England

Fish & Chip Shots: Follow The Leader

One amazing weekend is behind us now, and Goal.com’s Shane Evans is here to walk you through all that happened.

Nov 24, 2009 1:33:39 PM

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By Shane Evans

I don’t even know where to begin.

So much happened this weekend it’s hard to find a suitable point to get things started. Obviously I could go on and on about Spurs’ obliteration of Wigan, but I think that’ll just dominate the Fixins’.

Sunderland. That’s where we’re going to start. Well, Sunderland and Arsenal. The match ended 1-0 in the Black Cats’ favor and is certainly up for consideration for one of the best performances of the year.

Arsenal | Heads up, fellas. The season isn't over...

It actually plays right into the Wigan fiasco because the two teams are tied together by one man: Steve Bruce.

Quickly becoming one of the best coaches in the league, Bruce orchestrated a defensive scheme that stymied Arsenal at every turn on Saturday. Led by Lorik Cana, Sunderland overwhelmed the young Gunners who looked lost and disorganized for most of the match.

Of all their matches this season, you could see how much they missed Emmanuel Adebayor in this one. Then add the fact that Robin van Persie was off globetrotting for the best horse placenta on the market, the striking options up top were just not there.

In the middle of the park was Cana and a rising star for Sunderland, Jordan Henderson. The latter’s performance, though a bit sloppy at times, was quite impressive. At only 19, he made one of Wenger’s kids, Aaron Ramsey, look out of his league and eventually bossed him off the pitch.

It wasn’t all bad for Arsenal though, as regardless of the slim scoreline, they put on their share of pressure and, with the introduction of Andrey Arshavin, seemed to open things up a bit. Their main talking point this season has been whether they can stand up in the face of adversity and take the fight to the other team. This match showed that in many ways they aren’t there yet.

Arsene Wenger | Perhaps it's time…gasp…to add someone older than 21.

They boast supreme skill and once they click, they click. But where is that toughness? I’d say that Gallas is the most intimidating veteran presence on the team, and he’s not even the right kind of scary, he’s just the nuts kind and you are more inclined to run and hide than to respect him. For me, Cana brought that to Sunderland and because of it they are a different squad.

Steve Bruce said he wanted to bring in "captain-quality" players to his team. Bulk up the leadership. He did just that. Cana was the captain at Marseille. Michael Turner is a leader. Lee Cattermole is a leader. Even Darren Bent gets mixed up in that sort of thing. When I envision the Arsenal locker room following a match like this, I see a room full of silence.

I love watching Arsenal play, but if Arsene wants silver this year, he’ll have get someone to speak up. Cesc, you say? If I can be frank for a second, he is wearing the armband, so he won’t leave. Simple.

Pickled Onions

Taking a look-see at Friday’s TFE, I examined the Liverpool-Man City clash as my first match. I wrote that it could be a stalemate, and that is what happened. I have to start going with my gut more often. It was a good match, absolutely, but it just felt like it’d end with a point for each side.

I say this because that point is valuable to both managers, particularly Rafa. He needed it. For Sparky, that’s six draws in a row. Sure, they aren’t losses, but they aren’t wins either.

Second, I picked United to beat Everton, and they did. This was exactly the kind of performance Sir Alex wanted to see. Too many times this season, the Red Devils have been squeaking by teams, scoring late on or early, etc. This match was pure domination, start to finish, and they won by more than a goal for only the second time since September.

The final match of the weekend saw Stoke gut out a tough win over Portsmouth. For most of the match, the visitors looked in control, but you have to give Tony Pulis credit, he has the hearts of his players and they fought for him and got the three points. Credit to Thomas Sorensen for a quality match as well.

Overall: 23-9

One of these days I’ll get some credit for actually picking matches correctly. Not a bad record, if I do say so myself. With some tough matches coming up, picking correctly at this point in the season is huge.

Mushy Peas

I guess the main thing on everyone’s mind at the moment is the Champions League. Am I right?

If you’re a Liverpool fan, it should be firmly on your brain as your club is dangerously close to missing the Round of 16 cut. With two games to play, they are five points off the pace and anything but wins in said matches means curtains for the Reds. Yikes. The other English squads are all sitting pretty at the top of their groups and should see their way nicely through into the next stage. Well done, lads.

Outside of the Champions League, I should turn my attention to this little "emergency meeting" the FIFA big wigs have scheduled for December 2nd, which is coincidentally (or not) two days before the World Cup draw.

What will be decided in that meeting? I’m not sure. I’ll play-by-play tweet it while I’m there. You didn’t know I had that kind of pull, did you?

Seriously though, the timing is interesting, above all else. Called due to some serious allegations of match-fixing and unusual betting trends before the World Cup, FIFA needs to sort some major issues out and plans to do so before we know who faces whom in the World Cup.

It smells a bit funny to me though as I hope they aren’t planning to change the system of the draw around, the way they did prior to the playoffs. That was totally bogus if you ask me. Going forward, we know something was up during the last round of qualifying, and I’m extremely interested to see what comes of this little gathering. All I know is, Thierry Henry will be as far away from Cape Town as he can possibly be…

The Fixins'

Lee Bowyer | Big win for Brum.

“Tough It Out, Lads” Team of the Week: Birmingham

Outshot and outmuscled, the Blues were able to hold on to a 1-0 lead for 74 minutes against Fulham and took three huge points. These are exactly the kinds of results that they’ll need to get through the remainder of the season and not end up like West Brom. Currently a yo-yo team, Birmingham need to have a lot of pluck to keep themselves up. This match was a big step towards that.

Tweet of the Week: @pckilgore

“@shanevans New PK rule: Nothing is certain in Penalties except the team with the most English players will lose.”

The Los Angeles Galaxy lost the MLS Cup Final because they had Beckham and it went to PKs. Thoughts on that? It seems fair that Englishmen are allergic to spots.

Player of the Week: Jermain Defoe, Tottenham

I forget when, but I said previously that if you score four goals you basically cement your place as the player of the week. Who was that about? I can’t remember. Anyway, by that same logic, it has to mean that when you score five goals you receive the same treatment. Here you go, Jermain. What a match for the English striker. Clinical and pacey, I think it’ll be down to him and DBtheTruth come June. Toss in Rooney and Crouch, Capello has some tough choices ahead.

Rotten Egg of the Week: Wigan

How could they not be the rotten egg of the week? Or should I say the rotten ten. I won’t say eleven, because at points, Chris Kirkland was magnificent, despite being under siege for the entire match. It’s funny, when you read about what a team’s biggest result was, you always see the match being in the 30’s or 40’s somewhere in there. Never in the modern age. 9-1. Wow. Just think about that for a second. This is a team in the top flight of top flights. This is a team that BEAT CHELSEA!!! I am literally shaking my head right now. I do have to give them respect for refunding their fans ticket money though. Quite admirable.

Darren Fletcher | Go on, son, you deserve to celebrate.

Goal of the Week: Darren Fletcher, Manchester United

On the shortlist for goal of the season. Easily. What a strike by Fletcher! Not only was it a great shot, but the build-up by United was fabulous. The long cross comes in to the far post, knocked out to an open Fletcher, who bangs it on the half-volley across the goal with his right. It trails away from Tim Howard and sears the top left corner of the net. As the announcer said, “no keeper in the world would save this shot.” Check it out for yourself if you haven’t already.

Gaffe of the Week: Manchester City

You can say Wigan defended poorly, and they obviously did, but Manchester City had just taken the lead at Anfield and were in the driver’s seat in the match, controlling the flow of play. A match that it won, would have done a great deal for their legitimacy in the league, was simply given away when less than a minute after their go-ahead tally, they were hit back by Yossi. If City are going to contend this season, lapses like that simply cannot be allowed.

Game of the Week: Tottenham Hotspur 9-1 Wigan

White Hart Lane | Epic. Truly epic.

Sure was something. I just loved the Twitter reaction from all the Gooners out there. For example, and these could have been TOW, “They’ll probably put out a nine DVD collection about it, one DVD per match.” Well played though, Spurs, well played, though I hope I never see a match like that again in the Premier League. Goals are great, but us Brits are too prideful for all that nonsense...

Shane Evans is an Associate Editor of Goal.com. His feature, "Fish & Chip Shots" appears weekly. Contact Shane at shane.evans@goal.com with questions, comments and concerns or follow him on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/shanevans

For more news on England, visit Goal.com's England section!

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