Call it a mid-season review, a Christmas-break wrap-up or an
end-of-year retrospective. Call it what you like. I hate
football now and I'm going on holiday next week and I don't
care.
Here are a few facts, reflections and predictions - a First
XI - to keep Premier League fans interested while the Kop
That blog is on leave:
1. Forgotten fact No 1
There were no draws on August 15, the opening day of the
2009-10 season. Not one flippin' draw! That had never
happened before in the Premier League.
2. Forgotten fact No 2
The first scorer of the new season was Stephen Hunt, on debut
for Hull. Against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea won
2-1.
3. Three results that shocked the
system
The season was barely a week old when tiny Burnley, playing
with the big boys for the first time since 1976, stunned
Manchester United 1-0 at the delightfully named Turf Moor.
It was an "acute embarrassment" and Man United were
"shockingly poor'', according to the match report in the
Guardian. Just last week, bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth put
the boot into slumping Liverpool with a 2-0 win at Fratton
Park.
But I think the biggest shock of the season may have
been Wigan's 3-1 pumping of Chelsea late in September, which
was a first loss for the Blues.
4. That f---ing beach ball
Oh . . . my . . . God. Or, as the young punk who was
responsible for the most bizarre goal of the season would
text his pimply mates, OMG.
Sunderland beat Liverpool 1-0 on October 17 thanks to the
influence of a beach ball and a brain-dead Liverpool fan.
Striker Darren Bent, having a fine season since transferring
from Spurs, cracked in a shot that was going straight into
Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina's arms.
That's when fate, in the form of 16-year-old dunce Callum
Campbell, intervened. Campbell had punched a beach ball on to
the pitch. it bounced beautifully in front of Bent,
deflecting his shot past Reina and into the Liverpool net.
Never mind. The referee, Mick Jones, was on hand. Surely he
would disallow the goal for outside interference. Of course
not. It's been that sort of season for Liverpool.
5. Nine? Nine???
That was everybody's reaction upon hearing the bizarre
scoreline in the game between Spurs and Wigan at White Hart
Lane on November 21.
Tottenham 9, Wigan 1.That's Tottenham 9, Wigan 1.
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