Monday, January 14, 2013

The Fifth Official, Weekend Action, Serie A, Hygiene Report

Happy Monday. We hope. The Fifth Official is here to "point the finger and laugh". Stoke's Jonathan Walters gets the treatment for his two own-goals against Chelsea. And, as always, The Fifth Official has his/her usual go at Arsenal.

We'll stay in England and talk about yesterday's action. Liverpool looked decent enough at times but you always knew United would run out winners. Suarez really never got going and although Sturridge scored thanks to De Gea, the new Liverpool striker fluffed his lines when presented with a chance to even things up a bit later. Henry Winter was at Old Trafford.


Over at the Emirates, everyone was talking about the high price of tickets. London is expensive. Very expensive. Is this news to anyone? On the pitch, the match was settled in the ninth minute thanks to Laurent Koscielny's tackle of Eden Dzeko. Was the Arsenal defender playing rugby? Attempting to save Dzeko from getting hit by a car? Regardless, Mike Dean made the right call. He also made the right call later when he sent off Kompany for his tackle on Wilshire. The City captain went in with two feet off the ground. Letter of the law = Red Card. Did he get the ball? Yes. Does it matter? No. Two feet off the ground = Red Card. End of story. Alan Hansen can bitch about it all he wants, the wanker. The fact is that the game has changed and (for better or worse) things like this rule have been implemented to protect players. Dominic Fifield was at the Emirates. Michael Cox talks tactics.

On Saturday, QPR and Spurs finished 0-0, Everton and Swansea finished 0-0, Norwich and Newcastle finished 0-0, and Chelsea won at Stoke 4-0. Here's a closer look at the results. And here's a full review. 


Unlike in Spain (Barcelona won, Real Madrid drew, more tomorrow from Phil and Sid), there is still a race for the title. Juventus now lead by only three after they were held by Parma. Lazio and Napoli are chasing the Old Lady and remain close after they both won. Here's a wrap and here's a table.

In terms of transfers, it's pretty quiet. Here's The Mill and here's your Plus One.

Rats at Old Trafford? Pink chicken at Swansea? Here's your Hygiene Report!

And that'll do it for this Monday. We'll go in depth tomorrow with our favorite scribes and hope the transfer action heats up. Until then...

Onward!!

-SSN

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