Day of Grit, Frustration and Massacre

Date: 25th Nov 2007, Sunday
Setting: FOOTBALLLLLLL

GRIT
Yes, that's what Liverpool showed in their game against Newcastle United. They showed character, determination and they were duly rewarded for their efforts by a 3-0 win. This figure kind of undermines Liverpool's effort, Fernando Torres missed atleast 3 chances, but the guy is amazing!!, he 'is easliy the best foreign entrant into EPL this year. Do we need to talk about Steven Gerrard ?? that free kick it just decided the game right in the first half, Newcastle United already the kind of ladies they are were totally finished, no chances, pathetic football. I just wonder, when will Newcastle United pull up their socks and start displaying some character ?? May be the first step would be chucking that mafiaso looking manager who seems to be staright out of a Guy Ritchie movie.

FRUSTRATION
for me, for all Manchester United fans. not just frustration, but tension too, Liverpool won big against Newcastle, Arsenal is going strong, is the title slipping away ?? No no it can't be..... How in God's name did Carlos Tevez missed that chance ?? and Why the fuck didn't Patrice Evra pass that ball to Louis Saha in those dying minutes ??, it would have been a sitter for Saha. But a good game by Bolton, due to some sloppy defending by United in the early minutes and a great defense by Bolton let them emerge winners. Score line Bolton -1 , ManU - 0

MASSACRE
that's what Everton did to Sunderland. They just killed them with a 7-1 victory, They were scoring for fun, with arrogance. it was 3-1 in the 1st half, but the 2nd half was a total nightmare for Sunderland fans. Each time the ball came into their half, it was finding its way into the back of the net!! A good skillful play by Everton, escpecially by Pienaar and Arteta.

Other games:-
Derby 0-2 Chelsea
Arsenal 2-0 Wigan

Saturday EPL

An exciting day of football, the results are: -

• Arsenal (2) Man Utd. (2)

Arsenal once again proved to be a hard nut to crack, with william Gallas redeeming himself and his club by scoring the late late equaliser after he had diverted a Rooney shot into his own net in the 1st half.

• Wigan (0) Chelsea (2)

Chelsea continues its fight, or in words of their manager "As long as we win and play attacking football that is good for me. We want to play good positive football" May be that's another way to say "Ok, I know that we are out of race this time, still we'll try to save our face". But anyways full marks for Chelsea, for showing character. They outperformed Wigan in all the departments, though Wigan seemed belligerent in 2nd half.

• NewCastle (1) Portsmouth (4)

Ridiculous display of football by NewCastle. I want to see a match where NewCastle shows some characters of being a good club. They are even worse than the Indian Cricket Team!!, atleast the later is performing well in T20!!. Oh come on NewCastle Chak De!!

Well, that's for the football update for Saturday, tune in tomorrow. Am signing off, with the link of some good photos from today's matches: -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7076518.stm

Good riddance, Old Henry

At the beginning of this season's EPL, it looked like it's going to be a dry Henry-less season. Four months into the game and does anyone miss god Henry? Wenger and his young guns have more than made up for Henry's departure. What is on display is a young, fearless, attacking brand of football reminiscent of the best days of Arsenal. The Arsenal of 2002. Shorn of aging baggage, We have in Theo, the rightful successor of henry, We have in Cesc, the best midfielder of the game, We have in Adebayor, a consistent goalscorer finally coming out of so many years in Henry's shadow, We have in Hleb and Rosicky, exciting midfielders ready to take 'em on all alone, and even Toure manages to hit the woodwork regularly. King Henry would be sitting now, somewhere in a Barcelona castle, watching them young lads burning up the EPL. He would let out a sigh and would think, 'Maybe, Just maybe, I made a mistake'.

Arsenal's game has become far more exciting after Henry has left. For the last two seasons, you could see a griping henry on the pitch, complaining about why the ball wasn't put precisely at his feet, about why the play wasn't planned keeping his express wishes in mind. It looked like there was god henry in front and the 10 lesser mortals existed merely for the purpose of serving him.
Now, with the play-by-henry restriction gone, the game has become more free-flowing. Goals are coming from all sides and hopefully will keep coming in the future. What awaits us is an exciting season of 'football, as it should be played'.

Henry's stint at Barcelona can at best be described as average, easily swamped on the green and on the screen by the genius called Messi. No malice towards Henry. We hope he settles soon, we hope he scores as many as in EPL, but one thing is for sure. He ain't gonna get the royal treatment in an all-star Barcelona. Just for the record, Henry's tally in Barcelona till date:

La Liga appearances - 9: Goals - 4
Champions league appearences - 3: Goals - 1