10 Things We Learned in the Premier League This Weekend

By: Daryl | March 17th, 2008

Aliadiere - nothing more dangerous than an ex player 1. There’s nothing more dangerous than an ex-player
Arsene Wenger saw Jeremie Aliadiere as more of a Carling Cup player than a Premiership striker, so he shipped him off to Middlesbrough. But Aliadiere was back at the Emirates this weekend to score the (very nice) goal that gave ‘Boro the lead. Kolo Toure scored a late equaliser for the Gunners, but the draw wasn’t enough to stop Man Utd overtaking Arsenal at the top of the table.

2. Only superstars should throw tantrums
Reading’s Shane Long threw his shirt to the floor after Steve Coppell subbed him off against Liverpool. Shirt throwing is always petty, and usually ends with the player apologizing to fans, but it seems even sillier when the player involved is Joe Average. All respect to Long, but don’t you have to be something special before you can throw tantrums about being substituted?

3. John Terry hadn’t scored since 2006
Apparently JT’s goal against Sunderland was his first since 2006, but I didn’t know that until he scored it. Think I’d gotten so used to thinking of Terry as an aerial attacking threat that I hadn’t noticed his dry patch. Welcome back John.

4. Scott Carson owes Nigel Reo-Coker a beer
Scott Carson came rushing out of his goal to make a slide tackle, but pinged the ball straight off unsuspecting teammate NR-C and into his own net. It was all Carson’s fault, but it goes down as Reo-Coker’s own goal. Not fair.

5. The name Freddie Sears
Never heard of him before this weekend, but after the 18 year old striker came off the bench for West Ham and scored a diving header to win the game against Blackburn just six minutes into his debut, he’s kind of hard to forget. Also love the Alan Shearer style celebration.

6. David James is the goalie of the season
The Pompey keeper put in another great performance against Villa and now has five clean sheets in his last seven games. As a reminder, see number four and remember that Steve McClaren picked Scott Carson ahead of James for England’s must-not-lose Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia. They lost.

7. It’s no longer a big deal when US keepers face each other in the Premier League
Fulham’s Kasey Keller played against Everton’s Tim Howard this weekend, and I heard some commentator making a big deal about it. But with Brad Friedel and Marcus Hahnemann also knocking around that’s 20% of teams with an American keeper. So let’s stop pretending it’s interesting when they meet each other on the pitch.

8. Brian McBride could still serve the US national team
He’s back and he’s scoring. He even scored a rare Fulham winning goal against Everton. He won’t play for the US MNT again (retired) but if he can lead Fulham away from relegation he’ll prevent America’s finest (Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra) becoming Championship players.

9. Fernando Torres is a proper goalscorer
Last summer, nearly everyone agreed Fernando Torres was “a good player, but he won’t get you 20 goals a season.” Well guess what? With his winner against Reading, Torres now has 20 league goals this seaosn, and is the first Liverpool striker to do so since Robbie Fowler in 1995/6. On top of that, there’s also something very natural about Torres in a Liverpool shirt. It’s like it was meant to be. Or am I reading too much into this?

10. The Premier League is competitive again
Forget all that stuff about big four and the huge divide between rich and poor. This weekend all the teams except Portsmouth and Aston Villa were separated by just one goal. And that includes Derby 0-1 Man Utd, which we thought would be separated by five or six.