A couple of shock results, a couple of dodgy refereeing decisions and the birth of the new saviour at Old Trafford. Plus an update on the JOE Prediction League.
Close observers of Manchester United have been talking about 18-year-old Adnan Januzaj for a while. Most of us first heard of him when the midfielder made a cameo appearance in the Community Shield in August and we even featured
a cracking goal he scored for the Manchester United reserves just last week.
But his brace on Saturday, ensuring Manchester United turned a potentially disastrous 1-0 defeat to Sunderland into a precious 2-1 away win, put the Belgian on all the back pages this weekend.
Both his goals were beautifully taken but it was his overall play that would have pleased Moyes, and United fans, the most. While the campaign to rescue Shinji Kagawa from exile goes on, Januzaj may be the creative spark United have been lacking, especially as RVP has had, for him, a slow start to the new campaign.
It’s not all good news for United. Their defending for Craig Gardner’s goal was very poor and it took a fantastic save from David de Gea to stop the Black Cats going 2-0 up. From what we have seen thus far, Januzaj looks the real deal and he could be the player to kick United’s spluttering engine into top gear. The fans, and Moyes, will be hoping he’s the new Ryan Giggs and not the new Freddie Macheda.
Blues lose
One of the few results we did predict correctly this weekend was Manchester City’s defeat of Everton. That said, on the balance of play, Everton can feel more than a little hard done by. After Romelu Lukaku scored again, after yet another rather shoddy bit of Joe Hart keeping, it looked like the Toffees were set to keep their unbeaten run alive.
But a lapse allowed Alvaro Negredo to equalise almost immediately before Sergio Aguero, class all game, made it 2-1 just before the break with a smart finish. The killer moment for Everton’s hopes was a very dodgy penalty decision given against Seamus Coleman in the second half after he barely touched Pablo Zabaleta in the box. Aguero’s spot kick then went in via the post and Tim Howard’s head. When it’s not your day etc…
City lost Vincent Kompany to injury early on so Manuel Pellegrini will be hoping he is back after the international break while Hart made amends for his earlier failure with a couple of decent stops. The Citizens still look rubbish at the back and brilliant up front, making them great to watch if you're not a fan. Meanwhile Everton have the look of a team that are genuine top six, or possibly higher, contenders and James McCarthy had a stormer in the middle, which is great news for Ireland.
Upsets all over the place
The biggest shock of the week was seeing West Ham score three at White Hart Lane after failing to score away from home all season. Spurs have a big enough squad now not to play the Europa League fatigue card so this win is all down to Sam Allardyce out thinking AVB tactically. While you wouldn’t write off Spurs’ title hopes just yet, especially with all the big teams looking vulnerable, this defeat was so comprehensive that it does make you look at the Londoners a little differently.
Meanwhile Martin Jol is still gainfully employed (as we write at least) after his Fulham team eked out a 1-0 win over Stoke thanks to a late Darren Bent goal and Southampton may just be very good indeed as they beat Swansea 2-0 at St Mary’s.
JOE’s Prediction League Update
So most of the above is simply an attempt to justify my slippage from the top of the BullorBear League after Week 2. My six points this week wasn’t bad but Andrew Murphy’s incredible haul of 11 points puts him top of the JOE League on 17 points, three clear of my good self.
Settled in between us are three other lads who had very good weeks. Barry Duffy’s nine, Mark McGann’s 10 and Brian Connolly’s nine move them onto 14, 16 and 16 respectively, but as we head into the international break, we’re all chasing Murphy at the halfway point
Over the next 10 days I’ll be sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber and pouring over Opta Stats in my spare time in a bid to get my mind in peak condition for the next round of Premier League. As someone once said 'fail to prepare' and all that...
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