Premier League Round-Up: Manchester City blow their big chance, Liverpool get what they wish for, and a surprise for Arsenal
Manchester City won’t get a chance as good as this to win the title for a long time, Wenger regroups at Arsenal, and Liverpool have their saviour at last.
Manchester City 3-3 Sunderland as it happened
Image courtesy of Welloffside.com
Potential Devon Loch
If Manchester United drop points tonight, then Roberto Mancini will receive a fillip he doesn’t currently merit. A squad as deep as any in the Premier League, his team seem unacceptably jaded. David Silva has an ankle problem that has been allowed to fester, Carlos Tevez has been allowed to act like Uncle Fester, and Mario Balotelli gets to play at being a maverick. To allow all of these problems to drag on through at least the best part of one season is irresponsible. Mancini seems happier carrying the burden of problems than he does getting to the heart of any of them. In Italy, when other teams floundered under the punishment of calciopoli, that was enough. It might be enough this season, too, but against a fully functioning Chelsea or Manchester United, it wouldn’t be enough next season.
Liverpool in their own hole
Liverpool are easy to make fun of. The problem for Liverpool is that in the past there’s always been a saviour denied to them. First of all Rafael Benitez has been the man cast aside prevented from his ascent to glory. Then the owners were holding them back through financial mismanagement. Then Mr. Roy was bedblocking for Kenny. Now, and here’s the rub, they’ve got Kenny and it’s all got a little bit fretful. Sacking him isn’t an option for at least another transfer window, and even then, another transfer window is looking more like an opportunity for damage limitation than reinvention. There was always an apparently obvious solution for Liverpool, or at the very least an obvious excuse. Right now, they only have themselves to blame. With the right people in charge, taking a bit of responsibility could turn them round. With the wrong people, well, it’ll just get even funnier.
The Difference Between You And Me
Some Arsenal fans will be surprised at Saturday’s defeat – not because it was to Queens Park Rangers, but rather because the general assumption was that Arsenal were, of course, going to win every game from now until the end of time. Tsk! Of course, those calling for Wenger to be sacked represent a far smaller minority than they did previously – once again, Le Professeur appears to have preserved his image. Unfortunately for him, he’ll never be able to escape the comparisons with his Manchester United counterpart, and whereas Wenger ‘proves his critics wrong’ by averting disaster, Ferguson does so by winning trophies. Arsenal need to build on this unexpected solidity and do something, anything, next season to recover some of their prestige. Praise Wenger for destroying Spurs’ lead by all means, but make sure not to absolve him of the blame for the situation that required such an unlikely escape act.
Reliable Ctrl+V Filler Dept.
Aston Villa are terrible. And they’re going to get relegated.
