All Things Footie | Monday, April 1 | Jordan
Northern Uproar
And it so very nearly was, a few inches more and Ian Harte would have brought about the comeback of the weekend and effectively ended United's title challenge. I put a pound on the draw at 100:1 after 60 minutes; needless to say a windfall would have been more luck than judgement. It does however point out the glaringly obvious once more (remember the West Ham game) — despite scoring four goals, Manchester United's defence is so poor that they nearly threw the game away. Liverpool also kept their title hopes alive with a fairly uneventful home win against a Charlton side with a superb away form surprisingly lacking in confidence.
Another team thankful of a win, Newcastle's 6–2 demolition of Everton; just as you thought they were about to forfeit their Champions League place to Chelsea as well. Superb performaces from Kieran Dyer and Nolberto Solano sealed a victory that will all but ensure qualification for the Champions League. It's still possible for Chelsea to leapfrog the magpies but I don't think there's enough games left (especially with them drawing away to Ipswich at the moment).
Bolton seem to have found their feet again with an excellent victory against Aston Villa at the Reebok Stadium. A wonderful, mature performance from Kevin Nolan in the heart of Bolton's midfield was topped by a precision free kick to win the match in the last fifteen minutes. Such composure for a 19 year old, the big boys will come calling.
Southern Comfort
To cheer the hearts of those south of Birmingham, West Ham earned a hard fought 3–1 victory over a troubled Ipswich side at Upton Park. Tottenham also got a rare away point against Midldesbrough and Chelsea took all three points against soon to be relegated Derby.
Arsenal could have scored 5 against Sunderland at Highbury, but then again Sunderland could probably have scored 3 had it not been for a combination of sloppy finishing and superb defending from Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell in particular. Kevin Phillips was impressive as ever and the only Sunderland player that really seemed to be trying, the defending by the Makems was absolutely diabolical and would no doubt have provoked Peter Reid into an expletive driven cup throwing team talk at half time.
The title is very much in Arsenal's hands now, only a slip up by them can hand the title to United or Liverpool. Though maybe someone should tell Phil Thompson that — he seems convinced that if Liverpool win all their games they'll win the league, not by my calculations…
Performace of the week : Newcastle vs Everton
Player of the week : Patrick Vieira (Arsenal vs Sunderland)
Goal of the week : Rory Delap (Southampton vs Fulham)
Team of the week :
| Ian Walker Leicester |
| William Gallas Chelsea |
John Terry Chelsea |
Jason Dodd Southampton |
| Roy Keane Man Utd |
| Danny Murphy L'pool |
Kevin Nolan Bolton |
Patrick Vieira Arsenal |
Joe Cole West Ham |
| Thierry Henry Arsenal |
Ole Gunnar Solkjaer Man Utd |