Premiership Wrap

Round 21 in the Premiership was a bit of a strange one. Two games were cancelled, and Newcastle didn't lose. I know - strange.....
The weather was quite cold and dangerous in parts of the country, which caused many smaller clubs some serious headaches, mainly with frozen pitches. But the games that did go on were not without some serious drama.
First, before any kickoffs even occured, Rafa Benitez came out with a pretty surprising tirade against Sir Alex Ferguson of Man United. Not surprising based on what he said, since everything he said was pure fact and very well known by everyone in the league. But it was quite surprising that anyone actually have the gawl to say an unkind word against the Patron Saint Sir Alex, who, if it were up to the British media, would be immediately crowned king and Savior, and a new "Alexian Church" would be started where instead of stale bread for a host, we'd nibble off used pieces of Sir Alex's gum, and instead of a cross or star of david, we'd all worship a photograph of one of Ferguson's famous geriatric goal celebrations.
Rafa Benitez went down a pre-written list and stated all the media outbursts by Ferguson, and the FA's response (or, lack thereof). He compared that to other managers' outbursts, and the following fury which was unleashed upon them by the FA. Basically proving, fairly simply, how biased the FA are towards the biggest of the clubs. Now myself being a supporter of a team much, much further down the table, I can see some incredible hypocracy with this outburst, since Rafa and his players have gotten off the hook on many instances as well - case in point, Saint Steven Gerrard being arrested by Mersyside police for a barfight - almost the same as Joey Barton's charge. Now, Barton, being a Newcastle player gets put in headlines every day for the next week or two, and with Gerrard - POOF! A day after his arrest, it's completely disappeared from the headlines, and lips, of any media outlets. Let's talk about bias, Rafa.
Now to the football.
Newcastle were lucky to get a point at home against fellow struggler West Ham. Recent reports suggest that roughly half our team is looking to move to a better club, with Michael Owen having already reportedly agreeing to terms with Man City for a summer move, N'Zogbia opening his huge, annoying mouth again, stating that while his agent hasn't actually spoken with anybody yet, he'd looooove to go to Arsenal, and Given being one foot out the door, also to Man City. Anyway, Owen is still here, and he did his job well, putting away a nice goal to give us the lead. Our defense couldn't handle Bellamy all day (I never realized just how quick that guy was until Saturday) and I wasn't surprised at all to see him equalize quickly. In the second half, Seb Bassong fouled a player in the box, and we were lucky that it wasn't called for a penalty. Besides this play, he was MONEY all day, as he has been all season.
Their second goal, though, was truly horrific. Culminating a spell of 20 minutes of just about the worst football I've seen by any team this year, we gave Carlton Cole about 45 seconds to receive the ball at his feet, put a few moves on a few players, bend down, tie his shoes, give himself a good old spitshine, play a quick game of Go Fish with Scott Parker and Lucas Neill, and cooly put away the go-ahead goal. Shay Given, at that point, held up a sign saying "Man City or Bust."
But with just over 10 minutes to play, we were threatening time after time. Unfortunately all of our crosses were easily cleared before they could cause any trouble.....until the young'n Andy Carroll, sporting a classy new cornroll infested hairdo finally put his height to good use and powerfully shot home a header to tie the game up. It ended that way, but we were REALLY lucky to escape with a point, because the way I see it, we are a team in crisis, and I'm really concerned for the rest of the season.
In contrast, today's match between Man United and Chelsea displayed football at its finest - as it usually does. Watching the Newcastle match contrasted with the Man U match today, it was like watching two different leagues. Man U ran out deserving 3-0 victors, and Liverpool can now officially begin shaking in their boots, because with two games in hand, and only sitting 5 points behind them, Manchester look to really be hitting their stride now. Their youngsters put in good performance after good performance, with Johnny Evans coming through today INCREDIBLY strong, after Rio was a late scratch after waking up with a bad back. He, Raphael, Nani, Anderson, Possebon, and Danny Welbeck are all going to be the stars of about 6 years from now, and Man U show no signs of letting up. That was the most clear difference today - Manchester looked full of spring and energy, and they completely ran past and confused Chelsea. It was a demolition - and Big Phil was correct when he said that if his team continues to play like this, they'll quickly be removed from the title race.
Good thing Newcastle doesn't have to worry about that.