It was a case of True Grit as “little Alex” and David Moyes rubbed Salt in the wounds of Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger on Saturday.
I thought that the FA were being optimistic only cancelling 5 of the scheduled 10 Premiership matches on Friday, but by Saturday lunchtime another 3 had been postponed, leaving only two matches that could go ahead; Arsenal against Everton at the Emirates and Birmingham City versus Manchester United at St Andrews.
With the entire British Isles blanketed in ice, thousands of football crazy fans braved the icy conditions to support their teams, as ground staff used blow torches to melt the ice around walkways and stairs. Looking at the Emirates turf, you would not have believed the photo from space
David Moyes’ lads had come to London with a purpose, to get revenge for the 6-1 drubbing at Goodison Park on the opening day of the season and it almost worked. In the 12th minute Leon Osman rose above the defence to head home a corner from new man Landon Donovan, who had a terrific debut for the Toffees.
Everton had the upper hand for the most of the first half hour and it was a cruel deflection that left Howard grasping at thin air, after Eduardo’s shot hit Osman’s boot and changed direction. Somehow Denilson was credited with the goal, but his head only made contact after the ball was in the net.
Steven Pienaar’s breakaway goal in the 81st minute was a classic, he raced onto a through ball from Cahill and chipped the advancing Almunia, Vaughn should had sewn up the 3 points minutes later when he was through and clear but this time Almunia had it covered.
The Gunners threw the kitchen sink at the Everton defence but it held up until the 2nd minute of time added on for Denilson’s injury – he was stretchered off, with what appeared to be a recurring back injury – when substitute Thomas Rosicky blasted a low hard ball across the face of the goal and the unfortunate Lucas Neill stuck out a boot and it deflected into his own net to give Arsenal the equaliser and an undeserved share of the points, seeing as both Arsenal’s goals had been scored by Everton players.
In Midweek, Sir Alex, frustrated with the snow, had flown his squad to warmer weather for practice and was taking no chances against his former student Alex McLeish, but the best laid plans of Mice and Men often fall short and it was Cameron Jerome who drew first blood for the Blues after 39 minutes after he had missed one only minutes earlier.
Rooney was in good form but couldn’t convert anything and Birmingham looked more like scoring again that United and didn’t look like surrendering their 11 match unbeaten record. Even when Paul Scholes was given the ball about 20 yards out and right in front, he blasted it over the bar.
In the 63rd minute we had one of those bizarre incidents in English Football, there was a penalty box melee where half the United team seemed to have a shot at goal, the ball eventually went wide to Evra, who sent in a hard low cross, which Scott Dann deflected past Hart into his own net.
Rooney claimed the ball and ran back towards the centre spot as the Referee’s Assistant raised his flag. Referee Mark Clattenburg consulted with him as the Blues players protested that Rooney was offside, or that Park was interfering with Dann – who knows? – after going back and getting another earful from the linesman, the referee allowed the goal to stand, so United were on level terms.
Then in the 84th minute, Darren Fletcher left his leg trailing after an innocuous challenge on Jerome and received his marching orders from Clattenburg for a 2nd bookable offence. With the Red Devils down to 10 men, Birmingham really had an opportunity to go in for the kill, but the defence held up and the Blues were denied a famous victory.
So with Chelsea’s match against Hull having been postponed, both Arsenal and United failed to take advantage of a chance to move up the table, but the fans in England’s second largest City, will be thrilled have two teams in the top eight and a realistic chance that both could be in European competition later the year, even though City have to see off 3 of the top four clubs this month.