Drama in Spain and England

It was a feast of football this weekend, particularly on Saturday. With Barcelona and Real Madrid in action, as well as Arsenal and Man Utd, the fallout from the games was always likely to be enormous. Let’s start in England first, where Manchester United won comfortably away at Fulham and Arsenal snatched an undeserved, last-gasp equaliser at home to Aston Villa.

With the Cottagers rightly-viewed as prime candidates for relegation, it looked like being a stroll for Utd, which is exactly how it turned out. Owen Hargreaves got himself on the scoresheet, and United didn’t even need to get out of first gear against a poor Fulham. Still, the win belied some glaring deficiencies with Manchester United, as Scholes and Giggs are clearly both past their best. Alex Ferguson has shown before that sentiment rarely clouds his judgement (Keane, Beckham, Van Nistelrooy, etc), but Giggs and Scholes are bona fide United legends. Will he include them at the expense of Nani and Anderson during the run in?

Arsenal appear to be punch drunk, hitting a bad patch of form at just the wrong time. Villa have a decent side, but the league leaders should really have expected to take three points at home against the Birmingham-based outfit. Failure to do so has many pundits questioning their title credentials. Their football is certainly classy enough, but their character as a team is another story. Petulance and whinging has saddled the club since Wenger arrived, and though he remains one of the best managers in the game, his shortcomings are brought into stark relief when compared to season winners like Manchester United and Chelsea. It will be very interesting to see if they can maintain their slender advantage, or if they crash and burn.

Before leaving English shores, mention must be made of Everton. On a shoestring, David Moyes has built a side oozing with quality and cohesiveness. The Merseysiders are well-drilled, tough to break down and an extremely capable passing team. After putting six past Brann in the UEFA Cup, they outclassed a strong Portsmouth side and some of the goals were simply mouthwatering. Tim Cahill is a natural finisher, and the Toffees have a depth, particularly in midfield, that’s been lacking for some time. If they are to pip Liverpool to fourth place and the final Champions League spot, it will be richly deserved.

Despite the great games in England, it’s all happening in Spain. The matches this past weekend were simply extraordinary, making me wonder why I don’t live on the Iberian peninsula. While English football matches are sport, Spanish matches are pageants. There’s an element of flair and emotion in the Spanish game that takes it to an entirely new level, and the Spaniards unquestionably have the strongest league in the world.

The fireworks started in Madrid, with Atletico hosting a rejuvenated Barca. Ronaldinho, the face of that rejuvenation, opened the scoring with an outrageous bicycle kick, proving that he’s getting back to his best at just the right time. Eto’o had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, and the tide began to turn. A lucky deflection gave Sergio “Kun” Aguero an equaliser and the momentum he needed to take centre stage. Victor Valdes has been suspect in Barcelona’s goal recently, and he should have kept out Atletico’s second. After that, Aguero and his team were rampant, adding two more and dealing Barca a mortal blow in the league. It appears that Real Madrid will successfully defend their title.

They won’t do it without their own fireworks, though. Their game against Recreativo de Huelva included three red cards and some dodgy refereeing. Recreativo first took the lead before Madrid pegged them back through a clearly-offside Raul. Minutes later, Recreativo were down to 10 men. Gabriel Heinze will have made few friends as he went down theatrically clutching his face after being pushed in the chest by Beto, who saw red. Sergio Ramos was then sent off himself after he was somewhat harshly adjudged to have challenged for a header elbow-first. His reaction, however, was way over the top, pushing the referee and ensuring a lengthy ban when his team need him most. Of course, with the Spanish FA you can never be sure when logic and justice will prevail.

Robinho came on when Madrid looked out of ideas and took a couple of chances very well. He’s an arrogant little man, but he’s doing the business for Real this season. Suddenly, Real Madrid are five points clear of Barcelona again and the title looks all but won. The real interest is at the other end of the table, where any of 13 teams could realistically be relegated. In fact, there’s a fine line of just a few points separating mortal danger and European football. It’ll be interesting to see how  things shake up.

It’s another Champions League week, when things should really get interesting. Stay tuned!