Viva la revolution
Liverpool’s recent form hasn’t been anything to write home, or elsewhere about. Manager Kenny Dalglish admitted after his side’s lacklustre performance in their surprise 3-1 defeat to Bolton, that no player was safe from the axe. Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson are amongst those whose place could well be under scrutiny – combined, they cost Liverpool over £60 million in the last 12 months. Perhaps it should be ‘King’ Kenny himself who should fear the axe, as he is surely trading solely on reputation. He doesn’t seem to know his best line-up, nor how to get the best out of his players. It’s far too early for him to be sacked, but he shouldn’t assume he is totally safe. Although being Dalglish, he’s probably arrogant enough to assume he is.
More misery for Moyes
Things are not going well for the blue half of Merseyside either, as Everton’s poor run continued with The Toffees only managing a draw at home against lowly Blackburn Rovers. They’ve won just one of their last six, and are slowly sliding into the bottom five. They could potentially find themselves involved in the relegation scrap. With little money to spend, Moyes has had to work wonders for years, and it appears he’s starting to run out of ideas. Leighton Baines is their top scorer – pretty much says it all.
Canaries are flying
With the wonderful football played by Swansea and the managerial change at QPR (not to mention Joey Barton), Norwich City have been somewhat overlooked in favour of the other promoted sides. It’s probably as Paul Lambert likes it. There is nothing flashy about Norwich but they are a side that work very hard – not least their two strikers – and know how to play to their strengths. John Ruddy is being linked with an England call-up, which is a sign of how well he is doing. A side expected to go straight back down, they’re currently in ninth and could still be there come May. Paul Lambert, one of the most talented young managers in the Premier League, also deserves a lot of credit for the job he is doing.
Goals goals goals
35 goals were scored in the Premier League this week working out at 3.5 goals per game (I know, fast math – they could use people like me in Tulsa), which is well above the league’s average. Three of the games had five or more goals, and there was only one goalless draw. Of the 35 goals, there were some absolute stunners. Gareth Bale against Man City, Robbie Keane’s second against Wolves and of course, the sumptuous goals scored by Stephane Sessegnon and Craig Gardner against Swansea. There are a lot of things wrong with the Premier League, but these things highlight everything good about it.
Mario Balotelli
Once again Mario Balotelli stole the limelight. Once again it was not just for his ability on a football pitch. He won and then scored with some aplomb, a last minute penalty to win the game against Tottenham. However, that was overshadowed by a stamp on Scott Parker. I’m sure most have seen the footage, and it does not look good. Only Balotelli himself knows whether it was deliberate or not, and I doubt he’s going to admit it was any time soon. Deliberate or not though, he does find himself facing disciplinary action. Another man who should be facing disciplinary action is Howard Webb, who somehow missed the incident despite only being feet away – another example of incompetence from the ‘best ref in the league’.
