Week 10 of the EPL produced more stories than almost every other week so far—from Rafa's job, to Stoke beating Spurs, to Chelsea hammering Blackburn, to Arsenal capitulating against West Ham.
All eyes were on Liverpool for Manchester United's trip to Anfield. The back story of Rafa's job being on the line had captivated almost the entire footballing world. Lose and Liverpool would have had their worst start to a season in some 50 years, and the last time they lost five in a row they were relegated...
It was Rafa who inspired his team into battle against a United team who looked like they didn't know what hit them.
Again, Fernando Torres destroyed Nemanja Vidic, who got sent off against the Reds for the third time in a row.
Torres seems to have gotten into the Serbian's head, and has him psyched out even before the teams take to the pitch. In all truth, Vidic was lucky not to have picked up at least four yellow cards during the game in his fruitless attempts to put the Spaniard off his stride.
Fergie fumed after the encounter about the sending off but he did make some valid points about some decisions by the referee.
“We lost out to one or two major decisions. I felt Carrick in the first half was a penalty kick, but the controversial one that everyone will be talking about is when Carragher brought Michael Owen down on the edge of the box.
“The crowd got Vidic booked, and that put the ref under pressure, but this atmosphere is hard to handle for a referee. Whether he had enough experience or not, I don’t know, but he will certainly learn from it."
But he finished off on the back foot as he gave Liverpool the credit they deserved.
“All in all though, Liverpool were the better team. They created more chances and were better than us on the day.”
A Torres goal and a cool finish by David N'Gog were enough to see United off as Liverpool deservedly won, 2-0.
It was a great win for Rafa, but they are still in the same predicament and need a win next week against Fulham to keep the pressure off Rafa. His statement that Chief Executive Christian Purslow told him to "take one game at a time" is ominous.
Spurs lost 1-0 to Stoke at White Hart Lane. It was a poor result for Tottenham, who dominated the match for 80 minutes before being reduced to 10 men after Aaron Lennon left the pitch with ankle ligament damage. Spurs had already made all their substitutions.
It was hailed by Tony Pulis as "our best ever Premiership result", which does go some way to showing how far Spurs have come in one year under Redknapp.
The Chelsea machine returned to normal service as Blackburn came to the Lions' den that is Stamford Bridge.
But all they did was show up.
But in fairness they did have the best excuse ever. In the run up to the game three of their players contracted Swine Flu. Big Sam then called the FA and Chelsea to get the match postponed, but perhaps seeing a weakened opponent, Chelsea said no...
Chelsea then hammered five past Paul Robinson and Frank Lampard returned to his normal scoring ways by bagging two.
The game finished on a triumphant note for Big Sam, who hoped the Chelsea stars get Swine Flu...
Bolton and Everton played out a highly entertaining game at the Reebok Stadium as Everton came from two down only to lose to an 86th-minute Klasnic goal.
It was a much needed win for Gary Megson, who is always under pressure from the Bolton faithful, regardless of results.
Manchester City continued to stutter in their recent form by surrendering a two-goal lead to Fulham, who look to be returning to the kind of form that saw them qualify for Europe last year.
Next week, they take on Liverpool and Rafa at Craven Cottage.
All of Sunderland's recent good work against United and Liverpool was flushed down the toilet as Birmingham beat Steve Bruce's team, 2-1.
The Blues forced the tempo for much of the match and too many Black Cats players had off days (Darren Bent, in particular).
The ex-Spurs striker really needs the manager's arm around his shoulder all the time and loses his focus on matches if he is expected to be the main goalscorer. However, he is doing very well this year and Sunderland are well-poised to challenge for a top eight position.
Burnley's unbeaten home run was smashed by Wigan as Roberto Martinez's side ran out 3-1 winners with Hugo Rodeallga scoring twice.
The Clarets' away form is really poor so far, and if they are to have any chance of avoiding relegation, they will have to avoid days like these.
Hull and Portsmouth drew, 0-0. Neither side has the strikers to trouble many teams in the EPL. Phil Brown's cause was not helped by "Dozy" Altidore sleeping late and showing up late (and then going on Twitter to say, "I'm sorry").
We're going to send you the most entertaining Arsenal articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
41 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete