Movement and Light: Round 23 in the BPL

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o While everyone's talking about Clint Dempsey's late late show against the League leaders, we prefer to focus on the goal that handed United an early advantage at White Hart Lane on Sunday -- and not just for the obvious reasons. What we saw was stupendous movement by Robin Van Persie, the kind you don't see from any other player in the League at the moment. One minute the Red Devil striker is carefully marked by Spurs' defensive pairing of Walker and Vertonghen, and the next -- don't blink or you'll miss it -- he's standing in acres of space, lit up all by himself. The striker is in imperious form right now and this week's goal demonstrates it clearly -- he's playing an utterly different game than the many mere mortals who surround him, and the timing of his runs is pure magic.

o And while a bunch of people were only too happy to criticize young David De Gea for his weak punch on Sunday, check out the replay before you make the accusation: the Spaniard was completely taken out of the play by his own Captain. Nemanja Vidic rushed straight into De Gea and basically submarined him - and not many players in the world are capable of surviving a collision with the big Serb.

o We're not big fans of whining Frenchmen here at farlieonfootie, but we have to admit that Arsenal bossman Arsene Wenger had a point on Sunday. Not a point from the game -- it was a toothless Arsenal side he sent out to meet the Blues at Stamford Bridge, after all -- but instead a point about Referee Martin Atkinson missing a clear foul by Ramires on Francis Coquelin (the former a dirty player if ever there was one) immediately preceding Juan Mata's opening goal. Compounding matters that involved the same parties, Atkinson doubled his gifts to the home side by awarding Ramires a penalty -- when the Brazilian clearly tripped untouched over Arsenal 'keeper Sczcesny's outstretched leg. We've harped on it time and time again on this blog -- Atkinson is a poor and obviously biased referee who is either not up to the task or on Roman Abramovich's payroll.

Like an Overstuffed Sausage: BPL Round 30

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o Fernando Torres, Raul Meireles and David Luiz on Wednesday; Didier Drogba, Ramires, and Gary Cahill on Saturday. Does anyone get the sense that RDM hasn't solved the problem that plagued AVB: i.e., that Chelsea's coaches this season have no idea who their best eleven players are...?

o Chelsea vs. Spurs on Saturday could have been useful as Exhibit A in the case of Quality v. The BPL.  Anyone who suffered through the weekend's first match would have a tough time trying to convince a jury that the BPL this season is as good as ever. The match featured so much passing sideways and backwards that I kept expecting Gareth Barry to appear on the pitch.



o Hauled off the pitch after 60 minutes on Saturday, David Silva is learning a hard lesson: it's a very long season in England, and Stoke is a tough place to go and get a result.  The pint-sized Spaniard is well off his early season form, played into the ground through over-use by his Manager, Roberto Mancini. He looked like a dark haired Bjorn Borg after getting his first half headband, courtesy of a stray Stoke elbow. Bjorn Borg after playing John McEnroe in the 1980 Wimbledon final -- the one with the 18-16 fifth set.

o After Wayne Rooney's bicycle kick winner last season, you'd think City would be used to dropping points on incredible goals.  But there's no way that they could have expected Peter Crouch to score the way he did.  Hell, even Crouch could not have meant to score on that shot. Or did he...?!  Making our Player of the Week's stunning goal even more remarkable, the ball never touched the ground from the time it left Asmir Begovitch's foot from a goal kick until it hit the back of Joe Hart's net. A certain contender for goal of the year....

o Carlos Tevez looked like an overstuffed sausage in his extra-large City kit -- as if the Argentine spent the last five months becoming very familiar with the dessert aisle of his local bodega....  No wonder he was brought on for only a twenty minute cameo at Stoke on Saturday: his kit wouldn't have lasted the full ninety.

Ten Plus One: Thoughts on the EPL Season to Date

Correspondent Ed Hanging Ten After His  Latest Column
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Correspondent Ed has 10 things on his mind.  Oh, and one more for good measure:

1. I'm really confused about this Carlos Tevez case. He didn't refuse to go in, he just refused to warm up? Huh? Sounds more to me like his boss asked him to warm up and he responded with: "Why?". As in: "I'm not going to warm up because you're not going to play me anyway."  Well, that's cute and all, but I think Carlos has made the classic distinction without a difference. If you refuse to play unless you get a hug first, you're still refusing to play. For the sake of the sport, let him sit on the bench long enough to make sure no one else tries this again. All in all it's a sad story, as Tevez is a great talent and fun to watch.

2. David Silva is the best player in the EPL now, and he probably was last year, as well. Silva is what makes watching City worthwhile. Barcelona has about 4 guys -- Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Villa -- at or about Silva's level. Scary. Spain has probably never known such talent. Or are they just training their players better? I think both.

3. Natalie Sawyer is my SkySports News presenter of the month. She's got it on in all the right places. Plus she doesn't talk in that weird-imitation-male-broadcaster-speak that goes on at ESPN. What's up with that, anyway? Ladies on ESPN: feel free to talk sports without trying to sound like a snarky frat boy. We're fine with that. Really.

4. Since starting the season terribly, Spurs have been quietly. . . . . .winning. Now they're in fifth place, and only three points behind fourth place Newcastle. Hmmmmm, maybe we should keep it on the down low all season.

Exit Stage Left

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Late Word Out of England Overtook Today's Column, with all major London newspapers reporting that the troubled relationship between Sir Alex and Wayne Rooney has fractured to the point of no return, with Rooney and SAF no longer on speaking terms.  Tellingly, the stories are even being acknowledged by at least one of United's own employees via Twitter, and the expectations are high that Sir Alex will face a lively round of questioning on Tuesday at his press conference in advance of this week's Champions League game against Bursaspor.  


If true, the split is a stunningly swift turnabout in the formerly brilliant relationship.  The star forward has refused to sign an extension to his current contract, apparently blaming Fergie for his public treatment  and benching following the late summer revelations of Rooney's extra-curricular activities. Is Roo destined to follow the footsteps of Roy Keane, David Beckham and Ruud Van Nilstelrooy out of Old Trafford?  Only time will tell, but it appears increasingly likely that our talisman will no longer wear red, white and black on Saturdays.  


We'll find out much more tomorrow and Tuesday.  A season that is full of question marks becomes even more so based on today's shocking events.  Clearly not a good day for the club or its fans. 


Lots more thoughts on this tomorrow, but in the meantime here's the column I originally wrote:

A Strange Thing Happened On My Way to the Merseyside Derby This Morning: I got waylaid by intense boredom, and watched the match with only one eye half open (the one eye could have also been the result of a late night celebrating a friend's birthday, but I'll conveniently overlook that fact for the purposes of this analysis). . Liverpool (to my half eye) looked absolutely awful today, like a toothless tiger that was once a maneater but is now being paraded around by its trainer on a leash begging for scraps of soft food.  Theoretically it should be scary, but the overall effect is verging more toward laughable.  The Reds may have scored a couple victories in court this week, but don't appear to be in any danger of winning on the pitch in the near future.

I'm unsure who would have predicted this unfolding disaster at the beginning of the season. Sure, Liverpool's year was probably never destined to include meaningful Springtime games, and some getting used to a new coach's gameplan and methods was surely to be expected, but no one foresaw Uncle Roy's side having these sort of massive issues eight games into the season. I don't know whether their current sad state of affairs is due more to a lack of qualified players (certainly Rafa Benitez proved himself time and again a horrible judge of footballing talent) or an inflexible gameplan and formation that the current squad  is unable to carry out, but it's clear that something is wrong in Denmark (thereby perhaps also explaining Christian Poulsen's absence today...).

Bereft of ideas, and seemingly lacking quality touches at almost all times on the ball, the Reds suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of cross-park rival Everton today, 2-nil. Despite offering a ton of possession for the statisticians in the crowd (especially in the game's second half), Liverpool never played as if it were their collective intent to get on the scoreboard. Instead, their battle plan appeared to include holding the ball and kicking it aimlessly backwards, sideways and generally all over the pitch, in desperate hope that an odd bounce or two off an Evertonian would somehow find its surprise destination to be the back of Tim Howard's net.

Overcome by Boredom, I Was Struck by a Moment of Inspiration to focus my attention on watching Blackpool play City. With an impressive start to date -- made even more improbable when one realizes today was only their third home game of the season against five road trips -- England's own version of Atlantic City have been one of the surprise stories of the early EPL season. With a smooth, flowing style that includes long passes, overlapping runs, and quick, backheeling give and goes, Blackpool play a high tempo brand of football that is easy on the eye and magnetically attractive to watch as a neutral.  The opportunity to see them take on the Citizens, who were looking to gain two points in the standings on league leaders Chelsea, proved overwhelming.

I wasn't disappointed. Blackpool played inspired attacking football against a City side used to dictating a game's rhythm and flow, and controlled the ball for more than 60% of the first half [Ed. Note: one of footie's most loveable and often meaningless statistics; the slightly more important matter of the scoreline was still tied at half, nil-nil.] City looked surprisingly sluggish to that point, playing the first half as if they were less interested in on-pitch matters than they were in scouting the stands for good looking women.

Blackpool continued their vise-like grip on the match in the second half, narrowly missing several opportunities to breach the stout City defense, until an offide Carlos Tevez touch against the run of the play was allowed to stand, and suddenly the scoreline appeared as if by  mistake, 1-nil to the Citizens.

Blackpool's quality came through shortly afterward, with a well deserved goal resulting from Marlon Harewood heading Charlie Adam's free kick beyond the reach of City stopper Joe Hart. Before the crowd could even settle from the celebration, though, a cruel deflection off a Blackpool defender gave Carlos Tevez the league lead in goals, and City a stunning 2-1 lead.   


David Silva, who's second half introduction appeared to change the game to this watcher's eye, then quickly sashayed his way through the Blackpool defense, cutting them apart with a late kill shot for a 3-1 lead.  Blackpool added a last gasp goal to make the match's 93rd minute more tense than it might otherwise have been, but were ultimately hard done by the final scoreline in an entertaining match which they controlled  for long stretches.

I'm unhappy with the result, too: City back up to second in the League, and I'm farlieonfootie for October 18.