Mark Hughes has to go
Surely, SURELY, that must be it for Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers?
The former Blackburn and Manchester City has not looked like the right fit at Loftus Road ever since replacing Neil Warnock, and has presided over twelve winless matches so far this season.
The centre of their defence aside (it is woeful, after all, with the superannuated trio of Nelsen, Hill and Derry augmented by the never-was Ferdinand), the Londoners should have a side capable of competing for mid-table.
Bosingwa, Wright-Phillips, Zamora, Cissé, Julio Cesar, Hoilett and particularly Granero are not players you would expect to see propping up the division, especially given thin resources at the likes of Southampton and Reading, but something is not right and the whole club seems to have followed Adel Taarabt along the path of least resistance.
Harry Redknapp will be checking his phone like an anxious, lovestruck teenager in the coming days.
Tottenham’s spirit doesn’t look right
There were worrying signs from Spurs as Arsenal rolled over them at the Emirates in the early game.
The visitors started extremely well, with Emanuel Adebayor opening the scoring before being promptly sent off, and the ex-Arsenal striker’s premature departure changed the game utterly.
It gave Arsenal a much-needed boost, while Spurs instantaneously became bereft of confidence, looking as if they knew they had no hope of gaining anything from the game once the red card was shown.
While playing with ten men patently had an influence on their defeat, the lack of basic defending and sudden inability to string passes together was also telling.
Consequently, the match spoke volumes about the poor morale and collective failure of spirit that seems to be afflicting Tottenham significantly of late, with setbacks such as the sending-off invariably causing an all-too-dramatic collapse.
Impressive from Liverpool, but next week will be much tougher
Wigan at home should be a banker and so it proved, thanks again to Luis Suarez and a rejuvenated José Enrique.
The former Newcastle full-back was rampant once again, at the centre of all of the home side’s best play while freed from any kind of defensive responsibility.
Credit must go to Rodgers for deploying Enrique further up the field at the expense of the anonymous Nuri Sahin, while Steven Gerrard, conversely, took his England form back to his club.
It was only Wigan. Until Rodgers turns the draws into wins against sides in the top eight, any hopes of Champions League will always be one season of rebuilding away. There are green shoots – the Reds are unbeaten in seven and have the same number of defeats as Manchester United – but Rodgers’ return to the Liberty Stadium next Sunday will give a far greater indication of lessons learned.
What the hell has happened to Norwich?
Norwich had the look of abject bottom feeders up to and including the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea on October 6, and Chris Hughton was very quick to voice frustration with his defence afterwards, but the turnaround since then has been phenomenal.
Wes Hoolahan has gone from unsung to one of the best recognised playmakers in the league, Sebastien Bassong looks, once again, like the only player to emerge from Newcastle’s relegation season with any credit and the team no longer look panicked when under pressure.
The win over Arsenal was no flash in the pan, with Hughton’s gameplan finally reaping dividends against Tottenham in the League Cup and, most impressively, Manchester United this evening at Carrow Road.
Anthony Pilkington’s goal may have decided it but it could easily have been 2-0, had Jonny Howson not fluffed an easy late chance with only Anders Lindegaard to beat.
No Manchester United panic. Yet.
United, meanwhile, were just not good. It happens. Alex Ferguson’s decision to start Ryan Giggs ahead of Paul Scholes or Anderson backfired and this surely is the end of the line for a player who turns 39 in less than a fortnight, but this was United’s first league defeat since the end of September.
They’re one point off the top, led by a side who always look one or two contract rebels away from a mutiny, so no panic. Not yet.
West Brom are fourth
Fourth!
Steve Clarke’s side have won six out of their seven home games, lost the same number of games as Liverpool and Manchester United, are four places ahead of Tottenham and are just one point behind the side they beat at the Hawthorns today.
New leaders, while Villa slip into the relegation zone
Aston Villa will not be relegated and were somewhat unlucky not to hold on to at least a point against Manchester United last week, but the rot that set in once Martin O’Neill left Birmingham shows no sign of stopping.
Villa had every chance of grabbing something against the champions on Saturday before Jon Moss’s ridiculous decision to award a penalty to the home side on 54 minutes (they were only a goal down at the time), but Villa just look like they’ll crumble away to nothing as soon as things start to turn against them.
They are missing any kind of resilience and badly need the return of Richard Dunne, less for his footballing ‘skills’ than his ability to inspire performances out of those around him. Equally, they should, and will, sell Darren Bent in January and use any money they get to add some balls to their play.
A word on City – impressive, but predictably impressive.
(additional writing by Paul Fennessy)
I’m a Villa fan and I’m not as confident about avoiding relegation – 14pts from the last 63 available.
And that manky new kit looks like it belongs in the Campionship!
Re: Liverpool. When you say ‘the anonymous Nuri Sahin’ , you do know he wasn’t in the starting 11 today.
Hi Barry,
Yes I’m aware of that fact, hence saying that Enrique was deployed in the midfield spot usually reserved for Sahin.
When I wrote about Sahin being ‘anonymous,’ it was in the context of his last three or four league appearances for Liverpool.
Thanks for the comment.
The most important thing that every reader has learned today is that Wigan have just awoken a sleeping giant.
If Suarez deservedly gets a 3 match ban for his dirty stamping incident, that giant will be in for a rude awakening! Who will score the goals then?
reina :P
Totally disagree about Spurs, brilliant half-time subs from AVB saw us give it a real go. Hell of an improvement on Harry.
Have to agree with you. Tony never seems too have any opinions of his own and spouts off the usual sky sports nonsense.
I respectfully disagree (and I wrote the bit on Spurs btw). The game was over by that stage, and any team can play well when the pressure’s off.
Well then we both disagree then Paul. I waiting for a piece thats new and thoughtful. My brother is Cameron Lancester who is in Spurs reserves. He tells me the Spurs squad is untied and enjoying football under AVB.. Contary to popular opinion but players were not happy with Harry. He froze out many at the club. Spurs are missing 4-5 key players through injury aswell. But team spirit and morale is high
Well it’s fine saying the spirit is high, but the evidence on the pitch suggests otherwise unfortunately. And it’s not a specific dig at AVB, the players are just as culpable, if not more so. We’ll have to agree to disagree I guess.
Nothing to do with spirit. Spurs defence is utter shite
I think the bit on Giggs was a bit harsh, if I was writing a piece on United tonight it would be about how although Valencia looks outstanding when given space behind a defence to run into, when you are organised and defend deep he has no imagination to break you down. Also, Rooney is still our best player, was missed terribly and needs to play higher up the pitch when he returns.
Without the sending off, Spurs would have taken it by 2-3 goals. Arsenal are still a shambles in their own half.
Shane Long has to be the story of the weekend, another man of the match performance, helping WBA into 4th place . Ireland are blessed to have a player of his quality, pity Trap doesn’t appreciate him.
Too true, then Trap is so far past it he is an embarrassment. And his decisions prove that every game..!
I also disagree with the Spurs comment. Watched the game as a neutral and after ten minutes Spurs could have been two nil up despite arsenal hogging possession. Meanwhile arsenal hadn’t created one chance. Sending off completely changed the game but even despite that and spurs still not having all that much possession it could have been 4-3 had bale passed to Defoe rather than shot in the 73rd minute. Had it gotten to that score line I have no doubt it would have cued the inevitable arsenal collapse and it would have been a draw. Arsenal looked good today but only because they played against ten men. Against 11 it was only going one way.
Shane Long was on fire today…plus a nice little double on both teams to score Arse v Spurs & QPR v Southampton. Get in.
5pur2
Shane Long is the future standard of Irish football, he reminds me of a young Robbie keane