Derby Day Demolition

Newcastle 5 Sunderland 1

Chris Hughton’s side inflicted the heaviest defeat on their neighbours since the 1950s at St. James’ Park this afternoon in an annihilation of the Mackems in the one hundred and thirty first Tyne-Wear Derby. The visitors came into the game unbeaten in seven league matches but signs of that form were completely absent at the home of their archrivals. Skipper Kevin Nolan scored a Halloween hat-trick and Shola Ameobi bagged a brace. With Sunderland not at the races Darren Bent’s late consolation was hardly deserved and precious few visiting supporters saw it.

This match had everything great about derby games in it: passion, flying tackles and a controversial decision. Newcastle’s pressure told with the half hour approaching when a Joey Barton corner was headed on and Nolan improvised with an overhead kick that put the ball beyond young Belgian stopper Simon Mignolet. A few minutes later the Magpies captain doubled his tally after Andy Carroll’s centre reached him and he slotted it in the far corner. Special mention should go to Ameobi who took the Sunderland defender out of the equation. Steve Bruce responded with a tactical substitution, matching Newcastle’s 4-4-2 formation. Off the back of his World Cup heroics for Ghana, the Ballon d’Or nominated forward Asamoah Gyan entered to partner Bent, but this would prove to be of no effect as the Mackems found themselves a third down by half time. With seconds to go before the whistle Nedum Onuoha had a coming together with Jonas Gutierrez, leaving referee Phil Dowd with no option to point to the spot. Ameobi smashed the ball in from twelve yards.

Early in the second half it was effectively game over for Sunderland when former Newcastle player Titus Bramble was dismissed for a foul on Carroll. For me he was not necessarily the last man, particularly when the run made by Newcastle’s number nine on goal was on the diagonal. The official must be certain no other player could get to the attacker. Although Michael Turner isn’t the quickest it was still possible. Dowd showed no hesitation in deciding to send Bramble off and coupled with a further six bookings, the Mackems can expect a fine from the Premier League for their lack of discipline. Two of these tallow cards were especially stupid, first was Phil Bardsley’s for a needless challenge on Fabricio Coloccini when the ball was harmlessly going out for a goal kick. The second was substitute John Mensah who received it for dissent when he might well have been punished in the same way for an earlier foul.

With twenty minutes remaining Ameobi got his second. Carroll himself was desperately unlucky not to score after heading Danny Simpson’s cross against the bar. His strike partner was there to net the rebound on the half volley. Nolan ensured he took home the match ball fifteen minutes from time after another Barton corner was flicked on to him to head home. Bent’s consolation in stoppage time came from a similar situation, the Newcastle defence having left him unmarked in the box. Bruce will demand a reaction from his players after such a heavy and hurtful defeat, whilst it seems the Toon players just love playing for manager Chris Hughton. The captain dedicated the win to him in a post-match interview and with the midweek disappointment of being dumped out of the Carling Cup by Arsenal now dispelled it seems baffling why some bookmakers have suspended the market on Hughton being the next top flight manager to get the sack.

Andy Carroll continues to press his claims for a place in the England squad. Without actually putting the ball in the net he did everything right, bringing his teammates into play, being aerially commanding, causing no end of problems for the Mackems defence. No other tall forward in the Premier League is playing anything like him at the minute and he can be ignored no longer. The question mark over his off-the-field conduct does remain, but now that he is being mentored by Nolan he might have a role model on which to base himself and emulate. Speaking of the Newcastle skipper, if former teammate at Bolton Kevin Davies can get into Fabio Capello’s plans, even as a last resort, then why not select the in-form midfielder? He has scored twice as many goals as Steven Gerrard this season so far and the upcoming friendly fixture against a French side under Laurent Blanc that is experimenting, the pair are both worth taking a look at and on form deserve to be capped.

Luck and Leeds Errors Hand Cardiff Route to Top

Leeds United 0 Cardiff City 4

You look at the only statistic that matters, the full time result, and think that Cardiff dominated Leeds at Elland Road this evening. And you’d be wrong. The Bluebirds victory was one earned through a combination of good fortune, poor United defending and City playing impressive football on the break. The 4-0 away win for Dave Jones’s side put them level on points with Championship pacesetters QPR, but that score line somewhat flattered them.

The twenty-second minute opener was an aberration, created out of nothing more than a long ball up the field not dealt with by Alex Bruce, his father watching from the stands. Once he let it bounce the centre half had played returning keeper Kasper Schmeichel into all sorts of trouble and the in-form Jay Bothroyd simply had to tap in amongst the chaos in the Leeds backline. Cardiff’s luck did not stop there however. Ten minutes later the Bluebirds number nine could well have been dismissed for an atrocious challenge to Luciano Becchio, had the referee’s view not been obscured by another Leeds player. Full credit must go to the Lilywhites target man for his professionalism as he could have quite easily stayed down rolling around on the floor, instead he chose to get back to his feet and the incident remains at the time of writing unpunished.

Within seven minutes of the restart the Bluebirds went two up through Michael Chopra but he was offside when the ball was played to him, another thing which escaped the notice of the officials. Schmeichel got a hand to his shot and should probably feel he could’ve done better, but it was an attempted save he would not have needed to make were it not for this further slice of luck. No excuses can be made about Bothroyd’s second goal four minutes later. Neill Collins should know better than to get sucked to the ball leaving such a dangerous striker unmarked. Lee Naylor completed the scoring with a twenty-five yarder that caught Schmeichel out, but no team should ever stand off an opposing player on the edge of the box, even if it was only his thirteenth ever league goal, averaging one strike a season for every year of the former Wolves and Celtic full back’s career.

Craig Bellamy, playing from the left, as you would expect of a Premier League class footballer only plying his trade at a lower level because Manchester City were not prepared to loan him to top flight rivals, was a real handful. He created all sorts of problems for Paul Connolly and the Leeds right back could not keep up with him. Leeds however had their own threat from that flank in Bradley Johnson who has performed both well and consistently this season so far. A shame then that his teammates did not gamble to get on the end of some inviting balls he whipped into the box. Cardiff did well to smother Davide Somma out of the game and keeping him quite is a real advert for doing your homework. With their top scorer marked out of the game the Lilywhites never really stretched young Tom Heaton in the Bluebirds goal. All the saves he made were routine.

Simon Grayson needs a response from his side after this embarrassing and unlucky display. The absence of Richard Naylor stuck out like a saw thumb and the sooner he and long-term injury casualty Patrick Kisnorbo can get back to first team action the better for Leeds’ shaky defence. It did not help matters tonight that there was also no out and out striker on the bench to replace Somma and/or Becchio. The Honduran Ramon Nunez looked to have something about him when he came off the bench. Despite the result there are positives for Lilywhites fans to take from the game. As for Cardiff they must win promotion at the third time of asking else there can be no argument that Dave Jones has failed. The big wages and unpaid stadium bills without promotion cannot go on forever.

Blunted Blades Beaten by Donny

Doncaster Rovers 2 Sheffield United 0

You would not have believed Sheffield United were a Premier League club three seasons ago based on tonight’s performance. To the casual observer Sean O’Driscoll’s side looked more the part, despite having only been back in the Football League for just seven years. Doncaster’s 2-0 win at the Keapmoat was their first over the Blades in the league since 1983. Two first half goals from James Coppinger and Billy Sharp secured the points for the home side which takes them into the top half of the Championship table.

Full marks should go to the home side for sticking to their passing philosophy and just after the half hour came the breakthrough. Coppinger played a one-two with former Sheffield United striker Sharp and then finished with aplomb on a diagonal run into the box from the right flank. There was virtually no response from Gary Speed’s team and they found themselves two goals down at the break when outstanding work down the left by young full back Joseph Mills, on loan at the Keepmoat from Southampton, gave him time to cut the ball back to James Hayter. His shot was parried right into the path of Sharp to tap home by Blades keeper Steve Simonsen who ought to be disappointed his palm didn’t clear the United penalty area.

The real story for me though is the concern that the Bramall Lane faithful should have. Tonight was one of the worst performances on television seen by the steel city club in recent times. It was Gary Speed’s tenth game as a manager and that showed, especially since his counterpart has more than a decade’s experience in the dugout. Daniel Bogdanovic was so poor the Maltese international couldn’t even flick a throw in on from one of his team mates. Much like when his fellow countryman Michael Mifsud played for Coventry City, he has had one good season at Barnsley before earning a move to United. To all intents and purposes last season’s tally at Oakwell which reached double figures looks very much like a fluke. You hardly noticed the six foot two striker whose inclusion forced the thirty-three year old Richard Cresswell bafflingly onto the left wing. Bogdanovic was absent from the game and when the ball came anywhere near him he didn’t put a foot right. Someone of his height should be far better in the air than he looked this evening.

Tactically Speed has not got things right. Cresswell does not have the pace to play wide at his age and when he did move into the centre after Bogdanovic was rightly subbed early in the second half he looked more effective. Substitute Jamie Ward was a much better bet in a wide berth than the former Preston and Leeds striker. The centre of the Blades midfield offered no support to the forwards. Leon Britton was not on song with his passing. Two things, however, are most worrying of all; firstly United are missing Darius Henderson terribly, but they couldn’t even get their long ball game right. What concerns me most though is the lack of any strength or depth to Speed’s squad. It is a shadow of the team that played in the Premier League and even the season after their relegation back to the Championship. So average and thin are the Blades’ ranks that two youngsters from the academy Matthew Lowton and Jordan Slew came off the bench to feature in the second half.

Doncaster were good value for the three points but Sheffield United put up nothing in response. Both full backs caught the eye, Mills with his assist and Mustapha Dumbuya for his tireless effort to run up and down the right. This was the second match I have seen Donny play this season and he really has made the right back spot his own. Coppinger and Oster also looked a threat cutting in from wide areas and Sharp profited from the uneasiness and lack of pace in Blades centre halves Chris Morgan and Nyron Nosworthy. O’Driscoll could not have hoped for a better response to the midweek home defeat to resurgent Derby.

Benitez Bests Bale's Bravado

Inter Milan 4 Tottenham Hotspur 3

Despite his players’ disastrous first half display, Harry Redknapp can be proud of Tottenham tonight who restored some respectability to the score line in the second forty-five pulling three goals back. Gareth Bale’s hat trick turned a demolition at the hands of the reigning European champions into a narrow defeat. The match as a spectacle was pretty much ruined by the dismissal of the Londoners’ keeper Heurelho Gomes after seven minutes for a foul on young French winger Jonathan Bianiaby, resulting in a successful spot kick from Samuel Eto’o that saw Inter 2-0 up with little more than ten minutes played.

The evergreen Javier Zanetti, captain of the Nerazzurri, took the opening goal superbly. With just sixty-eight seconds on the clock, the thirty-seven year old Argentine finished superbly from an Eto’o through ball putting it past Gomes. What remarkable confidence for a player who last found the net in February 2008! This early goal shocked the Spurs players and this was compounded by the sending off and converted penalty. Poor defending by the ten men was subsequently punished. An error by William Gallas was pounced upon by Serbian national captain Dejan Stankovic who placed the ball beyond substitute stopper Carlo Cudicini; this at the end of a thirty-four pass move and not even a quarter of an hour gone.

Poor positioning by Sebastien Bassong allowed Philippe Coutinho to play in Eto’o o to add his second of the night to the scoresheet. Redknapp was faced with what must have been one of the most difficult half time team talks of his long managerial career. At least his swashbuckling left back turned left winger responded with another outstanding performance that for me has firmly put the Welshman in the shop window for Europe’s top clubs. Inter eased off a little after the break, convinced the job was done. Bale had other ideas, but ultimately it was too little too late to deny Rafael Benitez’s side three points. The gossip columns links to the continent’s elite sides may now carry something with regards to the former Southampton player.

I have said before the fixtures against the current holders of the Champions League will not make or break Tottenham’s own European campaign. Despite being a man down tonight, they acquitted themselves well and the goal difference has not taken a massive hit. Redknapp’s men still sit second in Group A and a home win against Bremen and an away victory in Holland against FC Twente will almost certainly be enough to see them progress to the knockout stages at the first time of asking. One thing’s for certain the ride Spurs are taking us on is full of excitement!

One Point Gained or Two Points Dropped?

Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 0

A goalless draw with Aston Villa calls into question just how much strength in depth do Chelsea have? For this evening’s trip to the West Midlands Carlo Ancelotti could not call on the services of injured quartet Alex, Yossi Benayoun, Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard, with the Premier League’s joint leading scorer Didier Drogba also unavailable due to illness. This is hardly an ‘injury crisis’ in comparison with the Blues’ London rivals Arsenal who before the international break had an entire XI missing, but in the absence of the big names in particular Chelsea could not find a way past Gerard Houllier’s men. It could of course have been a different story altogether if Branislav Ivanovic’s connection to a Florent Malouda corner and/or Nicolas Anelka’s downward header from Ashley Cole’s cross had not both come back off the woodwork. The margins between a defeat, draw and victory are defined by moments such as these and young Ciaran Clark could have inflicted defeat on the visit, if his deft touch to Ashley Young’s free kick hadn’t similarly hit the post. These three second half chances were as clear cut as Stephen Ireland’s dragged shot which flashed across the face of Petr Cech’s goal in the first three minutes of the match after good work from the tireless Stewart Downing.

Perhaps a draw was a fair result when you consider both sides had two great chances apiece. Villa must get the credit for frustrating Chelsea, but in essence both these teams suffered from the same problem. Neither had enough thrust from central midfield today, leaving those leading the line, Anelka and John Carew respectively, isolated and inevitably drifting wide in search of the ball. Drogba and Lampard would be a miss for any side, but without the two most prominent attacking parts of their spine, the Blues lacked a cutting edge. Ramires and Michael Essien did not do enough to support Anelka and exactly the same can be said of Ireland with Carew. Chelsea have been tough to break down this season, but you can’t win silverware if nobody gambles to push up towards the centre forward.

Aston Villa were not without missing players either. Luke Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey missed the match with injuries and the impressive Marc Albrighton was unwell. Richard Dunne lasted little more than ten minutes before coming off with an ankle injury which in total means that the West Midlands outfit had the same number of first team regulars out as their opponents from the capital. There is a flip side to missing big names and that is it provides a chance for fringe players or youngsters to stake a claim to play in the XI. Dunne’s replacement Ciaran Clark had an eventual game, his performance solid rather than excellent. Gael Kakuta started on the right for Chelsea but his effectiveness was questionable. Teenager Josh McEachran came off the bench again for Carlo Ancelotti’s side. It is encouraging to see an English youth product in their matchday squad, particularly in the absence of Daniel Sturridge who was not in the eighteen.

Both sides will be happy with a clean sheet, but you can’t escape the feeling that Chelsea will be the least happy with a point. Today they could have gone seven points clear of both Manchester sides and fellow Londoners Arsenal and Spurs, as it is they are only five. United will be particularly relieved as they let a two goal home lead slip against West Brom, who finally seem to be getting some reward for getting the ball down and playing football in the top flight.

England Stunted by Dearth of Striking Options

After a goalless draw with Montenegro at Wembley this evening England’s lack of firepower was horribly exposed. With Darren Bent’s withdrawal on Monday meant Fabio Capello had just three fit strikers to choose from: the struggling Wayne Rooney, nothing changed on that front this evening; the more or less absent Peter Crouch, tonight being one of his worst performances wearing the Three Lions and debutant Kevin Davies who came off the bench for twenty minutes. The latter, in characteristic fashion, put himself about enough to earn a booking. We all know there are injuries to Zamora, Defoe and now Bent but all other options had not been explored by the Italian coach. In the absence of so many why not hand Michael Owen an opportunity to come back into the fold, even if it was only for one match? Better still the in-form Andy Carroll should have been given the chance to start his international career against a side he would be tailor made to compete against.

Tactically, the cutting inside of wingers Adam Johnson and Ashley Young, later replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips, who Capello sees something in that I always seem to miss, was working but the end product was hardly ever there. Of the three the former provided the best service, but Steven Gerrard made the most incisive contributions to a drab display, playing sublime long-range passes and through balls that the faltering forwards could not dispatch. Those will try to defend tonight’s performance will point to the blatant handball of Milan Jovanovic (no not the Liverpool player) that the referee and his assistants missed three-quarters of the way through the second half, but it should not have to come to relying on such incidents to get England out of a tight spot.

I don’t often pay much attention to FIFA’s rankings and although Montenegro have been climbing them, helped by five clean sheets and three 1-0 wins out of four plus tonight’s draw in international matches this season so far, the Three Lions remain more than thirty places above them. Zlatko Krancjar’s side ground out this stalemate without two influential forward players in national captain Mirko Vucinic and Stevan Jovetic, both injured. The other big name in their lineup who did feature, Sporting Lisbon’s Simon Vukcevic did not have an effective game from the right wing by any means. He has performed a great deal better through the middle, often in support of Vucinic, in the past. The goalkeeper Mladen Bozovic, who plays for Hungarian club Videoton (no, that’s not a misprint) has been outstanding in recent matches. Both he and the centre halves deserve credit for the mean defence they have established.

With such limited options and stuttering in front of goal England did not anywhere near enough to stretch Montenegro tonight. It could have been worse if Jovanovic’s thunderbolt had not come back off the crossbar with Joe Hart well beaten. Glen Johnson barely put a foot right tonight and for me the reason why his performances have gotten this way is because he has no competition. Someone needs to step up and push him and maybe then we will see better displays, but Capello cannot drop if there isn’t a suitable replacement and if no other right back makes the squad. Ashley Cole’s crossing was abysmally bad tonight. It’s all well and good being such a gallivanting wingback but you have to do something with the ball in final third or it’s a simple waste of energy. Lescott and Ferdinand were as rarely threatened at the back as Montenegro were by Rooney and Crouch/Davies.

In the upcoming friendly against France England fans should be desperate to see Capello try something new in terms of personnel. While Rooney continues to moodily go in search of the ball inside his own half, play with zero discipline with regards to his positioning and not offset this by improving his goalscoring form then he doesn’t deserve to start. Provided they are still playing well I would like to see Carroll get at least a half to stake his claim, Tom Huddlestone to start in place of Gareth Barry, Marc Albrighton to earn his first senior call-up and another natural right back be called into the squad to combat the complacencies of Glen Johnson.

Scotland the Brave but no Reward for Defensive Endeavour

Cezh Republic 1 Scotland 0

Despite an excellent first half defensive display, Craig Levein’s side were sunk by a Roman Hubnik header with three quarters of the match played in Prague this evening. The Hertha Berlin centre half directed Roman Bednar’s flick on from Czech captain Tomas Rosicky’s corner past Allan McGregor to rescue their qualification campaign having lost to Lithuania in the last competitive international. Apart from the poor marking during this decisive set piece the Scottish back line defended like tigers, the often error-prone Gary Caldwell put in some fantastic tackles and Rangers captain David Weir, who at forty years of age I was certain would be a liability, gave a position master class against a striker half his age in Tomas Necid.

There is a fine line between being a tactical genius and getting that aspect of the game wrong. Whilst they kept the Czechs at bay, frustrating the home side by restricting the likes of Rosicky, Necid, Jan Polak and Jaroslav Plasil to long range efforts which did not threaten McGregor’s goal, Levein’s plan was the former. A goal down with seventy minutes on the clock and all of a sudden Scotland were playing too defensively. You can’t help but wonder if an instant reaction by bringing on substitutes would’ve been better, as it was the manager waited a good five minutes before calling the in-form Kenny Miller and Burnley frontman Chris Iwelumo off the bench.

This was by no means a great Czech side that the Tartan Army travelled to watch tonight. Gone are the greats Poborsky, Nedved, Koller and Galasek. Tomas Ufjalusi and Marek Jankulovski are in self-imposed retirement from international football, Zdenek Grygera was not selected and Milan Baros is injured. Scotland may have been guilty of giving Michal Bilek’s side too much respect. Marek Suchy looked particularly shaky in the heart of defence, but Petr Cech didn’t really have a save to make. Young Necid continues to show promise and justify his tag as one of Europe’s hottest prospects, but the Czechs could do with finding a partner to play up front with him consistently.

Were Scotland too defensive tonight? Debutant Jamie Mackie’s insatiable work rate was impressive and although everyone likes to see a forward helping out his defenders nobody was left up the field and so the Czechs were often under no pressure from clearances and were regularly first to the second ball. The prerogative of playing players in their natural position comes to the fore. Why should Mackie play on the wing when he tops the Championship’s scoring charts? Miller, who stands head and shoulder above any other finding the net in the SPL was no doubt disappointed not to start the match. Looking at the uncertainty in the Czech back-four might Iwelumo’s physical presence unsettled them? Many of these questions will sadly be irrelevant come the next game. Despite the fact that Scotland have risen to the occasion before against giants of international football it is very difficult to see them taking anything out Tuesday’s qualifier with reigning European and World Champions Spain.

Three Lions Turn to Davies Over Newcastle's Number Nine

Congratulations go out to Kevin Davies on his England call-up. After more than a decade since receiving three Under-21 caps, the Bolton Wanderers captain was named in a full national squad for the first time in his career today, joining the struggling Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch and the in-form Darren Bent as Fabio Capello’s striking options. Davies has committed more fouls than any other footballer in Premier League history (and conversely is also one of the highest sufferers of them). We should not belittle him by talking in terms of the physical forward being a last resort, Emile Heskey reportedly declining the England manager’s offer to temporarily come out of international retirement he announced after the World Cup. There are injuries within the national strike force which rule out Bobby Zamora and the pace-gifted pair of Jermain Defoe and Gabriel Agbonlahor, but despite this Davies’s inclusion is still something of a surprise. Newcastle’s Andy Carroll was not named in Stuart Pearce’s Under-21 squad to face Romania and we all assumed that after impressive early season form he would get the call, a cause that despite his off-the-field antics I have championed. Alas, he did not start the Magpies match with Manchester City on Sunday and this may have ultimately counted against the 21-year old.

Both men comfortably play the target man role and have done so successfully. The question is should Capello have gone for experience over youth, particularly in light of his pledge to drive England forward by looking to the future? Kevin Davies has twelve years on Carroll and has netted 120 career goals, half of which have come in a Bolton shirt. Of this total, 74 have been scored in the Premier League, with an average of nine goals in all competitions over the last seven seasons. Considering Wanderers have often punched above their weight, particularly during the Sam Allardyce era, this isn’t too bad. A striker, however, is judged on his goals and a goal every five matches is not really anywhere near an international standard. Andy Carroll on the other hand still has his entire career in front of him and I am sure if he continues to play well there will be other chances for him to wear the Three Lions and in this, his first season properly part of Newcastle’s plans, he has netted at a rate of better than one in two.

Darren Bent’s good form probably reduces the necessity in Capello’s eyes for both to join up with the squad, but I believe just being in the setup might have been beneficial to Carroll. What Kevin Davies’s selection shows is that there are still rewards in football for hard-working players who play to what strengths they have despite being labelled one-dimensional in the process. It is a culmination of a career’s worth of effort, because the stats, a goal every four matches this season so far, do not make much of a case by themselves. In many ways Davies could be useful against the tough and tall Montenegrin defenders. The best of luck to him and how could anybody begrudge Bolton’s talisman a fairytale moment at Wembley next Tuesday!

End Product Please, Arsene!

Chelsea’s strong record against London rivals Arsenal continued this afternoon with a 2-0 home win at Stamford Bridge. Carlo Ancelotti’s men took the lead five minutes before the interval after the tenacity of Ramires fed Ashley Cole with an incisive pass who cross for Didier Drogba to net his thirteenth goal in thirteen matches against the Gunners with an improvised finish, beating Lukasz Fabianski at hit near post. Despite incessant Arsenal pressure the three points were wrapped up by Brazilian centre half Alex who blasted in an eighty-fifth minute free kick from twenty-five yards after Nicolas Anelka had been fouled by Laurent Koscielny.

Arsene Wenger’s side today proved once again that whilst their majestic approach play is pleasing on the eye it counts for nothing if the ball does not end up in the back of the opponent’s net. Don’t get me wrong, I am always going to advocate playing the beautiful game the right way but in the big matches trying to walk the ball in simply hasn’t worked for them. There is a subtle difference between sticking to a philosophy and being too obstinate to adapt a pragmatic approach. You play the team that is put in front of you and respond to the tactics they employ. Today, Essien, Mikel and Ramires provided a very solid wall in front of the back four which Arsenal could not break down. In spite of this Marouane Chamakh did very well in the air without actually testing Petr Cech and he has given them a different dimension, but the Gunners are still not mixing it up enough for me. What every fan from North London is screaming out for is end product after five seasons without a trophy.

Young players cannot live on potential alone forever and sadly the cutting edge was largely missing today. Arshavin drew one splendid save from Cech but nothing will be added to the Emirates’ cabinet if the players cannot finish their attractive build-up. Matters are not helped by the fact that Arsenal continue to be dogged by injuries but for all the complaining Wenger has done his side would still benefit from toughening up. If you look at the Gunners’ squad there is only really Alex Song and Abou Diaby who will put their foot in and the latter’s fitness has often been questionable. The defence itself for me lacks some meanness as well. Koscielny’s foul on Anelka which led to Cheslea’s second goal smacked of tiredness. Admittedly Arsenal are not going to have their hands full with the likes of Drogba every week but again if you want to win titles and cups it is big matches where the back four have to stand up and be counted.

The performances of the other so-called ‘Big Four’ will be put under the microscope this weekend. Manchester United, especially in the first half, away at Sunderland yesterday were way below their usual standard and the Black Cats deserved to win the game. Here I would question Sir Alex’s decision to start the in-form Dimitar Berbatov from the bench. As for Liverpool, no excuse will suffice for a home defeat to Blackpool. We are talking about some of the same players who won the Champions League back in 2005 losing to a squad of players inferior on paper at least to that of Burnley, who similarly won a famous victory over United at Turf Moor last season. Full credit should go Ian Holloway’s side for this giant scalp, but there is no positive to take for Roy Hodgson. Board room antics and Fernando Torres limping off after ten minutes are immaterial. Each of the Reds XI is probably worth at least five times more than any of their Tangerines counterparts, or so their agents will tell you. The team spirit in the Anfield dressing room is starting to come into question and to be frank after a result like this they deserve to be in the bottom three.