Prem-Time! 12.12

Happy fifth night of Hanukkah!

I treated myself to a bountiful day of soccer on Sunday, starting bright and early with  a Manchester clash that lived up to its billing.  Rooney got a bit lucky on the first, but would have wrong-footed Hart anyways, and made the second look easy.  With both Rooney's first goal and Van Persie's match-winner (also helped in by a Man City deflection), I tend to give benefit of the doubt to the players.

Great to see Man City climb back in the game.  I think the second-half proved that Tevez should be an even more integral part of the City attack, ahead of Aguero, in my humble opinion.  Tevez has that Suarez-like ability to make something out of nothing.  I personally liked the decision to start Balotelli - recently scored and he stepped up in this game last year with a goal.  Just didn't have it, who knows the reason...weirdo.  Dzeko was a necessary sub later in the game, and I thought Silva, Torre and Zabaleta all had positive second-halfs.  Nasri remains a big mystery - wouldn't have minded to sub him out sooner.

Big win for United, but I still feel like they're susceptible on a weekly basis.  They've been sick (as in good) at capitalizing on chances this year, but when Reading can put three first-half goals on the board, you still worry about the defense.  Curious what type of impact Nani could have had on that game...Valencia didn't have an ounce of impact.  Amazing that Man United has three guys like Nani, Welbeck, and Chicharito they can deploy from the bench in a game like that.

Arsenal v. West Brom

Themes:  Maybe Gervinho is as hopeless as people say.  I've wanted to give him an extra chance, since he can do some positive things going forward, but his ability to finish is essentially awful right now.  He's having issues getting basic attempts on target, let alone past a goal-keeper.  Hopefully Cazorla gets fined for that dive in the box.  While you never like to see a 2-0 game from PKs, Arsenal was the better, more dangerous side and deserved the win.  Giroud could have been better for me, but give credit to Wilshere and the defensive combo.  With that win they could finish the weekend in 6th or 7th...much more tolerable than 10th pre-match.  Bottom line:  Big win at an important time, which should make for a much calmer week.  I still think this team has a big opportunity with guys like Giroud, Podolski, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Cazorla all playing up to their potential.

For West Brom, disappointing.  Shane Long got himself involved, but struck me as the only one making an impact going forward.  When West Brom have looked legit this year, its because Odemwingie is also a threat to finish, and he was sub-par the entire 60 minutes he was in.  Very little to comment on here, because it was such an uninspiring, uneventful afternoon for their side.  At their best, a top 8 club, but a small margin for error to drop down to 12th or 13th.  Norwich is a club at 12th who look much better than West Brom has the last couple of games.

Swansea v. Nowich

The Norwich v. Swansea game was an example of a tasty match-up that ended up being even better than advertised.  After jumping ahead 3-0 at the half, I wasn't sure Swansea would claw back in, but give them credit for making it interesting.  Michu is all over the field (although I could do without the subtle dives from him as well...the only shitty thing about Spanish futbol is most of the great players are soft.  David Silva, Torres, Iniesta, Cazorla.  Xavi may be the exception), and they looked somewhat dangerous most of the game.  Graham up top was OK.

Really like the feel of Norwich at the moment.  Huge win, lots of capable players on the field, and they played one of the more open, free brands of futbol I've ever seen from them.  They will never be a Swansea in terms of style, but if they can get two goals on the board each game with guys like Holt, combined with the consistently-stellar defense, they're a top 10 club.

Liverpool v. West Ham

Really good game here.  While West Ham doesn't play a very creative style of football (very American National Team-esque, prior to Klinsmann, if you will), its effective and they have a knack for creating real chances out of scums and 50/50 balls in the box.  They will literally put a free-kick from midfield into the box and see what happens.  Pretentious, no sir.  Liverpool definitely came to play, doing as they pleased during the first 15 minutes.

Impressions going into the match:  No Suarez, Shelby up-top instead, could be a 1-goal game, max, for the Reds.  I'm a fan of Johnson, and Sterling was once-again pretty damn impressive.  He bringgs a ton of activity, not afraid to mix it up, gets forward really quickly, and I think is about three months out from finishing lots more chances.  The kid just turned 18 for cryin' out loud!  He'll settle down a bit in front of goal and start to convert.  Johnson's first goal was BOMB.com - absolutely nothing the keeper could do.

Both goals against Liverpool were tough breaks, and they probably felt cursed going into halftime.  Nothing Allen could have done about that hand-ball (really tough call), and an own-goal by Gerrard made in 2-1 at the break.

Moment of the match was Joe Cole's top-class finish to tie things up at 2-2.  Say what you will about his age, athleticism, and skill, but that goal looked like 'Joe-Cole-of-old pure soccer instinct' taking over for a few seconds.  He made that look really easy, when in actuality, there are probably 20 people who will finish that in the EPL.  While Shelby didn't knock-in that game-winner, he still had a huge affect on the goal, and I think a well-deserved 3-2 win.

Big result without Suarez, and the hint-of-good-fortune which had eluded this team throughout the season was finally on their side.  Said it before:  Like Rodgers, like the skill and talent on this team, like the system - I think they'll be fine.  But seriously Luis, stay healthy...seriously.

Fox Soccer Channel just lost some serious points with me for not having the Tottenham/Everton match available.  WTF.  As a side-note, for those who don't watch FSC (so basically all of you), Eric Wynalda is the best sports analyst and on-camera sports personality that nobody knows about.  I don't know how he pulls it off, but he kinda seems disinterested, or like he has something better to be doing the entire time he's on-camera.  That, combined with a touch of arrogant sonofabitch, make him an awesome soccer analyst, it turns out.

Fulham v. Newcastle

Hallelujah!  A Newcastle game which was aesthetically pleasing.  Usually its Ba and Cisse chasing down balls over the top, but Ben Arfa added an element of fluidity and creativity which was invaluable.  I thought he was the second-best player on the field...I'll talk about the top guy in a moment.  The goal he scored was dirrrrrrty, even though the goalie kinda biffed.  He was a problem on the left and right side for Fulham's defense all game.  A shame he had to leave after 70 minutes having just returned from injury.

I thought the difference was clear:  Dimitar Berbatov.  I say this even though the guy missed a couple of chances he usually converts.  After the 50th minute, his influence became progressively greater, and he was the reason Fulham could maintain any sort of possession equality down the stretch.  The difference between players like him and to a lesser extent, Ben Arfa, is that they play the game at a different speed than everyone else.  There's a split second of time they seem to buy themselves because of heightened instinct, talent, anticipation, whatever.  The point being, its a beautiful thing to watch.  A couple of times he took the his own goalie's free-kick about 60 yards downfield and controlled it like a freakin' throw-in from the sideline.  I'm pretty sure he starts as a forward, but seeing him settle into the semi-midfield and put his stamp on the game there, rather than in front of goal, was impressive as shit.  All of the commentary has been about what a monumental signing he is for that club, and I've been somewhat skeptical up until this match.


I won't be doing game-by-game break-downs each week, I promise.  Lets just say, I went out HAAARRDDD on Thursday and Friday night of last week, and wasn't feeling very ambitious on Saturday morning.  Because of that, I dominated a few more matches than usual.

Top 10:  12/12

Man U
Man City
Chelsea
Everton
Arsenal
Tottenham
Liverpool
Swansea
Norwich
Fulham

Santa-Con this weekend baby!  SF is going to be like the Christmas-themed Where's Waldo...mainly because of all the Santa's.  I don't know if a guy will be dressed up like Waldo somewhere.  That's a decent idea.