Just when I thought Man Utd were gonna steam roller to the end of the season to re-establish themselves as champions in the EPL, Edwin van der Sar made 2 blunders to gift Portsmouth a victory, whaha. Chelsea won a hardfought victory against London rivals Tottenham through a long-range speculative effort by Carvalho who put in a match-winning performance for the defending champions.
Seems to me that Man Utd do not have the temperament or winning mentality like they used to have a long time ago when they won a few EPL titles back-to-back. Chelsea definitely have the upper hand here. It was a pleasant sight to see Joe Cole up and running on the pitch after being out for a large part of the season. Can't wait for Owen's return on the pitch in black-and-white!
West Ham kept their survival hopes alive beating Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, a surprise result for me. I guess the European exit for the Gunners was too much for the youngsters to bear after what I thought was an over-achievement last season when they played Barca in the CL finals. Wigan are paying the price for Paul Jewell's decision to make Emile Heskey their chief striker. Heskey is one of the well-known lousy strikers I know in the EPL (hahaha, opps) and I still remember what Paul Jewell said when he signed Heskey before the season started. He wanted to help Heskey return into the England line-up. What a joke. Hope they relegate.
Finally! A Newcastle victory! Newcastle also played crap after their exit from the Uefa Cup. Good old unestablished manager Roeder sticked with the pairing of Parker and Butt and I kinda wonder whether there was deja vu when the lack of creativity and ideas in the midfield resulted in a match that bored everyone to death eh. Taylor scored a winner in the 80+ minutes with a thumping header from an outcurling corner by Milner. It was really sweet to see such classic English-style goals still ard in the EPL when most if not all teams choose to take in-curlers from corners since there's a chance it can go straight in or if accurate, anyone touching the ball could put it into the net. I'm sure outcurlers require someone who heads the ball well eh.
Well, hopefully Newcastle keeps winning and attain a position high enough to secure the Uefa Cup backdoor, the Intertoto. Sianz, Newcastle have been depending on this backdoor ever so often! Newcastle was even declared the winner of the Intertoto Cup in mid-season when suddenly the Uefa panel or whoever was in charge, announced that all the teams that qualified for the Intertoto pre-season have all exited and Newcastle was the only team left. (An announcement which shocked the world i'm sure. =.=)
