Everybody's a Mid-table Team Now (except Chelsea)

The scoreboard says 2-1 for Chelsea over Liverpool at Anfield but it didn't really feel that close. Meanwhile, Man City (vs QPR) and Everton (vs Sunderland) struggled to get draws on the road.  At least their fate was better than Spurs, who went down 1-2 to Stoke at White Hart Lane or Arsenal, who lost late to Swansea.  Man United eked out a win over Crystal Palace but they are already 13 points back.  Sure it's early but is it really going to be that easy for Chelsea?

The competitions for the Champions League, Europa Cup, and relegation, on the other hand, look like they might be fun.  Southampton, Swansea and West Ham (home draw to Aston Villa notwithstanding) are playing like they want to be in the mix.  At the other end, Burnley got their first win and QPR got an unexpected point against Man City so the bottom of the table is pretty tight.


"Magpies Flying"

Thus spake Peter Drury after Coloccini's textbook header had given Newcastle a 2-0 lead in the 62nd minute at The Hawthorns, home park of West Bromwich Albion.  A fourth straight win, 8th place in the table, a team that, dare I say it, looks to be gelling.  The first 44 minutes, in Drury's words were a victory for "industry over innovation" as the scoreless match dragged on.  To me the Magpies never looked in danger and I was thinking at worst this will be a 0-0 draw.  But in the closing seconds of the first half came a moment of "innovation" from Ayoze Perez, a clever flick of the right foot behind his left leg and into the side netting - this week's YouTubeableMoment.  It's a good sign when the Newcastle blogs are filled with complaints about our hideous green/blue away kits (modeled by Perez above right) rather than rants about the need to sack Alan Pardew.


Did You Notice?

How hard it rained in the second half in South Wales for the Swansea-Arsenal match.

The direct free kick by Gylfi Sigurdsson (Chester Blues!) to level that match.

That literally nothing of note happened in the Aston Villa draw.

That Charlie Austin (QPR) put the ball in the net three times in the first 21 minutes versus Man City but only the third counted.  For the first, he was ruled offsides.  On the ensuing indirect free kick, Joe Hart made complete hash of the attempt which went right to Austin, who deposited it into the net again.  Except that Hart had slipped and touched the ball with his plant foot before the real miskick. A free kick by the defense from inside their penalty area is not in play until kicked directly out of the penalty area.  Hart's first touch failed to clear the penalty area so the kick had to be taken again.  Ironically, the goal that did count for Austin probably should have been called back for offsides.

DC United coach Ben Olsen go appleplatic apopepcid nuts and Fabian Espindola get a yellow card because they thought the AR failed to flag a ball over the touch line and the Red Bulls scored shortly thereafter; a great stop-action blow up showed the ball clearly still on the line [just read that Espindola got a red card after the match for shoving the AR who made the call].  Congrats to the Red Bulls, who now face New England in the conference final.


No League Cup for Chester

We went down 0-2 to Liverpool in a quarterfinal match and it wasn't really that close.  Because of match congestion, I had several first team players out so the loss wasn't unexpected.  I got more crap from the fans for the 1-1 away draw at Sunderland a few days later.  Yeah, Sunderland is in 18th but for some reason this was a tough match up for us.  We got a lucky goal early, surrendered the equalizer at 26 minutes, then held on for dear life (pushed that time wasting slider to the max).  Another tough stretch awaits, with matches against Tottenham, Arsenal, and Liverpool over the next nine days.  Match congestion indeed.



International break

Dennis laments:
Even though the Villa game brought a tiny ray of light and a much needed point, the week was probably a net negative since Vlaar went and got himself injured on international duty [a friendly no less, not even a Euro qualifier].  I was actually watching this game and have no clue what happened.  One minute he was playing, the next he was sitting on the ground holding his calf.  No word on severity yet, but the Villans are already thin in the back and any amount of time off could be a problem.

Some of the qualifiers of interest to this blog include Scotland-Ireland at 2:45 pm Friday, England-Slovenia at noon on Saturday, Belgium-Wales at noon on Sunday, Italy-Croatia also at noon on Sunday and the Czech Republic vs Iceland at 2:45 on Sunday.  Viewing options may be limited depending on your cable package but a bunch will be streamed on ESPN3.

With the break, no EPL or MLS matches this weekend.  Uh-oh, somebody's going to have to rake leaves.