There have only been 46 Premier League games so far this season but already there are some notable – or perhaps anomolous – statistics. Courtesy of Football365, here are the most salient in a top flight club-by-club format…
We’ve sourced a gif of Emmanuel Adebayor’s horrific attempted-stamp-that-actually-turned-out-to-be-more-of-a-rake on ex-teammate Robin Van Persie. And also a gif of his celebration which drove the Arsenal fans into a primitive frenzy. Click here to see them both – we await news of his ban but expect three or four matches…
What would we do without the Guardian? To save reviewing all the transfers of all the clubs, and where they’ve been left short – or bloated – we’ll just repeat everything that David Pleat allegedly wrote in the Guardian Sport Blog. We’ve even stolen the picture. It’s good though…
Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich
Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL
Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen
Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan
Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea
Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard
United back on form, Arsenal continue their form, Burnley win again, more misery for Portsmouth, some dodgy decisions and some great refereeing, and Lescott finally moves… read on for a sideways look at a big weekend’s action in the Premier League.
We’ve already half stuck our neck out and predicted Arsenal will be there or thereabouts this season. After their opening day performance – and indeed that of their rivals – its tempting to go balls out on them. Of course it’s far too early to draw conclusions, but 6/1 won’t be around much longer…
Here is the second part of our Premier League Preview (leaving you all of 24 hours to read it) along with our predicted final table… Part one is below. Read it now before the season starts and all our forecasts are immediately proved wrong.
With only days to go until the start of the Premier League, we take a whirlwind look through the division (no-one likes long, lengthy previews) – count yourself lucky if your side gets more than a couple of lines… We also have our final table prediction, which will no doubt come back to haunt us. Read on for Part One…
Arsene Wenger has refused to rule out a move to Real Madrid, and has called the possible presidency of Florentine Perez ‘Interesting’. After the severe grilling he apparently received last Thursday from the Arsenal shareholders, who could blame him? Yes, they have gone four seasons without a trophy, but he has transformed the club, made [...]
So, Man Utd are through to a second successive Champions League final. But poor Darren Fletcher will not be there after a refereeing error saw him receive a red card for what was an excellent tackle on Cesc Fabregas.
How the referee did not see the deviation of the ball after Fletcher’s intervention only he will know.
But what is perhaps more criminal than the inept refereeing is UEFA’s lack of an appeal process. No matter how horrendous the error, no referee can have his decision changed (other than in a case of mistaken identity). This reeks of arrogance – a refusal to admit that their officials are fallible.
After an excellent tackle that should have prevented a goalscoring opportunity turned into a red card and a converted penalty, Darren Fletcher will beg to differ.
He now misses the biggest game of his life, totally and entirely unjustly. The referee, and UEFA, should be ashamed.
