Kieran Davies looks back on seven days of kudos-basking, clowning around, and the formation of the Three Amigos.
A lot of people have their own thoughts on Jose Mourinho the manager and Jose Mourinho the personality. Either way he deserves the kudos he is basking in at the moment on the back of Man City’s first dropped points at home this season. Talks of quadruples seem as crazy conversation as alien abduction, one thing has definitely come out of this……..City are beatable. Yes they have scored a daunting amount of goals this season but a lot of these were in cup competitions (nearly 10% of them were all against West Ham in one two legged tie) and in the league they have in fact only scored ten more goals than Liverpool.
The self proclaimed ‘Special One’ went to the Etihad Stadium with his Chelsea side, played down their chances, talked up their opponents and did a real number of Manual Pelegrini’s team. Tactically Chelsea were sublime and nullified most of City’s threats and even went to the extreme of making Yaya Toure look like Kolo Toure 24 hours earlier.
Not many teams have even been competitive at this ground (although Liverpool have right to feel hard done by) so nobody expected Chelsea to take the game to City so much, but they did. The woodwork was rattled that much, Joe Hart could’ve lathered himself up in Head and Shoulders from the water he was doused in each time so no-one can say the West London outfit didn’t deserve it.
This was not a good weekend for the Toure family or anyone unfortunate enough to support a team with either in their first team as Kolo displayed his talents in his alter ego of ‘Kolo the Clown’ who also does magic tricks too as he made three points turn into one in front of the eyes of Liverpool fans across the globe. Liverpool weren’t on their best game on Sunday but will have felt they did enough to take the spoils until ‘Kolo the Clown’ donned his red nose and overly large football boots and presented Victor Anichebe with his token goal for the season. To answer your question right now, yes Kolo is available for kid’s parties but draws the line at being ‘The Human Piñata’ as has been commonly requested since the game at The Hawthorns.
Everton fans will have enjoyed their weekend after Anichebe’s goal and oh yeh they won too so that’s a bonus!! Coming from behind to beat Aston Villa they closed the gap on their Merseyside rivals. In a Tyne-Wear derby Gus Poyet proved that he could replicate what Paulo did at St James Park or The Sports Direct Arena or Mickey Mouse Playhouse, whatever Mike Ashley is calling it now with a convincing 3-0 win. Poyet has transformed Sunderland’s fortunes and they really look like a team who won’t be involved in any relegation dogfights this season.
So Manchester United fielded their ‘three amigos’ in the Premier League for the first time this season when Van Persie, Rooney and Mata all lined up against Stoke. Their fans drooling with anticipation after their drought like season thus far, hoping to see the glimmer of how they are going to turn things around and rub it in the faces of their friends who’ve mocked them time and time again this season. Alas Stoke didn’t read the script and found Moyes’ men all too beatable again. It’s time for fans of the Old Trafford outfit to realise that although Moyes is being made to be the fall guy in this situation not even Harry Potter could turn that squad into a world class team. You’ve been spoilt for the last couple of decades and reality is that managers like Ferguson don’t come around so often, after all Man Utd’s greats are Busby and Ferguson, Liverpool Shankly and Paisley, a handful of managers in very long histories of both clubs.
Elsewhere it was a mixed weekend for Welsh football with Ole’s Cardiff City getting a vital three points against relegation rivals Norwich City. I went to watch this game and if I’m honest as a neutral, in the first half Cardiff looked like a team that would struggle to get out of League One but whatever Solskjaer said at half time seemed to do the trick as they turned the game on its head in 6 second half minutes. Granted the final 15 minutes Cardiff looked a team bereft of confidence in their ability to see the game out for the three points but hopefully this win will act as a springboard for them now. Kenwyne Jones was impressive at both ends of the pitch and probably did as much for his new side in an attacking sense as he did in a defensive capacity and they looked far more solid at set pieces.
As for their arch enemies Swansea City as if a defeat at West Ham wasn’t bad enough, their chairman saw 72 hours before a South Wales derby the most opportune time to sack their manager. This may prove costly as they go into a derby on the weekend with a manager with absolutely no experience, coaching badges or mental capacity to be thought of as a tactician into their most important game of the season. From the outside looking in it seems a harsh knee jerk reaction from Swansea but we never are privy to all the information on the goings on in any football club. After all Cardiff fans ostracised Tan for getting rid of Malky, now as information seeps out that Cornelius cost Cardiff close to £20m in total, fans are starting to see that in Tan’s position they would have acted the same.
Arsenal now sit top of the pile after a routine win against Crystal Palace but they will now be more focussed on their trip to Anfield on the weekend. Now Carlsberg don’t do ironic outcomes to football games but if they did Liverpool will win this with Suarez being the difference and the Anfield faithful will be constantly rubbing their failed transfer bid for the player in Arsene’s face all afternoon. Across North London, Spurs struggled to come away with all three points from the KC Stadium where they faced much improved Hull City. Shane Long marked his debut with a goal and Jelavic was unlucky not to do the same. This is going to be a tough season to be a Spurs fan as this has turned into a season of transition after the sacking of their manager. Just try and mimic most A&E departments across this land of ours and have a lot of patience!
Southampton had a solid win away at Fulham as the odds on René Meulensteen being the next Premier League manager to be sacked dropping as low as they would be on the sun coming up tomorrow. I think in these situations the players have to stand up and be counted more. They have looked a poor team this season with their tough fixture list they face in their next four or five games they could find themselves adrift of the pack after this period.
This weekend throws up some good match ups with Liverpool playing Arsenal, Spurs playing Everton and Swansea playing Cardiff also. The table is so close now just right set of results can see a real swing on where your team sit come Sunday evening but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Long live the open Barclays Premier League that is anyone’s for the taking.