10 Things We Learned in the Premier League

By: Daryl | September 29th, 2008

1. Bring back Martin Jol and Sam Allardyce
Hamburg are currently top of the Bundesliga under Martin Jol. Spurs are currently bottom of the Premier League under Juande Ramos.

Newcastle’s league position when Sam Allardyce “left by mustual consent”: 11th. Newcastle’s league position today: 19th.

2. Mike Riley is card happy
Riley flashed his trusty yellow eight times in last week’s Man Utd vs Chelsea game. In this weekend’s Merseyside derby he showed another six yellows and sent Tim Cahill off for a tackle that wasn’t great, but wasn’t all that bad either. But in Riley’s defence: I think it’s the law that very other Everton vs Liverpool game must have a red card. Cahill’s was the 17th “you’re outta’ here!” in 33 Premier League Merseyside derbies.

3. Football isn’t fair
Here are the facts: In the Middlesbrough vs West Brom game, Boro took more shots (28 to 17) had more shots on target (11 to 8), committed less fouls (14 to 19), had more corners (11 to 8), and had more possession (52% to 48%). But they still lost (0-1).

4. Martin O’Neill has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Aston Villa are the only Premier League team to field the same starting XI in all six Premier League games so far. I also imagine O’Neill has a really really tidy desk.

5. Steve Bruce might be a genius
There are five words you never thought you’d see. But – as new Premier League Offside blogger Wayne points out – Bruce deserves all kinds of praise for finding top quality players for Wigan by looking outside the obvious transfer markets. The evidence was in Wigan’s 2-1 win over Man City, with goals from Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia and Egypt’s Amr Zaki.

6. Need a consolation goal? Call Michael Owen
Little Micky has scored in each of Newcastle’s last three games. But he’s scored when Newcastle were 3-0 down, 2-0 down and 2-0 down, and no other Newcastle player helped him out by scoring another. So all three goals were quite literally pointless.

7. Rob Styles is out to get Cristiano Ronaldo
Think about it. Styles didn’t award Utd this penalty because he’s a moron. No one could possible be that stupid. He’s trying to ruin C-Ron by making him look like a diver.

8. It is officially worth getting promoted via the playoffs again
The Derby County disaster last year seemed to suggest that whoever came up via the playoffs was basically cannon fodder. But after doing this to Arsenal, Hull City are now in sixth place after six games. Championship teams can start dreaming again.

9. Bosingwa and Cole are the new Cafu and Carlos
OK, maybe that’s pushing it a bit. Ashley Cole is not Roberto Carlos. But great to see Chelsea’s fullback bombing forward under Phil Scolari instead of tethered in their own halves, especially when the result is goals like this from Bosingwa:

10. A week is a long time at Man City
Everyone at Middle Eastlands (is that still funny? seems less so everytime now) was on a high last weekend, as Mark Hughes’ team crushed Portsmouth 6-0. In last week’s 10 Things we even said that Abu Dhabi United Investment Group didn’t need to spend another penny. One week and two defeats later, we take it all back. January can’t come soon enough for Citeh.