A Blizzard of Bad News

Trying to be a glass is 1/8th full kind of person but so much to complain write about, so little time...

The day started out well enough.  Relegation rival Norwich had seemingly just snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat when Liverpool scored in the 96th minute.  With the snow piling up, I celebrated Liverpool's fifth goal.  Okay, my reaction, captured here, might have been a tad over the top.



Turning to live stream Newcastle, things went bad even before the match started.  Why is Newcastle lining up in a 3-5-2, a formation they have never used, at least in the last five years?  Because they only have four healthy defenders.  The first half wasn't awful, just a return of the competent but ultimately harmless play the Magpies have featured much of the season.  Not so good for the second half, as the unfamiliar formation led to two lapses. Even an unexpected goal from Lascelles (pictured right) -who's performance should earn him a continued presence in the lineup- in the 71st minute didn't really change the tone of the match.  What coulda/shoulda been a rousing finish, was distressingly tepid.


Meanwhile Southampton was pulling out a late victory over Manchester United on a late goal by...Charlie Austin.  When I saw the score posted, there was no doubt in my mind that he was the goal scorer. Perfect.  He should have been in a Newcastle kit but no...

Crystal Palace broke a 6+ hour scoring drought (with an own goal from Vertonghen) but never threatened again and lost to Tottenham 1-3; check out the goal from Alli, this week's YouTubeableMoment.  (You're welcome Michael B.) The West Ham-Man City (2-2) contest was probably great but when I sat down to watch the dvr all I got was storm coverage as the game had been moved from NBC to NBCSN.  The weekend just kept getting better as Swansea picked up a second consecutive win, besting Everton at Goodison Park 2-1.  I suppose the West Brom- Aston Villa (0-0) and Sunderland-Bournemouth (1-1) draws weren't bad news; nobody got three points to gain on or get farther ahead of Newcastle.

At the top of the table, Leicester easily handled Stoke 3-0.  At the Emirates, Olivier Giroud once again failed to score against Chelsea but it wasn't his fault.  After Mertesacker got a red in the 18th minute for DOGSO (clearly deserved though Costa's embellishment was annoying), Wenger felt he couldn't afford to keep the striker on.  Still a reasonably decent match to watch but not a good result for the Gunners, who slip to third behind Leicester and Man City.


Transfer Doings

Newcastle finally landed winger Andros Townsend.  Looks to be a decent player and the price wasn't bad.  What's that you ask?  Doesn't Newcastle need a goal scorer?  Hmm, 21 goals in 203 appearances doesn't impress you?  Yeah, we still need a striker.  As of this writing, Berahino is looking unlikely, Remy and Gomis are still possibilities.

Much of the talk today was about Chelsea's $7.5m transfer fee for Red Bulls Matt Miazga.  I guess the money is probably great for the MLS and for Miazga but I wonder how this plays out.  Does he get loaned out to a lower division side or even another European league?  Or does he sit at Chelsea hoping for first team appearances.  Hopefully Chris K will weigh in with what it means for the Red Bulls.


Random SiriusXM FC Tidbits

Much talk about whether Tim Howard's time at Everton is coming to an end; he could be headed to Colorado but probably not until after the EPL season ends.  Don't read anything into the fact he didn't start in the League Cup game on Wednesday (oh yeah, forgot to mention that the Liverpool - on kicks from the spot - and Manchester City - on a great comeback possibly aided by a no-call - have advanced to the final); Robles has played all the League Cup games to date anyway.


If Howard does return, he might fall into the category of "museum pieces," a term coined by one the pundits to describe "older" EPL players like Gerard and Lampard coming to MLS in the, ahem, twilight of their careers.



Chester Is the Leicester of Football Manager

With wins over West Ham and Sunderland, the Chester Blues now sit atop the EPL, holding a two point lead over Everton with a game in hand.  Put together with no transfer fee greater than $10 million, we have much in common with the real life Foxes.  Both near the top in goals scored, decent though not top in goals allowed, and have fewer losses but more draws than their competitors.  Personnel management continues to be the big challenge.  One player missed practice and was upset that I issued a warning about it not happening again.  Then Rui Santos got upset when I rejected a transfer offer from another EPL club; the offer was outrageously high and if it had happened in the summer window I might have accepted it but Santos (right mid and attacking mid) is too integral to the team right now.  Several players key players have been away from the club on international duty.  So we'll see where this goes but for the moment it's all good.


FA Cup and Pesky Mid-week EPL Matches

This weekend is Fourth Round FA Cup action, otherwise known in Newcastle as an open date.  But many friends of BFS have clubs in action.  Spurs are on the road to lower division Colchester while Arsenal host Burnley.  Aston Villa are home against Manchester City; it would be so like the Villans to win this match even as they struggle against relegation.  Other matches include Man United traveling to face Derby, Liverpool hosting West Ham, Everton traveling to Carlisle, Crystal Palace playing Stoke (again) at Selhurst Park, and Chelsea on the road to face MK Dons.  Many of the matches are on FS1 or 2 so check your local listings.

Quick turnaround for everybody as there are eight league matches on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.  I have no clue what to expect from Newcastle against Everton at Goodison Park; frankly both sides have been widely inconsistent.  Aston Villa hopefully won't be blowing bubbles at West Ham but the Hammers are in the thick of competition for a spot in the Europa Cup so it will be tough.   My back up squad - Crystal Palace - are struggling right now but a home match against Bournemouth really should be a win.  Dennis' contingency team - Leicester - have an important contest with Liverpool. The Foxes are the betting favorite and that makes sense to me as the Reds have also blown hot and cold over the last month.

Other stuff at the top of the table - Arsenal host Southampton (should be good for the Gunners but can't be complacent), Man City are at the Stadium of Perpetual Struggle to face Sunderland and Tottenham are at Norwich; we kindly request that the big boys take care of business and make sure Newcastle relegation foes get no points.  Rounding out the calendar is Man United-Stoke at Old Trafford (how long can van Gaal hang on?), West Brom hosting Swansea (prefer a Swansea loss but draw wouldn't be bad) and Watford at home to Chelsea.

The midweek schedule really cuts down on viewing, although I guess with judicious use of Extra Time replays you can see more games - if you can somehow avoid seeing the scores.

PS - I hear something about a big match involving Atletico and Barcelona?

Who Are These Guys?

Somebody must have secretly replaced the Newcastle team.  A goal in the first five minutes?  A second in the 15th minute?  Both the direct result of insightful and accurate long passes from Jonjo Shelvey, who as I noted last week was an awesome (decent/awesome, tomayto/tomahto) acquisition for the Magpies.  Though presented in reverse order in this video, we'll make that combination of goals this week's  YouTubeableMoment.  I was positively giddy...for a few minutes.  Then the fear took over.  For Newcastle, when things are going well, it's only a matter of time before they deteriorate; when things are going badly, it's only a matter of time before they get worse.  Sure enough, Mbemba's soft back pass to Elliot turned into a soft goal for the Hammers in the 50th minute and we sweated out the next 40 minutes plus six more minutes of stoppage time.  A big win.

Aston Villa draw with Leicester

I know I said I was rooting for the Foxes in this one, but I guess some loyalties die a little harder than I imagined.  From the very first minute, I found myself desperately and unwittingly clinging to the hopes of a Villa victory.  The Villans did not reward my faith immediately and looked decent but sluggish to start the match, allowing a rebound goal to Okazaki after Vardy nearly scored on an incredible chip with horribly lazy defending by Lescott thrown in between.  Not 5 minutes later, Villa surrendered a penalty on a terrible handball call - Cissokho was sliding to block a shot, had his hand somewhat outstretched but clearly protecting his face, and the shot was smashed into his arm from a few feet away.  Fortunately, Mahrez missed his second consecutive penalty on a pretty weak effort that was deservedly saved by newly promoted starting keeper Mark Bunn.  Villa found some kind of spark in the second half and really took the game to Leicester, with Gestede getting a late deflection goal to split the points.  I think the draw was the only fair outcome and Villa did a formidable, if not outstanding, job of putting down the demons from their other Leicester fixture.

I guess I can't just toss aside two years of fandom even while staring at relegation.  My attitude will surely shift more as the inevitable draws closer and I'll continue to build a new relationship with Leicester (even though something about their play style really has shifted in the past few weeks), but for now I continue to dance with the one that me brought me, so to speak.  With 4 points in the past 2 weeks, Villa are starting to reconnect with the other bottom feeders and giving me just enough hope that there will be something to crush later on. 

Around the league, Tottenham dispatched Sunderland 4-1; thank you very much, for the win plus the minus three goal differential for the Black Cats.  The Crystal Palace slump continues and they looked totally outclassed, losing 0-4 to Man City.  Chelsea-Everton was interesting but unimportant and yeah, Terry was offside on the stoppage time (8th minute of a minimum 7) equalizer.  Conversely, Liverpool-Manchester (0-1) and Stoke-Arsenal (0-0) were important but uninteresting; two big matches with nary an exciting moment.  With coincident draws, Arsenal and Leicester remain top on points with the Gunners ahead on goal differential.  Both Man City and Tottenham gained two points on the leaders and are one point and five points respectively out of first.


Heard on SiriusXM Football Channel

I am lucky enough to have a free six-month trial subscription to SiriusXM radio and spend a few minutes on the drive to and from work listening to the Football Channel.  Favorite tidbits this week:

Ray Hudson - if Mourinho wants to prove he is the Special One, why doesn't he take over a trainwreck like Newcastle and turn that franchise around?

Talking head - relegation teams will be Aston Villa plus two of Sunderland, Swansea, Norwich and Bournemouth.  Uh, I think you forgot somebody.


Still Plugging Holes

So Newcastle may have remedied their scoring problem with Shelvey, not because Jonjo is such a goal scorer but because he 1) frees up Wijnaldum to be more of an attacker and 2) provides the set up passes.  Still, the Magpies missed enough opportunities that bringing in a striker hasn't been ruled out.  With Charlie Austin nabbed by Southampton for £5m (and how did the Saints close the deal for that price and Newcastle couldn't?), I think Plan A is to acquire Saido Berahino from West Brom.  If they can't agree on price, Plan B may be to get Loic Remy on loan from Chelsea.  There is also talk of going after Bafetimbi Gomis at Swansea.  I like that all are current EPL players but would prefer Remy on loan given that Berahino can be a handful and Gomis is 30.


Chester Roll On

The three day weekend gave me some time to spend with Football Manager.  In league play we got draws with Man City (good) and West Brom (bad -wtf? we were up 2-0 but had to score a late goal to get the 4-4 draw) plus a convincing 4-0 win over Burnley; we sit in second, one point behind Everton with two games in hand.  In FA Cup play we beat Bournemouth 3-1 to advance to the Fifth Round, where our opponent will be Chelsea.  In League Cup play we went to kicks from the spot against Manchester United after twice tying the match with goals in the 89th minute and the 118th minute.  Ronan Gallagher kick gave us a 4-3 advantage and sent us to the final where our opponent will be...Chelsea.  Not funny.

Chester have also had a good January transfer window, picking up midfielder Paul Pogba (real person - pictured above) on a free end-of-contract transfer and left back Emilio Duran (fictional player).  Schedule is still very congested but players are holding up so far.


Let It Snow

With a blizzard bearing down on the mid-Atlantic states, we turn to the EPL schedule for entertainment as we hunker down.  At first glance it doesn't seem all that appealing but there's a slew of meaningful matches.

Start with Watford-Newcastle; the Hornets have been slipping a bit so this is a big match for both though probably more so for the Magpies.  Is their resurgence real?  Are Watford as bad as they seemed in the 0-1 loss to Swansea?  You'll have to go to NBC Extra Time at 10 am on Saturday to find out.


Sunderland-Bournemouth (10 am Saturday - Extra Time) and the Midlands Derby between Aston Villa and West Brom (also 10 am Saturday on Extra Time) are clearly relegation battles.

As usual, the relegation teams will be looking for some help from higher teams like when Liverpool face Norwich (Saturday 7:45 NBCSN) and Everton take on Swansea (8:30 am Sunday on NBCSN).

Then there's the top of the table stuff.  A few weeks ago Crystal Palace-Tottenham looked intriguing but their fortunes have gone different routes lately; the Eagles haven't scored in league play in over 450 minutes while Spurs seem to be getting better and better.  That match is on USA at 10 on Saturday.  Second place Leicester host a solid Stoke squad (10 am Saturday Extra Time).  The other televised 10 am match is Southampton-Manchester United; despite playing inconsistent and often dull football, the Red Devils sit in fifth just two points behind Tottenham.  With Chelsea a mere 19 points behind Arsenal, this classic London derby (Sunday at 11 am NBCSN) may not have the same bite but is certainly important enough for the Gunners.  Rounding out the schedule is West Ham-Man City (the featured 12:30 Saturday match on NBC); if the Hammers play like they did last week, they'll get hammered alright.

Ten games, all with varying degrees of relevance.  As long as you bought the milk, bread, and toilet paper, you're all set for the storm.

Minnows with Frickin' Lasers

minnow ‎(plural minnows)

1. A small freshwater fish of the carp family.
2. More generally, any small fish.
3. (soccer) A low-level team, in comparison to their opponents. 

Okay, maybe not lasers but the minnows did leave some marks on the bigger clubs.  Of the 20 EPL clubs,  10 faced sides from the lower divisions.  In those matches,  the minnows won one (Oxford over Swansea), lost six and drew four.  One of the losses - Sheffield United - was to Manchester United on a PK in the 93rd minute.  I took in two of the draws.  League Two's Exeter City, managed by Paul Tisdale and his pork pie hat (right), gave Liverpool all they could handle and were rewarded with a 2-2 draw and a  replay at Anfield.  Wycombe Wanderers, also of League Two, fashioned a 1-1 draw at home against Aston Villa.  Check out the Wanderers home venue below - I've seen more cars in the parked in a field at the Hempfield Tournament in Lancaster County.



Newcastle are famous for the early exits and did not disappoint, losing to Watford 0-1 on a beautiful back pass by Wijnaldum right to the feet of a Watford attacker. Crystal Palace took a hard fought 2-1 win from Southampton and the Tottenham-Leicester match was an entertaining 2-2 draw. 


Fool Me Once...

Over the holiday break, Michael B and I sat down to watch a dvred EPL match only to find that the first 15 minutes had not been recorded.  That's because NBCSN had the match at 3 pm except it started at 2:45.  We didn't miss any goals (critics of the sport will be shocked) but it was annoying.  The episode did alert me to some sloppy practices at NBCSN and I was fully prepared for Tuesday's match between Newcastle and Manchester United.  Noticing the on-screen guide showed a 3 pm start, I checked on the actual kick-off time, which was indeed 2:45.  So I recorded the pre-game show and didn't miss a second.  Still ended up annoyed because the only thing that happened in the first 15 minutes was a PK call against Mbemba for handling.  As we shall see, things did get better

Midweek

We have generally been clear about our bias here at BFS against midweek games.  However, if the EPL is going to serve up matches like we had on Tuesday and Wednesday, well, we are likely to become more firmly against the practice because it was difficult to take in all the good stuff.  The aforementioned Newcastle-Manchester United clash went from possibly the most boring match of the year through the first 20 minutes to one of the best, if not well-played.  Lots of giveaways led to exciting, counterattacking football.  Down 0-2, the Magpies pulled one back before halftime.  They were thoroughly dominant for the next 25 minutes, getting the equalizer and looking every bit capable of finding a winner.  Except Manchester United got one against the run of play.  But all was not lost as Paul Dummett rifled a shot from the top of the box (!) to tie the match in the 90th minute.  A thoroughly deserved draw.  We will see if coming from behind twice will provide any momentum going forward.

Didn't get to see West Ham's 3-1 win over Bournemouth but it was probably fun.  Dennis will explain the keeper brain fart that allowed Aston Villa to beat Crystal Palace.

Why explain it when I can show it:

This was the only goal in Villa's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace and the rest of the game wasn't a whole lot more appealing.  On the one hand, if this is what you need to get your first win in 18 matches, then you deserve to relegated.  On the other hand, a win is a win and maybe this catastrophic goal keeping will give Villa some desperately needed hope for future matches.  If nothing else, a long awaited win should at least make the "Gumgate" nonsense -  Guzan and Lescott got in trouble during the FA cup match for swearing at fans and spitting gum on the sidelines - go away.  

My other team also managed a 1-0 win, but scored a much more conventional goal - a late [Jabba the] Huth header.  Having just drawn against Spurs over the weekend in the FA Cup, Leicester faced them again in another entertaining contest that could have easily seen 5 or 6 goals if not for some incredible saves and some bad luck.  In particular, Leicester keeper Schmeichel denied Harry Kane on a 1v1 chance - Kane went low for the far corner but Schmeichel cut off the angle enough that he was able to (with a little bit of luck) deflect the ball onto the crossbar.  The past two matches have shown that Leicester may be getting back to their old selves, which is certainly a welcome sight. 

After matching 1-0 wins, my two teams now must face off (Saturday, 12:30) in an apparent test of my loyalties.  I think Leicester have a better shot at winning the league than Villa do of staying up, so I guess I'm rooting for the Foxes this time.  At least they can't both lose.

I had to speed through a terrific 3-3 Liverpool-Arsenal draw; combined with Leicester's win, the Gunners and the Foxes are tied on points for the top of the table.  Poor Luke P - used to say f Spurs but now it might be f Foxes.  Didn't get to see any of the Chelsea-West Brom 2-2 draw which was probably entertaining too.  


Newcastle Sign Ernst Blofeld Jonjo Shelvey
 
The Magpies have more than dipped their toes into the January transfer window (mixed metaphor I realize) with two signings.  I'm with Ray Hudson on this - Jonjo is a decent player but I'm more excited to see what Henri Saivet from Bordeaux can bring to the club.  I'm also a little confused because neither would be considered a prolific goal scorer and I thought that was Newcastle's biggest need.


Calendar

Finally some love from NBC for Leicester; they are the 12:30 Saturday match with Aston Villa.  That's after a morning that sees Tottenham-Sunderland at 7:45 on NBCSN, Chelsea-Everton at 10 am on USA and Man City vs Crystal Palace also at 10 am on NBCSN.  We hope Tottenham understand their obligations as a top table team and take care of one of Newcastle's relegation opponent.  The Blues-Toffees affair is an unlikely lower mid-table match that might not have consequences for anything.  Not so with the Citizens and the Eagles; both have much to play for (Man City are third, three out of first and Crystal Palace are still in the Europa Cup hunt) and are coming off maybe less than their best performances mid-week.

Sunday's matches looked at least moderately interesting.  At 9:05 we can see Liverpool - Man United, both coming off of 3-3 draws; probably something like the 1000th time the two sides have squared off.  The later game (11:15) is Stoke City hosting Arsenal; the Potters have been climbing and now sit in seventh so Arsenal need to beware.

As for my Magpies, we have a home match against West Ham.  There is an elevated buzz with the new signings and the comeback against Man United but the Hammers haven't lost since November 22nd (8 matches, the first five were draws followed by three straight wins).  They sit in 5th, just one point behind Tottenham.  Doesn't sound like a good match to create some momentum.

Binary Football

Well, the 1416 Days of Football (every EPL side played four matches between 12/19 and 1/3) are over and the results for the BFS home sides are not good.  Not much better for the back up teams either.  Somebody must have had a good run.

Three teams made it through the holidays undefeated - Tottenham (three wins and a draw), Chelsea (two wins and two draws) and West Ham (also two wins and two draws).  Some of the bigger upsets included Southampton's 4-0 win over Arsenal, Norwich 2-1 over Manchester United, and Chelsea 3-1 over Sunderland (half-kidding).  Biggest wins were probably Arsenal 2-1 over Man City and Chelsea 3-0 over Crystal Palace (again only half kidding).  Best match of the holidays - easily the Stoke City-Everton which the Potters won 4-3 on a late PK (runner up is the 1-1 draw between Everton-Tottenham).

Let's turn to the ratings for the period, using the exclusive BFS Holiday Rating Scale (including a new, special rating for this year) described below:

	From Paul McCartney - "Simply having a wonderful Christmastime"
	Santa obviously read your list very carefully
	Nice enough but you didn't get the Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time you really wanted
	Ties are a nice gift but how many do you really need?
	You may have been naughtier than you realized
	You're still Aston Villa

Newcastle -

It's one only because I didn't feel like taking the time to do half a Santa and a blank would have looked weird.  Not a good holiday Tyneside.  Newcastle played what Arlo White called "binary football" - all the scores were 1's and 0's.  After a 1-1 draw with last place Aston Villa, the Magpies dropped three straight contests 0-1, with the goal coming late.  In the case of Everton, it was the last play of the game.  After picking up one point and one goal in four matches, the focus has to be on picking up a striker in the January transfer window.  Charlie Austin is still a possibility, as is Loic Remy.  But Austin is out for another three weeks with a hamstring problem and Crystal Palace may beat Newcastle to Remy.  Yes, it's another winter-spring in the relegation zone.

Aston Villa -

Steve's original rating was one Santa, but I don't think that adequately captures how devastating these two weeks really were. Sure, getting two points out of 4 matches is actually an incredible pace for them, but losing in consecutive weeks to the 17th and 19th place teams - Norwich and Sunderland, respectively - after drawing with the 18th place team - Newcastle - is certainly the death knell for Villa.  Remi Garde says the team needs to win half of their remaining matches to stay up (which, by the way, with 18 matches to go, would amount to 27 points, putting them at.......35) and I'll be damned if he hadn't counted at least one or two of these as some of those wins.  On top of that, the only real spark the team had (Traore) broke his foot and will miss at least ten weeks.  I'm sure they'll play hard but I would not be surprised if some players simply can't recover their motivation after this holiday.

Crystal Palace -

Started out well enough with a win over Stoke but ended with two scoreless draws against Bournemouth and Swansea, then a shutout loss to Chelsea.  To be fair, the Eagles were missing Cabaye (one game suspension for yellow card accumulation) and Bolassie (several weeks with an injury) so they were a bit shorthanded.  The talk is that Pardew has assembled a decent 11 but not the depth needed for a long EPL season.  Let's see how active they are in the January transfer window.

Leicester City -

Might be a little harsh here as the Foxes did get five points with a win and two draws (seems about right to me).  But, after a 3-2 win at Everton, they went scoreless in the next three matches.  The first was a 0-1 loss to Liverpool, followed by two 0-0 draws.  I suppose 0-0 versus Man City is an acceptable result but not against Bournemouth, who were playing a man down for much of the match.  They got to where they are by playing like the result doesn't matter; now it's like they're playing not to lose.  Definitely not as much fun to watch though they still sit in second.

I am very disheartened by their quite obvious change in tactics and style, though their draw to Bournemouth could also be placed at the feet of Mahrez and Vardy - the former had a PK saved and the latter missed two golden chances.  Hopefully the reasoning has more to do with trying to keep legs somewhat fresh for the late season push and less to do with silly reasons like caring about the FA cup.  Having reached the 40 point mark, Ranieri will now be bombarded with questions as to the team's next goal and his responses could be quite telling.  Whatever the case, I hope they don't turn into another typical defensive minded EPL team as I have had enough fun sucked out of this season already.

Okay, this is depressing, I know there were some happy campers out there.

Tottenham -

Three wins and a draw for 10 points was the best anybody did.  Frankly, the schedule was not overwhelming and four wins was possible given the competition.  After wins over Southampton, Norwich and Watford, Spurs settled for a draw against Everton.  Dele Alli is a much a goal scoring threat as Harry Kane while Eric Dier and Toby Edelweis Alderman the Belgian guy have shored up the back.  Tottenham look to be in good form right now and a top four finish seems very plausible.

Arsenal -

Except for a uncharacteristic clunker at Southampton, it was a good run, worth nine points, for the Gunners.  They got an important win over Man City, a workman like win over Bournemouth and a grind-it-out win over Newcastle, where they were clearly less than their best but won anyway.  They sit first in the table and seem to have the fewest weaknesses of any of the top teams.

Norwich -

Not that we follow the Canaries that closely but as one of Newcastle's primary competitors in the relegation battle, we were quite distressed to see them pick up three wins including a definite upset over Man United and a mild upset over Southampton.  The win over Aston Villa, maybe not so impressive, but still a critical three points.  Their only loss was to Tottenham.

Manchester City -

Maybe if the order of the results was reversed, this would have been a two but seven points looks pretty good.  The loss to Arsenal had to hurt but they easily dispatched Sunderland, drew with Leicester on the road and managed a great come-from-behind win, also on the road, over a tough Watford side.  Injuries have taken a toll but they had to be encouraged by Aguero's late game winner against Watford.

Chelsea -

Harsh?  They did go undefeated.  But one of the wins was over Sunderland and the other was against a depleted Crystal Palace.   Draws against Man United (ugly football)  and Watford weren't all that impressive.  Still, it was eight points and moved them a little farther away from the relegation action. Not convinced they have found their way out of the woods yet.

Liverpool -

Not sure where these guys are going.  A good win over Leicester and an okay performance in beating Southampton.  But these are paired with shut out losses versus Watford and West Ham.  They sit 8th in the table and haven't given a clear indication of whether they're going to compete for a spot in Europe or languish in the indistinguishable mid-table region.

Everton -

Just four points for the Toffees but they did have a tough schedule and maybe some bad luck.  They certainly played in some of the best matches of the period.  The 3-4 loss to Stoke might have been the best game of the year; they lost that on tough PK call.  They also had good efforts in a 2-3 loss to Leicester and a 1-1 draw versus Tottenham.  Their only win came against, wait for it, Newcastle on a corner kick that was the last play of the game.  In 11th right now, they could still mount a challenge for a spot in the Europa Cup.
  

Manchester United -

After losses to Norwich and Stoke, you had to figure Louis van Gaal was toast.  A draw with Chelsea (did I mention that was an ugly football match?) and a late winner from Rooney to beat Swansea appear to be enough to keep the Dutchman in his job.  Old Trafford is not a happy place right now.


FA Cup Time

It's that time again, the venerable competition that everybody loves to hate.  Check out this post for a complete explanation/refresher on the how competition works.  The quaint practice of not seeding the teams in each round means we'll have matches like Tottenham-Leicester in the same round as Hartlepool-Derby County.  Aston Villa get Wycombe while Newcastle have to travel to Vicarage Road to play Watford.  Ooh, looks like one and done for the Magpies.   Arsenal drew an EPL team but it was only Sunderland.  Man United get Sheffield United while two strong mid-table EPL sides - Crystal Palace and Southampton get to beat up on each other.  Everton play Dag and Red, who are not the two guys who hang out at the bar at McMenamins but are a League Two (fourth division) team.  Somehow this is all supposed to be charming or something like that but mostly it seems goofy. Yes, a lot of EPL teams get knocked off along the way and lower division sides go deep into the tournament but the winner always ends up being an EPL team.

EPL games resume on Tuesday and Wednesday so the phrase "match congestion" remains operational.  Newcastle have Man United and Aston Villa host Crystal Palace on Tuesday.  Wednesday has a bunch of interesting match-ups, including Chelsea-West Brom, Man City-Everton, Liverpool-Arsenal and Tottenham-Leicester (again?).

In short, plenty of action to take in.