They're all Orange to support Blackpool.
Yes, I hope Blackpool can make the Gooner brigade around here unhappy. Do I think it’ll happen? Ummm…
It’s Week 2 of the EPL season, plus a bunch of other games all over Europe. Before I get into the liveblog, here’s the list of TV games, including the game that’s on right now.
SATURDAY’S BROADCAST GAMES
– 7:15a, nPowership, Coventry City v. Derby County, Fox Soccer Plus
– 9:30a, Bundesliga, Hoffenheim v. Werder Bremen, ESPN3.com
– 9:55a, EPL, Arsenal v. Blackpool, ESPN2/ESPN3.com
– 10a, EPL, Everton v. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Fox Soccer Channel
– 10a, EPL, Stoke City v. Tottenham Hotspur, Fox Soccer Plus/Foxsoccer.tv
– 10a, EPL, West Ham United v. Bolton Wanderers, Fox Sports en Espanol/Foxsoccer.tv
– 10a, EPL, West Bromwich Albion v. Sunderland, Foxsoccer.tv
– 12:15p, EPL, Wigan Athletic v. Chelsea, Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Espanol
– 12:30p, Bundesliga, Hamburger SV v. Schalke 04, GolTV
– 1p, MLS, Toronto FC v. New York Red Bulls, MSG
– 2p, nPowership, Norwich City v. Swansea City, Fox Soccer Plus (DELAYED)
– 4p, EPL, Birmingham City v. Blackburn Rovers, Fox Soccer Plus (DELAYED)
– 4:15p, Portugal Liga, Nacional Funchal v. Benfica, ESPN3.com
– 8:30p, MLS, FC Dallas v. Chivas USA, Fox Soccer Channel
That’s a lot of soccer to watch. I’ll be back at 9:30 a.m. EDT for lineups and the Arse-Pool liveblog.
PREGAME: OK, OK, I’m here. I hit snooze twice instead of once. oops.
PREGAME: Here are the lineups for the Arsenal-Blackpool match.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Song, Vermaelen, Clichy, Diaby, Wilshere, Walcott, Rosicky, Arshavin, Chamakh.
Subs: Fabianski, Fabregas, van Persie, Vela, Djourou, Eboue, Gibbs.
Blackpool: Gilks, Baptiste, Evatt, Cathcart, Crainey, Sylvestre, Vaughan, Adam, Grandin, Harewood, Taylor-Fletcher.
Subs: Halstead, Eardley, Ormerod, Basham, Edwards, Demontagnac, Keinan.
Referee: Michael Jones (Cheshire)
PREGAME: Really, Arsenal? A dinosaur as your mascot?
PREGAME: BRETOS NOOOOOOOOO!
PREGAME: @Shane. Ames, Iowa is a great town, dude. I know it’s in the middle of nowhere, but the college vibe is cool and plenty of drinking with 20 year old co-eds!
PREGAME: If the season ended today?! Jeebus, Bretos.
PREGAME: They go to commercial WHILE the lineups are being shown? FAIL. Not everyone has the awesomeness that is my liveblog in front of them.
PREGAME: HERE WE GO!
1st minute: Blackpool and the University of Tennessee should hang out…
1st minute: If you have FSC, keep track of any tech issues or anything. I’m at my parents’ house, so no FSC for me.
2nd minute: Feeling out period. A reminder that foxsoccer.tv is free this weekend, if you HAVE to have the other 10 a.m. games.
4th minute: Agree with Martin Tyler’s Scottich friend. Blackpool can’t even get past the half line so far. They’re playing defensively, too. Bad call. Meanwhile, Arsenal are playing 4-3-3?
6th minute: I don’t know how the foxsoccer.tv thing works. I know people have been having trouble with it.
6th minute: Arsenal haven’t really done anything with the ball, either. Marlon Harewood had a nice run forward, and the Magic Pixie loses the ball by the end line.
7th minute: Ooh! Blackpool giveaway to JWAF, who passes to Chamakh, who passes to nobody. wasted.
9th minute: Walcott with a nice move to bring down the ball, then a very nice ball right across the goal, but where was the Magic Pixie?! Wasted again.
10th minute: So I’m wondering…. Spuds and Arsenal are playing at the same time and we have both sets of supporters here in the room. Who will win the thread? I assume Arsenal because of my liveblog.
11th minute: Blackpool gets a nice possession at the top of the box, get a shot off, but it’s right at LOLmunia.
12th minute: jjf3, did you just tell one of our readers to go to EPL Talk?! How dare you, sir.
13th minute: GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!!!!! Arsenal 1-0 Blackpool. That was just clinical. Four passes, the final from Magic Pixie right to a wide open Walcott on the wing, and he slots it home nicely.
14th minute: Song gets hurt somehow. No idea what happened. Then CHANCE! for Blackpool. An excellent cross to Taylor-Fletcher, but his header goes JUST wide. Should be 1-1.
15th minute: Arsenal sprint back the other way and earn a free kick for Walcott just outside the box. He puts it over.
17th minute: I will give Blackpool credit for playing this game. They’re not in a shell as I expected. They’re throwing in speculative crosses, and with LOLmunia in the net, that’s not a bad plan.
18th minute: The downside is Blackpool don’t have the speed to hang with Arsenal, and it’s likely going end up 3-1.
18th minute: Nearly a chance in the air for Chamakh. Nearly. He does play for Arsenal, after all.
19th minute: My apologies to jjf3. Wacman, I’m hurt. A fellow Manc…
20th minute: By the way, I love using LOLmunia for your GK’s name, Gooners. It fits.
21st minute: And Gareth Bale scores in the 20th minute to put Spuds up against Stoke.
22nd minute: Great, now all he Spurs fans will come back to the thread. I love it. Walcott with another beasting run down the wing. He gets off a nice cross to Magic Pixie, but Shavin’ Arse needs to hit the half-volley and the Blackpool GK makes a nice save.
23rd minute: Great little pass there from Walcott to Chamakh, but the latter tries to aim it too much and puts it wide. He really should be better than that with all the love NYK is giving him. So far, I’m meh about him. /waits for cursing from NYK.
26th minute: Arsenal do have some holes in the back. Blackpool don’t have all that much, but with a little effort they do get through pretty well. And the other expected boring matches are all 0-0. Shocker.
27th minute: So I know this will seem horrible of me to say, but does anyone else have some feeling that Walcott is playing so well that he has to blow a groin muscle or a hamstring by the end of the match?
28th minute: Fez. Heh.
29th minute: @Wacman… I knew you’d find that funny. You see what i did there? First I called you jjf3, then I called you a Manc and everyone knows it’s Wedel. That’s what you get for the EPL Talk comment. :-)
40th minute: OK, site issues (f**k you, hostmonster) seem to have worked out. Did I mention f**k you, hostmoster?!
41st minute: OK, Red Card for Blackpool, Magic Pixie Penalty for 2-0 Arsenal, then Walcott gets his second (dooming his hamstring to explode in the second half) to make it 3-0. In the Spuds game, Ricardo Fuller tied it up, then Gareth Bale scored again for my fantasy team to make it 2-1 Spuds.
42nd minute: Sorry about that folks. F**k you, hostmonster. We’re back and good. Arsenal might score 8 in this match. And yet Chamakh fails again. He’s crap. Right, NYK?
44th minute: I agree with teeknuts. Let Vermaelen get in the act so I can get more fantasy points.
45th minute: Walcott is sh*t. He had about 100 yards open and he sent a poor pass to Magic Pixie. Heh.
45th minute: In other matches, Tim Cahill makes it 1-0 Everton, and Carlton Cole missed a penalty in the Wet Spam game.
46th minute: Has JWAF even been in this game?! Oh, there he is.
HALFTIME: Well, that was comprehensive. On the red card, I think that’s just a stupid rule. Give the penalty and a yellow, but not red. But it’s the rule, and it was applied correctly. Arsenal 3-0 Blackpool, and it’s only going to get worse.
HALFTIME: I’m disappointed in you Spurs fans. Have you all moved to another thread? Your side is winning 2-1. CAMON, GET IN HERE!!!
HALFTIME: OK, I just watched the highlights of the first half in the Spurs match. First, what the hell with the Man Citeh wannabe kits?! Second, nice goal with his FACE for Bale on the first one. Finally, Bale’s second goal (full volley into the upper 90) was absolute class. Amazing goal. Well done to make it 2-1.
HALFTIME: For LFC Ray, did you see the A380 will be flying from Manchester starting Sept. 1?
HALFTIME: I know we’d all seen it before, but we need a separate thread to discuss how horrible the Spurs away kits are. Please tell me, Spurs supporters, how it feels to have your team walk out in the uniform of the team that you’re fighting for fourth place?!
HALFTIME: @Jacob — it’s going to take me a while to get used to calling you Jacob. At least you kept the Grumpy Ol’ Troll avatar.
HERE WE GO!!!
46th minute: I’m calling the 64th minute for the Walcott hamstring explosion. Book it.
47th minute: @LE — Cesc just sits on the bench and dreams of playing for Barca.
48th minute: Hey! JWAF got a shot on goal! And it’s a Cesc sighting!
49th minute: GOOOOOOOOALLLL!!!! Arsenal 4-0 Blackpool. Great ball from Sagna to Diaby, who does well to put it away. I’m going to put on the Spuds game on a stream and talk about both now. Fair play to Arsenal. They are very good. But this is the Blackpool we expected to see this season.
50th minute: SF Bolton has gone up 1-0 against Wet Spam behind Matthew Upson.
53rd minute: I’m predicting Arsenal end up scoring 6.
54th minute: @Ray — Don’t mention Tony Adams. NYK will spontaneously orgasm.
55th minute: Speed is the big difference for Arsenal. Blackpool just have no chance to hang with them.
56th minute: Well played, NYK. Well played. In the other game, Citeh (I mean Spurs) are doing their best to hold off Stoke. Oh, and Wilson Palacios is crap.
58th minute: HAT TRICK FOR THEO!!!!! Arsenal 5-0 Blackpool. He runs into the middle of four Blackpool players and still had time to set up and shoot. The Tangerines have shipped it. And of course my Spuds thread died.
61st minute: So you all had Theo in your fantasy sides, right? And by the way, Blackburn is leading 1-0. Morten Gamst Pedersen missed a penalty but Nzonzi scored it.
62nd minute: Chamakh is Chit. How does that go over?! And Cesc replaces Diaby. And Van Persie replaces Magic Pixie.
64th minute: And TFA wins the Offensive Chamakh Comment of the Day contest. You know, Chamakh rhymes with cock!
65th minute: Craig Gardner scores for Birmingham to draw even with Blackburn 1-1.
66th minute: Theo gets his ovation because Wenger knew his leg would explode any second. They bring in the Mexican, Vela. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
68th minute: Blackpool go from a positive to negative goal differential in one game after a 4-0 win. That’s the EPL (suck it, Barclays) for you.
70th minute: I didn’t notice that the SF Bolton goal was an OG. Nice. And is anyone surprised that the Sunderland-West Brom match is 0-0? I didn’t think so.
71st minute: Martin Tyler editorializing a bit on Cesc and Barca. “He owes Arsenal a lot. They made him the world class player.” Interesting sh*t.
72nd minute: Nothing for Ned to cheer yet in the Norwich-Swansea match.
73rd minute: You beat me to that punchline, Jacob. Mine was going to be “But Anonsters, you have to get them off your tongue first.”
74th minute: That whole thing with me predicting Blackpool would stay up this season? Yeah, about that….
75th minute: And right on cue, Van Persie is injured. And hey don’t have a sub for him. He apparently got the knock that Walcott would have gotten.
76th minute: Yep. It’s always an award-winning day around here, TFA. Especially when the game is 5-0 and I’m trying to pass the time for the next 15 minutes.
79th minute: Chamakh’s haircut is just horrible. Almost as horrible as his finishing today.
80th minute: I’m pleasantly surprised with the number of goals score in the other matches. The only total crap affair has been the West Brom-Sunderland match.
82nd minute: SF Bolton take the lead 2-1 against Wet Spam.
83rd minute: GOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!!! Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool. Holy crap that was a sh*t goal. Sure, he got the header on the net, but the GK should have had that. I give him nothing for that. Chamakh is still sh*t.
84th minute: SF Bolton make it 3-1 at Upson Park. Wow. West Ham look horrible. They might go down.
85th minute: @Hock– you’d like RvP to nut? What?
87th minute: Chamakh is hurt! OK, NOW he’s an Arsenal player.
88th minute: Noble scored the PK, then Elmander has two for SF Bolton.
89th minute: @Jacob — you said to bench Chamakh. You have angered the Mountain Wag.
90th minute: Six more minutes of this sh*t?! And Wag, they didn’t disappear. They roll to a new page after 250 comments.
92nd minute: Jesus With a FAIL. That is all.
93th minute: Craig Gardner with a brace for Birmingham for a 2-1 win over Blackburn.
FULL TIME: Glad that’s over. It was painful for me. Chamakh is sh*t. Enjoy the Chelsea match in here for bootroom treatment. I’m going to wash myself off.
FULL TIME: And Lennon’s Eyebrow wins the award for Most Disturbing Spurs Comment of The Day. That’s usually a tough battle.
FULL TIME: Thanks for reading the liveblog. Enjoy the rest of the day here in The Bootroom.
FULL TIME: LATE UPDATE– WEST BROM SCORE!!!! So no 0-0 games today. Nice.
@ TSE: It’s difficult to balance between following the match, commenting on the match, and making sure your children don’t drown in the pool. So, you’re welcome that my kids want to play in the pool today.
It’s a vast referee conspiracy to hand Spurs the 4th spot again. Perpetrated by those same devious fiends in charge of scheduling friendlies I think.
Did anyone else notice that Vermaleen was like non-existent in that game? I didn’t even see the white swoosh moving around on the field. I don’t know if that means he wasn’t where he needed to be, or if their D is better than we gave it credit for.
aaaaand Robbie Mustoe starts the customary sucking off of Theo after he has one good match. So it’ll be what, 5 matches until Walcott scores again? 10?
apparently Bellamy is just destroying the game for Cardiff. imagine that.
How much stoppage time is there??
i just don’t like hearing it … that’s all.
@TFA – details. details and technicalities. But thanks.
@LE: +6. And I think it should be at least 7 with an injury they just had.
Hooray for 7 minutes of inexplicable stoppage time!
that was over the line I’m pretty sure
Was there an Arsenal match on or something?
@E-Town: We hear ya, but we’re an open society around here. Except for Chelsea fans. We all pretty much hate them. (hello, Autoglass)
Just saw that replay for stoke – that should have been a goal. 2-2. Sucks they lost two points due to lack of goal line technology…
How, as a professional top-flight official, do you miss a call like that non-goal that you are literally standing three yards from and have a clear view of?
Sepp Blatter thinks the Stoke-Spurs game is being called perfectly. Holy s**t that was a goal.
Well, at least that’s over. That second half was skeery. Also, I would like to point out that all you Spurs haters can suck it, and keep sucking it.
Because Stoke are stupid.
Both goals in Wolves-Everton were scored off of should-have-been-called-fouls. So it finished 1-1 instead of 0-0
Tactical genius Harry Redknapp escapes again.
Also, how do you not call a handball if you don’t call the goal? Controlled it with his cupped arm.
@Anonsters: After my “play nice” chiding last week, it’s REALLY difficult for me to not respond when you make comments about balls in your throat and sucking it. But I’m trying.
/really, seriously, just kidding around. Your Citeh side played well today.
@Jacob: You love to cup it with your arm, dontcha?
@Pupsters: Uh, congrats? Stoke are a team you should be beating anyway. It’s like a dad bragging about taking care of his kids.
-
/Chris Rock’d minus the racial commentary
//That’s why you’re Spurs fans
Andros Townsend got red carded for Ipswich for kicking the Palace keeper in the head. Good day for Tottenham players.
Would the 5th official used in the European competitions this year have fixed that? I’m not really sure. It’s not like Foy was out of position, he was just incompetent.
TSE-It’s a nice change of pace.
@ TSE: What was LE’s disturbing Spurs comment? Really not paying attention today–had no idea this was supposed to be a Highbury liveblog. COYS!
Ryan-the only legitimate fix on that is the beeping ball (or pager system, whatever). 5th official would have been more obscured by the players in the net (though he would have been on that side of the goal).
Oh well. See you mugs at 7.15 tomorrow. Off to do the house work and catch a TN Smokies game with the missus. Cheers!
@TSE: Homophobe.
@TSE – right. But for the record, I was playing nice. As resident WAG, aren’t I supposed to be giving Pupsters blowing techniques?
Oh yeah, Bellamy with a 35 yard free kick and two assists today.
@TSE: Thanks. I now have 1 more award than this 3rd rate blog could ever hope for.
Here’s to Wigan playing some rugby today …
@Ryan – like he doesn’t have anything to prove today/
@MW: No, you should get back in the kitchen.
I’m already nominating Bale’s 2nd goal as a potential goal of the season candidate. So glad I have him on my fantasy team right now…
@Anon – Funny, b/c I was about to sign off and fulfill my real wagly duties: shop. Later!
@MW: Ha. :)
Calling a Halloween jinx on Chelsea with those kits. Rodallega with 2 goals off Terry’s face.
I don’t care for the way that Terry was looking at that widow
Sadly I must be off too, I’m being honored in the projects. No time to explain. Enjoy this afternoon’s matches ladies (any left?) and gents.
@Orr – I always knew you were secretly Ron Artest!
Three things:
1.) That was surely a goal, Crouch was across the line when it struck him.
2.) It shouldn’t have mattered as Huth clearly interfered with/fouled Gomes on Fuller’s goal and Sorenson left a leg on Jenas on the goal mouth scramble just before the half–should’ve been a PK.
3.) I AM WELSHMAN
I PLAY FOR TOTTENHAM
WHAT IS MY NAME
GARETH, GARETH, GARETH BALE!
GARETH BALE!
GARETH BALE!
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/6635389/
Well, Wigan don’t look bad so far.
Wigan look up for it.
And there goes the feed. Drat.
The thing I dislike most about the Chelsea kit is how they made the crest orange as well.
The thing I dislike the most about the Chelsea kit is that it’s a Chelsea kit.
@Ryan: I hate that too. They’ve changed it to black on a couple recent kits; apparently the crest colors don’t matter, which I think is ridiculous. But this black and orange kit kind of sucks anyway.
I’ve never understood the loud colors on the third kits, anyway. I prefer the all-black third kit for Spurs, but I did like the brown third kit from 06 or 07. The previous brown kit was awful, though.
@Phil: Chelsea has traditionally had yellow as a major color in their away or third kits, which can make for loud colors, but they haven’t really stuck to that recently. I think Adidas has been about half and half on decent kits and atrocious kits since they took over from Umbro.
this hamburg v. schalke match is decent. thing about the bundesliga is that it is much more open than EPL in its play.
Malouda for more points for me.
wow. . . that was some s**t defending, Wigan. And Kirkland prolly should have held that.
Malouda…thanks for the fantasy points.
Shambolic from Wigan on the goal.
Wow. Quite a debut for Bellamy. Sparkling goal from a FK and two assists, one a perfectly lofted long ball.
This plaid they’ve cut into the grass at Wigan looks really cool on TV.
Is Rodallega playing as a CAM or Striker? Because there’s no reason he should be starting a play from that side of the circle unless it’s off a corner or FK.
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/FIXYOTACTICS!!
@Josh: Yeah, I was going to comment on that. Looks like they’ve carved the kit stripe into the pitch horizontally, and then the mow-lines from the tractors have made it a nice plaid.
l’OM just took the lead on Lorient, for those francophiles in the crowd. TFC v RBNY about to start.
@Keith: I thought that too until they just showed a view from behind the goal. It looks like they’ve carved the kit stripe both ways.
Oh, and that was washed up Gabriel Heinze with the Marseille goal.
Dane Richards & Marquez starting behind Henry for RBNY, looks like they’re going to use those two to push service to Henry on that side of the pitch.
No penalty for Lindpere? I call shenanigans.
Jermaine Jones with a terrible dive in his own box. Whiffed the ball completely and acted like a sniper clipped his foot.
Cheeky, Pancic tried to score in the Lyon match while Brest was still trying to set up their wall…almost.
Wow…RVN off the crossbar on a freekick, but Neuer makes up for it by saving the rebound.
On the Chelsea goal, Malouda runs around 25 yards while in the background you can see that during the whole sequence Anelka barely moved.
Lyon up 0-1, Makoun with a goal after poor clearance on Brest…saggy, saggy Brest
Well, looks like Wigan has decided to stop playing defense.
KIRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKK!!!! You are s**te.
Can they go ahead and relegate Wigan now?
Not that it matters, but Anelka was clearly offside on the 3rd goal. And Ekoku doesn’t even mention it.
Also, what was the handcuff thing about? Anelka’s France suspension?
RBNY could probably be great in the final third if Dane Richards knew what he was doing.
@Ryan: Anelka is doubled over in laughter at your assessment of his play. After all, he is retired.
@ Ryan: think that was a symbolic gesture that Anelka is a prisoner of his incredible sulkiness.
@Ryan: Maybe it was for Ribery and Benzema?
/always thinks the worst of the French.
So, RVN can’t score right before the end of the first half on a free kick denied by the crossbar, but 30 seconds into the second half RVN gets his goal. 1-0 Hamburg. Very nice. But he gets a yellow for overly enthusiastic celebration. What is this? The NFL? He didn’t even take his shirt off. He did a Helio Castroneves spiderman type thing.
suck it terry! (I’m baaaaack). Fast shopping. No cute shoes.
other dude wasn’t a part of the play! And it touched another player…what a lot of crap!
That was comical.
I’m surprised they have anything but hiking boots in Mountain country.
(sorry – note on wigan attempt at goal).
@TFA – yeah, that’s what the trip was so quick (but I was actually looking for vintage buffets..that’s an even shorter quest around here).
@ TFA: Nein, nun wieder workk!
terry is a dirty dog (sorry anon)
Marquez w/a long range shot for goal, friggin’ suckin’ his thumb, eh. 0-1 RBNY
@MW: that first challenge was a rough one, but clean. The second one was a little trip though, I’ll give you that.
Ooh, I love a good Robinho rumor.
@ WAG: to avoid Anon’s wrath, how about Terry is a filthy rabbit? Or a dirty whore?
@OM: Es ist nur einem Spiel. Macht Spass!
Terry is an ass, but Ryan Shawcross is waiting int he wings assume the mantle.
Terry is an ass, but Ryan Shawcross is waiting in the wings assume the mantle.
Fack. Double post. Also, f**k Rafa Marquez in the pants.
@Josh – wha? Terry had a tackle? Must have missed that. Just speaking on his overall character. /kidding.
@OM – if you combine what a rabbit and a whore do all the time, you’re also describing Terry. So, pick either. I’m ok with that…
Red card for Schalke and Hamburg is already dominating this half. There will be goals! More of them.