Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-1.
And Man Utd and Chelsea drew their games 1-1.
Three great results on one Saturday.
Adebayor got two goals to hand Sven’s new City their first home defeat in the Premiership.
Ade was a monster again. With two goals and an assist, this was virtually a hat-trick. He has 18 Premiership goals now.
Without Benjani, Sven played youngster Sturridge up front in a 4-5-1 and the kid never got a kick and was replaced by Vassell in 55.
Senderos had a good game, no mistakes.
Sagna dominated Petrov and made a brilliant run to lay in the crucial first goal in 9 minutes. Adebayor’s low shot went in off Micah Richards.Diaby kept turning inside, predictably, and losing the ball.
On 25, Clichy crossed Adebayor hung in the air above two defenders and nodded down to Eduardo, who was just offside as he chested the ball and hooked it in. No flag went up : 2-0.
Two minutes and eight seconds later, Gael Clichy gave City a lifeline when he foolishly turned into Corluka, who took the ball and crossed neatly to give Gelson Fernandes an easy shot from nine yards and that was 2-1. If Clichy was going to do that, it’s as well he did it in a game Arsenal were going to win anyway. Not against Man United, Chelsea or AC Milan
On 37, Gallas made a great tackle on Petrov in the right back position.
It was 2-1 at half-time. The game so far had a kind of lunchtime tempo which I quite enjoyed. The play by both sides contained a lot of 10-yard passes and since City are a counter-attacking team who like to play one/two touch and knock the ball into each other’s runs, their goals have to come from a good final ball. Arsenal never allowed that.
Elano isn’t as deadly he was in the autumn and that showed very early on when he waltzed past Flamini but MF recovered to win the ball back with his toe. It looked like a tackle from behind but was a clean challenge and the ref, who was right there, waved play on. That incident summed up the first half for me.
Unfortunately, Cesc Fabregas was fabverage today.
When Arsenal had a break for 3-2 he should have played it wide to Hleb but he went for glory and his shot was blocked. When Adebayor knocked a ball back for Fabregas, he smashed it over the bar.
Lehmann had nothing to do except chase out of his area late on to clear a long ball into the crowd.
It seemed that Arsenal copied City’s tempo, even more so in the second half, and there was always a chance that they might get mugged on the break. Sven’s new City play a cat-and-mouse game, very patient. But, of course, there was always the possibility that Arsenal could score on the break too, as when Adebayor raced away down the middle but got roughed out of it by Richards.
Then Adebayor made it 3-1.
As I said, Manchester City are a defensive team with no striker.
At Portsmouth it was 0-0 at halftime and then Anelka put Chelsea ahead with a volley.
Then Defoe levelled from a flick by Milan Baros. Yes, Jermaine Defoe scored ! I said he wouldn’t but he did.
I almost backed Chelsea to win but when I saw that Carvalho was suspended, I bottled it.
Portsmouth 1 Chelsea 1 !!!!
Spurs are becoming as dynamic as Seville and their pressing rattled Man United, big time. Berbatov’s goal in 21 minutes rattled them even more.
Rooney kept fouling and got a late yellow to keep him out of the Man City derby next week.
Today’s paper has Sir Alex saying Wayne’s gotta play more as a striker and wait for the ball to come, rather than dropping deep and running about all over the pitch. Here he made a tackle in his own box around 85, chasing back to dispossess Malbranque, who had a good game. Spurs have a lot more fire and organisation since Juande Ramos took over. Shame they didn’t have a left back on the post in the 90th minute when that corner came over from Nani and Tevez knocked it in from four yards.
It’s schoolboy stuff. Last minute, the other team bring everybody forward for a corner, including Edwin van Der Sar, and there’s nobody on the post ?
Next season, United won’t score that goal. There will be somebody on the post.
Liverpool got their first league win since Boxing Day, beating Sunderland 3-0.
Crouch scored in 56, then Torres, then a Stevie G penalty in 88.
I reckoned February would be more interesting than January.
So far, it is.