In a footballing week overshadowed by the clash of the titans in Madrid, the Premier League has suffered from a weekend of crazy officiating, with an added tablespoon of drama, a hint of Balotelli craziness and a healthy portion of some breathtaking skill. As Ainsley Harriot would say, “we like a bitta that.” Harriot was too busy rejecting bids from Manchester City for Suzy Salt and Percy Pepper to make any additional cookery clichés.
The big game of the weekend was doubtless at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea put paid to Manchester City‘s unbeaten record. Just as Sky was gearing up for invincibility, goals from Meireles and a penalty from Lampard were enough to see the former champions elect off in a game plagued by inconsistent officiating.
Lampard does what Lampard does. Scores a penalty
Balotelli, whose curry pirate party, complete with rolling pins being wielded as swords, reportedly cost the young, foolish but highly entertaining Italian £150k in fines for breaking a club curfew, had opened the scoring inside of 90 seconds. The leaders should have had a penalty after 20 minutes when Bosingwa hacked down the mercurial David Silva but nothing was doing. City never seemed to recover.
Speaking of hacking down, YaYa Toure seemed intent on hitting the most electrifying move in all of Sports Entertainment, The People’s Elbow, as he kicked, slapped and generally wouldn’t leave Juan Mata alone. In a game that could feasibly have finished 8 a-side with the amount of fouls going on, it’s safe to say Mr Clattenburg stayed in tune with the refereeing for the whole of the weekend – absolute garbage. Balotelli did feel he was faaled several times, but the ref was having naan of it.
At The Emirates, Arsenal kept their revival on the march with a welcome 3 points over a negative Everton in a match that marked 125 years of the Gunners. Former talisman Thierry Henry watched on as current talisman/reason Arsenal aren’t mid-table Robin van Persie scored a screamer to sink the Blues, whose beleaguered boss played down their chances of scoring in the match before kick-off. Many Evertonians are slowly reaching the conclusion that it could well be time for Moyes to pass the ring, ahem, torch, on.
Wow. Just wow.
It was business as usually at the Reebok as Bolton lost their 125th game of 2011 with a soul destroying loss to struggling Aston Villa, who had spent the last month playing for set pieces. Goals from Albrighton and a thirty yarder from Stilian Petrov were enough to hold off an Ivan Klasnic inspired second half comeback. Dark times in Horwich.
Cheerier times at Anfield as Liverpool recorded their first home win since September as they brushed aside a resilient QPR thanks to a solitary Luis Suarez header just after half time. It was business as usual from the Reds as they dominated the game but struggled to make the breakthrough thanks to the woodwork and brilliant goalkeeping.
Suarez, who has since been charged by the FA with “existing”, was praised by Neil Warnock for his attitude and abilities and was so gracious in defeat this author cannot find fault. Until next week, I suppose.
At Old Trafford, Manchester United recovered from their European catastrophe to haul themselves right back into the title race as they brushed aside Wolves 4-1. Two goals each from Nani and Rooney enough to see United home. Special mention to Steven Fletcher though, who has scored 13 goals in his last 16 games. Prolific. When asked about how he felt about having his ban reduced from 3 to 2 games for the Euros next summer, Rooney simply grunted twice for “Yes.”
It rained goals in East Anglia as Norwich City grabbed hold of their chance against an injury hit Newcastle United defence to win 4-2, with three of their goals being direct from headers. Two more goals from Grant Holt help keep the Canaries flying high in mid-table. Newcastle are now falling by the wayside as their fantastic start to the season threatens to be overrun by injuries, especially to their back four. Demba Ba however continues to impress with two more goals as he just keeps finding the back of the net, leaving Alan Pardew to profit from Tony Pulis’ medical error.
Super Grant Holt scores again for the Canaries
In South Wales, Swansea City continued their impressive home form as they turned over a very poor Fulham. A Clint Dempsey own goal (he also went on to miss his penalty, as Craig Bellamy could be heard laughing all the way from Anfield) and an injury time clincher from Danny Graham, despite him being the only Swansea player within 500 yards of the Fulham goal, leave Swansea approaching the Christmas period in rude health whereas Fulham will have a nervous twitch.
And yes, Press Association, it was an own goal.
In the Midlands, one of the shock results of the weekend saw Wigan Athletic win away from home for the second time in 3 weeks as they twiumphed at a badly misfiwing West Brom. Hodgson, who branded the performance “one of the best of our season” is slowly losing the faith of the WBA fans as they continue to head towards the wrong part of the table. Delight for Roberto Martinez, who takes his team off the foot of the table. Again.
Moving to “Super Sunday”, Martin O’Goblin inspired a late escape for Sunderland as they scored two late goals to see of Blackburn, who have only themselves to blame as negative tactics came back to bite them on the behind. Petr Cech, ummm, Simon Vucinic, opened the scoring with a close range header and Rovers should have been out of sight at half time as they missed chances and had a cast iron penalty turned away.
Jumping for joy. Sunderland's new manager celebrates a win
However, late and thunderous strikes from David Vaughan and Seb Larsson moved Sunderland out of the bottom three and roaring up the table. Larsson’s free kick was quite brilliant. O’Neill was too busy getting his tracksuit washed to comment.
In the final game, Stoke City bagged the surprise result of the weekend as their weapons grade football proved too much for slick Spurs as they joined many a team in slipping up at the Brit. Two from former Spur Matthew Etherington held off a second half fight back which saw on-loan Emmanuel Adebayor continue his purple patch.
Someone who didn’t have a purple patch was Olympian Chris Hoy, who was apparently the official for this match. He had a disaster of a game as he missed a blatant penalty, missed a definite handball, red card and penalty and only booked Ryan Shawcross for attacking Gareth Bale with a sledgehammer.
Not a great weekend for referees, but what else is new?
Until the next time, then….
This article was produced by Daniel Thomas. For more from Dan, you can follow him on Twitter here
