Weekend round up

The weekend began with both Liverpool and Valencia at the top of their respective tables. Both again had to win to remain there.

The Liverpool game was the late kick off in the Premier League, and it was top meets bottom. With Chelsea having won yet again, there was only one thing for them to do. They had to beat a Tottenham side who were slowly gaining confidence. This fixture has proved somewhat difficult for Liverpool over the years, but a third minute goal today suggested this may be about to change. From that point, Liverpool's nerves seemed to settle, and they had another good chance just minutes later. Tottenham were determined not to be down and out of the game this early on though, and they gradully gained confidence, keeping possession well and even having several shots on goal themselves.

Before the game, it was announced that Robbie Keane had never gone a game without scoring against his old team. As the game wore on, it was starting to look like today would be that day. So far, I am not at all impressed with him, 2 goals (neither of which is in the Prem) is simply not good enough for a £20mil striker. We need more from you please Mr Keane. If you're not prepared to give it, or are just too crap to, please go rot with Spurs, yes?

Steven Gerrard hit the post just after the 50th minute, and luckily for Tottenham, there was nobody there to put in the rebound. This happened again just minutes later, followed almost instantly by a miss from Dirk Kuyt, whose 3rd minute goal was keeping Liverpool in the lead. It was clear which team was the hungrier in the second half, and for at least 15 minutes, the play was almost entirely in front of the Tottenham goal. All their possession still hadn't led to a second goal however, and the game was finely poised leading into the final hour. Keane was replaced by Babel after 65 minutes, having been largely...well, useless, for want of a better word, for the entire time he was on.

The goal was on the cards for Tottenham. Unfortunately, it was Jamie Carragher putting the ball into the back of his own net that gifted Spurs an undeserved equaliser. Minutes before the final whistle, Spurs scored what was to be the winning goal. Pieces of shit. There's some rule that'll penalise them for poaching another teams' manager right?

When the shit hits the fan, I can usually count on Valencia to cheer me up. Even if they don't play well/win, I'll have caught a glimpse of Dahveed, and that makes everything better. Vicente started the game, clearly eager to prove a point to Unai Emery, and from the offset, he was picking out passes and making those runs I remember him for back in 2003. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to do Valencia much good. They went behind midway through the first half, but it didn't last for too long. A clumsy tackle of Joaquin gave the home side a penalty, which Veeyah promptly put away. As he does. The first half finished 1-1, but the mere fact that Racing Santander are one of their more difficult fixtures seemed to affect them.

The second half was just as bad for Valencia fans, they went down just five minutes after the restart and it was looking like one of those days for them. They never gave up hope though and neither did I. On 70 minutes, Joaquin smashed the ball home after a Mata corner. 2-2 with 20 minutes to go. I don't even want to talk about the rest of the game. Lets just say, the shit hit the fan big time and Valencia didn't cheer me up.

It seems pretty harsh to have both teams robbed of their unbeaten record and be demoted from the top of the table in the same weekend, but I have faith in them. They can overcome this minor blip and get back to the top soon enough,and even if they don't, they can still count on the fact that I will still be cheering like mad every time they step out onto the pitch.