Gameweek 26 Report
February 12, 2008
G'day again Harold-Leaguers,
Another week with some average scores - I'm starting to see a pattern here. If Ronaldo scores well, average scores are high, when he has a mild week like this week the average Harold League score is a lot lower. Without looking at each team, I'm guessing a good percentage of people are relying on Ronaldo with their captaincy. Are you one of them?
To the business at hand:
Premier League Match Reports
Aston Villa 4-1 Newcastle United Newcastle United looked set for their first win in nine Barclays Premier League matches after Michael Owen scored in the fourth minute (his second goal in two games) and lead the Magpies to a 1-0 halftime lead. The home side fired up in the second half and scored a blistering four unanswered goals to finish the match at 4-1. The first Villa goal came in the 48th minute from Wilfred Bouma, who scored his first goal for Aston Villa after nearly three years at the club. This was followed by a remarkable hat-trick from forward John Carew earning him the 3 bonus points and an impressive 16 fantasy league points for the round.
Derby County 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur Derby continued their disastrous season, going down 3-0 to Tottenham at Pride Park. The Hotspurs waited until the 68th minute to score their first as captain Robbie Keane tapped in a rebounded ball from 6 yards out. Younes Kaboul netted a second goal after 81 minutes play, followed by a goal from penalty in injury-time after Alan Stubbs handled a Malbranque cross. Dimitar Berbatov coolly stepped up and sent Carroll the wrong way from the spot to complete Tottenham's second away win of the season.
West Ham United 1-1 Birmingham City A valuable point from their one-all draw with West Ham United might help save Birmingham City from relegation. The draw has moved the Blues out of third-last on the ladder and into safety (for now). Freddie Ljungberg scored the opening goal for the Hammers in just the seventh minute, but West Ham only kept their lead for a further 9 minutes after Lucas Neill needlessly fouled James McFadden in the penalty area. McFadden converted the penalty to tie the game at 1-1.
Sunderland 2-0 Wigan Athletic Sunderland moved up two places to 14th position on the Barclays Premier League ladder after overtaking 15th placed Wigan in a 2-0 victory at the Stadium of Lights. Dickson Etuhu scored his first goal for Sunderland in the 42nd minute, and a bullet from the boot of Daryl Murphy in the 75th minute cemented the win.
Middlesbrough 1-0 Fulham Jeremie Aliadiere's early strike proved enough for Middlesbrough to topple Fulham in Saturday's match at The Riverside Stadium. The goal in the 11th minute of the game was only Aliadiere's 3rd for the season, 2 of which came from the last 3 games. All 6 bonus points were awarded to Boro, with Aliadiere, Rochemback and Huth receiving the 3, 2 and 1 point respectively.
Everton 1-0 Reading Everton scored their first goal in 3 matches on Saturday, and in doing so dealt Reading their 7th straight loss. Phil Jagielka delivered the header from a Leon Osman lob, scoring his first goal for Everton.
Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Portsmouth Despite dominating for the majority of the game, Bolton Wanderers were defeated at the Reebok Stadium by the visiting Portsmouth 0-1. Portsmouth did not have a shot on target until the 79th minute, but seconds later they scored the winner. Lassana Diarra scored the controversial goal despite being in an offside position when the ball was deflected to him off team-mate Kanu. The Wanderers failed to convert a string of chances and hence lost a game that they clearly should have won.
Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City Manchester City completed a league double over Manchester United, a feat they haven't acheived since 1970. The last time City had won at Old Trafford was 1974. Darius Vassell scored the first goal for City in the 24th minute after Van der Sar blocked his first attempt but rebounded the ball back to Vassell for a follow-up shot. Benjani Mwaruwari, on his debut after transferring from Portsmouth, headed the second goal. United replied with an injury-time goal from Michael Carrick but City held on to take the spoils.
Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool The long awaited return of Frank Lampard couldn't bolster Chelsea to a win, finishing in a nil-all draw against Liverpool on Sunday. The Blues early fire seemed to die as quickly as it began and soon it was Liverpool who started to dominate proceedings, however their ability to finish left a lot to be desired. Frank Lampard's contribution ended early in the second half with the England international clearly not fully match-fit. Even though they couldn't secure a win, the draw enabled Chelsea to increase their unbeaten home league sequence to 76 matches.
Arsenal 2-0 Blackburn Rovers The Rovers made Arsenal fight every step of the way but finally succumbed 2-0 as Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League ladder. Arsenal missed several chances throughout the game starting from as early as the fourth minute, but as solid as the Blackburn defense seemed the visitors could not deny the two goals from Philippe Senderos and Emmanuel Adebayor. Adebayor's goal, scored in overtime, was his 9th goal from the previous 7 matches, having scored at least 1 goal in each.
Harold League Report
The league is really starting to flatten out now. Over half of the ladder has remained unchanged, and only 2 teams managed to climb more than a single place, with Snapper's climbing 3 places and figo's army up 2. The biggest move for the week came from FC Tress, falling 5 places to an overall 22nd.
The average score this week was 44.8, and as mentioned earlier, I'm sure this general lower score is predominately due to a lack of Ronaldo/Fabregas action. It's interesting to see that 11 out of the top 15 teams on the Harold League ladder had either Ronaldo or Fabregas nominated as their captain this week.
Top score for gameweek 26 came from Gunners, with a total of 63 points, keeping their top-10 dream alive. Gardo's Tryers, Snapper's and The Azmans all had good weeks as well, scoring 57 points apiece. At the other end of the gameweek table, Know Idea are living up to their namesake, scoring just 23 points for the round. It looks like Brett is determined to stay in last position this season.
Keep in mind that the next gameweek starts on the 23rd Feb, giving managers an extra week to organise their Fantasy teams. Good luck!
R.
The thoughts ofRyan Minster at 9:06 PM
Labels: Reports