Yesterday’s Prem action, plus that Villa/Blackburn goalfest
Not a good night for goalkeepers
As you may have recently come to realise, January is a particularly rubbish month which reaches its tedious nadir somewhere in the middle. Thankfully, the football gods are providing ample distraction from the drudgery of modern life. Last night they smiled upon grateful fans with LOADSAGOALS – no less than 18 across three of the evening’s biggest games.
The BBC managed to match the excitement of ITV’s Carling Cup gesture-a-thon on Tuesday night by offering up a 10-goal thriller (and then went and ruined it all by broadcasting Norbit straight after), while Arsenal fought back from 2-0 down against perennial bogey team Bolton.
Meanwhile in Liverpool, it was tasty Spanish wine all round at Casa Benitez, as once again, in the face of expectation Spurs - albeit with a little help from the irrepressibly shit Howard Webb – filled their pants faster than a Australian Open ball boy.
Exhibits A, B and C (plus talking points) after the jump …
Arsenal 4 – Bolton 2
At the time of writing 68% of Spoiler readers think the Gunners are a good shout to take this year’s Premier League crown, and after last night’s spirited comeback they might not be so crazy. Apart from Eduardo confirming he seems to have forgotten how to play football, the other major talking point of the night was William Gallas’ horror tackle on Mark Davies, described by Owen Coyle as ‘akin to assault’, which Arsenal chose not to stop play for.
Liverpool 2 – Spurs 0
Despite being without Torres and Gerrard, Liverpool worked hard to overcome a Spurs side looking for their first win at a Big Four ground in 16 years. Before the match, Rafa described the opportunity to go a point off 4th spot as a “make or break” game – is this his first step in staggering out of the woods? Plus there was further proof no-one understands the offside laws anymore – should Defoe’s goal have stood?
Aston Villa 6 – Blackburn 4
Villa booked their place at this year’s Carling Cup final in a 10 goal classic which left at least two questions: 1) (even though he scored last night) why has Ashley Young chosen a World Cup year to go AWOL? And 2) has James Milner booked his seat to South Africa?
Leave your thoughts on last night’s events below …
5 responses so far
fourstar // January 21, 2010 at 11:00 am
Oh man up, Coyle.
It wasn’t a good tackle; I don’t believe it was inherently malicious but it was ill-timed, a free-kick and probably a booking. But your team of thugs inherited from Allardyce/Megson have caused enough damage to our team over the years, and when we’ve complained about it being ‘anti-football’, we were told we were a bunch of pansies.
I believe this is what they call karma.
HJ // January 21, 2010 at 11:08 am
“The BBC managed to match the excitement of ITV’s Carling Cup gesture-a-thon on Tuesday night by offering up a 10-goal thriller”
The Manchester derby was also on the BBC…
Tim // January 21, 2010 at 11:24 am
“perennial bogey team”
When was the last time Bolton got a win against Arsenal? November 25th, 2006.
In the last three years Arsenal have gone 6-0-0 against this “perennial bogey team.”
Now, maybe this is one of those times where American English and English English words don’t mean the same thing but I thought “perennial” meant “recurring again and again?” And wouldn’t three straight years of defeats at the hands of Arsenal make Arsenal, Bolton’s “perennial bogey team?”
Or does perennial mean something different to English folks, like “I just made this up” or “I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
Help a Yank out here….
fourstar // January 21, 2010 at 11:30 am
@Tim: I think it means “team that we don’t like playing because they’re all rough and we’re purists of the beautiful game and they might hurt our U-11s”.
Ever so slightly lazy journalism, but we’ll forgive them because we’re top of the league, eh?
Tim // January 21, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Thanks for that “Spoiler to English” translation, fourstar!
Oh and hey, you’re right, I did have a chance to look at the league table and… yep the Arsenal are there at the top!
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