It was one of those crazy weekends in football. In both the Premier League and Serie A there were what I would call a good number of unexpected results. Which actually made for a pretty interesting weekend. Alright, lets get to it. Time for an honest and brutal round up of events.
Let’s start off with what should have been the most exciting football game of the weekend but was actually BAF. (For future reference BAF means BORING AS F**K). Yeah I am talking Liverpool vs. Manchester United here. No one would have predicted that Jose Mourinho would have parked the bus at Anfield 2 years in a row. But guess what? He f***ing did. United were s**t and Liverpool were poor in front of goal. Simple. Liverpool more than deserved the win but fluffed it. You get the feeling United were delighted with the goal less draw. Sad really. A game best forgotten.
I could go on all day about how I truly despise the way Manchester City have run their business since falling head first down a UAE oil well. But I cannot deny that what they have built is mighty f***ing impressive. They absolutely steam rolled Stoke yesterday and it wasn’t just the 7-2 scoreline. It was more the delightful brand of football they played and the quality of their players on show. Truly a majestic performance fit for an Arab prince. It is going to take some football team to beat them this year. And some kind of miracle to stop them winning the Premier League.
Moving along. How about Crystal Palace. Not a single point earned or single goal scored going into yesterday’s game with Chelsea. And what did they do? They beat the defending champions 2-1. It was a result of both Palace’s quality and determination along with a truly poor Chelsea performance. I bet Antonio Conte tore the s**t out of his players in the dressing room after that one. It was great for Palace fans though, who have endured a miserable start to the season. Maybe Roy Hodgson is “The Messiah”?
And how about Watford? Or more importantly how about Arsenal. Once more yesterday Arsenal showed that they are about as soft as my ample mid section. It was a terrible performance from a very average side. How did Arsene Wenger and the board let things get this bad? I don’t understand. Losing a game of football can happen, and Watford are a very good team this season. But my god Arsenal were poor. Maybe Arsenal should replace Arsene Wenger with Marco Silva?
Tottenham were uninspiring but did enough to finally get their first win at Wembley and the monkey off their backs. Swansea also got their first home win of the season. West Ham held on for a draw at Burnley after Andy Carroll rather stupidly got sent off. You wouldn’t think it will be long before Ronald Koeman gets shown the Everton door even though Wayne Rooney rescued a point with a last minute penalty away to Brighton. Oh and Southampton came back from being behind twice to snatch a draw against Newcastle.
A big surprise for me this weekend was Juventus losing 2-1 at home. I wonder when was the last time that happened? 300 years ago? Its true Lazio are on the rise and have enjoyed a good start to the season, but still. For me it was a shock result. Add to that the impressive win for Napoli in Rome are we finally going to break the Juventus dominance in Italian football. I f***ing hope so. I would love to see Napoli win the league this season but there is a long way to go.
It was a game of two halves in the Milan derby. A pretty unspectacular first half followed by a pretty entertaining second half. Inter Milan came out 3-2 winners in what was a counter attacking master class from the blue side of Milan. Ivan Perisic, outstanding, but the man of the day was without any doubt the captain Mauro Icardi. What a player this guy is. Hands down best player on the pitch on the night and at the moment one of the best players in the Italian league.
I must say though I feel sorry for AC Milan and their fans (sort of). They had control of the game, more opportunities overall and were done by a very late dodgy penalty. Sorry Inter fans I have watched it a hundred times and if that was penalty then I have a massive FANNY. Slight contact but for me never a penalty. But hell enjoy the win Inter, sometimes you just need that bit of luck.
Round up of the other Italian games this weekend, Sampdoria earned a great 3-1 home win over Atalanta. Although in fairness Atalanta kind of fluffed it. 21 shots on goal for the away team, 11 on target and only scored 1 goal. With that in mind they only have themselves to blame, (Are you Liverpool in disguise?) Fiorentina had a tight, but well deserved win over Udinese. Whilst Bologna and Genoa both had good days on the pitch also.
Their are two games on Monday night that fail to stir any real excitement for the neutrals. Leicester take on West Brom and Verona take on Benevento. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
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