Weekend Soccer Analysis

Dirk Kuyt . . .! Best moment? Hull's Geovanni's goal was brilliant,
but it's got to be Dirk Kuyt's last-gasp winner to cap an unbelievable
comeback from Liverpool. Let me leave that for later.

Local Games . . .

In the Zambia local league, there were the Barclays Cup games but I am not going to look at them.

Bundesliga . . . .

Bayern Munich's Bundesliga woes continued on Saturday when they blew a
two-goal lead in a 3-3 home draw with VfL Bochum while promoted
Hoffenheim took over at the top. Bayern were leading 3-1 with seven
minutes to go through goals from Daniel van Buyten and Ze Roberto (2)
only to allow Bochum to stage a comeback with two bad defensive lapses
inside three minutes. The draw follows two successive Bundesliga
defeats and leaves Bayern 11th in the table with nine points from
seven matches in Juergen Klinsmann's first season in charge.

The only consolation for Klinsmann is other title challengers also
lost ground. Werder Bremen were thumped 4-1 at VfB Stuttgart while
Bayer Leverkusen lost 1-0 at home to Hertha Berlin.

Ex-UNZA. . . .

With Manchester United back to their free-flowing best at Blackburn,
Ba Mwenda didn't come and so we missed his goals having being on a
current rich vein of form and having scored the winner for ZRA when
ZRA played Caltex. Ex-UNZA drew with Club 5ive. It was a tough match
with Peter Mwiya doing two crucial tackles and Ole being denied a
penalty in the first half. Club Five, boasting the likes of Australia
Mweemba formerly on Nakambala, ex-international and now National
Assembly coach Alex Namazaba, Mwila Nchimunya, Julius and a host of
other players who have played for local league teams, were a tough
team to crack though Ex-UNZA should have scored through Sheva and Ole
who had the easiest chances in the first half.

Arsenal . . .

Sh*t happens I guess. That goal by Van Persie was a legitimate goal as
it didn't go out. But it was disallowed.

Roy Keane has made some inspired substitutions during his short time
in management to date but none more so than his decision to replace
Dwight Yorke with Leadbitter with just four minutes left on the clock.
Sunderland came up with a moment of brilliance as the young Sunderland
midfielder took possession just seconds after entering the field and
made inroads on Arsenal's back four, before firing a magnificent and
unstoppable shot from the edge of the box into the top corner from the
edge of the box that crashed in off the underside of the bar and
beyond Manuel Almunia. It was Hull City reloaded; Giovanni someone?
Its de ja vou all over again.

That seemed to have won it for Sunderland but there was still time for
a final twist as Fabregas managed to rise highest at the near post to
head in Van Persie's corner. 1-1 was the result at the Stadium of
Light.

"The bottom line for any of these top teams, they will tell you, part
of the game is breaking down the opposition." - Roy Keane. A wry
observation which is spot on. After results such as this Wenger has
often used the excuse of "they just kept 11 men behind the ball"...
It's time that Arsenal learn't how to play and win against such
tactics.

But they derseved the one point if you rated the two teams equally
though as favourites, Arsenal could have easily lost and also
dersevingly so.

Arsenal should forget about winning the league,the ghost which used to
haunt liverpool in the league has gone now to arsenal,the best they
can do is the fourth position.

My nickname for Arsenal and Liverpool is usually '10 game fame' after
that they are gone. This maybe correct for Arsenal I am not sure yet
but Liverpool up to now are proving me wrong. Liverpool I guarantee
will start to go downhill very shortly.

I will talk of Liverpool another day though they look like a great
team this season. That 3-2 win against man City was great and deserves
credit. But how about this for a Liverpool joke?

Q: What do Liverpool do when they win the leauge?
A: Turn off the play station.

Liverpool . . .

It would be churlish to do anything other than congratulate Liverpool
for a truly memorable comeback at the City of Manchester Stadium,
after being 2-0 down at half-time against, let's face it, a team with
Champions League ambitions. Have Liverpool underlined their status as
genuine Premier League title challengers today?

I'm a Man United fan, but oh my word. Any team that is losing 2-0 at
half-time, only to win 3-2 deserves a whole lot of credit! Well done
Liverpool... proven you can play like champions! I know the Scousers
are our bitterest rivals but beating Man City just makes it
bitter-sweet for man Utd. Especially with Man City's big mouths.

This game also proved that Robinho, whilst not being useless, isn't
world-class. Obviously. Sheva will never agree but if he was, would he
let a 2-0 lead disappear while Torres shined? Robinho - who many of
you are telling me is world-class - lifts the ball over the bar from
three yards after a Shaun Wright-Phillips cross at one point in the
game. Gilt-edged. Reminds me of Kanu at West Brom Albion.

How can Robinho be mediocre? His name ends with "inho" and therefore
his legendary status is fully deserved and we should just turn off our
brains and accept this. Personally I think he's the most beautifully
elegant player I've seen since Iain Dowinho was destroying teams at
Southampton 15 years ago.

Hull City

I'm putting money on Hull ending Chelsea's unbeaten run at home - they
seem to enjoy London! They beat Tottenham after beating Arsenal. And
Giovanni must be the least liked Brazilian in London for scoring two
brilliant goals that meant doom for Arsenal and Spurs. The on-fire
Geovanni curls home a delicious free-kick from fully 30 yards into the
postage stamp top corner of Gomes's net. Spurs in disbelief, Hull in
dreamland - again.

"Are you Arsenal in disguise?" sung the Hull fans to their gutted
Tottenham counterparts after the goal. Is Geovanni on a free from man
City the best piece of business in the history of the Premier League?
Sure looks that way at the moment.

The result means If Tottenham, now have their worst start to a season
for 96 years. That's going all the way back to 1912, when something
fairly major happened that was later turned into a film, as I'm sure
you know. The Titanic . . .

Didier Zokora has been Spurs' best player for Spurs this season and
but he failed to get his first goal for the club in his 100th game.

Zaki and Wigan . . . .

With Zaki leading the top scorers chart with 5 goals and still
officially a player in the Egyptian league, I though it wise to
include Wigan. We do not speak about the lesser teams but considering
also that Wigan arrived unbeaten in their last four league games and
Boro with four defeats from as many outings in all competitions, it
was hardly surprising that the Latics made the brighter start but it
was Boro that won with an undeserved goal in the 89th minute.

With just one win from their previous six visits to Blackburn, United
were not expecting an easy ride and, for the opening 25 minutes at
least, they were not disappointed. In a game which United manager Sir
Alex Ferguson believed was his team's most impressive display of the
campaign so far, a lot happened.

Manchester United . . .

Reports suggest Blackburn boss Paul Ince was left apoplectic on the
touchline when Wes Brown, starting for the first time in the league
since United's defeat at Liverpool, headed in Rooney's short corner at
the far post in the 31st minute, convinced as he was that Nemanja
Vidic had impeded his goalkeeper Jason Brown. If United's first was
contentious, Rooney's second was picture-book perfect. A lightning
raid of the sort that has been missing this season, concluded with a
jet-heeled Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Martin Olsson for dead down the
right flank. A cut-back for Rooney left his team-mate with plenty to
do but a sumptuous clipped effort into the opposite corner saw Brown
clutching fresh air and cemented United's supremacy.

Thereafter and it was a case of Blackburn chasing shadows on a
afternoon when the master showed his pupil there is still plenty for
him to learn in the management game. Manchester missed a host of
hances as the keeper saved some and some either came off the post of
landed on the roof with the keeper beaten.

Chelsea . . .

League leaders and looking good for the title. On the evidence of this
display Chelsea, who were without several first-choice players, will
be hard to stop this season.

John Carew gave John Terry nightmares. Something Milan Baros would
only have done dressed as Fred. Premier League's best ever swap?

Anelka meanwhile is proving why he leads in being the most expensive
player in the world (cumulative cost of buying him) as he has already
scored 4 goals now.

La Liga . . .

In a game billed as a duel between two Argentina forwards Messi and
Sergio Aguero, the Atletico man saw hardly any of the ball and was
unsurprisingly withdrawn 12 minutes into the second half.

Rafa Marquez, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi put the locals three up
inside eight minutes as the game got off to an explosive start.

Maxi Rodriguez pulled one back for Atletico five minutes later, but
Eto'o restored Barca's three-goal advantage shortly afterwards and
Eidur Gudjohnsen added a fifth for the home side short of the
half-hour mark. Thierry Henry wrapped up a brilliant Barcelona win
with his side's sixth after 73 minutes.

Valencia returned to the top of the Primera Division while Sevilla
moved up to third after thrashing Athletic Bilbao. A Manuel Fernandes
goal proved the difference as Valencia went top of the league on
Sunday night.

Madrid drew with Espanyol at home i.e. 2-2. In their last game, Raul
made history. Raul Gonzalez Blanco became only the seventh player in
history to score 200 league goals in Spain with a penalty that gave
Real Madrid a victory over Espanyol. But this time around, they didn't
win but it was Raul again scoring. He twice equalised for Madrid.

Serie A . . .

The man affectionately known as Ibracadabra, scored first through a
fabulous backheel before Adriano added from the spot. The Sweden
striker connected with Adriano's cross in mid-air and sent the ball
flying inside the near post after 25 minutes. Inter Milan, winning
2-1, moved level on points with Lazio at the summit of the Serie A
table as Jose Mourinho's side bounced back from their derby defeat.
Lazio drew 1-1 at home through substitute Simone Inzaghi's late
strike. The bit-part player, younger brother of AC Milan's Filippo,
swept in at the far post a minute from time..

Mourinho's Inter slumped to a 1-0 loss to rivals AC Milan last weekend
but returned to winning ways on Saturday against a Bologna team which
ironically won at the San Siro on the opening day when they beat AC
Milan 2-1.

With the criticism for making Chelsea win ugly, Mourinho seems to have
kept that tag in Italy. Mourinho was whistled by the crowd after the
Werder draw in the UCL and has faced criticism in the press for his
favoured 4-3-3 formation. He changed to 4-4-2 against Bologna, with
wingers Ricardo Quaresma and Mancini supporting Ibrahimovic and
Adriano up front. It was a good game but not really fluid and
convincing seeming that they were gifted a goal by luck and they also
gifted their opponents a goal.

Following Lazio's failure to win on Saturday, Udinese are now level
with them and Inter - but they separate the two on goal-difference.
Udinese moved second, level on points with leaders Lazio, after a 2-0
win over Torino on Sunday.

The late game saw bottom-of-the-table Cagliari hold AC Milan to a
goalless draw on Sardinia - who are not three points off the top of
the table.

Palermo find themselves in fourth after a very good 2-1 over Juventus.

Roma's dismal start to the new league season shows few signs of
abating after going down to a 1-0 defeat in Tuscany to Siena.