Feelin' Glad All Over

The final third of the trip continued to provide lifetime memories for the "5 Men from USA." Touring London and a final match at Selhurst Park closed out the itinerary.


Sidewalk Scenes and Black Limousines (Musical Accompaniment courtesy the Byrds)

London, the "rain gray town known for its sound," was just gray and unseasonably mild so we put on the walking shoes and looked around.  Thursday's tour included sights along the Thames (e.g. Big Ben), Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, finishing with a stop at a pub for some pints.  Friday covered Abbey Road Studios, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace, finishing with a stop at a pub for some pints.
A fab foursome of the "5 Men from USA" are seen at right attempting recreate the famous crossing Abbey Road picture.  Note the original is hard to duplicate exactly because of live traffic, other groups also trying to recreate the original and no one wants to go barefooted.  The studio is a place of business so there was no tour but a trip to the Abbey Road Store allowed us to purchase more swag.


To Selhurst Park

Right, enough of this silliness.  We were here for the football.  And so on Saturday we headed south for a London derby - Crystal Palace hosting Chelsea.  Selhurst Park was the smallest of the three we visited (26,309 versus 36,284 at White Hart Lane and 52,405 at St. James' Park) but lacked none of the enthusiasm and spirit.  The singing and chanting was non-stop throughout the match.  And of course, there is the entrance of the players and officials to the sounds of the Dave Clark Five's "Glad All Over" captured in this video by Michael (left - note how dark and foggy it was at 12:30 pm).  And yes, there was a visit to the CPFC Shop for purchase of swag.

Though Crystal Palace were serious underdogs for this contest, the match was pretty even for most of the first half.  The Eagles defended well and even had the best chances.  But Chelsea's quality started to show through as the half wore on.  In the 43rd minute, Azpilicueta lofted a perfect cross to Diego Costa, who sent it back across the goal for the opening tally.  Unfortunate for Crystal Palace not to go into the locker room at 0-0.  The second half was light on goal scoring opportunities.  Benteke probably had the best attempt but even that wasn't a clear cut chance.  Chelsea were not at their best but the 1-0 win was deserved.  Highlight for me might have been witnessing live the power and speed of Eden Hazard's attacking dribble.

Neil Barnett with Steve/Michael

Paul Dutton (r) with Graham and Charlie

The match was over but our trip south was not finished.  Michael had been in contact with Neil Barnett, host of Sirius XM's "The Football Show" who has a long affiliation with Chelsea FC.  We met Neil and his colleague Paul Dutton (Chelsea Club Statistician) outside the grounds after the match and they took us to a pub up the road rail line in Clapham Junction.  Fascinating discussion with both of them on a wide variety of topics including Chelsea, Tottenham, England's national team and the sport in general.  Neil, Paul and I toasted to our clubs being top of the table for Christmas.  Another great day of football.


Around the League

Even though Crystal Palace-Chelsea was the early match, the traveling to and from Selhurst Park meant we saw no other contests on Saturday.  We were "eight miles high" on Sunday flying home but I did get to see Man City-Arsenal and Tottenham-Burnley via the good ol' DVR machine thing.  Arsenal started well and were exposing Man City's defensive inadequacies.  But the 1-0 lead was gone two minutes into the second half (Sane's first PL goal).  Arsenal's attack went into hibernation and the unpressed Citizens were happy to take control.  Sterling's goal at 71 minutes was the game winner.

Meanwhile, at White Hart Lane, Spurs were doing basically the same thing as Man City.  Fell behind 0-1 but worked their way back to a 2-1 win.  Moussa Sissoko came on late and provided a perfect pass to Danny Rose for the game winner.  I didn't talk about his performance against Hull City but his willingness to go head-on at defenders (north-south instead of east-west as they say in American football) seemed 1) in contrast to his teammates and 2) something Spurs needed.  I was not sorry when Sissoko left Newcastle but I wonder if Pochettino has got him headed in the right direction and whether Benitez might have been able to do the same.

Monday's Everton-Liverpool derby had all the venom you would expect but at a cost perhaps of some quality.  Both sides were pressing so intently that the field seemed too small.  There were only five shots on target and most of those were late.  Seemed like a lot more than 22 fouls.  One of those should have earned Ross Barkley a straight red but he only saw yellow.  I am a bit of a Daniel Sturridge fan and was pleased that he set up the game winner in the 94th minute with a shot the hit the inside of the post and was put away by Sadio Mane.  Tough loss for Everton but key for the Reds in keeping contact with Chelsea.


Top of the Table for Toon at Christmas

Diame scored the winning goal as Newcastle won 2-1

Match reports suggest Newcastle were a little lucky to come away with a 2-1 win visiting Burton Albion.  Dwight Gayle continued his scoring ways and Diame (left) got the game winner.  So even though Brighton won at Birmingham, the Magpies are still top of the table.  Reading also won so Newcastle have a nine point cushion for second.



The Twelve Nine Days of Football

Slightly different schedule this year (because Christmas is on a Sunday?) but everybody gets three matches in a nine day period.  Match Day 18 is December 26-28, 19 is December 30-January 1 and 20 is January 2-4.  We will again be grading teams of interest to this blog using the now-familiar BFS rating system provided 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

Newcastle's holiday fixtures - home to Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest, then away to Blackburn - offer reasonable hope of nine points.  Sheffield Wednesday are sixth in the table so the Magpies will do well not to be complacent.  I would expect them to be more than ready for the rematch with Nottingham Forest after losing 1-2 playing down two men last time against this club.   Blackburn sit 22nd in the table so that one should just be a matter of staying focused.

The Boxing Day TV lineup is set with Watford-Crystal Palace at 7:30, Man United -Sunderland and Chelsea-Bournemouth at 10 and Hull-Man City at 12:30.  Tuesday sees Liverpool  hosting Stoke at 12:15 and Tottenham travel to the coast to face Southampton on Wednesday at 2:45.  All matches are on NBCSN except for the Chelsea match, which is on CNBC.  In the pile of matches that follow, two I'll be looking forward to are Liverpool-Man City on New Year's Eve and Tottenham-Chelsea on January 4th.

In closing, I just saw this tweet from our President-elect:

Donald J. Trump

5 Americans in UK watching soccer. Pathetic. Not a real sport. Allows ties and no playoffs. Spending $ abroad, adding to trade deficit. Sad

3:33 AM – 20 Dec 2016

Happy Holidays everybody!