Ibiza Sun - UK Football News

UK Football News

The Weekend Football
Lots to get thru’ this week from a cold, miserable weather day in Putney, Old London Town! After my little moan last week re. Norwich being mis-spelt, with our mate Nick, and his “can’t stop/won’t stop” comment (at least he’s honest!) ‘twas great to see Ipswich come back with a brilliant 5-3 win away at Barnsley this weekend; also liked the Chelsea song and really impressed that you got the words right – good on yer, mate!
And so to the Premier League and pride of place must go to the aforementioned –
Norwich 4 Newcastle 2 : bit of a surprise scoreline, especially for the home side after last weeks 5-1 mauling at Man City and as for the Magpies, one has to ask, after back-to-back defeats, if their bubble has burst?
Arsenal 1 Everton 0 : Not much of a surprise, this result, with what-would-you-do-without-me van Persie scoring the winner, yet again!
Man Utd 4 Wolves 1 : the Roo on song, at last, with his first goal in 793 minutes, quickly followed by another (just like these London buses I’m using at the moment) in this routine rout of the struggling Black and Golds;
Liverpool 1 QPR 0 : Damning stats here at Anfield with the Reds having 17 attempts at goal, and only scoring 1, against the latter’s 2, in the whole game, with Suarez being the major culprit and letting chance after chance go begging; still, 3 points is 3 points!
Bolton 1 Aston Villa 2: I had this down as a banker draw but then what do I know! Villa with a good win at the Reebok to take them up to 8th as Bolton record their 7th loss out of 8 games at home and drop to bottom;
West Bromwich 1 Wigan 2 : another surprising result but the visitors come back from a goal down and prise out 3 much needed points to climb out of the drop-zone;
Swansea 2 Fulham 0: after their great win at home against Liverpool on Monday last, the Cottagers needed to continue their run but were beaten by the mid-table Swans who have only lost once at home;
Stoke 2 Tottenham 1: Spurs were looking to consolidate their third spot with an away win but forgot to tell the Potters who ground out a useful win and brought the formers good run of form to an end;
Sunderland 2 Blackburn 1: new manager Martin O’Neill started his reign at the Stadium of Light with a deserved and welcome win whilst the pressure from their fans just keeps getting worse for Rovers’ manager Steve Kean, who must be seriously looking over his shoulder.
Chelsea v. Manchester City: and so to the big one, playing tonight at the Bridge, with the clash of the billionaires clubs, and one of the reasons I’m here in the Smoke! After last week’s good win at Newcastle to bring their unbeaten start to an end, can the Blues also bring an end to City’s unbeaten record or will that outstanding front 6 of the light Blues take the day? Could be a cracker and I’ve got everything crossed!
Scottish Premier League
It’s as you were again for the big Two, with Rangers winning 2-0 at Hibernian and Celtic scraping a 1-0 win at home to Hearts, so the ‘Gers keep their four point gap whilst surprise package Motherwell, altho’ winning 3-0 at St Johnstone are falling away in 3rd with an 8 point gap now between them and the Hoops.
Champions League
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! As I reported last week it was make-or-break last week for Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs; altho’ City were almost resigned to going out as they were dependant on other results, at least they went down fighting with a 2-0 home win against group leaders Bayern Munich, but were ultimately sent crashing out by Napoli’s fine win at
Villareal. Biggest surprise had to be in Basel, where United only needed a point to qualify but really took their hosts for granted and subsequently lost, thereby joining City in the Europa League, playing Thursday nights all over Europe, and knowing their current luck, they could very well end up playing each other (as in the FA Cup 3rd round in January) in the knock-out stages. Meanwhile Chelsea had the performance of the week, knowing that a win against Valencia at the Bridge would send them thru’ and what a game, with the Blues of old, brilliantly led by Didier Drogba, thankfully in one of his most belligerent moods, and John Terry, playing superbly to win 3-0 and join Arsenal as England’s only two representatives in the last 16. The draw is being held in Switzerland on Friday so let’s hope for a favourable draw for both: at least, with both clubs as group winners, they’ll miss Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern etc but will let you know next week.
Talking of the Spanish Big Two, the first “el Clasico” was played at the weekend at the Bernabeu where Jose Mourinho, after a blistering start to the season, had a great opportunity to put one over on Pep Guardiola. Unfortunately for the Special One, things didn’t quite pan out that way, as Barca, incredibly a goal down after 23 seconds, fought back superbly to win 3-1, resulting in them replacing Real at the top, albeit on goal difference’ altho’ Real do have what could be a crucial game in hand.
Finally, and changing sports as I occasionally do, congrats to Luke Donald, the Mr Consistency of the golf world: altho’ already world No 1, he enhanced his reputation yet again as he played brilliantly over the last 3 rounds in Dubai to come third and achieve something that has never been done before in the history of the game: namely to become the first player to win the money lists in both America and Europe. What an achievement, sir, and very well done!
So, that’s it for this week, sports fans, back on our glorious island later this week and hopefully with 3 points under my belt! “Hasta luego, amigos”..........Jezzer