4 goals in one game and a clean sheet, surely not?
After the disastrous start to the season Plymouth Argyle seem to finally be getting their act together, five games without defeat, 13 points from a possible 15 and suddenly up into the play-off places. Definitely much better than 24th and bottom three weeks ago. But on the downside, Plymouth have an awful lot of money sat on the subs bench and dressing room, Simon Walton (£750k), Steve MacLean (£500k) although if the rumours are true MacLean is on his way out of Home Park come the January transfer window, if someone wants to buy him! Mpenza seems to be a permanent resident on the bench eating up £10k per week in wages. He has only played a handful of minutes since joining Argyle before the transfer deadline. And was brought on seconds before the final whistle on Saturday which seems completely pointless. Argyle need to cut wage bills badly as the club is overspending badly right now, MacLean is almost certain to go, out of favour Walton and Jason Puncheon may also be on the list to be axed! Jamie Mackie is finally starting to come into his own now after acclimatising himself to Championship football making a nuisance of himself and finding the back of the net as well. Mackie was involved in three of the four goals scored, pressuring Mark Beevers into making a mistake which resulted in the ball finding its way into the back of the net for a 1 – 0 lead. Then the ex Grecian set up Paul Gallagher 10 minutes later the found the back of the net himself a further five minutes later to make it 3 – 0 after 30 minutes. Marcel Seip put the final nail in the Wednesday coffin in the 89th minute rising above the defence to head home. So it’s upto 5th in the league but the next game is a tough one, Derby County away from home, I’ll be happy with a point from Pride Park, but a win would be preferable to consolidate our position!
On the other hand Liverpool were lucky to claim three points from the City of Manchester Stadium after going 2 – 0 down by the half time interval courtesy Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido. The second half Liverpool suddenly started playing and got their reward just 10 minutes after the half time break, can you guess who scored? Yup that’s right it’s Liverpool’s favourite Spaniard Fernando Torres. Then Liverpool got another break when Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for a cynical foul on Xabi Alonso. The Red’s really piled on the pressure using the overlap to good effect with Torres heading Steven Gerrard’s corner kick goal bound to bring the scores level. Dirk Kuyt scored the winner deep into added time with a low drive from six yards out. I would say that Liverpool were lucky to come away with the points after a poor first half performance, it was most definitely a game of two halves. Liverpool are still 2nd in the league as Chelsea also won their game against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge. Surprise of the weekend was Hull beating Tottenham 0 – 1 at White Hart Lane to move into 3rd spot ahead of Arsenal who salvaged a point against Sunderland. The Red are definitely title contenders this season with Arsenal and Manchester United struggling for form. Liverpool will need consistency to stay ahead of the game and Torres is key to that as I don’t expect the main rivals to struggle for long!