Premier League 2012/13

[Springsteen]

Good game to watch between Chelsea and Reading. Chelsea took the lead from a Lampard penalty after Hazard had been tripped. But Reading didn't lie down despite a strong start generally by Chelsea and got rewarded by way of a 2-1 half time lead with goals from Pogbrebniak and Guthrie, the second from a free kick which Cech really should have done better with. Gary Cahill equalised in the second half with a shot from distance which the keeper Federici should have done better with. Chelsea began then to have more of the game and got the lead for the second time when Torres tapped in an Ashley Cole centre. They then made the points safe in the final minute when Reading were caught out from a corner, Chelsea broke from it and found themselves three on one with Adam Federici upfield. Hazard could have scored his first goal for Chelsea but unselfishly squared it to Ivanovic.

Overall a good win for Chelsea, 4-2 flatters them because Reading put a lot of effort in, but this league can be harsh like that sometimes. A three points Chelsea will be happy enough with as it gives them top of the table. Hazard again looked good.

Very entertaining fixture.

 

[Springsteen]

Swansea hammer West Ham 3-0 to retake top spot in the Premier League. 8 goals scored, 0 conceded.

We play Fulham at 3pm, hopefully it's at least better than last week, at least it's a home game. In come Rafael, Anderson, Young and Van Persie. Out go Rooney, Scholes and Nani. Valencia switches back to right wing. No surprise to see Rooney and Nani dropped (Rooney on the bench, Nani dropped completely), both were shit on Monday. Scholes is on the bench because the central midfield of Cleverly and Anderson has fresh energy which we might need more of today.

If you're expecting to see Sunderland on Match Of the Day tonight, it's off. Waterlogged pitch.

 

[Springsteen]

Won 3-2 in the end. Went behind to an early Duff strike after sloppy marking from a free kick. Van Persie scored a brilliant volley to draw us level and from then on in the half it was pretty much all us. Kagawa scored hist first goal at Old Trafford to make it 2-1. Rafael had a goal disallowed owing to offside before he headed us into a 3-1 half time lead. And that flattered Fulham. In the second half we looked comfortable but became unstuck when a mixup form a cross betrween De Gea and Vidic caused the centre half to back heel the ball into his own net. Fulham then came forward again with nothing to lose but in the end just couldn't get that equaliser, despite forcing three good saves from De Gea. In stoppage time Rooney picked up a nasty looking deep gash after an accidental kick from Hugo Rodallega.

In the end a win where we looked great going forward, less so at the back which needs to be rectified quickly. Luckily Evans was on the bench today so he might be back next week. In the end 3-2 is about a fair result. Fulham never gave up as we knew they wouldn't.

In other results, Everton carry on from last week with a 3-1 away win at Villa Park, Norwich draw 1-1 with QPR, Wigan get a 2-0 away win at Southampton and Spurs draw 1-1 at home to West Brom.

Swansea are still top.

EDIT : Rooney out for 4 weeks with that gash he picked up. Did look a bad one.

 

[Springsteen]

0-0 between Stoke and Arsenal. pretty boring game to watch overall. Arsenal dominated much of the game in terms of chances and possession, but lacked a lot of creativity and decision making. it's just not quite happening for Arsenal at the moment. It should do but they really need to sell Gervinho, he's totally shit. In his time in England I've never actually seen him play well. People were saying he's the next Pires. They were never in danger of losing, Stoke didn't really create anything. They can't pass the ball that well so that style doesn't suit them. The only real positive both can take out of the game is that they kept a clean sheet.

Next up, Liverpool vs Man City. I'm not sure who I want to win. A City win keeps Liverpool bottom which I find funny, but a Liverpool win means City drop points early, considering Liverpool are no threat to the Title race whatsoever, that would be perfectly beneficial.

 

[Springsteen]

2-2 in the end. A good game to watch and positives for both to take out of the game really. City started off better and Tevez was unfortunate to not score from the angle, he created it brilliantly. But Liverpool took the lead through Skrtel from a corner, thumping header and at that time Liverpool did deserve to lead. Bad defending led to City's equaliser from Yaya Toure before Suarez hit a brilliant free kick to restore the lead and from then until City's equaliser looked comfortable enough, but then Skrtel hit a dreadful backpass to gift Carlos Tevez the equaliser.

Fair result I thought overall.

 

[CaptainTurtles]

Swansea hammer West Ham 3-0 to retake top spot in the Premier League. 8 goals scored, 0 conceded.

:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

 

[Springsteen]

West Ham do to Fulham what Swansea did to them and win 3-0. Carroll was good on his debut and had a hand in the opener for Nolan (they'll do well together as well), and subsequent goals from Reid and Taylor gave West Ham their second win at home.

Spurs are disappointing again as they draw 1-1 at home to Norwich, also having Tom Huddlestone sent off which I think might be frustration for not getting his move away from Spurs.

Swansea and Sunderland share the points in a 2-2, Steven Fletcher scored twice for Sunderland. Same scoreline between Wigan and Stoke.

West Brom end Everton's unbeaten streak and do a nice double over Merseyside clubs with a 2-0 home win over Everton.

And Man City made hard work of beating QPR 3-1. Toure, Tevez and Dzeko scored City's goals which takes them fourth.

 

[Springsteen]

What a game at St Mary's between Southampton and Man United. 3-2 in the end to us with a late goal. Southampton scored the first with a header from Ricky Lambert, emphasizing the problems that would go on to haunt us with the height difference. We equalised not long after with a goal from Robin Van Persie, chested down and finished well. In the second half it seemed the game would be ours but Morgan Schneiderling headed Southampton into a 2-1 lead, again via a slip from Evra, on the turf. It seemed then it would be Southampton's day especially when Van Persie fluffed a penalty at 2-1, Pirlo it wasn't. But then in the 85th minute Van Persie made up for it with a close range finish after Rio Ferdinand's deflected header struck the post. Van Persie scored his first ever hat trick for us with a header from a Nani corner (yeah, we scored off a corner, lol). A huge 3 points, even at this stage.

Arsenal also beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield with goals from Podolski and Cazorla, the second after a dreadful error from Reina, who has had a poor week. It's always fun to watch Liverpool fail.

 

[Springsteen]

We beat Wigan 4-0 at home to go second. Took until the second half to open the scoring but before it Hernandez squandered an early penalty. The decision looked slightly questionable. Scholes opened the scoring after some great work from Nani. The game was made safe when Hernandez converted a ball across from Buttner who had a fantastic full debut. Buttner himself scored his first ever goal for us when he beat 3 men and finished smartly. Patrice Evra might find it hard to get back in. Nick Powell also appearing for the first time in the league finished really well to round off a good day of scoring.

The reason we're second and not top is because Chelsea remained unbeaten with a 0-0 draw away at QPR. The handshake between Ferdinand/Terry/Cole inevitably didn't happen.

Arsenal continued their unbeaten start with a comprehensive 6-1 home win over Southampton.

Man City could only draw away at Stoke which is a good result obviously.

Dimitar Berbatov scored his first two goals for Fulham in a 2-0 home win over West Brom.

Aston Villa manage to get a win at home to Swansea.

And early o n Norwich and West Ham shared the points in a fairly uneventful 0-0 draw.

 

[Zorak]

We beat Wigan 4-0 at home to go second. Took until the second half to open the scoring but before it Hernandez squandered an early penalty. The decision looked slightly questionable. Scholes opened the scoring after some great work from Nani. The game was made safe when Hernandez converted a ball across from Buttner who had a fantastic full debut. Buttner himself scored his first ever goal for us when he beat 3 men and finished smartly. Patrice Evra might find it hard to get back in. Nick Powell also appearing for the first time in the league finished really well to round off a good day of scoring.

You fail to mention anything about Welbeck

 

[Springsteen]

There wasn't much contact. That moaning cunt can fuck off though, the penalty was saved.

I'd like to retract my Southampton statement. I know they've had to play us, City and Arsenal, but they look absolutely hopeless.

 

[Springsteen]

Cracking match between Everton and Newcastle. Ended 2-2 but it's the story of a fifth goal that wasn't that will fill the morning back pages, and rightly so because Victor Anichebe's header was clearly at least a yard over the line, yet the goal was not given. Everton were livid. Rightfully so. They took the lead deservedly in the first half through Leighton Baines. Newcastle equalised early in the second half through the substitute Demba Ba with virtually his first touch. Then the first controversy when Marouane Fellaini was called offside wrongly. But that's marginal and can be excused. What can't be is the fact that Everton were denied a second goal through the header from Anichebe which quite clearly crossed the line. The debate will rage on again because of this but in 2012 for football not to have the technology to tell the match officials that the ball crossed the line is once again pathetic. Anyway Everton seemingly won it in the 87th minute through Anichebe (ironically) with a neat finish. But Newcastle never gave in and Ba equalised a minute later. In the end a draw Newcastle will certainly take given the luck they got. A really good advert for the Premier League, less so for technology.

 

[Springsteen]

We beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield for the first time since 2007. The first half was dominated by Liverpool, but they didn't score and were reduced to ten men when Jonjo Shelvey went in two footed on Evans, there could be no argument. In the second half they did through Gerrard shortly after half time. But then we came storming back and Rafael curled a beautiful shot into the top corner. After that Suarez dived for a epnalty, but Mark Halsey saw sense and played on. We got a penalty 15 minutes from time when Antonio Valencia's run was stopped by Glen Johnson. Thanks to an injury picked up by Agger the penalty didn't get taken for another four minutes, but Van Persie dispatched it well enough. From then on we held out stoutly and took the 3 points. We weren't at our best, but when you have a relegation threatened team who see this as their cup final, any win is welcome.

 

[Springsteen]

Lost 2-3 at home to Spurs. First half this result would have looked flattering for us, as they went 2-0 up through Vertongen and Bale. Three goals in the space of 140 seconds in the second half settled the game. Nani pulled one back before Dempsey tapped in a third for Spurs. Kagawa pulled another back and from then Spurs defended what they had, and despite having 88% possession in the second half and a number of chances, we just could not score that third. If we got it we'd have won that, as it was we lost. Spurs came, they attacked, they exploited, they defended. they won. I feel in the end we deserved at least a point, but the first half performance wasn't good enough.

 

[Springsteen]

Got back to winning ways in grand fashion with a 3-0 away win at Newcastle, an important win considering going into it we were 7 points off the top. A dominant opening 20 minutes was rewarded with two goals from unlikely sources, and more rarely, two corners. The first was a Jonny Evans header from a Robin Van Persie corner which gave us a deserved lead. Even more surprising was Patrice Evra's first goal for nearly two years from a Wayne Rooney corner. After that Newcastle came into it a lot more and ended the first half strongly. Into the second and they thought they had scored when a Pappis Cisse header appeared at first glance to have crossed the line despite the efforts of De Gea. However as it turned out the whole of the ball didn't cross the line, Darren Cann made a magnificent decision with all that's written about officials making those mistakes. At 2-0 Newcastle were very much in it, but Tom Cleverley's curling shot from 25 yards (it really did look like a shot) wrapped up the points. After that the game kinda fizzled out. But winning was the most important thing and that was certainly achieved. Up to second now.

 

[Springsteen]

Won a topsy turvy game against Stoke in a controllled manner. The moral of the story for Stoke is to take your chances when you have them, especially at Old Trafford. They did go in front after a Charlie Adam free kick was headed in by Rooney for an own goal, and at that point deserved it. They could have gone further ahead and perhaps should when Jon Walters had a fabulous chance when one on one with De Gea, however the Spanish goalkeeper saved. Rooney then put the ball into the right net after a Van Persie cross. The Dutchman switched roles just before half time to score his eighth goal for us. Stoke's half time team talk would have been to remain tight in the early stages of the second half, however one minute into it Danny Welbeck headed us 3-1 in front. Michael Kightly accepted the rather kind invitation to walk through our defence to make the scoreline a little more shaky. However Rooney scored his 200th club goal of his career after a mixup in the Stoke box from a corner. In the end we saw the game out well, defensively the issues are still there, but attacking wise we look fantastic. There's never a dull game with us.

 

[Springsteen]

Beat Chelsea for the first time since 2002 at Stamford Bridge. A controversial game in a few ways. Robin Van Persie hit the post in the fourth minute which led to an own goal from David "Playstation" Luiz. Van Persie made sure he won his first goalscorer bet with a sharp finish in the 12th. Chelsea came back into it when Mata scored a great free kick and should have added a second before half time. Ge Gea had a great game again. Fuck the haters. Ramires deservedly equalised in the 53rd minute after some sloppy defending. Then Ivanovic was sent off for denying Ashley Young a clear goalscoring opportunity which certainly looked the right decision. Torres then saw a second yellow shown from a dive. It looked harsh because there appeared to be contact from Evans, but in my estimation Torres made the contact himself. However the reaction of the media absolutely disgusts me. They are the first people to jump all over La Liga Spanish players when they dive. A Spanish player gets booked for diving in the Premier League, no way a dive. Hernandez looked slightly offside when he tapped home the winner. However there was an offside in the 2011 Champions League quarter final which Hernandez was denied, so that's that squared up. We deserved to win overall. Chelsea deserved to lose because of their racist fans. Who throw things at stewards.

Next game.....Chelsea, away.

 

[Springsteen]

Beat Arsenal 2-1 at Old Trafford to take top spot. Van Persie inevitably scored against his former side as early as the second minute. and inevitably didn't celebrate. From then on we dominated the first half and should have ended it more than 1-0 up. A great chance to do that was with Rooney's penalty in the 45th minute after Ashley Young's cross struck the hand of Santi Cazorla. But the striker proceeded to hammer the penalty wide. In the second half Arsenal started better but lack of testing De Gea cost them, and when Patrice Evra headed it in, the game was effectively won. Jack Wilshere saw red for a second yellow shortly after for which there were no possible arguments. After this the game fizzled out and it certainly lacked the feel of a Manchester United/Arsenal game. Santi Cazorla's stunning consolation in the 94th minute was just that, consolation. Don't let the scoreline fool you, Arsenal were never in this game. As comfortable a win as we'll have this season.

 

[Springsteen]

Another 3-2 win. Another win after being behind. Only the eighth time this season we've had to come from behind and win. Only. Nevertheless when it happens it's exciting because it's never dull, and it's been the story of our season. Defensively it's poor but we have been the best team attacking wise this season. After a dull first half where we created little but dominated possession we found ourselves 1-0 behind thanks to a cracking finish from Andreas Weimann. The Austrian then doubled Villa's lead early in the second half from close range. It was then that Villa's ability to hold onto this lead came into question and after Hernandez ran through and converted Scholes's through ball, it became an even bigger question. The same player appeared to have scored the equaliser when he flashed the ball across into the net, however the ball went in from Ron Vlaar so will more than likely go down as his own goal. Hernandez then made sure he made the goal his when he headed in Van Persie's free kick. A great game to watch, an entertaining team to watch. It's certainly heart attack worthy at times, but it's never ever dull. A handy 4 point lead until at least tomorrow, hopefully we can be given favours. I predicted a straight 18 point haul after the Chelsea game for our games before the Man City away game. This win, and the one against Arsenal, means we are well on the way.

 

[Springsteen]

After a couple of aberrations (one mattered, one didn't) back to winning ways with a 3-1 win at home to QPR. A fairly lethargic first half performance was brightened up by two lads not too far away from where I was sat thinking that Young's shot late on in the half had gone in, rather than heading wide (which it did). Many laughs were had. In the second half QPR saw fit to score a goal to befit their performance (actually nice and compact) when Keiron Dyer's cross was parried to Jamie Mackie, who scored. I don't know what I found more shocking; QPR taking the lead or Dyer actually doing something.

Inevitably the lead didn't last long. Jonny Evans headed in from a corner. Soon after a Wayne Rooney cross was headed in from Darren Fletcher. A goal I'm delighted to see him score given his problems with his bowel. Soon after that a superb Anderson run was complimented by a Hernandez goal. And that turned out to be that.

With a watching Harry Redknapp in the stands he could be forgiven for thinking that QPR play as well as they did here (even in defeat) when they don't. But they could with the right management.

As for us, a good enough performance to win on this day. Anderson and Hernandez did well when they came on, especially Anderson, who was so energetic. Young's performance was frankly shit to go with his performance from last week. But overall plenty of positives generally.