Weekend Review: Chelsea See Red as Refs Hit The Headlines

It seems like it's been a while since we've spoken about bad refereeing decisions affecting games, so it seems appropriate that they would all come at once on the most Super of all Sundays so far this season...

Chelsea 2-3 Manchester United - Man United finally won at Stamford Bridge in the league for the first time in 10 years but it's hard to argue with the fact that refereeing decisions influenced the game massively. United started like a house on fire and took the lead after just 4 minutes through a quick counter attack that ended with a Robin Van Persie shot hitting the post and going in off the hapless David Luiz. This was only the 3rd time United have taken the lead in their 9th Premier League game this season! Robin Van Persie scored to make it 2-0 after another lightning counter attack down the right hand side. This was his 6th goal at Stamford Bridge and according to Opta Joe he has now scored more goals there than any other visiting player in the Premier League. Chelsea took control from around the half hour mark and scored either side of half time and David De Gea deserves a lot of credit for holding Chelsea out for so long. After his first half free kick Juan Mata has now been involved in 9 goals in his last 5 league games (scoring 4, assisting 5) and he seems to be in the form of his life. Then, enter Mark Clattenburg. Branislav Ivanovic can have no complaints really for his sending off. Ashley Young was through on goal and whether it was intentional or not he clipped Young, was the last man and prevented a goal scoring opportunity. Fernando Torres' red was contentious to say the least. Depending on your allegiance you may feel it was harsh, you may not. Personally (call me biased) I didn't see any contact between Evans and Torres, but Evans did dive in and it could easily have been a foul the other way. United then scored late on through Chicharito, and again Mark Clattenburg was at the centre of controversy as Hernandez was in an offside position. Niall Quinn said 'you have to feel for Chelsea don't you?' As Man Utd and QPR fans we can tell you Niall, no you don't! In our humble opinion any club that celebrates a captain charged with racist abuse and whose fans boo the victim of said abuse and his brother - for having the audacity to be racially abused and to be related to said victim - doesn't deserve any of our sympathy whatsoever! All in all though it seems a bit of a shame that such a fantastic game had to be influenced so heavily by Mr Clattenburg. This was a massive win for United though, and shows that Chelsea aren't going to run away with the title. This makes things a lot more interesting now anyway as only 1 point separates 1st to 3rd place.

Everton 2-2 Liverpool - Earlier this pulsating Merseyside derby was also marred by a late dubious refereeing decision that prevented Luis Suarez (shame!) and Liverpool from claiming a late late victory against Everton. Suarez was clearly motivated by David Moyes' pre-match comments about the Uruguayan's propensity to dive. He was right up for it all game and showed his displeasure with those comments by diving along the ground right in front of Moyes after Leighton Baines' own goal put Liverpool ahead. Suarez had double the amount of shots of any other player on the pitch. The first half was enthralling and all the goals were scored in the first 35 minutes. Liverpool had a goal disallowed in the last minute as Suarez was adjudged (wrongly) to be in an offside position before turning the ball in from a Coates knock down. It was a feisty affair with 7 yellow cards and it almost seems like the biggest hurdle for Everton now to beat Liverpool is psychological rather than based on inequality on the pitch. Everton have all the tools to beat Liverpool and showed their quality by coming back from 2-0 down but they seemed to be a bit fearful of Liverpool's fast start leading to them not really getting started until they were 2 down. That's 3 draws on the trot for Everton and they need to start picking up wins again soon if they want to challenge for 4th position this season. Liverpool meanwhile continued their habit of only showing up for the big games - something they've continued for a couple of seasons now.

There were some big surprises in the Championship this week as Birmingham won at Leeds, Crystal Palace produced an excellent display to continue where Dougie Freedman left off as they won away at leaders Leicester whilst Millwall trounced strong starters Huddersfield.

(Brief) round-up of our sides

QPR's kamikaze performances continued this week with an 11th red cards in 47 Premier League games and  another defeat to go hand in hand with it. C's match report is here.

Crewe  and Union Berlin compounded C's misery with 0-1 defeats against very mediocre opposition (no disrespect to Yeovil Town or SC Paderborn 07 fans among our readers). Crewe were defeated by a disappointing goal scored by a defender from a set piece, whilst Union, who were five games unbeaten before the weekend, will be looking to bounce back in the DFB-Pokal (FA Cup in English money) as they play Offenbacher FC Kickers away as they gear up for the big East German derby against old enemy Dynamo Dresden next Sunday. Apparently Steve Davis is interested in bringing Ryan Lowe back to the Alexandra Stadium from MK Dons - an experienced goalscorer at this level can only be a good addition to such a young side and we hope it happens!

And finally, of course, we've glossed over Manchester United's three points at Chelsea above already.

Things we learnt this week

• The 'Bairdinho' train keeps rolling as Chris Baird scored his second goal in 2 games to equal the amount of goals he scored in his first 120 Premier League appearances.
• Were MOTD having a special on old supporters this week? Apparently there was a  centurion fan present at Arsenal and Wigan and both were honoured by their clubs, which is quite a nice touch really. We didn't even think Wigan had been going that long though?!
• Gordon Bennett that was a lot of Bennetts in the Aston Villa v Norwich game! Elliott and Ryan were both playing for Norwich, while Joe was playing for Villa. It was as if that many Bennetts on one pitch would make the universe implode so Joe got himself sent off to reduce the Bennett number by one.
• Phil Neville obviously got altitude sickness from being so high up the pitch. That's why he dived.
• Jose Fonte looks really out of his depth in the Premier League, and it appears his lack of ability is what is continuing to cost Southampton dear
• G4S security staff do have their uses, it seems. In spite of having their name dragged through the mud all Summer at the Olympics, one of their staff stepped up from being spectator to run the line in Dunfermline v Cowdenbeath after the original linesman stepped up to referee following an injury
• Oxford United - Adam Chapman joins the list of crazies football injuries of our time - playing through the pain barrier after burning his nipple with hot dairy products - proof that there is no point in crying over spilt milk!
• The Davids effect is continuing to impact on the Football League's bottom club Barnet, who recorded a first away win of the season in what has been a productive week or so since the Dutchman's arrival - that's now two wins and a draw in three games.

Weekend Preview: Best League in the...UK?

After a week that confirmed what pretty much everyone has known for a while - the Premier League just isn't the best league in Europe any more - the Premier League is back and the top teams will be looking to bounce back after 4 of the country's representatives failed to win in Europe...

The big talking point this week has to be Man City's failure (yet again) in Europe. Roberto Mancini's record in Europe is coming under close scrutiny as his team look set to bow out at the group stages for the second year in a row, despite their wealth of riches, barring a miracle. Between 2004-08 Mancini got Inter to the Quarters (2004/05, 2005/06) and the last 16 (2006/07 and 2007/08) before he was sacked. This was despite winning the Serie A title three years in a row from 2006-2008. 2 years after he left Inter (with predominantly the same core as Mancini's team) won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho. Coincidence? City’s three fixtures in the Champions League them concede a total of 72 shots in contrast to 85 in their eight Premier League games this season. Yes, Man City have been drawn in the 'Group of Death' this year but they haven't even played well really. They have 1 point and they were extremely lucky to get that against Dortmund. The contrast in the two teams on Wednesday was remarkable and it has been well documented that the total cost of the Ajax starting XI on Wednesday was £2.75m while City's starting XI cost a measly £187.5m! They really should have been winning that game.

Aston Villa v Norwich - Saturday's early kick off will centre around the battle of Norwich and their former manager, Paul Lambert. There is seemingly a lot of ill-feeling between the two parties since their separation - Norwich are suing Lambert for breach of contract while Lambert is counter-suing Norwich for unfair dismissal looking for £2m! This week Norwich's chairman said Lambert walks out on every team he manages while Lambert suggested he hasn't spoken to the chairman, Alan Bowkett in three years (even when he was there). There has been a lack of spark for either team this season and neither has really got going. Both sides only have the one win in the league each from 8 games, and both have struggled for goals scoring less than 1 per game this season on average (both have 6 goals). Norwich have conceded over 2 goals per game this season on average (17 goals in 8 games), while Villa have let in 13 goals in 8 games. Norwich did win against Arsenal last time out and they will be hoping that result will kick start their season but it looks like being a relegation dogfight for both teams this year, and neither have been in good form. Norwich haven't won their last 6 away games, while Villa have failed to win in 17 of their last 18 league games. Both managers have a difficult job on their hands this season and you have to think a lot of both teams seasons depend on Darren Bent and Grant Holt respectively. Holt has 3 goals this season while Bent has 2 and they are the only players from either team who have scored more than 1 goal this season. You have to think this game could be the best opportunity for these teams to fill their boots and score a few, but it appears unlikely. I tend to think that Paul Lambert will thrive on this sort of pressure game. Having played at the likes of Dortmund and Celtic and winning multiple trophies he loves the big games and this is a huge game for his team, and I think the Lambert factor will win out for Villa.

Prediction: Villa 2-1 Norwich

Everton v Liverpool - Sunday's early kick off sees the return of the Merseyside derby. This game seems like it could be a difficult one to predict so I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest there will be a lot of cards. In the last 6 games between these sides there have been 26 yellow cards and 3 reds. So expect more of the same this weekend. Everton have only beaten Liverpool once in the last 6 meetings between the two teams while Liverpool have won 4 and certainly seem to have the edge on their rivals. However, Everton go into this game 8 places and 6 points above their rivals, and have only lost once this season. They have also won 6 of their last 7 home games in the league. However, as we all know the form book goes out of the window in a derby. Liverpool have a young team and the average age of their likely first XI tomorrow is 24.5 years old, whilst Everton's is 29.4 years of age. This youth could either prove to be the undoing of Liverpool or their secret weapon. The players don't look like they have been phased by anything this season but a pressure cooker atmosphere at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby is another challenge altogether for Liverpool's players. Personally I think the game will come down to clinical finishing and Everton's 15 goals in the league versus Liverpool's 10 tells a story in itself. Liverpool need to take their chances tomorrow otherwise Everton will punish them. I'm going with the form book in this game though.

Prediction: Everton 3-1 Liverpool

Chelsea v Man Utd - Finally, the Sunday evening match is at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea take on Manchester United. Stamford Bridge always seems to be a bogey ground for United and the Reds haven't won at Stamford Bridge in the League in the last 10 games - since April 2002, and Chelsea are the only team in the history of the Premier League who have more wins than losses against United. Funnily enough though United haven't lost in their last 5 meetings against Chelsea (including the two Champions League games from United's 2011 run to the final). This should be an excellent game though and sees 1st take on 2nd in the league. This game could go a long way to showing how serious both teams title challenges are this year. Expect goals - between them these teams have scored 40 goals in the league this year and conceded 17. United are starting games this season bizarrely and seem to be giving teams head starts every game. I think this was slightly inevitable as this season seems to be purely concentrated on attacking and scoring goals with that forward line. Chelsea's forward line is almost as impressive though and it should be a high scoring affair for that reason. United have scored at least 2 goals in their last 7 Premier League games and it seems almost certain that Chelsea will score goals as United's defence seems to be leaking goals on a huge scale this year. United's philosophy this year seems to be 'we will score one more than you'. This has never really worked before (see Newcastle in 95/96) so it is intriguing to see how long this goes on.

Prediction: Chelsea 2-2 United

This weekend QPR take on an Arsenal team who have lost their last 2 games and appear to be back in the middle of a crisis again, just weeks after being the best team since Sliced Bread FC. Rangers are still without a win in the league this season and they will be hoping this is the best time to play Arsenal. However, Mark Hughes has said he fears a backlash this weekend. Rangers avoided defeat last weekend for the first time in 4 in the league and fans will be hoping this could be the start of a turnaround in fortunes, and they will take heart from Norwich's performance against the Gunners last weekend.

 Crewe beat Swindon 2-1 in midweek to record their first win in 4 in the league and they take on an in-form Yeovil team this weekend who have won their last 2 league games. Games between these two teams don't end in draws (both teams have shared 3 wins each in the last 6 games between these 2). Byron Moore got 2 in midweek for his first goals of the season and Steve Davis has challenged him to get double figures this season, so the Railwaymen will be hoping this will spur him on to have more of an impact. Yeovil are an entertaining team this season having scored 24 so far in 14 this season and conceded 21 so there should be goals and an entertaining game at Gresty Road!

Union Berlin take on SC Paderborn 07 on Sunday. Paderborn haven't won in their last 4 and Union will be hoping to build on their win over FSV Frankfurt last week. This is 11th v 10th and should be a tight affair as both teams sit on 12 points. Let's hope Union's good home form continues and they use this to their advantage!

Enjoy the weekend and we'll be back with a review of the weekend next week!

J

A score draw that should have been more

Match Review: QPR 1-1 Everton

The teams pre kick-off

Finally I bring news of a point again for QPR, an outcome which I've no doubt every Super Hoop would have taken before the game, but given the circumstances, I'm sure they are disappointed that we didn't do more to try and win the game.

For a change, it started really well! Going into the game, QPR had built up a reputation for being slow out of the blocks. Of the 17 goals they have conceded this season, seven of them were shipped  in the opening thirty minutes of games, including 4 of these in the last 3 league matches. Equally, they have an awful habit of leaving players unmarked, committing too many men going forward and leaving themselves completely exposed to pacey Premier League wingers and front lines. Considering all this, it was pretty satisfying to see the R's carry out a complete role reversal and themselves be the scorers of a goal on a swift counter attack where the opposition had over-committed going forward for a change. With less than two minutes played, an Everton corner was cleared as far as Junior Hoilett, who proceeded to run and run and run. With the last defender and goalkeeper off his line being all that was left before him, he unleashed a shot (which the keeper probably would have got) but it caught the trailing leg of Leighton Baines which completely wrong-footed Tim Howard and sent the ball on its way into the empty net. 

Everton, who had come to Loftus Road in outstanding form and flying high in the league, looked very surprised to have conceded and continued to be on the back foot for much of the half. This looked like a game where QPR would finally click, the early goal settling nerves (although clearly not those of Stephane Mbia, who on six minutes ordered the ball boy to slow down the delivery of the ball back to the pitch!) The R's were doing their usual though - showing nice touches and putting together neat passing moves only to have no end product. I can recall a Ryan Nelsen header from a corner but not a lot else in a spell of sheer dominance. No surprise then that when Everton strung a few passes together it would lead to an equaliser...

Referee Jon Moss, a headmaster on weekdays I'm told, decided that after an uneventful 30 minutes by refereeing standards, he would play the role of primary school PE teacher and become extremely whistle-happy. Jelavic went down fairly easily on a couple of occasions and Moss was quick to award free kicks as well as be very fussy about where they were taken from and how far back the wall was. One such free kick (which, I accept, was indeed a free kick) was delivered into the area for an unmarked Sylvain Distin to plant a firm header goalbound which hit the post and then ricocheted off Cesar into the net. Cesar was unlucky having made a really good save from an earlier low Jelavic drive from another set piece, but unlucky is not how I would describe the defending. Bobby Zamora and Stephane Mbia between them should have had Jagielka and Distin covered, but Zamora completely neglected his man and in truth either of them would have had a free header here. In spite of having had two weeks' international break to work with his players on ways to reduce their catalogue of defensive errors at the training ground, it seems that marking from set pieces is not top of Hughes' priority list. The longer that goes on, the longer it will continue to plague QPR this season. Not even two minutes after the equaliser it should have happened again - this time the R's defence were rescued by the crossbar. Infuriatingly, it was again Zamora's man that was allowed to get away (this time Jagielka) and he got a powerful head on the ball under no pressure whatsoever which was a lick of paint from making it 2-1. 

At half time the mutterings from the terraces were of the 'same old story'. QPR had once again dominated possession, produced some nice build up play but again had extremely limited end product. The only difference was that this time they had taken the lead first! Maybe the shot-shyness can be linked to the continued desire of Hughes to play one out and out striker up front even when at home. Zamora as a lone striker with the players we have just doesn't seem the right choice to me, and I feel that we'd work much better if it were 4-4-2. But given Cisse has been so out of sorts lately, maybe Hughes feels he is still better off playing this system, and the decision to play Hoilett had so far paid dividends - he'd looked lively and shown a willingness to run at Everton's defence, something Cisse hasn't done enough when he has been on the pitch this season.

The second half began fairly evenly with both sides looking determined to produce a performance. In the 50th minute, Samba Diakite produced an excellent run where he emerged from deep in his own half, danced past several challenges and then produced a low cross which begged for a hooped shirt to get on the end of and smash home. Sadly, the man it fell to was QPR's pet tortoise of recent weeks, Ji Sung Park. He was far too slow reacting to the intelligence of Diakite and by the time he eventually got a shot away, it was blocked by Jagielka. 

Meanwhile, challenges were getting a little more heated and the referee was getting ever fussier, blowing even for fifty-fifties. Steven Pienaar, unrecognisable after his haircut, was the first name to go into the book for a fairly nasty challenge shortly after the Park effort. He was also the second name in the book just nine minutes later for what seemed like an innocuous tussle between him and Jose Bosingwa out on the right wing. This wasn't really a surprise given the way the referee had been going about the game since early on and Pienaar appeared to have lost his rag after his booking - whilst this offence was definitely not worthy of a yellow card, he was bound to go at some point within the next ten minutes if he had escaped here. The sending off should have given QPR the impetus to go gung-ho and instead of reacting instantly to the dismissal, Hughes let the game roll on another ten minutes before making two substitutions. Managers win praise for being quick, decisive and catching the opposition off guard with their substitutions, but it was so obvious during that ten minutes what the changes were going to be that Moyes was afforded time to ready his pack for their introductions. So when in the 70th minute Djibril Cisse and Nedum Onuoha finally entered the fray in place of Zamora and Armand Traore (incidentally, Hughes was true to his word when he said Traore would only last 70 minutes!), it wasn't exactly a shock that they didn't have the intended impact on the game that they could have done. 

For the remaining twenty minutes QPR rallied but disappointingly only produced two more saves from Howard, both from good Hoilett efforts. This was the Canadian's best performance for QPR and he has clearly been told to work on getting shots out of his feet sooner, which can only be good news. But the Hoops need more than one contributor if they are to get out of the situation they are in. Taarabt had a very quiet game compared with his last two games for QPR which was disappointing but Zamora also just doesn't get involved enough in attacking play. Cisse should have come on much earlier and been instructed run at the Everton defence, who had shown on occasions in the game that they don't like being ran at. But as was the consensus at half time, there is a much simpler way of getting more contributors to attacking play - have two up front!!! Please, Sparky. Especially at home.

Free flags for all in the home ends: not condoned by ESDB football due to the fact they are associated with plastic supporters from SW6 these days. But good atmosphere builders, admittedly

Man of the match: As alluded to at times during this match report and many others, central midfield appears to be the Rs' strongest department, with Ale Faurlin only good enough for a place on the bench behind Esteban Granero and Samba Diakite, and it was the latter that stole the show in this game for QPR. He made some excellent runs, produced some cute passes and even well timed challenges in this game (apart from once, when he picked up his customary yellow card). He's still a lunatic, but a talented lunatic at that...

C

Gameweek 8: Things Starting To Take Shape?

Well that was an eventful weekend, and it looks like things could be starting to take shape at the top of the table...

The top 3 is now containing 3 of the 4 teams you might expect it to at the end of the season (bar Arsenal) and the likes of Everton, Tottenham and Arsenal all consolidated the theory that they will have good seasons and be in the running for the top 4 this season.

The game at the DW Stadium on Saturday was a fast-paced, attacking game with 4 goals ending in a 2-2 draw between Wigan and Everton. Wigan put in a very promising performance and there are a lot of reasons for their fans to be positive after the game, regardless of the late equaliser they conceded to their old boy Leighton Baines. Arouna Kone had an excellent game on the right of their front 3. He looked a constant thorn in Everton's side and scored the first goal (even though he was in an offside position) and laid on the second for Franco Di Santo. Kone had 2 shots and scored 1 of them and he appears to be the marksman that Wigan have missed for probably all of their years in the Premier League. He now has 3 goals and 2 assists for Wigan this season in just 7 appearances, and his presence up front seems to be aiding Franco Di Santo who has also scored 3 goals already this season in 6 games - nearly half of his tally last season (7) which he achieved in 31 games. All this positivity is curiously framed in the fact that Wigan have made one of their worst starts in the Premier League. They have equalled last years tally at this stage, have 3 points less than they did in 2010/11, and they have 4 points less than 2009/10...anyway you get the idea. I think the reason for this is this 3 at the back system that Wigan are playing with this season. A 3 at the back system always seems to need pace, which is why you wonder how Gary Caldwell gets in the middle of the 3 every week - he is one of the slowest players I've ever seen and I've never been convinced he's actually that good. Ivan Ramis has also had a pretty inauspicious start to life in the Premier League and hasn't really shown any signs that he has got the quality to succeed in the top flight. Wigan looked really susceptible to attacks down the wing against Everton and Steven Pienaar in particular ravaged their defence. Wigan aren't the first and won't be the last team to face problems up against Pienaar this season but the lack of defensive width due to their 3 system didn't help at all. Roberto Martinez appears to have gone for the mantra 'attack is the best form of defence' and it seems their setup is geared to gain results up front and hope they score more than they concede which could lead to a really interesting season for Wigan.

Bolton were the latest side to dispense of their manager, showing club legend Owen Coyle the door on Tuesday afternoon. This came as something of a surprise, because the club can't surely have been expected to win promotion at the first attempt given the sheer number of departures and lack of arrivals at the club this summer following relegation. Phil Gartside has always been one for prudence and this Summer was no different, so what exactly his expectations were of Coyle this season (he apparently set a points target)? I am not sure. It seems like the writing was on the wall since January last year. Coyle didn't seem able to inspire his players and you can only blame injuries for so long. Coyle will no doubt find himself a job again soon though; Scottish managers are a highly sought after breed right now in the English game it seems. So much so that even Steve Kean might find himself in a job again sooner rather than later!

Last season they lined up against each other in training matches at QPR, but this season DJ Campbell locked horns with Matt Connolly and Heidar Helguson in a Championship match between lowly Ipswich and table toppers (but annual bottlejobs) Cardiff City. Campbell drew first blood as he somehow managed to escape Connolly and the Cardiff keeper's attentions to guide the ball into the net Maradona style without either them or the officials noticing! The away side were victorious in the end though thanks to C's Doppelgänger Heidar Helguson tapping in from a Scott Loach howler and scoring a trademark header late on. Helgar even had time to produce one of his trademark headers at the other end of the pitch, casually crashing a header against his own bar. There's no way he didn't mean that... Ice cool from the ice man.

Roundup

We'll start with the bad news, and yet again C was on hand to witness QPR lose, this time at The Hawthorns, where comical defending and lack of attacking prowess contributed to a 3-2 defeat to the Baggies. Match report available here.

Sunday saw Manchester United record an excellent win away St James' Park (we can call it that now again thanks to wonga.com). Newcastle produced some QPR-esque marking from corners to allow Evans and Evra two quick-fire goals which effectively ended the game as a contest. Wayne Rooney relished his new role at the tip of the midfield diamond and it really seems like the pressure is off him. Last year he was the one carrying the team but now he has Robin Van Persie to share the burden and this seems to have given him a creative impetus he has lacked for a few years. Tom Cleverley in midfield also adds some dynamism that is lacking with Carrick, Scholes or Giggs.

Crewe managed back to back 2-1 wins in League and Cup with victories over Hartlepool (H) and Shrewsbury (A) on Saturday and Tuesday respectively. Mathias Pogba has a claim for the award for Worst Penalty of 2012 against Hartlepool. Even worse he took the ball from the normal penalty taker before missing it. Even worse, he took the ball from the boss' son Harry Davis who scored 4 penalties at the back end of last season!

And finally, as you learned on Friday, Union Berlin took a battling away point back from St Pauli. All in all, not a bad weekend for our sides then. Sort it out Hughes!

Things we learnt this week:

• If you want a man to take a penalty for you, you could do worse than Leighton Baines - that's 9 career penalties scored from 9 attempts.
• My word Santi Cazorla is good.
• We told you that in AFC Wimbledon's manager job specification it was compulsory to have played for the original Wimbledon, but what we didn't tell you was that Neal Ardley was the successful candidate (not Lawrie Sanchez, who will have to make do with Sky punditry as a source of pocket money)
• Clearly either the recent form of Palace, the sheer number of goals flying in at Selhurst Park or lure of cheaper seats has brought some long lost Eagles fans back. The ground looked packed out for the first time I can recall in years for their 4-3 win over Burnley. That's now 22 goals scored in SE25 in just five league games so far this season.

C&J

The Weekend That Never Stops Giving

Another eventful weekend in English football with plenty to chew over.

Man United v Liverpool was a highly controversial game, and predictably supporters from Liverpool will argue all the big decisions went against them wrongly, while United fans will claim they were correct. I can't really be bothered going into why I think Shelvey's red card was correct, or why I think it was a penalty on Valencia. What I will say is that all fans have watched 16 replays from 14 different angles and come to their obviously correct conclusions. Sky zoomed in on Luis Suarez's foot to determine he reached the ball a microsecond before Jonny Evans and as a result it was a penalty. Mark Halsey saw these decisions in real time with no slow mo's and no extra angles for his benefit. It is easy to judge with the benefit of hindsight but spare a thought for what a tough job it is to make a decision on a split second's judgement knowing millions of people are watching and won't all agree with it. In the game, Liverpool bossed the field, and had 63% possession in the first half, but yet again they didn't have a clinical striker to take advantage of all this possession. Obviously Shelvey's sending off influenced the game hugely and by the end United had 48% of the ball throughout the game. I do think though that another major factor in their success in the second half was the substitution of Scholes on for Nani. I thought Nani had quite possibly his worst game in a United shirt yesterday. He had a passing accuracy of just 65% - to put that into perspective only Pepe Reina had a worse passing percentage yesterday of every single player on the pitch. He gave United no directness and was a liability unfortunately. As soon as Scholes came on and Giggs went to the left, they had more shape, space and width to pass the ball about. Obviously the extra man helped with this as well though. I think that the difference between the two sides was mainly up front: Liverpool had 6 shots on target and scored just 1 - a conversion rate of just 16%, whereas United had 3 shots on target and scored 2 - a 66% conversion rate. Liverpool have had a tough start and shouldn't lose patience in Brendan Rodgers, but from a United perspective the fact that they are picking up wins whilst not playing well (something City haven't mastered this season yet) is encouraging. Eventually they need to click or it will come back to bite them, but I think that if you give RVP and Kagawa a bit more time to develop chemistry the signs are there that it could be a good partnership.

Well Man City v Arsenal was a confirmation that we might have title challengers from outside of Manchester this season, if you didn't already know. Arsenal showed resilience to come from behind to earn a point at the Etihad which they maybe wouldn't have had last year. By the end of the game you'd probably have to say that Arsenal deserved to win the game really, but ultimately the result is the only thing that matters. I think City are finding it a little bit more difficult this season as teams are upping their game for the 'Champions' (I feel a little bit sick still saying that). City have already dropped 6 points this season after just 5 games - that is nearly a quarter of the points they dropped all season last year. It's hard what to say the most impressive aspect of Arsenal's game has been this season - their excellent defensive displays, or the imperious Santi Cazorla (I'm not sure, but having listened to Jamie Redknapp I think he might be quite 'little'). Arsenal had 59% of possession in this game, and if they can get a clinical striker (sorry but Podolski hasn't proved he is yet) firing then they really could be in with a very strong shout for the title.

If you haven't watched Everton's second goal from their match against Swansea yet, watch it. Watch it now. Phil Neville picked up the ball right by their corner flag to end a Swansea move. Within 3 short, sharp, incisive passes Steven Pienaar had been released down the right and he played a magnificent first time cross perfectly into the path of the onrushing Kevin Mirallas to score at the second time of asking after his first effort had been tipped onto the crossbar. This goal shows the other side of Everton that people don't give them enough credit for usually. Against United they were set to be bullying and physical (in a good way) but this game shows they are a terrific footballing side when the time calls for it. Everton actually had a higher passing accuracy than Swansea, who are lauded for their tiki taka football, throughout the game (85% to 81%) and Everton had more possession of the ball - which not many teams will achieve at the Liberty Stadium this year I imagine. A lot is made of Everton being notoriously slow starters, but this is their best start after 5 league games since 2007/08 when they also had 10 points. Last year at this stage they had 7 points, in 2008/09 they also had 7 points, in 2009/10 they had 6 points and in 2010/11 they had just 2 points after 5 games. I think though that Everton's style of play is more impressive than their points total. They have a swagger about them this season we've not really seen before. They have depth up front, they have creativity in midfield and solidity in defence. Basically all signs point to Everton having a very good season and I think that if they carry on playing this well consistently throughout the season they could well challenge for a top 4 place.  

Southampton's season essentially started in earnest on Saturday and what a result it was for them. When they received their fixture list they will have earmarked the Wigan game as a must win I imagine, but Nigel Adkins will probably have realised his team would be highly unlikely to pick up much after their first four games which consisted of both Manchester clubs and Arsenal. They shipped 14 goals and looked very ropey defensively. Unfortunately for Saints Kelvin Davis just doesn't look up to the standard of a Premier League goalkeeper. He was finally dropped this week after conceding 14 goals in 4 games, and they only conceded one with Paulo Gazzaniga in goal and now they've signed Artur Boruc on a free this week as well. Rickie Lambert however looks right at home in the Premier League. In 137 games for Southampton he has scored an incredible 82 goals. He got 30 goals in League One in 2009/10 and 21 the following season in the same league. He made the step up to the Championship and scored 27 goals in 42 games last year, and now he has hit the ground running again with 4 goals in 5 games so far this season, including 2 against Manchester City and United. Following on from the success of Grant Holt and Danny Graham last year who also made their way up through the Football League, Lambert is showing that a clinical finisher can perform at any level if he has confidence. Southampton certainly look as if they will approach games with the Kevin Keegan mentality of defending by attacking. Whilst the Saints defence is undoubtedly very leaky - statistically the worst in the league at the moment - they have scored the 5th highest total so far with 9 as well (just 1 behind Man City). Last year in the Championship Saints scored 85 goals all season. This indicates their strength most definitely lies in going forward and attacking teams. It promises to be an exciting season for Southampton and you get the feeling that they may well be one of the most interesting teams to watch this season, especially in terms of goals! They certainly look much more well-equipped for the Premier League than Reading and Gaston Ramirez's performance looked like a very good sign. Nigel Adkins has done an excellent job at Saints to get them from League One to the Premier League and surely that should buy him some time out of the 'back page sack race', especially since they had such a challenging start to the fixture list. 

Unfortunately the other big talking point this week is John Terry. As much as we don't want to give him any more publicity, he has now announced his retirement from international football, something we couldn't just let slip. J mentioned in our preview of the England game against Moldova that he thought this had been coming for a while now. England have got a lot of very good options at centre back with the likes of Gary Cahill, Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka already in contention. Maybe it's time for someone like Ryan Shawcross or maybe Steven Caulker to be given the chance to come into the squad and gain experience, which is the only way they will be able to develop as international class central defenders. John Terry stated that the FA had made his position in the England team "untenable" by putting together an investigation about his alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand last October when he had been acquitted in a criminal court of any wrongdoing. In the past if an England player was accused of a criminal charge was not eligible to be picked for the international team; John Terry was. When relations between England's usual centre back pairing became untenable due to Rio Ferdinand's unhappiness at Terry's behaviour towards his brother, Rio Ferdinand was dropped entirely and not picked; John Terry was. John Terry is said to have slept with his international and club colleague's ex-girlfriend (I thought that was a fact but apparently it isn't) and yet Wayne Bridge was the one who was forced to declare himself ineligible for selection whilst Terry was still in the team. In short, it's pretty difficult to see how the FA have made his position "untenable". As a matter of fact it appears to the outsider that they have bent over backwards to accomodate their brave leader at any cost. Therefore, it leads us to the conclusion that John Terry must know this FA investigation, which starts today, will not end favourably for him. In essence he has walked before he was pushed, and it is hard to take any other stance than he deserves what he gets. Though let's not forget, possibly the most important thing to come out of this is that Championship's Wayne Bridge is now surely in line for an England recall?

Roundup of our teams

As mentioned above Man Utd beat Liverpool 2-1 away from home, with a Rafael curler and Robin Van Persie penalty (finally we scored a penalty!) cancelling out Steven Gerrard's opener in a tense game at Anfield.

If you haven't read C's excellent review of the QPR - Tottenham game from yesterday yet why not? QPR were extremely unlucky to come away with anything from the game, let alone missing out on 3 points. Bobby Zamora's opener put QPR ahead but a Faurlin own goal and Defoe goal in one mad minute put paid to the R's hopes of a first away win in 16 games.

Crewe drew 1-1 with Leyton Orient to frustratingly record their 4th draw in a row in the League and sit in 15th position. Matt Tootle put the Alex ahead after 2 minutes but L'Orient equalised in the 19th minute through former QPR man Martin Rowlands. The Alex are really missing the presence and finishing ability of Mathias Pogba up front, and while the talented duo of AJ Leitch-Smith and Max Clayton are more than capable at this level there is a dearth in back up behind them, and thankfully for the Railwaymen Mat Pogba has returned to training this week to hopefully rectify this situation.

As reported in Friday's weekend preview, Union Berlin claimed their first league win of the season against the team who were placed immediately above them before the weekend, FC Cologne, who look to have carried their form from last year's relegation from the Bundesliga into this year. Union won 2-1 in a game that we are hoping will kickstart their season proper! Silvio and Torsten Mattuschka won the game for Union and moved them out of the relegation places into a lofty 14th position in the league.

What we learned this week:-

- Your Mrs ranting on Twitter still won't get you into the Reading team right now, Mr Federici. And on yesterday's evidence, you'll be warming the bench for a while; an excellent display from Alex McCarthy away at West Brom showed that he more than merits his place in the starting 11.
- Carl Jenkinson has been immense so far this season.
- Would you like to learn how to put a young child in his place with just a little laugh and smile?

- What a terrible shame that Nathan Dyer should come on for Swansea only to be booked twice in thirteen second half minutes (the two bookings incidentally just a minute apart). Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
- Surely this is the most ridiculous time to sack Steve Kean? Out of all the moments they could have done it now makes absolutely no sense with Rovers 2nd in the Championship. Another example of Venky's complete lack of understanding about how to run a football club. Seems similar to when Gareth Southgate was sacked by Middlesbrough after guiding them to relegation he then saw them to 4th place and 1 point off top when he was then sacked - and look what's happened at Middlesbrough since.

- There were a fair few football league hat-tricks around this weekend but one that stood out was that of Dean Bowditch. Bowditch is a player I've always thought has flattered to deceive after bursting on to the scene at Ipswich, but he helped himself to his 2nd career hat-trick for MK Dons away courtesy of Bury's generous defence. I'm reliably informed that this was his first treble in 8 years (the day of his senior debut).

- There are no dead certs in football, just ask everyone that had Birmingham v Barnsley down as a home banker! A terrific away romp for the Tykes with Craig Davies on fire. He also gave an excellent post-match interview about how Birmingham is significant in his life because it's where his Nan lives, so it's ultra special to have scored four goals there rather than anywhere else. (I wish I could link you to it but can't find it at the moment.)

- Tranmere and Gillingham march on at the top of League One and Two, both picking up away wins respective in games at Crawley and Port Vale, arguably the toughest test each side has faced so far this season. 

- A special mention for Leon Clarke, who has found himself in another one of his spurts of form after joining Scunthorpe, where everything he touches is currently turning to gold (4 goals in 4 games). He never did find one of those said spurts at Wolves, or QPR, or Preston, or Swindon, or Charlton. Clarke is a truly odd confidence player who never ceases to amaze me with how many clubs he's been at, how high up the Football League ladder he has played and how little he offers to a team when he's not scoring. I wonder how long this run of goals will last before Scunny fans see the worst of him.

- The wait for another home win for Morecambe fans still goes on, this time they blew a 2-0 lead over Plymouth and went on to lose 3-2. Unbelievable!
- How has Sylvain Ebanks-Blake's 'straight down the middle' penalty routine not been sussed out by goalkeepers yet?! He's been doing it for ages now!

It's the turn of the CoC (Capital One Cup - obviously) this week and two ties that look particularly tricky for  Premier League sides are Tottenham away at Carlisle on Wednesday and Everton travelling to Leeds on Tuesday. We don't promise excitement - it is the CoC - but it could be intriguing. C is heading to Loftus Road to brave the rain on Wednesday night for the R's tie against Reading, so expect another match review from that.

Enjoy the week

C&J

*Also a little quick note to cheer up our friend JJ who hasn't been too good this week. Get well soon mate!

Week Three Preview, Just For You

Come Saturday the transfer window dust should have settled and we’ll be left with the always calm matchdays. At the time of writing this post it is Thursday evening and not all transfers will have gone through so just to put a disclaimer in and so you don’t question our sanity if we haven’t covered some big transfers you might have expected in this preview the reason is we’re coming to you from the past! In fact, we’re going to break with all expectation and won’t really be mentioning transfers that much since we’re going to cover all the major stories coming from this past ‘Deadline Day Week’ (patent pending so keep your mits off our phrase Jim White).

This weekend will obviously be interesting to see the debuts of a number of players and also the effect that big name signings have on a team. Will Tottenham players be affected by the loss of Luka Modric and the subsequent arrival of Moussa Dembele? Will West Ham’s strikers be motivated to keep their place ahead of the apparently imminent signing of Andy Carroll on loan or will it peeve some players off? These are all really interesting sideshows to the games and regardless of whether some of the bigger signings are playing I’m sure teams like Fulham and Sunderland might find their fans have been inspired by their marquee signings of Dimitar Berbatov and Adam Johnson respectively. Both of whom are really good signings for these teams I’d venture to add. But we will see anyway won’t we...

So – now to preview some of the weekend’s action:

WBA v Everton - Saturday afternoon sees two of the season’s surprise packages so far meeting at the Hawthorns. Before you cry out Everton fans I mean it’s a surprise you’ve started so well (I don’t know if you knew this but you haven’t really started the season well in most of David Moyes’ reign) not that your squad is excellent – we already knew that. West Brom have also started a lot better than anyone could have predicted other than Frank Skinner and Adrian Chiles. Last weekend’s last gasp draw at White Hart Lane was a terrific result for the Baggies and Romelu Lukaku looks like a really good loan signing. He has come on as an impact sub for both his games so far granted, but he really does look a handful. He has got Drogba-like presence up front and is a man mountain but he has a really good turn of pace. I was surprised Chelsea didn’t keep him actually to provide an alternative to Torres but their loss is West Brom’s gain. Everton played excellent football against Aston Villa and up front they look really dangerous. It’s hard to see past the Toffees for this one, but I have a strange feeling the Baggies might nick a draw again, keeping both sides undefeated.

Prediction: WBA 1-1 Everton

Man City v QPR – Saturday evening sees the return of the game which probably everyone outside of the red half of Manchester (including me) saw as one of the best of all time from May last year (anytime I hear “AGUEROOOOO” I still feel queasy). Citeh’s defence has actually looked unstable this season, in stark contrast to last year. I am a bit sceptical about Mancini’s lineup on Sunday at Anfield though and to be honest I think the inclusion of Kolo the Klown over Joleon Lescott had to be a gesture to Brian Marwood to show him just how thin City’s defence is and their need for another CB to fill the gap if either Kompany or Lescott get injured. It seems Mancini’s got his wish this week with Matija Nastasic close to signing from Fiorentina with the added bonus of Stefan Savic going in the opposite direction to boot! They’ve also added Scott Sinclair to effectively replace Adam Johnson on the bench as well so his pockets will be happy at least even if there doesn’t appear to be any other reason for that move. QPR have been incredibly active in the transfer window this summer and this week is no different, with Julio Cesar arriving from Internazionale so far. This is a really astounding move considering Cesar was a Champions League winner just over 2 years ago whilst Rangers were in the Championship. Granted Cesar’s form has dipped since then but he is a very good goalkeeper and was Inter’s number one just last season. Goodness knows what was going through Rob Green’s head when Cesar was signed though and it’s difficult to imagine Green will be the first choice for much longer at all. Unfortunately for C though I think Rangers squad still needs to gel and I can only see a routine win for Citeh here even though it pains me.

Prediction: Citeh 3-1 QPR

Liverpool v Arsenal – This looks like being the stand out game of the weekend and it is a meeting between two sides who could really do with a morale boosting victory to really get their season going. Last week’s draw against the champions was much needed for Liverpool and they looked like a side beginning to get to grips with Brendan Rodgers’ style and the result will help their belief and inspire them to integrate more fully into the system. Raheem Sterling looked really bright against Citeh and his emergence should see him ahead of Stewart Downing in the pecking order for a long time to come in theory. The arrival of Nuri Sahin is actually quite interesting since Joe Allen produced a man of the match performance and Jonjo Shelvey performed really well for a man thrown into the deep end and having to come on for the injured (and unlucky) Lucas after 5 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Rodgers plumps for Sahin ahead of Shelvey (I can’t believe he’d drop Allen after last week) or sticks with the same midfield that kept Citeh to such a bare minimum of chances really. Likewise it’ll be interesting to see how Arsenal do this week. 0 goals scored and 0 goals conceded is hardly the start Arsene will have dreamed of, but the fact is they haven’t conceded and they have played against 2 teams who have effectively parked the bus against them. In this game it really doesn’t seem like Liverpool will do that and that could be to Arsenal’s advantage. Is this the game that Giroud or Podolski or Cazorla finally click? I think it could be and I’m sticking my neck out to say I can see another score draw here.

Prediction: Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal

Elsewhere this weekend, Man Utd take on Southampton at what should actually be a packed St Mary’s this time (as opposed to my very wrong prediction about this last week). Crewe take on a Coventry team in disarray after manager Andy Thorn was sacked this week, and they will be hoping that there is a delayed reaction to this.

Finally, it’s a massive game for Union Berlin on Monday night as they host their city rivals Hertha BSC in what will be an electric atmosphere at the Alten Forsterei!

Enjoy the weekend and deadline day everyone!

C&J