The Best.....

Let the "weren't the defenses awful crowd" tut-tut all they want but the 4-4 draw last week between Arsenal and Liverpool was a cracker. There may have been some rudimentary mistakes on show but goals number 1, 2 and 4 from Arshavin still needed a lot of work, while the same could be said for Torres' brace and Benayoun's incredibly brave header.

It has been a difficult couple of weeks for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech but his penalty save on Saturday from West Ham's Mark Noble was outstanding.

Fiorentina did not just beat Roma on Saturday they gave them a good thrashing. The opening goal from Juan Vargas was a stunner while Gilardino added two goals in a 4-1 win. But the player who Roma could not subdue was Montenegro international Stevan Jovetic.

Jovetic was a bundle of energy and endeavor throughout the seventy minutes he played and the progress the nineteen year-old has made this season has been remarkable.  Genoa's loss away to relegation threatened Bologna turned out to be an added bonus.  

A controversial penalty call turned the game Manchester United's way but that should blind us to the incredible second half performance put on by Wayne Rooney against Tottenham Hotspur. Rooney scored two goals and was involved in setting up the other three has United came from 2-0 to win 5-2.

Paul Robinson pulled off a stunning double save about three quarters of the way through Blackburn's 2-0 win over Wigan to preserve a much needed clean sheet and precious three points.

A hat trick skipper Raul set Real Madrid up for a 4-2 away against Sevilla. With Barcelona only managing a draw with Valencia the gap is now only four points with the chasing side Real at home to the league leaders next weekend.

Honorable mentions...

The free kick should never have been given on account of Mascherano slipping but Alonso's volley after his initial strike rebounded back to him off of the Hull wall was beautifully executed.

The B.R.A.F (Blackburn Rovers Air Force) under the command of Wing-Commander Sam "Bomber" Allardyce completed a successful mission on Sunday with an aerial barrage of the Wigan defence. It wasn't pretty stuff but it certainly offered up a lot of goal mouth excitement.     

Espanyol have finally found a way out of the bottom three in Spain with a third straight win (four wins and a draw in their last five) - this one a 2-0 defeat of Real Betis.

Parity is suppose to be the watch word of MLS so how does Real Salt Lake thrash New England Revolution 6-0 with all the goals coming in a 35 minute spell in the second half? Six goals from six different players and the one from Clint Mathis was simply spectacular.

Movement, speed and a great finish were all on show when Fabregas scored Arsenal's opener against Boro.

The PVR took on some extra duty this weekend as the first old-timers practice of the year was called. On the way you could not help but notice the number of kids heading off to local parks with a ball under their arms.

A marked contrast to thirty years ago when passers-by would stop and stare at soccer practices, fascinated by how anyone could "head-butt" a ball and not instantly require hospital treatment.

Old timers' practices still attract the gawkers but they are more concerned whether to call for medical assistance on account of the number of very red faces and labored breathing!


Best forgotten.....

It is easy to ask what was Pepe thinking? And the answer is easy as well - obviously nothing. The attack(s) he perpetrated on Getafe's helpless Javi Casquero was inexcusable. Then there was a punch on Juan Albin and his pitch invasion after Higuain scored Real Madrid's winner. 

Pepe was given a ten game suspension which Real president Vincente Boluda claimed didn't "match what happened on the pitch". Boluda for once was right - Pepe is lucky that he didn't get suspended for at least a season.  

Caleb Folan made a rare start in Hull critical game against Liverpool and in the process he probably guaranteed that his manager, Phil Brown, will never trust him again.

A goal down with an hour played Folan decided to cuff Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel as the Liverpool defender shielded a ball running through to his keeper and then the Hull striker aimed a kick at the Slovakian defender. An instant red card and a task that was difficult anyway became even more so.  

This week the hulking Palermo centre back Moris Carrozzieri tested positive for cocaine, and will face a lengthy suspension.

Carlos Johnson of the New York Red Bulls was sent off against Houston on April 11. He served a one game suspension and returned to action against the Kansas City Wizards on Thursday. Johnson lasted two minutes before being sent off and it became the earliest dismissal in MLS history.

Last Sunday Phil Jagielka stepped up and scored the winning penalty that sent Everton to their first FA Cup Final since 1995. On Saturday he suffered a serious knee injury which will count him out of the Final.

Juventus woes continued on the weekend as they were forced to fight back in order to gain a draw against bottom of the table Reggina. Juve are now winless in their last four league games and have watched as AC Milan has taken over second place in Serie A behind Inter.

There was also the Coppa Italia semi-final loss to Lazio and it all adds up to a massive job-threatening slump for Claudio Ranieri.

New York Red Bulls went from being only  seconds away from three points to being left empty handed. DC United scored two goals only sixty seconds apart to turn a 2-1 deficit into a surprising 3-2 win. The Red Bulls defending on the game winner from Chris Pontius was abysmal.


Stat facts.....

Andrey Arshavin scored four goals on his Anfield debut last Wednesday and became the 19th player to score four times in a Premier League match and only the fourth to achieve the feat away from home. He also became the first player to score four times in the Premier but not finish on the winning side.

Paul Scholes chalked up appearances 600 and 601 for Manchester United this week against Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.

Roma conceded four goals away to Fiorentina and that is the eighth time in 17 away games that the Roma defence has let in three or more goals in a league away game this season.  They have conceded 34 away goals in total - the worst performance in Serie A.

Ryan Nelsen finally scored for Blackburn Rovers in his 141st appearance. What's the chance of another one before season's end given that so often goals - like transit buses - come in bunches?

Southampton spent twenty-seven seasons in the English top flight before being relegated at the end of the 2005 season. Next season they will start in the English third level for the first time since 1960 - if they can find a buyer.

Kasey Keller kept the San Jose Earthquakes off the score sheet and in the process set a new MLS record for minutes played at the start of the season without conceding a goal - the record now stands at 389 minutes, 14 minutes better than Ronald Waterreus' old mark set in 2007 for the Red Bulls.

Wolfsburg lost 2-0 at Energie Cottbus on Sunday and failed to break the league record of 10 consecutive wins. They did, however, maintain their spot at the top of the Bundesliga, two points ahead of Hertha Berlin with five games remaining.

The New England Revolution's 6-0 defeat loss to Real Salt Lake was the worst they have ever suffered in MLS.


What was said....

Matt Dickinson writes about Phil Neville's penalty kick against Manchester United and the preparation that went into Everton's efforts. "Penalty shoot-outs are often, wrongly, described as a lottery when actually they can reveal a footballer's nature, if only for a fleeting second," - well said Mr. Dickinson.

This is an excellent article that was posted on the blog last week on the "disappearance" of box-to-box midfielders by Jonathan Wilson. It is worth reposting because it is so good but also because of one wee problem. Mr. Wilson makes the mistake of assuming that his readers would all know what actually constitutes a box-to-box midfielder.

From the comments it is clear that his assumption was flawed as so many of the names suggested under the comments section are players who are physically able to get up and down the park but are clueless as to what they have to do when they get to the attacking end. Example - Owen Hargreaves' scoring record of seven goals in nearly 200 professional games is less than you would expect from a defender.

Daily Mail has a piece on players who have remained with one club. (See this week's poll question at the end for a more international take). 

The Independent suggests that betting by players on games that they are involved in is a lot more extensive than the authorities are willing to admit.

There was renewed speculation this week about the future of injury-marred Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky. A Czech daily newspaper "The Dnes" apparently had this to say on the player nicknamed "little Mozart"- "Let's hope the career of 'little Mozart' doesn't resemble that of the composer - spectacular but short."


Coming up this week.....

The Champions League semi-finals start with Chelsea away to Barcelona on Tuesday with Arsenal at Old Trafford to play Manchester United twenty-four hours later. There is also the semi final round of the UEFA Cup; Dynamo Kiev v Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen v Hamburg.

On Wednesday there is an important league game in France with French League Cup winners Bordeaux facing French Cup finalists Rennes. Bordeaux are five points behind leaders Marseilles with the Rennes game in hand.

The winner of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League will be decided on Thursday evening when Atlante are at home to Cruz Azul. Atlante carry a substantial 2-0 advantage from the first leg.


The weekly poll.....

Paul Scholes has now played over 600 games for Manchester United and team mate Ryan Giggs is one game short of the 800 hundred mark. Scholes and Giggs are two examples of players who have basically spent their soccer lives with one club.