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For a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, Manchester United were 12 points clear of Chelsea at the top of the Premiership after beating Liverpool at Anfield. Liverpool had been the better side for most of the match, but a combination of poor finishing and another excellent display by United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Saar kept the score at 0-0 … until added time, when Giggs was fouled on the left. You could almost hear Liverpool fans slapping their own foreheads, and sure enough, Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kick was only half saved by Reina and substitute John O’Shea sent the ball into the roof of the net. ‘The form of champions’, as they say.
Chelsea were playing later at Portsmouth, and the pressure of being 12 points behind might have been a reason for a less than brilliant performance, but their strikers saved the day, Drogba (again!) and Kalou getting the goals in a 2-0 win. So Chelsea remain nine points behind, theoretically six (if they win their game in hand). With just nine games left (ten for Chelsea), time is running out for the Londoners, who need United to slip up. The two teams meet at Old Trafford on 15 April: a battle of the giants.
The most amazing game of the weekend, possibly of the season, was the one at Upton Park, where West Ham were 2-0 up against Tottenham (one of the goals coming from Argentinian star Carlos Tevez, his first for the club), let Spurs get back into the game 2-2, and went ahead again with a header from Bobby Zamora, on as sub two minutes before. That was on 85 minutes, and West Ham must have been thinking that, at last, they could celebrate a victory. Not so: Berbatov equalised for Spurs again just before time, and four minutes into added time Spurs broke away, Defoe shot, Green half saved, and Stalteri was there to tap the ball in.
It was the 50th goal that West Ham had conceded this season, and was a horrible ending to a horrible week. There had been allegations of major friction between players, fuelled by very serious gambling between them – there were rumours that some players owed others as much as £50,000 (73,000 euros) from poker. There had been the story of central defender Anton Ferdinand, Rio’s brother, who had said he wanted time off to visit his sick grandmother on the Isle of Wight (off the south coast of England) but in fact went to New York to celebrate his 22nd birthday. And there had been the allegation of irregularities in the transfer of Tevez and Mascherano (now at Liverpool) from Corinthians, which could see West Ham losing points. The club is rooted at the bottom of the table, ten points away from safety. Chairman Eggert Magnusson has said that he’s 100% behind manager Alan Curbishley … but that may just be a knife in his hand.
Speaking of gambling, we hope you didn’t bet any money based on our FA Cup predictions from February 21st. We said that the teams that would go through to the semi-finals would be Chelsea, Reading, West Bromwich Albion and Plymouth. Well … two of those are out, beaten in fifth round replays. Reading’s game with Manchester United was a thriller: United were 3-0 up after just six minutes (!!!), but sat back and let Reading recover. The Royals made it 2-3 five minutes from time and hit the bar in added time; United will have breathed a deep sigh of relief at the final whistle. Middlesbrough knocked West Brom out in another replay; the decision went to penalties, the Baggies’ poor Sherjill McDonald missing the final one. And Blackburn removed Arsenal. The pick of the quarter-finals is Chelsea versus Tottenham, the other ties being Middlesbrough v Manchester United, Blackburn v Manchester City and Plymouth v Watford, all games to be played next weekend.
Celtic fans were hoping they could celebrate their inevitable Scottish League title in the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park on Sunday, but Rangers beat Hibs 2-0, which means that even if Celtic beat Rangers, they will still not be mathematically certain of winning the championship. The champagne will have to stay on ice a little longer.
by Phil Town
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