Monday 8 February 2016

The Oscars

Last week there was a strange performance at Watford. I thought video replays and their evidence had put an end to all this, but there was Watford's Juan Carlos Paredes acting out an injury worthy of any Oscar. As commented on by Giles Smith "Paredes rolled across the pitch clutching his face, after which he was given a yellow card although an additional British Comedy Award may also be in the post."
It was a blatant attempt to get Diego Costa into more trouble than he usually manages quite easily all by himself. Luckily the ref didn't buy it, but the comparative lack of fuss this caused in media circles would have been interesting if it were Costa who'd been play acting.
Paredes was sub'd second half and his replacement, Nyomnot only replaced him on the field of play but also (took over) in the art of amateur dramatics (his 6 foot plus frame) going down under a challenge from, appropriately Oscar, with such ease it defied belief and possibly gravity all in the one move. 

And on that note we move swiftly onto Leicester City: still top of the league and now with a 5 point gap. It's getting very interesting. Manager Claudio 'the Tinkerman' Ranieri has currently used less players than any other Premiership team.



The amount of money currently being spent by clubs from the Chinese Super League is startling. Jiangsu Suning bought Ramires from Chelsea for £25m, now they have Alex Teixeira at £35m. Plus Jackson Martinez went to Guangzhou for £31.5m. There's plenty of familiar faces working out there too: managers Luis Scolari, Sven-Goran Eriksson, and Dan Petrescu.   

So where is Jiangsu Suning? 
It's in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in Eastern China, about 300 km up the Yangtze River from Shanghai.


Finally to reflect on the MOTD 2 highlight show that on Sunday night, suggested that Manchester United's Borthwick-Jackson had a great game and that just before Chelsea's late equaliser United should have taken the ball into the corner to eat up time.
Truth is Borthwick-Jackson was roasted by Willian in the first half. While with six minutes still on the clock, there was not only time for Chelsea to equalise, but also nearly score a winner as well. Couple of  Red  Cards there for MOTD 2 !

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