Home
The Premiership Weekend Winners And Losers
Winners
Mark Clattenberg
Capped a faultless display at White Hart Lane by booking the odious Pascal Chimbonda for urging him to yellow card an opponent.
It was a piece of refereeing that will not be surpassed this season. The shame is that Match of the Day failed to encourage its repeat by opting instead to highlight Manuel Almunia and Tom Huddlestone's petty chest-butting.
The Big Four
The Premiership's return felt faintly surreal on Saturday, a sudden, jarring jolt with the final international post-mortems yet to be concluded. Inevitably, the tight schedule prompted a plethora of managers to launch various complaints about the prohibitive international fixture list. Their grievances were valid. With most players not reporting back for domestic duty until Thursday, and many others only on Friday, preparation time was at a premium.
"I had 10 players go away after the Arsenal game two weeks ago. I didn't see some of them again until Friday morning," complained Harry Redknapp before losing any sympathy by switching to Turkey-farmers-voting-for-Christmas mode.
"I just wish they could play internationals on the first Wednesday, then on the Saturday and then come back to their clubs for the Monday," he argued. "That would suit club managers, but it probably wouldn't suit the international managers better." No indeed.
A reasonable compromise would be for the second batch of international matches to be played on the Tuesday. An ample three days would still exist between international matches and post-international preparation would be increased by as much as 50%.
The ludicrous timing of the kick-off at Pompey - 12.30pm on Saturday - trivilised what was a crucial encounter for Liverpool. "If we can beat them then people might talk about Liverpool being a contender this year, and maybe I'd agree with them," predicted Rafa Benitez. In the event, the Spaniard felt compelled to take the risk of resting his best two players.
With Arsenal and ManYoo also kicking off in the early afternoon at Tottenham and Everton respectively, and Chelski's date with Blackburn shunted to 5.15pm, the weekend as a whole felt trivialised. Strange to say of anything in the Premiership but it was under-billed as the Big Four took on the four teams that many observers would nominate as the best of the rest.
In the event, the behmoths emerged unscathed, but the gruelling nature of the action was instructive nonetheless. While the Big Four continue to reside in a league of their own, the middleweights finally seem willing to put up a decent fight.
Blackburn Rovers
For a self-described small team (and one with a self-denied persecution complex), Blackburn have a remarkable tendency to receive preferential treatment in matches against the Big Four.
Arsenal
Top of the league for the first time in almost three years.
ManYoo
The new Arsenal? Many more of these - and this was ManYoo's third successive 1-0 victory - and ManYoo will be insulted as the old Arsenal. George Graham and Steve Bould would particularly have appreciated the latest two winning goals being near-post headers.
The surprise at Goodison Park was that Louis Saha, who scored the winner against Sunderland, did not start. Given that he was able to complete 45 minutes two weeks ago, his exclusion was presumably the choice of Sir Alex rather than an enforced restriction. The ManYoo's manager reluctance to deploy two strikers - Ryan Giggs played off Carlos Tevez before Saha's 63rd-minute introduction - must be a salient factor in the champions' goal-shy start this season.
Pepe Reina
Understandably considered to be the best penalty-saver in the world, Saturday's block followed on from the two he saved in the Champions League shoot-out against Chelski in May, another in the FA Cup final of 2006, and the seven he made from nine attempts during his last season at Villarreal.
There are no statistics to support the theory, but there's good reason to suspect that the ratio of penalties being converted has plummeted. One reason must be that while the goals have stayed the same size, the average size of goalkeepers has shot up to beyond 6 foot. That they are also more inclined to move off their line, thus reducing the angle, is probable. "Give me any example of a penalty from today's game and I'll show you that the goalkeeper cheated," complained Bob Wilson in May when he considered Reina's astonishing record.
Television gets blamed for everything these days so why not add penalty saves to the crime sheet as well. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that familiarity with an opponent's modus operandi is now a vital advantage for keepers - recall, for example, Jens Lehmann keeping notes in his sock during last summer's World Cup
Against Kanu, Reina's dive appeared determined by observation rather than anticipation. If there was any anticipation, it was that Kanu would side-foot his spot-kick. "I just didn't fancy him to score trying to place it like that," grumbled his manager.
And therein is perhaps the message to the league's penalty-takers.
The best of recent years was Alan Shearer, a renowned blaster. And the best this year was Robin Van Persie's against Fulham, belted into the top corner. When he went for precision over power two weeks later, Citeh's Kasper Schmeichel jumped off his line and made a comfortable save.
With the odds increasingly narrow, the spot-kickers may be best advised applying a bit of old fashioned brute power again.
Kenwyne Jones
Note to self: beware first impressions. Although, judging by his miss from five yards, he probably couldn't hit a literal barn door, never mind the metaphorical version.
Lee Bowyer
London buses etc. Having failed to score in over a year, Bowyer's goal against Middlesbrough was his second in as many home games. Just a shame that his reaction of choice is to act like an extra from 28 Days Later. It's not as if he is eye candy at the best of times.
Sebastian Larsson
A decent addition to any Fantasy Football team, a hefty percentage of Birmingham's goals this season are bound to be assisted by his right foot.
Losers
Martin Jol
The Tottenham boss is tottering on the brink and his job will surely be offered again to Juande Ramos if results do not improve before the next international break. It is a bleak ultimatum - Spurs must travel to Liverpool on October 7 immediately before the domestic interruption.
Ramos, in one of those strange quirks of football, is in north London this week - pitching his Sevilla side into combat against Arsenal. More than anything, it is Jol's failure to beat Arsenal during his reign, either in a one-off match or the league table, that has made his position so precarious.
The Dutchman is a likeable chap but the board's scepticism about whether he is top-four material is understandable. The best that can be said of Jol is that he is a good manager. The worst is that he is no better than that.
His tactical acumen (or lack of) is a frequent topic of unflattering conversation in north London and he drew more censure this weekend. Arsene Wenger must have been relieved that Jol did not seek to expose the vulnerability of Gilberto Silva at centre-half by unleashing the pace of either Jermain Defoe or Darren Bent as an alternative to Robbie Keane or as a third forward. Bent's cameo will be remembered for his awful miss. Yet the way he sped past a flagging Silva was telling. Jol, as so often, had missed a trick.
On Friday he interrupted one question about Arsenal's injury crisis by announcing he was "not interested" in the subject. Later, he declared: "We've had three or four big players out this season and if Arsenal would have had players out like Van Persie, Gallas or Toure, then they would have had a problem."
It is unfeasible that Jol was genuinely unaware that Arsenal's captain would be unavailable for a fourth week, and that Gilberto would be his jet-lagged replacement, but it certainly looked and sounded that way. Ramos, by contrast, is famed for his cunning.
Nor was Jol's claim that he doesn't feel under pressure convincing.
"I can only listen to what Daniel Levy is telling me," he assured reporters. "As long as we play good football and have the results, there's no problem."
By that criteria, Jol's problem is insurmountable.
Emile Heskey
The tenth different England player to break a bone in his foot since David Beckham added 'metatarsal' to the football dictionary in April 2002.
Everton
They must dread hosting ManYoo. Saturday's defeat was their 13th in 16 Premiership matches at Goodison against Sir Alex's crew.
Jose Mourinho
So much for the promises.
Back in July, Mourinho made a heartening pledge for the new season: "I want better results and to be more entertaining."
As is so often the case with Mourinho, reality has argued against him. The soporific 0-0 draw with Blackburn consigned Chelski to their worst start to a season since 2002 and prompted fresh claims that Roman Abramovich is exasperated that so much money has brought so little fun.
The charge has been made before, but the difference is that Chelski were winning then. A dubious offside decision was the difference on Saturday, yet such an expensive outfit should not be reliant on the unflagging competence of a linesman. Other than Kalou's 'goal', Chelski created very little, with Andriy Shevchenko in his three Ws mode - watching, waiting, wasting. Last chance? Last game then.
Much has been made of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard's absence, but the player Chelski were crying out for against Rovers was in Madrid. Shaun-Wright Phillips and, for the moment at least, Florent Malouda are inferior alternatives to Arjen Robben. Deprived of the Dutchman's incision, Joe Cole was the only outlet of creativity.
Perhaps the real point of Mourinho's attack on Peter Kirkup, the hapless linesman, was to distract attention from the banality of Chelski's play. If so, it largely worked. But the telling exception was sitting in the stands with a bored expression on his face throughout. Abramovich is nobody's fool - least of all Jose's.
The Man At Sky Who Decided To Cover Pompey-Liverpool
The tedium on the south coast was in total contrast to the four-goal thriller at White Hart Lane. Nor was it a fluke - the four north London derbies last season produced 15 goals.
West Ham's Summer Signings
England suffer the curse of the metatarsal, West Ham the curse of Alan Curbishley's summer signings. With Scott Parker, Julien Faubert and Kieron Dyer crocked, and Freddie Ljungberg on the bench after a hamstring injury, Craig Bellamy was the only new recruit on the pitch against Middlesbrough before succumbing to a groin strain after 33 minutes.
Sammy Lee
Hespeakssoquicklythatitisannoyinglyawkwardtotellwhereonewordendsandanotherbegins.
Keith Hackett
A hostage to his excuse-making ever since revealing he phoned Rafa Benitez to apologise after Rob Styles' blunder in August, poor Keith is gonna get more miserable, self-pitying phone calls than the Samaritans this year.
Pete Gill
Winners
Mark Clattenberg
Capped a faultless display at White Hart Lane by booking the odious Pascal Chimbonda for urging him to yellow card an opponent.
It was a piece of refereeing that will not be surpassed this season. The shame is that Match of the Day failed to encourage its repeat by opting instead to highlight Manuel Almunia and Tom Huddlestone's petty chest-butting.
The Big Four
The Premiership's return felt faintly surreal on Saturday, a sudden, jarring jolt with the final international post-mortems yet to be concluded. Inevitably, the tight schedule prompted a plethora of managers to launch various complaints about the prohibitive international fixture list. Their grievances were valid. With most players not reporting back for domestic duty until Thursday, and many others only on Friday, preparation time was at a premium.
"I had 10 players go away after the Arsenal game two weeks ago. I didn't see some of them again until Friday morning," complained Harry Redknapp before losing any sympathy by switching to Turkey-farmers-voting-for-Christmas mode.
"I just wish they could play internationals on the first Wednesday, then on the Saturday and then come back to their clubs for the Monday," he argued. "That would suit club managers, but it probably wouldn't suit the international managers better." No indeed.
A reasonable compromise would be for the second batch of international matches to be played on the Tuesday. An ample three days would still exist between international matches and post-international preparation would be increased by as much as 50%.
The ludicrous timing of the kick-off at Pompey - 12.30pm on Saturday - trivilised what was a crucial encounter for Liverpool. "If we can beat them then people might talk about Liverpool being a contender this year, and maybe I'd agree with them," predicted Rafa Benitez. In the event, the Spaniard felt compelled to take the risk of resting his best two players.
With Arsenal and ManYoo also kicking off in the early afternoon at Tottenham and Everton respectively, and Chelski's date with Blackburn shunted to 5.15pm, the weekend as a whole felt trivialised. Strange to say of anything in the Premiership but it was under-billed as the Big Four took on the four teams that many observers would nominate as the best of the rest.
In the event, the behmoths emerged unscathed, but the gruelling nature of the action was instructive nonetheless. While the Big Four continue to reside in a league of their own, the middleweights finally seem willing to put up a decent fight.
Blackburn Rovers
For a self-described small team (and one with a self-denied persecution complex), Blackburn have a remarkable tendency to receive preferential treatment in matches against the Big Four.
Arsenal
Top of the league for the first time in almost three years.
ManYoo
The new Arsenal? Many more of these - and this was ManYoo's third successive 1-0 victory - and ManYoo will be insulted as the old Arsenal. George Graham and Steve Bould would particularly have appreciated the latest two winning goals being near-post headers.
The surprise at Goodison Park was that Louis Saha, who scored the winner against Sunderland, did not start. Given that he was able to complete 45 minutes two weeks ago, his exclusion was presumably the choice of Sir Alex rather than an enforced restriction. The ManYoo's manager reluctance to deploy two strikers - Ryan Giggs played off Carlos Tevez before Saha's 63rd-minute introduction - must be a salient factor in the champions' goal-shy start this season.
Pepe Reina
Understandably considered to be the best penalty-saver in the world, Saturday's block followed on from the two he saved in the Champions League shoot-out against Chelski in May, another in the FA Cup final of 2006, and the seven he made from nine attempts during his last season at Villarreal.
There are no statistics to support the theory, but there's good reason to suspect that the ratio of penalties being converted has plummeted. One reason must be that while the goals have stayed the same size, the average size of goalkeepers has shot up to beyond 6 foot. That they are also more inclined to move off their line, thus reducing the angle, is probable. "Give me any example of a penalty from today's game and I'll show you that the goalkeeper cheated," complained Bob Wilson in May when he considered Reina's astonishing record.
Television gets blamed for everything these days so why not add penalty saves to the crime sheet as well. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that familiarity with an opponent's modus operandi is now a vital advantage for keepers - recall, for example, Jens Lehmann keeping notes in his sock during last summer's World Cup
Against Kanu, Reina's dive appeared determined by observation rather than anticipation. If there was any anticipation, it was that Kanu would side-foot his spot-kick. "I just didn't fancy him to score trying to place it like that," grumbled his manager.
And therein is perhaps the message to the league's penalty-takers.
The best of recent years was Alan Shearer, a renowned blaster. And the best this year was Robin Van Persie's against Fulham, belted into the top corner. When he went for precision over power two weeks later, Citeh's Kasper Schmeichel jumped off his line and made a comfortable save.
With the odds increasingly narrow, the spot-kickers may be best advised applying a bit of old fashioned brute power again.
Kenwyne Jones
Note to self: beware first impressions. Although, judging by his miss from five yards, he probably couldn't hit a literal barn door, never mind the metaphorical version.
Lee Bowyer
London buses etc. Having failed to score in over a year, Bowyer's goal against Middlesbrough was his second in as many home games. Just a shame that his reaction of choice is to act like an extra from 28 Days Later. It's not as if he is eye candy at the best of times.
Sebastian Larsson
A decent addition to any Fantasy Football team, a hefty percentage of Birmingham's goals this season are bound to be assisted by his right foot.
Losers
Martin Jol
The Tottenham boss is tottering on the brink and his job will surely be offered again to Juande Ramos if results do not improve before the next international break. It is a bleak ultimatum - Spurs must travel to Liverpool on October 7 immediately before the domestic interruption.
Ramos, in one of those strange quirks of football, is in north London this week - pitching his Sevilla side into combat against Arsenal. More than anything, it is Jol's failure to beat Arsenal during his reign, either in a one-off match or the league table, that has made his position so precarious.
The Dutchman is a likeable chap but the board's scepticism about whether he is top-four material is understandable. The best that can be said of Jol is that he is a good manager. The worst is that he is no better than that.
His tactical acumen (or lack of) is a frequent topic of unflattering conversation in north London and he drew more censure this weekend. Arsene Wenger must have been relieved that Jol did not seek to expose the vulnerability of Gilberto Silva at centre-half by unleashing the pace of either Jermain Defoe or Darren Bent as an alternative to Robbie Keane or as a third forward. Bent's cameo will be remembered for his awful miss. Yet the way he sped past a flagging Silva was telling. Jol, as so often, had missed a trick.
On Friday he interrupted one question about Arsenal's injury crisis by announcing he was "not interested" in the subject. Later, he declared: "We've had three or four big players out this season and if Arsenal would have had players out like Van Persie, Gallas or Toure, then they would have had a problem."
It is unfeasible that Jol was genuinely unaware that Arsenal's captain would be unavailable for a fourth week, and that Gilberto would be his jet-lagged replacement, but it certainly looked and sounded that way. Ramos, by contrast, is famed for his cunning.
Nor was Jol's claim that he doesn't feel under pressure convincing.
"I can only listen to what Daniel Levy is telling me," he assured reporters. "As long as we play good football and have the results, there's no problem."
By that criteria, Jol's problem is insurmountable.
Emile Heskey
The tenth different England player to break a bone in his foot since David Beckham added 'metatarsal' to the football dictionary in April 2002.
Everton
They must dread hosting ManYoo. Saturday's defeat was their 13th in 16 Premiership matches at Goodison against Sir Alex's crew.
Jose Mourinho
So much for the promises.
Back in July, Mourinho made a heartening pledge for the new season: "I want better results and to be more entertaining."
As is so often the case with Mourinho, reality has argued against him. The soporific 0-0 draw with Blackburn consigned Chelski to their worst start to a season since 2002 and prompted fresh claims that Roman Abramovich is exasperated that so much money has brought so little fun.
The charge has been made before, but the difference is that Chelski were winning then. A dubious offside decision was the difference on Saturday, yet such an expensive outfit should not be reliant on the unflagging competence of a linesman. Other than Kalou's 'goal', Chelski created very little, with Andriy Shevchenko in his three Ws mode - watching, waiting, wasting. Last chance? Last game then.
Much has been made of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard's absence, but the player Chelski were crying out for against Rovers was in Madrid. Shaun-Wright Phillips and, for the moment at least, Florent Malouda are inferior alternatives to Arjen Robben. Deprived of the Dutchman's incision, Joe Cole was the only outlet of creativity.
Perhaps the real point of Mourinho's attack on Peter Kirkup, the hapless linesman, was to distract attention from the banality of Chelski's play. If so, it largely worked. But the telling exception was sitting in the stands with a bored expression on his face throughout. Abramovich is nobody's fool - least of all Jose's.
The Man At Sky Who Decided To Cover Pompey-Liverpool
The tedium on the south coast was in total contrast to the four-goal thriller at White Hart Lane. Nor was it a fluke - the four north London derbies last season produced 15 goals.
West Ham's Summer Signings
England suffer the curse of the metatarsal, West Ham the curse of Alan Curbishley's summer signings. With Scott Parker, Julien Faubert and Kieron Dyer crocked, and Freddie Ljungberg on the bench after a hamstring injury, Craig Bellamy was the only new recruit on the pitch against Middlesbrough before succumbing to a groin strain after 33 minutes.
Sammy Lee
Hespeakssoquicklythatitisannoyinglyawkwardtotellwhereonewordendsandanotherbegins.
Keith Hackett
A hostage to his excuse-making ever since revealing he phoned Rafa Benitez to apologise after Rob Styles' blunder in August, poor Keith is gonna get more miserable, self-pitying phone calls than the Samaritans this year.
Pete Gill
