Lessons from the Premiership 10.07.07

By: Daryl | October 7th, 2007

Torres equalises at Anfield

The entire Premier League seemed to be caught inbetween two parties this weekend. Nursing a hangover from the midweek European discothèque but with one eye on next weekend’s date with international destiny, even the schedulers were having a hard time and seemed to get Saturday and Sunday mixed up. But despite all the confusion, there was plenty business as usual. Spurs were involved in a late comeback, Chelsea ground out a win, Manchester United finally delivered a long threatened beating. And Derby lost. Again.

Here are this week’s Lessons from the Premiership…

Roman Abramovich isn’t picking the Chelsea team
Even with Didier Drogba suspended, Avram Grant still left Andriy Shevchenko on the bench. His reward was a 1-0 win over Bolton with Salomon Kalou getting Chelsea’s goal.

England fans will soon be cheering David Bentley
The lad got booed on his England debut. He earned it by dropping out of the Under 21 European Championship at the last minute, but still. Harsh. He’ll have to live with that forever. But if he keeps playing like he has done for Blackburn (scoring again today from midfield,) Aaron Lennon can’t get himself fit, David Beckham keeps getting older and more injury prone and Shaun Wright-Phillips can’t get a good run of first team football then surely England fans will be cheering the new DB before long.

Sometimes both teams can lose
Liverpool 2-2 Tottenham didn’t make anyone happy. Liverpool needed to bounce back from their midweek Marseille disaster with a win at Anfield, and while Tottenham may have settled for a draw beforehand, they probably felt differently leading 2-1 in the 90th minute, just before Fernando Torres headed home to make it 2-2.

It’s hard to claim your star striker is unfit when he’s scoring goals
Sam Allardyce is trying to persuade Steve McClaren than Michael Owen is unfit to start England’s two Euro qualifiers next week. He may even be right, but McClaren watching Owen come off the Newcastle bench in the 74th minute, set up Emre’s goal and then score himself for a 3-2 win over Everton probably isn’t helping Big Sam’s case.

The kids are alright
Man Utd’s Anderson and Arsenal’s Theo Walcott were both very expensive teenagers, and both have been questioned in recent weeks. But Anderson’s slick passing put Utd on the way to a 4-0 win over Wigan, while Walcott came off the bench to set up Arsenal’s winner at Sunderland.

Games should kick off at 3pm on Saturday
I started this weekend feeling blase about the fixtures being lopsided in Sunday’s favour and there being just a solitary 3pm Saturday kick off. But after living through it and feeling very confused it’s not something I want to do again. Watching Match of the Day with only two games to show was how I imagine animals feel when there’s an eclipse.

Lawrie Sanchez has wasted £25m
Things seemed OK when his Fulham team were pulling off stirring comebacks against Spurs or holding Chelsea to a 0-0 draw. But now it looks likely that those results were more to do with the opposition’s problems than anything Fulham were doing. After a 2-0 loss at home to Portsmouth today, Sanchez’s men are in the bottom three. Which is where a team that spent a fortune on Northern Irish Championship players was always going to find themselves.

Derby deserve your pity
After losing 1-0 at Reading, The Rams are still without a point, or even a goal, away from home.

What did you learn from the Premiership this weekend?