Tottenham Makes History While Chelsea Falls At St. Andrews

For West Ham, treading water has to stop. At least, that’s the message from ownership, who put a seven-points-in-three-matches expectation on their manager. After those three matches, the Hammers have accumulated two points.

Talking about anybody’s job security is always dicey because you project the stresses of speculation onto your own life. Grant, however, has had expectations made clear. I’m not sure those expectations are fair given the squad he has, but any change of job status can’t be too surprising, given West Ham’s spot in the league. A large part of me wants to see Grant survive this performance, but given he knew what the stakes in this match, it does not speak well of his ability to prepare this team that the Hammers were routed.

Over the last two weeks it’s become known that Grant was told he needed seven points from three matches (Liverpool being the third) to secure his job. West Ham looks destined to gain only two points from the matches, set to stay last in league, should this result hold-up. While the Hammers have played some decent football at times, the results have been fair, leaving West Ham on track for the Championship.

It makes it look as if his players don’t care, and if you can’t get your players to care about at match at Anfield, it’s hard to justify your position.

Minutes later, Coloccini had his revenge. Sort of. With both players pursuing a ball down the right flank, Coloccini swung his right arm at Elmander’s face, making contact and sending the Swede to ground. The defender saw red, a rare occurrence from Howard Webb, and will be out at least three matches. Sol Campbell, immediately subbed on, could be set for his first stretch of time in the Magpies XI.

Alcarez’s sending off saw few objections. Having picked up a yellow mid-way through the first, the Paraguayan was given his matching orders for a foul on Darren Fletcher. Already down a goal, the captain’s dismissal left Wigan down a man.

Three minutes later, Rodallega jumped with both legs extended into a 50-50 ball, batching Rafael da Silva and earning the obvious red card. De Silva proved fine on a play that could have dangerous, but Rodallega was deservedly dismissed.

Is it just men, or does Lee Chung-Yong seem to be involved in a disproportionate number of Bolton’s goals? He isn’t racking up assists or goals, but he always seems to be playing a ball into a danger area or making a run to crack a defense’s left side. This may also be selection bias, as he’s one of Bolton’s few attackers that can run.

Perhaps the goal is a better of karma, justice, or some other type of cosmic evening-out. Shortly after Bolton’s first goal, Newcastle defender Mike Williamson appeared to headbutt Elmander way from the ball, putting the Swede on his back, apparently out cold. Clearly, Elmander was fine, but there were a few scary moments as training staff and officials tried to figure out what happened.

For Nolan, it was an embarrassing moment, his negligent play of a bouncing ball putting the ball onto this right elbow. Perhaps the play would have gone unnoticed were it not for Nolan’s elbow obviously moving into the ball, leaving the official no choice but to make the call. Unchallenged on the play, Nolan has little reason beyond brain lapse for his mistake.

Even now, it seems surreal. I don’t think we know how to react to Spurs winning this derby in this way. Had they come out and beat Arsenal like they did at White Hart Lane in April, we would have had 90 minutes of viewing to acclimate us to Spurs’ superiority. Today’s match, however, never afforded us that chance.

By the end of today’s matches, we may have a grasp on the idea that Spurs have finally broken through on the road against the Big Four.

Now in the 92nd minute, the match is still 3-2, Spurs.

It was an easy call for Phil Dowd, who immediately awarded Spurs a penalty kick. Surprisingly, Fabregas escaped without a card, given the nature of the hand ball.

On the kick, van der Vaart sent Gomes to the right before coolly putting the ball high into the goal’s left. On his sixth goal of the year, van der Vaart pulled Spurs even at the Emirates, 2-2.

It was Spurs first real attack of the match, though the execution made it seem Spurs had been unleashing those counters all match. Clichy’s following Defoe toward the middle allowed van der Vaart to take Defoe’s knock-down uncontested. Gareth Bale overlapped from his normal left wing position into the empty space, giving him a clear shot on goal. All the write, Arsenal’s defenders were scurrying to cover the space vacated when Clichy tracked Defoe.

As a result, we have a one goal game at the Emirates, Arsenal still leading 2-1 in the 61st minute.

Like many goals are, Arsenal’s second was a metaphor for how this match has gone. Whereas the first goal was the result of terrible defending, Chamakh’s was a result of Spurs just not doing enough. Nobody did enough to stop the ball from going wide to Arshavin. Hutton can hardly be faulted for not getting out to play Arshavin’s first touch, but he didn’t get there. Kaboul seemed in the right place to defend Chamakh, but he misjudged the Arsenal striker’s capabilities.

That’s how most of this match has been. It’s not that Tottenham has been incapable. It’s more that they just haven’t been able to match Arsenal. As a result, this has been one of the more convincing halves of the Gunners’ season.

Gomes did not get to the ball in time but forced Nasri to poke the ball past him from 15 yards out. The resulting ball looked to be going into touch, something Assou-Ekotto took for granted as he pulled-up on the play. Nasri, however, saw the play out, and from an angle of seemingly 20 degrees, put the ball just over the line from the left of goal.

Nasri’s fifth league goal made an early goat out of Assou-Ekotto, but if you have a chance look at Rafael van der Vaart’s defending on Cesc Fabregas on the ball that let to the goal. Five yards inside his own half, Fabregas felt no pressure as he set-up for the ball to Nasri. Meanwhile, van der Vaart stands flat footed, four yards away, with plenty of time to exert some pressure on the Arsenal playmaker.

For the Gunners, Denilson gets the nod along side Alexander Song in midfield. The Brazilian, who has spend much of the last year out of the starting lineup, has been impressive in a substitutes role in recent performances. The 22-year-old Brazilian makes his third start of the season.

Gallas is making his first return to The Emirates since his summer switch to Spurs.

For more on the weekend’s match-ups, check out the full preview of matchday 14. For now, here is the schedule of today’s fixtures: