Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1
Arsenal didn't deserve to win at Sunderland.
And Berbatov's hat-trick against Liverpool was the best since Dennis Bergkamp's against Leicester.
The Stadium of Light was the stadium of mistakes on Saturday -and Rosicky's was just one of many blunders.
You could see that one coming. The bionic eye of the electronic TV camera takes you into the face of the penalty-taker. You can tell whether he's going to score. Not every time, but most of the time. Rosicky never looked confident because he hasn't scored a goal since the old King died. And I'm not talking about Elvis.
It was 74 minutes and 1-0 to Arsenal and a 24-carat penalty when Nasri was fouled in the box by Elmohamady. Fabregas has gone off with a hamstring after only 29 minutes, with Rosicky coming on. Rosicky blasted the penalty over the bar by inches and those inches cost Arsenal the game.
Song was off by then as well. Two yellows. His first yellow card was unlucky, the second a bodycheck after Malbranque had nutmegged him. Sometimes the player runs into you but Malbranque didn't really do that. Song was due a second yellow for persistent fouling anyway. Last season he was the first EPL player to get 10 yellows. This season Song is hunting the ball further up the field and therefore committing more strategic fouls
In the 95th minute, after the fourth official's board said there would be four minutes of injury time, Zenden clipped the ball forward, Elmohamady headed on into the box, Squillaci kicked the ball against Asamoah Gyan's body, Clichy hacked the loose ball against Koscieleny's leg, and it broke to Darren Bent, who buried a sharpish chance with aplomb. Of all the things Clichy could have done, he chose the worst option. He's been going backwards for two years.
Sagna admitted last week that Arsenal's defenders call in French, unless have to involve the goalkeeper, when they call in English. Is that a recipe for clean sheets? For winning trophies?
How do you stop a late goal like the Bent equaliser? By playing with eleven men, by creating scoring positions in the Sunderland box, by not playing with the handbrake on, by scoring your penalty for 2-0. There were many ways of winning that game.
When you concede, don't get frustrated and rant at the fourth official. You don't talk about respect and then push the fourth official. That's pathetic.
Wenger should be frustrated with Rosicky for missing the penalty, frustrated with his players for not creating chances beyond one good ball from Chamakh into Arshavin, who sent a half-chance over the bar.
Arshavin made a near-post run. Remember those ? I didn't think you would. A near-post run? A collector's item. Edu used to make them. Most Arsenal attackers stand on the other side of the defender. Adebayor learned that from Henry, his idol.
The Fabregas goal was an amazing fluke that you'll never see again.
Good pressing by Nasri had forced Richardson to pass the ball back to Anton Ferdinand, who was outsmarted by Fabregas, who gave him enough time, then accelerated as the defender was about to clear. Ferdinand kicked the ball against the raised leg of Fabregas and the ball looped in a fierce, flat arc over the keeper and under the crossbar and down into the back of the net. That rebound travelled 40 yards and had a perfect trajectory that will never be repeated. You can watch football for the next 50 years and never see the same rebound again.
But Arsenal did not build on that gift in 13 minutes, mainly because Sunderland didn't allow them to build on it. Onuoha and Bent missed two good chances. When Sunderland set a brisk tempo in the first half, Arsenal responded by fouling, fouling, fouling.
Face it : Arsenal did not deserve three points at Sunderland.
When Fabregas went off after 29 minutes, half the team went off. Arsenal can't play without Fabregas, as I've said here 75 times over the last four years.
Manchester United and Liverpool provided a dismal first half at a soaking wet Old Trafford.
Then a corner came in from Giggs in 42. Torres was holding Berbatov round the waist, and when the Spaniard let go, the Bulgarian headed his fifth goal in six games.
Second half, a Nani rocket hit the near post and rattled the fillings in Reina's back teeth and bounced out as far as the D.
Berbatov cushioned a Nani cross on his thigh and then hooked in a overhead kick for 2-0. Only the highest degree of skill allows such compact execution of an overhead kick. World class. Finest goal of the Premier League season so far.
The drama started five minutes later. Gerrard scored a penalty after Jonny Evans scythed down Torres. Soon after that John O'Shea brought down Torres in the D and the wall lined up. Last man on the wall was Darren Fletcher and Raul Meireles was outside him. At the crucial moment, and as Meireles pushed Fletcher and ran away, Fletcher indignantly moved towards his aggressor, Gerrard placed the free-kick through the space that Fletcher had vacated, giving Edwin van der Sar no chance and making it 2-2.
In 84, right back John O'Shea's cross was perfect and Berbatov's header was better than that.
Manchester United is that kind of football club, a place where spectacular things have happened since Denis Law and George Best.
Dimitar Berbatov's success is overdue but well-timed. Rooney is doing almost nothing this month.
Super-superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will never play with co-strikers who are as energetic and generous as Tevez and Rooney were when he scored 42 goals in season 2007-08.
Real Madrid's games these days involve adjusting to get the best out of the narcissistic £80 million man. Benzema-Higuain-Ronaldo was obviously not the formula and we could all see that after 20 minutes. Benzema was too static.
Di Maria-Higuian-Ronaldo was better in the win against Ajax.
At Real Sociedad on Saturday it was 0-0 at half time and the former Benfica winger Di Maria hit a right foot bender from the left flank to make it 1-0 in 52 . Griezmann whipped a free-kick towards the far post and veteran poacher Tamudo knocked the ball in with his thigh in 62.
A proper, competitive game of football with Sociedad making good positions and creating chances. Then Ronaldo's deflected free-kick gave Madrid the winner. After a lot of huffing and puffing, the galactico got his goal in 74.
With Cristiano it's : I'm gonna dribble and beat you and you and you, and then shoot. I'm the super-gladiator, so I have to score the goal.
That's not working because it's too one-dimensional. And Higuain is not like Rooney or Tevez ,who used to run towards Ronaldo to play a one-two. Higuain's body language says : If you want to dribble through the entire defence on your own, I'll stand here and watch.
Will Cristiano ever grow up? Maybe his game might mature if he got married. As long as he's single, it will be all about be me, me, me, me.
Very sad to see Lionel Messi leave the Atletico Madrid pitch on a stretcher in 93 minutes. Right back Ujfalusi got a red card for a high-impact tackle that scattered Messi and damaged his right ankle ligaments.
Messi had scored the first goal in a 2-1 victory, all the goals coming before half-time at the Vicente Calderon. An important away win against a team that's a lot better than Sunderland.
SUNDERLAND ( 4-5-1) : Mignolet; Onuoha (Zenden, 77), Bramble, Ferdinand, Richardson; Henderson, Elmohamady, Riveros (Gyan, 64), Malbranque (Reid, 86), Welbeck; Bent Subs not used Carson (gk), Bardsley, Colback, Da Silva
Yellow cards: Riveros, Malbranque, Welbeck.
ARSENAL (4-3-3) : Almunia; Sagna, Koscielny, Squillaci, Clichy; Song, Fabregas (Rosicky, 29), Wilshere; Nasri, Chamakh, Arshavin (Denilson, 58) Subs not used Fabianski (gk), Gibbs, Djourou, Eboué, Vela
Yellow card: Wilshere. Red card : Song (55).
Referee : Phil Dowd
Crowd: 38,950
Sep 19, 2010
Without Cesc, we cannot win a game.
Sigh.
Cesc’s injury is more serious than I thought and he will miss a few games.
Messi’s injury might be less serious than I thought but I don’t believe he only misses two weeks’ games. I think it will be more than that for such an ankle injury.