A Berbatov hat trick today could help me salvage some respect out of this weekend ... please ... - he's got to start scoring soon..
Yeah, every week I wonder about swapping him for Robbie Keane, or Van Persie for Adebayor. Van Penus scored saturday though, so maybe Berbatov will follow his lead and stick it in the net. Laughing at Spartak Chelsea each weekend should be boring by now, but it just gets better and better:
"Roman Abramovich surveyed all from a seat high in the Shed End. The club's owner eschewed the security of his executive box and bodyguards to sit, together with the director Eugene Tenenbaum, alongside supporters of all shapes and sizes, seemingly to try to more accurately gauge the mood [...] Abramovich buried his head in his hands when Shevchenko was substituted, smiled when a boy showed him his Ronaldinho No10 shirt and, after Drogba's sending-off, he witnessed the outpouring of anger and frustration. One fan threw down his shirt and delivered an expletive-fuelled tirade"
"Roman Abramovich surveyed all from a seat high in the Shed End. The club's owner eschewed the security of his executive box and bodyguards to sit, together with the director Eugene Tenenbaum, alongside supporters of all shapes and sizes, seemingly to try to more accurately gauge the mood [...] Abramovich buried his head in his hands when Shevchenko was substituted, smiled when a boy showed him his Ronaldinho No10 shirt and, after Drogba's sending-off, he witnessed the outpouring of anger and frustration. One fan threw down his shirt and delivered an expletive-fuelled tirade"
"Roman Abramovich surveyed all from a seat high in the Shed End. The club's owner eschewed the security of his executive box and bodyguards to sit, together with the director Eugene Tenenbaum, alongside supporters of all shapes and sizes, seemingly to try to more accurately gauge the mood [...] Abramovich buried his head in his hands when Shevchenko was substituted, smiled when a boy showed him his Ronaldinho No10 shirt and, after Drogba's sending-off, he witnessed the outpouring of anger and frustration. One fan threw down his shirt and delivered an expletive-fuelled tirade"
Chelski do looked look fucked. If the 'new' management team is responsible for most of the new signings it looks like they're going to stay shit.
I'm surprised Lampard's not on suicide watch - injured + Mourinho gone + Ballack back + club side in disarray + no England place =
VERY embarassed at Tottenhams performance and their celebrations at getting a draw at home to Villa.
Well, I agree that they should never have needed to come back from 4-1, but come on, it was a hell of a comeback ... at this point, Spurs need SOMETHING to celebrate
Damnit, i was rubbing my hands together with glee at the prospect of Spurs being mauled again. Celebrating non-victories is not a good look, i remember when they acted like they'd just won the Champions League when they scraped a last minute draw with Arsenal at the end of last season. Between this and the Portsmouth match i've been loving the Premiership recently...
Oh, and by the way, on the subject of the fantasy league, a big thanks to my striker Fernando Torres, for scoring a worthless (to me) hat trick in the Carling Cup on Wednesday, and then having no finish whatsoever against lousy Wigan on Saturday
... this is why I hate fantasy leagues, because even as my heart was being pulled from my body, crushed, stomped on and spit upon by Torres, a voice in my head said, "well, at least it was Torres, we have him in our keeper league!" ARRRRGGGHHH!!!
Keano came through with 26 points for me, though, and I actually moved up for the first time in a few weeks.
Still, Spurs should have beat Liverpool, they had every chance
Some good games this weekend. I was surprised that Spurs got themselves back into the match against Liverpool, especially with the poor form of Robinson. How many of his mistakes lead to goals? McClaren please[/b] take note.
Arsenal are so comfortable on the ball & going forward that they seem to forget that they also need to defend... but this over-confidence is bred from the fact, so far, that they know they can always out-score their opponents. And Theo Walcott is slowly starting to look very, very dangerous. I know Arsenal have a hugely talented squad made up of promising internationals, and I know it sounds partisan that I should be hyping up the 19 year-old Englishman, but damn, when he did the step-overs on the edge of the box and accelerates, nobody[/b] has the pace to stay with him. His finishing isn't there yet, but his pass made the winning goal for the TECHNICAL-goal-scoring-Beast that is Van Percy. Bergkamp's skill with Henry's pace. Well, not yet, but perhaps soon.
I really should take the plunge and swap Berbatov for Robbie Keane. He isn't a particularly fashionable player in that he doesn't have much raw pace, he's too short to really trouble defenders in the air, and he hasn't got an interesting foreign name, but if he was Brazilian maybe pundits would rave over him more - both his goals for the Spuds were great. Robbinho Keancha?
Some good games this weekend. I was surprised that Spurs got themselves back into the match against Liverpool, especially with the poor form of Robinson. How many of his mistakes lead to goals? McClaren please[/b] take note.
Arsenal are so comfortable on the ball & going forward that they seem to forget that they also need to defend... but this over-confidence is bred from the fact, so far, that they know they can always out-score their opponents. And Theo Walcott is slowly starting to look very, very dangerous. I know Arsenal have a hugely talented squad made up of promising internationals, and I know it sounds partisan that I should be hyping up the 19 year-old Englishman, but damn, when he did the step-overs on the edge of the box and accelerates, nobody[/b] has the pace to stay with him. His finishing isn't there yet, but his pass made the winning goal for the TECHNICAL-goal-scoring-Beast that is Van Percy. Bergkamp's skill with Henry's pace. Well, not yet, but perhaps soon.
I really should take the plunge and swap Berbatov for Robbie Keane. He isn't a particularly fashionable player in that he doesn't have much raw pace, he's too short to really trouble defenders in the air, and he hasn't got an interesting foreign name, but if he was Brazilian maybe pundits would rave over him more - both his goals for the Spuds were great. Robbinho Keancha?
Oh yeah, STILL TOP!
Arsenal are offering some extremely entertaining football this season and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching them play. However, games like the one at the weekend still make me believe in my prediction that they won't win the title this year. Sacrificing a two goal lead against Sunderland is never a good look , even if it is mainly down to the game becoming too easy.
Obviously I'm going to be biased in this matter with my own interests but I still call them not maintaining this till season's end.
Be interesting to see how far Rafa's stock falls with the Liverpool board if they fail to turn it around in the league as it's looking unlikely that Europe will offer it's normal redemption.
I ummed and ahhed about swapping Keane in for Anelka this weekend . Justification was that Keane doesn't always start. DOH. Can't pick a scouse striker as you never know who will be on the bench (Crouch seems to be off Rafa's radar now).
Great to see City up there but I can't help wondering what we would be like without Elano...
I think Benitez needs to re-assess his League tactics too: the rotation policy doesn't work when he sticks to it so doggedly. Torres is young and fit, and I'm sure he could play every game this season, and his form seems to be suggest Liverpool wouldn't drop points against crap teams if he got to start every game. Gerrard is starting to pull himself together, and his free-kicks are impressively consistent now.
Elano is a great find, so good that the BBC commentators on MOTD2 were giving him credit for scoring a hat-trick when the first was an own-goal. But then he is Brazilian. Robbinho Keancha would have scored three.
The big test for Liverpool comes next weekend. They aren`t in the best form going into that game.They were very lucky getting a draw yesterday.
Arsenal continue on and are good to watch - I still wonder what they will do when they lose a game. January and the African Nations might affect them also..
I was going to put Rooney in as he scored midweek and i fancy him to go on a run now..might drop some points to do so..
Keane has played every game in the Premier League - it`s the cup where he sometimes doesn`t start.
I have to applaud the quality of the Strut league - some knowledgable cats on here about REAL football.
Arsenal continue on and are good to watch - I still wonder what they will do when they lose a game. January and the African Nations might affect them also..
The game at Anfield will be huge for Arsenal. Win convincingly, and all the naysayers will likely pipe down a bit. Lose, and everyone will assume it was just a lucky start to the season and playing 90% of the Games around London contributed.
Not sure how much the African Cup will affect my team though. Adebayor & Toure are the only consistent African starters now, and I'm not sure how good Togo (Adebayor) even is. Although the Ivory Coast team (Toure') is probably gonna go far (if Drogba plays with them). I think by January, Eduardo could be a good fit for Adebayor as a starter, and the back line should be able to survive Toure' being out (that is if Gallas ever feels like getting healthy again).
The other two that stick in my mind are Rivaldo, when that bloke kicked the ball at him in the corner, and he went down like two cobras had simultaneously wedged themselves into his eye sockets, and Henry in the World Cup last year when he was clotheslined by an ghost just outside the area.
I can almost understand the WWF approach to soccer in Italy or anywhere where the leauge is bent by mafioso types and the results are pre-ordained anyway, but it's still for grown men to behave like this.
Who to blame? Usual scapegoat seems to be the players for being so-overpaid and over-hyped that they're now detached from reality, and think it's fine to act like children. In that case, surely it's the Manager's role to make men of them - such as dropping players who are out of form/not trying hard, hopefully making the children face up to their own responsibilities and culpability. It takes a strong (confident) manager to drop a 'big name' player, and the rest of the team will ultimately respect that (with any luck). The differences between Scholari dropping a healthy but listless Figo when necessary and Sven sticking by an un-healthy Beckham no-matter-what always springs to mind as a good example. Managers should similarly be the ones responsible for stamping out cheating - they have the power to take a player off the pitch who gets away with gamesmanship if the referee fails to spot it, but few managers do, thereby condoning the behaviour and setting a poor example. Brian Clough would sub any player of his that f*cked around on the pitch and let 'em know about it: Roy Keane's testimony that he was laid-out to the floor of the changing room by a furious Clough punch in the face is perhaps going a tad far, but seems like Keane has shown that this is the language he understands best anyway (hello Halaand). As much as I respect Wenger, he always seems to be un-sighted to incidents where his players are in the wrong, which is balls, while Lord Ferg has often been fairly honest in his appraisal of his own player's mis-behaviour. Right now, I hear that Milan are calling the Dida decision 'illogical'. They must have had their eyes closed after the second Celtic goal went in...
i think diving always intensifies during the world cup, but regardless it's pretty pathetic to see your favorite players going down like chumps.
until the day that FIFA allows for leagues to go back and penalize players after the match for diving, the players will always get the benefit of the doubt. which is sad.
That was an interesting weekend's football. I don't give much credence to the idea that top-flight games are fixed (for starters, with all their cash, there's no way Chelsea would ever lose), but the ref's decisions in the Mersey derby were more than suspect. Incompetent? Everton should have had two penalties. Both ignored. Kuyt should have been sent off, straight red, for his flying kick that was so far away from the ball, Phil Neville was able to dodge the leg-breaker. At least Rafa has shown the balls to have noticed what many fans have seen for a while now: Steven Gerrard is playing like poo. He shouldn't have been playing in any of the last three England games, and from what I've heard, he's been worse than useless for Liverpool of late. Van Persie injured his knee playing for Holland, so I had to pick a striker I thought would definately get a goal at the weekend. A player who's shown class, poise, and utter ruthlessness when given an opportunity. So I chose Adebayor, who took the ball past Jaskulianen and promptly fell over. And then rolled about for a bit on the grass trying to kick the ball. Luckily I also picked Agbonglahor to replace Dean Ashton (ankle? knee injury?), who was obviously showing the sort of form that guaranteed a goal against Man U should he get the merest sniff, the sort of form that should have seen him picked to play for England ahead of Rooney (no discipline, thinks he should play by divine right) or Michael Owen (should be an anagram of 'anonymous'). The Arse are still the best technical team in England by a mile, and are also showing that they can play ugly when they need to. Walcott is improving every week. Kolo Toure to out-score Darren Bent by the end of the season. Although it would be nice if Berbatov could get me a goal tonight.
Rooney is playing great at the minute, good to see him and Tevez getting their act together.
Replacing the rapist Van Persie with Berbatov, I'm guessing if anyone is gonna start a Spurs revival it will be him. Was a slow week anyhow, fair play to whoever it was with Elano as their captain.
Debated making Elano captain but stuck with Fabregas. Apparently he had great game but didn't generate any statistics. ffft!:
Also have parted company with the crocked Van Persie. Looked for another striker but I will never field a Man U player (despite Rooney and Ferdinand being the safest of choices) so went for Robbie Keane who seems on form. Rafa's strikers can't be guessed, so scousers are out. Dunno about Drogba's motiviation long-term. That kind of attitude gets you dropped...
Comments
Yep, a slow weekend for sure.
also
A Berbatov hat trick today could help me salvage some respect
out of this weekend ... please ... - he's got to start scoring soon..
Yeah, every week I wonder about swapping him for Robbie Keane, or Van Persie for Adebayor. Van Penus scored saturday though, so maybe Berbatov will follow his lead and stick it in the net.
Laughing at Spartak Chelsea each weekend should be boring by now, but it just gets better and better:
"Roman Abramovich surveyed all from a seat high in the Shed End. The club's owner eschewed the security of his executive box and bodyguards to sit, together with the director Eugene Tenenbaum, alongside supporters of all shapes and sizes, seemingly to try to more accurately gauge the mood [...] Abramovich buried his head in his hands when Shevchenko was substituted, smiled when a boy showed him his Ronaldinho No10 shirt and, after Drogba's sending-off, he witnessed the outpouring of anger and frustration. One fan threw down his shirt and delivered an expletive-fuelled tirade"
Chelski do looked look fucked. If the 'new' management team is responsible for most of the new signings it looks like they're going to stay shit.
I'm surprised Lampard's not on suicide watch - injured + Mourinho gone + Ballack back + club side in disarray + no England place =
Don`t know what it will take for Jol to drop Robinson - gonna cost him his job i fear..
Fuck Chelsea.
Well, I agree that they should never have needed to
come back from 4-1, but come on, it was a hell of a comeback
... at this point, Spurs need SOMETHING to celebrate
the fantasy league, a big thanks to my
striker Fernando Torres, for scoring a
worthless (to me) hat trick in the Carling
Cup on Wednesday, and then having no finish
whatsoever against lousy Wigan on Saturday
GET IN! Berbatov & Chimbonda on the score sheet, and I reclaim my rightful place as uber-fantasymanager-der-glockenspieler.
And yes, I will be ribbing my Spurs-supporting mate about the un-restrained hysteria of a draw at home to the mighty Villa.
GET IN. In you get. Get It Inneth.
EDIT: I just noticed Chimbonda was on the bench. D'oh.
Chimbonda wasn`t on the bench - I watched the game.
... this is why I hate fantasy leagues, because even
as my heart was being pulled from my body, crushed,
stomped on and spit upon by Torres, a voice in my head
said, "well, at least it was Torres, we have him in our
keeper league!" ARRRRGGGHHH!!!
Keano came through with 26 points for me, though, and I
actually moved up for the first time in a few weeks.
Still, Spurs should have beat Liverpool, they had every chance
Arsenal are so comfortable on the ball & going forward that they seem to forget that they also need to defend... but this over-confidence is bred from the fact, so far, that they know they can always out-score their opponents. And Theo Walcott is slowly starting to look very, very dangerous. I know Arsenal have a hugely talented squad made up of promising internationals, and I know it sounds partisan that I should be hyping up the 19 year-old Englishman, but damn, when he did the step-overs on the edge of the box and accelerates, nobody[/b] has the pace to stay with him. His finishing isn't there yet, but his pass made the winning goal for the TECHNICAL-goal-scoring-Beast that is Van Percy. Bergkamp's skill with Henry's pace. Well, not yet, but perhaps soon.
I really should take the plunge and swap Berbatov for Robbie Keane. He isn't a particularly fashionable player in that he doesn't have much raw pace, he's too short to really trouble defenders in the air, and he hasn't got an interesting foreign name, but if he was Brazilian maybe pundits would rave over him more - both his goals for the Spuds were great. Robbinho Keancha?
Oh yeah, STILL TOP!
Arsenal are offering some extremely entertaining football this season and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching them play. However, games like the one at the weekend still make me believe in my prediction that they won't win the title this year. Sacrificing a two goal lead against Sunderland is never a good look , even if it is mainly down to the game becoming too easy.
Obviously I'm going to be biased in this matter with my own interests but I still call them not maintaining this till season's end.
Be interesting to see how far Rafa's stock falls with the Liverpool board if they fail to turn it around in the league as it's looking unlikely that Europe will offer it's normal redemption.
Great to see City up there but I can't help wondering what we would be like without Elano...
I think Benitez needs to re-assess his League tactics too: the rotation policy doesn't work when he sticks to it so doggedly. Torres is young and fit, and I'm sure he could play every game this season, and his form seems to be suggest Liverpool wouldn't drop points against crap teams if he got to start every game.
Gerrard is starting to pull himself together, and his free-kicks are impressively consistent now.
Elano is a great find, so good that the BBC commentators on MOTD2 were giving him credit for scoring a hat-trick when the first was an own-goal. But then he is Brazilian. Robbinho Keancha would have scored three.
They aren`t in the best form going into that game.They were very lucky getting a draw yesterday.
Arsenal continue on and are good to watch - I still wonder what they will do when they lose a game. January and the African Nations might affect them also..
I was going to put Rooney in as he scored midweek and i fancy him to go on a run now..might drop some points to do so..
Keane has played every game in the Premier League - it`s the cup where he sometimes doesn`t start.
I have to applaud the quality of the Strut league - some knowledgable cats on here about REAL football.
The game at Anfield will be huge for Arsenal. Win convincingly, and all the naysayers will likely pipe down a bit. Lose, and everyone will assume it was just a lucky start to the season and playing 90% of the Games around London contributed.
Not sure how much the African Cup will affect my team though. Adebayor & Toure are the only consistent African starters now, and I'm not sure how good Togo (Adebayor) even is. Although the Ivory Coast team (Toure') is probably gonna go far (if Drogba plays with them). I think by January, Eduardo could be a good fit for Adebayor as a starter, and the back line should be able to survive Toure' being out (that is if Gallas ever feels like getting healthy again).
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_2795361,00.html
All the pundits I heard were expecting Celtic to get at least the Fan-less games for the next 2 matches. 25K is a drop in the bucket.
and the Oscar goes to:
Ha ha ha.
Serves the fucker right. I could watch that clip on loop for hours and never get tired of the two second delay between contact and reaction.
I can almost understand the WWF approach to soccer in Italy or anywhere where the leauge is bent by mafioso types and the results are pre-ordained anyway, but it's still
As much as I respect Wenger, he always seems to be un-sighted to incidents where his players are in the wrong, which is balls, while Lord Ferg has often been fairly honest in his appraisal of his own player's mis-behaviour. Right now, I hear that Milan are calling the Dida decision 'illogical'. They must have had their eyes closed after the second Celtic goal went in...
Yeah, I'm a Cloughie fan.
until the day that FIFA allows for leagues to go back and penalize players after the match for diving, the players will always get the benefit of the doubt. which is sad.
death to divers.
oh yeah....speaking of funny ass shit.
Birng back the good'ol days.
That was an interesting weekend's football. I don't give much credence to the idea that top-flight games are fixed (for starters, with all their cash, there's no way Chelsea would ever lose), but the ref's decisions in the Mersey derby were more than suspect. Incompetent? Everton should have had two penalties. Both ignored. Kuyt should have been sent off, straight red, for his flying kick that was so far away from the ball, Phil Neville was able to dodge the leg-breaker. At least Rafa has shown the balls to have noticed what many fans have seen for a while now: Steven Gerrard is playing like poo. He shouldn't have been playing in any of the last three England games, and from what I've heard, he's been worse than useless for Liverpool of late.
Van Persie injured his knee playing for Holland, so I had to pick a striker I thought would definately get a goal at the weekend. A player who's shown class, poise, and utter ruthlessness when given an opportunity. So I chose Adebayor, who took the ball past Jaskulianen and promptly fell over. And then rolled about for a bit on the grass trying to kick the ball. Luckily I also picked Agbonglahor to replace Dean Ashton (ankle? knee injury?), who was obviously showing the sort of form that guaranteed a goal against Man U should he get the merest sniff, the sort of form that should have seen him picked to play for England ahead of Rooney (no discipline, thinks he should play by divine right) or Michael Owen (should be an anagram of 'anonymous'). The Arse are still the best technical team in England by a mile, and are also showing that they can play ugly when they need to. Walcott is improving every week. Kolo Toure to out-score Darren Bent by the end of the season. Although it would be nice if Berbatov could get me a goal tonight.
Replacing the rapist Van Persie with Berbatov, I'm guessing if anyone is gonna start a Spurs revival it will be him. Was a slow week anyhow, fair play to whoever it was with Elano as their captain.
Also have parted company with the crocked Van Persie. Looked for another striker but I will never field a Man U player (despite Rooney and Ferdinand being the safest of choices) so went for Robbie Keane who seems on form. Rafa's strikers can't be guessed, so scousers are out. Dunno about Drogba's motiviation long-term. That kind of attitude gets you dropped...
you sound scouse.