Here's the weekend in a neatly summarised format, and thanks to Blackpool, Aston Villa and Tottenham for ensuring I got a laughable two out of nine for my Premier League predictions:
Match of the Weekend: Manchester United
2 Manchester City 1
Entertaining and full of event, it saw both City proving themselves as more of a force within the Premier League, yet saw them almost definitely fall out of the running for the title this season. United didn't start particularly well, and if David Silva had stuck away a brilliant early chance it could have been a vastly different story. But the in-form Nani soon put United ahead, and even though Silva equalised with a fortuitous goal, United looked as though they could pull ahead and they did through Wayne Rooney's wonder goal. A vastly entertaining derby, and one with huge implications for the title run-in. Rooney may have just put the 'noisy' neighbours out of it with eight points now separating first placed United and third placed City, leaving Arsenal as the sole challengers to Sir Alex Ferguson's side.
Hero of the Weekend: Scott Parker
Parker's West Ham team-mates have been unapologetic in their appraisal of their captain's input to their fine comeback at West Brom this weekend. The Hammers were awful in the first half and were rightly three-nil down at the interval, but a pep talk from Parker inspired the side and they came to draw three-three, with a Demba Ba double and a Carlton Cole strike. Any football follower will know West Ham have been slated this season, but Parker is the only one to have escaped with no criticism and his influence at Upton Park was clear to see on Saturday. Keeping him during the January transfer window may just see West Ham stay in the Premier League this season.
Villain of the Weekend: Everton
I've decided to put them all in together after their performance at Bolton yesterday. The Toffees are inconsistent at the best of times but this season has seen them hit new highs and lows, with the two-nil defeat to the Trotters being one of the lows. They struggled to put their passes together with any fluidity and the creativity seen in the 5-3 defeat of Blackpool last week was non-existent. David Moyes has said he was 'despondent' at the final whistle and captain Phil Neville has said he believes the side are now in a 'dogfight'. Their quality should see them stay in the league, but this looks like it could be another year of what might have been as Everton's league rivals continue to improve around them.
Pause for Thought - Are City now out of the Title Reckoning?
Yes, to be putting it bluntly. To have had any real aspirations of claiming the Premier League title, they needed to send out a message at Old Trafford that told their rivals they wanted it. But despite putting in a good performance, they've come away with a defeat and are now eight points of the pace. But it doesn't seem like that's what Roberto Mancini was really aiming for anyway. There has been no real buzz around City challenging for top spot this season, they seem more content with claiming Champions League football after their Spurs disappointment last term. They should now get into Europe's top competition, which is a fine accomplishment, but they seemed to leave United, Arsenal and Chelsea to fight over the title. Now with Chelsea out of it and themselves joining the Londoners, it seems the Gunners are the only ones who can stop the Red Devils.
United are definitely on a charge at the moment, largely thanks to this moment of magic from Wayne Rooney. More of this for England please mate. A quick word for Pompey; brilliant result at Doncaster this weekend, Ricardo Rocha needs to be playing every week as our only defender with some nous. But for now, let's enjoy Rooney at his best (at about 1.38 in, ignoring Barton's analysis).
Play Up Pompey.
NWR
No comments:
Post a Comment