Berserk and Bemused

Thus were the traveling Leicester fans described after Robert (Jabba the) Huth had scored his second of the match to give the Foxes an airtight 3-0 lead against Manchester City. Though they would give one back late, the game had already been won.  I hadn't even taken a sip of coffee when the aforementioned Huth put Leicester up in the third minute.  It's weird to watch them "control" a match even as they cede the majority of possession; Saturday the number was 34-66.  So the lead is five points with 13 to go; it's a long way from being over but this was another test met and passed aced.

Robert Huth scores Leicester City's third goal of the afternoon with a looping header

Dennis texted me "I guess the Villa win was important too, but no where near the magnitude of Leicester for me."  Yes, he's an Aston Villa fan pretty much in name only these days.  But we will not accuse of jumping on the Leicester bandwagon.  Check out this BFS post dated 10/10/14, in which Dennis wrote:

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.

This is why we do not begrudge his shift in viewing (and clearly rooting) interest from Aston Villa to Leicester.  Besides, Leicester weren't even an option when he started watching EPL.  Wait, I just got a text from Luke P..."f Foxes."

The fact that Leicester's style is what drew me in is why I was so disappointed a few weeks ago when that style seemed to be faltering.  The absolute last thing that I wanted to see was them change their style due to their league standing.  What works when you are in last works when you are in first – the team that you built does not change because the standings do. Thankfully, that high energy team was on full display once again in their rout and the past few matches have eased my concerns.  Oddly enough, what I said regarding Villa and their transfers at the start of this season now holds for Leicester: "I prefer this high ceiling - low floor proposition as opposed to guaranteed mediocrity."  Didn't exactly pan out for Villa as they certainly hit that floor, but Leicester are clinging to the ceiling right now.

Despite Steve's comments above, I do remain enough of a Villans fan to watch their matches (and I'm guessing not many people can even say that much).  Their 2-0 win over Norwich was actually quite comfortable and dominant, a true rarity this season, but it just seems like too little too late, especially when you consider that Norwich was the theoretically easiest fixture remaining in their season.  It felt like this win was less important to Villa than to the other teams fighting to avoid relegation, except obviously Norwich, since Villa taking points is like any top table team taking points - the points are going somewhere that does not affect the relegation race and might as well be vanishing into thin air.  Villa’s greatest impact on the relegation battle will likely be their other two matches against bottom feeders –Bournemouth and, you guessed it, Newcastle on the final day of the season.  I can see it now: some god-awful-lucky-deflection goal from Villa manages to drag Newcastle into relegation with them, thus causing BFS as we know it to implode.

Newcastle "Coast"

Should have been 4-0, not 1-0.  There was no aspect of the game in which Newcastle did not dominate West Brom.  Only inexact finishing kept the score close.  Jonjo Shelvey had another killer pass that Mitrovic deftly got passed WBA's keeper.  That's one of the six wins they need, five to go.  The only bad news is that they probably can't afford that kind of finishing against higher level competition.  West Brom looked so bad I'm wondering if they're going to pull a Newcastle and slide from a relatively comfortable mid-table position into the relegation zone.


Offside

Lee Mason and his crew, IMHO, uh, missed a few in Saturday's Newcastle-West Brom but they got the offside call - that disallowed a Magpie goal from Tiote - correct.  You can see the video here.  Pretty clearly Mitrovic was in the keeper's line of vision.  My issue is that the announcers seemed to be suggesting it was sloppy work because the AR did not initially raise the flag and they sort of backed into the right decision after a conference.  Um, no.  The AR should not raise his flag because from his vantage point, he can only see that Mitrovic, while he was in an offside position, did not attempt to play the ball; however, he is no position to determine whether the keeper's vision was blocked.  On the other hand, Lee Mason could see that Mitrovic was in the keeper's line of vision but probably didn't have a clear sense as to whether he was in an offside position. Therefore, to get the call correct, the two must confer to put the two pieces together.  It was fine refereeing, exactly how it should work.  Sometimes you just have to ignore the announcers.


Around the League

Lots of points being racked up at the bottom of the table.  The aforementioned Aston Villa had a relatively easy time against Norwich in their 2-0 win.  Sunderland escaped from Anfield with a 2-2 draw after trailing 0-2 for most of the match; wonder how the walk-out in the 77th minute by 30% of the home fans - protesting ticket prices - affected Liverpool.  And Swansea managed a point against Crystal Palace.  Of the bottom six, only Norwich and Bournemouth (0-2 loss to Arsenal - who moved up to third with Man City's loss) came away empty handed.

Up in the high rent district, as expected, Watford put up a good fight, but Tottenham had enough to come away with a 1-0 win that lifted Spurs to second in the table.  Chelsea- Man United was entertaining enough, getting a bit nasty at times; Costa's goal in stoppage time rescued a 1-1 draw.  Check out Lingard's but magnifique, this week's YouTubeable Moment, that had given Man United the 1-0 lead.  Wins for Everton (3-0 over Stoke) and Southampton (1-0 over West Ham) keep both in the hunt for the Europa Cup.


And Another Similarity

Chester, like Leicester, line up more often than not in the archaic 4-4-2 formation.  We were less than our best in draws against lower table Huddersfield and Hull City; I blame a congested schedule and some key players missing for international duty.  We still sit atop the table but really could have used the three points in both matches.  We now have a string of non-league matches - FA Cup tie vs Chelsea, home and away Europa Cup knockout series with Gladbach, and the League Cup Final against Chelsea.


Happy Valentines Day

The Sunday fixture list offers Valentine's Day presents way better than a box of chocolates or chalky candy hearts with cute sayings.  At 7 am we have first versus third as Leicester go to the Emirates to take on Arsenal.  No prediction here, just a suggestion that you might want to watch.  Then at 11:15 second takes on fourth as Tottenham go to the Etihad to play Man City; Spurs have been in great form lately and Man City is shorthanded so I could see Tottenham here.  Why the long gap between these matches?  Because NBCSN will squeeze Aston Villa-Liverpool in at 9:05.  Oooh, talk about a thorn between two roses.

On Saturday, Newcastle travel to Stamford Bridge hoping to build on the West Brom result; but, Chelsea haven't lost since The Special One was sacked so I'm not feeling all that confident here.  This is the 12:30 match that you usually watch on the regular NBC; not this week as they will be covering the US Olympic Marathon Trials, shunting the EPL to NBCSN.  Soccer and running have much in common, perhaps nothing more so than the fact that many claim they are both boring to watch - maybe if you don't know what to look for.  Here's a preview on the event I did for AthleteBiz - link here.

Plenty of relegation relevant stuff - Man United hosting Sunderland, Bournemouth home to Stoke, Swansea taking on Southampton in Wales, and Norwich facing West Ham, also at home.  I have some that all three clubs below Newcastle will be held pointless but Swansea and Bournemouth have some chance of a result. Other matches include Everton-West Brom; a home win for the Toffees would be welcome news and Crystal Palace taking on Watford in at Selhurst Park - every reason to think the Eagles slump might continue against a tenacious Watford side.

Got to figure out this Newcastle - Olympic Trials marathon overlap...