Something From The Weekend: El Hadji Diouf; Scoreless premier league sides; @LORD_Sugar
The Good, the Bad and the Odd
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El Hadji Diouf
It is difficult not to congratulate El-Hadji Diouf on his sportsmanship yesterday. The man whose bite makes him a congruous and natural presence in an Old Firm derby came through yesterday' s draw without igniting any new controversies. He even managed to resist the urge to spit on any Celtic fans, which is more than he managed last time he came across them. Beyond the fact that acting like an adult involved betraying himself in a quite meaningful way, Diouf did face some serious provocation; Scott Brown celebrated his goal by playing the Martin Keown to Diouf's Ruud van Nistelrooy. But, aside from the occasional bout of silliness, he kept his head. And for that he ought to be applauded.
The Bad
Scoreless premier league sides
On Saturday 41 Premier League goals were scored in eight games. There ought to have been enough to go round but just one side, West Bromwich Albion, failed to score, even despite Manchester City's recent Mark Hughes tribute act in defence. Once their failure to pull their weight on the highlights packages was clear Roberto di Matteo was put on gardening leave. Yesterday, neither West Ham United nor Chelsea managed to do their bit. Both Birmingham City and Liverpool were well-arranged defensively but this was the highest scoring weekend since the Premier League switched to 20 teams in 1995. Whether the owners of their respective clubs feel equally ashamed, well, only this week will tell.
The Odd
@Lord_Sugar
Britain's favourite peer was on brutal form on Twitter yesterday; firing at the same hectic selection of targets as Cameron Jerome and with almost as much subtlety. He started with an attack on Italian restaurants: "If the Chelsea squad gave Torres an introduction to the local Italian cafe, he might have the real trots today." After complaining about the electronics on his new car there was the baffling: "WBA manager sacked, Adrian Chiles won't be a happy bunny... or maybe he will be?" He peaked with: "KGB arriving on Roman's plane want to have casual chat about tactics with Ancelotti." Similar stereotyping of Manchester City's owners might have gone down rather worse.
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