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kelvinmak's Blog

OS Soccer Blog - Monday Links Stuck

Posted on January 14, 2013 at 11:16 AM.

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Fergie about to break into the Dad Dance.

Happy Monday, OSers. Plenty of soccer played over the weekend.

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Manchester United 2 - 1 Liverpool

With the exception of the Wigan game, how rare is it this season for a United team to be "on" for a full 90 minutes? Granted, Liverpool was never going to just roll over given the nature of the rivalry, but so far this season certainly hasn't done any favors to United fans' heart rates.

On the Kop side, once Sturridge came on in the second half and enabled Suarez to drop deeper, all of a sudden it livened everybody up (well, except Joe Allen.) The trident of the S's up front--Sturridge, Sterling, and Suarez-- may just be one of the paciest out there, and they can certainly cause a lot of headaches for backlines around the league.

Here's The Guardian's, as always, stellar roundup and Zonal Marking's tactical analysis.

Arsenal 0 - 2 Manchester City

Surprising that this turned out to be the more contentious match of the day given that it followed the North West derby. But from the moment Mike Dean (it had to be him) spotted Koscielny's groping of Dzeko and decided that it worth of a sending off, you knew this was going to be that kind of a match. In the end, two reds and six yellows.

The match itself really wasn't in doubt once Koscielny got his marching orders, even if Dzeko kept things interesting by missing his spot kick. What's more interesting is Wenger's blunt assessment of his team afterwards: "timid", "nervous", and "uptight."

The Guardian's take here.

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Elsewhere, both Chris Hughton and Harry Redknapp took on their former teams and ended up with goalless draws. Hughton's Norwich against Newcastle, while Redknapp's QPR against Spurs.

And not that we should delight in anybody's misery, even if he plays for Stoke, Jonathan Walters scored two own goals and missed a penalty in The Potters' 0-4 defeat against Chelsea.

Against what would usually have been a pretty tough opponent at their home ground, The Blues had an surprisingly easy time. Is Rafa slowly turning the team around or is this just a false dawn? Meanwhile, according to the Daily Mail, the team continues its full court press to get Frank Lampard the hell out of Stamford Bridge as soon as the season's over.

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In La Liga, Messi scores and Barcelona wins. Yawn. Real Madrid drops more points as they draw against Osasuna. Yawn. But at least Kak� got himself sent off, so there's that.

Ronaldo says he'll stay in Madrid until his contract is up. Just like he did at Manchester United after he vowed to do so. Oh, wait.

In Italy, with a 2-0 over Atalanta, Lazio are only three points behind leaders Juventus, who stumbled for the second week in a row as they drew with Parma. Meanwhile Inter beat Pescara 2-0, and moves into the third spot.

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Here's Milner's goal against Arsenal.

Photo via The Mirror UK.