Sunday 16 December 2012

Weekend review

The changes in the dynamics of the Premiership table over this weekend haven't been spectacular, but as always, they've been interesting and have given us something to thing about in terms of how this season will end up.

The changes weren't in the title race. Although both won, it wasn't a particularly good weekend for either Manchester club. United will have wanted to try and put more space between themselves and City before the Champions League starts again, and they had a home banker against Sunderland- Man City had a trickier game, but the Citizens can't be too happy because they remain 6pts behind.

Everton's dropped points and Tottenham's win sees the North Londoners overtake the Toffees to 4th despite losing to them the week before, but with just 2pts in it, I'm nowhere near the stage of calling where the final Champions League spot will go. It'll depend a lot on whether Chelsea deteriorate under their new manager and whether Arsenal can reteriorate under their rather old manager, neither of these teams have played this weekend.

Reading play the Gunners on Monday night in what feels like a must-win game for both teams, though whatever the result I'm still going to have Reading in my predicted bottom three at the end of the season. QPR got a belated first win of the season against Fulham and Aston Villa got an impressive 3-1 win at Anfield. Defeats for Sunderland, Wigan and Newcastle means they're by no means safe, most people predicted them to be at the start of the season.

Newcastle 1-3 Man City

Dropped points for City would have seen me declare this title to be Manchester United's, so it was an important win but does nothing to rectify the damage dealt by last Sunday. Some City fans on Twitter we're saying it was their best performance of the season, but that may speak more for their season than this match- they haven't really hit their pomp yet. Toon fans would be being foolish to ignore the relegation battle, because a defeat for them next week, if other results go against them, could see them fall into the bottom three.

I said: 1-2, +1pt
Del said: 0-2, +1pt
Predicts Pro said: 1-2, +1pt

Liverpool 1-3 Aston Villa

Wow. I certainly didn't expect that. What a performance from Christian Benteke- he's looking a wonderful buy for Aston Villa now. Even when they lost 5-0 at Man City, I still didn't ever think they'd go down, although I suppose they still might. The reason I was convinced they would stay up, was because of the egalitarian management style of Paul Lambert. Shown by his handling of Darren Bent, he won't pick players just because of their reputations, and I grudgingly admire that.

I said: 2-0, +0pts
Del said: 2-1, +0pts
Predicts Pro said: 2-0, +0pts

Man Utd 3-1 Sunderland

For the most part, this was the kind of game I predicted. I thought they'd get two early goals, which they did, bring on Scholes in the second half, which they did, but Sunderland deserved to get on the scoresheet with the number of chances they created towards the end. With Man City winning, it was very important for United that they didn't slip up on Saturday and undo all the good work of last week. I'm sure they'll go into new year as top dogs now.

I said: 2-0, +1pt
Del said: 3-1, +3pts
Predicts Pro said: 3-0, +1pt

Norwich 2-1 Wigan

Incredibly, this was Norwich's 10th match unbeaten in the Premiership and 3rd win in a row. The brilliant run has taken them from being in the relegation zone in October with just 3pts, to having 25 before Christmas, and could well have 3/4 of the number of points they'll need to stay up by new year. Of course, the run will have to come to an end at some point, but I can't help but admire what Chris Hughton has done for them.

I said: 0-1, +0pts
Del said: 1-2, +0pts
Predicts Pro said: 2-1, +3pts

QPR 2-1 Fulham

I was somewhat wide of the mark with this one. I thought that eventually these draws which will have done QPR no good at the time would eventually turn into defeats, but they did prove that the spirit was still there to some extent in the dressing room. I still don't fancy QPR to stay up, but at least now they've got a chance.

I said: 0-1, +0pts
Del said: 1-0, +1pt
Predicts Pro said: 1-1, +0pts

Stoke 1-1 Everton

I've lost a great deal of respect for Marouane Fellaini for his headbutt on Shawcross. It was such a stupid thing to do and I'm glad David Moyes has taken the open approach by criticizing him, rather than doing the much used: "I didn't see it" line. Apparently Fellaini has released a public apology on Twitter, but that doesn't restore much of my respect for him. He wouldn't have apologized if he hadn't been caught. 

I said: 0-1, +0pts
Del said: 2-2, +1pt
Predicts Pro said: 0-1, +0pts

Tottenham 1-0 Swansea

Spurs needed the win to take advantage of the Toffees' dropped points, a fantastic way to bounce back from losing to them the week before. They might be 2pts clear of 5th, but I'm still not quite prepared to bet they'll be in the Champions League next season. Having to play in the Europa League on Thursday night will massively hinder their mental preparation for matches, and the 2pt gap can go in a week. I'm still not sure.

I said: 3-0, +1pt
Del said: 3-0, +1pt
Predicts Pro said: 2-0, +1pt

West Brom 0-0 West Ham

I watched quite a lot of this game and it finished a goalless draw, just as I predicted. West Brom definately deserved to win towards the end though, because in the second half, there was only one team in it. Having said that, West Ham's maybe deserve a little bit of credit for the way they managed to withstand West Brom's relentless pressure. These teams' similarly lofty league positions, considering they were tipped for relegation before the season started, meant that both managers could be more than satisfied with a point. For West Ham it was a tricky away game, and for West Brom, they simply needed to stop the rot.

I said: 0-0, +3pts
Del said: 1-1, +1pt
Predicts Pro said: 1-1, +1pt

Del
Correct results- 5
Perfect scores- 1, Man Utd 3-1 Sunderland
Points- 8

Predicts Pro
Correct results- 4
Perfect scores- 1, Norwich 2-1 Wigan
Points- 7

Myself
Correct results- 3
Perfect scores- 1, West Brom 0-0 West Ham
Points- 6

Congratulations to Del, who is this weeks' prediction winner, with 1 perfect score each and 2pts distance betweeen all three of us. Bit gutted I finished last, but still, there's always next week.

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