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The Ligue 1 Review: Five wins out of five for Marseille

By O-Posts Team | September 18, 2012 - 17:08 | Columns, Ligue 1, The Ligue 1 Review

Marseille celebrate a hard-fought against Nancy.

Five wins from the opening five — a club record and quite the statement of intent from Marseille who dominated at Nancy but somehow failed to convert any of their first-half chances. The breakthrough came just before the hour courtesy of the Ayew brothers — André crossing for Jordan — and it turned out to be the winner.

An impressive, and perhaps surprising, start from Élie Baup’s team who are beginning to prove themselves as genuine title-contenders alongside Lyon and PSG.

With Lille and Montpellier both seeming to have their minds on the Champions League, their league threats may be somewhat blunted. Marseille’s only potential problem could be a lack of squad depth; with Stéphane Mbia and Alou Diarra departed, their only direct replacement Joey Barton is suspended until November.

PSG are beginning to look comfortable, and they brushed aside the previously unbeaten Toulouse with very little problem on Friday night. Jérémy Ménez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic linked up well, with Ibra netting his fifth of the season.

Earlier in the game, Javier Pastore’s neat chip marked the first non-Ibrahimovic goal of PSG’s season. The Swede said “If I score, I am happy, and if someone else scores I am even happier!” but that seems rather hard to believe.

The slightly less free-scoring Montpellier lost their third game of the season 3-1 away at Reims as, yet again, their defence was cut open far too easily.

Coach René Girard admitted: “This is the first evening where I have had to ask myself some serious questions. We lost our values. We can be ashamed of ourselves tonight.”

The reigning champions have big problems ahead of facing tougher opponents in the Champions League. They face the man who they are missing dearly already, Olivier Giroud, and his Arsenal team, on Tuesday night.

There was a bizarre game at Nice where it was goalless at half-time but finished 4-2 to the hosts.

In truth, Brest were never in the match, with both their goals coming while they were three goals behind, and Nice did enough for their first win of the season.

Sochaux also picked up their first three points with the ultimate smash-and-grab at Saint-Étienne.

Simon Pouplin had an incredible performance, and certainly didn’t look like a keeper who had spent a year without a club, before Thierry Doubaï’s fantastic overhead kick fifteen minutes from time was enough to seal the points for the away side and lift them off the bottom of the table.

Replacing them at the bottom were Troyes, despite a decent point at home to Lille. The 2011 champions haven’t had the most convincing start to the season, and failed to capitalise on their 1-0 lead before conceding a late equaliser.

Rudi Garcia’s side will need to win against BATE on Wednesday to have any chance of getting out of a Champions League group containing Bayern Munich and Valencia.

Alain Traoré was again the star for Lorient in the Brittany derby against Rennes, scoring his third and fourth goals of the season, and once again they were spectacular. A delicious first-time lob over Benoît Costil was followed by a free kick reminiscent of a Roberto Carlos swerving effort.

Alain Traore…. steals the show yet again.

Rennes were uninspiring in a 2-1 defeat that left them third-from-bottom, and their rivals third from the top.

Just above Lorient in second lie Lyon, who did enough to dismiss Ajaccio. It could have been more but for a rather greedy Bafétimbi Gomis who seemed intent on going alone at every opportunity, but a goal in each half from Dejan Lovren and Lisandro López were enough to seal off the visitors.

The Corsican side brought on new signing Adrian Mutu for his debut, but it remains to be seen whether he will turn out to be a useful acquisition or a mere vanity signing.

Six Ligue 1 sides are involved in European competition this midweek, with Montpellier facing the toughest task, against Arsenal.

Interestingly, only Marseille have an away tie, a lengthy trip to Istanbul to face Fenerbahçe, so we may well see some rotation from Élie Baup, giving some of his younger players a chance before refocusing on the league for Sunday’s clash with Évian.

Lille have a home tie with Lyon to prepare for after their Champions League game against BATE, so this week will be crucial in gauging how competitive they will be this season. Lyon themselves will play Sparta Prague on Thursday.

Elsewhere, Bordeaux play Club Brugge in the Europa League and PSG play Dynamo Kiev in Europe’s premier competition.

Paris should be fairly confident in getting out of a group also containing Porto and Dinamo Zagreb, and Tuesday should see the long-awaited debut of record signing Thiago Silva as the side from the capital continue their effort at world domination.

Written by Alasdair Shaw

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Adam’s Premier League Column: Weekly Round Up Week 4- Six of the Best for Arsenal

By O-Posts Team | September 16, 2012 - 19:10 | Adam's Premier League Column, Columns, Premier League

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Above: Podolski celebrates his spectacular free-kick which put the Gunners 2-0 up.

Arsenal 6 Southampton 1

Thanks to two own goals, Arsenal carried their great form to thrash pointless Southampton.

The Saints could hardly have asked for a tougher opening to their season, playing the two Manchester clubs and obviously Arsenal.

Southampton found themselves 4-0 down in the first 38 minutes thanks to some pretty shoddy defending. Saints ‘keeper Kelvin Davis could and should have done better after not efficiently dealing with Kieran Gibbs’ cross.

Podolski secured Arsenal’s second goal of the day by crafting a spectacular free-kick into the top corner on 31 minutes.

After that Arsenal shifted into another gear and the Saints just couldn’t keep up.

Gervinho then ran through on goal and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike before hammering in at the near post four minutes later.

Things went from bad to worse as Southhampton conceded another somewhat unfortunate own goal as Kieran Gibbs drilled in a cross for it to find Nathaniel Clyne who turned it into his own net.

Just before the break Southampton showed glimpses of a comeback, Fox pounced on a fumble by Szczesny to make it 4-1. But it was too little too late.

After half time, the pace slowed down, although Arsenal weren’t finished scoring just yet. Gervinho tapped in from three yards after an initial shot hit the post.

The final goal came from former Saints player Theo Walcott, who curled in an effort from just inside the box.

Great performance by Arsenal, but questions have to be asked about Southampton.

Norwich 0 West Ham 0

All in all a dire game, with both sides failing to capitalise on chances.

I think West Ham will be the happier side after keeping out numerous chances from the Canaries.

West Ham started the stronger, and Carlton Cole, who came in for the injured Andy Carroll, was unlucky not to score.

Grant Holt was poor for Norwich, and they don’t look as good this season under boss Chris Hughton.

The Hammers will be looking forward to their next game at home to Sunderland where they could be looking at three points.

Norwich, however, face a tough test away to Newcastle, who are flying high in Europe.

Aston Villa 2 Swansea 0

Aston Villa registered their first victory of the 2012/13 season and they were worthy winners.

It’s a step in the right direction for Paul Lambert’s Villa, after a disappointing start to the season.

I thought that Steven Ireland had a very good game for The Villa. His passing was sharp and he could have bagged himself a goal, too. Matthew Lowton’s wonder striker, his first goal for Villa, put the hosts ahead.

In the dying minutes of the game, debutant Christian Benteke ran on through goal after reacting well to a weak Swansea header to round ‘keeper Michel Vorm to tap in.

A great defensive display by Aston Villa, Brad Guzan in particular, and Swansea just need to move on and learn from their mistakes, and look forward to next week’s game at home to Everton.

Fulham 3 West Bromwich Albion 0

Dimitar Berbatov grabbed the headlines after scoring a brace in his home debut against the Baggies. His first goal was great; his second was a calmly taken penalty.

Martin Jol described Bervatov as ‘The best signing in Fulham’s history’, and what a way to answer to that with two goals in front of the Fulham faithful!

Steve Sidwell rounded off the scoring in the last minutes with a tap-in.

Dimitar Berbatov said after the game, ‘It was a great home debut. I had a feeling before the game that it would be a good day for the team and me. And it’s a great feeling. I feel satisfied with the result and my play, and all the supporters are happy as well’.

Manchester United 4 Wigan 0

The game was labeled by various pundits as a game of milestones, what with Paul Scholes making his 700th appearance for the Red Devils, veteran Ryan Giggs coming off the bench to secure his 600th appearance, and Dutch forward Alexander Buttner making his first.

Manchester United earned a dubious penalty after Danny Welbeck appeared to be fouled but replays suggested that the England frontman took a dive. However, justice was done as Ali Al Habsi saved well to his left to keep out Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez’s resulting penalty.

After half time, Manchester United clicked into gear and scored three in fifteen minutes.

The first came from Paul Scholes, who had to tap-in from close range. That goal means Scholes has scored in his 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, 500th, 600th, and 700th appearance. J

avier Hernandez converted the second, despite having in my opinion a bad game. He has struggled somewhat to secure a regular staring place thanks to the talent of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck, and also United’s third scorer of the game, Buttner. So when Hernandez gets the chance he really has got to grab it with both hands if that isn’t too much of a cliché.

Powell rounded off a successful afternoon to make the final score 4-0 in favour to the Red Devils.

Queens Park Rangers 0 Chelsea 0

A game at the centre of media attention. Will Anton Ferdinand shake the hand of John Terry and Ashley Cole or won’t he? Ferdinand, of course, didn’t.

This brings up the big debate of should handshakes be discarded and forgotten about? But that’s for a separate debate, so let’s get back to the football.

Loftus Road has always been a struggle for Chelsea, and it proved to be a struggle this time around. Chelsea should arguably have had a couple of penalties; however referee Andre Marriner was giving The Pensioners absolutely nothing, much to the frustration of boss Di Matteo.

The first penalty shout came from Ryan Nelson’s alleged handling of Terry, who was at the centre of abuse for the majority of the match. Shaun-Wright-Phillips was the culprit of the second shout: He carried out a clumsy challenge on Eden Hazard, and which was again waved away.

A frustrating day for Chelsea, and I think they will be happy the game finished.

Stoke City 1 Manchester City 1

Plenty of debutants for the Manchester Club, Javier Garcia, Scott Sinclair and full back Maicon came in for the Citizens.

The opening goal came from Peter Crouch, who I feel wrongly stated in the week that he should play for England. I don’t think it’s a choice for players to make, it’s entirely the manager’s decision.

However, the goal from the frontman was handled on numerous occasions, and Man City can find themselves unfortunate that Mark Clattenburg didn’t spot the foul play.

Debutant Garcia was the saviour for Man City, and he looks to be a very promising player, both attacking wise and also defensively. Yaya Touré might feel he could have won it for the Blues, but was denied by ‘keeper Begovic who saved well on numerous occasions.

It will be interesting to see how Manchester City play against a depleted Real Madrid team, according to José Mourinho. That could be one of the Special One’s mind games, though.

Sunderland 1 Liverpool 1

Liverpool’s rather frustrating start to the season continues and they should really have won. However, nothing should be taken away from the Black Cats as they played some good football at times.

They took the lead through Steven Fletcher, who is massively underrated. Liverpool returned to fortunes of the past season as they hit the bar and posts on numerous occasions, Glen Johnson’s effort the most noticeable of them all, curling in an effort on his favoured right foot to smack against the post.

Luis Suarez tumbled, rolled and screamed his way around the pitch in customary fashion, but the Uruguayan netted to earn a point for the Anfield club in what has been a historic week in the clubs history, where justice has finally come out and I would like to take this opportunity to say how sorry I feel for all the families involved in the Hillsborough tragedy.

Reading 1 Tottenham 3

AVB’s Tottenham registered a comfortable win away to Reading. Defoe opened the scoring with a well taken goal inside the first 20 minutes.

Tottenham carried on pressing and Reading’s defence looked weak, with many passes going astray. Aaron Lennon had a great game down the right and carried on picking holes in the newly promoted side’s defence.

Gareth Bale made it 2-0 on 71 minutes with a somewhat scuffed shot. I think that Bale isn’t as effective playing too far forward; I feel he was a better all rounded player when he was as full-back. However, he was always there in Tottenham’s attacks and his persistence paid off.

Defoe scored his second of the game and his third league goal this season with a terrific solo goal. He will be key to England’s World Cup Qualifying campaign, if he scores and play’s well, England will almost definitely qualify. He is that good a player and so underrated, and people don’t appreciate the quality he has.

Reading then scored themselves to make it 3-1 with a well taken finish from Robson-Kanu on 90 minutes, but it was too little too late.

My Team of the Week

Written by Adam May

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The Ligue 1 Review: Marseille continue to fly high, while PSG finally gain their first win

By O-Posts Team | September 5, 2012 - 13:42 | Columns, Ligue 1, Olympique Marseille, Paris St.Germain, The Ligue 1 Review

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Right then — Ligue 1. It’s a bit interesting now, isn’t it? With some very big money arrivals, and equally expensive departures, people seem to be starting to take the French league seriously.

While Eden Hazard’s early form at Chelsea has shown the league isn’t as weak as many would have you think, the arrival of some of the best players in Serie A in Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic perhaps indicate a shift in the power balance. OK, so PSG’s petro-dollars are behind all of those, but it was encouraging to see players like Salomon Kalou and Adrian Mutu choose to move to France, as well as the likes of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Marvin Martin staying in the country.

With Lyon’s monopoly on league titles well and truly over, and four different champions in the last four years, Ligue 1 is looking stronger and more competitive than ever.

Two of the strongest looking outfits, the aforementioned oil-powered Paris Saint-Germain, and 2011 champions Lille, met on Sunday with just one league win between them. Having sealed their place in the Champions League group stage during the week, Lille were slow to start, and were punished within a minute by Ibrahimovic.

PSG’s slick passing in the build-up to the goal displayed that their expensively-assembled side is beginning to show some cohesion, a lack of which had led to their string of draws in their first three matches of the season.

Aurélien Chedjou’s second goal of the season levelled the scores before Ibrahimovic’s second of the match put Paris back in front. The Swede has scored all of his team’s goals so far this season and seems to enjoy being an even bigger fish in a perhaps smaller pond.

Reigning champions Montpellier got their first win of the season this weekend too, as the returning Younès Belhanda pulled the strings in a straightforward win over pointless Sochaux. Montpellier have had an awkward start to the season as they dealt with the loss of last season’s top scorer Olivier Giroud. The goalscoring baton has been passed to the significantly less handsome Emanuel Herrera, who got his second goal for the club, albeit a tap-in.

Sochaux look in deep trouble, having failed to significantly strengthen a side that finished just four points above the relegation spots last season, and have since lost their primary creator and goalscorer in Marvin Martin and Modibo Maïga respectively. Winger Sébastien Roudet’s comments that Sochaux “are a Ligue 2-quality squad” won’t encourage the fans, who saw their side qualify for European competition just two years ago.

While Sochaux have made the worst possible start, Marseille are flying with four wins from four. Élie Baup was something of a leftfield appointment to succeed Didier Deschamps, but, of course, the appointment suddenly looks a masterstroke in a week in which OM successfully qualified for the Europa League group stage and got a deserved victory against Rennes at the Stade Vélodrome.

Mathieu Valbuena looked sharp, and the return of Loïc Rémy was another positive sign, but there was one clearly outstanding performer in André-Pierre Gignac, who is playing, in stark contrast to last season, like a man with all the confidence in the world. This was summed up by the gall he had to even attempt his glorious strike to make it 2-1 to the home side. If Rémy can make a full recovery from his long-term injury problems, Marseille will go from strength to strength.

After a tricky start, Saint-Étienne have picked up six points in seven days, scoring seven without reply. In their 3-0 outclassing of Bastia they were efficient in launching counterattacks and clinical in front of goal, thanks mainly to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, scoring one and creating another. With Brandão still to be integrated into their attack, things are looking up for Christophe Galtier’s men.

Lyon had a mixed final week of the transfer window. While Cris was a great servant to the club, his departure to Galatasaray will not be much of an issue on the pitch, especially after the arrival of Milan Bisevac. But the loss of Hugo Lloris will be much more keenly felt, with long-term bridesmaid Rémy Vercoutre finally getting his wedding day. The goalkeeper has never played a full season as first choice in his career, so will take a bit of time to become fully match-ready, as was evident in his half-hearted effort to collect a Valenciennes cross that led to the opening goal on Saturday.

New signing Steed Malbranque and Clément Grenier were industrious in midfield to turn the game in Lyon’s favour, the latter scoring a deserved winner.

Elsewhere, Toulouse continued their unbeaten start to the season, but made hard work of it against newly-promoted Reims. Wissam Ben Yedder boosted his burgeoning reputation with an excellently taken equaliser, his third of the season, and his form has earned him a deserved call-up to the France under-21 side. Ben Yedder was influential in all of Toulouse’s good work, and, with the smallest squad in the league, his manager Alain Casanova will be desperate for him to avoid injury over the international break.

It’s been a long time since Ludovic Giuly has been eligible for the U21s, but he showed he’s still got something to offer France’s top flight with Lorient, as he scored against Nancy. Deemed surplus to requirements in Ligue 2 by Claudio Ranieri’s Monaco, the signing of the 36-year-old could turn out to be a shrewd move by Christian Gourcuff, bringing experience to a squad that survived relegation by just a point last season.

A player who could have an impact over a longer period of time could be Alain Traoré, scorer of a glorious free kick from an unlikely angle. Whether these summer signings can end Lorient’s appalling record away from home next weekend at Rennes remains to be seen.

The final word goes to Évian, who have sacked Pablo Correa after a gutless performance against Ajaccio. In a grand tradition of former managers in sinister “sporting director” roles, the Uruguayan has been duly replaced by Pascal Dupraz.

Written by Alasdair Shaw

Follow him on Twitter @radalias

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