Football (Soccer to those across the pond)

[chopper]

wooo! a point! a point! and at the Emirates too!

[Ursa major]

An excellent result for Wolves.

[alchemist]

Never fear, chopper. I'll try hard not to jinx you.

[Connavar]

Haha City typically soft loss in the 93rd minute against Sunderland made me laugh of how sweet it was. I was just hoping for a draw. Sure the goal was offside but the fact City let a weaker team they attacked, overpowered win is funny.

They shouldnt really give Sir Alex too many chances. 3 points wasted or what.

[Snowdog]

You could say the same anout Utd, or Chelsea. All the top teams will have a few slip-ups before the end of the season. Personally I don't think City played well or did enough to win, despite the possession. Sunderland defended brilliantly and deserved their bit of luck.

[Lenny]

Leeds 2 - 1 Burnley

-ing unbelievable. Every single -ing time we play Leeds they come from behind and beat us in the cruelest ways.

They were helped, in part, by a terribly inconsistent ref who, after letting a rugby tackle go and ignoring our player being wrestled down to the ground when the ball wasn't in play, gave our right-back two soft bookings for his first two fouls... and then again completely let bookable offences by Leeds go unpunished!

After complaining week in, week out about refs in the Prem, I rarely have much to say about Championship refs, but this is the third green referee (this was his seventh game, and it just so happened to be a huge derby match... why give such an inexperienced ref a derby match?!) we've had this season who has had an absolute nightmare of a match, giving decisions that ultimately swung it in the favour of one side (and it's not just us who have been hard done by - the ref we had against Brighton was green and terrible).

So yeah, not a good match... though it was our second against Dirty Leeds, so at least we don't have to play them again this season.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

You could say the same anout Utd, or Chelsea. All the top teams will have a few slip-ups before the end of the season. Personally I don't think City played well or did enough to win, despite the possession. Sunderland defended brilliantly and deserved their bit of luck.

Chelsea is defensiv shambles and not comparable to Man U and Man C.

City showed mental weakness by not taking advantage of one of few losses by Manchester U. Man City is showing they dont have championship character yet. They have lost points in 4 of their last 7 games and they have lost points only in 5 of 19 games. First 12 games was easy, early part of the season. Its now time to show you can compete with Man U and the billions of players bought was not for nothing.

I dont even like Man U but they are the only defence against City right now in the league. I respect city fans but i hate what current City stands for.

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Chelsea is defensiv shambles and not comparable to Man U and Man C.

City showed mental weakness by not taking advantage of one of few losses by Manchester U. Man City is showing they dont have championship character yet. They have lost points in 4 of their last 7 games and they have lost points only in 5 of 19 games. First 12 games was easy, early part of the season. Its now time to show you can compete with Man U and the billions of players bought was not for nothing.

I dont even like Man U but they are the only defence against City right now in the league. I respect city fans but i hate what current City stands for.

But before moneybags Man City came along, it was moneybags Chelsea who had all the money, along with moneybags Man Utd. For years you could predict the top four placings (if not the order) and it became completely monotonous. In fact it's been getting worse, with only two teams having a realistic chance of winning the league. Because of inequalities in money. Now we have 6 teams fighting for a Champions League place.

Did you hate what Chelsea stood for before Man City got their new money? Or what Man Utd stood for? They were in exactly the same unfair dominant position financially, and were for years. Plus the only other team (apart from Arsenal) to win the Premier League (Blackburn) basically bought themselves the title.

The financial structure of the Premier League is all wrong, and has been since its inception. Far too much money goes to the top clubs and too little filters down through the leagues. That's true for most European leagues. I'd like to see a more level playing field but the rules were set by the big clubs for their own advantage. I also dislike the huge financial disparity caused when rich owners take over a club, but as the rules currently stand it's the only possible way any other club could have broken the Chelsea/Man Utd monopoly.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

I'd like to see a more level playing field but the rules were set by the big clubs for their own advantage.

Good post, SD.
It's not just in the revenues from TV, either - it's the shrinking of the Premiership (18 clubs? 16 clubs?), the farcical suggestion made recently that the promotion/demotion between the Premiership and the rest of the league be abolished, the buying up of emerging good players from lower echelons just to deny other teams, the way the FA fail over the "fit and proper person to own a club" rule, etc, etc..

As long as Murdoch pumps money into the Sky Sports budget, the big clubs will rule the roost. The Financial Fair Play Regulations, due to be implemented this June, are possibly a glimmer of light on the horizon, but we shall see...

[mosaix]

Manchester City 3 - 0 Liverpool

City returned to their winning ways after the results at West Brom and Sunderland.

I don't normally comment on the referee but even a couple of Liverpool fans after the game said that they couldn't understand him waiving play on after a blatant hand-ball in Liverpool's penalty area. Even more strangely he just had a 'freindly word' with Adam after a series of bad tackles but booked (and sent off) Barry after a couple of fairly innocuous ones.

Still, mustn't complain after 3 - 0.

After Suarez not being available (due to an eight match ban for racist comments) I was surprised that Bellamy wasn't on the pitch from the start. When he fnally came on (with 35 minutes to go) the whole nature of the game changed and City defence were fianlly called on to do some work. They were more than up to the challenge and, even when we went down to ten men, Hart was hardly stretched.

[Snowdog]

I thought the referee was very poor, but he was poor for both teams, and his decisions didn't affect the result.

Liverpool were the better team for much of the match, but two defensive blunders cost them. They also continue to struggle in front of goal. Andy Carroll looks like someone unable to cope with his huge price tag and if Liverpool can't get a decent striker in the transfer window the period without Suarez could be very costly.

Despite that, Liverpool have been the one team this season to play City on their own terms and I think City will be relieved to get the 3 points.

Tottenham continue to impress. With the bizarre results over the holidays, of the top 6 teams Tottenham came out with the most points (4).

[Snowdog]

Sorry for the double post, but the edit button has disappeared.

I wanted to add that I think Platini is right to try and get clubs on a sounder financial footing. Wages in particular have spiralled out of control as the rich clubs compete for talent and the others try and play catch-up. Time will tell, but as I understand it the reforms relate only to debt. While the new regulations ought to stop clubs over-extending themselves, they do nothing about the unfair money distribution from, in particular, TV revenue.

The likely result will be to take us back to having the richest clubs in terms of revenue entrenched at the top.

[Tillane]

Newcastle United 3 - 0 Manchester United

If you'll excuse me a moment, I'm just going to make sure I haven't slipped into some kind of alternative universe.

Nope, apparently not. Well, in that case...

Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahahahahaha!

Ahem. Sorry.

[Ursa major]

I've just seen the highlights on MotD, Til. You may well have been robbed of a 4-0 win.

[Gary Compton]

Originally Posted by Tillane

Newcastle United 3 - 0 Manchester United

If you'll excuse me a moment, I'm just going to make sure I haven't slipped into some kind of alternative universe.

Nope, apparently not. Well, in that case...

Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahahahahaha!

Ahem. Sorry.

Aye brings back memories of when we whupped them 5-0 at St James