Saturday Morning Manager WK18
There's just not enough time in the holiday schedule to crank out a full Monday Morning Manager-style column for the Boxing Day matches and, let's face it, there's a lot of content you want to get to before the Week 19 deadlines like Nik's Player Picks and Ben's Late Fitness Check. In the spirit of keeping the peace here at home during the holidays, here is the abbreviated version of MMM which, I suppose is really SMM since it isn't Monday. The entire Rotoworld.com Premier League team hopes that you enjoyed whatever holiday you might have been celebrating this past week and that Boxing Day brought you all the entertainment you needed to recover from that celebrating.
Chelsea vs. West Ham
Mostly, Sam Alardyce's line-up decisions were the disappointment here. Enner Valencia and Andy Carroll looked like a poor combination the last time they featured together and to send them out together against the league leaders seemed to send the wrong signals. Holding out Alex Song, one of the Hammers' unsung players of the season so far, and Diafra Sakhu could be interpreted as Alardyce admitting that he could only compete seriously in one of the two matches over this weekend and he was going to choose the Arsenal match. While there is some sense to this line of thinking it isn't like the Hammers are toiling away in the Champions League either. With a team flying high and Carroll, Downing, and Sakho all having been out of action recently it seems like they could have sucked it up and competed hard in both matches. For Chelsea's part, they ruthlessly dispatched the upstarts in the manner you would have expected.
Manchester United vs. Newcastle United
Speaking of ruthlessly dispatching upstarts. Manchester United put together a pretty solid effort in addition to getting the result. Mostly, the optimism will come from the attacking side of the ball. I've always been of the opinion that Wayne Rooney is overrated when he's discussed among the very best players in the world but that doesn't mean that he's not a very good player. He's also a player who is FINALLY playing in the right position. I argued multiple years and web sites ago that his best position was in the Scholes role due to his tendency to drop deep in the formation and pick up the ball to either drive for a goal or initiate the attack. The problem earlier in his career is that he was United's best player in multiple positions and Alex Ferguson had legitimate decisions to make about where to play him. With RvP and Falcao both in good health right now, Rooney has been unleashed in his best position to great effect. On United's first goal he collected the rebound from Armstrong's poorly considered shot and drove through the middle of the field and got the ball to Juan Mata. Mata crossed nicely for Falcao who made a beautiful play to center the ball for Rooney who never stopped running. Rooney got an easy tap in. The third goal showed how Rooney can also be valuable playing deeper without having to run forward. He played a great ball into the box from a fairly deep position and the ball was good enough for van Persie to head it home. I've been praising Olivier Giroud in recent weeks for showing the versatility of skills he possesses as a center forward and this was Rooney showing off his great versatility in the "Scholes Role" for United.
Other interesting notes for United: Juan Mata is looking like he's going to be hard to displace in the line-up regardless of who is healthy. On the other hand, we didn't get a chance to learn what LVG might do with a healthy array of stars as Angel Di Maria missed yet another match with a new injury, this one to his hip. Oh, and don't look now but Ashley Young has been flying under the radar as an effective force on the attacking end and doing just enough defending to get by. If Luke Shaw is ever healthy again it will be interesting to see what happens in the left back spot.
Leicester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur
Leicester City just couldn't buy a break. They had more good chances than their opponents but they missed two golden opportunities - Leonardo Ulloa hit woodwork and then Wes Morgan saw a cross tipped just far enough away that he couldn't get any power on it - and also saw a pretty solid penalty shout denied. Such is life at the bottom of the table.
Spurs supporters are probably pretty happy with Harry Kane right now because he seems to be scoring goals pretty regularly right now. My thought yesterday as Kane scored yet another goal low on skill but high on "being in the right place" and "hustle" was to imagine how good Spurs might be if they had a forward who was actually talented in addition to having Kane's work rate.
Sunderland vs. Hull City
What happened to Curtis Davies? He was so good last season but he's fallen off horribly and his atrocious back pass gifted Sunderland a goal Hull City couldn't afford to give. Hull City rebounded to score the next three goals and pick up a huge three away points - their first since August - but there is still the feeling that Steve Bruce's men have as good a chance to go down as anyone other than Leicester City. For Sunderland, they lost a huge opportunity to distance themselves from the relegation conversation in a very meaningful way and they failed miserably after being gifted an early goal. They could yet be dragged back into the relegation battle after looking like they were headed in the right direction after their big Tyne-Wear Derby win last weekend.
Crystal Palace vs. Southampton
Saido Mane was the spark that the Saints needed. His confident strike from a fairly tight angle for their first goal was a great way to break the ice - beautiful pass from James Ward-Prowse to put Mane in, by the way, he's been influential since returning from injury. Mane collected an assist on Bertrand's goal and that was enough for the win. The goal from Alderweireld was a nice bonus for a player who probably needed a boost of confidence after the hard time he suffered trying to deputize as a holding midfielder.
Burnley vs. Liverpool
Like Spurs, lucky to escape with three away points against a bad team but the woodwork did them the same favors it did for Spurs and they rode the Raheem Sterling strike that he SHOULD have made against Manchester United (rounding the keeper and striking with his left rather than taking the extra dribble to get it on his right foot) to the win. At least we know that Sterling is learning from his mistakes.
Everton vs. Stoke City
Everton were unlucky not to get a penalty when Jon Walters fouled Leighton Baines in the box and also suffered some bad luck in the attacking end but a home loss to a mediocre team puts them behind Stoke City in the table and effectively ends them as a contender for even a Europa Cup spot unless a miracle happens.
West Brom vs. Manchester City
Another impressive performance from David Silva who drew a penalty that resulted in Yaya Toure's goal and scored a goal of his own in a match that was never really competitive after Fernando's early goal. Silva has been exactly what City had been missing. It's too bad that his return coincided so closely with Aguero's injury. It would have been fun to watch Silva and Aguero slice through the string of mediocre teams that City have been playing recently.
Swansea City vs. Aston Villa
Not a lot to love from a rain-soaked match but Gylfi Sigurdsson continues to shine back where he belongs in Wales. You have to wonder if he'll get another shot at a "big" club or if the stink of his time at Spurs will prevent someone else from taking a chance on him.
Arsenal vs. QPR
Arsenal got the win but they certainly made the next three fairly challenging matches (@WHU, SOU, and STO) even more difficult by a) losing Giroud who had been great as the pivot of a newly diverse Gunners attack; b) not getting to rest Sanchez who has to be getting run down with all of the matches he's played, especially given the all-action style he plays; and c) giving hope to those upcoming opponents that Arsenal's tendency to make things difficult on themselves hasn't abated. Tomas Rosicky's return and accompanying goal was a nice surprise as was the chance rest Calum Chambers for most of the match (but getting to rest him for the entire match would have been better). The other worry was the penalty conceded by Mathieu Debuchy. The French right back was on the edge of the penalty area defending Junior Hoilett and there was no reason to commit that foul there with a two goal lead. The hope was that Debuchy coming back and replacing Chambers would upgrade a worrysome spot in the Arsenal defense but that looked like exactly the sort of play that Chambers was being crushed for against Swansea and Jefferson Montero.
