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Asamoah Gyan Dances at Stamford Bridge–and So Does Bolo Zenden

November 15, 2010 — by Suman2

Asamoah Gyan's School of Dance

Up until a couple weeks ago, it seemed as if Chelsea were going to run away with the Premier League title (even the Special One chimed in all the way from Madrid to that effect!), as they rolled through the first 10 games of the season: 8 wins (a few of them blowouts), a draw, and a hard-fought 1-0 loss to Man City.  Then came a surprising 2-0 loss to Liverpool.  Perhaps that could be explained away: the game was away at Anfield Park, Liverpool is actually a “big club” (according to tradition if not the current table), and Fernando Torres suddenly rediscovered his scoring touch.  But after yesterday’s shocking result–a 3-0 loss at home to Sunderland!–Chelsea no longer looks invincible, and we have at least a 3-horse race for the title.

Sunderland had performed doggedly but modestly through their first 9 games–2 wins, 1 loss…and 6 ties.  Then came an embarrassing 5-1 loss against their rivals Newcastle.  That’s the kind of loss that can derail a season–but they bounced back with a win against Stoke City and a draw against Spurs last week.  Still, no one expected them to go into Stamford Bridge and dominate the mighty Blues.

An odd Sunderland stat: all of their mere 10 goals in the 12 games prior to yesterday had been scored by only 2 players: Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan.  But that changed yesterday, as Nedum Onuoha waltzed through the Chelsea defense to score first for Sunderland, and Danny Welbeck finished nicely for their third. (Onuoha, incidentally, is a 24-year-old defender, born in Nigeria and raised in Manchester, on loan to Sunderland from Man City. Welbeck is a 20-year-old winger/striker, born in England to Ghanaian parents, on loan from Man Utd. Both have appeared for England’s U21 team–we may see them in the future for the senior squad.)

But in between those two goals, Gyan got his fourth goal in the past three games–he’d scored all of Sunderland’s goals in their games against Stoke and Spurs.  (In fact, these have been the first three starts of Gyan’s nascent Premier League career, as Bent had been starting ahead of him until he went down with an injury.  It’ll be interesting to see if Sunderland manager Steve Bruce finds a way to get them both on the field from the beginning, once Bent recovers.)

And so Gyan did his dance at Stamford Bridge–a dance we may be seeing in England with some regularity in the future, if Gyan can keep up this sort of finishing.  See all three goals here:

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Spurs Unfortunate to Draw Sunderland

November 9, 2010 — by Sean

I use an emulsifier with some holding creme, then a bit of spray on top before I head out the door.

Tottenham put on a lovely footballing display this afternoon, their best stuff in the first half when they moved the ball around the pitch with ease, linking through van der Vaart and even getting peripheral winger David Bentley in on a good amount of the action.

The game ended in a draw and should’ve really gone to Spurs. Of particular interest were Bale’s lack of accuracy serving the ball from the wing (he needs more consistently excellent play before he can rightly be called one of the best wings in the world), and the amount of time the home side spent moving up the right wing, through the oil-coiffed Bentley.

I hadn’t seen Bentley in a long while. I’d forgotten about him in fact. The last time I think was 2007, he had just fallen over after having the ball swept away from him, and he stood up to adjust his hair before trotting back to look for an outlet pass. I was flabbergasted. Shouldn’t a professional athlete be prepared for the rigors of the game, and apply a sufficient amount of styling gel to keep his hair in place throughout the match? For shame.

No such acts of vanity today (at least not on the pitch, something must’ve happened in the dressing room to achieve the evening’s look). Bentley looked sharp, playing intelligent balls that kept up the pressure on Sunderland’s rearguard, and his set pieces suggest that he hasn’t lost much in terms of accuracy. Bale on the left, Bentley on the right, all’s well that ends well — in that they didn’t lose…