1. United fans’ banner lacked class
MANCHESTER UNITED’S ENCOURAGING 4-1 win over Aston Villa was marred by one moment of disrespect towards David Moyes and the club in general today.
During this afternoon’s game, a banner with the words ‘WRONG ONE – MOYES OUT’ in giant red letters was flown over Old Trafford today.
The protest was met with boos by the crowd, and Moyes himself has shown impressive dignity is brushing aside this incident.
For this particular group fans to voice their criticism is acceptable, but their actions today seemed like an attempt to humiliate Moyes and undermine the club — and unsurprisingly, the majority of the supporters showed their apathy towards such behaviour.
2. Chelsea ill-at-ease against teams that ‘park the bus’
Jose Mourinho famously once criticised Tottenham for ‘parking the bus’ — in other words, adhering to an ultra-defensive approach — against them.
Nonetheless, this style is something that Mourinho has become accustomed to facing in recent times. West Ham provided the template for teams, as they earned a rare 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season.
The loss to Palace today, coupled with the recent defeat by Villa, make it two losses in a fortnight for Chelsea.
The London club’s form may seem strange, given their triumphant 6-0 win over Arsenal last week, yet it highlights the fact that, while Mourinho’s men are surely the best counter-attacking team in the league, when it comes to breaking especially cautious sides down, they sometimes struggle.
3. Flamini performance exposes Wenger folly
Arsenal produced an assured display to earn a creditable 1-1 draw with Man City this evening.
Their tactically and defensively competent performance was in stark contrast with last week’s 6-0 thrashing by Chelsea.
After the influential David Silva put the visitors in the lead, the Gunners gradually recovered from a poor first-half showing to earn a deserved draw.
The man who got the all-important equaliser — Mathieu Flamini — epitomised Arsenal’s gutsy display, and it makes one wonder why Arsene Wenger elected to leave his fellow Frenchman out of last week’s game in the first place, particularly when they were crying out for a bit of steel in midfield at the time.
4. Liverpool in pole position?
Liverpool fans will be in a good mood this evening, as all of their main rivals for the title dropped points.
Yet Brendan Rodgers’ side can scarcely afford to get carried away despite the recent upswing in their fortunes.
Their fate is currently in their own hands, though any slip could result in them being left behind in the race for the title.
Of their seven remaining fixtures, the three that stand out are undoubtedly the games against Spurs, City and Chelsea — how they perform in these encounters will go a long way towards determining where they will finish come the end of the season.
Crucially all three games in question are at home, where they have only dropped points twice all season, so while it’s still far too early for the Anfield club to be cracking open the champagne, they’re certainly in a hugely promising position right now.
5. Damien Delaney shows Ireland what they’re missing
Crystal Palace’s shock win over Chelsea today was in no small part due to the efforts of Ireland’s Damien Delaney.
Alongside the similarly impressive Scott Dann, Delaney marshalled an extremely well-organised defence that rarely looked like conceding against one of the Premier League’s best sides.
Along with Nemanja Vidic, Delaney made more clearances than any other player in the league today, as his side put a serious dent in Chelsea’s title hopes.
The 32-year-old defender was unfortunately ruled out of Ireland’s recent friendly with Serbia through injury, but if he continues to perform in this manner, he may yet play a significant part in Martin O’Neill’s plans.
