Once again another Premiership weekend passes in the blink of an eye and is it just me, or are things getting a little more evenly matches in the self-styled best league in the world? Take Manchester United’s victory over Bolton, while there is no doubting United deserved the win, Bolton had their chances. Arsenal should have splattered Birmingham in a style reminscent of Scrappy Doo, but didn’t. Wigan held Manchester City comfortably at the DW ego stadium while Sunderland, with the aid of a traitorous beachball, defeated Liverpool at the Stadium of Light and could concievably have won by a far greater margin had they turned their chances into goals and last of all Aston Villa came from a goal down to defeat Chelsea at Villa Park thanks to two headed goals from set pieces. It was certainly not a weekend when the leading lights in the Premier League covered themselves in glory.
Here’s what I’ve learned about the weekend…
1. Liverpool should try and sign the beachball. No really. It’s certainly cheap enough and any Reds fan who watched the dismal performance of Ryan Babel at the weekend will know that the beachball obviously produced a far greater goal threat. Why are some Reds fans claiming it should not have stood? The ball was thrown on by their supporters. It is entirely self-inflicted and would have been rough justice on Sunderland had it not stood. More pertinent should be to ask why this expensively assembled team looked a shambles at times and count your blessings that Sunderland didn’t score 5 or 6.
2. Chelsea’s defending at set pieces is laughable. Really, it is. Aston Villa are very good at set pieces I admit, but lets analyse this a little closer. If you are giving centre backs free headers from 6 yards out then there is a major problem somewhere. I did have a good laugh at John Terry’s hissy fit after the second goal though, if any Villa fans in the Holte End found his dummy that he spat out during it, please forward it to Stamford Bridge.
3. Manchester City were convincingly unconvincing against Wigan. You can’t help feeling that Mark Hughes men, if they are to have real title aspirations, need to do more in these games. City may congratulate themselves with a point from a tricky encounter, especially after Chelsea lost their recently, but let us remember that United beat them 5-0 earlier on this season and Sir Alex Ferguson had Nani playing because United’s beachball was injured.
4. Portsmouth recorded a good win over their reserve team at Fratton Park. I bet the home fans didn’t know who to support at one point, until Harry appeared and they could direct their ire more productively. Incidentally, has anyone seen David Bentley recently? I’m worried Harry has kidnapped him and become the White Hart Lane equivalent of Josef Fritzl.
5. Has anyone else noticed the pattern? England qualify for the World Cup finals, down go Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott with injuries. At least we won’t spend all summer worrying about David Beckham’s metatarsal once again. Not when he has that serial-killer beard to distract us.
What three things did you learn about a Premier League team or player from the weekend’s games? Let us know below!
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