A quick apology for the late arrival of this week’s Slice of Motd. This writer was not in England over the weekend and therefore could not weigh in with his verdict on this past weekend’s Match of the Day.
But, fear not, I have returned and ready to dissect this past weekend’s edition of Match of the Day.
We have three (count ‘em folks) guests with Gary this weekend and one of them is the very likable Man City captain Vincent Kompany, fresh off pitch and into the studio to give his verdict on the footy. Alan Hansen is there, too, along with old ‘Arry who, presumably,has been spending his time trying to find a nice gaff in the Ukraine.
On we go then and the first thing on the agenda is the North London derby during which Arsenal demolished rivals Spurs 5-2. Emmanuel Adebayor’s red card changed the game as Arsenal ran wild with Spurs depleted. Everybody is in agreement that is was most certainly a red and ‘Arry gushes about how good Santi Cazorla is, explaining that he tried to get him to come to Spurs. He’s not bad that Cazorla eh?
Interestingly, Kompany says that Arsenal are the best team City have played this season so far straight after ‘Arry claims Spurs will finish above Arsenal this season and that their league position belies the quality of the squad.
Next comes Norwich’s 1-0 defeat of Man United and it looks as though Chris Houghton has turned things around at Carrow Road. Not a bad manager that Houghton. Hansen provides some analysis saying that the United onslaught never really arrived after they went 1-0 down and Norwich were good value for their win.
Ohh, really awkward moment here as Hansen totally embarrasses himself by asking Kompany if he knew the result in the dressing room but United actually played after City did. He tries to laugh off his mistake but he just digs himself deeper and deeper into a hole. Egg on face moment.
Shirt update: Kompany wins it this week with a very nice silky black shirt. Bet that was expensive. No pink this week as Shearer isn’t here but ‘Arry changes things up by opting to wear a jumper. Might be a little chilly in the studio.
Highlights of Chelsea’s loss to West Brom follow and ‘Arry says he wasn’t surprised by the result because West Brom are, in his words, a ‘good fuckin’ team Gary’. Shane Long played well and Redknapp chooses to focus on him in his analysis. Kompany has a funny anecdote about playing with Peter Odemwinge had everybody has a good chuckle, especially Hansen who is still probably feeling like a prat for his earlier mistake.
Man City’s demolition of Aston Villa are next on the list and, obviously, they turn to Kompany to give some insight into the game because, y’know, he actually played in it. Makes sense.
The cringe factor gets turned up to maximum levels here and Kompany must be feeling so awkward with it all. Hansen and Lineker joke around saying that they have never been critical of Kompany but it is all really poor and Hansen just ends up looking like a wally. Again. Fair play to Victor, though, he is handling it all rather well because the easiest thing to do would be to slap Hansen and walk off set vowing never to return.
We have QPR vs Southampton now in the clash of the bottom two teams in the league with Southampton earning a crucial victory in what may be Mark Hughes’ last game as QPR manager. Jason Puncheon had a fantastic game and Hansen focuses on Southampton’s fantastic attacking play. The only problem is that they can’t defend. They put the question on ‘Arry on whether he is going to take over in West London but he shys away from it and makes a funny joke about his wife. Or something.
Moving on, we have Everton’s shock away defeat to Reading and Lineker points out that there are lot of Belgians in the Everton squad and that the national team is looking strong. Kompany agrees with him, naturally, and goes on to say that Everton are genuine top four contenders.
Finishing off the show now we have back to back highlights (ohhh) of Newcastle vs Swansea and Liverpool vs Wigan. How well is Jose Enrique playing at the moment? Under Rodger’s new formations he is excelling himself. It is probably that bald head/full beard look he has got going on, scaring the life out of the opposing players.
All the boys talk about Suarez for a bit who is indispensable to Liverpool right now and if gets an injury then mass panic will break out in the red half of Merseyside.
That’s all for this week and this edition of Motd was slightly marred by the shockingly embarrassing Alan Hansen who acted, and this is putting it mildly, like a total pillock. Vincent Kompany was excellent and it is rather annoying how much of a nice chap he is considering that he is Man City’s captain; a team I somewhat loathe.
‘Arry was pretty decent (don’t mention rosie47!) and I like him because he’s the one who represents the bloke down the pub who likes to talk football over a pint. Lineker was mediocre but Hansen was absolutely terrible.
Til next week.