Ten Things We Learned in the Premier League

By: Daryl | March 24th, 2008

Masch up 1. The refs are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore
Javier Mascherano’s sending off was a clear message to Premiership players: stop hassling the refs. The message is loud and clear, especially as the source of Mascherano’s complaint was the yellow card Fernando Torres had just received… for complaining.

2. Emmanuel Adebayor’s new haircut doesn’t work in the Premiership
Ever since Adebayor ditched the braids for his new style, the Arsenal striker has failed to score in the Premier League. He did score in the San Siro against Milan though. Maybe it’s more of a Champions League haircut?

3. Alex Ferguson is getting soft in his old age
Remember when Nani scored his first goal for Man Utd and did the backflip celebration? Fergie banned it immediately. And yet, everytime Nani scores – as he did against Liverpool yesterday – out comes the backflip. If this was ten years ago… Nani would still be picking shards of teacup out of his face.

4. The wisdom of crowds is sometimes wrong
When Avram Grant subbed out Michael Ballack with Chelsea 1-0 down to Arsenal, there were distinct chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” coming from the Chelsea fans. I’m not saying it was all Chelsea fans, but there was definitely a section who doubted Grant’s capabilities and weren’t afraid to say so. Wonder if they apologized to the man at the final whistle?

5. The weekend wasn’t all about Grand Slam Sunday
While everyone focused on the big four, there were two six-pointer relegation battles going on. Newcastle beat Fulham 2-0 to lift themselves away from danger and make things worse for The Cottagers. Meanwhile Andre Bikey did his Reading team a huge favour, heading both goals for a massively important 2-1 win over relegation rivals Birmingham City. If Man Utd pull away, there’ll be a far more interesting finale at the bottom than the top.

6. White Hart Lane is the place to be this season
There have been 101 goals scored at White Hart Lane in all competitions this season. Number 100 was an impressive Darren Bent header against Portsmouth as Spurs won 2-0 at home.

7. Kevin Keegan does know some tactics after all
Used to be that he didn’t know a 4-5-1 from a 4-4-2. But a big part of Double K’s first win as Newcastle boss in the 21st Century was that he switched from 4-3-3 in the first half to 4-4-2 in the second half and stopped Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard running all over the shop.

8. Some debuts are better than others
Teenager Freddie Sears had the perfect debut for West Ham last week, coming on to score a winning goals just six minuted into his career. This week defender James Tomkins also made his West Ham debut, and first hit the bar with a header and was then made to look foolish by Yakubu, who went on to score after Tomkins was a little overeager to get to the ball. The lesson Tomkins learned is that Yakubu is very very strong.

9. It’s probably not Middlesbrough’s season, but it’s definitely not Derby’s
When arctic winds take out part of your stadium, you know luck isn’t on your side. But though it was Boro’s stadium that got damaged, it was Derby’s fans who had to move. Plus The Rams lost again.

10. Roque Santa Cruz loves playing against Wigan
Two goals yesterday in Blackburn’s 3-1 win over the Latics, plus a hat-trick in the earlier 5-2 win gives Santa Cruz five Premier League goals against Wigan for 2007/8.