Anyone doubting the increasing global reach of the Premier League need only see this. A screen capture of the frontpage of ESPN.com (the American version) taken in the last few minutes.
I know that ESPN show some Premier League football in the US, and thus have a vested interest in promoting the match, but on a night in which the 'World Wide Leader In Sports' will be showing a key NFL encounter on Monday Night Football, it is Fabregas and Drogba which adorn their home page. Progress such as this makes a development like the so-called '39th game' even more likely in years to come, trust me.
It looks like Emmanuel Adebayor is set to be given a ban of up to six weeks for his actions in Saturday’s win over Arsenal. Rightly so, too, in my opinion. The striker is accused of stamping on former teammate Robin Van Persie – when slowed down it does seem that he kicked out at Van Persie’s head.
However, the incident that troubled me most was his goal celebration. Quite why he saw it fit to run the length of a pitch to taunt the Arsenal fans I don’t know, but this is just the sort of behaviour we’ve come to see from the striker. He showed himself to be childish and insolent in his final season at The Emirates and his lack of effort on the pitch was clear for all to see. Disappointing as his behaviour on Saturday may have been, it certainly was not surprising.
However, we need to take a moment to look at the broader picture here. While Mad-ebayor may have stolen the headlines on Sunday’s back pages, the truth is that something else is at play. We could just have a new world order on our hands when it comes to the Premier League.
City’s 4-2 win was impressive in a way that not even the score line can convey. They were clinical, and organised in a way that a galaxy of stars shouldn’t be. There was no Tevez, no Roninho and no Santa Cruz in the side on Saturday but nonetheless Hughes’ side bossed the game. De Jong marshalled the defensive midfield while Gareth Barry and Stephen Ireland did enough to upset Arsenal’s usual slick passing. Sure, Arsenal had more possession and more chances, but City took there’s. This was a team performance that belies the way in which they’ve risen to become a genuine power in football.
In my work as a newsreader, I often call City’s home ground ‘The Middle Eastlands’ in reference to the way in which the club’s Arab owners are bankrolling their tilt at Premier League glory. Yet Saturday’s team wasn’t an example of how money has changed their fortunes. Adebayor, Touré and Lescott aside, most of the players on show for The Citizens were of the solid and dependable sort. Their man of the match was Craig Bellamy (not that I ever thought I would call him dependable) and among their other players on show were the likes of Shay Given, Micah Richards, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Wayne Bridge. All solid players, but none of them (with the possible exception of Given who was a relatively inexpensive purchase) are world-beaters. While the likes of Carlos Tevez and his reputed £47m transfer fee may grab the headlines, the quiet truth is that Hughes is quietly assembling a squad capable of breaking up the Big Four.
I am a Manchester United fan and thus should hate Manchester City and all who are partial to City but even I would welcome a much-needed change in the Premier League. And in a season when Liverpool and Arsenal are both struggling (even at this early stage), the truth is this could be the year that finally happens. I predict that we will see Manchester City play in the Champions League next season after they finish in the top four come May.
Can they maintain their impressive start and finish even higher than that? Probably not. I expect theit 100% start to end at Old Trafford on Sunday, but it won’t be an easy game for my Red Devils.
The big story in the League of Ireland this week has been the sacking of Dundalk defender Dave Rogers in the wake of ‘Arse Gate.’ Rogers was left not too jolly with the decision by the Louth club to terminate his contract for ‘gross misconduct’ after he mooned the travelling Pats support at Oriel Park on Friday night. Unsurprisingly, many in the media were quick to have a bit of craic (or is that crack?) with this one. In fact, the only thing faster than the ‘bum’s rush’ given to Rogers was the rush of hacks and journo’s across the land as they tried to ‘out-pun’ each other.
There were plenty of ‘witty’ headlines in our tabloids about the Rogers’ sacking (‘Moon Walk’ was one of my personal favourites) but the pun-tastic headlines weren’t limited to the red-tops. ‘rogers calls foul play over bum rap’ and ‘hoping shirty conduct will end is asking for the moon’ are both the work of Aiden O’Hara in the Indo. The lack of capitals in these very cheesy headlines may be a mistake, or it may be an attempt at understating the descent into cheddar-ville.
The incident provoked an intense debate on RTE’s Monday Night Soccerball. Eoin “I’m not a prude” Hand says that if he had brought his daughter to the game, and he’d seen Rogers’ actions, that he “would have reacted.” Goodness only knows how... Meanwhile Rico had the counter-argument on the matter, standing up for Scouser. An MNS caption informed us that he once ‘played the bodhrán on an album by Tundra, a folk music group from Kent’ so it’s probably appropriate that it was he who was banging the drum in Rogers’ defence. He mused about possible conspiracy theories (“It makes me think that there’s something else in the background”) before analyzing the incident in detail, telling us that it wasn’t too bad because Rogers “had his briefs on underneath.” Thanks for saving us the bother to take such a close look Rico. “Have we all lost our sense of humour?” he wondered. Well, the journo’s certainly haven’t...
I’ll leave the last word to Neil O’ Riordan. The Irish Sun writer keeps a blog called The Big O in which he recalled an incident involving current Dundalk boss Sean Connor while he was boss at Bohs. According to O’ Riordan, in their preparation for the 2007 League Cup Final, Connor mooned his players as they practiced potentially crucial penalty kicks ‘in a bid to recreate the atmosphere they would face in a shoot-out at The Brandywell.’ ‘It’s worth remembering’ says Statto, ‘that Dalymount is overlooked by a primary school.’ Now that this scandal is in the public domain, should we expect the Dundalk board to sack Connor as swiftly as they booted Rogers out the door? Or will he stay, adding more fuel to the theories of the multi-talented Rico? Only time will tell.
***
This article was originally written for and can be seen at the fine website, http://www.extratime.ie
College exams this week meant a bit of a lull on the blog, and that lull will go on into next week probably. I'm being brought away for a couple of days.
There'll be all change once I come back though. The Almost Daily Sports Blog will be relaunched before the end of the month with new features, a new design and most importantly, new writers. If you want in, contact me for more info. gavingrace@hotmail.com
