Gameweek 13 – Hotter Than The Sun

Greetings team, and we are now officially over a third into the 2008/09 season! That’s exciting isn’t it? Everything is shaping up rather nicely though it has to be said, with a lot of expectations already subverted. As we currently stand there are just 10 points separating West Brom in 20th and Hull in 6th so a couple of wins back-to-back for anyone and things shift again dramatically.

Chelsea and Liverpool remain the pace-setters, both 8 points clear of defending champions Manchester United in third. They certainly deserve it as well I feel, both combining graft and flare, and knowing when each is required. Questions were asked earlier in the season about Liverpool stamina, but with by far the easiest run into Christmas, don’t be surprised to see them ruling the roost come January. Oh, Liverpool got three points at Bolton this weekend, and Chelsea eased past West Brom away from home as well.

Arsenal’s misery continues with their fourth defeat of the season, and to the team that many (including us) predicted would take their fourth place finish come April, Aston Villa. After a slowish start to the season Martin O’Neill’s men are playing some great stuff at the moment, and along with Everton, are the form team at the moment.

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m pretty apathetic about writing this report halfway into the following week, and to be honest can’t really remember much of what’s happened generally since last Wednesday. There were a few draws though, and Harry Redknapp lost his first game in charge of Tottenham at Fulham thanks to his ridiculous Brazilian goalkeeper.

Game of the Week – Manchester United vs Stoke City
Hull and Manchester City played out a pretty entertaining match on Sunday but it was marred by a couple of horrendous errors. The other half of Manchester however needed no such help, as they gave new-boys Stoke City their first proper hiding of the season. The Potters did not help themselves by conceding after 3 minutes, and then just before and just after half-time, but still take nothing away from the European champions who pushed forward with frightening fluidity and maybe could’ve had double figures. Two Ronaldo freekicks and a cracker on debut from 17-year-old Danny Welbeck made this a treat for the non-Stoke-supporting spectactor.

Player of the Week – Nicolas Anelka
The grumpy French journeyman has been in frightening form of late, with 8 goals in his last 4 games, and still virtually no trace of any effort being expelled. Do wish he’d stop doing that gay pigeon-hands celebration though…the Premier League is not an amateur hand puppet theatre…

Goal of the Week – Ryan Taylor
A few contenders knocking about this week after a slightly barren patch of mediocrity, but kudos must go out to Wigan defender Taylor for the outside-of-the-foot nonchalance of this effort.

Gaffe of the Week - Heurelho Gomes
Another week and another nightmare for the man they call The Octopus. Not only can he not deal with crosses without injuring his own colleagues, but apparently he has also now forgotten how to catch. Sure he made a couple of great saves elsewhere from long-range, but dropping a tame shot into your own net kind of cancels those out.

Misses of the Week – Almost the entire Bolton and Liverpool teams
Not sure quite what happened at Bolton this weekend as many golden opportunities went begging as both teams seemed afraid to score. Ricardo Gardner produced two of the misses of the season, and even the infallible Torres missed a couple of gifts. Strange.

Debut of the Week – Danny Welbeck
It was basically a dream come true for young Welbeck, who scored an absolute screamer on his first-team debut for Manchester United. Picking the ball up on the halfway line, he played a nice give-and-go before firing into Sorensen’s top corner from all of 30 yards. People rave about Arsenal’s kids, but United have a couple of tasty looking teenagers coming through as well.

Smugness of the Week – Cristiano Ronaldo
101 goals in 253 games for Manchester United, not bad eh? And see how fast he’s reached this milestone compared to Frank lampard and Emile Heskey who we highlighted reaching 100 a fortnight or so ago. This calls for an expansive prostitute-covered jizz-cuzzi party!