Premiership round up - Week 7

Wigan v Chelsea - 3:1 - Blues suffer from Latics Acid (Ed. - Isn’t that 'lactic acid'? It's a play on words - you see, Readers, what I'm up against….). After 15 minutes an excellent header by Bramble put Wigan ahead. And they could have scored again using the same short corner followed by a cross tactic. Terry looked bemused, but 90 seconds into the 2nd half Drogba (recovered from the cramps that saw him off the field against Spurs) got his 100th Chelsea goal. Much Blue pressure ensued, then events took an unexpected turn. Cech was sent off for a clumsy trip on Rodallega (Cech now misses the next game v Liverpool) and Rodallega converted for Wigan to regain the lead. To cap it all Scharner made it 3 in extra time. History for Wigan - poor old Chelsea, turned over by one of the most unlikely teams (not as bad as ManU losing to Burnley, though). Wigan did well but again, a first class team revealed gaping holes in its defence.

Liverpool v Hull - 6:1 - Wonderful footwork and a great finish got the first goal for Liverpool (Torres, clinical stuff). Geovanni’s well-taken volley equalized 3 minutes later. Torres got going again and scored an even neater goal than his first to make it 2:1, then did it AGAIN (you'd think Hull might have seen him coming the third time). Adding insult to injury Gerrard curled in an improbable goal from near the sideline (Your Ear thinks he meant it, too). Liverpool had several more chances before Babel got their 5th goal. A freakish goal (Babel again) in extra time completed Hull’s misery.

Spurs v Burnley - 5:0 - Jensen denied Keane an early chance and Nugent (who would dearly love to score against a manager who paid £6m for him at Portsmouth but rarely played him) had a chance at the other end. Keane scored a penalty Jensen could not stop after Defoe was brought down in the box. Fletcher was wrongly denied a good goal for Burnley (given offside). Unbelievably, given his recent form, Defoe missed a sitter, but Jenas scored Spurs' second goal with a good shot. Defoe went off (dislocated fingers) then Keane put away a good goal, scooping it into the back of the net. He got his hat-trick shortly after, and another shortly after that. And he could have had a couple more, but four will do, I suppose. Easy-peasy on the day for Spurs. It had been 31 years since Spurs last met Burnley in a league game - unfortunately for Burnley (given the score) they only have a few months at best to prepare for the return. Alan Hanson commented that ‘Burnley’s defence was so poor it made Hull’s look solid’.

Stoke v Man Utd - 0:2 - Goal-less, but all United for a long half (for Stoke). Giggs came on for Nani in the 2nd half and everything clicked into place for ManU. Berbatov scored an easy goal from Giggs' precision pass and O'Shea scored from Giggs’ free kick. Giggs nearly scored himself but missed narrowly. Workmanlike stuff from United and a great stint by their 35-year old, top man, Giggs. If only he’d played for England.

Birmingham v Bolton - 1:2 - Cohen got an easy goal on Bolton's first opportunity. Fahey hit the bar for Birmingham but it ricocheted out. Both sides missed a chances. Kevin Phillips looked his old self when he came on as a sub and equalized. A foul on Davies a minute later gave Bolton the winner. Scrappy game, all round.

Blackburn v Aston Villa - 2:1 - Agbonlahor scored in the first 3 minutes (that’s 5 in 5) making it look easy. Samba equalized 21 minutes later and could have scored again. Grella was unlucky to receive a second yellow card to be sent off, but Blackburn pressed on and were awarded a dubious penalty (handball) to take the game (Dunn, 89th minute). O'Neil not best pleased, to say the least. Happy Sam for once, you'd think, but no smiles.

Fulham v Arsenal - 0:1 - Arshavin returned for Arsenal but it was Mannone, the Gunner's keeper who was busiest to begin with, making two good saves within seconds of each other. Fulham looked the likelier side in the first half but Van Persie scored early in the second to give the Gunners the lead. Arsenal upped the pace and pressed Fulham hard, but Fulham nearly scored on a counter attack, and then again. Fulham refused to cave in and Arsenal did well to stay in front to the end.

Portsmouth v Everton - 0:1 - Portsmouth's new signing, Dindane (an Ivory Coast player) looked sharp and almost scored but instead Saha got his 7th of the season to put Everton ahead. Everton's keeper did well to keep them ahead with a reaction save with his left shoulder. Two Portsmouth players tripped each other, no Everton players involved, and both looked surprised not to get a penalty (a bit harsh, but it made me smile). That's seven defeats in a row for Portsmouth (yes, their record has just worsened), but they played well, were on the wrong end of some cruel football luck, and were applauded off the pitch by the home supporters.

Sunderland v Wolves - 5:2 – After 9 minutes Bent scored from what the pundits considered to be a bad penalty decision to give Sunderland the lead. Wolves thought they should have had two penalties of their own but had no luck with the referee (not that you should need luck with the ref, but still…). Instead Bent got a second penalty, which he allowed Jones to take and score. Later Bent said he had had ‘a telling off from the gaffer’ for his unselfish act (Steve Bruce commented “thankfully he [Jones] scored so it wasn't an issue, but if he hadn't scored it would have been all sorts of serious issue”). Under the circumstances I think we can translate ‘a telling off’ as ‘a bollicking’, but Bent seems to have found his niche in Sunderland. Early in the 2nd half Wolves got a goal back (o/g, Mensah, bounced in-off, but deserved). Following this Wolves (Doyle) scored one of the strangest goals of the season following a short range (2-3 yards) free kick given for what was judged to be a pass back to the Sunderland goalkeeper (which he was forced to save). Then Jones scored a very good long range drive into the bottom corner of the net (I refuse to use the words ‘back of the net’ like Hanson). Shortly after Sunderland got a free header to make it 4 (Turner). Bent got another in extra time (Mancienne, o/g, deflected) to make it 5 overall. Hard to know what to make of this game - a big score but Wolves looked good for the ticket money, nonetheless. Your Ear, for one, regrets that Spurs allowed Bent to leave, or could not persuade him to stay.

Man City v West Ham - 3:1 - West Ham, lacking a strong attack, tried to sit back and absorb City pressure. Not a good idea – Tevez, once a favourite son of the Hammers, soon scored. Not so favourite now, methinks, although the Hammers continue to cheer for him. Then he hit the bar and they stopped, for a while at least, allowing the City fans to cheer Tevez on instead. The game more or less went to sleep before Diamanti, totally against the run of play, managed to whack the ball in-off against an unsuspecting Carlton Cole and, almost beyond belief, West Ham were level. What a strange game football can be. Your Ear would not have wanted to be Mark Hughes at that point - City had done everything right and more, and then the Hammers got the goal back, and got right back into the game. Petrov sorted them out, scoring City's second goal after about half an hour. City got their third goal (Tevez) about 30 minutes into the second half despite the fact that West Ham had had as many opportunities. City brought on £18m Paraguayan, Roque Santa Cruz for his debut with 10 minutes to play, replacing Wright-Phillips. Several good-looking City moves went begging and the game ended with City on the up. Nevertheless, Your Ear is not particularly concerned for West Ham's Premiership future, they have come up against a few tough teams so far and have only played at home twice. However, there might be some low level alarm bells ringing in the West Ham boardroom, particularly concerning the lack of goals for.
The Sun Goes Down - Sol parts company with Notts County after one just game - he's a funny guy. There was some to-ing and fro-ing in terms of how much players can be payed in relation to a club's overall finances, but in the end Sol left, apparently, when he realized he really was buying into a 5 year project and that he was a very large catfish in this particularly small pond. Strange he could not see that before. Anyway, Campbell left by mutual consent, and the club thoughtfully issued a statement to the effect that any fan who'd bought a Notts' shirt and had 'Campbell' printed on the back would be offered a voucher for a replacement shirt. They should have gone for sponsorship and offered money for adding “’s Soups”. But if I were a fan I think I'd leave the next shirt blank, or perhaps inscribe it with ‘No Bill Posters’. On the other hand, William would probably last longer than Campbell.

The Ear – all the news that's fit to spout.