Archive for December, 2006

Week 15

Published by
simon
at December 22nd 2006 11:42 in Weekly update. 0 Comments

The Games

Charlton 1 Blackburn 0

Goals: El Karkouri
Assists:
YC: Hughes. Neill, Henchoz
RC:
MoM: Reid

Newcastle 3 Reading 2

Goals: Emre, Sibierski, Martins. Harper 2
Assists: Solano
YC: Solano, Murty
RC:
MoM: Butt

Tottenham 2 Middlesbrough 1

Goals: Berbatov, Keane.  Huth
Assists: Chimbonda, Huddlestone.  Pogatetz
YC: Arca, Huth, Pogatetz
RC: Zokora, Boateng
MoM: Berbatov

West Ham 0 Wigan 2

Goals: Cotterill, o.g.
Assists:  Baines
YC: Scharner, Skoko, Cotterill
RC:
MoM: Scharner

Weekend

Chelsea 1 Arsenal 1

Goals: Essien. Flamini
Assists: Hleb
YC:  A Cole, Drogba. Flamini, Lehmann
RC:
MoM: Gilberto

Sheff Utd 1 Aston Villa 1

Goals: S Quinn, Webber. Petrov, Baros
Assists: Morgan, Gillespie.
YC: Bromby, Kozluk, Cahill
RC:
MoM: Taylor

Bolton 4 West Ham 0

Goals: Davies 2, Diouf, Anelka
Assists: Speed 3, Diouf, Campo
YC: Diouf, Campo.  Etheirngton, Reo-Coker
RC:
MoM: Speed

Tottenham 5 Charlton 1

Goals: Berbatov 2, Defoe, Tainio, Malbranque.  o.g.
Assists: Berbatov, Lennon, Tainio. Reid
YC: Dawson, Malbranque. Reid, Hughes, Sam, Diawara
RC:
MoM: Huddlestone

Liverpool 4 Fulham 0

Goals: Carragher, Gerrard, Garcia, Gonzalez
Assists: Agger 2, Gerrard
YC: Pennant, Pearce
RC:
MoM: Kuyt

Man Utd 3 Man City 1

Goals: Trablesi.  Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo
Assists: Heinze, Ronaldo
YC: Reyna, Thatcher
RC: Corradi
MoM: Rooney

Blackburn 1 Newcastle 3

Goals: Pedersen. Martins 2, Taylor
Assists: Sibierski
YC: McCarthy
RC: Henchoz
MoM: Butt

Watford 0 Reading 0

Goals:
Assists:
YC: Oster
RC:
MoM: Sonko

Portsmouth 2 Everton 0

Goals: Kanu, Taylor
Assists: O’Neil
YC: Davis, Johnson. Stubbs, Beattie, Johnson, Van der Meyde
RC:
MoM: Davis

Middlesbrough 1 Wigan 1

Goals: Yakubu. Camara
Assists: Viduka, Morrison
YC: Viduka, Pogatetz.  McCulloch
RC:
MoM: Schwarzer
The Points

GK
6  Kirkalnd, Carson

DEF
11 El Karkouri
9   Baines
7   Scharner

MID  
12 Harper
7   Sibierski, Emre

STR
10 Berbatov
7   Martins

Week 14

Published by
simon
at December 22nd 2006 10:39 in Weekly update. 0 Comments

The Games

Midweek

Watford 0 Sheff Utd  1
 Goals: Webber
Assists: Morgan, Gillespie
YC: Henderson, Mahon,Kozluk
RC: Powell
MoM: Geary  Fulham 2 Arsenal 1

Goals: McBride, Radzinski. Van Persie
Assists: Jensen, Boa Morte.
YC: Helguson, Brown, Boa Morte, Rosenior. Van Persie, Flamini, Rosicky, Toure
RC:
MoM: Boa Morte

Aston Villa 1 Man City 3

Goals: McCann. Barton, Vassell, Distin
Assists: Corradi, Samaras, Trabelsi
YC: Barry
RC:
MoM: Distin

Bolton 0 Chelsea 1Goals: Ballack
Assists: Lampard
YC: Faye, Campo, Nolan. Carvalho
RC:
MoM: Jaaskelainen

Man Utd 3 Everton 0

Goals: Evra, Ronaldo, O’Shea
Assists: Rooney, Evra
YC: Evra. Arteta
RC:
MoM: Rooney

Liverpool 0 Portsmouth 0

Goals:
Assists:
YC: Carragher, Pennant. Hughes, Parmarot, Thompson
RC:
MoM: Campbell

Weekend

Arsenal 3 Tottenham 0
No Henry, but no one seems to know for how long - he has some neck (injury) does Thierry?  Or is it his manager?  Has there been a fall out?  Will it spell the end of Henry’s time at the club or the manager?  No Henry, 3-0 v Spurs thank you very much.  Helped of course by some Poll-like decisions from erm Graham Poll.  Two penalties (one of which was legit) and two goals from Gilberto.  Adebayor got the opener after an offside decision - later shown to be just correct.  Spurs not to happy but they were rubbish!
Goals: Gilberto 2, Adebayor
Assists:Toure, Rosicky, Van Persie
YC: Gilberto. Jenas, Ekotto
RC:
MoM: AdebayorBlackburn 2 Fulham 0
Goals: McCarthy, Nonda

Assists: Neill, Henchoz
YC: Savage, Henchoz.  Diop, Helguson
RC:
MoM: McCarthy

Sheff Utd 2 Charlton 1
Goals: Morgan, Gillespie. Reid
Assists: Gillespie. Ambrose
YC: Montgomery. Young
RC:
MoM: Gillespie

Wigan 0 Liverpool 4
Not guilty your honour and so it proved - Bellamy leaves court a free man again - note I didn’t say innocent, well you just cant say he’s innocent of anything, not guilty yes but not innocent.  Wigan struggled to keep the shackles on him here and he ran riot, scoring twice and helping Kuyt to Liverpool’s third.  An own goal from Lee McCulloch tied things up and all before half time.  Nothing happened second half, maybe they all went Christmas shopping?

Goals: Bellamy 2, Kuyt, o.g.
Assists: Gerrard 3, Bellamy
YC: Heskey, Boyce. Bellamy, Alonso
RC:
MoM: Bellamy

Everton 2 West Ham 0
Proof that despite the takeover the corner has not yet been turned by West Ham.  A straightforward Everton performance was enough to turn them over here - Osman and Vaughan with the goals.

Goals: Osman, Vaughan
Assists: Carsley
YC: Osman, McFadden
RC:
MoM: Tevez

Middlesbrough 1 Man Utd 2
In a bid to gain a place in the Man U side, Darren Fletcher has cunningly adopted the same hairstyle as Michael Carrick, yet in an un-Carrick like advanced position he popped up to score the winner in a difficult encounter.  James Morrison had earlier equalised Saha’s penalty (well done Louis) after Ronaldo fell over.

Goals: Morrison. Saha, Fletcher
Assists: Ronaldo 2, Giggs
YC: Christie, Cattermole. Saha, Scholes, Vidic
RC:
MoM: Scholes

Reading 1 Bolton 0
Another Reading win and another Doyle winner, this is all becoming rather tiresome, yet they play attractive football - please note Sam

Goals: Doyle
Assists: Oster
YC: Nolan, Ben Haim, Jaaskelainen 
RC:
MoM: Doyle

Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 2
If last season you had described this as a near the top of the table clash you might have been sent for a lie down.  However despite the copious number of draws, Villa find themselves hanging on to Portsmouth in the top 6.  Four goals here shared 2 to Matthew Taylor and 1 apiece for Angel and Barry - another penalty.  And no, Petrov wasn’t brought down, honestly you guys think the worst of everybody.

Goals: Taylor 2. Angel, Barry
Assists: Mwaruwari. Agbonlahor
YC: James. Barry, Osbourne, Ridgewell, Baros
RC: Mendes
MoM: Taylor

Man City 0 Watford 0
Just the sort of game that would get Monday night football banned - watched the first half and saw part of 2nd while on a conference call - not sure which was more exciting the call or the match.

Goals:
Assists:
YC: Vassell. Mahon, Chambers, Francis
RC:
MoM: Shittu

The Points

MidweekGK
6  Reina, James, Kenny, Cudicini, Van der Sar

DEF
12  Evra
11  O’Shea
9    Geary, Distin, Morgan, Campbell

MID
7  Barton, Ronaldo, Ballack, McCann

STR
8  Rooney
7  McBride, Vassell, Radzinski

Weekend

GK
6  Reina, Hahnemann, Howard, Friedel, Weaver, Lehmann

DEF
13 Taylor
9   Neill, Toure, Shittu
7   Henchoz

MID
13  Gillespie
11  Gerrard
10  Gilberto
8    Ronaldo
7    Reid, Fletcher

STR
16  Bellamy
10  Doyle, McCarthy, Adebayor
7    Kuyt, Nonda

Week 13

Published by
simon
at December 11th 2006 13:24 in Weekly update. 0 Comments

The Games
 

Charlton 1 Everton 1
A first point for Les, but alas only one and not three.  One point wont keep the wolves from the door, but it will keep them stuck at the foot of the table.  They contributed to their own downfall with a Hreidarsson own goal to cancel out man of the match Andy Reid’s goal.
Goals: Reid. O.G.

Assists: Arteta, Osman
YC: Hreidarsson, El Karkouri
RC:
MoM: Reid

Aston Villa 1 Middlesbrough 1
Must be very dull reading about Villa in this column because all we do is talk about how they are the draw specialists, and here we are again.  No strangers to a penalty either, Petrov being brought down again (and yes there was contact Paul Merson - your word can simply not be relied upon as you have shown throughout your life) - harsh but if you had seen Merson on Soccer Saturday and then watched the highlights you would swear he was watching a different game or on some sort of mind-beding substance…..Gareth Barry stuck away the penalty after forgotten man Malcolm Christie had scored from an offside position.  Poor Malcolm 2 years out and he still can’t sort out that facial hair.

Goals: Barry. Christie

Assists: Petrov. Yakubu
YC: Barry. Schwarzer, Huth, Pogatetz
RC:
MoM: Boateng

Fulham 0 Reading 1
Fulham, perfectly capable of shocking the bigger sides are incapable of one thing - consistency.  Reading by contrast are consistent - they either win or they lose, fairly simple and at the moment they are on a good run of winning.  Kevin Doyle tucked away the penalty after he himself was brought down by the worst central defender in the league, Ian Pearce.

Goals: Doyle

Assists:
YC: Harper, Sonko, Ingimarsson
RC: Pearce
MoM: Doyle

Liverpool 1 Man City 0
Finally restored to central midfield through necessity rather than choice, Steven Gerrard gave a top class performance throughout culminating in the winning goal, struck from round about Gerrard range.  Not that Liverpool played well you understand  but they’ll take the three points.

Goals: Gerrard

Assists:
YC: Carragher, Garcia. Thatcher
RC:
MoM: Gerrard

West Ham 1 Sheff Utd 0
The general consensus around Upton Park is that talk of a takeover has unsettled the team and led to the poor start to the season.  This may be true and we’ll find out soon enough whether the completion of the Magnusson takeover sees them discovering their true form.  Their specialist subject is rarely clean sheets, but they got one here and Mullins got his second goal of the season.
Goals: Mullins

Assists: Etherington, Ferdinand
YC: Mullins, Bowyer. Hulse, Gillespie, Montgomery, Kozluk
RC:
MoM: Mullins

Bolton 3 Arsenal 1
It had to happen, and I nearly detected a smile when it did - Anelka bagged a superb double against (one of) his old sides.  A flash in the pan it may be but Arsene wasn’t smiling - his trips to the Reebok are generally unsuccessful - Faye scored the opener and even a counter from Gilberto helped them not a jot.

Goals: Anelka 2, Faye. Gilberto

Assists: Campo. Fabregas
YC: Davies, Fortune, Campo. Lehmann, Toure, Senderos, Ljungberg
RC:
MoM: Anelka

Tottenham 3 Wigan 1
Have Spurs finally settled on their preferred striking partnership - with Mido injured it looks to be either Defoe or Keane to partner Berbatov with Defoe’s goal in this match helping his cause.  Berbatov a certain starter with a goal, 2 assists and man of the match - he ran rings round a Wigan defence who were notably missing Andy Webster, albeit voluntarily so.  Wigan had led through another smashing goal from Camara but quickly succumbed to the inevitable.

Goals: Berbatov, Defoe, Lennon

Assists: Berbatov 2. Wright, McCulloch
YC: Zokora, Dawson. Boyce, Baines, Heskey, Skoko
RC:
MoM: Berbatov

Newcastle 1 Portsmouth 0
Newcastle on the telly again, perhaps it’s a charitable act from SKY to raise enough for the Magpies to waste £10m on another striker, but the entertainment value sure isn’t at St James.  Many expected Pompey to win here but its been nigh on 50 years since they did.  David James brightened up proceedings with the his new barnet, a kind of camp 50s waiter look, which cost him 250 nicker allegedly.  Time for David to realise that hair is not a right, it’s a privilege - just ask Sibierski who no doubt reminded him as he nodded home the winner with his shiny big chrome-dome. 

Goals: Sibierski

Assists: Martins, Nzogbia
YC: Bramble, Solano. Thompson, Stefanovic
RC:
MoM: Dyer

Man Utd 1 Chelsea 1

Goals: Saha. Carvalho

Assists: Rooney. Lampard
YC: Carrick. A Cole, Drogba, Makelele
RC:
MoM: Ferdinand

Watford v Blackburn
What happened to this match? - I have no idea - perhaps it disappeared down one of Blackburn’s 4000 holes?  I’m sure it will turn up somewhere, it cant have gone far.

The Points

GK
6  Given, Reina, Hahnemann

DEF
9  A Ferdinand
6  Agger, Riise, Finnan, Faye, Spector, Konchesky, Ramage, Taylor

MID
10  Gerrard, Reid
8    Mullins
7    Lennon, Gilberto

STR
16  Berbatov
15  Anelka
10  Doyle
7    Saha, Defoe, Christie