As perhaps 2 or 3 Commentist Party members may have noticed, there was no Saturday morning thread last week, thanks to the Premier League taking the week off for FA Cup 3rd round action (i.e., the round when Premier League sides enter the tourney against what’s left of various lower league and pub side plankton). I wasn’t about to preview that giant swath of games. Everton wasn’t even on the telly, so the last two matches I have seen were both on Wednesdays, both against Man City – the first leg of the League Cup semifinal (a thrilling 2-1 home win) and perhaps the best match I’ve seen this year, and certainly the best nil-nil draw I can remember ever seeing (at the Emirates – see new Bosnian cult hero Muhamed Bešić making a tackle above, he bossed the midfield for 180 minutes against Yaya Toure and really changed the entire vibe around Everton’s season).
It also gave me a fun, albeit silly idea – what if you could airlift City and the Toffees from the Prem and into La Liga? Their progressive, flowing styles of play would be perfectly suited to it, and there would then be enough quality at the top for there to be real competition (instead of just two El Clasicos and a parade of Barca training sessions). For it’s not lack of quality that hinders Everton, as much as it’s being so tactically dissimilar to the “grind it out” style so prevalent in the lower-middle ranks of the table. Or maybe I just have enjoyed a little Prague Spring of watching attractive football. It was much the same story when my Blues competed in the Europa League (European soccer’s NIT) last year, too. There were no Stoke Citys, and the fucking world was much better for it.
Everton will test their new mojo out at Stamford Bridge against “We don’t suck anymore! MAYBE!!” Chelski (10 EST, USA), in a good test for both sides as they try to climb back into the top half of the table and regain lost self-respect. Our aforementioned buds at City (trivia time, City were Ian Curtis’ side, for all you Joy Division fans) take on 8th place Crystal Palace (10, NBCSN). Palace have stumbled of late, and may be losing their early season over-achieving form.
That’s a sharp contrast to everyone’s 2nd favourites, Foxy Footy, who play shithounds Aston Villa in big NBC’s featured match at 12:30. Leicester have climbed back into 2nd position, even on points with Arsenal, but trailing on goal differential. Arsenal failed to hold a stoppage time lead against the Shite midweek, and Foxy Footy took advantage, beating Spurs 1-nil. No, they are NOT going away.
Sunday’s double is a good one, with the 9th place Shite taking on 5th place Manure in the Poo Derby (9:00, NBCSN), followed by the surprising shitheels of 7th position Stoke (say that 5 times fast) against top of the table Arsenal at 11:15. There have been a great many games played since the Moosemas holiday period, over a compressed period of time. We will learn a lot about who has the right stuff to take it all the way to May this weekend. Or it will be totally meaningless. The fuck do I know?
