Rangers Cesar point from the champions

Match Review: QPR 0-0 Manchester City

It is staggering to think that QPR fans have only seen eight home league goals this season, but given the circumstances and the season so far I think solid defensive shut-outs and points against the big boys are more welcome than entertainment value right now. As we discovered on transfer deadline day this week, value for money is something QPR don't deliver in any department anyway!

Coming in to this fixture QPR were on a reasonable run of league form , 1 win and 2 draws so far in 2013, albeit with only 2 goals scored but a miserly 1 conceded. Manchester City, on the other hand, had won all 3 fixtures since the turn of the year, scoring 7 to nil against. The R's team was much changed from the McCup humiliation and bizarrely included 2 keepers on the bench, a nice subtle 'I'm down to the bare bones' message from Harry ahead of his second favourite date of the calendar year (the other being 31st August).

In swirling misty rain the game started pretty evenly with most of QPR's play going through Taarabt while City had more possession and attacked in particular down the left hand side. Mbia had his customary early injury scare and lie down before the Champions really began to ask the questions. A succession of inswinging corners were dealt with, some less comfortably than others. It took 16 minutes until Man City played their way through with Aguero getting round the side of Nelsen and attacking the box with a low cross put behind by Hill. Corners continued to rain in from Milner and Silva with Cesar punching or more precisely flapping when under pressure. At the end of this sequence Milner broke in from the left, Silva attracted all 4 of QPRs markers and then when Zabaleta was picked out instead he had acres of space but only hit the bar with his header. Makeshift City centre half Javi Garcia then hit a screamer from fully 35 yards which faded just off target. Later in the half Taarabt barrelled his way through in a counter attacking move and forced Hart to rush out to save. This was a rare moment as by now the R's game plan of soaking up pressure and hoping for Taarabt to slip something through to Remy on the break was obvious. The slick interplay, attacking flair and incredible ball retention of the City players, particularly that of David Silva, showed the gulf in class between the two sides. It was a City onslaught and a goal looked certain.

Mbia, freshly booked for clipping Clichy, lost his footing and Tevez attacked. He found Aguero who hit his shot firm and true but it was turned round by a wonder save from Cesar.  Part 1 was completed at 0-0. Given this was against the Champions, against the wind and effectively with 10 men (as Granero seemed, at times, to be conspiring with his fellow Spaniards Garcia and Silva who had basically run the game), this was no mean feat.

The second half was more of the same but with three slight twists; QPR began to play with a bit more attacking intent and made some chances, referee Dowd started going all 'Big Team' bias and City began to look frustrated. Granero got booked and Remy opened his body to attempt a curler that went too high and wide, but it was still mostly City in the ascendancy. Dzeko was introduced for Nasri but Cesar continued to repel all efforts. Mbia had his second lie down of the evening and when fouled again on 77 minutes Rangers had a slightly off-centre free kick 25 yards out - ideal Taarabt territory. Unfortunately, and not for the first time this season, Granero exerted his seniority and blasted high and wide, prompting angry waving and boos from the terraces. Shortly after Hart had been teased by the crowd for his shampoo endorsements came the first of two controversial penalty claims, one for each side. On 73 minutes Remy was brought down in the box as he cut in from the right but Dowd ignored the appeals (a look at the replay revealed that Remy certainly made the most of it, which perhaps was what made the referee's mind up). On 87 minutes Onuoha looked to foul City bench warmer Scott Sinclair at the far end, but again, with a strong suspicion of evening things out, it wasn't given. In between Cesar had produced another pergunto salvar (that's Brazilian for wonder save) from Silva. Three subs from Harry (Park, Faurlin and Zamora) saw out the 4 minutes of added time. A clean sheet was the least Nelsen deserved on his last appearance and it was down to the stunning efforts of Cesar that this was achieved.

In my calculation of 36, 37, 38 or however many points for safety, I had nothing down for this one, so it represents a good point. Norwich on Saturday, however, will see a whole different level of expectation. Especially with the teams around us continuing to match or better our positive results!

Man of the match: As suggested by the title, it has to be the one Mark Hughes signing who has really lived up to his reputation (well at least in recent weeks). Julio Cesar has frustrated some of the world's best footballers in the last few weeks, conceding just once in the league since the turn of the year. Here he turned in another heroic display, with stunning saves from Barry in the first half and Silva in the second here. 

When are Wigan-na win again?

Match Review: Wigan Athletic 2-2 QPR

Three points out of three games including two aways for Harry is not a bad start, and statistically he is undefeated. But the calibre of opposition, such as today's, is a truer reflection of the job in hand. These three games were all against teams around us, and all games where the opposition were there for the taking.

And now for something completely different: I'll start this post by painting you a nice picture of Wigan in 2012. Apart from the modern and imposing 'landmark' that is the DW Stadium, the place is one that time has forgotten. There are entire shopping malls vacated of shops and devoid of people. Primark, Card Factory and the Pound Shop are the only hives of activity on the High Street and the shutters are pulled firmly down on many. The walk to the stadium takes you through a derelict industrial estate which is now host to a hotch-potch of "I'll mind your car for a fiver mate" match day parking arrangements. Then you pass over a ditch, a path made of dog crap and after you cross the heavily polluted dumping ground that is the canal, the stadium finally comes into view. A thoroughly depressing place, especially when the weather each time I have been has been grey, murky, drizzly and just generally miserable. This is a shit hole, I want to go home...

The DW Stadium, set amongst the delightful surroundings of Wigan's abandoned industrial wastelands and canals. Spot the shopping trolleys in the canal!

Literacy levels are among the highest in Wigan

Fortunately for the residents, the town has a nice, modern stadium home to a Premier League team right on its doorstep. Benefactor Dave Whelan is a Wigan man born and bred and dearly wanted to give something back to the local community. And they are very lucky he is there indeed to subsidise all this. You can get a half season ticket here for under £180 which will even guarantee your ticket to Manchester United at home, their only guaranteed sell-out fixture at this 25,000 seater ground. 

The visit of bottom of the league QPR can't particularly have whetted the appetite of many, but over 17,000 were here to witness the match on a cold dull winter's day. Not bad for a side in the lower realms of the football league not all that long ago.

Anyway, I've bored you enough of Wigan as a town, let's talk football. Rangers began the game brightly even if a little unconfident and the depleted Wigan side, without first choices such as Alcaraz, Ramis, Maloney, Caldwell and Figueroa (four of those five usually contenders for a place in defence), looked shaky, confused and every bit as depleted as that list suggests. They were there for the taking on their home patch. What isn't, however, factored in to that, is that QPR's first choice defence look equally shaky and confused in spite of having played together for most of the season! 

After testing Al-Habsi a couple of times early on, the first warning delivered by the hosts was a David Jones free-kick special (you'll remember the one that came off once when he was playing for Wolves where he flicked it up in the air and volleyed it towards goal - well, he still thinks people don't know about that one!). This all came about from Jose Bosingwa (my favourite, as you know) conceding a needless free kick in a dangerous position when up until this point his side had been in control of possession, dictating the game and growing in confidence. Green saved the free kick and it was partially cleared, and then, to everyone's amazement in red, a corner was given. The Rangers defence were agitated by this award by Mr Dowd and so fuming that they forgot to concentrate when the corner came in. Yes, you know what's coming next: the corner was only partially cleared and nobody was quick enough to spot James McCarthy waiting on the edge of the penalty area for any loose ball that might come his way. He had time to take aim through a crowd of players who seemed to just step aside as his daisy cutter rifled straight through them all into the bottom corner for 1-0. Utterly ridiculous, and the nerves of the home side and crowd completely disappeared. Another soft, soft goal to concede and yet again as a result of poor marking from a set piece.

One of my biggest gripes with QPR in recent games is their failure to exploit the left hand side, the side from which so many goals resulted towards the end of last season. We seem to live under the false belief that Jose Bosingwa and Shaun Wright-Phillips offer our best attacking threat, but in fact Armand Traore is one of the best crossers of the ball we have had at the club in a long time. He might not be able to defend, but he provides an excellent overlap for a winger - shame we don't have one on that side! How ironic then that moments after moaning to my father next to me about not using the left hand side enough, the ball should break to the left, Traore gallops forward and forces a QPR corner for the first time in the game. Taarabt took said corner and yet again he failed to beat the first man. Fortunately for him this time though, there was some movement in the box, and as the ball drifted over and all QPR fans fully expected to see Adrian Lopez clear this one with ease, Ryan Nelsen popped up and escaped the attention of Lopez to firmly win the ball with a face full of determination. The ball was powered past Al-Habsi and it was 1-1. Why don't we do any of that more often? Maybe we won't come up against someone quite as inept as Lopez every week, but plenty of the other sides I've seen us play have defenders who can be ran ragged like this at set pieces. Just a little bit of movement and determination to win the goal, and look. Bang. Goal. 

But instead of grabbing the game by its throat as they should have at this point, QPR didn't put their foot on the gas. Instead their passing was lethargic and they looked tired, unfit and as though they really didn't want to be out in the cold. Not many of the Wigan players did either and, bar causing one moment of panic in the Rangers defensive area, this made for a dull affair. The game only really livened up whenever Di Santo was around (he ran around like a headless chicken in search of the ball, fouled a lot and fell over a lot to con free kicks out of the regularly woeful Phil Dowd) or when the ball was played out to Beausejour on the wing, who the Latics fans enjoyed seeing ease past double Champions League winning League Two standard defender Jose Bosingwa. Dowd continued to annoy for much of the half, blowing for soft free kicks and not awarding cards for some cynical fouls committed by each side until Taarabt eventually went in the book for chopping down a Wigan man on the wing. I've never seen Dowd referee a game without being whistle happy or making a contentious decision. The referee was rightly booed off by the travelling fans at half time.

Grey, murky, wet and miserable

In the second half Wigan came out galvanised and had a phase of play early on where they created chance after chance against the weak R's back line. Green stood up well to each test he was presented with, saving well from James McCarthy with his legs when the Latics man was one on one with him after Shaun Derry inadventently played a perfect through ball to him. They went on to force a series of further stops from Green and hit the bar with one Jordi Gomez attempt. The defending was absolutely shambolic, and Jose Bosingwa, the main guilty party in letting all this happen, had the cheek to shrug his shoulders and wave his warms around as if it was everybody else's fault. I thought we signed a Portuguese international right back who is a double European champion and winner of the Premier League! Please can we have Nedum Onuoha back Harry or play Fabio on the right hand side? Did I really just say that?

So having finally won the ball back after a mistake at the back by Wigan and just a tad of ambition was shown by Shaun Wright Phillips to close down a Wigan defender, suddenly it was 2 v 2. Wright Phillips, not being able to cross of course, elected to side foot the ball into substitute Djibril Cisse's path and he steered it first time into the bottom corner beyond Al-Habsi who was off his line. The first away win in over a year was on!! I dared to dream that having wethered the Wigan early second half storm we would have confidence flooding through the team and go on to score another against the fragile stand-in Wigan defence. This was the season turning point. But with QPR, dreams are often shattered moments after you've dared to start believing, and sure enough three minutes later it was "Desmond". The ball came down Wigan's left and Bosingwa was turned once again by Beausejour, and once again the QPR players all stood off James McCarthy and by the time he had the ball and five defenders in front of him obscuring Green's vision, it was too late, and two two. This absolutely destroyed the players that care about the predicament we are in.  Green went ballistic and Clint Hill and Shaun Derry were smacking the ground in despair. Nobody could believe this had happened. 

Following the equaliser, Wigan's reserves sensed a winner and began to pile the pressure on the one man defence of QPR (Rob Green). He made some outstanding saves to keep the scores level, whilst his QPR team mates didn't go on to create a single further chance in spite of this being yet another 'must win' game. Harry threw on the out of form and short of interest Esteban Granero who proceeded to play sideways football, not beat the first man with a corner and swivel around when in possession as he always does. I think that this key substitution, three minutes after conceding the equaliser, was the one Harry got wrong. I'd have brought on Ale Faurlin, who must be reeling at the fact he is on the bench after having done very little wrong this season and played such a vital role for QPR in the last couple of seasons prior to his ACL injury. Even Cisse was poor after the equaliser: he looked disinterested and every time he tried to get involved with the game, he fell on his arse. As predicted in the Villa match report, Mackie was marked out of this game and therefore anonymous. This is not at all what we need up front, especially when we're so vulnerable at the back. Sparky has left us so so short of options and we are so desperate that even Rob Hulse and DJ Campbell wouldn't be a bad shout. What a Hughes mess!!

Man of the Match: Given the wretched start he had to his QPR career and the poor treatment by Hughes, I think Rob Green showed today why despite making many high profile mistakes in his career, he has been in the reckoning for the England jersey. This was an excellent display, but he was overworked and his defence didn't do him any favours.

Match Review: QPR 0-0 Chelsea

Some of the pundits will have you believe this was a bore draw and I've little doubt that it'll have been on towards the end of Match of the Day, but it was far from dull...

As you'd expect, all of the pre-match attention surrounded the 'will they or won't they' handshake saga. Well, they didn't. And that's all the coverage I'm going to give to that.

The match started at a high tempo with tackles flying and referee Marriner was letting an awful lot go. Ramires was booked early on and another referee might have dismissed him within the opening 20 minutes; for a while it looked as though he and a few others would yet again be unable to keep their heads in front of the highly charged home crowd. How Ji-Sung Park managed to stay out of the referee's notebook I will never know! In fact, Ryan Bertrand was somehow the only other name taken in a full-blooded first half that saw QPR lose Andy Johnson and Fabio to injury and Chelsea denied two penalties, the first a rugby tackle on John Terry by Ryan Nelsen which wasn't given because nobody likes John Terry, whilst the second was a coming together between Shaun Wright-Phillips and Eden Hazard which was less clear cut but SWP can consider himself lucky as he certainly didn't get any of the ball. 

It was a real shame for QPR to lose Johnson and Fabio as both had started the match extremely well and contributed some fine touches to some neat attacking football from the home side who looked to start this game just as they finished the one at Citeh. However it was Chelsea who created the best opportunities of the half and forced debutant Julio Cesar into a couple of smart saves. On the subject of Cesar, the QPR defence looked so much more assured in front of him than they have done in front of Green in the first few weeks, he seems to bring a presence in the area that all good goalkeepers bring and I felt so much more relaxed when the ball came into the QPR half than against Swansea, Norwich or Citeh.

Another point of note in the first half was the performance of Esteban Granero, who, just as he did at Citeh, seemed to struggle with getting the Premier League ball out of his feet and his flighted passes struggled to pass men immediately in front of him. He was better in the second half but it still seems like he is used to kicking a different ball. I remember seeing Taye Taiwo having similar issues in his first couple of QPR games last year when on loan from AC Milan. Maybe it's just me that's picked up on this but it definitely didn't look right.

The second half was somewhat different with QPR upping the tempo and forcing the issue a little more. Chelsea were not allowed as much time on the ball as they were in the first half and Park, Wright-Phillips and Granero were absolutely outstanding in work rate, always chasing lost causes and pressurising Chelsea when they had the ball. In central defence, Torres and Hazard got absolutely no change out of Ryan Nelsen who stifled Chelsea's aerial threat brilliantly. Torres' frustration was growing and he fell to the ground more and more frequently in the second half with the kind of melodrama that will forever be associated with Chelsea strikers. Meanwhile Hazard was kept very quiet but for one golden opportunity in the last few minutes which he blazed over. Cue chants of 'what a waste of money!'. The biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for John Terry pulling up injured in front of the Paddocks which provided the best opportunity to send some abuse to the subhuman scum-bag.

The R's probably had the better of the half and the best chance fell to Bobby Zamora who, after managing to take Petr Cech out of the equation, spent too long dilly dallying before finally finding three Chelsea players back on the line ready to block his tame shot, which the first one did with ease. Before that, Ji-Sung Park had a free header at goal but could only head straight into the arms of Cech, which was hugely disappointing.

All that said, this was very positive for the home side. Alejandro Faurlin looked back to his pre-injury best as he sprayed passes all over the park. Esteban Granero showed he is extremely capable at coping with the physical demands of the Premier League whilst proving he has a fantastic work rate. Ji-Sung Park is showing he isn't past it as many United fans have made out. 

Unsurprisingly, Di Matteo was wearing his Chelsea hat during his post-match interview and chose only to focus on the two said incidents rather than the fact that QPR had provided more than a match for his expensively assembled side. Every player put in a great shift in Hoops for this and this all bodes well for the coming fixtures away at Spurs and home to West Ham where their work rate will be key to getting positive results. Nobody will roll over for you in the Premier League, and QPR were definitely guilty of believing that Swansea would in the first week. I think they've learned their lesson now...

Man of the match: This could have gone to either Ji-Sung Park or Ryan Nelsen, but I'll go with the latter. What a fantastic signing for QPR he appears to be - I wasn't sure at first given his advancing years but he showed in this game he is still top class. He looks the best centre back we've had for a long time, and who knows, we may even have another better one yet to debut in Stephane Mbia. Very encouraging indeed.

C