Tuesday 13 December 2005

Premiership Roundup Week 16

As predicted, Liverpool got this week's fixtures started with a routine 2-0 victory over Middlesborough through two goals from Fernando Morientes and yet another clean sheet; Liverpool are starting to look impressively strong on all fronts.

The afternoon games produced two major surprises as West Brom showed signs of adapting to the Premiership as they overturned the from guide and my prediction to beat an offcolour Manchester City 2-0. Meanwhile, I got it right with Newcastle, who edged visitors Arsenal 1-0 to stem the Gunners' recovery.

The other matches pretty much ran to form as Birmingham edged towards safety with a narrow 1-0 win over Fulham; Blackburn versus West Ham produced all the thrills I expected but Blackburn confounded my call, just winning 3-2; Aston Villa also fooled me, forcing a 1-1 draw at Bolton, with both goals coming in the last ten minutes; Charlton took my advice and stopped their losing streak with a unexciting 2-0 win; and Chelsea produced another steady if a little dull performance to beat Wigan 1-0 through another goal from captain John Terry.

Sunday's game was a personal vindication for Everton's ex Red, Phil Neville, who ran the game for the Blues and fully deserved his Man-of-the-Match award in the Theatre of Dreams as Manchester United were almost overwhelmed but held on for a frustrating 1-1 draw, despite my predictable victory prediction.

I did much better with the Monday night game, correctly calling a confident Tottenham victory, as the Spurs marred the return of Harry Redknapp as Portsmouth manager, brushing them aside 3 - 1. My score for the weekend a respectable if unexciting 6 out of 10. The current full Premiership League Table is on the Premier League website.

This roundup is cross-posted on the mighty BlogCritics site.

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