It was a case of penalties and controversies this week-end. First there was that comedy of errors at Highbury, between Pires and Henry. The Gooners were already 1-0 up at that stage, and it’s just a shame that City’s "equaliser" was disallowed.
Wigan’s amazing progress continues, whilst the three Birmingham clubs are in the bottom six. Matthew Upson and Steve Bruce were astounded by referee Barrie Knight’s award of a penalty for a standard challenge upon Dickov. Bruce (and most non-partisans) were similarly amazed by the award of man of the match to ex-Brummie Robbie Savage. The Telegraph gave the accolade to Tugay.
Fulham remembered “The Maestro” Johnny Haynes in the best possible way, with a two goal victory over Liverpool, but one of those was offside. Charlton maintained their 100% away record to pip Spurs for second place.
Jermaine Jenas’s superb free kick goal at Old Trafford was the first Spurs goal scored directly from such a kick since the home game against Fulham last season, on 26th February, when Fredi Kanoute stepped up after Andy Reid had been fouled to curl the ball around the wall and beat which goalkeeper? Yes – it was Van Der Sar, whose wall placement and personal positioning I questioned on that day. Everyone agrees that this time, Jenas’s kick was unstoppable. Many more of those please, Spurs!
Sunday’s games were full of more incident. Firstly, The Toon beat The Mackems in their usual friendly encounter, but it was an entertaining 3-2 thriller. Bolton beat West Brom 2-0, but only after West Brom’s Kamara had been made to re-take a spot kick that he had scored), because of encroachment. Kamara naturally missed his second effort.
Full marks to Everton for ensuring that Chelsea do not match Spurs' 1960-61 11 match winning start for at least another year, as Beattie scored only their second league goal of the season, and that from the spot. An arrogant Mourinho claimed after the game that his side had really won 2-1, as he did not agree with the decision to make Gudjohnssen offside, when Drogba “scored”. Mourinho conveniently chose not to sympathise with legitimate Everton claims for a pen when Terry handled, as he intended and succeeded in blocking a shot with his arms out-stretched. Lampard did score a goal that counted, but that may have come from a foul throw!
The biggest failure by Football Officialdom this week was that by Steve Bennett, perfectly placed to see that Mark Schwarzer easily prevented a back header from going over the line, only to tamely support his linesman who somehow saw that the ball had gone over the line, when the keeper had his back to the official. Teddy Sheringham (who had scored with almost his first touch) told everyone but the referee that it wasn’t a goal, and the Hammers good start continues, three points above inconsistent Middlesbrough.
Results 22-23.10.05
Arsenal 1-0 Man City
A. Villa 0-2 Wigan
Blackburn 2-0 B'mingham
Fulham 2-0 Liverpool
Man Utd 1-1 Spurs
P'tsmouth 1-2 Charlton
Bolton 2-0 West Brom
Everton 1-1 Chelsea
Newcastle 3-2 S'derland
West Ham 2-1 M'brough
FA Barclays Premiership
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Chelsea 10 9 1 0 24 4 20 28
2 Charlton 9 6 1 2 15 9 6 19
3 Spurs 10 5 4 1 12 6 6 19
4 Wigan 9 6 1 2 10 5 5 19
5 Man Utd 9 5 3 1 14 7 7 18
6 Man City 10 5 2 3 11 8 3 17
7 Bolton 10 5 2 3 12 11 1 17
8 Arsenal 9 5 1 3 12 6 6 16
9 West Ham 9 4 3 2 14 8 6 15
10 Blackburn 10 4 2 4 9 10 -1 14
11 Newcastle 10 3 3 4 8 10 -1 12
12 M'brough 10 3 3 4 11 14 -3 12
13 Liverpool 8 2 4 2 5 8 -3 10
14 Fulham 10 2 3 5 10 14 -4 9
15 A. Villa 10 2 3 5 9 16 -7 9
16 West Brom 10 2 2 6 9 18 -9 8
17 P'tsmouth 10 1 4 5 7 12 -5 7
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18 B'mingham 10 1 3 6 7 15 -8 6
19 S'derland 10 1 2 7 9 17 -8 5
20 Everton 9 1 1 7 2 12 -10 4
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