‘Leather’ refers to a football, grass is grass, not weed you rascals and All That Jazz is what happens in between or before or after the leather is put on the grass for the homo-sapiens to kick around of an afternoon or evening.
So, welcome to the second installment of ‘Leather’, Grass and All That Jazz. I hope all ten of you that will read this are well. Anyways on to the ‘news’, or what I deem to be news anyway. Should I use anyway or a variation of it twice in one sentence? Oh well.
The Capital One Cup.
At Man Utd their injury woes continue to mount, with Nemanja Vidic being ruled out for at least 8 weeks. He had to undergo surgery after tearing his meniscal cartilage. More detail about his injury can be found here, via @InjuryLeague on twitter. Yesterday seen the cynics come out and label Utd’s medical staff as incompetent re the handling of Vidic, but as the link above shows it is not the same injury he was sidelined for five months by. People seem to think the physios are psychic, and must know about every injury, but what if the player doesn’t say anything about a twinge? Nemanja doesn’t seem like the type to moan about every little injury, and would put his body on the line and play through the pain.
In other Utd news, Antonio Valencia apparently left training with a protective boot on his right foot. The injury is thought to have been suffered during the penalty incident at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. There are no further details surrounding this apparent injury. Tonight sees Utd face Newcastle in the Capital One Cup, with Fergie expected to field a youthful side mixed with experience, and there are reported that Powell and the football genius that is Darren Fletcher part of Utd’s midfield. There should be a new centre back pairing, given that the first team only has two fit central defenders in Evans and Rio, the latter having a well documented injury history. Scott Wooton and Michael Keane are expected to be the central defensive pairing tonight. We could see Kiko Macheda start tonight as Fergie rests the majority of his first team options. I personally am hoping to see Brady start on the left, and hopefully he gets a game or two there if Valencia’s injury proves to be serious. I do NOT want to see Welbeck deployed on the wing, as he has not been good there when called upon. Another option for the left is Buttner, who was converted to left back from left wing in the Netherlands.
Last night seen the first round of matches in the C.O.C., with two major shocks being Leeds beating high flying Everton 2-1 at Elland Road and Aston Villa running out 4-2 winners against Man City at the Etihad. City once again lost from a winning position. Elsewhere Chelsea trounced Wolves 6-0, with the Molineux side’s managerStale Solbakken taking full responsibility for the drubbing after making ten changes from the side he fielded a the weekend. Now, if I were a Wolves fan and I shelled out decent money to travel and attend that game I’d be asking for a refund and full apology from the manager. With the bigger teams you expect them to rotate, and they make clear their intention to do so in this competition, but Wolves made no such claims beforehand. I don’t know, perhaps Wolves fans feel different? Just my opinion after all. ….
Tonight, besides the Utd – Newcastle clash, sees Arsenal play Coventry at the Emirates. Arsenal are to be applauded for their ticketing pricing for this clash, with tickets selling for a maximum of £20, whereas at Old Trafford tickets are circa £45. Arsenal are expected to mix experience with youth tonight, with the likes of Giroud, Walcott and Arshavin likely to feature. Elsewhere West Brom face Liverpool in a repeat of their opening day fixture, which they won 3-0. The Anfield side are anticipated to field a young side, similar to the one that beat Young Boys 5-3 last week in Switzerland.
On the continent Bayern Munich continued their 100% start to the Bundesliga season with a comfortable 3-0 win against Wolfsburg, while last season’s champions Dortmund drew 3-3 away to second placed Frankfurt, and are now 7 points adrift of the summit. In Italy meanwhile, Juventus were fortunate to draw 0-0 with Fiorentina in Florence, with the home team lacking quality in the final third while the Old Lady lacked invention and a cutting edge. Their unbeaten run was extended to 44 games, and I’d expect them to extend this to at least 50 game over the coming weeks as they have a relatively easy fixture list, on paper at least, with the difficult games coming at the Juventus stadium.
Oh and John Terry retired from England duty. But I’m not getting into that debate!
Have a good day, folks.
