Monday 7 February 2011

What A Strange Trip it's been...So far (Part 2)

At this rate I may have to write a part 3 before long but the madness of this Premier League season has continued and seems to know no limits. Let me start with Sunderland v Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as that’s pretty much where I left off with ‘What a strange trip it’s been... so far (part 1), that 3-0 was crazy especially with Nedham Onuha tip toeing his way through the middle of the Chelsea defence and scoring but it's got even more insane. Liverpool being beaten convincingly at home by Wolves, which ended up costing Roy Hodgson his job, but the madness doesn't stop there. The January transfer window came in and caused some craziness but i'll stay on the pitch for now and come back to the window later.

My beloved Liverpool got Manchester United in the FA cup 3rd round which I was personally livid about, but when it came to the match itself, an extremely questionable penalty and our captain Stevie G getting sent off didn't help matters for King Kenny Dalglish's 1st game in his 2nd spell in charge of Liverpool, but Sunderland being knocked out by Burton Albion, Crawley Town proving that the magic of the FA cup is alive and very very well considering they've got into the 5th round of the FA cup and go to Old Trafford and Paul Ince's Notts County went close to knocking Manchester City out at the 1st time of asking. But going back to the Premier league Manchester United at Bloomfield road, 2-0 down at half time and playing poorly but ending up getting a 3-2 win after a fantastic performance from Charlie Adam.

Now, onto the transfers, Let's start with Darren Bent to Aston Villa for £18m, that sounds crazy right? It get's crazier, Arsenal again didn't buy any defensive reinforcements, but i guess that was to be expected, but deadline day deals went absolutely insane!!! just over £200m was spent in the January 2011 transfer window and let me break down most of how that money was spent. David Luiz finally went to Chelsea for £21m and Luis Suarez went to Liverpool for £22.8m, factor in Darren Bent to Aston Villa and that was still only part of the fun, but the biggest deals were Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35m & Fernando Torres leaving Liverpool to go to Chelsea for £50m!!! We were fortunate enough to do our show on deadline day which was a lot of fun, i personally have never had so much fun on deadline day just trying to keep up with everything that went down, and by the time our show went live @www.playvybz.com there were still a lot of things that were unsure including the destination of Blackpool's Charlie Adam who was linked with Liverpool and Spurs even made a late bid for him and apparently Diego Forlan, and earlier in the day rumours were that they tried for Sergio 'Kun' Aguero for £38.5m!!!

Still with me? Catch your breath, there's more madness! Now, apart from Chelsea v Liverpool having the Torres back story, the Saturday before was madness (Saturday 5th February 2011), Stoke beating Sunderland 3-2 with a stoppage time goal after equalizing twice set the table for a crazy day, Everton beating Blackpool 5-3 and Louis Saha scoring 4 goals was mad enough, Spurs v Bolton had goals scored, penalties given, scored & retaken, but Arsenal, oh Arsenal, and Da Gman may not forgive me for saying it but Arsenal messed up monumentally at St. James' park on February 5th 2010!!!

Arsenal went 3-0 up within 10 minutes of the match and after 26 minutes they were 4-0 up, all of us thought...done deal, especially after 3-0, but in the second half Newcastle staged a come back that can only be encapsulated in 1 word 'ASTONISHING'!!! To cut a long story short, the game ended 4-4 and for the 1st time in the Premier League for any team, we saw a 4 goal lead surrendered in one game, let alone in 45 minutes!!! Saturday was another record breaker, for the 2nd time this season, as the weekend Man United obliterated Blackburn Rovers 7-1 where Pascal Chimbonda was molested worse than a Gary Glitter victim and that game ended up causing his contract to be terminated in January, but still, i digress.

Manchester United on the same day as Arsenal's 4-4 draw losing 2-1 to Wolves at Molineux, just another complete surprise of a result, which was even more surprising after United opened the scoring after 3 minutes!!! The day after threw up another surprise, my boyz Liverpool beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to earn our 1st double over Chelsea in the Premier League and our 1st back to back away wins in 17 months, but even more surprising, we nullified the £50m mans chances almost totally and after all the hype around him scoring on his debut he was subbed for Kalou after about an hour or so!!! The madness this season so far has been a joy to watch, as well as being frustrating as a Liverpool fan at times but with the managerial merry go round spinning constantly (Di Matteo got sacked literally on the day I finished this blog) Newcastle v Arsenal 4-4 draw inspired me to write this blog entry which I hope you've enjoyed and if this madness continues, there WILL be a part 3.

I'm The Straight Shootin' One, And thats my opinion!!!

Liam Angell aka Straight Shootin' LJA