A Tale of Two Halves

Newcastle's first 45 minutes at White Hart Lane Sunday was certainly the worst of halves.  Commentator Danny Murphy spared no detail in ripping the Magpies performance.  That they left the pitch at half time down just 0-1 (on a marvelous header from Adebayor) is a minor miracle.  Moribund is how I would describe the effort. The next 45 minutes was the best of halves.  Beleaguered manager Alan Pardew made two, as it turned out, inspired substitutions.  First, he put in Sammy Ameobi to replace the largely ineffective (at least this week) Gabriel Obertan.  How'd that work out?  Ameobi scored essentially off the second half tap, taking just six seconds to level the match.  He also switched out Vurnon Anita for Remy Cabella, a clear signal that Pardew was looking to boost the offense.  How'd that work out?  In the 58th minute Cabella sent a pinpoint accurate cross to Ayoze Perez, who headed it in for what turned out to be the game winner.  Aside from the cross, Cabella looked confident in possessing the ball and was a key factor in Newcastle's dominance in the second half.  Sure, there were some scary moments before it was over but in the end the Magpies got the three points on the road.

Michael B and I watched the match together, another one of the "personal derbies" that come up among the blog's regulars.  I probably owe him an apology.  He showed up at the house and realized he had forgotten his Spurs scarf.  The sporting thing would have been for me to "kick the ball out" and not wear my Newcastle scarf.  Shamefully, I kept the neckware on.  I plead guilty by reason of relegation fear.

Surfing around various sites this week I find that the majority of the Toon Army remains pessimistic about Newcastle going forward.  Ameobi and Obertan aren't that good, the wins over Leicester and Spurs were largely due to good luck, Pardew is still wrong way more than he's right, etc, blah, blah, blah.  Maybe.  But, even Danny Murphy, as he was criticizing the Newcastle effort, noted that the side was without Tiote, Cisse and key transfer Siem de Jong.  His point was that the side we have been fielding might be a relegation threat but the squad that could be out there when injuries are resolved might be okay.  I just read that Cisse will miss several weeks on international duty in 2015.  Given the Riviere and Perez have been, shall we say, inconsistent, we may need to add a quality striker in the January transfer window.  Not to mention another center back.

Aston Villa

I don't really know what is left to say at this point, but it won't be much since I don't really want to think about this game any longer than I have to.  A historic fifth straight shutout loss - something that had never happened to Aston Villa before.  We did have some decent possession throughout most of the match and had two excellent, though ugly, chances.  Twice the ball fell to the feet of Keiran Clark mere yards from goal and twice he looked every ounce the defender that he is.  Both chances felt like they had to go in, but they took just the wrong bounce or the defender recovered just enough to keep Villa scoreless.  At this point, I just don't know where the goals will come from.  Benteke looked a little better, but we are just plain boring on offense - no creativity, very little pace, and right now, no luck.  As the commentators pointed out, both sides would feel like they deserve to be relegated if they can't at least beat this inferior opponent.  And I hate to say they are right.  If the Villans don't find some punch somewhere, they will be making more unenviable history while becoming the first Aston Villa team to be relegated from the EPL.

Bubblecious

When you see bubbles in the picture, you know you're watching a match at Upton Park, home of West Ham.  Somehow - and the stories differ on how it happened - I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles became the theme song for the Hammers.  So logically, they now have a bubble machine to fill the air at the appropriate moments.  Katy Perry recorded a version of the song for her (then?) husband, Russell Brand, who is an avid West Ham fan.  Before this goes any farther into Entertainment Tonight territory, let me return to why I wanted to talk about West Ham - their convincing win over Man City.  The Hammers had Man City on the back foot from the start.  An absolutely brilliant pass from Alex Song created the first goal on a cross from Valencia to Amalfitano.  Sakho's textbook header at 75 minutes made it 2-0.  Silva immediately brought MC back at 77 minutes to set up a frantic finish.  There were a few testing moments before the final whistle but West Ham was able to close out and completely deserved win.  They sit fourth in the table, though granted it is early.

Poor Prognistications

After reviewing the write up for the upcoming week in the last post, here's hoping nobody is using this blog for betting purposes.  Aside from expecting Man City to handle West Ham, I also suggested Liverpool (vs Hull City) and Chelsea (vs Man United) had every reason to expect three points.  Both ended up with draws, though comparing the two matches side-by-side, we can easily see some draws are interesting, others, not so much.  Liverpool largely disappointed; though they steadily ratcheted up the pressure as the contest wore on, Hull City's defense held firm and the Tigers came away with a 0-0 draw.  At Old Trafford, Chelsea and Manchester United played a wide open, highly entertaining match.  Six yellows for Chelsea.  Last one was Ivanovic's second, earning him a red card in the 95th minute.  But with so little time left, surely it won't make a difference.  So of course, Man United scores on the free kick; arguably, Ivanovic's bear-like presence in the box would have been helpful so maybe it did matter.  Chelsea fans will feel hard done by the call on Ivanovic and getting just a draw but you won't find this blog shedding any tears.  At least Arsenal (2-0 over Sunderland) and Everton (3-1 over Burnley) performed up to expectations.  Us bottom feeders thank you for that.


Cyber Draws

Wow, the Chester Blues get draws with Chelsea (0-0) and Manchester City (1-1).  I confess.  I kinda sorta "parked the bus" in both matches - deep defensive line, short passing, slow tempo, and of course, a lot of time wasting.  I did allow for more counter attacking against Man City and was rewarded with a late equalizing goal.  Though we lost a little ground getting just draws, these were good results for us.  We sit in fourth, far exceeding the pundits' expectations. "Mental issues" continue to be the big concern.  A third key summer signing is having trouble "settling in" to Chester, England.  So I now have a Portuguese midfielder, a Swiss striker and a Croatian defender who are homesick or something.  To make matters worse, the striker is having a crisis of confidence because he hasn't scored yet this season.  I have thoroughly searched the game and have found all kinds of coaches but no therapists. Hopefully the team continues to do well and these things won't matter.


MLS Playoffs 

Seattle did beat LA to win the Supporters Shield for the best regular season record.  Which doesn't count for much on this side of the pond.  It does get them a first round bye.  The Unionless playoffs get started this week.  The Red Bulls will face Sporting KC in a knockout game with the winner to face DC United in the two-leg Eastern Conference semi-final.  That match will have been played by the time you read this (hint - the Red Bulls scored two late goals - Bradley Wright-Phillips who else? - and move onto the conference semi-finals).  Perhaps, Chris K., the blog's resident Red Bull expert, will be able to offer comments on that match and maybe their prospects against DC United, now that we know they won the knockout game.

Rabona
From Wikipedia:
In association football, the rabona is a method of kicking the football whereby the kicking leg is wrapped around the back of the standing leg—effectively with one's legs crossed.


As in, check out Erik Lamela's rabona in Tottenham's Europa Cup win over Asteras. We'll make it this week's YouTubeableMoment.  The video isn't great and I'm still trying to wrap my leg head around this technique, but if you can freeze it at 6 seconds, you get a sense of what Lamela did. 

More Derbies
MLS playoff action will be in full swing with four matches.  The second leg of all of those matchups will be the weekend of 11/8-11/9.


The EPL schedule looks good in that most of us will not have to resort to Extra Time to see our squads in action.  Newcastle will open the weekend with Liverpool at 8:45 (the Brits moved their clocks back last weekend).  Off both team's recent form, I might be inclined to be thinking about a point from this match, but that would be stupid.  Featured match from the 11 am games is Chelsea-QPR; at Stamford Bridge this has to be three points for the Blues and further dropping of the bags under Harry Redknapp's eyes.  Arsenal shouldn't be tested by Burnley.  A real interesting match that is only on Extra Time is Everton hosting Swansea City.  Sunday morning features the Manchester derby at the Etihad; oddsmakers favor the Citizens and I guess that's probably right but will be interested to see what Man United can do.  That match is followed by Aston Villa hosting Tottenham; at Villa Park you might be inclined to think that maybe Aston Villa can knick a point from this match, but that would be stupid. 



Late news - Newcastle beat Man City 2-0 in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup and have reached the quarterfinals.  Never mind that both lineups were heavily littered with second teamers, a win is a win.  And it sets up another Monday Night Basketball Derby with Tottenham to be played in mid-December.  Michael B - remember your scarf this time, I don't want any excuses.

PKs and Own Goals

A highly entertaining weekend of football, and not just because Newcastle got their first win of the year, though I might not have enjoyed some of the odder results as much had the Magpies not been victorious.

Let's start with Newcastle.  Turned out to be a difficult match to watch in any number of respects.  First, the match was delayed an hour because the new 60 meter TV screen came loose, prompting fears that it might fall on fans.  Second, NBC Extra Time experienced technical difficulties of their own and the connection was lost in the 14th minute.  Other than Coloccini's miss of a virtually wide open net, there hadn't been much action up to that point.  Dennis came to the rescue with an alternative on-line streaming source so I was able to rejoin the match by the start of the second half, at which point the score was, surprise, 0-0.  Pretty much a snoozefest.  Cisse missed a golden opportunity, probably because it wouldn't have leveled the match.  Finally, Gabriel Obertan, in the match's only quality moment, slipped a shot inside the post in the 71st minute.  That is all you need to know of this match.  Three points, yay, but we still sit 18th in the table with upcoming matches vs Tottenham and Liverpool.


Plenty of PKs

Four alone in the MC-Tottenham match.  At least one, and probably two, looked deserved, none more than Fazio's ill-advised grab of Aguero in the box, which earned him a red card.  Hart and Lloris each saved one.  By the time the carnage was finished, Aguero had four goals and the Citizens had a relatively easy 4-1 win.  The PK run continued on Sunday with two more in the first half of Stoke-Swansea.  We were very pleased to see Shawcross get whistled for grabbing Bony in the box before the corner kick had even been taken and hope to see this particular infraction called more frequently.  The call on Rangel against Moses looked a bit softer but there it was.  A late, high quality heading finish from Walters was the difference here as Stoke took all three points.


Own Goals
This is what an own goal looks like.




So is this.


Both are from Sunday's QPR-Liverpool match, in which QPR scored four goals and lost 2-3. The best time for an own goal is basically never.  Among the worst times would be in stoppage time in a match where you have heroically leveled things in the 87th minute and again in the 92nd minute.  This kind of heart-wrenching snatching a loss from the jaws of a draw action cannot be good for the bags under Harry Redknapp's eyes.

But here's the kicker.  QPR did not have the most own goals of the weekend.  That honor belongs to Sunderland, who put the ball into their own net three times against Southampton.  The fact that they also allowed five non-own goals probably took a little of the sting out.  This one, by Vergini, is this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Remember as you watch this that Sunderland, in blue, is defending the goal you see on the the screen; possibly the sweetest strike evah for an own goal.


Overheard While Watching Crystal Palace-Chelsea

Dennis: Do managers really make that much difference in soccer?
Steve: Probably more than in baseball but not as much as in football
Emily: I'm getting the impression that Mourinho is a douche
Dennis and Steve: That's probably right


Lower Table Lament

We love to root for David over Goliath, Crystal Palace over Chelsea, QPR over Liverpool, etc, etc.  But frankly it's not in our best interests.  Both Dennis with Aston Villa and I with Newcastle have our own relegation battles to worry about; we don't need these teams picking up points against the top table sides; it just makes our prospects for staying up more fragile.  This became patently clear while watching the Crystal Palace-Chelsea match.  People might not realize this but that is a London derby and the play was, ahem, spirited.  Nice work by the referee Craig Pawson to keep this from degenerating into full contact kick boxing, he was dead on for both red cards given just three minutes apart.  When CP scored late to close the gap to one goal, the initial instinct to pull for the underdog was quickly squashed by the realization that neither of us wanted CP to get a point out of this match.  Along these lines we would like to voice our displeasure with Arsenal and Man United as they could only manage draws against Hull City and West Brom, respectively.


Aston Villa - Everton

Let's see, how quickly did things go wrong in this match?  From my perspective, before the first whistle.  Due to the aforementioned Extra Time glitch, the playback started me at the 73rd minute and a 2-0 AV deficit.  Undeterred, I diligently performed my duty as a fan and watched from the beginning, which only made things worse.  The team was rather pathetic in a very convincing 3-0 defeat and I can't remember even one bright spot worth mentioning.  The defense is crumbling, the midfield is non-existent again (probably mostly due to the injury to Delph), and the "offense" did, in fact, immediately revert to futile long balls to Benteke.  This match firmly cemented the hot start as an aberration and leaves Aston Villa entrenched in the mid-table battle.  Honestly, I am now hoping that we can just stay there instead of fall any further, even though we are currently closer to 5th place than 18th.  A quick look at goal differential says we should actually be in 18th, pushing Newcastle out of relegation I might add.  The Villans finally get a break from their brutal schedule with QPR on Monday and desperately need to get something from this game.


What If They Held a Match and Nobody Came Was Allowed In?



This was the scene for Tuesday's night Champions League contest between CSKA (Moscow) and Manchester City.  CSKA had been banned from selling tickets and the match was to be played behind closed doors as punishment for racist behavior of fans in an earlier matches.  The club may also need to work on their security, as somehow there was a non-zero number of CSKA fans in attendance.

In a final touch to the surreal conditions, the match was played in 32 degree weather.  Man City was probably thrilled by the whole experience; they coughed up a two goal lead and came away with a draw after the referee awarded a PK in the 86th minute on what looked to my eyes to be a phantom foul.


Who's Next

Seattle and LA will play 3 pm on Saturday (NBC) for the Supporters Shield (best regular season record in the MLS).  By virtue of the tiebreaking rules, Seattle need only a draw while LA must win.  This is also Landon Donovan's final regular season match.  In the Eastern Conference, they'll be playing just for seeding for the playoffs, with the Red Bulls still having a shot at third place and a first round bye.  The Union will be play Columbus for pride and a possible 6th place finish.

Across the pond, the week looks a little boring.  There is the Monday Night Basketball Derby between Tottenham and Newcastle (on Extra Time - not surprising given the form of these two sides to date [update: moved to NBCSN at 9:30 on Sunday, probably in response to outraged callers from NW Philly area]).  Big match of the week looks to be Man United hosting Chelsea, Sunday at noon on NBC; even at Old Trafford, I would see Chelsea as the favorites.  Dennis has to wait until Monday for the Villans match in London vs QPR; would think he fancies a point or three coming out of that match. Man City, assuming they thaw out and are not intimidated playing in front of a live audience, should be able to handle West Ham.  Ditto for Liverpool, who host Hull and Everton, who travel to Burnley.  Arsenal might not duplicate Southampton's eight goal win over Sunderland but will win anyway, if they know what's good for them.

Bob K - Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday look to be heading in opposite directions.  Do you have a buy-out option on that bet? You're having better luck with Sevilla.  Which reminds me, I heard something about El Clasico this weekend; apparently Bale is out but Suarez might be in.   I expect a full report from our La Liga correspondents.

Custodite Duo Porta Fenus aut Perite

Apologies to any Latin scholars out there but I believe this post's title, loosely translated, is Protect a Two Goal Lead or Fail to Make the Playoffs.  Unfortunately, the Union couldn't so they won't.  After a scoreless first half, the Union fashioned a 2-0 lead on goals by Danny Cruz and Andrew Wenger; neither were particularly pretty but were deserved based on the Union's work rate.  After Wenger's goal, announcer Peter Pappas noted that the next five minutes would be important.  He was right.  Three minutes later, Columbus was on the board.  Two minutes after that, Columbus was tied.  Three minutes after that, Columbus was winning 3-2.  It was one of those moments where you almost wished they allowed timeouts to get things organized.   But there it was - three goals in five minutes and Columbus without its leading scorer.  I was able to get video of the postgame talk as this week's YouTubeableMoment.

It would be silly to cite this late collapse as the reason the Union won't be in the playoffs.  It is not silly to suggest that a season full of goals allowed after 80 minutes is the reason their season is over.  By my calculation, if games had ended at 80 minutes, the Union would have had 11 more points; after 80 minutes, seven wins became draws, one draw became a loss, two losses became draws and one draw was turned into a win.  This is not a bad team but it really wasn't consistent enough to contend or even make the playoffs.  And while there is young talent, many key positions are manned by players in their late twenties or early thirties.  In short, it seems like there is still a lot of work to be done.


Football Manager Update


Light refereeing duty and no EPL games allowed me to return to my duties as manager of the Chester Blues.  Heading into the international break we were facing two road matches against top ten sides.  Against Aston Villa we were outplayed but hung in and nicked a goal in the 88th minute to steal a draw (I thought you were supposed to be talking about simulations in this section.  Sounds real to me.)  Playing QPR a few days later, we took what we learned playing on the narrow pitch at Villa Park (use a 4-1-3-2 but keep the midfielders in tight) and were pretty much in control in a 1-0 win.  Four points when I was hoping for maybe two - sweet.  And players are coming back from injury.  We sit third in the table with 16 points from seven matches.  Our next three matches are against Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool so we might be stuck on the number for a bit.  But relegation doesn't seem such a threat right now. 



International Break


Two US friendlies ended 1-1 with the Yanks surrendering goals late in both contests.  But as we maintain here, it's not the score that matters but what we learn about the team.  This time around we learned that the relationship between Landon Donovan and Jurgen Klinsmann is likely going to be forever awkward, at best.  The match on Friday was sort of a farewell tribute to Donovan; it was nice to see him get the recognition but the whole thing felt weird.  In Tuesday's match we learned that as much as Klinsmann wants Bradley to be the top of the mid-field diamond and Diskerud the back half, it may not work.  Jermaine Jones wasn't terrible in central defense but at 32 does he really have a future there for the USMNT?  And we were reminded that for all the time we've been watching Altidore, he is just 24 years old.

The international break is not all fun and games for the European sides, who are now in the qualifying stages for the 2016 European Championships; in other words, those matches count.  Pundits are slamming the new format that will allow 24 teams into the tournament, arguing that it cheapens the qualifying process.  Maybe; Belgium looked very ordinary and unconcerned in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina (still have to look the spelling up every time), probably feeling confident of qualifying in this format.  On the other hand, some good sides took it on the chin; Germany lost to Poland and tied Ireland, Spain lost to Slovakia, and Netherlands lost to Iceland (with Chester Blue Gylfi Sigurdsson netting two!).  Plenty of exciting matches so far and it will be fun to watch sides like Wales, Scotland and Ireland battle for a spot.


 The Weekend

While I did enjoy getting some things done around the house, Saturday morning just wasn't the same without the EPL.   The weekend gets off to a cracking start with Man City hosting Tottenham at 7:45 on Saturday morning; Michael B says he'd be happy to take home a point.  The 10 am slot is jammed packed; Crystal Palace v Chelsea is the featured match but I will be watching Newcastle host Leicester on NBC Extra Time.  Anything but a win there will increase the pressure for owner Mike Ashley to sack Pardew.  Also "relegated" to Extra Time are Everton v Aston Villa and Arsenal v Hull.  The Toffees have struggled so far and Aston Villa have been nobody's patsy this year so that could be close.  Four fun facts for that match:
    1)Agbonlahor has 7 goals vs Everton, his most against any club
    2) In the last 11 matches vs Everton, Aston Villa have just one win but seven draws
    3) Paul Lambert has never won an EPL match vs Roberto Martinez (3 losses, 3 draws)
    4) Villans have just 10 shots on target this season, or less than Costa or Aguero
Gunners fans must be thinking about three points from Hull City, especially at the Emirates.  Liverpool will travel to London to face QPR on Sunday morning at 8:30 (should be three even on the road) and resurgent Man United travel to the Midlands to face West Brom  (if the Red Devils are back for real, this should be a W for them).

A Proper Contest?

Refereeing and various social events kept viewing to a minimum this weekend.  I will rely on the kindness of others to fill in the gaps.

Swansea 2 Newcastle 2

A match of contradictions.  Swansea easily carved up the Newcastle central defense multiple times; only Tim Krul's acrobatics and maybe some luck limited the Swans to just the two goals.  Newcastle's vaunted 4-2-3-1 was as punchless as ever.  As I watched, I couldn't help but start to wonder what it would be like to root for a real EPL squad.

And yet, the score was 1-1 at half, thanks to great work in the corner by Gabriel Obertan and a redirection of the puck ball off of Cisse's skate boot.  Even better, the matched turned into what the announcer termed "a proper contest" when Ameobi came on for Colback and the Magpies switched to a 4-1-3-2.  Cisse leveled the match shortly thereafter and Newcastle were frisky for the duration of the contest.  By the way, with his work vs Hull City (bringing Newcastle back from 0-2 for a draw) and Saturday's heroics, Cisse is now starring in his own film and we have obtained a copy of the lobby poster (right).

So where are we?  I mean besides 18th in the table.  Still no wins but there have been at least three draws that were surely losses last year.  Will Pardew give up on the lone striker formation?  The draw certainly took the pressure off him for a few weeks but a loss at home vs Leicester will put it right back on him.  Of the new personnel, Janmaat (who is, of course, now hurt) and Colback have been pretty much as advertised.  Riviere has yet to show anything.  Cabella has been less than I expected, and got a seat on the bench in favor of Obertan last Saturday.  And de Jong has logged little time due to injuries.  I'd say where we are is a big fat question mark.

Here's another take, comparing results in last year's fixtures to same fixtures this year:

Match                          2013-14           2014-15           Differential

Man City (H)                 0-2                   0-2                          0

Aston Villa (A)               2-1                   0-0                        -2

Crystal Palace (H)          1-0                   3-3                        -2

Southampton (A)            0-4                   0-4                         0

Hull City (H)                   2-3                   2-2                       +1

Stoke City (A)                0-1                   0-1                         0

Swansea (A)                   0-3                   2-2                       +1

Total points                     6                      4                          -2

Surprisingly, three have the exact same results (Man City, Southampton and Stoke).  In two cases - Aston Villa and Crystal Palace - wins last year have been replaced with draws.  But in two other cases, Hull City and Swansea, draws have replaced losses.  So the net change for the same fixtures is only -2 points.  For some reason, this does not fill me with confidence, probably because last year included big upsets of Chelsea, Tottenham and Man United that don't seem too likely this time around.  

Lastly, Newcastle fans can be tough but they do have a sense of humor.  Witness the banner on display at Swansea:

Manchester United 2 Everton 1

A marvelous match for the neutrals.  And the Red Devils faithful.  Goals by DiMaria and Falcao.  Tremendous saves by De Gea, including one on the Baines PK (Leighton was 14-14 in EPL on PKs but is now 14-15).  Quality midfield play from Blind and Mata.   Ruh roh, have Manchester United righted their ship?  Don't look now but they are in fourth place.  Naismith's goal for Everton was pretty cool but I want to make Falcao's this week's YouTubeable Moment for two reasons.  First, it's great work by Falcao to steer that "pass" past Howard; pass is in quotes because I'm not sure that was DiMaria's intent (Dennis: it was 100% a shot - have you ever seen someone wind up for a pass like that? Steve: You obviously haven't seen me play recently).  Second, it provides a perfect example of another of my pet peeves - no fewer than four defenders raised their arms to call offsides on the play.  To me it's like saying "I'm raising my arm because I have been badly beaten on this play and my only hope is for the AR to save my ass with an offsides call."  In this particular case it's close but I believe the AR got it right. 


Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

Right now Chelsea look to be a formidable combination of good and nasty.  Like the Man City - Chelsea match, referee Martin Atkinson wanted to let them play but quickly had to reverse course and started handing out yellows - seven in all by my count.  It was amazing the match ended with 22 players on the pitch.  One of those was not Thibaut Courtois, who collided with Alexis Sanchez, stayed in for a little, then left because he was bleeding from his ear.  What a wimp...Nice that your backup keeper is Petr Cech.  Even the managers got into it a bit, with Wenger shoving Mourinho after a hard challenge on one of his players.

The score does not flatter Chelsea.  They seemed in command the entire match.  The second goal was a thing of beauty - a perfect long pass by Fabregas spotting the run by Costa, who chested the ball gently into his path and calmly flicked the ball over  Szczny's, Scynesy's, Szyzczny's the Arsenal keeper's head.  Obviously, we have a long way to go but right now only Man City seem even close to be able to play with Chelsea.

Aston Villa 0 Manchester City 2

This was a classic Aston Villa performance....from last season.  We had fairly poor possession (though it was better than a typical match from a year ago), almost no offensive chances, and appeared to be satisfied with a draw after 30 or so minutes.  The defense held on for 80 minutes but eventually relented.  You may recall a comment I made after the Liverpool game - " I have a feeling that the new-look Chelsea would have managed at least one goal given the same 81 minutes."  That sentiment also applies to Manchester City who will almost never be held scoreless given 90, or even just 45, minutes of pure offense.

One bright spot was the return of Christian Benteke.  His impact in this game was negligible and he only had a handful of touches on the ball, but it can't hurt to have him back.  It was somewhat disconcerting to see Villa immediately revert to the "kick it long and let Benteke do all of the work" strategy of the past (Steve: Everton seems to have the same issue with Lukaku - maybe you can compare notes as Everton is AVL's next opponent).  That did not work for us last season and it is not a long term recipe for success.  I am hopeful they can deploy Benteke with a little more intelligence, a little less brute force, and maybe even with a little help up top.  Given that he was far and away the leading scorer for Villa last season - he had 10 league goals with the two closest players tied at 5 - he should at least re-energize a side that could use something besides a goalless loss.  The Villans are still in fine shape at 10th in the table and all hope is certainly not lost, but we could really use a little boost.


Around the League

Spurs fans should be happy with the 1-0 win over a quality Southampton side.  And a somewhat shorthanded Liverpool got by West Brom 2-1.

Let's not forgot about Leicester and Burnley who played an incredibly exciting 2-2 draw, capped off by an excellent 95th minute free-kick by Burnley's Ross Wallace.  The Leicester Foxes play some of the most exciting, aggressive football I have seen in the EPL in some time.  Granted it is not always the prettiest - "You can really tell the difference in quality" was a comment made while watching the match - but so far, all of their matches have been fun to watch (Steve: sounds like the kind of team that will give Newcastle fits when they meet next week).


International Break

The EPL is off this weekend as there are Euro Qualifiers and other international matches of various import.  By the time you read this, the US-Ecuador friendly scheduled for Friday at 7 pm will be in the books. The match itself is of no consequence but it will mark Landon Donovan's final USMNT appearance, which is reason enough for me to tune in.

The Union have a critical match on Saturday at 7 pm as they face the Columbus Crew at home.  The last minute draw vs Chicago makes this absolutely a must win.  In fact, the Union could be eliminated from playoff contention with the right (wrong?) combination of results this weekend.  I found the Inquirer headline regarding MacMath's return to the starting line up for this match to be misleading.  It almost sounded like he was getting the start over Mbolhi, who of course had that awful turnover that led to the tying goal last Thursday.  Not so, Mbolhi is on international duty so MacMath gets the start in his place.

So it will be a relatively quiet weekend, giving us a chance to rake leaves, take out air conditioners, and otherwise re-enter the real world, if only for a few days.

Pardew's Swansea Song?

Things are going so well for my teams we're going to start calling this a blah-g.  Other than my computer Chester Blues in Football Manager, not too many results this month.

Newcastle fell behind to Stoke City early on a goal by Ichabod Crane Peter Crouch (right) and things stayed that way until the final whistle.  The Magpies were actually the better side in the first half but managed no serious offensive threats.  The more distressing aspect of this match was that, unlike the Crystal Palace and Hull City contests, Newcastle's attack was increasingly futile as the game wore on.  The second half was among their worst of the season so far.  The only serious shot came after 80 minutes and was a bolt out of the blue rather than the result of relentless attacking pressure, which one might have expected from a team down 0-1 late.  Do we need any more evidence that the lone striker approach of the 4-2-3-1 isn't working?  Pardew gets blamed for stuff that may not be his fault, but this surely is. If the personnel aren't right for the formation, there's nothing to do about that until the January transfer window.  So instead of trotting out the same ineffective line-up, maybe he should try something else.

Newcastle travel to Wales to face Swansea City on Saturday.  Reports vary on whether Pardew is out with another loss but I'm betting that, unless they are blown out like at Southampton, he survives; a loss at home in two weeks to Leicester might be a different matter.

Speaking of tenure among EPL managers, Pardew (hired 12/9/10) currently ranks second to Arsene Wenger, who started on October 1, 1996.  This does not look like a profession for the faint of heart.  Two others (Allardyce at West Ham and Pearson at Leicester) were hired in 2011.  Of the remaining positions, five started in 2012, five in 2013, and six in 2014.  By my calculations, the median tenure of EPL managers as of September 30, 2014 was 487 days or about 1-1/3 years.  George Steinbrenner would be proud.


At Least We Have A Nicer Stadium

Stop me if you've heard this one.  Team goes on the road.  Falls behind early.  Offensive looks weaker as the match goes on.  Loses 1-0. That was the Union's fate vs DC United on Saturday, played in the cavernous and lifeless RFK Stadium.  This used to be the highest scoring team in MLS but they have been anemic of late.  Our corners have become so bad that Jeff H suggests we do short corners so that at least we retain possession.  The back line has been solid but you can't win games 0-0.  Home against 9th place Chicago on Thursday night; sitting three points out of the 5th spot, this is pretty much a must win for the Union.


Derbies and the Rest of the EPL

Pretty tame stuff for derbies, IMHO, from Arsenal-Tottenham and Liverpool-Everton, though there were several goals of the highest quality.  Saw Luke P at a party Saturday night and he was not pleased with the Gunners 1-1 draw at home, followed by the Union loss to DC United.  Michael B seemed okay with it (Spurs draw that is).  Tame might be a slightly unfair label for the Liverpool-Everton 1-1 draw.  Sure, it doesn't get more dramatic than an equalizing goal in stoppage time but the match really came down to just two outstanding moments of quality from Gerrard and Jagielka, which you can see in this week's YouTubeable Moment.  Nothing remarkable in Aston Villa's 0-3 loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.  Manchester United survived Rooney's straight red for a 2-1 home win over West Ham.  Man City squandered a 2-0 lead but eventually came away with a 4-2 win over Hull City.

Chester Take Two

Real life has limited my time with Football Manager and the real calendar has almost caught up with the cyber calendar.  We won our third round match in the League Cup over 3rd division Stockport 3-0.  I went with the same strategy as before, resting virtually the entire first team.  And it nearly backfired again.  Scoreless through 90 minutes, John Guidetti (real player) notched a hat trick in added extra time.  We then took Fulham 2-1 at home with Irish striker Ronan Gallagher (made up player) netting two.  We sit in 5th place with 12 points in five games; that's a bit of an illusion because we've played mostly lower table teams so far but avoiding relegation does appear to be a realistic goal.


The Calendar

Match of the week looks to be Chelsea hosting Arsenal Sunday at 9 am.  That means Tottenham-Southampton, a potentially interesting match which starts at the same time is relegated to NBC Extra Time; the Saints sit second in the table so Spurs need to watch out.  Liverpool have what looks like a winnable match at home versus West Brom.  Aston Villa continue their brutal champions tour with an away match versus Man City; at least it gets them a prime TV slot - 12:30 Saturday.  Man United and Everton at the crack of dawn on Sunday could be interesting too.  I will have to watch Newcastle-Swansea on NBC Extra Time, possibly on replay given my refereeing schedule.


Postscript:  Just finished watching Newcastle-on-Delaware, aka the Union, versus Chicago.  Like the Magpies, they appear competent until the final third, where they become utterly punchless.  But tonight, they score late as Oguko cleans up a mess in the box in the 88th minute.  Surely, they will hold on for the three points.  Except no, they don't.  World class keeper Rais Mbolhi commits a shocking turnover in the 92nd minute that allows Chicago to tie the match.  Ridiculous.