Derby Day in Manchester

Yesterdays Manchester Derby match lived up to expectations as a classic, certainly one that will not be forgotten. Man Utd were left wondering what had happened while Man City showed us all what they are capable off.

With Roberto Mancini celebrating his 100^th game in charge of Man City, he saw his team show Man Utd just how far they have come by showing the kind of display often associated with man Utd.

Alex Ferguson said, 'it was our worse day ever.' Utd went 0,1 down just a minute after the half time break, with Jonny Evans being sent off for pulling back Balotelli, this was the start of a one way tide of goals from Man City, with Balotelli scoring his second, the goals just kept on coming, Aguero scored the third then Man Utd got a goal back with Fletcher, that was it as City then scored a fourth with Edin Dzeko, a fifth with David Silva and Dzeko capped it all with a Sixth.

Certainly one for Utd to ponder on, but likely not for long, its early in the season yet and they will recover to fight another day.

City however will have enjoyed this one, now leading the premiership by 5 points but they will have to come down to earth fast, ready for the next match away to Wolves in the Carling Cup.

Another derby game was held in London at Loftus Road with QPR playing Chelsea, this certainly had all the hallmarks of a derby game with plenty of passion shown from both teams. But it just wasn't Chelsea's day with two red cards and seven yellow. This didn't stop them though, playing very well, often looking the better team, however with all the possession, they just couldn't get the ball in the net. QPR on the other hand scored from the penalty spot with Heider Helguson hitting the winner and only goal in the game.

Premiership Results on Sunday 23^rd Oct 2011.

Manchester Utd 1,6 Manchester City

QPR 1,0 Chelsea

Arsenal 3,1 Stoke

Blackburn 1,2 Spurs

Fulham 1,3 Everton

Written by  http://www.kitupforfootball.com

Champions League or Championship?

Further to my previous post, last nights instalment of championship football saw some surprising results:

Barnsley v Burnley 2,0

Blackpool v Doncaster 2,1

Crystal Palace v Bristol City 1,0

Ipswich v Portsmouth 1,0

Leeds v Coventry 1,1

Millwall v Brighton 1,1

Nott'm For v Middlesbro 2,0

Peterboro v Cardiff 4,3

Reading v Derby 2,2

Southampton v West Ham 1,0

With a good performance from Southampton, managing another home win against West Ham, that now gives them 26 points, 5 clear from the rest of the table.

West Ham still hold on to second place, with 21 points, the same as Middlesbro and Derby, who both drew away from home. Just one point behind closely follows Crystal Palace and Ipswich, who both won there matches at home.

The bottom three places are taken up with Bristol City who are bottom with 6 points and above them is Doncaster on 8 points and Millwall on 9 points, all 3 teams lost last night.

Tonight Leicester play Watford at 7.45pm, my prediction is a 2,0 home win to Leicester.

Oh I forgot to mention about the Champions league, with both Man Utd playing away to O Galati and Man City playing at home to Villarreal.

For me Man Utd showed us what they can do with there experience in this competition winning 2,0 and Rooney scoring with 2 penalty's.

Man City however, were very hesitant in everything they did, they almost seemed unsure in what to do, struggling to get the ball up front. However they managed to get the result winning 2,1 with Aguero scoring the winner in the last minutes.

It was a shame that none of the championship games were shown as from the live reports on Sky tv they certainly were the most exciting!

Written by http://www.kitupforfootball.com

Saints hold on to top spot!

Southampton are still holding onto top spot in the championship, after a 1,1 draw away to Derby County at Pride Park. With Southampton dominating possession, it was Derby's goalkeeper, Frank Fielding who kept Derby County in the game with several saves made throughout. Derby took the lead early in the game with a Theo Robinson's goal in the 3^rd minute, being the quickest to the ball after a Kelvin Davies parry, although there was suspicion of offside. With Southampton's Adam Lallana out of the game with a foot injury, Richard Chaplow played well in the midfield, with Guly de Prado and Jose Fonte adding to the attempts on goal.

Southampton kept up the pressure and were rewarded with a Rickie Lambert goal in the 61^st minute.

In the interview after the game Nigel Adkins felt the saints were worthy of all three points.

On the down side, the referee, gave saints players 4 yellow cards which may play a part in future games.

Next Southampton entertain West Ham on Tuesday which should bring in the crowds and already so early in the season a very important game.

Being one of the pundits favourites to do well this season Southampton are certainly keeping up the good form that earned them promotion last season from league one. But its early yet and there are some good teams in the championship all fighting for those two automatic promotion places.

My feeling at best, is a 2^nd place finish at the end of the season.

Written by http://www.kitupforfootball.com

What a game!

What a game! Just watched the North London derby at White Hart lane, with Tottenham Hotspur against Arsenal on the telly and enjoyed every minute of it. In front of a packed crowd and with the England manager watching closely, the game had all the ingredients of a great attacking game, and true to tradition, the game was played at a great pace, you could see that the players were up for this one. Arsenal certainly couldn't afford to lose this one, which would leave them still close to the relegation zone and it showed with an early chance from Theo Walcott, who's deflected shot, of Ledley King went just wide of the post.

I felt that there was not really much in it between the two teams. Although Arsenal still have that uncertainty about them, especially in the defence, allowing Parker a shot that went straight to the Arsenal goalkeeper, Szczesney.

Spurs started the game on the front foot also and eventually 5 minutes before half time Rafael van der Vaart got the opener which looked suspiciously like the ball struck his arm.

After the break, the gunners came out attacking and got their reward with an Aaron Ramsey goal 6min into the second half.

The fast pace of the game kept on going with no clear chances falling on either side, then a cracking goal, a 25 yard shot came from Kyle Walker with just 13 minutes to go, which looked like it dipped causing Szczesney to get his hands to the ball but without success. That would have done Walker a lot of good in front of Capello.

After Tottenham had taken the lead Arsenal stepped it up again to try and get the equaliser, but just simply ran out of time. Even with 5 extra time minutes you could not tell who might have scored next.

What a great derby game! With Tottenham feeling the happier now climbing to sixth place in the premiership and looking equally as strong as last season.

Arsenal, however are in fifteenth place, but on what I watched today I don't see them staying there for much longer, not sure though if they can make it to a European position in the league.

Written by: http://www.kitupforfootball.com