o Paul Lambert may be having a Manger Of the Season type year, but his Norwich City troops displayed a tactical naïveté when they came out playing way too open a game in their Saturday contest against Manchester City. It was just what the doctor ordered for the Sky Blues, as evidenced by Kun Aguero even managing to find the net -- for the very first time on the road this season outside of Manchester or London.
o Chant of the Week (sung by City fans -- note the irony): "He wants to go home, He wants to go home, Carlos Tevez, He wants to go home." And with his hat trick on England's east coast, the Argentine sausage-like wantaway is our Player of the Week.
o It's all coming up trumps for Andy Carroll as the season begins to wind down. Two late winners inside of a week's time.... I wonder if he'll choose to go out to and celebrate with Roger Johnson and Anderson, or just spend a quiet night taking in a Boyzone concert with the King. My guess is that wherever he goes, Carroll won't be celebrating with a Kaliber.
o Gylfi Sigurdsson has turned into a helluva mid-season loan for Swansea City. Just when I had begun to write-off the Swans as undergoing a late-season wobble, up stepped the Icelandic midfielder to grab a goal and an assist to help steady the ship. I don't know what the terms of Sigurdsson's loan deal are, but I would suggest in the strongest terms possible that Swansea lock him up for next season -- although my sense is that a few other teams may also be interested in doing the same.
o Wolves and what appeared to be their seven traveling fans -- wait, does it really matter how I finish that sentence...? Think about it -- seven people traveled from Wolverhampton to see Wolves take on Sunderland. That's preposterous, as were the three virtually empty sections of seats behind the Visitors' goal at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
o It's a good thing football doesn't have goal line technology: Why would we wanted bother slowing down the game to only allow goals for balls that actually cross the line...? It's bad enough that Martin Atkinson -- a Hall of Shamer if ever there was one -- refused to blow a foul on John Terry's reckless charge that took out both Ledley King and Spurs' 'keeper Carlo Cudicini, but then to compound the error by allowing a goal for a ball that never came close to crossing the line makes a mockery of the game for both the paying fans at Wembley and the viewing public.
o Here's something I don't understand: Petr Cech clearly denied a goal scoring opportunity when he dragged down Emanuel Adebayor. It's superfluous to me that Gareth Bale tapped the ball into the net -- Adebayor was denied his opportunity. The Togolese striker wasn't the scorer, so why wasn't Cech shown a red card for his takedown??!!
o It was a great win for Wigan last night, another scalp in the formidable collection that Roberto Martinez has been taking of late. But for a couple of horrendous refereeing decisions at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, Wigan would have beaten Chelsea, United and Arsenal on the trot. I don't know how Martinez does it, but you have to give him a ton of credit. The only thing not enjoyable about last night's tense 2-1 victory over the Gunners was Robin Van Persie's refusal to shake hands with Wigan Captain Gary Caldwell: C'mon Robin. You were just nominated for PFA Player of the Year, and you should be bigger than that.
This is farlieonfootie for April 17.
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