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Five Spices From Chairman Damon

Log on to this page after each round of games for the lowdown on how each team fared. He’s harsh, but fair and you won’t find anything quite like it elsewhere. Enjoy our Chairman’s pithy post match analysis of the overpaid heroes and goats that make up the “Happy Band” of the EPL. If you're in the prawn sandwich and skim latte club, or part of the "Dippy Darling" brigade this column is not for you!!

Who's hot? Who's not? Who's left their bottle at home? Watch this space carefully as the season unwinds.

Who was hot before?  Visit Damon's 2008/09 season archives to find out!

Previous Analysis:

Round Twenty-Seven.... Round Twenty-Six.... Round Twenty-Five.... Round Twenty-Four.... Round Twenty-Three

Sky Blues Down Blues

 

Birmingham City 1 - Wigan Athletic 0

Birmingham get back to winning ways with a home win against Wigan. The Latics sparked briefly at the start of the game but City slowly wrested control and hit the woodwork through Liam Ridgewell's thunderous header. Chris Kirkland had to be sharp to prevent Titus Bramble adding another to his colourful collection of own goals but Wigan finally went behind in first-half injury time. Keith Fahey was meandering without obvious intent in the corner of the box but Mario Melchiot flicked out a leg, brought him down and watched as James McFadden sent Kirkland the wrong way with the spot kick. Athletic never really made a concerted fist of things in a second half that was most noteworthy for the KO-ing of linesman Trevor Massey by a flying corner flag, though Hugo Rodallega did pass up a couple of good chances to bring his team level. The day was Birmingham's though, who've now brought up the magic forty-point mark with plenty of football still to be played.

 

Bolton Wanderers 1 - Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Bolton finally find a goal and it's enough to take all three points against Wolves at the Reebok. The match took a little while to warm up but the home side could have been ahead mid-way through the first half when Johan Elmander was denied by a smart save from Marcus Hahnemann. It was as good as the Swede's day got, clearly out of confidence the striker had an absolute shocker. The Trotters took the lead right at the end of the first half when Wolves failed to clear a corner and then allowed Chung-Yong Lee to dribble the ball along the bye-line before setting up Zat Knight for a chance the centre-back couldn't miss. Bolton started the second half at a very high tempo but the away side weathered the early storm and looked the team more likely to score as the half wore on. Perhaps they knew it wasn't going to be their day when Dave Jones's free-kick crashed back off the inside of the post and then Kevin Foley's vicious drive did the same but another failure to trouble the statisticians leaves them just goal difference outside the drop zone.

 

Burnley 1 - Portsmouth 2

Portsmouth's entering administration this week and nine-point deduction it brings has all-but seen them relegated but they fully deserved the points at Turf Moor. Zipping the ball about with no little panache, they took the lead after twenty-five minutes when Jamie O'Hara put in Danny Webber to set up Frederic Piquionne at the far post. Burnley had been second best but were level just six minutes later when Martin Patersen ran onto Steven Fletcher's flick on to lob a fantastic finish over David James with the outside of his boot. Pompey, though, remained the better side and they should have been back in front after Clark Carlisle brought down Piquionne in the box but Brian Jensen saved O'Hara's effort. Carlisle, flush from his game-show success and clearly feeling generous, handed the visitors another opportunity with a quarter of an hour to go by pulling down John Utaka. Hassan Yebda took the kick this time and made no mistake. There was still time for Ricardo Rocha to pick up another red card for a second yellow but his side wouldn't be denied. Just another ten more wins from their last eleven and they might beat the drop ...

 

Chelsea 2 - Manchester City 4

Nine-man Chelsea crash to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. The league leaders dominated the first half and took the lead five minutes before the interval when Frank Lampard ran onto Joe Cole's astute through ball and fired across Shay Given into the far side of the net. Against the run of play, though, City were level within three minutes when Jon Obi Mikel's kindergarten defensive header allowed Carlos Tevez a run at the Chelsea centre-backs. The Argentine twisted inside and out before scuffing the slowest finish in the history of the game as he lost his footing at the crucial moment. The effort still had too much for Henrique Hilario, however, and found its way into the corner of the net past the wrong-footed keeper. Stung, the Londoners came out for the second half looking to restore their lead, only to be caught on the break when Gareth Barry's thump down the field set Craig Bellamy in direct opposition to Mikel and when the Welshman won that uneven race he was able to finish past Hilario, who'd wandered far too close to his near post. Chelsea's hopes took a further dent with fifteen minutes left when the crafty Barry, aware Juliano Belletti was behind him in the box, decelerated sharply so the full-back ran into him, then fell over. Mike Dean likes nothing better than a penalty, he pointed to the spot and the unfortunate Belletti received his marching orders, Tevez sticking away the spot-kick with supreme confidence. Things then got worse for the Blues when Michael Ballack, already on a yellow, slid in with an imbecilic challenge that took out Tevez and ensured the German joined the Brazilian in the changing rooms. The Citizens made the most of their numerical advantage with a couple of minutes left, as Shaun Wright-Phillips led another break before finding Bellamy at the far post to tap in his second. Luckily for Dean, there was still time to fit in another penalty, as Nicolas Anelka went down over Barry's thigh, and Lampard calmly beat Given from the spot. It's all getting mighty congested at the top.

 

Liverpool 2 - Blackburn Rovers 1

Liverpool pick up a scarcely-deserved three points against Rovers at Anfield to keep themselves in among the cluster of sides aiming for Champions' League qualification. In a bad-tempered game, the visitors started the brighter but found themselves behind after twenty minutes. Liverpool managed to string together a rare sequence of crisp passes, though Steven Gerrard miscontrolled the final ball. Luckily for the Reds' captain, his lack of control wrong-footed Christopher Samba and opened up a chance to smack the ball past Paul Robinson. Five minutes before the break and Blackburn drew level when Keith Andrews's poor spot kick found its way past Pepe Reina. A prone Jamie Carragher had given away the penalty, handling to prevent Nikola Kalinic from getting to the ball in the area. A minute before half-time and the home side restored their lead, a fit-again Fernando Torres arriving in the box to convert Maxi Rodriguez's low cross but the half was to end with a spat between Gerrard and Anfield old boy El Hadji Diouf after a rejected Rovers penalty claim (or perhaps over each player's favourite Phil Collins number, who knows?). Sadly, that proved to be a better foretaste of an otherwise uneventful second half than the footballing action that preceded it.

 

Stoke City 1 - Arsenal 3

Arsenal snatch a late win at Stoke to close to within three points of Chelsea, though their evening is marred by a serious injury to Aaron Ramsay. City started well, though it was the not-so-secret weapon of the Rory Delap throw that was causing their visitors the greatest concerns. Twice the Arsenal defence failed to deal with them within th efirst ten minutes and the second time saw Danny Pugh arrive at the far post to bury Ryan Shawcross's flick-on. The Gunners came back into things and were level on the half-hour when Nicklas Bendtner lost his marker to loop a header back across Thomas Sorensen from Cesc Fabregas's cross. Twenty minutes into the second half, the game turned sour when Ramsay looked to suffer a double fracture of the leg. Shawcross looked to have every intention of playing the ball with a challenge that didn't look to be particularly reckless but when Ramsay nicked in just ahead of him, the collision left the youngster in agony. Referee Peter Walton showed Shawcross a straight red, which could only be due to the seriousness of Ramsay's injury and was otherwise pretty harsh on a clearly traumatised defender. The game, perhaps understandably, went off the boil for a period after the injury and it looked as if things were headed for a draw until Walton granted the visitors a penalty in the last minute of normal time after Bendtner's cross struck Pugh's raised arm from a short distance. Again, it looked a harsh decision for Stoke but Fabregas showed no mercy in despatching the spot-kick. Thomas Vermaelen put the gloss on the win deep into injury time when he tapped in after Fabregas had shown commendable alacrity in returning the ball after Sorensen had parried a Thomas Rosicky shot. Who said Arsenal were out of this title race?

 

Sunderland 0 - Fulham 0

Sunderland and Fulham play out a largely dull stalemate at the Stadium of Light that extends the Black Cats' run without a win to fourteen games and Fulham's unbeaten one to eight. Manager Steve Bruce had called this a "must-win" game going into the weekend but with both sides only able to carve out a succession of half-chances, it's probably fair neither side managed to take three points. Darren Bent and Bobby Zamora were intermittently lively up front for their respective sides and Boudwijn Zenden added some much-needed impetus when he came on shortly before the hour but with virtually no-one hitting the target in the ninety minutes teh game won't go down as a classic.

 

Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Everton 1

Spurs survive an Everton fightback to pick up all three points at White Hart Lane and keep ahead of the pack in fourth. In a lively match, Tottenham broke the deadlock after just eleven minutes. Tom Huddlestone found Jermain Defoe with an excellent long pass and the striker rolled the ball across the box where the currently-unstoppable Roman Pavlyuchenko slid in to score. Everton fought back and with Lillywhites' keeper Huerelho Gomes having one of his nightmare afternoons, were always in with a chance but they fell further behind on the half-hour. Niko Kranjcar found Luka Modric on the edge of the area and the midfielder lifted a fine finish over Tim Howard off the underside of the crossbar. Gomes, though, continued to provide hope and ten minutes into the second half, the Toffees pulled a goal back when Ayegbini Yakubu made the most of the Brazilian's failure to get to Jack Rodwell's nod back to tap in. The keeper made some amends by subsequently beating out efforts from Rodwell and Stephen Pienaar but Tottenham were then let off when Landon Donovan contrived to bury a back-post effot into the side netting when presented with an open goal. It was the best chance Everton would get and Spurs end the weekend sitting in fourth.