.  Gomes made it through without cocking up, well he didn’t concede a goal.  Still looking nervy and less than convincing.  Blackburn tried to make something and should have done better.  Its not clear if the squad lacks a player of sufficient quality to raise them or if Paul Ince isn’t up to the job at this level. Thanks to the tight point situation Spurs charge up the table but no one is safe in the bottom 10 or so.

Sunderland 0-1 West Ham:  Roy Keane will, I’m sure, take a piss on the respect campaign from a great height after having a couple of penalty decisions go badly against them.  Still is Cisse had put his chances away then it shouldn’t have been  a problem.    West ham will be very happy with the win, as will Zola who could have seen himself sacked soon if he didn’t get a result soon.  The little Italian has made steps to putting something that resembles a defence into the team but they offer precious little up front.  With no money to spend it would seem its going to be difficult.  For all Sunderlands spending there’s little to show for it really and even less in terms of progress over last season.  Maybe if Keane had less players to choose from it would focus his choices and the minds of those in the squad.

This season is looking to be one of the most dramatic for some time with only 8 points separating 20th from 7th and 6th to 3rd only 3 points apart.    A two horse race at the top but there’s a new runner in contention.

Aston Villa 0-0 Man Utd : Tight stuff and not too many real chances.  Villa lost an opportunity to beat a misfiring Man U who would have benefited from Rooney being part of the England squad as Capello seems to have a positive impact on his game and he really needs an upturn right now .

Chelsea 0-0 Newcastle: Newcastle parked the bus and would be much happier with the result than a baffled Scolari.  A better result for Toon.

Liverpool 0-0 Fulham:Liverpool were lucky as they played poor and Chelseas failure to get round the Newcastle bus was unexpected.  A wasted opportunity.

Man City 3-0 Arsenal : The good half of the Man City Schizoid team showed up to make Arsenals week end as bad as it could have without them having more injuries.  The praise heaped on the way Arsenal play thier football is looking extremely misguided.

Middlesbrough 1-3 Bolton: Undone by 2 early goals Borough never really got back into the game.  Bolton were Bolton.

Portsmouth 2-2 Hull: Unlucky for Porsmouth as they were on course for a deserved win until a rather unfortunate own goal.  Encouraging for Tony Adams who just needs a bit of luck to get the results coming in.

Stoke 1-0 West Brom:  A late winner for one of the two Championship sides playing.

All in all a case of missed opportunities and some fairly poor performances all round.

Very good indeed for the England B team as its been called.  Forget the debate on can Lampard and Gerrard play together, can Scott Carson play for England without stuffing up big time!  The Captain quite rightly took the blame for the shambles as he should have cleared it, but why is he so feted by the press?  He is neither our best player or a great ambassador for the sport yet the press as a rule view him as being the best thing about.   Sadly a sign of the backwards nature of thinking about the game here where its more important for a player to have blood on his shirt and a bandage on his head rather than being able to think, keep the ball and pass well.  Something that came up again when Argentina played Scotland, Terry Butcher a player from who JT could have been cloned was commenting on the hand of god, Maradona quite rightly said, who?  Who indeed.

Still good stuff allround and maybe some of the first team might get dropped and give them a much needed kick in the arse.

Despite only being 6 points behind the league leaders Arsenal were in crisis and according to some Wenger should be replaced.  A strange situation for such a successful manager to be in, especially one who can count well enough to know that 6 points doesn’t make you out of touch.  The problem all the teams have is can anyone take points off Chelsea and Liverpool?

The game itself was marked by some pretty lousy refereeing, Howard Web did his best to not give any penalties, despite there being a possibility of at least 3.  United were undone by Rooney having a bad day at the office and a real lack of quality in central midfield.  Rooney spent the first half shooting wide and for the second when he was shoved to the left as provider some of his crosses left a lot to be desired.  Ronaldo, supposedly the best player in the world and looking nothing of the sort, missed some chances and his assists were not the standard they should have been.  Berbatov doesn’t look like 32 million well spent and for the cost of Man Us attack verses the comparatively weak Arsenal defence they looked short of being the best.

Arsenal played thier usual game and Nasri providing more attacking bite than they have produced for some time.  Wenger may know, but they still don’t look that convincing either.

Fergason has a real problem in that he has seemingly made no provision for replacing Giggs or Scholes, or if he has none of the supposed replacements look up to thier high standard.  That 32 million would have been better spent on a decent central midfielder, Deco springs to mind.