Everton Pay Penalty In Merseyside Derby

Well, you have to say that it wasn’t a good weekend of sport, in fact let’s face it, it wasn’t a good week of sport, particularly if you were say, an English Evertonian who also happens to like rugby and Formula 1.

First you had to sit through yet another England debarcle over in Moscow.  How long do you think McClaren will be England manager for?  Hmm, I give him one more game.  Then you had a very controversial Mersyeside derby.   Well, it wouldn’t be good if there wasn’t any controversy.  Then England rugby union team failed to make history by becoming the first nation to retain the World Cup.  And then, just to top the week off, Lewis Hamilton, who has led the F1 Championship since the middle of May, losing the chance to also make history by claiming the World Title in his rookie year.  All because of an engine failure that cost him about 30 seconds!  If Lewis just happens to be an Evertonian with a penchant for rugby, he’s probably suicidal right now!

Anyway, I just want to quickly talk about Steve McClaren.  Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the bloke apart from the fact I can’t believe he’s the England manager.  McClaren is, in my opinion, an excellent club coach or coach manager.  But I don’t think he’s an international manager, at least not yet.  Perhaps if he’d stayed in club football in a few years time he would of made a great international manager, still could.  Just think it’s far too early for him.  I heard a little part of a Steve Bruce interview last week.  Now I don’t usually listen too much to what the Birmingham manager has to say but having heard this, I thought he had a point.  He was saying that he believed good old Sven should have been kept in the job as England manager.  His main reason?  Experience!  There is no substitute for experience and you have to say Sven has it.  Not ding Man City too much harm at the moment, is it?  As Bruce will no doubt testify even stronger now as Sven beat him 1 - 0 at the weekend.  Best summer signing?  Sven as City manager, if you ask me!

Also interesting to note this morning that both Gus Hiddink and Jose Mourinho are ruling themselves out of potentially replacing McClaren as England boss.  Hiddink doesn’t surprise me, by Jose does a little.  I would have thought The Special One would have absolutely loved coming back to England and managing the national side.  Jose loves the limelight, loves being the centre of attention.  The man is a natural infront of a camera and you don’t get too many more high profile, always in the limelight jobs than England Manager.  I think he would be a natural.  His countryman, Big Phil Scolari, was scared off from the job by the English press (can’t blame him for that) but Jose is a different animal and seems to thrive on the attention.

Anyway, enough of that and back to the Premier League and in particular, the 177th Merseyside Derby.  You just can’t beat a bit of last minute controversy I say and Saturday’s early kick-off definitely claims the ’award’ for involving the weekend’s most controversial incident.  The match at Goodison Park centres around, yes you’ve guessed it, a referee.  In this case Mark Clattenburg and as david Moyes would no doubt tell you, his apparently bewildering penalty decisions.

Liverpool were a goal down after Sami Hyypia’s excellently taken own goal, but the match was turned on its head courtesy of two Dirk Kuyt spot-kicks.  These were the penalties that were given obviously.  The latter of which came from a Phil Neville superman-like dive to save off the line. And if you listen to Moyes’ after game interview it sounded, to me at least, that he actually wondered why this penalty was even given, hmm!  But that was nothing compared to what was to follow.  In the dying seconds, Clattenburg chose to completely ignore strong claims for a penalty when Jamie Carragher seemed to clearly drag down Joleon Lescott.  Moyes was left fuming, to say the least. 

Mark Clattenburg:  "Oops, did I miss something then?" 

Meanwhile, Saturday’s evening kick-off at Villa Park was jam packed full of even more incident and some glorious football.

Utd ran out 4-1 winners, but the score-line reflects little on what was an truly absorbing game. Gabriel Agbonlahor gave Martin O’Neill’s men an early lead but then three goals in 12 minutes simply turned the match on its head. Wayne Rooney twice capitalised on sloppy defending to begin United’s comeback, and then Craig Gardner’s attempted goal-line clearance smashed off his own bar to make it three.

Early in the second half things went from bad to worse for O’Neill’s side when Nigel Reo-Coker and Scott Carson were given their marching orders. Reo-Coker was dismissed for two daft challenges, and Carson was given a straight red after chopping down a clean through Carlos Tevez. If that wasn’t enough, onto the field trotted the eplacement keeper Stuart Taylor and denied Rooney from the penalty-spot. But it was left to Ryan Giggs to add salt into the Villa wounds with what was a fortunate strike on 75 minute.

However, the goal of the weekend must surely be that from the “tank-like” Alex who opened his Chelsea account in remarkable fashion in Saturday’s game against Middlesbrough. When Chelsea won a free-kick 30 yards from Middlebrough’s goal, Gareth Southgate and the rest of the spectators at the Riverside Stadium must have sniggered at the eagerness at which the centre-back picked up the ball. However, little did Southgate, the Boro fans and the rest of the Premier League know that the Brazilian international packs an extraordinary amount of firepower in his right boot. Frank Lampard rolled the ball off for Alex and the 25-year-old smashed a swerving and vicious strike past a despairing Schwarzer. Cue end of sniggering!

At the Emirates Stadium, with the hour mark approaching, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal look destined for a stalemate against struggling Bolton. But after a wise peer through his famous spectacles, the French tactician called on Theo Walcott, remember him?, and Tomas Rosicky. Just six minutes after his double change The Gunners took the lead courtesy of Kolo Toure’s daisy-cutter. And then, Arsenal were sparked fully into life when the two subs, Rosicky and Walcott, combined for the second with ten minutes remaining as the Czech finished from six yards out after Walcott’s cross.

So, Utd look to be finally hitting top form, Arsenal just keep on winning and Liverpool, thanks to the ref, secured three valuble points to get back on track. Jus to finish off on those penalty decisions, let’s not forget that Liverpool were the victims themselves of another awful penalty decision when Chelsea visited Anfield. That decision cost Liverpool what would have been a vital three points and a moral boasting win over a major Title contender. Perhaps another manager will be bitterly complaining about a dubious Everton penalty later in the season. It’s a funny old game!

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Many thanks
Rik