winningiseverything Premiership round-up
January 30, 2008
Tuesday night didn’t throw up many surprises as far as results go.
Arsenal beat Newcastle for the second time in 4 days to go top of the Premiership table, as least for 24 hours. The score was 3-0 again, leaving Newcastle in a state of deja-vu. It turned out to be an easy game for Arsenal, with goals coming from prolific Adebayor, industrias Flamini and the always impressive Fabregas.
Perhaps the most significant result of the night came at the Stadium of Light where Sunderland beat Birmingham 2-0 in a battle of the relegation strugglers. Goals from Murphy and the debutant Prica gave the Black Cats the vital victory, in what was essentially a committed and tense game with little quality.
Bolton failed to seize their opportunities at home to Fulham giving the London side their first point under Roy Hodgson. The drab 0-0 encounter leaves Fulham 4 points from safety and Bolton slipping to 16th.
Middlesbrough striker Jeremie Aliadiere scored an excellent first-half strike and his team then held out for victory in a tight contest. It is Middlesbrough’s first win at home since December 9th against Arsenal. The loss sends Wigan into the bottom three.
As Avram Grant would say…style is nothing, winning is everything…Chelsea. (And if this reminds you of a little goblin like creature there’s a reason for that, and no it’s not Dennis Wise!).
A royal appointment at Wigan
January 26, 2008
Wigan have signed striker Marlon King from Watford for a reported £5m (pretty expensive if you ask me) with a contract lasting 3 1/2 years.
Some reports claimed that his proposed move to Fulham fell through after a dodgy medical, but “Winning Is Everything” understands that Fulham tried to renegotiate the payment method to Watford, a move rejected by the Hornets.
King has a decent scoring record, just under 1 in 2, while at Watford and Bruce thinks he will improve Wigan’s chances of staying up this season.
“He’s a proven finisher who gives us a different kind of goal-scoring threat.”
Lets hope so, for Wigan’s sake.
Fulham is a yanks playground
January 24, 2008
Fulham F.C. have signed yet another American “soccer” player.
This time it’s Eddie Johnson, a striker from the Kansas City Wizards, and he joins on an initial 3 1/2 year contract apparently. He is an international and if he were a goalkeeper that would mean a lot since the USA have quite the bunch to choose from, certainly seems to be a better crop than us English.
He’s young at 23 and reasonably tall at 6ft 1in and has a decent scoring record as far as I know, so it should be a wait and see approach I suppose. I mean McBride is decent enough and being American hasn’t hampered him so much. Mind you he did have a spell at P.N.E. and that’s enough to improve anyones ambition (if only to get the hell out of there).
Good Luck Eddie, your going to need it at Fulham.
