Derbies of England

 

 

Yesterday saw 2 big derby matches in the premier league with some pretty curious events coming to the fore.

 

The 1^st game pitted Manchester City that want to be considered amongst the big boys because of the their new found fame against the big dogs of Manchester i.e. Manchester United and true to form United were victorious by a solitary goal margin when in truth it should have been much more.

 

City were made to look like amateurs in the 1^st half as they just seemed to be chasing shadows with a formation that did not suit them at all. They could not muster any sort of resistance to United’s passing and movement as the likes of Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Park Ji Jung, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo just doing whatever they pleased.

 

 

Having said that City should have taken the lead if Micah Richards showed attacking instincts as a free kick shot fortuitously found it’s way towards him and instead of poking the ball in, he left thinking that he was on an offside position and just left the ball.

 

United did take the lead when Michael Carrick was able to hit the ball across Joe Hart and his parry saw Wayne Rooney left alone as he poked the ball home for the lead.

 

In the 2^nd half City came more into it as Mark Hughes rectified his big boob with his starting level by bringing on Elano and Pablo Zabaleta for the overworked Dietmar Hamann and the ineffective Darius Vassell.

 

 

The game took a bizarre turn when Ronaldo, who had been wrongly booked for a legit challenge on Shawn Wright-Phillips but sarcastically applauded the decision got sent off for what the referee termed deliberate handball as he brushed the ball with his hands claiming that he had heard a whistle.

 

There has been a lot of schools of thought about this episode but personally I believe that a player should only be booked if the act was to gain an unfair advantage for his handball offence but Ronaldo clearly did not handle to gain an unfair advantage.

 

But if like it was suggested that maybe the referee sent him off because of the way he applauded and that was still on his mind then that is totally wrong as you cannot send a player off because of spite.

 

Anyways the only other significant thing that happened was very near the end when City had a corner kick and Joe Hart came up for it. Richard Dunne had a shot cleared on the line by a combination of Patrice Evra and Edwin Van Der Saar with the ball finally falling to Robinho after a series of ricochets, he lost the ball and Ryan Giggs was able to run with the ball with Hart running for dear life towards his goal as Wright-Phillips racing ahead of him, Giggs resisted to shoot deciding instead of passing the ball to Rooney instead but he was not going to pass up the opportunity to score from the half way line and his great lob was spectacularly saved one-handed by Hart on his line for a corner kick with Wright-Phillips waiting to head the ball of the line.

 

The 2^nd derby saw league leaders and former richest club in England, Chelsea against Arsenal that has blown hot and cold this season and with many fearing another defeat would blow away their title aspirations this season.

 

Chelsea started very well with the midfield players including Mikel, Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and Deco running rings around Arsenal as Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa creating havoc down the wings.

 

Arsenal then came into the game and it was even for a while until Manuel Almunia did 1 of those foolish things that he is prone to do in matches by throwing the ball far too early to Samir Nasri, who was robbed by Jose Bosingwa; he played a 1-2 with Nicolas Anelka and his cross was deflected into his won net by Johan Djourou.

 

Arsenal were not really in the game after then and also at the beginning of the half as they seemed punch drunk but then fate intervened in the form of the referee’s assistant who somehow failed to spot a blatant offside by Robin Van Persie but somehow managed in the 1^st half to flag Salomon Kalou offside twice in the 1^st half when he was on. Van Persie did not waste the opportunity though as he lashed the ball with his right foot to make it 1-1.

 

2 minutes later, from a freekick by new captain Cesc Fabregas found the head of Emmanuel Adebayor and his downward header allowed Van Persie to swivel and hit the ball across Frank Lampard and Petr Cech to make it 1-2.

 

Arsenal really should have won by a bigger margin but for some poor play by Denilson as most of the time his touch was poor especially when put through by pink boot wearing Nicklas Bendtner.

 

Arsenal held on for the win that has revitalized their challenge but has thrown question marks against Felipe Scolari’s inability to beat top managers.

 

I did say that I have my doubts against him at the highest level as when he was with Portugal; he never seemed to have a plan B if things are not going well and it is the same with Chelsea.

 

But what is most worrying to Chelsea fans is that in 90 minutes of football at home, they only hit the target once and that was a tame Lampard header as the only time they hit the target was an own goal.