UK Football

photo: Mark Freeman

Salomon Kalou’s goal celebrations from Wednesday’s match are being investigated by the FA, for what the Football Association calls a ‘handcuff’ gesture by Kalou.  Supposedly this is a shout out to recently freed activist Antoine Tiemoko, and the FA apparently disagrees with such a thing.  My point, who cares?  If Salomon Kalou want’s to call attention to some political issue he thinks is relevant, in a goal celebration, let him, I can’t be bothered to be offended by such a trivial thing.

Worthy of note is Kalou’s dismissal of the accusations, stating that the ‘handcuff’ gesture was in actuality a reference to his own strength for having scored both goals in Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough.

Manchester City have failed once again in their attempt to sign Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn, despite tabling a very respectable £18million+ offer, Blackburn are apparently smart enough to not throw away their greatest talent.  That or they believe Santa Cruz to be in the £30million transfer level, and Allardyce has them holding out for more cash.  Either way, looks like Santa Cruz is stuck at Blackburn at least until the end of this season.

Speaking of Blackburn Rovers, El-Hadji Diouf is reportedly close to signing for the club.  Which is a move again that I don’t understand, for Blackburn it’s brilliant, they get a good player who failed to peak at Sunderland and who will be a worthy attacking replacement for when Santa Cruz does inevitably leave.  But why are Sunderland again in the habit of selling their big names.  I understand they had a few disciplinary issues with Chimbonda, but that doesn’t seem like enough reason to have sold him.

And I think the same thing of Diouf, yes he’s failed to score at Sunderland, but that doesn’t mean he won’t.  Sometimes it takes a player a long time to get settled at a new club, but that’s no reason for Sunderland to sell one of their best talents.  But I guess Ricky Sbragia has a plan, and he’s carrying it out to the fullest.

Finally, Bolton sold Kevin Nolan to Newcastle, a good pick up for Kinnear, but Newcastle shouldn’t be spending too much money at the moment, especially considering Shay Given has just officially handed in a written transfer request to depart from the club.  It’s not going to be cheap buying another keeper of Given’s quality.

Photo: Austin Osuide

Manchester United go top of the table for the first time this season, and remember this is about the time last year that the champions first went to the top. United’s performance against Chelsea notwithstanding, I’m really amazed that they’ve made it this far with their appalling lack of quality that has plagued the club this season. Mostly attributed to Ronaldo who just doesn’t look like the confident 42 goal scoring midfield threat of last season.

Case in point, the two times Ronaldo was completely free on the left side and both times, running at the keeper instead of shooting he attempted awful passes that immediately stopped United’s attack. And actually Bolton right back Steinsson was nowhere to be seen for most of the match when Ronaldo was attacking that left flank, which makes me scratch my head as to how the FIFA player of the year failed to score, or even set up an assist during the entire 90 minutes.

Had it not been for Carlos Tevez’s tenacity and strength, and a well placed Berbatov, United would only have taken 1 point away from the fixture, and incited serious doubt in the champions ability to keep their crown for a third successive title.

But United have the top for now, with Liverpool still to play on Monday, a match which could go either way considering they face Everton in the Merseyside derby. But looking at the table you see the testament to how competitive the Premiership has been this year. The top five are only separated by six points, which means in all likelihood, and hopefully for the joy of Prem supporters, this year should be like last year where it may take up until the final match day for a champion to be crowned.