5 talking points from the Premier League weekend
QPR remained the last team to record a victory in the Premier League this season before the weekend, tying the dubious record set by Swindon Town in the 1993-94 season. The fans at Loftus road finally have something to cheer about as the R’s finally recorded their first 3 points of the campaign courtesy a brace from their midfield wizard Adel Taarabt.
Harry Redknapp’s men recorded a 2-1 victory over their fellow Londoners Fulham as the impressive trio of Mackie, Taarabt and Faurlin put on a show to haul Rangers out from the bottom of the pile, at least till Reading’s game against Arsenal doesn’t meet its final conclusion.
Ten games unbeaten in the Premier League, which includes 6 wins for the Canaries, sees them sit comfortably in seventh spot in the table, only two points below Everton, who occupy the final automatic European qualification place. Chris Hughton and his men have whipped up a storm as the mighty Canaries seem to go from strength to strength each week.
The win against Wigan epitomizes the season that Norwich are having. The midfield seems to making all the right notes with their Wes “Irish Messi” Hoolahan, as they call him, alongside Bradley Johnson and Anthony Pilkington making merry on the football field. The defence has been ever impressive with Bassong and Turner leading the way while newcomers like Whittaker keep making most of the opportunity that their footballing life offers them.
The Belgian international is fully vindicating Paul Lambert’s decision to make him the mainstay of the Villa offense while putting the 24 million man Darren Bent in the doghouse. The powerhouse forward typified what he is all about as he set Anfield alight with a brace and a delightful assist that the Kop won’t forget for a while. The 6’3″ towering forward that Lambert bought from Genk for £7 million is certainly living up to his billing as he took Liverpool‘s sloppy defence to the cleaners and increased his tally for the season to 5 in 12 starts for Villa this season.
“Liverpool have long way to go”
Brendan Rodgers conceded that the Reds of Merseyside still have some distance to travel before becoming the powerhouse that fans envisage them to be once again. The big question that beckons now is that, will Rodgers be on the bus when Liverpool reach the destined land?
‘I didn’t see this result coming,’ he said. ‘Our confidence coming into the game was high but we didn’t play with our usual intensity – I thought we were flat. We needed that first goal but we didn’t make the final pass with any quality. And then we contrived to give away bad goals. It was sloppy.’
The comment just goes to show why hindsight is always better. It just goes to show that too much expectation is going to cripple this side going forward. The team out there is over rated and individual mistakes every now and then sees them closer to the bottom three rather than a European spot. Suarez came back from suspension to increase his tally for the season, unfortunately for Liverpool it was his yellow card tally that got a bump rather than his goal scoring one.
Fellaini’s head has always been a hot topic of discussion. It was either the mane that he bears or for the reckless challenges that he was prone to throwing when he first came into the Premier League. Ryan Shawcross got the feel of what people have been saying about the lanky Belgian. The Englishman seemed to get too close for comfort for the Belgian who let his head to do the talking for him on Saturday evening.
The Belgian has been already suspended for his antics and may well face ban up to 9 games if he is found guilty of two different charges. More on this here.
With Chelsea seemingly busy in the Club World Cup in Japan, both City as well as United had the chance of pulling away from the rest. The two sides obliged as they both won by a similar margin of 3-1 against North-East rivals Sunderland and Newcastle to build up a 7 point cushion from their nearest rivals Chelsea. The title race may soon be another battle of Manchester if the Blues or AVB don’t start to rev up their engines.