Reading are mid-table but have the second-worst goal difference after Derby
Reading lost 7-4 at Portsmouth in September and lost 3-1 at Fulham last week
Reading will not be able to contain Fabregas, Hleb and Clichy, so Arsenal will regain top spot, overtaking Man United, who beat Blackburn with two goals in two minutes by Cristiano Ronaldo.
It is suicidal folly to take anything for granted in football, especially English football, but Reading are not in the same ball-park as Arsenal at the moment. The boys know they will have to work for a win tonight, so they will beat Reading by two goals or more. If you hear a loud clang! around 9.45 pm it’s the sound of Sir Alex being shunted off the top of the table.
Arsenal have drawn their last three games. So they need to win tonight and they will.
Reading don’t have the resources to compete with the rich clubs and John Madejski knew that when the club was promoted. The owner is looking to sell the club and wants to meet a friendly billionaire.I saw him on TV last month saying, “A millionaire couldn’t afford it. “
Steve Coppell’s side are a shadow of the highly organised outfit that did so well last term after gaining promotion in fine style in 2006.
Watford won the Championship but then they won only five of 38 Premiership games and went back down. Reading surprised everybody by playing well and winning 16 Premiership games and finishing above Portsmouth, Blackburn and Aston Villa, and just below Uefa Cup sides Spurs, Everton and Bolton.
Reading were eighth last season and many thought Coppell was the manager of the season.
Irish striker Kevin Doyle was a £78,000 signing from Cork in 2005 and he scored 18 goals two seasons ago to help Reading get promoted. Doyle jumped up about five divisions in two years. Playing against more powerful teams, and in front of much bigger crowds, didn’t seem to bother him.
In the 2006-2007 season, when Peter Crouch scored 9 league goals, and Lampard and Robbie Keane both scored 11, and Berbatov scored 12, Kevin Doyle scored 13.
Only three strikers scored more Premiership goals than Doyle : Rooney (14), Benni McCarthy (18) and Drogba (20). But Doyle is playing wide on the right this season.
My two favourite goals over the weekend were by Danny Higginbotham of Sunderland and Fernando Torres, although Drogba’s header was very slick.
Chelsea 1 Everton 1 wasn’t the result Avram Grant was looking for.
Newcastle have bigger names than Sunderland but they were outplayed in the Saturday lunchtime game and when Kenwyne Jones played a short corner to Jimmy Leadbitter, the winger picked out Higginbotham’s diagonal run from outside the box to the far post. A perfectly-judged run, a nicely measured jump, and a beautifully paced header.
Then James Milner’s flukey cross-shot bounced in off the post to give Newcastle a point they didn’t deserve. Chopra hit the underside with a header that should have won the game.
The Irish project is stuttering a bit because it’s hard to attract the calibre of players Sunderland need. But the crowd was 47,000, so the money’s rolling in. Their wage bill will be going up next year.
A really big game coming up on Saturday : Scotland v Italy. Can’t wait for that one.
Started my Monday with a smile as I watched a short film by some friends of Caroline, who was in a class of sparky kids at Hampstead. Neela wrote a play that we saw at the Soho Theatre, I think Kierra and Neela dreamed up Hands Up For Peace, and I ended up on the big demo with a dozen teenagers, after planning to go with some parents on Feb 15, 2003.
Dinner on the London Underground, a gently amusing stunt by Rowenna and pals when they were about 16, is now on youTube. It’s been on TV and was a question on Have I Got News For You.