An Eventful Premier League Weekend

This past weekend was filled with disappointment and excitement for the 20 teams that played. Manchester United lost 3-1 to Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea continued their winning ways and Liverpool couldn't defeat Manchester City. However, the true highlight of these past two days has been revolving around Aston Villa and Tottenham; both clubs that, as of late, have been in "slump" mode. Aston Villa have simply "kissing their sister" for quite some time now and Tottenham hasn't been consistent. Fortunately, both sides were able to get huge wins heading into the tougher part of the season. Tottenham's win over Wigan Athletic will give them that much needed confidence for Redknapp and Villa's win over Burnley will give O'Neill's side a boost before their game this Wednesday in the FA Cup against Crystal Palace. (To the right is a picture of Aston Villa and Tottenham from last season.)
Photo Credit: Ben Sutherland

Remaining Results from the weekend:
Arsenal 2 - 0 Sunderland
West Ham United 3 - 0 Hull City
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 - 2 Chelsea
Portsmouth 1 - 2 Stoke City
Blackburn Rovers 3 - 0 Bolton Wanderers
Fulham 2 - 1 Birmingham

Cleat of the post: Hummel 6.2 Concept.

The Usual and a New Spin

As always, this weekend was packed with games in the EPL with really no surprises in any of the usuual results. Fortunately for league chasers, Man U and Arsenal, Chelsea was only able to gain one point at St. Andrews against Birmingham while both "chasers" were able to gain valuable results; Man U won 3-1 over Hull today with Rooney being the hero and Arsenal gained a clean-sheet with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
In addition to my write-ups for each post, I will now also be adding "the cleat of the post" for each post. It will feature a new/ redesigned cleat that has either been an attention grabber or a cleat that is yet to be released on the market. Furthermore, for those interested the best place to check for complete and thorough reviews of new cleats is at Footy Boots or Eurosport.

Cleat of the post: Nike Total 90 Laser III

Excitement rises as the season winds down

For many of us, yesterday's Liverpool game certainly stirred things up. Not only was Liverpool able to gain the three necessary points against Fulham in a 1-0 win, but they were also able to reclaim their position atop the table. Certainly, this put lots of pressure on Man U to win their game today because if they did not, then even with a tie they would be trailing behind Liverpool, by at best, 1 point.
Fortunately, Man U was able to beat 5th place Villa 2-0 and reclaim 1st. However, they are only 1 point ahead. While Liverpool has continued their fabulous form, Man United has only regained it and once can only hope that things will stay with this. But as always, their are variables in this "equation." Things to keep in mind:
1. there are 8 games remaining which means that there are 24 points up for grabs.
2. Man U will not play Chelsea, Liverpool, or Villa again.
3. The remaining games for Liverpool and Chelsea are fairly easy except for Arsenal - all 3 teams are yet to play their final matches against Wenger's side.
4. All teams in contention are very close in points earned.

As we can see, the road to the League title will be very tough and demanding, but if Man U regains its excellent form and consistency then they will once again win.

Need for some major updates

Sorry to any of my followers for not giving updates.
In the past week or so, Manchester United have fallen in form; they have lost to Liverpool and Fulham, 4-1 and 2-0, respectively. In both these games, Man U has been awarded red cards on behalf of Vidic against Liverpool and Rooney against Fulham. Obviously, the cards have not helped them. Furthermore, because of these two losses, Man U is now only 1 point ahead of now 2nd place Liverpool (65 v 64).

Unlike Man U, Liverpool have recently been doing amazingly well. In their past two games against Man U and Villa, they have scored a total, 9 goals and only given up 1. Congrats got to them and head coach Benitez.

As for Hiddink's Blues, things looked god, at first. On March 15th, they played Man City and gained a much needed win over them. However, this past Saturday was quite bleak for them; they fell 1-0 to the Hotspur's. With only gaining three points in two games this meant that they would not only drop down to third place, but also be three points behind Liverpool and four behind Man U.

With only 9 games remaining for Man U and 8 for Liverpool and Chelsea, one can hope that Man U returns to their prior, excellent form and ride out the season to victory and hopefully a first place finish in the Champions League.

Espanyol Upsets Barcelona and more...

In the Barcelon, Espanyol derby match at Camp Nou, a major upset took place. First place Barcelona lost to 18th place Espanyol, 2-1. Iván De la Peña would score two for the visitors and Toure would respond to the two 50th minute goals with one for himself in the 60th. Although Barcelona may have lost to a much weaker team, they are still able to remain in first place, but they are now only 7 points ahead of Real Madrid. As for Espanyol, not much really changed for them besides their pride and happiness for being able to defeat an extremely talented team with superstars in just about every position.

Today, Man U further extended their lead with a win over the Rovers. At half-time, the score was level at 1, but at the 60th minute a penalty was given up by the Rovers and resulted in Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the pk. If Man U continues to just barely get wins, it is going to be disastrous fr them later on in the season and could possibly lead to Liverpool wining the league which I know, I don't want to happen.

Today, Hiddink had his first game as Chelsea manager which in fact proved to be nicely for him. Although the team may not have played the most beautiful soccer, they got what they really needed to keep themselves in the race for the title; a win. Not only did they get the win, but they also ended Aston Villa's 13 game undefeated streak. Anelka was the one to be congratulated for scoring about 20 minutes into the game. Hopefully, we will see a change in Chelsea's performances and possible success for them and new manager Hiddink. (Chelsea 1 - 0 Aston Villa)

Other scores in England - no matter what the result, everyone stayed in the same position in the table:
Bolton 2 - 1 West Ham
Middlesbrough 0 - 0 Wigan
Stoke 2 - 2 Portsmouth
Arsenal 0 - 0 Sunderland

Things in Europe (and especially England) are changing. Good or Bad?

Let's just say that Man U is no longer at the top of the Premiership. With three key games played today, the top four in the premier league seems to constantly be shifting. Just keep on reading to learn more about what has been going on!

Today, Liverpool was able to just barely beat Portsmouth to go ahead of Man U in the league by one point. In a game that was 2-2 up until stoppage time was still yet to be decided. With only moments left, Rafael Benitez's side, Liverpool, was able to create a chance for striker, Fernando Torres, to score on Portsmouth. After only being on the pitch for 14 minutes, it really goes to show that a pair of fresh legs can really make a difference in the game. Personally, with nothing against Liverpool striker Babel, had Torres never come one then maybe the game would have ended in a tie and things would be entirely different. With that said, such can be seen of the Blues.

In Chelsea's second match against Hull this season, Chelsea really did not play well. With Hull truly playing with their hearts, the were able to hold Luis Scolari's side to a draw. There really is nothing more to be said; Hull played well, but were unable to score and Chelsea simply did neither of those. In fact, their fans let them know that as they booed their own side at the end of the game.

The third and final major match of today was between Aston Villa and the Blackburn Rovers. Some of you may be wondering why I acknowledge such a game. First off, Aston Villa is one of the more surprising sides this year. They have actually been very successful on the road his year with a second place record for away games; 9W - OD - 3L. Clearly, a very potent record. Furthermore, with their win over Blackburn, they were able to slip into 3rd overall in the league and push the Blues down to 4th. For Aston Villa, the goals during the game are accredited to Milner (27th minute) and Agbonlahor (90th minute).


For those who have been following Italian soccer, you are probably hearing about Beckham's hopes to stay at AC Milan. I felt as if this is good topic for me to post my personal opinion on such. Personally, I am totally against Beckham doing this. Yes, he may still be a very good player, but I thought he originally came to the USA to get away from European soccer since he was too old to keep up with it? What happened there? Secondly, when he signed with the LA Galaxy, he forced the club to make him captain and give up so much more just so that they could acquire him. Now he feels like he has the right to simply turn his back upon them.

This is what I hate about some professional athletes. For example, Plexico Burres and the shooting incident as well as Michael Phelp's and the pictures. Seriously, just because you are a superstar doesn't mean you can break the law and turn your back on people who have done so much for you.

Final scores from today:
Liverpool 3-2 Portsmouth
Aston Villa 2-0 Blackburn
Manchester City 1-0 Middlesbrough
Everton 3-0 Bolton
Sunderland 2-0 Stoke
Newcastle 3-2 WBA
Chelsea 0-0 Hull

Sunday Feb. 8th (Home vs. Away):
Tottenham vs. Arsenal 8:30 EST - Look to possibly see new signing, Andrei, on the field.

West Ham vs. Man U 11:00 EST - Hopefully Man U will regain their number 1 spot in the league by going two points ahead of Liverpool with a win against West Ham.

Start of EPL 06-07 year

As the new season of EPL soccer starts, the powerhouses are off to good starts, or at least the majority of them are! Arsenal tied to Aston Villa?! and Tottenham lost to Bolton which was quite upsetting for many. On the other hand, Chelsea and Manchester nited both started off their seasons well beating Manchester City and Fulham respectively.

standings from Soccernet:

Man U
Chelsea
Portsmouth
West Ham
Bolton
Reading
Everton
Newcastle
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Sheff Utd
M'brough
Watford
Wigan
Charlton
Tottenham
Blackburn
Fulham

WILL REIGNING CHAMPS WIN OR AGAIN OR WIL IT BE SOMEONE ELSE...