A tale of three derbies
Most neutrals gearing up for last weekend's football action would have found it difficult not to be bombarded by the fevered anticipation of three particular matches, especially if you reside in the UK.
I'm not referring to the clash of Portugal's titan's, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica (0-0 by the way!). No, rather the Merseyside derby that was followed by Arsenal's clash with Chelsea and finally Barcelona and Real Madrid in El Clasico.
It seems that the broadcaster's so-called 'Super Sundays' happen a lot more often than they used to. Not so much a reaction to an increase in the number of great football matches that are on, but rather a part of Sky's 'occasionally' unwarranted over-hyping of their schedule.
Anyway, that aside it is time to pick over the remains of the 'key' results of the weekend, at least as far as the Premier League and La Liga is concerned. So we start with Sunday's early kick-off, as Everton hosted Liverpool in a Merseyside derby that was surrounded in the mist of both club's recent poor form.
The over-riding lasting impression from the game was of how Everton failed to exert even more pressure onto the beleaguered Rafa Benitez. The 'Toffees' may have been suffering from a chronic injury list and last week's defeat to Hull City, but they certainly imposed themselves on Liverpool for long periods.
With games as tight as these there is always the danger of one team rueing their luck, and unfortunately for David Moyes that moment came after only 12 minutes. The dogmatic Javier Mascherano struck a hopeful shot that ricocheted off of Joseph Yobo, leaving Tim Howard as a stranded spectator.
This had a galvanising effect on the home team, and they responded with some neat passing and interplay. Before half-time had been reached Everton and their striker Jo had had two goals ruled out for off-side, and had failed to capitalise on their possession.
The second-half delivered more of the same, Liverpool with the intermittent threat and Everton continuing to push the agenda. The inevitable gilt-edged chance for Everton came with 20 minutes left. Firstly Tim Cahill's typical header was pawed away by Reina, only for Fellaini's close-range follow up to be equally smothered by the Spaniard.
The opportunity missed, Liverpool capitalised in the common cruel fashion. Only 10 minutes before the final whistle and Riera tested Tim Howard at full-stretch, the save was good but Dirk Kuyt was quickest to react and pounced for a Gary Linekar type poacher's goal. Everton will recover if they play with the same determination, but Liverpool are far from guaranteed their craved top-four finish on the evidence of Sunday.
The day's second big match concerned the Premier League's league leaders and title pretenders. Until last weekend Arsenal had been on a steady and impressive run of form that had taken them into 2nd place and given credence to their ambitions. Despite the away loss to Sunderland, optimism was still high that the Gunners could overturn Chelsea's new stoical consistency.
Things started steadily at the Emirates and Arsenal quickly settled into holding possession and building attacks, the problem which came back to haunt them was a lack of a killer final pass. Instead Chelsea demonstrated that they are building their title challenge on the back of a strong defence, and for all Arsenal's endeavour there was little goal-mouth action.
As the game moved towards what was appearing to be a closely fought half-time stalemate, Chelsea manufactured their first shot on the home side's goal. Fate would have it that Ashley Cole was the architect, as the home crowd's boos failed to have the desired affect. With 41 minutes on the clock he whipped in a low cross from the left which found the onrushing Didier Drogba, whos touch somehow guided the ball into the top right corner of the net.
Crucially the second goal arrived seconds before the half-time whistle. In an odd case of déjà vu, a similar Ashley Cole cross deflected off of an unlucky Thomas Vermaelen into exactly the same spot of the Arsenal goal. Suddenly 2-0 down and the Gunner's were feeling rather dejected.
The second half saw an expected response from Arsenal, and an injection of pace from Theo Walcott as a substitute. The England international threatened several times down the right flank, but as with a lot of the team's play it simply lacked a Robin van Persie like figure.
Even so, Arsenal did score soon after the break through Andrey Arshavin, only to be thwarted by the referee. The official blew his whistle for a foul by Eduardo on Petr Cech, but replays showed the decision to be harsh. The Chelsea 'keeper had not gained a full grasp of the ball before the Croatian kicked it out of his hands and on to Arshavin, one may wish to re-open the debate that goalkeepers are now afforded too much protection.
Alas, whilst football has many what-ifs, they have to be overcome if you want to succeed and Arsenal got no closer to getting back into the match. The final blow came as the contest looked to be petering out, with 4 minutes to go Drogba converted an impressive free-kick from about 25 yards.
The inquests have begun and Arsenal go from being title-challengers two weeks ago to being also-rans today. Realistically it is still too early to make such sweeping statements, but Wenger will hope that his stubborn words about Arsenal's title chances can inspire them to a long unbeaten run. Either way Chelsea need to drop points, how they cope with squad absences (especially Drogba) during the African Nations will be the key.
Finally we come to El Clasico, always a battle that is watched by a massive global audience every season. What has heightened the expectancy this time around is the relative competitiveness of both Barcelona and Real Madrid's squads. After the way that Florentino Pérez had courted the press and some of the world's greatest players over the summer, there was a genuine excitement about seeing such an eclectic assembly of stars on one pitch.
More importantly for the money-men, Cristiano Ronaldo was declared fit for his first such 'derby', after missing most of the previous six weeks through injury. The match itself was predictably frantic and keenly fought, as Barcelona held onto the ball and looked for openings and Real' looked to the counter with their pace.
The first real chance fell to the visitors after 20 minutes and came at the feet of Ronaldo when he was put through on goal by Kaka, but Víctor Valdés demonstrated his worth with a fine block that flew over. Shortly after Marcelo was also thwarted, in similar fashion by Carlos Puyol who was inspired throughout.
The Barcelona captain repeated his heroics on Marcelo not long after the break, the champions defence was certainly living up to its reputation as being the stronger of the two teams. The home team then continued the theme of the day by taking advantage of their opponent's wasted efforts and taking the lead themselves.
Pep Guardiola had only just substituted Thierry Henry with Zlatan Ibrahimović when the Swede made an instant impact. With virtually his first touch of the ball he confidently volleyed in Dani Alves' cross for the pivotal moment of the match.
The tide turned again however when Sergio Busquets was sent-off for a needless second yellow card, and Real sensed an opening. The game itself naturally opened up due to Real pushing forwards and Barca picking holes with the counter-attack, the La Liga affair was becoming comfortably the best fixture of the day.
The best chances for an equaliser came to Karim Benzema, who at €35 million must be one of the most expensive subs of all time! Perhaps as a result the Frenchman was a little rusty and only managed to blunder his best effort and had his other denied by none other than Puyol.
At the death Lionel Messi contrived to miss a close finish, but who in fairness was thwarted by the usual quality of Iker Casillas. A final turn was performed by Lassana Diarra who got himself sent off with an act of petulance, and with that Barcelona had secured the bragging rights.
On the evidence of Sunday, it may not be a surprise if La Liga was to turn out to be a tighter race than the Premier League this season. Certainly the Premier League is more competitive this time around, but Chelsea are the only team not making mistakes at this moment in time, hence their lead. Roll on the knock-out stages of the Champions League, now that will be interesting.
I'm not referring to the clash of Portugal's titan's, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica (0-0 by the way!). No, rather the Merseyside derby that was followed by Arsenal's clash with Chelsea and finally Barcelona and Real Madrid in El Clasico.
It seems that the broadcaster's so-called 'Super Sundays' happen a lot more often than they used to. Not so much a reaction to an increase in the number of great football matches that are on, but rather a part of Sky's 'occasionally' unwarranted over-hyping of their schedule.
Anyway, that aside it is time to pick over the remains of the 'key' results of the weekend, at least as far as the Premier League and La Liga is concerned. So we start with Sunday's early kick-off, as Everton hosted Liverpool in a Merseyside derby that was surrounded in the mist of both club's recent poor form.
The over-riding lasting impression from the game was of how Everton failed to exert even more pressure onto the beleaguered Rafa Benitez. The 'Toffees' may have been suffering from a chronic injury list and last week's defeat to Hull City, but they certainly imposed themselves on Liverpool for long periods.
With games as tight as these there is always the danger of one team rueing their luck, and unfortunately for David Moyes that moment came after only 12 minutes. The dogmatic Javier Mascherano struck a hopeful shot that ricocheted off of Joseph Yobo, leaving Tim Howard as a stranded spectator.
This had a galvanising effect on the home team, and they responded with some neat passing and interplay. Before half-time had been reached Everton and their striker Jo had had two goals ruled out for off-side, and had failed to capitalise on their possession.
The second-half delivered more of the same, Liverpool with the intermittent threat and Everton continuing to push the agenda. The inevitable gilt-edged chance for Everton came with 20 minutes left. Firstly Tim Cahill's typical header was pawed away by Reina, only for Fellaini's close-range follow up to be equally smothered by the Spaniard.
The opportunity missed, Liverpool capitalised in the common cruel fashion. Only 10 minutes before the final whistle and Riera tested Tim Howard at full-stretch, the save was good but Dirk Kuyt was quickest to react and pounced for a Gary Linekar type poacher's goal. Everton will recover if they play with the same determination, but Liverpool are far from guaranteed their craved top-four finish on the evidence of Sunday.
The day's second big match concerned the Premier League's league leaders and title pretenders. Until last weekend Arsenal had been on a steady and impressive run of form that had taken them into 2nd place and given credence to their ambitions. Despite the away loss to Sunderland, optimism was still high that the Gunners could overturn Chelsea's new stoical consistency.
Things started steadily at the Emirates and Arsenal quickly settled into holding possession and building attacks, the problem which came back to haunt them was a lack of a killer final pass. Instead Chelsea demonstrated that they are building their title challenge on the back of a strong defence, and for all Arsenal's endeavour there was little goal-mouth action.
As the game moved towards what was appearing to be a closely fought half-time stalemate, Chelsea manufactured their first shot on the home side's goal. Fate would have it that Ashley Cole was the architect, as the home crowd's boos failed to have the desired affect. With 41 minutes on the clock he whipped in a low cross from the left which found the onrushing Didier Drogba, whos touch somehow guided the ball into the top right corner of the net.
Crucially the second goal arrived seconds before the half-time whistle. In an odd case of déjà vu, a similar Ashley Cole cross deflected off of an unlucky Thomas Vermaelen into exactly the same spot of the Arsenal goal. Suddenly 2-0 down and the Gunner's were feeling rather dejected.
The second half saw an expected response from Arsenal, and an injection of pace from Theo Walcott as a substitute. The England international threatened several times down the right flank, but as with a lot of the team's play it simply lacked a Robin van Persie like figure.
Even so, Arsenal did score soon after the break through Andrey Arshavin, only to be thwarted by the referee. The official blew his whistle for a foul by Eduardo on Petr Cech, but replays showed the decision to be harsh. The Chelsea 'keeper had not gained a full grasp of the ball before the Croatian kicked it out of his hands and on to Arshavin, one may wish to re-open the debate that goalkeepers are now afforded too much protection.
Alas, whilst football has many what-ifs, they have to be overcome if you want to succeed and Arsenal got no closer to getting back into the match. The final blow came as the contest looked to be petering out, with 4 minutes to go Drogba converted an impressive free-kick from about 25 yards.
The inquests have begun and Arsenal go from being title-challengers two weeks ago to being also-rans today. Realistically it is still too early to make such sweeping statements, but Wenger will hope that his stubborn words about Arsenal's title chances can inspire them to a long unbeaten run. Either way Chelsea need to drop points, how they cope with squad absences (especially Drogba) during the African Nations will be the key.
Finally we come to El Clasico, always a battle that is watched by a massive global audience every season. What has heightened the expectancy this time around is the relative competitiveness of both Barcelona and Real Madrid's squads. After the way that Florentino Pérez had courted the press and some of the world's greatest players over the summer, there was a genuine excitement about seeing such an eclectic assembly of stars on one pitch.
More importantly for the money-men, Cristiano Ronaldo was declared fit for his first such 'derby', after missing most of the previous six weeks through injury. The match itself was predictably frantic and keenly fought, as Barcelona held onto the ball and looked for openings and Real' looked to the counter with their pace.
The first real chance fell to the visitors after 20 minutes and came at the feet of Ronaldo when he was put through on goal by Kaka, but Víctor Valdés demonstrated his worth with a fine block that flew over. Shortly after Marcelo was also thwarted, in similar fashion by Carlos Puyol who was inspired throughout.
The Barcelona captain repeated his heroics on Marcelo not long after the break, the champions defence was certainly living up to its reputation as being the stronger of the two teams. The home team then continued the theme of the day by taking advantage of their opponent's wasted efforts and taking the lead themselves.
Pep Guardiola had only just substituted Thierry Henry with Zlatan Ibrahimović when the Swede made an instant impact. With virtually his first touch of the ball he confidently volleyed in Dani Alves' cross for the pivotal moment of the match.
The tide turned again however when Sergio Busquets was sent-off for a needless second yellow card, and Real sensed an opening. The game itself naturally opened up due to Real pushing forwards and Barca picking holes with the counter-attack, the La Liga affair was becoming comfortably the best fixture of the day.
The best chances for an equaliser came to Karim Benzema, who at €35 million must be one of the most expensive subs of all time! Perhaps as a result the Frenchman was a little rusty and only managed to blunder his best effort and had his other denied by none other than Puyol.
At the death Lionel Messi contrived to miss a close finish, but who in fairness was thwarted by the usual quality of Iker Casillas. A final turn was performed by Lassana Diarra who got himself sent off with an act of petulance, and with that Barcelona had secured the bragging rights.
On the evidence of Sunday, it may not be a surprise if La Liga was to turn out to be a tighter race than the Premier League this season. Certainly the Premier League is more competitive this time around, but Chelsea are the only team not making mistakes at this moment in time, hence their lead. Roll on the knock-out stages of the Champions League, now that will be interesting.
Comments