Weekend round up

It was vitally important for both Valencia and Liverpool to win their games in order to establish their lead at the top of their respective tables once more. Liverpool's task was arguably the more difficult of the two, away to Chelsea who haven't lost at home in 86 games AND without their star striker - Torres ruled out with a hamstring injury.

And so it began. Chelsea started the brighter of the two, an early slip from Alonso almost handing Anelka the perfect start, and it would have been 1-0 Chelsea had it not been for a vital interception from Daniel Agger. Liverpool didn't have long to wait until they took the lead, an Alonso shot on goal getting deflected off Bosingwa's backside to bamboozle Cech and they were 1-0 up on 10 minutes. It was a tense affair after that, with both teams attacking but neither managing to find that breakthrough. Steven Gerrard came really close to extending Liverpool's lead, only a fingertip save from Cech preventing him from doing so.

Chelsea were up to their usual cheating/diving/being general twats style tricks, Bosingwa writhing in apparent agony following a clean tackle from Gerrard in which he not only won the ball, but also made little contact with the player. The ref must have been seeing something else though, and out came the yellow card for the second time in the game. Liverpool held on to the lead going in at half time though, and Chelsea's unbeaten home run was under threat.

The second half carried on from where the first left off. Both teams continued to attack, but neither could get a foothold in the game. Just past the hour mark, Alonso crashed a shot off the post, and what a shot it was! Ashley Cole should have been sent off after 65 minutes, a foul on Babel worthy of a second booking being overlooked by the referee, who chose to book Mascher instead. Howard Webb, who is normally a good referee, has made some shocking decisions today. Pepe seems to have a habit of knocking his team mates out and he managed to clatter into Daniel Agger today, the Dane simply getting up after a few seconds and shaking the cobwebs out.

John Terry, ever the twat, fouled Reina then looked all innocent after, and I was starting to think that this game had been bought by Abramovic's millions. It was heading towards being Chelsea's first defeat at home in the Premiership for over 4 years. Chelsea were throwing everything at it, replacing defenders with strikers to try and get the equaliser. It was all in vain though, Liverpool walking away worthy winners and taking their place at the top of the table.

The Valencia game had a similar situation. Win, and they finish the weekend where they started. Top of the league. They came close to opening the scoring on many occasions, most notably when Joaquin just overhit a lob after a good pass from Veeyah. Renan was playing against the sun for the first half, making it difficult for him to see the ball when Recreativo were attacking. Veeyah wasted several good chances, sending the ball wide. It wasn't the most exciting of games to this point, the Recreativo players doing their best to make me happy and get Dahveed angry. It worked near the end of the first half, and as the whistle went to signal the end of the half, he walked towards the tunnel still arguing with the Recreativo players. Sadly, he got booked for his protesting. Some referees just don't know a fair tackle when it's right in front of them...

The second half needed to be better for them. A win would put them comfortably clear at the top. Unfortunately, they had a bad start to the second half, they were 1-0 down within 2 minutes of the restart. Had it not been for an interception from Alexis just minutes later, it could have been a lot worse. But it wasn't to last long. Yep, that man Veeyah scored again. Words cannot describe how much I love him. Even with 70% of the posession, they couldn't pull out the win, but they remain top of the table at least until the late games finish.