That Time Of Year Again
26/11/02 | by Mike Shaw

Forget April and May, forget August. They don’t matter. This is the time when the battle is won and lost, between late November and the start of March the Premiership title is decided and the relegation battlelines drawn.

This is when the early pacesetters fall away as the mud thickens, the temperatures drop and the injuries pile up. This is the time that the foreign superstars fade into the background at the prospect of a wet and windy away game against Middlesborough. This is the time when the biggest players make the biggest plays, when managers lose jobs and when the fans start to wonder if its all worth it…

The wheat will leave the chaff, the dye will be cast and come early March the real challengers will have emerged.

As it stands at the moment Arsenal and Liverpool are top and 2nd respectively with Everton in 3rd and Chelsea 4th. No one will doubt the top 2’s title credentials, but can Everton and Chelsea last the pace, can Man U make a burst forward, will Leeds continue to slide? What will become of Terry Venables…? It's make or break time.

Both Arsenal and Liverpool slipped to defeats at the weekend though, Arsenal were sunk 3-2 at Southampton, sinking with it mine and Vince’s 9 team accumulator bet! James Beattie, who has been dynamite of late, took this tally to 8 goals in the last 7 games, prompting mumblings of and England call up from various journalists. Southampton however had more than just Beattie, goalkeeper Antti Niemi made a truly unbelievable triple save to deny Patrick Vieria, that would have made the score 2-0 and surely sent Arsenal onto victory. This came after Dennis Bergkamp had given Arsenal the lead before Beattie struck to pull the Saints level. Cue the match turning incident, Agustin Delgado races onto a mistake by Pascal Cygan and is hauled down by Sol Campbell. Mr Durkin gives a penalty and sends off Campbell, totally the correct decision. Beattie makes it 2-1, Delgado adds a 3rd and despite Robert Pires late strike Arsenal couldn’t find an equaliser.

Arsenal stay top though as Liverpool failed to capitalise, losing 3-2 at Fulham. An error by Dudek handed Fulham the lead, ‘Zorro’ Sava the lead, as he spilt Sean Davis blast. Davis made it two Dudek left stranded by a huge deflection before Didi Hamann scored goal of the week to put Liverpool back into it.
He smashed a rocket of a free kick into the top corner beyond the helpless dive of Edwin Van Der Sar. You’ve heard of bend it like Beckham, soon it will be ‘Hammer it like Hamann’. He wins the coveted ‘Ian Woan Goal of the Week Award’. Sava then made it 3-1 and effectively put the game beyond Liverpool, despite a late Milan Baros goal Fulham clung on, this despite being down to 10 men, having Alain Goma red carded for two bookable offences.

All this means Everton moved 3rd only 3 points off top spot. They squeaked out a 1-0 win over West Brom courtesy of a Tomas Radzinski goal, that makes it 6 on the bounce for the blues who are flying high…so far anyway.

In 4th sit Chelsea who grabbed a late point at Bolton. Jimmy Hasselbaink robbing Bolton of the 3 points with a late late header,this after Tore Pedersen had given Bolton a lead and Celestine Babayaro had been sent off for an elbow on Djorkaeff.

That leaves with only West Ham and West Brom below them at the bottom. The Hammers were hammered, 4-1 at Villa. Lee Hendrie put Villa ahead with a sweet goal and Oyvind Leonardsen made it 2 on the hour mark. Di Canio hit back for West Ham before Dion Dublin, his 100th Premiership goal and Darius Vassell banged in the nails to the coffin. Glenn Roeder will be a worried man if results continue not to go his way.

Sunderland’s recent run of good results came to an end as they slipped up at home to Birmingham. Clinton O’Morrison getting the only goal late to end Sgt Wilko’s unbeaten run. Also struggling are Man City. They went down 3-1 at the Riverside as a Boro side driven by Cameroonian midfielder Geremi overran them. Geremi supplied a telling ball from a set piece for the 1st, Ugo Ehiogu heading home. Next he supplied Alen Boksic who rose unmakred to beat Peter Schmeichel. Anelka pulled one back but when Shaun Wright-Phillips was sent off the writing was on the wall and Geremi sealed things with a goal of his own. Boro are 6th and looking good for European football next season. Don't bet against them for the FA Cup…I can feel it!

On Sunday Spurs beat Leeds 2-0 courtesy of strikes from Teddy Sheringham and Robbie Keane as El Tel had a miserable return to White Hart Lane. Just across London Blakcburn’s miserable run continued as they went down 3-1 to Charlton. Paul Konchesky’s wonderful free-kick put Charlton ahead before David Thompson got an almost instant reply for Blackburn. But a well worked set piece saw Rufus head Charlton ahead and Jason Euell’s drive sealed things late on, that moves Charlton away from the bottom end of things and up to 15th. Next week they face struggling Leeds…make or break anyone?

Game of the weekend however has to be Man U v Newcastle. Most big name games fail to live up to the hype, Barca v Real this weekend a prime example. Not this one!

Paul Scholes made it 1-0 United when he left Aaron Hughes for dead and slipped United in front, before a bizarre goal from Bernard pulled Newcastle level when his cross beat Barthez, another howler for the United keeper. Ruud van Nistelrooy then grabbed 2 goals before half time to give United a 3-1 lead at the break. Alan Shearer scored a trademark free-kick to get Newcastle back into it before van Nistelrooy completed his hat-trick and Solksjaer scored a dubious 5th. Bellamy capped the scoring as United ran out 5-3 winners. Now that is how football should be played, although the defending left much to be desired. It was infact eerily reminiscent of the games you have with your mates on FIFA…bah who needs defence anyway?