The Carling Cup Never Ceases To Amaze

Saturday’s early kick-off between Arsenal and Birmingham signalled the start of an eventful weekend of Premiership and Carling Cup action. The game was only 3 minutes old, but Martin Taylor’s leg breaking tackle on Eduardo overshadowed the rest of the game. The 24 year old Croatian looks set miss the rest of the season, much to Arsene Wenger’s dismay. Martin Taylor has been criticised profusely in the media following the incident, but his tackle as horrific as the end result was, did not look to be malicious or callous, it was not a two footed lunge, he saw the ball, it was there to be won so he slid in one footed, the fact is that Eduardo is just much quicker than him, therefore the unfortunate happened, and indeed these things happen in football. The calls which are being made in the media for Taylor to be banned for life are extremely harsh. Remember this was all in the third minute; both sides still had a game to play. McFadden’s 20 yard free kick gave the blues a 1-0 lead. An amazing Theo Walcott double in five minutes gave Arsenal the power to close the game out and extend their lead at the top of the table, but a last-gasp challenge by Gael Clichy gifted Birmingham a penalty. McFadden took his opportunity and fired the ball home for the last kick of the game. William Gallas displayed some child-like sulking at the final whistle by remaining seated on the ground well after the final whistle to end a controversial draw at St Andrew’s.
The afternoon kick off’s saw a win for West Ham, Liverpool, Portsmouth and a vital one for Wigan,
The evening kick-off, served up a real treat. Two goals each from Ronaldo and Ronney made easy work of it by demolishing Newcastle 5-1. Man of the Match Ronaldo was dazzling at St James’s Park; the Newcastle defence couldn’t handle his terrifying pace and cool finishing as he put them to the sword twice. Newcastle really are in trouble now, Newcastle were outclassed from start to finish, no wins in the last six games and so far no great miracles from the man the call King Kev, if that wasn’t bad enough, there is now a real possibility that the Toon’s are getting closer and closer to that relegation dog-fight. Manchester United however look like they’ve recovered from the blow at Man City and are going from strength to strength as they close the gap at the top of the table to just three points. The title race is still wide open.
On to Sunday, two Premiership games took place, wins for Blackburn and Villa; it looks like Reading could be the surprise candidates for relegation this year as the move into the drop-zone.
Tottenham and Chelsea had a weekend off from the Premiership, but there was no rest-byte as they competed for the Carling Cup in front of 90,000 people at Wembley. It was an exciting and open game with Tottenham starting much livelier, despite having most of the chances and most of the possession; they found themselves heading in at half time 1-0 down through a Didier Drogba free kick. Tottenham fought their way back in the second half, their persistence paid off as they were awarded a penalty following a hand ball, up stepped Mr cool Dimitar Berbatov to send Cech the wrong way. The 90 minutes ended a draw, we only had to wait four minutes to see the winner, new boy Woodgate rose for a header, only to see it (or not see it) get punched directly onto his forehead and bobble into the back of the net, much to his and the Tottenham fans’ excitement. It’s their first trophy since 99 and it really pleased Juande Ramos who has stated he wants to win much more at Tottenham, so congratulations. There’s one thing though I’m sure is starting to get on a lot of people’s nerves, Didier Drogba’s diving and dramatic antics are really starting to get hideous and take the gloss off lets face I a fantastic player. Lets all hope he realizes that every time someone touches him, he does not have to go down like he’s been shot in the back.
So, overall a great weekend of football, controversial but exciting, that’s how we like it!

Goldie