What Was In Your Stocking?

Fifty matches later...

Not that I saw them all but it was pretty busy between 12/16 and 1/4.  And not every match was a classic but there were plenty of good ones.  Also not a lot of top tier match ups which means we basically saw the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the mediocre get mediocrer.  You probably remember the rating system but it's here if you need a refresher.

No five Santa teams this year.  Maybe getting harsh in my old age or maybe it's because the period was expanded to cover five matches.  Going undefeated was just not enough to justify this rating. 

Easy to put Liverpool (13 points) and Man City (13).  Man City must have an in with whoever sets up the fixtures.  Besides Tottenham, the rest of their schedule included Bournemouth, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Watford.  Maybe a little lucky to leave Selhurst Park with a draw so we can't give them five Santas.  A perfect score for Liverpool would have required a win over Arsenal but they grabbed all the other points on offer.  Not a real high degree of difficulty with easy wins over Bournemouth and Swansea and more difficult victories over Leicester and Burnley.  

Going to add Crystal Palace (8) and West Ham (8) in here.  Palace took eight points with wins over Leicester and Southampton and draws with Swansea and Man City.  The come from behind win at Southampton was solid work.  Though the Eagles are still clearly in a relegation fight, their position has dramatically improved.  West Ham's only loss came to Newcastle.  The draw with Spurs kind of made up for that plus they got wins over Stoke and West Brom.

A little more crowded here - Chelsea (11), Tottenham (10), Arsenal (9), Man United (9), Newcastle (7), West Ham (7), Brighton (6), Huddersfield (6), and Bournemouth (5). Arguably, given expectations, we should put Swansea (4) here as well. Maybe a bit harsh on Chelsea but draws with both Everton and Arsenal put it in the more disappointing range.  Even more so for both Arsenal and Man United.  The Gunners had not unacceptable draws with Chelsea and Liverpool but 1-1 to West Brom?  More on that below.  Man United's draws were even worse - to Leicester, Burnley and Southampton. Tottenham started with a thrashing at the hands of Man City, took three straight, but finished with a stumble draw home to West Ham; 10 points was okay but it should have been 12. 

Rob Elliot stops Ayew's spot kick; one of the bigger
Newcastle moments this season (photo from the Chronicle)

Newcastle's rating might seem harsh but the draw to Brighton means they didn't get everything they wanted despite wins over West Ham and Stoke.  The fact that the losses to Man City and Arsenal were both 0-1 and relatively close matches doesn't move this to a four Santa rating - they were still losses.  Frankly the win over West Ham was on the lucky side.  Maybe a defining moment for the season at 2-1 when Rob Elliot stopped a PK that should never have been given as the foul occurred outside the box.  Shortly thereafter they added a third goal and hung on for 3-2 win.  By no means is this club out of the woods but at least they moved closer to the clearing.      

This group includes Everton (5), Leicester (4), and Stoke City (4).  The Toffees had a good draw vs Chelsea but also lost to Bournemouth and only managed a draw against West Brom.  Leicester's draw with Man United doesn't make up for losses to Crystal Palace and Watford.  I could justify moving Stoke down to one Santa given 0-3 loss to West Ham and 0-1 result at home versus Newcastle.  

Not a good holiday for Watford (3), Burnley (3), Southampton (2), and West Brom (2).  We'll discuss Burnley more below but the draw with Man United is paired with more disappointing draws to Brighton and Huddersfield.  Watford's fixtures would have justified higher expectations but losses to Huddersfield and Swansea put a damper on those ideas.  

A Tale of Two Non-Handballs

It was the best of calls.  It was the worst of calls.  Southampton's Maya Yoshida and Arsenal's Calum Chambers both had the ball hit their hands in the box late in matches against Man United and West Brom respectively.  Yoshida was not penalized but Chambers was.  For me, neither was a penalty.  I think I know what Mike Dean believes he saw - an extended chicken wing from Chambers -  but the replay shows the arm was actually fairly close to the chest.  Gave both Mourinho and Wenger the chance to whine.  How 'bout getting your sides to play better against Southampton and West Brom?


A Tale of Two 0-0 Draws

It was the best of draws. It was the worst of draws.   Newcastle and Brighton played what might have been the worst game of the year.  Absolutely nothing happened.  Not even worthy of Championship Division.  The next day, Crystal Palace and Man City offered a 0-0 draw where just about everything (except a goal) happened.  Not all of it was good (Puncheon tackle on deBruyne not a red card?) but it was all riveting, right down to Miljvidscsic Milijsivic Miley Cyrus Luka's missed PK in stoppage time. 


Stoppage Time Late Game Madness

Originally I was going to limit this to just stoppage time but there were several more that occurred after the 85th minute.  I count nine of  50 matches being affected by a late goal.  Swansea got two in the 86th and 90th minute to steal all the points from Watford.  Man United lost one (Maguire late goal to snatch a draw for Leicester) and won one (Lingard in stoppage time to rescue a point against Burnley).  Burnley dropped four points late, adding a loss to Liverpool (Klavan goal at 94 minutes) to the Man United draw.  West Ham had a wild match in which goals at 81 and 89 minutes had given them a 3-2 lead over Bournemouth only to see Callum Wilson, who a) may have been offside and b) may have handled the ball, net one at 93 minutes; the Guardian would refer to this contest as "bereft of defensive dignity."  In the Hammers next match, Andy Carroll grabbed two points back with a 94th minute header.  And at the Emirates, Hector Bellerin leveled things with Chelsea at 2-2 in the 92nd minute.  But before the final whistle, Morata would be stopped by Petr Cech and Davide "Frank" Zappacosta would hit the crossbar.  Good stuff.


Four Santas for Chester

Finally had the chance to catch virtual time up to real time.  Some important wins, especially a 2-1 victory over 2nd place Man City.  On the down side, we gave up points in an annoying 1-1 home draw with Sunderland.  A 2-0 win over Chelsea left us 11 points up on second place Man City.  Union fans might be interested that I just signed Tranquillo Barnetta for the totally reasonable transfer fee of $2.7 million to help out in the midfield.  That looked really smart after he scored the opening goal in the Chelsea win.

Check this out:
  

	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
Real Life Man City	19	2	0	61	12	49	59
Virtual Chester	18	3	0	62	14	48	57

Yeah, me and Pep are quite similar.  Except I have more hair.

Belgian Injuries

BFS World Cup fave Belgium has seen some of its key players go down recently.  Lukaku suffered a concussion against Southampton but is expected back by mid-January.  Kevin deBruyne was stretchered off after that ugly tackle from Puncheon but has already returned.  Maybe not so lucky is Vincent Kompany.  As we sat down to take in Man City - Newcastle, Michael B sarcastically asked how long before Kompany has to leave with a calf injury.  Turns out the answer was just 11 minutes.  Initial reports were bad but now it appears he may be back within a week.  This may be a now-or-never World Cup for a Belgium side that has promised so much; here's hoping they can field their best team.


Random Thoughts

- That was some storm to hit England on January 2nd.  St. Mary's Stadium was close to flooded and you had to wonder if the rain had continued in Wales whether they could have finished the Swansea - Tottenham match

- Come to think of it, how many times do you remember seeing sunshine for many (any?) of these matches?  I realize there were a lot of night matches but still...

Hodgson and Guardiola confer during a stoppage

- Did you see the moment when Roy Hodgson and Pep Guardiola sat together while Puncheon and deBruyne were being stretchered off? Not clear to me why I thought this was so cool at the time; maybe because one of Hodgson's players had committed a rather nasty foul but Guardiola didn't go ballistic.  Looked like two managers who respected each other.


- Chris Hughton may have contracted Arsene Wenger's Winter Coat Zipper Syndrome.  He was having such a hard time he gave up and stayed unzippered for the match (Newcastle I think)

- I was stumped for this week's YouTubeableMoment, probably because it's all a pile of videos in my head. Fortunately, Obiang and Son have bailed me out with thunder strikes in an otherwise uninspiring London derby - the last match of the holiday period.  Obiang had given West Ham an 1-0 lead but Son rescued a point for Spurs.  Scroll down in this article and you'll find both videos, a YouTubeableMoment two-fer.


FA Cup

It's that time again.  Stadiums that seat 2,856.  Towns you didn't know existed.   Talk of minnows.  Yes, it's the FA Cup.  I offer this old BFS post for those looking for a deeper explanation of the competition and some of its quirkier aspects.  All EPL sides will be in action this weekend, though with the unseeded nature of this competition, some will face tougher competition than others.  For example, Newcastle face Luton Town FC, from League Two (4th division) while Liverpool and Everton must square off in another Merseyside derby.  Similarly, Spurs will face League One's AFC Wimbledon while Brighton and Crystal Palace must tangle again.  

Full details of the schedule, including TV games, are listed here; Fox Sports is your location for FA Cup matches.  Assuming you're not tired of watching...