• Power Outage & a Blow Up Doll

Just a few moments before my Saturday looked set to be a brilliant day of football, a pursuit of all things leisurely, and with Manchester United up 3-1 away to Everton at Goodison, my power suddenly and mysteriously went out. Upon its recommence, Everton, through Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta, had scratched themselves level while I, like United, were left in tears picking up the pieces. What was the reason for this odd occurrence with only a light rain drizzling outside? I pondered, were the football Gods whispering a sign of things to come into my ignoring ear?

All variables pointed to me being able to see out my morning without a snag. Multiple devices were plugged in and working quite well. In just a few short moments, what I had personally considered a success came crashing down upon me not unlike United’s capitulation at the hands of Everton in the final moments. United’s power outage had nothing to do with the absence of Wayne Rooney, the ill-timed distraction of an inflated blow up doll hurled upon the pitch, yet had everything to do with a mysterious twist of fate not unlike the surge of electricity towards the end of my AM that eventually fried my router, seized my Internet connection and ruined United’s, no, my morning.

What was ultimately not a sign from the football Gods but a heroic fight back from an Everton side in desperate need of points was the main theme of Saturday, while a veteran United side unable to see out what would have been an important three points away from home remains nothing short of a major power outage.

In other notable weekend occurrences of normalcy, Chelsea continued their perfect start to a new campaign through an impressive Michael Essien while West Ham remain pointless at the bottom of the table. Avram Grant, once a Champions League final manager, will now surely fight relegation all year long. Rafael van der Vaart made a decent enough debut on the left side of midfield for a Spurs side who ultimately lacked enough gusto to see off West Brom. Jermain Defoe’s absence through injury marred Spurs effectiveness in attack, yet forward thinking minds assure Spurs fans there are options left to consider.

Blackpool, The Tangerines (don’t call them Orange), continued an up-down start to the Premier League with an impressive three points gained away to Newcastle. Ian Holloway named four strikers in his starting line up against an unchanged in four Newcastle who lacked cohesion. Blackpool went into the half up by the slimmest of margins while Newcastle continually pressed throughout the second half until they were finally caught by an impressive Blackpool counter attack when DJ Campbell sealed it for The Seasiders.

Honorable Mentions -

Christopher Samba, Blackburn Rovers- If Nikola Kalinic was the effective target man up front for Blackburn, then Samba was the equally as effective rock at the center of defense who saved a point for Blackburn with his defensive prowess. Specifically, the French-born defender’s late game dive at a Jo shot that was surely goal bound from close range. It was the kind of epic, late game heroics defenders live for, while it was the aforementioned Kalinic who opened up the scoring for Blackburn as Joe Hart again proved he’s human after all.

Samba’s a big unit with natural defensive abilities. Because of his height, he’s reliable and strong in the air. Reliable enough for Sam Allardyce to make Samba Captain as Blackburn look to build on last season’s tenth place finish.

Tim Howard, Everton- The final scoreline saw Everton’s Tim Howard concede three goals to Manchester United yet Howard’s heroics in the first half kept Everton in the game as the match entered the half level. As good as great saves can possibly get, Howard produced one of sheer brilliance in the first half when a flailing right foot resulted in an unbelievable kick save from a Paul Scholes trademark blast. Precision and timing from the American who definitely did his part in the kind of hard fought draw where goals were easy to come by.

Steven Pienaar, Everton- The spry South African midfielder gave Manchester United’s defense, more specifically Gary Neville, fits during the first half of their eventual 3-3 draw on Saturday. His pace and movements cutting into the middle of the pitch were effective enough to create multiple chances on goal for Everton in the first half. If it wasn’t for some last ditch defending by United, Everton could have been 2 or 3 up early.

Pienaar deservedly opened up the scoring when he matched pace on the break with Mikel Arteta and cleaned up the rebound from an Edwin van der Sar save.

Pepe Reina, Liverpool – Lastly, the Spanish keeper had an embarrassing international break with Spain when he gifted Argentina the easiest of all goals. On Sunday away to Birmingham City, Reina was at his best. On more than one occasion, Reina made that ever so difficult low diving last ditch save a la Gordon Banks v Pele in 1970 that assured Liverpool weren’t beaten and left Birmingham with a point.

Premier League Footballer of the Week -

Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal- Arsenal produced another strong performance at home against Bolton where they hit four goals through four different goal scorers. Fabregas and Co. were brilliant on the day as Arsenal ran riot on Bolton in a complete team performance.

Tomas Rosicky was instrumental in central midfield distributing the ball and linking play to the forward Arsenal attackers. His first half ball from just inside the center circle split the Bolton defense to shreds and found Andrei Arshavin just outside the box. It was a stunning pass that the Russian should have done better with. However, what Rosicky can do, so too can Fabregas. Over the course of the full 90, Fabregas was the main creative threat for Arsenal. His perfect 57th minute cross found the head of Marouane Chamakh for Arsenal’s 2nd while he had already assisted on Arsenal’s 1st. His stunning chip ball to Carlos Vela tapped off Arsenal’s 4th and was as perfect a team goal as Premier League fans have seen this season. Fabregas back fully fit is not only an asset to the Gunners, but a credit to Premier League and football fans in general as he embodies the definition of a world class midfielder.

Sorry Drogba, but I have to call BS on this one.

After spending this season doing more sulking than any professional football player should be allowed to do by law, and in a week where Marseille’s president has said he wants Drogba back, Didier Drogba has attempted to shut people up by saying he wants to stay at Chelsea. He even wants to get a contract extension.

Look Drogba, get out. After showing your lack of professionalism by not bothering to fight for your spot up front when Scolari was around, you think that it’s okay to all of a sudden have a change of heart because of the new manager? You think it’s okay to do more flopping around than Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard combined? Even worse to me, you think it’s okay to take your jolly sweet time to come back from injury? Yes I will admit that by that time, Scolari had had enough of your dog and pony act and your attitude deserved nothing but the bench. However when you are benched, you fight for a spot on the team, not fight to get the manager removed.

It’s going to an awfully long time for me as a Chelsea fan to warm back up to your performances. If you only had the balls to play like you did against Liverpool in last season’s Champions League semi-final second leg, you might actually be respected as a footballer. Instead, your words ring hollow, no one cares about your prepared statement.

Other Stories
So Jimmy Bullard is going to be out another lengthy spell of time. This time, Hull City could be without their record signing for up to nine months. While Fulham is sitting back counting their money, Hull City have to be wondering if Bullard will be able to get anywhere near the form he had coming back for Fulham. At 30, that’s going to be a difficult task. Yes Paul Duffen, this was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

What’s 2 weeks to Eduardo? The time it will take to come back from the hammy he suffered in his return to Arsenal first team action.

You have to give David Moyes credit. He is going to do everything in his power to make sure Jack Rodwell and Dan Gosling gradually work their way into regular first team action. The last thing Everton need is for these two to have something happen where they have to be built back up from scratch. I think these two will be just fine.

Ian Herbert is asking if this Manchester United squad is the greatest Premier League team ever?

Joe Kinnear looks set to leave the hospital this weekend. I hope part of his orders is to not watch Newcastle/Everton on Sunday.

Here’s Christopher Samba coming out and saying that Blackburn are ‘too good to go down’. Umm..sure.

And finally, Giofranco Zola goes off on the bencher. You know, the big shot at the small club who takes the big contract to ride the bench at a bigger club.

Blackburn Rovers have to consider themselves fortunate they are looking at a Ricoh Arena replay instead of losing in front of the most faithful of the faithful at Ewood Park.

After Roque Santa Cruz put Blackburn ahead inside of ninety seconds, two second half goals from the Sky Blues should have been enough. But the man who deflected Michael Doyle’s shot to give Coventry the lead saved Blackburn the embarrassment of losing to the mid-table Championship outfit.

Let’s be honest, the football on offer wasn’t all that great. Coventry made this a scrappy affair after going down a goal and the results were well deserved. About the only decent things on offer at Ewood park were the goals of Roque Santa Cruz and Aron Gunnarsson, Gunnarsson’s a thing of beauty. But let’s get down to the defining moments of this match.

1) Blackburn’s two disallowed goals. The first one is hard to decipher, but Steve Tanner was in the right position at the right time to see Gael Givet’s shirt tug on Scott Dann. While Allardyce can complain about the legleslation used in giving the foul, Tanner was well within the laws of the game to call it. McCarthy’s disallowed goal for offsides was off by a mile.

2) Christopher Samba’s equalizer. You hate to blame a keeper who was called into action just minutes before kickoff, but this one is all on Andy Marshall. He should have fielded that ball safely but instead of catching it, saw it bounce off the chest. He catches the ball, Coventry are in the quarter finals. Coventry’s back four who had defended so well in the initial ninety minutes were left out on an island in injury time as they simply lost all their shape. Nice make up after helping concede Coventry’s second goal.

3) The refereeing of Steve Tanner. People say we don’t praise referees when they have a good day. Steve Tanner had a great day at the office. He and his officials got all the big calls right and while Allardyce maybe complaining, he should be doing more complaining with regards to Blackburn’s second half performance than about one call that Tanner got right.

The five thousand Coventry City fans made the faithful Blackburn few sound mute. It makes you realize what is more important to those fans. Chris Coleman should fancy his side’s chances at home of a quarterfinal draw, but they will lamenting the one moment of glory that should have been. Blackburn got too big for their britches in the second half, and should have paid the price.

Other Thoughts From Saturday’s FA Cup Action
1) Roberto Martinez needs better forward play. For all the beautiful cutting passes they had against Fulham, there was zero cutting edge in front of goal. Now that could have been because of the brilliant defending Fulham did at marking him out of the game, but if you didn’t know who was playing, could you have known who were the Championship or Premier League side?

2) West Ham United are lucky to have escaped with a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

3) Chelsea are the same old story. Their slogan should be changed to ‘we only play once we go a goal down’. Roman’s fake smile wore extra thin on me and it was nice to see grumpy Guus looking about as somber as Chelsea’s performance truly was.

4) Hull City complaining about Sheffield United’s opener was downright comical. Well taken equalizer though.

5) Five matches, four draws. Could we see a weekend where in seven matches, we have five replays?