Gameweek 18 – 5 Things We Learned From The Premier League This Weekend
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Premier League Review – Gameweek 18
Gameweek 18 – 5 Things We Learned From The Premier League This Weekend
1. Stewart Downing Might Have a Future at Liverpool
It’s hard to say which of Kenny Dalglish’s multi-million pound signings has proved to be the greatest failure. I have a particular inclination towards Andy Carroll, who I like to refer to as "the worst £35 million player in history". If this seems a little harsh, then the other players who have been transferred for a higher fee than Carroll are Cristiano Ronaldo, Zidane (note that Zidane’s initial fee was only £10 million more than Carroll!), Ibrahimovic, Kaka, Figo, Torres, Crespo, Buffon, the other Ronaldo, Vieri, Falcao, Nedved, Aguero, Rui Costa, Pastore, Villa, Veron and Rio Ferdinand. I’m not quite sure he belongs in that company, personally.
But running him a close second must be the £20 million winger who didn’t score or set up a goal in his first 43 Premier League appearances for Liverpool. Step forth Stewart Downing. This was such a brilliant statistic that it seems rather uncharitable of Downing to have both scored and assisted during Liverpool’s comfortable 4-0 win over Fulham. However, the player who looked likely to be leaving Anfield during the January transfer window might just have rescued his Liverpool career, for a few months at least.
2. Manchester City are the new Manchester United
Many observers of the English Premier League have spent many years waxing lyrical about the ability of Manchester United to score late goals, and also to grind out three points while playing sub-standard football. It seems about time that it is acknowledged that despite the fact that it is fashionable, and not entirely undeserved, to deride Manchester City as a group of highly paid individuals who are always on the verge of one strop or another, that they have begun to fulfil this role within the contemporary Premier League. One can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions on which Manchester City have played well this season, yet they’re only a handful of points off the top of the table, and keep churning out the wins.
Despite a mediocre display against lowly Reading, when victory seemed beyond the home team, they came up with an injury time winner, not for the first time this season. Perhaps it’s about time that they received some credit for this.
3. Benitez has got Torres Going Again
One of the presumed reasons that Rafael Benitez has been enlisted as an interim manager at Chelsea is to elicit some sort of notable goalscoring from hitherto misfiring striker Fernando Torres. It’s hard to deny that his has achieved precisely this, with Torres having scored seven goals in his last six appearances. Just two minutes into the Chelsea fixture against Aston Villa, Torres scored the sort of instinctive header that had seemed so unlikely in his Chelsea career prior to his reuniting with Benitez.
How one person can stimulate such vastly superior performances from one individual over seemingly anyone else that manages him is hard to understand. But it’s difficult to deny that it’s happening. Furthermore, after two games in a week which Chelsea won by thirteen goals to one, it has to be said that the coach who achieved the by no means insignificant feats of winning La Liga with Valencia and the Champions League with Liverpool, is showing his quality again.
4. Stoke Win Few Friends But Lose Few Matches
Stoke City are rarely discussed without the expressions "difficult to beat", or "nobody will fancy going there" being used in conjunction with their name. While it is easy to stereotype an unfashionable club from an unfashionable part of the country, it is also hard to present convincing evidence for the defence. My own personal betting tip is to back Stoke every week to draw 0-0, and for there to be less than 2.5 goals in their game, and I’m pretty damned certain that you will have more money than you started with come the end of the season.
While this makes them hard to love, one cannot deny that they are a very effective outfit who punch considerably above their weight. By holding Spurs to a goalless draw at White Hart Lane, they proved it once again. I can’t possibly finish this section without pointing out that…no-one will fancy travelling to the Britannia Stadium over the Christmas period…
5. A Favoured Cliché About Referees Doesn’t Stand up to Much Scrutiny
Which among us has never seen a pundit on television, while poring over yet another supposedly contentious refereeing decision, rely on the cliché that "all we want to see from referees is consistency". Leaving aside the fact that it’s asking a lot for dozens of different referees who are interpreting utterly different incidents at completely different times and places to be consistent with one another…this week it was proved beyond all doubt that consistency isn’t all that is required from referees by the legions of television pundits who would never conceivably make such a human error, owing to their infallibility.
During the West Ham United versus Everton Premier League fixture, referee Anthony Taylor gave two red cards to Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson for raising their feet in challenges in what he perceived to be a dangerous manner. Both red cards looked to be harsh, but were completely consistent with one another.
Both managers openly slated Taylor.
On Match of the Day, it was put to Alan Shearer that Taylor has shown consistency. "Yeah. He was consistently wrong".
So I think we can revise that cliché to "all we want to see from referees is consistency, and that they also completely correspond with our interpretation of every incident, otherwise they are automatically in the wrong, even though they’re trained, professional referees who know the rules of the game intimately, and we don’t".
Not too much to ask, is it?
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