EPL Talk » Samir Nasri

The Return Of Joey Barton: One Touch And 3 Minutes Of Controversy

The Gaffer — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:55:51 +0000

Joey Barton is never far from controversy and such was the case today when the Newcastle midfielder returned to professional football. In his game today for Newcastle, he only touched the ball once during the three minutes he played.

In those three minutes, he commited a controversial tackle, showed little respect, was purposefully tripped by an Arsenal midfielder resulting in a yellow card and banged into Arsenal’s top striker.

Here’s exactly what happened during his return to English football today:

88:41: Joey Barton comes on for Jonas Gutierrez.
88:51: Barton pressures Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas. The Arsenal midfielder passes the ball across the pitch.
89:28: Barton touches the ball for the first time when he goes in for a 50/50 ball against Samri Nasri and knocks the ball into touch. Nasri is knocked to the turf from the challenge. Arsenal fans boo Barton.
89:31: Barton stares down Nasri and makes a sarcastic smile.
89:42: After watching a replay of the tackle in slow motion, TWI commentator Steve Banyard comments on Barton’s tackle by saying “That’s not the way to endear himself back.” “Not at all,” chimed co-commentator Gary O’Reilly. Banyard continued, “And a smile, a sarcastic smile like that, is frankly out of order.” O’Reilly replies, “Oh well.” Banyard adds, “The big campaign of the summer has been respect and Barton showed little of it there.”
90:01: Nasri trips Barton on purpose.
91:01: Gael Clichy nutmegs Barton.
91:14: Barton goes up for a cross in the Newcastle box, misses the ball completely but drives his back into Emmanuel Adebayor, causing the striker to grab his back in pain.
91:21: Nasri receives a yellow card from the earlier trip on Barton.
91:46: After a long kick upfield by Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given, Barton goes up for a 50/50 ball against Gael Clichy but the Arsenal defender gets his head to the ball first and knocks it to William Gallas.
92:08: Full-time whistle blows.
Barton walks down the tunnel, but afterwards Kevin Keegan gets into a heated argument with Gallas and Nasri as the Newcastle manager points his finger at Gallas. Newcastle’s assistant manager Terry McDermott steps in to break things up.

The challenge that Barton made to win the ball was within the law of the game, but what I object to is the manner in which he went in for the tackle. By watching the TV replay, it’s obvious that Barton intended to send a message to Nasri by the way that the Newcastle midfielder drove his right arm into Nasri’s thigh when the tackle took place. Barton could have easily won the ball in a cleaner manner by not using his arm.

Keegan’s response regarding to the controversy was this: “Joey came on, got a good tackle in on Nasri. Then the guy sliced him down. That’s what happened and that’s what I saw, which is what I was upset about.”

Yes the tackle was good, but was unnecessarily rough. Nasri didn’t slice Barton down. He tripped him on purpose.

“I know the referee didn’t see it but the linesman did and it should have been a red card,” said Keegan.

Red card? You’re having a laugh.

“It wasn’t a reckless tackle – it was a good tackle.” Except for the right arm that went charging into Nasri, yes.

For once, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s reaction to a controversial incident was spot on. “I was not surprised by the reaction of the fans – I have been involved in the game long enough not to be surprised by anything,” said Wenger. “Nasri clipped Barton and there was a little incident between them, but he was booked and rightly so.”

Barton’s return to football was full of controversy. Let’s hope that Barton gets his head together if he’s to play any more matches for Newcastle United.

Middlesbrough Dazzles With Opening Day Premier League Performance

The Gaffer — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:15:36 +0000

The most impressive side I watched, by far, on Saturday was Middlesbrough. The link-up play between Tuncay, Alves, Downing, Aliadiere and, later, Mido was sensational. Wheater was also impressive. At times, it was like watching Brazil with all of the backheels and blistering attacks. Seriously.

While Spurs controlled a lot of the possession in this match and were doing a better job at passing the ball around, they were sloppy in front of goal and failed to create those pinpoint passes that could have led to goals.

The 2-1 win for Middlesbrough was deceiving. Wheater had a goal in the first half that was incorrectly disallowed, but even ignoring that, Boro was much more impressive than Spurs than the scoreline suggests. For Tottenham, it’s back to the drawing board.

Middlesbrough fans will probably be worrying that Boro will continue to do well against big opposition teams but poorly against weaker sides. Let’s hope Gareth Southgate can fix that because the initial signs from Boro this season are very encouraging. They look like a team reborn.

One more impressive thing about Middlesbrough: For the first time in ages, the Riverside sounded like a real football stadium with a cup final atmosphere and noise compared to the empty red seats and stone cold silence we’re accustomed to from Boro.

Here are my thoughts from the other matches:

The deafening sound of boos that erupted around Goodison Park at the end of the 90 minutes against Blackburn should worry the club and its fans. They aren’t too many things to be happy with at Everton lately with the move to Kirkby on hold, no transfer signings, injury problems, boardroom problems and a dissatisfied David Moyes.
At times, Everton’s defending was schoolboy as they let Blackburn run right through the middle of the park unopposed. The perfect example of that was David Dunn who had a lot of space to twist and turn past Phil Jagielka and slot his curving shot into the corner of the net. Joleon Lescott made a crucial mistake to let Roque Santa Cruz pass him to slot the ball into the goal. Even Jason Roberts, yes Jason Roberts, made Everton’s back four look weak by dribbling past three players and getting a shot on goal.
New Blackburn manager Paul Ince should be impressed by the spirit shown by his side. If they can keep Santa Cruz in his side, they should do well this season up front.
Sunderland’s performance at their Stadium of Light against Liverpool was impressive. The team put in every morsel of energy into this match, winning many 50/50 balls and tormenting Rafa Benitez’s side. I wasn’t impressed by Liverpool’s performance at all. Too many sloppy mistakes. Hyypia looked awful. Plessis looked very unsure of himself in central midfield and his replacement Alonso played much better.This is going to be an awfully long season for Liverpool unless they can start making immediate improvement. They created more chances in the second half mostly thanks to Steven Gerrard, but what happens when Gerrard has a weak performance?
Arsenal looked extremely comfortable and confident in their 1-0 win against West Bromwich Albion, but it was classic Arsenal who failed to find a second goal to put West Brom out of reach. Tony Mowbray’s side gave Arsenal a couple of scary moments with the very impressive Ishmael Miller coming close for West Brom. Samir Nasri did well on his first Premier League debut. Chris Brunt also played well for the Baggies, whose side became more comfortable toward the end of the first half. For the first 30 minutes, they couldn’t thread more than a few passes together.Meanwhile, Emmanuel Adebayor continued his frustrating streak of missing some clear-cut chances in front of goal. When he’s off form, the Gunners will be in jeopardy in crunch games.

Samir Nasri to Arsenal?

tyduffy — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:22:26 +0000

If the papers were to believed, Arsene Wenger would have a Solomonesque Harem of young studs at his disposal. However, the rumors of OM star Samir Nasri moving on up to the Emirates seem to have some juice.

Nasri, 20, recently signed a four-year deal with Marseilles. But, the deal contains a £13.5 million buyout clause, which may be in Arsenal’s price range.

Arsenal have reportedly held talks with the youngster, and Nasri hinted that he had played his last match at the Stade Velodrome.

A versatile attacking midfielder who can play on both wings, Nasri would likely be the younger (and better) replacement for Inter-bound Alexander Hleb.