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The Premiership Weekend Winners & Losers
Winners
Arsenal
Because of their upcoming agenda - seven games spread over 23 days, including a trip to Liverpool next Sunday before a date with ManYoo seven days later - it was essential for the leaders to beat Bolton. Ahead of such a demanding period, this was no time for an unexpected stumble.
However, the nature of the victory also underlined the severity of the blow suffered in midweek when Robin van Persie twisted a knee on international duty. Only when substitutes Theo Walcott - finally delivering something of positive note - and Tomas Rosicky were introduced did the Gunners produce an irresistible threat.
Eduardo da Silva, Van Persie's replacement, hasn't yet adapted to the Premier League and was sent to the left wing before being replaced after an hour. The Croatian has yet to score a domestic goal since his £8m summer move. Expect Emmanuel Adebayor to play as a lone frontman at Anfield and Walcott to be tested as a striker against Sheffield United in the Carling Cup as Wenger explores his options during Van Persie's expected six-week absence.
One final point: the postponement of the scheduled match in August at Newcastle for a Champions League qualifier in Prague has radically distorted the Gunners' fixture list and meant that six of their first nine league matches were played at the Emirates. After Tuesday's Champions League tie with Prague, just two of their next ten matches will be played on home turf.
ManYoo
Two points of statistical interest from ManYoo's win at Villa:
1) Having previously failed to score in ten consecutive games stretching back to April, Wayne Rooney has now scored six goals in five games.
2) Including FA Cup semi-finals, ManYoo have won ten successive matches at Villa Park.
Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez
Their lack of height remains an issue but their partnership is growing in potency.
Elano
Given that Manchester City are the only side in the top four not credited with Big Four status, it is fair to argue that Elano has had a greater impact than any other player in the league so far this season. The Brazilian has been a revelation and scored City's winner against Brum less than 24 hours after returning from international duty.
Liverpool
Liverpool's manic celebrations at the final whistle spoke volumes. Partly it was the reaction of a team unable to believe its good luck - Jamie Carragher acted like a man who had been sent to the electric chair just before a power cut - but mainly it was tacit acknowledgment of how precarious their position in the league is. Had they lost at Goodison then the Reds would have trailed leaders Arsenal by six points.
Rafa Benitez
There are two ways of regarding Benitez's substitutions at Goodison.
The first is that they were perverse, perhaps deliberately perverse, and only rectified by Mark Clattenburg's inept work. Like Michael Vaughan greeting his return to the England cricket team by immediately deploying a leg gully, it's as if Benitez needs to be seen as the man in charge. The Spaniard certainly has the bloody-mindedness of a Yorkshireman.
The second is that they were a stroke of genius with the three players introduced - Ryan Babel, Lucas Leiva and Jermaine Pennant - combining for the award of Pool's match-winning penalty.
Portsmouth
Their domination at the JJB was so complete that their total of nine shots on target was nine more than the home side produced.
Blackburn Rovers
So much for the idea that reduced ticket prices - £20 for the average adult, £7 for juniors, £10 for senior citizens - would have fans flocking back to Ewood this season. Fewer than 20,000 supporters attended Saturday's win over Reading, a shortfall of 2000 on this year's average gate and a further 10,000 below capacity.
Rovers may be sixth in the league table but they are bottom of the Attendance Table.
Chelski
But all is not well. Didier Drogba's 'regret' at the published confirmation that he wants to leave Chelski does not equate to a denial that the dressing room has been irrevocably split.
Avram Grant has an awkward balancing act to maintain - pacifying the Chelski players mourning their master's departure and respecting his own master's demand for entertaining football. In promising as much this weekend, he remarked: "The way to the winning is also important, not like it was before."
Mourinho's apologists inside the dressing room will not have appreciated the apparent belittlement of their achievements under Mourinho's guidance. Actions still speak louder than words and, inspired by Drogba, Chelski reverted to the Mourinho-esque 4-3-3 formation against Boro.
Losers
Fair Play
There was a significant moment of insignificance after 55 minutes at Villa Park on Saturday night when Gabriel Agbonlahor burst through the ManYoo defence, hurdled the rash challenge of Edwin van der Sar and, off balance, saw his weakly-hit shot cleared by Gerard Pique. Just a few minutes later, Carlos Tevez found himself in an almost identical scenario. The difference was that instead of avoiding the challenge, Tevez hit the ground. The result was a penalty, a red card and an early exit for thousands of supporters.
Tevez did nothing wrong (only an international hurdler could have avoided Scott Carson's visual explanation for why he is not an outfield player). But by 'playing fair' did Agbonlahor do wrong? Staying on his feet certainly wasn't the winning play. Had Agbonlahor not avoided Van der Sar then the Dutchman would probably have been dismissed and Villa awarded a penalty with which to halve the visitors' 3-1 lead. Both in his deeds and subsequent words at Goodison Park, Steven Gerrard demonstrated that he was fully aware of the double reward that the mastery of such dark arts invariably produces.
Such deliberations are the consequence of a misguided rulebook. Not only is it flawed in so much as it rewards gamesmanship, but it is botched logically: how can, for instance, Carson be dismissed for denying a goalscoring opportunity when the penalty award meant that an even clearer goalscoring opportunity was still available?
The flip side - the refusal to reward attempts at 'fair play' - has become a terrible blight. In a season littered with p***-poor refereeing, no decision deserves to be castigated more than that of Keith Stroud in September's league match between Reading and Wigan when, to quote The Independent's match report, 'substitute Julius Aghahowa broke clear only to be put off his stride by a blatant trip outside the box by the keeper Marcus Hahnemann. The impetus, and opportunity, were soon lost - although Hahnemann was booked, no free-kick was awarded.'
Had Aghahowa crashed to the floor and Wigan secured an equaliser against their numerically-disadvantaged opponents then the Royals would currently be fourth-bottom rather than 12th and Wigan would be four places clear of the relegation zone.
Punished for his naivety, Aghahowa will no doubt know better next time. Or at least understand the rules better.
Fulham
It is just as well for Lawrie Sanchez that £10m of taxpayers' money is currently being wasted on an inquest into a fatal car crash in Paris ten years ago in which the one and only person to wear a seatbelt was the sole survivor else Mohamed Al Fayed might be asking why £25m of his own cash was seemingly wasted in the summer.
Having described the clash with Derby as 'a six-pointer' in his programme notes, Sanchez sought to depict the subsequent draw as league places gained. The booing which greeted the final whistle was a more accurate commentary. Derby deserved victory and confirmed Fulham's status as relegation candidates.
Having been originally put in charge on a caretaker basis, Sanchez's full-time appointment owed much to a distasteful win over Liverpool in early May when Rafa Benitez rested a host of first-teamers in premature preparation for the Champions League final. Since then, the Cottagers have only managed to beat second-bottom Bolton. It's a worse sequence of results than the no-wins-in-seven run that prompted the then non-distracted Al Fayed to sack Chris Coleman in April.
Reading
Probably the first side in Premier League history to score six goals in consecutive away matches and not collect a single point.
Officialdom
To reemploy F365's headline after ManYoo's win over Chelski last month: 'Yet Again, A Big Match Is Ruined By The Referee'.
Mark Clattenburg's handling of the Merseyside derby was so disastrous that this entire column could be devoted to its inadequacies - and the disgusting response of Rafa Benitez who shamelessly described it as 'faultless' and Joleon Lescott as a diver.
As with Mike Dean's performance at Old Trafford, it was the details of Clattenburg's horror show that really grated. Whereas Dean put his profession at risk - a phrase that is no exaggeration - by allowing John Terry to lay hands on him with impunity, Clattenburg's apparent heeding of Steven Gerrard's prompting has made referees a hostage to mass haranguing. So much for the adage that there is no point arguing with referees because they won't change their minds. Clattenburg is now fair game.
The decision to dismiss Tony Hibbert was technically correct, one of the few Clattenburg actually called correctly all afternoon. It would, though, be fascinating to read the explanation in his match report for Dirk Kuyt's booking after the Dutchman's impression of Superman flying backwards. For such challenges, a yellow card cannot be part of the equation. The player has either committed a two-footed challenge or he has not; he is either sent off or he is not. There is no available middle ground. Clattenburg's response was the equivalent of ordering a murderer to serve 100 hours of community service.
Graham Poll
As observed in The Thing's 'The Official Line' column for The Daily Mail this Saturday:
'Watch Out For...Mark Clattenburg at this weekend's Merseyside derby.
'Clattenburg has already controlled the Manchester and north London derbies successfully and has been proclaimed as England's best referee in the Official Line all season.'
How reassuring to learn that Graham's judgement remains as sharp as ever.
Phil Neville
The unexpected answer to England's goalkeeping crisis?
Steve Bruce
Made to look a fool by Alan Shearer. Which must be a bit like being nutmegged by Phil Neville.
Pete Gill
Winners
Arsenal
Because of their upcoming agenda - seven games spread over 23 days, including a trip to Liverpool next Sunday before a date with ManYoo seven days later - it was essential for the leaders to beat Bolton. Ahead of such a demanding period, this was no time for an unexpected stumble.
However, the nature of the victory also underlined the severity of the blow suffered in midweek when Robin van Persie twisted a knee on international duty. Only when substitutes Theo Walcott - finally delivering something of positive note - and Tomas Rosicky were introduced did the Gunners produce an irresistible threat.
Eduardo da Silva, Van Persie's replacement, hasn't yet adapted to the Premier League and was sent to the left wing before being replaced after an hour. The Croatian has yet to score a domestic goal since his £8m summer move. Expect Emmanuel Adebayor to play as a lone frontman at Anfield and Walcott to be tested as a striker against Sheffield United in the Carling Cup as Wenger explores his options during Van Persie's expected six-week absence.
One final point: the postponement of the scheduled match in August at Newcastle for a Champions League qualifier in Prague has radically distorted the Gunners' fixture list and meant that six of their first nine league matches were played at the Emirates. After Tuesday's Champions League tie with Prague, just two of their next ten matches will be played on home turf.
ManYoo
Two points of statistical interest from ManYoo's win at Villa:
1) Having previously failed to score in ten consecutive games stretching back to April, Wayne Rooney has now scored six goals in five games.
2) Including FA Cup semi-finals, ManYoo have won ten successive matches at Villa Park.
Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez
Their lack of height remains an issue but their partnership is growing in potency.
Elano
Given that Manchester City are the only side in the top four not credited with Big Four status, it is fair to argue that Elano has had a greater impact than any other player in the league so far this season. The Brazilian has been a revelation and scored City's winner against Brum less than 24 hours after returning from international duty.
Liverpool
Liverpool's manic celebrations at the final whistle spoke volumes. Partly it was the reaction of a team unable to believe its good luck - Jamie Carragher acted like a man who had been sent to the electric chair just before a power cut - but mainly it was tacit acknowledgment of how precarious their position in the league is. Had they lost at Goodison then the Reds would have trailed leaders Arsenal by six points.
Rafa Benitez
There are two ways of regarding Benitez's substitutions at Goodison.
The first is that they were perverse, perhaps deliberately perverse, and only rectified by Mark Clattenburg's inept work. Like Michael Vaughan greeting his return to the England cricket team by immediately deploying a leg gully, it's as if Benitez needs to be seen as the man in charge. The Spaniard certainly has the bloody-mindedness of a Yorkshireman.
The second is that they were a stroke of genius with the three players introduced - Ryan Babel, Lucas Leiva and Jermaine Pennant - combining for the award of Pool's match-winning penalty.
Portsmouth
Their domination at the JJB was so complete that their total of nine shots on target was nine more than the home side produced.
Blackburn Rovers
So much for the idea that reduced ticket prices - £20 for the average adult, £7 for juniors, £10 for senior citizens - would have fans flocking back to Ewood this season. Fewer than 20,000 supporters attended Saturday's win over Reading, a shortfall of 2000 on this year's average gate and a further 10,000 below capacity.
Rovers may be sixth in the league table but they are bottom of the Attendance Table.
Chelski
But all is not well. Didier Drogba's 'regret' at the published confirmation that he wants to leave Chelski does not equate to a denial that the dressing room has been irrevocably split.
Avram Grant has an awkward balancing act to maintain - pacifying the Chelski players mourning their master's departure and respecting his own master's demand for entertaining football. In promising as much this weekend, he remarked: "The way to the winning is also important, not like it was before."
Mourinho's apologists inside the dressing room will not have appreciated the apparent belittlement of their achievements under Mourinho's guidance. Actions still speak louder than words and, inspired by Drogba, Chelski reverted to the Mourinho-esque 4-3-3 formation against Boro.
Losers
Fair Play
There was a significant moment of insignificance after 55 minutes at Villa Park on Saturday night when Gabriel Agbonlahor burst through the ManYoo defence, hurdled the rash challenge of Edwin van der Sar and, off balance, saw his weakly-hit shot cleared by Gerard Pique. Just a few minutes later, Carlos Tevez found himself in an almost identical scenario. The difference was that instead of avoiding the challenge, Tevez hit the ground. The result was a penalty, a red card and an early exit for thousands of supporters.
Tevez did nothing wrong (only an international hurdler could have avoided Scott Carson's visual explanation for why he is not an outfield player). But by 'playing fair' did Agbonlahor do wrong? Staying on his feet certainly wasn't the winning play. Had Agbonlahor not avoided Van der Sar then the Dutchman would probably have been dismissed and Villa awarded a penalty with which to halve the visitors' 3-1 lead. Both in his deeds and subsequent words at Goodison Park, Steven Gerrard demonstrated that he was fully aware of the double reward that the mastery of such dark arts invariably produces.
Such deliberations are the consequence of a misguided rulebook. Not only is it flawed in so much as it rewards gamesmanship, but it is botched logically: how can, for instance, Carson be dismissed for denying a goalscoring opportunity when the penalty award meant that an even clearer goalscoring opportunity was still available?
The flip side - the refusal to reward attempts at 'fair play' - has become a terrible blight. In a season littered with p***-poor refereeing, no decision deserves to be castigated more than that of Keith Stroud in September's league match between Reading and Wigan when, to quote The Independent's match report, 'substitute Julius Aghahowa broke clear only to be put off his stride by a blatant trip outside the box by the keeper Marcus Hahnemann. The impetus, and opportunity, were soon lost - although Hahnemann was booked, no free-kick was awarded.'
Had Aghahowa crashed to the floor and Wigan secured an equaliser against their numerically-disadvantaged opponents then the Royals would currently be fourth-bottom rather than 12th and Wigan would be four places clear of the relegation zone.
Punished for his naivety, Aghahowa will no doubt know better next time. Or at least understand the rules better.
Fulham
It is just as well for Lawrie Sanchez that £10m of taxpayers' money is currently being wasted on an inquest into a fatal car crash in Paris ten years ago in which the one and only person to wear a seatbelt was the sole survivor else Mohamed Al Fayed might be asking why £25m of his own cash was seemingly wasted in the summer.
Having described the clash with Derby as 'a six-pointer' in his programme notes, Sanchez sought to depict the subsequent draw as league places gained. The booing which greeted the final whistle was a more accurate commentary. Derby deserved victory and confirmed Fulham's status as relegation candidates.
Having been originally put in charge on a caretaker basis, Sanchez's full-time appointment owed much to a distasteful win over Liverpool in early May when Rafa Benitez rested a host of first-teamers in premature preparation for the Champions League final. Since then, the Cottagers have only managed to beat second-bottom Bolton. It's a worse sequence of results than the no-wins-in-seven run that prompted the then non-distracted Al Fayed to sack Chris Coleman in April.
Reading
Probably the first side in Premier League history to score six goals in consecutive away matches and not collect a single point.
Officialdom
To reemploy F365's headline after ManYoo's win over Chelski last month: 'Yet Again, A Big Match Is Ruined By The Referee'.
Mark Clattenburg's handling of the Merseyside derby was so disastrous that this entire column could be devoted to its inadequacies - and the disgusting response of Rafa Benitez who shamelessly described it as 'faultless' and Joleon Lescott as a diver.
As with Mike Dean's performance at Old Trafford, it was the details of Clattenburg's horror show that really grated. Whereas Dean put his profession at risk - a phrase that is no exaggeration - by allowing John Terry to lay hands on him with impunity, Clattenburg's apparent heeding of Steven Gerrard's prompting has made referees a hostage to mass haranguing. So much for the adage that there is no point arguing with referees because they won't change their minds. Clattenburg is now fair game.
The decision to dismiss Tony Hibbert was technically correct, one of the few Clattenburg actually called correctly all afternoon. It would, though, be fascinating to read the explanation in his match report for Dirk Kuyt's booking after the Dutchman's impression of Superman flying backwards. For such challenges, a yellow card cannot be part of the equation. The player has either committed a two-footed challenge or he has not; he is either sent off or he is not. There is no available middle ground. Clattenburg's response was the equivalent of ordering a murderer to serve 100 hours of community service.
Graham Poll
As observed in The Thing's 'The Official Line' column for The Daily Mail this Saturday:
'Watch Out For...Mark Clattenburg at this weekend's Merseyside derby.
'Clattenburg has already controlled the Manchester and north London derbies successfully and has been proclaimed as England's best referee in the Official Line all season.'
How reassuring to learn that Graham's judgement remains as sharp as ever.
Phil Neville
The unexpected answer to England's goalkeeping crisis?
Steve Bruce
Made to look a fool by Alan Shearer. Which must be a bit like being nutmegged by Phil Neville.
Pete Gill
playing london derbies is often a lot harder than going elsewhere, especially in arsenal´s position as still the biggest club in the capital
