Mourinho was stunned by ten men PSG, but Chelsea did win a trophy earlier this month so…
Guy Bailey
Editor’s Note: Guy Bailey writes columns for The Yanks Are Coming throughout the Barclay’s Premier League season. In those columns, he’ll discuss the happenings overseas in the world’s most popular sports league, as well as The Championship, where many Americans ply their trade. Guy offers a unique perspective on the league as a Brit who lived for a long while in the United States before moving back to Teeside a year ago. He can be reached at guyrbailey@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter all EPL season at @guyrbailey.
Once again, two week’s worth of Whiney Limey’s in one post, which means the title of this piece could be: “If you read one column about soccer written for Americans by a Brit all weekend– let this be it.”
So Chelsea are out of the Champions League and this may be Mourinho’s worst European adventure ever but…
Hip Hip Jose – His cup runneth over (again) 5.3.15
So the first silverware of the season makes its way to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea collected the League Cup, ten years after Jose Mourinho first claimed it as his first trophy in England. They beat Spurs 2-0 but it was possibly closer as two fortunate deflections aided Chelsea on each goal, first for John Terry to cement his man of the match captain’s performance and the second for Diego Costa who does look like he’s stepped out of a Sicilian Wanted poster with every passing game.
The week off gave the pursuing pack the chance to make up ground on the leaders.
Liverpool’s renaissance continues through Daniel Sturridge.
Manchester United started positively beating Sunderland 2-0 and Arsenal beat a worryingly anemic looking Everton by the same score. The bigger clash was also on the Sunday and turned into a double celebration for Chelsea as Man City fell to Liverpool 2-1 in a captivating game with quality on display in all areas of the pitch. Liverpool fans will be happy but also inwardly tutting as the same result 12 months ago might well have landed them the Championship itself rather than a late and ominous push for the Champions League places led by a fit again and resurgent Daniel Sturridge.
Crystal Palace continued their fine run of form under Alan Pardew with a surprising 3-1 win at Upton Park over a strangely out of sorts West Ham. You get the distinct sense that the players have got the memo that Big Sam will be on his way out at the end of the season with Premier League football achieved for next season and that one or two are downing tools on the manager early.
With Burnley and Sunderland stuttering, this was the ideal opportunity for Aston Villa to continue their mini revolution (read not losing every match 3-1) under Tim Sherwood, well scoring anyway, but this was snuffed out at Newcastle with a 1-0 defeat. Four days later they did recover in stirring style with a 2-1 victory over neighbours West Brom when an injury time penalty from forgotten front man Christian Benteke kept a cool head to give the Villains victory and a lifeline out of the bottom three. Above them, a difficult week for Gus Poyet became even worse. A 1-1 draw at Hull is a respectable enough point but losing star midfielder Adam Johnson the day before to allegations of sexual improprieties with an underage girl must have got to him. After Jack Colback was booked for a dive in the penalty area, something snapped in the wiry Uruguayan who booted a water bottle at shy, retiring Hull gaffer Steve Bruce and then sarcastically went to shake his hand. Thankful to be sent to the stand, Poyet should also have been thankful for the fourth official holding back an apoplectic Bruce who had turned a dangerous shade of puce in his fury and attempts to get at his opposite number. Bruce continues to downplay the incident. The point will be welcome but the inevitable charge won’t be as the mackems remain precariously placed.
Fortunately the bottom three of Leicester, Burnley and QPR all lost on Wednesday to maintain the gap but QPR and Leicester each have a game in hand and Burnley’s never-say-die attitude means they can never be written off before mathematics says they can.
Chelsea continued their processions with a narrow 1-0 at West Ham who put in a bit more effort than they did the previous match against Palace. Manchester United looked a little nervous at Newcastle, especially when news came in that Spurs, Liverpool and Southampton had all won and were closing in, as well as Arsenal and Man City above them, so it was a gratefully received gift from Newcastle’s keystone cops defence in the last minute when keeper Tim Krul under pressure helped his old Dutch boss out and passed the ball directly to Ashley Young six yard out to finish sweetly.
Is Lake Placid as interesting if the US paid the refs?
26/2/15: What if the Miracle on Ice Wasn’t A Miracle At All?
While we all like to see giants get their pants yanked down and spanked, are we equally as keen if it’s done by foul means? Would we have been as accepting and glad of the Miracle on Ice if we knew the US team had bought off the officials beforehand to ignore trips and penalties and give us all the decisions?
After the giddy euphoria that erupted around the EPL following Chelsea’s unlikely 1-1 draw with Burnley, a lot of people needed to check themselves once a few facts emerged. Firstly, Chelsea were denied two stonewall penalties – one for a handball from an Ivanovic shot after the league’s hottest poacher had already headed in from a corner and the second after a trip on Diego Costa so foolhardy that only Lewis and Clark would have accepted it yet the ref seemed to miss it. There is also some sympathy for Nemanja Matic despite being sent off for pushing and attempting to throttle an opponent once the replays were seen and Ashley Barnes’s attempted amputation of his leg was seen by all. Even in real time it looked late and nasty but the ref again had his attention elsewhere. Of course, even down to ten men Chelsea should have had enough nous and industry to hold onto a lead but after Ben Mee headed in a late corner, the most likely winners were the indestructible clarets who remain in the bottom three on points but have plenty of heart left for their survival struggle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsxyl9jOD8A
A fair enquiry at to whether Aston Villa do given their late collapse against Stoke City. Leading 1-0 in front of new manager and style icon Tim Sherwood, rocking the sport coat and body warmer combination, they firstly surrendered the lead to Victor Moses smart shot before 2014 World Cup darling Ron Vlaar brought the rampaging winger down in the box in injury time to hand over their share of the points to the mid-table potters. QPR lost the key relegation battle this weekend going down 2-1 at an improving Hull City which saw captain Joey Barton sent off after seeking to mitigate on a colleagues behalf after a booking then turning round and punching Tom Huddlestone squarely in the balls. Barton is known for his ability to keep his cool under pressure and maintain an aura of calm, which is clearly why he has the captain’s armband. I deadpanned that last sentence.
Sunderland and West Brom saw out a moribund 0-0 draw to keep everybody associated with both on alert while Newcastle will be delighted to have banked so many points early after Man city seized on Chelsea’s slip up with the ruthless dispatching of five goals beyond the Geordies and it could easily have been double. A goal down after giving a penalty away after 30 seconds, sometimes you wish coaches could throw the towel in in games when the result is such a foregone conclusion.
Undone by his old mates at Monaco, Wenger’s club survived in league play.
Luis Van Gaal was fulsome in his praise for his Man Utd team despite losing to Swansea City 2-1 for the second time in a season, so complete was their performance the only thing they did wrong was forget to score according to the Iron Tulip. Arsenal took the chance to cement their place in the top four with a nervier than it needed to be win at Selhurst Park. Leading 2-0 and cruising, Palace pulled one back in the last minute and proceeded to hit the post 30 seconds later leaving Arsene Wenger with the look of a witness to a freak automobile accident in his post match press conference – alive but not sure how.
He would sport the same look on Wednesday after his former club Monaco spearheaded, if such a word can be used to describe Dimitar Berbatov, a man so lazy you almost expect to see him pay somebody to breathe for him, rolling back the years with a goal and a generally all round imperious performance in an unlikely 3-1 win. Man City also had the wind taken firmly out of their sails when Barcelona won 2-1 at the Etihad missing a late penalty too, Luis Suarez returning to take a bite out of his old opponents. Not sorry for that one at all. Not one bit.
As noted, Guy Bailey writes on the Barclay’s Premier League for The Yanks Are Coming. Want more Guy Bailey? We highly recommend his new book, Blessay From America, a collection of writings on football and life made while living in America, where he married a southern belle and saw his son born, which you can purchase here.